E-Paper PakistanToday 10th January, 2012

ISLAMABAD IRFAN BUKHARI

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani madea startling revelation on Monday by con-tradicting his own statement as, in an in-terview with a Chinese newspaper, heimplicitly said that Chief of Army Staff(COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayaniand Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Di-rector General (DG) Lt General AhmadShuja Pasha had violated the rules ofbusiness while submitting their re-sponses to the Supreme Court in thememo case without the approval of thecompetent authority.

What came as a surprise was that hechose to make this “revelation” in an in-terview with a foreign newspaper and

that too almost three weeks after theCOAS and the ISI DG had submitted theirresponses. While there has never beenany doubt about the differences betweenthe civil and military leaderships, partic-ularly on the memo issue, this statementof the prime minister finally confirmed itthat they were not on the same page.

“Any official action by a governmentfunctionary without the prior approval ofthe government is unconstitutional andillegal,” the prime minister said, quotingthe chief justice that “any act of a govern-ment functionary without the govern-ment’s nod is unconstitutional andtherefore illegal” to actually make a pointthat the responses submitted by theCOAS and ISI DG with the SupremeCourt were illegal as they did not contain

the approval of the competent authorityas required under the rules of business.“No summary seeking approval of thecompetent authority was initiated by theDefence Ministry. Nor any approval wasobtained from the Defence Minister inthis regard,” the prime minister said.

What confuses the situation is thatthe prime minister continues to firstmake a statement and then contradict it.On December 16, a day after the COASand the ISI DG’s responses were submit-ted, General Kayani had called on PrimeMinister Gilani. An official statement is-sued by the PM’s House after the meetinghad said: “The Prime Minister and theArmy Chief also agreed that replies for-warded by the COAS and DG ISI were inresponse to the notice of the Honourable

Court, through proper channel and in ac-cordance with the rules of business andshould not be misconstrued as a standoffbetween the Army and the government.”

Terming the prime minister’s state-ment as “strange”, Senator SM Zafar saidthat the COAS and the ISI DG had sub-mitted their replies in compliance withSupreme Court orders as they had beenmade respondents in the memo case bythe petitioner. “The government had aright to challenge the petitioner’s plea ofmaking them (the COAS and the ISI DG)respondents in the case and could ask thecourt that only the federation could bemade party and the reply would also besubmitted only by the federation.

Prospects for theairline industry in the year 2012PROFIT | PAGE 04

PTI will take tostreets if govt attacksjudiciary: Imran Khan PAGE 10 PAGE 15

pakistantoday.com.pk tuesday, 10 January, 2012 safar 15, 1433rs15.00 vol ii no 194 22 Pages islamabad — Peshawar edition

Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim acquitted of sodomy charges

ISLAMABADTAHIR NIAZ

THE probe into the memoissue is in full swing but withmany spanners being thrownin the works of the judicialcommission, as government

officials and the lawyer of HusainHaqqani applied delay tactics and ig-nored repeated warnings of the three-member commission that failure tocooperate would lead it to draw an ad-verse inference.

The former ambassador declined onMonday to hand over his BlackBerrysmartphone for investigation, saying hewas unaware of where the device was.Haqqani also rejected the commission’srequest to waive his privacy rights withthe Canada-based manufacturer of Black-Berry phones, Research In Motion (RIM),saying: “I may require approval of the

government as I am bound to observe theOfficial Secret Act.”

However, Commission Chairman Jus-tice Qazi Faez Isa observed: “Official SecretAct does not come in the way.” When heasked Haqqani if he was prepared to givethe waiver as Mansoor Ijaz did, Haqqanireplied: “No sir, not at this stage.” JusticeIsa said: “If obstacles continue to be cre-ated and you and the attorney general donot come forward, an adverse inferencecan be drawn.” He observed that nostraight answer was coming from the gov-ernment on the memo issue. When JusticeIsa asked Haqqani’s lawyer if the waiverwould harm him, he did not reply in clearterms. It was a surprise for the commissionmembers when Haqqani said that he hadno idea where his BlackBerry was.

“I came to Pakistan on short noticeand left behind my belongings in the US.I have no information right now aboutwhere my BlackBerry set is. It might be

lying somewhere at my US residence orPakistan’s embassy in the US,” he told thecommission. He said further that he hadreplaced his old BlackBerry set with a newone, adding that he had asked the ForeignOffice officials to locate his old set. He alsodeclined to share the PIN of his old setwith the commission.Haqqani’s lawyerZahid Bukhari also refused to submit theBlackBerry data to the commission, say-ing that it was the responsibility of thegovernment to provide the commissionwith the data. The commission, however,exempted Haqqani from future hearingsand said he would be called when re-quired, but he was asked to come and wit-ness the proceedings if he desired.Despite repeated requests from the com-mission, Haqqani’s lawyer did not submita list of witnesses if he wanted any,

Kayani and Pasha’sreplies in memocase illegal: Gilani

ISLAMABADAPP

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani toldChinese newspaper People’s Daily Onlinein an interview on Monday that any officialaction by a government functionarywithout the prior approval of thegovernment would be unconstitutional andillegal. Chief of Army Staff General AshfaqParvez Kayani and Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI) chief Lt General AhmadShuja Pasha’s depositions in the SupremeCourt in the memogate case were thereforeillegal, said Gilani, because they did notcontain the approval of the competentauthority. He said acquisition ofpermission from the authority concernedwas mandatory for them in order to filereplies to the apex court, adding that areaction from any government institutionwithout the sanction of the governmentwas unconstitutional and unlawful. Gilanisaid neither the Defence Ministry nor thedefence minister was approached by thetwo regarding their rejoinders in the memocase, and that they had to seek permissionfrom the ministry before filing the replies.The prime minister stated that in twosimultaneous issues, one relating to theNATO attack on Pakistani checkposts andthe other relating to the memo controversy,the civil and military leadership of Pakistanheld detailed meetings and took immediatedecisions in the Defence Committee of theCabinet. In case of the NATO attack, theprime minister said, it was decided that thematter should be referred to theParliamentary Committee on NationalSecurity. In the second case, it was alsodecided that the matter should be referredto the committee, besides accepting theresignation of Husain Haqqani, he added.

Gilani eats his own words yet again

10 missing soldiers founddead in Orakzai

PESHAWARSHAMIM SHAHID

Ten security forces personnel who hadgone missing during a clash withmilitants on December 21, were founddead in the Kago Qamar area of UpperOrakzai Agency in the early hours ofMonday. Their dead bodies were airliftedto Peshawar, from where they were sentto the native towns and cities of the slainsoldiers after funeral prayers. Officialssaid 11 personnel had gone missingduring a clash with militants near Daboriin Orakzai Agency, two were killed and22 others - including a major - hadsustained injuries. The officials said thedead bodies of the two soldiers killed inthe fighting were found soon after theclash. Late on Sunday, the officials weretipped off about a dead bodies of the 10personnel being dumped in the KagoQamar area, after which they wererecovered. Though there has been noofficial statement on the incident yet, all10 of the dead bodies reportedly boremarks of brutal torture. Meanwhile, AFPreported that Pakistani authorities hadrecovered the slain soldiers in anexchange of bodies with Taliban militantsfollowing a clash two weeks ago in thenorthwestern tribal region. One securityofficial said 23 soldiers were attacked in alate-night assault by up to 100 heavilyarmed insurgents. Another securityofficial said the 10 soldiers had beenbeheaded and their bodies recovered inan exchange with the Taliban. “Theyhanded over the beheaded bodies of 10officials while we handed over fourbodies of militants to them,” the officialsaid. The Pakistani Taliban claimedresponsibility but said 10 of their menhad been killed. “We killed these soldiersduring the clash. They had the bodies ofour 10 people and we had in our custodythe bodies of soldiers and the exchange ofbodies took place today,” said Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesmanEhsanullah Ehsan.

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistani envoy to US, Husain Haqqani gestures as he leaves the Islamabad High Court after a

hearing into the memogate case on Monday. StAFF PhOtO

g Experts reject PM’s contention that COAS, ISI DG’s replies were unlawful

g Former envoy to UStells judicialcommission hedoesn’t know wherehis BlackBerry is,also refuses towaive privacy rights

g Commission tellsgovt to giveMansoor multipleentry visa as soonas he applies

Haqqani claims innocencebut not very cooperative

continued on Page 04


haqqani challenges sc verdict | Page 02

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Graduation ceremony at PAF Finishing School No Saudi mediation for Musharraf: Malik

Seat adjustment: MQMdelegation to meet President Zardari today

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

A five-member delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) would hold an important meeting with Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday to evolve a seatadjustment formula regarding the upcoming Senate elec-tions, due by mid-February. The MQM delegation would beheaded by Dr Farooq Sattar, while Babar Ghauri, Raza Ha-roon, Dr Sagheer and Waseem Aftab would accompanyhim. The MQM is likely to win three or four Senate seatsfrom Sindh Assembly in the upcoming Senate polls if theelections are held with the existing assemblies. Thoughthere was no official word but since the president wouldnot be available in the federal capital, the meeting would berescheduled in Karachi. Earlier, the meeting had beenscheduled for the federal capital. When contacted, MQMspokesman Wasay Jalil confirmed the meeting.

Bin Laden Commission interviews three more witnesses


The Abbottabad Operation Inquiry Commission onMonday questioned key witnesses regarding the spyingnetwork used by US agencies to allegedly monitor Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden’s activities and recordedthe statements of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa National Pro-gramme on Family Planning Primary Healthcare Coordi-nator Dr Ihsanullah Turabi, Comprehensive SecurityService Pvt Ltd Incharge Bashir Chohan and Major (r)Aamir Aziz. Dr Shakil Afridi, who allegedly spied on BinLaden for the CIA, worked at the family planning pri-mary healthcare programme. Aziz was owner of thehouse allegedly used for spying on Bin Laden’s activities.Meanwhile, the enquiry commission has decided to againsummon Pakistan’s envoy to the United Kingdom WajidShamsul Hasan to record his statement. The commissionhas also collected TV interviews of the UK envoy.

Former PPP MNA’s brothershoots restaurant owner

KASuRSTAFF REPORT

Former Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA ChaudhryManzoor Ahmed’s brother Advocate Munir Ahmed onMonday shot and injured a restaurant owner for servinghim food late. According to police, Munir ordered fish andburgers and asked restaurant owner Sheikh Ahmed to pre-pare it within 30 minutes and left for shopping. He cameback after 15 minutes but on Ahmed’s request to wait forsometime, Munir left the place and came back with threemen. He fired at Ahmed, injuring his arm, while his accom-plices broke the restaurant’s items and fled. Police regis-tered case number 14/12 against Munir and his threeaccomplices under sections 324,427 and 34 of the PPC.Munir got interim bail until January 19. Railway Roadtraders protested against Munir and demanded his arrest.


FORMER ambassador tothe US, Husain Haqqanifiled a review petition inthe Supreme Court on

Monday seeking a review of thecourt’s December 30, 2011 shortorder, which declared the petitionsfor probe into the memo contro-versy maintainable and constituteda three-member judicial commis-sion to probe the matter and sub-mit a report within four weeks.

He requested the court to staythe proceedings before the judicialcommission until the disposal ofthe review petition, as he wouldsuffer irreparable harm if the com-mission reached a conclusion dur-ing the course of his reviewpetition. The review petition wasfiled by Haqqani’s lawyer AsmaJahangir. The petitioner con-tended that the court in its Decem-ber 1, 2011 order put restrictionson his movement and appointed acommission to preserve the evi-dence without hearing him.

He prayed the court to reviewits order, as the petitions declaredmaintainable were beyond the

purview of Article 184 (3).He said the court had heard

the petitions on the question ofmaintainability, however, in itsDecember 30 order, it fully ex-hausted the entire relief sought bythe petitioners in every respect.

The petitioner stated that thejudicial commission constitutedby the court was not permissibleby law, as it could not issue direc-tions to the judges of the highcourts to constitute a commission.

Giving legal references, thepetitioner stated that under theCivil Procedure Code (CPC) Order26 rule 4 sub rule 2, a commissionset up to examine any person orevidence may be deputed to anycourt except “not being a highcourt”. He said high courts werenot subordinate to the SupremeCourt, thus it could not issue themdirections. He added that Article187 remained subject to Article175 (2), thus the Supreme Courtcould not direct the high courts toconstitute any commission.

The petition stated that thecourt had made an error by apply-ing the principles of CPC to a probethat on the face of it was of a crim-inal nature, thus denying the peti-

tioner (Haqqani) his fundamentalright under Article 13 and 10A. Hesaid the court appointed the com-mission by exercising its authorityunder Article 187 read with orderXXX1, rule 1 and 2 as well as orderXXXVI of the Supreme CourtRules, 1980 as announced in theDecember 30 short judgment, de-spite the fact that Order XXXVI ofthe Supreme Court Rules had beenrepealed in 2003.

The petitioner said his funda-mental rights under Article 9 and15 had been denied whereas hehad so far not been formally ac-cused of any offence of any nature.

He stated that the court hadmisread the facts that the article inFinancial Times of October 10,2011 carried the memo with it,adding that the contents of it wereunknown even to this point oftime. The petitioner stated thatwhile interpreting the fundamentalrights, the court had assumed itsinfraction and the enforcementorder did not redress any such in-fringement. He added that noterms of reference had been set outwhile determining the scope andambit of the judicial commissionassigned to probe the memo issue.

‘Wheat support priceshould go down’

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Pakistan Flour Mills Association(PFMA) warned the federal governmenton Monday that if the Rs 100 per maundincrease in the wheat support price wasnot withdrawn, price of the 20 kilo-grammes flour bag will jump by Rs 80.PFMA indicated that flour mills couldreduce wheat flour price by Rs 150 perbag if the federal government allowedthem wheat import. Holding a pressconference at PFMA House, associationchairman Naeem Butt strongly criti-cised the federal government’s decisionto increase the wheat support pricefrom Rs 950 to Rs 1,050 per maund. Hesaid that the decision to increase thewheat support price would neither ben-efit farmers nor consumers. Naeemsuggested that if the federal govern-ment wanted to support farmers itshould provide them with agricultureinputs, including fertilizers, pesticidesand diesel at subsidised rates.He pointed out that Pakistan had thehighest wheat price in the world de-spite the fact that the country had sur-plus wheat stock of around eightmillion tonnes. In the internationalmarket, he said, wheat was available at$285 per tonnes. He demanded thegovernment to allow wheat import,which would cut wheat price by Rs 150per 20 kilogrammes.

haqqani moves SC for review of Dec 30 verdict

BHITSHAH: Devotees perform dhamal during the annual

Urs of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai on Monday. ONLINE



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SPoRTSMisbah keen to cash in on home advantage

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Liberal family values threaten humanity: pope Towards an abyss:The executive and the judiciary are on a warpath.

Mush’s show:

Dr Faisal Bari says:The shadow education: The tuition phenomenon has gained traction.

Having more parties in the political process is always a good idea.

Rabia Ahmed says:Demagoguery for dummies: All education provides students with the ability

Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi says:The G word: A lot has happened over the past couple of weeks.

Nadia launches skincare treatments

ISI DG’s contractexpires in March

RAWALPInDIONLINE

ISI Director General (DG) LieutenantGeneral Ahmed Shuja Pasha’s contractwill expire in March, sources said onMonday.According to sources, power corridorswere echoing with Pasha’s replacement,who retired on March 18, 2011, but wasgiven a year’s contract. According tosources, due to the memogate scandal,chances of another contract to Pashawere bleak. Diplomatic circles were alsotaking keen interest in the situation withsome of them saying that the MI DGmight replace Pasha. Lieutenant Gen-eral Tanvir Tahir and Lieutenant Gen-eral Ayaz Salim will also retire in Marchand September respectively.

ISLAMABAD MIAN ABRAR/KASHIF ABBASI

Besides the government’s quiet efforts tosecure a seat-adjustment arrangement be-tween all the major political parties for Sen-ate elections well ahead of the schedule, amarathon meeting was held on Monday atthe headquarters of the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan (ECP) to complete neces-sary arrangements to hold polls accordingto the government’s directive ahead of theirrespective schedules.

A source in the ECP told Pakistan Todaythat polling for Senate elections might beheld after February 12 if the governmentfailed to achieve seat-adjustment formulabetween major political parties.

“Under Article 224 of the constitution,the polling for the Senate elections may beheld after February 12. However, the oathtaking of the winning senators would beheld on March 13 per the constitutional pro-visions. In any case, the ECP would com-plete all necessary tasks well in advance ofthe schedule of Senate and general elections

in the country whenever the ECP is calledupon to do so,” the source said, adding thatto date, the ECP had received no writtensummary from the Prime Minister’s Secre-tariat to hold Senate polls in advance ofschedule. An official handout howeverstated that the meeting was held to reviewthe progress on various urgent and impor-tant issues/activities essentially required tobe completed well before initiating theprocess for the conduct of upcoming Senateas well as general elections in the country.

Following the meeting, the ECP issueda handout reflecting 19 decisions taken dur-ing the meeting. ECP Secretary IshtiakAhmed Khan said the commission was in-formed that training for holding Senateelections for the ECP officers (BPS-18 andabove) was scheduled on January 24 to 27.

All efforts were being made by NADRAto complete the exercise with regards topreparation of Preliminary Electoral Rolls(PER), followed by Final Electoral Rolls(FER), as soon as possible and a report inthis regard has been sent to the SupremeCourt. SMS facility was being provided by

the ECP to the registered voters for checkingtheir entries as voters in the relevant elec-toral rolls, he said, adding that as decided bythe ECP in its meeting held on November30, 2011, SMS charges for the public tocheck their voting details had been fixed atRs 2 per SMS.

The commission was informed that aproposal with regards to amending the lawfor providing the name, CNIC number, pho-tographs and to obtain thumb impression ofvoters in digitised ink only on the electoralrolls to be used by the presiding officers, wasbeing sent to the Ministry of Law, Justiceand Parliamentary Affairs.

As regards the printing of electoral rollswith photo and thumb impression, it wasdiscussed that photograph of the voter andcolumn for thumb impression of the voter,to be used at the time of election by the pre-siding officers only and the remaining re-quired number of sets, without photographand thumb impression of the voter will bediscussed with all major political parties ina meeting, to be held soon.

It was decided that the deputy election

commissioners (DECs) would work as revis-ing authorities in their respective districtswhile for the remaining districts in their di-vision, lists for appointment of revising au-thorities from amongst the federalgovernment, provincial and district govern-ment officers had been obtained through thePECs, that was being scrutinised and theECP would also arrange orientation forthese revising authorities.

As the population census report is to bepublished by the PCO in second half of 2013,as informed by them and as no fresh delim-itation was to be carried out for next generalelections, therefore, the commission de-cided that the PECs shall submit proposalsfor re-description of constituencies within10 days. The proposals received from thePECs would be placed before the ECP forfurther consideration and decision. It wouldbe purely an internal exercise and would becompleted by end of February.

In the context of implementation of theSupreme Court directions with regard tofresh delimitation in Karachi, the PEC,Sindh informed that meetings were in

progress with respective provincial author-ities. It was decided that the draft code ofconduct for political parties and candidates,media, observers, law enforcing agenciesand polling agents, would be placed beforethe stakeholders in a consultative meetingto be held shortly. A meeting with the Fed-eral Board of Revenue (FBR) would be heldon January 11 regarding controlling electionexpenses and in continuation with the pre-vious meeting held a few months ago tochalk out further course of action to stream-line political financing.

The Printing Corporation of Pakistanand eth Security Printing Corporation hadbeen asked to arrange non-market papercontaining special security features includ-ing watermark, to preclude the possibility ofprinting of bogus ballot paper by any quar-ter. It was decided that efforts would bemade to set up permanent polling stations sothat the voters could be assigned polling sta-tions well before the elections. The lists ofpermanent polling stations would be placedon the ECP’s website for information of gen-eral public well in advance of an election.

Pakistani surgeonsets GuinnessWorld Record by removing largestgall bladder

ISLAMABADINP

A surgeon at the Capital Hospital,CDA, has earned fame and prestigefor the nation by making it to theGuinness Book of World Recordsfor removing a 25.5cm long gallbladder through a 1 cm incision. The 70 year old patient, RasheedaBibi, underwent a laparoscopic op-eration at CDA Hospital by Sur-geon Dr Naeem Taj.This is the longest ever gall bladderremoved laparascopically in med-ical history.The Guiness Book of World recordhas awarded Dr Naeem Taj a cer-tificate of “World’s Longest Gallbladder removed through laparas-copy”.Earlier, an Indian Doctor removeda gallbladder of around 24 cmthrough open surgery. Dr NaeemTaj has also performed other dis-tinctive surgeries, including oldestand youngest patient, longest ap-pendix removed from a child, max-imum numbers of stones in gallbladder.Addressing the ceremony of givingaway the world record certificate tothe surgeon, CDA Chairman Engi-neer Farkhand Iqbal said it was anhonour not only for the CapitalHospital but for CDA, the wholenation and above all, for Muslims,as they were pioneers of medicalsurgery.Speaking on the occasion, CapitalHospital Executive Director DrSaddique Akbar Satti said he wasproud of Dr Taj and expected muchmore on his credit due to his sheertalent.In a presentation to the audience,Dr Taj dedicated the award to theentire nation. He said given the op-portunity, resources and encour-agement, “we can produce evenhigher feats”.

Governor Khosa returns17 bills passed by PA

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

PUNJAB Governor Sardar LatifKhosa has returned 17 billspassed by the Punjab Assem-bly after raising several objec-

tions, especially on the Punjab LocalGovernment (Second Amendment) Billof 2011 and has asked the Punjab As-sembly to discuss the bills again.

The primary objection raised by thegovernor was that the assembly did nothave the mandate to pass these bills.

The assembly passed The PunjabLocal Government (Second Amendment)Bill of 2011 on December 28, 2011. It wasreturned under the provision of Article116(2)(b) of the constitution for reconsid-eration by the assembly in the light of thefollowing observations:

“Article 140A of the constitution en-joins upon the province to establish aLocal Government system and devolvepolitical, administrative and financial re-sponsibility and authority to the electedrepresentatives of the LG. The bill inquestion seeking amendment in the Pun-jab Local Government Ordinance, 2001negates the mandate of constitutionalprovision which already has been stag-gered by the provincial government sinceit came into office. “The proposedamendment in Section 28 of the Ordi-nance ibid opens appointment of districtcoordination officer of any grade by re-placing ‘as far as possible an officer in BS-20’, which will lower and make the highoffice ineffective and susceptible to ap-pointment of favourites of lowest grade,at the same time affecting upon the pro-motion prospects of the federal andprovincial services resulting into litiga-tion and resentment by these officers.

“Clause 5 of the Bill is wholly againstthe conceptual scheme of democratic dis-pensation starting from the grass root

level. Sub-section (6) of Section 179-A tothe Punjab Local Government Ordinance,2001, which had earlier been inserted wasitself a dilatory provision allowing defer-ment by provincial government of theelections to the LG in which periphery oftime was not observed. Through the addi-tion of Sub Section (12) to Section 179-Aof the Ordinance ibid, yet again 180 daysare being given for the purpose. It is hilar-ious that on the one hand immediate gen-eral elections are being demanded, whileLocal Government Elections are being de-layed without any reasonable cause andpeople of the province denied their legiti-mate constitutional rights of self gover-nance at local level.

“Various clauses proposed towardssubstitution of Sub Section (6) authoris-ing the government to designate officerfor initiation of Annual Performance Re-port in respect of District CoordinationOfficer is repulsive to democratic normswhere people’s representatives stand re-placed with designated officers. “Sub Sec-tion (7) appointing ad hoc AccountsCommittee for all LGs in a district negatesthe concept of permanency so pro-pounded by superior courts. Ad-hocismhas never augured with good governance.

“Sub Sections (8) to (12) prescribecomposition of the ad hoc Accounts Com-mittee, which will be controlled by theTreasury and as such with the govern-ment entering the last year of electionswould recoil on transparency in the elec-tions being the essence of democracy.The Supreme Court in the judgementpronounced on 07.10.2011 in CP No 1017-L of 2011 has in Paragraph 29 observedas under:

“‘It is imperative to remind ourselvesparticularly those who are under Oath, todefend and protect the constitution thatin term of Article 5(2), obedience to theconstitution and law is the (inviolable)obligation of every citizen wherever hemay be and of every other person for thetime being within Pakistan.

“‘A constitutional provision which istime-bound is always mandatory unlessthe context otherwise provides so. The pro-visions of the Article 254 of the constitu-tion, ie ‘failure to comply with requirementas to time does not render an act invalid’are not intended to condone non-compli-ance of a mandatory and time-bound pro-vision, rather are meant to save the actiontaken belatedly.’ “The very judgement inparagraph 30 goes on to state that ‘soci-eties grow and nations progress by strictadherence to the rule of law’.

“Through the Punjab Local Govern-ment (Amendment) Act 2010 promul-gated on 28-10-2010, it was mandatedthat the Local Government Electionswould be called within 365 days whichcut out date expired on 27.10.2011. Obvi-ously, non-compliance by the Punjabgovernment is in violation of the law andper observations of the Supreme Courtquoted above, which is binding under Ar-ticles 189 and 190 of the constitution.

“No statement of Objects and Rea-sons has been enclosed with the PunjabLocal Government (Second Amend-ment) Bill 2011.”

g Governor returns ‘Local Government Bill 2011’ to PA, says amendment seeking appointment of lower grade officers on a higher seat would lead to ‘appointment offavourites’, Punjab govt violating constitution by not holding LG elections on time

ECP evolves strategy to hold polls ahead of schedule


06 Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

IslamabadPM’s adviser inquires after ITP PRo

ISLAMABADPR

Adviser to the prime minister on Inter-faith Harmony Dr Paul Bhatti, PunjabMember Provincial Assembly (MPA)Tahir Naveed and former MPA KhalidGill visited the house of the IslamabadTraffic Police (ITP) public relations offi-cer (PRO) and inquired about his healthon Monday.ITP PRO Shamas Gill has undergone acardiac bypass to repair an arterialblockage. He had not been feelingwell for the last several months and thedoctors had advised him bypass. Thepolitical leaders inquired about hishealth and prayed for his early recovery.They commended his services for theITP as well as his role as a liaison be-tween the religious communities.

Charter of ChildRights Bill-2010 approved


The Select Committee on Monday ap-proved the Charter of Child Rights Bill2010 to protect the rights of Pakistanichildren through legislation. The bill was drafted by MNA Dr AttiyaInayatullah in the light of the provisionsof the United Nations Convention on theRights of the Child (UNCRC).The committee observed that 46 percentof the population of the country is com-prised of children under 18 years of age;yet they are voiceless in the public do-main. The charter will be enacted in thecapital territory and will serve as a stan-dard for the provinces. The meeting waschaired by Dr Attiya Inayatullah andwas attended by MNAs Asma ArbabAlamgir, Anusha Rehman Khan, Sh-agufta Sadiq, Kishan Parwani and Saa-dat Qaimkhani.

PAFRoA meetingon 14th


PAF Retired Officers’ Association(PAFROA), Rawalpindi/Islamabadchapter, is holding its monthly meetingat 3:30pm on January 14 at Base Offi-cers’ Mess, PAF Base, Chaklala. All members and their families are cor-dially invited and requested to intimateabout their attendance to Acting Secre-tary Wing Commander (Retd) ZafarHameed by phone No 9525811 and9280376. The PAF’s retired officers whoare desirous of becoming members of theassociation are also cordially invited.

ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Imran Khan addresses a press conference on Monday. StAFF PhOtO

Cop booked forworking in two departments


An Islamabad police constable wasbeen booked for working simultane-ously in two government departments,police said.According to the police, Ali Raza wasdismissed from the service in 2005 formisconduct. Later, he applied at theFederal Ombudsman office and was in-ducted there.He also approached the Federal Serv-ice Tribunal (FST) against the ICT po-lice decision, after which the FSTrestored him to the police department. However, he did not resign from theombudsman office and got salariesfrom both the departments for sevenmonths. A police officer said they ordered theSabzimandi police to register an FIRagainst the constable when the mattercame under the notice of the ICT po-lice officials.

AIoU reschedulescancelled papers


The Allama Iqbal Open University(AIOU) has rescheduled the finalexams of Matriculation Course CodeNo 221, FA 315, BA 409 and PGD/PGlevel courses which were cancelled tthe examination centres of Sindh onDecember27, 2011, owing to a publicholiday announced by the provincialgovernment in connection with thedeath anniversary of Shaheedd BenazirBhutto.According to Munawar HussainSulehri, AIOU controller of exams, thefinal exams of Course Code No 221would be held on January 19, 315 onJanuary 25 and 409 on January 30while 55, 803, 968, 2500, 3576, 3608,4637, 4662, 5503, 5567, 5604, 5764,6511 and 6557 would now be held onJanuary 31.Sulehri said examination timingswould remain unchanged. The con-troller of exams further said that re-vised roll number slips had been sentto the students concerned by post attheir given addresses.


BRIGHT faces, confidenttenor, smiling eyes, selectedspeeches and crafty handsof armature young entre-

preneurs were speaking volume ofthe fact that their two-day trade exhi-bition has introduced them to a newlife that involves an untiring and un-mitigated spirit of Steve Jobs, anAmerican business entrepreneur.

This all could be practically wit-nessed at the closing ceremony of theNUML’s 7th Sales Gala, which wasorganised by the students of Manage-ment Sciences and Mass Communica-tion at a local hotel.

According to a press release, de-spite of biting cold in the capital, alarge number of visitors from differ-ent walks of life including AhsanIqbal from PML-N, Zahid Hamid,Khurshid Nadeem, Mian Abdul Wa-heed and faculty members, deans and

heads of different department of var-sity visited the gala.

They appreciated and encouragedthe young amateur entrepreneurs byshopping their favourite items andbrands from different stalls.

State Minister for Human Re-source Development Sheikh WaqasAkram, who was the chief guest at theclosing ceremony, said the NUML ad-ministration deserved accolades forarranging a productive event, as itwas producing skilled human re-source for the country.

Waqas said the world was passingthrough an economic crisis and it hadbecome a daunting task to provideevery educated citizen a reasonablejob. “Having said this, such events byacademic institutions help in pro-moting the concept of self-entrepre-neurship and self-employment. It is agreat service not only to the nationbut also to the humanity that one es-tablishes oneself as independentbusiness entrepreneur and also pro-

vide employment to others,” headded.

Hamid Nazir, a student of MassCommunication, said during the twodays, he had learnt how vital and in-strumental one’s inter-personal skillswere in the present day commodi-tised world. Another student of Man-agement Sciences Waiza saidparticipation of the students fromseven campuses of NUML had taughther that they were the member of onefamily, adding that it was a great ex-perience to come out jointly to ex-plore and market what had beenlearnt from at the alma mater.

The ceremony was also addressedby NUML Rector Maj Gen (r) MasoodHasan, who praised the organisersand students for arranging a verydexterous, tidy, disciplined and inno-vative trade show.

Later, the chief guest and the var-sity rector distributed the certificatesof merit among the organisers andstudents.

NUML students express entrepreneurship abilities

ISLAMABAD: Online Int’l News Network Editor-in-Chief Mohsin J Baig and Pring (e-Busi-

ness) Chief Executive Officer Syed Muqtaza Shah exchange copies of a joint venture

agreement after the signing ceremony. Online and Pring have joined hands to promote

news info flow to ordinary cell phone users in addition to the web spread. ONLINE

RAWALPInDISTAFF REPORT

The Foundation University MedicalCollege (FUMC) on Monday organisedits annual orientation ceremony.

The simple but dignified ceremonywas attended by all the new studentsalong with their parents. FoundationUniversity Islamabad (FUI) RectorProf Dr Bilal A Khan was the chiefguest. Principal FUMC Maj-Gen DrNasim-ul-Majeed (retd) was also pres-ent on the occasion. The ceremony washeld to welcome newcomers and in-form them of the rules and regulationsof the medical college. Addressing thestudents, Prof Bilal said they werejoining the right institution to pursuetheir studies, where they would haveall the opportunities to excel in life in

a friendly and professional environ-ment.

He said the FUI had attained ahigh reputation as a centre of higherlearning in a short span of few years.He told the audience that all the FUIconstituent institutions were impart-ing quality education to students inthe fields of medicine, engineering,management sciences and social sci-ences.

Earlier, Maj-Gen (retd) Dr Nasim-ul-Majeed, in his welcome address,hoped the newly admitted studentswould take full advantage of the op-portunities and facilities provided bythe FUMC. All the faculty membersand management staff were intro-duced to the students to make them fa-miliar with the mechanism of themedical college.

FUMC holds orientation ceremony



Islamabad


The Pakistan National Council of Arts(PNCA), in association with the Min-istry of National Heritage and Inte-gration, on Monday organised apuppet show to entertain children atthe National Art Gallery (NAG).

The puppet show at the PNCA hallhas been a regular feature of thecouncil, presented by the NationalPuppet Theatre (NPT), while thePNCA has announced to hold thispuppet show on every Monday at thesame venue and time.

The puppet show depicted fivefolk tales and skits to entertain andeducate the children regarding socialproblems, including health, educa-tion, and environment.

The children attended the showalong with their parents, who termed

it a good source of entertainment forthe kids. “The NPT has showcased theskills of its puppeteers featuring vi-brant costumed puppets and pre-sented folk tales, skits, regionaldances and national songs to provideinformative entertainment. It alsohighlighted various social issues thatwill surely help children to be a re-sponsible citizen to work for theprosperity of this country,” said themother of a boy, Oheed Ahmed fromG-6/4, who had come to watch theshow.

Besides providing entertainment,the puppet shows educate people aschildren as well as the adults gainknowledge and inspiration from themoral and historical stories acted outby puppets. Many common socialproblems have been the themes ofthese shows, which aim at creatingawareness, better civic sense and pa-

triotism among the audience. Besidesthese themes, filial obligations, fam-ily ties, healthcare, cleanliness andenvironmental issues are also pre-sented in an entertaining manner,but with an underlying sobriety andseriousness of the message.

Talking to Pakistan Today, Chil-dren Art Workshop (CAW) and NPTDirector Zulfiqar Ahmed said that thepuppet show was a regular feature,held on every Monday evening. “Overthe years, the NPT team has devel-oped entertaining stories with didac-tic themes.

One of its most popular dramaticprograms is the ‘Story of Pakistan’,which has been presented beforemany heads of states and other digni-taries and has been highly com-mended,” Zulfiqar observed.

He said that the NPT had recentlyheld shows in various parts of Punjab

for 20 days to create awareness aboutthe spread of dengue fever and natu-ral calamities such as floods andearthquake.

“The PNCA also organised showsthat entertained audiences in Sar-godha, Faisalabad, Jhang and TobaTek Singh,” Zulfiqar said, adding thatchildren were usually most enthusi-astic part of the audience, expressingtheir appreciation of the puppetshows overwhelmingly.

He said that through colorfulpuppets, children could learn aboutthe social problems in a unique wayand popular folk tales, skits and na-tional songs were a great medium toeducate them, while exciting theirimagination.

The NPT has also introduced folkdances in their puppet shows and itwas a delight to watch those perform-ances, he concluded.

ISLAMABAD: HEC Chairman Javed Laghari speaks at the launching ceremony of Pink Ribbon Youth Year 2012. StAFF PhOtO

eight outlaws held; drugs, stolen car seized


The city police on Monday claimed tohave arrested eight persons from vari-ous areas of the city and recoveredopium, hashish, heroin, weapons anda stolen car from their possession.According to a police spokesman,Tanrol police arrested Zaman andNasir Ali during patrolling and recov-ered 3.56 kilograms opium fromthem. Aabpara police arrested Navid Masihfor possessing 40 grams of heroinwhile Haider Abbas and Sadiq Hus-sain were arrested by Shehzad Townpolice for keeping a 30-bore pistoland rounds.ASI Aurangzeb from Sihala police ar-rested Muhammad Javid for possess-ing a 32-bore pistol and rounds. SubInspector Muhammad Abbas fromKoral police arrested Jamila Bibi forkeeping 135 grams of hashish.Anti-Car Lifting Cell Inspector LalDin recovered a car stolen from theIchhra police area in Lahore.

ITP organisesroad safety workshop


The Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) Ed-ucation Team arranged a road safetyworkshop at the Arid Agriculture Uni-versity to educate students, especiallymotorcyclists, about road safety andtraffic rules. The workshop wasarranged as a part of the traffic police’scampaign initiated in liaison with aca-demic institutions. According to apress release, the workshop was organ-ised to forge closer links with studentsand to promote a friendly policing cul-ture.Hundreds of students from universi-ties, colleges and schools participatedin the workshop. Three studentsjudged to have the best traffic sensewere selected for a quiz competition tobe arranged by ITP in collaborationwith the Suzuki Motor Company. The students were educated about roadsafety through lectures.

PNCA holds puppet show


The graduation ceremony of the 31st batch ofstudents at the PAF Finishing School Islamabadwas held at the Air Headquarters Officers’ Messon Monday.

Pakistan Air Force Women Association(PAFWA) President Begum Farzana Qamar wasthe chief guest on the occasion, who awardedthe certificates to the graduating students.

Begum Farzana said, “The womenfolk havea vital role to play in the betterment of any soci-ety. The saying ‘Hands that rock the cradle, rulethe world’ is an apt description of women’s con-tribution in shaping the destiny of a nation. In

fact, no society can afford to ignore women thataccount for half of its population.”

The PAF Finishing School was establishedin July 1996. It offers various courses in com-munication skills, languages, management, artof self presentation, domestic science, generalculture, cuisine, protocol, art, child care, intro-duction to psychology and spiritual enrichment.

PAF Finishing School, an institute which isthe first of its kind in Asia, is a step by PakistanAir Force towards the promotion of educationand literacy in the country.

Earlier, the director of the school presenteda report that highlighted the main aspects of thetraining, which are aimed at transformingyoung girls into useful members of the society.

Graduation ceremonyat PAF Finishing School



News

nEW DELHIINP

China is planning amilitary base inPakistan, IndiaToday reported,citing “a secret

report prepared by the gov-ernment’s joint intelligencecommittee”.

According to the report:“China is keen to build mili-tary bases in FATA, or theNorthern Areas, while Pak-istan wants to counterbal-ance Indian naval forces byhaving a naval base inGwadar. But it does not spellout the exact location of

these bases.”At a time when Pakistan-

US relations are strained –chiefly over drone missile at-tacks in Pakistan’s TribalAreas and covert Navy SEALoperation attack that took outOsama bin Laden on Pakistanisoil – China has made no se-cret of its interest in strength-ening its own ties with thenuclear-armed nation.

Last Thursday, ChinesePremier Wen Jiabao hostedPakistani Army chief Gen-eral Ashfaq Kayani in Beijingand vowed to support closermilitary exchanges betweenthe countries.

“China and Pakistan

pledged to strengthen mili-tary ties and bring existingcooperation to a new level,”Xinhua quoted China’s De-fense Minister Gen LiangGuanglie as saying.

“China values its tradi-tional friendship with Pak-istan,” Liang reportedly said,adding that Beijing hopes todevelop “pragmatic and ef-fective cooperation withPakistan in national defencearena”. General Kayaniechoed Liang’s comments,saying that Pakistan “wouldcontinue to provide firmsupport to China on all is-sues concerning its core in-terests”.

China planning militarybase in Pakistan: report

LAHOREONLINE

Three girls were killed and atleast 12 others were injuredon Monday following achaotic stampede at a musi-cal concert at Alhamra Cul-tural Complex in Lahore.

Another three girls in-jured in the stampede weresaid to be in a critical state.The bodies and injured wereshifted to Services Hospital.

The music show was or-ganised by a local college

and there were much morepeople at the venue than itsactual capacity.

A witness said the stam-pede started after rumoursof a bomb having explodedstarted going around.

The witness said the se-curity guards also baton-charged the people who triedto rush out of the building.

Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif has ordereda probe into the incident anddemanded a report at theearliest.

Saleem probe

report complete

ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Saleem Shehzad Com-mission secretary will pres-ent its 150-paged report toPrime Minister YousufRaza Gilani today (Tues-day). Speaking to media,commission memberParvez Shaukat said thecommission had recordedthe interviews of 41 indi-viduals which are a part ofthe report. He said thecommission had recom-mended the government tomake the report public.

FIA fires 3

forensic experts

without reasonISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

Without giving any solidreasons, the Federal Investi-gation Agency (FIA) hasfired its three reputed foren-sic experts.A source in the FIA toldPakistan Today that threeGrade 19 officers whoplayed a major role in un-earthing two major scams –the Khanani and Kaliamoney laundering scam andthe Bank of Punjab (BOP)scam - had been fired. The sacked officers wereidentified as SarfarazChaudhry, Irfan Qureshiand Abdul Ghaffar. Thesource said the officers wereconsidered trusted subordi-nates of former FIA addi-tional director general ZafarQureshi. He said currentlythe officers were engaged inhigh-profile investigations.In recognition for his workin the Khanani and Kaliacase, Chaudhry wasawarded the Tamgha-e-Im-tiaz. Despite many at-tempts, FIA chief TaseenAnwar Shah could not bereached for comment.

Zardari leaving forDubai again

DuBAIONLINE

President Asif Ali Zardariwill reach Dubai tomorrow(Wednesday) on a two-dayprivate visit. According to Onlinesources, the president wasgoing to Dubai for medicalcheckup and would staythere for two days (January11-12). The sources revealedthat an important leader ofthe Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment would also call onZardari during his stay.They said upon arrival, hewould be admitted to theAmerican Hospital Dubaifor checkup which couldtake two days. However, PPP Central In-formation Secretary QamarZaman Kaira denied the re-ports about the president’svisit to Dubai.

PPP gives party

ticket to Mirza’s

son for by-poll

KARACHINNI

A meeting of the PPP CECSindh members was held atBilawal House on Monday,presided over by party Co-chairman President Asif AliZardari, which decided togrant party ticket to Has-nain Mirza, son of formerSindh home minister Zul-fikar Mirza, for the by-pollsin PS-57.The constituency seat fellvacated after the resignationof Zulfikar Mirza from theparty’s basic membership aswell as from the provincialassembly seat.Those present in the meet-ing included Sindh ChiefMinister Qaim Ali Shah,Faryal Talpur, MakhdoomAmin Faheem, Mian RazaRabbani, Syed KhursheedShah, Syed Naveed Qamar,Nawab Yousaf Talpur, Isla-mud Din Sheikh, AbdulQadir Patel, Nisar Ahmed,Ali Nawaz Shah, ManzoorHussain Wasan, Murad AliShah, Agha Siraj Durrani,Ayaz Soomro, Engineer MRafiq and Hari Ram..

Stampede at concertkills 3 girls in Lahore

saying it would be submittedat the proper time. JusticeIsa said foreigners and out-of-station witnesses wouldbe given priority for theirtestimony before the com-mission.

Akram Shaikh, lawyerfor Mansoor Ijaz, told thecommission that his clientwould be available to testifybefore it on January 16 at9am. He also claimed hisclient had received emaileddeath threats.

The commission di-rected the attorney generalthat as and when Ijaz ap-proached the authoritiesconcerned in Bern (Switzer-land) or Pakistan’s HighCommission in London, heshould be issued a multipleentry visa to Pakistan with-out any conditions. Thecommission, in its shortorder, directed the authori-ties concerned at Pakistan’sembassy and High Commis-sion in Bern and Londonrespectively to counselarisethe documents to be pre-sented by Ijaz as Power ofAttorney. Bukhari objectedthat Akram Shaikh had nopower of attorney from Ijaz,

however, Shaikh assuredthe commission that itwould be submitted at thenext hearing. In response toapprehensions expressedby Shaikh pertaining toIjaz’s security, the commis-sion said it was the duty ofthe government to providehim security when he vis-ited Pakistan. “However, ifa further request is made(by his lawyer) pertainingto security, personnel ofPakistan Army may be de-ployed in addition to Islam-abad Police.”

Shaikh was of the viewthat since his client’s state-ments might upset some in-dividuals that were part ofthe federal government, hecould not rely on the secu-rity provided by IslamabadPolice. “Mansoor has beenreceiving death threats fromthe same email address(es)from which he had beencommunicating with Hu-sain Haqqani earlier in theyear,” said Shaikh.

The lawyer also expressedtrepidation that an intelli-

gence agency might pick uphis client, to which Justice Isasaid: “Is he (Haqqani) a crys-tal-ball gazer?”

At one point, the inte-rior secretary and attorneygeneral had to face thewrath of the commissionwhen they both declined togive assurance to the com-mission that no first infor-mation report (FIR) wouldbe registered against Ijazupon his arrival in Pakistan.

“The strategy of the gov-ernment is to make theprocess difficult,” Justice Isaremarked. After not gettinga straight reply from the sec-retary on the issue, JusticeIsa warned him that hewould be charged with con-tempt of court and askedhim not to leave the courtroom. “Don’t make a mock-ery of the commission,” hesaid. However, towards theend of the proceedings, theattorney general told thecommission that “if somefederal law is violated (byMansoor Ijaz), the matterwill be brought to the notice

of the Supreme Court.” When he stated further

that he was not in a posi-tion to make a commitmenton behalf of the provincesin this regard, the commis-sion ordered that the state-ment of the attorneygeneral would apply to allprovinces as well.

The commission also de-clined to hold an in-cameraproceeding when Col Khalid,who represented the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),said ISI chief Lt Gen AhmadShuja Pasha would appear inan in-camera hearing. Jus-tice Isa said there would beno secret briefings. He saidif the ISI DG wanted to sharesomething secret with thecommission, he could justput it in a sealed envelopeand present it to the com-mission secretary.

“We will see after receiv-ing this envelope that whichpart of the information issensitive and what should bemade public,” he said.

The judge advocate gen-eral (JAG) of General Head-

quarters (GHQ), who ap-peared on behalf of the chiefof army staff (COAS), toldthe commission that Gen-eral Ashfaq Parvez Kayaniwas on a visit to China andthat he had already submit-ted his affidavit to theSupreme Court in the memocase, adding that the COAShad nothing more to add tohis response.

In his opening state-ment before the commis-sion, Haqqani said he hadno role in creating, draftingor delivering the memoran-dum to Admiral MikeMullen. He said further: “Ihave no knowledge of theorigin, authenticity andpurpose of the memo.”

Forensic experts fromthe ISI and Federal Investi-gation Agency (FIA)briefed the commissionabout the possibility of re-trieving BlackBerry mes-sages allegedly exchangedbetween Haqqani and Ijaz.The two forensic experts,one from the ISI and theother from the FIA, told the

commission about how theBlackBerry worked and thedata retrieval process, butcould not satisfy it to agreat extent.

Col Khalid of the ISI ap-prised the commissionmembers about how thedata could be retrievedfrom the BlackBerry. Hesaid there were threesources from where thedata could be retrieved:from the handsets them-selves, from the BlackBerryenterprise servers, andfrom the Call Data Recordsfrom the service providers.However, he added that hecould not say anything forsure about the success andtime frame in this regardbecause of different param-eters applied by the users.

Another expert from theFIA, Ali Imran, told thecommission that a usercould avail the utility of‘wipe’ to overwrite mes-sages, which made it evenharder to retrieve thedeleted data. The commis-sion directed all the parties

in the Supreme Court to sub-mit in writing whether theywanted to give evidence andtell commission their deci-sion in this regard withintwo days.

The attorney generaltold the commission that thegovernment had as yet notreceived any reply from RIMin response to its request forobtaining data. However,Brigadier Zulfiqar Ali, thefocal person appointed bythe Cabinet Division secre-tary on the issue, told thecommission that RIM wouldmake available the requireddata if a request was madethrough the Canadian HighCommission in Islamabad.The commission directedthe government to contactthe Canadian High Commis-sion for the purpose.

Extensive activity waswitnessed in and around thecourtroom of the IslamabadHigh Court because of thearrival of high-profile per-sonalities. Security was onhigh alert as Haqqani andPakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharifmade their appearance be-fore the commission.

The hearing was lateradjourned until Monday,January 16.

haqqani claims innocence

But the government did notraise any objection at thattime,” he said.

SM Zafar said the COASand the ISI DG presentedtheir replies before the courtthrough the attorney gen-eral, who had also not raisedany objection to their repliesasking them to take approvalof the competent authority.He said the COAS and theISI DG were bound underArticle 190 of the constitu-tion to submit their repliesbefore the court in compli-ance with the SupremeCourt order.

Justice (r) WajihuddinAhmed also rebuffed theprime minister’s assertionsaying that in a routine prac-tice, dozens of governmentservants submit their replieswith the courts of law on adaily basis in various legalcases and they do not gettheir replies vetted by the

prime minister. “The govern-ment has never ever objectedto such replies by its servantsin the past,” he said.

He said the prime minis-ter’s statement meant toconfuse and complicatethings as it wanted to sabo-tage the enquiry into thememo case. “Previously, theprime minister said that thedefence secretary was tryingto have ‘a state within astate’ and now he says thatthe COAS and the ISI DGdid not take approval of theDefence Ministry for sub-mitting their replies beforethe court,” he said, addingthat the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) governmentwanted shahadat (martyr-dom) to win sympathies ofthe people by choosing aconfrontational path withthe institutions.

Justice (r) Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui said theCOAS and the ISI DG hadsubmitted their replies be-

fore the apex court as re-spondents. “Why did thegovernment not raise the ob-jection when they were beingmade respondents by the pe-titioners in the memo caseand why did it remain silentwhen they presented theirreplies in the court in De-cember?” Justice (r) Sid-diqui questioned.

Commenting on the pre-mier’s statement, Justice (r)Tariq Mehmood said as thepetitioners had pleaded theCOAS and the ISI DG byname, they submitted theirreplies in their personal ca-pacities. “Why did the gov-ernment or the attorneygeneral not object when theywere submitting theirreplies, which had also beenattested by the office of theattorney general?” Justice(r) Mehmood also raisedquestions similar to the onesraised by SM Zafar, Justice(r) Siddiqui and Justice (r)Wajihuddin.

communications with theSwiss authorities, in whichhe had asked them to closethe money laundering casesagainst President Zardari.The court had ordered ac-tion against Qayyum, butthe government did noth-ing and he fled the country.

The verdict had not di-rectly mentioned the im-munity issue, but manyobservers were of the opin-ion that President Zardaricould be prosecuted incases which existed beforethe promulgation of theNRO on October 5, 2007.But the government keptdragging its feet on theissue of writing letters toforeign authorities.

The government’s defi-ance prompted the SupremeCourt to initiate simultane-ous proceedings of oversee-ing the implementation ofthe NRO judgement, whichordered communicationwith the Swiss authorities toreopen the cases of moneylaundering amounting to$60 million.

The NRO review casesaw many twists and turnsand at one point, Prime

Minister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani himself requested theapex court through Attor-ney General Maulvi An-warul Haq to decide thereview petition instead ofoverseeing its implementa-tion.

After the dismissal ofthe government’s reviewpetition, there is now nohurdle for the court to en-sure implementation of itsverdict. During the hearingof the review case, the gov-ernment often came outwith various excuses todelay the hearing. Onecommon ploy adopted bythe government was tochange its counsel.

Many NRO beneficiar-ies were restored by thegovernment, however afterthe court’s interventionthey were removed.

The NRO, promulgatedby former president PervezMusharraf, grantedamnesty to politicians, po-litical workers and bureau-crats who were accused ofcorruption, embezzlement,money laundering, murderand terrorism between Jan-uary 1, 1986 to October 12,1999, the time between twostates of martial laws.

Gilani eats his own words

Another storm

US academics

convey concerns

over Haqqani’s trial

WASHINGTON: As manyas 16 prominent US aca-demics through a letter ad-dressed to Secretary of StateHillary Clinton conveyedtheir concern over the safetyof former Pakistan ambas-sador Hussain Haqqani. Theacademics urged Clintonthat the US government“should do all it can” to en-sure Haqqani’s case is han-dled with “due processwithout any threat of physi-cal harm”. INP

MELBOuRnEINP

Melbourne-based Pakistanistudent Salman Ghumman,23, was deported on Mondayon security grounds afterbeing questioned by Aus-tralian security intelligenceofficials over allegedly sus-pect phone calls to Pakistan.

Ghumman has been de-ported and is now on his wayback to Pakistan, an Aus-tralian newspaper quotedthe Immigration Depart-ment as saying. He was de-

tained last month by immi-gration officials after severalmonths of questioning byAustralian Security Intelli-gence Organisation officialsover alleged suspect phonecalls made to Pakistan andquestioned why he was inAustralia, the paper said.

The paper quoted his fa-ther, Manzoor HussainGhumman, a retired Pak-istani air force officer, sayingthe family was concernedabout his son’s fate if Pak-istani security services pickhim up upon return.

Australia deports Pakistanistudent on security grounds

continued from Page 1




shOrt Of finances

Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

PAGe 08

Cockfight signifies cruel culture

ISLAMABADSALMAN ABBAS

KEEPING the tradition alive ofauctioning the plots to over-come financial crisis, the Cap-ital Development Authority(CDA) began auctioning resi-

dential and commercial plots in posh areasof Islamabad on Monday. However, sourcesin the CDA said it was difficult for the civicbody to get rid of the financial crunchthrough auctioning process, amidst a declinein the real estate business.

CDA spokesman Ramzan Sajid told Pak-istan Today that auctioning of commercialplots would on Wednesday, adding that theprocess for the residential plots would againbe held after every two or three months, butthe commercial plots in the Blue Area was tobe organised after a gap of several years.

A CDA official, while seekinganonymity, said the thing, which would benotable in the bidding of Blue Area plots,was the reserved price, as it should be sim-ilar to the price of the plot sold on highestrate at the last auctioning. He added thatduring the last auctioning of blue area plots,the highest bid stood around Rs 0.2 millionper square yard.

On the first day of the grand auction, theCDA offered seven residential plots, out ofwhich four are in the Sector G-10/2 while an-

other three are located in Sector F-11/2. Outof these, Plot No151 and 153 in Sector F-11/2,each measuring 400 square yard, receivedthe highest bid of Rs 44,000 per square yard.Whereas Plot No 130 in Sector G-10/2,measuring 233.33 square yard, got the low-est bid of Rs.35,500 per square yard.

Plot No152, measuring 400 square yardin Sector F-11/2, received a bid of Rs 43,500,while Plot No130-C in Sector G-10/2, meas-uring 233.33 square yard, got received aoffer of Rs 39,000.

The bids for 30-B, 130-A and 130, eachmeasuring 233.33 square yard, in G-10/2were Rs 38,500, Rs.36,000 and Rs.35,500per square yard respectively.

The auction is being supervised by acommittee headed by CDA Member FinanceJaved Jehangir, while Tahir Shamshad(Planning and Design), Khalid MahmudMirza (Estate) and Syed Ibrar Hussain Shah(Engineering) along with directors of PublicRelations, Estate Management-I, EstateManagement-II and One Window Operationbesides Deputy Financial Advisor are themembers of the committee.

The auction of commercial plots wouldbe conducted tomorrow (Wednesday) from10am to 4pm.

The auction committee would submit itsrecommendations to the CDA Board, whichis the final authority for approval of theprocess.

CDA starts auction process


Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeedon Monday directed the Rawal Townadministrator to ban Jumma Bazaar ofold and second-hand vehicles on theMurree Road.

The decision was taken after thecomplaints of the Satellite Town resi-dents. “Keeping in view of security haz-ards and the inconvenience of residentsof Satellite Town, the Jumma Bazaar ofold and second hand vehicles shouldnot be allowed,” said a handout issuedby the Commissioner Office.

The chief commissioner also di-

rected the Rawal Town administrationand city police to carry out an operationto implement the order.

He gave these instructions whilepresiding a meeting held in his officewhich was attended by Rawal Town Ad-ministrator Saif Anwar Jappa, ChiefTraffic Officer Ishtiaq Shah and otherconcerned officers.

The commissioner said that a largenumber of complaints had been re-ceived from the residents of the areaswhere Jumma Bazaar of sale and pur-chase of vehicles was organised.

Moreover, a minorities’ place ofworship was also situated in the con-cerned area on the Murree Road, hence

the Jumma Bazaar could not be heldthere at any cost, the commissioneradded.

He directed further it to be ensuredthat the Jumma Bazar of vehiclesshould not be held on the roads adja-cent to the Murree Road.

The banners should be placed onMurree Road to inform the public thatthe Jumma Bazar of vehicles has beenbanned by the administration and ifthe vehicles were brought to the areafor sale on Friday, they should be im-pounded in the New Town Police Sta-tion and a legal action should be takenagainst the persons violating these di-rections, the order said.

Jumma Bazaar of old vehiclesat Murree Road banned


The Chandni Chowk flyover review committeewas informed on Monday that 40 percent ofthe flyover’s construction had been completedand it would be open to the public by March13. The meeting, chaired by MNA MuhammadHanif Abbasi, was held at the Chief Commis-sioner office. The chair directed the contrac-tor to stop the Chandni Chowk traffic policepost reconstruction until the project designwas approved.

During the meeting it was decided thattwo pedestrian bridges would be constructedto cross the Murree Road and connect with theflyover. One of these bridges would be con-nected to the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Hospi-tal (BBH) and the other to RehmanabadChowk. The land of two petrol pumps situated

adjacent to the BBH would be released after12th January and would also be used for con-struction. Abbasi also directed the contractorto level both sides of the road adjacent to theflyover to ensure smooth traffic flow and toavoid any inconvenience to the commuters.The Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeeddirected WAPDA authorities to remove elec-tric poles from both sides of the constructionsite. The WAPDA authorities informed thatmost of the poles had been shifted while therest would be moved by January 18.

The Commissioner also directed theRawalpindi Development Authority to installthe pedestrian bridge, removed from BBH,near Gulshan Daden Khan on Murree Road.

Abbasi also appealed to the citizens to usealternate routes to avoid inconvenience. Themeeting was attended by the Rawalpindi com-missioner and other officers concerned.

Masters nOt eMplOyers!


The postmortem report of a domestic servant,who was found dead at his master’s house onWednesday, confirmed that he was strangu-lated. The body of an eleven-year-old boy, ShanAli, was found at Mudassar Abbas’ house in Sec-tor G/13. Mudassar is an officer in NESCOM.

Attiya Al-Hussain, the wife of officer whowas present at the house, had informed the of-ficials at Golra Police Station that her servanthad committed suicide. Police rushed to thescene and found the dead body under mysteri-ous circumstances. Moreover, the family of thedeceased pleaded that their beloved one wasmurdered. On the complaint of victim’s father,police had registered an FIR against the couple

and arrested them. A senior police officer privyto development told Pakistan Today that it wasrevealed during the investigation that the ser-vant could not properly handle the sucklingchild of Attiya, who allegedly got furious andstrangled the boy. However, he said, police wasstill unable to get a written confessional state-ment from the alleged killer. The officer said theautopsy report issued on Saturday from Pak-istan Institute of Medical Sciences confirmedthat boy had been killed, adding that beforebeing hanged, the boy was strangulated, also es-tablished by the fact that his tongue was also in-jured. The officer said further investigation wasbeing carried out from the couple. Currently, ac-cused Mudassar Abbas is in the police custodyon physical remand while his wife is on a judi-cial remand in the Adiyala Jail.

Autopsy establishes servant was strangled

Chandni Chowk flyover willbe completed in March


Low

High

01°CWeDNeSDAy THURSDAy FRIDAy11°C I 04°C 13°C I 02°C 12°C I 05°C

PRAyeR TIMINGSFajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

05:40 06:10 13:30 16:00 on sunset 19:00

CITy DIReCToRy

PoLICe eMeRGeNCy 15AMBULANCe 115ReSCUe 1122HILAL-e-AHMeR 9250488eDHI FoUNDATIoN 2827844BoMB DISPoSAL 9270698FIRe BRIGADe CeNTRe 16CIVIL DeFeNCe 9262830

eMeRGeNCy HeLP

HoSPITALS

BLooD BANK

PIMS BLooD BANK 9261272PoLy CLINIC BLooD BANK 9209123

CoMPLAINT

WAPDA 111-000-118

SUI GAS 1199

RAILWAyS

CITy STATIoN (INQUIRy) 117ReSeRVATIoN 9273614RAILWAy PoLICe 1333

AIRPoRT

FLIGHT INQUIRy 114PIA ReSeRVATIoN 111-786-786

CoLLeGeS / UNIVeRSITIeS

INTeRNATIoNAL ISLAMIC UNIVeRSITy 9260765BAHRIA UNIVeRSITy 9260002NUML 9257677QUAID-e-AZAM UNIVeRSITy 90642098ARID AGRICULTURe UNIVeRSITy 9290151FJWU 9273235RIPHA INTeRNATIoNAL UNIVeRSITy 111510510NCA RAWALPINDI 5770423PUNJAB LAW CoLLeGe 4421347

MAHRooF INT 2222920PIMS 9261170PoLy CLINIC 9218300CDA 9221334SHIFA INTeRNATIoNAL 4603666ALI 4444435DISTRICT HQS 5556311-14ULTRASoNIC CLINIC 2824862HoLy FAMILy 9290319

cOnference

organised by Centres of excellence in Science andApplied Technologies, Islamabad. In the last eightconferences more than eleven hundred papers havebeen presented and more than four thousandparticipants attended the conference. It is the largestscientific event in Pakistan which is held regularly.

capOeira isltOwn

DATe AND TIMe: eVeRy FRIDAy 6:30-7:30PMVeNUe: KHAAS ART GALLeRy ISLAMABAD

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art thatcombines elements of dancing, ritualcombat & music in a unique synthesis ofself defense and rhythm.

HeAVy RAIN SHoWeR

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12°C

nUMUn 12

After two highly successful Intra-NUSTepisodes, NUST now invites you to its firstever All Pakistan event- NUMUN 2012. ThisJanuary, we'd like to welcome you here at H-12and change all that you know about this placefor the better.

DATe: JAN 26 — 29, 2012 VeNUe: NUST, H12 oPPoSITe To PoLICe LINe

DATe: JAN 09 — 12, 2012VeNUe: NATIoNAL CeNTRe FoR PHySIC


Islamabad

ISLAMABADMAHTAB BASHIR

ISLAMABAD is a city where the recre-ational opportunities for youngsters arevery little; hence, the majority from lowerand middle segments of society opt to usetheir mental capacity in devious activities.

One of them is cockfight, which is a source of enter-tainment as well as earning money in betting onfights of their trained cocks, while law enforcingagencies has failed to counter the illegal practice andpenalising the alleged culprits under the Preventionof Gambling Act 1977. Though, there is nothing at-tractive about the bloodbath in which cocks getwounded and often killed, this centuries-old prac-tice is going on in various semi-urban and ruralvicinities of the federal capital including BharaKahu, Bari Imam, Nelore Factory, Sohan, Faizabad,Pirwadhai, Fauji Colony, PWD and various othersparts of Rawalpindi throughout the year.

A cockfight is a sport between two roosters, heldin a ring called a cockpit. It is now illegal in theUnited States, Brazil, Australia and Europe, but stillnot banned in some US territories.

Cockfighting is a popular sport in Pakistan;however, betting is illegal under the Prevention ofGambling Act 1977. But police often turn a blind eyetowards it. In Sindh, people are fond of keeping thetrained breed, known as Sindhi Aseel, for the pur-pose, while the other popular breed trained for fight-ing is called Mianwali Aseel. These cocks are notedbeing tall, heavy and good at fighting. Talking aboutthe technicalities, Wajid Abbasi, a resident of BharaKahu who is involved in the game for the last 15years, told Pakistan Today that the cockfight had anancient history not only in Pakistan but all over theworld. “The combatants, referred to as gamecocks,are specially bred birds, conditioned for increasedstamina and strength,” Abbasi said.

“Cocks possess congenital aggression toward allmales of the same species. They are given the bestof care until the age of two years. They are condi-tioned, much like professional athletes prior toevents or shows. Wagers are often made on the out-come of the match. While not all fights are to thedeath, the cocks may endure significant physical

trauma. In many other areas around the country,cockfighting is still practised as a mainstream event;however, in some countries it is government-con-trolled,” Abbasi said. Cockfighting is considered ablood sport by animal rights activists, while the ad-vocates of the sport often list cultural and religiousrelevance as reasons for its perpetuation.

Talking about the procedure prior to the fight,Abbasi said, “The cocks fight until ultimately one ofthem dies or is critically injured. Historically, thering is called a cockpit, a term which was also usedin the 16th century to mean a place of entertainmentor frenzied activity,” Abbasi said.

The birds are equipped with either metal spurs(called gaffs) or knives, tied to the leg in the areawhere the bird’s natural spur has been partially re-moved. A cockspur is a bracelet (often made ofleather or silver) with a curved, sharp spike which isattached to the leg of the bird. The spikes typicallyrange from “short spurs” of just over an inch to “longspurs”, almost two and a half inches. In the nakedheel variation, the bird’s natural spurs are left intactand sharpened, and fighting is done without gaffs ortaping. It is mostly fought naked heel. Three are ei-ther three rounds of twenty minutes with a gap ofagain twenty minutes or four rounds of fifteen min-utes each and a gap of fifteen minutes.

Wherever the fight is about to start, peoplethrong to watch it. The spectacle of cockfighting is aspopular in the region as baseball and American foot-ball are in the United States. Among the competitors,who raise fighting cocks, there is great pride in theprowess of their birds and in winning a ‘champi-onship’. Chaudhry Bashir, a resident of TenchBhatta, while talking to this scribe said earlier, cock-fight was considered a culture of Pakistan, but nowmajority of fighting pheasant owners had made it agambling sport. “Few years ago, a spot was fixed forthe fight of roosters and it was arranged particularlyduring at traditional festivals in Rawalpindi. But withdiminishing tradition of arranging festivals, thosefond of cockfighting are now involved in gambling ata particular spot called ‘Dera’,” Bashir said. Whenasked is there any official union or organisation con-trolling and adopting rules and regulations of thegame, his reply was in negative.

“Every year, around Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 million bet-

ting (gambling) is fixed in the country, while the rateis much higher in other parts of the world,” he said.

Talking about the diet of roosters, Bashir said,“They are fed almonds, cashew nuts, millets andwheat grains to make them strong.” “Besides, theyare forced to run to be an active, while they are alsodosed of multi-vitamins and neurobion capsules,also they are messaged frequently prior to fight,” hesaid. “The fights between the specially-bred andtrained cocks are organised in sprawling fields withthousands watching the spectacle. Such is the crazethat cockfights are also organised at night underfloodlights,” Bashir added.

Another owner of gamecock, Nazir Hussain saidthe roosters had a weapon called ‘khar’ at the backof their claws, which they use in the fight. A goodfighting cock costs between Rs 50,000 and Rs300,000, depending upon its height and power.”

“At night, the fighters undergo ‘physiotherapy’.The owners soak a towel in warm water mixed withhenna and massage the bird with it. “This energiseshim and makes him look good,” Hussain said.

If the bird loses its khar during a fight, then an-other khar is joined with the broken one. They areavailable because when roosters die, or are killed,the owners usually cut the khars off and then sell apair for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000. “The fighting roostersare not allowed to sleep at least 10 days before thefight nor are they allowed any fun - the roosters can-not go near a hen during these days,” he said.

Talking to Pakistan Today, Islamabad Policespokesman Muhammad Naeem said gambling andbetting was strictly prohibited under the Preventionof Gambling Act 1977 and FIR under sections 5 and7 were registered against the culprits. “Section 5, ad-dressing the penalty for gaming in a public place,says, ‘“Whoever is found gambling in a public place,street or thoroughfare, shall be punishable with im-prisonment for a term which may extend to oneyear, or with fine which may extend to five hundredrupees, or with both.” “While the Section 7 says,‘Whoever, having been convicted of any offenceunder this Act, again commits any such offence shallbe punishable for every such subsequent offencewith imprisonment for a term which may extend tothree years, or with fine which may extend to twothousand rupees, or with both.”

Cockfight signifiescruel cultureg Betting on gamecocks on the rise in rural areas of capital



NewsSC seeks report on

worsening law and

order in BalochistanISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

Expressing concern over the worseninglaw and order in Balochistan, theSupreme Court on Monday soughtcomprehensive report on the matter byJanuary 16.A three-member SC bench headed byChief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry was hearing a petition filed byBalochistan High Court Bar AssociationPresident Hadi Shakeel Ahmed againstthe deteriorating law and order andincreasing incidents of target killings inthe province. During the hearing, thechief justice noted that the situation inthe province was very serious as everydaylawyers, government officials and otherswere being picked up and nobody knewwhere they were taken and kept.Justice Khilji Arif Hussain noted that ifresponsible authorities of the countryhad shut their eyes over the worseninglaw and order, the court would becompelled to interfere into the issue.Appearing on notice, BalochistanAdvocate General Amanullah Kunranisaid the accused, who burnt 15passengers in Sibbi, had been arrested.The court inquired about the arrest ofthose persons, who had attacked theHazara community. Kunrani thensubmitted that no progress was madeover it, as it was a “new issue”. The chiefjustice said it was not a new but an oldmatter as everyday bullet-riddled bodieswere being found. He hinted at hearingthe case at the Quetta Branch Registryof the Supreme Court. The court thenadjourned hearing until January 16.

Bill Gates hires doctors forArfah Karim

nEW YORKONLINE

Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Mondayasked doctors in the US to makearrangements for treatment of ArfahKareem, the world’s youngest Microsoftcertified professional from Pakistan.Arfah’s father, Colonel (r) Amjad Karim,confirmed that officials from Microsofthad contacted him. He said the officialstold him that a panel of doctors hadbeen formed on the directives of BillGates who would assist Pakistanidoctors in extending medical treatment.He said the US doctors would also cometo Pakistan if needed. Karim said Arfahcould be flown to the US for treatment.

SRInAGARAFP

The chief minister of Indian Kashmir has ordered power tobe cut to VIPs in the region after blackouts left locals shiver-ing amid snow storms and sub-zero temperatures.

Omar Abdullah ordered officials from the power depart-ment to snap electricity supplies to his high-security resi-dence in the main city of Srinagar and other homes in theexclusive Gupkar Road area.

The power will remain off "until the supply to the entire(Kashmir) valley is restored," a statement from the state gov-ernment said in Srinagar after heavy weekend snow falls top-pled power transmission poles and lines.

Abdullah's administration has faced frequent protestsover the last 15 days against the power cuts, which were ini-tially the result of disruption caused by temperatures as lowas minus 14 degrees Celsius (seven degrees Fahrenheit) atlocal hydroelectric plants.

Last Monday, security forces antagonised angry localsfurther by opening fire at a a demonstration near a hydro-electric plant in northern Boniyar village. A student waskilled. "We have been without power and water for the lastthree days now," Abdul Rashid, 52 from Shopian in southernKashmir, told AFP.

Rashid, who owns apple orchards, said his family hadbeen keeping warm by burning charcoal.

"We have been melting snow to obtain water for drinkingas the taps have frozen in our village," he said, adding that

the roads were blocked by thick snow.The heavy snowfall has left the main highway connecting

the Kashmir valley with rest of India closed since Saturday.

IHK CM to shiver with people

ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

RULING out mediation fromthe Saudi government on theexpected arrival of former dic-tator Pervez Musharraf toPakistan, Interior Minister

Rehman Malik on Monday said the lawof the land will take its course onceMusharraf returns.

Addressing media after meeting ofNational Assembly Standing Commit-tee on Interior at NADRA Headquar-ters, Malik said he had received noofficial information on Musharraf’s ar-rival or which city he will land in. Malikruled out Saudi mediation, stating"Saudi Arabia has made no request onthe matter." Malik said, “The govern-ment will issue a Pakistani visa to USbusinessman Mansoor Ejaz whenever

he wants and he will be provided secu-rity under the directions of the JudicialCommission.” He said Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) Chief NawazSharif knew Mansoor Ejaz better and ifhe wanted to take Mansoor to Raiwindas his guest, security will be provided.

Asked about interior ministry offi-cials involved in corruption, Malik saidthe accused officials had been arrestedand challaned. He said NADRA hadbeen told to check computerized armlicenses issued by Ministry of Interior.He asked arms license holders to getre-register their arm licenses.

Earlier, Malik briefed the StandingCommittee that the issuing of arms li-censes had been devolved to provincesafter the 18th amendment and the In-terior Ministry had issued no arms li-cense after June 30 2011. However, hesaid a revised Arms License Policy had

been formulated and submitted to thePrime Minister for approval. He said2,400 licenses were pending due to in-complete documents. He said ordershad been issued to NADRA to issueComputerized National Identity Card(CNIC) to children (whose parentage isnot identified), who had been regis-tered with registered Orphanages.

Bus falls into IndusRiver, 3 killedRAJANPUR: A bus carrying a weddingparty fell into the Indus River on Mondaywhile passing through a temporarybridge connecting Chachran Sharif withKot Mithan. According to Rescue 1122sources, 31 people out of total 42managed to save their lives before thebus fell. Three unidentified bodies,including two minors, were recoveredwhile six others were still missing. APP

MUZAFFARABAD: A paraglider ready to take off during the Paragliding Festival show organised by the Tourism Department. INP

No Saudi mediation forMusharraf: Malikg Says govt will provide security even if Mansoor Ijaz is Raiwind guest

g orders power dept to cut power supplies to own, other VIP residences

PESHAWARSTAFF REPORT

Protesting over the brutal murder ofsenior cardiologist Dr Jamal HussainSyed, doctors of the KhyberPakhtunkhwa began on a three-daystrike in all major hospitals of theprovince from Monday.

Dr Syed was abducted by Talibanmilitants some two months ago and theywere demanding a huge ransom for hissafe return. Negotiations regarding ran-som were in progress when the bullet-ridden body of the cardiologist wasfound from a deserted area near Jamrudin Khyber Agency on Saturday.

Soon after, the doctors began tostage protests and, on the call of theProvincial Doctors Association (PDA),went on strike from Monday. PDA Sec-retary General Dr Nadar told Pakistan

Today that the doctors were demandingan impartial judicial enquiry into thegruesome murder of the senior doctor headed by a judge of the Pe-shawar High Court.

On the call of the PDA, a conventionwas held at the Khyber Teaching Hospi-tal, attended by representatives of doc-tors from all over the province. Theparticipants endorsed the decision to goon strike and demanded that Chief Min-ister Amir Haider Khan Hoti fulfil hislegal responsibilities in this case.

Patients at Peshawar’s Lady ReadingHospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital andHayatabad Medical Complex faced diffi-culties as a result of the strike. A similarsituation was reported in Abbottabad,Saidu Sharif and Dera Ismail Khan. Pri-vate clinics and hospitals were alsoclosed in Peshawar and other main citiesand towns of the province.

KP doctors on strike over cardiologist’s murder

PESHAWAR: Pir Syed Sufaid Shah

Hamdard, founder of the first-ever Pashto

Daily Wahdat, has been awarded the

'Baba-e-Pashto Sahafat' award. Pr

Omar Abdullah



News

ISLAMABADINP

PAKISTAN Tehreek-e-Insaaf(PTI) Chairman Imran Khan haswarned that if the governmenttries to take any action againstthe Supreme Court and the chief

justice under the pretext of democracyand sovereignty of parliament, his partywould take to the streets.

Addressing a press conference alongwith Majlis-e-Wahadatul MuslimeenCentral Secretary General Raja NasirAbbas during his visit to the office, Khansaid there was no reason to keep morethan 150,000 people in jail if a lettercould not be written to the Swiss author-ities against President Asif Zardari.

He said there was no harm if people

voted for the enforcement of Islamic sys-tem but enforcement of any systemforcibly would be undemocratic. He saidhis party would try to enforce the systemof a welfare state on the pattern of Scan-dinavian counties which was close to theIslamic system.

Khan said many prominent leadersfrom major parties including ministerswere interested in joining the PTI and despite interaction with them, thePTI had stopped their entry for thetime being.

"I have formed a political committeeto decide about who should join theparty," he said.

He said no party was above differ-ences, which was a part of politics and ifthere were any differences in his party,it would be his duty to end them.

Khan said his party was working tounite the people and did not favourdoing politics in the name of Islam.Without naming Fazlur Rehman, Khansaid “a Maulana uses Islam’s name inpolitics and becomes part of every gov-ernment”. He said Islam preached hu-manity, equality and justice. He said hewanted a foreign policy that protected itsvital interests.

The PTI chief said the poor in the country were being crushed under inflation while the affluent weregetting richer.

He said some people were ex-ploiting the masses in the nameof provincial deprivation to at-tain their political goals,adding that Balochistan wasbeing treated like a colony.

To a question,Khan said an at-tack was ex-pected on thechief justice andkeeping viewthat danger, hehad not con-vened themeeting of CECbefore time.

LAHORENNI

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan(HRCP) has voiced concern over reports ofa number of journalists facing threats in re-cent weeks and asked authorities to ensurethat threats to journalists end and risks as-sociated with practicing journalism in gen-eral are eliminated.

A statement issued by the HRCP onMonday said, “The Human Rights Commis-sion of Pakistan (HRCP) is alarmed at re-ports of threats received by journalists onaccount of their work. While it is not un-common for journalists in Pakistan to liveunder a constant cloud of intimidation andviolence, the perceptible increase in threatsis manifested by over a dozen journalistskilled in 2011, as others have been forced togo into hiding in their own country.”

“Many have exercised self-censorshipfor the sake of safety and others have suf-fered for airing views that are unpopular insome quarters. A number of journalistshave recently gone public about the threatsthey have received from ‘anonymouscallers’. They have also mentioned cell

phone numbers of the callers but little hasbeen done to identify or prosecute thesepeople,” it said.

“A government committed to mediafreedom must neither remain a spectator inthe circumstances nor wait to be imploredinto action. HRCP wants to remind the au-thorities that for two years now Pakistanhas held the dubious distinction of beingone of the deadliest countries for journal-ists. HRCP reiterates that those makingthreats and perpetrating violence againstjournalists are encouraged by the fact thatout of over 70 journalists killed in Pakistanin the last decade the perpetrators havebeen brought to justice in only one case,”the HRCP said.

“At the risk of sounding repetitive,HRCP urges all state institutions to ac-knowledge the dangers facing the journal-ists, identify and prosecute thosethreatening media persons on account oftheir work and ensure that journalism doesnot remain such a dangerous profession inPakistan. HRCP also supports the journal-ists facing threats and lauds their coura-geous decision to make the threats againstthem public,” it concluded.

FATA grand alliance

to devise strategy

on provincial

status tomorrow ISLAMABAD

INP

After a demand by MQM chief AltafHussain for provincial status for FATA,former minister for environmentHameedullah Jan Afridi has becomeactive and called a meeting of FATA Grand Alliance tomorrow(Wednesday) for consultations onforming a new province.Afridi said the meeting would beattended by all parliamentarians fromFATA, lawyers, retired bureaucrats andrepresentatives of FATA Union ofJournalists. The meeting would takeimportant decision about the future ofFATA. Afridi said he spoke to the MQMchief over telephone and thanked himfor his support for FATA as a province.He said JUI-F chief Maulana FazlurRehman had assured him that his partywould not oppose the move.He said after the meeting, contactwould be established with the PPP,PML-N and other political parties toseek their backing.

Zardari afraid of

appearing in Swiss

courts: Saifur RehmanISLAMABAD

INP

Saifur Rehman, the former chairman ofthe defunct National Ehtesab Bureau,said on Monday that in case letters werewritten to the Swiss government, it wasnot possible for President Asif AliZardari to get a clean slate, which waswhy he was afraid of appearing beforethe Swiss courts.In an interview to a private TV channelahead of the Supreme Court hearing ofthe National Reconciliation Ordinance(NRO) case here, Rehman said he hadcollected concrete evidence againstZardari and the case was very strong. Hesaid that was why the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) government was not writinga letter to the Swiss government becausethe president was scared of appearing inthe Swiss courts. Rehman said thegovernment was repeatedly makingpropaganda attacks against him but heand his mother never ever apologised toZardari or anyone else. He said he hadalready given a statement under oaththat the cases were based on facts.

PTI will take to streets if govtattacks judiciary: Khan

SIALKOT: Dog owners look on as their animals tear into each other at a dog-fighting tournament at Wanjal Village, Phulwara Road on Monday. ONLINE

MUZAFFARABAD: Medical students set their degrees on fire during a protest against the quota system for medical college

admissions . INP

‘Intimidation, violence

against journalists must end’


Editor’s mail 11Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

More provincesNo individual politician, especially

those controlling federal government,who are not domicile holders of Hazaraor South Punjab should be playing poli-tics of carving out more provinces onethnic grounds. The PPP needs to under-stand that it is sowing seeds for divisionof Sindh itself. How can they justify de-mands for creation of new provinces inKP and Punjab, be it on ethnicity or ad-ministrative grounds, without the samelogic applying to Sindh and Balochistan?After all Karachi has for years been sub-jected to a battle for turf between partiesdivided basically on ethnic lines.

Mere creation of more provinces willnot resolve the issues that are faced bypoor masses, who are suffering becauseof poor governance by a corrupt estab-lishment and an equally corrupt group ofpoliticians. More administrative unitsneed to be created only if they are to beadministered by men with relatively bet-ter integrity, credibility and moral stan-dards than the those who are part of thepresent system, because they are part ofproblem and not the solution.

No system of governance, be it ademocratic setup or dictatorship, canfunction without an effective welfare sys-tem for masses and accountability for thetop elite ruling class. While democracy isdefinitely better than any dictatorship,the only exception being Singapore, itcan only deliver if there is system ofchecks and balances. It is unfortunate forPakistan that most of its rulers, be theypolitical or military dictators, haveabused their powers, plundered thiscountry and left it weaker, while they andtheir cronies have became billionaires.

M T ALIIllinois, USA

yet anotherWe have yet another self-exiled

politician announcing his return fromUK after a furlough of four years in for-eign land. He was quietly waiting andwatching the situation. His barristercomes up to tell us that he earns millionsof dollars from his ‘lectures’.

Who pays him millions and wheredoes he deliver his lectures remains amystery? I admire the audience that lis-tens to his million-dollar lectures. Heclaims himself in this video address thathe is the champion of democracy. Wehave hundreds of definitions of democ-racy in Pakistan now.

The true proponents of democracywould probably commit suicide oncethey come to know the genius Pakistanisand the styles and variety of definitionsthat we have coined. Especially when it isdefined by a genius like Musharraf or hiscolleagues here who are already enjoyingtheir furloughs in KSA or elsewhere?

When I was a student, my professortold me a simple definition of democracy.He said, “It is a government of the peo-ple, by the people, for the people.” WePakistanis have removed the word peo-ple. Our definition now says like this, “Itis a government by usurping the rights,creating commotion and distortion andfor unlimited time.”

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

Cold blooded revengeThe brutal killing of 15 Frontier Con-

stabulary personnel by the Taliban onThursday can easily be classed one of themost grotesque episode of barbarianismin the history of the long war. This act ofbrutality, according to the Tahreek-i-Tal-iban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman, was ex-ecuted to avenge the killing of QariKamran, who himself had killed scores ofPakistani soldiers. Does the Talibanbrand of religion give them the license tokill in such a brutally merciless mannerthat puts to shame the most ruthlessmurderers and criminals?

Bodies of the slain soldiers werethrown all over a hill in Mir Ali sub-dis-trict with each bearing the torture ofmultiple bullet injuries speaking of themiserable spell of cruelty and callousnessthey had lived through. Will there ever bean end to this protracted war that hasconsumed the precious lives of so manyinnocent people. How many more sacri-fices are expected of us before thingsstart to come back to normal?

Tragic incidents such as this tend toforce us to re-evaluate our role in the warthat we have been forced to adopt as ourown. Why do we have to keep pursuingthis fight that seems to have no end atall? Can we say that for whom we tookover the war stand with us in it? Appar-ently not! So why are we allowing our-selves to be used as fodder and continueto be victimised by the Taliban on oneend, the so called allies at the other? Willsomeone finally stand up to say ‘nomore’?

PROFESSOR KABIL KHANPeshawar

No politics on KBDThe building of dams in any country

is a technical matter and not a politicalmatter. But unfortunately, in Pakistanour politicians play politics even in tech-nical matters.

The classic example is that of theconstruction of Kala Bagh Dam (KBD) onriver Indus at a natural site. Our cele-brated political leaders from KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Sindh who see no na-tional interest in doing their politics,have managed to delay its constructionfor the last over two decades. It is veryastonishing that they have accepted thebuilding of Bhasha dam which is farmore expensive and more time consum-ing than KBD and is also very danger-ously located on fault lines of volcanicmountain ranges.

It is suggested that a national com-mission be constituted which shouldcomprise of competent engineers fromall the provinces who should make rec-ommendations of building of dams in thecountry and lay down priorities or orderof construction. It is like making an atombomb for the country which was so es-sential for our survival and the provinceswere not consulted in making it.

India has constructed hundreds ofdams on rivers flowing down to Pakistanand we have built only two mega damsand feel happy about it. Building KBDurgently is as necessary as was makingan atom bomb.

Our enemy is going to starve us todeath during the next decade if we do notbuild big reservoirs of water. Politiciansare requested to realise the gravity andseriousness of the problem and let thetechnical people have their say in techni-cal matters. They should see the largerinterest of the country.

MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJALahore

Musharraf’s views on Pak-Israel tiesIn his first interview with an Israeli

newspaper on January 7, 2012, formerpresident Pervez Musharraf favouredrecognising Israel and stated that Pak-istan, like Israel, was an ideological state,adding the foundation of the creation ofboth the countries were the very same.

Religiously, historically and politi-cally, his stance is factual as both statesare established based on their ideologicaldeclarations; the ‘Two-Nation Theory’ incase of Pakistan and the ‘Homeland forthe Jewish people’ in case of Israel.

Initially, Pakistan and Israel had nodirect conflicts with each other. So in anattempt to establish diplomatic relation-ship with Pakistan, Israel's first PrimeMinister David Ben Gurion sent atelegram to Governor General Muham-mad Ali Jinnah to recognise Israel. ButJinnah was hesitant and gave no particu-lar response only because of Arabs andPalestinians.

Later, according to Dr Moshe Yegar,a former official of Israeli Foreign Serv-ice, the Jewish state became hostile to-wards Pakistan when its diplomatic

mission in Washington received informa-tion that Pakistan tried to provide mili-tary assistance to the Arabs duringArab-Israel War of 1947–1949; was flex-ing its wings to send a battalion to Pales-tine to fight alongside them againstIsrael; bought 250,000 rifles in Czecho-slovakia for the Arabs to be used againstIsrael and bought three planes in Italy forthe Egyptians. Moreover, it seemed thethen Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Za-farullah Khan, apparently working onsome agenda, deliberately played a roleto pitch Pakistan against Israel.

Following 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israelwars, during which the PAF pilots, flyingJordanian and Syrian planes, downedsome Israeli planes, and attest of about53 Pakistanis, serving in the PLO, during1982 battle for Beirut between Israel andthe PLO, besides Pak-PLO agreement fortraining PLO officers in Pakistani mili-tary institutions added fire to the fuel.

In addition to this, Pakistan’s reli-gious political parties and militantgroups kept on fiercely opposing any re-lationship with Israel and repeatedly

called Israel as the enemy of Islam andPakistan.

Owing to our conflicts with Israel,there remained an unnecessary opposi-tion by Israel to Pakistan in all interna-tional forums, which inflicted severelosses to Pakistan. Furthermore, Israelhas always been pro-India against Pak-istan, supporting India on important is-sues such as the Kashmir dispute becauseof this hostility.

Although Israel and Pakistan do notofficially have relations with each other,but in the past, there have been many ex-amples of cooperation between the twocountries, such as CIA-MI5-Mossad-ISIalliance to run a covert Operation Cy-clone in Afghanistan in the 1980s, ISI'sliaison with Mossad in 1993, a secretmeeting of Prime Minister in New Yorkwith a senior Israeli emissary in Wash-ington DC in 1995, PM Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif’s assurance to Israeli coun-terpart Benjamin Netanyahu that Pak-istan will not transfer her nucleartechnology to Iran in 1998, ISI intelli-gence sharing about the Gulf States and

the nuclear ambitions of Iran and Libyawith Israel in 2001, and finally, in 2010,according to an unconfirmed Americandiplomatic cables, ISI DG Lt Gen AhmadShujah Pasha provided intelligence onpotential terrorist attacks in India to Is-rael through Washington. Moreover,there have been a multiple media reportsthat in the past many powerful Pakistaniand Israeli personalities and figures havevisited each others countries.

Pakistan should not be against Jewsbut it should only have a set of reserva-tions over the way Israel was created. Is-rael can help Pakistan on variouseconomic, trade and technical avenuesand in return, Pakistan can support Is-rael in bridging up the gap between Israeland Arab states.

Now the time has come to forget thedifferences of the past, give up stubborn-ness and intolerance and establish diplo-matic ties with each other in largerinterests of the people and for the sake ofglobal peace.

HARUN YAHYAIslamabad

The debt problemJust when Pakistan wants to move ahead with its plans of a

developing country, the international financial institutions startharping on their loan programmes. These programmes havemade Pakistan a virtually dependent state on their loans, aidand other donations. What we need is a solid policy that rids us

away from this unfortunate habit. Our policymakers and finan-cial advisors must focus on exploiting local resources and en-suring the optimum use of our valuable human resource.

ALI MUMTAZLahore

A change never wantedThe time we live in is dark; hopeless

yet with a hope of change. Are we head-ing towards a revolution? Every changedoesn’t mean a revolution but every revo-lution means change.

Seeing Libya’s revolution many Pak-istani spectators started saying it’s hightime for Pakistan’s revolution. Yet theyfailed to realise that we don’t require arevolution but an evolution. Libya’s revo-lution meant a change from dictatorialsetup to democratic setup.

We already have a democratic setupand just need to give it time to evolveinto a mature setup. The revolution inPakistan will mean going back to the dic-tatorial setup from democratic one whichsadly Pakistan is heading to because of

the Memogate and other contributingfactors. A change we never needed.

MAJID TAMOORLahore

Rigging in pollsThere is an imminent danger of

mass-scale rigging in the next electionsin Pakistan. The past history of electionsheld in Pakistan bear witness to this alle-gation where elections have always beenrigged. The 1977 elections caused ripplesin the system due to massive rigging.

The wind of change and the dissent-ing voices can be heard loud and cleardenouncing any such attempt in the fu-ture elections. People by and large wanttransparent and free elections. If thishappens, then the dream will come true

and democracy will flourish. The politicsof Pakistan is extremely volatile and dan-gerous laced with violence and fear. Thedanger of party clashes is lurking behindthe scene. Ugly situations would be cre-ated. Security concerns must be ad-dressed to avoid the blood bath.

The political parties have their armedwings, especially the religious parties.There is real and present threat to thelives of the political leaders in general.Their security should be ensured by beef-ing up the presence of guards in politicalmeetings.

It is our ardent desire and duty tosave them from unwanted dangerous sit-uations. Fool-proof arrangements mustbe made to avoid such ugly situations.

JAVAID BASHIRLahore

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected]. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

It is very unfortunate that both thegovernment and the military seem not tobe on the same page on the matters re-lated to national security. Why else thememo would have become a scandal?PM’s remarks in the parliament pointedout the presence of a state within a state.Who is responsible for the state security?Is it the government or the army? Howcan the people of Pakistan feel securewhen both the army and ruling elite havedifferences that have become public? Thecivil-military confrontation poses agreater threat to the wellbeing of peopleof this country than any other threatposed by the enemies of the state.

Has the army really created a statewithin a state? Does the army deserve thetreatment it is getting from the demo-

cratically elected leadership? Will it bepossible for the army and its officer corpsto sustain the traditional values of self-lessness, discipline, duty, honour, re-sponsibility and sacrifice when those whoorder them to battle become their biggestcritic?

If one-third of our army is deployedon the eastern border (including Kashmirand Siachen), one-third deployed on thewestern border and the remaining one-third is training and preparing (as part ofrotational policy) to replace the deployedunits on these borders, then even a blindman can see that this army has its handsfull and is too over-occupied and over-stretched in guarding the physical fron-tiers of the state rather than doinganything closer to creating a state within

the state.Officers that lead men on the borders

are not ‘commercial managers’ but lead-ers. When confronted with combat situa-tions they ‘lead’ and not ‘manage’ theirmen to deaths. Officers (battle leaders)work hard in maintaining high degree ofmorale amongst their fighting units. It ismaintained and sustained not by ‘re-minders of the material benefits’ (high-lighted by PM in his speech in theparliament) but by recognition of theirservices by the civilian leadership for thenational cause.

The reality is that non-combatant(civilian leadership) by virtue of its supe-rior position in the authority structurehas the right and power to order militaryleadership to war. But should it criticise

it as well when the only motive seems tobe to promote and propagate ‘civiliancontrol’ of the military. Criticism of anyarmy by its civil leadership only showsaimlessness. No army with a blurred aimcan be battle ready and battle worthy. Anarmy that is criticised by its own govern-ment cannot be expected to maintain co-hesiveness and morale under theconditions of high combat stress.

Army is a proud institution of Pak-istan. Majority of its officer corps andmen are performing their sacred dutiesunder extreme conditions of combatstress. These men are least concernedwith the power politics. They deserve oursupport and not criticism.

LT COL (R) MUHAMMAD ALI EHSANKarachi

They deserve our support, not criticism


Comment12Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

you were invited

Mush’s show

Former president Pervez Musharraf pulled an Altafon his supporters in Karachi the other day where hehad the first big political rally. The generalissimointeracted with his fans through video phone.

Though by no stretch was the gathering as large as whatthe APML was expecting, it wasn’t embarrassingly smalleither. Even if one believes the retired general does not (ornever did) have a large enough fan base, the law of largenumbers can explain away the presence of the crowd. In oneof the biggest cities of the world, even a sliver proportioncan come out to be a large enough crowd. Just to put thingsinto context: the gathering of the Bengali Ittehad Councilthat day put together a comparable, if not more impressive,show the same day.

Though Mr Musharraf’s constituency is most oftenpointed out as that of the MQM, it is actually the PTI thathas encroached upon his turf. Much might be made of thepoliticians of his king’s party making their way into the PTI,but it is the demographic itself that has shifted away.Musharraf’s ideological supporters were also limited to theurban middle-classes. Inherently anti-politician, these werepeople who had perhaps never voted in their lives. With thisencroachment comes resentment. I have played a fullinnings once before, he said at the rally, but people whohave never had a shot are pretending to be experts thesedays. A barb most obviously not meant for the PPP or thePML(N). Whether personalities’ gripes trump the issues isanother matter but natural allies they are.

The MQM itself is consistent in its support. The partywelcomed him in the country at a time when the maingovernment and opposition parties issued causticstatements against him. The general wears as proudly thedevelopment work in Karachi as the MQM itself. It remainsto be seen what the relationship between the two will be inthe future.

The powers that be have placed their bets on anotherhorse and this is a filly past its prime. The messiah complexcauses devastation when an individual is in power. And isembarrassing to watch when that individual isn’t in power.Nevertheless, the former president has done his math andthinks he has a shot and that is what counts. Having moreparties in the political process is always a good idea.

The executive and the judiciary on warpath

Towards an abyss

The PPP might find soon that the perception ofinvulnerability it had developed after forging strongpolitical alliances was far from being realistic. Thetwo court cases it faces now are moving to their

conclusion. In both cases the government has taken a standthat could be interpreted as the defiance of the SC. Theenquiry commission appointed to probe the facts about theMemo Case is scheduled to finish its work by the end of thismonth. Much of the case depends on the production ofincriminating material, if any, by Mansoor Ijaz who is yet toappear before the commission. While the case is proceedingapace, President Zardari has taken the stand that he wouldaccept only the decision of the Parliamentary Committee onNational Security in the case. The SC bench constituted forthe implementation of the court’s verdict on NRO had giventhe government up to January 10 to write to the Swissauthorities to reopen the cases against the President with awarning that in case of non-compliance, the court wouldtake action. The PPP-led government, however, continues tohold that the issue of the presidential immunity needs nointerpretation by the court as the constitutional provision inthis regard is clear and self-explanatory. The SC, on theother hand, has ruled that anybody seeking immunity has totake the matter to the court.

The ongoing standoff can have a detrimental impact onthe system. Will the government change its policy on writingto the Swiss authorities at the eleventh hour? Will the courtcontinue its policy of judicial restraint and move towardsgetting the orders implemented through governmentfunctionaries? Sooner or later, the court might decideinvoking Article 190 requiring all government departmentsand agencies to assist the SC in the implementation oforders.

The SC realises the need to strengthen the system byupholding the constitution and not allowing any institutionto transgress its limits. While one hopes judicial restraintwould continue to be exercised, one also expects thegovernment to realise the gravity of the situation. Both theexecutive and judiciary need to work towards saving thesystem.

Recently I saw two surveys,done by other researchers,from rural and urban areas ofPunjab and KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP), showing

that the incidence of 'tuition' – gettingpaid coaching for schoolwork, after school– is quite significant in these areas. Since,it is true across the rural-urban, income,type of school and gender divides, thisraises interesting questions for the school-ing sector in Pakistan.

The surveys showed that some 15 per-cent of enrolled children get private tutor-ing. This is clearly significant and large.The rural rates are around 10-12 percentand, understandably, the urban ones aremuch higher. So, almost 15 percent of theparents are spending another Rs 300 permonth, on average, in addition to anyschool fees and other education relatedexpenses, on each child. The question iswhy. Data shows that this coaching is tohelp students perform better in their reg-ular classes and schools, and to preparefor tests and examinations, so it is not asubstitute for regular schooling but is acomplement.

Why are parents finding it necessaryto supplement the learning of children al-ready going to schools? Are schools notdoing a good enough job? Or have schoolenvironments become so competitive thatparents feel they have to provide theirchildren an edge, or have to get them re-medial help to stay at par with the rest ofthe class? In either case, why are schoolsnot being able to do these things in regularclass/school timings?

Some parents had complained thatteachers of their children had asked themto come for tuition as it results in extra in-come for teachers. Teachers have alsobeen accused of not teaching seriously inregular classes so that children are forcedto come to them after school hours. Insome cases parents also say that teachersonly share examination ‘Guess’ (likelyquestions) with students who come for tu-ition. Although all of these might be trueat the individual level, the number of stu-dents who say they go to their own teacherfrom regular school, for tuition, is not verysignificant in these surveys. A lot of chil-dren go to coaching centres or teacherswho might have a reputation for coaching.But, conceptually speaking, teaching doeshave the same problem as that of doctorsgoing into private practice in the evening:they can, potentially, divert clients.

It is important to understand the tu-ition issue as children spend some 6-7hours in schools already. Additional timefor learning, in addition to any homeworkthat they are set, means that children are

spending some 10-12 hours a day studyingor working on their studies. This seemsway too much. A normal workday for evenan adult is 8 hours. Last week I had writ-ten on the over-testing of students inschools. This seems like a nice corollary toit.

There are interesting patterns in thedata. We find that as the grade level goesup, the resort to tuitions goes up as well.One would expect that the pressure to per-form and the need to perform increaseswith grades. The richer the parents, thehigher the incidence of tuition. Again, thisis to be expected. But what is more sur-prising is that even in the lowest incomequintile we find a significant proportion ofparents who send their children for tu-itions: this must be a considerable part oftheir monthly income.

Private tutoring raises serious equityissues as well. Richer children are alreadyat an advantage as they can go to betterschools and have more access to booksand other sources of knowledge and infor-mation. Being able to afford tuition, andbetter tuition, they increase their advan-tage over children from poorer back-grounds even more. Pakistan is already avery unequal, fragmented and almost bit-terly divided society. The differential ac-cess to tuition is only exacerbating thesituation.

Though the preliminary data doesshow that more educated parents getmore tuition for their children, but I havenot seen crosstabs with wealth here so itis not clear to me yet if the result will holdif we controlled for wealth. But, apriori,one would expect education of parents tohave a positive correlation with tuition forchildren. Educated parents are likely tohave a higher preference for educatingtheir children. But educated parents, ifthey have time, can also teach their ownchildren. So, the net result could be, in sta-tistics, a bit weaker than it might actuallybe.

Boys do go for tuition more often thangirls, but at least in the surveys I saw, thegap is not large and is partially reflectiveof more boys going to schools in generalas well. Given the expense of tuition, for afamily, especially as money gets tighter, it

would not be surprising to find that par-ents make tradeoffs and decide on whichchild to get tuition for, as they do maketradeoffs when choosing which school toenrol a child in.

The most interesting result, from bothsurveys, was that the children enrolled inprivate schools get private tuition moreoften than children from governmentschools. And the difference was signifi-cant. Partly this might be a reflection ofparental income levels and ambitions, butpartly it might have something to do withprivate schools or teachers in theseschools encouraging students to seekcoaching. It would be interesting to see theeffect of this differential on the generalimpression that we have of private schoolsgiving ‘better’ education than publicschools as well. But these things will haveto await further work.

Education sector in Pakistan hasmajor issues that the lack of governmentaland societal attention is complicating bythe day. We have umpteenth number ofcurricula and systems working, theschooling system is fragmented alonglines of medium of instruction, syllabi,books that are taught, examination styles,and there are different systems for the richand the poor, for urban and rural dwellers,and for the religious and the secular.

As if all that was not enough the highincidence of tuition has and is going tofurther complicate the issues. The growthof the tuition industry has gone on in theprivate sector, and largely unnoticed bythe government, it has now reached a levelwhere it has created a substantial interestgroup that is beginning to have an impacton the overall education system too: therecent examination result imbroglio wasquite indicative. But that is just the tip.There are, quite clearly, large equity aswell as quality of education issues in-volved here too that need to be thoughtthrough. We will come back to these overthe next few weeks.

The writer is an Associate Professorof Economics at LUMS (currently onleave) and a Senior Advisor at OpenSociety Foundation (OSF). He can bereached at [email protected]

By Dr Faisal Bari

the shadow educationSomehow the tuition phenomenon has gained traction

Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani has said that thegovernment is mindful of safeguarding the constitutionof the country along with proper functioning of all de-

partments. He said the same was the prime responsibility ofthe government.

He said that the incumbent government accorded provin-cial autonomy to provinces, adding that the Seraiki provincewas on cards. So far the masses had been on the side of thegovernment, none of the political forces could succeed intheir designs against the government, he asserted at a speechin Khanpur-Multan.

The prime minister once again reiterated that they weregoing to overcome the issues of power and gas loadshedding

soon. He said that the conspiracies hatched against the gov-ernment during the last four years had been not realised dueto the support of masses and the allied political parties.

However, the reality is somewhat different. The massesare waiting for substantial and tangible steps for the solutionof problems, including power and gas loadshedding and can-not tolerate any more of the hollow slogans and lip service.

Power and gas loadshedding has brought life to a stand-still and most of the industries in the country have been hitthe worst due to these crises. The people want solutions totheir unending miseries. They want more job opportunitiesto do away with the increasing unemployment in the coun-try.

– Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur RaufKhattak

Safeguarding the constitutionDaily Khabroona

Regional Press


In his interview with HamidMir, Mr Zardari, although ex-tremely relaxed and otherwise

rational, was definitely working tobuild further evidence of mentalincapacity should need for suchevidence ever arise again. He wasmore than a little schizoid, a statecharacterised by the coexistence ofcontradictory or incompatible ele-ments. What with his attempt atbeing both Zardari the Co-Chair-person as well as the neutral andunaligned (and much maligned)President of Pakistan all at thesame time, this was very clearlythe man who gave birth to the slo-gan ‘Pakistan Khappay’. For thosewho do not know, this means‘Long Live Pakistan’ in Sindhi butthe very opposite in Urdu andPunjabi.

Mr Zardari was also askedwhether his government meant towrite to the Swiss governmentwith reference to the cases againsthim there. He replied that hisparty had decided against it. Hethen likened the Swiss case to ‘atrial of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’sgrave’.

PPP supporters around thecountry are probably noddingtheir heads sagely and agreeingthat this would be a sacrilege.

It is a lesson taught in Chapter1 of ‘Demagoguery for Dummies’that human beings inventedspeech in order to disguise theirthoughts. It is beyond doubt thatAsif Zardari is past master at usingspeech to press the right buttonson a public that has actually beentrained into manipulation.

It is a mystery how Benazircame to be ‘shaheed’ in the firstplace, and I am not speaking of thecriminal facts surrounding herdeath. Also, what on earth does ‘atrial of her grave’ mean? Quiteaside from these is the question of

how pertinent either of these is tothe issue of the Swiss cases.

The Pakistani public, firmly inpossession of a sheep-like mental-ity and quite unstable due to thestrong vein of sentiment and irra-tional religiosity that runs throughit, has thus been seeded with ap-propriate phrases. It means thatBenazir Shaheed, firmly estab-lished in sainthood for a whilenow, accompanied by her husbandco-suffused in her aura, has nowbeen further saddled with theonus of placing him above anyproceedings against him becausethis will be considered disrespect-ful to her grave.

This is a great illustration ofrhetoric unleashed by a politi-cian/demagogue, aimed at the me-

dian mentality of his electorate. Itis in every demagogue’s intereststo keep public mentality at thelevel of his speech.

A well educated, reasoningpublic is only possible in countrieswhere those in public office areelected on the basis of their per-formance. In places like Pakistan,such a public would be a gross in-convenience.

The tendency to grasp at shortterm personal benefit in this coun-try means that many schools paidfor by international donationsexist on paper alone, since themoney allocated for them hasfound its way into unauthorisedpockets.

Those that do exist teach acurriculum composed of irrele-vant, soppy details. This curricu-lum stresses the rote learning ofhistorical events and names. Itdoes not encourage students to

think or engage in debate on anyissue arising from these events. Asa result we churn out an electorateof unreasoning, ill-informed per-sons easily led by means of slo-gans and misinformation whichworks well into the hands of politi-cians seeking to lead by suchmeans, rather than by good gover-nance.

At its basic level, all educationprovides students with the abilityto read and write, which is theability to speak and scribe alpha-bets strung together to form wordsand sentences. Only a good educa-tion encourages students to lookbeyond the alphabet forming thephrases they read, to critically as-sess and understand the conceptsbehind the words.

The sad fact is that we sendour children to schools (whethergovernment or private) only forthe sake of ‘keeping them awayfrom trouble’. In other words, toprevent them from thinking tooindependently, a habit that is con-sidered a threat to morality.

On the contrary, the protec-tion afforded by means of an edu-cation that stresses imagination,self-discovery, debate and analysisis the best safeguard for a nation,much more so than a weapon tot-ing army with or without nuclearcapability, or a judgemental socialpolice.

Unless we train ourselves tothink freely and critically, state-ments such as Mr Zardari’s whichseek to connect two quite separatematters by links forged of culturaland emotional millstones will al-ways be present, and will alwayshave the power to drown us.

Comment 13Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

People in other newsrooms recycle and attempt to pass offas their own ideas the Jeem-team conjures out of thin air

the G word

If you caught El Jefe’s interview withHaji Hamid Mir this last weekend,you would’ve noticed how well the

president ducked, weaved, dodged andcart wheeled his way through the mine-field that the veritable primetime talkshow host had laid out for him. It’s notthat Zardari couldn’t answer the ques-tions: he just didn’t want to. That the hostkept taking waqfas for commercials everyfive minutes didn’t help either, and leftmany of us wondering whether he hadbeen signed as the new spokesperson forfamily planning. But if you caught even aminute of the 55-minute-stretched-to-two-hours interview, you’d be struck byhow well the Kingpin equipped himself.To be honest, it was not something that Iwas expecting from a man who had beenaccused of having a stroke, senile demen-tia and khakhi-induced-yellow-belly syn-drome, just a couple of weeks ago.

Image management was at the heartof this particular media appearance andmarked a watershed moment in the battlefor the government’s (read PPP’s) publicimage. It is no secret that the Pee Pee Peegovernment has no love lost for the JeemGroup. It is also a matter of public recordthat government servants from all walksof life have been, formally and informally,

told not to associate withJeem Group journos, mostlybecause of their tendency toexaggerate, sensationalise,sex-up and misreport. Eventhe public at large has grownwary of the gall with whichthe Fox News of Pakistanfabricates and hyperbolisesmundane events, until theysound otherworldly and un-canny, even to the most dis-cerning of viewers.

Other channels, mindyou, are not much better. Interms of content generation,where people in the Jeemnewsroom make stuff up asthey go along, people in othernewsrooms watch, copy andattempt to pass off as theirown the stuff that the Jeem-team made up and they (chil-dren of a lesser channel)recycled. It’s a vicious cycle,and the Jeem-ers know it. Sothere is a lot of leaking andcross-leaking of stories andbefore you know it, ourmedia scene becomes just asincestuous as the Americanmid-west. Stories that wouldnot normally air on one

channel are leaked to a competitor; andwhen the competitor airs the said newsitem, imbecilic newsroom in charges withsmaller brains than fleas begin screamingfrantically at their reporters for not hav-ing broken the story first. Something isdefinitely broken here, and it’s not thestory.

Speaking of broken things, did any-one happen to catch the return of theMush-inator? In case you missed it, therewill probably be a repeat telecast, but noton HBO (where it belongs). The APMLjalsi (a shout-out to the PTI trolls whocoined the term) was in many respects,like the Terminator movies. You knewthat everyone was going to die in the end,but you still watched it all, waiting for di-vine intervention to strike. In the case ofthis particular jalsi, the moment everyonewas waiting for was the arrival of AbuHamza bin Musharraf, the baron of ChakShehzad and the scourge of the Kargilsector. In fact, I was one of those ill-in-formed masses who thought that the IronMan himself would miraculously appearon stage in a puff of smoke as the speak-ers at Mazar-e-Quaid blared “Do YouSmell What The Rock Is Cooking?” Un-fortunately, the video link from Londonwas not as lifelike as Altaf Bhai’s tele-phonic decibel drama, and the APML-itesonly barely managed to dub their outingan “earthquake”.

However, the subtext here is mind-blowing. You see, earthquakes are causedby tectonic plates in the earth’s crustshifting from time to time. Such shifts,when they occur underwater, cause im-mensely destructive tidal waves and jug-gernaut weather systems such astsunamis. So in a way, Musharraf is tryingto suggest that it is he who has ‘fathered’the PTI tsunami of electoral success.Given that it was Musharraf who sparkedImran’s delusions of grandeur by offeringhim the premiership back in the early2000s, the reference is apt. But only afool with a mouth full of his own footwould argue that the APML offering wasbigger, in any way, shape or form, thanthe PTI’s grand jamboree.

A lot has happened over the past cou-ple of weeks. A lot is going to happen inthe weeks and months to come. But what-ever happens, we know one thing forsure: if it’s news, you can always trust theJeem-team to break it down for you. Lit-erally. We interrupt this newspaper col-umn to bring you a special news update…

Follow @mightyobvious on Twitterfor more incoherence in 140 charactersor less

A trial of Benazir’s grave

Demagoguery for dummies

By Rabia Ahmed

The sad fact is that we send our

children to schools (whether

government or private) only for the

sake of ‘keeping them away from

trouble’. In other words, to prevent

them from thinking too

independently, a habit that is

considered a threat to morality.

Mighty ObviousBy Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi



14 Foreign News

LOnDOnAFP

The British government discussed pro-posals Monday to give Scotland the legalpowers to hold a referendum on inde-pendence, which could happen within thenext 18 months.

Prime Minister David Cameron said areferendum should be held soon becausethe uncertainty about the issue was dam-aging Scotland’s economy, although he re-mains strongly opposed to the break-up ofthe United Kingdom. Scotland’s deputyfirst minister Nicola Sturgeon, of the pro-independence Scottish National Party(SNP), accused Cameron of “a blatant at-tempt to interfere” in an issue that should

be decided by Scotland and its people. Inelections in May, the SNP led by AlexSalmond won the first overall majority inthe Edinburgh parliament since it openedin 1999, and promised to hold a referen-dum on independence. Cameron’s moveis being seen as a ploy to force a referen-dum before the SNP wants it, in the beliefthat Salmond does not yet have enoughsupport for independence. The primeminister said ahead of a cabinet meetingat which the issue was discussed that theuncertainty about the independence issuecould have economic consequences. “Thisis very damaging for Scotland because allthe time business is asking, is Scotlandgoing to be part of the United Kingdom,are they going to stay together, should I

invest?” he told Sky News. “And we’re beginning to see companies

asking those questions.” Cameron’s officialspokesman said the discussion in cabinetwas led by Finance Minister George Os-borne, who is in charge of a committee look-ing into the Scottish referendum issue. Thespokesman said the government would setout its views to parliament “in coming days”after receiving final legal advice, but addedthat in the end it would be a matter for theScottish people. “Any decision on Scotland’sfuture is for the people of Scotland to de-cide,” the spokesman told reporters. “ThePrime Minister clearly has a view on theunion and on the referendum, and he wassetting that out yesterday, and he thinksthat a referendum needs to be legal, fair and

decisive.” It is believed Cameron’s govern-ment will give its backing for a binding ref-erendum, but with certain conditions. Theseinclude that the referendum be held within18 months, rather than the 2014 dateplanned by the SNP, and that it contain asimple question of whether Scotland shouldremain in the UK rather than multiple op-tions, reports say. The SNP has said it wantsthe vote in 2014 to coincide with the 700thanniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, afamous Scottish victory over the English. Itis also thought to want a third “indepen-dence-lite” option instead of a simple yes-no referendum favoured by the Britishgovernment. Any decision is likely toheighten the already open hostility betweenCameron and Salmond.

KuALA LuMPuRAFP

MALAYSIAN oppositionleader Anwar Ibrahimwas acquitted on Mon-day in a stunning cli-max to a two-year

sodomy trial and quickly set his sightson ousting the long-ruling coalition inupcoming polls.

The unexpected decision set offpandemonium at the Kuala LumpurHigh Court where Anwar — a formerdeputy premier who was sacked in1998 and jailed on earlier sodomycharges — was mobbed by jubilantfamily and friends. “Thank God, justicehas been served,” Anwar told reportersin the courtroom after being cleared ofsexual misconduct with a young maleaide, charges he said were a conspiracyto cripple his resurgent opposition al-liance. An elated Anwar later told AFPhe was now clear to focus on the prizehe has sought since his shock ousterfrom the ruling party in 1998: consign-ing the governing Barisan Nasionalcoalition to history. “Now that I am vin-dicated and freed, naturally I will workwith my friends and... the coalition ofopposition parties to ensure we canwrest control of Putrajaya (Malaysia’sadministrative capital),” he said.

“Our only concern now is to ensurethat the elections are held free and

fair,” Anwar said as he sipped milk teain a festive atmosphere at his KualaLumpur home. “Given free and fairelections, I am confident, God willing,we will win.” Thousands of supporterswho had massed at the court underheavy security erupted into cheers andcelebrated in the streets, shouting theopposition’s battle cry of “Reformasi!”(reform). In a brief statement, JudgeMohamad Zabidin Diah said contro-versial DNA evidence submitted by theprosecution in the case was unreliable.

“The court is always reluctant to con-vict on sexual offences without corrobo-rative evidence. Therefore, the accused is

acquitted and discharged,” he said. Theruling came as a surprise to many, in-cluding Anwar, who had said Prime Min-ister Najib Razak had fixed the verdict toremove him as a political threat andshore up the coalition’s five-decade gripon power. Information Minister RaisYatim said the ruling proved the sincerityof recent promises by Najib to do awaywith his coalition’s authoritarian ways.“Malaysia has an independent judiciaryand this verdict proves that the govern-ment does not hold sway over judges’ de-cisions,” he said in a statement.

Najib faces a deadline of early nextyear to hold new polls in the ethnicallydiverse and resource-rich nation, inwhich he hopes to reverse unprecedentedgains made by the opposition in 2008elections. But Anwar is now free to cam-paign at the helm of his opposition al-liance — an unlikely marriage spanningMalaysia’s dominant Malay community,conservative Muslim forces, and the eth-nic-Chinese and -Indian minorities. Theverdict throws the electoral landscapewide open, said Ibrahim Suffian, head ofMalaysia’s leading polling firm MerdekaCenter. The outcome “vindicates Anwarand significantly removes doubts abouthis personal conduct, which has been aconcern especially among conservativeMuslim voters”, Ibrahim said. Anwar’saccuser, Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan,said in his blog he accepted the court’sdecision “with calmness.”

Liberal familyvalues threatenhumanity: pope

VATICAn CITYAFP

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday warned thatliberal family values were threatening thefuture of humanity, in a veiled reference tohomosexual marriage and adoptions by gaycouples. “Policies which undermine thefamily threaten human dignity and thefuture of humanity itself,” the pontiff said ina speech at the Vatican. “The family, basedon the marriage of a man and a woman ... isnot a simple social convention, but ratherthe fundamental cell of every society,” addedthe 84-year-old pontiff. Humanity is alsocompromised by laws that “not only permitbut at times even promote abortion forreasons of convenience or for questionablemedical motives,” Benedict said. The popesaid he was pleased that recent EU rulingsbanned patenting processes on humanembryonic stem cells and condemnedprenatal selection on the basis of sex.

Iran judge condemnsAmerican to death for spying

TEHRAnAFP

A judge in Iran has sentenced a US-Iranianman to death for spying for the CIA,officials and media said on Monday,exacerbating Tehran-Washington tensionsalready high in the face of Westernsanctions on the Islamic republic’s nuclearprogramme. Amir Mirzai Hekmati, a 28-year-old former Marine born in the UnitedStates to an Iranian family, was “sentencedto death for cooperating with a hostilenation, membership of the CIA and tryingto implicate Iran in terrorism,” the judge inTehran ruled, the Fars and ISNA newsagencies reported. Hekmati has 20 days toappeal, ISNA quoted chief prosecutorGholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei as saying,without specifying when the sentence washanded down. The accused was shown onstate television in mid-December saying influent Farsi and English that he was aCentral Intelligence Agency operative sentto infiltrate Iran’s intelligence ministry. Hehad been arrested months earlier. Iranianofficials said his cover was blown by agentsfor Iran who spotted him at the US-runBagram military air base in neighbouringAfghanistan. But Hekmati’s family in theUnited States told US media he hadtravelled to Iran to visit his grandmothersand insisted he was not a spy.

tibetan monkself-immolates in China

BEIJInGAFP

A Tibetan monk died after self-immolating inChina, state media said Monday, taking to 15the number of people who have set themselveson fire in Tibetan areas in less than a year inapparent protest. Nyage Sonamdrugyu, 40,set himself ablaze early Sunday morning inQinghai in northwest China, the officialXinhua news agency reported, saying themonk was a high-ranking lama — a TibetanBuddhist spiritual leader. It is the first timethe Tibetan-inhabited province has been hitby such a death. Most self-immolations havetaken place in neighbouring Sichuan province,in what rights groups say are protests againstperceived religious repression. The Tibetangovernment-in-exile, based in India, said in astatement the victim, whom it called SonamWangyal, self-immolated in Darlag county inthe Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Gologto protest a lack of religious freedom.

Egypt Copt tycoonfaces trial forinsulting religion

CAIROAFP

Egyptian telecom magnate Naguib Sawirisfaces trial for insulting religion aftertweeting a caricature of Mickey Mouse andMinnie Mouse in Islamic garb, an Islamistlawyer who filed a legal complaint againsthim said Monday. The court will hear thecase against Sawiris, a billionaire CopticChristian who founded the liberal FreeEgyptians party, on January 14, said thelawyer Mamduh Ismail, a member of theultra-conservative Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyagroup. “The case has been referred tocourt,” said Ismail. But the prosecution,which refers such cases to courts, could notconfirm that Sawiris would go on trial.Sawiris sparked a firestorm of criticismafter tweeting a cartoon of Mickey Mousewith a beard and Minnie Mouse in a faceveil, joking that the cartoon characterswould be forced to dress conservatively ifIslamists took power. He apologised for thecaricature after Islamists called for aboycott of his cell phone service providerMobinil. The list that Sawiris’ party was onwon no more than 15 percent of the voteover three rounds of parliamentaryelections since November that have beendominated by Islamists. He could not bereached for comment.

Malaysia’s Anwar acquitted,vows to win elections

British govt mulls scottish independence vote

SANAA: Yemeni protesters shout slogans during a demonstration against the law of immunity for outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh for the transfer of power after the upcomingFebruary presidential elections, on Monday. AFP


Foreign News 15Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

DAMASCuSAFP

The Arab League on Monday pressed onwith its mission to halt 10 months ofbloodshed in Syria despite charges it wasonly serving to cover up the regime’sdeadly crackdown on protests. Turkey,which has openly called for SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad to step down,meanwhile, called on the opposition tokeep up its resistance through “peacefulmeans.” The opposition MuslimBrotherhood slammed the League after thepan-Arab organisation decided on Sundayto extend its observer mission.

“It is clear that the observer mission inSyria seeks to cover up the crimes of theSyrian regime by giving it the time andopportunity to kill our people and breaktheir will,” Brotherhood spokesman ZuhairSalem said. After a meeting with theopposition Syrian National Council on

Sunday in Istanbul, a foreign ministryspokesman in Ankara urged the oppositionto carry on with their resistance. “TheSyrian opposition demands democracyand we told them during a meetingyesterday (Sunday) that this should bedone through peaceful means,” he toldAFP, referring to Foreign Minister AhmetDavutoglu’s talks with the SNC. At ameeting in Cairo the same day, an Arabministerial committee gave its widelycriticised observer mission to Syria thegreen light to carry on and pledged toboost the number of monitors.

The committee “decided to give ArabLeague observers the necessary time tocontinue their mission according to theprotocol,” which sets a one-month term,renewable with the agreement of bothsides. The ministers agreed to increase thenumber of observers and said they mayseek “technical assistance from the UnitedNations” in the face of unrest that the

world body said last month has cost morethan 5,000 lives. The committee urgedDamascus “to fully and immediatelyimplement its commitments” under theArab plan, calling on all parties “toimmediately stop all forms of violence.”

The Syrian Revolution GeneralCommission, grouping activists on theground, said the meeting fell “short ofexpectations.” The League should use the“necessary means” to halt the violence oradmit failure, it said. The head of themission, General Mohammed AhmedMustafa al-Dabi, is to give a report to theLeague on January 19 on Syria’scompliance with the peace plan, theministers said. Qatari Prime MinisterSheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, whochaired the Cairo meeting, called on Syriato “take a historic decision” to stop thebloodshed. A report by the observersdiscussed at the meeting showed that“killing has been reduced. But even one

killing (is too much),” said Sheikh Hamad,whose country has taken a lead role inefforts to resolve the crisis.

Sheikh Hamad said the League hopedto raise the number of observers to 300“within the next few days” from around163 now deployed. The team of ArabLeague monitors has been in Syria sinceDecember 26 to oversee a deal to protectcivilians, but the death toll has mounteddespite its presence. Security force firekilled at least three more civilians onMonday, the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights told AFP in Nicosia.

Two people were shot dead in theflashpoint central province of Hama andnear Damascus, while a woman was killedin an attack by security forces in Idlibprovince of northwest Syria, the Britain-based watchdog said. It called for Arabmonitors to travel to a region of Hamawhere it said 12 tanks and armouredpersonnel carriers had been deployed in

violation of the peace plan. A televisionchannel close to the regime, Dunia, said aconvoy of Arab monitors came under firefrom a “terrorist group” in Syria’s thirdlargest city, Homs, wounding a driver.Stepping up its attacks on Doha, theofficial press in Damascus on Mondayaccused the Qatari premier of “incitingviolence” and working to sabotage theArab mission.

His role at the meeting in Cairo “wentbeyond interference in the internal affairsof Syria, constituting a declaration of war,”said the daily Tishrin. In an apparent voteof confidence, Pope Benedict XVI said hehoped the Arab League mission would helppromote dialogue between the regime andits opponents. “I pray for a rapid end to thebloodshed and the beginning of a fruitfuldialogue between the political forces,encouraged by the presence ofindependent observers,” the head of theRoman Catholic Church said.

Arabs press on with under-fire Syria mission

renewed SouthSudan clasheskill at least 24

JuBAAFP

Renewed tribal clashes in South Sudan’stroubled Jonglei state have killed at least 24people, days after a cattle vendetta rattledthe stability of the world’s newest state,officials said Monday. “In Akobo EastCounty, the town of Deng Jok was attackedand 22 people were killed,” Jonglei GovernorKuol Manyang told AFP, adding that 20more were seriously wounded and had beentaken to hospital. “Also an attack was madein Kaikuin village, Akobo West — twowomen were killed and cattle taken,” he said,adding the attacks took place Sunday. SouthSudan has declared Jonglei a national“disaster area” while the United Nations hassaid it will launch a “massive” emergencyoperation to help some 60,000 peopleaffected by the violence. In a dramaticescalation of bitter tit-for-tat attacks, an8,000-strong militia army from the LouNuer tribe earlier this month marched onPibor, home to the rival Murle people, whomthey blame for abductions and cattle raiding.The UN humanitarian coordinator for SouthSudan, Lise Grande, said last week that“tens, perhaps hundreds” could have died inthe latest outbreak of violence in the youngcountry, which declared independence onlysix months ago. The latest clashes were inhomeland areas of the Lou Nuer people, butthe attackers were reported not to be Murleas they live to the south of Akobo, while thegunmen this time had come from the west.

Attacks kill six inIraq, wound 15Afghan pilgrims

BAGHDADAFP

Attacks across Iraq on Monday killed sixpeople and wounded dozens of others,including 15 Afghan pilgrims visiting thecountry for religious commemorations,officials said. The violence included bombingsagainst Shiite worshippers walking to theshrine city of Karbala, 110 kilometres (70miles) south of Baghdad, for Arbaeen ritualslater this week. In Baghdad, gunmen burstinto the home of Fatma Tayyiq, a branchmanager for the Commercial Bank of Iraq,and shot her and husband dead in thecapital’s central Karrada district, an interiorministry official said. It was not immediatelyclear why Tayyiq was targeted. Just south ofBaghdad in the town of Owairij, a roadsidebomb targeting devotees walking to Karbalakilled one pilgrim and wounded at least nineothers, defence and interior ministry officialssaid. In the northern ethnically-mixed city ofKirkuk, meanwhile, a gunman opened fire ona group of security officers from Iraq’sautonomous Kurdish region, known as theasayesh, killing two officers and woundingtwo others, a police officer in the city said.

KAnOAFP

POlIce and protesters clashed inNigeria’s north Monday as thousandsconverged on a governor’s officeduring nationwide fuel price strikes,leaving 30 wounded, including 18

who were shot. A union leader also said policeshot dead a protester in Nigeria’s commercialcapital lagos as thousands of peopledemonstrated there. Police fired tear gas andshot into the air as thousands of protestersconverged on the governor’s office in thenorthern city of Kano as part of a nationalstrike over fuel prices. A huge crowd ofprotesters had gathered in Kano, the main city

in Nigeria’s north, and clashes broke out withpolice who pushed them back as they tried toenter the governor’s office, an AFPcorrespondent reported. Protesters set twovans ablaze and also sought to set fire to thehome of central bank governor lamido Sanusiin Kano, but were stopped by police. “In total,we have 30 wounded, 18 of them with gunshotwounds,” said Red cross official in Kano MusaAbdullahi, updating an earlier toll of 14wounded, half of them shot. Meanwhile,protesters attacked a mosque in southernNigeria and wounded several people, leadingpolice to fire tear gas, police and witnessessaid. A mob detached from a group ofprotesters marching along a main street inBenin city, the capital of edo state, and raided

the mosque located along the same road, anAFP correspondent said. They hurled rocks atthe mosque’s louvres and tried unsuccessfullyto set the building on fire. The attackers alsolooted fans from inside the mosque. Acorrespondent saw police take away a man witha machete cut on his head. A Red cross officialsaid 10 people were wounded during the attackwhich also targeted a foreign exchange bureaurun by Muslims near the mosque. Policeconfirmed the attack and said it was staged by“miscreants” who hijacked the main protest,which they described as peaceful. “There wasan attempt to burn the mosque in the citycentre. Some people were injured,” state policecommissioner Femi Omojola told AFP. He saidthe injuries were minor.

MOB ATTACKSSOUTHERNNIGERIAMOSQUEDURING FUEL PROTEST



SOCIETY

prevented manBeyoncé and Jay-Z’s security MUMBAI: If the rumour mills are to

be believed then Sonu Sood mayhave to get his abs ripped once againfor the ‘Dabangg’ sequel. Last yearfans of the 38-year-old actor wereupset when Arbaaz Khan announcedthat he couldn’t accommodate Sonuor his character Chhedi Singh in thescript for ‘Dabangg 2’ because hehad to introduce a new villain. Thenews came as a bit of a shock forSonu’s fans as Salman Khan hadapparently suggested that theformer would play Chhedi Singh’sidentical twin brother in the sequel.But now Sallu wants Sonu back. Anindustry insider revealed thatSalman was very upset when Arbaazdecided to scrap Sonu’s role from thescript as he felt the ‘Bbuddah HogaTerra Baap’ actor was perfect for therole. Apparently at his recentbirthday party, Salman asked his palto do a role in ‘Dabangg 2’ in frontof Arbaaz. Sonu was in a fix and hefelt very embarrassed since thiswasn’t the first time he had beenasked by Salman to be a part of thesequel. Knowing the way Salmanhas the final say in any andeverything, we wouldn’t be surprisedif he enters a war of words withArbaaz to ensure that his favouriteis cast in the movie. ‘Dabangg 2’ islikely to hit the screens inDecember this year. AGENCIES

from visiting his twins at hospitalABC: The arrival of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’snewborn daughter at a Manhattanhospital has inconvenienced a man whosays the couple’s security team hasprevented him from visiting his twoprematurely-born twin girls. Speaking withthe New york Daily News, 38-year-old NeilCoulon of Brooklyn says the securityteam repeatedly stopped him fromvisiting the neonatal intensive care unit atLenox Hill Hospital. “These are childrenwith problems in intensive care and you’rejust going to take over the hospital likeyou own it? All I want is an apology,” hesays. A spokeswoman for the hospital toldthe Daily News she was unaware of anycomplaints regarding Beyoncé and Jay-Z’ssecurity staff until the newspaper broughtit to her attention. The Daily News hasreported that Bey and Jay paid thehospital 1.3 million dollars to seal off awing of the hospital to assure theirprivacy. Their child, reportedly named BlueIvy Carter, was born Saturday night.

UK royals, Joey the horse share Spielberg

red carpet

MUMBAI: Ali Zafar seems to be having a toughtime perfecting his dance steps for a

Bollywood item number. “Most painfullyjoyous process. Dance rehearsal for anitem number! Fully Bollywood! Mustsit in a tub full of ice beforesleeping!” Ali wrote on his Twitterpage. The actor-singer is currentlybusy shooting for filmmaker DavidDhawan's ‘Chashme Buddoor’remake. Apart from Ali, the filmalso stars Anupam Kher, RishiKapoor, Siddharth and DivyenduSharma of ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama’fame. The original 1981 film

starred Farooque Sheikh, Rakesh Bediand Ravi Baswani. Ali made hisBollywood debut with ‘Tere Bin Laden’,which won him critical acclaim from allover. He later entertained audiences in‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan’. Ali's next willbe ‘London, Paris, New York’, with AditiRao Hydari. Directed by Anu Menon, itreleases Mar 2. AGENCIES

Awais with Nanhe

Uzair, Rukhsana, Naheed and a guest Faiza and Noreen Neha and Zainab

Fara and Rashida Nida, Anam and Annie Mr & Mrs Ali Moeen with Asma

Dr Romana, Tehreem and MeenaShiza and Sehrish Natasha, Noor and Lucky

LAHoRe:

The launch

of Habitt

store was

held at

Gulberg.

PhOtOS BynadeeM

ijaz

nEWS DESK

Fashion model turned fashion

designer Nadia Hussain has

recently stepped into the field of

aesthetics by launching Radiance

Skincare Treatments at the

Transform Clinic in Karachi.

Through Radiance, Nadia Hussain

is now offering cosmetic and non-

surgical skin treatments at the

clinic that is run by cosmetic

surgeon Dr Mabroor Bhatti. Having

recently obtained a diploma from

the American Academy of

Aesthetic Medicine, Hussain will

now offer skin treatments that

range from acne management to

pigmentation, Botox treatments as

well as procedures to hide scars.

LOnDOn REUTERS

PR I N C EWilliam andthe Duchess ofC a m b r i d g eshared the red

carpet late on Sunday withHollywood royalty and ahorse called Joey who ap-peared in Steven Spielberg'slatest movie ‘War Horse’.The film, based on a novelby Michael Morpurgo whichwas turned into a hit WestEnd and Broadway stageshow featuring puppethorses, has opened in U.S.theatres. Spielberg said hehad been inspired to take onthe World War One dramaboth by the book and theplay. “What attracted me toit beyond my admiration forthe puppeteering was sim-ply the amazing story thatMichael Morpurgo first toldin his 1982 children's book,”he told Reuters. JeremyIrvine, the British new-comer who stars in WarHorse, said he was over-whelmed to have found suc-cess so suddenly. “I wasn'tgetting any work so sud-

denly just to have a job, letalone have lines, let alone bein a film with Steven Spiel-berg, is kind of more than Ican really take in and I stillhaven't really taken it in,”said the 21-year-old. “I'mstill trying to take in how onearth I could have fooledthem to let me be in thismovie.” The highlights ofthe red carpet premiere inLondon's Leicester Squarewere Joey the horse and theDuchess of Cambridge. Kateand William, A-list celebri-ties whose every appearanceis followed by the world'smedia, added a touch ofglamour to the event held inaid of the Foundation ofPrince William and PrinceHarry, of which the duchessis a patron. Before meetingthe couple, Spielberg wasasked whether he had re-hearsed his royal etiquette.

“I don't know," he replied.“Something about tonighthas to be spontaneouswhich means if I make afaux pas it will be an honestone.” About 600 Britishmilitary personnel and theirfamilies also attended thepremiere. The movie tellsthe story of Joey, a horseraised on the English coun-tryside who is torn awayfrom his home-and stablelad Albert-and sent toFrance to the battlefields ofWorld War I. The story fol-lows Albert on his missionto find his equine partneramid the blood, mud andmisery of the Great War.Reviews for the film about aboy and his horse separatedby war have been generallypositive, with critics prais-ing its emotive power andpredicting plenty of tearsamong audiences.

Ali Zafar's item song

woes


17‘The Devil Inside’ tops US box office

BBC

Low budget horror film ‘The DevilInside’ has spirited its way to the top ofthe North American box office, taking$34.5m on its opening weekend. It isthe tale of a woman investigatingexorcisms performed on her mother.Like ‘Paranormal Activity’ and‘Cloverfield’ before it, the film isreleased by studio Paramount and isfilmed in a mock-documentary style.Last week’s number one, ‘Mission:Impossible - Ghost Protocol’, droppedto two. As with 2007's ‘ParanormalActivity’, which has gone on to spawntwo sequels, and 2008's ‘Cloverfield’,which topped the US and Canada boxoffice in January 2008, ‘The DevilInside’ benefited from a cryptic onlinemarketing push. Don Harris, presidentof domestic distribution for Paramount,said: “The marketing campaign wasvery much like ‘Paranormal (Activity)’.“It was online, trying to find theyounger movie-goer, the fans for thisgenre.” Paramount bought theindependently-produced film - whichhas been widely slated by critics - forjust $1m. The success of the film, theonly new release in the US last week,took many industry experts by surprise.“This one caught everyone looking, butthe devil got his due,” saidHollywood.com analyst PaulDergarabedian said. “It's just verydifficult to track the horror fan base, noquestion about it.” ‘Sherlock Holmes: AGame of Shadows’ dropped a place tonumber three. David Fincher's filmadaptation of Stieg Larsson's ‘The Girlwith the Dragon Tattoo’ climbed a placeto number four. And family film ‘Alvinand the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked’dropped two to five.

MUMBAI: Friends and family of actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, who had a successful2011 thanks to ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ and ‘Don 2: The King Is Back’, have wishedhim a “rocking” year as he turned 38 Monday. Farhan,son of writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, made hisdirectorial debut with ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ in 2001 hasreceived accolades for his talents, and is known forhis distinct, youthful and slick style of filmmaking.He partied Sunday night to ring in his special day, andspent his birthday working on a shoot for ‘BhaagMilkha Bhaag’ with co-actor Sonam Kapoor. Somecelebrities took to Twitter to wish him. Here aresome of the birthday tweets for Farhan: SONAM KApOOR: “My first shoot withthe birthday boy @FarOutAkhtar today. Reallylooking forward to it!”UDAy CHOpRA: “@FarOutAkhtar Happybirthday buddy...here's to an even morerocking 2012...Stay Cool!”SHABANA AZMi: “Happy birthday Farhan'jeete raho khush raho sehatmand raho'.”BOMAN iRANi: “Happy Birthday@FarOutAkhtar Now quickly write Don 3, 4and 5!!!! Sorry I could not make it last night.Now that I am rested I am feeling bad.”NeiL NiTiN MUKeSH: “@FarOutAkhtarHappy birthday bro. All the best. Always!!! Lotsof love.” AGENCIES

birthday blessings on Farhan B-Town showers love,Salman Khan

wants

Mr & Mrs Faisal

Sehrish and Sheeza with guests

Ali and Zosheen

Ani and Mariam

LOS AnGELES REUTERS

‘American Idol’ producersand judges said on Sundaythey were unconcernedabout competition fromnew reality singing shows

‘The Voice’ and ‘The X Factor’, as they pre-pared to go into their 11th season, whilehost Ryan Seacrest’s future with the showwas left unanswered. ‘Idol’ executive pro-ducer Ken Warwick called the show the“gold standard” in the latest crop of realitysinging talent shows on television and thatit was still the path to stardom for singers.

“Leona Lewis (winner of UK’s ‘X Factor’)was a one and a half hit star for ten minutes,but there’s no Kelly Clarksons, Carrie Under-woods, Jennifer Hudsons - they are real starsand none of these other shows are producingthese,” said Warwick. “‘Idol’ is still America’smost watched show despite predictions by ‘XFactor’ creator Simon Cowell the US versionwould topple it from its perch.‘X Factor’ au-diences have been about half those of ‘Idol’.”Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler and pop starJennifer Lopez were brought in to replaceCowell as a judge on ‘Idol’ last year whileCowell went on to helm the U.S. version of‘The X Factor’, taking fellow judge PaulaAbdul to the judging panel with him.

Host Ryan Seacrest, whose contractwith ‘Idol’ is up for renewal, emphasized in-tentions to stay with ‘Idol’. “I love thisshow, I’ve been a part of it for so many

years, I can’t imagine life without AmericanIdol,” said Seacrest, adding that he didn’tsee himself hosting any other talent showfor now, but refused to comment further.

For the judges, the benefits of being in-volved with ‘Idol’ has paid off in their per-sonal careers. Rocker Steven Tyler said thatwhile his fellow Aerosmith bandmatesweren’t as accepting of his new gig at first,the show spurned sales of Aerosmithrecords up by 260 percent. Tyler is alsoworking on a new album with the band. Fel-

low judge Jennifer Lopez also saw a boostin her music career last year after making acomeback with a new album, and was ex-pecting to keep up the pace in the new sea-son of ‘Idol’. As the show enters its 11thseason, the producers said changes to theshow will affect the middle portion of thecontest, where those contestants will haveto take a performance challenge involving asong from the 1950s, among other changes.

‘American Idol’ will return on January18 with a two-night premiere.

‘American Idol’unfazed by competition

LAS VEGASAFP

Acer unveiled the world'sthinnest laptop computeras an array of ‘ultrabook’rivals prepared to debutthis week at the ConsumerElectronics Show in LasVegas. The Taiwan-basedcomputer titan will beginshipping Acer Aspire 5models in the secondquarter of this year, withprices to be disclosed incoming weeks. “It looks

like the thinnest and light-est, and it sets the bar forthe rest of the ultrabookvendors,” said analyst TimBajarin of Creative Strate-gies. The Aspire S5 has a34-cm screen and is 15mm at its thickest point.The ultrabook weighsslightly less than 1.35 kg.Since Aspire S5 is Win-dows based it is not likelyto be a direct challenge toMacBook Air laptops,which have been winningconverts to the sleek ma-

chines powered by Applesoftware. “The real battleis not with Apple, it is withall the other vendors com-ing out with Windows ul-trabooks,” Bajarin said.Acer also announcedplans to launch a freeservice that will let usersof its computers storevideo, photos, music, anddocuments in the Internet“cloud” and access filesfrom any Windows 8 orAndroid software poweredgadgets. Acer Cloud ap-peared to be a Windowsversion of the Apple'sfreshly-launched iCloudservice that lets people ac-cess their content fromiPads, iPhones, iPods, andMacintosh computers, ac-cording to the analyst.

Acer unveilsworld's thinnest laptop

walking with caneBrad Pitt

after knee injuryLOS ANGELES: Brad Pitt hasbeen walking around with acane after hurting his kneerecently when he slipped downa hill while holding his daughter.He walked the red carpet at the23rd annual Palm Springs FilmFestival awards gala with thecane, and told reporters he hasan injured ACL-a ligament in theknee. “I was carrying mydaughter (Vivienne) down thehill and I slipped. It was eitherher or me,” People magazinequoted him as saying. AngelinaJolie said that she actually likesthe cane, and it hasn't been ableto slow down her partner. “He'snot that kind of guy. He doeseverything still,” she said. Shealso said that their three-and-a-half year old daughter Viviennewasn't hurt in the tumble.“Vivie's okay. She was absolutelyfine,” she said. AGENCIES

Sonu Sood

LAS VEGASAFP

As sleek new smartphonesprepared to make splashesat the Consumer ElectronicsShow, a California firm wasout to prevent water frombeing the death of them.Liquipel was showing off aclear coating a thousandtimes thinner than a humanhair that shields smart-phones outside and inside

from damaging effects ofwater. “Water will just runthrough the machine,”Liquipel president DannyMcPhail told AFP as he ca-sually tossed an iPhone intoa tub of water and watched itsink. “It actually beads righton top of the circuit boardand rolls off.” He pluckedthe unscathed iPhone fromthe tub and shook the waterfrom the gadget, which con-tinued to work. About six

weeks ago, the SouthernCalifornia companylaunched the first publicservice that let smartphoneowners send gadgets in to becoated using the nano-tech-nology. Liquipel came toCES to close deals withmajor electronics makers tohave protective coating pre-applied to new smartphones.“Hopefully, the next timeyou purchase a phone it willalready be treated,” McPhailsaid. “Wine spills, coffeespills, anything like that youare going to be protected,”he continued. “I don't wantto say a toilet, but that iswhere 50 percent of smart-phone water deaths hap-pen.” Liquipel charges $60to coat a smartphone, withshipping adding to the cost.

Coating lets smartphones survive under water


Page 21


ICC Combined XI, 1st innings: 281 (C. Viljoen 98, Mohammad

Shahzad 51, B. Rankin 43; S. Broad 4-46, G. Swann 3-99)

ENGLAND, 1st innings: 185-8 dec (A. Cook 76; Hamid Hassan 2-26)

COMBINED XI, 2nd innings:

W. Porterfield c Davies b Anderson 0

P. Stirling lbw b Broad 0

K. Coetzer b Anderson 31

Saqib Ali c Davies b Broad 2

C. Williams c Bell b Swann 11

Mohammad Shahzad c Broad b Pietersen 74

Mohammad Nabi c Cook b Broad 13

C. Viljoen run out 3

M. Haq not out 26

B. Rankin b Finn 0

EXTRAS: (lb1, nb3) 4

TOTAL: (for nine wkts dec) 164

Fall of wickets 1-0, 2-2, 3-8, 4-31, 5-71, 6-101, 7-119, 8-162, 9-164.

BOWLING: Anderson 18-7-62-2, Broad 14-7-22-3, Swann 10-1-

33-1, Finn 10.3-4-34-1, Pietersen 3-0-12-1

Overs: 55.3

ENGLAND, 2nd innings:

A. Strauss c Williams b Haq 78

A. Cook c Haq b Williams 26

J. Trott c Porterfield b Nabi 35

K. Pietersen c Rankin b Dockrell 1

I. Bell c Stirling b Nabi 39

E. Morgan c Shahzad b Rankin 3

S. Davies not out 37

S. Broad c Dockrell b Mohammad Nabi 31

G. Swann not out 1

EXTRAS: (b8, lb1, nb1) 10

TOTAL: (for seven wkts) 261

Fall of wickets 1-63, 2-133, 3-136, 4-180, 5-187, 6-199, 7-260.

BOWLING: Rankin 15-1-58-1, Viljoen 4-0-28-0 (nb1), Nabi 17-1-

66-3, Williams 4-1-20-1, Dockrell 6-0-28-1, Haq 12.1-1-42-1,

Stirling 2-0-10-0

Overs: 60.1, Toss: England

Result: England win by three wickets

SCOREBOARD

Bartoli defeatsPolona in Sydney

LAHOREASHER BUTT

PAKISTAN captain Misbahul Haq beliees that thehome advantage at the UAE would give hischarges a slight edge in the series against Eng-land. The team left for Dubai via Lahore onMonday evening to play the home series away

from home in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The series,starting from January 17, would feature three Tests, fourone-day internationals and three Twenty20 internationalsduring the series. England team has already reached UAEto get familiar with the conditions and is playing a practicematch with the ICC World XI. Talking to media corps beforedeparture at the Lahore Airport, Pakistan captain said thatconditions in the UAE were similar to Pakistan. “For thatreason we have a slight edge over England because of thehome advantage,” he added. The team has already reachedDubai but would be available for media briefing on Tuesdayevening after the practice session at the Dubai Sport City.“We have been playing in the UAE for quite sometime now and are familiar with the con-ditions before so we have becomeused to the venuesthere,” he added.The Pakistancaptain pointedout that thenumber one sta-tus of Englandwould not scare histeam. “When we meet in the first match there willbe cricket only and no past issues or who is at what po-sition. They should be given their due respect for beingnumber one Test side. But we have to prove ourselves andare here to win against England,” maintained Misbah. “I amconfident the way my team have played in the recent past itwon’t let England go away with win that easily,” said he. “Itwould surely be challenging not only for Pakistan but Eng-land would also have to work for wins. And scoring runswon’t be easy on slow UAE wickets,” said he. The Pakistaniteam official hoped that they would focus on cricket only for-

getting the 2010 spot-fixing fiasco. The PCB has given spe-cific and strict instructions to the players to focus only onthe game and avoid any kind of controversy during the seriesagainst English team. In 2011, Pakistan had an impressiverecord as they did not lose any of the Test series they playedand qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup in India.Pakistan is scheduled to play three Test matches, four One-

Day International and two Twenty20matches against England. Pak-

istan’s interim coach MohsinKhan said that this was an-other series and was most im-portant for his coachingcareer. “I want a victoryagainst the No. 1 team and amnot worrying about coaching

future amid speculations thatDav Whatmore will likely take

over as the coun-try’s head

c o a c h , ”said he.

DuBAIAFP

Steve Davies and Stuart Broad shareda resolute seventh stand of 61 to help anunimpressive England to win the three-day tour opener against ICC CombinedXI by three wickets here on Monday. Itwas a case of second batting failure for

the tourists as, chasing 261 to win, Eng-land owed the win to captain AndrewStrauss (78), Ian Bell (39) andJonathan Trott (35) on the final day atthe Global Cricket Academy ground.

Kevin Pietersen (one) and EoinMorgan (three) flopped a second timein the match and when Bell departed at199-6, England looked down and out

before Davies (37 not out) and Broad(31) saved their blushes.

Despite the win England's battinglooked rusty ahead of the first of threeTests against Pakistan which startshere from January 17. England willhave another opportunity to settle theirbatting on the slow, dusty pitches hereas they play the second warm-up gameagainst a Pakistan Cricket Board XI,also in Dubai, from January 11-13.

Strauss and Alastair Cook (26)looked solid during their opening standof 63 but Afghanistan's spinner Mo-hammad Nabi (3-66), George Dockrell(1-28) and Majid Haq (1-42) derailedon the run chase.

Strauss and Trott added 70 for thesecond wicket but England lost fivemore wickets before reaching the 200-mark. Strauss hit 13 boundaries and asix during his 96-ball innings but hisdeparture put England in trouble. Itwas left to Broad and Davies to carrytheir team within one run of the victory.

Earlier, the ICC Combined XI de-clared their second innings at 164-9with Afghanistan's wicket-keeperbatsman Mohammad Shahzad notch-ing a second half-century of the matchwith a defiant 74.

ICC Combined XI cricketer Majid Haq dives as he takes a catch to dismiss england XIcricketer Alastair Cook (unseen) during the third day of a three-day practice match. AFP

Misbah keen to cashin on home advantage

Broad, Davies give England hard earned win

DuBAIREUTERS

England pace bowler Tim Bresnan hasbeen ruled out of England's three-Test se-ries against Pakistan in the United ArabEmirates after failing to recover from anelbow injury, the England and WalesCricket Board (ECB) said on Monday.Bresnan underwent surgery on the elbowlast month but was unable to play in Eng-

land's opening warm-up game."Bresnan tried to bowl today, having

had an injection and a good rest," Strausstold the ECB website (www.ecb.co.uk). "Ithink we were all expecting him to be ab-solutely fine. But it's very painful and,given that, he's probably not going to beable to play for two or three weeks. "Thatmeans he's unable to play any part in thetest series, so he's flying home." GrahamOnions, who is already with the England

team as cover for Bresnan, will be offi-cially added to the squad. Strauss said off-spinner Graeme Swann would be sent tohospital for a precautionary scan on atight leg muscle while fast bowler ChrisTremlett, who was ruled out of the open-ing match with an eye infection, would seea doctor later on Monday. Strauss scored78 on Monday as England won their open-ing match against an ICC Combined Asso-ciate and Affiliate XI by three wickets.

Bresnan ruled out of Pakistan series

DUBAI: england XI cricketer Stuart Broad plays a shot on thethird day of a three-day practice match between the england XIand ICC Combined XI at The ICC Global Cricket Academy. AFP

Pietersenchanges sidesin India’s IPL

CHEnnAIAFP

England's batting star Kevin Pietersen hasleft Deccan Chargers to play for Delhi Dare-devils in the Indian Premier League thisyear, his new franchise said on Sunday.Pietersen, who turned out for BangaloreRoyal Challengers in 2009 and 2010, hadsigned up with the Hyderabad-basedChargers last year, but could not play forthem following a hernia surgery. The excit-ing right-hander was picked up by theVirender Sehwag-captained Delhi Daredev-ils during the transfer window for the fifthedition to be played from April 4 to May 27."We are pleased to add Kevin to our line-up," said T.A. Sekhar, the cricket head ofGMR Sports, owners of the Delhi Daredev-ils franchise. "He brings rich experienceand an explosive quality to our batting andcan be a more than handy off-spinner aswell. "We are sure that Kevin will help us tobe very competitive this season and theDelhi Daredevils fans will enjoy this addi-tion." Pietersen, preparing for England'sTest series against Pakistan in the UnitedArab Emirates later this month, said he wasrelishing the opportunity of playing in thesame team as Sehwag. "I am looking for-ward to a wonderful time with the DelhiDaredevils. It will be a great experience tobe playing in the same squad as Sehwag,"he said in a statement released by thefranchise. It was not revealed how muchDelhi Daredevils paid Deccan Chargers forsecuring Pietersen's services. The Charg-ers had forked out $650,000 for the Eng-land star at last year's auction. It isunlikely that Pietersen will be available for

the entire IPL seasonsince England's

tour of Sri Lankaends on April 7and the first Test

against theWest Indiesstarts at Lord'son May 17.

Illness scare for Marshahead of India Test

SYDnEYREUTERS

Australian top order batsman ShaunMarsh was unable to fulfill a media en-gagement ahead of the third test againstIndia in Perth because of illness on Mon-day. Team officials said the 28-year-oldshould be fit to train with the rest of theteam on Tuesday ahead of Friday's startto the test at the WACA. Marsh won arace to be fit for the first test but his formin the four-match series has been farfrom convincing, despite Australia mak-ing a strong start with emphatic wins inMelbourne and Sydney. Playing at num-ber three in the batting order, Marsh hasbeen out for a duck twice and made threein the second innings at the MelbourneCricket Ground. Mike Hussey, whobucked his own run of poor form with asuperb 150 not out in Sydney, replacedMarsh in Monday's news conference andbacked his fellow Western Australian tofind his touch at his home ground.


aUstralia v india, 3rd test, perth

Sports 19Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latifon Monday suggested that Indian bat-ting icon Sachin Tendulkar should seekcounseling from a sports psychologistto get over the "mental block" causedby the continuing wait for his elu-sive 100th international century."He is under pressure no doubtabout it. He might not admit itbut he is facing a mental block be-cause of this hype over his mile-stone. It would not be a bad ideafor him to get some counselingfrom a sports psychologist," Latifsuggested. "He is batting well andhe is looking good out in themiddle. It is just a mentalblock and pressure thathas prevented himfrom reachingthis mile-stone ear-

lier," he said. India lost the first twoTests after batting collapses with Ten-dulkar scoring a half century in eachmatch but failing to get to his elusive100th international hundred. Latif wasfurther quoted as saying that he had a

feeling that Sachinwould get the hun-

dred in the finalTest and defi-nitely in the se-ries. He said theworld’s top ath-

letes at some timein their career re-quired coun-selling to get over

mental blocks. "Itcan happen to any-

one," he added. TheIndian maestro’slast internationalcentury cameagainst South

Africa in March

last year. Latif pointed out that therewas no other plausible reason for Ten-dulkar not scoring his 100th interna-tional hundred. "I have seen many ofhis innings in the last 10 months and inthese two Tests and he is definitely notout of form or facing issues timing theball. He is moving well and is balancedat the crease this can be judged by thefact that he has scored runs but fallenshort of the hundred," the former Pak-istan captain pointed out. Latif alsofelt that critics and former players call-ing for the heads of their senior bats-men need to accept that India didn’thave the bowling firepower to bowl outAustralia twice. "How can any teamhope to do well with a bowling attackthat lacks experience and can’t providesupport to its batsmen. The problem isapart from Zaheer Khan they don’thave much variety and options. Drop-ping Harbhajan Singh for the Testswas also a mistake because clearlyAshwin is not ready for Test cricket."

PERTH CRICINFO

IF India are to make a comeback inthe series, they will have to do it thehard way. The WACA curator feelsthe pitch is getting back its original -famously quick and bouncy - charac-

teristics, and expects this track to behavesimilar to the one used in the Ashes lastseason, when Australia played four quicksand won the Test inside four days.

Australia have lost James Pattinson toinjury but have the services of Ryan Harrisand Mitchell Starc should they want to goin with four fast bowlers for the third Test,starting on Friday the 13th. Starc made acase for himself with figures of 3 for 17 in arain-curtailed BBL game on Sunday nightin Sydney. "We are hoping it will certainlybe like last year," Cameron Sutherland, the

curator, said. "It [playing four fast bowlers]won't be the wrong decision if the prepa-ration goes as it is expected to."

The proper preparation will begin onTuesday. Right now the pitch is hard to tellfrom the outfield. Sutherland is happy withwhat is underneath. "It is pretty hard un-derneath," he said. "We have already donea lot of work just getting the grass where wewant, coverage-wise. The actual rollingstarts tomorrow." In the BBL game at theWACA on Sunday night, Perth Scorchersscored 184 and won by 42. Expect battingin the Test to be tougher, though. India wonthe last Test they played here, but this is ex-pected to be a different surface altogether."We're expecting more pace and bouncethan the last time," Sutherland said. "Goodcricket wicket last time, but we hope to havemaybe an extra 20% pace and bounce."

That won't be music to India's ears, be-

leaguered as they are by six straight lossesaway from home. "That's what we are aim-ing for. We are in a better place now thanwhen India came here the last time," Suther-land said. "We have redeveloped the wholewicket block over the last four years, and weare starting to get some really good results.

"We have changed our oil type, triedto align it to the traditional WACA char-acteristics. Probably more so pre-1980s,and it has taken a fair while to achievethat. We have also changed the grass typeand how we prepare the wicket. We havetinkered with the whole model basically,and come up with something we think ispretty close to the mark."

Sutherland's dream pitch is a kiss-off,where the ball just kisses the surface andbounces off. He says they are getting close toit. "We weren't getting any cracking," he saidof the days when Perth lost its bounce, rela-

tively speaking. "We were getting somehardness, but not really hard. We weren'tgetting grass recovery, which made it hardto get a surface where we could get somenice kiss-off, where the ball hits and carriesthrough. We are pretty close to achievingthat now. Mostly that comes from the soil.It's a combination with the grass as well.One allows the other to work in harmony. Sowe are pretty close to where we want to be."

However, Michael Hussey, a WesternAustralian himself, is not getting carriedaway with the pitch. "I hope it's a nice, fastbouncy pitch," he said. "We play those con-ditions very well. It is very different to whatthe Indian players are used to from theirhome country. But having said that, they'vegot unbelievably experienced players whohave been in Australia before, performedwell in Australia before, so I expect them toadapt to the conditions pretty quickly."

Bouncy pitch awaits India at WACA

tendulkar strugglingwith a mental block: Latif

National JuniorHockey Championshipbegins today

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

The 31st U-21 National Junior HockeyChampionship will roll into action fromTuesday (January 10) here at the NationalHockey Stadium. The opening ceremony ofthe event will be held at 1100 hours, duringthe match between Railways and PakistanBoard hockey teams. Director GeneralSports Board Punjab Usman Anwar will per-form the opening of the event as chief guest.The formation of Pools is, Pool A, National Bank of Pak-istan, FATA, Army, Islamabad Pool B, PHF Academy, KhyberPK, SSGC, Sindh Pool C, Wapda, Punjab White, Higher ed-ucation Commission, Balochistan. Pool D: Railways, PakBoards and Punjab Colour. Four matches will be playedon the opening day. NBP vs FATA, Railways vs Pak Boards,PHF Academy vs KPK and Wapda vs Punjab (W). Follow-ing is the match programme of first round which ends onJanuary 15 with second round commencing from January16. Jan 10, NBP vs FATA, Railways vs Pak Boards, PHFacademy vs KPK, Wapda vs Punjab W. Jan 11, Army vs Is-lamabad, SSGC vs Sindh, HeC vs Balochistan, Pak Boardvs Punjab C. Jan 12, PHF academy vs SSGC, Wapda vsHeC,Army vs Fata,Wapda vs Balochistan. Jan 13, PHFAcademy vs Sindh, NBP vs Islamabad, KPK vs SSGC Jan14, KPK vs SSGC,Army vs NBP,HeC vs Punjab W,Railwaysvs Punjab C. Jan 15, Sindh vs KPK,FATA vs Islamabad,Punjab W vs Balochistan. The draws of the second roundwill be announced later. The final will be played on Janu-ary 16. Director General, Sports Board Punjab, UsmanAnwar will inaugurate the event.

Bangladesh boardseeks govt clearancefor Pakistan tour

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has requestedits government to give approval for a securityteam to visit Pakistan to assess the arrange-ments for a proposed tour by the team inApril. A senior Pakistan Cricket Board offi-cial said the BCB directors have also given ap-proval for the security team's visit to Pakistanahead of the proposed series. The officialsaid the board had to wait for clearance fromits government before finalising the schedulefor the security team's trip. The BCB Presi-dent Mustafa Kamal said they will now waitfor advice and directions from the govern-ment as it was a matter involving security.The BCB contacted its government after thePCB officially invited it to send its team for ascheduled Future Tour Program tour in April.The BCB has made it clear to the PCB thatwhile it is willing to send team to Pakistan, itwould depend on clearance from its govern-ment and the security team that visits Pak-istan for an inspection tour. The Pakistangovernment has promised foolproof securitymeasures for the Bangladesh team.

MADRIDAFP

Barcelona suffered a major setbackto their hopes of retaining their LaLiga title when they were held to a1-1 draw by city rivals Espanyol onSunday, a result which left themfive points behind Real Madrid.

Barcelona took a 16th-minutelead through a header from CescFabregas -- the club's 100th goal inall competitions this season -- butwere rocked when Alvaro Vazquezscored an 86th-minute equaliserwith a low header. Gerard Pique hitthe woodwork in injury-time asBarca's last chance for the threepoints went begging, leaving RealMadrid, who had coasted to a 5-1win over Granada on Saturday, in

control of their title destiny. "Diffi-cult game tonight, we left twopoints but we have to keep going tillthe end. Now time to rest," Fabre-gas wrote on his Twitter account.

Espanyol have an excitingyoung side and coach MauricioPochettino promised that theywould go out to attack which theydid. Joan Verdu was denied twiceinside the opening minutes --first by keeper Victor Valdes andthen Pique, who cleared the fol-low up off the line. At the otherend, Espanyol keeper Cristian Al-varez played a ball straight to Li-onel Messi in front of goal butfortunately for the shot-stopperthe Argentine handled it and wasyellow-carded. Barca did take thelead when Fabregas, left un-

marked, headed home inside thepenalty area after 16 minutes andagain the keeper was slow to reactas the ball went underneath hisdive. Espanyol had chances fromdistance, notably from SergioGarcia, while Thievy Bifoumaalso looked dangerous.

It was far from a vintage per-formance from Barcelona but theylooked in control and they couldhave had a second from Messiwho clipped the post with 12 min-utes to go. But then Espanyolstunned the champions whenThievy headed on a cross toVazquez who powered it home infront of goal with a diving header.Pique crashed a shot against thewoodwork in stoppage time butEspanyol hung on for a point.

Liverpool, UnitedCup tie set tostoke Suarez row

LOnDOnAFP

Liverpool will face bitter rivals ManchesterUnited in a home FA Cup fourth round tiethat will be played against the backdrop ofLuis Suarez's ban for racially abusingUnited's Patrice Evra. Uruguay strikerSuarez is set to miss the match as he is cur-rently serving an eight-game ban for abus-ing Evra during a 1-1 Premier League drawat Anfield in October -- a ruling thatsparked a furious reaction from Liverpool.The tie at Anfield will be the first match be-tween the two clubs since that controver-sial clash and offers Liverpool the chancefor revenge after Unitedknocked them out ofthe competition lastseason. "Liverpoolaway...what a tie! Greatgame for the #FaCup+ our fans! Let'sav iiiiiit! Roll onthe 4th round,"United's RioFerdinandwrote on Twit-ter. United'sformer Liver-pool striker MichaelOwen added: "Andpeople talk aboutUnited always get-ting lucky cupdraws!!! "Couldn'tget much tougher.What a game to lookforward to," saidOwen, hours afterUnited knocked Cupholders ManchesterCity out with a 3-2win at their cross-town foes Eastlandsground on Sunday.Liverpool midfielderCharlie Adam tweeted:"Great draw manunited a home that'sthe FA cup."

Espanyol dent Barcelona’s title hopes

CoRNeLLÁ: Barcelona's Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (C) vies withespanyol's Argentinian defender Juan Forlin (L) and espanyol's midfielderJavier Lopez (R) during the Spanish league football match. AFP


Sports20Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

LOnDOnAFP

LONDON marked 200 days to go untilthe opening ceremony of the 2012Olympic Games in an upbeat moodon Monday, announcing new deals to

secure the future of the mostly completedsites. Prime Minister David Cameron led aspecial meeting of his cabinet at the OlympicPark in east London, where he said organis-ers were "well on track" to delivering a last-ing legacy for the whole of Britain.

As London prepares to become the firstcity to host the Olympics for the third time,most of the venues are completed and tick-ets for all events -- except the hundreds ofthousands still available for football -- are

sold out. Organisers can take pride in the re-markable transformation of a once rundownarea of scrapyards and workshops into a col-lection of high-tech sporting venues, thou-sands of apartments and, eventually, a park.The government announced on Mondaythat ownership deals had been agreed forthe Aquatics Centre, the Handball Arenaand Anish Kapoor's 115-metre high red steelOrbit sculpture, ensuring they will survivebeyond the Games. The operator of theAquatics Centre expects 800,000 local usersevery year, while the Handball Arena hopesto welcome 500,000 people a year for con-certs, exhibitions and sports events.

"Today, as we mark 200 days to go, andsix out of the eight Olympic venues havingalready secured their future, we are well on

track to delivering a lasting legacy for thewhole of Britain," Cameron said. The excite-ment has been marred however by the dis-appointment of hundreds of thousands ofBritish fans who missed out on tickets for theGames in last year's lottery, amid massivedemand. There were also red faces last weekwhen organisers LOCOG admitted they hadmistakenly oversold tickets for synchronisedswimming sessions and were forced to offerthousands of people tickets to other events.Adding to their blushes, the website for re-cipients to resell tickets they do not want hasbeen suspended because of technical prob-lems. An additional one million tickets aredue to go on sale in April once the final con-figuration of the stadiums has been workedout, and they are certain to be snapped up.

But as the clock ticks down to the July 27opening ceremony, chief organiser SebastianCoe said the acid test of his organisationwould be whether athletes could be deliveredto their event on time, and ready to compete.

"I never want an athlete telling me hedid not make a final because the OlympicVillage did not create the right atmosphere,or he did not get the right service or thetransport did not work," Coe told theEvening Standard newspaper last week.

"The Games have to work for the mostimportant client group, the athletes. I can'tscrew it up for them. That would be a cardinalsin." In an already congested city like Lon-don, few doubt that transport is one of thebiggest issues the Games face. Specially re-served Olympic road lanes, reserved for ath-

letes, officials and the media are designed toensure competitors are not delayed but theireffect is likely to be traffic snarl-ups elsewherein the capital. British ministers are hoping theOlympics and the celebrations marking thequeen's 60 years on the throne this year willhelp lift the country out of the economic dol-drums, as it faces the real prospect of a returnto recession. But Cameron has faced criticismfor ordering an additional £41 million ($63million, 50 million euros) to be spent on theopening and closing ceremonies of theGames, which many view as frivolous at atime of austerity. "Slumdog Millionaire" di-rector Danny Boyle has the difficult task ofensuring that London's opening ceremonycan compete with the spectacular showstaged by Beijing four years ago.

London marks 200 days till Olympics with legacy in mind

LoNDoN: The Londonolympics countdownclock is pictured as itdisplays 200 days to go inLondon’s Trafalgar while(r) the picture shows 2012Games venues includingthe stadium (c) and thevelodrome (below L) inthe olympic Park. AFP

LAHORE ASHER BUTT

Pakistan tennis enjoyed the year 2011owing largely to the exploits of Indo-Pak tennis great late Khawaja Iftikhar’sgeneration -- the third generation nowdominating the sport.

Pakistan’s tennis ace Aisamul HaqQureshi who had already made hisname throughout the world with his su-perlative performance, is now being fol-lowed by young Davis Cupper SamirIftikhar, while another of the familymembers, national ladies championand Fed Cup player Ushna Sohail hasbecome the only Pakistani female tomake positive vibes across tennis cir-cles at the world level.

Like his first cousin Aisam, Samirhas grown up with enough potential tomade the country proud in just a couple

of years. As of Aisam,who went into the

history books asthe only Pak-

istani to haveplayed the

US Openf i n a l

i n

2010 with Rohan Bopanna, broke intotop 10 World Ranking in men’s doublesin 2011. During the year he also wonthree ATP titles at Holland, Stockholmand Thailand.

His most captivating success of theyear along with Rohan was the ATPWorld Tour Masters 1000 title in Paristhat also earned him place for theWorld Tour finals in London.

On personal front, he got marriedto beautiful and elegant lookingBritish citizen FahaMakhdoom on December 17.Now boasting of several suc-cesses in 2011, Aisam has anew year resolution of be-coming the top ranked dou-bles tennis player. And thereare reasons to believe him. Heis now raring to start off withmajor grand slam tour-nament, the Aus-tralian Open. Onthe junior side,his follower, the1 9 - y e a r - o l dSamir is seen asthe only player toreplace Aisamonce the Pakistangreat bids adieu tothe game. This young-ster who is on a schol-

arship from International Tennis Fed-eration is termed as Pakistan’s futurehope and dubbed as world class talentby tennis experts.

Like Aisam, Samir is the only Pak-istani player to have won four back toback ITF Junior World Ranking titlessince his tennis debut in 1998. At sucha tender age, he was the only juniorPakistani player who broke the domina-

tion of Aqeel Khan, Jalil khan andYasir Khan by winning the na-

tional men’s and junior titles. He also earned the distinc-

tion of being the fittest Under-20 Asian Player by the AsianTennis Federation at HPECcamp in Thailand.

Being termed as a “newchapter in Pakistan Tennis“ in

February 2011, Samir pow-ered his way into the

Pakistan Davis Cupteam with un-beaten run at thenational trialswhere he oustede x p e r i e n c e dDavis CuppersJalil Khan andYasir Khan. He

achieved an-o t h e r

b r e a k -

through in his career in 2011 by passinghis A levels and prerequisite Sat test de-spite devoting full time to the game andon the recommendation of ITF, heearned a four year Athletic and Educa-tional Scholarship at University of NewMexico where he is being groomed byinternational coaches.

Samir also finished the 2011 semes-ter in USA with flying colors andmatched academic achievement withtennis glory by achieving highest 3.75(A plus) average in exams and willrestart US university in January wherehectic NCAA Intervarsity Season awaitsfor him. Like his mentor Aisam, Samirtoo has his goals to represent Pakistanin Davis Cup and bring as much laurelsfor the country as his first cousin.

With the standard of the game de-clining in the country, and Aisam andAqeel reaching the peaksof their careers, newlyfound talent ofSamir seems theonly hope of thecountry’s tennisbut all he needsis proper sup-port from thePTF, corporatesector as wellas the gov-ernment.

Muneer shinesat Club IndigoGolf Invitational

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

Mobilink inaugurated the 5th annualClub Indigo Golf Invitational, with thefirst leg of the tournament organisedat the Karachi Golf Club. The one day event in Karachi attractedover 100 amateur golfers, representinga diverse segment of Karachi’s corpo-rate and business sector, making for awell competed event, providinghealthy entertainment and promotinggolf in Pakistan. Similar tournaments will be held forClub Indigo members in Lahore andIslamabad over the coming weeks. Theleading players of the competitionwere Muneer Feroze (Winner Gross)and Faisal Iftikhar (Winner Net). Irfan Akram, Vice President CustomerCare at Mobilink highlighted, “It is agreat pleasure to see the enthusiasmdisplayed by Karachi’s golfers at theClub Indigo Golf Invitational. Withyour fervor and support over theyears, this recreational event hasturned into a popular sporting activ-ity. Mobilink will continue to nurturegolfing talent in Pakistan throughsuch tangible efforts.”The Club Indigo Golf Invitational hasbeen organized nationwide since2007, and has become one of the mostprestigious corporate golf tourna-ments in Pakistan, with the 18-holetournament attracting golfing enthusi-asts from across the Mobilink Indigocustomer base.

Another year of glory for Khawaja Iftikhar clan


Sports 21Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

wAtCh It LIvE

ESPN Sports Center08:00PM

ESPN2012 Allstate BcsNational Championship07:00AM

SYDnEYAGENCIES

WORLD number nine,Marion Bartoli ofFrance, defeated 20-years-old, PolonaHercog of Slovenia, in

the first round of Apia Sydney In-ternational. Both contestantslocked horns for the third time intheir career and Bartoli ousted theyoungster for the third time in arow. She played for an hour and 26minutes before confirming the sec-ond round place; final score of thematch was 6-3, 6-3.

Previously, eighth seeded Bar-toli ousted her opponent in IndianWells 2010 and again the same yearin Madrid Open as well. Worldnumber 36, had a great opportunityto minimize the trail of two lossesto one but instead she now faces atrail of three head-to-head losesagainst one of the most powerfulwomen tennis players in the world.

Conventional start to the setwitnessed both players holding onto their first serve game as the scoremoved to 1-1. Bartoli hung on to hersecond serve as well but her rivalfailed to do so; opportunity wasthere for the eighth seed to take ad-vantage but she couldn’t hang on toher serve. Ideally, Hercog would

have loved to level the score at thatstage but she was once againstunned with some jaw droppingdown the line winner from her op-ponent. She failed to perform thebasic right; simple return was hitstraight back into the net; scorepushed to 4-2 in favour of Bartoli.Eighth seeded French took advan-tage of the second opportunity andextended her lead to three gameswith a successful serve game.

Hercog failed to break againthat would have allowed her to levelthe score and extend the set. It wasa good battle between the underdogand prolific performer but the expe-rience and pressure played its partas well; Slovenian couldn’t shift toplan B as she was completelyowned on her fore hand returns.Trailing one set down, Slovenianneeded to start well but she failedto do so.

Bartoli broke in the first gameof the second set and helped her totake 2-0 lead upfront. Both playerscontinued to hang on to their servesand at a do or die situation Hercogcouldn’t hang on to her serve in theninth game. It was crucial for her tohang on and break in the next tolevel the score but her luck was out.

Marion Bartoli squares offagainst Aussie Jelena Dokic in thenext round.

SyDNey: Marion Bartoli of France hits a return against Polona Hercog of Sloveniaduring her first round match at the Sydney International tennis. AFP

Bartoli defeatsPolona Hercogin Sydney

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday an-nounced the schedule and teams for FaysalBank Pentangular Cup First Class Crickettournament 2011-12. The tournament will rollinto action from January 19 with all the provincialteams fighting for to honours. SCHEDULE AND TAMS ARE AS FOLLOWS:Pentangular Cup (First Class) 2011-2012 (date, teams, venue,

umpires, referee, scorer), 19-22 Jan, Sindh-Khyber PK, National

Stadium Karachi, Zameer Haider-Shozab Raza, Naeem Ahmed,

Imran Ali, Punjab-Federal Areas, Diamond Ground Islamabad,

Shakeel Khan-Saleem Badar, Khateeb Rizwan, Adnan Farooq,

25-28 Jan, Sindh-Baluchistan, National Stadium Karachi, Za-

meer Haider-Shozab Raza, Naeem Ahmed, Muhammad Ahsan,

Punjab-Khyber PK, Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad, Shakeel Khan-

Saleem Badar, Musaddaq Rasool, Tahir Suhaib, 31Jan-3Feb, Pun-

jab-Baluchistan, Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, Riazuddin-Ahsan

Raza, Muhammad Anees, Abdul Hameed, Federal Areas-Khy-

ber PK, Arbab Niaz Std. Peshawar, Saleem Badar-Zameer

Haider, Aziz-ur-Rehman, Nadeem Akhtar, 06-09 Feb, Pun-

jab-Sindh, Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, Riazuddin-Ahmed Shahab, Aziz-ur-

Rehman, Masood Ahmed, Baluchistan-Federal Areas, Multan Stadium Multan,

Rasheed Bhatti-Kamal Marchant, Musaddaq Rasool, Zulfiqar Ali, 12-15

Feb, Sindh-Federal Areas, Pindi Stadium Rawalpindi, Riazuddin-Ahmed

Shahab, Khateeb Rizwan, Shakeel Ahmed, Khyber PK-Baluchistan,

Arbab Niaz Std. Peshawar, Rasheed Bhatti-Kamal Marchant, Muham-

mad Anees, Nadeem Akhtar, 18-22 Feb, FINAL, Gaddafi Stadium La-

hore. Teams: Punjab: Nasir Jamshaid, Ahmad Shahzad, Muhammad

yasin, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Sajid, Mansoor Amjad, Haris Sohail,

Ayub Doggar, Usman Salahuddin, Muhammad Saad, Kamran Akmal,

Raza Hassan, Ali Imran, Bilawal Bhatti, Prince Abbas, Asif Raza,

Naseer Akram, Muhammad Khalil, officials: Ijaz Ahmad Jr.,

Mubashar Nazar. Sindh: Sharjeel Khan, Khurram Man-

zoor, Aqeel Anjum, Shahzaib Hassan, Fawad Alam,

Rizwan Ahmad, Ali Asad, Fahad Iqbal, Saeed Bin

Nasir, Faisal Iqbal, Sarfraz Ahmad, Muhammad

Sami, Mir Ali Khan Talpur, Faraz Ahmad, Tabish

Khan, Anwar Ali, Tanvir Ahmad, Danish Kaneria. offi-

cials: Saleem Jaffar (Coach), Abdul Hussain Shah (Man-

ager), Khyber PK: yasir Hameed, Riffatullah Mohmand,

Akbar Badshah, Shoaib Khan, Muhammad Fayyaz,

Adnan Raees, yasir Shah, Khalid Usman, Zohaib

Khan, Zulfiqar Jan (WK), Imran Khan. BoCA RAToN: LPGA players (L-R) Lexi Thompson, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Cristie Kerr and BrittanyLincicome attend the Morgan and Friends opening evening event at the St. Andrews Country Club. AFP

Cashed-up openlures big names

SYDnEY AGENCIES

LATE last year, Australian golf was thecentre of the universe - with the Presi-dents Cup flowing to either side of theUS-Internationals clash for the Aus-tralian Open and the Australian PGAChampionship, and the irony was that itwas a humble Greg Chalmers who wonboth. Now, the stage is clear for some ofthe world's best women golfers to playin two major titles - the AustralianLadies Masters and Women's AustralianOpen - in the first two weeks of Febru-ary. For the past two decades it has beenthe Masters leading the way in the qual-ity of its field but this year Golf Aus-tralia has found the cash to persuade theLPGA Tour to co-sanction the Openwhile Masters promoter Bob Tuohycould not. The result is that the Mas-ters has a slightly inferior field and atotal purse of $500,000, while theOpen has prizemoney of $US1.1 million($1.07 million). Co-sanctioning withthe LPGA does come at a cost. GolfAustralia must provide airfares and ac-commodation to every LPGA player andthat is estimated to be an additional$800,000 to the tournament budget.About 80 LPGA players will be in Sydney.

CHEnnAIAFP

Big-serving Milos Raonic enhanced his reputa-tion as one of the hottest young stars in men'stennis when he won the ATP Chennai Opentitle on Sunday in a nail-biting encounter. The21-year-old Canadian, named the ATP's new-comer of 2011 for jumping from 156 to 31 in therankings, overcame world number nine andtop seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 6-7 (4/7),7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/4). The six feet, five inches(196 centimetres) tall Raonic blasted 35 acesagainst Tipsarevic's eight to win only his sec-ond career title after a rousing final that lastedthree hours and 13 minutes. Raonic earned$71,000 and 250 ranking points, while Tip-sarevic got $37,860 and 150 points ahead of theseason's first Grand Slam, the Australian Open,which starts in Melbourne on January 16.

Neither player was able to secure a break inthe entire match that was watched by a sell-outcrowd of 5,200 at the Nungambakkam tennisstadium in the southern Indian city. "It's just anawesome feeling to win another title," Raonicsaid. "I've just been on the tour for a year andam learning all the time. Here I realised that itis good to have the security of a sound serve andwait for the opportunities to come your way.

"In my three finals so far I have played inseven tie-breakers in eight sets. So I could nothave asked for more when the match went myway. "I am happy with the way I played thisweek on hard court. I was able to return betterand served quite well. All this gives me a lot of

confidence going into the Australian Open."Raonic came from behind after Tipsarevic hadtaken the tie-breaker in the first set with twosuperb cross-court passes that left his oppo-nent stranded. It was the first time that Raoniclost a set in the tournament. Tipsarevic savedtwo break points in the seventh game of thesecond set, but it was Raonic's turn to domi-nate the tie-breaker and level the match.

PRU announcesambitious itinerary

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

The Pakistan Rugby Union on Mondayheld its annual general meeting here atthe Servis House and finalised its calen-dar of activities for 2012. The meetingwas attended by PRU president FawaziKhawaja , PRU sectary Arif Saed, Vicepresident Ashraf Choudhry, nationalhead coach Rizwan Malik, representativesfrom the Army, Police , Navy , Wapda,Railway, Punjab, KPK, Baluchistan andFATA. The general council appreciatedthe events held in 2011. The council alsoagreed about an even more ambitious cal-endar of events for 2012 which will in-clude bidding to host an internationaltournament in Pakistan. President FawziKhawaja informed the house that PRUhas applied to ARFU to host the Asianunder-19 championship Div III in Lahorein early October. The dates of the upcom-ing National Championship was con-firmed as end January. Development ofrugby at the grass roots level and specifi-cally in schools colleges was highlightedas a major goal of 2012 for PRU. FataRugby Association was granted full mem-bership of the Pakistan Rugby Union.

Canadian Milos Raonic kisses the trophy afterwinning the final against his Serbian opponentJanko Tipsarevic at the ATP Chennai open. AFP

raonic wins thrillingChennai Open final

Pentangular Cup Cricket from 19th


Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd. Printed by Ghulam Akbar, AA & NHT Group, Plot 24, Shalimar Road, Lilly Market, Soan Garden, Islamabad.

Tuesday, 10 January, 2012 22


ASKING the Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) not to linkthe Swiss cases with thegrave of Benazir Bhutto,Pakistan Muslim League-

Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharifon Monday said President Asif AliZardari’s recent statement of acceptingonly the parliamentary committee’s de-cision in the memo case was indicativeof his lack of confidence in the judiciary.

“The people responsible for the al-leged memo that sought US help to pre-vent a possible military coup in Pakistanshould be exposed, as the matter involvesthe country’s sovereignty and nationalinterests,” Nawaz said while talking to re-porters at the Islamabad High Court afterappearing before the judicial commissionprobing into the “memogate”. The PML-N chief said the government was notready to move a “single inch” in thememo case and wanted to fail the judicialcommission. He said while appearing be-fore the judicial commission, he noticedthat the government was coming up withall sorts of excuses to create hurdles inthe probe. He said the PML-N had notblamed anyone, including the govern-

ment, for the “memogate”, but those be-hind this conspiracy should be un-masked. Nawaz said, “I am just acomplainant in the case. I appeared be-fore the commission to show my respectfor the judiciary … the parliamentarycommittee on national security has donenothing on the issue so far.” After sub-mitting his written statement through hiscounsel Mustafa Ramday, the PML-Nchief said, “It is a grave matter and some-one has hatched a conspiracy. They

should be exposed. The secret memo wasa conspiracy against the country’s sover-eignty, vital interests and vital assets,” hesaid. Asked about President Zardari’s re-marks that he would accept the findingsof the parliamentary committee only,Nawaz said this reflected the govern-ment’s attitude towards the judiciary.

“This clearly means that the presi-dent has no intention to accept the deci-sion of the court and it also indicates thatMr Zardari knows in advance what deci-sion the parliamentary committee wouldmake,” Nawaz observed. “It shows thegovernment’s defiance of the judiciary …it is an expression of no-confidence in thejudiciary of Pakistan and the commission… that is why the government is facingproblems,” he said. To a question regard-ing Swiss accounts and the implementa-tion of the SC verdict in the NRO case, hesaid: “Why is the government reluctantto write to Swiss authorities? Linking theembezzlements with Benazir’s grave isnot fair. They must answer whose 60million rupees have been kept in Switzer-land’s banks. This is the nation’s wealthwhich it wants back.” The former primeminister further said it was “a matter ofhappiness” that former president PervezMusharraf had announced his plan to re-turn to Pakistan from self-exile.

Another stormbrews as NrOverdict deadlineexpires today

ISLAMABADMASOOD REHMAN

Still reeling from the repercussions of thememogate scandal, the government maysuffer another blow as an ultimatum givenby the Supreme Court to the governmentand all the authorities concerned to ensureimplementation by January 10 of itsverdict declaring the NationalReconciliation Ordinance (NRO)unconstitutional, failing which the courtwould not pass any further orders butdirectly take action, is expiring today(Tuesday). However, nothing seems tohave been done to ensure implementationof the verdict and instead, Law SecretaryMasood Chishti, who had to appear incourt today, has abruptly left for Londonwithout giving a return schedule. The lawsecretary had to inform the court onTuesday about the reopening of graft casesagainst dozens of people, includingPresident Asif Zardari, in Switzerland. Afive-member special bench comprisingJustice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, JusticeEjaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz AhmedChaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed andJustice Muhammad Ather Saeed willresume hearing of the case today. OnJanuary 3, the court had observed that itwould not pass any further orders forimplementation of its verdict in the NROcase but would take action against thoseresponsible for the failure to implementthe orders irrespective of their office orofficial authority. “Make it clear toeveryone concerned that the next date ofhearing (January 10) will be the last andfinal and the court will take appropriateaction in case of non-implementation ofthe NRO verdict, no matter how high anauthority [those responsible] enjoy,” thecourt had ruled. On November 26, 2011, a17-member Supreme Court bench hadthrown out the government’s petition for areview of the apex court’s December 16,2009 ruling, which had struck down thecontroversial NRO. The rejection hadincreased pressure on the government tostart pursuing the money laundering casesagainst Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)leaders, including the president, inSwitzerland. After the December 16verdict, despite repeated orders of the apexcourt, the government neither wrote lettersto the Swiss authorities to reopen the caseagainst President Zardari, nor did thepresident claim immunity under Article248 of the constitution. In that judgement,the court had declared unauthorised,unconstitutional and illegal formerattorney general Malik Qayyum’s

Sindh govt decidesto arrest Musharrafupon return

KARACHIQAZI ASIF

The Sindh government has decided thatformer president Gen (r) Pervez Musharrafwould be arrested when he returns to thecountry and lands at Karachi airport.Musharraf had announced at a publicmeeting on January 8 in Karachi that hewould return to the country by the end ofthis month. He would be arrested for hisalleged involvement in the murder ofPakistan People’s Party (PPP) formerchairperson Benazir Bhutto and leader ofJamhoori Watan Party (JWP) NawabAkbar Bugti. The Sindh government hasreceived arrest warrants from a Rawalpindicourt that declared him an absconder.Addressing a press conference, SindhHome Minister Manzoor Hussain Wasansaid the murder case of Nawab Akbar Bugtiwas registered on October 2009. “A courtin Dera Bugti issued arrest warrants forMusharraf and he and two others weredeclared absconders. A special court inRawalpndi has also declared Musharraf anabsconder and issued his arrest warrants,”he said. “Pervez Musharraf has announcedthat he will return any day between January27 and 30. When he reaches Karachiairport, he will be arrested for the murder ofBenazir Bhutto and Nawab Akbar Bugti. Hewill first be kept in Landhi jail, which is hisfavorite jail. After that, he will be sent toDera Bugti and Rawalpndi courts. Untiltoday, only civilian leaders were arrested,but now it will be proved that all are equalbefore law,” Wasan said. He said a persondeclared an absconder by a court of thecountry would be arrested if found in Sindh.To a query about whether the governmentwould change its mind on Musharraf’sarrest due to international pressure orpolicy of reconciliation, he said time wouldtell how the government would respond.“There is no need to get permission from thepresident or the prime minister to arrest anyabsconder,” Wasan said. Asked if Musharrafwould be handcuffed when arrested, Wasansaid police, not him, would hand cuffMusharraf. “He will be sent to jail afterarrest as an ordinary criminal. Facilities of Aor C class in jails will be given only onorders by the judiciary,” he added. “As thehome minister, it is my obligation to arrestMusharraf and send him to jail,” Wasansaid, adding that Musharraf would be sentto the very jail “where he used to send uswhen he was in power”.

FAISALABAD/SIALKOT/KASuR/QuETTAAGENCIES/STAFF REPORT

Prolonged gas and electricity loadshedding compelled people acrossthe country to come out onto thestreets in protest on Monday, withdemonstrations held in Faisal-abad, Sialkot, Sargodha, Kasur,Quetta and Gujar Khan.

Hundreds of exporters in Sialkotaccompanied by traders, industrialworkers, women and childrenprotested against power outages, whichthey said had crippled the renownedexport industry of the city. An infuri-ated crowd in Sialkot also attacked andransacked a Gujranwala Electric PowerCompany (GEPCO) office during theprotest. In Faisalabad, people pelted avehicle of Sui Northern Gas PipelinesLimited (SNGPL) with stones.

A large number of people inSargodha marched on the roadschanting slogans against low gas

pressure in their area. In Kasur,thousands of people took to thestreets after a daylong unan-nounced load shedding. Eight peo-ple were injured and manyvehicles were damaged in the thirdsuch protest in Kasur this week.Protesters shouted slogans againstthe Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)government. Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) MNASheikh Waseem Akhter and MPANaeem Safdar Ansari led theprotests. In Quetta, protestersblocked Saryab Road and AirportRoad with burning tyres causing atraffic jam that lasted hours. Theyshouted slogans against the ad-ministration of gas companies.Meanwhile in Gujar Khan, protest-ers said they were facing the worstgas load shedding ever, which hadcoincided with very cold weather.They said they were not even re-ceiving gas for domestic use.

Zardari has no confidencein judiciary, says Nawaz

countrywide protests rage on against power, gas outages

g PML-N chief says unfair to link Swiss cases with Benazir’s grave

ATTOCK: An official of the Education Department attacks a protesting student during a demonstration against the Rawalpindi Education Board on Monday. INP

g Eight people injured and many vehicles damaged in Kasur



Documents

E-Paper PakistanToday 10th January, 2012