Friday, 12 April, 2013 Jamadul Sani 1, 1434Rs 17.00 Vol III No 285 19 Pages Lahore Edition

Overseas Pakistanisto be part of electionprocess, SC told

The Supreme Court was informed on

Thursday that homework on the exercise

to include overseas Pakistanis in the

forthcoming elections had been

completed. The SC was further apprised

that a recent meeting of the ECP and

other functionaries of the government had

discussed the issue of providing right to

franchise to overseas Pakistanis. PAGE 03

Dasti and Nisar back in the game!

LAHORE: Former member of National

Assembly Jamshed Dasti announced on

Thursday he will contest elections from

Muzaffargarh NA-177 and 178 after the

election tribunal cleared him of all charges

on Wednesday, while Pakistan Muslim

League-Nawaz leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali

Khan was also cleared to contest elections

from NA-53 Rawalpindi. PAGE 02

Soldier, 15 militantskilled in Tirah clash

At least 15 militants were killed on

Thursday in an operation carried

out by security forces in Khyber

tribal region’s Tirah valley.

According to Inter-Services Public

Relations (ISPR), security forces

conducted an operation in which 15

militants and one security officer

were killed. PAGE 02

ECP moves againstinterior minister

The Election Commission of Pakistan on

Thursday asked caretaker prime minister to

take appropriate action against the caretaker

interior minister for exhibiting political

affiliation with a particular political party. In

a letter, the ECP said: “Such statement on

behalf of a federal minister may prove to

be damaging to the perception of holding

free, fair and credible election.” PAGE 03

You can’t fool us,CJP tells agencies

STORY ON PAGE 08

STORY ON PAGE 02

STORY ON PAGE 03

‘No civilian drone deaths’ in Pakistanclaim was false: US documents

STORY ON PAGE 04

STORY ON PAGE 04

PAGE 02 PAGE 03

JI WILL MAKE PEACE WITHTALIBAN IF IT COMES INTO POWER: HASAN

SHAHBAZ CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF PRO-PPP OFFICIALS IN CENTRE

STORY ON PAGE 02

MY MOM WILLNOW BE

HAROONABAD’SMOM

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News

PTI wants devolution of power to

grassroots level. – Asad Umar

My mom will nowbe Haroonabad’smom, says Meera

LAHORE:

Following herdaughter’ssuit, actorMeera’smother hasalso decidedto contest

the upcomingelections in

Haroonabaddistrict on a Justice

Party ticket. Speaking to reporters onThursday, Meera said that she has cometo Pakistan from India only to supporther mother. “I am going to Haroonabadso I can support my mom,” she said.“My mom doesn’t need my supportbecause she is very strong herself. Shehas proved to be an excellent mom,excellent sister and an excellent familymember,” Meera said, adding that hermother will also prove to be the bestoption for Haroonabad. “Whatever hasn’thappened in Haroonabad for 65 yearswill now be done by my mom,” she said.“My mom will now be Haroonabad’smom.” Last month, Meera hadannounced that she will be contestingthe upcoming general elections on theNA-126 seat in Lahore from the platformof Justice Party. stAFF rEPOrt

Rs 11.2b released forthermal plants fuelISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry hasreleased Rs 11.2 billion for provision offuel to thermal power plants whereasfurther funds would be released in thenext 30 days, said a spokesman of thePrime Minister’s House on Thursday. Thespokesman strongly contradicted thenews reports carried by a section ofmedia about the ministry’s refusal torelease Rs 20 billion for provision of fuel.The ministry had issued clear instructionsto release a provisional amount of Rs 20billion for the purpose, he added. Hesaid that the government was committedto ensuring provision of fuel to thermalpower plants so that optimal generationof power could be achieved. APP

KARACHIstAFF rEPOrt

INCIDENTS of tar-geted killings contin-ued unabated inPakistan’s financialhub on Thursday as atleast 15 more people

lost their lives to assassins roam-ing the streets of the metropolisunchallenged.

Three city wardens werekilled and another was injuredwhen unidentified gunmen openedfire on them in the Soldier Bazaararea of the city. The killed wardenswere identified as Farooq, Nasrul-lah and Sadiq. According to po-

lice, a CID official was killed inthe Gulberg area while two police-men were shot dead within thelimits of SITE-B police station.The policemen were identified asZahid and Khalid.

A man identified as Shoaibwas shot dead in Yousuf Goth areaof the city while two people weregunned down in Korangi.

Five people were also killed inGulshan-e-Iqbal, Baldia Town,Shahra-e-Noor-Jahan, NewKarachi and Steel Town.

One person was killed in a fir-ing incident in Orangi Town Sec-tor 11 while a man was seriouslyinjured in a gun attack in the Fed-eral B area of the city. Police said

two tortured bodies were recov-ered from Powerhouse Chowrangiin North Karachi area and onefrom Nusrat Bhutto Colony.

In another incident, a man wasgunned down by unidentified as-sailants in the Shah Faisal Colony.Two persons were injured when acracker bomb was lobbed in theZahra Garden of Malir area of thecity. One person was injured in in-discriminate firing in the FaqirColony. On the other hand,Rangers continued their ‘targeted’operation in the city. Over 500paramilitary personnel took part inThursday’s operation conducted inLyari’s Kashti Chowk and RabiaCity area of Karachi.

Assassins mock Karachi’s security apparatus, 15 killed in fresh attacks

Ji will make peace with taliban if it comes into power: hasan LAHORE

INP

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Mu-nawar Hasan on Thursday saidnobody knew the Taliban betterthan Pakistan and that if his partysucceeded in the upcoming elec-tion, it would make peace withthe militants. In an interviewwith Voice of Germany(Deutsche Welle), Hasan said itwas too early to predict how hisparty would fare in elections. “Itdepends on our election cam-

paigning and electoral al-liances with other par-ties.” About the goalsfor foreign policy,p a r t i c u l a r l yAfghanistan andthe Taliban, Hasansaid with the sup-port of parliament,“we will formulate anew and independentforeign policy”.

“Our foreign policy will notbe dictated by the US. We willraise our voices for the Muslims

in Myanmar,Afghanistan, Kash-

mir, Palestine andChechnya and tryto resolve disputesin these countrieswith the help of theinternational com-

munity.” He said asfar as the Taliban

were concerned, “wewill negotiate with them

without US involvement”. Hesaid nobody knew the Talibanbetter than Pakistan, and only

Pakistan could force them togive up their armed struggle.“Taliban rejected all those who

tried to negotiate with them inQatar and France at the behest ofthe US,” the JI chief said.

Soldier, 15 militants killed in Tirah clashPESHAWAR: At least 15 militants were killed on Thursday in anoperation carried out by security forces in Khyber tribal region’sTirah valley. According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR),security forces conducted an operation in which 15 militants andone security officer were killed. Moreover, the exchange of firebetween militants and security officers are still continuing insouthern sector of Tirah valley. stAFF rEPOrt

Mengal wants EUobservers inBalochistan for polls

QUETTA stAFF rEPOrt

Balochistan NationalParty-Mengal (BNP-

M) chief SardarAkhtar Mengalsaid the EuropeanUnion (EU)should not cancelsending its ob-

servers to Balochis-tan to monitor the

upcoming generalelections, giving in to es-

tablishment’s pressure.Addressing a press conference at his residence onThursday, Mengal demanded the EU and the inter-national community to send observers toBalochistan to monitor the upcoming polls.“Their presence would help ensure fair polls,”Mengal added.He demanded that EU probe into injustices com-mitted against the Baloch masses by the establish-ment.Mengal further said the establishment does notwant EU observers to monitor elections which hesaid was part of a conspiracy to keep his partyaway from polls.He said Balochistan’s situation was not worse thanother war zones of the world where the EU hadsent observers.The BNP chief said former ministers were stillusing official vehicles and resources for their cam-paign and urged the Election Commission of Pak-istan to take notice of it.He also demanded transfer of bureaucrats fromdifferent districts of Balochistan.

Pakistan welcomes foreignobservers for elections

ISLAMABADAPP

Pakistan has welcomed foreign ob-servers from various countries to showthem impartiality in the forthcominggeneral elections scheduled for May 11.

Foreign Office Spokesman AizazAhmed Chaudhry said in his weeklybriefing, “Pakistan welcomes foreignelection observers because our leader-ship is committed to hold free, fair andtransparent election in the country.”

He said this exercise would helpimprove the credibility amongst the in-ternational community.

Regarding the decision of Euro-

pean Union Election Observers to notto travel to FATA and Balochistan, thespokesman said, after getting accredi-tation from the Election Commissionof Pakistan, all the observers were is-sued a travel advisory by the InteriorMinistry. He said so far they had re-ceived requests from National Demo-cratic Institute, Commonwealth,United Kingdom, Turkey, Malaysia,Australia, Mauritius and Maldives forsending their election observers andtheir case was under process. Aboutthreatening statements by NorthKorea, the spokesman said Pakistanshared the concern of internationalcommunity on the recent tension and

deteriorating situation in Koreanpeninsula.

He said issues relating to disarma-ment, non-proliferation, strategic sta-bility in South Asia and cooperation inscience and technology would be dis-cussed during the meeting.

To a question, the spokesman de-scribed Pakistan-China friendship as asource of stability in the region and saidno one should worry about growing re-lationship between the two countries.

About India’s concern about hand-ing over of Gwadar Port to Chinese, thespokesman said Pak-China relationswere sources of strength and stabilityin the region.

LAHORE: Former member of Na-tional Assembly Jamshed Dasti an-nounced on Thursday he will contestelections from Muzaffargarh NA-177 and 178 after the election tribu-nal cleared him of all charges onWednesday, while Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) leaderChaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was alsocleared to contest elections fromNA-53 Rawalpindi.

Dasti’s announcement came ashe spoke to journalists after being re-leased from the Multan central jail.

On April 4, Dasti was disquali-

fied from elections, handed a three-year sentence in jail and a Rs 5,000penalty by the Muzaffargarh Districtand Sessions court on account ofhaving a fake degree.

Later, the Lahore High CourtMultan Bench ordered his releaseand declared the three-year jail termhanded to him as null and void ongrounds that he had not misrepre-sented or deceived authorities overhis madrassa degree.

“It is a win for the poor. Me andmy family will fight against the feu-dal system,” Dasti said addressing a

press conference. “I had said timeand again that my degree was notfake, and now I am proven right,”said a smiling Dasti.

Former leader of opposition inNational Assembly (NA) ChaudhryNisar Ali Khan’s nomination papersfor the constituency of NA-53Rawalpindi were accepted by the elec-tion tribunal also, that dismissed thereturning officer’s decision on Thurs-day. A returning officer had rejectedNisar’s papers during the scrutinyprocess for not declaring accurate de-tails about his assets. stAFF rEPOrt

Dasti, Nisar back iN the game!

SHO among five killed inBannu wedding shooting

At least five people, including a stationhouse officer (SHO) were killed duringan exchange of gunfire between twoarmed groups in a wedding ceremonyin Bannu late on Thursday night.According to a private TV channel,unidentified armed men barged into thewedding ceremony of SHOZeenatullah’s brother in MohallaAabkari in the City Police precincts.After an exchange of hot words, thetwo groups resorted to firing that leftfive people including the SHO dead, thechannel said. MONItOrINg DEsk

KARACHI: Relatives weep in the mortuary of Civil Hospital

after three city wardens were killed by unidentified

gunmen in Soldier Bazaar Area. ONLINE

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03

Friday, 12 april, 2013

Pakistan has become the only country of

the world where there is no concurrent

list for legislation. – Asfandyar Wali

ECP moves againstinterior ministerISLAMABAD: The Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP) on Thursday asked caretakerprime minister to take appropriate actionagainst the caretaker interior minister for ex-hibiting political affiliation with a particularpolitical party. In a letter to the principal secre-tary to the prime minister, the ECP said: “Suchstatement on behalf of a federal minister mayprove to be damaging to the perception ofholding free, fair and credible election in thecountry with the assistance of a politically bi-ased interim government.” The Election Com-mission secretary on behalf of CEC asked theprinciple secretary to bring this state of affairsto the notice of prime minister for considera-tion and appropriate action. Malik Habib Khanhad issued a statement in favour of PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz and various politicalparties, including Pakistan People’s Party, Pak-istan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, Awami National Party(ANP) and others had asked the commission totake notice of the same. APP

Military ponders overelection security plansRAWALPINDI: The top army commandersgathered here on Thursday and deliberated,among other matters, plans to provide securityduring the upcoming general elections.According to a statement by the Inter-ServicesPublic Relations (ISPR), the commanders hadgathered for the army’s bi-annual FormationCommanders’ Conference at the General Head-quarters.Chaired by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen-eral Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the conference wasbriefed about the prevailing internal and exter-nal security environment and other profes-sional matters.“Plans to provide security during May elec-tions as asked for by the Election Commissionof Pakistan (ECP) were also discussed and de-liberated,” the release stated. In addition to theCorps Commanders, Principal Staff Officersand all Formation Commanders also attendedthe conference. stAFF rEPOrt

ISLAMABADAPP

THE SupremeCourt (SC) wasinformed onThursday thathomework on theexercise to in-

clude overseas Pakistanis in theforthcoming general elections hadbeen completed.

The SC was further apprisedthat a recent meeting of the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) andother functionaries of the govern-ment had discussed the issue ofproviding right to franchise tooverseas Pakistanis and cameto a conclusion that their par-ticipation would be ensured.

This was told to a three-member bench comprisingChief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry, Jus-tice Gulzar Ahmed and JusticeSheikh Azmat Saeed when itresumed hearing into the identi-cal constitutional petitions ofImran Khan and others.

During the course of the pro-ceeding, ECP Director GeneralSher Afgan apprised the bench re-garding the meetings held at theECP between all the stakeholderson April 9 and 10.

He said the meetings came to aconclusion that the inclusion ofoverseas Pakistanis in the upcomingelection was quite possible and tak-ing the first step it was decided thatinitially Pakistanis residing in 10

countries would be included in thisexercise.

“About 4.5 million registeredvoters are residing in other coun-tries, of which 3.5 million are in theMiddle East and 2.9 million out ofthis figure are currently living onlyin two countries of Saudi Arabiaand the United Arab Emirates,” heinformed the court.

Afgan further apprised the court

that in Saudi Arabia about one mil-lion Pakistanis had manual pass-ports, thus they would not be able totake part in the elections becausethe machine readable passport(MRP) was a pre-requisite.

The ECP DG said NADRA hadmade E-voting software for the ex-

patriates which would be utilisedduring the elections.

Upon which, Justice Gulzarasked when an overseas wouldcaste his vote in another country, hisvote could also be used in his ownconstituency which would be tanta-mount to using one vote twice.

However, the ECP DG brushedaway this notion, saying therewould be meager chances of mis-takes in the current E-voting sys-tem.

Attorney General for PakistanIrfan Qadir told the court that the

first step towards materialisingthis goal would be legislation.

The AG said including cer-tain clauses in the legislationwould make the process ofgiving right to the expatriatesin the forthcoming electionseasier.

Qadir apprised the courtthat once the process of leg-islation was completed, they

would need help of the Min-istry for Overseas Pakistanis

and the Foreign Office.Afgan said the process of issu-

ing visas to the staff appointed inforeign missions would take two tothree weeks. The chief justicepraised the ECP, NADRA and othergovernment functionaries for theirhard work and devotion in makingthe task possible.

Later, the proceedings were ad-journed for 10 days. The SC also di-rected the ECP to submit a furtherreport on the legislation and othermatters.

Shahbaz calls forremoval of pro-PPPofficials in Centre

LAHOREstAFF rEPOrt

Former Punjab chiefminister Shahbaz

Sharif has called onthe caretaker gov-ernment to transferadministrative of-ficials in the Cen-tre to ensure free

and fair election.In a statement issued

on Thursday, the Pak-istan Muslim League-

Nawaz leader said by nottransferring officials, the caretaker governmentwas creating doubts over the credibility of the elec-tion. Shahbaz said the PPP’s favorite officers wereposted in key departments such as the National Ac-countability Bureau (NAB), the National Databaseand Registration Authority (NADRA) and the Fed-eral Board of Revenue (FBR). He said if the ECPcould write to the prime minister to express dis-pleasure over a statement of a federal minister,why couldn’t it follow the practice in removing thegovernment functionaries loyal to the PPP.

Imran seeks CEC, CJ’s help for expats’ voting rights

ISLAMABADstAFF rEPOrt

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ChairmanImran Khan onThursday ex-pressed concernover the ECP’s ex-cuses for grantingthe overseas Pak-istanis their right ofvoting and urgedChief Election Com-missioner (CEC) Justice(r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim tointervene and implement the direction made by theSupreme Court in this regard.The PTI chief made this statement during a meet-ing with a 30-member delegation comprising emi-nent overseas Pakistanis who called on him todiscuss the matter. The Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP) had reiterated its stance that itmight be impossible to include overseas Pakistanisin the polling process with days left in the generalelections due to legal and other factors.“Overseas Pakistanis are an asset for the countryand denying them the right to vote is a grave in-justice. It was PTI that had filed a petition in theSupreme Court for giving right of vote to overseasPakistanis and after the decision of the apex courtevery effort should have been made to ensure thatthis became possible,” a statement issued quotedImran Khan as telling the delegates.Khan said that he could not comprehend as to whythe options of NADRA’s e-voting software andpostal ballot were being opposed to facilitate theoverseas Pakistanis.

Bilour asks ECP to takenotice of PTI’s TVpublicity campaign

PESHAWARAPP

Former federal ministerand Awami National

Party (ANP) centralleader GhulamAhmad Bilourasked the ElectionCommission ofPakistan (ECP) to

take notice of pub-licity campaign

launched by PakistanTehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief

Imran Khan on private TVchannels. Addressing a press conference at PeshawarPress Club on Thursday, Bilour said the PTI chiefwas running a publicity campaign on private TVchannels in violation of the ECP code of conduct thatputs a limit on election expenditure of candidates.Spending on TV advertisements is not a big deal butwe are adhering to the rules and regulations set bythe ECP for the upcoming polls, Bilour added.

KARACHI/PESHAWARstAFF rEPOrt

Attacks on two election hopefulsin Hyderabad and Peshawar onThursday show that anti-stateforces are gearing up their activi-ties to disrupt the upcoming elec-tions in the country.

While an election can-didate belonging to theMuttahida QaumiMovement (MQM)was gunned downin Hyderabad onThursday morn-ing, an AwamiNational Partypoll hopeful wastargeted by abomb in Peshawarbut he was lucky toescape the attack. In Hy-derabad, two unidentifiedmotorcyclists shot dead FakharulIslam, the MQM’s candidate forSindh Assembly, in the Halanakaarea. He was shot in the chest thrice.The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistanclaimed responsibility for thebrazen attack in the evening.

In London, MQM chief AltafHussain called for the immediatearrest of Islam’s killers. InKarachi, MQM Deputy ConvenerDr Farooq Sattar called for an op-

eration to arrest the killers of thelate MQM electoral candidate.

Addressing a press conference,Sattar condemned the murder ofthe MQM electoral candidate andreiterated his party’s “zero toler-ance” policy for terrorism. He de-manded that an operation becarried out to arrest the perpetra-tors behind Islam’s murder.

He further stated that innocentcitizens in peaceful areas ofKarachi were being harassed bypolice and Rangers officials underthe pretext of operations. He addedthat MQM’s election process wasalso being hindered. Meanwhile,Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khosohas taken notice of the murder and

ordered an investigation. ANP LEADER TAR-

GETED: Sepa-rately, a blast nearthe former agri-culture ministerArbab AyubJan’s car injuredone of hisguards in Pe-

shawar. Accord-ing to initial

reports, it was a road-side bomb which tar-

geted Jan’s car in thejurisdiction of Chamkani PoliceStation. Jan escaped unhurt in theincident. Jan is a senior memberof the Awami National Party(ANP) and will be participating inthe upcoming elections on NA-4seat for Peshawar-IV. TheTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan hadearlier threatened to attack elec-tion rallies and candidates of thePakistan People’s Party, AwamiNational Party and MQM..

Expats to be part of polls process, SC told

PAKISTANIS RESIDING IN 10 COUNTRIES WOULD BE

INCLUDED IN THIS EXERCISE…ABOUT 4.5 MILLION REGISTEREDVOTERS ARE RESIDING IN OTHER

COUNTRIES, OF WHICH 3.5MILLION ARE IN THE MIDDLE EASTAND 2.9 MILLION ARE CURRENTLY

LIVING ONLY IN SAUDI ARABIA AND THE UNITEDARAB EMIRATES.

attacks on electionhopefuls raise fearsfor peaceful polls

MQM CALLS FOROPERATION AFTERCANDIDATE ISGUNNED DOWN IN HYDERABAD

FAkhAruL IsLAM

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Friday, 12 april, 2013

If attacks on Salala can be

stopped then why not drone

strikes. — PHC Chief Justice

Dost Muhammad Khan

LHC admits plea onpostponing polls,summons FBRofficial overscrutiny issueLAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) onThursday admitted a plea pertaining topostponement of general elections andsummoned the Federal Board of Revenue(FBR) Director Intelligence to appearbefore the court on Friday (today). As theLHC’s full bench resumed hearing, thepetitioner argued that scrutiny ofcandidates was not held correctly, addingthat the FBR and State Bank of Pakistan(SBP) had not provided returning officers(ROs) with a list of defaulters which meantthey accepted the nomination paperswithout considering it. He requested thecourt to postpone elections for two monthsso that a strict scrutiny of candidates couldbe held. The deputy attorney generalargued that the petitioner wanted to derailthe democratic system. Following this thebench summoned FBR’s intelligencedirector on Friday. stAFF rEPOrt

India to offergroup tourist visato PakistanisNEW DELHI: After launching visa onarrival (VoA) facility for Pakistani seniorcitizens, India has initiated the process toprovide the group tourist visa on areciprocal basis. The group tourist visawas to be launched from March 15, butmissed the deadline due to tensionbetween the two countries after violationof ceasefire on the LoC. A senior IndianHome Ministry official said, “The momentNew Delhi gets the list of authorised touroperators from Islamabad, the ‘grouptourist’ visa would be launched. India hasalready identified 18 such tour\traveloperators on its side and shared it withPakistan.” According to the new liberalisedvisa pact between the two countries, thegroup tourist visa would be offered for 30days to tourists traveling in groups withnot less than 10 members and not morethan 50 members, organised by approvedtour operators or travel agents. INP

No pension forjudges with lessthan five-yearservice: SCISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court hasdeclared null and void a law allowingpension to judges of the high courts‚ havingless than 5 years’ service. A five-memberbench, headed by Justice Anwar ZaheerJamali, heard the judges’ pension case onThursday. The court in its short rulingdeclared null and void the verdict of abench, headed by Justice Nawaz Abbasi,which in 2008 ruled that whosoeverelevated to the high court had theentitlement of the perks and pension. Thecourt said that now judges having less thana five-year service would not be entitled topension and other perks. ONLINE

Youtubeunblocking beingconsidered!Caretaker Minister for Information ArifNizami has said that his ministry wouldask the department concerned toconsider the unblocking of Youtube in thecountry, a private TV channel reportedon Thursday. It is now almost eightmonths after the government blockedthe video sharing website due to an anti-Islam film. The website was restoredthree months ago but was blocked withinhours after it was learnt that theblasphemous content was still present onthe website. MONItOrINg DEsk

WASHINGTONAgENCIEs

US President Barack Obama’s pro-posed budget unveiled onWednesday calls for cuts of atleast $4.4 billion to America’s in-

telligence agencies, in a sign of growingfiscal pressures. Obama is requesting$48.2 billion for the CIA and other spyagencies starting October 1, down from aproposed $52.6 billion for fiscal year2013, according to the national intelli-

gence director’s office.Separately, the Pentagon said it had re-

quested $14 billion for military intelli-gence programmes, down from $21.5billion spent in fiscal year 2012. The fig-ure reflected a trend in recent years, withthe Pentagon – which funds a number ofspy services – scaling back intelligencespending since 2010. But the numbers re-leased did not include funding related tothe war in Afghanistan or other “overseascontingency operations”, officials said.

The intelligence budgets pay for an

array of spy satellitesand high-tech equip-ment as well as tens ofthousands of employ-ees, including analysts,linguistic experts, cryp-tologists, cyber special-ists, paramilitaryoperations such as dronestrikes and traditional spies in thefield. The US government only recentlybegan disclosing figures on intelligencefunding, but the latest announcement of-

fered no break-down of the spend-ing on what iswidely considered

to be the world’slargest intelligence

budget. Apart from thefunding reductions en-visaged in the presi-

dent’s request, the intelligenceagencies are already facing steep auto-

matic budget cuts due to a long-runningpolitical impasse in Congress.

ECP wantsreshuffling of 65 topSindh bureaucratsKARACHI: The Election Commissionof Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday orderedtransfers of top 65 Sindh bureaucrats in-cluding chief secretary and home secre-tary. According to the ECP, the orders toreshuffle Sindh’s top bureaucrats were is-sued following receipt of several com-plaints. The ECP ordered to transfer chiefsecretary, additional chief secretary andhome secretary of Sindh, while principlesecretary of interim Sindh chief minister,city commissioner, secretary education,secretary local government and secretaryservices and general administrative de-partment had been replaced already. Ac-cording to the ECP orders, high rankingofficials of Sindh police department in-cluding Jamshoro district commissioner,Larkana district inspector general andNaushero Feroz district commission werealso transferred. stAFF rEPOrt

Hearing of Sharif

family’s graft cases

adjourned until 26th RAWALPINDI: An accountability courton Thursday adjourned the hearing ofthree references against the Sharif family– the Ittefaq Foundry, the HuddaibiyaPaper Mills and the Raiwind corruptionreferences – until April 26. Special Ac-countability Court (No-4) JudgeChaudhry Abdul Haq adjourned the hear-ing without any proceeding as a petitionwas being heard in the RawalpindiBench of the Lahore Hight Court (LHC)filed by the Sharif family seeking dis-missal of the references. APP

WASHINGTONONLINE

US intelligence officialswere aware that at leastone civilian had died indrone strikes in Pakistanduring 2011, despite claimsto the contrary made by theman now running theCentral IntelligenceAgency.In June 2011, JohnBrennan, at the timePresident Barack Obama’schief counterterrorismadviser, stated publicly thatfor “almost a year” nocivilian had died in USdrone strikes in Pakistan.But leaked US intelligencedocuments obtained bynews agency McClatchyshow this was not true.According to nationalsecurity reporter JonathanLandry, the intelligencedocuments, whichchronicle the drone war inPakistan, admit to acivilian death on April 222011 – two months prior toBrennan’s public claim. Atthe time of the strike, ananonymous US official had

insisted to CNN that “thereis no evidence to supportthat claim [of civiliancasualties] whatsoever”.The April 22 drone strikehit a house before dawn,killing at least 25 people inNorth Waziristan. Sevenmedia organisationsreported that at least fivecivilians died, includingthree children. BothAssociated Press and thebureau sent investigatorsinto the field. Eachconfirmed that civilians,including women andchildren, were killed in theattack. The McClatchyinvestigation involves themost significant leak so farof US intelligencedocuments covering theCIA’s Pakistan drone war.The documents, which havenot yet been published, aresaid to cover two periods:2006 to 2008, and January2010 to September 2011.Reporting on the leakedpapers indicate that whatUS officials say publiclyabout drone strikes doesnot always match theirprivate records.

ISLAMABAD APP

The Supreme Court on Thursdaytermed the report of Chief Secre-tary Balochistan unsatisfactory re-garding utilisation of the PublicSector Development Programmefunds in the province.

The three-member bench, com-prising Chief Justice of Pakistan(CJP) Iftikhar Chaudhry, JusticeSheikh Azmat Saeed and JusticeGulzar Ahmed resumed the hearingof Abdul Rahim’s petition regard-ing misuse of PSDP in Balochistan.

During the hearing, counsel forpetitioner Iftikhar Gillani informedthe court that 502 developmentschemes were not completed during

the year 2011-12, while, next year thefigure was increased to 720 develop-ment schemes. In his remarks, JusticeGulzar Ahmed said that the reportwas not finalised in a serious manner.The CJP directed the Balochistangovernment to utilise 75 percent re-maining developmental funds.

He said that the people of theprovince was deprived of their duerights and added that those at thehelm of affairs were responsible forit. He observed that the officials in-volved in corruption should be ap-prehended. The court also lifted banon use of developmental funds inBalochistan. The counsel for theBalochistan government informedthe court that the matter was referredto the National Accountability Bu-

reau (NAB) for further investigation.The court also expressed its reserva-tion over the utilisation of develop-ment funds during the last five years.

The counsel for the Balochistangovernment also submitted a reportregarding completion of develop-ment projects after transfer offunds. The CJP said that everymember of the provincial assemblyreceived Rs 250 million for devel-opment schemes but they failed toremove sense of deprivation amongthe masses. The court also directedthe Balochistan chief secretary tosubmit report of amended schemeswith his signature. The court alsoissued notice to Attorney General inthis regard. Later, the court ad-journed the hearing for two weeks.

NEW DELHIINP

India has granted a one-monthvisa extension to all thosePakistani Hindus who failedto return after expiry of theirvisas on April 8.

The extension applies toabout 480 Pakistani citizenswho entered India through theRajasthan border to attend theMahakumbh. Most of themhave sought asylum citingvaried reasons. Officials in thehome ministry said the gov-

ernment would take a “sympa-thetic” view of those who donot want to return. “All thesePakistanis will be treated likeany other asylum seeker onhumanitarian grounds, irre-spective of what their religionsare,” a senior home ministryofficial said, adding that noone would be forced to leavethe country at this juncture.Officials hinted that providingthem Indian citizenship was anoption but India would preferto grant them long-term visason humanitarian grounds.

Obama budget cuts funds forUS spy agencies OBAMA IS REQUESTING

$48.2 BILLION FOR THE CIAAND OTHER SPY AGENCIESSTARTING OCTOBER 1,

DOWN FROM A PROPOSED$52.6 BILLION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013

UTILISATION OF PSDP FUNDS(

(

SC terms Balochistan govt’s

report unsatisfactory

‘No civilian dronedeaths’ in Pakistanclaim was false, sayUS documents

A month’s visaextension for PakistaniHindus in India

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In philosophy seminars, the choice is usually between good

and evil. In the real world, however, the choice is often

between a bad guy and a worse guy. –Dinesh D’Souza

LAHORENADEEM syED

WITH exactly a monthleft for the much-awaited historic generalelections to take place,the city is experiencing

an eerie silence as political parties haveyet to launch their election campaigns.The sights, sounds and colours, that buzzso to speak, associated with electioneeringis nowhere to be seen. And even the goodnews about Basant that cheered the

Lahoris also having been consigned towhere it has been for while now – the stateof limbo – there is precious littleexcitement on the street.

The reason for this sombre mood wassaid to be the hesitation shown of the maincontestants for the prize of Lahore andPunjab, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in taking a leap offaith by naming their candidates for thecity’s constituencies.

Both the mentioned parties have beendelaying formally pitching their candidateson one pretext or the other. Interestingly,both the parties have witnessed some uglyinfighting when within each of them triedto sway the selection process. The intensityof the clashes also spilled over outside thedefined boundaries as some aspiringcandidates openly protested to shout theirown fellow party members out ofcontention.

Officially leaders from both theseparties have announced that decisionswould be made public after the scrutiny ofcandidacy papers was finalized. Thescrutiny phase has now well behind us, yetthere is little clarity on the issue.

This dillydallying by the decision-makers in both the PML-N and the PTIdoes not bode well. Apart from preciouscampaign time being lost, the candidates inthe metropolis might well burn out before

the well before the kicked off.It was possible that both the PML-N

and the PTI wanted the other to divulge itscandidates’ lineup first, so that the onefollowing suit has the benefit of assessing

its best option in what definitely is a highstakes game in the heart of Punjab.

Either that, or else the parties weredamn sure about the success of their

nominees no matter when the campaigningstarted.

Whatever be the case, without thecandidates from two of the main partiesjoining the fray in their respectiveconstituencies, the political campaignremains an insipid affair so far.

The delay in the announcement ofcandidates was already testing the nervesof the respective potential candidates. It ispertinent to mention here that there was acutthroat competition going on amongcandidates over each and everyconstituency.

“There are six or seven candidates inthe race for the party ticket in eachconstituency. And nobody is sure whowill be the lucky one,” said a PML-Nleader.

The electioneering cannot commencein earnest because the hopefuls are toomany in each constituency, and none isgoing to pump resources into his or hercampaign until the issue is pending. Itwould not be wrong to say that the latearrival of candidates into the campaigningarena could affect their campaign in manyways.

In Pakistan’s political culture, it was acommon practice to mostly accommodatecandidates on first come first serve basis intheir respective constituencies.

If aspiring candidates were to approacha local group or influential personalities in

their respective constituencies before theothers contestants, they have a betterchance of a steady cruise with the backingof influential local people.

In such a culture, late comers wereusually turned down with the traditionalone-liner, “We have already made thecommitment”.

The lethargic attitude of leaders fromthe PML-N and the PTI in announcingtheir candidates was proving a bit weightyfor the unsure shoulders of aspiringcandidates and they were not a bit amusedwith the languor brought on by thedelaying tactics of their respectiveleaderships.

The candidates believed that their latearrival in the constituencies would make itdifficult for them to conduct door-to-doorcanvassing which was an important part ofelectioneering.

Interestingly, without receivingassurance from their respective parties, thecandidates were finding themselves in atight squeeze as they were unable to orderthe printing of their election posters,banners and other related articles requiredto attract public attention during electioncampaigns.

“Electioneering is a lengthy process. Ittakes some time before the requiredmaterial is printed and then placed atdifferent locations within the constituency,”a political leader said.

PML-N, PTI candidates: The stalemate lingers on

Electioneering

activities are not

picking up in

the metropolis and

the delay is hurting

the overall standing

of the candidates

LahoreFriday, 12 april, 2013

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IT’S TIME TOSHUFFLEACs NOw!LAHORE: Being true to itspromise of reshufflingbureaucracy to the grassroot in Punjab, thecaretaker government haschanged the assistantcommissioners (ACs) inthe entire province,Pakistan Today has learnt.In one of the mostanticipated moves, theone which has literallyshaken up the provincialbureaucracy, 139 ACs fromall tehsils of the provincehave been transferred.“The ACs are revenueofficers and command alot of influence in the localarea and its politics,developing close ties withthe winning MPA and MNA.Changing the last tier ofbureaucracy in the entireprovince is a great stepwhich will purify thebureaucratic structure toits bones,” said a seniorofficial, seeking anonymity.uMAIr AzIz

LAHOREuMAIr AzIz

The provincial capital has become a centreof attention for foreign diplomats who aremaking frequent visits to meet ‘persons ofimportance’ including the incumbent chiefexecutive, Pakistan Today has learnt.

The recent and sudden inflow ofambassadors in the metropolitan has raisedmany eyebrows turning the metropolitaninto the new “Islamabad” considering thehigh-level movement that has been noticed.Turkish diplomats have been an addition tothe usual visitors from United States (US)and United Kingdom (UK) this timearound. In the past, all such “high-level”meetings were held in the federal capital

but the focus seems to have shifted, withmovement being noticed in Lahore.

The trend is indicative of the fact thatglobal powers are concerned about their“interests” right ahead of the historic shiftof power from one civilian regime toanother. Interestingly, diplomats aremeeting representatives of not just a singleparty, and the trend is to meet not onlythose who remained in power for the lastfive years but also new entrants such as thePakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).

Politicians observing the shift have

termed it as a “positive development”.Senator Pervaiz Rasheed of the Pakistan

Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said goneare the days of “one-window operation”when foreign diplomats had to meet only oneman in Islamabad. Now a civilian regime hasbeen in power and another civilian set-upwill assume power after the upcominggeneral elections. “Politicians, whicheverpolitical party they belong to, are morepatriotic than any other claimant and willlook after the country’s interest better thananyone before them,” Rasheed said.

Responding to a question, he said the regionhad become very important with the world’smost powerful countries stationed in ourbackyard that have “interests” they need tosecure and share with politicians. “There isno foreign conspiracy but a positive shift thatnow the foreign diplomats have to come tothe doorsteps of politicians instead of theprevious trend of meeting a single man andgetting documents signed,” he added.

Another senior bureaucrat privy to thedevelopments revealed that every countryhas different interests and as part of their

routine job, they have to report a roundup oftheir meetings on any such developmentsback to their respective governments. TheTurkish, for example, have their investmentsin the province and they would want themsecured not only during the interim set upbut even afterwards. “Like our own foreignoffice, every ambassador wants to be in linewith its country’s own foreign policyguidelines and hence it should only be takenas a routine practice,” he added.

PTI’s Shafqat Mehmood saiddiplomats always keep connections withpolitical parties, general public and the civilsociety. “This is not something which isunusual. We should not be paranoid of suchsmall developments by terming them athreat to national security,” he added.

Lahore buzzing with foreign diplomats

SEASONAL TRENDS: A printing business owner at Royal Park displays t-shirts, calling in for candidates contesting elections to try out this unique mode of

advertisement in their election campaigns. MurtAzA ALI

05

LHR 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 6:59 AM Page 5

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No man will ever bring out of that office the reputation which carries him into it.

The honeymoon would be as short in that case as in any other, and its moments of

ecstasy would be ransomed by years of torment and hatred. –Thomas Jefferson

LAHOREuMAIr AzIz

FORMER lawminister RanaSanaullah has notvacated hisofficial house in

Government Officers’ Residence– 1 (GOR-1) despite the end of

his term and the graceperiod, Pakistan

Today learnt onThursday.

Sanaullah’scontinued

possession of his house has raised many questionsbecause all other ministers have vacated theirofficial residences.

According to the rules, a minister could delayvacating his official residence for not more than 15days after the deadline.

However, sources revealed that Sanaullah stilloccupied the official residence, 3-Patiala Block inGOR-I, while his grace period ended on April 6.

It has become a matter of grave concern for thecaretaker setup with its impartiality under questionas Sanaullah’s possession of the house givescredence to the impression that the PML-N is stillpulling the strings in Punjab.

A senior official, seeking anonymity saidthat getting the house vacated from Sanaullah

was going to be a challenge for the caretakersand the senior bureaucracy because many ofthem were still ‘connected’ with the formerrulers. Punjab Additional Chief Secretary (ACS)Rao Iftikhar said it was news for him thatSanaullah was still occupying the officialresidence. After confirming the news from hissubordinates, he said they will make sure thatSanaullah vacatesthe house.

Despiterepeatedattempts,Sanaullah wasnot available forcomments.

sanaullah hangs on to official residence

LAHORE: The computer and internet savvycaretaker cabinet’s reliance on laptops hassurprised their staff and secretariat officials,who consider it a major shift from thetraditional mode of working of ministers,Pakistan Today has learnt. The move cameas a surprise for senior bureaucrats when afew cabinet members demanded internetUSB ports because they worked on theirlaptops - something which is consideredvery ‘novel’ for government officials who areused to the traditional mode of working.

“Traditionally, cabinet members don’t uselaptops or computers, only governmentofficials gave presentations using these. Sothis is definitely a surprise for us,” an officialexplained, on the condition of anonymity.Even caretaker Chief Minister Najam Sethi ina recent meeting with journalists quippedthat no one from amongst his staff knew thepassword of his computer. “Even the emailaddress of the chief minister was not activeand no one knew the password,” Sethiadded. stAFF rEPOrt

LAHOREAPP

An election tribunal of theLahore High Court onThursday refused to hearelection appeals againstacceptance of nominationpapers of PML-N PresidentNawaz Sharif, PML-N leaderShahbaz Sharif and PTIChairman Imran Khan.

The tribunal –comprising Justice KhawajaImtiaz Ahmad and JusticeKhalid Mehmood Khan –referred the appeals to theElection Commission ofPakistan (ECP) with a

request to fix them beforeanother tribunal.

Justice Ahmad refused tohear the appeals againstacceptance of nominationpapers of Nawaz and Shahbazfrom NA-120 and PP-161respectively, observing thathe had given a verdict infavour of the Sharif family onpetitions seeking quashmentof references against them.“Therefore, it is notappropriate for me to hear theappeals,” he added. JusticeKhan refused to hear theappeal against acceptance ofImran’s nomination papersfrom NA-122. The tribunal

referred all appeals to theECP, requesting it to fix thembefore another tribunal.

Tariq Ahmad, AfshaanAmeeruddin, and SohailMalik had challenged theacceptance of Nawaz’ papersfrom NA-120 and pleaded thetribunal to dismiss hisnomination papers. RanaMuhammad Sajjad challengedacceptance of Shahbaz’ papersfrom PP-161 and pleaded thetribunal to dismiss hisnomination papers. JunaidMurtaza and others hadchallenged acceptance ofImran’s papers from NA-122and sought dismissal.

PML-N’sroosters comehome to roost LAHORE: Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)workers from Gujranwalaon Thursday staged a‘murgha’ protest in frontof the party office inLahore, showingdiscontent over theissuance of party tickets.According to details, PML-N workers recorded theirunique protest by bendinginto a posture popularlyknown as the ‘murgha’ infront of the party office.They were disgruntledover the fact that formerMPA Sheikh MumtazHashmi was not given aticket to contest for PP-96Gujranwala seat. PML-Ncadres have beenincreasingly creative withprotests over party tickets.Last week, several partyworkers climbed electricitypoles and refused to comedown when their favoriteleaders were not issuedparty tickets. stAFF rEPOrt

TECH SAVVY CARETAKER CABINETSURPRISES OLdIES

Tribunal refuses to hear appealsagainst Nawaz, Shahbaz, Imran

LHR 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 6:59 AM Page 6

Yemeni presidentorders militaryshake-upSANA’A: Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has ordered theremoval of top security officials fromgovernment, in a major shake-updirected at allies of ousted president AliAbdullah Saleh. Hadi removed BrigadierGeneral Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh ashead of the elite Republican Guard,appointing him ambassador to theUnited Arab Emirates, the country’sstate-run television reported onWednesday. The military commander isa son of the former president.General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar,commander of the First ArmouredDivision and a rival of Ahmed Saleh,was named presidential adviser formilitary affairs. In a separatestatement sent to Al Jazeera, Yemen’sembassy in Washington, DC, said Hadi’sorder also covered two nephews of theformer president, who had served in thePresidential Guard and the intelligenceservice. Brigadier Tariq MohammedAbdullah Saleh was named defenceattaché to Germany, while ColonelAmmar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh wasappointed to a similar post in Ethiopia.Dozens of military officials were named in the statement provided to AlJazeera. AgENCIEs

Israel detainswomen overprayer practicesTEL AVIV: Israeli police have arrestedfive women at the Western Wall, one ofJudaism’s holiest sites, for wearingprayer shawls and amulets -observances which Orthodox traditionsees as solely for men. Policespokesman Micky Rosenfeld said about120 woman arrived for their monthlyprayer service on Thursday and fivewere detained for wearing the tallits(prayer shawls) and tefillin(phylacteries). Those arrested werepart of the “Women of the Wall” groupwhich campaigns for gender equality inreligious practice. They routinelyconvene for prayer sessions around thestart of each month at the WesternWall, revered by Jews as a perimeterwall of the Biblical Temple in Jerusalem,and several are routinely arrested andoften released without charge. The site,under strict Orthodox ritual law, barswomen from wearing the religiousclothing or publicly reading from theholy scriptures and is divided intomen’s and women’s sections. AgENCIEs

07

NewsFriday, 12 april, 2013

I’m undaunted in my quest to amuse

myself by constantly changing my

hair. — Hillary Clinton N

DHAKAAgENCIEs

Aprotester from Bangladesh’slargest Islamic party was shotdead on Thursday as policeopened fire at hundreds of op-position activists on the fourth

day of a nationwide strike.Police said the shooting occurred in

the southern town of Dumuria where theyfired live rounds at 500 supporters of theJamaat-e-Islami party, during protests todemand the release of the head of its stu-dent wing. The violence is the latest to hitBangladesh stemming from a continuingwar crimes tribunal, at which almost theentire Jamaat leadership is in the dock forcrimes committed during the 1971 war ofindependence against Pakistan.

The latest killing brought the overalldeath toll from clashes triggered by thetrials to 98 since January 21 when thecourt handed down its first verdicts.

“Police opened fire after they cameunder attack from 500 Jamaat support-ers,” Khulna district police chief Ghulam

Rouf Khan said, adding that the protest-ers fired guns and hurled home-madebombs at police. “A Jamaat man, hit witha bullet in the chest, died on the way to ahospital,” another police officer, KaziAbu Salek, said.

Some 20 Jamaat supporters were hitwith bullets and five police officers were

injured in the clashes, online newspaperbdnews24.com said.

The trials have plunged the impov-erished country into one of its most tur-bulent chapters since independence.Analysts fear lasting damage to thefabric of the world’s eighth-most pop-ulous country.

Islamist shot deadin Bangladeshviolence

ALEPPO: A Syrian man lowers a basket filled

with belongings as civilians collect items from

their damaged apartments on Thursday. AgENCIEs

NEWSPAPER EDITOR ARRESTED IN RAIDDHAKA: Police in Bangladesh have arrested the acting editor of a pro-opposition newspaper on various charges. Mahmudur Rahman was arrested ina raid on the office of the Bengali-language Amar Desh newspaper in Dhaka onThursday. Security officials would not immediately say what charges would bebrought against him. The Ekattor TV station said the editor would face eightcharges, including sedition and cybercrime. Police told local media thatRahman would appear before a Dhaka court later on Thursday. Leaders of thegovernment’s ruling party have accused the daily of inciting violence duringrecent political unrest. Amar Desh is the leading opposition paper in thecountry. Its circulation and online audience have increased significantly due torecent investigative reports and its anti-government stand. Human rightsgroups have accused the ruling Awami League party of harassment of Rahmanand his paper. Government officials filed charges including defamation andsedition against him in 2009, 2010 and 2012. AgENCIEs

PARISAgENCIEs

France’s top rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, has re-signed amid a scandal over plagiarism RabbiBernheim had admitted to plagiarising severalauthors and lying about an academic status onhis CV, reports said.

He has resigned with immediate effect, thebody governing France’s Jewish congregationsannounced. Members of the Central Israeli Con-sistory of France had been meeting in emergencysession in Paris.

“He recognised his faults, apologised andgave explanations,” Sammy Ghoslan, the consis-tory’s vice-president, told AFP news agency. Hisresignation as grand rabbi was “a solution that

brings more serenity. We all agreed,” he said. CHANGING STANCE: Rabbi Bernheim hadbeen accused of plagiarising other authors forsections of his 2011 book, Forty Jewish Medi-tations. And AFP said it had established that aclaim on his CV that he had been awarded aprestigious but rarely granted philosophy aca-demic status from Sorbonne University wasalso not true.

It has also emerged that parts of an essay hewrote arguing against gay marriage - cited bythe then Pope Benedict XVI in an address inDecember - may also have been similar to pre-existing works. Rabbi Bernheim had initiallydenied all wrongdoing, and had then assertedthat the plagiarism in his book had been carriedout by an assistant.

SYRIA ANd NORTH KOREAdOMINATE G8 MEETING

LONDON: US Secretary of State John Kerryand other G8 foreign ministers are holding

a second day of talks in London focusedon Syria and North Korea. Britain wasexpected to call for more help for the

Syrian opposition but there were no signsof a major shift in policy, a day after rebels

again appealed for weapons.. Western andMiddle Eastern nations supporting the opposi-

tion will meet in Turkey on April 20, a US offi-cial said as foreign ministers of the Group of

Eight nations met. US Secretary of StateJohn Kerry will attend the meeting of theso-called Friends of Syria “core group” inIstanbul, said the official, who spoke to re-porters on condition of anonymity. North

Korean threats of war will also be high onthe agenda of the G8 talks, which began inLondon over dinner on Wednesday and weredue to end on Thursday. AgENCIEs

France’s top rabbi Gilles Bernheimquits in plagiarism row

57 killed in army assault insouthern Syria

DAMASCUS AgENCIEs

Six children were among at least 57people killed in southern Syria as thearmy launched an all-out assault on twotowns in Daraa province, a watchdogsaid on Thursday. “At least six children,seven women, 16 rebel fighters, 16other unidentified men and 12 armytroops were killed on Wednesday, infighting, shelling and summaryexecutions waged after the armylaunched an assault on Al-Sanameinand Ghabagheb,” the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights said.Observatory director Rami AbdelRahman told AFP the army’s assaultcame a day after a dozen troopsdefected from a nearby military post tojoin the rebels. “The defectors tookrefuge in the area of Al-Sanamein andGhabagheb, which up until then hadremained somewhat more calm thanother areas of Daraa,” said AbdelRahman. “The army launched itsassault, and shelled several houses,” headded. Nationwide, at least 179 peoplewere killed in violence on Wednesday— 50 civilians, 86 rebels and 43soldiers, the Observatory said. OnThursday, at least four militarypersonnel were killed when rebels shotdown a helicopter delivering supplies tobesieged troops in Idlib province in thenorthwest, the Observatory said. Rebelshave laid siege to the sprawling WadiDeif camp for several months and itsgarrison can only be resupplied by air.Amateur video footage distributed bythe Observatory showed onlookersgathered around at least three bloodiedcorpses in an open field.

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NewsNFriday 12 april, 2013

08 Caretaker regime will take all possible

steps to ensure free, fair and transparent

elections in the country. – Arif Nizami

IHC suspends NABorder for recoveryof electricity bills

ISLAMABADAPP

The Islamabad High Court on Thursdaysuspended the order of National Accounta-bility Bureau (NAB) for recovery of elec-tricity charges by the Faisalabad ElectricSupply Company (FESCO) from privatecompany owners against fuel adjustmentcharges. NAB issued order on March 3 di-recting the owners of private companies todeposit the electricity bills along with thefuel adjustment charges.The court also issued pre-admission noticesto the Water and Power Ministry’s secre-tary, WAPDA, FESCO chief executive andothers. A division bench of the IHC, com-prising of Chief Justice Anwar Khan Kasiand Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi, re-sumed the hearing of a plea filed by ownersof around 52 companies seeking nullifica-tion of the NAB orders.Muhammad Nawaz, counsel for the peti-tioners, apprised the bench that NAB orderfor recovery of fuel adjustment charges wasirrational.He requested to declare NAB order ille-gal that followed the adjournment of thehearing.

PHC orders arrest ofinterior secretaryover FC deployment

PESHAWARstAFF rEPOrt

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thurs-day issued arrest warrants for secretary, addi-tional secretary and deputy secretary of thefederal interior ministry for failing to abideby court orders. PHC Chief Justice DostMuhammad Khan while hearing a suo motocase pertaining to deployment of FrontierCorps (FC) soldiers in other parts of thecounty, expressed anger over non-complianceof court orders, seeking a pullout of paramili-tary troops. Officials were directed to appearbefore the court many times but they did notturn up. The chief justice ordered their arrestas well as suspension of their salaries.

Pakistan army tries to win over local population in war-torn tribal regionSARAROGHA

AgENCIEs

Driving through high mountainpasses with mud brick housesperched on cliffs overhead andcaves down below where Talibanfighters used to hide, Brig. HassanHayat talks excitedly about thePakistan army’s latest operations inthese long-hostile tribal areas.

“Now we are getting into theolives,” he said as the road passedthrough groves of trees, explaininghow the military has been bringingin Italian olive trees to graft ontolocal growers’ trees to improve pro-duction. “Some 400 trees we’ve al-ready done.”

He had wanted to plant daf-fodils, he mentioned at anotherpoint in the trip. But it turned outthe flowers would be too hard toexport. Bee farms have provenmore productive.

After battling Taliban militantsin the tribal areas borderingAfghanistan for over a decade, thePakistani military is engaged in anew fight, aiming to win over apopulation who are returning totheir homes in the region after yearsliving as refugees in their owncountry and who harbor a long-standing mistrust of the central gov-ernment.

The military is rebuilding infra-structure and setting up economicand job projects for the populationin South Waziristan, one of theseven tribal regions along the bor-der with Afghanistan. It’s a classic

counterinsurgency tactic similar tothat used by the U.S. military —with mixed results — in Iraq andAfghanistan. The aim is to decreasesupport for militants and bringpeace to a troubled region — in thiscase, tribal areas that have longbeen sanctuaries for the Taliban andother militant groups fueling insta-bility in both Afghanistan and Pak-istan.

“Once the people are moreaware, more educated, they will nottake up arms but go for the devel-opment and be a positive contribu-tor in society,” said Hayat.

With a month to go before na-tionwide elections that will see atransfer of power from one electedgovernment to another for the firsttime in Pakistan’s history, securitywill be a major campaign issue.Since many of Pakistan’s securityproblems are linked to what hap-pens in the tribal regions, the suc-cess or failure of thecounterinsurgency campaign couldhave major repercussions for therest of the country. “The populationwas hostage to these people,” saidHayat. “They had their own rule oflaw. Whatever they wanted theycould do in this area.”

But many residents have asofter recollection of Taliban rule.Many said they didn’t have a prob-lem with the Taliban and only fledbecause of the fighting.

“During the Taliban time thesituation was good generally. TheTaliban have not done anythingwrong to anyone. Pakistan and Tal-

iban have the problem,” said SamiUllah, who owns a hotel and restau-rant that opened in late March inSararogha, thanks to the army’s re-habilitation efforts.

The army, which essentiallyruns South Waziristan now,launched the rehabilitation and re-building program in 2010. It hasgrown since, mostly in the easternpart of the territory.

But major challenges remain.Only about 15 percent of residentswho fled have been allowed to re-turn, as the military lets them backonly at the rate that their towns arerebuilt.

Many of those who have re-turned complain about lack of com-pensation and services. They chafeagainst military restrictions. Thearmy, for example, has stopped mo-bile phone services, likely to pre-vent the Taliban from using them to

communicate or detonate bombs.No one is allowed to carryweapons, angering tribesmen whoconsider their rifles a symbol of in-dependence and pride. Anyone en-tering or leaving South Waziristanis checked against a database ofwho is allowed in and who is not.

It’s also unclear when, if ever,the military will be able to handover power to a civilian govern-ment in South Waziristan, a terri-tory about the size of Delaware.

“The progress is slow,” saidAbdur Rahim Khan, who is runningin the May 11 election for a parlia-ment seat in a South Waziristan dis-trict. His own village has not yetbeen resettled and most of his po-tential constituents are scatteredaround the country.

One of the military’s mosthigh-profile projects is the roadsbeing built in areas previously only

accessible by four-wheel drive,camel or on foot. The U.S. govern-ment’s development arm is payingfor most of the roads. Part of theplan is to open a new corridor togive traders easy access fromAfghanistan to Pakistan’s centralPunjab province, the heart of thecountry’s agriculture and manufac-turing.

In Sararogha, local business-man Danet Khan said the new roadssave time and money. On the gravelroads, the average vehicle only sur-vived four or five years. Now thesmooth two-lane highway throughhis village cuts travel time dramat-ically.

The military has built shoppingareas where villagers now sellgoods out of small shop fronts withroll-down metal doors painted witha green and white Pakistani flag. Abarber — something forbiddenunder the Taliban — cuts hair inone of the stalls, though he saysmost residents don’t need a shavebecause they still prefer longbeards. Hayat would like to bring ina CD shop, something also bannedby the Taliban.

Soccer fields, schools, poultryfarms and homes for widows havebeen built, and the military is tryingto rehabilitate a leather factorysacked by the Taliban.

With few jobs at home, familieshere have historically survived onwages from family members sent towork in the Pakistani port city ofKarachi or the Persian Gulf. So thearmy built a vocational school to

teach local men skills like comput-ers and electricity repair. Sincemany people also joined the mili-tants simply because they paid well,the school potentially deprives theTaliban of new recruits.

“They don’t have any opportu-nities. They need something to liveon. That’s why they joined the Tal-iban,” said one student studying tobe an electrician, Sajjad Ahmed.

A cadet college run by Pak-istani military officers was pro-vided after requests from localresidents who have been starved ofquality schools and plagued by anabsence of decent teachers.

In the long term, the future ofthis region will be influenced inlarge part by what happens inAfghanistan. American troops arescheduled to leave at the end of2014. Pakistani military officialsworry about a repeat of the civilwar that followed the 1989 pulloutof Soviet forces.

And the final goal of handingSouth Waziristan to a civilian gov-ernment is a long way off.

“Right now we are ok and feelsafe as long as the army is around,but I am not sure about the future,”said one local resident, Malik Fa-reed Khan.

But for real stability, the tribalareas need to be better connectedwith the rest of Pakistan.

“The military is playing its rolebut at the end of the day, you needto answer those questions to be suc-cessful in bringing total peace,”said Hayat.

ISLAMABADstAFF rEPOrt

CHIEF Justice ofPakistan (CJP)Iftikhar Muham-mad Chaudhry hassaid that intelli-gence agencies

should stop playing hide and seekgames with the Supreme Court (SC).

The CJP gave these remarks whilepresiding over a three-member benchhearing the Adiala missing prisoners’case on Thursday.

During the hearing, Attorney General(AG) Irfan Qadir said an extraordinarysituation prevailed, therefore, civil powershad been delegated to the army. “Nationalsecurity is in jeopardy and an emergency-like situation has gripped the country.Therefore, it had become essential to de-ploy army there to restore peace.”

The AGP said the president and

parliament could legislate per constitu-tion. “President wields powers to enactlegislation like parliament.”

CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry said it “wasnot allowed even during martial law tosuspend fundamental rights”.

The AGP said the president waspart of parliament and he was not ac-countable to any court of for his deeds.He is entitled to legislate under Article56 of the constitution.

The CJP said, “We have never ac-cepted clipping of powers of the courts.In Karachi, other areas and Balochistanthe situation is worsening. Has discrim-inatory treatment has not been meted toFATA by promulgating law therein?” hequestioned.

The AGP said, “We cannot inflictany damage on the country by showingleniency towards militants. Loyalty tothe country is above law and constitu-tion too. By virtue of it, law and consti-tution go on changing. No limit is set in

the US for keeping anyone under deten-tion. It continues unless the detainedperson is cleared.”

The CJP said people were being de-tained beyond the law and in certaincases, even legal parameters were notmet.

Giving details about the accusedwho were arrested from various areas,Qadir said two convoys of the armywere attacked and the accused pro-ceeded to Lawara Mela. “Suicide jack-ets were also recovered from them andthey were working against national se-curity.”

The CJP said no evidence of exter-nal attacks had come to light. “Govern-ment officers, rather than army officers,have been giving such statements. It isnot difficult to handle the situation. Itcan be improved. Leave aside all things,the army should at least ask about whatis happening over there. The situationwill be further complicated this way.Everyone evinces interest in it that in-ternal and external interference shouldcome to end,” he remarked.

Qadir said it stood beyond compre-hension what the army should do in thewar-like situation there. “Should it keepon watching people die?”

The CJP said, “You cannot do injus-tice with the people even in a state ofwar.”

Citing laws prevalent in Israel, theAGP said there was no limit to keepanyone under detention. “TADA law isin place in India. PTA stands enforcedin Sri Lanka since 1979. This orderwas issued by the president that any-one can be kept under detention for 72hours without registering the case.Yard protection bill and migration lawsare in force in Australia which wereapproved by parliament. Report has tobe submitted within four hours and theparliament goes through it. If any situ-ation like eruption of war prevails inany territory, the army can be allowedto launch operation per the constitu-tion,” Qadir submitted.

Passport crisis tobe resolved withina month: official

KARACHIAgENCIEs

In a bid to resolve the ongoing crisis of pass-port issuance, a summary was sent to thecaretaker prime minister for his special ap-proval to issue 1.5 million laminates onThursday. In a statement by Director General of Pass-ports and Immigration Zulfiqar Cheema, aspecial request was sent to the caretakerprime minster to resolve the 0.9 million pass-port applications which were pending. More-over, the Federal Interior Secretary KhwajaSiddique wrote to the caretaker premiere forthe issuance of 1.5 million laminates.The recently appointed DG indicated that thematter would be resolved within a month.The tender for the supply of laminate wasawarded the previous company based in theUnited States as the Islamabad High Courthad already issued a verdict in this regards,according to sources.The printing of a large number of passportswas held up due to the non-availability oflaminates, causing agony to applicants.

world abolishing deathpenalty, but executionson rise in India, Pakistan

NEW DELHIONLINE

Fewer countries are carrying out executionsthan a decade ago, but India along with na-tions like Gambia, Pakistan and Japanbucked the trend to resume handing outdeath penalties, Indian media reported onThursday. An Amnesty International report had saidthat 21 countries executed convicts last yearas compared to 28 in 2003. But there is greater concern that Indiancourts had meted out at least 78 death sen-tences with more than 400 estimated to beon death row at the end of this year. The new death sentences given by India(78) are second only to Pakistan (242) inthe Asia-Pacific region. At least 679 newdeath sentences are known to have been im-posed in 19 countries in the region last year.

You cannot fool us,CJP tells agencies

AGP SAYS PRESIDENTAND PARLIAMENT CAN LEGISLATE PER CONSTITUTION

CJP SAYS INJUSTICECANNOT BE DONE WITH PEOPLE EVEN IN STATE OF WAR

PESHAWAR: Relatives of allegedly missing persons from Swat stop

commuters as they blocked a road on Thursday during a

demonstration outside the Peshawar Press Club. ONLINE

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News N

09

Friday 12 april, 2013

ANP to resolve all crucial

problems of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.– Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour

ISLAMABAD: US Ambassador in Pakistan Richard Olson calls on President Asif Ali Zardari at the Presidency on Thursday. INP

LAHORENADEEM syED

Though the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) have made seat ad-justments for over 300 provincialand National Assembly seats, thefocus of their cooperation will benone other than Punjab, the largestprovince of the country with parlia-mentary strength that can make adifference at the time of formationof government in the Centre.

According to sources, both par-ties have agreed on seat adjustmentfor over 200 provincial seats in Pun-jab. The two parties will also cooper-ate on over 100 National Assemblies’constituencies from all over the coun-try. The basic aim and underlying

strategy behind this massive cooper-ation between the PPP and PML-Qis nothing but to defeat the PML-Nand if not, at least deprive it of ma-jority to form the government in theprovince after elections this May,party sources said.

According to PML-Q leaderKamil Ali Agha, cooperation be-tween the two parties on such ascale was a record in Pakistan,where two parties never cooperatedfor more than a dozen of seats ever.

Interestingly, another key playerin the Punjab, PTI is also hoping todent the vote bank of Sharifs.

The PPP’s main purpose behindroping in the PML-Q was to bolsterits political fortunes in Punjab,where individually it would be dif-ficult for the former ruling party to

repeat its past performance.Meanwhile, on the remaining

seats, especially for National As-sembly, candidates from both par-ties would be on their own and willbe free to take decision per local dy-namics. Per the seat adjustment be-tween the two parties, winner of lastelection would get nomination andsupport from both parties, barring afew exceptions. In constituencieswhere there is no winner from thePPP or PML-Q, the runner up wouldbe the candidate of choice.

It has been also learnt that to en-hance cooperation between the twoparties, committees have been formedat the local level. Both parties havenot yet decided whether they wouldaddress public meeting or rallies to-gether. However, it has been observed

that both parties have begun their co-operation at the local level.

If a PPP candidate is contestingfrom NA seat and his partner fromPML-Q from provincial seat, bothwere moving in the constituency

hand-in-hand. These committeeshave been formed after the recently-held by-elections in the provincewhen both the PPP and PML-Q can-didates suffered losses due to lack ofcooperation.

PPP-Q alliance aims at defeating PmL-N in Punjab

LAHOREuMAIr AzIz

THE Punjab gov-ernment faces aperplexing situa-tion when thecaretaker cabinet

meets today (Friday) to ensurethe holding of “free and fair”elections in line with the steeplypricey demands put forward bydistrict authorities, as officialshave been terming these “im-practical” due to the heavy costit will incur on the already de-pleted provincial kitty, PakistanToday has learnt.

An overwhelming majorityof District Coordination Officers(DCOs) and commissioners,heading the district and divisionalcoordination committees, havefound each other on the samepage while demanding provisionof transportation facilities not justfor election officials but for thevoters as well, besides calling forinstallation of CCTV cameras atall polling stations of the provincefor the purpose of maintaining

transparency during polls.Earlier, the Punjab govern-

ment had issued directives to thedivisional and district coordina-tion committees to hold meetingswith the respective police and in-telligence agency officials as apre-poll exercise meant formaking a list of proposals inconnection with makingarrangements for holdingfree and fair elections.During the meetings, theDCOs and commission-ers concerned headed thedistrict and divisional co-ordination committees,while the additional chiefsecretary headed theprovincial coordination com-mittee. The DCOs and com-missioners, after holdingmeetings with the officers con-cerned, submitted their reports tothe Services and General Admin-istration Department (S&GAD)of the Punjab government.

An official privy to the de-velopment said that an over-whelming number of DCOs havedemanded installation of CCTV

cameras at election venues, be-sides demanding provision of ve-hicles for the returning officers aswell as

the gen-eral population. “All these termsare impractical as there arearound 40,000 polling stations inPunjab, while the governmenthas hardly been able to providevehicles even for the use of elec-

tion staff. It is impossible to pro-vide transportation for the gen-eral public on such a large scaleas has been demanded. “Even in-stallation of CCTV cameras is acostly affair for which the gov-ernment will not be able to ear-

mark billions of rupees,” theofficial added.

It is important to men-tion here that according tothe provincial ElectionCommission PRO HudaGohar, there were morethan 4,000 polling sta-tions in the provincewhich have been identi-

fied as sensitive andneeded to be equipped with

the latest security gadgets.Keeping that number in mind,

the official maintained that evenif CCTV cameras were rentedout only for such polling stationsthat have been identified as sen-sitive, this exercise was stillgoing to be a costly affair, andhence all these demands werevirtually impossible to fulfill.

However, while talking toPakistan Today, Additional Chief

Secretary Khizer Hayat Gondalsaid that transportation facilityhad already been provided to elec-tion officials, while the issue ofinstallation of CCTV cameras hadalso been given approval by theauthorities concerned in a meetingthat concluded on Monday.

When contacted, a seniorhome department official con-firmed that the government hadtaken the decision of installingCCTV cameras only in sensitivepolling stations and necessarymeasures were being taken inthis regard, while the local gov-ernment department would pro-vide transportation facilities onlyfor the election staff as their jobhad already been made tough bythe consistent threats received bymilitant outfits. “The proposalwas expected to be accepted bythe officials concerned in thewake of rising security threatsfor members of political partiesand election staff, and the finaldecision in this regard came in ahigh level meeting to ensure theholding of free, fair and peacefulelections,” he added.

Punjab government sweats over extravagant official demands

Malik asks SC forstate security

ISLAMABADONLINE

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered theInterior Ministry to provide security to for-mer interior minister Rehman Malik.The orders were issued by a five-memberlarger bench, headed by Justice Anwar Za-heer Jamali while hearing Malik’s intra-courtappeal. Malik requested the court that he hasbeen receiving threats from militants and hislife was in danger. He said that the Talibanhad placed a bounty on him and the courtshould provide him security. On this, thecourt ordered the Interior Ministry to providehim security and adjourned the hearing untilFriday (today). Later, talking to reporters out-side the Supreme Court, Malik said he toldthe court that the Taliban had announced a Rs500 million head money on him and heshould be provided security equivalent to thatof former president Pervez Musharraf.

Bilawal House, Tappion militants’ hit list

ISLAMABADONLINE

The intelligence agencies have revealed that ter-rorists are planning to target PPP leader AwaisMuzaffar Tappi and Bilawal House, accordingto reports. According to a report conveyed to theauthorities concerned, the agencies said militantgroups including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,Jundullah and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) wereconspiring to attack 31 key personalities inKarachi. “President Zardari’s relative MuzaffarTappi might be attacked with a bomb while theattack on Bilawal House is also possible,” thereport said. The target list of the militants in-cludes the name of a judge, six policemen, 10politicians, 12 religious leaders and two jour-nalist and businessmen each. “Attack on for-eign dignitaries is also possible as militantgroups are seeking ransom and release ofprisoners from the abduction of high-valuetargets,” it added.

An

overwhelming

majority of District

Coordination Officers (DCOs) and

commissioners, heading the district

and divisional coordination committees,

have found each other on the same page

while demanding provision of

transportation facilities not just for

election officials but for the voters as

well, besides calling for installation of

CCTV cameras at all polling stations

of the province for the purpose of

maintaining transparency

during polls.

The basic aim and

underlying strategy behind

this massive cooperation

between the PPP and

PML-Q is nothing but to

defeat the PML-N and if

not, at least deprive it of

majority to form

government

in the province

LHR 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 7:01 AM Page 9

commeNt

CFriday, 12 april, 2013

10 Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through

continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our

freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. –Martin Luther King, Jr

THE PPP, PML-N and PTIare the three main con-tenders on the nationallevel. Not long ago eachone of them was claiming

that it would sweep the votes. Withina few weeks, ground realities havestarted to assert themselves. Pep talkhas gone out of use.

The present elections are differ-ent from what they used to be in thepast. The presence of a neutral Elec-tion Commission, a consensus care-taker setup and a vigilant andintrusive Supreme Court has de-prived the parties from some of theconventional advantages they pos-sessed against rivals. The parties inthe PPP-led alliance at the centre,and the PML-N which ruled Punjab,can no more depend on their blueboys in bureaucracy. The wholesaletransfers in Punjab have led to a sim-ilar though not as comprehensivemeasure in Sindh.

In the case of PPP, ANP andMQM, the access to the voters hasbeen hampered on account of thethreats extended by the TTP. The pub-lic has been told by Ehsanullah Ehsanto stay away from gatherings of thethree parties. Thus the pitch is alreadyqueered for them.

The PPP’s strength lies in its orag-isation in all the provinces of thecountry. The party also has its jiyalaswho despite their dwindling numbersremain committed to it. How many ofthem will come out to vote after theparty’s abysmal performance remainsto be seen.

The biggest problem for the PPPis that it is a leaderless party now. Bi-lawal Zardari Bhutto is seen nowherein the election fray. What is more heis yet to learn how to address politicalrallies. He cannot speak Urdu fluentlyand knows no Sindhi. The party hasdecided not to risk his life at anycoast, elections or no elections. AfterZardari’s resignation from the office

of the party Co-Chairman, FaryalTalpur has practically taken over asthe chairperson of the party. In a partybuilt around Bhutto family cult shecommands neither the respect of theparty leaders nor the trust of its work-ers. For those outside Sindh she re-mains a nonentity.

Sindh still remains the PPP’sstronghold from where it is expectedto bag the largest number of seats. Itis doubtful however if it will win asmany constituencies as it did in 2008when it rode to power over the sym-pathy wave generated by Benazir’stragic assassination. The provincewas perhaps the most badly governedone after Balochistan with wide-spread corruption, criminal neglect ofthe victims of floods and rains andtarget killings and lawlessness inKarachi almost condoned by the rul-ing alliance. A united front of 10 par-ties led by PML-F chief Pir Pagarahas fielded 23 candidates for the Na-tional Assembly and 51 for Sindh As-sembly. In view of the badperformance of the PPP, a safe guessis that the opposition will gain manymore seats this time than in 2008.

None of the PPP’s erstwhile allieshas shown inclination to reach anelectoral understanding with it, withthe exception of PML-Q. The PPP-PML-Q alliance is based on the hopethat it would bring the coalition all thevotes that were cast for the two partiesin 2008 when they contested againsteach other. The alliance might help ina handful of constituencies in Punjabbut keeping in view the deep seatedantipathy among the workers of thetwo parties, it cannot work miracles.In the last bye-elections in Punjab, thejoint panel of the two in fact ended upin unmitigated disaster followed bymutual recriminations.

The PPP refused to give Hazara aprovincial status. It would thus find itdifficult to make headway in the divi-sion. In the rest of KP, the PPP’s ca-pacity to hold meetings and reach outto the voters would depend on how ef-fectively the caretakers are able totackle the terrorist threat. In Balochis-tan, it will be required to work underthe same limitation.

The PML-N leadership has beenactive, holding rallies in Punjab,Sindh and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. Anumber of PML-Q leaders in KP havealso joined it. In this way it is betteroff than the PPP. It has, however,problems that it might find difficult tosurmount.

In Punjab, which is its base, thePML-N suffers from the incumbency

factor. Despite the media blitz aboutthe distribution of laptop computers,construction of the Lahore Bus TransitSystem etc, there are complaints thatthe government neglected the rest ofthe province, wasted funds in politi-cally motivated but unsustainable ven-tures like Sasti Roti scheme. It tookthe Punjab government years to settlethe issue with the young doctors.Scores of people died of dengue feverand many more on account of defec-tive heart medicines. There were alsocomplaints of people having beenkilled in staged police encounters. Theover-centralised style of governancewith the chief minister directly con-trolling a number of ministries hasbeen widely criticised for inefficiency.

Another factor which could behighly negative for the PML-N is therise of Imran Khan in Punjab. The PTIchief is focused on exposing the per-formance of the PML-N. He has al-ready held two big rallies in Lahoreand smaller gathering in a number ofcities in Punjab. Imran is likely tomake inroads in the PML-N vote bankacross the province. In straight tripar-tite fights, this could help the PPP.

The PML-N is, however, confi-dent of winning Punjab with a crush-ing majority. It has brokeredagreements in Sindh and Balochistanand some of the bigwigs from otherparties have joined it in KP. Unless thePTI manages to spring a surprise, ofwhich there is little chance now, thePML-N has the potential to emerge asthe single largest party in a hung par-liament.

The PTI had entered the politicalarena as a dark horse in 2011. ImranKhan spent most of the time subse-quently in organising the party andholding intra-party elections. The waythe exercise was conducted waswidely acclaimed but a year and a halfwas consumed by the activity. Theelections led to rifts in the party fromwhich it is recovering. It has mean-while lost the momentum it hadgained in 2011 and early 2012. Withelections due in less than a month, theparty has to race against time to buildup its campaign. The PTI enjoys afairly good position in KP and Punjabbut is weak in Sindh, the secondlargest province.

It seems the party has reconciledto sit in the opposition. What remainsto be seen is if it takes the second po-sition or concedes it to the PPP, thusassuming the third.

The writer is a political analystand a former academic.

Aziz-ud-Din AhmadActing Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273 Fax: 051-2850505Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

A ray of hope for the Baloch peopleKhoso’s visit

Scrutiny

WITH elections being only four weeks away, parties are gunning for victories intheir stronghold, and in certain cases they expect to encroach upon others’strongholds, but none of this would have been possible if some of their

prominent candidates were barred from entering the fray under one reason or the other. Asituation of the same nature happened in the past few days when some of the ECPofficials scrutinising the candidates decided to implement articles 62 and 63 of theconstitution in a more literal sense. Quite a few leaders of the mainstream parties weredisqualified from running for a seat in the legislatures on various issues, Ch Nisar of thePML-N and Jamshed Dasti of the PPP included.

Though one cannot blame the Returning Officers (ROs) for they were doing theirduty, one expected that a better sense should have prevailed and issues that had nostanding in the long run, or the ones that had no basis of concern at all, were avoided inthe first place, thus giving the process of scrutiny a better credibility. There wereinstances showing a disregard to the basic understanding of what the politicians deliverand what the politics stands for: a public service, may be the greatest of them all, andrepresentation of the will of the public, respectively.

Now that Jamshed Dasti and Ch Nisar have been given a green signal to contestelections, both the main parties are gunning for a mandate that would take them totreasury benches. However, questions must be asked as to what was the purpose ofputting some of the politicians through all this while some with convictions andpending cases were approved at all. The critics of the noble gesture of putting ascrutiny check at the source would surely point out the irony of the situation. Whatthe ECP should have really done was that it should have asked the candidates toprovide it with the details of their and that of their family members’ financial assets.Then these assets should have been put through a process of investigation that isknown as financial forensics to verify their claims. This alone would have helped inkeeping the loan defaulters, corrupt and otherwise financial embezzlers away fromentering the political scene. Sadly, their financial claims were taken on their facevalue, thus giving them an opportunity to manipulate the process of scrutiny. As far asthe articles 62 and 63 are concerned, they are ambiguous and should always beapplied not in their literal sense but more as guiding principles. Of course, the debateon what justifies these articles’ insertion into the constitution is a much biggerquestion, and begs attention to be addressed.

HOWEVER troubled a certain part of the country is, it is still a part of thefederation and has equal rights as any other federating unit of the state. Thismakes Balochistan not only equal to other provinces, but also a focus of what

one can call corrective measures in order to bring the province equal to the status that theothers enjoy. While most of the governments at the centre have been negligent inaddressing the grievances of the Baloch people, almost every one of them have raised aslogan of empowering the Baloch, including the government that concluded its termrecently. One can easily see what tangible effects these hollow promises have had on thecondition of the people and the province: there are no-go areas in the province,nationalists have an anti-state agenda, forced disappearances, lack of infrastructure,poverty, low literacy rate and many more problems.

Having said that, the visit by the Caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khosocan pave the way for a change, for better. The visit was badly needed as the 2008 generalelections were boycotted by most of the political elements, ceding the space to corruptsardars and carpet baggers of all sorts. Resultantly, the province was misgoverned. Thefruits of autonomy couldn’t reach the common man. But that time has passed and it istime to make changes. Mr Khoso’s visit can, and probably will, open new avenues fornegotiations between the government and the nationalists, which have already showninterest in participating in the elections being held a month from now, and help themsettle on a framework that assures the participation of local political leaders whilekeeping the corrupt sardars out of the loop.

Peaceful elections in the largest province of the country would be a tough taskthough if completed successfully, the effects could cause a system wide change tobring in the leadership that truly represents the Baloch people. Mr Khoso assured theBaloch leaders that the federal and the provincial governments would take measures toremove their reservations about security, abolish no go areas and resolve other issues.His encouragement to the nationalists to participate in the election process to be a partof the system and bring a change that they desire was right spot on. But that alonecannot end the miseries of the Baloch people, nor can it help in curbing violence,lawlessness or widespread deprivation of basic necessities. It needs much more thanthat; it needs the government to walk the talk. Meanwhile, the establishment has torealise that military means to govern the province have caused suffering andstrengthened separatists. It is time to provide equal opportunity to nationalists tocontest elections as well. The caretakers, on their part, need to ensure that thecampaign is peaceful, party workers are not harassed or made to forcibly disappear.This will make the elections in the province truly reprints what the Blaoch people’sinterests instead of the interests of a few sardars.

One may question as to its intent and purpose

A look at the prospects of PPP, PML-N and PTI in the coming elections

AzIz-uD-DIN AhMAD

Ignorance about damsShehla Raza, Deputy Speaker Sindh assembly, said on

TV today, ‘We stopped Musharraf from buildingKalabagh dam’. I wish the anchor person had asked thelearned deputy speaker the reason for the opposition.Apart from politicisation of the issue there is an abysmallevel of ignorance about dams, particularly aboutKalabagh dam.

Politicians seem to be totally ignorant of thefact that a dam could store 7 million acre feet ofadditional water for the use of the provinces. Thereis also ignorance of the fact that with the loss of theeastern rivers, now the whole country has tosurvive on the remaining three rivers, of whichIndus is the only river with surplus flows. It isthrough sheer ignorance that the people of Sindhare causing incalculable harm not only tothemselves but also to the whole country.

ENGR KHURSHID ANWERLahore

Representation without

taxationThe danger that years of endless exploitation, injustices,frustration and anger that has been building up in ourmasses, may finally burst into anarchy in Pakistan,causing irreparable damage to this country. This is morepronounced today than ever before. For most of thoseinvolved in this organised plunder seem to have planned asafe exit catching first flight out, having already madealternate investments in foreign countries, where theirassets and families are located.

It is a sad reality that the ECP, in which we had highhopes, has failed to subject candidates for elections tofinancial scrutiny, necessary for putting in place alegislature that can ensure the rule of law in Pakistan andprevent massive plunder of state exchequer and flight ofcapital.

MALIK TARIQ ALILahore

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-32535230 E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusivelyEditor’s mail

The maincontenders

LHR 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 7:01 AM Page 10

Dear Muslimaat,

IDON’T have words to express mygratitude and appreciation for yournoble battle against evil. Your #Mus-limahPride movement against #Femen

was a slap on the collective face of Westernimperialists who believe that Muslimwomen can’t fight for a cause. It was also aresounding reminder for the rest of theworld that you have what it takes to spark arevolution. What the ignorant world doesnot realise is that once you have the permis-sion of your husbands, fathers, brothers, un-cles, the approval of your neighbours,in-laws, their relatives and the consent ofyour spiritual guardians, their God and theirscriptures, you can be quite the rebels.

It takes a lot of courage to ridiculesomething that is already taboo where youlive. It takes volumes of bravery and valourto bow down to the status quo, and toe thelines that have been forced upon you. Ittakes unbelievable amounts of gallantry toact out a script that someone else has writtenfor you. And it must take guts and theproverbial cojones to take a stand againstcruelty and the personification of tyrannythat a horde of topless women is.

Who on earth are those damn Euro-peans to try to steal your voice? Do theynot realise that your lives were defined amillion-and-a-half ago by the Arabs, whoprotected your rights and guarded yourmodesty by ensuring that you don’t havemuch of a say in most things? Who arethose unabashed infidels to protest on yourbehalf? Do they not realise that you are notallowed to express, let alone clamour infavour of, anything that contradicts the os-tensibly divine scriptures? Who are thoseshameless activists to try and liberate you?Do they not realise that you can’t be liber-ated without the permission of yourmehrams?

I can’t thank you enough for choosing

to be more offended by naked bodies thandead bodies. And since there are so manydifferent kinds of you to thank, I’ll try to ad-dress you one by one.

Dear ‘guardians of modesty’ Muslimaat,thank you for letting patriarchal societies de-fine ‘modesty’ for you. Thank you for ac-cepting contrasting definitions of modestyfor men and women, and for not being asource of strength for your sisters anddaughters, vindicating the men’s claim ofyou being the weaker sex. Thank you forteaching your daughters about the sin thathaving sex is, throughout their lives, andthen compelling them to do it immediatelywith a man they first met a couple of hoursago, after signing a few papers and gettingthe clergy’s approval. Also, thank you forblaming your fellow women when they areraped, since men have the divine license torefuse to keep their emotions in the rightplace. And thank you very very much forbeing more misogynistic than any malechauvinist can ever possibly be.

Dear ‘feminist’ Muslimaat, thank youfor being a ray of hope for bacon-eating veg-etarians, god-fearing atheists and peace-lov-ing terrorists. Thank you for reiterating thefact that your mehrams choose to overlookthe divine orders and allow you to thinkfreely and take your own decisions. Thankyou for citing your personal example tohighlight how you wear the hijab by yourown choice, ignoring the fact that an over-whelming majority of Muslim women arecoerced into doing so. Thank you very muchfor making the whole debate about you,when it was always about the torment andsuffering that most of the Muslim womenare going through.

Dear ‘liberal’ Muslimaat, thank you fordefying the orders of your deity by choos-ing to not cover your heads. Thank you fordisregarding other restrictions that your re-ligion commands, and then having the au-dacity to condemn someone who is criticalof these very commands. Thank you forcherry picking the commandments andmaking your ideology sound compatiblewith the 21st century, only to castigatethose that take the same ideological ordersliterally and implement them. Thanks a lotfor elucidating that you don’t need libera-tion and for paying no heed to the fact thatthe most of the women in your country do.And thank you very much for clinging onto those very shackles that have enchainedthe prospect of women empowerment inyour country.

Dear ‘revolutionary’ Muslimaat, thankyou for ignoring the life threats that AminaTyler and many others like her are facing,

after choosing to protest against the harass-ment that they have to bear on a daily basis.Thank you for overlooking other lesser is-sues like terrorists attacking a 15-year-oldschoolgirl; female genital mutilation;women being raped with judicial approvaljust so they don’t die virgins; two-year-oldgirls being forced to wear veils because thedisgusting men in your country have noself-control; and fathers legally gettingaway with raping their daughters by payinga few riyals. Thank you very much forscreaming bloody murder over half-nakedwomen’s claim of representing you, but ac-cepting rapists, pedophiles and sorry ex-cuses for human beings as your stateleaders and role models.

#MuslimahPride is not just a hashtag, it’sa symbol of integrity and pride. It’s abouttaking pride in inequality, in half testimonies,in blaming rape victims and in gender dis-crimination. It’s about taking pride in chau-vinism, where men have divine permissionto beat and rape their wives, marry multipletimes and possess slave girls. It’s about tak-ing pride in patriarchal societies where hus-bands are categorically told in detail howthey should punish their “disobedient”wives, while not a single text exclusivelytells women what they should do with un-faithful husbands. It’s about taking pride innot being allowed to vote, let alone lead yournations, and about finally being allowed toride a goddamn bicycle – under a mehram’ssupervision – in the year 2013 AD.

The #MuslimahPride jihad will be writ-ten down in history as the moment whereMuslimaat made it clear to the world that noone should protest on their behalf, half-naked or otherwise. Thank you, dear Musli-maat, for saving the rest of the world’s timeby clarifying that you’re fine living in the7th century AD, and no one should push youtowards the enlightened times, regardless ofwhether they have clothes on or not. Thankyou for being a source of inspiration and anilluminating example for everyone. We allknow that you have what it takes to trans-form the plight of the women and changethe dynamics of the world, as long as youare back home before sunset.

More power to you.PS: I hope being addressed as ‘dear’

does not land you in trouble with your over-sensitive male guardians.

Yours thankfully,Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

The writer is a financial journalist anda cultural critic. Email:khulduneshahid@gmail.com, Twitter:@khuldune

commeNt CFriday, 12 april, 2013

11A small group of thoughtful people could

change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing

that ever has. –Margaret Mead

Thank you, dear MuslimaatA letter of gratitude to #MuslimahPride social media jihadis

kuNwAr khuLDuNE shAhID

Fairness creams devalue natural South Asian beauty

deconstructing ourobsession with fairness

WE have all witnessed thefairness complex at somepoint in our lives, be ittaunts about our complex-

ion from our aging grandmothers, compar-isons of skin color in front of the mirror, or,the media’s glorification of fair skin (SnowWhite, anyone?). While a lot Caucasianwomen spend their summer holidays on abeach chair getting their tans on, most Pak-istani women are desperately trying toevade the sun, from putting up protectivescreens in their cars to bleaching their bod-ies to get rid of their ‘awful’ tans. Televisionenthusiasts have given up local shows infavour of Turkish soaps dubbed in Urdu, fortheir foreign, fair-skinned casts. New treatments promising fairer skin surface every-day—there are surgeries and injections, creams and bleaches, ‘desi’ remedies andavant-garde products, suggesting that we might not share all of our ancestor’s Victoriansensibilities but our cultural obsession with light skin has remained intact over time.What is it about ‘whiteness’ that we find intrinsically beautiful? Paradoxically, ourpreoccupation with fairness is not skin deep, rather it stems from the institutions ofcolonialism, enslavement, and global White supremacy.

Skin whitening is a popular practice, dating back to the Elizabethan Era, whenwomen used powder and paint to ‘improve’ their complexions. Yet, in its current man-ifestation, skin bleaching is practiced disproportionately in communities of colour,primarily the Indo-Pak region. According to an article in the 2006 edition of Harper’sBazaar titled “Events about Race”, the number of new skin whitening products thathave been introduced to Asian and Pacific markets exceeds one-hundred and eighty-nine since 2002. In the local context, colourism constructs a spectrum upon which in-dividuals attempt to circumnavigate the white/non-white binary, by assigning andassuming colour-based privilege on their proximity to ‘whiteness’ instead. As an im-migrant to the United Kingdom put it, “In Pakistan, it is about the degree of fairness;in England, you’re either white or you’re brown, Caucasian or other.” Yaba AmbrogaleBay suggests that “the White Ideal - pale skin, long straight hair, aquiline features—exacts prevailing and enduring influences on societal assessments of human value”in communities of colour. Skin lightening practices and the quest for fairness, representan attempt to approximate the White ideal and consequently gain access to the socialstatus historically reserved for Whites.

The concept of white supremacy is understood globally as the channelling andcontrol of wealth, power and privilege by predominantly Caucasian, Western na-tions. Although, the answer to “who is white?” has evolved over a period of time toinclude previously ambiguous identities into the elite White club, the connotationsof whiteness have remained as certain as the Brown Sahib’s preoccupation withwhite skin. Given the evolution of racial categories, it can be concluded that Whitesupremacy has more to with ideological whiteness and the privileges, rights and as-sumptions that come with it—than racial whiteness. To understand the fairness com-plex in the Indo-Pak context, we need to revisit the historical trajectory of ‘white’foreign rule in India. To say that our aversion to dark skin stems from the BritishRaj is a misappropriation. What is more likely is that the British reinforced and re-defined the Indian predisposition towards fair skin that draws back to the Aryan in-filtration into Northern India. Like the Mughals and British after them, the Aryans’dominance and influence was equated with the colour of their skin. Physicality be-came an important marker in determining who could access positions of powerwhich can explain why people of colour struggle to erase their racial identifierswhereas white people seek to affirm their whiteness. Psychiatrist Frantz Fanon ex-plains, “In the man of colour, there is a constant effort to run away from his own in-dividuality, to annihilate his own presence,” and it is this very sentiment thatunderpins the skin bleaching/fairness cream industry which devalues the naturalbeauty of South Asians.

While the “gora craze” plagues our people in general, it is evident that womenare affected by it more than men. The overarching emphasis on a woman’s physicalappearance and the cosmetic industry’s tendency to breed insecurity certainly has alot to with it; however the victimization and objectification of women under colonialrule might provide a historical lens for understanding why women are the prime vic-tims of the fairness complex. Institutions of colonization relied on mobilization, po-litical power and subjugation of indigenous women, which are all historicallymale-dominated structures. Shailushi Baxi-Richie, a non-profit writing consultant andactivist, notes that “women have been seen as a commodity that has been traded bymen. Wives and daughters have been a currency traded between men. If you are alight-skinned woman, you are more likely to attract more power or money in a man.”To be a woman and to be dark is to be doubly disadvantaged—ever heard the phrase‘kali nokrani’ (black maid) — through a sex-race power structure that holds the WhiteMale Patriarch as the ultimate power icon. The politics of color and gender overlap indetermining the identity of the South Asian women, which explains why so many ofus seek to be fair and subsequently overcome one of our points of disadvantage. Kim-berle Crenshaw’s Theory of Intersectionality comes into play here as South Asianwomen’s “intersectional identity as both women and of color within discourses thatare shaped to respond to one or the other” leads them to be “marginalized within both.”Advertisements for fairness creams effectively communicate the element of intersec-tionality and the associations of whiteness with class/privilege. Television ads for thepopular cream “Fair and Lovely” frequently show women bagging a desirable partneror more recently portray women acquiring employment in professions held by men—all by virtue of their lighter skin. Ironically, Unilever promotes messages aboutwomen’s empowerment in the Global North through their “real beauty” campaignfeaturing women of all colors, shapes and sizes, while selling the idea that womenwith lighter skin are more desirable in the Global South. The proclivity of large cor-porations to exercise power discreetly over individuals and take advantage of culturalbiases is not a new phenomenon; what is strange is that educated, so-called liberalminded people keep falling for such tactics. It is one thing to indulge in a harmlessbeauty regimen, it is quite another to promote a corporation that sells the supremacyof one culture over another, of one skin over another. As opposed to other beauty prac-tices, the struggle for fairer skin emphasizes a deeper dilemma in one’s perception ofbeauty – it exemplifies an intrinsic belief that we are better only when we are similarto our white counterparts.

“The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situationswhich we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep withineach of us.” -Audre Lorde

The writer is a staff member of Pakistan Today and holds a degree from Mount Holyoke College.

NADIA khAwAjA

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Serially-single Sushmita Sen is not going towalk down the aisle just yet. Rumours of Sush-mita and Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akramplanning a wedding have been rubbished bythe actress’ spokesperson. Sushmita’s toobusy to plan a wedding according to her

spokesperson who was quoted The Times ofIndia as saying: “It’s not true at all. In

fact Sushmita is having a show inMumbai on the 24th of this

month. I don’t think she canhave an event in Mumbai aswell as plan her wedding si-multaneously.” Sushmita isrumoured to have dated theKolkata Knight Riderscoach for two years aftermeeting on the sets ofdance reality show EkKhiladi Ek Haseena,which Sush and Wasimjudged, in 2008. Sush-mita, who last appearedin 2010 film No Prob-lem, has two adopteddaughters and has nevermarried. She previouslydated actor Randeep

Hooda. NEws DEsk

ARTS

AFriday, 12 april, 2013

12

Jim Carreyin ‘RickyStanicky’?

Jim Carrey isn’t a washed up actor, buthe may play one on the big screen. THRreports that Carrey has decided to takethe title role in the SummitEntertainment comedy “Ricky Stanicky.”According to Deadline.com, Carrey wascircling the project for over a year; hisfinal decision to sign on came whenSteve Oedekerk (“Bruce Almighty,” “AceVenture: When Nature Calls”) wasattached to direct.Carrey hasn’t had luck at the box officeof late — he co-starred in the recent flop“Burt Wonderstone” — but “RickyStanicky” sounds like a hit waiting tohappen. The film focuses on a trio ofteenage friends who burn down theirneighbor’s house by mistake and thenblame the accident on the fictional RickyStanicky. Years later, as adults, thefriends must conjure up Stanicky andhire a washed-up actor (Carrey) to playthe part. THR compared the concept of“Ricky Stanicky” to “The Hangover.”If “Ricky Stanicky” sounds familiar, it’sbecause Carrey isn’t the first big starattached to the title. Back in 2010, THRreported that James Franco was set toplay Stanicky, but the project nevermaterialized in that form. As the tradenotes in the current report, JoaquinPhoenix was also discussed as apossibility before Carrey. Carrey has hada busy few weeks. He made a splash inMarch after producing an anti-gun videofor Funny or Die. NEws DEsk

I never had a speech from my father 'this is what you

must do or shouldn't do' but I just learned to be led by

example. My father wasn't perfect. –Adam Sandler

Adnan Sami performs in dallas

NEWS DESK

Around half of Justin Bieber’s 37 mil-lion Twitter followers are fake, a studyhas suggested. The 19-year old popstar is the most followed person in theworld, beating rivals like Lady Gaga,President Barack Obama and the var-ious members of One Direction.

But according to Socialbakers, atool which analyses the quality of an ac-count’s followers, not all of those aretrue Beliebers. After looking at a sampleof 2,000 of Bieber’s followers and rat-ing them based on how often they havetweeted, how many people they followand who they interact with, it found that35% of his followers were “fake orempty”. Another 13% were described as“inactive” - leading to an overall figureof 48% who are not active, normal

users. The site admits that “If you havea large number of followers, it is ex-pected that some will be inactive or

fake”, but several other big stars ap-pear to have done better than Justin.

While the Bieb passed Lady Gaga

to become the most popular accountlast year, she has a higher number of ac-tive users - about 19 million. But worsethan either are Jedward, whose accounthas a 61% margin of fake followers toreal ones. However, for any distressedBiebernauts out there, bear in mind thatthe site has a margin of error of about10-15% - a pretty hefty margin.

It’s also worth looking in more de-tail at the checklist by which an ac-count can be counted as inactive. Forinstance, if an account has less thanone follower and follows less than 50people, it falls foul of the rules. Like-wise if 90% of its Tweets are retweets,or still has the default Twitter eggavatar. Unfortunately that probablyquite accurately describes many ac-counts set up just to stalk people likeJustin Bieber.

Half of Twitter icon Justin Bieber’s followers are fake

Cosmetics tycoondonates dozens ofPicassos to museum

Leonard Lauder, the cosmetics tycoon and philanthropist,donated Cubist works worth more than $1billion - includingdozens by Pablo Picasso - to New York’s MetropolitanMuseum of Art. The 78 paintings, drawings and sculpturescomprise 33 by Picasso, 17 by Braque, 14 by Gris and 14by Leger and were amassed over four decades.They are considered one of the foremost collections ofCubism in the world. Lauder, 80, the son of Estee Lauderand one of New York’s most influential art collectors, saidthe donation would help reinforce the city’s standing as theworld’s “art capital”. He added, “This is a gift to the peoplewho live and work in New York, and those from around theworld who come to visit our great arts institutions.“It’s essential that Cubism, and the art that follows it forthat matter, be seen and studied within the collections ofone of the greatest encyclopedic museums in the world.”The donated works include Picasso’s The Scallop Shell from1912 and Woman in an Armchair, an image of his mistressEva Gouel from 1913. Picasso’s Head of a Woman, from1909, thought to be the first Cubist sculpture, is also in thecollection that includes Braque’s Trees at L’Estaque from1908, which is thought to be one of the first Cubistpictures. The museum said the collection was unsurpassedin the number of masterpieces critical to the developmentof Cubism, which is considered the most influential artmovement of the 20th century.Thomas Campbell, the museum’s director, said, “This is anextraordinary gift to our museum and our city. Leonard’sgift is truly transformational for the Metropolitan Museum.In one fell swoop this puts the Met at the forefront of early20th century art. It is an unreproducible collection,something museum directors only dream about.”He told the New York Times that the Lauder collection,which is expected to be presented in an exhibition openingin the autumn of 2014, would fill in a critical area in themuseum’s collection. A $22 million research centre formodern art, funded by museum supporters includingLauder, will also be created. NEws DEsk

FUN Asia Entertainment presented a

special evening with famed singer

and music composer Adnan Sami at

Myerson Symposium Center in

Dallas. Adnan came to Dallas after

eight years and entertained the audience

thoroughly with his music and performance. His

fans in Dallas had been waiting for this event

for a long time and they embraced his

performance with joy. The concert was sold-out

a month before the event date. A large number

of music audiences came to greet Adnan Sami

and there were reports of a traffic jam in Dallas

downtown due to the music concert causing

police to interfere to control traffic on a late

Saturday evening. Adnan Sami performed for

about four hours and was interactive with his

audience. He sung a number of popular songs

on audience demand and receiving accolades

from audience. The singer had shed more than

350 pounds and was looking a distinguished

and charming person which kept people staring

in disbelief. The show organisers John

Hammond and Shariq Hamid thanked the

audience for their presence and for the success

of the show. On the other hand the concert

organized in Houston was also a huge success

and was a sold-out event. The Houston show

was organised by Rehan Siddiqui, who also

thanked the audience for the passionate

support of the event. Rehan Siddiqui hosted a

repeat of Adnan Sami concert on insistence of

his fans. He also presented flowers to people in

attendance. Adnan Sami said people ask him for

the secret behind his drastic weight loss,

adding that there are a number of hypothesis

flowing around. “The truth is that my weight

loss is a result of diet control and because of

usage of protein diet,” he said. NEws DEsk

sushmita sen marrying wasim akram?

LHR 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 7:02 AM Page 12

NEWS DESK

ON March 21, the Supreme Courtfound Sanjay Dutt guilty in the 1993Mumbai serial blast case. The actornow has a week before he surrendersto serve a three-year jail term. In the

little time that he has left - besides wrapping up filmshoots - the actor has been making arrangements forhis eight-member personal staff. Apart fromproviding financial support, he is also believed to be

asking friends within the industry to give them jobsduring the time that he will be in jail. “Sanjay

has always taken care of his staff. Even in theyears that he will spend in jail, he will

continue to provide them monetarysupport. He will take care of theirinsurance policies and their children’s

education, among other things,” a source close to theactor revealed. However, since his entire staff workson daily wages, they will be unemployed with Sanjayin jail. As a result, Sanjay, on their behalf, has beentalking to his friends to employ his team. His staffincludes his man, Mohammad, who has been withhim for the last 32 years, two spot boys, a cook whotravels with him; his vanity van driver, an attendantand two make-up artistes. All his staff has been withhim for many years now. The source added that histeam has always had work at any given point intime, since Sanjay, on an average, has been shootingthree films a year. “Now, Sanjay is talking toproducer TP Aggarwal, directors Soham Shah andApoorva Lakhia, and his close actor friends, askingthem to get his staff on board for projects in the nextthree years,” the source said. Sanjay’s publicistconfirmed the news to media outlets.

13artsFriday, 12 april, 2013

A

There's something liberating about

not pretending. Dare to embarrass

yourself. Risk. –Drew Barrymore

SANJAY dUTTplays good boss

10-day folk festivalbegins todayLok Virsa (the National Institute of Folk andTraditional Heritage) has announced to holdits annual folk festival, popularly known as‘Lok Mela’ from April 12 to 21 at itscomplex at the Garden Avenue,Shakarparian. Lok Virsa Executive DirectorKhalid Javaid said the festival wouldformally open on Friday at 4pm with aprestigious inaugural ceremony to begraced by Federal Minister for ReligiousAffairs Shahzada Jamal Nazir. “Havingstarted in the year 1982, this unique eventhas become a symbol of the federation’srecognition of and patronage to our richcultural diversity and active participation ofthe people of Pakistan,” he added. Thefestival will feature artisans-at-workexhibition, provincial cultural pavilions,folkloric song and dance ensembles,traditional cuisine, exotic craft bazaar,inaugural and award ceremonies and manyother attractions. He further said the mainthrust of the festival was the focus onprovincial harmony and national integrationand “highlighting the contribution of ourpeople in building future Pakistan”. NEws DEsk

STAff REPORT

The just concluded fifthedition of FashionPakistan Week featureda range of avant-gardecollections from morethan 26 designers andretailers of the country.Held in the nation’slargest city and financialcentre Karachi, the two-day-long eventshowcased an array offresh spring summerprêt-a-porter and lawnranges from popularnames like ShamaeelAnsari, Hajra Hayat,Zari Faisal, Amna Aqeeland Gul Ahmad Lawn. Famous Pakistanidesigner Maheen Khanopened the event with achic timeless collectiontitled Flight. Inspired bythe endangered speciesof birds, the lineincluded silver tops,black and white sarees,blue and yellow printedpants, capes andinnovative wing likeheadgears.Designer SaniaMaskatiya presented hercollection Naqsh on thesecond day of theevent. Drawinginspiration from themap making craft ofcartographers, the linecaptured the joyfulexperience of a travellerexploring new territoriesthrough differentcolours and prints. Adorned withembroidery, digitalprints and otherembellishments, the rawsilk, crepe and chamoismade range includeddraped tunics, straightshirts, loose pants andpleated croppedtrousers in radiant huesof black, white, yellow,orange, sand brown,beige, turquoise andsea green. Organised by theFashion PakistanCouncil, FashionPakistan Week serves asa networking andbusiness promotionplatform for thecountry’s well-known aswell as emergingfashion designers,entrepreneurs andfashion journalists.

Fashion Pakistan Week features creations of 27 designersA model presenting a creation by Maheen.

KARACHI: A model presenting a creation by AK.

A model presenting a creation by Rizwanullah.

A model presenting a creation by Sania.

A model presenting a creation by Maheen.

A model presenting a creation by Maheen.

LHR 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 7:02 AM Page 13

INFOTAINMENT

IFriday, 12 April, 2013

14 My thesis is that what we call ‘science’ is differentiated from the older myths

not by being something distinct from a myth, but by being accompanied by a

second-order tradition—that of critically discussing the myth. … In a certain

sense, science is myth-making just as religion is. –Karl Raimund Popper

COURTESy HUMANS INvENTLEO kENt

CAR enthusiasts tend to talkabout the McLaren Tech-nology Centre (MTC) inhushed tones such is thereverence for the place.

Since it opened in 2003 it has taken on analmost mythical quality and it is true, as youapproach the glistening, curving edificewalled with glass from the other side of theartificial lake, it does all start to feel a littleotherworldly.

Humans invent had a chance to taketour of the center, and here is what we found.

BEHIND THE SCENES

We are led into the press room whereRon Dennis, in a neat pair of tassel loafers,proceeds to give a talk about the importanceof paint, which sounds boring but turns outto be quite interesting.

In 2007, Dennis began the hunt for achrome coating on the McLaren F1 car thatwouldn’t weigh the vehicle down – his ini-tial inspiration came from the unlikeliest ofsources. Dennis says, “I was finishing myshower and reached for my aftershave andnoticed that on this bottle was chrome andyet the material was plastic. Normallychrome is achieved through an electroplat-ing process, you wouldn’t think that youwould be able to achieve chrome with theapplication of a coating.”

Paint company AkzoNobel were up tothe challenge and managed to create a paintthat makes the McLaren F1 cars look as ifthey have been electroplated. We were ush-ered down a spotless corridor past spartan,brightly-lit workshops within which em-ployees were noiselessly working away, andinto a lab where the nose of the F1 car wasbeing painted, to see the chrome effect forourselves.

THE PRODuCTION CENTRE

Before we enter the McLaren Produc-tion Center, Alan Foster, the operations di-rector responsible for the guided tour,

declares, “I’m going to take you through thisdoor and show you 21st century manufac-turing.”

It’s nothing like what I imagined. Theimmensity of the 20,000 sq. meter open-plan factory floor is made more apparent byhow uncluttered it is, devoid of the robotsand machines you might expect in a normalcar plant. And, even though most of the en-gineers are on their lunch break, it’s strangehow quiet the place is.

Foster says, “People are quite surprisedto learn that when the plant is working it isnot much louder than this. There are no airtools, jackhammers, conveyors or robots.The emphasis is on the manual and on theprecision, hand craftsmanship.”

The hall is lined with small stations,each one with a computer terminal (all thecables are hidden) beside which the car, inits various states of development, sits. As wewalk down the line you can see the car, al-most like in a flip book, slowly come intoexistence.

Currently the factory can produce one

car every 45 minutes – nine a day androughly 2,500 year.

Foster says, “It is an assembly line, butit is a manual one. The cars are passed fromstation to station by the team members, sothey qualify their work before they move iton. Really, the MPC is where science meetsDisney world. The science all sits in thebackground and what you perceive as youwalk through the facility is the manualcraftsmanship.”

What perhaps typifies this relationshipbetween man and technology, is the wayevery operator needs to swipe into the ter-minal of the station they are working on.

Foster says, “We have quality gateways,so nothing is allowed to flow forward but…you personally have to pass your work ontoyour colleague in front of you, so it adds tothat extra dimension to accountability andresponsibility.”THE HuMANS BEHIND SuPERCARS

Foster then shows us into the paintroom, which, like in the main hall, is visu-ally open with large, glass rooms within

which the cars are spray painted by humansrather than robots. Everything has beenthought through in the design of this facility.For example, the ventilation panels in thepainting chambers circulate the air in such away that an air curtain is created on the in-side of the glass; this stops dust and dirt set-tling on the windows.

The car is separated into two parts whenit is being painted, the main body on oneskid and the secondary panels such as thedoors on a second skid.

AkzoNobel and McLaren have beenworking together to create new varieties ofpaint. Foster says, “Some of the finisheswe’re using are quite unique so you get avery deep reflection of the colour. The Vol-cano Red is an interesting one, you can seethe base colour looks like a satin pink butwhen you apply the effect clear coat onto ityou get this really deep, lusty red colour thatcomes from it.”

Back in the main hall of the MPC, weare shown where the final testing goes on.

Previously, the car has been tested by a3D coordinate-measuring machine (CMM)where 320 points are checked to make surethe car has been put together properly. Nowit is time for some more vigorous testing.There is a dynamic rolling road that putseach car through it’s paces as well as a mon-soon test, where the car is put in a glasschamber and introduced to 16,000 litres ofwater in 7 minutes.

After this, the car is then taken on a50km road test, to check the car handles welland doesn’t make any annoying rattlingnoises. If there are any issues they are dealtwith straight away by one of the engineers.

Foster says, “Our ability to respond isvery much like the F1 team. If they’ve beenracing on Sunday, there will be one or twothings they don’t like about the car, andthese will be fixed before the next race. It’sall about rapid recirculation of informationand rapid fixes. Having worked in a lot offactories, this is uniquely simple and it is afantastic place to work.”

The ExchangeBar & Grill whereprices fluctuatelike stocks

In Sea of Galilee, a mysterybigger than stonehenge

Stonehenge has some company in the departmentof mysterious stone structures: In a new paper,researchers are now revealing that an unusual rockformation was discovered via sonar in the Sea ofGalilee a decade ago. Divers who have since gonedown to inspect it say it’s a 32-foot-tall cone-shaped formation made of “unhewn basalt cobblesand boulders,” reportsLiveScience, which describesit as a cairn—a stack of rocks piled on top of eachother. Its diameter measures about 230 feet(double that of Stonehenge’s outer circle), and it’sestimated to weigh 60,000 tons.Though the researchers admit they don’t knowwhat the structure’s purpose was (LiveSciencenotes similar cairns have been used to markgraves), they have determined it was definitelymade by humans, likely on land; a rising seawould have later submerged it. “The boulders havenatural faces with no signs of cutting or chiseling,”researchers wrote in the International Journal ofNautical Archaeology. “Similarly, we did not findany sign of arrangement or walls that delineatethis structure.” Up next: The team hopes toconduct an underwater archaeological expedition inorder to mine for artifacts and pinpoint the age ofthe structure—which one researcher believes coulddate back more than 4,000 years. NEws DEsk

NEWS DESK

Who needs watchdogs and alarmsystems when you have two fullgrown crocodiles protecting yourhouse? Awirut Nathip says no bur-glars have dared come anywherenear his home in the 15 years sincehis two crocodile pets have beenkeeping guard.

Burglaries are reported regularlyin the city of Phitsanulok, whereAwirut Nathip and his family live,but thanks to a perfect security sys-tem, they haven’t had any problemsfor a good fifteen years. Just likeeverybody else, they used to worry

about their safety, until they boughttheir t pet crocodiles, Thong andNgen. After that, no one dared setfoot on the property uninvited. Andfor good reason, as Awirut’s unusualguard dogs are very aggressive, espe-cially during the hot summer days. Inorder to keep them under control andmake sure they don’t become frus-trated by the unbearable heat, hesprays them with cold water at least10 times a day, and even lets themcool off in his air-conditioned officefrom time to time. Even so, Ngen iskept in a ditch next to the house, be-cause he is so aggressive, whileThong does his rounds in the yard. ”If

we’re upstairs he’ll come and lie infront of the door. We’re not worriedat all. No one would dare to get in,”Mr Nathip says.

Although some would argue thecrocodiles are a danger not only toAwirut and his family, but also to hisneighbors, they actually approve ofhis unusual protection method, andfeel safe with the predators close by.One of them, Prajit Charoensakkha-jon, says: ”I’m not frightened ofhim. I’d rather feel secure becausehe’ll watch our homes. Thieveswouldn’t dare to come round be-cause they think the crocodile isfierce, right?”

The hand craftsmanshipbehind McLaren

You don’t have to be an experiencedstock trader to make a killing at theExchange Bar & Grill in New York City,where prices of food and drinkfluctuate according to the law ofsupply and demand. The way it worksis quite simple. According to theExchange website, “The prices foryour favorite drinks fluctuatedepending on supply and demand.Watch a while when no one isordering your favorite drink and snagit when the cost falls to unbelievablelows – or use your leverage to jack upthe price of any cocktail, drink or shotfor the whole bar.” Unlike the realstock market, insider trading isn’tillegal. You are welcome to make useof the tactic to catch the ‘marketcrash’, when every drink in the barhits rock bottom. At times like this,beers are sold for as low as $2 to $4.Exchange can seat up to 60 peopleand atmosphere is like a nice loungewith dim lighting, HD screens andleather couches. The ‘ticker tape’flashes the fluctuating menu prices inred lettering according to analgorithm, the secret to which evenSteven Yee, an operating partner atExchange, claims he doesn’t know.“The algorithm was created by theperson who wrote the software, andthe guy won’t even share it with me.”Yee also says that the ticker is just afun feature, and that they are moreabout good food, fantastic staff, a barand a great atmosphere. OwnersLevent Cakar and Damon Bae agreethe fluctuating price thing is a bit of agimmick, but claim it’s done a greatjob of attracting customers. 35-year-old Bae, who has an MBA fromGeorgetown University, says “It’sdefinitely something a little bitdifferent. There is a little bit of atwist.” At Exchange, customers havethe power to move the prices of allbeverages and bar snacks. Forexample, the price of a plate of hotwings is generally $7, but it couldfluctuate either way in 25 centincrements to as low as $5 or as highas $9. A glass of Guinness could starttrading at $6 and be pushed quicklyto $8. Or sometimes, fall to $4depending on popularity. According toBae, good prices and a good locationshould be enough to make the uniqueproject work. But when they first wentto liquor distributors with their idea,they were pretty much laughed at.Cakar was confident though. “One dayyou are all going to come to me toput your drinks on my ticker tape,” hetold them. And he was right, as theExchange Bar & Grill is now 3 yearsold and still going strong. NEws DEsk

thai family uses crocodiles aswatchdogs to fend off burglars

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LAHOREstAFF rEPOrt

VETERAN allrounder ShahidAfridi said he is targetingthe 2015 World Cup afterreturning to the Pakistan

side, but vowed to quit if he became aburden on the team. The 33-year-oldwas left out of the squad for the one-day series against India in Decemberbefore staging a comeback for the tourof South Africa, but his woeful run ofform has continued, reported a foreignnews agency.

Afridi's 88 in the third one-dayer inJohannesburg was his first half-centuryin the past 12 months and he has alsostruggled with his leg-breaks, failing totake a single wicket in his last sixmatches. Despite the slide in perform-ance, Afridi, who has scored 7,201 runs

and taken 348 wickets in 354 ODIs, saidhe was still hopeful he could make theWorld Cup in Australia and NewZealand. "My fitness level is goodand I want to continue playing atthe top level," Afridi told re-porters. "The 2015 World Cupis in my mind but it depends onfitness and performance." Afridiwas included in Pakistan's ini-tial 30-man squad for the Cham-pions Trophy to be held in Eng-land in June, but must perform inthe ongoing national one-daycup to make the final 15to be announced nextmonth. He said hewould quit foryounger players tocome through ifhe does not per-form. "When I

felt I was not up to the mark in Tests, Ileft the five-day format," said Afridi,

who retired from Testcricket in 2010. "Iwill not play byforce neither wouldI like the selectorsto select me with-out good perform-ance." Afridi saidhe was doing hisbest to improvehis bowling anddemanded more re-

spect for players.

"Cricket is because of the players andthe cricket board must respect the play-ers. If there is a mistake on the part ofthe players they must be told about thatand if selectors want to drop them, theyshould tell the players," said Afridi.

Afridi was removed as one-day cap-tain in May 2011 despite leading Pak-istan to the World Cup semi-final twomonths before. Afridi said he expectedPakistan to do well in the ChampionsTrophy. "Misbah-ul Haq is leading theteam well and our combination is verygood, so I expect better results if westick to our plans and play to our poten-tial," said Afridi. Pakistan is in group B

of the eight-nation Trophy along witharch-rivals India, South Africa

and the West Indies. Defend-ing champions Australia, SriLanka, England and NewZealand make up group A.

WELLINGTONAgENCIEs

Local opposition and the ever tickingclock are conspiring against him butformer New Zealand captain LeeGermon remains determined to bringinternational cricket back to earthquake-ravaged Christchurch in time for the2015 World Cup.

New Zealand's second city hasplayed host to test cricket since 1930and one-dayers since 1973 but thatproud record was brought to ashuddering halt on Feb. 22, 2011 whenthe earthquake devastated the city andkilled just under 200 people.

The Lancaster Park ground waswrecked but Canterbury Cricket had

already identified a portion of HagleyPark as a potential future venue in linewith New Zealand Cricket's policy toplay tests in 'boutique' grounds.

"We were asked in 2008 where theideal ground for test cricket was and wesaid Hagley Park," Germon, chiefexecutive of Canterbury Cricket, toldReuters in a telephone interview of thelarge park bordering the central city.

"It has been a cricket ground forover 100 years, it's located centrally, it'sa natural amphitheatre for a ground so itticked all the boxes for a boutiquecricket ground."

The plans call for a NZ$20 million($17.13 million) redevelopment into a20,000-capacity permanent venue tohost test, limited overs and first class

games. It has not all been plain sailing,however, with a referral to NewZealand's Environment Court for ahearing in June eating into an alreadytight schedule.

If the plans are approved, Germonwill need to give the 'go' on thedevelopment almost immediately to getthe venue completed in time for SriLanka's tour of New Zealand in late2014. That would allow tests of itsoperations, at least once, ahead of theglobal tournament, co-hosted withAustralia, that runs from February toMarch 2015. World Cup organisers areexpected to confirm the cities that willhost matches by the end of April.

Germon declined to outline howmany games Christchurch had bid for,but said they had asked for the openinggame of the tournament, or at least ofthe group based in New Zealand, and asmany Black Caps matches as possible.

"We have basically communicatedthat we need a decision by the end ofAugust so we can hit key milestones to

have a ground ready for cricket WorldCup," Germon said.

"We don't know how long thatdecision will take from the EnvironmentCourt. They could turn it around in aweek or it could be a couple of months,we just don't know.

"We are on pretty tight timelines andmilestones to have a ground ready forthe World Cup."

The redevelopment of the ground,which includes a pavilion withpermanent seating, media facilities,lighting towers, an embankment andspace for temporary seating, is projectedto take about 12 months, he said.

The plans have not been universallywelcomed and local opponents haveformed the umbrella group "SaveHagley Park" to represent them at theEnvironment Court hearing.

The group's concerns are outlined inan open letter on Facebook addressed tolocal and central government and theauthority in charge of rebuilding thecity. Traffic management, the erection

of lighting towers, the construction ofpermanent structures in the park and theprecedent it would set for futuredevelopment were chief among theirconcerns.

The group also suggest a return toLancaster Park be investigated, thoughGermon said the City Council had"categorically" ruled that out.

Germon said their application hadtaken into account objections fromopponents and scaled back on theirinitial plans, but what they had now putforward was the minimum expected of aground by the International CricketCouncil (ICC).

The redevelopment would take uptwo percent of the land area in HagleyPark and not change the overall use ofthe vicinity, which was for cricketanyway, he said.

"It is, I believe, something that isvital to the future of cricket inCanterbury that we do get a venue,"Germon added. "This is the rightvenue."

AFRIdI EYES 2015 wORLd CUPsPorts

SFriday, 12 april, 2013

15He is one of the best managers in the world, he's been coaching for 30 yearsand knows what he is doing, he knows what he wants and it's just a questionof identifying the right talent. – David Dein who is a close friend of Wenger

Christchurch races against clock to play World Cup hostIT HAS BEEN A CRICKET GROUND FOR OVER 100 YEARS,IT'S LOCATED CENTRALLY, IT'S A NATURAL AMPHITHEATREFOR A GROUND SO IT TICKED ALL THE BOXES FOR ABOUTIQUE CRICKET GROUND

PROTEAS TRIOAMONG TOPCRICKETERS

JOHANNESBURG AgENCIEs

Three members of the Proteas Test squadhave been named among the WisdenAlmanack's Five Cricketers of the Year inthe 150th edition of the publicationwhich will be released on Thursday.Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and DaleSteyn were all congratulated by CricketSouth Africa (CSA) for their prestigiousachievement.“What a wonderful way for a SouthAfrican celebration of the 150th editionof this famous publication – knownaffectionately as the 'cricketer's bible',”CSA acting CEO Naasei Appiah said onWednesday.“It has truly been a phenomenal year forour Proteas and they have been and willcontinue to be an inspiration to thenation.”West Indies all-rounder Marlon Samuelsand South African-born England openingbatsman Nicholas Compton were theother cricketers named in Wisden's Five.This is the third time that SA hasproduced three of the five Cricketers ofthe Year – an honour which can only begiven to an individual once in theircareer. Graeme and Peter Pollock andColin Bland were included in 1966, whileDale Benkenstein, Mark Boucher andNeil McKenzie were named in 2009.“Hashim Amla was the batting sensationof the summer, gracefully compilingSouth Africa's first Test triple-century,and top-scoring in eight internationalinnings out of 11,” said Wisden editorLawrence Booth.“Dale Steyn cemented his status as theworld's most frightening fast bowler,blowing England away on the finalafternoon at The Oval, then underminingthem in the third Test at Lord's.”Booth said the only surprise about theselection of veteran all-rounder Kalliswas that he had not been chosen earlier.“At The Oval, he made 182 and balancedSouth Africa's attack superbly.“His all-round excellence was a crucialdifference between the sides.”

LAHORE stAFF rEPOrt

The phenomenon of Pakistan cricket and itsachievements raise keen interest in the countries wherecricket as a game is not really that big was the view ofvisiting foreign delegates of International IntensiveTraining Programme in Performance Auditing.

A 13-member delegation belonging to Iraq, Turkey,Mozambique and host nation Pakistan visited PCB onThursday (April 11, 2013) to intimately acquaintthemselves with Pakistan cricket.

At the conclusion of the visit at the National CricketAcademy (NCA) the delegates were presented withshields by the PCB Chairman Ch. Zaka Ashraf while agroup photo was also taken as a commemorative of the

visit. The visit, undertaken on the request of thePerformance Audit Wing of Auditor General of Pakistan,was part of a five-week International Intensive TrainingProgram in Performance Auditing that commenced onMarch 19 and runs up to April 19, 2013 under the aegisof Audit & Accounts Training Institute, Lahore. The 13delegates comprised of managers of supreme auditinstitutions of Iraq, Turkey, Mozambique and the hostnation Pakistan.

The PCB organized the presentation in two stages:First the delegates were taken to a round of the NationalCricket Academy, its indoor school, gymnasium, the ITLaboratory, the Library and the Museum and also shownthe activation of its post-modern Pro Batter Technologythat is being introduced for the first time in the country.

This was followed by another session that started

with a documentary highlighting Pakistan cricket and itssalient achievements, followed by a question/answersession with the senior management of PCB, whichincluded the COO Mr Subhan Ahmed, DirectorCoordination Brig Sajid Hameed, Director NCAIntikhab Alam and Faiza Ashraf.

“One important segment of the program was to takethe participants to various historical, recreational andprestigious organizations in Pakistan to give them a feelof our rich culture, historical background and workingenvironment in leading organizations”, said RobinaFaisal, Director General of Performance Audit Wing.

The participants, said Robina Faisal, had shown akeen interest in acquainting themselves about the history,ongoing activities and achievements of PCB andPakistan cricket.

‘Pakistan cricket raise keen interest’

AMLA, KALLIS AND STEYNHAVE BEEN NAMED AMONGTHE WISDEN ALMANACK'SFIVE CRICKETERS OF THE YEAR

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BANGALOREAgENCIEs

CHRIS Gayle took centre stageonce again for RoyalChallengers Bangalore, after arare-slip up in their previous

game. He consigned a quiet start to a chaseof 155 to a distant memory with anothercalm demolition job of an opposition team,backed up by his captain Virat Kohli, asKolkata Knight Riders suffered theirsecond defeat in a row following apromising start to their new season asdefending champions.

Gautam Gambhir guided the KnightRiders batting, happy at being asked to batduring the toss, but the total his sidemanaged proved below-par on an excellenttrack for batting. The Royal Challengersseamers bowled impressively to restrictpartnerships after they had begunencouragingly, and struck in the late oversto stifle an attempted surge. It kept KnightRiders down to a chaseable score, and

Gayle made it look worse than it was.Gambhir was at ease piercing the gaps

through the in-field, dispatching MoisesHenriques, who opened the bowling,through the leg side and RP Singh pastpoint and extra cover. Muttiah Muralitharanwas driven through off, smacked over mid-on, and slog-swept, all this during ahalf-century stand with Jacques Kallis thatpromised to take Knight Riders beyondwhat they eventually got. Kallis slicedVinay Kumar to deep point, but thepromotion of Yusuf Pathan to No.4triggered an acceleration.

Yusuf struck his first three balls, allfrom Vinay, for boundaries to differentparts of the ground, before whipping JaidevUnadkat for six over midwicket. But RoyalChallengers pulled things back, breakingthe stand when Yusuf holed out to long-onoff a slower delivery from Henriques. SCORES: Royal Challengers Bangalore158 for 2 (Gayle 85*, Kohli 35) beatKolkata Knight Riders 154 for 8(Gambhir 59, RP 3-27) by eight wickets.

GAYLE COMPLETES ANOTHER dEMOLITION JOB

I don't think he'll play again, I think it's because India

have gone the right way. It took a little while to come around

to it. They've given youth a chance. – Geoffrey Boycott

MELBOURNEAgENCIEs

Mired in gloom following a testdrubbing in India, Australiancricket has turned to Canberra’shalls of power for assistance, askingthe country’s top immigrationofficial to act as a de facto selectorahead of back-to-back Ashes seriesthis year. Desperate times call fordesperate measures, and Australia’sbid to secure a passport to Englandfor Fawad Ahmed, a 31-year-oldPakistani refugee with just 13 first-class matches under his belt, hasunderscored the anxiety felt DownUnder as the national team preparesto do battle with the ‘Old Enemy’.

While Australia’s humiliationin India, their first 4-0 series loss inmore than 40 years, was stingingenough, defeat by England in oneor both of the Ashes series would besimply unforgivable.

Embittered cricket lovers in theonce-mighty test nation havewaited over two years forvengeance after England’s 3-1thrashing of the hosts in the 2010-11 series on home soil, whichfollowed a 2-1 loss away in 2009.

Hence, the determination toleave no stone unturned, and in

Ahmed, the resource-rich nationhopes to have unearthed the rarestof commodities Down Under – aworld class spin bowler. Born inSwabi, a rural district fringed by theHindu Kush mountains and theIndus river, the legspinner has taken39 first class wickets at an averageof 32.20 since making his debut forAbbottabad in 2005.

The modest resume has notdiscouraged Australia’s cricketboard, however, who are petitioningimmigration minister BrendanO’Connor to fast-track Ahmed’scitizenship and allow him to beavailable for selection before the firstAshes series gets underway in July.Without the minister’s sign-off,Ahmed could still play a part inEngland, but would not becomeeligible until August 18, accordingto cricket’s global governing body,the ICC. That would be three daysbefore the fifth and final test at theOval – too long to wait for CricketAustralia. “Biomechanically, he islike an Anil Kumble who reallyspins the ball,” former Australia testspinner Stuart MacGill told localmedia this week, referring to the tallIndian spinner who captured 619 testwickets in a brilliant career. “I had(former test batsman) Damien

Martyn face him and he thinks he’sthe best Australian spinner he’s seensince Warney. “I think he isdefinitely worth a place in the Ashessquad.” Shane Warne retired with708 test wickets after helpingAustralia whitewash England 5-0 inthe 2006/07 Ashes series. Australiahave lost both Ashes series since andhave searched in vain for a successorto the peerless blond legspinner,churning through 12 slow bowlersand discarding almost all of themquickly. The 11th, Nathan Lyon, hasmore or less cemented his place asAustralia’s leading spinner and isexpected to be named in the Ashessquad for England after taking 15wickets from his three tests in India.

Selectors will take a secondspinner, however, leaving the dooropen for Ahmed to complete afairytale entry into test cricket onlyeight months after being grantedasylum in Australia. “I’m not surewhether the process is going to besolved but (Cricket Australia) aredefinitely helping me and we arepretty hopeful we will get through,”Ahmed said in a interview.

Ahmed’s journey to the cusp ofinternational selection has been anunusual one, arriving in Australia in2010 on a short-term visa to play

cricket in Yoogali, a remote ruraltown in New South Walessurrounded by vineyards andorchards. Ahmed ended up inMelbourne and applied for asylumas a refugee, claiming he wassubject to death threats from Islamicextremists for being involved with aPakistan-based NGO promotingwomen’s rights. “The main aim wasto educate (women) and to helppeople get clean and clear water fordrinking and (give them)vaccinations,” Ahmed said of theNGO. “There were some (threats)and I applied for that reason.

“I have family over there. Imiss them badly, they meaneverything to me. But Australia’snow my country and I’m happyhere and my family and friends areall happy for me as well.” Ahmedmade a big impression playing clubcricket in Melbourne but his initialapplication for asylum was rejectedlast year, leaving the player facingdeportation. An appeal backed byCricket Australia to then-immigration minister Chris Bowensecured Ahmed’s permanentresidency in November, paving theway for him to play in the top-flight leagues, including first-classcricket for Victoria.

Ashes-focused Australia in a spin over Pakistani prospect

NEW DELHIAgENCIEs

A master craftsman during his playing days, formerPakistan leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed feels England's"Graeme Swann is one of the most intelligent bowlers"in international cricket right now.

"Graeme Swann is one of the most intelligentbowlers that I have worked with. You tell himsomething and he has an amazing grasping power.Even with Monty (Panesar), I have had lengthy andfruitful discussions on various aspects of spinbowling," Mushtaq, who is in town as Delhi Daredevilsspin bowling consultant, said.

The 43-year-old spin bowling coach of the Englandcricket team played a major role in plotting India'sdownfall in Test series but he credits it to the players.

"First, you need to win over the confidence ofplayers. The next part is talking straight which theEnglish players respect. I told Graeme and Monty towork on their strengths than waste time thinking aboutthe weaknesses of Indian players. Remember, one goodball doesn't necessarily get you a wicket but a goodover does," explained Mushtaq.

The man who has 185 Test and 161 ODI wicketswill reminds that not only did he work with spinnersbut also had sessions with Kevin Pietersen on how toplay spin bowling.

"KP is a team player. I discussed a lot about howto tackle Indian spinners before the Mumbai Test matchand it yielded results. His commitment is fantastic. Hecame for two days and even with an injured leg gavethrowdowns to that little kid (Unmukt)," Mushtaq said.

Asked about the difference between Pragyan Ojha-

R Ashwin duo from Swann and Panesar, heexplained,"I guess they (Ojha-Ashwin) erred a bit onvarying the pace of their deliveries through the air.

Their rotation on deliveries was slow and our bowlerskept it a bit fast. "We read the pitches and would tellthem whether to bowl at 55 mph, 56 or 57 mph. For ourbatsmen,even if they made a mistake, they couldrecover due to slow nature."

Ask him about his role in the Daredevils set-up, hesaid, "Coaching is all about man-management. Ibelieve my job is to be a bridge between head coach(Eric Simons) and the players. There are a lot ofplayers who have a language barrier. Even I faced itduring my early playing days. I would ideally like tocommunicate to the younger boys what Eric thinksprovided they don't fully understand."

Mushtaq believes that in a player-coachrelationship, it is important to be a role-model.

"I understood how important it is to be a fit coach.If I can't do what I tell my student to do, he wouldnever respect me. If I tell Monty to bowl 20 overs at astretch, I have to have an equally good work ethic sothat my player listens to me."

For him, Daredevils' "environment has beenfantastic." "Even after we lost three matches, theowners told the players to relax and enjoy the game.That is something phenomenal."

Mushtaq feels that injuries to key players likePietersen, Jesse Ryder and also bowlers like UmeshYadav, Ashish Nehra coming back from injuries hasbeen one of the prominent reasons for the team's hat-trick of losses.

"Irrespective of how big a player you are, it isalways difficult when you come back from injuries anddeliver straightaway. But we have a fantastic bunch ofboys who are willing to give more than 100 per centfor the Daredevils."

swann is the most intelligent spin bowler: mushtaq National Gymnasticfrom May 25LAHORE: The 47thedition of theNational Gymnastic Championship willbe held here from May 25 andcountry’s men and women gymnastsshowing their talent in various events.The two-day activity is being organisedunder the aegis of Punjab GymnasticAssociation in collaboration withPakistan Gymnastic Federation. ‘All theaffiliated units including fourprovinces,Pakistan Army, Police, HigherEducation Commission and Islamabadwill be fielding their teams’, said aspokesman of PGA said in a pressrelease on Thursday. He said femalegymnasts will also be competing in theevent and they will be featuring in floorand vault events. ‘ The events will beconducted in accordance with theinternational gymnastic federation’scode of points. Each team will becomprising six players and two officialsbesides four female participants’, headded. The spokesman said PGF andPGA are taking best possiblemeasures to promote the game inthe country. ‘ PGF is holding regularannual events both for seniors andjuniors besides women championshipto enlarge the span of activities andto spot new talent. AgENCIEs

SUPER KINGS DEMOLISH LISTLESS KINGS XIMOHALI: The abbreviated nature ofTwenty20 is supposed to bridge the gulf inquality between sides, but there was nohiding the vast difference between theweakest batting line-up in the tournament,and perhaps the strongest one. After beingsent in, Kings XI Punjab lost all tenwickets; Chennai Super Kings chased down139 without losing any in anembarrassingly one-sided contest inMohali. Australia's Shaun Marsh, stillnursing an injury and not expected in Indiaat least for a few more days, can't comesoon enough to shore up a batting unitseriously lacking quality. With no renownedIndian batsman in the line-up, the star turnis provided by the ageing Adam Gilchristand the 35-year-old David Hussey. AgENCIEs

SCORES: Chennai Super Kings 139 for 0 (MHussey 86*, Vijay 50*) beat Kings XI Punjab138 (D Hussey 41, Bravo 3-27) by ten wickets.

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AUGUSTAAgENCIEs

The men in green jackets could barelycontain themselves, sitting there smugly asif they had done something to transform thegame of golf. Augusta National now haswomen members and, if it was a long timecoming, they seem to think it's the bestaddition to the Masters since floweringazaleas were planted on the back nine. “It'sjust awesome,” Masters chairman BillyPayne said.

Condoleezza Rice surely agrees, thoughfor now she's not saying. The formersecretary of state avoided reporters onWednesday as she made her way around thePar 3 contest, smartly attired in a tailoredgreen jacket over a tan skirt.

Rice and South Carolina financier DarlaMoore are trailblazers in a way, though fewoutside of golf would confuse theiradmittance last August to one of the mostexclusive clubs in the world to be on a parwith some of the great equality battles of thelast century. Indeed, the guardians ofAugusta National hardly qualify asvisionaries. For years the only places forblack people at the club were waiting ontables or carrying the bags of members, and

the concept that women could actually bemembers didn't take hold until more than adecade after Martha Burk tried futilely torally support for the cause.

Now that they're here, though, thingscouldn't be peachier. Seems the fears of

women running amok on the perfectly greenfairways of Augusta National were, shall wesay, a bit overblown. “These two ladies havebeen very special and it's just beendelightful,” Payne said. They might havebeen a decade ago, too, but the green jackets

are a stubborn bunch when it comes tochanging the traditions that have servedthem so well. Former chairman HootieJohnson famously dug his heels in whenchallenged by Burk, writing her at the timethat Augusta National might someday admitwomen “but that timetable will be ours andnot at the point of a bayonet.” The timetableapparently called for women in 2012, andluckily a few of them were available. Theymanaged to snare a prominent name in Rice,and as an added bonus put to rest anylingering controversy over the membershipof America's most famous golf club.

They could have gone further, butdidn't. On a day when Payne talked aboutgirls and boys putting and chipping on the18th green the Sunday before next year'stournament and a day before a 14-year-oldfrom China tees off in the Masters, he alsospoke about Augusta National becoming “abeacon in the world of golf” and doing itsbest to influence others in the game. Except,of course, the green jackets have no plans ofdoing any of that. In his annual pre-Masterspress conference, Payne refused to give aposition on belly putters, declined to take astand on smoking on the golf course, andwouldn't even discuss details of AugustaNational's new corporate party complex.

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Friday, 12 april, 2013

17I think that over the course of my career,

I've had a few (rivals). – Tiger Woods

COMSATS win 5thdr. Charles FormanFootball trophy

LAHORE stAFF rEPOrt

Forman Christian College, Lahore suc-cessfully concluded its 5th Dr. Charles W.Forman Inter-Varsity Football Champi-onship 2013 on Thursday. The finalMatch of the Championship played be-tween FCC and COMSATS and was wonby COMSATS by 5-4 goals and FCC got2nd Position. The match was decided onpenalty kicks. The Rector, Dr. James A.Tebbe was the Chief Guest who distrib-uted prizes among the winners. He appre-ciated the discipline and behavior of theplayers and advised them to continue thisspirit in their future practical lives.

Mughalpurawhites downMuslim Gym

LAHORE stAFF rEPOrt

Mughalpura Whites has moved into the2nd round of 16th Tauseef Trophy cricketchampionship when they crushed strongMuslim Gym by 6 wickets played at IqbalPark ground he other day.SCORES: Muslim Gym 150/5 in 20 overs. Ju-

naid Jaan 31, Zeeshan Malik 20, Farhan Nazar

49, Kamil Ali 19. M Ishtiaq 2/20, Fahim Akbari

1/16, HAssan NAsir 1/36, Sarfraz 1/26.

Mughalpura Whites achieves the score losing

four wickets. Junaid Jaan 1/21, Waqas Aslam

1/22, Farhan Asghar 1/27, M Ali 1/24.

Servis Colts beatMughalpura XI

LAHORE stAFF rEPOrt

Servis Colts has enterd into the next roundof 28th M Yaseen Akhter Memorialcricket event when they beat MughalpuraXI by 9 wickets played at Allama Iqbal In-stitute ground.SCORES: Mughalpura Xi 110 all out in 17.2

overs. Imtashal ALi 22, Mehboob Ali 17, M Ju-

naid 16. Sajid Husnain 4/26, Waqas Waseem

3/16, Mudasar Ali 2/9. Servis Colts 112/1. Mu-

dasar Ali 72, Sheraz Malik 30(no). Bilal 1/30.

MughalpuraInstitute win

LAHORE stAFF rEPOrt

Mughalpura Institute has moved into thenext round of 28th M Yaseen Akhter Me-morial cricket event when they beat strongPunjab Club by 6 wickets played atMughalpura Institute ground the other day.SCORES: Punjab Club 144/7 in 20 overs. Umer

Farooq 11, Yousuf ALi 46, Shoaib Akram 32,

Afzal Shehzad 32, Tariq Hussain 3/28, Ansar

Bharwana 1/31, Imtiaz Shah 1/29, Shahid Khan

1/20, Javaid Hafeez 1/6.

Mughalpura Institute 145/4 in 18.5 overs.

Rizwan 20, Azhar Hussain 40, Zaheer shah 26,

Shahid Khan 18, Javaid Hafeez 32. M Zahid

2/16, Haris Arshad 1/30, Adeel 1/17.

Lucky Stars beatTauseef Club

LAHORE stAFF rEPOrt

Lucky Star club defeated Tauseef Club by7 wickets in a friendly match played aJallo stadium. fine batting by Aziz andequally good bowling by sher Baz Khanwas the main feature of the match. SCORES: Tauseef Club 148 in 29.2 overs.

Waqas Khan 21, Ibrar Baig 25, Sheraz Baig

19, Qadeer Ahmed 28, Mohsin Agha 21.

Zubair 3/19, Junaid 2/18, Shehbaz 2/23, Aziz

1/5. Lucky Star Club 151/3 in 28.5 overs.

Tariq 16, Zeeshan 14, Aziz (41 no) Asif

13(no). Sher Baz Khan 3/30.

LONDON AgENCIEs

GREAT Britain's hopes ofreturning to the elite WorldGroup in Davis Cup nextyear are very much alive

after they were pitted against Croatia inSeptember's play-offs. Leon Smith's sideset up the opportunity to return to the toplevel of the competition for the first timesince 2008 with a brilliant 3-2 victoryover Russia in Coventry last weekend.

Thursday's draw ends a run of sevenconsecutive ties at home - this will becaptain Smith's first away tie - but, withAndy Murray having pledged to makehimself available, it is one they will beconfident of winning. Britain avoided thelikes of Spain and Switzerland, and Smithsaid on www.lta.org.uk: "ObviouslyCroatia is a tough draw and especially asit is an away tie. "In Marin Cilic they havean extremely strong number one playerwho is currently ranked 11 in the world.

Ivan Dodig is their current number twosingles player and ranked at 54. But, aswe saw last weekend, anything is possiblein Davis Cup." Murray has not played inthe competition since a victory overHungary in September 2011 that sawBritain clinch promotion back toEurope/Africa Zone Group I. In hisabsence, Dan Evans in particular hasstepped up, winning both his singlesrubbers to guide Britain to victory overSlovakia last year then beating top-80player Evgeny Donskoy in the decidingrubber against Russia on Sunday.

James Ward had previously beatenDmitry Tursunov to keep the tie aliveafter Britain had been 2-0 down, and whowill get the nod alongside Murray will bea difficult decision for Smith. Murray haswon eight of his nine previous matchesagainst Cilic as well as his only meetingwith Dodig, while Britain's doubles pairof Colin Fleming and Jonny Marraywould also be fancied to win their rubber.The difficulty for Murray could be that

the tie begins on September 13 - only fourdays after the US Open final, where hewill hope to successfully defend his title.Coincidentally, Britain's only previous tieagainst Croatia, in September 2007, wasalso their most recent triumph in theWorld Group play-offs. On that occasion,a British team featuring Tim Henman inhis final professional outing won 4-1 atWimbledon, with Murray defeating Cilicin five sets. Britain could not build on thewin, though, losing their first-roundmatch in the World Group againstArgentina and then falling to Austria inthe play-offs.

The losing streak eventually stretchedto five and, by the time they won again -in Smith's first match in charge againstTurkey in July 2010 - Britain had lost toLithuania and were on the brink ofrelegation to the bottom tier of thecompetition. Thorough preparation and agood team spirit have been the hallmarksof Smith's reign as he has engineered aroute back, largely without Murray.

Smith optimistic for GBafter davis Cup draw

Sexist Augusta should be ashamed

Prince Club crushMughalpura

LAHORE stAFF rEPOrt

Prince Club has defeated strongMughalpura Institute clubby 22 runs inthe match of 10th M Siddiq MemorialCricket Event played at MughalpuraInstitute ground the other day. Finebowling by Sadam ul haq was the mainfeature of the match.SCORES: Prince Club 131 all out. SiddiqKhan 26, Kifayat Hussain 22, Mian Umer30. Javaid Hafezz 3/20, Tariq Hussain3/22, Irfan Ali 1/21, Hassan NAsir 1/19,Ansar Bharwana 2/29. MughalpuraInstitute 109 all out. Azhar Bhatti 17,Shahid Khan 32, Zaheer Butt 33. Sadamul haq 4/12, Ali Shah 3/33, KifayatHussain 2/8, Sammer Akram 1/28.

AUGUSTAAgENCIEs

Padraig Harrington missed out on a fourthvictory in the traditional par-three conteston the eve of the Masters, but was unlikelyto be too disappointed. Since the event

started in 1960, nobody has ever becomepar-three champion and Masterschampion in the same week, withHarrington continuing the 'jinx' after winsin 2003, 2004 and 2012 - although hetwice had to share the title after badweather prevented a play-off.

No par-three joy for Harrington

Former US Secretary of State and one of Augusta National Golf Club first femalemembers, Condoleezza Rice.

LONDON: Jo-Wilfried

Tsonga prepares for the

AEGON Championships.

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18We just haven't performed very

well. Simple. – Ian Poulter said when

asked about the victory drought

wAtCh­It­LIve

GEO SUPERIPL: Delhi Daredevilsv Sunrisers Hyderabad07:30 PM

Tsonga tocompete in AEGONChampionships

LONDONAgENCIEs

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will return to Queen'sClub this summer expecting to wintournaments on grass.The popular Frenchman has confirmed hewill compete in the AEGONChampionships in June for the fourth timeahead of another attempt to winWimbledon.Tsonga reached the semi-finals at SW19last year and was very close to forcing afifth set against Andy Murray, while healso lost to the world number two in thefinal at Queen's in 2011.Tsonga said: "The AEGONChampionships is what tennis is all about.It is full of history. For me you cannothave a better tennis tournament. It's aspecial place."I entered the top 100 for the first time atQueen's Club (in 2007) when I beatLleyton Hewitt, who was the defendingchampion. It was also the first time that Idid my dance celebration and the Britishpeople loved it."I've always played well on grass, I expectto win tournaments on it, so we will seewhat happens at Queen's and atWimbledon."

Hamilton takes a sicknote in Shanghai

SHANGHAI AgENCIEs

Lewis Hamilton cancelled his mediaengagements and returned to his hotelafter feeling unwell at the Chinese GrandPrix on Thursday. A Mercedes teamspokeswoman said the 2008 Formula Oneworld champion, who moved fromMcLaren at the end of last season, wouldbe back at the circuit for scheduledpractice on Friday. Mercedes won inChina last year with Germany's NicoRosberg, their first grand prix victorysince they returned as a works team in2010 after pulling out in 1955.

Serena, Venus tolead US in Fed Cup

NEW yORKAgENCIEs

World No 1 Serena Williams and her sisterVenus will join Sloane Stephens andVarvara Lepchenko on the US Fed Cupteam facing Sweden later this month, theUS Tennis Association said onWednesday. The move ensures theWilliams sisters, two-time defendingOlympic women's doubles champions aswell as the 2000 Sydney Olympicwinners, will be eligible to play in the2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. SerenaWilliams, a 15-time Grand Slam singleschampion, is also the reigning Olympicsingles champion. The Americans, allranked in the WTA top 30, will play hostto Sweden at Delray Beach, Florida, onApril 20-21, with the winner qualifyingfor the 2014 World Group and the loserrelegated with no chance to win the trophynext year. "I'm really excited about theteam that we have," US Fed Cup captainMary Joe Fernandez said. "We have greattalent and depth, which is a perfectcombination." Venus Williams is ranked22nd, six spots behind Australian Opensemifinalist Stephens and five ahead ofLepchenko. Sweden's team features 54th-ranked Sofia Arvidsson, 65th-rankedJohanna Larsson, 425th-ranked HildaMelander and 489th-ranked Sandra Roma.SPAIN TO PLAy uKRAINE IN

PLAyOFFS: Spain, who won three ofthe last five Davis Cup titles, will have tobeat Ukraine in the playoffs to avoidrelegation from the World Group,according to the draw made on Tuesday.The Spaniards lost 3-2 to surprise teamCanada in the first round without RafaelNadal and other top players to go into theplayoff pot for the first time since 2006.

LONDONAgENCIEs

Manchester United director Sir BobbyCharlton revealed the club have not startedthinking about replacements for Sir AlexFerguson - and have no plans to. In whatis probably the most closely guardedsecret in football at the moment, the 71-year-old United manager declared hewould not reveal the date of his retirementplans. Ferguson had previously stated thatthe 2001/02 season would be his last butafter an indifferent campaign that year, theScot opted to stick around and oversee animportant transition period for theManchester giants.

He later admitted that publicknowledge of his retirement date had anadverse reaction on the team and vowednot to make the same mistake twice. But,with Ferguson set to seal another BarclaysPremier League title this season - United's

20th title - and rumours of an unsettledReal Madrid manager Jose Mourinhoeyeing Old Trafford, speculation isgrowing that United's long servingmanager may call it a day in the nearfuture. However, United legend Charltoninsists Ferguson has given no indicationhe is ready to let go of the reins.

"No, we've not [started thinking aboutreplacements], because it's just a waste oftime," he told talkSPORT at Soccerex. "Itcould be next week [when he retires], itcould be 10 years, it doesn't matter. Wewill wait for him. We can't tell himwhat to do, he is fantastic. "He lovesthe game and every time he thinksabout retiring he has to lookcarefully at what decision he ismaking because it is a tough thingfor him to do. "He is so positive andknowledgeable about the game thathe won't make any mistakes. If heretires, it will be his [decision].

United leave retirementin Fergie’s hands

SHANGHAI AgENCIEs

Formula One world champion SebastianVettel met a barrage of questions about hisfailure to obey team orders on Thursdaywith an unrepentant smile and coldcontempt for Red Bull team mate MarkWebber. Facing a scrum of reporterscrammed into his team's hospitality centreat the Chinese Grand Prix, Vettel showedlittle apparent remorse for his failure toobey instructions by snatching victoryfrom Webber in Malaysia last month.

Vettel said he had not understood theorder to hold station, issued in coded formas 'multi-21', but would probably haveignored it even if he had fullycomprehended. "Had I understood themessage, then I think I would have thoughtabout it, reflected on what it means, whatthe team wants me to do, to leave Mark in

first place and me finishing second. And Ithink I would have thought about it andprobably done the same thing becauseMark doesn't deserve that." Pressed byReuters on why he felt Webber, who hadobeyed instructions to turn down theengine and look after the tyres, had notdeserved to win, Vettel replied bluntly:

"I don't like to talk ill of other people.It's not my style. I think I said enough.The bottom line is that I was racing, I wasfaster, I passed him, I won." The tone ofthe encounter was set from the firstquestion enquiring of Vettel how he feltto be the 'bad guy' after previously beingthe 'good guy'. "I don't consider myselfthe bad guy," replied the 25-year-old,who said on Wednesday that he hadapologised to the team after the race forhis act of disobedience but not forwinning. "I don't think I did somethingthat was particularly bad."

Webber did not deserve to win, says Vettel

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