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

STORY ON PAGE 03

STORY ON PAGE 02

No civilian drone deaths in Pakistan claim was false: US documents

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

STORY ON PAGE 04

STORY ON PAGE 04

STORY ON PAGE 02 STORY ON PAGE 03 STORY ON PAGE 18

SHAHBAZ CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF PRO-PPP OFFICIALS IN CENTRE

YOU CANT FOOL US, CJP TELLS AGENCIES

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NFriday, 12 april, 2013

02

News

PTI wants devolution of power to

grassroots level. Asad Umar

My mom will nowbe Haroonabadsmom, says Meera

LAHORE:

Following herdaughterssuit, actorMeerasmother 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 doesnt 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 hasnthappened in Haroonabad for 65 yearswill now be done by my mom, she said.My mom will now be Haroonabadsmom. 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 Ministers House on Thursday. Thespokesman strongly contradicted thenews reports carried by a section ofmedia about the ministrys 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 inPakistans 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 targetedoperation in the city. Over 500paramilitary personnel took part inThursdays operation conducted inLyaris Kashti Chowk and RabiaCity area of Karachi.

Assassins mock Karachis 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 regionsTirah 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-

tablishments 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 Balochistans 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 Indias 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.

Dastis 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 Khans nomination papersfor the constituency of NA-53Rawalpindi were accepted by the elec-tion tribunal also, that dismissed thereturning officers decision on Thurs-day. A returning officer had rejectedNisars 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 SHOZeenatullahs 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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News N03

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 Peoples 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 armys 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 PPPs 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 couldnt it follow the practice in removing thegovernment functionaries loyal to the PPP.

Imran seeks CEC, CJs help for expats voting rights

ISLAMABADstAFF rEPOrt

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ChairmanImran Khan onThursday ex-pressed concernover the ECPs 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 NADRAs e-voting software andpostal ballot were being opposed to facilitate theoverseas Pakistanis.

Bilour asks ECP to takenotice of PTIs 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 MQMs 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 Islams 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 partys zero toler-ance policy for terrorism. He de-manded that an operation becarried out to arrest the perpetra-tors behind Islams murder.

He further stated that innocentcitizens in peaceful areas ofKarachi were being harassed bypolice and Rangers officials underthe pretext of operations. He addedthat MQMs 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 AyubJans car injuredone of hisguards in Pe-

shawar. Accord-ing to initial

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

geted Jans 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 Peoples Party, AwamiNational Party and MQM..

Expats to be part of polls process, SC told

PAKISTANIS RESIDING IN 10 COUNTRIES WOULD BE

INCLUDED IN THIS EXERCISEABOUT 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 JusticeDost 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 theLHCs 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 FBRs 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 Obamas pro-posed budget unveiled onWednesday calls for cuts of atleast $4.4 billion to Americas 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 directors 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 worldslargest intelligence

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

dents 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 Sindhs 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

familys 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 Obamaschief 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 toBrennans 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 theCIAs 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 Rahims 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 CIA

AND OTHER SPY AGENCIESSTARTING OCTOBER 1,

DOWN FROM A PROPOSED$52.6 BILLION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013

UTILISATION OF PSDP FUNDS(

(

SC terms Balochistan govts

report unsatisfactory

No civilian dronedeaths in Pakistanclaim was false, sayUS documents

A months visaextension for PakistaniHindus in India

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KARACHIAFtAB ChANNA

WITH an aim to ensure transparentholding of the forthcoming generalelections, the Election Commissionof Pakistan (ECP) has issued orders

to the Sindh chief secretary to transfer those officersappointed by the former Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)ministers so that the election process could be madetransparent, it is learnt. The orders were the result ofa meeting of Sindh intelligentsia who met with ChiefElection Commission (CEC) Fakhruddin Ibrahimthe other day and apprised him about the continuityof PPP and MQM supported bureaucracy. In the

backdrop of the series of complaints by the writersand intellectuals, the CEC called up the Sindh ChiefSecretary Raja Mohammad Abbas at the ECP officeon Thursday morning and discussed various matterswith him, including the reshuffling of bureau-cracy. Well-placed sources told PakistanToday that the chief secretary was in-structed to transfer senior bureaucratswho have served their posts formore than one and a half years.Those placed in the hit list includedNadeem Kamran Balouch, workingas principle secretary of sitting care-taker chief minister, who had earlierserved as secretary finance during thelast five years in previous provincial gov-ernments, which clearly showed his close af-filiation with coalition partner parties of formerprovincial government. The sitting home secretaryAsrar Hussain had served as additional secretary de-velopment during the last five years, which was tan-gible evidence of his close association with the pre-vious government. Meanwhile, Asif Hyder Shah

had been appointed as S&GAD secretary, which wasa key position in provincial administrative hierarchy.He is the brother-in-law of former provincial minis-ter Murad Ali Shah. Sohail Ahmed Qureshi had been

posted as S&GAD additional secretary, and wasknown to have close association with Presi-

dent Asif Zardari. He was also amongthose officers who were promotedout of turn by former chief ministerQaim Ali Shah. Furthermore, AliAhmed Lund had been appointedas Local Government secretary andshared strong relations with former

PPP MNA Naveed Qamar and for-mer provincial minister Agha Siraj

Durrani. The sitting Karachi Commis-sioner Hashim Raza Zaidi, who had also

been given administrative powers of city adminis-tration, remained as secretary health during thelast five years of the previous governments rule.Moreover, Mohammed Ali Baloch, Zaheer AhmedTunio and Khuram Waris have been posted asSSPs of Mathiari, Tharparkar and Jamshoro.

karachi

kFriday, 12 april, 2013

Interim govtshould providetight securityto poll hopefuls KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) Chairman Bilawal Zardari onThursday demanded fool-proofsecurity arrangements for thecandidates contesting the upcomingelections. Bilawals statement camehours after the killing of MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) candidateFakhrul Islam from PS-47 in Halanakaarea of Hyderabad. The PPP chairmandirected his party leaders to workoutseat adjustment in Sindh with thePakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q).He said thatthe PPPwas nothesitantto forman electionalliancewithanyone. INP

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PrAyEr tIMINgs

`Surgical raids' will be carried out in identified areas and fixed

barriers/impediments on various thoroughfares will be removed as

per the directives of Supreme Court. Sindh police spokesman

Ex-regime loyalistsin hot waters!

MOST BUREAUCRATS SHARECLOSE TIES WITH LEADERS OFIMPORTANT PARTIES, ESPECIALLYTHE PAKISTAN PEOPLES PARTY

ecP orderstransfers of

PPP and mQmappointed

bureaucracy

HYDERABAD: Workers prepare flex posters for election candidates. ONILNE

KARACHIstAFF rEPOrt

Sindh Inspector General (IG) of Po-lice Shahid Nadeem Baloch has or-

dered the transfers and postingsof high-ranking police officialsthroughout the province, said anofficial statement issued hereon Wednesday. The statementsaid that Senior Superintendentof Police (SSP) MuhammadAli Baloch (BS-19) had beentransferred from Sanghar andposted as SSP Matiari. Mean-while, another officer Man-zoor Ali Khatian was trans-ferred and directed to reportto CPO. Assistant InspectorGeneral (IG) of Police(Telecommunication) ShoukatAli Khatian (BS-18) was given

transfer orders while SSP Fida Hus-sain Mastoi was transferred and di-rected to report to CPO. AIGP (Es-tablishment) CPO (Karachi) SaqibIsmail Memon (BS-19) was alsogiven transfer orders. Hyderabad SSPHaseeb Afzal Baig was transferredand directed to report to CPO. SaddarDivision SP Tanvir Alam Odho (BS-18) was posted as SSP TandoMuhammad Khan.

Tando Muhammad Khan SP Am-jad Ahmed Shaikh (BS-18) wasposted as SP Naushahro Feroz whileImdad Ali Shah was transferred anddirected to report to CPO. GhulamSarwar Bhayo, (BS-18) was awaitingposting as SP Shaheed Benazirabadwhile Ghulam Sarwar Abro was trans-ferred and directed to report to CPO.Karamullah Soomro (BS-18), PoliceBase II was promoted to SSP Tando

Allah Yar while Nisar Ahmed Channawas also transferred and directed toreport to CPO. North Nazimabad SPKhurram Waris (BS-18) transferredas SP Jamshoro while Usman GhaniSiddiqui was transferred and directedto report to CPO. AIG (MT) QamarRaza Jiskani (BS-18) was promotedto SSP Umerkot while Abdul QayyumPitafi was transferred and directed toreport to CPO. ACLC SSP Capt (r)Asim Khan (BS-19) was transferredon the post of SSP Sanghar.

Crime & Operation HyderabadADIGP Zaheer Ahmed Tunio (BS-18)to SSP Tharparkar and Mazhar NawazShaikh was transferred and directed toreport to CPO. Ghotki SP Irfan AliBaloch (BS-19) to SSP Sakhar whileSakhar SSP Syed Pir Mohammad Shahwas transferred to the post of SSPLarkana. Javed Soonhoaro Jiskano

(BS-19) was transferred as fromLarkana to SSP Jacobabad whileMuhammad Younis Chandio was trans-ferred and directed to report to CPO.

Saeedabad-Karachi SP AbdulSalam (BS-18) was transferred alongwith Irfan Ali Baloch. InvestigationEast Karachi SP Naveed AhmedNisar Khawaja (BS-18) transferred toSSP Khairpur while Syed Asghar AliShah was transferred and directed toreport to CPO. Kambar-ShahdadkotSP Dr Farrukh Ali (BS-18) was trans-ferred to the post of SP Kashmorwhile Muhammad Umar Farooq Sala-mat was transferred and directed toreport to CPO. Traffic East KarachiSP Capt (r) Ghulam Azfar Mahesar(BS-18) was transferred as SPShikarpur while Capt (r) ParvaizAhmed Chandio was transferred anddirected to report to CPO.

toP coPs uNDergo massive reshuFFliNg

KHI 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 6:31 AM Page 5

karachiFriday, 12 april, 2013

06

k

Present interim provincial government is making all

out efforts to ensure free, fair and non-partisan general

elections. Caretaker CM Zahid Kurban Alavi

KARACHIAFtAB ChANNA

THOUGH millions of people ofSindh are looking towards PirSahib Pagara-led PakistanMuslim League-Functional

(PML-F) for real change of faces by de-feating Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), theinsiders opine that PML-F is allegedlyunder pressure to sideline eligible candi-dates for the upcoming elections just toplease the nationalists.

Interestingly, the committed Hurs andthose involved in the provincial politicsare being sidelined by PML-F which is notlikely to bring Pir Pagaras leadership inthe power. This attitude will surely helpthe former rulers to secure majority of theseats in the upcoming elections.

It is recalled here that nearly all polit-ical parties except the ruling PPP andMQM had gathered under the umbrella ofPML-Functional to form an electoral al-liance in Sindh to give tough time to thePPP-led ruling coalition.

The alliance, which consisted of 10

political parties, had to field joint candi-dates to contend the PPP and MQM can-didates or their joint contenders in case oftheir electoral alliance.

The parties in grand alliance includedPML-F, PML-Nawaz, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI),Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST), JamiatUlema-e-Pakistan (JUP), National Peo-ple's Party (NPP), Sindh United Party(SUP), Sindh Tar-raqqi Pasand Party(STPP) and AwamiTehreek (AT). Inter-estingly, when Pak-istan Today visitedthe FunctionalHouse of PML-F onWednesday, it waswitnessed that seniorparty members ofPML-F came outwith grim and disap-pointed faces astheir devotion andsincerity was side-lined by the PML-Fleadership headed by its leader ImtiazAhmed Shaikh.

Insiders told that two meetings wereheld at the Functional House which wererepresented by Mohammad HussainMehnati of JI, Liaquat Jatoi, Saleem Ziaand Nehal Hashmi of PML-N, Syed Jalal

Mehmood Shah and Zain Shah of SindhUnited Party.

Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah of SUP se-cured support for his seat from Jamshorodistrict however he also succeeded in se-curing another seat of PS-27 Sakrand (dis-trict Shaheed Benazirabad) sidelining thePML-F leader Ghulam Irtaza aliasShahrukh Unar.

The PML-F sources said that SUPleader Syed JalalMehmood Shahwanted to bring hisclose relative, SyedZain Shah, from PS-27Sakrand, due to strong-hold of PML-F there.However, PML-Fleader Ghulam Irtazaalias Shahrukh was themost potential candi-date as he had morethan 8000 votes of histribe, 15,000 votes ofPML-F die-heart sup-porters, the sourcesadded.

However, PML-F President SyedZahid Shah also attended the meeting tosupport Ghulam Irtaza Unar however Im-tiaz Shaikh made him silent in the meetingthat forced him to leave the meeting.

Senior leaders seeking anonymitytold Pakistan Today that Yasir Shah,

nephew of Pir Pagara, and Imtiaz Shaikh,were also at loggerheads over distributionof party tickets.

This is why Yasir Shah avoided at-tending the meeting as he was in favourof fielding PMl-F leaders on majorityof the seats however ImtiazShaikh was trying to please thenationalists to get popularity in-stead of providing the masseswith replacement of PPP in shapeof Pir Pagara leadership. Ironi-cally, it was also noticed that thelocal leadership was also againstthe alliance with the nationalistparties as they feared PML-Fwould lose the growing popularityfor its strong stance on various is-sues that the PPP government hadtaken. The candidate who havebeen denied the party tickets will befeeling discouraged andthey will talk againstthe grand al-liance, how-ever, the partywill adjustthe angryf r i e n d safter thee l e c -t i o n s ,P M L - Fc e n t r a l

leader Imtiaz Shaikh told Pakistan Today.The party board is finalising the ticketsand we will revisit the decision of the tick-

ets allotted to the na-tionalists. Pir

Sahab Pagarais thinking inlarger inter-est of thepeople andthe peoplemust showtoleranceover theissue of

t i c k e t sawards, he

added.

PLAYINg POLITICS!WILL PIR PAGARA MANAGETO REPLACE PPP IN SINDH ORIT IS JUST A TACTIC TO PLEASETHE NATIONALISTS IN POLLS?

PML-F SOURCES

Nephew of Pir Pagaraand Imtiaz Shaikhare at loggerheads

over the distributionof party tickets

MQM moves SHCto defer printingof voters lists

KARACHIINP

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has filed apetition in Sindh High Court (SHC), seeking de-ferment in the printing of voters lists of 11 con-stituencies. It contended in the plea that printingof voters lists in these constituencies should bedeferred till the judgment on delimitation of newconstituencies. The SHC issued notices to theElection Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for Fri-day (today) on the MQMs petition.

Wanted TTPcommanderarrested

KARACHIstAFF rEPOrt

The Crime Investigation Departments (CID)counter-terrorism unit on Wednesday arrested acommander of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban Pak-istan (TTP) from Sohrab Goth and recovered ahuge cache of weapons from his possession. Perdetails, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP)Umer Khattab said they received information thata high-profile TTP member was present in Mach-har Colony of Sohrab Goth. The CID team con-ducted a raid in the above mentioned area, andwere met with strong resistance from the otherside as the accused opened indiscriminate fire onthe police team. After a brief encounter, BasheerKhan was arrested but his associates managed toflee in the midst of heavy exchange of fire. Theaccused was later moved to the CIDs investiga-tion unit, while Kalashnikovs and hand grenadeswere also recovered from his hideout. Policesources said that the arrested militant was taskedby the TTP to induct young men into the bannedorganisation since the time when their group wasweakened in Ittehad Town by Zaman Mehsudsnegligence. Basheer was a local commander ofthe TTP and was wanted by the police in a num-ber of cases involving target killing, extortion andother heinous crimes. During interrogation, theaccused told investigators that his family movedto the metropolis in 2004 and settled in MachharColony. Investigators said that he was ordered byhis commanders to move to the metropolis to ful-fill certain tasks. Furthermore, the accused waspreviously arrested by police in 2010 but latergained freedom on bail. After coming out of con-finement he was appointed as TTP chief inSohrab Goth by Qari Yaar Muhammad, belong-ing to Hakimullah Mehsud group.

KARACHI: Candidates wait for physical test outside Garden Headquarters for recruitment in police department. ONILNE

SUKKURINP

A local court on Thursday ordered registration ofcase against former Sindh chief minister (CM)Qaim Ali Shah, his daughter Nafisa Shah and 13others for beating up alawyer for challeng-ing the ex-CMsnomination papers.On Wednesday, agroup of lawyersallegedly belong-ing to the PakistanPeoples Party(PPP) manhandledtheir colleague forsubmitting objec-tions over QaimAli Shahs nom-

ination papers. The lawyers allegedly encircledthe thrashed lawyer, namely Manzoor Ansariwho was also president of Khairpur district bar,when he came out of the Sindh High CourtSukkur bench, and beat him up severally. A ses-

sions court judgewhile hearing the

torture case or-dered the po-lice tor e g i s t e rc a s e sagainst theformer CM,

his daughterand 13 other

persons in-volved inthe inci-dent.

Home ministry imposesban on arms in SindhKARACHI: Sindh Home Ministry on Thursday imposed aban on carrying and exhibiting any kind of arms andweapons in the province. The order was passed under Section 144 and previouslyissued permission letters were also cancelled.This decision came in the light of an increasingly sensitivepolitical situation with elections right around the corner. In January, the Sindh government had banned theissuance of new weapons licenses until the generalelection following the proposal of Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP) chief Fakharuddin G Ebrahim, who hadrecommended banning new permits for weapons during ameeting of the election commission in January to finalisesecurity and administrative arrangements for theelections.More than 400,000 gun permits had been issued in theprovince during the past four years, an official had said.Earlier, the home department had issued a new weaponslicense policy following an apex court order, directing theauthorities to only give gun permits to individuals aged 25or above. stAFF rEPOrt

register case against Qaimand his daughter, court orders

KHI 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 6:31 AM Page 6

Yemeni presidentorders militaryshake-upSANAA: 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 countrysstate-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, Yemensembassy in Washington, DC, said Hadisorder also covered two nephews of theformer president, who had served in thePresidential Guard and the intelligenceservice. Brigadier Tariq MohammedAbdullah Saleh was named defenceattach 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 ofJudaisms 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 intomens and womens sections. AgENCIEs

07

NewsFriday, 12 april, 2013

Im undaunted in my quest to amuse

myself by constantly changing my

hair. Hillary Clinton N

DHAKAAgENCIEs

Aprotester from Bangladeshslargest 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 worlds 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 thegovernments 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

Frances 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 Frances 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-torys 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

Frances 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 armys 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.

KHI 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 6:32 AM Page 7

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 Ministrys 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 armys 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 weve 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. Its 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 Pakistans history, securitywill be a major campaign issue.Since many of Pakistans 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 didnt 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 armys 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.

Its 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 militarys mosthigh-profile projects is the roadsbeing built in areas previously only

accessible by four-wheel drive,camel or on foot. The U.S. govern-ments development arm is payingfor most of the roads. Part of theplan is to open a new corridor togive traders easy access fromAfghanistan to Pakistans centralPunjab province, the heart of thecountrys 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 dont 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 dont have any opportu-nities. They need something to liveon. Thats 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 prisonerscase 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

KHI 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 6:33 AM Page 8

News N09

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 Peoples 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 Assembliesconstituencies 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 PPPs 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 fairelections 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 Maliks 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 Zardaris 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

KHI 12-04-2013_Layout 1 4/12/2013 6:33 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 PPPs 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 thepartys 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. AfterZardaris 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 PPPsstronghold 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 Benazirstragic 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 PPPs 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 PPPs 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: 021-35381208Islamabad Ph: 051-2287273 Fax: 051-2850505

Web: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 peopleKhosos 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 othersstrongholds, 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 and