Thursday, 25 April, 2013 Jamadul Sani 14, 1434Rs 17.00 Vol III No 298 19 Pages Karachi Edition

pakistan andafghanistan seek

to ease tensions inBrussels talks

scores dead inBangladesh building collapse

At least 87 people have been killed andmany more are feared dead after aneight-storey building collapsed in theoutskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. A mas-sive rescue mission is now under wayas officials said on Wednesday thathundreds of people were still trappedin the rubble as fire crews say up to

2,000 people were in the building

when it fell. page 07

key figure in pakistanfixing scandal dies

Former international opener SalimPervez, a key figure in a Pakistanmatch-fixing inquiry, died after suffer-ing fatal injuries in a road accident,family and friends said Wednesday.“Pervez was riding a motorcycle whenhe was hit by a bigger vehicle on Sun-day and could not recover from fatalinjuries and died early Wednesday,” afriend of Pervez was quoted by a for-

eign news agency. page 20story on page 03

rein in the MudsLingers,presidentasks CeC

story on page 03

story on page 19

pML-n supports

expats rightto vote

story on page 03

story on page 02

story on page 02

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KARACHISTAFF REPORT

a complete shutter-down strike was observed inKarachi and some parts of sindh on Wednesday on acall by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) tomourn the killing of its three workers in a blast outsidethe party’s camp office in north nazimabad the pre-vious day. MQM chief altaf Hussain paid tribute totraders, industrialists, transporters, workers, students,and people across different spheres of life for observ-ing a peaceful day of mourning in Karachi and the restof sindh against the killings of party workers. How-ever, normalcy returned to the metropolis aftera daylong closure. Like Karachi, routine life inHyderabad and Mirpurkhas also remained sus-pended to observe mourning on MQM’s call.

a partial shutter-down was also reportedfrom nawabshah and sukkur. special prayerswere held across the province for the departedsouls of Peoples’ Chowrangi blast victims.

The country’s financial hub wore a desertedlook on Wednesday and roads and streets re-mained desolate. People kept to their housesand public transport remained off the roads.Petrol pumps and CnG stations were closeddown due to fear and attendance in government,semi-government and private offices was a record low.

Routine activities were suspended completely inMQM-dominated areas, while life in some areas likesteel Town, Bin Qasim Town, Keamari Town, sachalGoth, ayub Goth, Model Colony and RailwaysColony continued per routine. Lyari, Baldia, Orangi,

Landhi, Korangi, Gulshan-e-Maymar, al-asifsquare, dHa and Clifton areas also remained par-tially operational. Heavy contingents of police andparamilitary troops were deployedacross the city to prevent anyuntoward incident. MQMchief altaf Hussain paidtribute to the people forobserving a peacefulday of mourning inKarachi and the restof sindh. He saidthe people had

shown by theirproverbial unityagainst thekillings of theMQM office-

bearers, workers and an election candidate busy inelection work that they strongly condemned the actsof terrorism against the MQM. He said the MQM wasbeing subjected to the worst kind of terrorism inorder to keep it away from the electoral process,thereby depriving it of its constitutional and legal

right. “It is highly unfortunate that the care-taker government and the election Commission

of Pakistan (eCP) are not taking any notice of therampant killings of the MQM workers,” the MQMchief said. “apparently, the barbaric killers have beengiven full freedom to play with the life and propertyof the people. The people have shown by their unitythat their courage and determination cannot be low-ered by killings, violence and terrorism.” The MQMCoordination Committee also expressed its graveconcern over the complete silence of all political andreligious parties on incidents of terrorism in Karachiand Quetta that had killed several innocent people.TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS: Party leader Fa-rooq sattar said the prevailing terrorist activities in

parts of Karachi and Quetta showed that the upcominggeneral election would not be fair and transparent.

Talking to reporters, he said, “If our governmentinstitutions are not fulfilling their duties of ensuringfair elections, then by default or design it is leading to-wards unfair and non-transparent elections.”

“In certain provinces, like Punjab, election climateis in full swing with parties holding big rallies, whileMQM and few other parties are pushed aside andbarred from carrying out their election campaign.”

“In the given circumstances, when we are re-ceiving open threats from terrorists, our offices arebeing attacked and party officials being killed, weare in no position to hold big rallies like other par-ties,” sattar said.

NThurday, 25 April, 2013

02

news

Atmosphere not favourable for

polls in Sindh, Balochistan and

KP. – MQM’s Raza Haroon

PESHAWAR/QUETTA STAFF REPORT

Wednesday was yet an-other day of violence andpanic in Pakistan as sev-eral bomb attacks in the

country’s two most volatile provinces –Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan –and a 6.2 magnitude earthquake forced thepeople to roll out their prayer mats andseek divine mercy.

The incessant pre-election violencehas seen at least 11 bombings since Tues-day evening. Twenty-one people were in-jured when four bombs went off in Quettaand Peshawar on Wednesday, a day aftera string of blasts killed 11 people and in-jured more than 70.QUETTA BLASTS: Two persons wereinjured when a bomb went off at new JanMuhammad Road in the provincial capitalof Balochistan in the evening, police offi-cials said.

earlier in the day, 13 people, includ-ing two children, were injured in a blastnear a hospital in satellite Town area ofthe city.

The bomb, attached to a bicycle leftin the hospital's parking lot, was triggeredby a remote control. The injured weretaken to the Civil Hospital, where doctorsdescribed the condition of two persons ascritical.

Hours later, another bomb went off inthe busy saryab Road area. Two police-men were injured and a car was damagedby the blast. The bomb was fitted on a bi-cycle that was left near a police station.

There have been seven bomb attacksin Quetta since last evening, including onecarried out by a suicide bomber who wastrying to target the minority shia Hazara

community.six persons, including a paramilitary

trooper, were killed and over 40 injured infour bomb attacks on Tuesday.PESHAWAR BOMBINGS: In Peshawar,four persons, including two women, wereinjured on Wednesday morning when abomb went off in the congested sirki Gatearea. a house was damaged by the blast.at least two kilogrammes of explosiveswere used in the attack, police said. The

bomb was planted in front of the house ofPakistan People's Party leader MuhammadTariq, police said. In yet another incident,two bombs went off along a key road indera Ismail Khan district though therewere no casualties.

Israr Khan Gandapur, an independentcandidate in next month's polls, had a nar-row escape as his motorcade passedthrough the area shortly before the blasts.

at Larkana in sindh province, about

20 feet of a gas pipeline were destroyedby a bomb blast. Gas supply to severaltowns and cities were cut off after the at-tack though there were no reports of ca-sualties.

no group claimed responsibility forany of the attacks on Wednesday but threeblasts in Balochistan on Tuesday eveningwere claimed by the United Baloch armywhich said that the bombings were aimedat disrupting polls in the restive province.

Blasts and a quake…another traGic day!

Partial shutdown in Karachi, Sindh to mourn killing of MQM workers

MQM is beingsubjected to the worst

kind of terrorism inorder to keep it away

from the electoralprocess, therebydepriving it of its

constitutional andlegal right

Govt to hold crediblepolls, transferpower to electedrepresentatives: PM

iSlAMABAD: Prime Minister Mir HazarKhan Khoso has said that the caretakergovernment was focusing on holding free,fair, transparent and credible elections inthe country and would extend all possibleassistance to Election Commission of Pak-istan (ECP) in the conduct of elections. Thepremier reiterated that power would betransferred to the elected representativesafter the elections process was completed.He was talking to British High Commis-sioner Adam Thomson who called on him atthe Prime Minister House on Wednesdayand discussed issues of mutual interest.While talking to the British high commis-sioner, the prime minister said Pakistan andBritain had historical and traditionally closecooperative relationship in diverse fields.He appreciated the assistance being ex-tended by the British government to Pak-istan in the field of education. Thomsonassured the prime minister of continued co-operation in the field of education and said,“We are very passionate about stepping upefforts to expand education in Pakistan andare exploring ways how to go about it.” INP

AlTAf HUSSAin

QUETTA: An injured person

is being transported to the

hospital for treatment

following a bomb attack on a

police station on Saryab Road

on Wednesday. INP

HYDERABAD: Roads are

deserted following a strike

called by the Muttahida Qaumi

Movement against the killings

of its workers in pre-poll

violence on Wednesday. INP

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03

Thurday, 25 April, 2013

There is no chance of a delay in

elections. – Makhdoom Javed Hashmi

9 killed inafghanistanas 6.2magnitudequake joltsPakistan tooiSlAMABAD: At least ninepeople were killed andmore than 100 injured inan earthquake on Wednes-day in eastern Afghanistanwhich was also strongly feltin various cities of Pakistan.Ahmadzia Abdullzai,spokesman for Nangarharprovincial governor, saidchildren were among thecasualties and he citedwidespread structural dam-age. The tremors were feltacross Pakistan, includingParachinar, MohmandAgency, Shabqadar, Swat,Peshawar, Islamabad,Rawalpindi, Chiniot and La-hore. However, no loss oflife has been reported inPakistan. According to theUS Geological Survey, theearthquake measured 6.2on the Richter scale with itsepicenter in easternAfghanistan. Fear andpanic gripped citizens of thejolted areas who rushed outto the streets and otheropen spaces from theirhomes and workplaces.Moreover earthquaketremors were also felt inthe Indian capital city ofNew Delhi, Kashmir andAfghanistan. AGENCIES

ecP announcesgeneral holidayon May 11

iSlAMABAD: The Elec-tion Commission of Pak-istan (ECP) on Wednesdaydirected the governmentto announce the pollingday of May 11 as a publicholiday across the coun-try. According to ECPsources, the commission’sdemand to have a publicholiday on May 11 hasbeen taken to ensuremaximum participation ofpeople in the votingprocess. The ECP has, inthis connection, sent let-ters to the Interior Min-istry and provincial gov-ernments. INP

no voting rights toexpats invites sc’s ireiSlAMABAD: The Supreme Court was informedon Wednesday that materialising the dream ofgranting voting rights to overseas Pakistanis wasnear to impossible. Information Technology Min-ister Dr Sania Nashtar apprised a three-judgebench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muham-mad Chaudhry regarding the reservations of thegovernment and the hardships in the process ofgranting voting rights to overseas Pakistanis. DrSania said that after holding various meetingswith different stakeholders, including the Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan (ECP), OverseasPakistanis Foundation (OPF), Law Ministry andNADRA, she had come to a logical conclusionthat the practice of including expatriates in theupcoming general elections was not possible.Giving details, she presented five difficultieswhich were being faced; including legislation en-actment, preparation of a software for e-voting,deployment of software in foreign missions andPakistani embassies, diplomatic hurdles, visaprocessing and training to the staff. She main-tained that the legislation was near to comple-tion, while NADRA had also prepared the soft-ware required for e-voting. The IT minister saidthat the real hardship was to test the softwarefor accuracy as it was still untested and foreignmissions and Pakistani embassies were nottrained to carry out the practice. Dr Sania reiter-ated that the process of training the staff andtesting the e-voting software required at least18 months. At this, Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry remarked that the casehad started about two years ago. He further saidthat neither the ECP nor the government wasserious and sincere in providing voting right tooverseas Pakistanis. However, Dr Sania said shewas stating facts and the view point of the gov-ernment. The CJ, while expressing annoyanceover ECP, asked ECP Director General Sher Af-gan to explain why he had wasted the court'sprecious time if they were unable to give a fun-damental right to the Pakistanis living abroad.Afgan said that the commission had apprisedthe court about the difficulties being faced in thisprocess several times. He further said that thepractice was not impossible, however it wastime consuming and the upcoming general elec-tions were around the corner. APP

Farooq naek appointed

leader of house in senate

iSlAMABAD: Senator Farooq Hameed Naekwas appointed as the leader of the House in theSenate on Wednesday. According to Senatesecretary, Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khosonominated Farooq H Naek as the leader of thehouse in the Senate. A notification in this regardis also expected to be issued shortly. INP

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

PResIdenT’s spokesmanFarhatullah Babar onWednesday requested theelection Commission of Pak-

istan to take action against some politicalparties, mainly the Pakistan MuslimLeague-nawaz (PML-n), for criticisingPresident asif ali Zardari during its on-going election campaign.

“during the ongoing electioneeringcampaign a section of the political lead-ership, particularly that of PML-n, hasbeen hurling accusation against the pres-ident that tend to inevitably drag thepresident into a political controversy.The president, on the other hand, is se-verely handicapped because out of def-

erence to the court observation, he can-not react to the accusation by employingbefitting political jargon,” read a letter bysenator Farhatullah Babar addressed tothe eCP.

The letter stated that on the order ofthe Lahore High Court, the president dis-associated himself from political activi-ties and holding meetings that could beseen as partisan political in nature.

Babar said direct criticism of thepresident, while the president himselfwas severely handicapped to respond,was denying a level playing field to theparty that was contesting elections usingslogans and images of shaheed Bhuttos.

He requested the eCP to direct polit-ical parties, particularly the PML-n lead-ership, to desist from partisan politicalattacks against the president.

rein in the mudslingers,president asks cec

sC issues ConteMpt notiCe to zardari,ashraf in duaL nationaLity Case iSlAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday issued contempt of courtnotices to President Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Raja PervaizAshraf for not implementing the court’s verdict in the dual national case. Athree-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry willhear the case on Thursday (today). Notices were also issued to Chief ElectionCommissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim‚ Senate chairman‚ former interior ministerRehman Malik and the attorney general. Last month, the Supreme Court had or-dered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and courts across the countryto ‘ruthlessly scrutinise’ all election contestants and also take action against for-mer lawmakers with fake degrees and dual nationalities The judiciary, which hadgiven the landmark judgement that any person having dual nationality could notbecome a member of the parliament, had also decided to look within its own in-stitution for those possessing dual nationalities. STAFF REPORT

BRUSSELSAGENCIES

afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pak-istan's army chief General ashfaq PervezKayani and a foreign ministry official held"productive" talks on Wednesday on easingtensions between the neighbouring states,Us secretary of state John Kerry, whohosted the meeting, said.

Kerry cautioned, however, that any re-sults of the Brussels talks would have to bemeasured in improving relations as naTOwinds down its afghanistan mission.

"We had a very extensive and ... a veryproductive and constructive dialogue ... Butwe have all agreed that results are what willtell the story, not statements at a press con-ference," Kerry told reporters, without dis-closing any details of what was discussed.

Kerry hosted the meeting betweenKarzai and Gen Kayani and senior ForeignMinistry bureaucrat Jalil Jilani, with the aimof calming tensions over border disputes andthe stalled peace process.

"I think that everybody here agreedtoday that we will continue a very specificdialogue on both the political track as well

as the security track," Kerry, flanked byKarzai and Kayani, said after more thanthree hours of talks. after talks over lunch,Kerry, Kayani and Karzai strolled togetherin the sprawling garden of the residence ofthe U.s. ambassador to naTO on the out-skirts of the Belgian capital.

Karzai called it an important meetingand said he was glad Kayani and Jilani hadfound the time to travel to Brussels.

"Let's hope...for the best," he told re-porters. neither Karzai nor the Pakistan of-ficials made any comment at the end of themeeting.

Pakistan and Afghanistan seekto ease tensions in Brussels talks

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Wednesday came as another setback for PakistanMuslim League-nawaz (PML-n) in the formof 67 former nazims (mayors) from Lahore,considered a stronghold of PML-n, joining Im-ran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

In a ceremony arranged in Lahore, ImranKhan vowed to introduce a local bodies sys-tem and promised if PTI comes into power;his government would conduct local govern-ment elections within 90 days. Khan criti-cised the previous Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) and PML-n governments for not hold-ing local government elections. “Pakistan isthe only country where there is no local bod-ies’ system,” he said, adding that instead ofimproving the system introduced by formerpresident Pervez Musharraf, they abolishedit completely.

He said PTI is committed to putting inplace the system, adding that carrying outdevelopment work is the responsibility of

local bodies. He said ex-chief minister shah-baz sharif had more funds at his disposalthan the prime minister but he did nothingfor the sake ofthe provinceand thecountry. Hesaid thatnowhere inthe world aremembers ofpa r l i amen tgiven wel-fare funds.“Their func-tion is legis-lation only,”he said. “If PTI comes to power, it wouldintroduce and promote reforms in the coun-try,” said Khan. Thana and katchehry (lowercourts and police stations) culture would beexterminated from the country, he vowed.

Quoting a Hadith, Khan said the faithfulcannot be deceived by the same person twice,

emphasising that corrupt politicians shouldnot be elected in the upcoming general elec-tions. Khan reiterated that his party would

not enter into elec-toral alliance withanyone. “We willmake an alliancewith the people ofPakistan,” said thePTI chief. Khanalso urged overseas

Pakistanis to take responsibility for devel-opment of 50,000 villages across the country.Meanwhile, addressing a mass gathering inshahkot on Wednesday, Khan said Pakistancould become the world’s richest countryshould good governance and rule of lawreign supreme here. Khan said if voted topower, PTI would abolish the culture of po-lice stations and lower courts, and would filecases against those who level fake charges.addressing another public meeting in

nankana sahib, the PTI chief saidhis party‚ if voted to power‚ willintroduce a new local bodies sys-tem in the country.

Khan said all facilities would beprovided to the masses at their doorsteps. He said development fundswould be utilised for the bettermentof people and not as political bribes.

The PTI chairman said a societyon the basis of equality and justicewould be established‚ which wouldbe free of corruption.

PESHAWARAGENCIES

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Munawar Hasan onWednesday said the ‘electables’, who cameinto power five times and looted the nation,need to be defeated. “We have to try to defeatthese electables. This will bring a revolution,”Hasan said while addressing an election rally.

Criticising them, he said that such peopleare answerable for the looting. “They cameto power five times and made government,

but did nothing for the nation.” addressingthe youth he said, “Justice is not possiblewithout shariah.”

earlier in april, The JI had announced itsmanifesto for the upcoming general elections.The document comprised several ambitiousgoals, including wiping out terrorism, lawless-ness, unemployment, energy crises and the un-equal distribution of wealth. One of the mainpoints in JI’s manifesto is that the party willstrive to eliminate corruption and free the na-tional exchequer from plunderers.

LG polls in 90 days when I come in power: Imran

shahBaz sharif had Morefunds at his disposaL thanthe priMe Minister But he didnothing for the sake of theprovinCe and the Country

Previously elected peopleneed to be defeated: Munawar

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Thursday, 25 April, 2013

Govt requests scto moveMusharraf’s casesto a single placeiSlAMABAD: The caretaker federalgovernment has requested the SupremeCourt of Pakistan to transfer all casesagainst former president General (r)Pervez Musharraf to a single place keepingin view the surmounting security threatsfacing the former president. According tosources, the federal government wrote aletter to the apex court pleading that therewere immense security threats involved inMusharraf’s transportation to and fromdifferent courts. Under the circumstanceswhen general elections were approaching,it was not possible for the government toprovide him with heightened security;hence, all the cases against the formerpresident should be moved to a singleplace, the government pleaded. INP

Man’s handssevered after he was accusedof theft DERA GHAZi KHAn: A man’s handswere chopped off after he was accused oftheft on Wednesday. According to details,Tufail was kidnapped and tortured beforehis hands were amputated. He wasshifted to District Hospital in Dera GhaziKhan for treatment. Tufail said that thetheft allegations against him werebaseless. However, he said he had had aminor clash with the culprits ten yearsago. The police registered a case againstfour accused and arrested two people inconnection with the case. However, nokey suspect was arrested. AGENCIES

Boston mosquerefuses to hostfuneral fortamerlan tsarnaevWASHinGTOn: A Boston mosqueattended by the Tsarnaev family hasrefused to provide funeral services for thekilled Boston bombing suspect, TamerlanTsarnaev, his aunt said on Wednesday.The aunt, Patimat Suleimanova, didn’tknow the name of the mosque, NBCreported. But she said one of Tsarnaev’suncles had approached the mosque forservices and was flatly denied. Federalinvestigators have been questioningvarious mosque leaders in the Bostonarea for information about the Bostonbombing suspects, Tamerlan and his 19-year-old brother, Dzohkhar Tsarnaev,who’s recovering in a hospital. AGENCIES

‘drones causegrowing hatredof america’ WASHinGTOn: A bipartisan panel ofsenators held a spirited and unusuallypublic debate on Tuesday afternoonabout the legality and unintendedconsequences of America’s targetedkillings overseas, a forum convened amidgrowing calls for stronger oversight ofthe government’s use of armed dronesoutside conventional battlefields.Senator Richard J Durbin, who presidedover the hearing, said it was importantto review whether current lawssanctioned drone strikes in countriessuch as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia,where the United States was not formallyfighting a war but relied on remotelypiloted aircraft to killed suspectedmilitants. “The use of drones has, instark terms, made targeted killing moreefficient and less costly in terms ofAmerican blood and treasure,” saidDurbin, who noted that the hearing wasthe first of its kind. INP

ISLAMABADTAyyAb HuSSAIN

MysTeRy shrouds the explo-sive-laden vehicle recoverednear the farmhouse of formerpresident General (r) Pervez

Musharraf as the all Pakistan MuslimLeague (aPML) leadership calls the bid“part of a plan to pressurise the authoritiesto shift Musharraf from his farmhouse toadiala Jail” on the pretext that the sub-jailwas not safe for the former president.

aasia Ishaq, aPML information sec-retary, told Pakistan Today that Musharrafthinks it is impossible for terrorists to parka vehicle near his farmhouse where secu-rity checkposts have been placed in close

proximity to each other.“anyone who has recently visited the

farmhouse knows that there is a securitycheck after every 10 metres. How cometerrorists crossed all the checks andbrought the vehicle near the farmhouse?and if, hypothetically speaking, they didmanage to cross all the checkposts, whydid the terrorists or suicide bombers leftthe vehicle there without accomplishingtheir task, that too after taking such a hugerisk?” she said.

“I know General Musharraf. If hefaces a life threat, he would prefer to diealone in his farmhouse and he would notjeopardise the lives of hundreds of otherinmates,” she added.

asked who she thought could be be-

hind the move, aasia said the motive waspolitical. “Only a day before the vehiclewas recovered, PML-n leader senatorMushahidullah Khan had claimed duringa talk show that Musharraf was not safe inhis farmhouse. We see the recovery of thevehicle in the same backdrop,” she added.

The Islamabad police claimed recov-ery of an explosive-laden vehicle parkeda few hundred metres from the farmhouse,which has been declared a sub-jail for theformer president. Reportedly, over 45kilogrammes of explosive material waslater defused by the bomb disposal squad.

“This quantity of explosives is enoughto damage an area of over half-a-kilome-tre,” an expert said.

Interestingly, the police officials hadclaimed that around 10:30am the employ-ees of the Cda nursery noticed a vehicle,bearing the registration number QM-749-ICT, parked unclaimed some 400 metresfrom the farmhouse. They informed thepolice, who came and drove the vehicle tothe shehzad Town Police station. How-ever, it took them around six hours to dis-cover that the car was rigged withexplosives. an expert, who was part of the

Bds, said over 45 kilogrammes of highlyexplosive material was skillfully packedin the engine of the car, all of its fourdoors and the boot, adding that the wireshad been attached to a central point fixedunder the steering wheel.

The Bds recovered a remote con-trolled device, two fuses and two timers,the sources said.

Brig Mahmood shah, a renowned ex-pert on terrorism issues, told PakistanToday that General Musharraf was one ofthe prime targets of al Qaeda and the Tal-iban. “They can’t hit top Us leaders likePresident [Barack] Obama or the Us sec-retary of defence... targeting Musharrafwould be easier and would not be a lesserachievement for them. so the formerCOas is under severe threat from alQaeda-linked outfits,” he added.

To a question on why the Talibanwould have used 50 kilogrammmes of ex-plosives in an assassination bid of the for-mer president, Brig shah said they mightdo so to test the general’s security cover.

“They have targeted him severaltimes in the past and would do itagain,” he added.

ISLAMABADTAyyAb HuSSAIN

It is official now. all efforts ofseat adjustment by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) with both Pak-istan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)and Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-n) have beencalled off and the party has de-cided to go solo in the upcom-ing elections, empowering itsdistrict office-bearers to seekany adjustment locally, Pak-istan Today has learnt.

“since there is no threatfrom a common enemy – thePakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP)- against whom the JI andPML-n have been got to-gether in the past, both partieshave decided to go solo.Moreover, Imran Khan’s PTIhas also not responded posi-tively,” a source in the JI said.

Last week, JI chief syedMunawar Hassan said hisparty’s talks continued with thePTI and PML-n for seat adjust-ment. The JI will be contestingthe upcoming general electionson the symbol of ‘scale’, whilethe PTI has been allocatedcricket bat and the PML-n lionas their election symbols.

Following eagerness shownby the PTI and PML-n for seatadjustment with the JI, both po-litical parties had formed re-spective committees, however,despite several sittings heldseparately between the JI lead-ership and PTI and PML-n del-egations, no concretedevelopment could emerge.

“Both parties - PTI andPML-n – have kept the JI en-gaged for the past fewmonths but their non-serious-ness has convinced the JIleadership to close doors ofany talks at the national orprovincial levels with bothparties,” the source added.

The source added that actu-ally, the PTI was insisting that

the JI choose between thePML-n and PTI, however, theJI wanted to make arrange-ments at different seats withboth parties simultaneously.

The source said the PTIwas closer to the ideology andpolicies of the JI and the lead-ership of both parties had beenon the same page on sensitiveand important issues beingfaced by the country.

However, Imran Khanmade the partnership condi-tional, which was opposed bysome JI leaders who wantedto make arrangement with thePML-n in Lahore to suit theirchances for election, thesource added.

“This relationship tastedan unnecessary bitterness overthe battle for election symbolof scale. Moreover, initialtalks with the PML-n furtherdeteriorated chances of talksbetween the PTI and JI,” thesource added.

The source added that thePML-n leadership was notserious in striking an agree-ment as nawaz thought hehad already won the polls -thanks to the heavyweights hehad gathered around himfrom across the country.

JI spokesman anwarniazi confirmed to PakistanToday that the party’s leader-ship had closed the chapter ofseat adjustment with the PTIor PML-n.

“due to the non-serious ap-proach of both parties, we havedecided to close this chapter,”he said, adding that the party’sdistrict-level leadership hadbeen empowered to enter intoseat adjustment with the partythat suited them.

asked whether there wasany cooperation alreadyreached with any politicalparty in any district, the JIleader said the local leader-ship had been asked to decideper their convenience.

PESHAWARSHAMIM SHAHID

The political atmosphere of theKohat division is strikingly dif-ferent from that of Bannu anddera Ismail Khan (dIK) due tointernal conflict within the ranksof a few political parties. not asingle political force canpresently claim to be holding astrong position in all the threeKohat districts, while politicalobservers are certain that a hungparliament at the provincial levelis a real possibility.

The anP had won two out ofthree na seats in 2008 generalelections while one went to theJUI-F. However, the anP hadfailed in securing a singleprovincial assembly seat out ofseven. afterwards the anP lead-ership succeeded in musteringthe support of two independentcandidates to stabilize their posi-tion. The JUI-F had won threeseats after merging into the Mut-tahida Majlis-e-amal (MMa)while one went to the PPP- sher-pao, recently renamed as QaumiWatan Party (QWP). One inde-pendent candidate, who laterjoined the PPP, was also given anattractive ministerial slot in theprevious government.

Ironically, since March2008 up till March 2013, twoindependent candidates whowere given cabinet position forfive years have now ditched theanP. One of them belonged toKarak and the other to Kohat;presently both are again in thefray as independents.

The JUI-F has been exten-sively dealing with internal re-volts and opposition in its Karakstronghold from where it hadwon one na and one Pa seatapiece. Former JUI-F MPaMalik Qasim is contesting as in-dependent after the party ticketwent to ayub Khattak. son oflate PML leader yousaf Khattak,ayub Khattak is a cousin of thesaifullahs from Lakki Marwat.The JUI-F has also fielded an-

other Khattak, Javed, on theother Pa constituency. In addi-tion, the party also replaced for-mer Mna Mufti ajmal withMufti sardar on na seat, thusinviting rifts and revolts to nega-tively influence party ranks.

and it is in Kohat that theJUI-F had fielded billionaireson both na and Pa seats by ig-noring the party’s diehard andideological stalwarts. atHangu, the JUI-F nominatedtwo of its old guns on the naand Pa seats, but also awardeda ticket to former MPa, whocontested the 2002 generalelections under the banner ofanP and in 2008 general elec-tion remained attached to nowdefunct PPP-s.

a cursory glance at the situ-ation reflects that the JUI-Fcurse seems to have affectedother political parties as well,including the PTI and the anP,with both these parties facingstrife in Kohat and Karak. For-mer Intelligence Bureau (IB)director General Masood sharifKhattak, along with severalother notables recently resignedfrom the PTI, and were nowcontesting as independents arechallenging the PTI candidates.

The ongoing internal feudsnotwithstanding, the JUI-F wasstill a strong force and its candi-dates have confidently chal-lenged their counterparts fromthe PML-n on all three con-stituencies in Karak. The over-confidence of some candidatescould be gauged from the factthat former minister Mian nisarGul was already being congratu-lated for completing a hat-trickby winning the Pa constituency.

Hangu has been termed asthe most sensitive due to thepresence of thousands of for-eign and local militants in theadjacent tribal agencies of au-rakzai and north Waziristan,while its sectarian balance isalso one of the most fragile inthe region. Most of the recentterrorist activities in KPK ei-

ther emanated or took placehere, while this also remains animportant corridor for threetribal agencies that open intothe settled areas. Though in therecent past, anP and JUI-Fhave remained strong rivals inthis district, this time round theanP seems better positionedas other religious groups likeJUI-s and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)were also splitting the religiousvote. The anP candidate PirHaider ali shah seemed to beleading the pack, while influ-ential senator nabi Bangash’sson Irshad nabi and formerchief justice Peshawar HighCourt Justice (Retd) Ibne aliwas also contesting from theimportant constituencies.

The PPP meanwhile hasmaintained a good position inKohat after bypassing all otherparties and seems to havestrengthened its position afterits leadership succeeded inmustering support of formerMna dilawar shah and syedQalb-e Hassan. dilawar hasalso got a PPP ticket for hisbrother. The PML-n’s strong-man Malik asad, previously thedistrict nazim, is in contest withdilawar. The anP’s na tickethas gone to its former Mna,Khurshid Begum. The inde-pendent group candidatesheaded by former provincialminister amjad afridi wasshowing a favourable tilt to-wards the PML-n.

The trends being witnessedamong the religious minded elec-torate in Hangu, Kohat andKarak districts showed divisionof loyalties between three par-ties. Both factions of the JUI-Fand JI have put up their candi-dates in all constituencies acrossKohat division, while some JUI-F dissidents would also be con-testing as independentcandidates. With an eye on tak-ing advantage of divisions withinthe religious, the PML-n, PPP,PTI and the anP are keeping aclose watch on the situation.

explosives-laden car found nearMusharraf’s farmhouse remains a mystery

aPML says it’s a bid toMount Pressure onMusharraf so thathe can be shifted toadiaLa JaiL

exPerts say bid was totest forMerPresident’s securitycover, say next attackMay Prove LethaL

Party says non-serious attitude of PML-n,conditionaL suPPort by Pti reason forJi’s soLo fLight in uPcoMing PoLLs

Ji closes doors toseat adjustment Jui-f in the lead as all parties

suffer from internal conflict

ConstituenCy anaLysis – kohat division(

(

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ecP orders removal of edos, secy education removes adeos

KARACHI

kThursday, 25 April, 2013

05

Low

high

thUrSdAy FrIdAy SAtUrdAy32°CI26°C 32°C I26°C 34°C I26°C

PRAyER TIMINGS

SUnny

WeAther UpdAteS

330C

Fajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

4:43 6:02 12:31 3:59 6:56 8:19

260C

All the available resources should be utilised in an effective

and efficient manner for the protection of lives and property

of the people – Sindh IGP Shahid Nadeem Baloch

KARACHIAAMIR MAJEED

ALL politicalparties havecriticised PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI)decision to field

candidates at all national andprovincial assembly seats of Karachi,making PTI the party with the highestnumber of candidates contesting thegeneral elections.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI),which consider themselves a threatfor each other in the upcomingelections, claim that they are not evenconsidering PTI while chalking outstrategies.

There are 20 national assemblyand 42 provincial assembly seats inKarachi, and apart from MQM, PTI isthe only party to have fieldedcandidates in all constituencies of thecity. Critics are of the view that MQMhas much stronger roots in Karachi

than PTI does, hence fieldingcandidates at all seat is mere‘stupidity’.

“JI, which is the only contender ofMQM and has always succeeded inwinning a considerable number ofseats from Karachi, has fieldedcandidates at 12 national assemblyand 21 provincial assembly seats,” aMQM leader said.

“If any party feels that it hassupport among the masses, it isits constitutional right tocontest electionsfrom anyconstituency.But as far asPTI isconcerned, ithas nosupport inthe city atall,” JIsindhPresident drMairajul Hudasiddiqui toldPakistan Today.

“We are holdingreview meetings tomonitor the election situationin Karachi where we evaluate thecampaign of every political party in

the city. However, we have no reportof PTI’s election campaign in themetropolis,” dr Huda added. “Ihaven’t met any PTI candidate so far;there is not even a single banner orposter of the contesting candidates inthe city,” dr Huda maintained.

“PTI is non-existent in Karachiand is a threat to no party,” dr Hudasaid, adding that MQM is the onlyparty which can compete with JI.

“I am still searching for thePTI candidate who is

contesting electionsagainst me in Ps-

99,” MQMleader KhawajaIzhar-ulHassan toldPakistanToday.

“PTI isnotcampaigning

at all inKarachi, and

their candidatesare nowhere to be

seen. How they canbe threat for MQM,”

Hassan said.Talking to Pakistan Today, PTI

spokesman Jamal siddiqui said,

“We are out on the streets, trying tobuild a new Pakistan. We want tobring a revolution in the politicalsystem and so have decided not tohold public gatherings like otherspolitical parties of the city do,” PTIspokesman Jamal siddiqui toldPakistan Today.

“We have started a door-to-doorcampaign and our nominatedcandidates are approaching people intheir houses. We want people to comeout of their houses and join us in ourendeavour to bring a revolution in thiscountry,” siddiqui added.

not less than a Bad joke!Pti criticised forfieLding candidatesaLL over karachi

MairaJ-uL huda siddiqui Ji sindh President

I haven’t met any PTIcandidate so far; there

is not even a singlebanner or poster of the contesting

candidates in the city

KARACHIAFTAb CHANNA

In an interesting move, the secretaryeducation, who was on the top of theeCP list of bureaucrats, reshuffledfew officials belonging to theeducation department not mentionedin the list while sparing those pointedout by the election Commission.

The commission had issued cleardirections to remove of edO ofeducation, however, the juniorofficers were reshuffled through anorder no sO (s-I) T&P/eCL/2013.

“In pursuance of the directivesof election Commission ofPakistan contained in letterno Fs(12)/2012-Corddated april 11, 2013,the following officersof district nausheroFeroz are herebytransferred anddirected to report toeducation and literacydepartment withimmediate effect”, asper an official letterexclusively available

with the Pakistan Today.The secretary transferred

Mashooq ali Jogi,assistant district

education OfficerMale Bhirya, Msafroze Jokhio,assistant district

education Officer,Female, Hajan

Khushk, assistantdistrict educationOfficer, Male, MsMehrun nisaMemon, assistant

district education Officer, Female,Kandiaro, Zamir ahmed shaikh,assistant district education Officer,Male, Mehrabpur, Ms shanila,assistant district education Officer,Female, Mehrabpur, ashfaq ahmedPanhwar, assistant districteducation Officer, Male, Moro,Munawar sultana Memon, assistantdistrict education Officer, Female,Moro, anwar ali Mangrio, assistantProfessor posted as assistant districteducation Officer, Male and MsZarina Tagar, assistant districteducation Officer, Female.

Whole city mustbe declaredsensitive

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) sindh Chief drMairajul Huda siddiqui has said thatthe JI leadership would not letanyone vitiate the election processthrough terrorist activities in thecountry. He expressed these views whileaddressing a public gathering in thecorner meeting in connection withelection campaign in northnazimabad on Wednesday.dr Mairaj said all records ofterrorism, corruption and lawlessnesshad been broken during the last fiveyears, adding the people were fullyaware of the corrupt politicians andwanted to bring change through thepower of their votes. expressing his deep concerns overthe present situation, the JI leaderdemanded to declare the entire city‘sensitive’ and bring army forholding fair elections.

Why are theykeeping mum?

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

The Co-ordination Committee of MQMon Wednesday expressed its graveconcerns over the complete silence ofall political and religious parties on theincidents of terrorism in Karachi andQuetta resulting in deaths of innocentpeople. The committee termed it anational tragedy that political andreligious parties were maintaining astrange silence on the increasingincidents of terrorism in the country.The committee said that threeprovinces of the country were in thegrip of terrorism and the killings offour MQM workers in a bomb blastwas a stark manifestation of terrorismin its gruesome form. It wasunfortunate that not a single nationalleader bothered to utter even a fewwords of sympathy let alonecondemning the terrorism, it furtherremarked. It said the MQM wasconstantly being made a target ofterrorism which was evident from thefact that several MQM workers,including an election candidate, hadbeen killed in various incidents ofterrorism. The co-ordinationcommittee appealed to the people toraise their voice against terrorism andgive a strong message to the terroristsby their unity that a handful ofterrorists could not hold them hostage.

Gas pipeline blownup in larkana

LARKANA

ONLINE

Unknown persons blew up a 24-inchdiameter gas pipeline with explosivematerial in Rashidun area here onWednesday. sui gas officials said thatunidentified persons blew up the 24-inch pipeline that suspended the gassupply to Larkana along with otherareas. Regional sui Gas officer alinawaz said that work for the restorationof gas pipeline had been started whilepolice cordoned off the area and startedinvestigation into the incident.

HYDERABAD: All the shops are closed in the city during observance of mourning announced by MQM after the killing ofparty workers in a bomb blast at the election camp in Karachi. ONLINE

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KARACHIThursday, 25 April, 2013

06

k

There is no replacement for the loss of the human lives,

however, every possible assistance is being extended to

the affected families – Governor Dr Ishrat-ul Ebad Khan

KARACHI: Women weep on the funeral prayers of their relatives who were killed in the bomb blast at People’s Chowrangi. ONLINE

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

In the latest drive launchedagainst criminals in the metrop-olis, police have arrested 39 ac-cused during the past 24 hours.a police statement on Wednes-day said that those arrested in-cluded one absconder, oneproclaimed offender and four al-leged dacoits. It further saidthat 24 weapons of differentcalibres were recovered fromthe possession of the arrestedcriminals.action was also initiated against91 motorcyclists for violatingthe ban on pillion riding and

against three persons for usingtinted glasses and fancy numberplates on their vehicles.Following the Tuesdayevening’s blast in Karachi, theInspector General of Police(IGP) shahid nadeem Balochhas called for extra-ordinary se-curity for the corner meetingsand elections-related gatherings.a police statement issued onWednesday said the InspectorGeneral of Police also instructedthat all the available resourcesshould be utilised in an effectiveand efficient manner for the pro-tection of lives and property ofthe people.The IGP stressed that the central

control room/election monitor-ing cell should ensure contactswith other such cells at divi-sional and district levels.shahid nadeem also emphasisedthe need of proactive policing.He also called for steps to checkcrimes during traffic jams, be-sides vehicles snatching andstreet crimes.The Inspector General of Policesaid that police be deployed forconducting checks at variouspoints besides snap checking,patrolling and picketing. He stated that attention be alsopaid towards effective stepsagainst the criminals elements inthe province.

SUKKURAPP

PaKIsTan MuslimLeague-nawaz (PML-n) sindh Presidentsyed Ghous ali shahon Wednesday said thatthe party will bring rev-

olutionary changes in the country if it iselected to power by the masses.

addressing different corner meetingsin Khairpur district, he said that his partyhad the capability and potential to elimi-nate the hanging threats of terrorism, in-flation, unemployment andload-shedding from the country.

He appealed to the people to supporthim in the forthcoming general electionsif they wanted to save the country and tosteer it towards greatness. He said that thenation was aware of the damages causedto the country in the past and it was timeto take stock of the situation and imple-ment remedial measures to resolve theproblems through collective effort.

He said that during the last tenure ofPML-n when party chief nawaz sharifwas PM, the country was movingsteadily on the path to progress and itsdefence capabilities had also been made

invincible.Furthermore, Ghous claimed that the

existing problems of load-shedding andunemployment were non-existent duringthat time, adding that now the industryhad been completely shut down due tocontinuous load-shedding, thus causingunemployment at a large scale.

He also said that the PML-n be-lieved in good governance and it wouldremove the sense of deprivation that wasprevailing among the masses.

KARACHIAPP

Aleader of PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP)and candidate forna-198 Khursheedshah on Wednesdaysaid that the Pakistan

People’s Party (PPP) has never lost elec-toral contest in the past and hoped thepeople will trust the party in the upcom-ing elections.

addressing different corner meetingsin his constituency, he said that formerPPP-led government had resolved publicproblems to the best of their abilities andhad also provided better living conditionsfor the masses, despite baseless propa-ganda being consistently launched by theparty’s opponents. Khursheed shahhoped that the PPP would win electionson the basis of its performance, whileadding that the party’s vote bank wasspread in all provinces. He claimed thathis party would win major seats in theupcoming general elections as its na-tional network was spread far and wide.

Historically speaking, he also claimedthat that each time anti-democratic forcestried to defame the PPP ahead of elections,

such tactics had always added to the pop-ularity of the party, adding that its mandatecould not be snatched through mere prop-aganda. Replying to a query, he said realpower was exercised by the people in anydemocratic system.

Replying to another question, he saidlate Zulfikar Bhutto was sentenced todeath just because he restored self-re-spect to the masses, gave them identity,right of vote and courage in order to em-power them at the most basic level.

‘We believe in good governance’

People trust PPP: khursheed shah

39 accused held in 24 hourschinese consulgeneral meetschief secretary KaRaCHI: The acting Consul General(CG) of China Jian Qing Jian held meetingon Wednesday with sindh Chief secretaryIjaz Chaudhry and discussed the proposedestablishment of a chain of Chinese lan-guage academies in the province.The Chief secretary Chaudhry informedthe Chinese CG that the under considera-tion academies would be gradually spreadthroughout the province, including ruralareas.during the meeting the two also exchangedviews on cooperation in agricultural, indus-trial, power and energy sectors besides im-proving cultural relations between the twocountries. APP

seven ambassadors designate present credentials to president

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

ambassadors (designate) of Tajikistan, Philip-pines, Morocco, slovak Republic, Malawi,Chile and the High Commissioner (designate)of south africa on Wednesday presented theircredentials to President asif Zardari at a spe-cial ceremony held at Governor House.The ambassadors and high commissioner, afterpresenting their credentials separately, calledon the president and discussed bilateral rela-tions and matters of mutual interest with him.President Zardari, while felicitating the newlyappointed ambassadors, expressed the hopethat they would work towards further strength-ening existing ties of their respective countrieswith Pakistan.The envoys who presented their credentials in-cluded high commissioner designate of southafrica Mpendulo Kumalo, ambassador desig-nate of Tajikistan sherali Jononov, junior am-bassador designate of Philippines domingo d.Lucenario, ambassador designate of MoroccoMohamed Mustapha salahdine, ambassadordesignate of slovak Republic(non-resident)Jan Bory, ambassador designate of Malawi(non-resident) younas abdul Karim and, am-bassador designate of Chile (non-resident)Jean Paul Tarud.

oil pipeline bursts in kashmore

KASHMOREINP

Fire broke out on Wednesday near Kandhkotwhen an oil pipeline exploded due to unknownreasons.according to Kashmore ssP Farrukh ali Lan-jar, an oil supply pipeline from Kashmore toMultan burst due to unknown reasons.Per details, a huge fire erupted at the scene ofthe ruptured oil pipeline. Fire brigades imme-diately rushed to the scene and brought theblaze under control.Massive amount of oil spilt out till as a resultof the incident and efforts to its outflow hadalready started.Meanwhile, the authorities concerned alsoreached the spot and started immediate repairwork on ruptured pipeline.

interviews you havenever heard of!

KARACHIONLINE

dOW Medical University has started applying aunique formula for appointing professors by ig-noring all rules and regulations for accommodat-ing their favorites in the faculty. Reliable sources told Online that junior doctorstook oral exams of the candidates who appliedfor the advertised post of professors for the de-partment of Orthopedics. The sources told thatexams were taken in ‘connivance’ of deputyRegistrar nadeem while the remaining admin-istration was kept in dark. Professor GhulamMehboob headed the selection committeewhile the other members included two doctorsof Indus Hospital dr amin Chinoi and Kam-ran. as per rules, the members of the selectioncommittee are required to be seniors ones fromdifferent organisations. However, both the ruleswere violated openly while making fresh ap-pointments in the university. The said commit-tee, consisting of assistant professors, selecteddr akhtar Baig, dr Mujahid Jamil and dr Mi-ratib ali as professors while head of Ortho de-partment dr Pevez amjum was dropped fromthe selection process. The sources said dr Per-vez anjum had been teaching at dow MedicalUniversity since 1993 and the selected candi-dates were juniors to him. dr akhtar Baig wasshifted to dOW Medical College from Hyder-abad while dr Mujahid Jamil and dr Muratibali were appointed as assistant professor in2005. after flouting of rules, dOW MedicalCollege Registrar Prof Zeenat ayub has goneon leave as a protest.

coMMittee ofassistant ProfessorsaPPoint Professorsin dow university

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07

newsThursday, 25 April, 2013

It is a scene of complete mayhem and chaos, hundreds

of people are trapped under the rubble and a still being

pulled out — Al Jazeera's correspondent in DhakaN

BEIJINGAGENCIES

Twenty-one people, including police officers andsocial workers, have been killed in violent clashesin China's ethnically divided western region ofXinjiang in what the government is calling an actof terrorism.

al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas said on Wednesdaypolice were investigating an arson attack in the re-gion where the violence began. "The region hasbeen the focal point for ethnic and racial tensions

for quite some time now," Ortigas said.a local official confirmed to the aFP news

agency on Wednesday that the battle had takenplace. "Twenty-one persons were killed in all... in-cluding social workers and policemen," the officialsaid. He told the news agency that the violencebroke out on Tuesday when three local officials re-ported a group of suspicious men armed withknives hiding inside a home in selibuya townshipoutside the city of Kashgar.'UyGHUR REPRESSION': Tianshan net, agovernment-run news website, described the fight-

ing as a "violent terror incident". It said 15 of thosekilled were either police or social workers, with 11of them being members of China's Uyghur ethnicminority, who mainly live in Xinjiang.

six "gang members" were shot dead in the vi-olence, while eight more were captured, the reportsaid. The source who spoke to aFP confirmed thecontents of the report, but said he did not knowhow many police were among the dead. The inci-dent points to the chaotic nature of much of theXinjiang violence, as well as problems with howauthorities respond.

violence erupts in China's restive xinjiang

BAGHDADAGENCIES

Fresh violence in Iraq has killed atleast 15 people, including 12 securityforce personnel and gunmen whodied in attacks apparently launchedin revenge for deadly clashes at aprotest, officials have said.

Fighting between security forcesand protesters near the northern townof Hawija left 27 people dead onTuesday, and sparked a wave of re-venge attacks in which a further 27people were killed that day. The re-venge attacks continued on Wednes-day, leaving nine security forcesmembers and three gunmen dead.

In the deadliest fighting, gunmenkilled five soldiers and wounded fivemore in the suleiman Bek, area northof Baghdad, a high-ranking army of-ficer and an administrative officialsaid. Gunmen also attacked a sahwamilitia checkpoint in Khales, north-east of Baghdad, killing four of themilitiamen and wounding a fifth, apolice lieutenant colonel and a doctorsaid. al Jazeera correspondent Janearraf, reporting near the disputed cityof Kirkuk, said the Iraqi governmentsaid earlier on Wednesday that it issetting up a commission to investi-gate the string of attacks that eruptedthe day before.SOLdIERS RELEASEd: also onWednesday, a-government protestersreleased two Iraqi soldiers they had

seized near Ramadi, west of Bagh-dad, a protest organiser said.

abdulrazzaq al-shammari, oneof the organisers of the protests nearRamadi, said on Wednesday the twosoldiers were turned over to a hospitalin the city on Tuesday. The soldierswere taken after deadly clashes be-tween security forces and demonstra-tors in north Iraq left dozens dead andsparked a wave of revenge attacks.

He also said the demonstratorswere demanding that Iraqi soldierswithdraw from all cities in anbarprovince, where Ramadi is located, andremain in their main bases. dr ahmedal-ani, the director of the emergencydepartment at the Ramadi hospital, saidthe facility had received two soldiers.One was wounded and still in hospital,while the second was released. Policefirst lieutenant Ibrahim Faraj said onTuesday that armed protesters killedsix Iraqi soldiers near Ramadi andburned two armoured personnel carri-ers, but put the number of kidnappedsoldiers at one instead of two.

scores deadin BanGladeshBuildinG collaPse

anti-government clashescontinue across iraq

enrico letta set to BecoMe

italy's neW PriMe MinisterROME: enrico Letta is set to become Italy's new primeminister, after being asked by President Giorgio napoli-tano to form a broad coalition government.The appointment of Mr Letta, currently deputy leader of thecentre-left democratic Party, could see the end of twomonths of parliamentary deadlock. an inconclusive generalelection in February has left the country in flux. In a state-ment, Mr Letta said as prime minister he would aim tochange the course in europe on austerity. "european poli-cies are too focused on austerity which is no longerenough," he said, following the closed-door meeting withthe president in Rome. The 46-year-old also said he had ac-cepted the post knowing that it was an enormous responsi-bility and that Italy's political class "has lost all credibility".Mr Letta must now form a cabinet that can win cross-partysupport and a vote of confidence in parliament. Factionsfrom across the political spectrum have indicated that theyare now ready to form a coalition under a figure like MrLetta. He is the nephew of former Prime Minister silvio

Berlusconi's chief-of-staff Gianni Letta, and isseen as a moderate acceptable to the cen-

tre-right. a broad alliance would includeMr Berlusconi's right-wing group - mak-ing him again a major political influ-ence. This awkward coming together ofbitter rivals is seen as the only way to

end the parliamentary stalemateand put an administration inplace, says the BBC's alanJohnston in Rome. But itis a forced political mar-riage that may not lastlong, our correspondentadds. AGENCIES

us teenagersnared in FBi'terror' sting

WASHINGTONAGENIES

a teenager from the suburbs ofthe Us city of Chicago has beenarraigned on terrorism charges inconnection with an FBI stingoperation that has raised newquestions about whether Usinvestigators are engaging inentrapment. abdella ahmadTounisi, 18, made a brief courtappearance Tuesday in federalcourt in Chicago. The american-born man from the Chicagosuburb of aurora is accused ofseeking to join al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-nusra, whichis fighting syria's government ina civil war. He tried to join thegroup through a website,constructed by the FBI, whichurged readers to "join your lionbrothers... fighting under the truebanner of Islam". Critics havesaid the use of such sites raisesquestions about whetherauthorities are overreaching,wooing impressionable youth tocontemplate crimes that otherwisewouldn't cross their minds."These sites can end up creatingcrimes," said Phil Turner, aformer federal prosecutor turneddefence attorney in Chicago."Real terrorists don't need to go toa website for contacts. They havereal contacts."

clashes escalate

on syria-lebanon

border

DAMASCUS/BEIRUTAGENCIES

as fierce clashes continue in theborder villages of al-Qusayr, thereare growing fears that Lebanon isbeing drawn further into the syrianconflict. For more than a week,syrian rebels have fired shellshitting the eastern LebaneseHermel region, a bastion for theLebanese shia movementHezbollah, in what they say isretaliation for strikes by the group.On Tuesday, two new mortarrounds hit the city of Hermel,causing light damage to a house.Rebels have threatened to "movethe battle into Lebanon" if thesyrian government offensive,which they described asHezbollah-led, continues.Hezbollah has said those fightingare Lebanese party members whohave lived in syrian bordervillages for decades and aredefending themselves against"rebel attacks". On Monday, aHezbollah official described thegroup's actions as "a national andmoral duty in the defence of theLebanese in border villages".Hezbollah's involvement in syria'sspiralling conflict has beencondemned by the syrianopposition, which views it as a"declaration of war", and byLebanese opponents of Hezbollah.

DHAKA AGENCIES

aT least 87 people have been killed and manymore are feared dead after an eight-storeybuilding collapsed in the outskirts of dhaka,Bangladesh. a massive rescue mission is nowunder way as officials said on Wednesday that

hundreds of people were still trapped in the rubble asfire crews say up to 2,000 people were in the buildingwhen it fell.Only the ground floor of the Rana Plaza in the savardistrict, which also housed a garment factory, re-mained intact after the collapse at 8:30am local timeon Wednesday morning, said the officials. al Jazeera'scorrespondent in dhaka, who is not being named be-cause of reporting restrictions, described the scene aschaotic. "It is a scene of complete mayhem and chaos,hundreds of people are trapped under the rubble and astill being pulled out," she said."The army has taken over rescuing people from the dis-aster. The army, police and volunteers are working col-lectively to pull people out of the rubble."Our correspondent said there had been some reportsthat cracks were seen forming in the building onTuesday. Warnings ignored Mohammad asaduzzaman,in charge of the area's police station, said factory own-ers appeared to have ignored a warning not to allowtheir workers into the building after a crack was de-tected in the block.abdur Rahim, who worked in a garment factory on thefifth floor, said a manager assured them there was noproblem with the building. "There were some crack atthe second floor, but my factory was on the fifth floor,"he said. "The owner of the building told our floor man-ager that it is not a problem and so you can open thefactory. "We started working. after about an hour or sothe building collapsed suddenly." doctors said that hun-dreds of people had received treatment for their injuries.

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newsNThursday 25 April, 2013

08 People should vote for liberal,

democratic forces in upcoming

elections. – Amir Haider Hoti

hec demandsinstitutionalautonomyiSlAMABAD: Higher Education Commis-sion Chairman Dr Javaid Leghari onWednesday wrote a letter to the prime min-ister and requested him to restore the insti-tutional autonomy of the HEC as it hadbeen badly affected by the 18th constitu-tional amendment. “HEC is of the viewthat the situation created after the 18thamendment was detrimental to HEC’s insti-tutional autonomy,” the letter said. “HECwas established as an autonomous organi-sation under Ordinance No LIII of 2002,promulgated on September 11 of that year.But the 18th constitutional amendment hasdamaged the institution’s autonomy by dis-tributing its functions amongst differentministries and departments,” the letter said.The letter also stated that these alterationswere challenged in the Supreme Court ofPakistan and the apex court has said, “HECshall continue to discharge its functions andduties as it has been doing in the past un-less and until a fresh legislation is promul-gated; and in case of any conflict, the ordi-nance shall prevail.” Referring to a decisionof the Sindh High Court which placed HECunder the administrative and financial con-trol of the Ministry of Education and Train-ing, the letter said that the apex court haddisposed of the ruling. Violation of the or-ders of apex court and the Sindh High Courtwere brought to the notice of the primeminister and the premier was requested torestore the status of the commission asheld in the ordinance in order to strengthenthe institution’s autonomy. ZAINuL ISLAM

sc awards more timeto naB in rPP caseiSlAMABAD: The Supreme Court onWednesday allowed more time to the Na-tional Accountability Bureau (NAB) to fur-ther carry out investigation into the RentalPower Plants (RPPs) case. The court gavefour weeks to NAB to complete investiga-tions into the case on the request of NABProsecutor General KK Agha, who hadasked for six-week time for the completionof the investigation. A three-judge bench,headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muham-mad Chaudhry and comprising JusticeGulzar Ahmad and Justice Sheikh AzmatSaeed, resumed hearing the case. Duringthe course of the proceeding, Agha submit-ted 12 individual progress reports of the in-vestigation by NAB and requested thebench to keep the reports confidentialwhich the court accepted. He further ap-prised the court that NAB had completedinvestigations into almost all of the casessave one or two. Agha committed that NABwould frame charges against all the ac-cused and would present them before theSC soon. Admiring the NAB prosecutorgeneral’s performance, the CJP said thecourt would certainly accommodate him.He said the court was not going to disposeof this case as so many important mattershad been mentioned in the judgement. APP

Power shortfallreaches 4,200MWiSlAMABAD: The power shortfall has risenup to 4200 megawatts, plunging the coun-try into a serious electricity crisis. Accordingto details, unscheduled power outage forhours each day is being conducted acrossthe country. Despite the distribution compa-nies being in-charge, electricity is sus-pended from the central power control cen-tre of the federal capital, sources added.Load shedding in rural areas of the countryhas reached up to 18 hours, while the urbanareas experience 14 hours-long powerbreakdown. The prolonged power outageshave not only affected the daily routine ofcitizens, but have also led to water short-age. The persisting power breakdown in thecountry has frozen the business activities inthe country that not only affects economy ofthe country but also causes domestic chaosand turmoil. Meanwhile, an irritated mob inKohi Ratta and Kashmir took to the streetsagainst the unscheduled power outages anddemanded the government chalk out aproper plan for the load shedding. ONLINE

KARACHIAFTAb CHANNA

THe election Commission ofPakistan’s (eCP) direction tothe sindh Government that65 officials who could influ-

ence the upcoming general electionsshould be changed within seven daysseems to have been circumvented by thecaretaker government. Only a handfulhave been reshuffled, while the rest areenjoying their previous positions, Pak-istan Today has learnt.

Interestingly, many of those whohave been reshuffled are junior officers,making a mockery of the commission’sorder.

The election commission in its orderno F8 (12)2012-Cord dated april 11,2013 instructed the provincial govern-ments to reshuffle all the secretaries, Po-lice IGs, CCPOs, commissioners, dCOs,dPOs, sHOs, patwaris and edOs so that

the holding of polls could be made trans-parent.

“shuffle/transfer all federal andprovincial secretaries. However, if thecaretaker government considers that afederal or provincial secretary is inde-pendent and need not to betransferred/shuffled, it may refrain fromdoing so by giving an explanation to theelection commission,” said a commis-sion’s letter exclusively available withPakistan Today.

“Whereas, it has come to the knowl-edge of the commission that no transfershave been made in sindh in pursuance ofthe aforementioned direction, nor has thecommission received any intimation withreasons that the transfers were not neces-sary,” the letter added.

“The commission has recently re-ceived a number of complaints which al-lege that several officials in theadministration of the Government ofsindh are biased in favour of political

parties which were a part of the previousgovernment. specific complaints havealso been received in relation to the fol-lowing individuals,” the letter said beforementioning the names of the officials.

The letter carried the names of theChief secretary, additional secretarys&G admn, Home secretary, Principalsecretary to the CM, education secre-tary, Local Government secretary, s&Gadministration secretary, commissioner,PsO to Qaim ali shah, Jamshoro dCabdul Rasheed Zardari, Taluka HospitalMoro, executive engineer PHe Muham-mad anwar solangi, Mukhtiarkar Kandi-aro, Mukhtiarkar Bhirya, MukhtiarkarMoro, Mukhtiarkar naushero Feroz,Mukhtiarkar sakrand, Jacobabad ssP,Jamshoro ssP, Kashmore ssP, MatayarissP, naushero Feroz dC, adC-Inaushero Feroz, adC-II nausheroFeroz, aC Kandiaro, aC RevenueBhirya, aC Revenue Moro, aC Revenuenaushero Feroz, deO naushero Feroz,

Health dHO dr ali Gohar, KandiarodsP, Moro dsP, Foods sukkur director,dsP naushero Feroz, edO educationallah Bachayo Khaskheli, edO educa-tion Bhirya, edO education Kandiaro,edO education Mahrabpur, edO edu-cation Moro, edO education nausheroFeroz, edO education Razi Khan Ja-mali, Ms Taluka Hospital Kandiaro,ssPs of district Mirpurkhas, nausheroFeroz, nawabshah, shikarpur, Tandoallah yar, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Kash-more, sP Ghulam sarwar abro, sP secu-rity-II Rizwan soomro, dsP Bhirya,sHO Kandiaro, sHO Kotri, sHOsakrand and sHO.

sources privy to the developmenttold Pakistan Today that the powerful bu-reaucrats were enjoying the protocols andallegedly influencing the poll process.Those reshuffled includes the chief sec-retary, home secretary, city commissionerand few others who were not included inthe list.

ecP’s order to remove 65bureaucrats being circumvented

QUETTA: A motorcyclist passes through a flooded road after heavy rain in the provincial capital on Wednesday. Inp

ISLAMABADAPP

during monitoring of election campaign, the Free and Fairelection network (FaFen) has witnessed violation of codeof conduct issued by the election Commission of Pak-istan (eCP). In a report released on Tuesday,FaFen has mentioned 30 national assemblyconstituencies where it monitored 49 rallies by10 political parties and independent candi-dates from april 2 to 15.

according to findings, of 49 rallies, 34were held in 17 constituencies of Punjab, sixin five constituencies of KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP), three in sindh, two inBalochistan, three in two constituencies ofFederally administered Tribal areas (FaTa) andone in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

Most observed rallies (85.7 percent) violated theeCP code in one or more respects, claimed the network, in-cluding four rallies held outside the residence of opponents,

candidates, or political leaders. Twelve rallies caused incon-venience to people and traffic jams and 33 rallies were heldat un-notified locations.

The highest number of violations of eCP code of con-duct was observed at the rallies of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-

Insaf (PTI) with 11 violations during nine rallies andthe Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians

(PPPP) with 11 violations in 10 rallies. Tenrallies of the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-n) had as many violations,followed by eight violations by independ-ent candidates in 11 rallies. FaFen hasdeployed Constituency Long-Term Ob-servers (CLTOs) in every na con-

stituency across the country to observe allelectoral processes, including election cam-

paigning. The eCP’s code of conduct for po-litical parties and candidates is intended to

ensure a level playing field for all parties and can-didates, and to maintain public security and convenienceduring the campaign period.

FAFen observes violationof eCP’s code of conduct

Highestnumber ofviolations

was observedat PTI rallies

First Pakistaniwoman to serve asaustralian lawmaker

ISLAMABADAPP

a Pakistani-born migrant is set to become thefirst Muslim woman to serve in australia's par-liament. according to a private news channel,Mehreen Faruqi, an environmental engineer,was selected by the new south Wales Greens tofill a vacancy in the upper house of the state leg-islature. Faruqi migrated from Pakistan with herfamily in 1992. Her Twitter page describes heras an "environmental engineer, climate changeactivist, proud union member and feminist". shehas been chosen to represent the Greens, a cen-tre left party, in australia's first and oldest parlia-ment in new south Wales. The universityacademic was selected by a postal ballot ofparty members, from a field of seven in a con-test in which only women could run. Faruqi willtake up her position in July, when she will be-come the first female Muslim in any of aus-tralia's state, territory or federal parliaments.

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news N

09

Thursday 25 April, 2013

Legal fraternity will block any attempt to allow Gen

Pervez Musharraf to flee from the country. – Supreme

Court Bar Association (SCBA) Secretary Javed Iqbal Raja

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

PaKIsTan Muslim League-nawaz President nawazsharif on Wednesday calledfor implementation of the

supreme Court’s order of giving votingrights to overseas Pakistanis.

“Overseas Pakistanis, who send bil-lions of dollars in remittances each year,are our major asset,” nawaz told a dele-gation of overseas Pakistanis.

He said after coming into power, thePML-n government would promotebusiness-friendly policies and wouldprovide a safe environment for invest-ment by overseas Pakistanis.

nawaz said those overseas Pakista-nis who wanted to invest in industrialzones in their homeland would be givenrelaxation in various taxes and duties. Heassured the delegation that property ofoverseas Pakistani would be protectedfrom land grabbers. He also pledgedsteps to bring overseas Pakistanis intothe country’s economic mainstream.

SHAHBAZ VOWS CHANGE IN

FARMERS’ LIVES: Meanwhile, ad-dressing a public gathering in Khanewal,nawaz’s younger brother and formerPunjab chief minister shahbaz sharifsaid their party would change the livesof farmers of the country after cominginto power.

shahbaz said the economy had suf-fered badly due to the unavailability ofgas and electricity.

“We will change Pakistan accordingto the visions of Quaid-e-azam Muham-mad ali Jinnah and allama Iqbal.” RALLy IN LAHORE: In developmentrelated to the election campaign of thePML-n, the party is planning to hold amassive rally in Lahore, featuring nawazsharif towards the end of its campaign.

Initially, the party was weighing twooptions, either to hold a public meetingat Minar-e-Pakistan or leading a rally,presenting nawaz sharif in the city.

However, security concerns hadhalted party strategists from finalis-ing Minar-e-Pakistan as a venue fora meeting. after Punjab govern-

ment’s decision toban publicmeetings atthe saidvenue, theparty finallydecided gofor a publicrally in thecity withnawaz sharifat the forefront.Party sourcessaid the rallywouldb e

held any time after the start of May. Butothers in the party think the right timewould be towards the end of the cam-paign with nawaz wrapping it up,briefly touching all constituencies.Imran Khan has already set the tone ofhis election campaign by initiatingPTI’s campaign with a rally in Lahore,taking a round of the entire city almost.nawaz sharif too, is contesting from

the city. His daughter Maryamnawaz is mainly look-

ing after his cam-paign though for

now the PML-n chieftain is

keeping alow profilein the city,focus ingi n s t e a don the na-tion-widee l e c t i o ncampaign.

PMl-n supports expatsright to vote, says nawaz

PESHAWAR: A man picks up hails from a road following heavy rain and a hailstorm on Wednesday. Inp

Baloch studentwins Grand Winneraward, gold medalin global contest

ISLAMABADINP

a Pakistani student hailing from Balochistanon Tuesday won the Grand Winner awardand a gold medal in an international com-puter project competition held in almaty,Kazakhstan Waleed Bashir from Khuzdar, agrade 9 student in Quetta’s PakTurk schoolwon the top accolade in the 1st InternationalInfomatrix asia and Pacific Project Competi-tion 2013. Bashir, 15, made a project titled,“Green automation” and won the top prizeamongst 100 projects presented by studentsfrom twenty countries including Russia,azerbaijan, India, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Geor-gia, somalia and Ukraine. He developed anautomated system which controlled the gar-den of a house through the computer and in-ternet without any human attendant. Heat,water level, and humidity were controlledthrough the sensors, while the energy re-quired to run the system derived from mov-able solar panels which followed thedirection of the sun automatically. The proj-ect which could be used to increase the pro-duction of crops in an efficient andeconomical way without grid electricityquickly caught the attention of the judgeswho declared Bashir winner and gave him$600 as prize money. Commenting on hissuccess, Bashir said that he always wanted toserve his largely arid province and wanted tomake entire Pakistan fertile.

8,013 candidatescontesting pollsfrom Punjab

ISLAMABAD ONLINE

some 2,370 candidates are contesting polls on142 national assembly seats in Punjab,whereas about 5,643 are in the run for the 299provincial assembly seats. The figures issuedby the election Commission of Pakistan(eCP) on Wednesday showed that 77 candi-dates are contesting for two na seats in Is-lamabad. na-48 is the constituency where 51candidates are contesting elections amongwhich 20 political parties have fielded theircandidates whereas 31 people are taking partas independent candidates. In Punjab, 28 can-didates are taking part in the elections fromna 144, which is the most numbers of candi-dates in one constituency in the province. InPunjab, of 2,370 na candidates, 1,143 arecontesting polls from the platform of differentpolitical parties, whereas 1,227 candidates areindependent. One constituency where onlytwo candidates are in the run is na-116narowal. For the provincial assembly, themost candidates are contesting from PP-149Lahore where some 44 politicians are in therace. Two former prime ministers nawazsharif and Raja Pervez ashraf, whereas twoformer CMs shahbaz sharif and Pervaizelahi are contesting polls from Punjab. simi-larly, two party heads nawaz sharif andImran Khan are in the run from the province.

NEW DELHIINP

China has asked the Indian army to destroycertain fortified positions in the disputedterritory in eastern Ladakh in return forthe PLa removing its temporary camp indepsang valley, now at the centre of a mil-itary face-off.

Indian defence sources said a flagmeeting on Tuesday, the second since april15, failed after the Chinese side made itsdemand. They said the Indian side was notwilling to make a commitment, and that

led to an impasse.The sources said Indian fortifications

that had come up recently in easternLadakh were re in an area different fromthe one where the current face off was tak-ing place. no official word was forthcom-ing on the flag meeting.

India raised the issue with China lastweek and summoned ambassador Wei Weito south Block. The Mea joint secretary,who heads the joint working mechanismto deal with boundary issues from the In-dian side, spoke to his Chinese counterpartand emphasised the need to resolve the is-

sue. However, Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Hua Chunying said on Mon-day, "China's frontier troops have beenabiding by the LaC agreed by the twocountries... (and) patrolling on China's sideof LaC."

The sources quoted by Times of Indiaas saying new delhi might be working thediplomatic hotlines with Beijing, but paral-lels were already being drawn between theongoing 10-day military standoff in Ladakhand the sumdorong Chu incident of 1986-87, which required "a major show of forceand resolve" to settle matters amicably. With

"no breakthrough" being achieved inthe second flag meeting be-tween the Indian and Chi-nese armies held onTuesday, the Indiandefence establish-ment and militaryoperations direc-torate here wentinto a hurdle todiscuss "vari-ous options",including fur-ther troop rein-forcements tothe region, untillate in theevening. Thearmy might welldeploy additionaltroops in the region ifthere was no de-escalation

over the next few days. "The flagmeeting, held at spanggur gap

between daulat Beg Oldieand Chushul, lasted for

around five hours.Our side was led

by a brigadier,Chinese had asenior colonel.We told themthis intrusionwas simplyu n a c c e p t -able. Butthey accusedus of aggres-

sive patrolling.There was no

concrete outcome,much like the first

flag meeting on april18," said a source.

with"no breakthrough" being

achieved in the second flag meet-ing between the indian and chinese

armies held on tuesday, the indian defenceestablishment and military operationsdirectorate here went into a hurdle to

discuss "various options", includingfurther troop reinforcements

to the region

China asks India to pull back fromsome posts in eastern Ladakh

KHI 25-04-2013_Layout 1 4/25/2013 2:51 AM Page 9

CoMMenT

Aziz-ud-Din AhmadEditor

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

C

stand up to the militants with courageno strikes, no closures, please

Musharraf’s accountability

another iMF bailout?

THe national finance situation is getting worse and questions are being raisedover the country’s ability to fulfill the next national budget. In these direstraits, as they are being painted, the IMF has come in with an offer: a $5billion loan, but as with all IMF loans, is it a way out or is it a way into a

deeper crisis? Thankfully, the caretaker prime minister’s advisor on Finance shahidamjad does not have the mandate to strike a deal with the IMF, and it should beappreciated that he has abided by it, unlike earlier caretakers, but there are still hawksamongst the establishment that wish that he would have accepted. He has merely‘sounded out’ the IMF for a possible deal once the political government is in place.

The task of making decisions – right or wrong – on the national economy is of theelected representatives of the people and the particular facility on offer, $5 billion athigher interest rate, short disbursement and longer repayment period, is one that will loadthe economy with a sizeable debt burden. However, with the offer standing, politicalparties must already initiate debate over how they intend to solve the finance crisisfacing the Pakistani state. statements such as the talks “went extremely well” and thefund’s attitude was “extremely positive” are merely the line that has to be towed tosecure such a facility. The IMF is now on cue to send a delegation to Pakistan in June todiscuss the facility, with disbursements possible within the coming summer. The loanshall be disbursed over 3-4 years and need repayment over the next decade, withrepayments standing at about $1 billion per annum. as with earlier loans, the fear is thatthe economy will not be ready to easily make repayments at the end of the current loan,and another such facility will be required. One must recall that Pakistan’s relationshipwith the IMF now spans two decades.

The country already needs to pay the IMF around $850 million in May andsubstantial amounts in July and september. In that sense, one could argue that the IMFfacility is to help repay dues to itself, and would add a constraint on Pakistan’s foreignexchange reserves. But as some say, beggars cannot be choosers, and Pakistan’s politicalparties need to take a careful stock of the offer. While the attention of political parties iscast on the elections, it would be good if their financial experts begin to exchange noteson how to face the financial crunch facing them when they take over. Taking or leavingthe IMF loan facility shall be the one of the first decisions the next government will haveto take – and probably one that shall set the stage for what their term shall beremembered by.

THe TTP has made no secret of its antipathy for democracy which itconsiders un-Islamic. soon after the announcement of the elections, themilitant network vowed to target three secular political parties and warnedthe people against attending their rallies. The biggest sufferer so far has

been the anP, which has lost two candidates in terrorist attacks besides two otherswho survived bomb blasts. several election rallies of the party have so far beentargeted. The anP has in fact borne the major brunt of TTP attacks during its five-year tenure in KP. Former information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain lost his son andthe anP’s veteran leader Bashir Bilour died in a blast while dozens of provincial anddistrict level leaders were killed as they continued to defy the terrorists. Militantoutfits have also targeted independent candidates in KP, especially in dIK. an MQMcandidate was also killed in Hyderabad while four persons died in an attack near theparty’s election camp in Karachi. There are other terrorist groups also attackingelection rallies and candidates. On Wednesday a suicide bomber dispatched byLashkare Jhangvi to target the Hazara community killed six in Quetta. The presidentof Hazara democratic Movement returning from an election rally survived due tosheer good luck. Baloch separatists have launched several attacks on the Balochleaders during the last few days. The firing on PML-n Balochistan chief sanaullahZehri killed his brother and son. a grenade was thrown on the house of formerminister and nP chief abdul Malik Baloch and an office of the BnP-M was bombed.

There is a need to stand up to the challenge posed by the terrorists. One expectsthe caretaker government to perform better than it has done so far to counter thethreat. a totally new set up with a life span of a month and a half can however beexpected to deliver only if the law enforcement agencies were already workingideally. In Karachi where law and order continued to deteriorate during the five-yearlong tenure of the PPP, the MQM and the anP alliance, it would be too much toexpect miracles from the caretakers.

The MQM should not have closed its offices and called off the election campaigneven for a single day. To announce a strike all over sindh was thoroughly unjustified.The tactic to close down Karachi could work only when used to pressurize a minoritygovernment depending on the MQM support to retain power at the center. In thepresent case it was a kneejerk reaction to an altogether different situation. One fails tounderstand the rationale behind the strike. It doesn’t matter to the TTP if Karachi isclosed down for a week while a single day closure hurts the country’s economy badly.The MQM should face the situation bravely as done by the anP, Baloch nationalistsand Hazara democratic Party.

iMf offer not a permanent solution to crisis

Thursday, 25 April, 2013

10

too many people have too much to lose – and that includes the current military top brass

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s

best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too

dark to read. –Groucho Marx

GeneRaLs in Pakistan aregenerally quite lovely crea-tures, short, stout and oftencarrying a moustache asproof of masculinity, they

are rather outstanding specimens of hu-manity. Medals adorned on their chestsand up to four-stars protruding on theirshoulder straps, they are driven by a gen-uine concern for the suffering of human-ity around them. and thus this is whythey meddle in matters unrelated tothem. and humanity around them agrees,for the most part.

What else explains the fact that ofthe five military dictators to have takenover the reins of the country, four diedwithout a stain on their sparkling mili-tary shirts. Generals in Pakistan live welland die well, unless they get on thewrong side of one of their own proxies,but generally speaking, it is a good life.a solid clique in both media and civil so-ciety begin to debate “whether there willbe a military coup?” every two monthsas if it was a right somehow beingwrongfully denied to our country’s bestgolf players and property dealers. an-other statement that is considered to havecredence is that a military dictator inPakistan either “resigns, goes into self-exile or is killed”. Having surviveddeath, Musharraf had resigned and goneinto self-exile and taken up residence inLondon, where he had been cashing inon selling out to the United states with achoice series of paid lectures on the sub-ject americans love most: the war on ter-ror in Pakistan.

Perhaps this is why the former Gen-eral – and usurper President – PervezMusharraf decided to return to the coun-try to try out what it was to be a bloodycivilian. The lock up was the least ofwhat he expected. It has not turned outto be a pretty sight – and in many ways,gladly so. When the first set of bails ofthe former general – although perhaps

Mush is the first general to fall outsidethe “once a general, always a general”metaphor so popular amongst militaryranks – was granted, it appeared that the“deal struck in the Holy Kingdom”would go uncontested by the elites ofPakistan. arguably, the former general isnow off the golf course, and learninghow to live the life enjoyed by one of us“bloody civilians”. Of course, with himlocked up in his own farmhouse, it is stilla far cry from the squatter that the aver-age citizen inhabits.

The “Musharraf law,” i.e., beingpicked up and declared ‘missing’, has notbeen applied, and he should be thankful.There are many in the country that wantthe former general dead, although thatwould be the most boring of ends forhim. a full trial in each of the casesagainst him is required – including, mostimportantly, a trial for treason, which isthe one on which there is a lack of polit-ical consensus. The former Prime Minis-ter yousaf Raza Gilani once said, “I haveno love lost for Musharraf. If the parlia-ment decides to try him, I will be with theparliament. article 6 cannot be applied toone individual, those who supported himare today in my cabinet and some of themhave also joined the PML-n. The MMa,the MQM and the PML-Q supportedhim. This is why I have said that it is notdoable.” One can add, former Musharrafsupporters have also joined the ‘harbin-ger of change’, the PTI. This suggeststhat while the caretaker setup has de-clared that it does not have the mandateto try Musharraf for treason, and the sen-ate has passed a resolution calling forsuch a trial, once the next national as-sembly is in, a political consensus to tryhim still appears to be unlikely.

While insiders say that Musharraf hasbeen abandoned with an understandingthat accountability will remain limited, amilitary coup in 2014 has not been ruledout. The question is: why is a coup evenan option? Military men are no more thansecurity guards employed by civilians fortheir protection. The reversal of this or-dering is unacceptable at any point. More-over, how come one former generalbecomes the face of public accountability,without questioning the entire institu-tional ethos? If it is true – although thereare reasons to doubt it – that the militaryethos involves only top-down obedience,independent of any other considerations,then the military ethos needs to bechanged. Making Musharraf accountablefor an institutional problem would serveno great purpose.

How former generals look at civiliancourts should be a good indicator of the

problem at hand. The first thing they at-tempt is to avoid the indemnity of show-ing up before a civil judge. For thispurpose, they either attempt to pursue atrial through military courts, using the re-frain of the army act 1952, that arguablyexcludes military officials from therealm of common [colonial] law. Thiswas successfully adopted by formerGenerals Khalid Zaheer, Khalid Munirand afzal Muzaffar when charges wereproven against them in the national Lo-gistics Cell scandal – the three were re-inducted into the army and got awaywith the slap on the back (of the “welldone” variety) of a court martial. If thisdoes not work, they attempt to degradethe court, the judges and the process oflaw. This was successfully adopted bythe former Generals aslam Beg andasad durrani when appearing before thesupreme Court to explain their positionwith respect to doling out money topoliticians – and as it stands both appearto have got away with it. so as a formerGeneral and COas, Pervez Musharrafcould not be blamed for fleeing arrestfrom the Islamabad High Court, a courtthat he purportedly himself set up to un-dermine the supreme Court back in hisheydays.

That Musharraf made the choice ofbeing the first military dictator in Pak-istan’s history to attempt a return to thecountry was based on the same trust: ageneral, serving or retired, cannot betried in Pakistan. With his bail in the Be-nazir Bhutto murder trial newly can-celled, and his disqualification fromcontesting election, it is hoped that atleast his multiple trials shall all takeplace. But as some ex-Generals, namelyJamshed ayaz and aslam Beg, chose toremind us on Tuesday, that they, and oth-ers in their clique, are not happy with thepossible ‘humiliation’ of Musharraf.With at least nine of the serving corpscommanders promoted during thedecade long Musharraf regime, there iscertainly both loyalty and complicityamongst the military top brass. FormerCOas aslam Baig has been more threat-ening, but those come from a man withclipped wings. Perhaps, there is now lit-tle need to be worried about what hesays, and the question of military ac-countability needs to be asked with seri-ousness.

There is a need to answer the ques-tion, rather than leaving it hanging.

The writer is the general secretary(Lahore) of the Awami Workers Party.He is a journalist and a researcher. Con-tact: hashimbrashid@gmail.com

Pollution in PakistanI would like to draw the attention of the government towards theproblem of pollution in Pakistan. The amount of pollution in Pak-istan’s major cities like Lahore and Karachi is 20 times higher thanwhat it should be. Pakistanis are daily breathing polluted air. Thishas become a cause of concern as a large number of people espe-cially children are contracting diseases from pollution one way orthe other. This is not a problem that cannot be solved but it is un-fortunate that people dint pay any attention to it. The solution tothis problem is related to higher literacy and general awarenessamong the people about this issue. The government of Pakistan,as it is responsible for the well-being and health of every citizenof Pakistan, should take immediate steps to manage this problem.

ALIZA IMRANKarachi

crippling power shortageIt was not only the absence of governance coupled with cor-

ruption which has caused an energy crisis in Pakistan, but non-uniform load management of electric power load shedding thathas further added salt to injury and which will reflect in the comingelections planned for 11 april. On my recent trip to Lahore for at-tending a marriage, I had to endure crippling power breakdownsextending to 16 hours daily in a posh locality, namely CavalryGround located in Lahore Cantonment. now I understand theanger of people of this province against this unjust load shedding,where cities like Karachi and Hyderabad hardly have to endure

any electricity shutdowns beyond five hours a day, as comparedto 9 hours in Peshawar, and ranging from 12 to 18 hours daily inRahim yar Khan, Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad and Jhelum etc.

NASIR K KHAKAKHELPeshawar

FBr’s incompetent policyThis is with reference to a news item regarding imports of

reconditioned cars that appeared in media recently. I was sur-prised to read the writer’s endorsement of FBR’s decision toallow across-the-board amnesty to all consumers using non-reg-istered and non-custom paid cars for the last four years. Contraryto the writer’s belief that this scheme will benefit the masses andintroduce healthy competition in the market, the consumer willcontinue to be the ultimate loser.

The last few years have seen the Pakistani market floodedwith imported, reconditioned cars being sold at an exorbitantprice. These vehicles are being brought in under the guise of thetransfer of residence and/or gift schemes that allows the individ-uals to bring their vehicles with them, especially if they are mov-ing. allowing for across-the-board amnesty to consumers withnon-registered and non-custom paid cars is tantamount to pro-viding state support to an already existing illegal activity in thecountry as these vehicles are often brought in via the afghantransit trade with negligence on part of the excise and custom of-ficials. such policies only benefit all those involved in such prac-tices, thereby setting a dangerous precedent. Thus, the FBR mustreconsider and revise this policy.

ALAMGIR KHANKarachi

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

HASHIM bIN RASHID

KHI 25-04-2013_Layout 1 4/25/2013 2:51 AM Page 10

THeRe are cur-rently severalpieces of legisla-

tion being considered inthe Us Congress thatwould include Israel inthe Visa Waiver Program-meme—thus allowing Is-raeli citizens to enter theUs without first obtain-ing a visa. several sena-tors and members ofCongress have alreadysigned on as co-sponsors.Because countries seekingto qualify for visa waiversmust provide “reciprocalprivileges to citizens andnationals of the United states,” I would advise those current spon-sors and those who might be considering signing on in the future tofirst take a long, hard look at the department of state’s (dOs)Travel advisory for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

according to the dOs, “Us citizens are advised that all personsapplying for entry to Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza...may be deniedentry or exit without explanation”. The dOs Travel advisoryspecifically notes that “Us citizens whom Israeli authorities suspectof being arab, Middle eastern, or Muslim origin...may face addi-tional, often time-consuming, and probing questioning by immigra-tion and border authorities, or may be denied entry”.

More disturbing is the treatment meted out to Palestinian amer-icans. again, according to the dOs “Israeli authorities might con-sider as Palestinian anyone who has a Palestinian identificationnumber, was born in the West Bank or Gaza, or was born in theUnited states but has parents or grandparents who were born orlived in the West Bank or Gaza. any such Us citizen might be re-quired by the government of Israel to travel to Israel using a Pales-tinian authority passport [even if they do not want it]. Without thePa passport, such Us citizens might be barred from entry...or mayface serious delays at points of entry”.

For more than 35 years now, we have been documenting thisdiscriminatory treatment by Israeli authorities. We have presentedthe dOs with the complaints of hundreds of american of arab de-scent who, upon entering Israel or the Occupied Territories, havereported being: detained for hours of humiliating questioning;forced against their will to secure a Palestinian passport; stripsearched; forced to surrender cameras, computers, or phones (someof which have been destroyed or not returned); or denied entry andforced to buy a return ticket back to the Us.

Over the years, we have also complained to several secretariesof state that, by singling out arab and Muslim americans, Israel isviolating its treaty obligations to the Us. In the “1951 Us-IsraelTreaty of Friendship, Commerce, and navigation” Israel pledged topermit Us citizens to “travel freely, to reside at places of their choice,to enjoy liberty of conscience” and to guarantee them “the most con-stant protection and security”. and when the dOs and Us Consularofficials have failed to act to protect the rights of american citizenstraveling to Israel, we have argued that they are failing to honour thecommitment given to Us citizens on the opening page of every Uspassport: “The secretary of state of the United states of americahereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen/na-tional of the United states named herein to pass without delay orhindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection”.

Our concern has been that Israel was being allowed to deter-mine, on its own, that arab americans are second-class Us citizens.We have asked our government’s leadership to consider the impli-cations of another country saying to an american citizen, even asecond or third generation american, that their american passportis meaningless and that they have to secure a foreign passport beforethey can travel.

some Us officials have been responsive. President Clinton pro-vided me with the opportunity to directly raise the issue with a vis-iting Israeli prime minister. secretary of state albright repeatedlyprotested this behavior with her Israeli counterpart. and secretaryRice issued a strong statement denouncing Israel’s discriminatorytreatment by publicly affirming that “an american citizen is anamerican citizen”. The Israelis, however, have failed to respond.

Given this record, it is both bewildering and maddening thatsome senators and members of Congress now want to legitimizeIsrael’s refusal to recognize that arab americans, and most espe-cially Palestinian americans, should be accorded their full rights asamerican citizens. Two of the three pieces of visa waiver legislationbeing considered specifically give Israel an exemption from the ob-ligation to guarantee reciprocity for all Us citizens. should Con-gress pass these laws, they will not only be condoning Israel’sunconscionable behavior (nothing new there), but they will also befailing in their obligation to protect and defend the rights of theirfellow americans.

One final observation is in order. While one of the visa waiverbills is a “stand alone” amendment, the others are embedded in largerbills that are intended to designate Israel as a “major strategic ally”.These bills provide extraordinary new benefits to Israel in the areasof defense, energy, trade, and intelligence cooperation. some of ourfriends suggest that we should be satisfied with efforts to merelyweaken the visa waiver provisions in these bills and let the rest pass,as is. I cannot agree. It is the responsibility of our government toprotect our rights. and it ought to be a litmus test for any foreigncountry that seeks to be classified as a “major Us strategic ally” thatthey be expected to respect the rights of all americans, as well.

The writer is President, Arab American Institute.

congress should not reward israel with visa waivers

COULd this election campaign and therun up to it be the start of the Pakistanspring – our very own version of thetidal wave that swept the arab world

last year? The answer is still up in the air. Thisarousal of the voting populace that we are seeing,and the yearning for a better future, might be adifferent mutation of the arab spring.

Pakistan’s democratic struggles have beenless than stellar in their longevity. Governmentafter government has been struck down under onepretext or the other. This could be equated to achild learning how to walk and the first time hefalls, being told that since he could not walk, hehad better get knee and elbow pads. The great na-tions are born and tempered through struggles andfailures, but Pakistan had inherited an establish-ment from colonial times that had been trained torule rather than serve. and it was this arrogationof power that resulted in dismissals of the revolv-ing door governments of the 1950s. and then,when Iskandar Mirza the army officer-cum- civilservant took over, he was quickly upstaged by hisprotégé ayub Khan. ayub had, for some timebeing holding the office of defence Ministeralong with that of the army chief, the first foot inthe door by the powerful military.

ayub Khan’s Martial Law was a success, ini-tially. a law of diminishing returns, Martial Lawis a powerful antibiotic, which when overused,tends to lose its effectiveness. But the crucialproblem with Martial Law is that when the armyChief decides he is going to stay for an extendedperiod, he tends to elevate yes men to the armyHigh Command. Were he to leave at the end ofhis three year term, he would be motivated to pro-mote officers who would make the army stronger– a subtle but vital point. ayub achieved much,but his decade of development came crashingdown around him and to his credit he left withoutmuch fuss. Crucially, instead of handing over

power to civilians, ayub left his handpicked armychief yahya Khan in charge.

a pocket battleship of a man, yahya was anexcellent career officer, nicknamed napoleon byhis British superiors. a refreshingly candid andoutspoken man, yahya never let his enjoyment ofthe good life interfere with his work, at least untilthe later years when things spun out of his control.He was taken aback when sheikh Mujib urRehman would come to meetings with theBangladesh flag on his car. The writing was clearlyon the wall. ayub had been saying this to his min-isters as early as 1960, that east Pakistan wouldsoon go its own way and that he wanted to makeit strong so that it was not swallowed up by India.

The upheavals of the second partition broughtforth the populist Zulfikar ali Bhutto. a man ofgreat vision and energy, Bhutto envisioned hisPakistan on the model of the scandinavian coun-tries. His development of the nuclear bomb even-tually proved to be his undoing. Gen Zia ul Haqhad been appointed army chief by him at the lastminute following a phone call from a Middleeastern potentate.

Zia was an armour officer known for his hu-mility and obeisance to authority. He had receiveda bad chit from the Pakistan ambassador to Jordanwhere Zia was the military attache. The ambassa-dor Lt Gen (retd) nawazish ali, found Zia as being“unworthy of an officer in the Pakistan army”. Onthe surface a profoundly religious man, Zia wasmore of a Mullah, being the son of one. His viewson religion were self serving at times. One of thechanges he brought into the army was to add thesection where an officer was to be judged on hispiety and religiosity along with his professional-ism in his annual confidential report.

Zia quickly realized that by hanging Bhutto,he had a tiger by the tail and quickly surroundedhimself with likeminded people. His enemy’senemy very quickly became his friend. Zia pro-ceeded full throttle with spiritualism, the end re-sult of which was that the lines between right andwrong got fogged up with the overpowering pres-ence of spirituality. Morality and ethics took a se-rious hit. Hypocrisy in the name of selective, selfserving religiosity became the order of the day.This was quickly latched on to by his minions andto this day, his followers display this mentality.

The afghan War was won and the Russiansretreated across the amu darya. The afghan Mu-jahideen had taken a terrific pounding in the earlyyears of the soviet occupation. They had no an-swer to the MI26 helicopters which could appearfrom nowhere accompanied by spetsnatz com-mandos. The war turned when the americans in-troduced the stinger missile and trained the “Muj”to use it. suddenly aero planes started dropping

from the sky and the soviets had to start movingon the ground. That was the beginning of the end.

The americans wasted an historic opportunityto win the peace after the soviet withdrawal. In-stead of investing resources in the uplift and sta-bilization of afghanistan, like the Marshall Planfollowing World War II, they packed up and left,leaving a vacuum that was ultimately filled by theTaliban and their backers, Osama bin laden andal Qaeda.

and this is where we stand some 25 yearsafter Zia’s demise. The sharifs and the Bhuttoshave been going at it hammer and tongs, witha military interregnum under Parvez Mushar-raf playing a role in the first decade of thismillennium.

Whether the arab spring has had an effect onPakistan is not certain, but it seems that a momen-tum has evolved where the public has let it beknown that they are sick and tired and they are notgoing to take it anymore. enter Imran Khan. acricketing star as well as a social worker, Imran’sPTI had been in existence for some 16 years with-out really creating a foothold. He was beingmockingly compared to asghar Khan and hisTehreek-i-Istaqlal. But the consummate cricketcaptain that he is, Imran bided his time, consoli-dated his party, bringing in people of his choice,setting up a compelling manifesto.

The middle overs of the OdI passed unevent-fully as he saved his wickets for the final slog. asthe people’s wave crested the PTI hit criticalmass. The Kaptaan had done it again, like in theWorld Cup win of 1992. Huge, enthusiasticcrowds thronged his rallies, people singing anddancing, an atmosphere in sharp contrast to theinsipid rent-a-crowds of his opponents. The PTITsunami, as he called it, had hit shore.

The PTI brain trust is composed of highly mo-tivated, smart people who have already churnedout reams of pages on their post election plans.But the elephant in the room that few wish tocommit on is whether the PTI can derail the artfulsharifs from the Takht Lahore. The sharifs havebeen in the political game since Zia’s time andhave a powerful network of alliances and support-ers along with infinite resources. This has madethem favourites to win in Punjab.

But Kaptaan Khan is now reaching the finalfive slog overs and feels as if he is destined to win.There is certainly a PTI wave (read Tsunami), butwhether it can unseat the powerful PPP and PML-n is still a moot question. Perhaps, as Imran feels,the final fortnight, could be crucial and no bettingman would wager against the man who has madea habit of winning from impossible situations. Forhim, it all depends upon how the final two weekson the campaign trail pan out.

CoMMenT CThursday, 25 April, 2013

11Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or

like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction.

No, read in order to live. –Gustave Flaubert

kaptaan’s betcan Pti unseat the powerful PPP and PML-n?

discrimination ofthe worst sort

ALI AkbAR

Washington WatchDR JAMES J ZOGby

KHI 25-04-2013_Layout 1 4/25/2013 2:51 AM Page 11

eva lonGoria livinGWith 'ready Forlove' Bachelors

nEWS DESK: Eva Longoria insists she's notdating "Ready for Love" bachelor ErnestoArguello, but the two are definitely living together.Sources familiar with the situation told TMZ.comthat the successful civil and architectural engineerhas been crashing at Longoria's LA pad. The duohas also been spotted together around LA onvarious occasions. They were seen hitting upChateau Marmont on the Sunset Strip on Sundaynight and the exclusive Soho House on Monday.However, the 38-year-old actress is adamant thatthey're just friends. "Sorry @ernestoarguello isNOT dating me," she tweeted. Longoria's rep said,"Eva and Ernesto are not dating." Meanwhile,sources connected with Longoria said it's no bigdeal as several cast members of her TV showhave been crashing at her house because theydon't have a place to stay in LA.

arts

AThursday, 25 April, 2013

12The two most powerful warriors arepatience and time. –Leo Tolstoy

k-steWsPotted With aMystery Man

nEWS DESK: Kristen Stewart hassparked speculations that she hasbeen meeting up with her ex-fling,Rupert Sanders after she waspictured stepping into a car with amystery man. According to reports inthe US, the 'Twilight actress' wasseen getting into a car with a manbearing a striking resemblance to thedirector, in LA on Sunday night, theMirror reported.The 23-year-old actress had an affairwith married Rupert, 42, in July lastyear after meeting on set for the film'Snow White and the Huntsman.'The couple were caught kissing inpublic and were forced to makegrovelling apologies to Kristen'sTwilight co-star and boyfriend RobertPattinson, 26, and Rupert's wife of 11years, model Liberty Ross, 34, andtheir two children, Skyla, eight, andTennyson, six.A friend close to the actress told thepublication that it was her friend's carand that man is the valet.The valet apparently stayed in the carwhile Stewart got into the passengerseat, after her visit to Mexicanrestaurant Malo in Silverlake with agroup of girl friends.The car also appeared to be the samemake as the one Sander haspreviously driven.

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

PANTENE Bridal Couture Week(PBCW) organised by Style360kicked off to a rollicking start

on Friday, April 19, 2013. Thebeautifully decorated lounge and redcarpet area, complete with freshflower arrangements set the tone forthe evening. The ramp created onstraight, modern lines gave abeautifully contemporary look inmarked contrast to the more classicsets normally used at PBCW. The last day of PBCW opened to apacked house with the décor onceagain changed, boasting whiteumbrellas hanging over the ramp andfrom the roof over the audience’sheads, enhancing the white backdrop,and new motifs on the ramp. SanaAbbas opened the show with herelegant bridal line in pastel coloursand striking combinations. Hershowstopper was donned by MahwishHayatt. Nadya Mistry showcased anultra-modern and funky bridal line.Her showstoppers were donned byMadiha Iftikhar, Amna Malik and Tipu.A star-studded and lively performanceby BodyBeat Productions followed,featuring Hasan Rizvi himself, andstars such as Anoushay Ashraf, Kiran

Khan, Suhai, Uroosa, Waqar, HinaBayat and Tipu, which left theaudience clapping and hooting in highspirits. Mifrah followed with herimpressive and sophisticated bridalcollection. Her showstoppers weredonned by Faisal Qureshi, Aijaz Aslamand Amber Khan.The night segment opened with abang, with Deepak showcasing hismale and female ethnic bridalcollection. His showstoppers were

donned by Wasim Akram and ZebaBakhtiar. He was followed by theworks of 14 Haute Couturiers – ImranRajput, Deepak and Fahad, TabassumMughal, Arsalan Iqbal, Ishtiaq Afzal,Nida Khurram, Nadaa Saleem, ObaidSheikh, Wahaj Moiz, Ruby Shakeel,Uzma Baber, Naureen Arbab, MussaratBushra and Vasim Asghar. The outfitsof Wahaj M Khan were donned bySana Fakhir and Ehsan Khan.Following the Haute Couturiers,

BodyBeat Productions came in toperform, much to everyone’s delight.This time the performance featuredalong with Hasan Rizvi AnoushayAshraf, Kiran Khan, Suhai and Tipu,Sarwat Gilani, Javed Sheikh andKomal Rizvi. The evening came to agrand close with HSY’s male andfemale gloriously worked collection,ending with an electronic fireworksdisplay.The entire event management, from

designing of invitation cards to sets,and complete execution of event wascarried out by HUM Network Ltd.PBCW was choreographed by acechoreographer Hassan Shehryar Yasin.Make-up artist on the first and lastdays was Saba Ansari of Sabs Salonwhile on the second day make-up andhair-styling was done by theexperienced Laiqa Hassan. PR washandled jointly by HUM Network’s PRdepartment and Xenith PR.

NEWS DESK

SUBCOnTInenT film fraternity mourned thedemise of legendary singer shamshad Begumon Tuesday, with whose demise an era in Hindicinema music also came to an end. Begum

died Tuesday night at her Mumbai residence in presenceof her daughter Usha Ratra and son-in-law yog Ratra.Begum, who ruled playback singing in the '40s and 50s,was the voice behind evergreen hits like 'Kahin Pe ni-gahen Kahin Pe nishaana', 'Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon','Kabhi aar Kabhi Paar' and 'Kajra Mohabbat Wala'.

Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar started her play-back singing when Begum was at the peak of her career.

Mangeshkar, who sang many duets with Begum like'darna Mohabbat Karle’ from the 1949 film 'andaz',

'Pyar Ke Jahan Ki’ from the 1949 film 'Patanga' and'Bachpan Ke din' from 1951's 'deedar', said she was sad-dened to hear about her death. "I got to know about thedemise of famous singer shamshad Begumji today. I feltvery sad as I sang with her in many films. she was alively and simple person,” Lata tweeted.

Reacting to her death, megastar amitabh Bachchansaid, "The golden voice of shamshad Begum, playbacksinger of great eminence in some of the most historicfilm songs... now silent...RIP."

singer Bappi Lahiri said Begum's death was a hugeloss to the industry, which is celebrating its 100 years inMay. "she was one of the most senior singers and had aunique style of singing. Her 'Kajra Mohabbat Wala' wasa super-duper hit and we still listen to that song. I am abig fan of her and wanted her to sing for 'Paanch Qaidi'but it did not happen somehow because she was in delhithat time. I deeply regret her death," Lahiri said.

Film historian Raju Bharatan, who has been close toBegum's family, said the singer was a favourite of all thecomposers of her time. "she and noorjahaan were dis-covered by Ustad Ghulam Haider. He brought her toMumbai. she sang extensively for naushad and for CRamchandra. she was a favourite of all the composersbecause she had a great personality and sense of humour.she had great stamina and was the number one playbacksinger before Lata Mangeshkar came. Her peak wasfrom 1945 to 1955," Bharatan said.

Composer-singer shankar Mahadevan said her voicewill always be remembered. "I had the big fortune oftalking to her over phone four years ago. she blessed mefor my work. I live with that moment. We will alwaysremember her through her songs."

director Madhur Bhandarkar tweeted, "shamshadBegum can truly be called the Indian nightingale. she'llbe immortal because of her songs. RIP."

Pantene Bridal Couture week comes to an end

sHAMsHAd BeguMDIES AT 94

NEWS DESK

stars often come with the added quirks, andshah Rukh Khan is no exception. Much as hewould like the world to think otherwise, theactor is a strong believer in numerology and thepower of numbers. so much so, he insists thatall things around him - at least those that havea number attached - stick to a combination ofthe numbers 555 and 40. apparently, he alwayshad a fascination for 555 but 40 is a recent ad-dition to his list of favourites. If sources close

to shah Rukh are to be believed, the last fivedigits of three of his personal mobile numbersare a mix of 555 and 40. His wife Gauri and allsenior officials working with him have eitheror both these numerals as part of their mobilenumbers. even his closest colleague KarunaBadwal and 80 staff members have them intheir official mobile numbers. His car bears thenumber plate 555 and his personal email id toohas a combination of these digits.

In recent months, shah Rukh has been get-ting increasingly finicky about the numbers'

game and doesn't like tobe associated with thenumber three or its multi-ples. so is he a self-styled nu-merologist? "shah Rukh is notonly in touch with a reputed nu-merologist but also burns the mid-night oil studying the science," saida source close to the actor, adding,"This is such a well-kept secret thatonly shah Rukh can answerwho his numerologist is."

it’s all in the numbers for shah rukh khan

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13ARTsThursday, 25 April, 2013

A

Is it a crime, to fight, for what

is mine? –Tupac Shakur

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

SanasaFInaZ tantalizing prêtcollection was showcased at thedolmen Mal with a bang! Thedoors of the store will open for

public on 27th april, 2013.Once again the dynamic duo sanasafinaz

has put together something extraordinary andthis time round in form of a complete sartorialsolution! The one-stop shop collection com-prises of everything from less formal attire

stitched lawn suits, to evening wear jump-suits, silk tunics with crystal embellishmentsand an array of sandals and accessories whichmakes the entire collection quite versatile.

The aura of luxury and elegance can befelt as soon as one enters the store. This storeis sartorial dream come true for all the fashionsavvy women out there! not only does it entaila wide range of clothing line available in var-iegated colours, but also accessories and shoes

which compliments them. The price rangestarts from Rs 3000 for lawn suits, Rs 4200for evening wear and Rs 15,000 for theChikan Kari and goes up from there, radically!

“The label of the designer duo sana sa-finaz has been long synonymous withgraceful elegant chic styles.

The opening of the retail stores has beenin the works for over a year. Their mission isto be able to create a high street brand which

would cater to young girls, a working girl andwomen in general. It will be a one-stop shopwhere one can come in and have the optionto buy a complete outfit down to the very lastdetail. They have chappals, evening sandals,accessories, stitched lawn and evening out-fits. The options seem endless. “We hope youenjoy wearing them as much as we have en-joyed the process of designing each item foryou.” said the duo. The event featured

renowned models including areeba, saraKhan, sehrish, sidra sajid, abeer, sabasikander, Manaal, nadia Hussain, Fauzia,dania, noor and neha who were adorned inbeautiful outfits by sanasafinaz.

The launch event was organised by Cat-walk Productions.Other prominent personali-ties from fashion present at the ceremonyincluded saba ansari, sanam Chaudhry, Ubaidsheikh, nomi ansari, Bunto Kazmi, seemiTapal, amna Isani, Farhan, Farishte aslam,shehrnaz Husain, Tapu Javeri, Zahir Rahmat-ullah, noorain, neelo and Pinky navaid.

sana safinaz to launchpret a porter collection!

nEWS DESK: On the mend? Dwayne"The Rock" Johnson is healingSuperman-fast after emergency surgery.Wearing a Superman shirt, the Pain &Gain star Tweeted a photo of himself inhis hospital bed after having surgeryMonday to repair torn abductor andabdomen muscles suffered in hisWWE Champion title fight againstwinner John Cena. "Surgery asuccess! Dr. repaired 3 hernial tears(fun pain). Superman is on themend," Johnson wrote. The April 7match, watched by 80,000 people atMetLife Stadium in New Jersey, wasapparently tough on the action star,40. The operation caused Johnson tomiss the Pain & Gain premiere in LosAngeles where director Michael Bayissued his well-wishes from the redcarpet. "Dwayne's hurt tonight. Hewas pushing it too hard. [He] needsto grow up and stop wrestling 300-pound men," Bay joked to E! News.Johnson had announced the trip to thehospital to his fans on Sunday withtypical "Rock" aplomb. "Saw my Dr. who hadto push my intestines back through the tear in myabdomen. Kinda romantic. #Bringiton," he wrote.

dwayneJohnson’semergencysurgery asuccess

NEWS DESK

Black eyed Peas frontman will.i.amhas admitted infringing copyright withhis new song, Let’s Go. The admissioncomes a week after he was accused ofplagiarizing the beats of Rebound,originally recorded by dJs arty andMat Zo. “LOL what?” exclaimed artyon Twitter last week when he saw thetrack on youTube. “They never clearedrights through anjunabeats, who’s onlyone label, who ownes [sic] the rightsfor ‘Rebound’.” Will.i.am denies delib-erate plagiarism. Will.i.am’s explana-tion is that it was all a mistake. In aninterview with KIss FM, he said thathe’d originally recorded his own ver-sion of Rebound for use in the newsong. “But in a year’s time,time’s gone by [and] wepreferred writing over andusing the [original] Re-bound,” he said. “some-thing happened and theclearance… hopefully weresolved the issue.”

The rapper says he’s nowcontacted the rights ownersand that a deal is being negoti-ated. But this isn’t the firsttime that will.i.am has beenaccused of plagiarism. Otherincidents include the allega-tions that he stole lyrics fromfunk singer George Clintonfor the Black eyed Peas sin-gle shut Up, and fromChicago singer Phoenix Phe-

nom for Boom Boom Pow. and, ear-lier this year, British singer Tulisa suedhim over alleged theft of lyrics for asong called scream and shout, whichwill.i.am recorded with Britney spears.The song – which sold about two mil-lion copies – was credited to JefMartens, will.i.am himself and JeanBaptiste. again, it was all a mistake,according to will.i.am, who says hewas asked to record the track by pro-ducers Lazy Jay because they preferredhim to Tulisa. What must really stickin the craw for Mat Zo and arty is thatwill.i.am had actually approached thepair about the track – and been turneddown. “arty and I are not bitter aboutthis, more surprised,” Zo wrote on

Facebook. “We knew Will.i.am wasinterested in this track, but we

declined working withhim at the time.”

What’s particu-larly interesting

is that, despitea d m i t -

ting plagiarism, will.i.am appears to becontinuing to justify his actions ongrounds that, well, he really liked thetrack. Indeed, he more or less impliesthat arty and Zo should be grateful.

“I’m a fan of arty. I think he’sgreat and the world needs to knowabout how talented those guys are,”he told KIss FM. “It’s sad that it’sturned into a fiasco, but hopefully it’sresolved, because I’m a fan of thoseguys to the point where I wrote totheir instrumental.” arrogance aside,it’s the same argument used by manymusic fans to justify illegal down-loads: that their devotion is in itselfvaluable to artists, and needn’t be ac-companied by any hard cash. There’scertainly some truth in this, some ofthe time, in that surveys have foundthat people who regularly downloadmusic illegally tend to spend more onlegitimate copies than those thatdon’t. This, though, is to miss thepoint. some artists, such as Oasis’sLiam Gallagher, have said they don’t

have any objection to illegal down-loads, and many are happy withsampling – as long as it’s prop-erly acknowledged. In general,though, being a big fan is nojustification at all. after all,shoplifters would get shortshrift for arguing that theyreally like bananas andpaid for some last week,so ought therefore to beallowed to help them-selves today.

Will.i.am admits stealingsong, accidentally!

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infotainMent

IThursday, 25 April, 2013

14 Everything under heaven is in

utter choas; the situation is

excellent.— Mao Tse-tung

It is an amazing - some might say unbelievable - tale:how a housewife from yorkshire, england, spent fiveyears as a young child being raised by monkeys in theColombian jungle.

yet experts have found no evidence that MarinaChapman’s story is a fantasy - and now she has told it forthe first time, in riveting detail.

In a new book, exclusively serialised by The Mail onsunday from today, Mrs Chapman reveals how a colonyof capuchins taught her how to survive after she wasabandoned in the rainforest by kidnappers who botchedher abduction.

she copied the monkeys' eating habits and high-pitched cries and even learned to climb trees, though sheslept in a hollowed-out tree trunk at night. and on oneoccasion a monkey she called Grandpa because of hissprinkles of white fur cured a crippling stomach pain byleading her to the river and encouraging her to drinkuntil she vomited. Mrs Chapman's story - which hasechoes of the Tarzan tales - began in the Fifties whenshe was drugged and abducted from her Colombianhome at the age of four.

In her memoirs, The Girl With no name, Mrs Chap-

man recalls the moment she awoke to find herself in theforest. "at a distance of several paces were monkeys star-ing at me. after a short time, one of the monkeys left thecircle and approached me. afraid, I shrank back into aball, trying to make myself as tiny as possible," she says.

"He reached out a wrinkly brown hand and, with onefirm push, rolled me over on to my side. I quivered onthe soil, tensed for the second blow that was surely com-ing. "But it didn't - the monkey had lost interest. He hadnow returned to the circle, squatted back on his hind legsand resumed watching me, along with all the others. Thenthey all seemed to want to inspect me."

she said the way they enjoyed each other's company‘made them feel like a family’ – and although there werenights when she cried for hours out of loneliness, she alsofelt happy to be with the monkeys and realised 'I wasgradually turning into one of them'.

she said she was later rescued by hunters and soldinto prostitution before ending up in england, marryinga church organist. now a mother of two and grandmotherof three, she lives with her husband John in a three-bed-room semi in a middle-class suburb of Bradford.

she thinks she is in her 50s but cannot be sure of

her birthdate.Her claims were met with incredulity when they sur-

faced last year, but they have withstood scrutiny, and nownational Geographic is planning a documentary abouther. Mrs Chapman’s daughter Vanessa, 28, describes hermother as "wild and spontaneous", adding 'she wassometimes criticised for her style of parenting, but heronly example was from a troop of monkeys."

experts say monkeys are known to accept young hu-mans into their fold. In 1991, a six-year-old Ugandan boy,John ssebunya, was found in a tree having spent threeyears in the wild, cared for in part by vervet monkeys;and a two-year-old boy known as Bello was found livingwith chimpanzees in nigeria in 1996. NEWS DESk

rasPLOGIC is a piece of soft-ware currently being developedby Italian programmer darioTolio, that offers a cheap, sim-ple and effective way to control

every aspect of home automation in onecentralised system.RASPBERRy PI: The cheapest way fora homeowner to implement this softwareis to a buy a Raspberry Pi, which Rasp-Logic has been designed to operate on(though the software can work on othercomputers).

Tolio explains, “The software is writ-ten in C# language on .neT so it works onany operating system. However, to takeone example, say you want your MP3player to start playing when you get up inthe morning, you need some reference ona common platform and Raspberry Pi isthe only one common platform where peo-ple can do this without spending too muchmoney. For $25 you can have a commonplatform that’s already distributed in everyplace around the world.”

Homes are getting smarter year onyear but if you have one system to controlthe lights, one to control the music systemand one for the TV and so on, it all startsto become unnecessarily complicated and

RaspLogic seeks to resolve this issue.INTUITIVE: The programme has beenmade incredibly intuitive and simple touse allowing the unskilled to set up theirhome the way they want it by using a sim-ple visual editor.

Tolio explains, “The screen is dividedinto three parts using drag and drop. Fromthe left you can take something like thethermostat and on the right there are all thereal things like sensors and actuators. In thecentre you have a whiteboard and you cantake the things from the left and the sensorsfrom the right and put them together.”

The system has also been designed sothat others can add their own plug-ins andfunctionality which can be shared by oth-ers and it is this open-source side to Ras-pLogic that will allow it to develop into anincredibly important, multi-faceted tool.ONLINE: another clever aspect of Rasp-Logic is that, with the Raspberry Pi con-nected to the internet, certain expensivetechnologies, for example, light sensorsthat direct outdoor lights, could be maderedundant. In place of a light sensor, a freeinternet service inform the lights throughRaspLogic when it is sunrise or sunset andtrigger the outside lights accordingly. Thesame could apply with watering the garden

at the correct time of day. RaspLogic canalso send you sMs messages or emailwhen something has happened. For exam-ple, if you are away from home and the bellrings, you could be alerted by text, connectwith your home and speak to the person atthe door directly from wherever you are.

RaspLogic can also be connected toGoogle docs, which means you couldhave information on your energy usage inthe home logged in a spreadsheet so thatyou can see exactly what energy is being

used. so, for example, you could see howlong the lights in each room of the houseremain on, allowing you to make certainchanges in order to reduce energy waste.

In the near future, as homes becomeincreasingly more intelligent, people whoaren’t IT specialists will be empowered tocreate incredibly precise, energy efficienthomes. software like RaspLogic, with itsopen-source capabilities, has the potentialto transform the way we automate ourhomes. COuRTESy HuMANS INVENT

What it's like toBe stuck livinGin a ny castle

You don't even need a cool million topurchase a 36,000-square-foot castlein Upstate New York. Just $895,000will do. The New York Times todaytakes a look at this most unusualpiece of real estate—and the unusualconsequences of a common problem:homes that buyers intended to flipand, more than five years later, stillfind themselves stuck with. Susan andManfred Phemister had done a fewflips before buying the Albany-areacastle (in truth it's the 119-year-oldAmsterdam Armory, though it doeshave two turrets) for $800,000 in2005. Their plan: Sink $400,000 intorenovations and list it for $2 million in2007. "Then we'd sell and make theextra million we’d need to buy abrownstone," says Susan.You can predict where the story goesfrom here: The home has been relisteda handful of times, with the pricesinking ever lower. Now, just $24-a-square-foot will get you, perSotheby's,a massive gymnasium, two kitchens,and staff quarters. The Times looks intohow the Phemisters are managing inthe meantime: A second downturn, inthe music industry, hurt Manfred's CDmusic distribution business; to keeptheir income up they've rented thecastle to TV and film crews and nowoperate a bed-and-breakfast out of it.That helped to pay the not-insignificant$13,076 utility bill last year. And fornow, they'll keep paying it. "We loveliving here," says Susan. "It’s just thatit’s someone else’s turn to live in acastle." NEWS DESk

rasplogic: engineering yourhome automation system

louisiana city

Bans saGGy Pants

A “saggy pants” crackdown could beginany day now in a Louisiana city. TheTerrebonne Parish Council passed anordinance that prohibits people fromwearing pants that hang below thewaist in public, exposing underwear orskin, WGNO.com reported. Violators ofthe ordinance would face a $50 fine onthe first offense, even communityservice for repeatedly letting theirpants hang low. The council membersvoted Wednesday night 8-to-1,WWLTV.com reported. It now goes toParish President Michel Claudet, who isexpected to sign it into law. TerrebonneParish Councilwoman Beryl Amedeewas the only member who votedagainst the ordinance, claiming itviolates Americans’ constitutional rightto free expression. Similar "saggypants" bans have been adopted in sixLouisiana cities and parishes, as well asother cities, including Hawkinsville, Ga.and Cocoa, Fla. NEWS DESk

girl who was raised by Monkeys

Is THIs the One Ring that inspired them all?This 'cursed' ancient Roman ring may havelaunched Tolkien on his imaginativequest.One Ring to rule them all,One Ring to find them,One Ring to bring themalland in the darknessbind them

With this verse, J.R.R.Tolkien launched a storytellingrevolution that has stuck at thetop of the best-seller-lists eversince his books were released earlylast century.

now the possible source of his in-spiration is being revealed for all to see.

Britain's national Trust and theTolkien society are putting the artifact on dis-play for fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of theRings to decide for themselves whether this was Tolkien'sprecious ring of power.

Found in a field near a historic Roman town in southernengland in 1785, the gold ring is inscribed in Latin, "seni-cianus live well in God," and inset with an image of the god-dess Venus. It is larger than average, weights 12 grams, and isbelieved to date from the 4th century. The ring is believed to

be linked to a curse tablet found at the site ofa Roman temple dedicated to a god named

nodens in Gloucestershire, westernengland. The tablet says a man called

silvianus had lost a ring, and it asksnodens to place a curse of illhealth on senicianus until he re-turned it to the temple.

an archaeologist wholooked into the connection be-tween the ring and the cursetablet asked Tolkien, who wasan anglo-saxon professor at Ox-

ford University, to work on theetymology of the name nodens in

1929. The writer also visited thetemple several times, and some be-

lieve he would have been aware of theexistence of the Roman ring before he

started writing The Hobbit."The influences most often cited for Tolkien's

creation of The One Ring usually take the form of literaryor legendary rings," said Lynn Forest-Hill, education officerfor the Tolkien society. "It is, then, particularly fascinating tosee the physical evidence of the (ring), with its links to Tolkienthrough the inscription associating it with a curse," she said.

The gold ring is displayed at The Vyne, a historic mansionin southern england.NEWS DESk

did this ancient romanring's curse inspire tolkien?

Why We aBruPtly

ForGet a

Person's naMeNeuroscientists found that memories inall animals can be recalled severalhours after learning them despite beingforgotten for brief periods of time afterbeing formed. While it is not fullyunderstood why such lapses occur, it isthought to be a necessary part of thebrain's ability to consolidate long-termmemories. University of Sussexresearchers discovered that causing adisturbance during these memorylapses disrupts the process and appearsto prevent the memories from beingformed. Their study, published today inthe journal Nature Communications,may offer reasons why such aphenomenon has left many of us feelingred-faced and rude. “Scientists havelong wondered why the brain showsthese memory lapses,” Dr IldikoKemenes, who led the study. NEWS DESk

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sPoRTs

SThursday, 25 April, 2013

15According to the assessment of the Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) medical team, [Mashrafe] Mortaza has not fullyrecovered from the injury and still feels pain — Akram Khan

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

FORMeR Pakistan captainsalman Butt has offered totake part in anti-corruptionrehabilitation, after the Courtof arbitration for sports

rejected his appeal against a spot-fixingban. His offer came a day after theInternational Cricket Council asked the trioto come clean of the spot-fixing and jointhe rehabilitation process.

Butt and fast bowler Mohammad asiflost appeals to overturn respective 10- andseven-year bans earlier this month - afterbeing found guilty at southwark CrownCourt in november 2011, on charges ofconspiracy to cheat and conspiracy toaccept corrupt payments over deliberateno-balls bowled during a Test againstengland at Lord’s in august 2010.

The duo were also banned by theInternational Cricket Council for the same

indiscretion. Buttand asifsubsequentlyappealed thebans, but 17april sawthe Casmaintain the

punishment.ICC chief executive dave Richardson

has since implored the pair to “publiclyaccept their parts” in corruption. “I haveoffered my availability for therehabilitation and whenever the PakistanCricket Board wanted me to appear I willbe ready,” Butt said.

The PCB, meanwhile, will hire a“vigilance expert” to monitor the team -and ward off potential conspirators - duringthe Champions Trophy in england laterthis year.

The PCB chairman, Zaka ashraf, hadalready hinted at a route back for thebanned trio - Butt, asif and Mohammadamir - after they have served their bans.Butt met with PCB officials at the Gaddafistadium in Lahore on Tuesday and offeredto complete the anti-corruption educationprogramme, which he is required toparticipate in to avoid a further five-yearsuspended sentence becoming active.

ashraf has given a clear indication thatthe players are free to try and rebuild theircareers in the Pakistan domestic game -once their suspensions have been served -but warned against furthertransgressions.

The independentanti-corruption

tribunal, chaired byMichael Beloff QC,found Butt, asif and

amir guilty ofcharges

relating tospot-

fixing at the Lord’s Test match betweenengland and Pakistan in august 2010. Inaddition, Butt was also found guilty ofbreaching the ICC’s anti-corruption codeby failing to report an approach made tohim by Mazhar Majeed to engage incorrupt activity during The Oval Test

match earlier in thesame month.

all three weresuspended in

February 2011 andlater given custodial

sentences after being triedin the english courts. Butt

served seven months of a 30-monthprison sentence, asif was released from

prison after serving half of a year-longsentence, while amir spent three monthsin a young offenders’ institution afteradmitting his charge at a pre-trial hearing.

Butt ready For rehaBilitationkey figure in pakistan fixing sCandaL dieslAHORE: Former international opener Salim Pervez, a key figure in aPakistan match-fixing inquiry, died after suffering fatal injuries in a roadaccident, family and friends said Wednesday. “Pervez was riding amotorcycle when he was hit by a bigger vehicle on Sunday and could notrecover from fatal injuries and died early Wednesday,” a friend of Pervezwas quoted by a foreign news agency. Pervez, 65, told a match-fixinginquiry conducted by judge Malik Mohammad Qayyum in the late 1990sthat he acted as a middleman between some Pakistani players andbookies. Qayyum said Pervez confessed to handing Salim Malik andMushtaq Ahmed $100,000 to throw a final in Sharjah. The inquiry wasinitiated by Pakistan in 1998 after Australian players Shane Warne, TimMay and Mark Waugh alleged that Malik offered them a bribe tounderperform on their team’s tour to Pakistan in 1995. The Qayyuminquiry banned Malik and Ata-ur Rehman for life in 2000 and finedMushtaq, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul Haq, Saeed Anwar —all leading stars at the time — and one other player. A dashing opener indomestic matches, Pervez played a single one-day international, againstthe West Indies at Karachi in 1980, before his career derailed overallegations of murder. The allegations were never proven. Internationalcricket was further rocked by life bans on South African captain HansieCronje and India’s Mohammad Azharuddin for match fixing in 2000. Ayear later the International Cricket Council was forced to form an anti-corruption and safety unit to combat the menace. Pakistani playersSalman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were banned for a

minimum of five years for spot-fixing in 2011, followed by a life ban forPakistan’s Danish Kaneria in England in 2012. STAFF REPORT

Waugh, taylortip australiaashes win

SPORTS DESK

Former australian captains steve Waugh andMark Taylor are backing the unfanciedtourists to shock england and bring thefamous ashes urn home. Waugh said carryingthe underdog tag could work in australia’sfavour in the five-test series from July,providing the team believed it could win andnot merely compete. “We’ve got the bowlersto take 20 wickets,” he told reporters. “Wecan beat any team in the world and we provedthat, almost, last year when we nearly beatsouth africa, who are the no 1 team. “sowe’re not that far away. It’s a matter of thetop six getting some consistency, gettingsome confidence. “england have themselvesbeen very inconsistent over the past 12, 18months.” australia, who dominated englandfor so long in the ashes but have lost threeout of the past four contests, are ranked fourthin the world after a 4-0 drubbing at the handsof India last month. selectors on Wednesdaynamed a 16-man squad led by MichaelClarke with a return to the side of veteransBrad Haddin and Chris Rogers, both 35.Former top-order linchpin Taylor said he hadno problems with adding experience to thesquad, although he lamented the dearth ofyoung batsmen. Of the seven main batsmenin the squad, including allrounder shaneWatson, four are aged 30 or older, and onlyPhil Hughes is under 25.

irish cricket starbanned from Pakistangame after ‘offensive’thatcher tweet

SPORTS DESK

THe Irish cricket player John Mooney hasbeen banned from the one-day internationalagainst Pakistan next following his tweetsafter the death of Baroness Thatcher. CricketIreland “severely reprimanded” Mooney forthe tweet in which he hoped that the formerUK Prime Minister’s death had been “slowand painful”. The 31-year-old will also bebanned for two inter-provincial matches. Hewill be available for selection for the secondgame against Pakistan on 26 May. Mooneyquickly apologised for his tweets after thecontroversy broke, admitting that they hadbeen “offensive”. However, Cricket Irelandchief executive Warren deutrom describedthe comments as “crass, insensitive andoffensive” and some form of disciplinaryaction was inevitable despite the player’sapology. “We took into consideration thefact that he issued a fulsome and swiftapology and that he is genuinely remorsefulfor his action” He added that the player had“accepted that the tweet was offensive andinappropriate”. “We took into considerationthe fact that he issued a fulsome and swiftapology and that he is genuinely remorsefulfor his action,” added the Cricket Irelandchief executive.

SPORTS DESK

sachin Tendulkar celebrated his 40th birthday onWednesday with a nation of cricket fans willing theman they affectionately call “The Little Master”to another year in his prolific internationalcareer. Tendulkar, holder of most of theworld’s batting records - including mostruns and centuries in tests and one-dayinternationals - retired from limited-overscricket last year but continues to play testsdespite watching contemporaries like RickyPonting, Rahul dravid and V.V.s. Laxman allstep down over the past year. Most leadingIndian newspapers dedicated huge space toTendulkar in their sports pages, along with columnsby former players. Television channels broadcastprograms dedicated to his achievements since hisinternational debut in Pakistan as a 16-year-old in1989. Tendulkar last year became the first batsmanto complete 100 internationals centuries during theasia Cup in Bangladesh, with his 49th in OdIs. He’sscored more than 34 000 runs in tests and one-dayers, and he was the first to score a one-daydouble century with 200 not out against southafrica at Gwalior in 2010. He’s taken little part inone-day cricket after achieving the lifelongambition of winning a World Cup on his homeground of Wankhede stadium at Mumbai in 2011,and his retirement from the shorter format was nosurprise. Former australia captain GregChappell, who also served as India coach,praised Tendulkar for his long career in acolumn in The Hindu newspaper. “While

crossing the age of 40 is no big deal for most people, it isa huge milestone in the life of a professional sportsman,”Chappell wrote. “not many reach that age and are stillplaying at the highest level; especially if they began their

international career as a precocious 16-year-old.”Tendulkar has often been compared with australian

batting great don Bradman, but Chappell saysTendulkar probably carried more pressure throughhis career. “no other player, not even Bradman, hasendured greater scrutiny and higher expectations

than Tendulkar, and none has delivered moreoften. My warmest birthday wishes and

may the final stanza of his careerplay out as he deserves,”

Chappell added. World Cup-winning former India

captain Kapil devrecalled

Tendulkar’sdebut.

Media, players celebrate

tendulkaramla’s movegreeted withshock

SPORTS DESK

Formerdolphins andsouthafricancricketerstodayreacted withshock anddismay toHashim amla’sannouncementthat he would beleaving the dolphinsimmediately to play for the nashua Cobras nextseason. “It’s a shame that KwaZulu-natal cannotkeep one of their favourite sons within theirenvironment,” said Mike Procter, one of southafrica’s leading all-rounders in his day. “He is thebest player in the world and with dolphins cricketat such low ebb at the moment one would imaginethat the administrators would do everythingpossible to dissuade him from leaving. It’s so sadto hear that he is going to Cape Town. “He is bornand bred in durban. I don’t know the reasons butwhatever they are there should have been somecompromise. I know Hashim as a level-headedyoung cricketer and he would have been able towork through things but what went on betweenhim at the cricket headquarters at Kingsmead isunknown.” news that amla might leave his hometown first appeared in the daily news on March 27under the headline: ‘Will amla quit dolphins?’ noreasons for the star’s departure have yet been putforward. But points of unhappiness mentioned inthat article have been hotly disputed.

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sPoRTs S

Thursday, 25 April, 2013

16Life is all about taking the right decision,

seeing Gayle bat today I think I took the right

decision of being a wicket keeper — MS Dhoni

when gayle bats likethat nobody wants tobowl: Bhuvneshwar

BANGALOREAGENCIES

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s run rate on Tuesdaynight was 13.15 an over. There was Chris Gayle andthere was also aB de Villiers, whose exhibitions inbig-hitting lifted them to the biggest total ever inTwenty20 cricket. yet, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, thePune Warriors seamer, conceded 23 runs in 24 balls.His team-mates’ economy rates, Luke Wright apart,varied between 12.00 and 29.00. While that waspersonally satisfying, Bhuvneshwar said it was anight when it was natural to regret becoming abowler. “as a team it was a tough match to play butindividually for me it was good. We gave away 265runs out of which I gave only 23 runs. That wassatisfying for me,” he told the IPL site after thematch. “[But] when Gayle bats like that nobodywants to bowl, especially on a wicket like thiswhere the ball comes on well onto the bat. all I cansay is that it’s tough luck for the bowlers if hedecides to bat like that.” In all Bhuvneshwar bowledseven balls at Gayle, conceding 11 runs. at the startof the game, Bhuvneshwar said, he was eager to getGayle out as soon as possible, but as the matchprogressed he was happy to get him off strike.“With the new ball I was trying to get him outbecause he’s that kind of batsman who can make uplater on even if you bowl some dots to himinitially,” he said. “In the death overs I just tried tokeep him off strike so that I can bowl to the otherbatsman. I just tried to keep the ball away from hisbody so that he can take a single and get off strike.“during the first strategic timeout we spoke ofgetting him out as soon as possible. But we couldn’t

do that. We could have bowledbetter but then you never know. Wetried to do different things but hejust kept hitting. Ishwar Pandeywas playing his first match inthis tournament and he wentfor 21 runs in the first over,and he obviously becamenervous. It happens whenyou’re playing against Gayle.”Warriors now have fourpoints from eight games andthe worst net run rateamong all nine teams: -1.467. They hadexperienced a high afterending an 11-game losingstreak by beating RajasthanRoyals and then upsettingChennai super Kings atChepauk, but have sincethree matches on the trotagain. Gayle’s innings willprove to be a particularlytough blow to take,Bhuvneshwar said: “It isvery difficult [to recover froman assault like this], especiallyfor us as we are going througha tough time. “all we can doas a team is stick together andkeep backing each other. We’retrying to be as positive as wecan and can only hope forthe best fromhere.”

BANGALOREAGENCIES

Chris Gayle’s 175 that demolished PuneWarriors took only 66 deliveries, and

included 17 sixes. While that may seemlike the very definition of sustained hitting,

and makes it hard to imagine a period wherethe batsman took it easy, Gayle spoke about

how he paced his innings. “I didn’t want to justget the hundred and continue blasting andblasting and get out, you know how quickly thisgame can change,” Gayle said after delivering a130-run victory for Royal Challengers

Bangalore. He reached his hundred off 30deliveries in the ninth over, before taking it slightlyeasy for the next few overs. “I wanted to stay theretill the end, make sure I bat at least 18 overs, if notall, which I did, I look on that as a point of view,where I try and bat as many overs as possible, getthe hundred, and then actually let dilly[Tillakaratne dilshan] take charge while I get abreak and pick it up back in the end.” Havingbroken the record for the fastest T20 hundred,the highest individual score in T20 and themost sixes in an innings, Gayle said it was toosoon for him to gauge the magnitude of hisachievement. “Words can’t explain how Ifeel, I think later on tonight when I am bymyself I can look back and reflect on whatI’ve done today,” he said. “I’m grateful,overall from a team point of view, I’m reallyhappy with the win, that put us on top of thetable, just one of those innings, one of thesedays when you come out and things goaccording to how you want it to.” aaronFinch, the Warriors captain, watchedhelplessly as his bowlers, and his own

bowling, was ruthlessly taken apart by Gayle. Therewere no qualifiers in his praise for Gayle. “That wassimply the best innings I’ve ever seen,” Finch said.He later joked: “Maybe we should ban him from thegame. Maybe he’s too good, he hits it too far.” ViratKohli, Royal Challengers’ captain, was left“speechless”. “no words. I cannot ask for anythingmore as a captain,” Kohli said after the game. “I’mprivileged that I watched it here today live. all thepeople who came to the stadium today also shouldfeel honoured that they got to see one of the bestinnings ever.” dilshan, who partnered Gayle throughmost of his assault, was equally awestruck. “I’vebatted with him in the last IPL too and he scored acouple of hundreds. But this was somethingspecial,” he said. “In my career this was the firsttime I saw someone hit the ball so cleanly. I was juststanding at the other end and enjoying every bit ofit.” It wasn’t just with the bat that Gayle diddamage. asked to bowl the final over of the match -his first chance with the ball this IPL season - hepicked up two wickets, before celebrating with hisfamous Gangnam style dance. “It was really goodto finish off in that particular way, “ he said. “somepeople keep on asking, ‘they have seen me doGangnam style in international cricket, why not inIPL?’ I thought that was the perfect time to do it,you get a wicket, everything just worked for ChrisGayle today … I’m an entertainer, I try toentertain as much as possible.” With Warriorsconceding a record 263 runs - the most in thehistory of Twenty20s - Gayle was asked whetherhe felt sorry for the bowler s. “sometimes I getknocked over first ball, I would love to ask thebowler as well ‘do you feel sorry for me’. We’repaid to be competitive out there, serious event theIPL, lot of money being spent, you want to put onyour best performance at all times.”

everything went rightfor me: gayle

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

PaKIsTan Olympic association(POa) president Lt Gen (retd) syedarif Hasan has said that the POahas decided to meet InterimPrime Minister Mir

Hazar Khan Khoso to savePakistan’s image atinternational and to get rid ofproblems faced by Olympicmovement in Pakistan.

Talking to the reportershere at the Olympic houseon Wednesday, Gen arifsaid: “Pakistan cannot affordban from InternationalOlympic Committee (IOC)due to rifts between the POaand government and some sportsorganizations, therefore, we haverequested the Prime Minister and Ministerof sports to play their active role in resolving thisissue so that we may be able to save Pakistan’simage internationally.”

He said the IOC had accentuated it toPakistan government, all internationalorganisations and sports federations that it justaccepted the status of Gen arif-led POa whichwas only functional body of the country to runthe affairs of sports across the country. But,despite knowing all these facts, some people aretrying to hijack the national sports body to fulfill

their personal benefits and defaming the countryinternationally. “We will be meeting with InterimPrime Minister in few days and inform him aboutthe whole scenario of the country’s sports,” thePOa chief said. To a query, he replied: “The IOChad decided to ban Pakistan sports before London

Olympics 2012 but due to our all-outefforts and influence, we succeeded in

stopping them by doing sobecause. If Pakistan sports were

banned, it could have pushedback our sports far behind.”

He said the IOC wasobserving all the problemswhich were being faced byOlympic movement and itwould take some important

decisions in its upcomingmeeting.

“I always try to savePakistan sports from ban but some

people who claim to be sports loversand promoters are harming Pakistan’s

image internationally so they must think aboutthe country and its sports instead of gaining theirown personal interests and benefits.”

He termed the Interim Olympic Committeea bogus one which had no legal status so theirannouncement of holding national Games onceagain was very ridiculous. “national Games wereheld in december 2012 in Lahore which werewon by Pakistan Wapda and they received Quaid-e-azam Trophy after becoming nationalchampions,” he added.

Gen arif todiscuss Poaissues withinterim PM

HARAREAGENCIES

Chastened by a heavy defeat that has onceagain highlighted their lack of progress,Bangladesh begin the second and final testagainst Zimbabwe on Thursday looking toprove they can adapt to foreign conditionsand match their fellow test strugglers.

The asian side came into the series ashot favourites after improvedperformances in sri Lanka, only to bebowled out for 134 and 147 as they lostthe first test to Zimbabwe by 335 runs atHarare sports Club.

With the second test being played onthe same ground another green-tingedpitch is expected, and Bangladesh willneed to show far greater durability againstZimbabwe’s talented but inexperiencedpace attack if they are to come away fromthe series with some dignity.

“We didn’t play with any patience andwe need to improve that,” Bangladeshcoach shane Jurgensen said on Tuesday.“We just have to bat for longer.

“When the game starts we have to bevery disciplined in our approach to everyball, and do our basics well, which weprobably didn’t do in the first game.”

Who will win the second and final testbetween Zimbabwe and Bangladeshstarting Thursday.

The Tigers will also need to find away to dismiss Brendan Taylor cheaply,after he became just the third Zimbabweanto score back-to-back centuries in a testmatch.

Taylor was dropped once on his wayto 171 in the first innings, but did not offera chance as he breezed to 102 not out inthe second.

“We have certainly been workingtowards the best way that we can address

that situation,” said Jurgensen.“If we get him out for a low score then

we have the opportunity to put somepressure on their other batters.”

The tourists have been hit with freshinjury worries, with fast bowlers RubelHossain and shahadat Hossain bothreturning home to be replaced by seamershafiul Islam and uncapped allrounderZiaur Rahman.

However opening batsman TamimIqbal could return from a broken thumb,while shakib al Hasan will be back to fullbowling fitness, giving Bangladesh’sselectors the option to pick an extraseamer.

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, couldfield the same side that turned out in thefirst test and will be buoyed by theopportunity to win a series by more thanone match for just the second time in theirhistory.

HARAREAGENCIES

Zimbabwe have not been in the position towin a series in nine years. The last timethey led 1-0 was against Bangladesh inFebruary 2004 and they went on to clinchthe series with a draw in the second Test.

They previously won back-to-backTests 12 years ago, when they beatBangladesh in both matches of the april2001 series. and that was only the secondtime Zimbabwe have managed consecutiveTest victories. The other was in 1998 whenthey defeated India in Harare in October andPakistan in Peshawar the next month. Theyhave only ever won 10 Tests in their 21-yearhistory but have claimed six series wins.Four of them, including the one-off triumphin august 2011, were against Bangladeshand one each against against India andPakistan. Where they stand now wouldallow them to better all the above records.“everyone realises there is something greatfor us here,” Brendan Taylor, Zimbabwe’scaptain said. “There will be a few nervesbecause this is really big for us. even 10years ago, with the players we had then, they

struggled to win series. We’re in a biggerpool at the moment and if we can get thisaway, we can send a big message to theworld.” The point Zimbabwe would makewould not simply be one of numbers. Itwould be that of a triumph against adversity,achieved against the backdrop of irregularinternational competition and financialproblems that threatened to detailpreparations ahead of this tour. “It will giveus dignity in the cricket world,” stephenMangongo, the interim coach, said. It willalso go some way to enhancing Zimbabwe’s

sporting reputation, as a team and for theindividuals involved. “We want to becounted up there as a serious cricketingnation. We’ve got a vision and our playerswant to belong at the highest level and to berespected,” Mangongo said. after the firstTest, Taylor’s stocks soared. He achieved hishighest Test score and became only the thirdZimbabwean to notch up a century in eachinnings of a Test match. Kyle Jarvis, shingiMasakadza and Graeme Cremer also earnedpraise. now it’s up to the rest to leave a markon the series, especially with the bat.

Bangladesh seek redemption

The expectation is ‘overwhelming’: Taylor

KHI 25-04-2013_Layout 1 4/25/2013 2:52 AM Page 17

sPoRTsS

Thursday, 25 April, 2013

17We have a way of playing which is well-known, we’ve

been on the brink for three years and we have s style of

the play that guarantees quality — Jose Mourinho

croWn cluB crushalBilal cluBlAHORE: Crown Club has marchedinto the quarter final of 28th MYaseen Akhter Memorial cricket eventwhen they beat Albilal Club by 6wickets played at Township Albilalground the other day. Scores: Albilal Club 113 all out. M Zahid

11, M ALi 20, Waqas 14, M Salman 26,

HAmdan Ali 13. M Shoaib 6/30, Noor ul

amin 1/10, Yasir ALi 1/18, NAsir 1/15.

Crown Club 118/4. M Irfan 37, M Umer 26,

M shoaib 29(no), Zaheer Abbas 14(no).

Nasir Abbas 1/25, M Zahid 3/17. STAFF

REPORT

SERviS ClUB MOvE TO nExT

ROUnD: Servis Club has entered intothe next round of 28th M YaseenAkhter Event when they outplayedMughalpura Sports by 36 runs playedat Mehran block ground onWednesday morning. Scores: Servis Club 172/8. Arshad

NAdeem 60(no), Azam Siddiq 45, Adnan

Danish 14, Kafil Perzada 13. Ahmer Jalil

2/19, Adnan Ali 1/20, Wajid Miao 1/22,

Ahmer Arif 1/35.

Mughalpura Sports 136 all out. Moazam

Hayat 62, Umair Niazai 20, Ahmed Arif 14.

Adnan Danish 4/28, Satar Khan 2/28, Bilal

Bashir 2/30.

nATiOnAl GYM OUTPlAY lUCKY

STAR: National Gym has defeatedLucky star club by 9 wickets in the28th M Yaseen Akhter Event played atMehran Block ground on Wednesdayafternoon. Scores: Lucky Star club 115/9. Noman

Ishaq 21, Uzair Mohsin 11, Javaid Abbas

15, Nasir 25, Tariq Sulaiman 11. M Imran

3/20, Habib2/20, Fakhar 1/25, Mohsin

1/11, Babar 1/14.

NAtional Gym 116/1. Ali Haider 31, Imran

Ali 78(no). Jahanzaib 1/19.

nAZAR MEMORiAl CRiCKET

BEGinS: 6th Nazar MuhammadMemorial Color Kit CricketTournament Division One begsn andin the inaugural match CombinedStars Gujranwala beat Model TownClub by 4 wickets at LCCA CricketGround. Model Town club batting first210 all out after 41 overs. GulraizSadaf batted well 69, Hassan Rizwan24, Haroon Rasheed 21, Rashid Riaz16 & Ansar Javeed 15 runs not out.Ahsan Hafeez bowling well 4/20wickets, Adnan Sikho 2/32, UsmanKhalid 2/50 & Nouman Anwar 1/30wickets. In reply Combined StarsGujranwala 211/6 after 42.1 overs.Naeem-ud-din 50, Bilal Azmat 39,Adnan Sikho 23, Haroon Arif 24 runsnot out, Bilal Hussain 25 runs not out.Model Town Club bowling AnsarJaveed 3/37, Haris Bakar 1/38, KashifIqbal 1/36 & Ehsan ul Haq 1/41wickets. Ahsan Raza, Akram Razaumpire, Khalid Niazi match refereeand & Abdul Hameed was the scorer.Later of the match chief guest CEOAmar Cables Amer Ilyas Butt gaveaway man of the match award toAhsan Hafeez. Mubashar Nazar is alsopresent.

LoCAL news

national Men,WoMen GyMnasticFroM today

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

The 47th edition of national Men andWomen Gymnastic Championships willget into action here on Thursday atGovernment College University Hallwith country’s top gymnasts showcasingtheir talent. Teams from fur provinces,Pakistan army, Police, Railways,Higher education Commission, Wapdaand Islamabad will feature in the two-day activity in a sport which is rarelyknown in Pakistan as youth has lesserinterest to become gymnast compared totheir involvement in major sportsincluding cricket and hockey. ‘In menpart of the championship each team willbe allowed to field four players, twotechnical officials and one nationallevel referee‘, said a spokesman ofPakistan Gymnastic Federation said onWednesday. He said the each girls teamwill be comprising four players. ‘Weknow the sour reality that gymnastic isnot a popular sport in our country butwe are making sincere efforts to helpdevelop this game and it is the results ofour years long devoted efforts that girlsare coming forward to compete in it andthat is why we are organising girlschampionship in order to provide themample opportunity to display theirtalent‘, he added.

Girls soccer in juneLAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Football Federation hasintroduced national U16 inter club girlschampionship which will be played herefrom June 17 to start a comprehensivefootball activity for girls at early level.‘PFF wants to engage girls at grassroot level and this event will help infurther attracting girls to take upfootball as a sport ‘ said a spokesmanof PFF here on Wednesday. The PFFhas invited over 50 registered womenfootball clubs around the country toparticipate in U-16 event.

SPORTS DESK

GaGanJeeT Bhullar aimsto make his 100th asianTour event at theBallantine’s Championshipa memorable one when it

begins at the Blackstone Golf Club onThursday.

Like the asian Tour which iscelebrating its 10th season this year, the 24-year-old has also grown in stature sincemaking his debut on the region’s premierTour in 2007.

Bhullar reinforced his rising star statuswith two victories in Taipei and Macau lastyear to end the year with a fifth-placedfinish on the asian Tour Order of Merit,which is also his career-best.

“It has been a great achievement for theasian Tour and for me. I’ve really grownup as a player on this Tour and I reallyrespect the asian Tour,” said Bhullar, whois currently second on the Order of Merit.

“This is the Tour where I startedplaying golf and it really feels good to be

playing in my 100th event this week,”added the Indian.

The sixth edition of the Ballantine’sChampionship is the first event to be playedin Korea on the asian Tour this season andwill be sanctioned by the asian Tour,european Tour and Korea PGa.

Bhullar is relishing the opportunity totake on the best players from the europeanTour again, having come close by finishingsecond at the co-sanctioned avanthaMasters on home soil last month.

“This is the only Tour which gives usenough opportunity to go out there andcompete with the good players from theeuropean Tour,” said Bhullar.

“I’ve played on this course a few timesand to be honest, it really suits my eye. Thefairways are quite wide and the greens area little treacherous. you’ve got to be on theright side of the greens but at the end of theday, long hitters will definitely benefit onthis course,” added Bhullar.

While Bhullar has cast an eye on liftingthe prestigious Ballantine’s Championshiptrophy, he is also excited with his newly-

established charity foundation where he willhelp fund promising juniors and amateurgolfers from the Indian Golf Union (IGU)circuit who cannot afford to make golf acareer option. “I always feel that it’simportant for me to give back to society andthis has always been my childhood dreamto do something for upcoming golfers andunderprivileged kids in India,” said Bhullar.

“The goal is to promote the game ofgolf in India and hopefully by the end of thisyear, I’ll be able to pick a few junior kidsfrom the IGU ranking and try to supportthem financially from their coaching toequipment,” added Bhullar.

Meanwhile Bhullar’s childhood idol,Jeev Milkha singh is pleased to return toKorea for another shot at glory at theBallantine’s Championship.

“The Ballantine’s Championship isa good event and it’s in asia and it’sgood for the asian Tour. I’ve beenplaying in Korea since 1993 where I’veenjoyed lots of success and it’s good tobe back,” said singh, who is an asianTour honorary member.

Bhullar to celebratemagical 100 in korea

SPORTS DESK

The U.s. government filed courtdocuments laying out its caseagainst disgraced cyclist Lancearmstrong accusing him ofdefrauding the Postal service ofmillions of dollars.

The U.s. government filedcourt documents Tuesday layingout its case against cyclist Lancearmstrong, who is accused ofdefrauding the Postal service bytaking millions of dollars insponsorship money while floutingprofessional cycling rules bydoping. The U.s. department ofJustice said in February it wouldjoin a whistleblower lawsuitbrought in 2010 by armstrong’sformer teammate, Floyd Landis,and on Tuesday filed its formalcomplaint.

armstrong has been strippedof his seven Tour de France titlesand was banned for life fromcycling in 2012 after accusations hehad cheated for years. In January,he said the accusations were true inan interview with television hostOprah Winfrey. armstrong and histeammates from Tailwind sportswere paid $40 million by the Postalservice from 1998 to 2004,according to the suit. armstrong’ssalary during that time, excludingbonuses, was $17.9 million,according to the complaint.

The government is suing underthe False Claims act and canrecoup up to three times theamount it lost as a result of thefraud. The complaint also allegesbreach of contract, unjustenrichment and fraud. attorneysfor armstrong could not be

immediately reached for commentTuesday evening. The complaintechoes Landis’ claims thatarmstrong and others defraudedthe U.s. government by falselydenying the doping accusationsand continuing their sponsorshiprelationship with the Postalservice. When the governmentbelieves a suit has merit, it maytake over the litigation. Theindividuals, or whistleblowers, geta portion of the proceeds if the caseis successful. The U.s. complaintaccuses armstrong of using at leastone prohibited substance ormethod in connection with everyTour de France between 1999 and2005. “Moreover, he knew that histeammates were engaged in similardoping practices, and he activelyencouraged and facilitated thosepractices,” the complaint said.

Tiger should have beendisqualified: Louis

ICHEONAGENCIES

south african golfer Louis Oosthuizen said Wednesday he feltTiger Woods should have been disqualified from the Us Mastersfor signing a wrong scorecard following an incorrect drop. Theworld number seven will be the highest-ranked player teeing offThursday in the $2.8 million Ballantine’s Championship in southKorea, the golf-crazy country’s only european Tour tournament.asked about the Woods incident at a pre-tournament pressconference, Oosthuizen said he was with those who felt the 14-time major champion should not have been allowed to finish thetournament in augusta. after hitting the flagstick and seeing his

ball roll into a water hazard at the 15th hole at augusta, Woodsdropped the ball two yards back from the original shot to avoida similar risk on the next shot.

govt sues Armstrong over sponsors money

MARRAKECH:

Defending

champion Kiki

Bertens moved

into the second

round of the

Grand Prix SAR la

Princesse lalla

Meryem with

victory over

Timea Babos.

KHI 25-04-2013_Layout 1 4/25/2013 2:52 AM Page 18

GEO SUPERSuper Kings v Sunrisersat Chennai APR 25, 2013 (20:00 LOCAL14:30 GMT | 19:30 PKT)

STAR CRICKETLv County Championship(Div I), Match 1, Day 16:00 PM

sPoRTs SThursday, 25 April, 2013

18It’s always sweet when you win the title and it’s

nice to do it here, in the right way and in style,

not on goal difference — Rio Ferdinand

wAtCh It LIve

coaches clinicdurinG jrhockey c’shiPlAHORE: The Pakistan HockeyFederation on the sideline of the U-16 Boys Hockey Championship to beplayed at National Hockey StadiumLahore, will be holding a NationalCoaches Clinic from April 28 to May1. The PHF has appointedOlympians Tahir Zaman & KhawajaMuhammad Junaid as CourseConductors and Rana Mujahid Alihas been appointed as Coordinator.The following Coaches are herebydirected to report to the CourseConductor at National HockeyStadium Lahore: Ajmal Khan Lodhi,Rehan Butt, Rana Zaheer AhmedBabar, Anjum Saeed, DanishKaleem, Qasim Khan, MuhammadAli, Jan Muhammad, SaleemSherwani, Zeeshan Ashraf, KhawarJavaid, Rahim Khan, Mirza WaheedBaig, Malik Muhammad Shafqat andMuhammad Usman. STAFF REPORT

MtFa to hostdFra reFereescourselAHORE: MTFA will host DFRAReferees Course from May 6 incollaboration with the DFRA. Theseven-day referee course is beingorganize on the directives of DistrictFootball Association’s PresidentMian Rizwan Ali, DFA used toconduct such course during whichArif Siddiqi, EX-Fifa Referee, AneesJaved, Ex Fifa Referee and NaseemUd Din, Ex National Referee willgive lecture to the participant.“DFRA Referees Course will equipReferees with the knowledge andskills to take charge of the comingmatches in DFA League and otherevents, said an official of the MTFA.According to DFRA President AneesJaved, aiming to improve theabilities and techniques of referees,DFRA decided to conduct thecourse. All the arrangements arebeing completed to host the coursein befitting manner comprisingparticipants. STAFF REPORT

Pakistan u14 outclass

turkMenistan in aFc

qualiFiers

lAHORE: Pakistani under-14football team outclassedTurkmenistan 6-0 in AFC U-14Championship -2014 (Qualifiers)match at Samen Al AemehStadium, Mashad, Iran. StrikerMuhammad Shahid gave Pakistanhis first goal when he scored in the4th minute of the game. In the25th minute Striker Junaid Ahmedscored the second goal, in the 30thminute of the first half defenderSaif Ali scored the third goal. In the32nd & 35th minute of the secondhalf Striker Majid Khan scored twiceto further increase the Pakistantally and last but not the leastPakistan Striker Muhammad Shahidscored 6th goal bringing the honorfor Pakistan in one-sided affair.STAFF REPORT

LoCAL news

BARCELONAAGENCIES

World number six Tomas Berdych wasgiven a tough workout by nikolaydavydenko at the Barcelona Open onTuesday before seeing off the formernumber three 3-6 7-5 6-4 to secure a berthin the last 16.

Czech Berdych, who had a bye intothe second round and is seeded three onthe clay at the Real Club de Tenis, servedpoorly against the 31-year-old Russian,who had won nine of their 11 previousmatches.

after having his service broken twicein losing the first set, Berdych managedto turn things around to edge the secondbefore lifting his game in the decider andsealing victory with a ninth ace. The 27-year-old will play the winner of the matchbetween Bulgaria’s Grigor dimitrov, the14th seed, and 2004 champion TommyRobredo of spain for a place in thequarter-finals.

Latvian qualifier ernests Gulbisprovided the surprise of the day when hethumped former world number seven and12th seed Fernando Verdasco of spain,who won the event in 2010, 6-3 6-4.

World number five Rafa nadalbegins his bid for an eighth Barcelonatitle in nine years with a second-roundclash against unseeded argentine Carlos

Berlocq on Wednesday.Recently back from seven months

out with a knee injury, nadal is seededsecond and beat top-seeded spanishcompatriot david Ferrer, the worldnumber four, in the final in 2008, 2009,2011 and 2012. Ferrer plays his second-round match against Russian qualifierdmitry Tursunov on Wednesday.

Berdych tested by davydenko,

Gulbis downs verdasco

Mayer Breezes throuGh

in Bucharest oPenerThe 2011 winner, Florian Mayer, got off to awinning start at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy inBucharest on Tuesday. The fifth seed needed 85minutes to get the better of Flavio Cipolla,beating the Italian 6-0 7-6 (7/1). He will meetDavid Goffin next, while a stiffer test lies aheadfor Jarkko Nieminen. The Finn took three sets tosee off Evgeny Donskoy and will next play thedefending champion and three-time winnerGilles Simon. The home crowd were treated tooas local favourite Victor Hanescu won his clashwith Matthias Bachinger in two sets. Alsosuccessful on Tuesday were Sergiy Stakhovskywho dropped just four games against JaroslavPospisil, Lukas Rosol who beat Gilles Muller andGael Monfils against Filippo Volandri. Belgium`sXavier Malisse was beaten by Santiago Giraldo,winning only three games in the process, andTobias Kamke, the talented German, saw offPaul-Henri Mathieu. SPORTS DESk

lisicki seals second-round

sPot in stuttGartThe Stuttgart crowd did not go home disappointedon Tuesday as Sabine Lisicki won her opening-round match at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.Lisicki, who hails from Troisdorf, was last on courtand turned on the style to beat Italian NastassjaBurnett 6-3 6-4. Her German compatriot AndreaPetkovic was not as fortunate, though, going down6-3 6-2 to Ana Ivanovic. Elsewhere there werewins for the eighth seed Nadia Petrova andCroatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. SPORTS DESk

Bertens oFF to WinninG

start in MarrakechDefending champion Kiki Bertens moved into thesecond round of the Grand Prix SAR La PrincesseLalla Meryem in Marrakech with victory overTimea Babos. The fifth seed was broken once ineach set but emerged relatively unscathed as sheleft with a 7-5 6-2 victory. Third seed Alize Cornettook less than an hour to secure her place inround two as she cruised to a 6-1 6-1 win overFatima Zahrae El Allami. The other seeds in actionon Tuesday also moved through as the ninth-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova beat Karolina Pliskova7-5 6-1 and seventh-rated Kristina Mladenovicwas taken to three sets before beating AlexandraCadantu 6-4 4-6 6-4. SPORTS DESk

KPK upset Punjab in national women BaseballLAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Khyber Pakhtoonkhawa upsetPunjab 11-7 on the second day ofthe national women baseballchampionship here on Wednesdayat Punjab stadium. The visitorsdefied Punjab’s home groundadvantage by excelling in alldepartments of the gameoutshining their fancied opponent.Winners notable scorers weresamreen Hashmi 3, sidra 2 nailaJaved 2, sana Liaquat 2, safia 1and Kinza 1. Punjab receivedsupport from nabila 2, sabahat 2,saima 1,nazia nazir 1, Tania 1.Umpires, sarfraz ahmed, UmairBhatti, Muhammad aqeel, ZubariWattoo. sindh will play KPK onThursday.

KHI 25-04-2013_Layout 1 4/25/2013 2:52 AM Page 19

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

Thursday, 25 April, 2013

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

heaRInG petitions seek-ing initiation of a treasoncase against former presi-dent Gen (r) Pervez

Musharraf, Justice Jawwad sKhawaja on Wednesday said thecourt would meet all requirementsof justice sans prejudice and justicewould be seen to have been done.

a three-judge bench headed byJustice Jawwad s Khawaja resumedhearing in the treason petitionsagainst Musharraf, during whichJustice Jawwad said all requisites ofjustice would be met as the courthad to follow the constitution andlaw. He said it was not their problemif justice scared some people ormade them happy or satisfied.CJP CHALLENGEd: at the in-ception of the hearing, Mushar-raf’s lawyer Ibrahim sattichallenged the discretionary pow-ers of the Chief Justice of Pak-istan, pleading that a full courtminus Justice Chaudhry should beconstituted to hear high treasoncase against his client. satti saidthere was a clash of personal na-ture between Pervez Musharrafand Justice Chaudhry.

“The CJP’s statement againstMusharraf in his own case reflectshis personal grudge. He is biased,therefore, he should not become partof this bench and a full court benchbe constituted. The sindh High Courtdecision needs to be reviewed.” “It isfundamental right of the former pres-ident that he be let present his stancethrough fair trial.” Justice Jawwadobserved that all norms of justicewould be kept in view.

“We will do justice in a waythat justice will be seen to havebeen done. We will give verdictkeeping in view law and constitu-

tion. We cannot give decisions asper any one’s desire. We cannot gooutside the ambit of law and con-stitution no matter anyone likes ordislikes us, loves us or hates us.We are not deterred if someoneopposes us. Only those standscared who are not with the truth.We cannot be fearful of anything.”

satti said the sC should notrely on the sindh High Court(sHC) decision as it was based onbias. Justice Jawwad said, “Wewill not be able to side with youarguments unless we look into therecord. Provide us a provisionalcopy. We will prove by all meansthat we are not influencing anyone. We have been hearing thiscase since the last eight days.”

satti said the CJP was called inthe army house and it was said thathe was kept under detention until 5pm and it was done so due to a “no”uttered by him. These all are eventshowever no verified copy of thisorder has been made available. Headded that he had submitted a re-quest for copies certified by the sC,but he had not yet received the doc-uments. He further said that hisclient had no access to officialrecords. Justice Khilji arif Hussainsaid, “you say a copy has not be-come available. This leaves no goodimpression on a common man.”

Citing to different cases, sattisaid all decisions were with refer-ence to fair trial. “Judges have toconduct fair trial without any bias.This is fundamental right of the ac-cused persons and it is a civil rightas well. It is right of every citizento seek access to the justice. It ispart of Un charter that everyonewill be given the right of fair trialon the principle of equality.”

satti said Musharraf intended tovisit his ailing mother in dubai. Tothis, Justice Jawwad said, “every

legal support will be provided toyour client. We don’t want him toface any kind of prejudice.” “It is ourduty to fulfil the demands of the lawand to provide justice to all withinthe parameters of the constitution,”he added. The hearing was later ad-journed until today (Thursday).MUSHARRAF ESCAPE

CASE: Meanwhile, the supremeCourt refused to grant a stay orderagainst the Islamabad High Court(IHC) verdict in respect of IG Is-lamabad Bani amin in theMusharraf escape case.

a three-member bench led byJustice Jawwad s Khawaja tookup for hearing an appeal plea filedby the Islamabad IG seeking stay-ing of the IHC orders. Chaudhryaziz advocate appeared on behalfof the IGP. He told the court thatpolice had made adequate securityarrangements in Musharraf case,but the problem surfaced due topresence of 200 Rangers person-nel. “Military commandoes werepresent there in the garb oflawyers. My client was also pres-ent in the sC in connection with acase and he was also to review thearrangements of international ju-dicial conference. Pervez Mushar-raf was arrested by 3:30 pm.”

Justice Jawwad s Khawaja re-marked that law should be equalfor all. “There should be no dou-ble standards. discrimination be-tween the haves and the have-notsshould come to an end now. Theera of lords is no more here.” Thecounsel said “The general publicwas of the view that no other se-curity was needed in the presenceof Rangers and police contingents.When the bail was rejected, a ve-hicle was available near the doorand Musharraf boarded it and dis-appeared.” The court said, “Pleasearrange to bring footage. We want

to see it. you were of this viewthat police powers were delegatedto Rangers. It was done so inBalochistan but we will have tosee what orders were issuedhere. We want to see whyit happened so in thepresence of police.”The court directedthe petitioner to pres-ent the IslamabadHigh Court’s order,record of secretariatPolice and notificationon deployment ofRangers. The court ad-journed the hearing ofthe case until today(Thursday).

RAWALPINDIAMIR SAEED

The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench on Wednesday dismissedthe pre-arrest interim bail application by former president

Pervez Musharraf in the Benazir Bhutto assassinationcase. a two-member division bench comprisingKhawaja Imtiaz ahmed and Justice abdul sami Khanresumed hearing in the pre-arrest interim bailapplication filed by the former military ruler. Theapplication requested for adjournment of hearing ofthe petition. The counsel pleaded that there werethreats to Musharraf’s life. she told the court that theother day, police defused an explosives-laden car

parked about 150 metres from Musharraf’s house inIslamabad and were investigating how the vehicle was

able to get so close to his home.Justice Khawaja Imtiaz

ahmed said, “yourclient is already in

judicial lockup, howcan you argue thepre-arrest bailapplication, it’sbetter for you totake back thepetition.” Thelawyer requestedthe court to grant

her one hour’stime for discussing

the matter withsenior lawyers. after

the break, nobodyappeared on behalf of the

applicant. FIa prosecutor ChaudaryZulfiqar ali had objected to the request, arguingthat Musharraf was already under detention onjudicial remand at his Chak shahzad residence,which was declared as a sub-jail after thecancellation of his bail in the judge’s detentioncase. at this, the court dismissed the pre-arrestinterim bail of Musharraf and directed FIa toinvestigate into the case. after the hearing, FIaprosecutor Zulfiqar ali said a trial court in BenazirBhutto assassination case had already issuedperpetual arrest warrants for Musharraf. “The FIawill file an application before the anti-TerrorismCourt of Islamabad for handing him over to FIafor further investigation of the case.”

Musharraf will bejudged fairly: sc

Musharraf deniedbail in Benazirmurder trial

the fia wiLL fiLe anappLiCation Beforethe anti-terrorisMCourt of isLaMaBad

for handingMusharraf overto fia for furtherinvestigation

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