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OGDCL inefficiency results in $2 billion loss PROFIT | PAGE 01 Yousaf Raza Gilani says Asif Zardari saw future president in him PAGE 04 Defiant Ricky Ponting plans to bat on PAGE 18 pakistantoday.com.pk thursday, 29 december, 2011 safar 3, 1433 rs15.00 Vol ii no 182 22 pages islamabad — peshawar edition ISLAMABAD MASOOD RehMAN A nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, hearing a set of identical petitions filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif and others seeking a probe into the memo issue, was told on Wednesday that if the involvement of President Asif Ali Zardari was proven in the memo issue, it would constitute grounds for impeachment. Resuming her arguments, Asma Jahangir, counsel for former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, argued that although the memo was a worthless piece of paper, if the involvement of her client in writing the memo was proved, it constituted a criminal case against him. She said if it was proved that the president was responsible for the memo, then it constituted grounds for impeachment of the president. The chief justice then observed that the affidavits filed by the federation, army chief, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Haqqani and the prime minister did not deny the existence of the memo. He said forensic evidence was required to reach the reality of the memo controversy, which could only be obtained from abroad through the court, as Research In Motion Ltd, the company that manufactures Blackberry smartphones, only provided such records to the court. He said the probe of the memo issue through the court would be most transparent. He said the court had the jurisdiction to determine a forum to probe the matter, and could interfere in any matter involving public interest and breach of fundamental rights. He said the memo issue was not a political matter, rather a matter of national security and sovereignty. He said the Parliamentary Committee on National Security could only investigate the matter when it was asked by parliament, adding that when assemblies did not deliver, matters came to the court. Asma contended that only on the basis of a piece of paper, Mansoor Ijaz, who was a US citizen with loyalties to the US, leveled allegations against her client. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja asked Asma to explain Article 19-A, which gives the right of access to information. The chief justice repeatedly asked her that if someone demanded the investigation of any matter from the court, what the court should do. “You are the king”, she replied. “Not us, but constitution and law are the king,” the chief justice retorted, adding that Haqqani also wanted to be bailed out after an investigation. Asma submitted that her client was ready for investigation, however it was a politically motivated matter brought forward by the ISI director general. The chief justice said it was not a political matter, but a matter involving national sovereignty and security. He said the president had not provided his reply in the memo case, and asked Asma what that should be considered. Asma said if that was so, the matter was headed towards the impeachment of the president. The chief justice, however, noted that the court had no concern with it and wanted to keep it limited to the extent of the memo issue. She said if the court thought that it could assume the function of a trial court, it could summon Mansoor Ijaz. She contended that the petitions were not maintainable, as no tangible effects were witnessed in the post memo scenario. She said there was not a single breach of fundamental rights of anybody in the memo case, but her client was barred from moving abroad without a hearing. The chief justice noted that the army chief and ISI chief had substantiated the existence of the memo, calling it “a reality”, which was allegedly written against Pakistan Army to former US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen.The court noted that the prime minister did not deny the presence of the memo, whereas the president did not submit his rejoinder, adding that it did not mean that the president had denied the existence of the memo. ‘President can be impeached if memo role is proved’ g apex court terms forensic evidence necessary to reach memo’s reality g CJp says probe of memo through the court will be most transparent ISLAMABAD StAff RePORt Land and property and police re- mained the two most corrupt de- partments of the country in year 2011, while education and mili- tary remained the two least cor- rupt departments during the said year, the National Corruption Perception Survey 2011 an- nounced by Transparency Inter- national Pakistan (TIP) revealed on Wednesday. The survey, which remained distinguished as the military was included for the first time in it, also rang alarm bells as a massive increase in corruption of income tax, customs, contracting and ten- dering was reported, ranking at third, sixth and seventh most cor- rupt departments in 2011, whereas they were eighth, tenth and ninth in the NCPS in year 2010. Another noted feature was a significant increase in corrup- tion of judiciary and courts, which slipped from sixth most corrupt department to fourth most cor- rupt department in NCPS 2011, which has been conducted this year by Gallup Pakistan. More- over, corruption in the power sec- tor was visibly reduced as the sector saw a slide from number two in year 2010 to number five in 2011. The report claimed that cor- ruption had reached an unprece- dented level in Pakistan and lack of accountability, being witnessed due to delay in punitive action by state organs in corruption cases like Pakistan Steel, NICL, Bank of Punjab, rental power plants, Haj 2010, KESC, PIA, Pakistan Railways and WAPDA were harming the country the most. “Judiciary is being confronted by deliberate defiance of Supreme Court orders and unwilling atti- tude of prosecution agencies. When 26 of 40 vacancies of judges are vacant in the Sindh High Court, how can efficient justice be provided and delay in punishing corrupt persons by the judiciary is one of the causes of lower ranking of the judiciary,” the report quoted TIP President Sohail Muzaffar as saying. The report further said a lack of political will to combat corrup- tion could be seen from efforts of the government to avoid trans- parency in procurements, as rules of public procurement regulatory authority (PPRA) were being made dysfunctional by not ap- pointing a managing director of the body since October 2011. “This year, NCPS 2011 has shown that tendering and contracting, which was the least corrupt in 2010, has jumped four places to become the sixth most corrupt in- stitution,” the report said. The TIP said tenders for pur- chase of 150 rail engines from USA and 75 rail engines from China, purchase of all PIA air- crafts, 7,000MW Bonji Dam and 1,100MW Kohala Dam made the list. Syed Adil Gilani, TIP adviser, said in the statement that the Sindh government in June 2011 had issued a notification exempt- ing Sindh Bank from application of Public Procurement Rules 2010. “The TIP filed constitu- tional petition in Sindh High Court against this notification and on December 15, 2011, the Chief justice in CP 2135 after reading that the Sindh chief secretary has cancelled the exemption notifica- tion, disposed of the petition as stating that the purpose of the pe- tition has been achieved,” he added. “Similarly, the federal gov- ernment also issued a notification in July 2011, with approval of ECC, amending Rule 5 of the PPRA rules 2004. This would amount to exempting contracts based on 39 MOUs signed by president and prime ministers with private parties from comply- ing with public procurement rules 2004 and competitive bidding,” the report added. To retain the profitability of the two inefficient state-owned gas utility companies and to enable them to undertake politically motivated gas supply schemes, the government is all set to notify a massive hike of 14 per cent in gas tariff and imposition of gas infrastructure development cess effective from January 01, 2011. According to the proposed revision in gas sale prices, the tariff for domestic and commercial consumers will be increased by 14 per cent while for other consumer categories increase will accompany cess, which the government plans to utilise for infrastructure development for gas import projects like LNG, Iran Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan and India (TAPI) pipeline. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has allowed uniformed tariff hike for both the gas utility companies, even though the demand for increase in tariff was lower for Sui Southern Gas Company. The tariff for domestic consumers using up to 100 cubic meters or 3.5 mmBTU will be increased from Rs107.87 per mmBTU to 122.95 mmBTU. This will increase Rs448 monthly bill by Rs63 to Rs511 per month. Tariff for consumers using up to 300 units or 10.6 mmBTU will jump from Rs215.74 to Rs245.89 mmBTU. It will cause an increase of Rs313 in the monthly bill of Rs2240 to Rs2553 per month. Tariff of commercial consumers will be increased 14 per cent from Rs526.59 to Rs600.19 per month. Industrial sector tariff will be increased by 16.97 per cent from Rs434.17 to Rs507.86 mmBTU. Govt to drop gas bomb: tariff to rise by 14% detailed story | profit—page 01 Unacceptable: Pakistan formally rejects NATO enquiry ISLAMABAD ShAiq huSSAiN Pakistan has formally rejected the US- NATO enquiry into the airstrikes on the two border posts in Mohmand Agency on November 26, on the grounds that the report was not based on facts and the probe was carried out by top American security official Brig General Stephen Clark, who is also linked to the NATO team that carried out the cross border attack. “The US-led enquiry report is not based on facts and that has been formally conveyed to the US through diplomatic channels,” a Pakistani official requesting anonymity said on Wednesday. Moreover, he said the enquiry report could not be considered impartial given the fact that the probe team was headed by Brig Clark, a senior US military official who was also linked to the NATO raiding party that carried out the airstrikes. “We believe that General Clark was an unsuitable choice to carry out the investigation as compared with someone neutral and impartial,” he said. Meanwhile, media reports from Washington suggested that the American military had briefed COAS General Ashfaq Kayani on its investigation into airstrikes. Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby told reporters that a report by military investigators was delivered to General Kayani on Sunday by a US officer based in Islamabad, who explained the findings to the army chief. Land and property, police top list of most corrupt departments PYONGYANG: North Korean women mourn during the funeral procession for late leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday. North Korea’s military staged a huge funeral procession in the snowy streets of the capital Pyongyang for its deceased ‘dear leader’, readying a transition to his son, Kim Jong-un. reuters | story on page 16 Continued on page 04 Continued on page 04 ISB 29-12-2011_Layout 1 12/29/2011 1:54 AM Page 1

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OGDCL inefficiency results in $2 billion lossPROFIT | PAGE 01

Yousaf Raza Gilani saysAsif Zardari saw future president in himPAGE 04

Defiant RickyPonting plans to bat onPAGE 18

pakistantoday.com.pk thursday, 29 december, 2011 safar 3, 1433rs15.00 Vol ii no 182 22 pages islamabad — peshawar edition

ISLAMABADMASOOD RehMAN

A nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court headed byChief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, hearing a set ofidentical petitions filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif and others seeking a probeinto the memo issue, was told on Wednesday that if theinvolvement of President Asif Ali Zardari was proven in thememo issue, it would constitute grounds for impeachment.Resuming her arguments, Asma Jahangir, counsel for formerambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, argued that althoughthe memo was a worthless piece of paper, if the involvement ofher client in writing the memo was proved, it constituted acriminal case against him. She said if it was proved that thepresident was responsible for the memo, then it constitutedgrounds for impeachment of the president.The chief justice then observed that the affidavits filed by thefederation, army chief, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief,Haqqani and the prime minister did not deny the existence ofthe memo. He said forensic evidence was required to reach thereality of the memo controversy, which could only be obtainedfrom abroad through the court, as Research In Motion Ltd, thecompany that manufactures Blackberry smartphones, onlyprovided such records to the court. He said the probe of thememo issue through the court would be most transparent. Hesaid the court had the jurisdiction to determine a forum toprobe the matter, and could interfere in any matter involvingpublic interest and breach of fundamental rights.He said the memo issue was not a political matter, rather amatter of national security and sovereignty. He said theParliamentary Committee on National Security could onlyinvestigate the matter when it was asked by parliament, addingthat when assemblies did not deliver, matters came to the court.Asma contended that only on the basis of a piece of paper,Mansoor Ijaz, who was a US citizen with loyalties to the US,leveled allegations against her client. Justice Jawwad S Khawajaasked Asma to explain Article 19-A, which gives the right ofaccess to information. The chief justice repeatedly asked herthat if someone demanded the investigation of any matter fromthe court, what the court should do. “You are the king”, shereplied. “Not us, but constitution and law are the king,” thechief justice retorted, adding that Haqqani also wanted to bebailed out after an investigation. Asma submitted that her clientwas ready for investigation, however it was a politicallymotivated matter brought forward by the ISI director general.The chief justice said it was not a political matter, but a matterinvolving national sovereignty and security. He said thepresident had not provided his reply in the memo case, andasked Asma what that should be considered. Asma said if thatwas so, the matter was headed towards the impeachment of thepresident. The chief justice, however, noted that the court hadno concern with it and wanted to keep it limited to the extent ofthe memo issue. She said if the court thought that it couldassume the function of a trial court, it could summon MansoorIjaz. She contended that the petitions were not maintainable, asno tangible effects were witnessed in the post memo scenario.She said there was not a single breach of fundamental rights ofanybody in the memo case, but her client was barred frommoving abroad without a hearing. The chief justice noted thatthe army chief and ISI chief had substantiated the existence ofthe memo, calling it “a reality”, which was allegedly writtenagainst Pakistan Army to former US Joint Chiefs of Staffchairman Admiral Mike Mullen.The court noted that the primeminister did not deny the presence of the memo, whereas thepresident did not submit his rejoinder, adding that it did notmean that the president had denied the existence of the memo.

‘President canbe impeachedif memo role is proved’g apex court terms forensic evidencenecessary to reach memo’s realityg CJp says probe of memo throughthe court will be most transparent

ISLAMABADStAff RePORt

Land and property and police re-mained the two most corrupt de-partments of the country in year2011, while education and mili-tary remained the two least cor-rupt departments during the saidyear, the National CorruptionPerception Survey 2011 an-nounced by Transparency Inter-national Pakistan (TIP) revealedon Wednesday.

The survey, which remaineddistinguished as the military wasincluded for the first time in it,also rang alarm bells as a massiveincrease in corruption of incometax, customs, contracting and ten-dering was reported, ranking atthird, sixth and seventh most cor-rupt departments in 2011,whereas they were eighth, tenthand ninth in the NCPS in year2010. Another noted feature wasa significant increase in corrup-tion of judiciary and courts, whichslipped from sixth most corruptdepartment to fourth most cor-rupt department in NCPS 2011,which has been conducted thisyear by Gallup Pakistan. More-over, corruption in the power sec-tor was visibly reduced as thesector saw a slide from numbertwo in year 2010 to number five in

2011. The report claimed that cor-ruption had reached an unprece-dented level in Pakistan and lackof accountability, being witnesseddue to delay in punitive action bystate organs in corruption caseslike Pakistan Steel, NICL, Bankof Punjab, rental power plants,Haj 2010, KESC, PIA, PakistanRailways and WAPDA wereharming the country the most.“Judiciary is being confronted bydeliberate defiance of SupremeCourt orders and unwilling atti-tude of prosecution agencies.When 26 of 40 vacancies ofjudges are vacant in the SindhHigh Court, how can efficientjustice be provided and delay inpunishing corrupt persons by thejudiciary is one of the causes oflower ranking of the judiciary,”the report quoted TIP PresidentSohail Muzaffar as saying.

The report further said a lackof political will to combat corrup-tion could be seen from efforts ofthe government to avoid trans-parency in procurements, as rulesof public procurement regulatoryauthority (PPRA) were beingmade dysfunctional by not ap-pointing a managing director ofthe body since October 2011.“This year, NCPS 2011 has shownthat tendering and contracting,which was the least corrupt in

2010, has jumped four places tobecome the sixth most corrupt in-stitution,” the report said.

The TIP said tenders for pur-chase of 150 rail engines fromUSA and 75 rail engines fromChina, purchase of all PIA air-crafts, 7,000MW Bonji Dam and1,100MW Kohala Dam made thelist. Syed Adil Gilani, TIP adviser,said in the statement that theSindh government in June 2011had issued a notification exempt-ing Sindh Bank from applicationof Public Procurement Rules2010. “The TIP filed constitu-tional petition in Sindh HighCourt against this notification andon December 15, 2011, the Chiefjustice in CP 2135 after readingthat the Sindh chief secretary hascancelled the exemption notifica-tion, disposed of the petition asstating that the purpose of the pe-tition has been achieved,” headded. “Similarly, the federal gov-ernment also issued a notificationin July 2011, with approval ofECC, amending Rule 5 of thePPRA rules 2004. This wouldamount to exempting contractsbased on 39 MOUs signed bypresident and prime ministerswith private parties from comply-ing with public procurement rules2004 and competitive bidding,”the report added.

To retain the profitability of the twoinefficient state-owned gas utilitycompanies and to enable them toundertake politically motivated gassupply schemes, the government isall set to notify a massive hike of 14per cent in gas tariff and impositionof gas infrastructure developmentcess effective from January 01, 2011.According to the proposed revision ingas sale prices, the tariff for domestic

and commercial consumers will beincreased by 14 per cent while forother consumer categories increasewill accompany cess, which thegovernment plans to utilise forinfrastructure development for gasimport projects like LNG, IranPakistan (IP) gas pipeline andTurkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistanand India (TAPI) pipeline. The Oiland Gas Regulatory Authority

(OGRA) has allowed uniformed tariffhike for both the gas utilitycompanies, even though the demandfor increase in tariff was lower for SuiSouthern Gas Company. The tariff fordomestic consumers using up to 100cubic meters or 3.5 mmBTU will beincreased from Rs107.87 permmBTU to 122.95 mmBTU. This willincrease Rs448 monthly bill by Rs63to Rs511 per month. Tariff for

consumers using up to 300 units or10.6 mmBTU will jump fromRs215.74 to Rs245.89 mmBTU. Itwill cause an increase of Rs313 in themonthly bill of Rs2240 to Rs2553 permonth. Tariff of commercialconsumers will be increased 14 percent from Rs526.59 to Rs600.19 permonth. Industrial sector tariff willbe increased by 16.97 per cent fromRs434.17 to Rs507.86 mmBTU.

Govt to drop gas bomb: tariff to rise by 14%

detailed story | profit—page 01

Unacceptable: Pakistan formally rejects NATO enquiry

ISLAMABADShAiq huSSAiN

Pakistan has formally rejected the US-NATO enquiry into the airstrikes on thetwo border posts in Mohmand Agency onNovember 26, on the grounds that thereport was not based on facts and theprobe was carried out by top Americansecurity official Brig General StephenClark, who is also linked to the NATO teamthat carried out the cross border attack.“The US-led enquiry report is not based onfacts and that has been formally conveyedto the US through diplomatic channels,” aPakistani official requesting anonymitysaid on Wednesday. Moreover, he said theenquiry report could not be consideredimpartial given the fact that the probeteam was headed by Brig Clark, a seniorUS military official who was also linked tothe NATO raiding party that carried outthe airstrikes. “We believe that GeneralClark was an unsuitable choice to carryout the investigation as compared withsomeone neutral and impartial,” he said.Meanwhile, media reports fromWashington suggested that the Americanmilitary had briefed COAS GeneralAshfaq Kayani on its investigation intoairstrikes. Pentagon spokesman CaptainJohn Kirby told reporters that a report bymilitary investigators was delivered toGeneral Kayani on Sunday by a US officerbased in Islamabad, who explained thefindings to the army chief.

Land and property, police toplist of most corrupt departments

PYONGYANG: North Korean women mourn during the funeral procession for late leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday. North Korea’s military staged a huge funeral

procession in the snowy streets of the capital Pyongyang for its deceased ‘dear leader’, readying a transition to his son, Kim Jong-un. reuters | story on page 16

Continued on page 04Continued on page 04

ISB 29-12-2011_Layout 1 12/29/2011 1:54 AM Page 1

Page 2: E-paper PakistanToday ISB 29th December, 2011

02Thursday, 29 December, 2011

News

today’s

LookQuick

iSLAMABAD

Story on Page 08

NewS

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FOreigN NewS

Story on Page 14

Streams become sewage dumping ground Obama, hillary clinton again top most admired list indian anti-graft campaigner ends fast, vows to fight on

Case filed against nine in

Faisalabad torture incidentA case was registered against nine people,including a DSP, who allegedly tortured a 10-year-old boy on Tuesday, a private TV channel reportedon Wednesday. According to details, 10-year-oldAhsan, son of Abdul Jabbar, residents ofMustafaabad, quarreled with the son of DSPZafarullah Niazi. The DSP along with other copsattacked Jabbars’ house and brutally tortured hisson and left him in a critical condition and alsomisbehaved with women. Local residents staged aprotest against police and demanded stern actionagainst the culprits. Taking notice of the incident,the IGP directed the Faisalabad RPO to submit areport regarding the incident within 12 hours.MONitORiNG DeSK

12 militants killed in

Orakzai, Kurram AgenciesPESHAWAR: Security forces on Wednesdaybombed militant hideouts in upper Orakzaiagency, killing seven suspected militants.According to security sources, heavy shelling wascarried out in the Mamozai, Khadizai and ChaparKali areas of Orakzai Agency, destroying fourmilitant positions. Moreover, security forcesrecovered over 40 rockets and a large number oflandmines in a major search operation in Arhang,Zakhtun and Gandi Tal areas. Meanwhile, fivesuspected militants were killed in clashes witharmed forces in Kurram Agency. iNP

PML factions may

unite on January 4LAHORE: Efforts have been stepped to unifyvarious factions of the Pakistan Muslim League(PML) and a meeting has been convened in thisregard on January 4 in Lahore. Sources told Onlinethat the meeting of the United Muslim Leaguewould be held at the residence of HumayunAkhtar. Sources said that if a broad alliance comesinto being, then it would be led by Nawaz Sharif,president of the PML-Nawaz. Electoral alliance hasalready been brokered between the PML-N and thePML-Functional. PML-F leader Makhdoom AhmadMehmood said the PML factions could unite onJanuary 4. ONliNe

Three schools blown upGiLGit/CHARSAddA: Unidentified men blewup two schools with explosive material in Diamirand a school in Charsadda on Wednesday. A bombwas planted in a community school andGovernment Girls School in Diamir area of Chalaas,which damaged the school buildings. No one washurt as the schools were closed at the time of theblast. Law enforcement agencies foiled a terror bidand defused four missiles, planted in fields inBajaur Agency. Separately, another school wasblown up at Samnaat area of Charsadda. Accordingto sources, a group of unidentified men plantedexplosive devices at walls of two girls middleschools located in Samnaat area. The devices wentoff with a big bang destroying portions of the twoschools. Police sources said that no lose of life wasreported in the explosions. They said that around95 students were studying in the school underbanner of the National Education Foundation.Around 10 schools had been destroyed by terroristsin Charsadda during the last three years. Police andother law enforcement agencies cordoned off theentire area after the blasts and started a searchoperation. AGeNcieS

Faisalabad textile

workers protest

against gas closureFAISALABAD

StAff RePORt

Hundreds of textile workers took to the streetson Wednesday and protested against severegas load shedding at the KhurrianwalaIndustrial Estate. Demanding gas for thefactories to earn daily livelihoods, they burnttyres and the government’s effigy in front of theGarment City. Later, they took out a processionto the Khurrianwala Chowk on the Faisalabad-Sheikhupura highway, and blocked the trafficfor several hours. The protestors said thatduring the month of December, gas wassupplied to the factories for only six days, andthey remained closed for the remaining 24days. Faqir Muhammad, a daily wage labourer,asked how he could feed his family with sixdays of work in a month. “The government hasto reset its priorities regarding the provision ofgas, otherwise the situation will go out ofcontrol,” said another protester, calling thenew gas load management plan a conspiracyagainst the present regime. “Thediscriminatory attitude of the government isnot only denting its goodwill and reputation,but has put a question mark on its ability tomanage and govern things,” said anindustrialist protesting with workers. He saidthe industrial units in other parts of thecountry were getting almost uninterruptedgas supply, except a 2-3 hour load shedding.“Even a three-day gas closure is intolerable inthe ongoing economic scenario, as it isincreasing unemployment and poverty,” hesaid, adding that more unemployment wouldfan anti-government sentiments.

LARKANAiNP

The Pakistan People’s Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) onWednesday strongly rebuffedmedia reports regarding join-ing of Fatima Bhutto and Zul-fikar Junior, children of MirMurtaza Bhutto, the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).

PPP-SB spokesman InayatHussain said that such re-ports were baseless and con-cocted. He said that suchreports were being dissemi-nated by support of PTIChairman Imran Khan andaimed at damaging the philos-ophy of former PM and PPPfounder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,who gave an unanimous con-stitution to the country. In-ayat said that everybody knewthat the PTI was a creation ofthe establishment and provid-ing an opportunity to developa cricketer-turned-politician.

Separately, People’s Stu-dents Federation-ShaheedBhutto (PSF-SB) Sindh chap-ter took out a rally from Al-Murtaza House to LarkanaPress Club against the media.The protesters chanted slo-gans against those people,who indulged in yellow jour-nalism.

Fatima Bhutto, Zulfikar Junior

not joining ptI: spokesman

LAHORE: Another major player in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Inamullah Niazi from Mianwali, parted ways with the party onWednesday after being infuriated with the Sharifs for not giving himdue rights and status in the party. After resigning from the PML-N’sbasic membership, Niazi, a cousin of PTI chairman Imran Khan, ap-pears all set to join the PTI. Niazi, former PML-N senior vice presidentfor Punjab and candidate from NA-71 (Mianwali-I), announced his de-parture in a press conference held at the Lahore Press Club. His brother,former MPA Najeebullah Niazi, also announced to quit the party. Talk-ing to reporters, Niazi said a tumult was afoot in the PML-N after hisdisassociation. However, he denied joining the PTI, saying he would de-cide his political course after taking the masses of his constituency intoin confidence. “Who are Zahid Hamid, Anusha Rehman and AbdulQadir Baloach to dictate to Javed Hashmi and me,” he said, adding that“Hashmi and my departures are just the beginning and a real show ofdefection lies ahead”. Calling Rana Sanaullah a person with a fakemoustache, he said the people should ask Sanaullah the way he wasrunning the affairs of the province. “If he does not tell, I will exposehim,” he concluded. He predicted that the party’s genuine workers wereleaving and what is left would be “Khawajgan” and “Khawaja saras”.Niazi said Pakistan could not afford family politics anymore. He said hewas aggrieved that those who kept the party flag hoisted duringMusharraf’s era were cornered, but cronies of dictators were accommo-dated and awarded major slots in the party. Niazi said his family stoodwith the PML-N for three generations, but he was now addressing thepeople with a sobbing heart. “In the absence of the leadership, partysenior leaders reorganised the party twice, but once the Sharifs re-turned, opportunists hijacked the party and that is why the party’s reor-ganisation has been pending for the last three years,” he added. Thedissident said the central leadership assured party leaders that thePML-N would not take back supporters of dictators and turncoats,but it welcomed Nawanis, Rokhris and others. YASiR hAbib

Inamullah Niazi parts

ways with PML-N

FAISALABAD: Textile workers hold a demonstration

against severe gas load shedding on Wednesday. ONLINE

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03Thursday, 29 December, 2011

NewsCOMMeNTPolitics on memo issue

Articles on Page 12-13

It refuses to go away.

come what mayThe war against Taliban is our own war.

Nazir Naji says:

Sajid Khan lodhy says:This and that: Our parties’ selective politics.

imran husain says:Ready for change: But what kind?

ArTS & eNTerTAiNMeNTimran Abbas all set to debut in bollywood

Story on Page 16

SPOrTShussey, Ponting bring Australia back

Story on Page 18

The return of the native: The president quashed rumours.

ISLAMABADStAff RePORt

National Database and Registration Au-thority (NADRA) on Wednesday devel-oped an SMS service application tofacilitate citizens to verify their vote regis-tration and particulars in the voters’ list.

NADRA Deputy Chairman Tariq Maliksaid that the department and ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) signedagreements with telecom companies toforge a partnership in order to launch thisservice. Three main telecom companies,including Ufone, Warid and Telenor wouldprovide services in this regard. This servicewould be initiated soon after publicationof preliminary (ghair hatmi) electoral rolls

(PER) for public display. The sender willsend his CNIC number to a short code andwill subsequently receive a message inUrdu. It will confirm registration of voteras well as location (electoral area) wherethe voter was registered along with serialnumber of voter in the electoral rolls.

This service will help the general pub-lic to check the status of their vote conve-niently from anywhere, anytime acrossPakistan. Tariq said after introduction ofthe new service, it would be the responsi-bility of every eligible voter to make surethat his vote had been registered and to re-port any discrepancy to the ECP. The in-tent of using this service was to assist ECPto execute its constitutional duty as perelectoral laws.

LAHORE: The CNG StationsAssociation will set up as many as40 installation, inspection andcertification stations across theprovince during the next threedays, according to a statement is-sued on Wednesday.

The decision was taken at ameeting held under the Trans-port Secretary MuhammadYousaf, and attended by the rep-resentatives of the Oil and GasRegulatory Authority (OGRA),CNG vendors association, theHydrocarbon Development Au-thority of Pakistan, and theTransporters’ Association. Themeeting participants decidedthat the inspection centres afterchecking the CNG cylinders in-stalled in the vehicles would affix

adhesive certificates on the vehi-cles’ windscreens. Scannerswould be installed at CNG sta-tions to read the stickers andallow gas filling. The meeting alsodecided that CNG cylinders fittedin all privately-owned vehicleswould require fitness certificatesafter five years, or will need to bereplaced. The life of CNG cylin-ders fitted in public transport ve-hicles would be determined byOGRA. The meeting also de-cided that the CNG Stations As-sociation would raise thenumber of inspection centres toone hundred. The transport sec-retary said the government tookthese decisions to protecthuman lives from cylinder acci-dents. StAff RePORt

PESHAWARAbDuR RAuf KhAttAK

PAKISTAN Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) PresidentNawaz Sharif said on Wednes-day that he was in the court ofjustice in the memogate scan-

dal case in the larger interest of the nation.Addressing the provincial council

meeting of the party where the party’sKhyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter’s new Pres-ident Pir Sabir Shah and General Secre-tary Rahmat Salam Khattak were electedunopposed, Sharif said the incumbentgovernment was following the policiesformer president Pervez Musharraf and itshould be held responsible along with thedictator for violation of the country’s sov-

ereignty.The PML-N chief said if there was

democracy within the party, it wouldmanifest itself in strengthening democ-racy outside the party and would in turntake the country towards economic devel-opment.

Talking about the development workundertaken under his reign in the 1990s,Sharif said with the completion of severaldevelopment projects in Pakistan duringhis tenure, neighbouring countries took aleaf out of Pakistan’s book and developedtheir infrastructure and other vital sec-tors. “Unfortunately, we fell behind in theprocess of development as martial lawwas imposed on the country,” he added.

Sharif said all the productive units inthe country were shutting down because

of load shedding and the economy wasshattered as a result, but the governmentwas apathetic. “How can the country berun like this?” he questioned.

He said unemployment and inflationwas manifesting itself in gory incidentssuch as murder and terrorism, addingthat the miseries currently surroundingthe nation were nowhere in sight duringhis time in power. “Today there is no oneready to invest in the country and parlia-ment is weaker than before, and the gov-ernment is not honouring the judiciary’sdecisions,” said Sharif.

He said by opting for the war on ter-ror, excesses were committed against thePakhtuns and the tribal areas werewreaked havoc upon. He said 35,000 peo-ple had lost their lives in the war on terror

along with $60 billion in losses to thecountry’s economy.

He said the government had sent ap-preciative messages to the Americans inthe wake of the Abbottabad incident anddrone attacks were being carried outagainst Pakistanis from Pakistani soil.

He said the facts of the tragedy of EastPakistan, assassination of Benazir Bhuttoand the Kargil issue were not revealed tothe nation. “We will bring the countryback onto the track of development ifgiven a chance again, and our workers willbring such a revolution that every kind oftsunami will stand defeated,” he said.

Referring to emergence of the Pak-istan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Sharif saidthe “Musharraf league” was now amass-ing somewhere else.

Saifullah fills inKasuri’s gapiSLAmAbAd: The Pakistan Muslim League-Likeminded (PML-LM) on Wednesday, in a partymeeting, unanimously appointed Senator SalimSaifullah as its steering committee chairman.Earlier, former foreign minister KhurshidMehmood Kasuri was chairman of the steeringcommittee but he joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). The PML-LM leadership alsounanimously nominated former Sindh CM ArbabGhulam Rahim as a candidate for party presidentto be elected after completion of Saifullah’stenure as president. StAff RePORt

Aitzaz says he will not become‘the Hashmi of PPP’Senior Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) leader Aitzaz Ahsan sought torefute the notion on Tuesday that hewould “become the Javed Hashmiof PPP”, but hailed Hashmi as aleader of high calibre. Ahsan said inhis address at Naudero on the 4thdeath anniversary of former pre-mier Benazir Bhutto that the loss ofHashmi, a former Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) leader who recently joined theImran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), wouldcause the PML-N to suffer. However, he made it clear thathe would not become the Javed Hashmi of the PPP andwould stick with the party. “Don’t term my speech JavedHashmi’s speech of Faisalabad,” he said, adding thatHashmi should not have left his party. Ahsan criticised PTIVice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi for speakingagainst President Asif Ali Zardari after leaving the PPP andalso tried to get the party leadership to realise that the peo-ple were suffering at the hands of poverty and there was nogas and electricity for them and the party had done nothingfor them. The leadership of the ruling party - facing a hos-tile establishment and a not-so-friendly judiciary in thewake of the memo crisis - has decided to bank on the legaland political acumen of Ahsan, sources said. NeWS DeSK

PESHAWARStAff RePORt

The people of Chitral onWednesday demanded the in-terior minister and the chiefminister take action againstthe district administrationfor resorting to baton-charg-ing and shelling during aprotest in the district’s Ayuntehsil.

“The people of Ayun werepeacefully voicing their rightsand protesting against thetimber mafia when the localpolice, on orders from theDPO and the DCO, baton-charged and shelled them,”they said.

The Chitralis, under theaegis of Tanzeem-e-Tahafuz-e-Haquq-e-Chitral (TTHC),

held a protest demonstrationagainst the district adminis-tration. TTHC Central Chair-man Sadiq Ameen, PresidentAsadullah, Haji Abdur Rah-man and former MNA AbdulAkbar Chitrali, were leadingthe agitators, who were car-rying banners and placardsinscribed with slogansagainst the officials con-cerned for patronising thetimber mafia.

Talking to reporters, theysaid the DPO and DCO tookhuge bribes from the timbermafia on a monthly basis fordeforestation and illegal cut-ting of jungle of Bamboret,Rambor and Bareer (KalashValley).

They said there was acheckpost in Ayun and when-

ever residents of the valleytried to bring some woodfrom the said forests, theywere arrested, but the mafiadrove trucks full of wood toother parts of the countryand operated unchecked.

They said the populationof the tehsil repeatedly de-manded the Chitral adminis-tration remove the checkpost,but the DPO and DCO werenot ready to accept the re-quest.

They said the dwellerswere compelled to hold aprotest to demand theirrights, but they were tear-gassed and baton-charged bypolice, in which 15 people in-cluding seven women andthree children, were injuredand over 200 arrested.

Chitralis demand action against

Dpo, DCo for patronising mafia

NADrA develops SMS service toverify voters’ particulars in rolls

g PML-N chief says ‘Musharraf league’ now amassing in PTi

Nawaz in court over memogatefor ‘larger interest of nation’

40 Cng inspection-certificationcentres to open in punjab

Qureshi meets pagaraKARACHi: PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi onWednesday visited Pir Pagara in a hospital to enquire afterhim and to convey him Imran Khan’s message. Earlier, heheld meetings with nationalist leaders, saying he was alsoin touch with the MQM. Qureshi told Pagara the generalelections were near, as the people were disappointed withthe government. He said the momogate issue was very sen-sitive and people wanted to know about its reality. iNP

today’s

LookQuick

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04Thursday, 29 December, 2011

News

“The full report from thejoint US-NATO investigativeteam was not released pub-licly until Monday to allowtime for the Pakistani lead-ership to read the findingsfirst,” Kirby said.

“We wanted Gen Kayanito be able to see the entirething,” he said, calling theapproach an appropriateprofessional courtesy toGeneral Kayani.

However, another Pak-istani official belied Penta-gon’s statement, saying thereport was not handed over

in person to Gen Kayani andno briefing was given to himby any American official inthis regard.

He said the US enquiryreport was rather deliveredto the office concerned in theGeneral Headquarters(GHQ).

The government has alsosent a letter to US Congressshowing its disagreementwith the findings of US-NATO investigation into theairstrikes that killed 24 Pak-istani soldiers. The lettersaid the bombardment wenton long even after the Pak-istan Army reported that itstroops had come under fire.

The letter said Pakistanitroops came under fire atwell-identified border postsand that NATO commandersknew helicopter gunshipswere firing on Pakistaniforces within the first 15minutes. “Yet the attack con-tinued for more than an-other hour,” it said.

It said the attack was themost recent example of thelosses that Pakistan had suf-fered fighting alongside theUS to combat terrorism andextremism.

The letter said the strikehad strained ties betweenWashington and a key ally inthe region and an apology by

the US to the people of Pak-istan would not be inappro-priate.

It said the completeNATO chain of commandknew allied gunships wereattacking Pakistani forces by1:15am on November 26 butkept pounding the Pakista-nis until about 2:20am.

“At this point NATO wasknowingly attacking Pak-istani soldiers and NATOcommanders were wellaware of the Pakistani posi-tions,” it added.

Meanwhile, Reuters re-ported that US military offi-cials have not ruled outdisciplinary action as a re-

sult of the cross-border at-tack that killed 24 Pakistanisoldiers in MohmandAgency on November 26, butno one has been punished todate, the Pentagon said onTuesday.

Navy Capt John Kirby, aPentagon spokesman, saidmilitary leaders would usethe final report on the inves-tigation to determine if any-one should be punished.Those decisions, he said,would be made by officers inthe chain of command, de-pending on whether theyfound that mistakes weremade by United States orNATO personnel.

unacceptable: pakistan formally rejects nato enquiryContinued from page 1

iSlAMAbAD: federal interior Minister Rehman Malik chairing a meeting on gas cylinders at the Ministry of interior

on Wednesday. onLIne

Asma contended that the pe-titioners had to establish thatthey had not come to thecourt for personal or politicalreasons or to camouflagesomebody else’s interests,and filed the petitions to seekrelief under public interestlitigation only. Justice MianSaqib Nisar observed thatArticle 184 had an open-ended jurisdiction.

Asma presented variouscitations to establish that thecourt could not pass anyorder under Article 184 ofthe constitution, which wasnot viable for implementa-

tion, adding that if it waspresumed that an enquiry inthe case in hand declaredHaqqani guilty, then hewould be sent to a trial mag-istrate. She said due processof law demanded that anycriminal case must be filedbefore the judicial magis-trate rather than approach-ing the apex court, addingthat due process of law hadnot been observed in thecase of her client.

The chief justice thenobserved that the investiga-tions into the memo issuewould be more transparentunder the judiciary and theapex court was equally re-

sponsible for safeguardingeverybody’s rights withoutdiscrimination under theconstitution.

Asma said Haqqanishouldered his diplomaticresponsibilities under ex-tremely difficult conditions,as he had to contact a host ofpeople in the wake of theMay 2 incident. She categor-ically stated that the courtwas looking at the matterfrom a legal perspective,whereas the press wouldview it as a media trial.

Later, the court directedthe parties to conclude theirarguments by Thursday(today) and adjourned.

‘president can be impeached’Continued from page 1

ISLAMABADiNP

President Asif Ali Zardarihas asked senior PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP)leader Aitzaz Ahsan to actas a mentor to his son,PPP Chairman BilawalBhutto Zardari, if “any-thing were to happen tohim”, sources said, amidreports that the outspokenPPP leader was beingtipped as a likely replace-ment for Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani.

Zardari had reachedout to Ahsan, one of Pak-istan’s leading lawyers anda former interior minister,after he became embroiledin the memo controversy.During a long phone con-versation with Ahsan whilehe was in Dubai for med-

ical treatment, Zardari hadasked the Cambridge-edu-cated lawyer to act as amentor to his 23-year-oldson Bilawal if “anythingwere to happen to him,”senior PPP officials andother sources said.

Zardari’s decision toask Ahsan to speak afterhim at a massive rally tomark the 4th death an-niversary of former pre-mier Benazir Bhutto onTuesday too has triggeredspeculation that Ahsanmay be given a key posi-tion in the government.The president was ex-pected to be the mainspeaker at the public gath-ering, but Zardari tookeveryone by surprise by ef-fusively praising Ahsanand asking him to deliverthe final speech.

Zardari asks aitzazto mentor Bilawal

Details of power

supply to President,

PM, governor and

CM’s House sought

LAHoREStAff RePORt

Lahore High Court chief jus-tice on Wednesday soughttill January 19 all detailsfrom the federal govern-ment and Wapda about totalcost of production and sup-ply of electricity from allproduction sources includ-ing thermal, coal, gas, fur-nace oil, and solar and thecause of loadshedding. Thecourt also sought scheduleof power cuts and details ofuninterrupted electricitysupply to VVIPs includingPresident House, PrimeMinister House, GovernorHouse, CM House and otherVVIP personalities.The petition was filed byMuhammad Azhar Siddiqueadvocate. He pleaded thatunder article 19-A of theConstitution, people whopay inflated electricity bills,have right to know the prod-uct and supply cost for justi-fication of hundreds taxesand duties added in themonthly bills. He saidthough people were suffer-ing long electricity loadshedding they were stillbeing charged a number ofsurcharges such fuel adjust-ment duty, fuel price adjust-ment duty, EqualizationSurcharge and NeelamJhelum Surcharge. He saidthe whole burden of LineLosses, electricity thief,wapda corruption and costof electricity’s purchasefrom Rented Power Projects(RPPs) and IPPs is shiftedto the masses through allsort of uncalled for sur-charges.

Police official shot

dead in islamabad

ISLAMABADStAff RePORt

A police officer was killedand two civilians were se-verely injured when uniden-tified motorcyclists openedfire on them in G-11 Markazin a late night attack onWednesday. According topreliminary details, Assis-tant Sub-Inspector (ASI)Zulifqar died on the spotwhile two youth, Yousaf andMudassar, received injurieswhen the unidentified menopened fire on them andfled after the shooting.The deceased and injuredwere taken to Pakistan In-stitute of Medical Scienceswhile security has beentightened in the city. Ramna Station Police hasregistered an FIR and inves-tigations are underway.

ISLAMABAD tAhiR NiAz

MEMBERS ofthe NationalAssemblywould wit-ness some of

their colleagues sayinggood-bye to parliament as“defectors”, includingMakhdoom Javed Hashmi,are going to announce theirresignation on the floor ofthe House for leaving theirparent parties for the ImranKhan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).

The House meets today(Thursday) at the Parlia-ment House.

Makhdoom JavedHashmi, his daughterMamoona Hashmi, formerfederal minister AwaisLeghari and Sardar AssefAhmad Ali are likely to an-

nounce their resignationfrom their NA seats today, asthey have already joined thePTI.

Though their formerparty chiefs have not movedany references on defectiongrounds, the parliamentari-ans are likely to announcetheir resignations purely onmoral grounds. A sourceclose to Hashmi said hewould rise on a point oforder in the House and an-nounce his resignation fromthe NA.

Likewise, his daughter,Mamoona Hashmi and otherMNAs who recently joinedthe PTI would announcetheir resignations.

Some of the parliamen-tarians, includingMakhdoom Shah MehmoodQureshi, Khawaja Khan Hotiand Jehangir Tareen havealready submitted their res-

ignations, but these arepending with the NAspeaker.

Asked about the reasonbehind the delay in the ac-ceptance of resignations ofthese parliamentarians, asource in the ParliamentHouse told Pakistan Todaythat the resignations werepending with the NA speakerbecause the federal govern-ment had started develop-ment work in theconstituencies of resigningMPs to ensure the success oftheir party’s candidates inby-polls.

“As soon as the speakeraccepts the resignation, theElection Commission wouldannounce a schedule for by-elections and the govern-ment will not be able toexecute development proj-ects in these constituencies,”he added.

Some to bid adieu toparliament today

Zardari saw future

president

in me: gilani

iSLAmAbAd: Prime Min-ister Yousaf Raza Gilani onWednesday said Asif AliZardari had once called hima future president of Pak-istan. When I was sentencedby a judge of an accountabil-ity court, Asif Ali Zardari,now the president of Pak-istan, was present in thatcourt and told the judge thathe [judge] was sentencing afuture president,” Gilani saidin a ceremony to mark theregularisation of 490 PTVemployees. Gilani saidZardari had called him thefuture president because PPPleaders and workers alwaysconsidered Benazir Bhutto tobe their prime minister. APP

MoNItoRINg DESK

The motorway has beenclosed to every kind oftraffic because of theheavy fog in Lahore onWednesday.

Motorway authoritieshave said that the highwaywill remain closed from

Thokar Niaz Beg to KalaShah Kaku, where visibil-ity is zero and the humaneye cannot see more thanfive metres ahead of it.

The provincial capital isalso undergoing a severewave of cold and the temper-ature has reached as low as0.5 degree Celsius.

MoNItoRINg DESK

The investigations into thememo scandal should not bedone covertly, and all find-ings should be made public,Awami National Party Presi-dent Asfandyar Wali Khansaid on Tuesday.

Speaking during a talkshow on a private TV chan-nel on Wednesday, Asfand-yar said President Asif AliZardari had not gotten emo-tional during his speech atthe death anniversary of Be-nazir Bhutto, just as I hadadvised him. “I had told himthat some political andmedia persons wanted himto get emotional [in hisspeech],” he said.

He said nobody had ap-proached him for taking overthe Presidency in place ofZardari.

Asfandyar said he hadassured Zardari that his loy-alties remained with Pak-istan, “although many stillconsider us loyal to India”.

The ANP chief said he

had known Zardari foraround 35 years and he wasnot among those “who ranaway”. “Zardari had to comeback and he did,” he said.

To a question, he said,“We had said in the 1980sthat the Afghan war is notjihad but a fracas.

Asfandyar said the ANPcentral committee had ad-vised him against attendingparty’s public gatherings.

He said he had no vehiclein his name, had boughtshares worth around Rs250,000 in company in Dubaiand had inherited land fromhis father. “If you find anyother asset in my name, youcan happily hang me,” As-fandyar said. To a question,he said only time would tellwho makes away with whosevote bank, however, it thePTI’s right to do politics.

He said ANP had under-standing with the PPP andJUI-F in Senate election, butit would to too soon to com-ment on alliances for generalelection, the ANP chief said.

SC seeks report

over registration of

illegitimate children

ISLAMABADStAff RePORt

The Supreme Court (SC) onWednesday asked theprovincial governments anddistrict coordination officers(DCOs) to report within twoweeks on the registration ofillegitimate children.A thee-member benchheaded by Chief JusticeIftikhar MuhammadChaudhry was hearing a pe-tition by welfare activistAbdul Sattar Edhi, who re-quested the court to devise alegal strategy to resolve thesensitive and complex issueof registering children of un-known parentage to enablethem to live their lives withdignity and respect. Edhi re-quested the court to givethese children an identityand a legally appointedguardian. He also cited in theapplication that the NationalDatabase and RegistrationAuthority (NADRA) had re-fused to register a minor bytelling his daughter Kubrathat the registration processcould not be initiated with-out the child’s guardian.

MQM’s Sukkur rallyto be city’s biggestever: Altaf

KARACHi: MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM)chief Altaf Hussain onWednesday claimed that hisparty’s convention in Sukkurwill be the largest in the his-tory of the city. Talking tothe members of the zonalcommittees of Sukkur andJacobabad by telephone,Altaf appealed to the publicto show unity in Sindh by at-tending the rally. Accordingto a statement issued byMQM, officials of the Sukkurzone told Altaf that he hadfound enthusiasm among theparty workers and the publicfor the convention. APP

Motorway closed due to heavy fog

Memo case shouldnot be probedcovertly: asfandyar

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iSlAMAbAD: A water filter plant in deplorable condition installed at Sector-G7 needs the attention of the cDA. staFF pHoto

Thursday, 29 December, 2011

Streams become sewagedumping ground PAge 08

ISLAMABADfAzAl SheR

THE capital police have ar-rested six alleged terroristsincluding a would-be suicidebomber during a search op-eration near Zia Masjid. The

arrests were made from the ShahzadTown police precincts, said InspectorGeneral of Police (IGP) Bani Amin Khanhere on Wednesday.

He said the Crime Investigation De-partment (CID) of capital police, duringa search operation in the Zia Masjidneighbourhood, arrested a would-be sui-cide bomber named Waliullah alongwith his six associates on last Friday.

Efforts are underway to the arrestthose who were supplying the suspects

the explosives used in suicide jackets,Bani Amin said while addressing a newconference here.

He said the primary investigation re-vealed that the arrested men had beeninvolved in various attacks on securityforces in Swat.ROUtiNE ARREStS: Replying to an-other question, he said, the police sta-tion concerned registered a case againstthose who had set to fire two police ar-moured personnel carriers during a re-cent gas outages related protestdemonstration.

He said the investigation wing of thecapital police handed over Rs 3,267,000to National Bank of Pakistan branch inRawat following the a court’s orders. Themoney was robbed on February 13, 2005from the bank in a heist that also left one

of the bank guards dead. He said policesuccessfully recovered the looted moneyfrom the robbers.

He said two of the robbers who werearrested with money were identified asRaja Tahir and Muhammad Rafique,who were later convicted by the court.

He said four gangs involved incrimes of ‘heinous’ nature and those ex-torting money while pretending to beloan facilitators had been busted.

He said the CIA police also arrested11 criminals of four gangs for their in-volvement in different robbery cases andsized the looted money and valuables.

The nabbed suspects were identifiedas Waseem Abbass, Muhammad Sohail,MuhammadKashif, Muhammad Ismail,Muhammad Shakeel, MuhammadMunir, Asad Hussain Shah, Abdul Qadir,

Abdul Aziz and Muhammad Ashraf.Four arrested imposters were identi-

fied as Abdul Jabber, Abdul Qadir,Abdul Aziz and Asharf—all residents ofKhushab.

The twelve carjackers arrested by theteams of ACLC during this month wereidentified as Faiz Muhammad, Zaze aliasDilawar, Abdullah, Arif, Khalid Khan,Said Wali, Rana Aamir Gulzar, AbdulQadoos, WaqasZaheer, Gul Khitab,Yousuf Zeeshan and Abdul Sattar. Later,the IGP handed over the car keys of re-covered vehicles and money to the right-ful owners.

SSP Muhammad Yousuf Malik, SP(Rural) Faisal Bashir Memon, SP (Inves-tigations) Ch Liaqat Ali, ASP MustansarFeroz and other officials were also pres-ent on the occasion.

Five terrorists, one would-be suicide bomber arrested

ISLAMABADSAlMAN AbbAS

The Islamabad High Court on Wednes-day sought comments from the cabinetsecretary in a case against the CabinetDivision’s decision to sale out the gov-ernment vehicles to Grade-20 andabove officers on nominal rates underthe monetisation policy.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddique washearing a petition filed by GMChaudhry Advocate against the auctionof government vehicles to the decisionmakers of public offices on throwawayprices. The petitioner submitted beforethe court that the said policy would beimplemented from January 1, 2012,with a purpose of observing austerityand eliminating any possibility of mis-

use of official vehicles.He said, however, the step by the

cabinet secretary was similar to dis-pose of precious public vehicles for-ever on throwaway prices through aloot sale in violation of rules as thecivil servants working in BPS-20 to 21were the decision-makers at their rel-evant public offices. The petitionercited the prime minister and cabinetsecretary as respondents.

He said it was beyond imaginationthat the maximum pay scale for theemployees working in BPS-21 andBPS-22 was Rs 76,400 and Rs 85,700,but the officials working in the samegrades would enjoy the transport al-lowance of Rs 77,430 and Rs 95,910under the said policy.

The petitioner informed the court

that according to the policy of mone-tization of transport, the civil servantsworking in BPS-20 to 21, who hadbeen provided public transport, maybe given the first option to purchasethe allocated cars on depreciated priceas per prescribed formula with 15 per-cent annual depreciation for eachcompleted year of life of the vehicles,but not less than Rs 0.2 million for1000cc cars and Rs 0.25 million for1300cc cars.

The lawyer maintained it had alsobeen learnt that all the ministries hadstarted spending huge amounts onmaintenance and repairing of vehi-cles in possession of the civil servantsof BPS-20 to 22 before the formalhand over to the said officers fromJanuary 1.

IHC seeks response tosale of official vehicles

CDA starts Sector

i-11 development workISLAMABAD

StAff RePORt

The Capital Development Authority (CDA)on Wednesday formally started developmentwork in Sector I-11 after retrieving the landfrom illegal occupants. According to a pressstatement issued here, a meeting was held atthe CDA headquarters which was presidedover by the authority’s chairman, EngineerFarkhand Iqbal.“The CDA formulated a strategy to get theland vacated and to develop it. The demandsof the residents have been met andcompensation has been paid to solve theproblem,” he said. He added that he wascommitted to getting all the CDA landvacated in an amicable way and that thedevelopment process of the other sectors,including I-15, D-12 and E-12, would beexpedited. Iqbal said the development project wouldnot only solve the problem of the shortage ofhousing units in the city, but also establishthe writ of the authority. He added the retrieved land would beconstantly monitored and picketsestablished in the area. He would visit theaffected sectors and take up the issue withthe residents of the areas to reach a suitablesolution, he further said. He pointed out thatthe CDA faced no resistance to thedevelopment work. The residents of the areaand senior officers of the authorityparticipated in the meeting.

illegal occupants still residing in govt flatsiSLAmAbAd: The Ministry of Housingand Works and the Capital DevelopmentAuthority (CDA) have not succeeded inevicting the policemen and civilians whohave illegally occupied 200 governmentflats in Aabpara, Sector G-6.

A senior police officer admitted the il-legality of the act but pointed out that thepolicemen occupying the 96 flats had ob-tained a stay order from the Lahore HighCourt (LHC) when the department hadasked them to leave. “We have been per-suading them to move out but mere wordsdo not work,” the officer who is dealingwith the issue told APP.

The CDA had built these flats for theMinistry of Housing and Works but hadnot handed them over because the ministryhad not paid the entire cost. At least 96local policemen occupied the flats 22months ago, which prompted some civil-ians to posses the remaining 48.

The residents live in the flats illegally

and do not pay their utility bills. Some flatshave also been rented out.

The flats were temporarily provided tothe Anti-Riot Squad of the Islamabad po-lice and the Punjab Constabulary officialsin 2007, who were called in to help the Is-lamabad administration maintain law andorder during the Lal Masjid operation.

However, a majority of the anti-riot po-lice officials refused to vacate the flats aftertheir job was done. They were also joinedby constables and assistant sub-inspectors,who moved in with their families. A total of92 police officials are residing in more than150 flats. When pressed by senior policeauthorities to vacate the flats, the occu-pants filed a petition with LHC(Rawalpindi Bench) against their seniors.A police officer said the police departmenthad no alternative arrangement for the il-legal occupants. “Barracks are being builtin the Police Lines Headquarters but theircompletion will take time,” he added. APP

ANF organises

anti-drug campaigniSLAmAbAd: The Anti-NarcoticsForce (ANF) has organised around 256lectures, 79 seminars, 15 workshops, 18free medical camps, 12 speechcompetitions and 52 sports events underDrug Demand Reduction (DDR)activities till November 2011.An official of Anti-Narcotics Ministrytold APP that three tableau, sevenmusical shows, six TV talk-shows, fivedebate competitions, 16 stage dramas and fashion shows, 45distributions of printing materials, 10FM Radio Programme, seven AwarenessCamp, two anti-drug mushairas, drugsburning ceremony, one magic show, twophoto exhibitions, seven meetings andfive drugs awareness stalls wereorganized as part of the DDR campaign.Other activities like paintingcompetition, auto rickshaw campaign,rally, debate/declamations,entertainment shows, quizcompetitions, prize distributions, essaycompetitions and camps were also heldduring the period. APP

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06Thursday, 29 December, 2011

Islamabad

iSlAMAbAD: iGP bani Amin Khan addresses a press conference at the Rescue 15 office. staFF pHoto

iSlAMAbAD: A view of the federal capital from Daman-e-Koh in a winter evening. Inp

ISLAMABADStAff RePORt

THE participants of a round-table conference urged Pak-istan to follow the Chinesemodel for its domestic andforeign policies which were

not only characterised by domestic eco-nomic development alone but also by anuncompromising and principled stanceon core foreign policy issues.

The discussion organised by the In-stitute of Regional Studies (IRS) onWednesday called for a foreign policyreflective of Pakistan’s domestic reali-ties. Ambassador B A Malik, a foreignpolicy analyst, was the main speaker atthe event. He said foreign policy was de-pendent on the domestic situation ofany country and that the domestic situ-ation of Pakistan demanded greater re-gional integration for the prosperity ofits people.

Ambassador Malik appreciatedPresident Zardari’s statement about de-

veloping global trade relations and said,“There is no room for exceptions in theforeign policy.”

According to the ambassador thelate Benazir Bhutto’s foreign policystated that lack of progress on one issueon the agenda should not impede theprogress on others. He maintained thatregional trade and commerce was theway forward for Pakistan. “It is not anage of independence, it is an age of in-terdependence,” he said.

He called on Pakistan’s politicalleadership to evolve a consensus on theforeign policy that would break the sta-tus quo.

Ambassador Khalid Mahmoodadded that Pakistan would have to com-bine the security and economic develop-ment aspects of the foreign policy.

Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) De-partment of International Relations’ DrMavara Inayat called for learning re-gional integration from the example ofthe European Union (EU). Agreeingwith her, Pierre Mayaudon, deputy head

of the EU delegation to Pakistan, arguedthat there was a greater need for Pak-istan’s foreign policy paradigm to reflectits economic needs including interna-tional trading relationships.

Shabana Fayyaz from QAU Depart-ment of Defence and Strategic Studiessaid it was necessary to reduce the gapbetween the foreign policy pronounce-ments of the political leaders and theiractual implementation.

U.S. Embassy Deputy Political Con-sular Constancy Arvis said: “Though theproblem of terrorism had implicationsbeyond Pakistan’s borders, countrieslike the U S had a serious interest in it.The war on terror was also in the inter-est of Pakistan to secure a peaceful fu-ture for it.”

Defence Analyst Lt-Gen (retd) AsadDurrani said: “Friendly relations withall the countries of the world could be aforeign policy goal but not the policy it-self, because a comprehensive foreignpolicy needs to cope with both threatsand opportunities.”

Checking of CNg

cylinders proves a

daunting taskiSLAmAbAd: The HydroCarbon Institute of Pakistan(HDIP), a testing authority ofCompressed Natural Gas (CNG)cylinders, has come under heavyworkload after the increased ratioof road accidents due to sub-standard CNG cylinders invehicles. Rao Abdul Rehman,Chief Technical Officer (CTO), onWednesday told APP their testinglaboratory was working day andnight to meet the workload, asvehicles and CNG filling stations’owners were consulting the labfor cylinder testing certification.He said testing procedure hasbeen made simple; vehicle’scylinders were tested andreturned to owners in day or twoand HDIP also installs thecylinder after testing whereas,CNG filling stations’ cylindertesting may take a week time.Regarding testing awarenessamong public and CNG stations,he said CNG stations werechecked by inspectors andstations were informed whentheir certification of testing datecomes due. APP

HeC starts 17thmaster trainersprogramme

ISLAMABADStAff RePORt

The 17th Master Trainers FacultyProfessional Development Programme(MT-FPDP) began at here onWednesday at the Higher EducationCommission (HEC) Secretariat.The programme, which will continueuntil February 25, is being attended by27 faculty members from 16 publicsector universities from across Pakistan,says a press release issued here.Dr Khawaja Azam Ali, the managingdirector of the HEC’s Quality AssuranceAgency, was the chief guest in theopening ceremony. The main objectiveof the training is to enhance and enrichthe teaching abilities of teachers toensure that quality education isimparted to the students, said thestatement.The programme, catering to participantsof both pure and social sciences, isspecifically designed for in-serviceteachers and will cover 11 core modulesand additional sessions on differentimportant social topics. Recreationaland study trips will also be arranged todifferent historic places. So far, 469faculty members of the higher educationinstitutions have benefited so far fromthe MT-FPDP in 16 batches.

QAU restarts admissions

ISLAMABADStAff RePORt

The Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) hasremoved the condition of specifiedsubjects for taking admission in itsarcheology department for the springsemester of 2012.Earlier, after selling 412 prospectuses,the admission branch had abruptlystopped further sales, causingdifficulties for prospective students. Thevarsity admission department hadadded additional papers to theprospectuses rendering all graduateseligible. During the last week, Pakistan Todayhighlighted this issue after which QAUVice Chancellor Dr Masoom Yasinzaitook action on the story and summoneda meeting of the admission branch,directing them to restart the sale ofprospectuses with an additional paper tomake all graduates eligible for seekingadmissions in the archeologydepartment. “We have removed the bar of specifiedsubjects. Every graduate can nowapply,” he said. It is relevant to notehere that the QAU is offering admissionsfor the first time to all graduatesregardless of which subjects they hadadopted for their graduation. QAU Registrar Dr Shafeeq-ur-Rehmansaid those students who had purchasedprospectuses without additional paperscould also apply for admission in thearcheology department.

Pakistan urged to follow Chinese foreign policy model

Dilapidated road a headache for peopleISLAMABAD

APP

Residents of Model Town Humak have ap-pealed to Punjab Chief Minister ShahbazSharif and the National Highway Authority(NHA) chairman for immediate repair ofSwan-Kak Bridge portion of Kahuta Road toend their three-year ordeal.

Most of the vehicles are driven on the roadin zigzag to avoid rough patches and com-muters fear that the dilapidated condition ofthe road is a threat exposing commuters to ac-cidents can lead to fatal accidents.

The usual practice of filling the craterswith mud did not work as well; as cracksemerge again within couple of days makingthe journey more miserable.

“This part of Kahuta Road shares majorburden of vehicles as its one end touches theGrand Trunk Road and the other links Islam-abad Highway. It also links Azad Kashmir

with other parts of the country,” MuhammadTahir, a resident of the area told APP.Another resident Zaheer Ahmed said that

Member National Assembly Dr. Tariq FazalChaudhry was well aware of the issues, but henever paid any attention to the problems afterhis election.

He said time and again the MNA was ap-proached, but he never gave any importanceto problems of the Model Town residents.

Resultantly, the residents to express theirwrath and distress also pasted posters againstthe MNA. Now any passer-by can know thatthe voters were looking for their elected rep-resentative by displaying that their “MNA ismissing”.

“We will be thankful to Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif, if he fulfils our demand aspeople living in the area are facing difficultiesdue to the road condition,” he said. The roadwas repaired about 20 years ago and after-wards no attention was paid to it, he said.

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07Thursday, 29 December, 2011

Islamabad

ISLAMABADASMA KuNDi

Declaring the Police Act of 1861 asanti-people, Sultan Azam Taimuri,the assistant inspector general (Oper-ations), said Wednesday that Pak-istan had inherited that act from theBritain and unfortunately it was stillintact without the slightest changeand it must be repealed.

Referring to the implementation ofvarious laws, he said that in order toshow their performance, station houseofficers usually downplay the number ofcases registered in their precincts. Hesaid that the practice also called as‘burking’ should be eliminated.

He expressed these views whilespeaking at the National Consultation onGender Based Legislation and Issues ofImplementation. The event was organ-ised by Aurat Foundation’s LegislativeWatch Programme for Women’s Em-

powerment to address the issues of im-plementation of recently enacted legisla-tion on women’s rights. National PoliceAcademy Projects Director HelenaSaeed was of the view that women hadspecific needs but those specific needs ofworking women were not being ad-dressed. She said the same was the casewith the police department whose needswere never fully met. She said thewomen working in the police depart-ment were not being provided the “en-abling” environment. She regrettedthat the gender biases still existed inthe police department. In order to endthese gender biases, she said, alls suchbiases must be ended courageously.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice(retd) Shaiq Usmani regretted that thePakistani courts and particularly thelower courts still had strong prejudicesagainst women, which could surely in-fluence the courts proceedings in all thecases involving women’s family affairs

and inheritance.Referring to the Qisas and Diyat Ordi-

nance, he said though the severest and sud-den provocations had been excluded fromthat, but the superior judiciary, perhapsunder some prejudices towards women,was still following that as an option.

Malakand Police DIG IQazi Jamil-ur-Rehman, while discussing the hur-dles in the smooth implementation ofthe women-specific laws, said most ofcases involving women were not reg-istered for various reasons includinggender biases. Highlighting the role ofcivil society, Valarie Khan, the Acid Sur-vivor Foundation chairperson, said thataround two hundred cases of acid throw-ing were reported in Pakistan each year.And most of those cases are reportedfrom southern Punjab, she added.

She said that apart from the aware-ness campaigns, a perfect legislation wasvery much required in that regard. Shealso emphasised the need for an easy ac-

cess of acid burn victims to urgent treat-ment facilities. She also stressed the needto place a better accountability mecha-nism to eradicate violence against women.

ETHNOMEDIA Executive DirectorSamar Minalah raised the issues ofswara, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (vaniand sung chati in Punjab and Sindh re-spectively). She gave a presentationfrom her documentaries showing theplight the victims of such ancient tribalpractices. She called for a change in thesocial mindset and said the role of a vi-brant civil society was a must for that.

Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar assured thecivil society members and women’s rightsactivists of her full cooperation if therewere a need for any amendment in the re-cently introuded women rights bills.

She also proposed the formation of a‘women parliamentarian commission forlaws implementation’, which, she said,might have the powers to “summon” anyinstitution concerned.

Call made for ending genderbiases in police dept, society

Stage play

pays homage

to Benazir

BhuttoISLAMABAD

APP

Hum Aik Hain - a theatre play wasstaged here late Tuesday to pay homageto Shaheed Benazir Bhutto for unitingthe people to fight for democracy in thecountry.Written and directed by Riffat AliQaiser, the play was staged by BhuttoShaheed Welfare Society Rawalpindi atthe ongoing drama festival at PakistanNational Council of the Arts (PNCA).The show was dedicated to BenazirBhutto on her death anniversary.Based on the theme of nationalintegration, the play portrayed the taleof hard workers including labourers,actors, troops, parliamentarians,bureaucrats and every potentialcontributor of the country.Through dialogues and expressions ofperforming art, the story reflected thepublic issues and their solutions andcalled for forging unity in all segmentsof the society.Various theatre groups performedduring the festival that will continue tillDecember 29 to entertain the Islooiteswith quality entertainment.These theatre groups represent all theprovinces of the country to portray theirskills and stage the stories with somemessage and entertainment.“The festival provided them with aplatform of national level to showcasetheir skills and ideas as well as giverecognition to private theatre groupsand promote their cultural activities tokeep the tradition of classical theateralive,” said Tauqeer Nasir, DirectorGeneral PNCA, while talking to APP.

ISLAMABADAPP

The Higher Education Commission (HEC)on Wednesday announced the results ofthe National Essay Writing Competitionsfor regular university students.

The essay competitions were organisedacross the country in collaboration withCentre for Civic Education Pakistan(CCEP). Talking to APP an official of CCEPsaid the participants, aged 15 to 25, wroteessays on the topic, ‘What does federalismmean to me?’ “The competitions were heldto promote writing, descriptive and cre-ative skills and a futuristic approachamong university students. It also aimed toencourage research and analysis on thetheme.” At least 62 students from 35 publicand private universities and post-graduatecolleges participated in the competition.

A panel of judges comprising of seniorfaculty members from the Quaid-e-AzamUniversity, the National University ofModern Languages and other experts re-

viewed the essays. According to results Zahra Abidi, from

the Bahria University Karachi’s Institute ofProfessional Psychology secured the firstposition in the competition while Muham-mad Zubair Khan from National College ofBusiness Administration and Economic,Lahore stood second. The third positionwas awarded to Alia Bibi from Fatima Jin-nah Women University, Rawalpindi.

The winners of the first, second andthird positions were awarded cash prizesworth Rs 20,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000respectively along with merit certificatesand medals.Certificates of achievementwere also conferred on Bela Khan, LahoreUniversity of Management Sciences,Muhammad Umar Iqbal, Quaid-i-AzamUniversity Islamabad, Farah Anwar, Insti-tute of Business Management Karachi,Muhammad Ali Raza, University of Veteri-nary and Animal Sciences Lahore, KomalDilshad, Fatima Jinnah Women UniversityRawalpindi and Sunnia Farrukh, FatimaJinnah Women University Rawalpindi.

HeC announces results of essay writing competitions

Sheikh Ayaz’s anniversary observediSLAmAbAd: The 14th deathanniversary of renowned poet,philosopher and writer Sheikh Ayaz wasobserved on Wednesday across Sindh.He died on December 28, 1997 and wasburied at Bhit Shah near the shrine ofShah Abdul Latif Bhatai. Ceremonieshonouring him were held in Karachi,Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana,Nawabshah, Shikarpur, Mirpurkhas,Thatta, Badin, Dadu, Khairpur and othercities of Sindh. The speakers at theceremonies paid tribute to Ayaz for hisremarkable contributions to Sindhi and

Urdu literature. The participants,including poets, scholars, writers,journalists and educationalists, offeredFatiha for the departed soul. A delegationof Sindhi writers and poets also visited hisgrave, laid floral wreaths and offeredFatiha. Shaikh Ayaz was awarded theSitara-e-Imtiaz for his contributions toliterature. Talking to APP, ZulfiqarHaider Otho said Ayaz was the greatestSindhi poet after Shah Abdul Latif andwas the founder of modern Sindhi poetry.He added that Ayaz wrote 30 poetrybooks, including two in Urdu. APP

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HOSPiTALS

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POLy CLiNiC BLOOD BANK 9209123

COMPLAiNT

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MaNsoor rahI's ExhIbItIoN

gallery Louvre islamabad invites you to the soloexhibition of Mansoor rahi. The exhibition will beshowcasing all three sketching school of thoughtby the artist Synergy; a mix of harsh and softsketching medium iconography: a sketch developedby singular line without ant support or color.

CaPoEIra IsLtowN

DATe AND TiMe: eVery FriDAy 6:30-7:30PMVeNUe: KHAAS ArT gALLery iSLAMABAD

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

SUNNy

weATHer UPDATeS

17°C

aLIf LaaM MEEM

Please join us For the opening reception of “aliflaam meem” A group exhibition of recent workof Calligraphy by Arif Khan, Hamid Nasir &Muhammad Anwar On Thursday,Dec 22nd ,2011At 4:30pm preview December 21st ,11 amOnwards The exhibition on Continue till Dec 31st, 2011 gallery hours: Mon-Sat 11am to 6pm

DATe: DeC 21 - 31, 2011 VeNUe: JHArOKA ArT gALLery iSLAMABAD

ENvIroNMENtaL dEGradatIoN

DATe: DeC 22, 2011 - JAN 05, 2012 VeNUe: gALLery LOUVre iSLAMABAD

08 Thursday, 29 December, 2011

Islamabad

iSlAMAbAD: Senator zafar Ali Shah addresses a press conference along with social worker Jehangir Akhtar who announced joining the PMl-N. staFF pHoto

ISLAMABADfAzAl SheR

ISLAMABAD has about 26 small andlarge rainwater streams, which passthrough different residential sectors andfinally converge into two outside thecapital city. But these natural streams

are now highly polluted, producing stink in dryseason, and have become breading place formosquitoes due to the discharge of domesticwaste and leakages of municipal sewers.

The polluted rainwater of stream percolatesto the underground water reserves and transfersphysical, biological and chemical contaminantsto it. The level of heavy metal, like lead and cad-mium, are also found in high amount as thestream pass through industrial area of I-9 and I-10 sectors, says a CDA official.

The CDA has made several plans for cleaningthe streams in the federal capital in the last fewyears, but they yet not implement it due to whichthe condition of natural streams is deterioratingday by day. The major damaging factors con-tributing in the environmental degradation areillegal disposal of sewage into streams, mostlyfrom the slums. The catchments areas of thesenullahs have been covered by the slums. The res-idents of these slums not only throwing wastebut also resort to illegal constructions, resultingin shrinking channel of these streams.

The huge amount of pollutants in these nul-lahs and small size of stream are creating hurdlein the flow of water.

The working of the civic body is seeminglylimited to holding a fruitless meeting beforeevery monsoon season for cleaning the naturalwatercourses. But the CDA authority is unable tomaterialise the plan, which essential for main-taining the beauty of the federal capital.

The waste accumulated in the streams ishampering a smooth water flow and destroyingthe environment.

An official said the authority’s relevant direc-torate had failed to remove dead trees from thestreams and repair the broken sewage system be-sides stopping the illegal disposal of sewage inBari Imam and other areas, which was one of themain reasons behind the issue.

He said the CDA Environment Wing had notyet launched any campaign to raise awarenessamong general public about pollution in naturalstreams passing through the capital, which wascausing diseases among the residents. The au-thority so far made no efforts to eliminate

sewage contamination and reduce stream bankerosion and sedimentation, enhance, establishforested riparian buffers and improve waterquality and stream stability.

“The pollution of these natural streams pass-ing through the capital has caused serious envi-ronmental problems. The CDA must conduct asurvey of the ravines and identify the sources ofpollution. It should devise biological plan forcleaning and restoration of these watercourses.This will improve and sustain the environment,help curtail and steadily eradicate undergroundwater supply, which consecutively helped pre-vent diseases like hepatitis and polio from be-coming endemics,” he said.

Streams become sewagedumping ground

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09Friday, 23 September, 2011

News

LAHoREiMRAN ADNAN

PAKISTAN International Air-lines (PIA) has acquired twoAirbus A320-214 aircraft onwet lease from Freebird Air-lines, Turkey, Pakistan Today

has learnt. While the national flag carrierhas asked the Civil Aviation Authority(CAA) to issue airworthiness certificatesto the leased aircrafts, the airline’s man-agement is trying to conceal the agree-ment by denying official facts.

Official documents made available toPakistan Today reveal that PIA CorporatePlanning Director Irshad Ghani recentlywrote a letter (Ref:DCP/NB/ACMI/2011/257) to the CAAFlight Standards director at Jinnah Inter-national Airport, Karachi, and asked theCAA to nominate officials to inspect the

leased aircraft in Turkey. The official letter titled “CAA Pak in-

spection for two wet lease aircraft” states:“PIA is currently facing a severe shortageof capacity due to the unscheduledgrounding of its A310 and B737 aircraft.Capacity constraints are causing cancel-lations and delays leading to inconven-ience to our passengers and revenue lossto the airline.”

It further reads: “Keeping in view thefleet constraints, PIA has decided to in-duct two narrow body aircraft for a pe-riod of ninety (90) days. As per therequirements of the Pakistan Civil Avia-tion Authority (PCAA) stated in ANO91:0016, requisite information containedin CD is attached herewith. We shall ap-preciate if PCAA nominates its inspectorsat its earliest for the inspection of theseaircraft in Turkey.”

Another official document shows that

the leased aircraft having registrationnumbers TC-FBH: 4207 and TC-FBV:4658 have completed almost 60,000flight hours, and were presently operat-ing from Istanbul, Turkey. It indicatesthat the PIA will obtain these aircraft onlease and they will be based in Karachiafter acquisition.

Speaking to Pakistan Today, PIASpokesman Syed Sultan Hasan tried toconceal the agreement by categorically re-fusing the lease of any aircraft. In the past,the PIA management has also rejected re-ports of a wet lease agreement during Hajoperations when it acquired two Boeing-747s from a Greek operator, but later ac-cepted the agreement. The national flagcarrier is not being able to keep up with theflight schedule. PIA sources alleged thatthe airline management had deliberatelycreated a shortage of aircraft to justify theacquisition of the aircraft on wet lease.

On the other hand, members of theJoint Action Committee of PIA Employ-ees (JACPIAE) have refused to offer serv-ices on the leased aircraft, and demandedthe management to bring its own fleetinto operation. A JACPIAE representa-tive seeking anonymity believed that theincumbent management was constantlydamaging the airline both administra-tively and financially, as it had again de-cided to acquire two Airbus A320s onlease, along with operating cockpit andcabin crew. He said the previous experi-ence of acquiring two Boeing aircraftfrom the Hellenic Airways for Haj opera-tions had proved that it was a huge wasteof money. “This experience should beenough for any sane management if ithad no intention of receiving kickbacks inthe deal,” he said.

He said the PIA had to suffer a loss ofRs 410 million, as it had to cancel around

1,200 flights during August and Novem-ber. He said the airline’s managementhad been causing flight delays and can-cellations to pave the way for leasing twoAirbus A320 on wet lease. In a plannedmove it had kept grounded 6-15 aircrafton an average since August. He said that13 aircraft were still grounded at the PIAEngineering Department because of theunavailability of engines, equipment andspare parts required for these aircrafts tobecome airworthy as per internationalflight standards.

In addition, sources revealed thatthe PIA had acquired three engines on alease of $300 per hour, while its ownengines had been overhauled and readyfor installation at Singapore andAmman. The management has been de-liberately delaying their delivery to jus-tify leasing more and more items forpersonal gains, they added.

KARAchi: A large number of buses are parked at the bus stand because of closure of cNG stations in the province. onLIne

ISLAMABADMiAN AbRAR

The absence of Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) Chairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari at the fourth death anniversaryof his mother and late PPP chair-woman Benazir Bhutto has left severalquestions unanswered and raisedmany an eyebrow.

President’s spokesman FarhatullahBabar said Bilawal had participated inthe Quran Khawani held for his motherat the Dubai residence of PresidentAsif Ali Zardari.

This was a rare occasion and a sur-prise for observes and party workers,as Benazir’s son, following Muslim tra-dition, had attended all three previous

death anniversaries of his mother.Political analyst Hassan Askari

Rizvi said the move was a well-thought-out security measure for thefamily of President Zardari, sayingsecurity threats might have com-pelled the family to avoid appearingat one place.

“This is a measure adopted by thequeen of England and the royal familymembers. Former dictator GeneralZiaul Haq was also criticised for violat-ing this security principle as he hadtaken with him many senior army offi-cers who died in his plane crash in1985,” Rizvi said.

Staying away from the country, Bi-lawal, however, chose to contribute anop-ed column on the eve of hismother’s death anniversary, in whichhe forcefully pitched for a “democraticPakistan” and “‘independent judici-ary”, while urging batting for a“strong” but apolitical military at the

same time. Bilawal’s remarks came asthe talks of government being in con-frontation with the army and thecourts gather steam.

Commenting on his party’s view-point about the armed forces, Bilawalwrote, “The PPP has always been care-ful to distinguish between the army asan institution and the dictator whoabuses his position. We have alwaysbelieved in a strong military under thecontrol of an elected government.”

“A strong military is needed inorder to protect our territorial bordersand defeat the internal cancer of Is-lamist extremism. The politicisation ofthis institution under dictatorship en-gages it in arenas where it has no placeand, as a result, weakens its ability toperform its primary function.”

Feeling the heat of the case pend-ing with the apex court on memo con-troversy, Bilawal wrote, “We havealways supported an independent judi-

ciary and would never let the abuses ofindividual judges in the past sabotageour mission of establishing a free, im-partial and independent judiciary.”

Interestingly, Bilawal had shiftedto Prime Minister’s House and takenthe reigns of the party when the presi-dent had left for Dubai after sufferinga stroke on December 6. In absence ofhis father, Bilawal had taken care ofthe party’s affairs which reflected thathe had been officially launched to runthe party’s affairs.

On December 17, Bilawal had co-chaired the party’s parliamentary partymeeting held at the Prime Minister’sHouse. Addressing the meeting, Bi-lawal had termed the PPP as a partythat excelled in sacrifices.

However, as soon as President AsifAli Zardari returned from Dubai, Bi-lawal left for Dubai despite the factthat her mother’s death anniversarywas only a week away.

David Headley’s wife mayhelp nail Hafiz Saeed

NEW DELHIONliNe

India’s National Investigation Agency(NIA) will soon send letters to Mo-rocco for recording a statement ofPakistani-American David Headley’sestranged Moroccan wife, Faiza Out-alha, to get more evidence againsthim as well as Lashkar-e-Tayyabafounder Hafiz Saeed, Indian mediareported on Wednesday. According toreports, the decision to send the docu-ments was taken sometime back, butNIA was giving final touches before itapproached a special court for issuanceof the request, official sources said onTuesday. The reports said Faiza Outalha,the estranged wife of Headley, could beof help in nailing the lies of Saeed, whohas been attempting to throw a veil tohis terror activities under the garb ofbeing associated with humantarian ac-tivities of Jamaatud Dawa(JD).

g PiA employees’ union refuses to offer services for leased aircraft g Sources say aircraft deliberately being kept grounded to justify lease

PIA acquires two aircraft on lease, management denies

Bilawal’s absence at Benazir’s anniversary raises many an eyebrow

PiA’s turbulence

increases with

halted fuel supply LAHORE: Pakistan International Air-lines (PIA) is going into a tailspin asvarious fuel vendors have refused toprovide fuel at a number of interna-tional airports, including United King-dom, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Norway,Canada and the United Arab Emirates,Pakistan Today learnt on Wednesday.Sources in the national flag carrier dis-closed that various fuel vendors discon-nected fuel supply at variousinternational airports until the PIAmanagement cleared their outstandingfuel bills. Sources said the PIA officialshad to face embarrassment when ShellAviation, Manchester, refused fuel sup-ply to the PIA’s Manchester-Islamabadflight PK 702. Sources added that theairline had to face similar situationswith several other fuel vendors at air-ports in Birmingham, Heathrow, Oslo,Copenhagen, Toronto, Jeddah andDubai. Reportedly, the fuel vendorsalso warned the airline to immediatelyclear their dues or they would com-pletely suspend their agreements withit. Sources said that if the PIA de-faulted, no company would provide fuelto its fleet across the world. Theyadded that despite several warningsfrom the Saudi aviation authorities, thePIA could not improve its flight sched-ule. The Saudi authorities had takennotice of PIA’s frequent flight cancella-tions from Jeddah International Air-port, and other irregularities. Theypointed out that the airline was offeringair tickets from Medina airport, but wasoperating its flights from Jeddah. Re-cently, the local municipal authoritytook notice of the crowd outside thePIA office in Medina. The authoritywarned that the airline’s operationsfrom Medina would be suspended if theproblem was not resolved. When con-tacted, the airline’s official spokesmandenied that any vendor had refused fuelsupply to PIA aircraft. iMRAN ADNAN

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10Friday, 23 September, 2011

News

chiNiOt: Devotees of Pir Malan Shah perform a Dhamal at the shrine on the 314th annual urs on Wednesday. onLIne

Obama, Hillary Clinton again top most admired listWASHINgtoN

ONl iNe

US President Barack Obama and Sec-retary of State Hillary Clinton con-tinue to be named by Americans as themost admired man and most admiredwoman living today in any part of theworld, American media reported onWednesday.

While Obama has been the mostadmired man four years in a row Clin-ton has been the most admired womaneach of the last 10 years, according toa new Gallup poll, leading public opin-ion pollster.

The top five most admired menalso include former US presidents

George W Bush and Bill Clinton, BillyGraham and Warren Buffett whileOprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama,Sarah Palin, and Condoleezza Riceround out the top five most admiredwomen.

Hillary Clinton has now topped thelist of most admired women a total of16 times since 1993, finishing secondin 1995 and 1996 to Mother Teresa andin 2001 to Laura Bush.

No other woman has been namedmost admired woman as many timesas Clinton. Eleanor Roosevelt is sec-ond with 13 No.1 finishes, followed byMargaret Thatcher, JacquelineKennedy, and Mother Teresa.

Obama’s first-place finish is his

fourth. Dwight Eisenhower holds therecord for first-place finishers amongmen, with 12, followed by Ronald Rea-gan and Bill Clinton with 8 each. It isclear from the list of most admiredmen that presidents usually win thehonour, Gallup said.

A sitting or newly-elected presi-dent has won the distinction each ofthe last 31 years, and 55 times out ofthe 65 it has been asked.

The only non-presidents to finishfirst were Douglas MacArthur (1946-1947 and 1951), Eisenhower (1950 be-fore being elected and 1967-1968after leaving office), Henry Kissinger(1973-1975), and Pope John Paul II(1980).

Keys to 204 model

houses distributed

among flood victims

in rajanpur, Mianwali

PRESS RELEASE

The Punjab government hasdistributed the keys of 204model houses among theflood affected in Rajanpurand Mianwali , ProvincialDisaster Management Au-thority Director GeneralKhalid Sherdil said onWednesday. Adviser to the Punjab ChiefMinister Zakiya Shahnawazand Member Provincial As-sembly Sardar Atif Mizarihanded over the keys to f loodaffected. Addressing the ceremony,Sherdil said al l faci l i t ies hadbeen provided in these modelvi l lages constructed for theflood affected. He said the houses werebeing distributed to the f loodvictims in a transparentmanner. He said the Punjabchief minister was takingkeen interest in the rehabil i-tation of the f lood affectedpopulation and the modelvi l lages’ project was an ef-fort of the Punjab govern-ment to provide respectableshelter to the shelterlesspeople.

NEW DELHIAfP

THE Indian governmentsighed with relief onWednesday after parlia-ment’s Lower Housepassed an anti-corruption

bill that has become a political alba-tross around the neck of Prime Minis-ter Manmohan Singh’s coalition.

The bill, creating a powerful ombuds-man to probe graft among senior politi-cians and civil servants, was passed by avoice vote in the Lok Sabha late on Tues-day after a fractious debate. The legisla-tion has dominated the political agendain India for months, piling pressure onSingh’s administration which was alreadythe target of fierce criticism over a seriesof high-profile corruption scandals.

The government had to redraft anearlier version in the wake of massprotests across the country in August,spearheaded by hunger-striking activistAnna Hazare who insisted the proposedbill was too weak. Hazare and oppositionparties had opposed the re-draft on thesame grounds, and the 74-year-old ac-tivist began a fresh, three-day public faston Tuesday in Mumbai to try to pressure

parliament into rejecting the bill.There was no immediate reaction

from the Hazare camp to the vote in theLower House. His supporters had prom-ised to pursue a campaign of civil dis-obedience if the bill was passed.

The government’s victory was tam-pered by its failure to get the two-thirdsmajority required to make the bill a con-stitutional amendment. “This is a bit ofdisappointment that it could not bepassed,” Singh said afterwards.

It was a personal defeat for RahulGandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi polit-ical dynasty and widely tipped as futureprime minister, who had initiated themove to give the ombudsman’s office con-stitutional status. There is also a strongchance that final passage of the bill couldbe delayed as it faces a rough ride in theupper house of parliament, where Singh’sruling coalition is in the minority.

Nevertheless, analysts said on Tues-day’s vote would give a major boost tothe government, which has suffered aseries of legislative setbacks in recentmonths and battled repeated accusa-tions of policy drift.

“They have proved that they can getthings done and learn from their mis-takes,” said Sanjay Kumar from the Cen-

tre for the Study of Developing SocietiesIt will give an especially welcome fil-

lip to Singh’s ruling Congress Partyahead of a series of crucial state elec-tions over the next two months.

“The Congress has not just silencedthe opposition but also the civil societymembers who were their biggest threat,”said Anjana Mathur, a political scienceprofessor at Delhi University.

It remains to be seen if Tuesday’svote will take all the steam out of Haz-are’s campaign, which had unleashed atide of public anger and frustration overofficial corruption earlier in the year.

The first day of his hunger strike inMumbai drew around 10,000 people,well down on the 50,000-strong crowdsthat supported his previous fast in Au-gust in New Delhi.

Only a few hundred turned out forthe second morning of his strike Wednes-day and a team of doctors was monitor-ing Hazare regularly, amid concern aboutthe effects of not eating on top of a virushe has been trying to shake off.

“Anna is continuing his fast. He isfeeling better but has been advised torest,” said Preeti Sharma Menon, a vol-unteer with Hazare’s India Against Cor-ruption campaign.

LeAs mum over

Afghan militant

commander’s killingPESHAWAR

ShAMiM ShAhiD

Law enforcement agencies, both civiland military, are tight-lipped over themysterious assassination of an Afghanmilitant commander in Peshawar.Although the custodians of law wentmum over the mysterious assassina-tion that occurred on December 22,they were forced to hand over thecommander’s body to his gun-tottingloyalist. Per detail, leading Afghanmilitant Abu Hamza (fake name) wasshot dead by pillion riders in theevening of December 22, 2011 onDaura Road near Gulbahar. AbuHamza was coming out of a mosqueafter offering afternoon prayers, whenthe motorcyclist opened fire at him.The assailants succeeded in escapingbefore personnel from Phando Road-police station reached the site. Agroup of Hamza’s armed loyalistsreached the site and forcibly took thebody into custody. The exact identityof the slain commander could not bedetermined, but it has been found outthat he was known as Abu Hamza andwas affiliated with Ahli Hadith schoolof thought militant groups, who havea strong presence in Kunar, Nooristanand Laghman provinces ofAfghanistan. No one has claimed re-sponsibility for the killing so far, but itis being believed that such “targetedact” of killing was an outcome ofinter-militant group hostilities. Thereexists serious rift between militantsdivided into Ahli Hadith (Wahabi)and Sunni (Hanfi) school of thought.Militants from the Ahli Hadith schoolof thought have great influence overmen engaged in terrorist acts both inPakistan and Afghanistan. Local offi-cials and analysts believe that theproxy-war between the US led alliedcountries’ spy agencies and its rivalsfrom Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and oth-ers was in progress in this particularpart of south Asia.

US rejects reports

of removing Omar’s

name from FBi’s listISLAMABAD

ONliNe

The US embassy in Kabul has rebuffedthe report that Taliban chief MullahOmer’s name was removed from theFBI’s most-wanted list, saying it neverappeared on the list. A statement is-sued by the US embassy in Kabul andreceived here on Wednesday said Mul-lah Omar had never been listed on themost wanted terrorists’ list. The statement added that some Afghanand international media reports erro-neously alleged that his name was re-moved from the list.“We note that Mullah Omar has beenand remains on the US Department ofState’s Rewards for Justice List,” theUS embassy statement said.

g govt’s victory hampered by its failure to get two-thirds majority required to make bill

constitutional amendment g No immediate reaction from Hazare camp to vote in Lower House

Anti-graft bill victoryboosts Indian government

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Editor’s mail 11Thursday, 29 December, 2011

Premature expectationsThough Imran Khan has succeeded

in drawing thousands of people inKarachi to prove his human tsunami, hestill has to prove his potential to swapthe election by providing convincingmanifesto of his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf(PTI) to the public.

Currently, people have lost faith inall level of governance in the midst of po-litical, social and economical crises inPakistan and see Imran as beacon oflight. They think he would be able tobring a change for a fair and just gover-nance in Pakistan but the team he pro-duced includes defectors from otherparties who were part and parcel of theregime destroying Pakistan for last fewdecades. The ambitions of three ex-for-eign ministers, who joined PTI afterbeing rejected by their native parties,may not serve the purpose as their mo-tives are questionable.

Sudden change in Imran’s tone to-wards the MQM and Musharraf indicatesthat he is also playing policy of reconcili-ation, deviating from the principles andas such his slogan to eliminate corrup-tion in 90 days looks impractical.

I concur with the notion that there isa need for change and public dissatisfac-tion against all level of governments inPakistan could have helped Imran to mo-bilise human flex in Karachi for the rallybut the team he built may not allow himto achieve the goals unless he has a teamof people who are sincere, dedicated andfree from political involvement with thethree major parties in Pakistan who ru-ined the country during last few decades.

UM-E-AMMARAKarachi

Fighting discriminationDiscrimination is, indeed, a human

rights violation but it is everywhere inthis country of ours. Somewhere it is ex-perienced on the basis of religion andsect and somewhere it is on the basis oflanguage and ethnic background. Thepeople of Pakistan do not themselves dis-criminate against each other but our bu-reaucrats and technocrats whoperpetuate dictatorial legacy frame dis-criminatory policies.

Regrettably, whenever, the dictatorscome to rule Pakistan, discriminationagainst the Sindhis becomes their officialpolicy. Take a classic example of theAiwan-e-Sadr, International Islamic Uni-versity, Islamabad (IIUI), Quaid-e-AzamUniversity (QAU) Islamabad and othersuch organisations which have remainedunder the claws of dictators. One can’tfind even a single Sindhi employee there.Of course, one can find a few on fakedomiciles.

A society suffers when the ignoranceand discrimination comes from withinand the society suffers the most wherethe seeds of intolerance and discrimina-tion are sown in its educational institutessuch as the varsities.

Let’s fight against discrimination andmake this country stronger and more sta-ble. Let’s give an equal representation toall communities and ethnicities living inPakistan as enunciated in the Constitu-tion of Pakistan.

However, I appeal to the president ofPakistan to take practical steps in this re-gards and start with SZABIST, Islamabad(where no Sindhi is employed), QAU,IIUI, HEC and other organisationswhose chancellor and chief patron is thepresident of Pakistan.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

is this democracy?I used to wonder why the sitting fed-

eral ministers were not doing anything tostop the corruption. Like so many Pak-istani citizens, I was sure our federalministers would also be worried aboutthe sad state of affairs of our nation.

I got my answer when it was reportedin the media that Pakistan not only has96 federal ministers, which is 200 per-cent more than the number of ministersin the Indian cabinet and 700 percentmore than the ministers in the Chinesecabinet, but also these 96 ministers havecost us (the citizens) 90 billion rupees inperks and privileges.

And to add insult to injury, these 96ministers include 24 such people havenot paid any taxes. Out of them, only twoministers had paid more then one mil-lion in taxes. It is important to mentionthat these 96 are the same people whoare responsible for our loadshedding (bynot paying IPPs), fake degree holdersand those who have sucked our govern-ment institutions like PIA, Railways,PSM etc dry with their corruption. Andto think that we, the citizens, paid morethen 90 billion rupees (almost one billionper minister) for their corrupt practices,it just lowers my head down in shame.

SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEERPeshawar

end dynastic politicsThe bond of family politics is quite

prominent in Pakistan. It has played avery important role in the past. In ademocracy, every individual has the rightto come forward and declare himself aleader. We don’t want to flourish the pat-terns of aristocracy and monarchy in ourcountry. The power must have a trickledown effect. When power will be in a fewhands, how can we get a proper demo-cratic culture?

In Pakistan, most of the political par-ties are continuing with the same policyof family politics. They don’t want to di-lute power down to the masses. The im-plementation of martial laws disturbeddemocratic process to get momentum.We always blame military for these acts,but the democratic governments haveplayed a key role in paving the path forthis interference.

This is the time when the course ofhistory can be changed. People are morevibrant and aware. Media is playing avery important role in updating the soci-ety. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) mustwork on different lines as the expecta-tions of the people are mounting day byday. PTI is a beacon of hope for all of us.The old style of doing politics must bebanished. This will open new horizonsfor our people where everybody will get achance to come forward.

MUHAMMAD UZAIR NIAZIIslamabad

A subjective analysis of the education systemIt is an open “secret” that the in-

equality in the education system haswidened substantially over the years inPakistan. The ever-increasing popularityof the international education systems atthe expense of the domestic structureshould be a matter of growing concernfor the people. The domestic educationsystem is in tatters with only nominal in-vestment provided to the sector, which ofcourse is not enough to create a highquality education system. Furthermore,there are curricula still prevalent in ma-triculation and FSc which have not beenrevised for almost an eternity. Thequandary is further compounded by thelaxity in checks and balances on invigila-tion staff and examiners.

The only alternative to domestic edu-cation is the British system of educationwhich includes CIE, Edexcel, ACCA andother related qualifications endorsed bythe British Council. Excellence in educa-tion has been considered to be its para-mount advantage and perhaps the solereason why many parents are inclined to-wards enrolling their children in thisBritish education system.

However, have we ever even consid-ered the possible drawbacks of Britisheducation? A student spends roughly halfa million on financing British education.Mind you, this includes only the paperfee and private tuition fee associated withit, and not the school fees. Isn’t it a sub-stantial amount for your secondary and

high school education? Are we gettingthe value for money?

Frankly speaking, I think not. The pu-rity of learning is compromised and weare just throwing money, taking expensivepapers and costly private tuitions. Hardlyany of us value schooling. Rather, stu-dents prefer to sit back at home and justconcentrate on clearing exams, and to behonest, this is what the society demands.Hence, the enrichment process of school-ing that once existed is no more in place.

The flow of capital through this sys-tem drains our foreign reserves. Al-though it probably does provideemployment opportunities, but, lookingat the other side of the picture, thisprocess gives rise to easy money making.

In the past five-six years, we have seenthe emergence of high-priced private tu-ition instructors. Believe me, there aresome that charge as much as ten thou-sand rupees per month for a single sub-ject and students usually opt for four tofive subjects in A Levels.

Considering all these factors, should-n’t the government concentrate its focuson our education sector? Shouldn’t theycome out with a system of quality educa-tion that might replace the British sys-tem? Surely, this would ensureuniformity in the structure and would ap-peal to the masses, which certainly is notthe case with the British system.

BILAL MUHAMMAD KHANLUMS, Lahore

President zardari speaks upIt was a good show by the PPP at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on

the fourth death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto. PresidentZardari claimed that this was a show of trust by the people onthe PPP’s government even though many people were theresimply to pay homage to the Bhuttos who had sacrificed theirlives for democracy and Pakistan. I must say that PresidentZardari and company should realise the fact that people are fed

up of the PPP’s government. This is evident through tragic inci-dents of a number of protesters burning or trying to burn them-selves up, some even right in the premises of Garhi KhudaBakhsh mausoleum. The President should listen to what isbeing said, not what he is being informed of.

ZAHID RASHIDRawalakot, Azad Kashmir

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

Change is comingImran Khan and his team seem to

have gathered and successfully put inpractice some lessons of campaigningfrom other parts of the world.

The use of social media, anti-cor-ruption sloganeering and charging thecrowds with popular songs etc, have aspecific target and they are not amiss.While the presence of people of all agesand creed in PTI’s rallies so far also re-veal the healthy desire for a changeacross the society. However, this is pol-itics and like everywhere else it re-quires compromises, which may havetaken Imran some years to make an ad-justment to.

Then there are people who are dis-appointed from Imran's compromises,which range from having acceptedsame old politicians into his party'sfold and a vague agenda to an overt useof religion. PTI's slogans are for changebut these already tried horses justwon't make the finishing line for any-one who dispassionately analyses thesituation and keeps Pakistan’s historyin mind.

There may be another view of thesituation, however, which warrants ifnothing else then a willing suspensionof disbelief, for a while at least. First,one should not expect a dispassionateanalysis from the youth; so a reason oftheir eternal hopes and goals areequally met on passionate energy.

Secondly, the issue of corruption isa pulsating nerve for people across this

region, and if the ultimate leader of aparty is considered somewhat beyondit, then history seems to suggest that areason for hope may not be all thatmisplaced at least in this narrow con-text.

Other considerations are the tradi-tional makeup of the audience which isbeing addressed and only a slow andgradual pace of change in most soci-eties. Therefore, if the existing housesof power feel challenged and threat-ened by the breaches within theirranks, and are forced to reform theirways then this slow change may verywell be underway. Well, hopefully!

SHAHID SIDDIQIDubai, UAE

(II)With the joining of two big names

in politics – Mr Shah MehmoodQureshi from PPP and Mr JavedHashmi from the PML(N) – the politi-cal balance has shifted towards the PTI.The PPP because of their present fail-ure in providing good governance or re-lief to the ordinary people and PML(N)due to egoistic attitude of Sharif broth-ers , should be rightly worried in theupcoming elections.

The friendly opposition of PML(N)to keep the PPP running has led themto being disliked in the eyes of themasses. If Mr Nawaz was not againstthe PML(Q) (read Chaudhry brothers),he could have made an alliance withthem to easily oust the present govern-

ment two years ago. But that couldnever materialise and even today itseems to be the main hurdle in the uni-fication of Muslim Leagues.

Our main political leaders have avery impelling desire to become "em-perors with a dynasty". They are tryinghard to have their sons carved in astheir heir to the throne of Pakistan. Idon't think this desire will materialisedue to the current rise of politicalawareness of the people.

RASHID MAQSOODLahore

(III)A leader must have these three

qualities: honesty and integrity, selflessservice and vision, and competence tocarry out objectives to achieve goals.

Imran Khan is one of Pakistan’smost well known personalities world-wide. He shot to fame when he led Pak-istan to victory in cricket’s mostprestigious event, the World Cup in1992.

He retired from cricket and built amodern cancer hospital in memory ofhis late mother in Lahore, Pakistan.The hospital became a reality in a fewyears time and is treating the cancerpatients from all over the country.

The hospital is providing top of theline treatment to patients and is notcharging any money from the peoplewho cannot afford it. Imran Khan hasearned this respect with the honestyand integrity he has shown.

Namal University is another devel-opment project being set up by ImranKhan in a remote area of Pakistan toimpart quality education to studentswho cannot afford it. The university isaffiliated with prestigious universitiesin the UK. People now want him tocarry on with the good work. ImranKhan is not only a philanthropist but isalso a great leader.

Due to his leadership qualities andselfless public service, he has been ableto command respect of the young andurban middle class of the country.Imran Khan has impressed us with hisvision to make Pakistan a welfare stateby providing quality health care andworld class education to the deservingpeople. Imran Khan’s another objectiveis to provide justice to the downtrod-den people who have been denied jus-tice by the feudal class since long. Hispolitical party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has started galvanising the sup-port to change the rotten system. I feelthat if given a chance he will be able tomake a difference.

Imran Khan is a highly educatedperson with schooling from one of themost prestigious institutions in Pak-istan Aitchison College, Lahore and Ox-ford University in UK. His tours tovarious parts of the country have in-spired the downtrodden masses, espe-cially the youth, to bring change.

MUHAMMAD EMAD KHANLahore

PML(N)’s woesThis is in reference to the news re-

port ‘What does PML(N) need to survivePTI’s tsunami?’ that appeared in Pak-istan Today on 27 December. The sugges-tions provided all seem to have a better

effect on public in general but it is highlyimprobable that they will be employed bythe PML(N).

The Sharifs are too egoistical toadmit that the PTI is a reality and also towelcome back the members of PML(Q)who had left the party previously. They

have but no other option to give prefer-ence to the bureaucracy in Punjab be-cause the executive part of thegovernment is so strong that it has over-shadowed the legislature.

MUHAMMAD ASAD ALI ASLAMLahore

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Comment12Thursday, 29 December, 2011

Arif NizamiEditor

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

This is still our war

Come what may…

We were never at war with Eurasia. An Orwellianhaze surrounds the affairs of empire. When theUS FBI quietly removes Mullah Omar’s namefrom its list of most wanted terrorists,

presumably reflecting the Obama administration’s plan toreach out to the Taliban, a respected US magazine goes astep further and says he never was on the list. But that isn’tall; since there is a chance that the negotiations just mightfall through, he still remains on the State Department’s list ofmost wanted terrorists.

Do those words of caution before entering intoAfghanistan seem wishy-washy now? An evil and medievalista regime the Taliban might have been but they were not asintransigent on the issue of Osama bin Laden as waspandered to the world. And even if the decision to militarilyengage the Taliban was unavoidable – there are always gunsto be sold, after all – there could have been other ways todeal with the situation. There was advice from someAfghanistan watchers to the effect that the regime could, infact, be broken up by disconnecting the upper-middle andlower tiers from the apex council. But no, there was war, anall-out war, to be waged.

Here in Pakistan, there are bound to be smug faces in theusual quarters. They would see the American decision as avindication of their overall argument against the war onterror. It is a flawed framework of analysis, one that ispremised on the belief that our endeavours in the waragainst terror are exclusively at American behest. It is theelected government, both the federal and that of theviolence-hit KP province that feels this is our war to fight.

The Americans can afford to cut and run; we cannot. TheUS could not care less if the zealots create a fascist fiefdom inAfghanistan as long as they can thrash out a workingrelationship with them. Pakistan, on the other hand, needsto take care of her own. What transpires in Afghanistan isthe lot of the unfortunate Afghans; it would be immoral totry to change that. But we have to ensure that the people ofFata, KP and indeed the rest of Pakistan are accorded thesame freedoms that are envisioned in the constitution foreveryone. That we cannot do if the violent forces ofobscurantism are not dealt with.

There is more to it than meets the eye

Politics on memo issue

Interesting developments that raise uneasy questionstook place before the memo case was filed in theSupreme Court. DG ISI travelled to London to meetMansoor Ijaz on 22 October. On 24 October he

reported to the army chief that the sequence and contents oftext messages and telephone calls exchanged between Ijazand ambassador Haqqani created a reasonable doubt aboutthe latter’s association with the memo. The ISI chief,however, did not take the prime minister into confidence. AsHaqqani’s name had not appeared in the article written byIjaz in the Financial Times, the media was totally ignorantabout there being any possible connection between thememo and Haqqani. The opposition too had nothing to sayabout its alleged author. Interestingly, within a week of DGISI’s return, Imran Khan knew about it. Imran made this anissue during his address at Minar-e-Pakistan on 30 October.Imran in fact went a step further by accusing PresidentZardari of being the author of the memo while he describedHaqqani as being only a carrier. It is yet not known whopassed on the name to the PTI chief and for what purpose.

It is remarkable the way the PML(N) shifted its position.The issue was taken up in the National Assembly by thehotheaded PML(N) MNA Khwaja Asif on 7 November. Asifclaimed that the foot prints led to the Presidency and asedition case had to be registered. Some of the Oppositionleaders demanded a joint session of Parliament. Mian NawazSharif, however, called for an investigation committee toprobe the matter thoroughly. He wanted the committee tofinish the job in 10-15 days. In case the government failed todo this the matter, he said, would have to be taken to theSupreme Court. Days before the cut off date the partymysteriously shifted its position. While Ishaq Dar had toldthe Parliamentary Committee on National Security, “I willpush the committee members to take up the Memogate affairas well”, Mian Nawaz and Dar sent petitions to the SC to takeup the case and Dar maintained that the parliamentarycommittee was void of any constitutional cover.

Whatever else there may be in the memo, the issue hasbeen used by some of the players outside the SC to pursuetheir peculiar agendas.

The common people are suffering in Peshawar wherethey have exceedingly been troubled due to the traf-fic mess in the metropolitan city. Nothing has been

done so far to improve the traffic situation and nor doesthere seem to be any plan with even a slight seriousness ofpurpose in offing.

All the big routes are afflicted with traffic jams thattake hours to navigate and a simple ten-minute journey isoften prolonged into hours. Plying of ‘illegal’ vehicles isalso a matter of concern for both the public and the gov-ernment but the concerned authorities have so far beenunable to come up with a tangible solution to the problem.

Public quarters have been demanding time and againthat, along with developmental works in Peshawar, special

focus should be paid to the growing traffic mess as theproblem is worsening day by day.

Both the provincial government and the traffic policeauthorities have on occasion assured the public about animprovement in the situation but these assurances haveproved to be nothing but empty words. The improvementhas not materialised due to the apathy of the administra-tion. The people are urging the government not to issuehollow statements but to bring an improvement in the sit-uation on the ground. The authorities should curb illegalvehicles plying in Peshawar along with unauthorised busstands and encroachments. It is only these practical stepsthat will help the situation and bring some much-neededrelief to the commuters of the provincial metropolis.

– Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur RaufKhattak

Stuck on the roadDaily Khabroona

Regional Press

the return of the nativethe president and the PPP ain’t going nowhere

You couldn’t find adversaries likePresident Zardari’s even if youwanted to. With the resolve ofmountain, they blew hot air ru-mour balloons. Sometimes these

balloons popped, sometimes they deflated.But the opponents continue to be relentless.They keep huffing and puffing and releasingnew balloons into the political stratospherebelieving that these flaccid balloons can beused as dirigible target missiles aimed atPresident Zardari. Comfortable in theirdelusion, they keep issuing news releases.

Sometimes they say that the army is outto get President Zardari. At others, they sug-gest that America wants him out and at oth-ers that the party leadership is not happywith him. Even stories of tiffs between thepresident and prime minister are spun.These people spinning stories have also saidthat the president will meet his end by orderof the Supreme Court. These people aredelusional to an extent that they believethat, if not anything else, these doctored sto-ries might be the end of him.

Hence, they are convinced that they willsee the back of Zardari. The only question ishow. Will he walk out of the president houseon his own two feet? Will he be taken out inan ambulance? It is said that such self-delu-sions often die down when one is faced withthe uncomfortable truth. But one has to ap-preciate the persistence of these rumour-mongers. They are slapped again and againby the ignominy of defeat. Their ominouspredictions are always proved wrong buttheir dogged determination doesn’t falter.President Zardari is not being very kind tothese people by continuing in office for fouryears.

In the past few weeks, the president’sdetractors could almost taste sweet victory.The president suddenly got ill and went toDubai. Before leaving, he told his son Bi-lawal Bhutto that his presence in the coun-try should let their opponents know thatthey are not going to desert the country. De-spite that, the president’s adversaries kepttheir hopes alive. They built their edifices oflies on shifting sands. They had convincedthemselves that the president was not ill buthad been booted out. Others also said thathe wasn’t booted out but had ran off to savehimself from the fallout of the memo scan-dal. One politician even said on national tel-evision that something would happenwithin 72 hours. Those 72 hours passedmany times but nada. But that politician ex-hibited no blushes of embarrassment. An-other politician also said quite stubbornlythat Zardari would go directly to Londonfrom Dubai. He was asked three or four

days later that Zardari sb had not gone toLondon but he replied with confidence thathe had in fact reached London.

The president was rumoured to be suf-fering from every disease there is: paralysis,heart attack, blood pressure, nervous break-down, Bell’s palsy. Some even went twosteps ahead in their conjectures and saidthat he was undergoing speech therapy. Itshould be noted here that if this were indeedthe case, such speech therapy would takemonths. But President Zardari started call-ing meetings as soon as he returned andgave a speech on BB Shaheed’s death an-niversary. He spoke fluently and fervently.So much for these rumours and rumour-mongers! Even though the president stoodfit and fine before them, instead of backingdown in mortification, these people contin-ued obdurately. If these people aren’t back-ing down, so isn’t the president. As saidearlier, the president isn’t being kind to thepoor souls by constantly exposing them asshameful liars. Their own doctored lies arepunishment enough for these people.

Not just President Zardari but the PPPitself has been ‘unkind’ to its detractors in asimilar manner since its inception. Afterevery election, its opponent live on the hopethat its popularity will wane and it will haveto pack its bags and leave. Bhutto sb hadbeen in power for very little time when a fewgenerals and brigadiers got it into theirheads that they could take over. They werecaught. The opposition that Bhutto sb’s timewas up and he could be routed in the elec-tions. But Bhutto sb announced early elec-tions and the opposition started blowing thetrumpet of its own impending victory. Butthey spoke too soon. Come election time,the jiyalas came out with full force like a del-uge on the streets and Bhutto sb succeededwith more than a two-thirds majority. Hisopponents then started crying foul and thearmy ousted him and subsequently hangedhim.

The dictator Zia-ul-Haq unleashed allkinds of fury on the PPP and thought thatthis would mean obliteration of the party.When he formed constituent assembliesand thought he had assured his rule, Mo-htrama Benazir came back at that point. Thepaper ship of which Zia-ul-Haq believed to

be an indomitable vessel and thought ofhimself as its captain began to tear apart.The generals who were his heirs began tofear the return of the PPP. Thus, they spendbillions in creating a united front of a con-glomeration of parties. They spared no ef-fort in electoral rigging. They didn’t let thePPP get a decisive majority but also couldnot stop it from forming the government.That government was deposed before itcould complete even its third year. Theywaved their ‘magic wand’ in the next elec-tions to defeat the PPP but that wand failedin the subsequent elections and the PPPwon again.

During his tenure, Musharraf thoughtthey he could defeat the PPP by keeping Be-nazir Bhutto in exile but that did not work.PPP’s candidates won and some of themhad to be brought into the fold as ‘lotas’ toform the government. Later, in 2008’s elec-tion, PPP won the most seats despite thebest efforts of opponents. It has been run-ning the government successfully for almostfour years now. A few big rallies in the pastdays has again awoken the slumberingwishes of PPP’s detractors and they areagain convinced that the party’s popularityis rapidly declining. But President Zardarihas proved that decisively wrong by holdinga bigger rally than Lahore and Karachi in arural backwater of Sindh.

An entire generation has grown olddreaming dreams of seeing the PPP de-feated. But it is they who have been defeatedand the present generation of detractors willmeet the same fate. The PPP is the party ofthe poor and the downtrodden. They nei-ther read the papers nor watch the news.Their relationship with their leadership isthat of love and hope. The disaffectationscaused by the fissures of class have furtherstrengthened this relation. Till there ispoverty, there will be the PPP. And if anyparty can defeat poverty, it will also be thePPP. It might not be Zardari, but Bilawal,Bakhtawar, Aseefa might be able to takeBhutto sb’s dream to fruition. The dream ofseeing the prosperity of Pakistan’s poor anddowntrodden.

The writer is one of Pakistan’s mostwidely read columnists.

By Nazir Naji

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Page 13: E-paper PakistanToday ISB 29th December, 2011

Comment 13Thursday, 29 December, 2011

Pitfalls of selective politics

this and that

The setting of the sun just after the win-ter solstice has a numbing hue unlikethe brilliance of the summer. As yet an-

other year shuts its front door the wondersand, of course, fears of the future preoccupyour thoughts. But only momentarily. The prosand cons of the immediate past continue tocast shadows in the fading light.

Pakistan’s achievements during the cur-rent year have been more notorious thanprestigious. Aided by the mega high-profilediscovery of OBL. The majority of the worldtook pleasure at our plight, having brandedus as a nation of terrorists for time immemo-rial or so it would seem. Engulfed by embar-rassment the government in its various formsattempted nonsensical defence.

American pressure increased, as did theactivity of NATO forces on and within thePakistan border. Simultaneously, resentmentwithin Pakistan increased too. The love affairteetered; continues to totter. A sudden up-surge of political dissent and activity ensued.Demonstrations, marches, investigations, ac-cusations, legal references have overwhelmedthe country since then. Things are at a com-plete halt. Change is on the anvil. If one is tobelieve the electronic media!

In this backdrop comes the “tsunami”.The word has a terribly negative connotationand gives immediate rise to intense publicfear, especially in a coastal city. It wasn’t longthat Asia was terrorised by one leaving mil-lions in disarray. A vast number continue to

suffer. It’s a phrase that can only beused at a close to completely illiter-ate and emotion-filled population.Despite the author’s feeble at-tempts at adding nuance to theterm, it to embrace the ‘figurative’definition stated in the Oxford Dic-tionary it is undeniably a negativenoun.

For one, natural tsunamis arenot and can never be willed by hu-mans. Figurative ones? Well, dra-matic maybe but lacking substance.For me it’s a negative, so let’s put itaside. We need to sense and see thepositive.

Yes, there is no doubt in mymind that Pakistan is ready forchange. What the politicians couldnot do for the country over sixdecades, evolution has. The awak-ening of the media and civil societyhas rearranged the goalposts. Themovement causing Musharraf’souster and subsequently com-pelling restoration of the chief jus-tice by his unwilling successors laidthe foundations for change. Butchange is a slow, and at times reluc-tant, phenomenon. It invokes infi-nite patience.

A review of the three preceding

years reveals precious little had been learnedin terms of governance. And definitely noth-ing in the conduct of national politics. Every-thing was a repeat of the past. Except for onedistinctive aspect. Not a single act of politicalvengeance can be attributed to PresidentZardari during this period. In fact not evendefamatory, personal verbal attacks on hisopponents; despite enormous provocationand personal attacks. Surprisingly, his re-sponse has always been conciliatory.

But it has to go beyond the smile. Perhapsthe fact that Pakistan is in transition, perhapsthat nature has been unkind, perhaps the rot-ting of a multitude of long festering negatives,has denied the delivery sought by the nation.Whatever the reasons, there is serious discon-tentment. Be that as it may, emotional out-bursts, rhetoric and a magazine full of spentbullets on a single platform will not solve theproblems.

Politicians and all stakeholders in govern-ment and the military will need to change.The people have changed. It will no longer bethat easy to do things as in the past. Today’sfog of accountability will change into thun-derclouds and hang persistently over theheads of those who don’t play fair and clean.There are some who will argue this. They willask tauntingly, “what happened to the mediawhen Musharraf shut it down on that fatefulNovember 3?” Ok that happened then, it canagain today, but not with the same ease.

The place for change is at the top. A newsocial contract needs to be signed. This time,the population will be a stakeholder, along-side the political, military and bureaucraticleadership. Those in or aspiring to office mustthink along these lines. Open closed, suspi-cious minds and share everything, the goodand the bad, with the people.

Bad habits die hard. Sadly those whohave governed this country have acquiredevery possible one, making them endemic.The majority of people I meet believe thatImran would have done well to allow a newleadership to help him sweep the polls ratherthan open the door to extinguished geriatrics.

Let’s for a moment accept the PTI versionof acquiring ‘electable’ candidates. Thatworks only if elections are held withinmonths. Since it’s the constitutional prerog-ative of the government of the day, let us as-sume elections are held on schedule, inthirteen months. Imran may discover a yearof hard campaigning has yielded a number ofbright sparks. What then? Will he dump thisliability he has incurred around his neck likea noose? It will be a nightmare.

In fact, all need to be wary. The promisesmade today will need to be kept. The peoplewill not forgive broken promises. It will onlydelay the inevitable. Whatever that may be.

The writer may be contacted via e-mailat [email protected]

everyone’s a stakeholder

ready for change

Random thoughtsBy Imran Husain

Maybe Heraclitus was re-ferring to politics whenhe said that there is

nothing permanent exceptchange. For in politics, carefullystructured ideologies and princi-ples built thereupon can changein a jiffy. Principles only endureas long as they serve their pur-pose. With years of practice, ourpoliticians have gotten shrewderat picking principles and have ex-pertly selected populist ones.From roti, kapra aur makan toending corruption, all are more ofa sloganeering exercise than anactual representation of the ideol-ogy behind them.

How and why a politicianchooses a populist line to follow isas much of a moot point as is howhe conveniently forgets, or ig-nores, the other important ones.This practice of selectivity andomission is actually what hasmade these parties lose support intheir traditional strongholds, andgain some from others. PML(N)has alienated much of its ultraconservative rightist votebank,and to some extent the centre-right too, with their newfoundmantra of anti-establishment sen-timents. PPP has done the samewith its central Sindh and southPunjab votebanks with its ar-guably objectionable policies onintra-party politics and its consis-tent support for an unpopular warinside and outside our borders.

The assumption that politi-cians practise their art for thesake of art is seriously flawed; forin every person, there is an almostinstinctual need to cater to hispersonal needs before anythingelse. So we cannot deny that thereis an element of self-preservationin politicians choosing their slo-gan. But the actual act of choosingor ignoring an issue is a tricky

one; after all, it could become apitfall for the very politician whois so keen on it. For instance,turning a blind eye to the existen-tial threat posed by the Taliban isa matter of political convenienceand choice, not a far-reaching pol-icy decision.

Most of the political parties inPakistan, including the majorones – PPP and PML(N), have de-veloped a certain course of actionthat they follow on almost everyissue. For matters democratic innature, PPP would brag about itssacrifices, struggle and suffering.The PML(N) has a tendency tocapitalise on public sentimentafter an issue has gained enough

momentum; they start rattlingtheir sabres and roar at everyonethat dare stands in their way.While Bhutto’s party is eager totake a stand against the establish-ment, the Sharifs are (or were)more at home in its lap. Recentlythough, to their credit the N-League has changed its stanceabout military intervention in pol-itics whereas the PPP seems tohave cozied up to the very forcesthat it once considered its eternalenemies.

This role reversal in theseparties’ traditional approach hasforced them to practice their artonly on selective issues. Side-tracked by their personal agen-das, both parties are no more trueto what once they stood for. Iftaken with a pinch of salt, thisstrategy is not as bad as it soundsas no realpolitik is possible with-out such ideological somersaults.What could really matter to themis the fear of losing their vote-bank. A diminishing votebank isbound to cause some stir among

the political leadership. But thedynamics of how votebankschange have so many variables,making it impossible to pin thechanges on specific U-turnsalone. At least rural politics,which for the major parties ismore crucial as voter turnout inrural areas is greater than urbanareas, shows little signs of chang-ing due to their leaders’ changingpolitical stance.

Buoyed by the success of theirrepetitive about turns without anybacklash from their constituents,politicians have started takingthem for granted. Offering no al-ternatives to the problems facedby the public, they usually give in

and opt for the more opportunis-tic politics of criticising the onesin power.

However, playing selectivepolitics is a dangerous slope forthe political parties that fail totake into account a changing po-litical landscape such as ours. Insuch a changing landscape, it isnot just the public that is moreaware of its role and responsibili-ties regarding its participation inrepresentative politics – for whichthe lawyers movement must begiven due credit – but other fac-tors are important too. Some ofthese are new entrants in the po-litical arena like Imran Khan, anactively critical media, and pres-sure from the international donoragencies to clean up our gover-nance and economic mess.

It is factors such as these thathave wrangled away the manoeu-vring space out of politicians’ con-trol, bit by bit. If they keeptreading the same path, they justmight become a victim of Heracli-tus’ famous quote.

By Sajid Khan Lodhy

With years of practice, our politicians

have gotten shrewder at picking

principles and have expertly selected

populist ones. from roti, kapra aur

makan to ending corruption, all are

more of a sloganeering exercise than

an actual representation of the

ideology behind them.

ISB 29-12-2011_Layout 1 12/29/2011 1:55 AM Page 13

Page 14: E-paper PakistanToday ISB 29th December, 2011

Thursday, 29 December, 2011

14 Foreign News

SEoULAfP

TENS of thousands of weepingNorth Koreans bade farewellWednesday to longtime leaderKim Jong-Il as his young sonand successor walked beside

his father’s coffin through a snowboundPyongyang. Kim Jong-Un was at the fore-front of the three-hour procession, in whatanalysts said was an attempt to bolster theimage of the untested new leader of theimpoverished but nuclear-armed nation.

The cortege started and ended its 40kilometres (25 miles) journey at theKumsusan Memorial Palace, where thelate strongman’s body had lain in state ina glass coffin. Preceded by a car bearing ahuge portrait of a smiling Kim and othervehicles, a limousine carried Kim’s coffin-- draped with a red ruling party flag andsurrounded by white flowers -- on its roof.

Jong-Un, dressed in black and glove-less despite the cold, held the side of hisfather’s hearse, accompanied by his influ-ential uncle Jang Song-Thaek and otherofficials. “We have paraded here to bidfarewell to our respected supreme com-mander,” the head of a military honourguard said in a tearful voice, before a 21-gun salute was fired at the end of the cer-emony. Goose-stepping soldiers carryingdozens of party and military flags marchedin salute to Jong-Un and senior officials.

Kim Jong-Il’s absolute 17-year rule

was marked by a 1990s famine that killedhundreds of thousands, a crumblingstate-directed economy and the pursuit ofmissiles and nuclear weapons whichbrought international sanctions.

UN agencies have said six millionpeople -- a quarter of the population --still urgently need food aid.

But vast crowds of shivering soldiersand civilians, many weeping bitterly orbeating the frozen ground, were seen onstate television lining the route or parad-ing outside the palace. “The people bidfarewell to father General in great sor-row,” read the main headline in rulingparty newspaper Rodong Sinmun.

“The most heartbreaking time hascome, when we cannot but bid farewell tothe great father everyone in this land hadfollowed with their hearts and souls.”

Millions of servicemen and civilianswere “firmly determined to become theguns and bombs to protect our dear com-rade Kim Jong-Un and the warriors to re-alise his ideals and intentions”.

Kim gave North Korea dignity as acountry “that manufactured andlaunched artificial satellites and accessednukes”, the paper’s editorial said.

Since the elder Kim died of a heart at-tack on December 17 aged 69, the North’spropaganda machine has been heapingtributes on both him and Jong-Un, agedin his late 20s. Official media has de-clared Jong-Un the “great successor” andchief of the ruling party and military.

North Korea bids wintry mass farewell to late leaderg Funeral gives clues to power in secretive Pyongyang

CAIRoAfP

The murder trial of Egypt’s formerpresident Hosni Mubarak resumedWednesday after a three-month hia-tus that saw the ousted strongman’sfate eclipsed by deadly clashes andan Islamist election victory.

Mubarak risks the death sen-tence if he is found to have beencomplicit in the killings of some 850people who died during protests thatoverthrew him in February.

The ailing former president, 83,arrived by ambulance at the Police

Academy -- which once bore hisname -- and was wheeled out bystretcher into the courthouse.

Around 5,000 policemen weredeployed to secure the trial at theacademy in the outskirts of Cairo, incoordination with the army.

Mubarak’s two sons Alaa andGamal, his former interior ministerHabib al-Adly and six former securitychiefs, defendants in the same case,were also in court.

Judge Ahmed Refaat heard state-ments from lawyers for both sides, be-fore adjourning the hearing toJanuary 2, an AFP correspondent

said. Outside the courthouse, sev-eral pro-Mubarak supporters heldbanners of the former president,while families of the victims thatdied in protests carried pictures oftheir deceased relatives.

“The trial is a sham and the gangstill rules,” the families chanted.

“We removed Mubarak, we gotHussein. To hell with both of them,”they shouted in reference to FieldMarshal Hussein Tantawi,Mubarak’s longtime defence minis-ter who is now running the country.

The trial came to a halt whenlawyers asked that judge Refaat be

replaced, a request that was subse-quently rejected on December 7.

Mubarak’s first hearing on August3 was broadcast live on television, butRefaat soon ordered the cameras out.

The judge drew the ire of lawyersrepresenting Mubarak’s alleged vic-tims after he issued a media gag orderon testimony by high-profile wit-nesses, including Tantawi.

In statements after his testimony,Tantawi said Mubarak had never or-dered the shooting of protesters.

Mubarak is the first leader to betoppled in the so-called Arab Springuprisings to appear before a court.

Mubarak trial resumes after three-month break

Putin rejects acting

president role ahead

of March voteMoSCoW

AfP

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putinon Wednesday rejected the idea of be-coming acting head of state ahead ofMarch 4 presidential elections where heis the favourite. In his latest defiantbrush-off of the protest movement thathas rocked Russia ahead of the presi-dential polls, Putin also dismissed hisopponents as lacking any programme orrepresentatives with whom to hold dia-logue. “We have not discussed this,”news agencies quoted Putin as sayingfollowing speculation that he could giveup his post as prime minister and takeon the job of president to get a full gripon Russia amid the protest wave. “Thereis no need for this,” Putin said. Someanalysts and media had suggested thatPutin might be taking on PresidentDmitry Medvedev’s role imminently,after agreeing to a plan earlier this yearthat would see the two allies swap jobsafter the elections. Putin also said thathe had no intention of giving up his postas prime minister ahead of the electionsto meet what some analysts claim is aconstitutional requirement to ensure alevel playing field in the campaign. “Ilike this work,” Putin told Russian re-porters. “It is very concrete. The gov-ernment bears responsibility in thearea of the country’s economic policies.It is directly responsible,” Putin said.Putin insisted he was in favour of dia-logue with the Russian protest move-ment but said this was complicated bytheir lack of a platform or a leader.

MUMBAIAfP

Indian anti-corruption activist AnnaHazare on Wednesday called off hislatest hunger strike but vowed to stepup his campaign to turn voters againstthe “traitors” in the ruling party andgovernment. The 74-year-old’s warn-ing came after the lower house of par-liament passed a contentious bill totackle top-level graft, amid widespreaddisquiet at scandals including minis-ters and senior officials.

Hazare only began what wasbilled as a three-day fast in the finan-cial capital Mumbai on Tuesday. Hehas been laid low with a virus sincethe weekend and heeded the advice ofdoctors to bring the protest to a pre-mature end.

“Today I will break the fast,” hetold a smaller-than-expected crowd ofseveral thousand supporters at thevenue for the protest. “We will discussthe future strategy to launch our fightagainst corruption.”

The lacklustre response to his latestfast has raised speculation that he is notthe force he appeared to be earlier in theyear when he marshalled tens of thou-sands during a 12-day hunger strike inNew Delhi in August.

In a sign of his increasingly bitterbattle with the ruling Congress partyand the administration of Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh, he said hewould tour five states holding elec-tions next year to educate voters aboutcorruption. “We will tour all the fivestates and ask people not to vote forthe traitors of this country,” he said,

adding that he would organise furtherprotests in the capital on December 30and January 1-2. The Lokpal, or om-budsman, bill has has become a po-litical albatross around the neck ofPrime Minister Manmohan Singh’scoalition government.

The bill, creating an ombudsman toprobe graft among senior politiciansand civil servants, cleared its first hur-dle in the lower house of parliament late

on Tuesday after a fractious debate.What form the legislation will take

has dominated the political agenda formonths, piling pressure on Singh’s ad-ministration already under pressureover a series of high-profile corruptionscandals. The government had to re-draft an earlier version in the wake ofmass protests across the country in Au-gust, spearheaded by Hazare, whoclaimed the new law would be toothless

and do nothing to curb endemic graft.Hazare and opposition parties op-

posed the re-draft on the same grounds.Despite the early end to his hunger

strike, Hazare said he would continue tofight what he claimed was a governmentthat was “acting like a dictator”.

“If this continues, what can we do?We have to save the country. Every oneof you should be ready to go to jail,” hetold supporters.

Indian anti-graft campaigner ends fast, vows to fight on

PYONGYANG: this tV grab taken from North Korean tV on Wednesday shows Kim Jong-un(c) walking besides the convoy carrying the body

of his father and late leader Kim Jong-il at Kumsusan Memorial Palace. afP

Bomb kills three NATO

troops in AfghanistanKAbUL: A roadside bomb attack killed threeNATO troops in eastern Afghanistan, one of thedeadliest flashpoints in the 10-year war againstTaliban insurgents, the military said Wednesday.NATO’s US-led International Security AssistanceForce (ISAF) did not release the nationalities ofthe troops or give further details of the incident,which happened on Tuesday. The deaths take to561 the number of foreign troops killed inAfghanistan so far this year, according to an AFPtally based on figures from independent websiteiCasualties.org. A total of 711 foreign troops werekilled in Afghanistan last year, the highest annualtotal since the US-led invasion in 2001 ousted theTaliban from power. AfP

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Page 15: E-paper PakistanToday ISB 29th December, 2011

Foreign News 15Thursday, 29 December, 2011

DAMASCUSAfP

ARAB League observersheaded Wednesday tomore key protests hubs inSyria as world powersurged Damascus to give

them full access as they try to reveal thetruth about a crackdown on dissent.

More bloodshed was also reportedas army defectors killed at least fourSyrian soldiers in the southern provinceof Daraa, and a civilian was shot dead inHoms, the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights reported.

Accusations that the regime was try-ing hide the facts from the monitors werepunctuated by France, which claimed theteam was not being allowed to see whatwas happening in the flashpoint city ofHoms as repression continued there. Themonitors were due to visit Daraa -- cradleof more than nine months of anti-regimeprotests -- the northern provinces ofHama and Idlib, and around Damascusto pursue their investigations.

“As of Wednesday evening, andfrom Thursday at dawn, the observerswill deploy in Idlib and Hama and inDaraa,” mission chief General Mo-

hammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi toldAFP. Dabi, a veteran Sudanese militaryintelligence officer, said observerswould also fan out 50-80 kilometres(30-50 miles) around Damascus.

The observers arrived in Syria at theweekend and on Tuesday visited theHoms, which has been besieged by gov-ernment troops for several months.

Dabi said the visit to Homs had been“good”, and that he was heading backthere on Wednesday. He said more ob-servers would join the mission, whichnow numbers 66 monitors. French for-eign ministry spokesman Bernard Valerosaid the visit had been too brief and in-sufficiently revealing. “A few Arab Leagueobservers were able to be briefly presentin Homs yesterday. Their presence didnot prevent the continuing of the bloodycrackdown in this city, where largedemonstrations were violently repressed,leaving about 10 dead,” he said. “Thebrevity of their visit did not allow them tounderstand the reality of the situation inHoms. The Arab League observers mustbe allowed to return without delay to thismartyr city, to travel everywhere in itfreely and to have the necessary contactwith the public.” The mission is part of anArab plan endorsed by Syria on Novem-

ber 2 that calls for the withdrawal of se-curity forces from towns and residentialdistricts, a halt to violence against civil-ians and the release of detainees. Valerosaid “the international community will bereassured when the violence has stopped,when the army had returned to barracks,when the political prisoners are freed andwhen foreign journalists will receive visasto go to Syria.”

Activists say the army pulled backheavy armour from the restive Homsneighbourhood of Baba Amro ahead ofTuesday’s visit by the monitors, accus-ing the regime of deception. RussianForeign Minister Sergei Lavrov urgedSyria to give the observers maximumfreedom as they go about their mission.

“We constantly work with the Syr-ian leadership calling on it to fully co-operate with observers from the ArabLeague and to create work conditionsthat are as comfortable and free as pos-sible,” Lavrov said Wednesday. TheUnited States and Human Rights Watchwarned Damascus was hindering themission which started following weeksof prevarication from Syria.

HRW accused the Syrian authoritiesof having “transferred perhaps hun-dreds of detainees to off-limits military

sites to hide them from Arab monitors.“The Arab League should insist on

full access to all Syrian sites used for de-tention, consistent with its agreementwith the Syrian government,” thewatchdog said. State Departmentdeputy spokesman Mark Toner said “weobviously look to these individuals to beintrepid in their search for the truth ofwhat’s happening on the ground.”

The United States “would ... de-mand that the Syrian authorities allowthem full access to the Syrian people inorder to carry out their mission.”

Syrian foreign ministry spokesmanJihad Makdisi has said the “mission hasfreedom of movement in line with theprotocol” Syria signed with the ArabLeague. But the observers are bannedfrom sensitive military sites.

On Wednesday, Syria freed 755prisoners who had been involved inanti-regime unrest but have “no bloodon their hands,” state television said.

In November, authorities said theyfreed more than 4,300 detainees.

But there was more bloodshedWednesday as mutinous soldiers am-bushed a convoy killing at least four loy-alist troops and wounding 12 in Daraaprovince, said the Observatory.

Syria urged to give observers free handg Damascus frees 755 prisoners involved in anti-regime unrest but had ‘no blood on their hands’

ABUJAAfP

The bomb exploded as Esther Ibu walkedout of the church, her five-month-old sonin her arms, the power of the blast throw-ing her and the boy to the ground andleaving death all around her.

“Before I knew it, I started seeingdead bodies, people burning into ashes,”the woman in her 30s said, sobbing asshe sat in a wheelchair at a hospital in thecapital holding her son and waiting to bex-rayed, her right leg bandaged.

Nigeria was hit by a wave of attacks

on Christmas blamed on Islamist groupBoko Haram that left at least 40 peopledead, but it was the horrific bombing at achurch near Abuja that has especiallysent reverberations across the country.

Fears have been raised over the po-tential for fresh sectarian clashes inAfrica’s most populous nation and largestoil producer, roughly divided between amainly Muslim north and predominatelyChristian south.

Nigeria’s leaders have since beenseeking to calm tensions, urging Chris-tians not to retaliate, but authorities’seeming inability to stop Boko Haram de-

spite heavy-handed military crackdownshas led to deep frustration.

An attack on Tuesday night raisedfurther fears, with a bomb tossed into anArabic and Koranic school in southernNigeria’s Delta state, wounding sevenpeople, most of them children betweenfive and eight years old.

The attack at St. Theresa CatholicChurch in Madalla outside Abuja oc-curred as Christmas morning serviceswere ending. It left a gruesome scene,with body parts littering the ground andsome of the wounded rushing toward apriest for last rites. At least 35 were killed

there and another 52 wounded, emer-gency officials have said.

Chukwueke Ajuwe, 30, saw his head,legs and one of his hands badly burnt inthe explosion. “After the service, I cameout and was facing the church and sud-denly I heard a deafening sound,” he saidwhile lying on a bed in the hospital’semergency unit, unbandaged despite ob-vious burns to his body.

“I was standing, but somehow Ifound myself under a burning car. Mylegs were burning. I tried to move awayfrom there. I couldn’t and I was justshouting, ‘Jesus! Jesus!’“ He said he was

eventually able to move his right leg. “Isupported it with the other left hand andmy shoe pulled off,” said Ajuwe. “I thenran away.” Esther Ibu said she had leftthe church and was waiting outside forher father to pick her up. “We heard avery loud sound. I found myself on theground and my son was out of my hand,”she said, pausing as she sobbed. “It wasby the grace of God that I stood up, andI was like somebody that is drunk, and Iwas looking for my son Isaac.”

She said she managed to find himnearby shortly afterward. He was some-how not seriously wounded.

Victims describe horror of church attack that shook nigeria

Four arrested after

indian student shot

dead in BritainLoNDoN

AfP

British police on Wednesday arrested afourth person on suspicion of shooting deadan Indian student in Manchester in north-west England. Greater Manchester Policesaid they had detained the man on suspicionof murdering 23-year-old Anuj Bidve, whowas shot in the head at close range on Mon-day. A 16-year-old boy, a 17-year-old boyand a man were earlier arrested over theshooting on Tuesday. All four are now incustody. Bidve, from the western Indian cityof Pune, was killed as he walked with friendsfrom his hotel in Salford, an area to the westof Manchester, towards the city centre.“There is obviously speculation about whythis young man was killed,” senior police of-ficer Kevin Mulligan said on Tuesday in re-sponse to claims the murder may have beenracially motivated. “But at this stage itwould be wrong to rule anything out or com-ment on that speculation while the investi-gation is in its infancy.” In a statementissued through Manchester police, Bidve’sfamily said his death had left “a Bidve, apostgraduate micro-electronics student atLancaster University, around 40 miles (60kilometres) from Manchester, was enjoyinga short break in the north-western city witheight Indian friends.

cAiRO: A supporter of former president hosni Mubarak shouts slogans as she and others gather outside the

Police Academy where his trial is being held on the outskirts of cairo on Wednesday. afP

Jordanians charged over

speaking toy gunsAMMAN

AfP

The owners of a Jordanian company havebeen charged with inciting sectarian strifefor importing toy guns with voices that “in-sult one of the Prophet Mohammed’s(PBUH) wives”, a judicial official saidWednesday. “Prosecutors in Ammancharged the importers on Tuesday with in-citing sectarian strife and sent them to thestate security court over charges of insultingthe prophet’s wife,” the official told AFP,without elaborating on the origin of the toy.Local news reports said “authorities confis-cated the toys in a shop in the southern cityof Karak after complaints from citizens.”Prominent MP Khalil Attieh has demandedthat Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh inves-tigate “this heinous crime.”

eu to pursue Iransanctions despitethreat of strait closure

BRUSSELSAfP

The European Union is pressing ahead with plans to im-pose new sanctions on Iran, an EU spokesman saidWednesday after Tehran threatened to close a vital oil tran-sit channel in response to Western measures.“The European Union is considering another set of sanc-tions against Iran and we continue to do that,” MichaelMann, spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief CatherineAshton, told AFP. “We expect the decision will be taken intime for the foreign affairs council on January 30,” he said,referring to the next meeting of EU foreign ministers inBrussels. Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimiwarned on Tuesday that “not a drop of oil will pass throughthe Strait of Hormuz” if the West broadened sanctionsagainst Iran over its nuclear programme. The United Statesand the 27-nation EU are considering new sanctions aimedat Iran’s oil and financial sectors. But EU governmentshave been divided over whether to impose an embargo onIranian crude. Oil from Iran in 2010 amounted to 5.8 per-cent of total EU imports, making Tehran the bloc’s fifth-largest supplier after Russia, Norway, Libya and SaudiArabia. Spain represents 14.6 percent of Iranian oil importsto Europe, Greece 14.0 and Italy 13.1 percent. More than athird of the world’s tanker-borne oil passes through theStrait of Hormuz, linking the Gulf -- and its petroleum-ex-porting states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia andthe United Arab Emirates -- to the Indian Ocean. TheUnited States maintains a navy presence in the Gulf in largepart to ensure that passage for oil remains free. NATO offi-cials declined to comment on the Iranian threat.

ISB 29-12-2011_Layout 1 12/29/2011 1:55 AM Page 15

Page 16: E-paper PakistanToday ISB 29th December, 2011

16 Thursday, 29 December, 2011

SOCIETY

LAHOre: Saim Dada celebrated herbirthday with family and friends.

Photographer: Murtaza Ali

MUMBAIAGeNcieS

After Pakistani actor Ali Zafar, anotherchocolate face actor from Pakistan, ImranAbbas, will soon be making his debut in aBollywood movie. Born in Islamabad, anarchitect by profession, acting was never aplanned career option for him. Imran says,“While I was studying in college I startedgetting modelling offers and then soon gotoffers to do TV serials and shows. I didsome popular Pakistani TV serials withsome leading Pakistan actors like Meera,

Humaima Malik and so on. It was only afterthat people started recognising me and ap-preciated my acting skills. Soon I realisedthat I should get into acting seriously.” Butwhy did he opt for Bollywood movies andnot Pakistan movies? “Pakistan film indus-try main kuch khaas kuch nahi ho raha hai.People in Pakistan have grown up watchingBollywood movies and so have I. It has al-ways been my dream of acting in Bollywoodmovies than acting in Pakistan movies. Sofinally when I got the offer to do a Bolly-wood film I just couldn’t refuse it.” He fur-ther continues, “I shall be making my debutwith Akshay Kumar in his next upcomingmovie. The shooting will start from nextyear in month of April. It is an action-thriller movie. It’s a great opportunity forme to act with such a great actor. I shall beundergoing a lot of training before theshooting of movie begins. I will have totrain in dancing, fighting and many otherthings.” When asked about Pakistani actorsbeing roped into Indian reality TV showsand movies, Imran comments, “Yes, thereare lot of artists from Pakistan who are en-tering Bollywood. It’s a good sign and thiswill bring harmony and peace between bothcountries. Bollywood is a huge industry andit’s a great challenge for me and I shall tryto prove my best. I feel proud to see that AliZafar and Rahatji are so popular and ad-mired by all here in India.” When we askedhim about his view about Veena he added,“I think it was a very cheap publicity stunt.It was embarrassing to read all that newsabout Veena. I think at the end of the day ifsomeone has to prove himself or herself ithas to be through their good work.”

Imran Abbasall set to debutin Bollywood

LoS ANgELESAGeNcieS

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has revealedthat she has been working on a script for amovie about Afghanistan but she is not veryconfident about it as of now. “I don’t even think it’s good. Maybe I’ll dig it out, but Idon’t have the confidence yet to start even thinking in that way,” femalefirst.co.ukquoted her as saying. The 36-year-old, stepped behind the camera to make her direc-torial debut ‘In The Land Of Blood And Honey’, a film she wrote herself about a ro-mance between a Serbian soldier and a Bosnian woman. It has been nominated for aGolden Globe Awards this year and also won a Producer’s Guild award.

After bosnia, Jolieto make movie onAfghanistan

lONDON: A vending machine that gives out free

puddings to adults, but none to children sounds

like something dreamed up by roald Dahl. But

the iSample machine, a collaboration between

Kraft and intel, is designed to do exactly that -

and is currently under trial in Chicago and New

york. The machine uses a biometric scanner to

‘read’ the age and gender of people standing in

front of it, and will serve adults, but refuse chil-

dren. The two machines are on trial in Chicago’s

Shedd Aquarium and New york’s South Street

Seaport. The iSample is designed to offer free

samples of Kraft’s new Temptations jelly - a

dessert marketed at adults. it’s clearly a

promotional tool - but the biometric

technology behind it is serious, and al-

ready under test by companies such as

gillette. The scanner uses biometric data

to ‘guess’ the age of people standing in front

of it, dividing adults into four ‘age brackets’.

Other software has already been shown to

be able to ‘guess’ ages to an accuracy of

around five years. MAil

iSample:that refuses dessertto children

vending machine

MuMbAi: Bipasha Basu, while promoting ‘Players’,

was asked what the bombshell felt about the fact

that someone who was rather close to her (read:

John Abraham) deciding to get hitched next year.

Pat came the reply, “Nobody close to me is getting

married. if somebody close to me does get

married, i’ll just wish him luck, that’s it. There

is nothing more to it.” what about herself? is

she planning to tie the knot anytime soon?

She nonchalantly answered, “Aap ladka

dhoondo na. Main shaadi ke liye taiyar

hoon, par ladka toh dhoondon pehle.” Bips

feels that nobody from the current Bolly

lot flutters her heart (rana Daggubati, are

you hearing?). “why does he have to be from

Bollywood? A handsome man, with a great

sense of humour is all that i want.” Bips wants

to be able to lie well in 2012 and yes, that’s a

resolution she’s hoping to keep. Lie? “i have failed

miserably last year. in the coming year, i just want to

be a good liar”. Ahem, we say! AGeNcieS

I just wantto be a good liar,says Bipasha Basu

lONDON: Katy Perry and russell Brand spent

Christmas 7,000 miles apart. The ‘Last Friday

Night’ singer went to Hawaii for a vacation in a pri-

vate villa with friends, while the comic actor spent

December 25 in Cornwall, South west england.

russell, 36, had lunch in a pub in Coverack village

and then attended his comedian friend David Bad-

diel’s charity swim where he was mobbed by fans

and happily posed for pictures. The 27-year-old pop

star was spotted surfing and frolicking in the sea

and on the beach with friends. The couple’s deci-

sion to spend the festive season apart has ignited

rumours that their 14-month marriage is in trouble.

However, russell has previously insisted he and

Katy are very happily married and intend to stay

together “until death do us apart”. earlier this

month, the ‘Arthur’ star said: “There are always ru-

mours, aren’t there? in the end you have to just not

engage with internet technology. i’ve treated the

whole internet now like it’s a wicked little liar. i am

really happily married… i’m married to Katy. Per-

petually, ‘until death do us part’ was the pledge -

and i’m still alive.” AGeNcieS

spend X-mas apart,ignite marriagetrouble rumours

Katy-Russell

ISB 29-12-2011_Layout 1 12/29/2011 1:55 AM Page 16

Page 17: E-paper PakistanToday ISB 29th December, 2011

lOS ANGeleS: People magazine has

confirmed that the publication cover that

appeared on the internet claiming that

Taylor Lautner has admitted he is a gay is

a hoax. The cyber world went abuzz when

what appeared to be a genuine People

magazine cover emerged which showed the

actor announcing that he’s “out and proud”.

According to the website gossip Cop, a

spokesman for People had confirmed to

them that the cover is “absolutely fake”, the

Daily Mail reported. Many fans were fooled

by the faux magazine cover, which was

dated January 7, 2012. it used a fake quote

from Lautner, saying he is gay and “tired of

the rumours”. He was quoted as saying he

felt “more liberated, and happier than i’ve

ever been”. The actor had earlier denied

being gay in an interview in the November

issue of gQ Australia. AGeNcieS

17

MUMBAIAGeNcieS

SHAH Rukh Khan continues to bethe heartthrob of millions. In a re-cent exclusive interview, the megastar, who is basking over the gloryof his latest flick ‘Don 2’, shares

some facets of his life which were not in pub-lic domain so far.despite your action makeover, youcontinue to maintain your romanticimage. What is the message youwould like to convey to yourthousands of female fans?I don’t know how to do romance. I feel shywhile doing romantic scenes. I am a badboy who can make love to you.the protagonist of the movie, thedon, is a don for another generation!Or shall we say he is the don for the21st century?I make bad look good. I make good lookgood. I am just a good guy.When you saw big b’s ‘don’ for thefirst time, did you imagine that oneday you could play the samecharacter?Not at all. But ‘Don’ was my favouritemovie during my childhood days.You played Rahul in ‘dil toh PagaalHai’. the character became themould for the whole generation ofromance. How is that true?When I started doing romantic movies, itwas an altogether different experience forme. At that time young actors were beingdebuted through love stories. My case wasdifferent. I was debuted through actionmovie. But for me doing a romantic movieat the age of 30 was very new. I rememberYashji telling me if I wanted to be a big star,

I should be romantic hero. During the1990s romanticism was revisited inBollywood. People were looking for a herowho should respect women andwomanhood. That was reflected in thescript and direction. I just simply followedthe demand of the audience. I am sure theviewers accepted it.You have a middleclass sensibilitytowards women. that was reflectedin the romantic movies you haveacted in. do you agree with that?Absolutely. I have a middleclass sensibilitytowards women. In addition women trustme a lot. I understand women a lot. I havenever come across with them like a boy. Iam always a buddy. I am little sensibletowards them.What is the most romantic thingwhich you have done off-screen, notonscreen?I have not done anything romantic. Well, Ican quote one instance of my life. At youngage I used to be in love with a girl. But therelationship was going to a close and shewas on the verge of leaving me. In Delhi, Iwas going to drop her at her place in myvan. On the way I had put posters from myhome to hers reading “Don’t leave me thismonth. You give me another month. Youcan leave me next month”. Looking at theposters she reacted, “We are through.”Gauri was the first girl I asked for dancewith me. I married her. I don’t know how totalk to girls. I have never been able to makean advance at a girl.When did you realise that you are amega star?People could think that it is my humility ormodesty, but honestly I have not realised itso far. After becoming a star my behaviouris very normal. I am like that only. My

friends, my families say I have not changeda bit.Who is the biggest star in your home?My son and my daughterHow you differ parenting yourchildren from that of your parents?I would like to be like my father. He wasvery gentle, highly educated and indeed avery good friend of mine. During mychildhood days we did not have the moneyto watch films. My mother was veryoutspoken. She used to say how can weafford to watch films? But my father used

to bring me to the Kamani auditorium inNew Delhi. Sitting at the circle near theKamani auditorium, my father used tosay, ‘We don’t have money to watch amovie. Let’s watch the crowd. Watch thevehicles. Think about a story.’ It was soexciting. We used to sit down and discussstories and were coming came back home.That was my upbringing. Today mychildren have everything in life. But Iwant to teach them the simple reality oflife. I would like to inculcate thatupbringing in my children.

I have a middleclass sensibilitytowards women: SRK

PARISAGeNcieS

Honeyed vocals, a cinematic pout and a haunt-ing, David Lynch-inspired video clip posted onYouTube was all it took to propel Lana Del Reyto global stardom, hailed as the musical revela-tion of 2011. But a just-as-swift backlash hasthreatened to bring down the New York singerbefore her first album even hits the shelves nextmonth, after bloggers attacked the 25-year-oldas an industry-backed “fake”, posing as self-made artist. Lana Del Rey’s story began earlythis year when, like thousands of would-besingers, the unknown American posted a trackcalled ‘Video Games’ on YouTube, an edgy,melancholy tale of unrequited love delivered inslow, sultry tones. A collage of vintage footage,cartoons and contemporary images, the clipevokes the gauzy, nostalgia-tinted worlds of film-makers like Lynch or Sofia Coppola. A second

clip, ‘Blue Jeans’, was posted a few weeks lateras Lana Del Rey wowed music critics worldwide,hailed as much as a musical revelation as a styleicon, with spots in Vogue and Rolling Stone. Buther stellar rise soon enough gave way to a back-lash, after some digging by indie bloggers un-earthed a past life as plain old Elizabeth Grant,the author of two earlier, unsuccessful albums.“She was basically a failed mainstream artist whois being ‘rebranded’ behind major label dollars,”read a scathing piece on the Hipster Runoff blogin September, claiming to “expose” the singer’spast. Widely echoed in the music press, the back-lash, wrote the Globe and Mail, “is threateningto bring down the It Girl before she has even hastime to ‘break’.” The Del Rey controversy hasalso left music critics red-faced, since manypride themselves on their flair for original newtalent. So the jury remains out, the mystery in-tact, and Lana Del Rey’s album one of the mosteagerly awaited of 2012.

music buzz of 2011…

but is she ‘real’?

Denise urges fans to give up

plastic bottlesNeW YORK: Actress Denise richards is urging fans to

“go green”. She has asked her fans to give up plastic

bottles in 2012. “it’s a great time to start thinking about

those resolutions. But instead of just sticking to the

usual goals of dropping a few pounds or hitting the

gym, why not take one simple step that will help the

environment, the health of your family and your

pocketbook all at

once? i re-

cently

made the commitment to get rid of bottled water in my

home for all of those reasons,” richards posted on her

official blog. “every year, about 1.5 million tons of plastic

goes into manufacturing water bottles, and most of

those bottles just end up in landfills. But even

if you recycle, there are lots of other

reasons to stay away from plastic

bottles,” contactmusic.com

posted. “One is the price! Also,

many studies show it’s not

healthy drinking out of plastic

bottles. Harmful chemicals in

the plastic like bisphenol A

(or Bpa) can leach into

the water and make

you sick. it’s much

safer to drink out

of glasses, alu-

minium bottles,

or reusable

Bpa-free water

bottles... will

you give it a

try?,” she

wrote.

AGeNcieS

Taylor Lautner’sadmissionof being gaya hoax

ISB 29-12-2011_Layout 1 12/29/2011 1:55 AM Page 17

Page 18: E-paper PakistanToday ISB 29th December, 2011

MELBoURNEAfP

THE old firm of Mike Husseyand Ricky Ponting kept Aus-tralia alive with a fighting cen-tury stand against India in theopening Test at the Mel-

bourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday.The senior duo, with their Test fu-

tures under scrutiny, pulled their teamout of a huge hole at 27 for four with acrucial 115-run partnership to give Aus-tralia a slight edge with two days left.

Former skipper Ponting finally fellfor 60, but Hussey, dismissed for a con-troversial first-ball duck in the first in-nings, led the way with an unbeaten 79 asAustralia reached stumps at 179 for eight.

The Australians extended their 51-run innings lead to a 230-run advantageby the close with a result possible onThursday's fourth day.

Hussey, dropped on 69 by RahulDravid at slip, was positive from the out-set and aggressively went after runs toshow selectors he still has plenty to offerat the age of 36.

Ponting made his second half-centuryof the match and looked on target for hisfirst Test hundred in almost two years be-

fore Zaheer Khan coaxed a thick edge toVirender Sehwag in the gully.

"We're 230 ahead now which I thinkis a reasonable total for India to chase butideally I would like us to make a bit morethan that," Ponting said.

Sehwag said India would be lookingto keep Australia's lead under 300.

"I think it was a good day for India.The match is evenly balanced. If we winthe game we will have to bat really well,"he said.

Ponting praised Hussey's positive ap-proach when he came to the crease withAustralia in dire trouble.

"You have to show great intent inthose situations and you have to be ableto counter-attack at different times, andI thought the way that Mike Hussey han-dled that situation was great," he said.

Hussey lost more batting partnerslate in the day with the dismissals of BradHaddin (six), Peter Siddle (four) andNathan Lyon (four). James Pattinson(three not out) was with him at stumps.

Paceman Umesh Yadav initiated theAustralian top-order collapse with thefirst three wickets, removing openersDavid Warner (five) and Ed Cowan(eight) within four balls, and finishedwith four wickets.

Warner was bowled playing on froma loose shot, while Cowan was leg beforewicket while padding up.

Australia's woes deepened whenShaun Marsh dragged a wide Yadav de-livery onto his stumps for three and skip-per Michael Clarke followed in the nextover, playing on an Ishant Sharma ballfor one to leave his team at 27 for four.

Ben Hilfenhaus earlier claimed hisbest wicket haul in Tests to give Australiaa handy first-innings lead as India weredismissed for 282 at lunch.

The Tasmanian swing bowler, re-called for his first Test match in almost ayear, captured five for 75.

India lost seven wickets for 68 off28.1 overs after they looked in commandat 214 for two late on Tuesday.

Australia got off to a flyer whenDravid was bowled second ball by Hilfen-haus on his overnight score of 68.

Hilfenhaus breached the famed de-fence of "The Wall" and clipped his off-stump just five balls after Tuesday'slast-over dismissal of Sachin Tendulkarfor 73 by Siddle.

V.V.S. Laxman took 20 balls to get offthe mark and fell for two, caught lowdown by wicketkeeper Haddin off Siddle.

Although Laxman has a great batting

record in Australia with four Test cen-turies, he has scored just 113 runs inseven innings at 16.14 at the MCG, one ofhis least productive venues in 131 Tests.

Virat Kohli, playing in his fifth Test,was next to go, feathering an enticing Hil-fenhaus outswinger to Haddin for 11.

Hilfenhaus struck again in his nextover when skipper M.S. Dhoni got a thickoutside edge to be caught in the gully by

Hussey for just six.Nightwatchman Sharma became Hil-

fenhaus's fifth wicket when he was takenbehind by Haddin for 11 off 69 balls.

Ravi Ashwin showed resistance with31 off 35 balls with three fours and a top-edged six before he was last man out toSiddle. Yadav remained two not out.

Haddin behind the stumps finishedwith five catches for the innings.

Page 20

Thursday, 29 December, 2011

AuStRAliA, 1st innings: 333 (e. cowan 68, R. Ponting 62; zaheer

Khan 4-77)

iNDiA, 1st innings (overnight 214 for 3)

G. Gambhir c haddin b hilfenhaus 3

V. Sehwag b Pattinson 67

R. Dravid b hilfenhaus 68

S. tendulkar b Siddle 73

i. Sharma c haddin b hilfenhaus 11

V.V.S. laxman c haddin b Siddle 2

V. Kohli c haddin b hilfenhaus 11

M.S. Dhoni c hussey b hilfenhaus 6

R. Ashwin c haddin b Siddle 31

z. Khan b Pattinson 4

u. Yadav not out 2

extRAS: (w1, nb3) 4

tOtAl: (all out; 94.1 overs) 282

fall of wickets: 1-22 (Gambhir), 2-97 (Sehwag), 3-214 (tendulkar),

4-214 (Dravid), 5-221 (laxman), 6-238 (Kohli), 7-245 (Dhoni), 8-

254 (Sharma), 9-259 (zaheer), 10-282 (Ashwin)

bOWliNG: Pattinson 23-6-55-2 (1w), hilfenhaus 26-5-75-5 (1nb),

Siddle 21.1-2-63-3 (2nb), lyon 17-2-66-0, hussey 5-0-15-0, Warner

2-0-8-0

AuStRAliA, 2nd innings:

D. Warner b Yadav 5

e. cowan lbw b Yadav 8

S. Marsh b Yadav 3

R. Ponting c Sehwag b zaheer Khan 60

M. clarke b Sharma 1

M. hussey not out 79

b. haddin c laxman b zaheer Khan 6

P. Siddle c Dhoni b Yadav 4

N. lyon lbw b Ashwin 0

J. Pattinson not out 3

extRAS: (b4, lb2, w1, nb3) 10

total (for 8 wkts; 60 overs) 179

fall of wickets: 1-13 (Warner), 2-16 (cowan), 3-24 (Marsh), 4-27

(clarke), 5-142 (Ponting), 6-148 (haddin), 7-163 (Siddle), 8-166

(lyon)

bOWliNG: zaheer Khan 13-1-32-2 (1w, 1nb), Yadav 15-3-49-4,

Sharma 11-0-41-1 (2nb), Ashwin 19-3-44-1, Sehwag 2-0-7-0

crowd: 40,556, toss: Australia

umpires: ian Gould (eNG), Marais erasmus (RSA)

third umpire: Paul Reiffel (AuS)

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRi)

ScORebOARD

Chakvetadze eyes healthy,happy new year

Hussey, Ponting bring Australia back

WHAT a Test match it has been! Afterthree days neither side has the upperhand.The Australians came back superblyin the morning session, picking up sevenwickets before India rattled an Australiantop order rather lacking in confidence.

All kudos to the curator who has pro-duced a pitch that will keep Test cricketalive and has set an example to the rest ofthe world. When it comes to sport, I am afirm believer that if you know how to pro-duce champions one must know how tolook after them.

Before the series began, there was talkabout replacing the likes of Mike Husseyand Ricky Ponting and getting in newyoung players. Australia had two seriesagainst South Africa and New Zealand be-fore this series, and although it did notlose either series, the innings of 47 inCape Town and the collapse against NewZealand triggered a further uproar in themedia and among past players, who for amoment forgot that you cannot be on topall the time. Yesterday, when Hussey andPonting were putting on their 115-runpartnership in the second innings, I feltthat there is justice after all.

On a wicket which helped the

bowlers, two of senior guys stood up whenit was required. Their stand could be thedeciding factor in this Test match. Watch-ing them play, I felt it was not just theruns they made, but the manner in whichthey played that told its own story.

Coming at in at 4-27 it required thatsort of effort and that sort of approach tocarry the team through and give it achance of victory. If Hussey can put onanother 40 runs with the lower order, itcould seal the Test for Australia.

We all know Australian cricket has ahistory of slowly leaving ageing playersout and bringing in young players. Buthaving a chat with some of the past play-ers who are connected with the game Ihave a feeling that there are not manyyoung players around.

That's why the likes of Ponting andHussey need to be handled carefully. Oneshouldn't have young players coming intoa losing culture. It takes away the faithand belief and could hurt them mentally.

There has been a remarkable declinein the Australian team as compared toteams of recent years. But that is under-standable, as one cannot produce cham-pions all the time. An example of an olderplayer who has bounced back from adver-sity is Rahul Dravid. What a player he hasbeen for India and what a year he has had.It is hard to believe that he struggledagainst good sides in the three years be-fore this one. At times it's important to getthe best out of ageing greats and the Aus-tralian selectors have to find a way to doso. It can happen positively. Show somefaith in big names.

Class doesn't go away so easily. Allowthe likes of Ponting and Hussey to breatheeasy and create an atmosphere to helpyoung players develop. These senior play-

ers are closely watched by the likes ofDavid Warner, Ed Cowan and ShaunMarsh in the dressing room. They havesucceeded for so long and after watchingthem bat in this Test I am sure they havea lot to offer in this series and the future.

For Australian cricket, it's about thepresent. I am sure this team can play bet-ter. And they have live examples of Dravidand Sachin Tendulkar in the oppositioncamp to show that faith in experience andclass can pay off. As I was sitting in thecommentators' box yesterday, I remem-bered the period of the great days of Aus-tralian cricket. My first visit to this part ofthe world was as a 17-year-old boy in 1991with the Indian team. I did not get muchof an opportunity in that series but watch-ing the greats from so close - the likes ofAllan Border, David Boon and a few others- was a huge learning process and it reallyhelped me develop as a player. It was a

huge learning curve that told me whatTest cricket is all about - the mental andphysical skills one requires to perform atthis level. Travelling around the country tothe historic venues like the SCG and theMCG with their old stands and was an eye-opener to a young player like me.

Since then I have visited this countryfour times and every tour was a big helpto my career. In the subcontinent, theyrank a batsman only if you get hundredsin Australia and England and the WestIndies and in my mind this was the onething I wanted to achieve.

My visits came during the era ofAustralian domination from 1996-2007.Teams were intimidated by the likes ofShane Warne, Glenn McGrath, SteveWaugh, Brett Lee, Ponting and MatthewHayden. At times you stood in theground and thought how do you win amatch here?

no substitute for sheer classexPeRt cOMMeNt

SOUrAV gANgULy

Defiant Ponting

plans to bat onMELBoURNE

AfP

Ricky Ponting made clear he had no planto step away from cricket on Wednesdayafter his second half-century of the firstTest against India rescued Australia andgave them a chance of victory.The former skipper looked in good formas he scored 60 following a 62 in the firstinnings, helping Australia to a 230-runlead over the Indians with two wicketsleft and two days to play at the Mel-bourne Cricket Ground.There have been calls for Ponting, theoldest player in the Australian team at37, to make way for a younger man, buthe continued to defy his critics eventhough he is without a Test century in al-most two years.Ponting, who stood down from the cap-taincy for Michael Clarke last March, isTest cricket's third greatest runscorer be-hind Indians Sachin Tendulkar andRahul Dravid and has plans to carry on."I don't care what people outside thedressing room are saying, if I've got thesupport inside the dressing room that'sall that really matters to me," he saidafter Wednesday's play."I want to do my best to get this Aus-tralian team back to a bit higher rankedthan we are at the moment and be a con-sistent runscorer along the way."There's plenty of motivation out therefor me but first and foremost it's for meto be a successful player in a successfulteam."Asked how he dealt with the constantspeculation over his place in the team,Ponting said he had been gratified by thepublic support he has received.

MeLBOUrNe: india’s rahul Dravid is cleaned up by paceman Ben Hilfenhaus. (Centre) ricky Ponting (r) and Michael Hussey (L) run for a single and (right) indian batsman Ashant Sharma is forced to the ground by a delivery from Peter Siddle (top). aFp

Michael Hussey and ricky Ponting play cut shots. aFp

ISB 29-12-2011_Layout 1 12/29/2011 1:55 AM Page 18

Page 19: E-paper PakistanToday ISB 29th December, 2011

Sports 19Thursday, 29 December, 2011

NoRWICHAfP

GARETH Bale's superb dis-play, capped by two well-taken goals, saw TottenhamHotspur win 2-0 away to

Norwich as the Londoners maintainedtheir Premier League title challenge atCarrow Road.

Tuesday's victory meant HarryRedknapp's third-placed team wentfour points clear of their nearest pur-suers and moved to within seven ofthe top two of Manchester City andchampions Manchester United.

After a goalless first half, whereSpurs laid siege to Norwich's goal, thevisitors finally broke the deadlock 10minutes after the break when Walesstar Bale made the most of good ap-proach play by Emmanuel Adebayor.

And 12 minutes later he latchedonto Luka Modric's pass before set-ting off on a 45-yard run capped by asuperb chip over Canaries goalkeeperJohn Ruddy.

Tottenham, who have a match inhand over all the teams immediatelyabove and below them, capitalised onthe points dropped by Chelsea, Man-chester City, Arsenal and Liverpoolbefore they kicked off at Carrow Roadand will now head into the New Yearas London's top club.

Bale, handed a free role by Spursmanager Harry Redknapp, was soongiving stand-in Norwich full-backRitchie de Laet the run around withhis blistering speed.

Norwich striker Grant Holt es-caped even a caution, when he mighthave received a red card, after elbow-ing Spurs' Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

Bale struck a deflected shot just

wide before blasting over the cross-bar.

He then got on the end of Modric'sthrough ball only for Ruddy to make agood save before Norwich's RussellMartin got in a timely tacke to denyTogo striker Adebayor, who then shotover the top in first half injury-time.

However, the goal Tottenham hadbeen threatening arrived in the 55thminute.

Rafael van der Vaart's pass foundAdebayor, who held off three Norwichdefenders before finding the un-marked Bale who then shot underRuddy from 12 yards out.

Shortly afterwards, Adebayorturned in Assou-Ekotto's cross soonafter but his effort was ruled out for

offside.But there was no denying Spurs a

second goal and Bale provided it inthrilling fashion, running 45 yardsafter receiving Modric's pass.

Having shown a brilliant turn ofspeed to outpace the Norwich defence,Bale then demonstrated another sideof his game when he coolly chippedthe advancing Ruddy to make it 2-0 inthe 67th minute.

Modric might have made it 3-0 butthe Croatia playmaker's poor shotproved no problem for Ruddy.

Norwich nearly grabbed a consola-tion goal in stoppage time but Mar-tin's header was just wide in a matchwhere the Canaries, who remained11th in the table, were outclassed.

Bale does for Norwich as Spurs march onenglish Premier League table

Team P W D L Gf Ga PtsMan City 18 14 3 1 53 15 45Man Utd 18 14 3 1 47 14 45Tottenham 17 12 2 3 34 19 38Chelsea 18 10 4 4 36 21 34Arsenal 18 10 3 5 34 26 33Liverpool 18 8 7 3 21 14 31Newcastle 18 8 6 4 25 22 30Stoke 18 7 4 7 18 28 25West Brom 18 6 4 8 19 26 22Everton 17 6 3 8 18 20 21Norwich 18 5 6 7 27 33 21Aston Villa 18 4 8 6 19 23 20Fulham 18 4 7 7 19 24 19Swansea 18 4 7 7 17 22 19Sunderland 18 4 6 8 22 22 18QPR 18 4 5 9 18 32 17Wolverhampton 18 4 4 10 20 33 16Wigan 18 3 5 10 15 35 14Bolton 18 4 0 14 22 41 12Blackburn 18 2 5 11 25 39 11

NOrwiCH: Norwich City's wes Hoolahan (L) vies with Tottenham Hotspur's Brazilian player

Sandro ranieri during the english Premier League match. aFp

plushenko wins ninthrussian title on return

MoSCoWAfP

Former Olympic champion YevgenyPlushenko enjoyed a winning return to theamateur ranks on Monday when he claimeda ninth Russian figure skating title.

The 29-year-old three-time world cham-pion, who finished second behind America'sEvan Lysacek at the 2010 VancouverOlympics, confirmed his leading positionafter the short programme by winning thefree programme to collect 269.67 pointsoverall. The result was just 0.63 points offthe mark of Canada's Patrick Chan which al-lowed him to win this year's ISU Grand Prixfinal. "Frankly speaking I almost forgot howto compete," Plushenko, the 2006 Olympicchampion, said.

"I'm still on the way to my top form and

there's plenty of work to do for it. I'm happyto win my ninth Russia title and now I willstart my preparations for the Europeanchampionships." Plushenko, returning toamateur competitions after his 2010 Van-couver disappointment, added that he wouldhave to undergo surgery on his left leg afternext month's European championships inSheffield. "I will have an operation on my legafter the European championships -- I willbe completely ready for the event," he said.

Fellow Saint Petersburg skater ArturGachinsky was second, 10 points behind thewinner, while Muscovite Sergei Voronov,who was fifth after the short programme,took third with 240.79 points. Plushenko'scoach Alexei Mishin praised his skater's re-turn at the event held at Saransk. "Yevgenyput plenty of effort and emotion into this re-turn. It's a real feat," he said.

KArACHi: PiA Managing Director Nadeem Khan yousuf Zai, general Manager Sports Fareed A Mughal and Dg Sports Shoaib Muhammad with

the PiA cricket team which won the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy for the seventh time. pr

spain names alex Corretjaas Davis Cup captain

MADRIDAfP

Alex Corretja, former coach ofBritish star Andy Murray, is takingover as captain of Spain's Davis Cupteam, the Spanish federation saidTuesday.

Corretja replaces Albert Costa,who quit December 15 to head thecountry's selection committee.

He faces a major challenge withRafael Nadal and David Ferrer, whowere key to Spain's victory over Ar-gentina in the final earlier thismonth, both having decided not totake part in the 2012 tournament.

The 37-year-old will be captainfor the next two seasons after reach-ing an agreement on terms withSpanish tennis federation head JoseLuis Escanuela, the body said in astatement.

"It is a privilege to captain thebest team of players in the world,"Corretja said in the statement, de-scribing the post as a matter of"pride and enormous responsibil-ity."

The federation boss said he wasconvinced the appointment of Cor-retja, twice runner-up in the FrenchOpen and a winner of the 1998 ATPTour World Championships, wasgood for Spanish tennis.

"Bringing together his technicaland human capacities with that ofour players is without doubt a greatstep forward for the team's success,"Escanuela said.

Britain's Murray confirmed inMarch he was parting company withCorretja after nearly three years ashe tried to halt a slump in form, say-ing he still regarded the Spaniard asa friend and mentor.

PCB-Pepsi StarsU-16 final today

LAHoREStAff RePORt

The final of the PCB-Pepsi Cricket StarsU-16 One Day Tournament will be playedtoday here at the Gaddafi Stadium.Quetta U-16 will take on Abbottabad U-16 in the final supervised by UmpiresRana Sohail Manzoor and Irfan Dilshadwhile Masood Ahmed will be the scorer. The prize distribution ceremony will beheld after the conclusion of the final.PCb tO REmEmbER NUR KHAN:The PCB is organising a ceremony to paytribute to Air Marshal (retd) Nur Khanon January 3, 2012. Air Marshal (retd)Nur Khan remained President of BCCPfrom 1980-1984. He died at Rawalpindion December 15. Nur Khan initiated themove to take the World Cup out of Eng-land and brought it to the sub-continentin 1987. He also mooted the idea of theICC match referee and neutral umpires.

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Sports20Thursday, 29 December, 2011

Sialkot, gojra

advance in inter

Academy Hockey SIALKot

StAff RePORt

Another four matches were played in the2nd PHF Inter Academy Hockey Tourna-ment at the Sialkot Hockey Stadium,Sialkot.Bahawalpur, Lahore, Sialkot and Gojraregistered wins on day two of the champi-onship on Wednesday.Results: Bahawalpur beat Quetta 8-1 (fulltime) 4-0 (half time)Bahawalpur: Sohail Yousaf three goals 7th,13th & 56th minutes (FG), Zohaib Khan11th minute (FG), Shaheryar 2 goals 16th &37th minutes (FG), Suleman Sameer 23rdminute (FG) & Junaid Manzoor 55thminute (FG).Quetta: M. Qasim 45th minute (FG).Lahore beat Faisalabad 3-0 (full time) 1-0(half time)Lahore: Aqeel Aslam 2 goals 2nd & 57thminutes (FG) & Awais-ur-Rahman 44thminute (FG).Sialkot beat Abbottabad 7-2 (full time) 4-0(half time)Sialkot: Nohaiz Zahid 3 goals 2nd & 56thminute (FG) & 36th minute (FG), M. Ali4th minute (PC), Ali Raza 7th minute (FG)& Hammad Zafar 2 Goals 13th & 27thminute (FG).Abbottabad: Umar Khalid 52nd minute(FG) & Abdul Basit 62nd minute (FG).Gojra beat Karachi 2-0 (Full Time) 1-0(half time)Gojra: Faisal Shah 16th minute (PC) &Rana Daud 37th minute (FG).

National Jr Hockey

from Jan 10LAHoRE

StAff RePORt

The 31st Junior U-21 National HockeyChampionship will be played at NationalHockey Stadium, Lahore from January 10to 22, 2012. The Punjab Hockey Associa-tion is organising the championship on be-half of the PHF. For the smooth conduct of the champi-onship, the PHF has announced the panelof technical officials which include: Tournament Director: Mr. Saghir Ahmed,tournament officers: Muhammad ShafiqueBhatti, Dr. S. A. Majid, Hassan Akhtar,judges: M/s. Haroon Saeed, Allah Dad,Haq Nawaz & Rana Muhammad Afzal.Umpires Manager: Rashad Mehmood Butt,Assistant Umpires Manager: Dilawar Hus-sain Bhatti, Umpires: M/s. Mr. Haider Ra-sool, Muhammad Mushtaq, AnwaarHussain, Rana Muhammad Liaqat, Kam-ran Hussain, Shahid Pervaiz, GhufranAhmed, Pervaiz Ahmed, Muhammad As-ghar & Amir Hamza.The PHF has also appointed “Age Creden-tials Committee” and Local NADRA Staffto check the ages of the players. Meanwhile, President PHF Qasim Zia andSecretary Asif Bajwa have offered condo-lences on the sad demise of mother ofOlympian Khalid Bashir, who passed awayon December 28.

National Baseballfrom Jan 5

LAHoREStAff RePORt

WAPDA will defend their title in the eight-team National Baseball Championshipwhich will be held at the Iqbal Parks SportsComplex from December 29 to January 5,2012. The teams have been divided into twogroups. The group ‘A’ comprises defendingchampion WAPDA, Punjab, Sindh and Is-lamabad. The group ‘B’ has last year final’slosers Army, Police, Khyber PK, andBalochistan. Army will face Police in theopening match on Thursday at 1pm, fol-lowed by the second match between Punjaband Sindh. Daily two matches will be playedand top two teams of each group will qualifyfor the semi-final. Additional Secretary Pun-jab Sports Rana Tahir will inaugurate thechampionship and president Pakistan Fed-eration Baseball Shaukat Javed will beaward the prizes on the final day.

ABU DHABIAfP

NOVAK Djokovic, RafaelNadal and Roger Federermeet in a $250,000 three-day exhibition tournament

in the Gulf's winter sun from Thursday,eager to strike early blows ahead of the2012 season.

In the new year, world number oneDjokovic will defend three Grand Slamtitles and Nadal will look to hang on tohis Olympic title and French Opencrown, while Federer, despite nearinghis 31st birthday, is keen to extend hisimpressive late run in 2011.

Djokovic won three of the fourGrand Slams and five Masters this yearand assembled a 70-6 winning record.

His progress towards the end of theyear was slowed by a series of back andshoulder injuries, but the Serb insistshe is well rested as 2012 approaches.

"This year's success gives me a rea-son to believe that I can win again.Why not?" said the Serb, who has beenbased in Abu Dhabi for the last two

weeks. "I think it doesn't make anysense to be anything other than opti-mistic. I need to believe in my qualitiesand my abilities and I need to believethat I can repeat the success.

"Of course it is going to be an in-credibly difficult task to achieve, butyou never know, nothing is really im-possible."

Nadal lost his world number oneranking to Djokovic in 2011 and cut aworld-weary figure as the year came toan end, having played 84 matches --more than any of his rivals.

But the 25-year-old, whose FrenchOpen triumph was his 10th major andsixth at Roland Garros, believes lead-ing Spain to a fifth Davis Cup hashelped re-ignite his hopes for 2012.

He is also determined to adopt anew approach to his trade.

"I tell myself: 'If I do a bit more, Iwill be nearly back to winning thingsagain.' That is the motivation. Recov-ering the extra will that makes you givea bit more of yourself," he said.

"I have to get back to my cruisingaltitude, which should be higher. From

Indian Wells to Wimbledon and theOlympic Games is where I have to re-cover my best level." Federer, mean-while, defied those who believe thathaving celebrated his 30th birthday in2011, his best was behind him.

The Swiss won his first title inDoha in January before picking upthree more in the home straight inBasel, Paris and a sixth World Tour fi-nals trophy. He will go into 2012, his13th year on the tour, on the back of a17-match winning run.

"My passion for competition andmy love for tennis has a lot to do withit," Federer told The National newspa-per here. "I have always said that theminute you decide or think that youcannot improve is the time that youshould stop playing. "The good newsfor me is that I feel like I still havethings to learn and parts of my game toimprove, so I am excited for the future."

The three-day tournament at theAbu Dhabi International Tennis Com-plex in Zayed Sports City also featuresSpain's David Ferrer and French duoJo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils.

Chakvetadze

eyes healthy,

happy new year

PARiS: Anna Chakvetadze, whose careerhas been derailed by a series of worryinghealth problems, believes she can redis-cover the form that once took her to num-ber five in the world and the semi-finals ofthe US Open. The Russian was sidelinedfor most of 2011 after suffering an inner earinflammation in Dubai, where she wasforced to retire from her second-roundclash with world number one CarolineWozniacki. "When I got sick in Dubai I wasin very good shape," Chakvetadze said. "Ihad found my game again and was reallyready to compete. But then I got sick."The 24-year-old played just three morematches in the year, retiring from two andwithdrawing from 11 other events."Doctors found an inflammation in myear and connected it with the dizziness. Ihad to take medication for it," she toldwtatennis.com. "I didn't expect that itwould take so long to get over it, but I didit. When I felt ready to play again it wasalready almost the end of the season, so Ijust decided to wait until the new seasonto play again. "I hope I'll be able to dosome good things in the new season. I'm100 percent healthy now." Her absencefrom the tour meant her ranking nose-dived to 232, but she can call upon herranking protection in eight tournamentsin 2012 to avoid having to qualify. AfP

Djokovic, Nadal, Federerlook for early blows

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Sports 21Thursday, 29 December, 2011

watch it Live

STAR CRICKET Australia V IndiaTest 1, Day 44:30AM

TEN SPORTSSouth Africa V Sri Lanka2nd Test Day 4 1:00PM

ESPN Sports Center

08:00PM

Suarez hit with

new FA ban over

Fulham gesture

LoNDoNAfP

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has beenbanned by the Football Association forone match and fined £20,000 ($31,300)for a gesture made towards Fulham fansin the 1-0 defeat at Craven Cottage ear-lier this month.Suarez had admitted the latest charge ofimproper conduct, and Liverpool havealso been fined £20,000 for failing tocontrol their players in the same match -- a charge related to the dismissal ofmidfielder Jay Spearing.The ruling, announced on Wednesdayby the FA, comes little over a week afterSuarez was hit with an eight-game sus-pension for racially abusing ManchesterUnited's Patrice Evra during a match inOctober.Suarez had denied the racism allega-tions and the decision angered Liver-pool, who promised to stick by theplayer and issued a statement in supportof the Uruguayan.Liverpool admitted the improper con-duct charge relating to Spearing's dis-missal, after a number of playersremonstrated with referee Keith Friend.However, they did not accept the finan-cial penalty for the offence.

DURBANAfP

KUMAR Sangakkara hit a su-perbly-crafted century toput Sri Lanka in a strong po-sition to press for their first

Test win of the year on the third day ofthe second Test match against SouthAfrica at Kingsmead on Wednesday.

Sangakkara's 108 enabled SriLanka to reach 256 for seven in theirsecond innings - an overall lead of 426,eight runs more than the highest suc-cessful run chase in Test history.

The left-handed former captainshared stands of 94 with Thilan Sama-raweera and 104 with rookie wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal as Sri Lankawent in search of their first win in fourTest tours of South Africa.

Sangakkara, whose first three in-nings in the series were 1, 2 and 0, hadnot added to his overnight score of threewhen he edged the fourth ball of themorning, from Morne Morkel, towardsGraeme Smith at first slip. Wicket-keeper Mark Boucher dived for the ball,obscuring Smith's vision, and the SouthAfrican captain put down the chance.

Sangakkara made the home sidepay as he constructed a classy inningsin overcast and gloomy conditions.Overnight and morning rain delayedthe start by an hour and the floodlightswere on during most of the day.

Sangakkara reached his fifty off102 balls with four fours and then tookcommand, scoring his second fifty off

only 59 deliveries, adding nine moreboundaries. It was his 28th Test cen-tury.

First innings century-maker Sama-raweera shared a crucial fourth wicketstand with Sangakkara after the firstthree wickets had fallen for 44 runs togive South Africa hope of bowlingthemselves back into contention de-spite trailing by 170 runs on the firstinnings.

Samaraweera made 43 beforebeing deceived by a googly from ImranTahir which he edged into his stumps.

Sri Lanka pressed home their ad-vantage as Sangakkara and new capChandimal scored at almost a run aminute. Chandimal followed up hisfirst innings 58 with 54.

With the light fading, Chandimalwas caught behind off Dale Steyn.

Sangakkara followed in the nextover when he hit Tahir to long-on. Badlight stopped play soon afterwards.

Fast bowling debutant Marchantde Lange, who took seven for 81 in thefirst innings, claimed the key wicket ofMahela Jayawardene as Sri Lankastruggled early in the day.

Jayawardene had scored 14 whenhe padded up to De Lange and wasgiven out leg before wicket by umpireSteve Davis. Jayawardene sought a tel-evision review but the umpire's deci-sion was upheld when replays showedthe ball would have hit his off bail.

But De Lange failed to make an im-pact in later spells as Sangakkaraswung the match ever more in his

team's favour on a pitch which re-mained a good batting surface.

South Africa lead the three-matchseries after winning the first Test atCenturion by an innings and 81 runs.

The hosts can take heart from hav-ing chased down 414 against Australiain Perth three seasons ago, only fourruns less than the world record 418 forseven by the West Indies against Aus-tralia in Antigua in 2002/03.

Sangakkara century putsSri Lanka in command

SRi lANKA, first innings, 338

SOuth AfRicA, first innings, 168

SRi lANKA, second innings (overnight 7-1)

t. Paranavitana c Prince b Morkel 9

t. Dilshan c Smith b Steyn 4

K. Sangakkara c Smith b imran tahir 108

M. Jayawardene lbw b De lange 14

t. Samaraweera b imran tahir 43

A. Mathews c boucher b Steyn 3

D. chandimal c boucher b Steyn 54

t. Perera not out 6

R. herath not out 5

extRAS: (b5, lb2, nb2, w1) 10

tOtAl: (7 wkts, 70.3 overs) 256

fall of wickets: 1-4 (Dilshan), 2-20 (Paranavitana),

3-44 (Jayawardene), 4-138 (Samaraweera), 5-141

(Mathews), 6-245 (chandimal), 7-245

(Sangakkara)

bOWliNG: Morkel 15-4-43-1, Steyn 16-3-54-3, De

lange 12.3-1-45-1 (1nb, 1w), Kallis 11-1-43-0, imran

tahir 16-1-64-2 (1nb)

Match situation: Sri lanka lead by 426 runs with

three second innings wickets remaining

toss: Sri lanka

umpires: Steve Davis (AuS), Richard

Kettleborough (eNG)

tV umpire: Rod tucker (AuS)

Match referee: chris broad (eNG).

ScORebOARD

DUrBAN: Sri Lanka's batsman Kumar Sangakara

plays a stroke as South Africa's wicketkeeper

Mark Boucher waits to make a catch. inset

Morne Morkel (r) and Dinesh Chandimal (L) are

seen in action. aFp

KARACHI StAff RePORt

The 41st Pakistan Open Golf Championshipwill get underway at the exquisite, par 72,DHA Golf and Country Club Golf Course,from Friday (December 29) and will be con-tested over four rounds with final round tobe played on Sunday (January 1 2012).

This was stated by Taimur Hassan, Hon-orary Secretary Pakistan Golf Federation ina press conference at the DHA Golf Club,Karachi who was accompanied by FarrukhAslam of AKD Securities, the sponsors of thischampionship, Mehmood Aziz, TournamentDirector and Mohammed Irfan, Chief Ref-eree of the tournament. He further said,"Through a superb initiative the PakistanGolf Federation, in collaboration with De-fence Authority Country & Golf Club man-agement and the sponsors AKD Group, willbe hosting the prestigious Pakistan OpenGolf Championship from December 29.”Being the national championship, it attractsgolf champions of stature and standing fromall over the country, and virtually all the

prominent ones have already converged toDHA seeking honors, lucrative cash prizesand also the chance to be declared the opennational champion of Pakistan. And for theultimate winner, it is not going to be easy.Traits required will be unrivaled golfingskills, admirable temperament and the willto win. Of course professional participantsand competitors will be 90 plus but the frontrunners are expected to be 20 or a few more.Some are considered established and highlyranked and rated while the younger oneshave their aspirations to pursue and showthat they have ample touch of excellence thatcan propel them as high achievers. “Holdingof this championship represents an enor-mous challenge with generous financing, agolf arena oozing with beauty and challengeand not to forget a devoted and dedicatedadministration, and last but not least cham-pions at their best, all prepared to illuminatethe golf arena with superior play and qualitygolf, for four days from 29th December 2011to 1st January 2012," he added.

It was also highlighted that for the profes-sionals, this event seeks to create a prodigious

opportunity and there are ample cash prizesfor the top performers, besides non cashawards for the participating amateurs. A Rsthree million cash bag is there for distributionamongst the 40 best professionals and featur-ing in the contest will be players of remarkableability and talent and one can expect them toshow their extraordinary golf ability.

Watching the top players of our golf cir-cuit in action is always a delight and thisgrand occasion provides an opportunity tothe golf lovers to quench their love for thegame by giving tremendous performances.

Farrukh Aslam of AKD Securities wasextremely pleased about getting associatedwith a major golf event and highlighted thatthis has been done in the past also and AKDwill always be there for support. Prominentcompetitors in the Professionals section inorder of their national ranking are: Muham-mad Shabbir, Islamabad, Matloob Ahmed,Gymkhana, Mohammed Munir, Islamabad,Shahid Javed Khan, Royal Palm, M. Tariq,Islamabad, Imdad Hussain, Lahore Garri-son, Waheed Baloch, Karachi, MohammadSiddique, Lyallpur, Amjad Yousaf, Karachi,

Afsar Ali, Karachi.As for the young and upcoming profes-

sionals, the names of Aadil Jehangir,Shafique Masih and Aleemur Rehman standout and their performances will be underfocus. More notable are the additions of twoyoungsters of immense talent and ability;Hamza Amin and Sufiyan Dhaduk. Theyhave just declared their migration from am-ateur ranks to the professional category.Hamza Amin is lucky in the sense that he hasgolfing blood, his father Taimur HassanAmin having many accomplishments to hiscredit and a legendary aura around him.

As an amateur Hamza became the na-tional amateur champion in2011 and looksto an upward climb in the competitive pro-fessionals golf world.

Notable amongst the amateurs partici-pating in this championship are Ali Hai(Karachi), Waseem Rana (DHA, Karachi),Mohammad Rehman (RP), Tariq Mehmood(Islamabad), Nadeem Abbas (Sargodha),Maj Khushal (Abbotabad), GhazanfarMehmood (Rwp), Khalid Mehmood (Rwp),Robin Bagh (Sargodha), and Wazir Ali

(Gym). Answering questions Taimur saidthat prize money for this national champi-onship is Rs three million, to be distributedamongst the top 40 professionals.

In the Seniors professionals category,the prize money is Rs 500,000/. Taimur alsoclarified that professional golf is graduallyevolving in Pakistan and in the past sixmonths the open tournaments have yieldedover Rs 10 million to the professional golfplayers, which is a substantial improvementover the earnings that travelled to theirpockets three years back. "Yes, as economicactivity picks up in the country, the situationwill be further improved," he added.

Answering another question Taimursaid the Asian Tour is likely to return to Pak-istan within a year or so.

The organisers of the DHA Golf Club ledby Brig Hassan Rafi have successfully man-aged to keep the golf course in exceedinglygood shape. This 7000 yards, 18 holes, par72 layout is hosting the Open Championshipfor the first time since the redesigning of thegolf course. The last time the Open was heldhere in 2001 and won by Taimur Hussain.

KArACHi: Farrukh Aslam of AKD Securities, Secretary PgF Taimur Hassan, Chief referee Muhammed irfan and Mehmood Aziz address a

press conference at DHA golf Club Karachi in connection with the 41st Open golf Championship. staFF pHoto

41st Pakistan Open Golf commences from tomorrow

Amir Atlas wins Pakistan

international Squash

LAHoREStAff RePORt

Number one seed Aamir Atlas Khan onWednesday won the Pakistan Interna-tional Squash Circuit No. IV here at thePunjab Squash Complex.Playing in the final against sixth seed ofthe tournament Farhan Zaman, Aamirwas stretched to 52 minutes to earn thewin. Aamir, before winning the title, hadto stretch back from two-all to win thefifth and the final.Aamir won the first two games butFarhan took the next two to level thegames two each but later in the fifthgame Aamir took the points bit by bitfighting for every point. From theirAamir controlled the proceedings andwon the game and the match. AamirAtlas Khan gained the win with a scoreof 11-4, 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-8. [52 mins]President Punjab Squash AssociationJahangir Khan was the chief guest atthe ceremony.

ISB 29-12-2011_Layout 1 12/29/2011 1:55 AM Page 21

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

Thursday, 29 December, 2011 22Violation of OgrArules made non-bailable offenceiSLAmAbAd: The government has de-cided to make violation of Oil and Gas Regu-latory Authority (OGRA) rules a non-bailableoffence punishable with imprisonment up toseven years. This was decided in a high-levelmeeting chaired by Interior Minister RehmanMalik to address the increasing number CNGcylinder accidents in the country. The meet-ing participants also decided to remove allsubstandard cylinders from sale outlets, whileordering the police to conduct raids and ar-rest those who defy the decision. The govern-ment has also decided that no person under18 years of age would be allowed to work atCNG stations, while supervisors would need adiploma to get employed at gas pumps. Themeeting tasked OGRA with the training ofCNG station supervisors. Additionally, motorvehicle examiners would not be able to issuevehicle fitness certificates, unless the vehicleswere cleared by OGRA. The meeting also de-cided to ban the import of cylinders, while or-dering all chief secretaries to close illegal CNGconversion workshops and to seize CNGcylinders at such locations. All public trans-porters using CNG will require third party in-surance for the passengers, drivers andconductors, the meeting decided. staFF report

Senators snub briefing

at iSi HeadquartersiSLAmAbAd: Two members of the Sen-ate Standing Committee on Defence andDefence Production have refused to attenda meeting scheduled for today (Thursday)at the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)Headquarters, saying the agency’s officialsshould come to the Parliament House tobrief the legislators. Sources said that Sen-ator Raza Rabbani and Senator Prof Khur-shid Ahmed had declined to attend themeeting and conveyed their decision to thechairman, Senator Lt Gen (r) Javed AshrafQazi. The committee was scheduled to meetat the ISI headquarters to get briefing onthe spy agency’s role in counter-terrorismoperations. When contacted, Prof Khurshidtold Pakistan Today that he had written aletter to the committee chairman conveyinghis concerns. “We respect both the armyand the ISI, but it is a matter of principle.The parliament is supreme and the ISI offi-cials should be summoned to the Parlia-ment House to brief the members of thecommittee,” he said. Sources added thatRabbani shared the same opinion and de-clined to attend today’s meeting. taHIr nIaZ

PESHAWARAbDuR RAuf KhAttAK

UNITY among the ranks ofthe Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KP) chapter leadership ofthe Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)

was put to test when several leaders ofthe party brawled among themselveshere on Wednesday.

Sources told Pakistan Today thatafter his arrival in Peshawar on Tues-day, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif wascontacting central leader SaranjamKhan to bring him around after hislongstanding complaint that partyveterans were increasingly discardedin matters of the party in favour ofnew faces. After his visit to Khan’sresidence, Sharif’s statement that theparty was “united and strong in Khy-ber Pakhtunkhwa” fell flat on its faceon Wednesday when during theprovincial council meeting of theparty’s KP chapter, Khan staged an in-

dignant walkout. Indiscipline followed as stalwarts

and activists of the party resorted toangry sloganeering and gathering rightin the front of the dais where Sharif andparty leaders Sardar Mehtab, AhsanIqbal, Sartaj Aziz, Mushahidullah, Cap-tain (r) Safdar and Iqbal Zafar Jhagrawere sitting, over the issue of nomina-tion of the KP chapter general secretaryof the party. The meeting, held atNishtar Hall in Peshawar, quickly de-scended into chaos after the unopposedelection of former KP chief ministerand PML-N stalwart Pir Sabir Shah asthe new provincial chapter president.Objections came from Mehr Sultana, acandidate for general secretary againsther opponent Rahmat Salam Khattak,on Khattak’s membership of theprovincial organising committee of theparty, which she said rendered him in-eligible to contest the general secretaryelections. This caused the KP chapterleaders and workers to argue, whicheventually led to a brawl. However,

after Sultana voluntarily withdrew hercandidacy and MPA Shazia Aurangzebalso followed suit, Khattak was electedthe provincial general secretary unop-posed. Khattak’s election causedSaranjam Khan to walk out of theprovincial council meeting, however,no one from the leadership of the PML-N present on the occasion took anypains to stop him.

Later, Saranjam Khan resignedfrom the membership of the party’sExecutive Council, Dunya News re-ported. He said now a party workers’meeting would be held on January 4in which a new strategy would beplanned for the future. However,Saranjam has declared openly that hehas no intentions to join the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) as he is com-mitted to the PML-N. His resigna-tion, nonetheless, comes as a newblow to the PML-N, which is alreadyreeling from veteran MakdhoomJaved Hashmi’s departure to theImran Khan-led PTI.

PML-N KP members brawlas Saranjam Khan walks out

ISLAMABADiRfAN buKhARi

The government flip-flopped fromthe prime minister’s earlier stance vis-à-vis Husain Haqqani’s resignation underpressure from within the Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) ranks, as a number of itscentral leaders criticised Yousaf Raza Gi-lani’s move to sack Haqqani soon afterthe memo controversy surfaced, arguingthat the step had virtually provedHaqqani guilty in media and political cir-cles, thus putting the whole governmentas well as the president in a difficult situ-ation. “The majority of the PPP centralleaders in the party’s consultative meet-ings at the Presidency and PM’s Houseraised questions on the sacking ofHaqqani in haste and they argued that it

was the first ‘tactical mistake’ made bythe government in handling memogate.Their criticism of the PM’s move to askfor Haqqani’s resignation increased man-ifold when they were told by PresidentAsif Zardari and Gilani that Haqqani hadcompletely denied the charges levelledagainst him by Mansoor Ijaz before thearmy chief and ISI DG,” a reliable sourcetold Pakistan Today.

The source said that upon learningabout Haqqani’s outright denial of accu-sations of being involved in the memoissue before the military’s top brass, thePPP leaders expressed their concernsover his sacking by the premier just to ap-pease the army. “The PPP leaders fromZardari’s camp think that it was the PM’sweakness that he could not resist thepressure of the military’s top command

and sacked Haqqani before the chargeswere proved against him. The PPP lead-ers think that the premier’s haste landedthe whole government in troubled watersas the critics from the media and the op-position started citing Haqqani’s sackingas a proof of his guilt,” the source said.

The source said further that Presi-dent Zardari and Prime Minister Gilaniwere also not on the same page onHaqqani’s resignation in November, butthe premier prevailed as he succeeded inconvincing Zardari that as Haqqani’s res-ignation was the military’s long-standingdemand, the move would defuse thememo controversy. The source said thepresident disagreed and said Haqqani’ssacking would be tantamount to the vali-dation of Mansoor Ijaz’s allegationsagainst the former ambassador and the

PPP government. The affidavit submittedby the Interior Ministry on behalf of thefederation on Monday (December 26)said Haqqani was not asked to resignwhile a statement issued by a PM’s Housespokesman on November 22 had said:“The prime minister has directed to con-duct a detailed investigation at an appro-priate level and in the meanwhile heasked Pakistan Ambassador to the USAHusain Haqqani to submit his resigna-tion so that the investigation can be car-ried out properly.” Gilani had also toldthe National Assembly that Haqqani’sresignation had been taken to make thememo probe transparent but on Monday(December 26), in his interaction with themedia, he backtracked from his earlierstatement saying that Haqqani himselfhad resigned.

Karzai oK withtaliban Qatar office plan

MoNItoRINg DESK

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said hewill support the opening of a Talibanliaison office in Qatar to try to helpconsolidate the peace process. According toBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), itwas the first time Karzai had given publicsupport to the US plan to create a Talibanbase in the Gulf state, in which future talkscould be held. He previously rejected theidea, angry that the US and Germany haddiscussed potential locations without him.The Taliban have so far made no officialcomment on the proposal. The US,Germany and other countries with a stakein the war against the Taliban wanted apolitical end to the conflict and they arguedthat establishing an “address” outside theimmediate region for reconciliation talkswas the best way to speed up the peaceprocess, BBC says. Earlier this month,Kabul recalled its ambassador from Doha,saying the Qataris had been discussing theissue of an office with the US and Germany“without keeping the Afghan governmentfully in the picture”. But on Tuesday,Karzai said while he preferred the idea ofTurkey or Saudi Arabia hosting the office,“if the Americans want to locate it in DohaI would agree”. “Having an exact addressfor the opposition [is a condition] forpractical steps toward startingnegotiations,” a statement from thepresidential palace said.

party forced pM to change stance on Haqqani

PeShAWAR: Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz President Nawaz Sharif addresses the party’s provincial committee meeting on Wednesday. staFF pHoto

ISB 29-12-2011_Layout 1 12/29/2011 1:55 AM Page 22


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