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Imran could not readsensitivities of APS................................................Al-Qaeda was dead, risingagain!................................................Put NAP on fast track

See Page 04

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—KSE-100 that reached a new all-time high in the last trading session kept onmarching towards yet anothermile stone with a gain of 179points to close at 33765 levelswhen the market ended onThursday.

The index is apparently eye-ing to target 34,000 level, whichis the upper daily Bollingerband. However, the eventualtarget of the index could be theupper monthly Bollinger bandwhich is currently at 34,500-34,600 area that is likely toachieve during next week.

The market volumes slightly short of 400million at 399.60 million shares, traded onThursday session gave an impressive look.The cement and oil & gas sectors are look-

ing strong at current levels and they mightplay a role in guiding the index towards newhighs.

The volume leader was the national car-

rier PIA with 32 million shares traded in thisscrip while Jahangir Siddiqi Co and TRG werethe second and third volume leaders with 25million and 22 million shares respectively.

KSE-100 eyes on 34,000 levels

RIYADH: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif meeting Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, DeputyPremier and Minister of Defence at Al-Yamamah Palace.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—As the Parliament on Thursdayunanimously adopted a resolution tabled againstblasphemous caricatures published in Frenchweekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, doz-ens in Lahore marched against the publication.

In a statement issued from Riyadh, PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif also condemned theFrench magazine.

“Freedom of speech should not be used tohurt religious sentiments of any community,”the statement read, adding that publication ofprovocative material should be discouraged bythe international community.

In the National Assembly, Federal Ministerfor Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique tabled theresolution and read it out.

The resolution called upon the internationalcommunity, including Organisation of IslamicCooperation and the European Union, to takeaction against publishing such material.

“These cartoons are a conspiracy to createmisunderstanding among civilisations,” the reso-lution reads.

Speaking to media representatives outsidethe Parliament House, Minister for Religious Af-fairs Sardar Shahjahan Yousaf said that parlia-mentarians along with the people of Pakistan

are against such acts, adding that they will notbe tolerated.

Later, Rafique said that all political par-ties have unanimously condemned the act theFrench publication as such elements are beingused to defame Islam. He added that Pakistanalways vowed for religious rights while suchelements are conspiring against the MuslimUmmah.

Meanwhile, Members of Parliament hereThursday organized a protest march against pub-lishing of blasphemous sketches by some Euro-pean media organizations and demanded thatthese countries take strict action against this ir-responsible act.

The protest march was led by DeputySpeaker National Assembly Murtaza JavedAbbasi, Minister for Religious Affairs and In-terfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousaf,Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique,State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs SheikhAftab, Minister of State for Religious Affairsand Interfaith Harmony Pir Ameen ul Hasnaat,Captain Safdar and participated by a number ofother parliamentarians.

The march was held from gate No. 1 of Par-liament House to the main gate, in which, theparticipants expressed their love and spiritual at-

NA resolution blastsblasphemous sketchesMPs march against European media cartoons

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MUZAFFAR ALI / MIAN ARSHAD

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD—Over the last two days,motorists and passengers are facing problemsdue to shortage of petrol across Punjab at thegas stations forcing them to stand in long queues,repeating the scenes of rush at CNG stations.

The authorities of PSO and Ministry of Pe-troleum and Natural Resources have failed tosort out the fuel shortage and no explanation iscoming from them.

According to sources, the problem worseneddue to the reduced oil imports whereas fog hasalso increased the fuel crisis as vehicles carry-ing fuel have to face difficulty in petrol trans-portation to pumps at night. 80 percent of thepetrol pumps in Punjab are closed and thoseopened have long queues of cars and motor-cycles. This situation has disrupted the routinelife of citizens.

As per sources, a ship carrying imported fuelwill dock the port today after which the fuelsupply is likely to be improved.

In Rawalpindi and Islamabad the situation

is more worrisome. Petrol is available at PSOpumps but the long queues have made the mo-torists jittery. Several people were seen com-plaining about the attitude of the governmenttowards their problems.

They said most of their precious time ispassed while standing in queues. They said atthis point of time when the oil prices have comedown by almost 50% why this shortage is beingcreated.

Meanwhile, Pakistan State Oil, country’slargest oil marketing firm, is facing severe fi-nancial crunch as its circular debt topped Rs200billion forcing the firm to stop imports amiddepleting oil stocks. Sources said Thursday thattotal receivables of the company have climbedto Rs214 billion.

The company has requested the federal gov-ernment to immediately pay Rs78 billion thatwould allow it to import petroleum products.Sources said that PSO has left with only sevento ten days of stocks of various petroleum prod-ucts including the furnace oil. Due to depleting

Punjab: 80pc petrol stationsclosed due to supply cut

PSO faces severe financial crunch

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RIYADH—Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif on Thursday visitedKhadimul Harmain Sharifain KingAbdullah bin Abdulaziz and enquired af-ter his health. The Prime Minister prayedfor his good health, recovery and long life.He remained there for some time and laterleft for Jeddah.

Expressing concern over the health of

the King, the Prime Minister said beingcustodians of the Holy Mosques Saudileadership has a special place in the heartof every Pakistani, adding that the Paki-stani nation is praying for his speedy re-covery and long life.

Earlie, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifand Saudi Crown Prince Salman binAbdulaziz Al Saud met on Thursday and

discussed ways of enhancing relations be-tween the two countries in diverse fields.

Crown Prince Salman received PrimeMinister Mohammed Nawaz Sharif at theAl-Yamamah Palace and welcomed theprime minister and his accompanying del-egation “to their second home.”

Nawaz Sharif expressed happiness at

Nawaz, Salman discuss Muslimworld issues, bilateral ties

PM meets Saudi King, enquires after his health

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Pope: There arelimits to freeexpressionABOARD THE PAPAL

PLANE—Pope Francis saidon Thursday there are limitsto freedom of expression,especially when it insults orridicules someone’s faith.

Francis spoke about theParis terror attacks while enroute to the Philippines,defending free speech as notonly a fundamental humanright but a duty to speak one’smind for the sake of thecommon good.

But he said there werelimits. By way of example, hereferred to Alberto Gasparri,who organizes papal trips andwas standing by his sideaboard the papal plane.

“If my good friend Dr.

Two moreconvictshangedKARACHI/LAHORE—Twomore condemned prisonersincluding Lashkar-e-Jhangviactivist Mohammad Saeedalias Maulvi and Zahid aliasZahidu were hanged atKarachi central prison andKot Lakhpat jail, Lahore,respectively, on Wednesdaymorning.

An anti-terrorism court inKarachi had found Saeedguilty for shooting DeputySuperintendent of Police(Retd) Syed Sabir HussainShah and his young son SyedAbid Hussain Shah. He wasawarded death sentence inApril 2001. Saeed had killedboth his victims in an ambushnear the Malir City railwaycrossing.

Both Sabir Hussain andhis son were reportedly killedon sectarian grounds, whereasSaeed is said to be associated

Fazlullah,Shahidullah areabscondersKARACHI—A local court onThursday declared outlawedTTP chief Mullah Fazlullahand his other seven accom-plices as ‘absconders’ inKarachi airport attack case.

According to reports thepolice produced three menaccused in the case. The courtextended their remand. As forother accused in the case, thecourt declared Fazlullah,Shahidullah Shahid and otheraccused as absconders anddirected the police to ensuretheir arrest. The hearing wasadjourned till January 26.

In June 2014, outlawedTTP militants attacked theJinnah International Airportin which at least 28 peoplewere martyred.—Online

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AAMIR MAJEED

KARACHI—Investigation intokidnappings of traders has re-vealed that some officials ofKarachi police kidnap tradersand release them after charg-ing ransom money, it is reliablylearnt.

The evidences have re-vealed that some officials of theKarachi police have a well-organised network of inform-ers, who help them in kidnap-ping Baloch traders from theKarachi-Hub link road whilethey are on city visit.

Balochistan police haveconfirmed the reports andclaimed that the Balochistan

Probe reveals …

Karachi police involvedin traders kidnapping

government had already writ-ten a letter after receiving com-plaints few months back anddemanded the custody of theofficials involved in this hei-nous business.

Earlier, the Balochistanpolice reacting on complaintsregarding kidnapping ofBaloch traders for ransom, hadlaunched raids within the prov-ince and arrested two inform-ers of the Karachi police fromKarachi-Hub link road.

The arrested personsJameel and Tanveer during in-terrogation admitted that theywere informers of intelligenceagencies. When they were

Imran promisesnot to travel withprotocol in future

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—After comingunder heavy criticism a dayearlier, PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman ImranKhan on Thursday said that hewould no longer travel withheavy security protocol in thefuture.

“From now on, you willnever again see any kind of pro-tocol with me,” Imran said at apress conference in the federalcapital. “There were only sixcars in the protocol. But sinceit was the first visit with mywife and all our MPs and min-isters were there, it appearedbigger.”

Defending his decision tovisit the army school two days

WB $150m planto minimizefloods impactin PakistanISLAMABAD—The WorldBank is preparing a projectworth of US $150 million forflood resilience in response tothe 2014 floods in Pakistanspecially in Punjab.

A World Bank missionheld a high level meeting atPlanning and DevelopmentDepartment of Punjab anddiscussed the project forflood resilience.

World Bank ActingCounty Director, ReynoldDuncan said the project wasbeing prepared on an

MIRAN SHAH: A delegation of Ambassadors, Charge d’ Affaires from friendly countries and UN agencies represen-tatives visiting Miran Shah bazaar on Thursday.

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak chairing meetingon streamlining power distribution system by PESCO.

ISLAMABAD—The National Assembly wasinformed on Thursday that the governmenthas planned a housing scheme under whichfive hundred thousand low cost units willbe provided to the homeless people in thecountry.

Parliamentary Secretary for Housingand Works Syed Sajid Mehdi informed theHouse during Question Hour that eachhousing unit will cost one million rupees.He said hundred percent loan facility willbe available for which one percent interestwill be paid by the owner of the house whilesix percent will be paid by the governmentitself.

He said each unit consisting of 415square feet will be well equipped with allthe facilities will be allotted to the general

Govt set to construct 0.5m low costhousing units under ‘apna ghar scheme’

public and they will build the house by them-selves. He said Balochistan has providedfree of cost land for the project and Punjabwill provide the land at half cost while ne-gotiations are underway with the Sindh andKhyber Pakhtunkhwa in this regard.

Syed Sajid Mehdi said that Apna GharCompany has been formed and essentialplanning completed for the project. He saidthe scheme will be launched shortly afterbriefing to the Prime Minister. To a ques-tion, Minister of State for National HealthServices, Regulation and Coordination,Saira Afzal Tarar informed the House thatthe price of Hepatitis treatment oral drug“Sovaldi” will be finalized within a week.Replying to a question Minister for Waterand Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif in-

formed the House that due to routine de-silting of canals, there is decrease in thepower production due to which load-shed-ding has increased. He said presently thepower production in hydel sector is about700 MW which will be increased to 3500MW after the reopening of canals after aweek. He said after this there will be signifi-cant decrease in the load-shedding till April.

The Deputy Speaker announced thatPTI MNAs Imran Khattak, Ali MuhammadKhan, Sheharyar Afridi, Khayal ZamanOrakzai, Azhar Jadoon, Dawar Kundi,Murad Saeed, Qaiser Jamal, Asad Umar,Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Nafeesa Inayatullah,Sajida Begum and Lal Chand are absent fromthe House without leave of the Assemblyfor forty consecutive days with effect from

12th August last year. Replying to a callattention regarding difficulties being facedby the residents of village Sultan Pur,Havelian due to non-separation of the areafrom the Cantonment Board, ParliamentarySecretary for Defence, Jaffer Iqbal said thatthe locals are being provided all basic fa-cilities and these will be improved if there isany demand.The chair referred the matter to the con-cerned Committee of the House. The Housedeferred the resolution regarding Gas In-frastructure Development Cess Ordinance,2014 to be extended for a further period ofone hundred and twenty days after objec-tions raised by Opposition Leader SyedKhurshid Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, S. A.Iqbal Qadri, and Aftab Sherpao.— INP

LA H O R E —Mian Manzoor AhmedWattoo, President Punjab PPP, hasurged the government and the Par-liament to take up urgently the pro-posed Hind Marriage RegistrationBill for an early legislation becauseit entails the important question ofrights of minorities in Pakistan.

He said this in a statement is-sued from here today observing thatthe PPP considers the minorities asits constituency and support theircause as a liberal and democraticParty in true sense of the word. Hesaid that the well being of minori-t ies was the corner stone of thepolicy of the Party and had takenlandmark decisions as such duringits watch of governments.

Their mainstreaming in thecountry’s politics and also for theirupward social mobility was the soleobjectives of the PPP governments,he added.

Wattoo for legislation on Hindumarriage registration process

He pointed out that the declara-tion of the wish of Chairman BilawalBhutto to see a non-Muslim asChief Executive of the country wasthe manifestation of the ult imatecommitment to the cause of therights of the minorities. He recalledthat the PPP did not believe in play-ing to the gallery and had taken anumber of steps for their empower-ment by the PPP successive gov-ernments.He said the founding father of the

PPP created a separate Ministry forthe Minorities dedicated to look af-ter their well being in order to im-prove their quality of life.

He also did away with the sys-tem of separate electorates for theminorities. He recalled that the PPPformer democratic government tookan unprecedented decision when itreserved four seats for the minori-ties in the Senate that was giant step

for bringing them in the mainstreampolitics of the country and also as-sociating them in the decision mak-ing process on matters of nationalimportance. He said that the samePPP government declared August11 as the Minority Day because onthis date the founder of the nationmade it abundantly clear while ad-dressing the constituent Assemblythat minorities would enjoy equalrights like other citizens of Pakistanand there would no discrimination.

For the upward social mobilityof the minorities, Mian ManzooorAhmed Wattoo said that the PPPgovernment reserved 5% quota forthem in the government jobs and en-sured i ts implementat ion acrossboard. He said that the PPP govern-ment also notified that two func-t ions of the minori t ies would beobserved officially to give them thefeelings of belongingness.—INP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Advisor to Chief MinisterPunjab on Health Kh. Salman Rafiq has saidthat women medical officers who do notcontinue their professional carrier aftermarriage can set up their private clinics andPunjab Health Foundation (PHF) will facili-tate them in this regard. He said this while chairing a meet-ing of board of directors of Punjab HealthFoundation, here today. Besides, SecretaryHealth Jawad Rafiq Malik, MD PHF IzharAnwar Sheikh, Additional Secretary I&CS&GAD M. Naeem Ghaus, Assistant ChiefPlanning Officer (Health) P&D Board UzmaHafeez, Additional Secretary PopulationWelfare Madam Zareen, Prof. EiceMuhammad (Non Official Member) and theofficers of social welfare and other con-cerned departments attended the meeting.The meeting decided to enhance the ceil-ing of interest-free loan from Rs. 15 lakh toRs.25 lakh for establishing private clinic.

It was proposed that private medical

Private clinics’ interest-freeloan limit enhanced upto 2.5m

colleges should also be approached for es-tablishing nursing schools for overcomingshortage of nurses and PHF will extend fi-nancial assistance to them for this purpose.Secretary Health directed that a letter besent to the management of private medicalcolleges and a feasibility report should alsoprepaid to evaluate the capacity of thesecolleges to produce qualified nurses. Kh. Salman Rafiq observed that usu-ally women medical officers give up theirprofession after marriage which is a greatloss to the nation. He directed that PHFshould persuade such women medical of-ficers to establish their private clinics andspecial package be introduced for marriedwomen medical officers for establishing clin-ics so that they could serve their commu-nity. He said that South Punjab is facingsevere shortage of WMOs. Secretary Healthsaid that proposal to provide stipend topost-graduate nurses should also be con-sidered. He said that the basic objective ofproviding interest-free loans is to promotehealth facilities in the remote areas.

Unlawfulforeigners’deportation

ordered MIRPUR—District Magis-trate has prohibited the pro-vision of any logistic sup-port and employment to ille-gal foreigner living in theterritorial jurisdiction of dis-trict. It was officially de-clared that, “ the residentsof district are advised to notprovide any shelter, job orany other support to the il-legal immigrants settled inthe district”, the order issuedlate Wednesday warned.

Any of the person,found defying the prohibi-tory order, would be penal-ized under section 188 APC(Azad Penal Code). The pro-hibitory order issued by theMirpur District Magistrateelaborated that it had comein to the notice of the dis-trict administration thatsome unlawful foreignerssneaked in to Pakistan ille-gally and settled in districtunlawfully.

The residents had al-ready been served with thenotices to evacuate theirproperties from such unlaw-ful foreigners, tenants be-sides relieving them from thejobs by the dead line of Janu-ary 10, 2015. —APP

BalochistanMayors, DYMayors poll

on Jan 28QUETTA—Election Commis-sion of Pakistan has issuedschedule for final phase of lo-cal government elections inBalochistan. Provincial Elec-tion Commissioner, Syed Sul-tan Bayazeed said, here onWednesday that elections formayors, deputy mayors,chairman and deputy chair-man would be held on Janu-ary 28.

“Over 10,000 councilorswould cast their votes forelection of mayors, deputymayors, chairman anddeputy chairman in differentdistricts of the province,” hesaid adding that 139 presid-ing officers would be ap-pointed in this regard. Hesaid that the interested can-didates would deposit theirfee with the election com-mission including Rs 10,000for mayor and deputymayor, respectively and Rs8,000 each for chairman anddeputy chairman.—APP

BANNU—The internally dis-placed persons (NWA) ofNorth Waziristan Agencyhave started preparations forreturn home after the govern-ment announcement in this re-gard.

The IDPs at Al-Khidmattent village in Bannu Town-ship are very happy and ex-press their feelings in dif-ferent ways since the gov-ernment has announcedthat the process of returnof the displaced personswill begin from the currentmonth. Some IDPs maketheir jubilation quite vis-ible, while others lament ontheir deserted property andbusinesses.“We want tohappily return to our nativeland in a peaceful environ-

IDPs prepare toreturn homes

ment,” a displaced persontold media. “I owned somesheep and goats in NorthWaziristan. After returningthere, I will first find a homeand then I will search for mygoats and sheep.

If I failed to find themthen I will do physicallabour to make ends meet,”said another IDP.“I am veryhappy after hearing the an-nouncement of our return.

There can be no alter-native to one’s land ofbirth,” another displacedperson from NorthWaziristan said. Theyhoped that the national andforeign donor agencies willcontinue their assistancewith the people of NorthWaziristan.—INP

Ambassadors,UN Agencies

representativesvisit NWASTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—A delegation ofambassadors from friendlycountries and UN agenciesrepresentatives visited NorthWazirstan Agency on Thurs-day. According to ISPR, Min-ister for SAFRON LieutenantGeneral(R) Abdul QadirBaloch, Sartaj Aziz adviser toPM on national security andforeign affairs, and Lieuten-ant General Hidayat urRehman, Corps Commander11 Corps accompanied theambassadors.

The visiting dignitarieswere briefed in detail by Op-erational commander on on-going Operation Zarb-e-Azband the unprecedented suc-cesses achieved in the op-eration. The delegation wastaken around captured anddestroyed Terrorist hideouts,IEDs making factories, tun-nels, suicide bomber trainingcentres and recovered armsand ammunition. The delega-tion lauded the efforts andresolve of Pakistani Nationand the Army in their fightagainst terrorism and paidrich tributes to martyrs fortheir sacrifices to bring peaceand stability in the region.

The delegation includedthe ambassadors of Af-ghanistan, Netherland, Aus-tralian High commissioner,Charge d’ Affairs of Argen-tina, US and Germany, rep-resentative from UNDP,UNHCR, UN mission in Pa-kistan and WFP.—APP

3 cops injuredDERA ISMAIL KHAN—Atleast three policemen sus-tained injuries as a policemobile came under rocketat tack in Girah Mastanarea of Dera Ismail Khanon Thursday. According topolice, the incident tookplace when unidentif iedmiscreants fired a rocketthat hit the police mobilepatroll ing van in thearea.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Minis-ter for IT & Telecom Ms.Anusha Rahman has saidthat Government of Paki-stan is committed for revi-talization of Telephone In-dustries of Pakistan (TIP)and directed its new man-agement to prepare a com-plete a tangible andimplementable revitaliza-tion plan within the nextthree months.

The minister madethese remarks while chair-ing the 182nd Board of Di-rectors meeting of Tele-phone Industries of Paki-stan (TIP).

The Minister also di-rected Secretary IT to takeup the matter of all out-standing recoveries withtop management of PTCLand NRTC on urgent ba-sis .

Secretary IT Azmat AliRanjha, Acting MD T.I.PMuddassar Hussain,Member Legal Ms.

Govt committedfor revitalizationof TIP: Anusha

Ameena Sohail and otherBoard Members werepresent in the meeting.

On recommendationof the Finance Committee,the Board has accordedthe approval of TIP bud-get . The Chairperson(Minister) was also in-formed that as approvedin previous board meeting,the formal notification forthe appointment of newMD TIP Mr. Zia-ul-Haqhas been issued.—APP

MULTAN: Workers of Muttahida Shehri Mahaz stage a demonstration in support of their demands.

FAISALABAD: Secretary General Jammat-e-Islami Liaquat Baloch joing hands withleaders of transporters to express solidarity during their protest at Zila Council Chowk.

NATHIAGALI: A shopkeeper seen removing snow on road in front of his shop as thearea received heavy snowfall of the season.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Gov-ernment to train more than 50 thousandteachers to improve quality of Education inpublic sector educational institutions. Thiswas stated by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Min-ister for Elementary and Secondary Educa-tion Mr. Atif Khan while addressing as achief guest at the inaugural ceremony ofteachers training program held at a localhotel Peshawar, this morning. The cer-emony was also attended by AdditionalSecretary Elementary and Secondary Edu-cation Qaisar Alam, Director Elementary andSecondary Education Rafiq Khattak, Di-rector DCTE Bashir Hussain Shah, NadeemBashir of Adam Smith International, AliRaza of Beaconhouse schools system andteachers. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ministersaid that majority of students studying inpublic sector educational institutions werefrom middle and lower middle class, that iswhy PTI led government which came in topower with the slogan of change, is makingall out efforts to ensure equal opportunityof quality education irrespective of theirstatus in the society. He added that KhyberPakhtunkhwa Government has allocatedconsiderable amount for cash award to theheads/teachers of public sector educationalinstitutions for best performance by intro-ducing “reward and punishment culture”.This would certainly improve the standardof government schools, he opined.

He was appreciative of the performance of

KP to train 50,000 teachers toimprove education standard

his team in education department foroutsourcing the training program in a fair andtransparent manner adding that the trainingprogram would go a long way in the promotionof quality education in government schools.

He further added that KhyberPakhtunkhwa Government has introducedmerit based policy in recruitments in all sec-tors and teachers with Master, M.Phill de-grees were appointed through a transpar-ent procedure. The pre-service and postservice training will be continuous processand hundreds and thousands of teacherswould be benefitted from this program tobuild their capacity for imparting qualityeducation. It merits to mention here that atpresent more than 40 lac children are en-rolled in the public sector schools. This isfor the first time government has invited pri-vate sector to train government school teach-ers. Four organizations have been selectedthrough a transparent process and contractshave been awarded. Total 23,500 PrimarySchool Teachers of Grade 2 will be trained inEnglish as medium of instruction; whereBeaconhouse Public School will train 11,520teachers in 11 Districts and AFAQ will train5,820 teachers in 7 Districts. Contract will beawarded to organization in this month for6,133 teachers in 7 Districts. Around 1,950Higher Secondary School Teachers will betrained on English and Maths where POR-TAL consultant will train 1,080 English teach-ers in higher secondary and Socio Engineer-ing Consultant will train 870 Mathematicsteachers in higher Secondary.

KARACHI Pakistan is in urgent need fordeveloping conducive environment foractual implementation of series of laws

that could not be implemented due to lack ofpolitical will, said speakers at a seminar orga-nized by Omair Sana Foundation for Thalassane-mia Prevention. Former Judge of Supreme Courtof Pakistan, Justice (Retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed,Human Rights Activist, Ansar Burney, DeputyCommissioner, Karachi - Central, Dr Saif urRehman, Hematologist Dr Tahir Shamsi, Dr. SaqibAnsari and other in their respective presenta-tions said concerted efforts were needed forimplementation of Thalassanemia Prevention Bill2014 unanimously adopted by Sindh Assembly.

It was regretted that despite passage of noless than a year facilities are nor readily avail-able at 99 percent of government ownedhealthcare facilities for crucial pre-marital testfor couples tying nuptial knots or those plan-ning to raise their family. The chief guest Justice(retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed said provision of fa-cilities must be duly complimented with proper

Thalassemia Prevention Act-2014needs urgent implementation

public understanding about the relevance of thelaw and its implications for their children.

Acknowledging that an attitude of indifferencelargely prevails among the people themselves, thejurist said it was high time that an efficient deter-rence mechanism is developed that may not onlysensitized people about importance of laws adoptedbut also compel them to follow them. “Citizens with-out any distinction must be made to follow rules,regulations and law of the land violation of whichmust be deterred through relevant penalty andpunishment,” said the former SHC judge.

Human rights activist, Ansar Burney saidThalassemia is not only a disease but an issueof human rights too as children born with theblood disorder not only suffer from a compro-mised life quality but also a cause of severetrauma for their respective parents and families.He on the occasion referred to Quranic injunc-tions that not only refers to treatment for healthconditions but also seeks pre-caution and pre-vention against ailments.

Dr. Tahir Shamsi, a senior hematologist of

the country said Thalassemia is a congenital dis-ease that is transmitted to kids born tothalassaemia minor carrier parents. “It is there-fore important that couples planning to get mar-ried may necessarily ascertain their thalassemiastatus,” said the specialist in blood diseases.He mentioned that the test declared mandatoryfor every couple tying nuptial knot was ex-tremely relevant in identification of other blooddisorders that may be transmitted to kids bornto affected parents.

Dr. Shamsi said that it was only when boththe parents are carrying it that there are chancesof thalassemia major in the child or children bornto them otherwise with just one of the parentsuffering from the condition hold nil risk for thekid. The expert also referred to the fact that thetest is extremely safe and simple as nothing butblood samples of parents are required to ascer-tain their status. He regretted that people havedeveloped a tendency to ignore and violate lawcausing serious risk to themselves, their fami-lies and society in general.—APP

IK could not bear masses criticismPESHAWAR—Awami Na-tional Party (ANP) centralleader Asfandyar Wali Thurs-day strongly criticized PTIchief Imran Khan on hisstrong reaction over the pro-test by Army Public Schoolvictims’ families against him.“Being critical of others, thecaptain himself could not tol-erate criticism of the people.The captain himself staged asit-in for three months but hasno capacity to bear one hourprotest against him,” he said

SRSP completed3 waiting roomsat Lawari tunnelGUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

CHITRAL—To facilitatewomen folk and children inchilly weather at Lawari topSarhad Rural Support Pro-gram (SRSP) completed 3waiting rooms for women,children and male personsincluding 3 bathrooms formen and 3 for women atLawari top. Chief guest ColSaqib of Pakistan Army in-augurated these waitingroom and shelter at southportal in front of Lawari tun-nel at Dir side by cutting theribbon.

Addressing on the occa-sion Regional Program Man-ager SRSP Dir Mir Ajab saidit was dire demand of peopleof Chitral to construct wait-ing rooms at both sides of thetunnel. He said SRSP com-pleted a sophisticated waitingroom at North side near Ziaratlast year and they also ar-ranged waiting room in con-tainer at south portal Dir side.

He said that the waitingroom was constructed with acost of 2.7 million from SRSPfund on the special directive ofShahzada Masoodul MulkChief Executive officer of SRSPto facilitate women and childrenof Chitral including male per-sons. There are 3 well fur-nished waiting rooms withseparate bath rooms for maleand female with heating sys-tem inside the waiting room.

Addit ional DeputyCommissioner Dir AkbarJalal Chitrali, AdditionalAssistant CommissionerDrosh Basharat Khan,project Manager of NHA,District Program ManagerSRSP Chitral Tariq Ahmad,Amir Jamat Islami MaulanaSher Aziz as well as com-mandant Dir scouts andBajawar scouts also par-ticipated in the inaugura-tion ceremony.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The UnitedStates has awarded $4.6 mil-lion to the United NationsChildren’s Fund (UNICEF)for the four-year SaferSchools Program in Paki-stan. The program aims toensure children affected byhumanitarian crises haveaccess to a quality educa-tion by making schools safefrom all forms of disasters-natural or man-made, the USembassy stated on Thurs-day. Assistance provided bythe United States Agency forInternational Development(USAID) will increase resil-ience in affected communi-ties and build the capacityof children, teachers, andparents to prevent, reduce,and cope with challengingsituations that impactchildren’s education.WithUSAID funding, UNICEF willmanage educational servicesfor 53,000 children displacedfrom North Waziristan. Over

US awards $4.6m forSchools Programme

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)Karachi Chapter on the call of itsChief Siraj-ul-Haq has decided toobserve countrywide ‘Youm-e-Ihtejaj’ (day of protest) on January-16 (Friday) against the publicationof blasphemous sketches of HazratMuhammad (peace be upon him) inCharlie Hebdo Magazine in France.

This was announced by JIKarachi Chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman while addressing acrowded press conference at Idara-e-Noor Haq here on Thursday.

Addressing the press confer-ence, Hafiz Naeem said that the JIKarachi Chapter on the call of itsChief Siraj-ul-Haq has decided toobserve a day of protest on Fridayfor condemning the publication ofblasphemous sketches of HazratMuhammad (PBUH) in western

JI to observe youm-e-ihtejaj on blasphemoussketches of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

magazine.Speaking at the occasion, Hafiz

Naeem further announced that theJI will organize protest demonstra-tion outside the different mosquesafter Friday prayers for condemn-ing the deplorable act of westernmedia.

He further informed the mediathat the JI Karachi Chapter will alsoorganize a protest rally outside Bait-ul-Mukarram Mosque on Sundayand also present a memorandum toFrench Consul General in Karachifor expressing their strong reserva-tions over the publication of blas-phemous sketches.

During the press conference,Hafiz Naeem demanded immediatestoppage of publication of blasphe-mous sketches, to immediately con-vene the meeting of Organizationof Islamic Conference (OIC) and thegovernment should record its pro-

test at government level over thesaid incident.

Speaking at the occasion, HafizNaeem said that the publication ofblasphemous sketches in westernmedia has hurt the sentiments of1.5billion Muslim across the world.

He termed the publication ofblasphemous sketches an “anti-Is-lam” approach of western countries,adding that the western world hadalso involved in publication of blas-phemous sketches in the year 2005in a newspaper in Denmark.

“Over the strong reservationand protest by the Muslim commu-nity across the world, the publica-tion of blasphemous sketches hadbeen stopped temporarily. However;the western world had once againstarted its heinous activities in thisregard in the years 2009 and 2010.

Hafiz Naeem further said that thehand grenade attacks were also con-

ducted on different mosques inSweden and France before publica-tion of blasphemous sketches andthe police was also raided on theresidences of those people whocondemned the publication of blas-phemous sketches on Facebook.

“Jamaat-e-Islami considerspublication of blasphemoussketches an open terrorism of west-ern countries towards Muslimworld and said that the Muslims willnever tolerate such kind of offence”,he added.

Hafiz Naeem urged the Muslimcountries to raise voice over thesaid sensitive issue collectively, sothat the western world could notafford to repeat its heinous activi-ties again.

He further said that the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) will also announce itsfuture strategy in this regard afterconsultation with other parties.

while talking to the media.He said Imran Khan

wants to shift the responsi-bility of APS incident to theArmy to conceal hisgovernment’s failure in theprovince, adding how terror-ists managed to enterPeshawar and kill innocentstudents in APS was a ques-tion mark on performance ofthe provincial government.Asfandyar said Chief Minis-ter Khyber Pakhtunkhwa andSpeaker Provincial Assembly

abused the protesting rela-tives of APS victims on pro-test against Imran Khan andtermed it a inhuman act.

He said the KP govern-ment has no moral groundto remain in power, addingthat PTI leadership soon af-ter the protest against ImranKhan started blaming otherpolitical parties includingANP which was unjust. Hesaid if ANP would havestaged protest, it wouldhave been different and led

by Amir Haider Hoti andMian Iftikhar. “ANP cannotdo politics on killing of in-nocent students and teach-ers of APS,” he said.

Meanwhile, Qaumi WatanParty leader and Member Pro-vincial Assembly, BakhtBaider Khan here Thursdaysaid the arrival of PakistanTehrik e Insaf Chief ImranKhan at Army Public School(APS) with great pomp andshow negated his tall claimsof abolishing VIP culture.

“Contrary to his (Imran’sclaims to end VIP culture, thearrival of PTI Chief at APS ina motorcade of 21-luxury ve-hicles demonstrated differ-ence between words and ac-tions of PTI Chief,” the QWPleader told APP.

Earlier, Pakistan MuslimLeague-N General SecretaryKP, Rehmat Salam Khattakand Provincial InformationSecretary Nasir Musazai saidThursday the ‘Go Imran Go’slogans had emanated fromthe hearts of aggrieved par-ents and relatives of martyredschool children outside theArmy Public School (APS)on arrival of Pakistan TehrikInsaf Chief Imran the otherday. Talking to media per-sons, the PML-N leaderscriticized the PTI leadershipon giving a false statementthat the protest was held bypolitically motivated peopleand not by relatives and par-ents of APS martyrs on ar-rival of Imran Khan alongwith his wife.—APP

ANF recoversnarcotics worthRs 1121million

ISLAMABAD—Anti Narcot-ics Force (ANF) has recov-ered 19.4 kg heroin and 990kg charas worth of Rs 1121million. ANF conducted sixcountry-wide operations atvarious cities, said a pressrelease. ANF also arrestedsix persons involved indrug trafficking and seizedthree vehicles during theoperations.

According to details, oninformation of ANF Intelli-gence Wing, Malaysian andVietnamese authorities haveconducted three operationsin their own countries.

During these opera-tions, Vietnamese authori-t ies recovered f ive kgheroin from an Indonesianlady, whereas in two otheroperations, Malaysian Po-lice seized 33 and 27 kgMethamphetamine sepa-rately at Koulalampur In-ternational Airport, Malay-sia.

ANF Karachi on pur-suance of an intelligencereport, intercepted a BedFord Truck Registered No.AE-0041 near Toll Plaza,Super Highway, Karachi.During search of the ve-hicle, 990 kg charas was re-covered from the truck.Charas was packed in plas-t ic bags and was con-cealed under a layer ofsacks containing cowfood.—APP

10,000 children, nearly half ofwhom are girls, have alreadybeen identified and enrolledin Temporary Learning Cen-ters and established hostcommunities. Approximately100 teachers have beentrained in psychosocial sup-port, health and hygiene pro-motion, and techniques forteaching in challenging en-vironments. “It is importantthat the educational and so-cial well-being of the inno-cent children belonging totemporarily displaced fami-lies not have their educationimpacted by this misfor-tune,” USAID Mission Di-rector in Pakistan, GregoryGottlieb said. She said thatwhether these children residein camps established for theinternally displaced popula-tion or with communitieshosting them, a secure learn-ing environment for a sus-tainable, quality education isimperative to not just the chil-dren but also their communi-ties.”

ISLAMABAD—The cold wavegripping most parts of thecountry would persist andnight temperatures woulddrop during the next few days,according to the Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD). Deputy Director, Na-tional Weather ForecastingCenter, PMD, Aleem-ul-Hassan told APP that fogwould engulf different parts ofthe country includingGujranwala, Lahore,Bahawalpur, Multan,Faisalabad divisions duringmorning and night hours.

Frost is also expected inSargodha, Rawalpindi divi-

Night temperaturesto plummet further

sions and plains of KhyberPakhtunkhwa during the nextfew days, he said. The recent

rain spell, although of normalintensity, has benefittedWheat crop in Barani areas.The Wheat crop was facingwater stress condition and thepresent rain spell has providedenough moisture to Wheatcrop for flourishing.

Imran could not readsensitivities of APS

PTI leader and head of the political party that rules KPK, Imran Khan,accompanied by his newly wed wife Reham Khan visited Army Public School in Peshawar to express solidarity with children and their

families and offered Fateha for victims of December 16 tragedy. However,he had to face some rough treatment at the hands of demonstrating parentsand media that telecast live scenes from the venue.

Some people were rather furious over the belated visit of the Captainand they raised slogans of ‘Go Imran Go’, reacting to which, Minister forInformation and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid gleefully predictedthat the PTI chief will have to hear similar slogans wherever he will go.Imran Khan appeared to be in a state of shock and baffled over demonstra-tions because it was something beyond his expectations. Reflecting his ut-ter dismay, he said at a news conference that he was at a loss to understandas to what was the justification for protests when he had come to see stu-dents of the school that was targeted by terrorists. His disappointment wasunderstandable as apart from the resentment expressed by parents of thechildren, television channels also took him to task for the extraordinarilylarge cavalcade, consisting of over twenty luxury vehicles, reflecting di-chotomy claims about VIP culture in the country. In our view, even if claimof Imran Khan that those raising slogans outside APS were not parents butpolitically motivated people were true, the fact remains that Imran Khancould not read sensitivities of students, their parents and all those whohave still not recovered from the shock of Peshawar tragedy. Imran Khanwaited for years to re-marry and he could have lived without wife forsome more days and weeks but he opted for marriage right in the midst ofgloomy environment. And if one also accepts his claims that his Provin-cial government did not bear responsibility for security of an Army-runschool, one may ask why he himself and his Chief Minister were not inthe forefront during rescue operation and during firming up response toterrorism. Sadly enough, his Chief Minister was more interested in at-tending musical sit-in at the D-Chowk than attending to problems of hispeople in KPK. We hope that Imran Khan, who has emerged as leader ofone of the major political parties, would deeply analyse the causes andexercise care in future so as to avoid facing such ugly scenes.

Al-Qaeda wasdead, rising again!

YEMEN’S Al-Qaeda branch on Wednesday claimed responsibility forlast week’s attack at a Paris satirical newspaper, with one of its top

commanders saying the assault was in revenge for the weekly’s publicationof blasphemous cartoons. The claim was made in a video posting by itscommander Nasr al-Ansi.

Irrespective of whether or not the claim was genuine, as we have seenin the past that dastardly attacks were attributed to Al-Qaeda and Taliban aspart of the propaganda campaign by some vested interests, the fact remainsthat Al-Qaeda and Taliban were product of denial of justice and highlydiscriminatory attitude towards followers of particular faith as per clash ofcivilizations theory, propounded by a Western author. However, the univer-sal consensus that has emerged against extremism and terrorism broke theback of these organizations and it was widely believed that they were at theverge of total extermination, not because of use of force but because ofglobal unity. But unfortunately, this unity is being shattered by some un-scrupulous elements as they are adamant to aggressively pursue highly bi-ased policies towards Islam and its followers. A case in point is repeatedpublication of blasphemous cartoons and caricatures by some Westernnewspapers and magazines in the name of freedom of expression. Is free-dom of expression more sacrosanct than trampling feelings of 1.5 billionMuslims living in almost all corners of the globe? Certainly not, but theway some Western governments and leaders are directly or indirectly en-couraging such tendencies speaks volumes about their real designs. It isshocking that instead of urging the French weekly to desist from publish-ing provocative material, some Western organizations and countries haveoffered not only moral and political but also financial assistance to theweekly, which has again done the mischief of insulting the Prophet ofIslam (SWS). It is because of this approach that Al-Qaeda, which wasalmost dead, is now resurfacing and might attract those who are target ofthis sinister campaign by the so-called civilized world.

Put NAP on fast trackPRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif has been burning midnight oil by holding

meeting after meeting to ensure fool proof arrangements to eliminatethe menace of terrorism from the country. He has convened an importantmeeting of the Chief Ministers next week to get a comprehensive briefingon the progress made by them on the implementation of the National Ac-tion Plan (NAP).

The other day the Prime minister also chaired a meeting to review progresson the Action Plan and expressed government’s resolve to eradicate the men-ace and directed all the Federal and Provincial government departments totake proactive measures for ensuring speedy and effective implementation ofthe plan. It was also made clear in the meeting that the government wouldtake strict action against those found glorifying terrorism and spreading ha-tred in any way. All this reflects that the Prime Minister is keenly monitoringthe situation and it must be so because any laxity would give time to theterrorists to escape or adopt counter strategies. It is for the first time in thehistory of the country that the political leadership approved the National Ac-tion Plan, devised through intensive consultations. The Armed forces, on itspart are doing its job well by destroying the hideouts of the terrorists and theintelligence agencies have rounded up suspects from across the country bysharing information. The action against extremist elements must be acrossthe board and to achieve that major responsibility rests on the Provincialgovernments. The terrorists must be denied all options including use of tech-nology, arms and funding channels and for this proper mechanism wouldhave to be evolved. Several organisations have been identified in Punjab hav-ing links with militancy and we hope that other Provincial governments wouldbe doing the same to deal with them. We would also impress upon the PrimeMinister to give categorical instructions to the Provincial CMs at the meetingto implement the Action Plan on fast track because we have no other optionbut to defeat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

Eccentric approaches to unconventional threat

Tokyo’sdefencespree

THE cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved arecord 42 billion dollars al-

location, and termed it as essentialamid a soaring dispute with China.But Japan’s pro-militarism mea-sures are not seen in the region asbeing merely Beijing-specific, asNorth Korea also nurses reserva-tion with reference to the armsbuild up in the region. This is thethird consecutive increase, andpolicy-makers see it as an instru-ment of flexing muscles while thepacifist country manoeuvres toamend its constitution for a proac-tive military role, and that couldalso include giving up Tokyo’santi-nuclear doctrine.

A major chunk of defence bud-get is expected to go towards pa-trol aircrafts and vessels, as Tokyoflies sorties to sustain its claimover disputed islands in the EastChina Sea. Beijing’s unilaterallyenforcement of Air Defence Zonehas acted as a pivot in furtheringjingoism. The point is that this vi-cious trend is a setback to diplo-macy, as Abe and Chinese Presi-dent Xi Jinping have not been ableto cobble together an understand-ing, which could have addressedtheir contested claims over the is-lands. This enhanced allocation inTokyo, coupled with military drillsbetween Seoul and Washington, aswell as China’s outreach in the re-gion could inevitably provoke theStalinist leadership in Pyongyangto jump on the bandwagon of mili-tarism. This will be self-defeatingfor all in the region.— The Khaleej Times

*****

Palestine:Little to showfor MahmoudAbbas’ time

in office

IT is a great regret that Palestinian President MahmoudAbbas has so little to show for

his 10 years in power. There is nohope of any deal on Israeli recog-nition of Palestinian statehood; andto the great satisfaction of the Is-raelis, the Palestinians remainsplit into a Fatah-controlled WestBank and a Hamas-controlledGaza Strip. Abbas’ latest moveshows signs of growing despera-tion as he signed Palestine up tojoin the International CriminalCourt, which could allow allega-tions of war crimes against Israelto be brought forward. But thisstrategy of last resort will havelittle effect on the ground as Is-rael continues to occupy largeswathes of the West Bank anddominate its economic life.

Abbas was sworn in as presi-dent on January 15, 2005, and hewill spend his 10th anniversary inCairo trying to get Arab League of-ficials to keep broken promises ofgiving $100 million (Dh367.3 mil-lion) a month to make up for Is-raeli sanctions. It is wrong thatArab countries have broken suchpromises in the past, but it is alsoa condemnation of Abbas’ positionthat rather than celebrate any suc-cess, he is reduced to marking hisanniversary in power by beggingfrom his friends. The Palestinianpresident needs to recognise thathis mandate is running out as hehas neither won a recent electionnor delivered success. He was ini-tially elected for four years, buthe has stayed in office for sixmore years ruling by presidentialdecree with little economic orpolitical progress made, even tak-ing into consideration the Israelioccupation. A more technocraticapproach would have deliveredsome useful benefits to the Pales-tinians. A more dynamic leaderwould acknowledge that a peaceprocess with only one party com-mitted to peace cannot work. Hewould put all attempts at talks onhold and start a boycott of allmeetings with Israelis. He wouldalso embrace the Boycott, Divest-ment and Sanctions (BDS) cam-paign against Israel, which waslaunched in 2005 and has worriedthe Israelis as it has taken offaround the world.— Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

PRESENTLY there is no well-known official DDR(Deradicalisation, Disengage-

ment and Rehabilitation) Programmein Pakistan. To fill in the vacuum, fol-lowing recommendations are madeto curb this ever-growing evil, defil-ing the country at the internationallevel and rotting the indigenoussociety:i) There is a dire need to inte-grate indigenous police, municipalagencies and political agents in tribalareas to successfully assist the capac-ity–building and DDR projects thatengage affected individuals and re-move them from the temptations ofrecidivism. DDR mechanism re-volves around a rehabilitative com-munity-building and terror-bridgeburning programme through a com-munity-based initiative of prevention,rehabilitation and aftercare to dealwith the deviant group.

ii) CounsellingProgrammes en-tailing sessions with psychologistsand social scientists may be designedfor participants and their families,evaluating prisoners’ social standing,diagnosing psychosomatic problemsand assessing the conformity rate.This provides vital insights into howan individual participant is progress-ing and evaluates detainees’ partici-pation to determine whether or notthe rehabilitation is genuine.

iii) Familial engagement is im-portant in “Exit Programmes”to over-come the feelings of the isolation andguilt. Stable relationships, eventuallyreinforced by having children andbuilding new social networks, formerextremists may establish their new

Indian plans in Afghanistan going awry

THE best laid schemes o’ micean’ men often go awry” is afamous line from the poem

“To a Mouse” by Robert Burns. Itis now used as a proverbial expres-sion to signify the futility of mak-ing detailed plans when the outcomeis uncertain because no matter howcarefully a project is planned, some-thing may still go wrong with it. Theidiom holds true for the Indian plansin Afghanistan, which now appearto be failing.

India had nurtured HamidKarzai, who welcomed Indian in-vestment in reconstruction and de-velopment projects in Afghanistanin whose garb, four Indian Consu-lates and ten trade and industrialcenters were established, which pro-vided cover to Indian spy agencyRAW’s agents. These RAW opera-tives wreaked havoc in Pakistan,sponsoring strife in Balochistan andnurturing TTP functionaries tolaunch terror attacks in Pakistan.Besides these machinations to de-stabilize Pakistan, India is also at-tempting to upset Sino-Pakistan de-velopment of the strategic port ofGwadar and the China-PakistanEconomic Corridor by constructingthe Chahbahar-Milak-Zaranj-Dilaram road from Iran to Afghani-stan as an alternate transit route forboth Afghanistan and the CentralAsian States. The 213 kilometerslong Zaranj-Dilaram section inAfghanistan’s Nimroz province hasalready been completed.

In July 2009, at the sidelines ofthe XVth NAM Summit at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Pakistani Prime MinisterYousuf Raza Gilani provided a dos-

There is, however, alimit at whichforbearance ceasesto be a virtue.

sier of evidence of Indian in-volvement in Baloch insur-gency to his Indian counter-part. Seemingly convinced, theIndian Prime Minister hadpromised to investigate but onhis return home, Indian hawks

deterred him from going further whileIndian interference in Balochistancontinues unabated.

Since the advent of the new gov-ernment in Afghanistan, India,which had bet on AbdullahAbdullah, saw its nefarious plans inAfghanistan go awry. The new Af-ghan President Dr. Ashraf GhaniAhmadzai, a technocrat, who hasserved five years in India as a WordBank official, is fully cognizant ofIndian machinations hence he choseto give India a wide berth and invitedPakistan for a greater role in the re-construction of his war ravaged coun-try. His visit to Pakistan, meeting withthe Army Chief at GHQ and hostingGeneral Raheel Sharif at Kabul areindicatives of Ashraf Ghani’s reso-lute preference for Pakistan.

It may be noted that within hoursof the carnage of 132 schoolchildrenat Peshawar by terrorists on Decem-ber 16, 2014, General Raheel Sharifrushed to Kabul with recordings ofthe telephonic conversations betweenthe assailants and their handlers basedin Afghanistan. Not only was the Af-ghan President sympathetic toPakistan’s loss but has promised fullsupport in eliminating the terror mon-gers operating from Afghanistan.

These developments have beenmuch to the chagrin of India as itwatches its nefarious plans unravel-ing. In its desperation, India is com-mitting even greater blunders and in-advertently exposing its hiddenagenda. The appointment of AjitKumar Doval, former Director of theIntelligence Bureau as the new Na-tional Security Advisor to NarendraModi speaks volume for the further-

ance of Hindutva agenda by the BJPregime in India. Doval has appointedhis cronies from India’s spooks to im-portant positions to further the hei-nous plans of Hindu extremists. AjitDoval, Rajinder Khanna, SanjeevTripathi, Alok Joshi, Amitabh Mathurhave formed an unholy nexus to pro-mote Hindutva mission of AkhandBharat (Hindu Supremacy).

Doval is now also running aplan of re-engaging TTP militantsby establishing Daesh-TTP nexus;he organized TTP-Daesh meetingin Kandahar in December at the In-dian Consulate. The Syrian envoyin India has confirmed Doval’s re-ceiving complete data of Daeshmilitants, provided by Syrian au-thorities. Indian media also con-firms Doval’s secret trip to Syriaand Iraq while US Defense Secre-tary Chuck Hagel has admitted toIndian role in financing terror.

Ajit Doval is playing a danger-ous double game of running withthe hare and hunting with thehounds. While India pleads with theObama administration of being avictim of terror attacks and seeksUS support in chastising Pakistanfor its alleged sponsorship of ter-rorism, it surreptitiously woosDaesh warlords in Iraq and Syria.Simultaneously it is executing falseflag operations like the alleged “Pa-kistani Terror Boat” on New Year’sEve, which flopped and backfiredbecause it was shoddily plannedand executed, making India thelaughing stock of the world.

In a desperate attempt to deni-grate Pakistan and push wedges in thebudding Afghanistan-Pakistan rela-tions, RAW has reportedly engagedthe services of the infamous Pakistanbaiter Bruce Riedel. Mr. Riedel, aformer CIA analyst and counter-ter-rorism expert, belongs to a breed ofpaid writers, who creates contentswhich are void of realities and are

lives. Similarly, involvement of par-ents-driven initiative also proves to behighly effective in extracting childrenfrom the clutches of extremist groups.

iv) Attractive alternatives andsupport can be adopted as a mean toDDR programme. Extremist-terror-ist assemblage meets certain needs ofits associates, in terms of providingidentity, community, shield, and ex-hilaration. Potential defectors fromextremist religious’ identities are un-likely to take the plunge if they seeno pragmatic, reasonably secure, andsufficiently striking escape channelsand substitutes to the type of life theyare presently living. Those who with-draw from the terrorist band usuallydo so because continued membershipappears unattractive and is no longerfulfilling their socio-psychologicalneeds (push-factors), whereas lifeoutside the group appears more eye-catching (pull-factors).

v) Countering OnlineRadicalization is a systematic effortwhich works for a pervasive publicinformation campaign, showing theeffects of violence on victims shouldbe put in place to lower public sup-port, which has been seen on internetassemblage and elsewhere for terror-ist fustian. To identify the most inno-vative and effective strategies tocounter radicalization and recruit-ment, following is recommended:deterring the producers of extremistmaterials; empowering users to self-regulate their online communities; re-ducing the appeal of extremist mes-sages through education; and promot-ing positive messages.

vi) Re-education and rehabilita-tion can be activated by introducingmassive book distributionprogramme, persuasive and balancedstudies of Islam and comparative re-

ligions through school libraries maybe an effective tool. Matching inter-nationally-established literacy code,higher standards of technical, inno-vative and skilled education, qualita-tively aimed at accumulating strate-gic human capital, can play the mostcritical role to help the youth in get-ting rid of radical ideas.

vii) Crafted on the premise that ex-tremism originates from a mistakeninterpretation of Islam, rather thanwilful inclination to terrorism, theprogrammes need to be constructed tore-educate individuals and promote amore holistic interpretation of religionensuring ideological immunization torotten narrative. Deprogramming ofextremist views of Islam has led tosome members actually bursting intotears as they realize they have violatedtheir religion’s principles through com-mitting violent acts. Materializing in-dividuals’ strategic pull out from vio-lence, such initiatives allow discus-sions about values and belief systemsof the religion and provide a vitalcounter-narrative to extremists’ theo-logical reasoning.

viii) As an aftermath of Afghanwar followed by refugees in Pakistan,the seminaries or madaris grew innumbers over time and provided reli-gious education to a large number ofstudents. Most of these children fromsuch Madrassahs received purely re-ligious education. Religious seminar-ies essentially fill the vacuum createdby a deficient schooling system in thepublic sectors. Though, it is also a factthat there is no credible monitoring ofthe qualifications of Madaris teachers,and many Madaris continue to employteachers with sympathies to militantinterpretations of Islam, thereforeDDR initiatives must recognize thatteenagers are easily influenced by re-

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prejudiced. He has been the authorof numerous articles targetingPakistan’s nukes and has beenspreading cock and bull storiesspreading venom against Pakistan.Now he is gleefully performing thebiddings of his Hindutva masters infurthering their odious schema ofmaligning Pakistan.

India presence in Afghanistanis much more than economic ac-tivities. Due to the strained rela-tions between Afghanistan andPakistan thawing, India is up to itsusual tirade to foment an environ-ment by conducting terrorist at-tacks in both Pakistan and Af-ghanistan to prove that Pakistan iscreating trouble for Afghanistan.

Reports regarding Mullah Omarroaming between Quetta andKarachi are concocted contents onthe behest of Indian propagandistwhereas he lives in Afghanistan.Moreover, there are authentic infor-mation that India allies areharbouring Pakistan wanted TTPmilitants like Wali and MullahFazallulah. They are also support-ing them for carrying out activitiesagainst Pakistan. Indian belligerenceand bellicosity has heightened since.Its incessant firing across the LOChas caused numerous precious livesto be lost. India carried its aggres-sion to a higher level when it invitedPakistani Rangers for a flag meet-ing and killed two Pakistani Rang-ers. This is an unforgivable crimeand has caused disruption in the pro-cess of holding flag meetings in fu-ture since both sides will be wary ofrepeat acrimonious behaviour in thegarb of flag meetings.

It is imperative to unmask theIndian conspiracies and show itsreal face to the world, which hasbecome more desperate with thefailure of its plans.—The writer is retired PAF GroupCaptain and a TV talk show host.

— Edmund Burke British politician

cruiters. Critically, Madaris graduatescan only become religious teachersas they are not imparted skilled edu-cations to join mainstream skilled em-ployment and some are therefore, notsurprisingly, opting to join a violentjihad. Moreover, enforcement ofMadaris registration and the monitor-ing of religious instruction should notbe overlooked.

ix) Most of the media in coun-tries such as Pakistan still seemswrapped in emotional responses tothe foreign policy objectives of theUS and its allies since the event of 9/11 terror attacks. Pervasive mediastrategies and informative campaignsneed to be designed to neutralize radi-cal media campaigns(social media)and their ability to rally public sym-pathy. Media should go for healthydebates and dialogues in spite of re-porting the gruesome incidents. Me-dia can form the foundation for a na-tion-wide debate, with media and itsrole models launching an active cam-paign seeking societal support for apolicy of collective de-radicalizationand disengagement.

Pakistan is facing the most acuteproblem of militancy and extrem-ism. By bringing the extremist (non-violent) into the fold of DDR pro-gramming, the government may killtwo birds with one stone – winningtrust of the tribal people who wouldno longer be motivated to supportthe left-over terrorists and beginningthe slow painful process of gradu-ally disengaging itself from the US-led war on terror. Undoubtedly, itappears to be a Herculean task butnot beyond resources to keep intactPakistan’s sovereignty and funda-mental rights of her citizenry as anindependent nation.— The writer works for IPRI.

Sultan M HaliEmail: sm_hali@yahoo.com

M Nawaz KhanEmail:nawazverdag915@hotmail.com

Voice of the People

Book piracySIDRA TALHA

Government of Pakistan loses bil-lions of rupees every year due to thethriving piracy business. Markets,like Urdu bazaar in Karachi, servesas a hub of plagiarized and piratedmaterial on engineering, medicine,commerce, accounting and literature.The major cause of widespread bookpiracy in Pakistan is striking pricesof international books, which are be-yond the reach of most of students.

Therefore, entire books arephotocopied and sold on stalls andbookstores. These pirated books area blessing due to their low pricesand easy availability. Thus to eradi-cate the piracy and copyright issue,the government should take stepsto provide foreign books at lowprices in the country.—Karachi

Stand unitedagainst terrorism

SHAHID ABBAS

Millions of people, led by a groupof world Leaders, made a humanchain march down the BoulevardVoltair to show solidarity with thechampions of the freedom of expres-sion who lost their lives during anassault on the office of CharlieHebdo, which had published de-rogatory caricatures of the holyProphet Muhammad (PBUH) as atoken of freedom of expression.While I am convinced that theMagazine deserved this treatmentbecause of its stupid logic to des-ecrate the holy Prophet who lives inthe hearts of almost one third of thewhole human race, in the name offreedom of expression, but at thesame time any act of violence, ter-ror or human killing cannot be con-doned because it is against the teach-ings of the holy Prophet (PBUH)who is a symbol of mercy for theentire mankind. Christians and Jews,and also the Muslims, the followersof the holy Prophet, stood side byside and demonstrated against theact of terrorism which resulted in thedeath of around 11 persons in Paris.

A person who attended the marchwith nine friends including Chris-tians, Jews and Muslims said “we arenot afraid to show that we are notdefeated by fear. We are all republicand one nation”. In Nigeria, BokoHaram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls;the girls are still missing. In Peshawaron 6th December, the terrorists shotdown 144 persons including 135 in-nocent school children. The nationshowed solidarity with the bereavedfamilies; but the world leaders whoare protecting the satirical FrenchMagazine and condemning the deathof 11 persons, were found no whereto utter a word of solace for the par-ents of the innocent victims ofPeshawar. The nation gave a messagethat we are united against such hei-nous acts of terrorism. But the ques-tion is that the fight against terrorismand extremisms is being won or lost.It is the irresponsible, myopic andmischievous mindset of certain indi-viduals in West who provoke unnec-essarily the feelings of the followersof a faith and invite problems for so-ciety; these unscrupulous elementsneed to be shut-up call as they areexploiting the ‘freedom of expres-sion’; and thus giving way to extremereactions and terrorism.

At this time, we need positivesteps to eliminate terrorism from ourglobe. Who is better conscious ofthe havocs of terrorism than the Pa-kistani society which has sufferedthe most on this account. We can notand should not forget the sacrificesof our children, innocent people andArmy jawans. We have to show theworld that as followers of the holyProphet (PBUH), we are a peacefulpeople, we are united against tyr-anny and shall resolutely fight the

A word on French Charlie HebdoJAVAID BASHIR

The killings of 12 Journalists at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper office has caused back lash against theMuslims. The western propaganda machine has mobilized its forces to malign Islam and Muslim

community. The whole thing has been blown out of proportion. A balanced approach should be adopted,instead of condemning Muslims. Some rotten apples’ nefarious act should not spur unnecessary abuse ofthe millions of the people. Islamic countries are already suffering at the hands of the terrorists. They arebereft with the atrocities perpetrated by the extremists, militants and terrorists against them. Pakistan isthe worst hit country with the terrorism. Western countries do not leave any opportunity to attack theMuslim community. I think it is not the responsible attitude on the part of these civilized societies. Thenewspapers and magazines of these countries must exercise caution, while publishing insinuating materialand cartoons with religious connotations that aim at provoking the sentiments of a large community.Religion is an ideological trait and people are very sensitive about their faith. We should strive at creatinginter-faith harmony and wider understanding among them, instead of instigating certain faith. We mustrealize the gravity of the situation and sensitivities of the religious persons. Every action has a reaction. Wemust face the repercussions of our actions. Freedom of expression cannot be used in unbridled fashion. Wemust self regulate this freedom. Every freedom or right has certain limitations too. Stretching freedom toofar would result in such tragic incidents. This whole reaction could not deter these champions of the free-dom of expression and the mischievous Magazine has again repeated the same mistake. Editorial preroga-tive should be exercised with great caution. We must balance the freedom of expression and freedom ofreligion, both of which are juxtaposed against each other. These are competing interest and must be re-spected. It is not free for all. The western leaders should act in a responsible manner and restrain thesemedia persons from acting in such irresponsible manner. Our lives are intertwined in this global village andinformation age. The age of reasoning has become the relic of the past. Now it is the age of illogical reason-ing. Would it resonate and prepare them to lead the populace in the right direction? I would strongly pleadwith them to open their eyes, and deal with the issue in a more intelligent way. World wide condemnationis pouring in from all quarters. It is an auspicious and encouraging sign.—Via email

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THE articles, columns andletters are published on thesepages in good faith. However,the contents of these writingsmay not necessarily match theviews of the newspaper.

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View From Abroad

The wrong response to Charlie Hebdo

IN the days after the deadly attackon the Paris publication CharlieHebdo, France declared “war” on

terrorism, 10,000 French paramilitarypolice took to the streets and US con-servatives chided President Obama fornot leading this new war againstjihadists. Sorry, but this war-on-terrormobilization is the wrong response tothe Charlie Hebdo tragedy. It wouldrepeat mistakes the United States madein its reaction to Sept. 11, 2001.

Watching the jihadist fire ragingon the Internet and in lone-wolf at-tacks in Paris and other cities, fright-ened citizens (and opportunistic poli-ticians) want a top-down commandresponse. It’s tempting to imagine a21st-century version of a “mightyWurlitzer,” as the CIA dubbed itscovert anti-communist messaging inthe late 1940s and ’50s. Such propa-ganda strategies are understandable,but they’re also wrong.

What’s a convincing counter-ter-rorism message? Listen to MalekMerabet, a Frenchman of Algeriandescent who eulogized his brotherAhmed, a policeman slain in the Parisattacks. He said after the funeral: “Mybrother was Muslim, and he was killed

by people who pretend to be Muslims.They are terrorists, that’s it.”

After the Paris tragedy, terrorismanalysts found links to al-Qaeda inYemen and the Islamic State. Butrather than seeing this as a directedconspiracy, it may be more useful toanalyse the street-gang and prisonconnections of Said and CherifKouachi, the Charlie Hebdo gunmen,and Amedy Coulibaly, the man whoattacked the kosher deli. French pressaccounts suggest the trio are closerto what former CIA officer MarcSageman calls “leaderless jihad” thanthe 9/11 model of core al-Qaeda.

“The role of religion in all of thisis dangerously exaggerated,” says aformer State Department official whonow organizes private-sector effortsto counter extremism. “When we getstuck in a religious debate we arenever going to win, we miss the point,which is that extremists are offeringyoung people a sense of belonging,an outlet for adventure, and somekind of enhanced status. To combatthis, we have to appeal to them asyoung people more than we have toappeal to them as Muslims.”

What has the United Stateslearned from a decade of debilitatingbattles against al-Qaeda? Over thepast week, I’ve put that question tocounter-terrorism experts in the

White House and across government,and I’ve gotten some pointed an-swers. First, the United States isn’t acredible voice in telling Muslimswhat real Islam is all about. Thepushback against violent extremistshas to come from religious centres inEgypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewherein the Muslim world. A good exampleof what’s needed was Egyptian Presi-dent Abdel Fatah al-Sissi’s recent callfor a “religious revolution” againstviolent extremism. US technologycan help drive such messages throughsocial media, but America cannot bethe originator.

Second, US officials havelearned that the best domestic pro-grams for combating violent extrem-ists are bottom-up efforts where lo-cal law enforcement works withMuslim and other community orga-nizations. When three teenage girlsfrom Denver were radicalised onlineand wanted to fight in Syria last year,the local Muslim community saw thewarning signs and they were stopped.At a later community meeting, anofficial from the National Counter-terrorism Centre showed pictures ofa knife, a gun and a cellphone — andwarned that the phone was potentiallythe most dangerous.

Cooperation between police andlocal Muslim leaders will be the

Obama’s car..!

NOT everybody’s happy thatObama is coming to Indiawith his own car. “What’s

wrong with our cars?” said a lead-ing car manufacturer, “I agree mostof our cars don’t have air bags, orseat belts or other safety measuresbut so what? Is Obama going tospeed down our Delhi roads? Notwith all the traffic jams!”

“Maybe it’s a marketing gim-mick!” said another manufacturer,“He’s trying to bring a new US car

manufacturer into the country!”“No!” shouted an Indian car maker,“We have enough models already inour country, we don’t need a new onecoming in. I still haven’t sold all thesmall cars I thought would be fillingour highways!”

They all watched gloomily as an-other member of their tribe rushedinto the room, “There’s a new pieceof news!” he whispered sadly, “Ourown president may drive with Obamain Obama’s car from the airport to thehotel!” “Impossible!” shouted all themanufacturers together, “This will bethe end of the car industry in the coun-try. We should do everything to pre-vent him from doing so!” The manu-

facturers put their heads together andstared out of the window, searchingfor a solution. “Maybe…” said themanufacturer of the tiny desi car.“Maybe what?” asked the Japanesegiant, “Speak up if you have an idea!Your last idea of providing a cheapcar for every Indian proved a dismalfailure. Nobody buys your cars, noteven rickshaw wallahs. Maybe thisis a chance to redeem yourself!”

“I was just thinking,” said themanufacturer stammering because ofthe intimidating presence of the otherautomobile giants, “I was just think-ing we could get President Obama totravel in our President’s car instead ofour president travelling in Obama’s

car!” “And how would that hap-pen?” asked the others gloomily. “Bytelling Delhi police not to give per-mission for Obama’s car to travel onour roads: After all, our police nowstop public performances even afterall government permissions are inplace, citing law and order problems,they can do the same for this car!”

The car manufacturers breatheda sigh of relief and hastily openedtheir wallets. They were thrilled thatthe president of the richest countryin the world might soon look help-lessly at a police order banning hisvehicle on Delhi roads. It was soeasy doing business in the country..!—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

Ethics & psychology: Islamic rerspectiveTHE concept of ethics, broadly

speaking, refers to any normative evaluation of acts and in

the same vein, ‘Islamic ethics’(Akhlaq Islamiyah) is concernedwith good character and the meansof acquiring it. Ethics and morality,the two often-interchangeably-used-terms, are concerned with how hu-mans should live their lives in ac-cordance with what they know to beright and wrong.

Most religions promote moralteachings and engage in ethical re-flection, and provide motivations foracting in accordance with moral prin-ciples as well. But ethical awarenesshas been a defining feature of Islam,even though engaging in moral phi-losophy per se has not. Rather thanbeing a formal area of knowledge,ethics in Islam has been a topic ad-dressed more often in a practicalsense within a variety of contexts.Besides Quran and Hadith, the broadconcept of ‘Islamic ethics’ is foundin a wide range of genres and dis-courses including exegesis, theology,philosophy, Islamic legal theory, etc.

Muslims look primarily to theQuran and the hadith for moral guid-ance. The Quran’s chief moral in-struction for people is Amr Bi’lMar’uf wa Nahy ‘an al-Munkar, i.e.,“to command what is known to beright and forbid what is reprehen-

sible” (Q.3:104; 9:7). The HolyProphet (PBUH) is reported to havesaid: “I was sent to complete mor-als” or “Verily I have been sent inorder to perfect moral character”(Bukhari); and “those who have per-fect faith are those who have bettermoral character” (Al-Tirmidhi; AbuDaud). The Qur’an presents itself asa universal ethical code for human-kind. It presents a conceptualscheme for both socio-political eth-ics and the duties of individual be-lievers. Thus, the Qur’an and Hadithnot only attach great importance toethics, but consider it to be the mainobjective of Islam.

Similarly, Psychology is thestudy of human behavior in its ob-servable and unobservable dimen-sions. In order to understand humanactions and their relations to variousaspects of human life, it is importantto study psychology. From an Islamicperspective, human behavior is dis-tinctive from other animate and in-animate beings, because it is basedon a conscious response to the divinecommandments. Human behavior, inthis sense, is subject to ‘Revelation’(Wahy). Revelation addresses hu-mans to behave intentionally towardsthe realization of Allah’s Command-ments in their lives. Revelation, hu-man behavior and human life arethree main components of the reli-

gious phenomenon which is an intrin-sic reality in human psyche and so-cial reality of all nations in humanhistory. In a nutshell, Islamic psychol-ogy aims at regulating behavior in the

direction of divine will, with the goalof bringing worldly as well as spiri-tual success of man.

The Qur’an, which aims at guid-ing the mankind in every aspect oftheir lives for all time, touches on alltopics concerned with guidance, psy-chology and ethics, presenting clearand concise principles in such a man-ner that they can be understood bycommon men (Q. 54:17, 22, 32, 40;19:97; 44:58): “Certainly, We have

David Ignatius

made this (Quran) easy in yourtongue, in order that they may re-member” (Q. 44:58); “and we haveindeed made the Quran easy to un-derstand and remember” (Q.54:17, 22, 32, 40).

Since the ultimate reference ofQur’anic guidance is happiness inthe other world—which is contin-gent upon the improvement of thesouls, as Qur’an says: “Except himwho brings to Allah a clean heart(Q. 26:89); “and indeed he failswho corrupt his own self” (Q.91:l0). Since this improvement canonly be achieved by means ofethico-religious beliefs and prac-tices, ethics occupies a centralplace in the Qur’an.

Other subjects, e.g., psychol-ogy, politics and economics, arelinked to ethics either in a support-ive role or as its background. How-ever, neither psychology nor anyof the other subject is dealt with inan abstract and complicated way,and the interconnections are notmade explicit on the grounds thatthis is not necessary for ethico-re-ligious practices.— The author has a PhD inIslamic Studies from AligarhMuslim University (India), andserved recently as “Iqbal (PostDoc) Fellow” at InternationalIslamic University, Islamabad.

centrepiece of a White House meet-ing Feb. 18 on countering violentextremism. The session will exam-ine success stories in Boston, LosAngeles and Minneapolis. Officialsare realizing that there is a continuumbetween youth-gang criminal activ-ity and terrorist mobilization. Accord-ing to Australian analyst SamMullins, “Terrorists must acquirecriminal skill sets in order to be ableto perform their role successfully.”

A third lesson learned is that ef-fective messaging against terrorismmust use social media to create whatone US official calls a “network ofnetworks.” An example is the“Against Violent Extremism” net-work sponsored by Google Ideas in2011. It now includes 300 formerjihadists, gang members and radicalnationalists who provide onlinecounselling to potential extremists.

One innovative British project is“Abdullah-X,” created by a formerjihadist. When a youth in Britainsearches the Internet for informationabout travelling to Syria for jihad, hecan get a targeted ad with an animatedcartoon figure countering extremism.Says one cartoon installment: “Youhave to kill others to make your worldpurer. This is what you think Islamis? Are you for real?”— Courtesy: The Washington Post

Madaris reforms

IT was primarily obligatory forthe state and government officials at initial level to look into

the madaris syllabi that were beingtaught and the thoughts being indoc-trinated in the innocent minds. Themadaris people and their qualifiedlots were at their liberty to play theway they wanted. The consequencesbeing faced by the masses are becauseof the disinterest on part of the state,which should have designed a propercurriculum and syllabus to be imple-mented in all of madaris.

The Education Boards shouldhave been directed and authorized tohold the exams of madaris studentsand award certificates, diplomas anddegrees. Another thing that was ne-glected had been the source of fund-ing for such Madaris. There should

have been a strict vigilon the sponsors and do-nors. Some authoritymust have been consti-tuted under which thefunding for madaris bechannelized.

It’s a hard fact that various Mus-lim countries also provide funds todifferent madaris in order to promotetheir own schools of thought and pat-tern of religion. They also fund dif-ferent factions of their choice. Someof the countries give funds directlyto local persons in the name of con-structing a mosque or a madrassa forthe particular sect, which ultimatelybecomes a reason to promoting sec-tarianism in the society. There mustbe a complete ban on the flow ofsuch money which is being provideddirectly to masajid committees andmadaris administration by the for-eign countries. If so ever the broth-erly countries want to promote theteachings of Quran, Hadith and Is-lamic values, they must route thatfunding through the State.

Moreover, since the inceptionof Pakistan, these madaris haveonly been concentrating on reli-gious studies. None of them real-ized why the students of madarisare not being taught subjects of eco-nomics, science, humanities andother knowledge of day to day re-quirement that could have enabledthe madaris graduates to opt for aprofession of their choice, otherthan being a seminary teacher,moazzin or mullah. The passed outmadaris students had no otherchoice but to become an ‘Imam’ ora teacher to psychologically infusedismay into younger generation.

Obviously doing so these peoplecould not bear the expenditures oftheir own and their family and theyfailed to educate their kids sendingthem to standard and mainstreameducational institutions in order torun their affairs in a comfortablemanner. Extremist elements use theirsense of deprivation into an oppor-tunity to use them to attack schoolswhich girls and boys are being

taught the world recognized sylla-bus. This clearly created divisionswithin the educational system ofthe country and differencesamongst the masses in terms ofeducation, health and other neces-sary opportunities, which is now areason of clear divide and unrestamong the society.

The state has to take imme-diate steps to register seminaries,regularize them into the main-stream and set an agreed-to-allcurriculum evolving a clear-cutpolicy of funding to thesemadaris, countering their nega-tive intent and channelize theirworking to positively playing rolefor the betterment of society.Moving ahead under the NationalAction Plan (NAP), the madarishave to be brought under somesystem of law and discipline.Rather this must be the top of theagenda of NAP if the governmentis serious in looking for a long-term solution to the problem.—The writer is a freelance analyst.

The Spirit Of Islam

Dr Tauseef A ParrayEmail:tauseef.parray21@gmail.com

menace of terrorism and our gallantArmed forces are coining success sto-ries on this front. This is the time tostand side by side with our army andgovernment.—Islamabad

NA-122 electionTribunal report

JAVAID BASHIR

Glaring discrepancies were discoveredby the Election Tribunal auditing, re-counting and scutinizing the votes castin the NA-122 Constituency. AyazSadiq (PML-N) contested electionagainst Imran Khan (PTI) from thisseat in the general elections of May,2013. Enough of fraud was found invoting. Imran in a press conferencegave the details of fraud, and de-manded Ayaz Sadiq’s resignation onthe basis of this report. I endorse hisviews and appeal to the Speaker of theNational Assembly to resign voluntar-ily , instead of thrown out by the ECP.

Senator Parvaiz Rashid thespokesperson of the governmentshould come clean on the charges lev-elled against his party. The govern-ment agreed to form the JudicialCommission, but it has not lived upto its commitment. It should expeditethe matter, and form the commissionbefore January 18, the deadline givenby Imran Khan, if it is serious to re-solve the thorny issue of ,’rigging’ inthe general election of May 11 , 2013.—Karachi

Leadership crisisin PakistanHAFSA KHALID

Leaders are defined as the individualsof the society who, by their action andmotivation, serve as a role model forfollowers. They are charismatic andenjoy the support of people becausethey believe in them. They have thepower to guide the people through dis-order and hardships and lead them to-wards a path that is full of hope andpromises for them. But unfortunately,Pakistan seems to be in terrible needof such leadership. The people are rest-less, anxious and uncertain, and theyare looking for someone who can steerthem out of this quagmire of problems.The country is going through the worsttime in its history. Lack of law andorder, economic crisis, corruption,unemployment, week foreign policyand many other factors combined havetaken the hope away from them.

After Quaid-e-Azam there is ahistory of almost endless crisis andnational tragedies interrupted brief in-tervals of calm and normalcy. Thecauses of Pakistan’s crises and peri-odic chaos have been mostly internal.Almost always, they can be attributedto a remarkable inability of politiciansto resolve political differences peace-fully through accommodation andcompromise. Military coups - in 1958,1968, 1977, 1999 and military backedregime changes in 1971, 1991 1993were the most frequent consequencesfor the country of political failure. Thesuccessive rulers lacked leadershipstature due to their limited world-wideexposure and religious intolerance ornarrow mindedness.

In fact inherent disadvantagewith Pakistan is that it has been cre-ated in the name of religion and sincepeople have different interpretationsof Islam so due to this there has beencontinuous religious divide in thecountry. There is a view in generalpublic that the religious leaders oftoday are touts for foreign powerswho are using them to cause anarchyin the county or to serve their designs.It would not be unjust to say that re-ligious leaders have lost their trust inthe eyes of general public.

Those who come from democraticprocess compromise so much alongthe way that their personalities becomedistorted and they lose track of the sig-nificance of values and virtues as es-

sential pillars of leadership. It is ex-tremely difficult for a corrupt personto keep his influence on people.Though numerous leaders haveemerged but they have failed to leavesignificant impact on masses becauseof their leadership qualities. The chan-nels of military and civilian bureau-cracies, social welfare, law and jour-nalism have been used for social mo-bilization rather than demonstration oftrue spirit of leadership. Under presentscenario it can be said that in terms ofthe conventional definition of leader-ship only those who are labelled as nothaving leadership qualities are betterthan those who are so called leaders!

At this time, the people not onlyneed a leader but a revolutionaryleader who can tell them that they arenot finished yet. They have been ham-mered to a point where they start ral-lying behind anyone who comes witha slogan of change even if change isnot stated. And we also take each in-dividual citizen of the country, intoconfidence. To correct rulers, firstlywe have to correct ourselves. Weshould unite for the sake of this coun-try. Nobody will come to correct us,we should learn from our personal er-rors. “United we stand, divided wefall”. Unity, Faith and Discipline,could lead us towards a bright future.—Islamabad

Globalizationin education

HINA IRSHAD

In recent years globalization is a mostsignificant phenomenon in the life ofevery individual. Globalization has agreat impact on all social institutionssuch as family, education, health, eco-nomics and religion. In the field ofeducation globalization s equally in-fluencing the students, teachers andadministrations. Most important ef-fect of globalization is on skill basededucation. Skilled labour is de-manded by developed countries ac-cording to their demand, the devel-oping countries start newprogrammes, diplomas and coursesto suit those countries.

In this way due to global demandof labour, the skill based education isdeveloping. Few years ago knowl-edge was spread by books it was veryslow process of sharing knowledgebut in the World under globalizationknowledge, ideas and researchesspread rapidly. All new concepts,ideas, researches and information istransferred to all World by using in-struments of globalization such asInternet and Television.

Globalization facilitates studentsas well as teachers in different ways.They both can easily benefit by us-ing instruments of globalization, ob-serve in context on different re-searches, apply results of researcheson different problems that are con-ducted all over the World, and behavein such way which enhance partici-pation as well as learning. We cannotignore the impact of globalization onadministration of institutes of educa-tion. Administrations are improvingtheir management policies, monitor-ing strategies, hiring staff and hiringof workers. Globalization makes ad-ministration much effective and effi-cient, a person can manage and moni-tor a big institute that was consideredimpossible in past years. So, we cansay that globalization has made theeducation effective and easy for all.—Karachi

Yousaf AlamgirianEmail: yousafalamgirian@gmail.com

WAYNE MADSEN

THE attacks in Paris on the editorial offices of the weekly satirical journalCharlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket

have, once again, conveniently turned the at-tention of the world away from the economicturmoil in the European Union and the extremeunpopularity of its major leaders to the seem-ingly never-ending «global war on terror».

French President Francois Hollande an-nounced that on January 11, he would march insolidarity on the streets of Paris along withGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel, BritishPrime Minister David Cameron, Italian PrimeMinister Matteo Renzi, Spanish Prime Minis-ter Mariano Rajoy, Belgian Prime MinisterCharles Michel, Ukrainian President PyotrPoroshenko, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny,and the ISIL-enabling Turkish Prime Minister,Ahmet Davitoglu. All of these leaders, facinghuge popularity problems at home, were ableto use the terrorist attacks in Paris to bolstertheir own flagging electoral profiles. In addi-tion to the unpopular leaders, NATO SecretaryGeneral Jens Stoltenberg, European CouncilPresident Donald Tusk, and European Commis-sion chief Jean-Claude Juncker were also sched-uled to march in Paris in the grandiose «photoop» to help honor a magazine staff that oftenlampooned many of these leaders with cartoonsthat were almost always of a sexual nature.

Once again, the alleged perpetrators of therecent attacks, Franco-Algerian brothers Saidand Cherif Kouachi, who were said to havemurdered 12 people, including the editor-in-

The Curtain Rises on Another Act in theContinual Global War on Terror Play

The notion that Ankara would prefer ISIS on its border as opposed to the PKK is heavily disputed.

chief of Charlie Hebdo, and Franco-SenegaleseAmedy Coulibaly, said to have killed hostagesat the supermarket, were well-known to theFrench police and intelligence services. It wasclaimed by one of the supermarket customersthat Coulibaly said proclaimed that he was fromMali and that he supported ISIL and Palestine.The Kouachis’ names were even included onthe American «no-fly list».

The fact that the Kouachis had been in-volved in recruiting and training jihadist vol-unteers to fight for the Islamic State of Iraqand the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and had earlierbeen involved in recruitment efforts for jihadistarmies in Iraq and Yemen should have placeda surveillance net over the two brothers. But,as in a previous case in France involving analleged jihadist terrorist who allegedly killedpeople at random, the Kouachi brothers, as wellas Coulibaly, who was also well-known to thepolice, were permitted to obtain weapons andother materials without tipping off law enforce-ment. Coulibaly actually met with FrenchPresident Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009. Coulibalyworked at a Coca Cola plant in the poor«banlieue» of Grigny, outside of Paris.Coulibaly was one of ten workers selected tomeet personally with Sarkozy at the ElyseePalace to discuss youth employment issues. Aswith the U.S. Secret Service and the Americanpresident, French security thoroughly vetsthose who meet with the French head of state,which makes Coulibaly’s selection to meetSarkozy even more perplexing. «Le Parisien»quoted Coulibaly as being excited over hismeeting with Sarkozy and hoped the French

president might help him find him a good job.Coulibaly is said to have first met CherifKouachi in 2010. However, Coulibaly suppos-edly converted to radical Islam while servingtime in prison in 2005 for armed robbery. Itwas in prison that Coulibaly became an adher-ent of Djamel Beghal, said to be a Franco-Al-gerian member of Al Qaeda who, in 2001, triedto blow up the U.S. embassy in Paris. Out ofall the unemployed and under-employed youthin France, the French president’s security teamdecided to vet a known follower of an Al Qaedamember to enter the Elysee Palace to meet withSarkozy. As the French say, «incroyable!»

Pre-attack knowledge by the authorities ofan alleged perpetrator was certainly the casein the Merah affair in March 2012 whenMohammed Merah, a French national, waskilled by French police. Merah was accused ofkilling three French paratroopers in Montaubanand three students and a teacher at a Jewishschool in Toulouse. It was later discovered thatnot only did the French Central Directorate ofInternal Intelligence (DCRI) maintain a thickdossier on Merah, but that French intelligencetried to recruit him as an agent. Merah trav-eled with ease to Afghanistan and Pakistan withthe foreknowledge of French intelligence. Thethen-governing conservatives of PresidentNicolas Sarkozy and the opposition, now rul-ing, Socialist Party conspired to cover upMerah’s links to French intelligence.

The Kouachi brothers are said to have re-turned from Syria this past summer, where theCIA and French intelligence have been back-ing Islamist guerrilla groups battling the gov-

ernment of President Bashar al-Assad. Thesimilarities of the Kouachis and Coulibaly toMerah are amazing. All were known to Frenchintelligence before they allegedly carried outtheir terrorist attacks and all had connectionswith Al Qaeda groups and affiliates.

Ever since the 1980 time-bombing of theBologna train station that killed 85 and injuredover 200, Western European «false flag» opera-tions have become fairly standardized «boilerplate» operations. This was certainly the casewith the three-man professional military assaultcarried out in a precision manner by the allegedIslamist terrorists on the Paris editorial officesof the satirical journal Charlie Hebdo. Althoughthe two Kouachi brothers, killed by police at awarehouse north of Paris, are said to have car-ried out the attacks on the newspaper, there isstill no explanation of what happened to the thirdgunman. A third suspect in that attack, a brother-in-law of the Kouachis named Mourad Hamyd,voluntarily turned himself in to the police afterhe heard his name broadcast by the media. How-ever, Hamyd, 18, was in school at the time ofthe attack on Charlie Hebdo.

There are always other attacks in the re-gion to confuse police. For example, whileFrench police were concentrating their searchfor the gunmen from northern Paris to the Bel-gian border, a French police woman was shotand killed in Montrouge, south of Paris.French authorities were quick to say the eventssouth of Paris and at Charlie Hebdo were notlinked. Later, it was announced that the twoevents were linked.

—Courtesy: WA

MICHAEL J. TOTTEN

BOKO Haram galvanized activists all over the world lastyear when it kidnapped hundreds of school girls in Nigeria and threatened to sell them into slavery, but hardly a

peep has been uttered since the Al Qaeda-linked army massa-cred as many as 2,000 people near the Chad border last week.

“I walked through five villages,” a survivor told The Guard-ian, “and each one I passed was empty except for dead bodies.”The attack in Paris at the Charlie Hebdo office sucked up mostof the Western media and political oxygen — understandably sosince France is a Western country — but it’s also unfortunatebecause it diverted out attention from the fact that Boko Haramis rapidly turning into the ISIS of Africa. These guys are notmere terrorists anymore. They’re behaving more and more like aregular army, and they now control a swath of territory in north-eastern Nigeria the size of Belgium.

“The United States needs to recognize we have a problemthat’s second only to the problem we have with ISIS (IslamicState),” the Atlantic Council’s Peter Pham told USA Today. “Wehave a group holding territory and shooting down jet fighters. ...If Nigeria collapses — it is the strong state in the region — thereare no strong states to contain what would happen if Boko Haramsucceeds in carving out an Islamic state in that area.”

Radical Islamists are immeasurably more dangerous whenthey organize themselves into states or state-like entities thanwhen they hide in the shadows and strike like serial killers withbombs. Terrorist organizations are bad enough, but radical Is-lamist state-like entities such as ISIS, the Taliban, Hamas, andHezbollah are menacing enough to start wars.

The United States isn’t directly involved in all these wars—Israel battles Hamas and Hezbollah, and the French took out theproto-Islamic state in Northern Mali—but if a huge swath ofAfrica collapses and Boko Haram metastasizes fully into an ISIS-linked entity with staying power, what happens in Sub-SaharanAfrica may no longer stay in Sub-Saharan Africa.

—Courtesy: WT

The ISIS of Africa

MELKULANGARA BHADRAKUMAR

THE defeat of the incumbent Sri Lankan president MahindaRajapaksa in the presidential election on Thursday was neither completely unexpected nor was inevitable, as the nar-

row victory of his opponent Maithripala Sirisena testifies. Butits significance is nonetheless far-reaching. What happened maynot have the look of a classic ‘regime change’ – ‘color revolu-tion’ as in Georgia or a coup as in Ukraine – because the transi-tion adhered to democratic principles, but without doubt outsidepowers had got involved discreetly (without being visible) andchoreographed the rebound of party politics in Sri Lanka.

The success of that unspoken enterprise will ultimately needto be measured in terms of the policies (and their sustainability)that the Sirisena government is likely to pursue in the comingperiod. Given that country’s complex external environment,the contradictions in its political economy and of course SriLanka’s robust democratic traditions, the best-laid plots byoutsiders can go awry. In a manner of speaking, after the de-cade-long Rajapaksa era, Sri Lanka is once again becoming a‘normal’ country – a vivacious democracy that got brutalizedin civil war, but refused to go under.

No doubt, the new government will reset the compass ofnational and regional policies and its impact will be felt far andwide, since Sri Lanka happens to be one of the most coveted realestates in the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean. For the UnitedStates, Sri Lanka figures as a potential ‘lynchpin’ in its rebal-ance strategy in Asia; for Britain, its return to the east of Suezdemands reclaiming the mentorship of the political elites in Co-lombo; for China, it is a vital hub in its Maritime Silk Roadstrategy; while, for India, that island falls within what it regardsas its ‘sphere of influence’.

A good starting point, therefore, will be an understanding ofwhat really happened. To be sure, Rajapaksa miscalculated byseeking renewed mandate two years before his term ended. Butthen, he also knew from the outcome of the provincial electionsin April in the western and southern provinces (dominated bythe majority Sinhala communities who formed his power base)that popular discontent with his government was simmering andthat he had alienated the country’s political class.

The alliance led by Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party[SLFP] won the two provincial elections, but lost a number ofseats (dropping from 106 to 89) and in vote share (around 10percent) in comparison with the 2009 provincial elections. Theneo-liberal economic policies, especially reduction in fuel andfood subsidies, combined with the perceived authoritarian styleof the president had begun taking their toll.

Curiously, however, the opposition alliance led by the UnitedNational Party [UNP] under the leadership of RanilWickremesinghe also failed to make any significant gains in theApril elections. (In fact, UNP too lost seats and vote share.) Thus,Rajapakasa estimated that the disenchantment with his rule didnot yet translate into support for the opposition and his decisionto go for a mid-term poll rested on that calculation.

Ironically, both SLFP and UNP adhere to neo-liberal eco-nomic policies and while Rajapaksa unfailingly resorted to popu-list slogans, Wickremesinghe never cared to disown his imageas a ‘business-friendly’ and elitist politician, which undercutshis party’s credibility in the eyes of the dispossessed poor. Enterthe United States and Britain. Drawing appropriate conclusionsfrom the results of the provincial elections in April, an Anglo-American effort began discreetly to bolster the standing ofWickremesinghe, a former prime minister whose ‘pro-western’outlook is well established.

The project aimed at helping him to build a new coalitionthat might enable him to return to power as head of a new gov-ernment. This required two things: on the one hand,Wickremesinghe needed to shed or at least dilute his elitist im-age, while on the other hand, Rajapaksa’s entrenched power baseamong the majority community, rooted in Buddhist-Sinhala na-tionalism, needed to be breached. Thus, a veteran SLFP leaderand former president Chandrika Kumaratunga was brought backfrom retirement to align with Wickremesinghe (although theyused to be political rivals in the past) with the single objective ofousting Rajapaksa.

Kumaranatunga used to have an aura of being a ‘leftist’ andthat and her family’s populist politics dating back to the 1950sstill holds some nostalgia for the Sinhalese poor people – al-though she has come a long way in the recent decades and as anassociate of the Clinton Foundation she is close to the US politi-cal and social circuit and doesn’t even espouse socialism any-more. On the other hand, Rajapkasa was dealt a lethal blowwhen a senior cabinet minister and one of his trusted aides,Sirisena, defected. It was a double setback insofar as Sirisenawas a seasoned SLFP leader and, more importantly, a hardcoreBuddhist-Sinhala nationalist himself.

Simply put, it was a brilliant move on the part ofKumaranatunga and Wckremesinghe to make an offer toSirisena that he possibly couldn’t refuse, namely, that he wouldbe the common candidate of the opposition in the forthcomingpresidential election if he defected to their side. The deal in-volved Sirisena becoming president who would appointWickremesinghe as prime minister heading a new government,while on a parallel track the country’s constitution would beamended to restore the Westminster-style political system thatSri Lanka used to have.

—Courtesy: Asia Times

The Lankantransition resets

Indian Ocean politics

ANKARA—Turkish Prime MinisterAhmet Davutoglu on Thursday com-pared Israeli counterpart BenjaminNetanyahu to the Islamist militants whokilled 17 people in Paris last week, say-ing both had committed crimes againsthumanity. Davutoglu said Israel’s bom-bardments of Gaza and its storming in2010 of a Turkish-led aid convoyheaded there, in which 10 Turks werekilled, were on a par with the Paris at-tacks, whose dead included shoppers ata Jewish supermarket.

The comments at a news confer-ence escalated a war of words betweenthe former allies: Israel’s far-right for-eign minister, Avigdor Lieberman,called President Tayyip Erdogan an“anti-Semitic bully” on Wednesday forcriticizing Netanyahu’s attendance,with other world leaders, at a Parissolidarity march for the attack victimson Sunday. Separately on Thursday,

Turkish premier equatesNetanyahu with Paris attackers

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’sspokesman issued a statement sayingit was Islamophobic and unacceptablefor Netanyahu to link the Paris blood-shed to Islam.

“The Israeli government must haltits aggressive and racist policies insteadof attacking others and sheltering be-hind anti-Semitism,” spokesmanIbrahim Kalin said on the presidentialwebsite. Turkey condemned the Jan. 7attack on the French satirical weeklyCharlie Hebdo, in which Islamist gun-men killed 12 people, but has alsowarned that rising Islamophobia in Eu-rope risks inflaming unrest by Muslims.Davutoglu also attended the Paris me-morial rally, which he said was a marchagainst terrorism.

“Just as the massacre in Paris com-mitted by terrorists is a crime againsthumanity, Netanyahu, as the head of thegovernment that kills children playing

on the beach with the bombardment ofGaza, destroys thousands of homes ...and that massacred our citizens on anaid ship in international waters, hascommitted crimes against humanity,”the Turkish premier said.

The assault on the aid convoy rup-tured relations between Turkey and Is-rael, which previously enjoyed closediplomatic and military ties. Trade linksremain close. Israel fought a 50-day warwith the Islamist Hamas-ruled GazaStrip last year, with Israeli shelling andair strikes causing widespread devasta-tion in the tiny territory and Hamas fir-ing hundreds of rockets into Israel.More than 2,100 Palestinians died,mostly civilians, Gaza medical officialssaid, while the Israeli death toll was 73,mostly soldiers. “If Israel is looking fora bully, it needs to look in the mirror,”said Davutoglu, whose Islamist-rootedAK Party has held power in Turkey for

over a decade.Tensions are running high in Tur-

key over the Charlie Hebdo’s cartoonsmocking Islam, the reason cited for theshooting attack on the weekly in aclaim of responsibility by al Qaeda inYemen. Davutoglu criticized the Turk-ish secular newspaper Cumhuriyet forpublishing excerpts of Charlie Hebdo’slatest edition, saying freedom of thepress did not extend to insulting reli-gious values, a crime punishable by jailin Turkey.

Cumhuriyet’s was one of five in-ternational versions of the “survivors’edition” of Charlie Hebdo, whichbore an image of Mohammed on itscover, which is prohibited by Islamicconvention. A Turkish court subse-quently ordered four websites that fea-tured the image to be blocked. “Free-dom of press does not include insultingthe Prophet,” Davutoglu said.—Reuters

BEIJING—President Xi Jinpingon Thursday pledged that Chinawill sharpen the competitive edgeof its nuclear industry, which hasseen healthy growth over the pastsix decades.

The country will adhere topeaceful and safe use of nuclearpower, said Xi in written com-ments marking the 60th anniver-sary of the beginning of China’snuclear projects.

Nuclear industry is “an im-portant foundation for nationalsecurity”, Xi said.

The industry has contributeda lot to economic developmentand national security, he said.

Currently China has 22 op-erational nuclear power units,with a total generation capacity of20.1 million kw, while 26 are un-der construction, which—onceoperational—will have an addi-

Xi confident of China’snuclear power future

tional capacity of 28 million kw.Premier Li Keqiang com-

mented that the government en-couraged domestic nuclear powerequipment producers to explorethe overseas market.

The government will keep aclose eye on the safety of nuclearfacilities and related policies, Lisaid.

“We will work hard to buildthe country into a powerfulnuclear industry player,” he said.

In January 1955, Chinakicked off a number of nuclearprojects. In 1964, the country suc-cessfully tested its first A-bomband then the first H-bomb in 1967.

Since the late 1970s, the fo-cus of nuclear projects shifted tocivilian use. In 1991, the firstnuclear power plant started opera-tion in east China’s ZhejiangProvince.—Xinhua

16 corpsesdiscoveredin N. Iraq

BAGHDAD—A search teamhas discovered 16 corpses in anarea of northern Iraq formerlycontrolled by Islamic Statemilitants, a local official saidlate on Wednesday. “The jointexcavation crews have dis-covered 16 bodies of menwho were blindfolded andhad their hands tied behindtheir backs,” said the districtchief Mohammed MullaHassan, from the PatrioticUnion of Kurdistan party.

“They were found in theKobachi area, which is part ofSaadiya District, and they wereexecuted in the past few months,”he added. A joint search team fromthe Kurdistan regional govern-ment in northern Iraq andBaghdad’s human rights ministrymade the discovery.—Reuters

KIEV—Ukraine’s parliament voted onThursday to refresh its front-line forces andresume partial conscription after a top secu-rity official warned that Russian forces back-ing separatist rebels had sharply increasedmilitary activity in the east.

“Russian aggression is continuing. Therehas been a significant surge in the intensityof firing,” Oleksander Turchynov, secretaryof the national defense council, told parlia-ment, adding that 8,500 Russian regularforces were now deployed in easternUkraine.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed andfour wounded on Wednesday when Ukrainianpositions were fired on 129 times, whichTurchynov said was a record for this year sofar.

The warning of increased military activ-ity by Russian forces also followed the shell-ing of a passenger bus on Tuesday at an armycheckpoint in which 12 civilians were killed.Kiev blamed the separatists for the attack but

Ukraine fearsanother Russian attack

they denied responsibility.Despite what the West and Kiev say is

incontrovertible evidence, Moscow denies ithas any troops in the east of Ukraine wherepro-Russian separatists are fighting govern-ment forces in a conflict in which more than4,700 people have been killed.

Ukraine’s parliament supported a decreeof President Petro Poroshenko to swap outlong-serving troops at the front and to bringin veterans from the reserve as well as re-sume partial conscription.

Ukraine scrapped compulsory militarycall-up in 2013 before the ousting of a pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovich, whichsparked the confrontation with Russia.

“There is an urgent need to strengthenthe combat and mobilization readiness of ourforces and other military forces up to a levelwhich guarantees an adequate reaction tothreats to national security from continuingRussian aggression,” Turchynov said.—Reuters

Chinese armyfollows central

leadershipTIANJIN—The negative im-pact in the wake of former Cen-tral Military Commission(CMC) vice chairman XuCaihou’s corruption case needsto be eliminated and the armymust follow the Party centralleadership, Fan Changlong, thecurrent CMC vice chairmansaid on Thursday

“The impact of XuCaihou’s case must be elimi-nated resolutely,” said Fanduring an inspection tour inTianjin. Fan said the anti-cor-ruption campaign should con-tinue in the military, and sol-diers’ interests should be pro-tected. Fan also urged thearmy to study CMC chairmanXi Jinping’s speeches on na-tional defence and militarymodernization, to hone theirfighting skills and to be com-bat ready.—Xinhua

Canada PMhopes journalists

earlier releaseCAIRO—Canadian ForeignMinister John Baird said aftertalks in Cairo on Thursday hehoped that a Canadian journal-ist working for Qatar-based AlJazeera television could be re-leased from prison in Egypt.

C a n a d i a n - E g y p t i a nMohamed Fahmy, EgyptianBaher Mohamed and AustralianPeter Greste were sentenced lastJune to seven to 10 years forspreading lies to help a “terroristorganization” - a reference toEgypt’s outlawed Muslim Broth-erhood. Egyptian PresidentAbdel Fatah al-Sisi said in No-vember the issue of a presiden-tial pardon was under discussion.Egypt’s High Court ordered aretrial of the men on Jan. 1.

Baird sounded cautiouslyoptimistic after talks with hisEgyptian counterpart SamehShukri. “I would characterizethe meeting as constructive andworthwhile, and we look for-ward to resolving that issue It’sstill not resolved today, butthat’s why I came,” he told anews conference.—Reuters

Gasparri says a curse wordagainst my mother, he can ex-pect a punch,” Francis said,throwing a pretend punch hisway. “It’s normal. You cannotprovoke. You cannot insult thefaith of others. You cannotmake fun of the faith of oth-ers.”

Many people around theworld have defended the rightof satirical magazine CharlieHebdo to publish inflamma-tory cartoons of the ProphetMuhammed (PBUH) in thewake of the massacre by Is-lamic extremists at its Parisoffices and subsequent attackon a kosher supermarket inwhich three gunmen killed 17people. But recently theVatican and four prominentFrench imams issued a jointdeclaration that denounced theattacks but also urged the me-dia to treat religions with re-spect.

Francis, who has urgedMuslim leaders in particularto speak out against Islamicextremism, went a step fur-ther when asked by a Frenchjournalist about whether therewere limits when freedom ofexpression meets freedom ofreligion.—AP

Pope: Thereare limits

From Page 1

with the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi outfit. An anti-terrorismcourt had issued black warrantsfor his execution on January 03,2015. Zahid Hussain aliasZahidu was awarded death sen-tence by an anti-terrorism courtin 2004 for killing a policemanin Multan in 2002. Earlier on Jan7, Lahore High Court Chief Jus-tice had dismissed a petitionwhich sought directions to re-strain an anti-terrorism courtfrom issuing death warrants forZahid Husain. Hussain throughhis counsel had pleaded that ashe had reached a compromisewith legal heirs of the victim,Ghulam Husain, so the trialcourt should be restrained fromissuing his death warrants.

A provincial law officertold the court that the trial courthad handed down capital pun-ishment to Zahid Husain underprovisions of Anti TerrorismAct (ATA) and added that theoffences falling under the ATAwere not compoundable.—INP

Two moreconvicts

From Page 1tachment with the Holy Prophet (PBUH) by chant-ing slogans. Later, addressing a press conferenceoutside the Parliament House, Federal Ministerfor Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousafsaid National Assembly has passed a resolutionagainst publishing of blasphemous material inmedia outlets of some European countries. Allmembers of Parliament and 180 million peopleof Pakistan strongly condemn this act, he added.

He said this protest message will be con-veyed to the UN and European countriesthrough their embassies and Pakistan’s foreignmissions.

The minister said some elements in Euro-pean countries were indulging such acts to sabo-tage peace besides spreading unrest in the muslimWorld, adding, these countries should take strictaction against such media organizations. He saidit was responsibility of the Muslims to protect

the honor of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).Speaking at the occasion, Federal Minis-

ter for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique saidall political parties had condemned the print-ing of blasphemous material by Europeanmedia outlets.He said some elements are hatch-ing conspiracies against Islam in the name offreedom of expression, adding, there was aneed to identify these elements who wantedthe war of civilizations.

He said muslims believe in protection ofall religions and their worship places.

Rafique said all Islamic countries includ-ing Pakistan were facing the menace of terror-ism but unfortunately they were not being sup-ported by the international community in thewar against terror. There is no space for vio-lence in Islam as it is a religion of peace andharmony, the minister added.

NA resolutionFrom Page 1

stocks supply of furnace oil topower producers has been cur-tailed that might aggravatepower crisis in the country,sources added.

Punjab: 80pcpetrol

From Page 1

visiting the Kingdom.During the meeting, the

two sides emphasized the im-portance of close bilateral re-lations between the two coun-tries and focused on the latestregional and international de-velopments.

The Prime Minister said hehad come to pay respect andextend good wishes for thespeedy recovery, good healthand long life of the Custodianof two Holy Mosques, KingAbdullah bin Abdu-laziz.

The Prime Minister wasaccompanied by his SpecialAssistant on Foreign AffairsTariq Fatemi and Pakistan’sAmbassador to Saudi ArabiaManzour Al-Haq.

From the Saudi side, theaudience was attended byPrince Muqrin bin AbdulazizAl Saud, Deputy CrownPrince, Second Deputy Pre-mier, Advisor and Special En-voy of the Custodian of theTwo Holy Mosques; PrinceKhalid bin Bandar binAbdulaziz, Chief of GeneralIntelligence; Prince Miteb binAbdullah bin Abdulaziz, Min-ister of National Guard; PrinceTurki bin Abdullah binAbdulaziz, Governor of Riyadh

Region; Prince Mohammed binSalman bin Abdulaziz, Minis-ter of State, cabinet memberand Chief of the CrownPrince’s Court and Special Ad-visor; and Minister of State andCabinet’s Member Dr Musaedbin Mohammed Al-Aiban.

In a statement, the PrimeMinister said the governmentresorted to the establishment ofmilitary courts as a last resortto meet the challenges posed byextraor-dinary circumstancesthrough which the country iscurrently passing.

The Prime Minister saidthe country was in a state ofwar and military courts havebeen approved for a limitedtime only to root out terrorismand extremism from the coun-try.

He said the PML hasplayed a proactive role in therestoration of judiciary and re-spects the independence of thejudiciary, adding, amendmentin the Constitution should notbe construed other-wise,.

Prime Minister Sharif, whoarrived here Thursday on a two-day private visit, said the PML(N) government respects andimplements all judicial deci-sions in letter and spirit.—APP

Nawaz, Salman discussFrom Page 1

In the past, the All Pakistan Minorities Al-liance had pointed out that extremist threatshad hampered the Bhatti murder trial.

Threatening pamphlets claiming to be fromthe Punjabi Taliban had been found in the officeof a key witness in the case, APMA had reported.The murder case of Chaudhry Zulfiqar, the pros-ecutor in Benazir Bhutto’s murder case was also

Shahbaz Bhatti murder caseFrom Back Page

WB $150m planFrom Page 1

emergency basis as the WorldBank placed great importanceon increasing disasterresilience and minimizing theimpact of floods in thecountry.

The Bank’s mission leaderHaris Khan briefed the meetingthat the project would create re-silience through a combination ofpolicy level and institutional mea-sures as well as improvement offlood mitigation infrastructure incollaboration with the Irrigationdepartment. He said the projectwould also seek to reduce the fi-nancial risk to the Government ofPunjab posed by floods.

As part of the project, theWorld Bank would alsostrengthen disaster preparednessand response, and improve floodforecasting and early warningsystems.Various department rep-resentatives of Planning and De-velopment, irrigation, PDMA,Health and Education werepresent at the meeting.—APP

Imran promisesnot to travel withprotocol in future

From Page 1

later than the opening on Janu-ary 14, he said, “I did not wantto go for the media. But wewere advised not to go be-cause it was the army’s softopening and General Raheelwas there.”

He said he understoodand shared with the senti-ments of the families. “If Iwere in place of those pro-testing parents I may havealso protested because of thesheer brutality of the kill-ings.”

The PTI chairman cameunder heavy criticism andmet resistance a day earlierduring his visi t toPeshawar ’s Army PublicSchool, as parents of the vic-tims blocked his entry to theschool premises.

Social media usersslammed the cricketer-turn-politician for traveling to theschool in a large cavalcade incontradiction of his earlierstance against “VIP culture”.Reports stated that Imran ar-rived at the school in a mo-torcade of 18 to 32 cars andpolice vehicles.

During the press confer-ence, the PTI chief spokeabout negotiations with thegovernment based on his rig-ging allegations. Imran reit-erated that his party wouldannounce future plan of ac-tion on January 18, as therehas been no response fromthe government since De-cember 30.

He said PTI leaderJahangir Tareen has writtena letter to Finance MinisterIshaq Dar “so that the coun-try can stand on one plat-form.” “The letter simplystates that we have preparedan ordinance on which thejudicial commission will beformed, and we have alsoprepared an MoU. We willrelease this letter to the me-dia today,” he said.

Karachi police involvedFrom Page 1

grilled further, they disclosedthat they were residents ofBaldia Town and worked forCrime Investigation Depart-ment (CID) and Anti-ViolentCrime Cell (AVCC).During in-terrogation, they revealed thatthey have well-organized net-work around Sindh-Balochistanborder and they helped Karachipolice in kidnapping of a num-ber of Baloch traders for ransom.

Giving details to Balochistanpolice, they gave names of someCID and AVCC officers whowere in regular contact with them.They told police that the traderswere either kidnapped when theywere visiting the metropolis alongwith their goods or they werecalled for meeting throughgirls.They confessed beforeBalochistan police that whenBaloch traders were visiting themetropolis along with their goods,they informed CID and AVCC. Theteams of CID and AVCC reachedthere and took them into custody.

They also unearthed that thekidnapped traders were kept inCID cells in Karachi and laterreleased after collection of ran-som money. They confessed thatthey got meager share of twothousand rupees for providinginformation to the police.

The arrested persons during

interrogation claimed that thekidnapped traders were releasedafter collection of ransom moneywhich varies from Rs 3 lacs toone million.

They further disclosed thatsome officials of Balochistanpolice also helped them in kid-napping of traders. They also re-vealed that the police sold thegoods and parts of goods’ carri-ers in the market by themselves.

When approached for com-ments, ASP Hub confirmed theinformation. “We had forwardedour recommendations to the gov-ernment and requested for writ-ing a letter to the Sindh govern-ment for the arrest of police offic-ers involved in such crimes,” in-vestigation officer of the case said.

moved to the military court, along with a numberof other high-profile, terror-related cases, the IGIslamabad confirmed.

Zulfiqar had been killed in Islamabad in2013 when he was on his way to attend courtproceedings of the BB murder case. At the time,police had arrested an alleged al Qaeda activ-ist involved in the killing.

Acceptanceof 2013riggedpolls wasmistakeSAHIWAL—Former primeminister Syed Yousaf RazaGillani has said that theacceptance of May 2013rigged elections wasbiggest mistake, addingthat Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP) accepted it fordemocracy. Addressing anews conference atresidence of PresidentPPP Sahiwal chapterMuhammad ZakiChaudhary, Gillani saidindependent judicialcommission should beformed to investigate therigging. He said he hadstated same to ImranKhan in a meeting soonafter the general elec-tions. —Online

Merkel cutfrom ParismarchphotoJERUSALEM—A small Jewish ultra-Orthodox newspaper inIsrael is making wavesinternationally for removingGerman Chancellor AngelaMerkel from a photo of thisweek’s Paris march out ofmodesty. World leadershad linked arms to march inParis against terrorism afterIslamic extremists killed 17people. Merkel stood in thefront row between FrenchPresident FrancoisHollande and PalestinianPresident MahmoudAbbas. But readers of theHamevaser newspaper’sMonday edition didn’tknow, as she had beendigitally removed, leavingAbbas standing next toHollande.—AP

Won’tresign onImran’scallISLAMABAD—National Assembly SpeakerAyaz Sadiq Thursday saidthat he would not resign onopposition leader ImranKhan’s demand. Talking tomedia here Thursday, Sadiqtaunted on Imran, saying“Justice Imran Khan Niazihas given a verdict on voterecount in NA-122,” wherehe stood victor against PTIchairman in 2013 generalelection. “Mr. Niazi, havesome fear of Allah,” Sadiqtold Imran. Yesterday, thePTI chief claimed voteaudit in NA-122 sug-gested that bogus voteswere found in the con-stituency. He demandedof the NA speaker toresign. Sadiq said that hewould not comment onrecounting of votes inNA-122 as the matter issub judice.—Online

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentarians chant slogans during a demonstration against blasphemous cartoons outsideParliament House.

KABUL—The Afghan Taliban onThursday condemned the publica-tion in France of further anti-Islamcartoons and lauded last week’sdeadly Islamist attack on theCharlie Hebdo magazine office inParis.

A statement from the groupsaid they “strongly condemn thisrepugnant and inhumane actionand consider its perpetrators,

Afghan Taliban condemn anti-Islamcartoons, hail Paris gunmen

those who allowed it and its sup-porters the enemies of humanity”.

The statement released in En-glish also hailed gunmen who killedthe magazine staff on January 7and said world leaders should pre-vent such cartoons from being re-leased.

They said publication must bestopped to prevent “further harm-ing world peace”, adding that to

do otherwise would mean “the be-liefs and sacrosanctity of over abillion people is desecrated and theworld is pushed further into the fireof hatred and war”.

Hooded gunmen had stormedthe Paris offices of a weekly satiri-cal magazine, killing at least 12people, including two police offic-ers in the worst militant attack onFrench soil in recent decades.

While the attack on CharlieHebdo sparked global outrage,dozens of people in Peshawar andcentral Afghan province ofUruzgan paid tribute to the broth-ers who carried out the murders.

The attack was claimed by theAl Qaeda in Yemen.

Charlie Hebdo had announcedthat it will defiantly feature morecaricatures targeting Islam.—AFP

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—The American CIA operatedplanes in two missile hits, one each in Northand South Waziristan Agency, on Thurs-day killed at least 14 people and woundedmany others.

In an earlier drone attack, as the reportsreaching here from Miran Shah, the head-quarters of North Waziristan Agency said,the predator planes targeted a house inShawal Tehsil of NWA closed to Pak-Af-ghan border Thursday wee hours leavingas many as seven inmates dead and manyothers seriously wounded.

“At least seven inmates were killed asthe US planes targeted a house in a remoteborder area of Tehsil Shawal with twohellfire missiles were fired on a house asthe compound was set ablaze and com-pletely flattened to ground”. Local sourcessaid adding number of occupants of thebuilding also sustained serious injuries.

The sources said a number of droneswere seen flying following the attack.

While official sources claimed thehouse was used by the militants, the in-dependent sources said the identity ofthose killed could not be ascertained.Later, as the reports say, the pilotlessAmerican planes also struck in the SouthWaziristan Agency and killed seven morepeople. The official sources said the Ameri-can drones fired as many as two missilesat the militant’s den in Spilgai area of Ladhadistrict of South Waziristan Agency thatleft six to seven people dead creating panic

Drone attacks kill14 in Waziristan

and unrest in the area as in the recent yearsthe drones have mostly been targeting theNorth Waziristan Agency where the Paki-stan Army is conducting Operation Zarb-e-Azb.

This was the second drone strike of theday and third since the start of the year.Earlier on January 4 the US planes in a mis-siles hit in Alowra Mandi area Tehsil DattaKhel of North Waziristan Agency had leftaround a dozen people including a topTaliban Commander belonging to Hafiz GulBahadur group dead besides leaving manyothers seriously wounded.

While Pakistan has always been call-ing for immediate halt to the drones strikesin its tribal belt as these were only provingcounter-productive in the war against ter-ror, all its appeals always fell on deaf yearsof those at the helm of affairs in Washing-ton who claimed the drones strikes provedproductive in hunting the Al-Qaeda super-vised Taliban in Pakistan’s northern tribalbelt.

The American planes or the CIA oper-ated infamous drones during 300 missileshits since August 2008, have killed morethan 3000 people mostly innocent tribalsas admitted by even the international watchdog though it managed to hit few dozenwanted militants. The drone strikes, seri-ous military circles believe, also bearingnegative impact on the Operation Zarb-e-Azb that is advancing effectively in theNorth Waziristan Agency where a big ma-jority of the insurgents have either beenkilled or flushed out.

Pak ranks bottomin countries withwomen managers

OBSERVER REPORT

GENEVA—According to anew study by the Interna-tional Labor OrganizationPakistan ranks last amongcountries where the man-agement force is female.

With only 3 per cent ofwomen in management po-sitions, Pakistan was ranked108 out of 108 countriesstudied. Other nationswhich were found to havean abysmal record for fe-males in managerial posi-tions included Algeria, Jor-dan and Bangladesh.

Jamaica had the highestnumber of female bosses inthe world, with 59.3 per centof the women of the islandnation’s management forcebeing female. 53.1 per centof Colombian managers arefemale, placing it second,while Saint Lucia, rounds offthe top three with 52.3 percent. The United States wasin 15th place, where 43 percent of all managers arewomen.

The study said thatwhile women have greatlyincreased their share of man-agement jobs and as entre-preneurs over the last twodecades, there is still a dearthof women in top decisionmaking positions, as CEOsand board members. TheILO study elaborated that amajor reason why women arenot selected for top manage-ment jobs is because theirmanagement experience isnot sufficiently diverse.

Armed menopen fire at

Swabi schoolPESHAWAR—With thecountry still reeling from thePeshawar school massacre,a school in Swabi was firedon Thursday morning.

According to reportsunidentified armed menopened fire near GovernmentGirls High School just at thetime reports, the school ses-sion was due to end. Thewatchmen guarding theschool retaliated, however,the assailants managed toescape. No casualties havebeen reported so far.

Confirming the incident,Swabi police officials saidmore security personnelwere dispatched to the sitewhile the area was cor-doned off. —INP

Shahbaz Bhattimurder case

moved tomilitary court

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Islamabadpolice moved the murdercase of former minority affairsminister Shahbaz Bhatti to amilitary court on Thursday.

Bhatti, a Catholic whovocally opposed the blas-phemy law, had been gunneddown outside his residencein Islamabad in March 2011.His killing had followed afterthe high-profile murder ofPunjab Governor SalmaanTaseer, who had also beenkilled for demanding the blas-phemy law be reformed.

7 labourers killedin coalmine blastORAKZAI AGENCY—Sevenlabourers were killed and sixinjured in a coalmine blastin Doli area of OrakzaiAgency. The injured havebeen shifted to AgencyHeadquarters HospitalKalaya.

At least seven laborerswere killed while six othersinjured in a coalmine blasthere on Thursday. Accord-ing to reports, the blast tookplace in Doli area of LowerOrakzai that left seven labor-ers dead.—Online

Continued on Page 7

ISLAMABAD—Justice Asif Saeed KhanKhosa of Supreme Court (SC) on Thurs-day said that the statement of Prime Min-ister has disappointed him as court is per-forming its duty honestly whereas Jus-tice Jawwad Khawaja stated that the pend-ing cases are not due to court’s negli-gence.

Two-member bench under the presi-dency of Justice Jawwad Khawaja heardthe case regarding the betterment of po-lice investigation in which prosecutorgeneral Punjab told the apex court thatsteps are being taken for the bettermentof police for which legislation has alsobeen taken under consideration.

Justice Jawwad Khawaja urged lead-ers to overcome their negligence so thatthe court would work more efficiently.

He said that courts are not here to de-cide the penalties rather they are respon-sible for providing justice whereas crimi-nals get bail due to imperfect investiga-tion.

He further asked the administration

that who will compensate the loss ofthose who were sent to prisons withoutcommitting any crime? He directed to takean action against corrupt police officers.

Justice Sarmad Jalal inquired thatwhat action has been taken against thoseofficers who submit reports without do-ing complete investigation.

He further denounced the establish-ment of military courts and asked that thejudges of military courts are more effi-cient and intelligent as compare to othercourts?

On the other hand, Justic Asif Khosaduring the hearing of a case regardingthe miserable condition of prisoners injails of the country remarked that PMstatement has disappointed him as 2400judges are needed to hear 70 lac pendingcases.

He further alleged government of notproving funds, place and the solution toother issues. Moreover, Justice Asifadded that the administration should alsoshow its responsibility now.—SABAH

PM statement regarding judiciarywas disappointing: Justice Khosa

Justice Jawwad blames govt for pending cases

ISLAMABAD—Minister forInformation, Broadcastingand National Heritage Sena-tor Pervaiz Rashid Thursdaysaid Chairman PakistanTehreek-i-Insaf Imran Khanwas afraid of the word ‘re-counting’ as it exposed hisdefeat. Addressing a newsconference, accompanied byState Minister AnushaRehman, MNAs DaniyalAziz and Talal Chaudhryhere, he said Imran Khan wasfabricating new lies everyday to avoid embarrassmenthe faced in recounting.

He said no one elseknows better than ImranKhan that there was no con-

Imran afraid of word‘recounting’: PR

spiracy behind the generalelections 2013. The Ministersaid absence of signature onballot papers was the faultof the Presiding Officer, not

P a k i s t a nM u s l i mL e a g u eNawaz. Be-sides, hesaid thereshould a fo-rensic testof the ballotpapers, if

PTI had doubt that thesewere printed in Urdu BazarLahore. The Judicial Com-mission, he said, would fixthe responsibility of the of-ficer showing negligence insigning the counter foil.

The Minister said the PTIchief was in a habit of distort-ing and twisting facts ondaily basis, adding that it wasan attempt to influence finaldecision of the Election Tri-bunal regarding NA-122 con-stituency. Pervaiz Rashid saidImran Khan was a fast bowlerin cricket but he became a‘spin master’ in politics par-ticularly with reference todistort the facts. He saidJudge of the Election Tribu-nal, Justice Kazim in HamidKhan case, had observedthat PTI advocate wanted tocontrol proceedings of thetribunal and get verdict of hisown choice.—APP

NEW YORK—A US courthas dismissed a lawsuit ac-cusing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi of failure tocontrol the 2002 Gujarat ri-ots, saying as a sitting headof government he was en-titled to immunity.

In dismissing the casefiled by human rights groupAmerican Justice Centre inNew York, US DistrictJudge Analisa Torres onWednesday upheld the USDepartment of State’s de-termination regarding im-munity for Modi.

A “sitting head of

US court dismisses caseagainst Narendra Modi

PARIS—French PresidentFrancois Hollande saidThursday that Muslimswere the “main victims” offanaticism, as five of the 17killed in last week’s attacksin Paris were laid to rest.

Speaking at the ArabWorld Institute in Paris,Hollande said: “It is Mus-lims who are the main vic-tims of fanaticism, funda-mentalism and intoler-ance”, adding the wholecountry was “united in theface of terrorism.”

The Muslim communityin France, Europe’s largesthas “the same rights andthe same duties as all citi-zens” and must be pro-tected.

Muslims main victims of fanaticism: Hollande

state’s immunity from juris-diction is based on the Ex-ecutive Branch’s determi-nation of official immunitywithout regard to the spe-cific conduct alleged,” sheruled.

Torres dismissed theplaintiffs’ argument that theForeign Sovereign Immuni-ties Act provided immunityonly to foreign states andnot to individual govern-ment officials and Modi wasnot entitled to common lawimmunity as the alleged actstook place before he becamePrime Minister.—IANS

Meanwhile debate wasmounting in France overwhere freedom of expres-sion begins and ends.

Millions rallied in sup-port of free speech after theassault, while French pros-ecutors, under governmentorders to crack down onhate crimes, have openedmore than 50 cases for con-doning terrorism or makingthreats to carry out terror-ist acts since the attack.

They include one againstcontroversial comedianDieudonne, who was ar-rested Wednesday over aremark suggesting hesympathised with one of theParis attackers and will standtrial.—AFP

Pak Armygets key

achievementsin Zarb-e-AzbLONDON—Director General(DG) Inter Services PublicRelations (ISPR) MajorGeneral Asim Saleem Bajwaon Thursday has said thatthe Pakistan Army is con-ducting an indiscriminateoperation against all bannedoutfits and extremist orga-nizations.

He expressed theseviews in a media briefing inLondon. DG ISPR said thatthe operations against ter-rorists including that in NorthWaziristan are continuingsuccessfully.

He expressed a resolveto continue the operationsuntil the elimination of ter-rorism from the country. Hesaid that the attack onKarachi Airport was theturning point after whichthe Pakistan Armylaunched operationagainst terrorists.—Online

THAT moment in the morning when teadrinkers take their first warm sip can beamazing. And now, 12 new articles from

the American Journal of Clinical Nutritionshow that tea may indeed be a magical elixir,as it was shown to promote weight loss, pre-vent chronic illnesses andimprove mood. Whethericed or hot, on any givenday, over 158 million peoplein the US drink tea, accord-ing to the Tea Association ofthe USA. And our Britishcounterparts consume 165million cups daily.

Tea is the second mostconsumed beverage in theworld, according to the TeaAssociation, beaten onlyby water. Though therehave been a multitude ofstudies about antioxidantsin tea and the resulting hu-man health effects, theserecent studies in theAmerican Journal of Clini-cal Nutrition (AJCN) shedlight on just how helpful tea is for our health.

Experts from the US Department of Ag-riculture, National Institutes of Health,UCLA and the University of Glasgow -among others - contributed to the AJCN bodyof evidence. Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, com-pendium editor for the issue, says: “The sci-entists who contributed their original re-search and insights are among the best in theworld, and together, this body of researchhas significantly advanced the science of teaand human health.”

Along with promoting weight loss, stud-ies found that drinking tea reduces cancerand cardiovascular risks and it also provides

psychological benefits. Researchers wholooked at polyphenols - natural compoundsin tea - found that they, along with thecaffeine content, increased energy expen-diture and fat oxidation, which resulted inweight loss and helped maintain a healthy

body weight.One study shows that sub-

jects who consumed green teaand caffeine lost an averageof 2.9 pounds over 12 weeks,all while maintaining theirnormal diet. Other studiesshow that regular tea drinkershave lower body mass indexes(BMIs) and waist-to-hip ra-tios, along with less body fat,compared with non-tea drink-ers. Additionally, another re-view showed that the increasein calories burned as a resultof drinking tea equates toaround 100 calories during a24-hour period.

Another set of researchersfound that the polyphenols ingreen tea may help to stop the

progression of certain cancers. In onestudy, scientists observed that after a year,30% of men in a placebo group progressedto prostate cancer, compared with only 9%of men who were in a tea-supplementedgroup. Other cancers for which tea pro-vides protective health benefits are can-cers of the gastrointestinal tract, lung,breast and skin, researchers say.

A study conducted by Dr. ClaudioFerri in Italy showed that black tea reducedblood pressure in patients with hyperten-sion and also neutralized negative effectsof high-fat meals on arterial blood flowand blood pressure.

Tea benefits: weight loss,improved bone health and mood

Such an acute shortage of fuel! Even NH&MP vehicles are standing in a long queue in front of a petrol pump in the capital city.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—On the instructions ofthe Interior Ministry, Islamabad districtadministration sealed offices of a USNon-Government Organization (NGO)IMAP, taking its record into custody andsending its entire 21 employees (all Pa-kistanis) home.

Assistant Commissioner City CaptWaqas and Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza

Chandyo along with Kohsar Police Sta-tion SHO and police officials conductedthe raid and sealed the NGO’sIslamabad office located on CollegeRoad in Sector F-7/2.

The sources in the Interior Min-istry told Pakistan Observer that theNGO was working in Pakistan with-out any NOC and was involved inanti-state activities. For sometime, wewere closely monitoring the NGO and

found it collecting sensitive data thatdid not come in its purview, they fur-ther said.

“After the interior ministry came toknow about its activities the districtadministration was directed to seal itsoffice and take the record in custody,”they added.

Moreover, all the Inspector Gener-als (IGs) and authorities concerned havebeen instructed by the ministry to con-

duct raids and seize the record in theorganisation’s offices in the country, ithas been learnt.

Police had on November 12, 2014raided an office of the NGO in Karachiand arrested seven staff members. Theoffice of the NGO was located inbuilding named Horizon Tower inClif ton, where police personnellaunched a raid and seized their equip-ments including laptops.

Anti-Pakistan activities

NGO’s office sealed,record seized

Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation & coordination Mrs. Saira AfzalTarar chairing a high level consultative meeting to finalize a draft of Federal Health CareRegulation Act 2015.

RAZA UR REHMAN

IS L A M A B A D—A highlevel consultative meetingto finalize the draft FederalHealth-care RegulationsAct 2015 was held heretoday with Minister ofState for National HealthServices, Saira Afzal Tararin the chair. The meetingwas attended by SecretaryNHSR&C, Islamabad,Chief Commissioner,Islamabad, Vice Chancel-lor Shaheed ZulfiqarBhutto Medical Univer-

sity, Senior Health officialsfrom FATA, Azad Jammu &Kashmir and Gilgi t-Baltistan. A detailed brief-ing on the proposed FederalHealth-care Bill 2015 wasgiven by Director GeneralHealth Dr. Assad Hafeez.

The proposed Act aim toRegulation of provision ofhealth-care services, Stan-dardization, Certification/quality assurance, Establish-ment of a Registrat ionBoard, Registrat ion ofHealth-care Facilities, Li-censing, Inspections, Elimi-

nation of Quackery, Enforce-ment of Law and Com-plaints/suggestions, Griev-ances

Under the Act a FederalHealth Regulatory Authorityshall be established. Nohealthcare establishment,healthcare professional orclinical Laboratory shall ren-der any healthcare servicesunless it is registered & li-censed under this Act. Nohealthcare professional shallrender services in ahealthcare establishment un-less he has prior registration

under the Medical and Den-tal Council Ordinance, 1962,Pakistan Nursing councilAct, 1973 or the Unani,Ayurvedic andHomoeopathic PractitionersAct 1965.

The authority shall haveRegistration Board, TechnicalCommittees for Setting upStanders, Inspection Teams,Investigation Committee andAppeals to trial court.

Minister for NHSR&Cwhile addressing the meetingsaid that the landmark legis-lation aims to ban quackery

in all its forms and manifes-tations in the federally ad-ministrated areas. Thescope of the legislation willextend to both Allopathicand alternative system oftreatment including Ho-meopathic, Unani etc., in-formed the Minister.

Initially the law will ex-tend to the Islamabad Capi-tal Territory and FATA.Gilgit-Baltistan and AzadJammu & Kashmir will takesteps to enact the law intheir own assemblies, it wasagreed in the meeting.

Federal Health Authority soon to regulate health services

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—To highlight role of police insociety, Rawalpindi Islamabad Photo Jour-nalist Association on Thursday organised aphoto exhibition at National Art Galley ofPakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA).

Inspector General (IGP) of IslamabadPolice Tahir Alam Khan inaugurated the ex-hibition.

As many as 100 photojournalists fromthe twin cities participated in the exhibitionwhile 100 photos of police activities in thefederal capital were put on display. Speak-ing on the occasion, the Inspector General(IGP) said photojournalists, through the ex-hibition had portrayed the “true picture ofIslamabad Police, which is commendable”.

IGP Islamabad Tahir Alam witnessing a photo exhibition about various police initiativesheld under the aegis Rawalpindi Islamabad Photo Journalists Association (RIPJA) andICT police, at PNCA.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

Photojournalists show ‘truepicture of Islamabad police’

Assistant Inspector General (establishment)Sultan Azam Temuri said the exhibitionwould help identify “our flaws and improveour performance”.

“Provincial police force has taken stepsfor accountability and check negligence onpart of police,” he said.

Later prizes were disturbed among thephotographers for their workd. IshaqChaudhary of The Dawn daily was given thefirst prize while other photojournalists includ-ing Sayed Mehdi (The Nation), MuhammadAsim (Online), and Anjum Naveed (AP) re-ceived second, third and fourth position fromthe IGP. President of RIPJA Sajjad Haider,General Secretary Javed Qureshi thanked theUfone representative Ashar Yaqoob Khan andall participants.

Saudi leadershipcondoles

Peshawar tragedyOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—His ExcellencyMr. Jassim M. Al-Khalidi,Minister plenipotentiary andCharge d’Affairs called on theInterior Minister His Excel-lency Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan, Wednesday 14th January2015 and conveyed to him con-dolences of the Saudi leader-ship for the victims ofPeshawar School.

He also delivered to him aletter of condolence from HisRoyal Highness PrinceMohammad Bin Nayef, theMinister of Interior of theKingdom of Saudi Arabia.

They also reviewed duringthe meeting bilateral ties be-tween the Kingdom of SaudiArabia and Pakistan and meansof further developing and pro-moting them in various fields.

Better marketaccess through

food safetySTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The partici-pants of five-day workshop on“Better Market Access throughFood Safety & Quality Stan-dards” here on Thursday calledfor understanding of the struc-tures and effectiveness of pub-lic and private food safety andquality (FSQ) standards pre-vailing in world food and agri-cultural markets.

In this connection, the Na-tional Productivity Organiza-tion (NPO), Ministry of Indus-tries in collaboration with APO(Asian Productivity Organiza-tion) is organizing an interna-tional programme on FoodSafety & Quality (FSQ) Stan-dards for Market Access.

Participants from 18 differ-ent countries are attending thisinternational programme.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Council of Chairmenof Standing Committees of the NationalAssembly Secretariat, Thursday, decidedto serve two notices to members for re-maining absent from the committee meet-ings prior to cancellation of their mem-berships. Council of Chairmen of Stand-ing committee of the National Assemblymet here under the chairmanship ofSpeaker Ayaz Sadiq and took up impor-tant issues pertaining to empowerment andstrengthening of Parliament the StandingCommittees.

Upon observations by the Chairpersonsof the Committees regarding non imple-mentation of their recommendations by the

Government, Sadiq advised them to followthe law and hold the Ministries account-able. Those members who are habituallyabsent from the meetings should be servedtwo consecutive notices and their member-ship should be cancelled. He further saidthere are provisions for this procedure inthe Rules of National Assembly .Accord-ing to Rule 201 Government is bound torespond to the Standing Committees.

The Chairpersons pointed out the lackof research facilities to which Sadiq as-sured them of better facilities since Na-tional Secretariat is recruiting new ROsthrough Federal Public Service Commis-sion. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq also assured theChairpersons that National Assembly Sec-retariat will help Committees in setting up

their websites.In order to increase the efficiency of

the officers of the Secretariat, they wouldbe trained in the fields of legal draftingand research work. Another obstacle ob-served by the Chairpersons was unwill-ingness by the Ministries to provide in-formation to which Sadiq informed themthat this matter should be brought in tonotice of the concerned Ministers and Fed-eral secretaries and the officers can be pro-ceeded against.

In his concluding remarks the Speakerassured the Meeting of his full cooperationin improving the efficiency and output ofthe Standing Committees .More than 30Chairpersons attended the meeting includ-ing Opposition Leader Khurshid .

NA standing committee decision

Notices to be servedto absent members

RAWALPINDI—Raja Ashfaq Sarwar,Punjab Minister for Labour and Manpowerand head of Monitoring Committee in-spected 10 public and private institutionslocated in Rawalpindi city and Canton-ment areas on Thursday.

The Committee Members includingPML (N) President Rawalpindi DistrictSardar Mumtaz Khan, PML (N) PresidentMetropolitan Rawalpindi Sardar Naseem,Raja Ateeq Sarwar, Assistant Commis-sioner (Sadar) Tasneem Ali Khan, Direc-tor College Prof. Hamayun Iqbal, EDO(Education) Qazi Zahoor ul Haq, accom-panied Minister during a seven hour de-tailed visit.

The Provincial Minister inspected nec-essary security arrangements as indicatedin the Standing Operative Procedures

SOP’s forwarded to the heads of publicand private educational institutions regard-ing adopting precautionary measures toavert any untoward situation after ArmyPublic School Peshawar incident.

The Monitoring Committee visitedSaint Marry’s School, Rawalpindi Medi-cal College, City School, Saddar, F.G. Sec-ondary School Cantt. F.G. Girls SchoolKashmir Road, Beacon house School,Civil Lines, Standard School MughalAbad, Army Public School and CollegeAskari XIV and Dar ul Arqam SchoolGulraiz Colony Rawalpindi and discussedin detail the security plan which had beenensured to be implemented for safety andsecurity of students as well as teachingfaculties and other staff members of edu-cational institutions.

Raja Ashfaq Sarwar questioned to theadministrative staff about adherence ofdaily regular exercises marked necessaryto ensure safety measures in all educationalinstitutions including sweeping of classrooms before the attendance, presence offunctional metal detector, installation ofbarbed wires, locking of water tanks, plac-ing of trained armed guards, exhibitingtelephone contacts of rescue and emer-gency services at important places, verifi-cation of staff members, surveillance ofadjoin areas of educational institutions.Some lapses were also pointed out by is-suing warning for rectification withinstipulated period.

The members of committee expressedsatisfaction on following of security in-structions in most of institutions.—Online

Minister checks security of 10educational institutions

06:25 01:3004:00

07:15

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

January 20-21National Conference

A two-day national confer-ence on inter-religion cohe-sion and understandingstrategy will be held on 20-21st January at Allama IqbalAuditorium International Is-lamic University FaisalMasjid Campus.

January 25NUML

NUML University will remainclose till Jan25, 2015. Howeverthe university staff will con-tinue to perform its duties.The Interviews for admissionwill be scheduled in last weekof January and Exam will beheld in February 2015.

State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali listening to problems of people during open court at Punjab House.

RAZA UR REHMAN

ISLAMABAD—Minister of State forWater and Power, Ch. Abid Sher Alisuspended 3 SDOs and several offi-cials of Islamabad Electric SupplyCompany (IESCO) over corruptioncharges and negligence duringKhuliketchery held today at PunjabHouse Rawalpindi.

Hundreds of complainant rushedto Punjab House for redressal of theirproblems where all SDOs and XENscalled to respect public complaints onthe spot.

Minster of State for Water andPower, Ch. Abid Sher Ali said that ondirections of Prime Minister of Paki-stan, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to ad-dress the public complaints at theirdoor steps the series of country wideKhuliketchery is being held.

In this regard this is 6thKhuliketchery, being held at PunjabRawalpindi. Earlier Khuliketchery hasbeen held in Gujranwala, Haiderabad,

3 SDOs & several IESCO officialssuspended in khuli ketchery

Multan Lahore and Sargodha in whichmore then 62 officials including XENs,SDOs and other officials have beensuspended due to their al leged in-volvement in corruption over com-plaints of public.

He directed all officers of IESCOto insure their presence at their officesto give passionate hearing to publiccomplaints and stern action would betaken if any officers is found away dur-ing the said time without any sold rea-son. He said that all government offi-cials including himself are answerableto public.

In this regard he appealed to pub-lic to point out corrupt officials andsupport his more of corruption cleanup against corruption. He said thatzero tolerance is being observedagainst corruption. On the startof Khuliketchery, he forbid politicalworkers from slogans saying this isapolitical forum in which we hear com-plainants irrespective of their politi-cal affiliation.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Higher EducationCommission is stepping up efforts foradvancement of Social Sciences re-search with special focus on impacton society.

This was discussed in detail dur-ing a meeting of Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed,Chairman, Higher Education Commis-sion (HEC) with members of the InterUniversity Consortium on Social Sci-ences.

It was agreed that the Consortiumwould share resources, exchange stu-dents and scholars, conduct joint re-search projects and develop and en-hance faculty strength through ex-change as adjunct faculty.

It will also help develop linkageswith national and international orga-nizations and host joint seminars and

conferences. There was consensus onthe dire need to revitalize Social Sci-ences research and end duplication ofwork that was visible in working ofvarious committees.

A national conference on SocialSciences is planned for May by Uni-versity of Peshawar in a link to revivewaning interest in the sector. Chair-man HEC revealed that Pakistan hadgained membership of the Asian So-cial Sciences Association (ASSA) inNovember 2014 and Pakistan wouldhost the Association’s first meetingin October this year.

A Social Sciences conference willalso be held at the same time. He fur-ther shared with the participants theplan to establish Social Sciences Re-search Council, Pakistan and prepara-tions were afoot to promote andachieve excellence by encouraging

scholarly cooperation and collabora-tion in the Social Sciences sector. Theaim would include to identify indig-enous needs and priorities to addressissues of national importance, enhanceinterdisciplinary research and link so-cial sciences for providing solutions toissues that face us.

Its ultimate aim would be to advicethe Government on National SocialPolicy for more concerted work in thefield.

The member vice chancellors ex-pressed their resolve to work for therenaissance of the Social Science dis-cipline and agreed to apply involvingstudents in community work for theuplift of the adjoining as suggest byChairman HEC.

The next meeting will be held atAllama Iqbal Open University at theend of the month.

HEC to strengthen Inter-UniversityConsortium for Social Sciences

ISLAMABAD—A Full Court meeting washeld Thursday in the Supreme Court of Pa-kistan, Islamabad under the Chairmanshipof Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk to discussvarious matter relating to the amendmentsin the Supreme Court appointment of offic-ers and servants and terms and conditionsof service Rules, 1982.

The issue was discussed thoroughlyand reffered to Rules Committee for consid-eration of the representations filed by thedifferent Supreme Court employees. It was

attended by Mr. Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja,Mr. Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Mr. JusticeMian Saqib Nisar, Mr. Justice Asif SaeedKhan Khosa, Mr. Justice Sarmad JalalOsmany, Mr. Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Mr.Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Mr. Justice IjazAhmed Chaudhry, Mr. Justice Gulzar Ahmed,Mr. Justice Sh. Azmat Saeed, Mr. Justice IqbalHameedur Rahman, Mr. Justice Mushir Alam,Mr. Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, Mr. Jus-tice Umar Ata Bandial and Mr. Justice QaziFaez Isa. —INP

CJP presides over Full Courtmeeting for appointment of staff

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A memorandum of under-standing has been signed between Depart-ment of Electronic Engineering of Interna-tional Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) andSciFlair Ltd. Bristol UK under which IIUI stu-dents and faculty members of IIUI will ob-tain opportunities to work on differentprojects in Power and Energy sector in a re-search and development Lab.

The Department of Electronic Engineer-ing of Faculty of Engineering and Technol-ogy, IIUI has proved itself as one of the bestdepartments in the field of engineering. Itsday by day progress and activities havecaught attraction of SciFlair Ltd which gotinterested to create strong linkages and col-laboration with IIUI.

The MoU was signed by President IIUIDr. Ahmed Yousif Al-Draiweesh while Prof.Dr. Tahir Mansoori, Vice President (HigherStudies & Research), Prof. DR. MohammadBashir Khan, Vice President(Academics),Prof. Dr. Aqdas Naveed Malik, Dean Facultyof Engineering and Technology. Prof. Dr.Muhammmad Amir (Chairman, Departmentof Electronic Engineering) and Prof. Dr. Saeedadshah (Chairman, Department of Mechani-cal Engineering) were also present on theoccasion. According to MoU, the SciFlairLtd will hire graduated students of IIUI andit will establish a research and developmentLab in Department of Electronic Engineer-ing of IIUI where concerned faculty mem-bers of IIUI and Employees of SciFlair Ltdwill do research on different projects in Powerand Energy sector.

IIUI, SciFlair join hands forresearch in energy sector

Gang selling girlsafter kidnapping

unearthedISLAMABAD—A gang in-volved in sale of girls, afterabducting them has beenunearthed in the jurisdictionof Aabpara police station.

The revelation was madewhen a citizen MohammdAzam Khan filed a FIR inAabpara police stationagainst his house tenant Nishaaccusing her of kidnappinghis 15 year old daughter. Thecomplainant told police thatNisha runs a brothel and shekidnaps young girls andforces them into prostitution.He said that he has askedNisha to return his daughterbut she outrightedly refusedand said that she has contactswith influential and no onecan touch her.—Online

Security situationof Islamabaddistrict courts

lamentableISLAMABAD—Newly electedPresident Islamabad Bar Coun-cil Zahid Mehmood has saidthat the security situation atDistrict courts F-8 is deplor-able adding that no practicalsteps have been taken to im-prove the situation.

In an exclusive chat withOnline Zahid Mahmood Presi-dent Bar council Islamabad saidthat providing security is job ofthe Interior Ministry and so farno practical steps have beentaken in this regard.—Online

PRCS gets 100 wheelchairsfor disabled from UAE counterpart

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad High Court (IHC) hassought details from chairman Pakistan Tele-communication Authority (PTA) about block-ing different websites in the country besidesdirecting him to appear before it in person onnext hearing.

The court remarked “ it should be toldmaterial committee was constituted underwhat law. World is adopting state of the artmethods while modern technology is shut in

Pakistan. Justice Athar Minallah has remarked“You-tube stands blocked since several years.What government did in this respect. A singlebench of IHC presided over by Justice AtharMinallah took up for hearing petition filed byBolobhai society here Thursday.

Legal counsel for ministry of informationtechnology and Babar Sattar advocate coun-sel for the petitioner appeared in the court.The counsel for petitioner told the court thatPTA has blocked about 25000 differentwebsites in the country.

IHC calls for detailed reportfrom chairman PTA

United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Country Head handing over 100 wheel chairs toChairman Pakistan Red Crescent Society Dr Saeed Elahi.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The UnitedArab Emirates (UAE) RedCrescent on Thursday do-nated 100 wheel chairs toPakistan Red Crescent So-ciety (PRCS).

The wheelchairs werehanded over to PRCS Chair-man Dr Saeed Elahi by UAERed Crescent Country HeadHamad Abdullah Al-Ali.Speaking on the occasion,PRCS Chairman thanked theUAE Red Crescent for thedonation of the wheel chairsfor the disabled people. Hesaid that UAE Red Crescentalways stood with the PRCSto help the Pakistani peoplein the hour of need.

He hoped that the co-operation between the twosocieties will further in-crease in the coming days.UAE Red Crescent coun-try head on the occasionsaid that these wheelchairs are being handed

over to PRCS for the needy people andthe UAE Red Crescent in future will give

automatic wheelchairs to the PRCS for thehospitals.

The Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement activists held a forceful protest demonstration at press colony in Srinagar against the India’s JointParliamentary Committee’s recommendations regarding the grant of citizenship to non-Kashmiris.

MUZAFFARABAD: Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral prayer) of brother of Syed Kifayat Hussain Naqvi, Senior Member of AJKIslamic Ideology Council is being offered here on Thursday.

RAMEEZ BHAT

AS I am writing about the child labour issuewhich is considered as one of the most conspicuous issue. During the mid of 2014 I

went to search for a rented room in the summercapital of Jammu and Kashmir, and found it in thewestern side of the city. When I went there to stay,I saw a child who was just 7 to 9 years old fromNorth Kashmir, who was working as a servantthere. I being enormously surprised to see a childwho is too little for this work. His age was just toenjoy the childhood instead of enjoying he worksas a waiter. After few days I met him and askedhim the reason of being a worker there, believe mehis reply was heart-wrenching. At that time I couldnot control my emotions I left him and went to myrented room. His words stricken my heart through-out the night my eyes were lidless. Next day onceagain I called him to move towards my rented roomand asked him to study. As he was too delightful tohear the word ‘’study’’ then after I went back tomy home I narrated the story of that child to Headof the School where he was admitted to get educa-tion, without any question, without any charge, theschool which is under the control of Islamic orga-nization namely Jaamat-e-Islamia. I am hugelythankful to the principal of that school who ac-cepted my request and admitted him and offer himfree education. Believe me I was too delightfulwhen he entered the school. Before entering in-

Kashmir child labor an intensive social evilside the school he hugged me and said to me in apolite manner that; there are thousands like me whowant to study, but because of impoverishment theyremain uneducated. The question arises here? Is itbecause they are poor and their parents are unableto afford money to their children for education. Ifit is the reason then it our duty to offer them freeeducation and admit them in different schoolswhere they can get free education.

There are various Islamic organizations whichoffer Islamic education free of cost in our mothertongue they are identified as Dar-ul-uloom to home-less and moneyless children, but I would like totell them in this contemporary period, they onlynot need Islamic education, with Islamic educa-tion they should also be given opportunity to geteducation of the present world, for instance scien-tific knowledge, world politics, and so forth. Bringthem in respective fields, where they can easilycompete with different students. We need to ex-amine about this issue. Child labour is a thought-ful issue. We need to contemplate on this tormentissue. Now it’s our responsibility to aware our so-ciety at ground level about the child labour, keep-ing them the opportunity to attend schools. Hope-fully I too will be delightful if our blooming flow-ers would be halted from the child labour.

Child labour is one of the most common so-cial issue which eradicates our society badly. Thisissue halted our children from getting proper edu-cation and obstructed them to live their lives mer-

rily. This is happening with the children becausethey belong to poor families, they try to contrib-ute in their own way by earning throughout theirworking days and what comes the result, their edu-cation get wedged. The international labour or-ganization [ILR] estimates that 215 million chil-dren between the ages of 5 to 14 currently work-ing under conditions that are considered unlaw-ful, hazardous or extremely exploitive. In oursociety large numbers of children’s are workingas domestic servants, some are working as daylabourers in different sections, like in a commer-cial agriculture, industries, fishing and so on,some are working as salesmen, while some areworking at work shops, even some of our belovedchildren are working as bus conductors and someare working as waiters in different restaurants andhotels, some are working in the carpet and handi-craft industries, although in every sector we finda child as a worker. Most of the child labourers inour society are seen polishing the boots aside offootpath. Is our conscience still alive? No! It isappearing dead.

I would like to tell a story during the period ofProphet (pbuh), it was the time of EID, there wasjoyous moment in the streets of Medina. All thepeople were dressed up with adorable clothes. Itwas the time of EID prayer, everyone went forprayers with their cherubic look. The prophet(pbuh) brought to an end the EID prayer. And ev-eryone went to their respective homes. In the streets

of Medina children were celebrating EID joyouslyand playing with each other, and at the same timeProphet (pbhu) departed from that street and sud-denly he saw a little boy who was sitting on theside of the path. The little boy was crying andlooked very melancholic. The prophet (pbhu) wentto him and asked him the reason of being sad, theboy didn’t respond but again Prophet (pbhu) re-peated the same.

The boy then replied, I am an orphan my fa-ther was martyred and my mother got knot withanother man, and he does not want me to live withthem. Today is EID, everyone is glad and celebrat-ing EID with exuberance wearing new clothes andthey have idyllic things to eat, but I don’t havenew apparel to wear, neither do I have pleasantthings to eat nor do I have any shelter to live. Theprophet (pbuh) could not control his emotions, hisheart became melancholic, tears rhythmically flowfrom his graceful eyes, and then he hugged him.And therefore prophet (pbhu) took him home andgave him new clothes and provided delicious foodson the day of EID. Indeed a little boy had a won-derful EID. The prophet (pbhu) was very kind tochildren and loved them very much. As he said ‘’O Muslims, O father and mother, O my followers,be kind and compassionate towards children, forsomeone who is not kind to children has no placeamongst the Muslims.

Now see in this present era, do we follow theteachings of Prophet (s.a.w) and Islam. I don’t think

so, we follow the teachings of Islam in a very properway. We have lost our conscience as well as thequality of being human. We need to rectify ourbehavior towards the strong build of our own soci-ety. The different religions have same beliefs to-wards the children. Now see in the present globethe children are working in different fields, howpitiless we became. We even don’t consider it as abiggest social evil. We have lost our sense of rightand wrong. The child labour is increasing day byday, under child labour [prohibition and regulation]Act, 1986’’ one who has been found guilty the actprescribes fine up to twenty thousand or imprison-ment up to one year. The Union Cabinet has alsosanctioned a proposal for amending the Act, to banemployment of children aged up to 17 in any formof industry. It will be an offence to employ suchchildren not only in factories or industries, but alsoin homes or farms, if their labour is meant to serveany commercial interest. Child labour is a globalproblem it is mostly common in underdevelopedcountries and developing countries, where parentscannot make an effort to give education of theirchildren because of the poverty and therefore chil-dren remain uneducated. It is our duty to save ourblooming flowers from this counterproductive bur-den. They are the plants in the garden, if we cutoffthe plants from the garden than the garden getsconverted into a barren land.

—Courtesy: Kashmir WatchEmail: ramizspeaks77@gmail.com

SRINAGAR—National Con-ference said that it should beamply clear that NC’s offer toPDP was an offer of OutsideSupport for PDP to form theGovernment in J&K and thatNational Conference was notinterested in being a part ofsuch a Government with PDPin the State.

Terming PDP ChiefSpokesperson NaeemAkhtar’s remarks as misin-formed and unfounded, Na-tional Conference GeneralSecretary Ali MohammadSagar said that unlike PDP,National Conference has putits ideology and the State’sSpecial Status above the pettytrappings of power by notaligning with BJP.

Sagar told CNS that if theywere interested in being partof a Government in J&K, theycould have aligned with theBJP as it was an option readilyavailable to NC after the elec-tion results came out.

“But unlike PDP, we areguided by guiding principlesand a political ideology that isrooted in the aspirations andsentiments of our people. Wehave put our ideology over thelure of power, something thatquite understandably seemsinconceivable for a party likethe PDP which is ready tomake every possible compro-mise and u-turn to come topower in the State.

PDP wants to come topower at any cost, even if thatmeans contradicting every-thing PDP leaders said duringthe campaign for the Assem-bly Elections”, NC GeneralSecretary Ali MohammadSagar said.

The NC General Secretaryrubbished PDP’s deludedclaim that National Confer-

PDP owes debt to BJP,being its brainchild: NC

ence had been punished orsidelined by the people. “Aparty that only got 60,000more votes than us collectivelyin the State can hardly makethat claim with a straight face.

PDP tried its best to accen-tuate a propaganda of an al-leged ‘PDP wave’, whichclearly turned out to be a farceas the results demonstrated.The last we checked neitherhad Mufti Mohammad Sayeedrendered a public apology forhis crimes against Kashmirisduring his tenure as the HomeMinister and nor have thepeople of the State forgivenhim for lording over countless

massacres and being the archi-tect of repression in the State.So, the PDP Chief Spokesper-son should come out of his de-lusions and the party shouldstop taking the people ofKashmir for granted”, Sagaradded.

“We understand that thePDP clearly owes a debt to theBJP since it was the BJP thatfunded and supported the cre-ation of the PDP with a view atdividing the people of Kashmirand fragmenting their represen-tative voice. Similarly the BJPowns promoter’s equity in thePDP for having funded the cre-ation of PDP. —KW

SRINAGAR—Azam Inqilabi, pa-tron JK Mahaz-e-Azadi, whilecondemning the imperialisticand expansionistic nefarious de-signs of Indian imperialist rulershas said in his statement: “Rev-elation of Indian clandestine in-tervention in Afghanistan to usethat country as a launching padagainst Pakistan and the Muslimworld is not startling for the ob-servers like Azam Inqilabi. It ismy considered opinion that In-dia used Afghanistan as a launch-ing pad against the MuslimUmmah since 1979 ” the yearwhen Red Army of erstwhilesoviet union intruded into Af-ghanistan and inadvertently in-vited Afghan mujahedeen for asustained guerrilla warfare.

Eventually Soviet Union gotdisintegrated into fourteen frag-ments. This is how India facili-tated the dismemberment of itsmentor-state (Soviet Union).

Empower Azad Kashmir tocounterpoise Indian bluster: Inqilabi

And this is what Russian strate-gists fail to understand. They arestill hobnobbing with Indian im-perialists. Pakistani political ex-perts and military strategists canbring their old Russian adversar-ies round and engage them in adiscursive discourse on Pak-Rus-sia relations.

These days Indian haughtyrulers, who have chauvinistic andregressive approach to history ofpartition of the Subcontinent (in1947), are feeling psychologi-cally jittered and jolted becauseof the withdrawal of US andNATO forces from Afghanistan.The end of the Western blitzkriegin Afghanistan means the end ofproxy war of India in that coun-try. Indian chauvinists with im-perialist mindset are not recon-ciling to the new reality that Af-ghanistan is no more a colony,prot?g?, and protectorate of thewestern imperialists. Afghanistan

is now a sovereign country freeto act the way it likes.

Present rulers of Afghanistanhave resolved to express com-plete solidarity with Pakistansimply to ensure peace and tran-quillity in that country. Afghani-stan, the land-locked countrycannot survive without the gen-erous logistic support of Paki-stan. In the backdrop of the factsexplained above it is not difficultfor Pak experts to understand therationale for Indian bigotry-based outpourings. Thus the op-probrious bluster of Indian fas-cist rulers is quite fathomable.

The proper way to counter-poise and checkmate the Indianobtrusion is not far to seek. Pa-kistan can counterpoise the In-dian bluster by empoweringAzad Kashmir on all fronts. Therevolutionary government ofAzad Kashmir will give a clarioncall for a vigorous campaign forthe freedom of Kashmir. Thefreedom zealots there know howto take on Indian imperialists inKashmir.

And the inhospitable moun-tainous terrain will facilitate thejob of the freedom votaries. Soapologia and defeatist approachis no answer to Indian chauvin-ism, fascism and hegemonic pro-trusion and obtrusion. Pakistan,on the diplomatic front, should

co-opt the entire Christendom fora meaningful interaction and de-bate aimed at seeking of harmo-nious relations with Christianworld. Muslims and Christiansthe two nations believing in the-ism, are already linked andcobbled together by the points ofcommonality. Both the nationslove Jesus Christ. The dialoguebetween two civilizations is amust and prioritized ideologicalrequirement to neutralize the ar-tificiality of the so-called clashof civilizations.

Anti-Islamic forces wouldwant to see the two major worldcommunities permanently pittedagainst each other. Zionists havealready created a psychologicalschism, scission, animosity, andantagonism between Muslimsand Christian. So a comprehen-sive Dawah can engage ourChristian brethren in a debate anddiscourse which will eventuallyand inevitably create congruencyand harmony of ideas and feel-ings. Muslim Ulema and intel-lectuals should therefore,knuckle down to the all-impor-tant task of Dawah campaign.This is what the holy Qur’an tooemphasizes.Pakistan, on the diplomatic front,should co-opt the entireChristendom for a meaningfulinteraction and debate aimed at

SHOPIAN (IHK)—Five separatist guerrillaswere killed Thursday in a gunfight which isgoing on between the militants and the gov-ernment forces in Kashmir’s Shopian district.

Police said forces surrounded a group ofheavily armed guerrillas in Keller forest areaof the district Thursday morning.

During the searches, militants present inthe forest fired upon the joint search team,triggering an encounter in which five mili-tants were killed.

“The militants fired at the forces, trigger-ing an encounter. Five militants have been

Five militants killedin Kashmir fight

killed,” a senior police officer said here.3 AK rifles, one SLR rifle and one pistol

has been recovered from the encounter siteso far. The search operation is still going on.

Four among the five slain militants arelocals, a top sources said.Police said forcessurrounded a group of heavily armed guerril-las in Keller forest area of the district Thurs-day morning. He identified the slain ultrasas Shakeel Ahmad from Pakherpora, Tahirfrom Agla, Toyub, a Pakistan-administeredKashmir resident, Parvaiz from Batamuranand Ishfaq Dagga from Arwani.—KD

SRINAGAR—While terming thestatement “No talks with GOIwithout Kashmir” of PakistanPrime Minister’s national secu-rity advisor Mr. Sartaj Aziz as en-couraging for the Kashmiri na-tion, Hurriyat Conference (G)appealed the Pakistan govern-ment to remain firm over theirpresent stand with regarding tothe Kashmir and don’t show ankind of flexibility in the stand.

Hurriyat (G) said that Paki-stan is paying a heavy prize forsupporting the right to self deter-mination of the Kashmiri peopleand India has direct involvementin the worsened internal situationof Pakistan and she is providingfinance and weapons to the ter-rorists of this country.In a statement issued to the press,Hurriyat spokesman said : “Thecommunal and the fascist forcesof India have first time got a strongbacking of the government andthey want to have an optimumgain from this and they want toeliminate the international statusof the Kashmir dispute on bothinternal and external levels. It isthe most crucial stage and the Pa-kistani leadership should deal thissituation with extra caution, cour-age and farsightedness.

He said that the policies of theIndian imperialism are the out-come of their sick mentality andthey not only want to implementtheir expansionist designs at anycost but they also want to go aheadby trampling down their compara-

Geelani hails Pak decisionnot to hold talks with India

tively weak neighboring coun-tries. Crushing down the nationswho show any kind of weaknessbefore them has although becomethe permanent external policy ofIndia but they did not stand be-fore the country who shows cour-age and boldness to them.”

The hurriyat statement readsthat the submissive and flexibleKashmir policies of the Pakistanin the past has proven to be verydamaging and it has become animportant factor for the delaycaused to the solution of this dis-pute but the stand which thepresent Pakistan governmentadopted after the retired generalMusharaf has been very encour-aging and at appropriate time andif they continued this policy thenin the changing world scenario,India can’t stand on its traditionalrigidness and stubbornness andit will then be beyond the limita-tions of India to overlook thefacts and realities regarding to theKashmir issue.

Jammu & Kashmir is a hu-man issue and not a bilateral dis-pute of the two countries. It isthe issue of 13 million people andit is impossible to suppress theirwishes and aspirations foreverand nor is it possible to ignoretheir precious sacrifices. Indiaclaim to be the big democracy inthe world and it is also desirousto become the permanent mem-ber of the UN Security Councilbut its policies regarding to theKashmir are outdated and unre-

alistic and in coming days, it willseverely affect its image.

Holding of referendum inScotland on the demand of itspeople in the beginning of the21st century has set a new trendin the world and the tradition ofgiving priority to the will andwishes of the people have gainedimportance. If India continued itsrigid and stubborn approach to-wards the Kashmir issue, then itwill have to face numerous un-answerable questions over itsdemocratic claims and its perma-nent membership in the UN Se-curity Council. Hurriyat stronglycondemned the direct involve-ment of India into the terrorist ac-tivities inside the Pakistan andsaid that they are supplyingweapons and finance to destabi-lize this country.

While appealing world com-munity to take serious notice ofthis situation, Hurriyat Confer-ence expressed their apprehen-sion that these blunders would in-crease the already instable anduncertain situation in the regionand it will finally place the livesof millions of people of the In-dia and Pakistan in danger.

The lingering Kashmir dis-pute is a big factor for the dis-harmony and instability in thisSouth Asian region and until thislong pending dispute is not re-solved according to the wishesand aspirations of its people, thepossibilities of a destructive warcan’t be rejected.—KW

seeking of harmonious relationswith Christian world. Muslimsand Christians the two nationsbelieving in theism, are alreadylinked and cobbled together bythe points of commonality. Boththe nations love Jesus Christ. Thedialogue between two civiliza-tions is a must and prioritizedideological requirement to neu-tralize the artificiality of the so-called clash of civilizations. Anti-Islamic forces would want to seethe two major world communi-ties permanently pitted againsteach other. Zionists have alreadycreated a psychological schism,scission, animosity, and antago-nism between Muslims andChristian. So a comprehensiveDawah can engage our Christianbrethren in a debate and dis-course which will eventually andinevitably create congruency andharmony of ideas and feelings.Muslim Ulema and intellectualsshould therefore, knuckle downto the all-important task ofDawah campaign. This is whatthe holy Qur’an too emphasizes.

The sectarianism andgroup particularism, the sub-versive metaphysical menace,has already lodged the Mus-lim Ummah in the quagmire,mesh and marsh of ideologi-cal polarization andbalkanization within.—KW

Investment bank-ing has, in recent

years, resembled acasino, and the

massive scale ofgambling losses

has dragged downtraditional busi-ness and retail

lending activitiesas banks try to

rebuild their bal-ance sheets. Thiswas one aspect ofmodern financialliberalisation thathad dire conse-

quences.

—Vince Cable

KARACHI: Broker talks on phone in front of digital screens during busy day at KarachiStock Exchange.

Aziz Memon, Chairman, Rotary’s Pakistan PolioPlusCommittee met with Mr. Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, at Foundation’s headquar-ters in Seattle, USA.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar with Japanese Deputy PrimeMinister & Finance Minister Taro Aso, prior to theirmeeting at Tokyo.

TOKYO—Finance Minister, SenatorMohammad Ishaq Dar called on Japa-nese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Asohere on Thursday where both the lead-ers discussed matters of mutual interest,including cooperation in the field ofeconomy, trade and investment andagreed to increase economic cooperationbetween the two countries. Finance Min-ister Dar reiterated government’s resolveto root out menace of extremism from thecountry and briefed Aso about suc-cesses in the operation against terror-ists.

Ishaq Dar highlighted the economicreforms undertaken by the governmentsince June 2013 and expressed his satis-faction over the performance of theeconomy saying that “it had taken the rightdirection”. He apprised Aso, who is alsoJapan’s Finance Minister, of the success-ful completion of five reviews by the IMFunder the Extended Fund Facility Programand expressed optimism of completion ofsixth review by February. He dilated uponsome of the challenges still facing theeconomy including shortfall in electricitygeneration, requirements of rehabilitationof TDPs and countering the militants.

He informed Aso that there was con-siderable interest in electricity generation usingcoal and LNG and apprised that investment in

Dar emphasizes Japanese investmentin infrastructure projects

energy sector in Pakistan afforded very good

returns in dollar terms. He further stated thatMitsubishi had expressed interest in energyprojects in Pakistan provided financing from Ja-pan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)was made available. He opined that all friendlycountries should participate in energy projectsin Pakistan.

Briefing Aso about some of the areas wherePakistan would welcome Japanese assistance,Finance Minister suggested that JICA may con-sider financing infrastructure projects, particu-larly in the transport sector. JICA, he opined,should also participate in phase II of energy sec-tor reform programme with possibly increasedfunding, while the Japanese government couldalso assist in the rehabilitation of TDPs.

He also suggested that JBIC should studyin-depth Pakistan’s improved economy, particu-larly in view of Mitsubishi’s interest in invest-ing in Pakistan’s energy sector. He also invitedAso to visit Pakistan, while also expressing thedesire for a possible visit to Pakistan by the Japa-nese Prime Minister. The Japanese Deputy PrimeMinister assured that Japan would continue itscooperation with Pakistan. He briefed the Fi-nance Minister about the steps taken by Japanover the past decade to counter the unique twinproblems of recession and deflation.

He opined that democracy led to political sta-bility which gave people confidence to make in-vestments since they were assured of consistencyin economic policies.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The CentralDirectorate of NationalSavings (CDNS) realisedRs.201 billion as savingsduring the f irst sevenmonths of this fiscal yearagainst the target ofRs.153bn.

The amount was Rs.98bln more than the collec-tion during the same pe-riod of last year, a seniorofficial of CDNS told APPon Thursday. He said theassets of CDNS have alsocrossed Rs2.6 trillion, 26per cent of the total na-tional savings.

He said the CDNA toinitiate the collaborationwith National Institute ofFinance and Technology(NIFT) to provide facilityto customers for clearanceof cross checks in NationalBank of Pakistan (NBP).Similarly, new rates for spe-cial saving certificates(SSC) would be 9.87pc,regular income certificates(RIC) 10.15pc, behboodcertificates/pensioners ac-counts (BSC) 12.72pc and

CDNS saves Rs.201bin seven months

defence saving certifi-cates (for 10 years) 11.08percent a year. “The per-formance of National Sav-ings has improved, par-ticularly during pastcouple of years as its in-vestments have recordedtremendous growth,” theofficial said.

The government, hesaid, has taken about 27percent of its non-infla-tionary loans from theCDNS to meet its develop-ment and budget expendi-tures.

The CDNS has alsointroduced different sav-ings schemes to generaterevenue through nationalsavings.

Answering a ques-tion, he said the projectof linking all the 371 Na-tional Savings Centresthrough online systemwould be completed inthree to four years. The PC-1 of the project had beenapproved by the govern-ment and work was inprogress, he added.—APP

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for IT, Anusha Rahman chairing 182nd Board of Direc-tors meeting of Telephone Industries of Pakistan.

Pak forex figure at$ 15.06002 bKARACHI—Total liquidforeign reserves of thecountry stand at $15.06002 billion, saidState Bank of Pakistan(SBP). According toSBP’s weekly statementhere on Thursday, theforeign reserves held byState Bank on January 9,amounted to $10.36501billion and the net foreignreserves held by otherbanks were dollars $4.69501 billion. Duringthe week ending Jan. 9,SBP’s liquid foreignreserves decreased by $111 million to $ 10.365billion compared to $10.476 billion in theprevious week.—APP

Port Qasimshipping activityKARACHI—Four shipsnamely C.V CMA CGMLamartine, C.V MaerskHardford, M.T FSLLondon and M.T Eupencarrying containers with18.750 tonnes Palm oiland 4,500 tonnes LPGwere allotted berths atQasim InternationalContainer Terminal,Liquid cargo Terminaland Engro VopakTerminal respectively onWednesday, 14thJanuary-2015. Meanwhileanother containers shipCMA CGM Florida alsoarrived at outer anchor-age of Port Qasim. BerthOccupancy was ob-served at the Port at fiftypercent on Wednesday,where seven shipsnamely, C.V CMA CGMLamartine, C.V Maerskhardford, C.V NorthernJaugar, M.V Hyderabad,M.V Sino-6, M.T Eupenwere occupied PQAberths to load/offloadContainers, Coal,Fertilizer, Palm oil andLPG respectively duringlast 24 hours.—APP

Profiteers finedKARACHI—The divi-sional and districtadministration Karachihas challaned 62 shop-keepers and fines of Rs.1,19,500/- were imposedwhile three shopkeeperswere arrested forcontinuos profiteeringand violating officiallyapproved price list.According to a statementissued here on Thursday,during crackdown, theadministration fined 22milk sellers, three veg-etables sellers, one meatvendor, 15 grocers, twofruits sellers and 19chicken sellers. Theaction against profiteerswere taken in the areasincluding Liaquat Abad,Gulberg, Nazimabad,North Nazimabad, NewKarachi, Murad MemonGoth, Model Colony,Shah Faisal, Saddar, AramBagh, Civil Line, Garden,Jamshed Quarters, GulzarHijri, Orangi Town, BaldiaTown and other areas.Commissioner KarachiShoaib Ahmed Siddiquihas said that the opera-tion against profiteers willcontinue till the sale ofessential items is notensured according toofficially approved pricelist.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Petroleum andNatural Resources Shahid Khaqan AbbasiThursday said prevailing petrol situationwould start improving within a couple ofdays, while its complete shortage would endby January 25. Talking to a news channel,he said the temporary shortage in some ar-eas of Punjab was due to a sudden increasein petroleum demand following substantialreduction in its price.

The minister informed that the petroldemand has increased upto 25 percent inlast two weeks in Punjab and the govern-ment was making efforts to arrange the ad-ditional fuel to meet the growing demand.

Petrol supply situation to startimproving in two days: Khaqan

He brushed aside the impression that theshortage was the result of any problem re-garding supply of petrol, adding that otherpetroleum products were available in abun-dance at fuel stations and “there is a littleshortage of petrol.”

Shahid Kahqan Abbasi urged the me-dia to play its responsible role while report-ing facts and figures about any event. Re-plying to a question about black marketingof petrol, he said the ministry as well asrespective local administrations would takestern action against those found involvedin creating artificial shortage to mint extramoney from consumers.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan is the 4th largest exhibitor inthe Heimtextil 2015 event with around 220 exhibi-tors out of which 48 exhibitors are participatingunder TDAP umbrella at Pakistan pavilion. Paki-stan Pavilion was jointly inaugurated by S.M.Muneer, Chief Executive, TDAP of Pakistan andSyed Hasan Javed, Ambassador of Pakistan toGermany.

Heimtextil is one of the most important ex-port industries of Pakistan and exhibitors fromFaisalabad, Karachi, Lahore and other importanttextile producing cities of Pakistan are partici-

48 Pakistani exhibitors participating in Heimtextil 2015 trade fairpating in the event. Heimtextil is one of thelargest international trade fair of world for homeand contract textiles and the global benchmarkfor quality design textiles of innovative func-tionality. As the first trade fair of the year, it is aplatform for manufacturers, retailers and design-ers.

This year around 2600 exhibitors from around60 countries are participating in the event and likeevery year more than 60,000 buyers from around130 countries are expected to place orders in theevent. Pakistan’s export to EU has increased byaround US$ 1 billion since the grant of GSP Plusstatus from 1st January 2014. Similarly, Pakistan’s

export to Germany has also been estimated to in-crease by around US$ 230 million in the periodJanuary to Oct. 2014 (i.e. 10months of the calendaryear 2014).

This year’s event carries all the more impor-tance when the European buyers are buildingupon their last year’s successful business part-nership with Pakistan especially when Pakistangotten back on the track to industrial progress.With the improvement in energy availabilityand less power cuts it is expected that throughevents like Heimtextil, Pakistan will emerge asone of the major player in the European textilemarkets.

In order to best market the products of Paki-stan in Heimtextil this year, the TDAP has takenseveral steps. The promotional stand at the en-trance of hall 10 by a renowned designer to mergetraditional art and modern textile design into anattractive display of Pakistani home and housetextiles to all visitors entering the hall. The Paki-stan Pavilion is constructed in recognizable mod-ern design and colours. The Pakistani exhibitorsat Heimtextil 2015 are displaying full and attractiverange of products in pleasing styles and vibrantcolours. There would be continuous flow of tradevisitors and the exhibitors will be able to meet witha good number of prospective buyers.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The US-based,world-renowned manufac-turer of a wide range ofskincare products has cometo Pakistan to fill the much-needed gap of tried andtested harmless quality prod-ucts. Confirming the con-tract Scott Egide, Interna-tional Sales Director,Andalou Naturals Said, “weare looking forward to work-ing with Maria Trading (MT)to offer Andalou Naturals,the number one selling natu-ral and organic skincare prod-ucts in the U.S., to the peopleof Pakistan.”

MT has entered in to acollaboration with US-based,world renowned manufactur-ers of a wide range ofskincare products; ‘AndalouNaturals’ for marketing theworld’s best certified or-ganic, bio-active, non geneti-cally modified organism, andfully vegetarian and veganbased products for the firsttime in Pakistan. Speakingabout the motto of the firmScott Egide said “We believethat the users of every prod-uct have a right to knowabout the ingredients ca-ressing their skin that’s whyall our formulas are indepen-dently verified, utilizing onlynon-GMO, certified organic,and fair trade ingredients ateffective levels for optimumresults”

Andalou Naturals are for-

US global brands come to Pakistanmulated with award winningPhytoCellTec Malus Domes-tic fruit stem cells, cultivatedfrom the Swiss UttwilerSpatlauber apple and valuedfor its unique longevity.These are made thoughtfullyand beautifully, infusing thebest of nature and knowledgeinto mindful and effectiveproducts that are simply goodfor you. Andalou Naturals in-troduces 1000 Roses with Al-pine Rose Stem Cells to sup-port skin’s vitality, resilience,

and a youthful glow. Becausesensitive skin requires kinder,gentler care, our daily skincare is formulated to calm andcomfort with each ingredientchosen to be gentle, effec-tive, and protective. Derma-tologist Tested. It’s onlynatural to want healthy, moreyouthful skin and with FruitStem Cell Science, it’s pos-sible. Resveratrol andCoQ10 are powerful antioxi-dants and the energysource for every living cell.

PVMA toreview freight

chargesSTAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nVanaspati ManufacturersAssociation (PVMA) hasconvened its General BodyMeeting on Jan 21 here toreview the situation offreight rates on transporta-tion of edible oil.

A statement issued hereThursday said that themeeting will review freightrates from terminals locatedat Port Muhammad BinQasim and Port Kemari tolocal and upcountry majordestinations such asMultan, Lahore,Rawalpindi, Haripur andPeshawar.

It said that All PakistanOil Tankers Owners Asso-ciation (APOTOA) has re-fused to revise the ratesand discontinued lifting ofedible oil, paving a condi-tion of short supply of gheeand cooking oil. On Janu-ary 1, 2015 in wake of down-ward trend in internationalpetroleum prices the priceof HSD in country also fellfrom Rs. 94.09 per liter byRs. 7.86 to Rs. 86.23 per li-ter, it added.

But All Pakistan OilTankers Owners Associa-tion (edible oil) refused torevise the rates and dis-continued lifting of edibleoil paving a conditions ofshort supply of ghee andcooking, it added. Thestatement said that for-mula of Rs.1 : 0.75 percentis agreed between PVMAand APOTOA which trans-lates that with an increaseor decrease of Rs. 1 per li-ter in HSD prices thefreight rates will be revisedupward or downward by0.75 percent, since thecomponent of diesel costin transportation rates var-ies from 55 percent to 75percent at an average.

Resultantly on January1 as per settled formula therates were to be decreasedby 5.90 percent, howeveronly 0.90 percent relief wasgiven by APOTOA in viola-tion of agreement, sinceunion is holding monopolyon transport of edible oil, itadded.

ISLAMABAD—The services trade deficit ofthe country during first five months of fis-cal year 2014-15 deceased by 23.84 percentwith exports increased by 18.6 percent andimports by 1.85 percent. According to thedata of Pakistan Bureau of Statistic (PBS),the overall services exports were recordedat US $2.376 billion during July-November2014-15 against $ 2.003 billion during sameperiod of last year.

Similarly, the imports of services in-creased from $3.31 billion in July-Novem-ber 2013-14 to $3.371 billion during the cor-responding period this year. Thus the overalltrade deficit during the period under review

Services trade deficitdown by 23.84pc

was recorded at $995.5 million against 1.307million last year. On month on month basis,the services trade deficit surged by 27.97percent going up from $215.27 million inOctober 2014 to $275.49 million in Novem-ber. The exports, however, decreased by20.12 percent in November to $296.2 millionagainst $370.81 million during October 2014.

Similarly, the imports of services also wit-nessed decrease of 2.46 percent by goingdown from $586.08 million in October to$571.69 million in November 2014. On year onyear basis, the services trade deficit also de-creased by 23.35 percent in November 2014as compared to that of November 2013.—APP

PakistanCoating

Show to startfrom Jan 22OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Bin RasheedGroup is all set to host thefirst ever Coating Show inPakistan. In connectionwith the ongoing efforts fora successful Pakistan coat-ing show (PCS), BinRasheed Group is going toorganize a very creative andessential set of activities;that is CONFERENCES &SEMINARS on technical &commercial topics duringPCS-2015. The three-dayTechnical Seminar & Con-ference will begin from22nd January, in Lahore, toshowcase the opportuni-ties and milestones for thecoating Industry. National& International TechnicalExperts, Industrialists andProfessors from leadinguniversities will share theirexpertise and introduce lat-est tools & innovations forcoatings in the country.

Moazzam Rasheed,CEO of the Bin RasheedGroup sataed that, “This isfor the first time that Paki-stan is going through thisnovel experience and BinRasheed Group holds thehonor of organizing thisMega event. The confer-ence will cover key catego-ries of the coating indus-try, including; Nano Tech-nologies for surface coat-ings, Mechanical & Tech-nical Characterization ofPaints & Coatings, ben-efits of fire retardantpaints, Industrial Coatings& Construction Chemicalsand many others.”

CIMA revampsaccreditation

schemeKARACHI—This monthCIMA, the Chartered In-stitute of ManagementAccountants, is relaunch-ing Global Learning, itsaccreditation scheme fortuition providers. The re-vised CIMA Global Learn-ing scheme now featuresthree accreditation levels:CIMA Global LearningPartner, CIMA GlobalLearning Advanced Part-ner and CIMA GlobalLearning Premium Partner.

The CIMA GlobalLearning Partner designa-tion is intended for newproviders and those whoare looking to begin teach-ing CIMA. Existing pro-viders who offer goodstandards of tuition will beable to apply for the CIMAGlobal Learning AdvancedPartner designation whilethose providers who dem-onstrate on-going bestpractice and leading exampass rates will be able toapply for the CIMA GlobalLearning Premium Partnerdesignation.

Peter Stewart, Directorof Learning at CIMA, said:“By launching a new glo-bal set of standards andaccreditations, CIMA ishelping students to makeinformed decisions abouttheir choice of tuition pro-vider while also support-ing our learning partnersin attracting students anddelivering the best stan-dards of education. Therevised CIMA GlobalLearning Scheme allowsus to collaborate withcourse and training pro-viders.—PR

Currency Selling Buying

Daily opening& closing ratesPMEX Index 2,608Total Volume (Lots): 15,530Traded Value (Rs): 3,017,479,630

Commodity -------------------- Price Quotation -------------------- Open ----------- CloseCRUDE OIL ------------------- $ Per Barrel --------------------------- 46.74 ------------ 48.13SILVER ------------------------- $ Per Ounce -------------------------- 17.018 ---------- 16.882GOLD --------------------------- $ Per Ounce -------------------------- 1,230.8 --------- 1,230.1GOLD --------------------------- Rs Per 10 gms ----------------------- 40,105 ---------- 39,948MTOLAGOLD --------------- Rs Per Tola --------------------------- 48,056 ---------- 48,191GOLD --------------------------- Rs Per Tola --------------------------- 48,056 ---------- 48,191RICEIRRI6 --------------------- Rs Per 100 kg ------------------------ 3,202 ------------ 3,201PALMOLEIN ----------------- Rs Per Maund ----------------------- 3,712 ------------ 3,716SUGAR ------------------------- Rs Per kg ----------------------------- 45.19 ------------ 45.18ICOTTON --------------------- US Cents per pound --------------- 60.14 ------------ 59.01WHEAT ------------------------ Rs Per 100 kg ------------------------ 3,407 ------------ 3,406

The total value traded was PKR 3.017 billion as compared to PKR 2.402 billionreported on last business day, an increase of 26 percent. Number of lots traded were15,530. PMEX Commodity Index increased by 0.04 percent and closed at 2,608.Major business was contributed by crude oil amounting to PKR 1.781 billion, a 9percent increase when compared to the previous trading day. This was followed bygold (PKR 1.167 billion) and silver (PKR 69 million).

USA 100.40 100.20

UK 152.97 152.66

Euro 118.30 118.07

Canada 83.90 83.74

Switzerland 98.50 98.31

Australia 82.21 82.05

Sweden 12.44 12.42

Japan 0.8535 0.8518

Norway 13.16 13.14

Singapore 75.28 75.13

Denmark 15.90 15.87

Saudi Arabia 26.75 26.70

Hong Kong 12.95 12.92

Kuwait 341.38 340.70

Malaysia 28.11 28.05

Newzealand 77.51 77.35

Qatar 27.58 27.52

UAE 27.33 27.28

Kr Won 0.0928 0.0926

Thailand 3.066 3.060

ISLAMABAD: Team IoBM, winners of Unilever Talent Hunt 2014, with Shafaq Omar,Director HR Unilver Pakistan and Ali Tariq, CFO Unilever Pakistan.

SIALKOT: President Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Fazal Jilani pre-senting SCCI ‘25 Essence of Enterprise’ to Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, HiroshiInomata during his visit.

Hasan Jalil, CEO Pak-American Trade Expo, Rahid Ahmed Siddiqui, President KATIand Chairman Afeef Group, Aaron Carlton, US Economic Counselor, Kokab Iqbal andothers after press breifing about Trade Expo.

KARACHI—Karachi Port has wit-nessed 4.75 per cent increase in cargohandling during first half of the finan-cial year 2014-15, against the corre-sponding period of 2013- 14, saidKarachi Port Trust statement here onThursday. Current financial year’shandling of dry cargo has increasedby 4.79% with handling 14.982 milliontonnes whereas it remained at 14.297million tonnes during July- Decemberof last financial year.

Similar performance is shown bythe liquid bulk cargo, which has alsoregistered a growth of 4.66 % by han-dling of 6.670 million tonnes whereasit remained at 6.373 million tonnesduring the corresponding period lastyear. The overall impact was suchthat total cargo handled by KPT has

Unilever talenthunt showcasesfuture business

leadersOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The grand fi-nale of the Unilever TalentHunt (UTH) concluded at alocal hotel, with studentsfrom IoBM winning thechance to represent Paki-stan at Unilever’s FutureLeader’s League in London.The Unilever Talent Hunt(UTH) is a business compe-tition aimed at building astronger employer brandamongst the best universi-ties of Pakistan, providingstudents the opportunity toshowcase their academicand strategic acumen. In2014, Unilever built the com-petition on the platform ofthe Unilever SustainableLiving Plan (USLP) to cre-ate awareness and also pro-vide students with a chanceto contribute to the USLP.This year’s competition fo-cused on the sustainabilityagenda of six brands, in-cluding Lifebuoy, Dove,Pureit, Walls, Blue Band andSurf Excel. These brands areleveraging Unilever’s globallearnings to inspire peopleto take small, everyday ac-tions to create a brighter fu-ture for us all.

UTH 2014 targeted 11 uni-versities across Pakistanthrough campus activations,reaching a total of 1,100 stu-dents from a diverse back-ground including business,fashion and engineering. As aresult, a total of 300 registra-tions (50 per brand) were re-ceived, which is three timesthe registrations from 2013.Following the short-listing, atotal of 13 teams werementored by Unilever over thecourse of 4 weeks and pro-vided funding to test theirideas on-ground, with just 6teams moving onwards to thefinale. Ehsan Malik, Chair-man and CEO, Unilever Pa-kistan Limited, highlighted“Unilever’s commitment toPakistan also extends to itspeople, which is why wecontinue to strive to makeUnilever Pakistan Limited agreat place to work. Unileverhas been independentlyrated as the No. 1 ‘Employerof Choice’ in Pakistan for the7th consecutive year in2014, in the process furtherincreasing our lead on therunner-up.

Ufone, Faysal Bankoffer iPhone 6

installment planKARACHI—Ufone, knownfor its innovation, togetherwith Faysal Bank Limited(FBL), one of the leadingbanks in Pakistan, haslaunched the industry’s firstiPhone-based installmentplan of the year, whereby cus-tomers could own an iPhone6 along with telecom goodiesfor as low as Rs. 5,000/ monthinclusive of all taxes, that toowithout any upfront cost.

Customers would alsobe able to avail 1000 on netminutes, 150 off net minutes,1000 SMS and 3GB data, allinclusive in the monthly in-stallment plan. Customerscould choose between 18months and 24 months pay-ment plans for any iPhone 6or iPhone 6 Plus. Regardingthis exciting new launch, Mr.Khurram Mahboob, Head ofHVC at Ufone said, “This in-novative endeavor wouldensure that these latest,classy, and most sought af-ter Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plusare within easy reach of ouresteemed customers.”—PR

Cargo handling activity at KarachiPort increases by 4.75pc

recorded a growth of 4.75% by han-dling of 21.652 million tonnes in thisfinancial year at the end of December2014 and the last year’s comparativefigure was 20.670 million tonnes.Container handling has also gainedmomentum at Karachi Port as the cu-mulative handling of the total con-tainers at the end of December 2014was 0.833 million TEUs. It closed at0.786 million TEUs last year ; regis-tered a growth of 6.05%.

The import and export break-upshows that the port handled 0.429 mil-lion TEUs of container import and0.404 million TEUs of container exportthis financial year at the end of De-cember 2014. Whereas, these remainedat 0.405 million TEUs and 0.381 millionTEUs respectively during the last

year’s corresponding period. The shiphandling at KPT has also shown goodperformance overall. The containership handling this year at the end offirst six months of financial year 2014-15 closed at 385 container ships, 106bulk cargo ships, 114 general cargoships and 237 oil tankers.

During the corresponding periodof last year these were 418 containerships, 99 bulk cargo ships, 107 gen-eral cargo ships and 204 oil tankers.Although handling of less containervessels has taken place but KPThandled more container freight thisyear in comparison from the corre-sponding period of last year and itshows that large/bigger sized con-tainer ships are calling Karachi Portwith more cargo on-board.—APP

KARACHI: Khurram Mahboob, Head of HVC Ufone with Ahmed Hemani, Head ofProducts and Marketing, Faysal Bank Limited, at the launching ceremony of Iphone-based installment plan.

SIALKOT—Japanese Ambassador to Paki-stan Hiroshi Inomata has said Japan andPakistan are enjoying close and cordial re-lations since the establishment of diplomaticrelations in 1952. The friendly relations be-tween the two countries in modern historybegan with cooperation in mainly economicand business arena, he said while address-ing members of the Sialkot Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (SCCI) on Thursday.

He said several flagship developmentswere being carried out with the assistanceof Japan, which were indicating strong rela-tionship between the two friendly countries.The ambassador said: “We will consider visarestriction and after consultation with high-ups a flexible visa policy will be initiated to

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pak-American Trade Expo to beheld at National Convention Center Wash-ington DC, with slogan ‘Trade, not Aid’would further augment the trade relationsof Pakistan and United States of America,said Hassan Jalil, CEO Vision Media GroupLLC here. Addressing a press briefing at alocal hotel, he said the five-day Pak-Ameri-can Trade Expo would be held from May23-27, 2015, in which more than 200 Paki-stani traders and industrialists would par-ticipate. The event would particularly boostPakistani culture, natural beauty and trade.It would comprise food court, live megaconcert, and fashion show. He said theevent is aimed at to further promote Pak-USA trade ties.

Noted industrialist Mian Zahid Hussainsaid there is dire need to improve the softimage of Pakistan. It requires constant ef-forts to open the lucrative US market forthe Pakistani products. He said due to ter-

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The Lahore Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (LCCI) has urged theFBR to stop attaching business accounts inthe larger interest of the economy as it shouldbe the last option and not the priority. TheLCCI President Ijaz A. Mumtaz called uponthe Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar toimmediately stop the FBR from this practicethat is pushing the taxpayers to the wall be-sides denting the reputation of a business-friendly government. He said that attach-ment of the bank accounts should be thelast option but the RTOs/LTUs are wastingno time in taking punitive action to meet therevenue targets. He said that the FederalBoard of Revenue was constituted to facili-tate the businessmen but it is presently do-ing the other way round through. The LCCI

Pak-America Expo toaugment mutual trade ties

rorism and under-invoicing the image ofPakistan is hurt at global level and effortsare needed to salvage and improve it. AijazRai that Sialkot has got a basic status inpromoting Pakistani exports. He said itneeds introducing modern technology toboost exports. He gave the example of Ger-many, which is a huge manufacture ofgoods due to its superior technology.

Abdul Haseeb Khan said with boost-ing trade ties and general relations betweenPakistan and United States of Americacould be further enhanced, he said theseboth friendly countries should be madeeven closer with better trade ties. RashidSiddiqui said the success of the proposedevent would improve Pakistan economyand Pakistani goods would get their properplace in the US market. Ahmed Shah saidthe Pakistani cotton, leather and marblehave immense demand in the global marketand these sectors need a serious attention.He said the proposed expo would increasethe demand of Pakistani goods.

Envoy vows to strengthenPak-Japan trade relations

facilitate the business community of Paki-stan.” The Pakistan-Japan Cultural Associa-tion (PJCA) was playing an instrumental rolein promoting bilateral relations between Pa-kistan and Japan and the PJCA had con-ducted many Japanese cultural activities incooperation with the embassy and consu-late general of Japan, he said.

The ambassador vows to furtherstrengthen trade ties between two coun-tries aimed at increasing two-way tradevolume. In his address, President SCCI FazalJilani emphasized the need of broadening ascope of mutual cooperation by extendingit to the areas of trade, investment, energyand infrastructure development, includingall other sectors of investment.—APP

LCCI urged FBR to stopattaching business accounts

President said that the FBR should focus oncontrolling under-invoicing and curbing themenace of smuggling besides expanding taxnet but it is playing arm-twisting by institut-ing cases for recovery of outstanding duesand attaching bank accounts.

Ijaz A. Mumtaz said that it is unfortu-nate that the FBR is not releasing what itowes to the business community but creat-ing troubles for the businessmen for therecovery of its outstanding dues just tomeet the revenue targets and for the sakeof show of performance. According toFBR’s own documents, the total amount ofrefund in the year 2013-14 has reached thestaggering amount of Rs.104 billion whichis 16.4% higher than the previous year fig-ure of Rs.93.6 billion. He said that as manyas 36000 refund cases are pending with theFederal Board of Revenue.

DIBPL inaugurates new branchSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Dubai IslamicBank Pakistan Limited(DIBPL) inaugurated itsNorth Nazimabad Block LBranch in Karachi recently.

The DIBPL branch was in-augurated by the Head ofConsumer Banking Mr.Khawaja Asif. The Head ofDistribution Mr. Naveed

Malik and other senior man-agement of the Bank werealso present at the occasion.The inaugural ceremonywas also attended by exist-ing and potential customersof the Bank.

Khawaja Asif said thathe is very pleased to inau-gurate the branch and con-firmed the Dubai IslamicBank’s commitment to the

long term promotion of Is-lamic Banking across Paki-stan. Mr. Naveed Malik saidthat Dubai IslamicBankbeing the pioneer Is-lamic Banking institutionglobally iscommitted to thelong term prosperity of Pa-kistan and Islamic Bankingas a whole.

Naveed Malik said thatDIBPL is a subsidiary ofDubai Islamic Bank UAE,the world’s first IslamicBank. Alhamdulillah,DIBPLisa Minimum CapitalRequirement (MCR) compli-ant Bankthat enjoys a short-term credit rating of ‘A-1’and long-term credit ratingof ‘A+’, with a “stable” out-look from JCR-VIS. He fur-ther stated that DIB UAEGroup is one of the largestIslamic Bank in the worldTotal Asset base of approxi-mately PKR 3.5 Trillion (USDollars 35 Billion) at Septem-ber 30, 2014.

PESHAWAR: A hockey match being played between Peshawar and Kohat during Inter-Regional Women’s HockeyChampionship

PESHAWAR: A view of volleyball match played between the teams of Peshawar andSwabi at Qayyum Stadium.

Dhoni keepssilence onshock Testretirement

MELBOURNE—MahendraSingh Dhoni would notelaborate Thursday abouthis sudden retirement fromTest cricket, ahead of lead-ing India in the one-day in-ternational tri-series againstAustralia and England.

The 33-year-oldstunned the cricket world—and a completely unawareIndia team—when he an-nounced his immediate Testretirement after the drawnthird Test against Australiain Melbourne late lastmonth.

He had not mentioned itduring his post-Test mediaconference only for Indianauthorities to drop thebombshell via social mediashortly afterwards.

India’s World Cup-win-ning captain again had noth-ing to say in the subject ashe launched the Indian one-day team’s new uniform onThursday ahead of their firsttri-series game against Aus-tralia in Melbourne on Sun-day.

Dhoni, who remainsIndia’s ODI and T20 captain,stood next to new Test skip-per Virat Kohli and six other-teammates on stage withthe closest he came to ad-dressing the issue when hewas asked about his time offsince that Test.

“It has been good, a fewdays off,” he said.

And that was it. Therewere a few prepared com-ments about the uniform,but no questions were al-lowed from the assembledjournalists.

The microphone washanded to Kohli, one of thefew Indian players to en-hance his reputation duringthe 2-0 Test series loss toAustralia.

“It’s been a very event-ful month and a half sincewe came to Adelaide,” Kohlisaid.

“All the boys have re-ally enjoyed the challengewe got from the Australianteam and the public aswell.”—AFP

SYDNEY—Juan Martin del Potro’s winningcomeback after 10 months out through injurywas ended by qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin atthe Sydney International on Thursday.

The Argentine defending champion, whospent much of last year recovering from wristsurgery, was knocked out in two tiebreakersets by the Kazakhstan qualifier, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6(7/3) in just under two hours.

Del Potro, who beat Sergiy Stakhovskyand top seed Fabio Fognini to reach the quar-ter-finals after he was awarded a wildcard intothe tournament, fought to the end, but foundKukushkin too strong on the day.

Kukushkin will now play another Argen-tine fifth seed Leonardo Mayer, who got pastFrench fourth seed Julien Benneteau, 6-3, 7-6(7/4) in Friday’s semi-finals.

Luxembourg’s big-serving Gilles Mullerwill play Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in the othersemi-final.

Muller needed five match points in an epic28-point tiebreaker before prevailing overAustralia’s Bernard Tomic, 7-6 (7/3) 7-6 (15/13) on Ken Rosewall Arena.

It was the fourth time in as many meet-ings that Muller has beaten Tomic.

Troicki had a hard-fought 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 winover Italy’s Simone Bolelli in a match thatlasted over two hours.

The world No.92 saved a match point inthe deciding set then converted one of fourbreak points to seize momentum of the match

DURBAN (South Africa)—South Africa andthe West Indies square up in five one-dayinternationals, starting at Kingsmead onFriday, in their final competitive matchesbefore the World Cup starts in Australiaand New Zealand next month.

South Africa will be fielding their WorldCup squad, with the exception of injuredwicketkeeper Quinton de Kock, who hasbeen replaced for the series by veteranMorne van Wyk.

The West Indies announced their one-day squad for South Africa late last yearand the World Cup squad, announced lastweek, shows three changes.

Darren Bravo, Sunil Narine and KemarRoach will be playing in the World Cup butare not in South Africa. Three players namedfor the South African series, CarlosBrathwaite, Narsingh Deonarine and LeonJohnson, will not be going to the WorldCup.

AB de Villiers had a rocky start as SouthAfrican one-day captain after being ap-pointed in 2011 but the side showed majorimprovement last year, briefly rising to topplace in the International Cricket Councilrankings before suffering a 4-1 defeat in aseries in Australia late last year.

Missing from the Australian series wasJP Duminy, a reliable batsman and off-spinbowler, and South Africa’s lack of a qualityall-rounder was exposed, with their lowerorder batsmen struggling to maintain anacceptable scoring rate in the closing overs.

Duminy made his return to action after

HAMILTON: Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan celebrates his century during the 2nd ODI between New Zealand andSri Lanka at Seddon Park on Thursday.

HAMILTON—Tillikaratane Dilshan easedto his 19th one-day international centuryto anchor his side to a six-wicket victoryover New Zealand in the second game oftheir seven-match series at Seddon Parkin Hamilton on Thursday.

Dilshan scored 116 from 127 balls in

Sri Lanka beat New Zealandby six wickets in 2nd ODI

SCOREBOARDNew Zealand Innings:Guptill b Kulasekara .. 10McCullum c&b Mendis117Latham b Herath ........... 5Taylor c Pererab Herath ....................... 34Vettori run out ............... 7Anderson run out ......... 5Ronchi run out .............. 0McCullum run out ....... 13Milne st Sangakkara bSenanyake .................... 19Henry not out .............. 20Boult b Senanyake ...... 13Extras: (w5) ..................... 5Total: (all out, 50 overs)248Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-73,3-158, 4-171, 5-183, 6-183,7-185, 8-207, 9-222, 10-248Bowling: ......... O-M-R-WKulasekara ......... 8-0-40-1Perera .................. 4-0-41-0Senanayake ...... 10-0-55-2

Herath ............... 10-0-36-2Mendis ............. 10-0-47-1Dilshan ............... 7-0-27-0Mathews .............. 1-0-2-0Sri Lanka Innings:Karunaratne lbwN.McCullum ................. 21Dilshan b Henry ........ 116Sangakkara b Milne .... 38Jayawardene b Henry . 27Mathews not out ........ 39Thirimanne not out ....... 2Extras: (w4 lb5) .............. 9Total: (4 wickets) ....... 252Fall of wkts: 1-64, 2-116, 3-163, 4-237Bowling: ......... O-M-R-WBoult ................. 10-1-52-0Henry ............... 9.4-0-34-2Milne ................... 8-0-61-1McCullum ........... 6-0-40-1Vettori ............... 10-1-40-1Anderson ........... 4-0-20-0

Sri Lanka’s 252-4 as the visitors levelledthe series at 1-1 after New Zealand wonthe first game at Hagley Oval inChristchurch on Sunday.

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathewswas 39 not out with Lahiru Thirimanneon two as the visitors chased down New

Zealand’s 248 allout in 47.4 overs.

“Pretty pleasedwith that perfor-mance,” Mathewssaid. “They got offa brilliant start withB r e n d o nMcCullum’s bat-ting but our spin-ners really pulledthem back by tak-ing wickets.

“[Dilshan] gotoff to a start andonce he got set hebatted through,which is what wewant from our firstfour batters.

“On the fieldwe were brilliant,taking four runsouts, so it was aclinical perfor-mance by the wholeteam.”

Dilshan was the key for the visitors,combining with fellow opener DimuthKarunaratne (21) in a 64-run openingstand before enjoying solid partnershipswith Kumar Sangakkara (38), MahelaJayawardene (27) and Mathews that keptthe scoreboard ticking over at almost arun a ball. “It was a really good surface tobat on, with the ball coming on to thebat,” said Dilshan, who also providedseven tidy overs with his offspin.

“I’ve really been enjoying bowling inthe last six months. It was not easy tobowl on this wicket, it’s really flat and notmuch turn, but if you put it in the rightareas batsmen will take chances.”

New Zealand captain McCullum hadearlier blasted 12 boundaries and fivesixes to score 117, his fifth one-day inter-national century for his side, the onlyother bright spot in an otherwise poorperformance from the hosts.

McCullum took the hosts to 158-2 inthe 31st over, then New Zealand lost fivewickets, four of them to run outs, for 49runs and the captain said that had beencrucial. “Four run outs is not goodenough,” McCullum said.

“We probably let a little bit of panicset in ... and we have to learn the lessonfrom it because we were in a pretty goodposition and threatening a 300-plus score.

“Credit to Sri Lanka, they deservedto win.”—AFP

a knee injury in the final Twenty20 interna-tional against the West Indies on Wednes-day and will give the side a better balance.

Outclassed in a Test series, the WestIndies dominated the first two Twenty20internationals before losing the third with aweakened team. They are likely to be com-petitive against South Africa, although thehosts will start favourites with star playersDe Villiers, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn andMorne Morkel back in action after missingthe Twenty20 games.

Like South Africa, the West Indies se-lected a different captain for each formaton the tour. All-rounder Jason Holder willlead the one-day side and will also be incharge for the World Cup.Squads:

South Africa: AB de Villiers (captain),Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, FarhaanBehardien, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, ImranTahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, WayneParnell, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander,Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn, Morne vanWyk (wkt)

West Indies: Jason Holder (captain),Suleiman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite,Jonathan Carter, Sheldon Cottrell, NarsinghDeonarine, Chris Gayle, Leon Johnson,Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, DarrenSammy, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons,Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor

Fixtures:Jan 16, Durban; Jan 18, Johannesburg; Jan21, East London; Jan 25, Port Elizabeth; Jan28, Centurion.—AFP

South Africa, West Indies seekWorld Cup form

and close out the victory.Only a handful of tiebreak points sepa-

rated the Kukushkin and del Potro with nei-ther player’s serve broken during the match.

Del Potro, the 2009 US Open winner, ranout of steam against the world No.66, whomade it six straight wins in the tournamentafter three victories in qualifying.

“It was a tough match,” he said.“I think he deserve to win because he

played better than me in the tiebreak.“The match was close. I served well, but

my wrist hurts a little bit more than yesterday,and I couldn’t hit harder than my last match.”

Del Potro was satisfied with his week’swork and some important match practiceahead of next week’s Australian Open inMelbourne. “It’s a great week for me. I didmore than what I expected before,” the formerUS Open champion said.

“I played three matches in a row and Iplayed against good players in this tourna-ment, which means a good comeback for me.

“I’m happy just to be playing tennis againagainst these players. It will be more interest-ing for me and I will be improving faster thantraining at home with my coach.”

It was a significant win for Kukushkin,who looms as a potential roadblock for aseeded player at the Australian Open.

Kukushkin said he could see that delPotro was below his full power and struggledon his backhand.—AFP

Kukushin ends del Potrowinning comeback in Sydney

Shahnazwants to openan academy in

RawalpindiIS L A M A B A D —OlympianShahnaz Sheikh wants toopen an academy in his Sta-dium at the Muslim SchoolGround, Saidpur Road,Rawalpindi saying the stadiumwill be on the go to host inter-national tournaments in Junethis year.

Talking to APP, Shahnazsaid an astro-turf and a pavil-ion-building will be con-structed there making the sta-dium all set for the game lov-ers in June. “This stadiumwould help in reviving the na-tional game of hockey amongthe youth,” he said.

Shahnaz, who is also thenational team coach, said thePunjab Government has re-leased a total of Rupees thirtymillion grant for the laying ofastro-truf and for the construc-tion of the building. “I had ameeting with the Director Gen-eral Punjab Sports Board whoassured me that the stadiumwill be ready to host matchesin June,” he said adding a to-tal of Rupees 75 million will bereleased for the said project.

Shahnaz said things to bedone includes the laying ofastro-turf, construction of 5000sitting capacity pavilion,building for players, changingrooms, washrooms and othernecessities for the project.“Hopefully the Chief Ministerof Punjab would be the chiefguest at the inauguration cer-emony of the stadium,” hesaid. Shahnaz said whilethanking the Punjab govern-ment and former MNA HanifAbbasi said it is all their ef-forts through which the cityof Rawalpindi has got aHockey Stadium. “Once theproposed stadium gets com-plete, I believe a lot of hockeylovers would come here toplay,” he said.—APP

Ronaldo namedPortugal‘s player

of the centuryISLAMABAD—Triple Ballond‘Or winner CristianoRonaldo was hailed asPortugal‘s player of the cen-tury at a gala to celebrate the100th anniversary of theirfootball federation.

Chelsea coach JoseMourinho picked up theaward as Portuguese coachof the century at a red carpetevent at the Estoril casino10km outside Lisbon,FIFA.Com reorted Thursday.

The Real Madrid star,who scored 60 goals in 61games in 2014, came out of avote ahead of Eusebioknown as the Black Pearl inthe 1960‘s, and Luis Figowho won the Ballon d‘Or in2000.

Ronaldo himselfclinched a third Ballon d‘Oron Monday, having previ-ously won the ultimate indi-vidual award in football in2008 and 2013.

The 29-year-old, who ledReal Madrid to the Champi-ons League title last seasonwith 17 goals in 11 games, wasabsent from the gala prepar-ing for Real‘s clash with cross-town rivals Atletico.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s experiencedmiddle-order batsman Younis Khan has no

plans to quitl i m i t e d -overs cricketafter theWorld Cupand saidT h u r s d a ythat as longas he staysfit he willcontinue tobe availableto play botho n e - d a yinternationalsand testmatches.

The 37-y e a r - o l d

Khan is one of Pakistan’s fittest playersand forced his way back into the WorldCup squad after his scintillating battingform in the test series against Australia andNew Zealand late last year. He made threecenturies in four innings against Australiaand another against New Zealand to makethe selectors rethink his exclusion from thelimited-overs team.

Who says this is my lastWorld Cup, asks Younis

“How come you know that it’s my lastWorld Cup?” asked Khan when queriedabout whether this will be his last majorODI tournament.

“Whenever I feel my body is not allow-ing me to play, only then I will retire.”

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq andflamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi havealready announced plans to retire fromODIs after the tournament in Australia andNew Zealand ends in March.

“It’s an honor for me to share the dress-ing room with such good players,” Khansaid on the retirement of his teammates.

“The way they both have served thenation, it’s amazing. We should appreciateand respect their decision.”

Khan has scored 7,177 runs in 259 ODIswith seven centuries and 48 half centuriesat an average of 31.75.

However, his ODI batting stats aren’tencouraging in either Australia or NewZealand where he has scored only 262 runsin 15 ODIs.

“I had not scored a Test century againstAustralia before the series against them inthe United Arab Emirates, but I scored twocenturies and also a double century,” hesaid. “I hope I will carry the same form inthe World Cup.”—APP

PESHAWAR—Institute of Computer andManagement Sciences (ICMS) Clubclinched the trophy after defeating ShamaClub by 16 runs in the final of the 2nd BashirBilour Shaheed Inter-Club Cricket Tourna-ment played here at Arbab Niaz Cricket Sta-dium on Thursday.

Shama club skipper Hamad-ul-Hasanwon the toss and invited ICMS club to batfirst. ICMS batting first scored 244 runs forthe loss of three wickets after playing theallotted 35 overs.

Opener Rifat Ullah Mohmand smashedan elegant knock of 98 runs including eightboundaries and three sixes, Zohaib Khanmade another cracking knock of 69 runs in-cluding seven boundaries and two sixes andAftab Khan scored 41 runs with five bound-

ICMS clinches 2nd Bashir BilourShaheed Inter-Club Cricket trophy

aries and a six.For Shama club skipper Hamad-ul-

Hassan, Aslam Qurashi and Iftikhargrabbed one wicket each.

In reply to 244 runs target, Shama clubwere bowled out for 228 runs after play-ing 30.2 overs with Zar Muhammadplayed a classic knock of 62 runs lacedwith eight boundaries and a six, Adil Aminscored 36 runs with two boundaries,Kashif Hayat scored 28 runs, ShoaibKhan made 28 runs and Hamad Ul Hassanscored 26 runs.

For ICMS Muhammad Fayyaz claimedthree wickets, Aziz Ullah got two wicketsand Rifat Ullah Mohmand and Zohaib gotone wicket each. Thus ICMS won the matchby 16 runs.—APP

Bipin DaniOBSERVER CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Mike Horn, the guest motiva-tor speaker has been approached to pre-pare the South African team during theWorld Cup, it is learnt here. The offer hasbeen made by Gary Kirsten, the consult-ant for the South African team.

Confirming the news, Luke Johnson,the official working at Horn’s office inSwitzerland, said, “Our boss Horn hasbeen considering the offer. However,even if he decides to help the South Afri-can team, he will be able to join only dur-ing the final stages of the World Cup”.

Horn is known for his experiences tomotivate the sportsmen. In 2011, he con-

Gary approaches Mike Hornto motivate SAteam for WC

ducted motivational sessions for theTeam India at the request of Paddy Upton,the then conditioning coach. It is a his-tory that the team went on to win theWorld Cup and Horn’s hard work wasacknowledged by all team members.

“Horn is unlikely to be available forthe entire World Cup, because he hasbeen working with a French TV stationwhich is making a documentary on sur-vival techniques”, Johnson added.

Horn loves to accept the challenges.“At present he has been in Nepal. He willbe climbing an unnamed mountain whereno one has gone there so far. He will tryto find a new route to reach to this moun-tain. It is a big challenge and we hope forhis success”, the official singed off.

The Pakistan cricket team unveiled the new kit at a ceremony in Lahore.

SYDNEY: Sardar Azmoun’s brilliant solo goal earned Iran a 1-0 win over Qatar and aplace in the Asian Cup quarter-finals alongside United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

SYDNEY—Australian pace bowler Brett Leeon Thursday announced he is to retire fromall forms of cricket after a 20-year career,saying he was both emotional and excited.

The 38-year-old called time on his inter-national commitments in July 2012, but con-tinued to play Twenty20 in both the Aus-tralian Big Bash League and the Indian Pre-mier League.

His Sydney Sixers have one Big Bashregular-season match remaining, againstcross-town rivals the Sydney Thunder nextThursday at the Sydney Cricket Groundahead of a possible finals clash.

“When that last ball’s bowled I’ll walkoff happy and content,” Lee said.

“I’m excited, I’m emotional, I’m happy,but I’m certainly not worried because I knowthat I’ve made the right call.” Lee played 76Tests for Australia, taking 310 wickets, and221 one-dayers with 380 dismissals.

His fastest delivery cracked the 161kilometres per hour mark (100 miles perhour), with the blond speedster consis-tently bowling at 150kph over 20 years, mak-ing him a fearsome opponent through hissheer pace and toe-crushing inswingingyorkers.

Aussie paceman Brett Lee toretire after 20-year career

“He has been an exceptional cricketerwho gained fans around the world not onlyfor his electrifying pace and performanceswith the ball, but the way that he played

the game,” said Cricket Australia chiefJames Sutherland. “Sir Donald Bradman of-ten said that it is a player’s responsibilityto leave the game in a better state than whenthey first became involved. Brett Lee hascertainly done that.”—AFP

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The official kit of the Paki-stan Cricket team for the upcoming ICCWorld Cup 2015 was revealed in a galaceremony in Lahore. Explosive all-rounder Shahid Afridi took a selfie withthe team in their new shirts.

With less than a month to go forthe World Cup Cricket Pakistan teamlooks all geared up for the mega eventwith all super stars with one aim tohelp Pakistan win the World Cup.

Brought to you by Pepsi, unveil-ing of Pakistan Cricket Team’s officialworld cup jersey event was held atRoyal Palm Golf & Country Club withofficial hashtag Pepsi Cricket. All themembers of the national cricket teamalong with team officials includingChief Coach Waqar Yunis, BattingCoach Grant Flower, Mushtaq Ahmed

partici-p a t e din thee v e n t .O t h e rt e a mm e m -bers in-c l u d eAhmedShehzad,Hafeez,SarfarazAhmed,YounisK h a n ,H a r r i sSohail,U m a r

Pakistan cricket team unveilofficial kit for World Cup 2015

Akmal, Shoaib Maqsood, ShahidAfridi, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Irfan,Junaid Khan, Ehsan Adil, Sohail Khanand Wahab Riaz were also present onthis occasion. Amanat Ali, Nabeel,Quratulain Balouch and Ali Azmatrocked the stage with their mesmeriz-ing performance after the unveiling.

The new kit has a light greencolour and the crescent and star ofthe previous World Cup kit (2011) hasbeen removed and straight horizontallines can be seen on the front. Thenew kit has a PCB logo on the left up-per side while the ICC World Cup 2015logo is placed on the right upper side.The kit has Pakistan written on it ingolden colour with a black outlinewhile on the back the same pattern isbeing followed for the name and num-ber of the cricketers.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015will be held in Australia and NewZealand from February 14 to March29. The first match of the tournamentwill be between New Zealand and SriLanka on February 14 in Christchurch.Pakistan will start their campaignagainst arch-rivals India on February15 at the Adelaide Oval.

On this occasion players wereasked some interesting questions andthey replied equally to question.

Young leg-spinner Yasir Shahwhen asked that when he was fieldingany girl from the crowd called you helaugh while other started to laugh aswell when host asked him any boycalled the spinner.

On the other hand Ahmed Shahzadasked about marriage that is he find

someone like Bollywood actress likeAnuska for marriage he said that Paki-stan has better beauty than India.Younis Khan suggest played that theyhave the hole life left for marriage firstset your careers.

Speaking on this occasion,Misbah-ul-Haq said he was much op-timistic about the performance of theteam and they would do their best towin the trophy in ICC World Cup. Starcricketer Shahid Afridi also expressedhis hope that team Pakistan will per-form well in the upcoming World Cup.He vowed to give his 100 per cent tomake Pakistan win in the mega event.“This is my last World Cup and I wantto make it memorable”, said Afridi. Hepraised skipper Misbah-ul-Haq formaintaining unity among team mem-bers. “Team will do well under the lead-ership of Misbah”, underlined Afridi.

Muhammad Hafeez said all theplayers were working hard and theywould give positive results to the na-tion in this mega event. Yunis Khansaid he appealed the nation to showpatience if in case they lose one ortwo early matches and avoid criticiz-ing the team. He said in 1992 worldcup Pakistan cricket team lost its earlymatches but even then it was suc-ceeded to win world cup and this timeagain they will do their best to bag theworld cup.

Umar Akmal said he was satisfiedwith the team selected for the WorldCup and that all the players had highhopes about the performance in thefirst match against India to be playedon Feb 15 in Adelaide, Australia.

SYDNEY—Sardar Azmoun’sfabulous solo goal earnedIran a 1-0 win over Qatar anda place in the Asian Cup quar-ter-finals alongside UnitedArab Emirates on Thursday.

Solid Qatari defendingkept Iran at bay until shortlyafter half-time in Sydneywhen Azmoun’s instinctivetouch and shot ended theirresistance and sent a partisancrowd wild.

Carlos Queiroz’s TeamMelli are now into the quar-ter-finals for the sixth time ina row and continue to lookstrong contenders to breaktheir 39-year Asian Cupdrought.

But Qatar crashed outjust weeks after winning theGulf Cup in November andthey exit Group C alongsideBahrain, eliminated after a 2-1loss to UAE earlier.

As Iranian fans cel-ebrated outside the stadium,Queiroz, who has workedwith Real Madrid, Manches-ter United and Portugal, hailedAzmoun’s strike as “brilliant”.

“It was a brilliant goal. Itwas a special movement ofthe centre-forward, a greatturn at the level of some ofthe best centre-forwards Ihave worked with in my life,”he said.

Qatari coach DjamelBelmadi said despite a hugeimprovement on their 4-1 lossto UAE, his team had paiddearly for their errors againstIran.

“I said to them, at this levelyou pay cash for any kind ofmistakes. That’s what hap-pened today. I hope they learnfrom it,” he said.

Noisy Iranian fans made

Azmoun stunner sends Iran intolast eight of Asian Cup

for a festive atmosphere atStadium Australia but theparty did not get going on thepitch as the three-times cham-pions struggled to breakdown a resilient Qatar side.

Rubin Kazan forwardAzmoun, a former target ofPremier League giants Arse-nal and Liverpool, was in thethick of the action and had aheader saved early on.

The Qatari defence alsoreacted sharply to smotheranother promising chancewhen Ashkan Dejagah pickedout the young striker in thebox.

As half-time beckoned,Morteza Pouraliganji had aheader cleared off the line and

the busy, Qatar-basedDejagah cut in from the rightand fired across the face ofgoal.

Iran looked to be runningout of ideas until Azmoun litup the Sydney evening andignited the crowd with hisfabulous touch and goal on52 minutes.

When former Fulham manDejagah picked out Azmounon the edge of the box, the20-year-old still had much todo to evade the attentions ofdefender Abdelkarim Hassan.

But in a moment of su-preme quality, he dragged theball between his legs and intospace in the box, beforesweeping it into the bottom

right-hand corner.Azmoun’s joy was short-

lived and he was stretcheredoff and limped to the benchon the hour-mark, as Qatarthrew on Khalfan Ibrahim, theplayer the country call“Maradona”.

However, the diminutiveIbrahim was unable to turn thetide and instead it was Iranwho had chances on thecounter-attack as Qatarpoured forward in search ofan equaliser.

In a late scare, AliAsadalla Thaimn hit Iran’spost with an injury-timeheader but the effort wasoffside, and Queiroz sank tohis knees in joy as the finalwhistle blew.

Meanwhile, Iran coachCarlos Queiroz hailed SardarAzmoun’s “brilliant” winneragainst UAE in the Asian Cupand said it was worthy ofsome of the best strikers hehad worked with.

The former Real Madrid,and Portugal boss andManchester United assistanthas coached some of thebest in the business but hewas unstinting in his praisefor the 20-year-old.

The second-half winnerwas also vital for Iran as itearned not only a 1-0 victorybut a place in the quarter-fi-nals as they seek their firstAsian Cup title in 39 years.

“It was a brilliant goal. Itwas a special movement ofthe centre-forward, a greatturn at the level of some ofthe best centre-forwards Ihave worked with in my life,”Queiroz said.—AFP

Gul, Ajmal absence huge setback for India clash: Miandad

NO cricketing contest can evermatch the thrill and excitementof what a Pakistan versus In-

dia contest offers. It is the mother ofall matches. Whether it’s a one-sidedgame or a nail-biting finish, peoplefrom both countries get involved somuch that sometimes it is just notcricket! Whenever or wherever weplay against each other, fans from allage groups in our two cricket-madcountries forget their Things To Do.They simply get glued to their televi-sion sets or watch the action on gi-ant screens in a hope thatonly their team would win.

The lucky ones havetickets to the AdelaideOval for the absorbingcontest, which is now just29 days away. It was thefirst match of the megaevent which got sold outwithin hours of the ticketsgoing up for sale on 14February 2014.

I think the ICC did theright thing to showcasethis iconic game early inthe ICC Cricket World Cup2015, instead of slotting itmidway through the groupstage. It will take off somepressure from both the sides and theywill concentrate more on their remain-ing pool matches. I do believe that allthe matches in an ICC Cricket WorldCup deserve equal importance, butthere are some contests which buildsextra pressure and stress on the play-ers.

No matter what the opposing cap-tains say, players have the pressureof over a billion fans whenever theywear green and blue shirts.

What I would like to see is anotherexciting contest and whoever wins inAdelaide, fans should treat it as a losson sporting field and nothing else. Iwould like to see the Pakistan versusIndia rivalry more on the cricketingfield and the only way going forwardis by improving our cricketing relations– both on and off the field.

While it’s tough to pick a winner

of the 15 February encounter,Pakistan’s loss of Umar Gul and SaeedAjmal through injuries and suspen-sion, respectively, is a huge setback.Considering the depth in India’s bat-ting lineup with the likes of RohitSharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli,Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane andMahendra Dhoni, their big battingpillars, Gul and Ajmal could haveproven handy for Pakistan. Withoutthese two, I can now only hope thatMohammad Hafeez clears his retestas Pakistan needs experienced

bowlers against what is sure to be ahighly-experienced India batting line-up.

India’s recent 2-0 Test defeat inAustralia will count for nothing indefence of its ICC Cricket World Cuptitle. In fact, it will be moreacclimatised and have more kno-whow of the pitches than the Paki-stan team. The India cricket board didits homework well by scheduling itsteam’s tour to Australia before the all-important event. Players need time toadjust to the conditions and pitchesin countries like Australia and NewZealand, and the India team hasgrabbed that added advantage.

Remember, we also went to Aus-tralia in 1992 a month before theWorld Cup. We didn’t win a singlewarm-up or practice match, but theexperience of playing on various

pitches helped our players when itmattered most in crucial matches.

Pakistan hasn’t played in Austra-lia for quite some time now.

Misbah-ul-Haq, Younus Khan,Shahid Afridi and Ahmed Shehzadneed to adjust quickly in a short time.We need big scores, keeping in mindthe bowling resources we have and Ifeel nothing less than 300-325 couldchallenge India’s strong batting. Inone-day cricket, not all of the top sixbatsmen have to score. What Paki-stan should not forget is it needs, at

least, two of its top-orderbatsmen to score heavilyand then the rest could chipin with 30s and 40s to givethe scoreboard a solid look.

Pakistan should alsoforget the horror stats ofhaving never beaten Indiain a World Cup match. In fact,what it should remember isthat we lost against it in 1992too, but it was us who liftedthe World Cup trophy at theMelbourne Cricket Ground.Pakistan should not getsidetracked in case the re-sult doesn’t go in its favouron 15 February. The focusshould be to win the ICC

Cricket World Cup 2015!Playing and winning the first

match in any big tournament gives ateam an added confidence, but itdoesn’t guarantee you a place in thefinal. Similarly, for the losing side, itdoesn’t mean the end of the tourna-ment. In fact, the loss should pushyou to do more, and better, in the re-maining games of the tournament.

I would love to see good gesturesfrom players of both teams and sendout a strong message around theworld that we love to play againsteach other. I know the tempers couldflare up in the heat of the moment,but I do hope the captains of bothsides will lead by example and therewill be no nasty incident on the fieldduring the course of what is expectedto be an engrossing battle betweenthe bat and the ball.

Anderson battlesinto semis at

Auckland OpenA U C K L A N D — S o u t hAfrica’s Kevin Andersonscored a gutsy win overAmerican Steve Johnson onThursday to make the semi-finals of an Auckland Opentournament blown wideopen by high-profile with-drawals.

Anderson downedJohnson 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) togive himself an excellentchance of claiming his thirdcareer ATP title in a severelyweakened field.

The world number 16 isthe only remaining player inthe top 20 and the only oneto win an ATP title, withnone of his rivals even mak-ing a final on the tour be-fore. The situation arose af-ter five seeded players with-drew from the AustralianOpen warm-up event, fourof them without even liftinga racquet, and the remain-der of the top-ranked com-petitors were eliminated byless-fancied rivals.—AFP

THAT moment in the morning when teadrinkers take their first warm sip can beamazing. And now, 12 new articles from

the American Journal of Clinical Nutritionshow that tea may indeed be a magical elixir,as it was shown to promoteweight loss, prevent chronicillnesses and improve mood.Whether iced or hot, on anygiven day, over 158 millionpeople in the US drink tea,according to the Tea Associa-tion of the USA. And our Brit-ish counterparts consume 165million cups daily.

Tea is the second mostconsumed beverage in theworld, according to the TeaAssociation, beaten only bywater. Though there have beena multitude of studies aboutantioxidants in tea and the re-sulting human health effects,these recent studies in theAmerican Journal of ClinicalNutrition (AJCN) shed lighton just how helpful tea is for our health.

Experts from the US Department of Agri-culture, National Institutes of Health, UCLAand the University of Glasgow - among others- contributed to the AJCN body of evidence.Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, compendium editor forthe issue, says: “The scientists who contrib-uted their original research and insights areamong the best in the world, and together, thisbody of research has significantly advancedthe science of tea and human health.”

Along with promoting weight loss, stud-ies found that drinking tea reduces cancer andcardiovascular risks and it also provides psy-chological benefits. Researchers who looked

Tea benefits: weight loss,improved bone health and mood

Team PNEC NUST unveils its car which uses minimum fuel. It will be sent for competition of Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2015.

at polyphenols - natural compounds in tea -found that they, along with the caffeine con-tent, increased energy expenditure and fat oxi-dation, which resulted in weight loss andhelped maintain a healthy body weight.

One study shows that sub-jects who consumed green teaand caffeine lost an averageof 2.9 pounds over 12 weeks,all while maintaining theirnormal diet. Other studiesshow that regular tea drinkershave lower body mass indexes(BMIs) and waist-to-hip ra-tios, along with less body fat,compared with non-tea drink-ers. Additionally, another re-view showed that the increasein calories burned as a resultof drinking tea equates toaround 100 calories during a24-hour period.

Another set of research-ers found that the polyphe-nols in green tea may help tostop the progression of cer-

tain cancers. In one study, scientists ob-served that after a year, 30% of men in aplacebo group progressed to prostate can-cer, compared with only 9% of men whowere in a tea-supplemented group. Othercancers for which tea provides protectivehealth benefits are cancers of the gastrointes-tinal tract, lung, breast and skin, research-ers say.

A study conducted by Dr. Claudio Ferriin Italy showed that black tea reduced bloodpressure in patients with hypertension andalso neutralized negative effects of high-fat meals on arterial blood flow and bloodpressure.

Motorists seen stuck in traffic jam due to encroachments at Empress Market in Saddar.

A view of classroom of YMCA primary and secondary school which is turned into a store by land mafia.

108 x 4

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The Sindh High Court(SHC) had directed Sindh governmentto submit details of measures so fartaken for the security of schools andcolleges in the province. A 2-memberbench of the SHC comprising the ChiefJustice Maqbool Baqar and JusticeZafar Ahmed Rajput issued the direc-tives while hearing a constitutional pe-tition. Advocate Faisal Siddiqui whilegiving arguments in support of the pe-tition apprised the higher court aboutSindh government’s failure in making

Security of academic institutions

SHC seeks report from Govton protection of schools

schools secure and protected.He said the provincial government

was providing foolproof security topsthe politicians and bureaucrats, whichaccording to him was unlawful. Theprovincial government had failed to pro-vide security to the schools and collegesdue to which lives of millions of stu-dents were left open to threats, whilethe intelligence agencies had already ex-pressed premonitions about seriousthreats to schools and colleges. In ad-dition, terrorist organisation had alsothreatened to attack schools and col-leges in private sector.

He said the provincial governmenthad made a statement according to whichonly those schools would be allowed toresume academic activities on Jan 12 thatwould ensure fool proof security of theirschools and colleges but since the pro-vincial government had failed to imple-ment orders for security, many schoolscould not resume academic activities andthence the academic year of thousandsof students would go in waste.

He said the schools in KhyberPakhtoonkhawa and in Islamabad hadsecured them by placing protectivebarbed wires and high walls around the

schools and Punjab government hadplaced schools in 4 different categoriesplaced under security of the law enforce-ment authorities. However, no such stepswere seen anywhere in Sindh.

He said the higher court should en-quire from Sindh government as whatwere the reasons for ignoring schools’security and providing foolproof secu-rity to the politicians and bureaucrats.He said the provincial government wasnot meeting the demands placed underArticle 9 and 25 of the constitution ofPakistan and by failing to provide se-curity to students.

A view of classroom of YMCA primary and secondaryschool which is turned into a store by land mafia.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Prof. Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, former ChairmanHigher Education Commis-sion, has said that sciencehas no boundary while itbridges gap between coun-tr ies and nations in theworld.

The spirit of acquiring

Science has noboundary, it bridges gap

between nations

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali,who had recently been made as MonitoringJudge on the Anti-Terrorist Courts (ATC) inSindh had summoned an exigent meeting ofthe judges of the ATCs, Sindh Home Secre-tary, Sindh Secretary for Finance, the Pros-ecutor General Sindh and the Inspector Gen-eral of Police, Sindh Ghulam Haider Jamalion Saturday.

The meeting would review the segrega-tion of cases of terrorism and their categori-

Steps for speedy justice

Justice Jamali toreview ATCs’ progress

zation, cases of real terrorism, bomb blasts,extremism and others. The meeting woulddeliberate on cases that would not be fit forthe term terrorism and be fit for their trial inlower courts.

The meeting would also devise strategyfor speedy disposal of pending cases and cer-tain matters such as security concerns andmeasures for the judges.

The sources informed that the meetingwould also review those cases that would bereferred to the military courts by Sindh gov-ernment.

KARACHI—Board of Intermediate Edu-cation, Karachi on Thursday announcedSupplementary Examination 2014 forCommerce for both regular and privatewith a pass percentage of 44.84 percentand 46.42 percent respectively. As peravailable details of the Commerce (Group)regular supplementary exams 2014 forHigher Education (HEC) Part II, 12550of the 13314 registered students appearedin the exams and 5627 were declared passwith none of the students clinching A-One

BIEK announces commercesupplementary exams 2014 results

grade.The students declared pass included

3536 boys and 2091 girls. A total of four stu-dents, two boys and two girls achieving 70%to 79.9% were declared pass in A Grade; 63in B Grade (34 boys and 29 girls); 1091 in CGrade (578 boys and 513 girls); 4047 in DGrade (2629 boys and 1419 girls) and 422in E Grade (293 boys and 129 girls) As forCommerce - Private 3447 candidates hadappeared in the exams, including 2537 boysand 910 girls with over all pass percentage

being 46.42 percent.None of these private students could

pass the supplementary exams in A-1grade whereas three of the boy candidatesand two girls managed to acquire A grade;143 candidates (38 boys and 105 girls)passed the exams in B grade; 497 candi-dates (200 boys and 297 girls) passed inC grade; 821 (778 boys and 43 girls) in Dgrade and 134 (13 boys and one girl) quali-fied the exam in E grade less than 363marks, that was, below 33 percent.—APP/

STAFF REPOTER

KARACHI—The founder and leader ofMuttahida Quami Movement (MQM) AltafHussain expressed his heartfelt sorrow and griefover the killings of six miners and various otherinjured in an incident of filling of gas at acoalmine in Lower Orakzai Agency. He offered

Altaf condemns Orakzai Agency incidentcondolence and sympathy to the bereaved fami-lies and prayed almighty Allah to confer higheternal ranks to the deceased. He prayed for theearly and complete recovery of the injured.

Meanwhile, MQM chief also expressed greatconcerns over the serious illness of MQM seniormember Muhammad Anwar and prayed for hisearly and complete recovery.

knowledge essentially keptthe scientists united. Hehoped that new collabora-tions between Pakistan andother countries would be de-veloped in the fields of mo-lecular medicines, chemicaland biological sciences inupcoming days.

He was speaking at theclosing ceremony of thefour-day 5th InternationalSymposium-Cum-TrainingCourse on Molecular Medi-cine and Drug Research(January 12 to 15, 2015) heldon Thursday at InternationalCenter for Chemical andBiological Sciences(ICCBS), Universi ty ofKarachi (UoK).

Over 350 scientists, in-cluding 60 scientists from 28countries, attended the inter-national event, organised byDr Panjwani Center for Mo-lecular Medicine and DrugResearch (PCMD).

The foreign scientistswho attended the symposiumwere from Azerbaijan,Bangladesh, Brazil ,Cameroon, Canada, Egypt,France, Germany, HongKong, Hungry, India, Iran,Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan,Lebanon, Nepal, Nigeria,Saudi Arabia, South Korea,Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sudan,Sweden, Turkey, UK, USAand Yemen.

Director ICCBS Prof. Dr

Muhammad IqbalChoudhary and Prof. DrHermann Bauer of Germanyalso spoke on the occasion.

Dr Iqbal Choudhary saidthat the government’s atten-tion was required to acceler-ate the pace of the progress ofmolecular medicine so that theaffordable and durable treat-ment of various fatal diseasescan be developed.

Talking about the historyof ICCBS Prof. Dr HermannBauer said that the interna-tional centre had made greatprogress in this country.

This international insti-tution has really set an ex-ample for other developingcountries, he added.

In the ceremony, interna-tional delegates praised theefforts of ICCBS and PCMDfor having such a useful glo-bal scientific event, and un-derlined the need for makingconcrete efforts in the sci-ence and technology to bringout the country from thepresent economical and po-litical turmoil.

Various lectures of thenational and internationalscientists have been deliv-ered in the symposium.

Meanwhile, Prof. Dr Atta-ur-Rahman and Dr IqbalChoudhary distributed the cer-tificates among the participantsand position holders of theposters’ competition.

THAT moment in the morning when teadrinkers take their first warm sip can beamazing. And now, 12 new articles from

the American Journal of Clinical Nutritionshow that tea may indeed be a magical elixir,as it was shown to promoteweight loss, prevent chronicillnesses and improve mood.Whether iced or hot, on anygiven day, over 158 millionpeople in the US drink tea,according to the Tea Associa-tion of the USA. And our Brit-ish counterparts consume 165million cups daily.

Tea is the second mostconsumed beverage in theworld, according to the TeaAssociation, beaten only bywater. Though there have beena multitude of studies aboutantioxidants in tea and the re-sulting human health effects,these recent studies in theAmerican Journal of ClinicalNutrition (AJCN) shed lighton just how helpful tea is for our health.

Experts from the US Department of Agri-culture, National Institutes of Health, UCLAand the University of Glasgow - among others- contributed to the AJCN body of evidence.Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, compendium editor forthe issue, says: “The scientists who contrib-uted their original research and insights areamong the best in the world, and together, thisbody of research has significantly advancedthe science of tea and human health.”

Along with promoting weight loss, stud-ies found that drinking tea reduces cancer andcardiovascular risks and it also provides psy-chological benefits. Researchers who looked

Tea benefits: weight loss,improved bone health and mood

DCO Lahore Capt (Retd) Muhammad Usman briefing representatives from different countries including Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Tunis, about DistrictAdministration of the provincial capital.

at polyphenols - natural compounds in tea -found that they, along with the caffeine con-tent, increased energy expenditure and fat oxi-dation, which resulted in weight loss andhelped maintain a healthy body weight.

One study shows that sub-jects who consumed green teaand caffeine lost an averageof 2.9 pounds over 12 weeks,all while maintaining theirnormal diet. Other studiesshow that regular tea drinkershave lower body mass indexes(BMIs) and waist-to-hip ra-tios, along with less body fat,compared with non-tea drink-ers. Additionally, another re-view showed that the increasein calories burned as a resultof drinking tea equates toaround 100 calories during a24-hour period.

Another set of research-ers found that the polyphe-nols in green tea may help tostop the progression of cer-

tain cancers. In one study, scientists ob-served that after a year, 30% of men in aplacebo group progressed to prostate can-cer, compared with only 9% of men whowere in a tea-supplemented group. Othercancers for which tea provides protectivehealth benefits are cancers of the gastrointes-tinal tract, lung, breast and skin, research-ers say.

A study conducted by Dr. Claudio Ferriin Italy showed that black tea reduced bloodpressure in patients with hypertension andalso neutralized negative effects of high-fat meals on arterial blood flow and bloodpressure.

Nomad kids having good time by playing billiard at the bank of Ravi River.

Minister for Interior Col (Retd) Shuja Ahmad Khanzada seen during a press conference at CM Secretariat.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Provincial Minister forEducation Rana Mashhood AhmedKhan has said that Punjab governmenthas extended the scope of proposedYouth Volunteer Force out of schoolsand included youth, students of reli-gious seminaries and local welfare or-ganizations for promoting sentiments ofbrotherhood, tolerance and mutual co-existence at streets, mohallah and vil-lage level throughout the province. Hesaid that the newly constituted PunjabCitizens Peace Volunteer Corps com-prising more than five lakh volunteerswill play its role for eliminating extrem-ism in discriminatory and identifyinghatred activities of suspect persons.

Scope of proposed ‘YouthVolunteer Force’ extended

This was stated by him while ad-dressing the meeting of Provincial Ex-ecutive Committee of Punjab CitizensPeace Volunteers Corps at CommitteeRoom of GC University Lahore Thurs-day. Focal person of Executive Com-mittee Mian Naseer Ahmed MPA,President Punjab Youth Caucus VickasHassan Mokal, General Secretary MianIrfan Daulatana, Parliamentary Secre-tary Mehwish Sultana, ChairpersonPunjab Social Services Board Ms. KiranDar, members provincial assemblyTaheya Noon and Makhdoom HashimJawan Bakht besides Chairman PunjabHigher Education Commission Dr.Nizam ud Din, Vice Chancellor GCUniversity Lahore Dr. Khalique urRehman, Chief Executive Officer

Lahore Knowledge Park Shahid Zaman,President Chief Minister Youth Mobi-lization Committee Ch. Sohail Aamir,social organizations and senior officersof Education Department attended themeeting.

The meeting gave final shape to themechanism of working and structuralarrangements of Punjab Citizens PeaceVolunteers Corps. The meeting decidedthat peace watch groups comprising 15members will be constituted at everyunion council of the province whichincluded students of 9th and 10thclasses, collegiate students, members ofschool and college councils, girl guides,boy scouts, one member each of localpeace committee, local mosques com-mittee, minority, local bodies, civil de-

fense, local religious seminaries, localsports and culture committee, localzakat and usher committee, SMT, vo-cational institutes and local ex-service-men.

Three hundred volunteers of PunjabCitizens Peace Volunteers Corps will beregistered at every union council whilea crops group of 20 students will beconstituted at every college. Membersof each peace watch group will sit inthe office of local union council. RanaMashhood said that on the completionof one month to the Peshawar tragedy,a special function will be held in theauditorium of UET Lahore and it willbe reiterated that the terrorists will notbe allowed to stop educational activi-ties.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—A threat note stuck on the secu-rity barrier of the entrance gate of JuniorModel Girls High School Rajgarh by un-known miscreants caused panic among the ad-ministration, police and the parents on Thurs-day. District administration informed the par-

Threat note to schoolpanics admin, police

ents and the police, who immediately besiegedthe school.

According to the police, it seems like an actof mischief but an investigation has been initi-ated. On the other hand, police has suspicionsover the involvement of a local as few of theresidents were having a dispute with the schoolover the emergency gateway.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Unidentified persons abducted agirl, Sumaira, from outside Supreme CourtLahore Registry in a rickshaw on Thursdaywhile she was on her way to get her statementrecorded. Sumaira’s family had not taken her

Girl abducted fromoutside SC Registry

decision of getting married to a man of herchoice with pleasure.

Her family alleged her husband, Naveed, ofkidnapping whereas the lawyers handedSumaira’s brother and father over to the policein suspicion of being involved in the kidnap-ping. Police initiated investigation.

LAHORE—Punjab Home Minister Shujah Khanzada has saidthat the country is facing an extraordinary situation, and govern-ment is taking all possible measures to end the menace of terror-ism. He was addressing a news conference in Lahore on Thurs-day. He said that government is fully committed to root of thismenace from the face of homeland. He said that two meetings ofApex Committees have already been held to review the imple-mentation of national action plan against terrorism.

He said that terrorists have suffered huge setbacks by theoperation Zarb e Azb. He said that the crime rate will lowerdown after the restoration of death penalty. He said that there isa danger of attacks on civil and military installations and law

Govt taking all measures to endmenace of terrorism: Khanzada

enforcing agencies and security forces are alert in this regard.He said that government officials can also be made target by theterrorists. He said that action will be taken regarding religiousseminaries against those the proofs of harbouring terrorists areavailable.

He said that action will be taken against any person only onthe basis of full proofs. He said that lists are ready consisting ofnames of NGOs which are allegedly working against the inter-ests of country and nation. Punjab Home Minister said that thereis no distinction of good or bad Taliban as all terrorists are en-emies of country. He said that media can play a role of bridgebetween the government and public.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Provincial Minister for So-cial Welfare Syed Haroon Sultan Bokharihas said that emergency numbers havebeen provided to heads of all educationalinstitutions for keeping close liaison withthe administration and meeting any emer-gent situation.

He said that a training programmeof security guards working in publicand private educational institutionshas been started in collaboration with

Security arrangements ofeducational institutions reviewed

local police, civil defense and Rescue-1122. He said that strict action shouldbe taken against owners of privateschools and heads of governmentschools for showing negligence regard-ing implementation of security plan is-sued by Punjab government.

He expressed these views while ad-dressing a meeting regarding checkingof security arrangements of educationalinstitutions. Syed Haroon SultanBokhari said that illegal encroachmentsshould be removed outside educational

institutions and link roads. He di-rected district administration to en-sure complete implementation on se-curity protocol issued by the govern-ment.

He said that civil defense staff andofficials of local police should checksecurity arrangements of all educa-tional institutions on daily basis andsend report to the government. Later,the Provincial Minister visited vari-ous schools and colleges of the cityand checked security arrangements.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Provincial Minis-ter for Cooperative MalikMuhammad Iqbal Channarpaid surprise visits to variouseducational institutions forchecking security arrange-ments and expressed his satis-faction over it. DCO, officersof police and other departmentsaccompanied him.

The Provincial Minister,during his visit, also checkedthe duty rosters of officials ofpolice and other law enforcingagencies outside important

Minister pays surprise visits to educationalinstitutions for checking security

educational institutions.He directed the administra-

tion that traffic police besidesensuring smooth flow of traf-fic, should also utilize all re-sources for the protection oflife and property of the citizens.He also directed that if any

pushcart or any other encroach-ment is found outside anyschool or college, action shouldbe taken against concernedTMO.

Malik Iqbal Channar saidthat security arrangementsshould further be tightened out-

side schools, colleges, univer-sities and other educational in-stitutions situated on importantroads. He said that strict vigi-lance should be displayed at thetime of closing of educationalinstitutions.

He said that besides taking

action against wrong parking,a watchful eye should also bekept on suspect persons andvehicles. He directed that theadministration should send re-port about checking of securityarrangements to the govern-ment on daily basis.