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ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif called on Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at PMHouse on Monday.

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STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The committees formed bythe government and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pa-kistan will meet to hold peace talks today.The government’s four-member committeeand the Taliban’s five-member committeewill meet to initiate the dialogue on Tues-day at 2pm.

The decision came following a telephoneconversation between Maulana Samiul Haqwho is a member of the committee nominatedby the Taliban and Irfan Siddiqui who is rep-resenting the government.

During the conversation, MaulanaSamiul Haq informed Ifran Siddiqui that theywere serious about the dialogue process.Mulana Samiul Haq also spoke with Major(retd) Aamir.

Irfan Siddiqui told media thegovernment’s committee was waiting for a‘green signal’ from the Taliban’s commit-tee. “We want to have an open dialoguewith the Taliban committee.”

Govt, Talibanfirst meeting todaySami warns of attempts to sabotage dialogue

TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsantold media on Monday that a nine-memberpolitical shura (advisory council) will moni-tor peace talks.

Qari Shakil Ahmed Haqqani, a Talibancommander from Mohmand Agency, will leadthe shura which consists of TTP spokes-person Azam Tariq, Maulana Amir Islam,Commander Ahmed, Anwar Gandapuri aswell as their Quetta division leader knownas Pir Sahab, Maulana Abdullah, Yasir andCommander Pashtun, he said.

Commenting on the four-member com-mittee formed by the government, Ehsansaid that just one, the Adviser to the PrimeMinister on National Affairs Irfan Siddiqui,is part of the government. The TTP too havechosen a committee which does not haveany Taliban as its members.

If the government decides to form acommittee comprising mostly governmentmembers, the TTP will do accordingly – thatis, constitutes a committee comprising

Continued on Page 7

ISLAMABAD: Members of Taliban Committee Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, Maulana AbdulAziz and Prof Ibrahim hold a joint press conference at Jamaat-e-Islami office.—POphoto by Sultan Bashir

Nawaz, Raheeldiscuss peace

talks with TTPSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Chief of theArmy Staff General RaheelSharif called on Prime Min-ister Nawaz Sharif here onMonday.

Sources said that lawand order situation in thecountry and proposed talkswith the Taliban also cameunder discussion duringthe meeting.

The sources said thatbesides holding consulta-tions over the peace talkswith the militants the armychief also briefed the primeminister about securitysituation along thecountry’s borders.

SALIM AHMED/ MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE–Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saidon Monday that the ball is now in the courtof Taliban.

Talking to senior journalists here, thePM said that the government is seriousabout peace talks with Taliban and now theywould decided about the talks as the gov-ernment made the committee for it. He saidthat nothing could be better if peace is re-stored through talks. “The whole nation islooking for better results from the talks”,he added.

He has said the government is seriousto overcome terrorism through dialogue aspeace is vital to ensure revival of economy.He welcomed the team announced byTaliban to hold talks with government’scommittee and hoped the dialogue will yieldpositive outcome. Nawaz Sharif said the

Ball now in Taliban’scourt: Nawaz

Govt serious to overcome terrorismgovernment will hold talks with all serious-ness to bring peace to the country.While talking to media persons after meet-ing senior journalists Nawaz Sharif said thegovernment intends to resolve all internalissues including Balochistan problem in apolitical way. He expressed optimism aboutthe outcome of peace talks with Taliban. “Iwill personally supervise the talks processwhile Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Aliwill assist me.” He said, ”It is my utmostdesire that the committees formed by thegovernment and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Paki-stan make a headway in the talks.”

He said the government was preferringto resolve all issues through dialogue tosave the country from further crises.

Nawaz Sharif said the governmentwanted to settle all issues through dialoguewith India, Afghanistan and other countries

Continued on Page 7

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Chairman ofthe Pakistan Tehrik-i-InsaafImran Khan will not act as arepresentative for the five-member committee nomi-nated by the Pakistani Talibanto further dialogue with gov-ernment negotiators, said astatement issued by theparty’s core committee.

A meeting of the PTI’score committee, chaired byKhan, was held in the fed-eral capital on Monday.

The statement ex-pressed full confidence ona four-member committeeannounced by the govern-ment, stating Rustam ShahMohmand from

Imran not to representTaliban committee: PTI

government’s side wouldrepresent PTI in peace talks.

It also urged the KhyberPakhtunkhwa governmentto fully assist peace nego-tiations between the gov-ernment and the Taliban.The PTI believes that peacecan only be restoredthrough dialogue, the state-ment said.

During the meeting, thecommittee focused on Khan’snomination among five otherpolitical and religious leadersby banned militantorganisation Tehrik-i-TalibanPakistan as representatives tofacilitate peace talks withgovernment negotiators.

Khan has been a vocalContinued on Page 7

Fazl dissociatesJUI-F fromTTP talks

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F chief MaulanaFazlur Rehman on Mondaydissociated him and hisparty members from ongo-ing dialogue process be-tween government and Pa-kistani Taliban which ac-cording to him would prove‘ineffective’.

Addressing a press con-ference following a meetingof the party’s advisory com-mittee, he said that JUI-Fwould not join the currentdialogue process. He saidthat decision was taken

CAIRO—Al Qaeda broke off ties withone of its purported branches in Syriaand distanced itself from the rebel in-fighting in that country’s civil war,according to a statement Monday.

The announcement appeared tobe an attempt by Al Qaeda to put itshouse in order and reassert influenceamong rival Islamic groups that haveturned against one another in Syria.

Signed by the Al-Qaeda ‘’generalcommand,’’ the statement said theleadership has cut off the affiliateknown as the Islamic State of Iraq andthe Levant, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after it disobeyed ordersfrom the terror network’s leader,Ayman al-Zawahri.

Al-Zawahri last May ordered theIslamic State to operate indepen-

Al Qaeda breaks ties with group in Syriadently from a rival Al Qaeda branch inSyria, the Nusra Front, led by AbuMohammed al-Golani.

Al-Baghdadi rejected al-Zawahri’sorders and unsuccessfully sought tomerge the two branches.

In Monday’s statement, Al Qaedasaid it ‘’did not approve of the cre-ation of nor did it control’’ the IslamicState, and therefore has ‘’no organi-zational ties with it.’’

‘’We distance ourselves from thesedition taking place among theMujahedeen factions (in Syria) and ofthe forbidden blood shed by any fac-tion,’’ the statement said of the infight-ing among Islamic extremists.

The jihadis, or holy warriors, it said,should realize the ‘’enormity of the ca-tastrophe’’ and the implications “this

sedition’’ can have on the holy warin Syria.

The authenticity of the statementcould not independently be verifiedbut it was posted on websites com-monly used by Al Qaeda.

The rebel-on-rebel fighting hasadded another bloody dimension tothe Syrian crisis, which erupted inMarch 2011 as an uprising againstPresident Bashar Assad’s rule butlater evolved into an armed insur-gency and civil war.

The war provided fertile groundfor militant Islamic groups and overtime, the Islamic State and the NusraFront emerged as the two main AlQaeda-linked groups until their fall-ing out last spring.

Continued on Page 7

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STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for Finance,Economic Affairs, Revenue and StatisticsSenator Muhammad Ishaq Dar while chair-ing a meeting with IMF delegates, whichwas among others attended by the seniorofficials of Ministry of Finance, State Bankof Pakistan gave a detailed economic re-view of Pakistan’s economy.

The Finance Minister said that thepresent government is following EconomicReform Agenda and nearly all the economicindicators were on track. The first quarterlyresults of economic growth in Pakistan in-dicate that GDP had shown a growth of 5.0percent in the first quarter as compared to2.9percent of the same period last year, headded. The Minister said that PakistanBureau of Statistics which is an autono-

Dar meets Jaffery Franks

IMF finds Pakistan microfinance situation favourable

Continued on Page 7

Four copsgunned downin KarachiOBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—In yet anotherattack on security officialsin Karachi, four policeofficers were killed whenunidentified men attackedtheir vehicle in IbrahimHyderi on Monday.

Armed men, riding onmotorcycles, fired on thevehicle from the right side,fatally wounding theofficials. The assailantsescaped after the attack.

The injured officialswere rushed to the JinnahPostgraduate MedicalCentre where they were

Musharrafserved with

bailable arrestwarrants

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Former presi-dent General PervezMusharraf was served withan arrest warrant on Monday,two days after they were is-sued by a special courtformed to try him.

Police on Monday wentto the Armed Forces Insti-tute of Cardiology, armedwith the bailable warrants forMusharraf.

A special court consti-tuted to try Musharraf forhigh treason had issued awarrant on Friday, carryinga bail bond of Rs2.5 million.The court had also orderedthe Islamabad police to sub-mit a compliance report tothe court on February 7.

Continued on Page 7

References case

NAB opposesZardari’s

acquittal pleaISLAMABAD—The NationalAccountability Bureau(NAB) on Monday submit-ted its rejoinder against thepetition filed seeking acquit-tal of former president AsifAli Zardari in all the five ref-erences against him.

The AccountabilityCourt Judge MuhammadBashir was hearing the fiveNAB references against

Continued on Page 7

Pipelines blast

Gas supply toUch planthaltedOBSERVER REPORT

DERA MURAD JAMALI—At least 550 megawatts ofpower supply was haltedMonday, followingdamage to three gaspipelines supplying gas tothe Uch power plant inBalochistan’s Dera MuradJamali area.

According to theMinistry of Water andPower officials, 550megawatts of powersupply was halted,following vandalism ofthree gas pipelines bymiscreants.

Officials moreover saidit would take 24 hours torestore the damaged

Strong quakerattles GreekislandATHENS—A strong 6.1magnitude earthquakestruck near the Greekisland of Cephalonia inthe Ionian Sea earlyMonday, the the USGeological Survey (USGS)reported.

The quake hit at 5:08am (0308 GMT) with itsepicentre just 12 kilometresfrom the town of Lixourion,300 kilometres west ofAthens, the USGS said.

There were no immedi-ate reports of any damageor casualties. A 5.8-magnitude earthquakestruck the same region latelast month.

Today’s issue of PakistanObserver carries a One-PageSpecial Report on 66th An-niversary of Independence ofDemocratic Socialist Repub-lic Sri Lanka on Page-13.

mous body had decided that henceforththe National Account Base would bechanged after every ten year. He statedthat the next base year would be 2015 andother in 2025 which was a major advancein country statistical capability and de-termination to have accessibility of evolv-ing economic conditions over a shorterperiod of time compared to annual ac-counts .

Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM),the Minister said, had shown a positivegrowth of 5.2 percent during July-Novem-ber, Fiscal Year 2014 as compared to 2.2percent in the comparable period last year.Due to better energy and gas supply, Fer-tilizer posted the growth of 32.8 percent,Electronics 18.9 percent, Paper & Board19.6 percent, Leather Products 12.9 per-

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif says Paki-stan is facing serious energycrisis however governmentis taking emergent measuresto cope with the problem.

He said special incen-tives are being offered to lo-cal and foreign investors forinvestment in energy sector.He said that a big project ofgeneration of electricity fromcoal has been announced inPunjab whereas Quaid-e-

Steps being taken to cutpower shortage: CM

Azam Solar Park is being es-tablished in Bahawalpur forgeneration of solar energy.

He said that governmentis also striving for genera-tion of power from biogasand biomass. Moreover, hesaid, federal government isworking on Dasu Dam andBhasha Diamir Dam. He saidthat besides increasing pro-duction of electricity, dueattention is being paid to itsconservation. He said thatfor the purpose of tax col-lection, Punjab Revenue

Lt Gen (Retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Federal Minister for SAFRON inspecting POF made weapon SMG on the eve ofdemonstration arranged by Wah Industries Ltd. at Ministry of SAFRON.

STAFF REPORTER

WAH CANTT—“POF is a national assetand the products of this gigantic defencecomplex are not quality wise less than anyother organization. It is our national obli-gation that all law enforcement agenciesof Pakistan should use POF Products.”These views were expressed by Lt Gen (R)Abdul Qadir Balouch, Federal MinisterMinistry of SAFRON on the eve of Dem-onstration/presentation arranged by com-mercial window of POF i.e. Wah Indus-tries Ltd. at Ministry of SAFRONIslamabad as a part of marketing strategyto familiarize the law enforcement agen-cies of the country about POF Products.

Federal Minister further remarked thatother organizations of the country shoulduse POF made products as no other orga-nization provide after sale service exceptPOF. Federal Minister issued orders for

POF products not inferior toforeign items: Qadir

supply of POF products to Ministry ofSAFRON valuing heavy amount and di-rected subordinate departments of the min-istry to purchase POF products in future.

Federal Minister added that he wouldrequest Prime Minister of Pakistan that alllaw enforcement agencies of the countryshould be directed to utilize POF productsso that economy of the country could growand foreign exchange could be saved. Highofficials of Ministry of SAFRON andHome Department of KPK were presenton this occasion.

Earlier, Brig Dr. Almas Anum, Direc-tor Quality Assurance POF in his openingremarks thanked Federal Minister Minis-try of SAFRON that his ministry providedan opportunity to POF for demonstrationof POF products. Col (R) Inamullah KhanGeneral Manager Sales and MarketingWah Industries Ltd. gave detailed brief-ing about the POF products especially

small arms and ammunition.Col. (R) Inamullah told the partici-

pants that POF can assist law enforcementagencies by providing reliable and highquality weapons in war against terrorism.POF can also provide after sales servicefacilities to the law enforcement agencies.He urged the participants that Ministry ofSAFRON should meet its requirements ofarms and ammunition by preferring POFmade products which will also save hugeforeign exchange. It will also be helpfulfor growth of national economy and im-provement in weapons. The participantsof the presentation were told that POF wasmeeting almost 100% requirements of thearms and ammunitions of Pakistan ArmedForces during war and peace. The surpluscapacity is being utilized by exporting itsproducts to several countries around theglobe as well as meeting the needs of ci-vilian population.

LOWER DIR: Men sit beside fire to keep them warm during rainy day.

KOHAT: Students taking part in All Schools AFAQ Educational Festival.

KARACHI—Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) patron-in-chief Bilawal BhuttoZardari has said that he wanted to make itclear that we are not Taliban. In an inter-view with The Telegraph, Bilawal said thatbecoming prime minister of Pakistan is nothis aim.

“My aim is to have a PPP victory inthe 2018 election. It’s five years from now,and that’s an extremely long time in poli-tics. It’s a lifetime”, he said. Conceivedwith the help of a small circle of friendsfrom his Oxford days, Mr Bhutto Zardarishrugged off the idea that the event markedhis political coming out party.

“This is a pre-politics sort of thing,”he said, speaking rapidly with excitementas the sun set and workers readied thestage. The PPP’s young leader said thatby organizing the “Sindh Festival 2014”he wanted to tell the world that Pakistan

We are not Taliban, Bilawal tells the world

I want PPP victory in 2018polls: Bilawal

is not the country of Taliban. BilawalBhutto Zardari, who at 25 is heir to thecountry’s grandest political dynasty, saidhis two-week cultural festival was de-signed to reclaim ground lost to militantsand extremists.

“This is Pakistan’s history, this isPakistan’s culture and we’re proud of it,”he said. “We going to try to mark out aline in the sand and say this is who we areand fight back against that.” Bilawal’sopinion was also different than other poli-ticians of Pakistan about peace talks withTaliban. He criticized the PML-N led gov-ernment for again going forward for talksrather than strict action against the terror-ists. Rather than helping tackle poverty inthe region, which has the worst rate ofchild malnutrition in the country, his op-ponents wonder why he is promoting kiteflying, concerts and a donkey derby.

“That would be an approach of some-one who doesn’t understand the depth be-hind the project or the scale of the con-cepts or the reach that this has,” he said.His point is that Pakistan is struggling tofind a unifying idea. General Zia ul-Haqtried religion and General PervezMusharraf tried the army. Neither of thosecould prevent Bangladesh breaking awayin 1971 and neither has stemmed the riseof the Taliban or its extremist ideologysince. “So I believe it’s democracy thatholds us together, and it’s the democracticsystem, where culture and heritage are al-lowed to flourish, where they are not sup-pressed,” he said.“There is a shared culture, a shared his-tory that binds us together as nation -and that has not been allowed to happenbecause of our history of dictatorialrule.”—Online

BASHIR AHMAD

RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD—A young girland her mother in villageMooan committed suicide byconsuming poisonous pills fol-lowing a quarrel with theirfamily members on Monday.

According to police source,Misbah and her mother quarreledwith the family members over aminor issue and they felt annoyedand consumed wheat preserva-tive tablets. They were rushed tothe hospital where Misbah diedwhile her mother has been shiftedto the Allied Hospital Faisalabadin critical condition. The policeare investigating.

***The City police raided three

different places and have arrestedthree drug paddlers and have

Daughter dies, motherin critical condition

sized 300 gram heroin and 2550gram charas and registered threeseparate cases against them.

On a tip off, SHO CityKhurram Butt alongwith policeparty raided three differentdens in the city and has arrestedAsif Hayat, Azam and ManshaMasih and have recovered thecontraband from them.

***Two armed bandits de-

prived two bike riders of theircash amount of Rs. 17,200/-from them at pistol point fromnear Khanna Bhattian. Accord-ing to police source, GhulamSarwar and Ghulam Hussain ofVanike Tarar were on way toJalalpur Bhattian and when theyreached near Khanna Bhattian,two armed bandits interceptedthem and snatched away cashand cell phone from them.

LAHORE—Leader of the Opposition in the Sen-ate and senior PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan has saidthere is zero chance for former president Gen-eral (R) Pervez Musharraf to go abroad for treat-ment.

In an interview here on Monday, the PPPleader said if Musharraf does not appear be-fore the court, it is the duty of the govern-ment to produce him. He said the former presi-dent abrogated the constitution and he wouldget punishment under article 6 of the consti-

Zero chance for Musharraf togo abroad: Aitzaz Ahsan

tution.He said the formation of Special Court for

the trial of Musharraf was according to theconstitution and the law and those describingit as unconstitutional do not understand theconstitution. He expressed confidence thatunder the leadership of Bilawal BhuttoZardari, the PPP would be further strength-ened. Aitzaz Ahsan said he would not com-ment whether the dialogue with the Talibanwould succeed or not.—INP

World cancerday today

STAFF REPORTER

MULTAN—Like other parts ofthe world, the world cancer dayis being observed here on Feb4 (Tuesday).

Talking to media, GeneralSecretary of cancer societyMultan and head of cancer de-partment Nishtar hospitalMultan, Prof Dr Ijaz Masoodsaid that research to diagnosecancer disease had been com-pleted and medicine was alsoprepared. He said that the mostimportant thing was to adoptprecautionary measures toavoid cancer disease. He saidthat tobacco smoking was amain factor for cancer andadded that they had continuedanti-smoking campaignthrough cancer society. Hesaid that they were also pro-viding information to citizensin various cities of the prov-ince through awareness cam-paign to control cancer diseasespecially breast cancer.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Directorate of FATA Health Ser-vices has arranged free medical camps in dif-ferent part of Mohmand Agency to provide freeof cost medical treatment facilities to people ofremote areas at their doorstep.

The camps were arranged on the directivesof Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, EngrShaukat Ullah in Upper Prang, Ghar Karkand,Pandiyali, Lakru, Ghanam Shah, Baizai, SpinkaiTangi areas.

Free medical camp heldat Mohmand Agency

Professional medical team examined 6741patients in various camps while 262 patientswere provided diagnostic facilities. Radiologytests of 86 patients were done besides givingthem free medicines to poor patients.

Speaking on the occasion, Programme Man-ager, Dr Niaz Afridi said that medical campswere an endeavour of FATA Directorate to miti-gate sufferings of ailing community who wasunable to avail medical care due to remotenessof their areas. Elders of the areas appreciatedthe role of FATA Health officials.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) has seizeddrugs worth of millions of rupees and arrested sevenpersons including two foreign lady smugglers.

On special directions by Director General ANFMajor Gen Malik Zafar Iqbal, ANF conducted mul-tiple operations at Airports of Karachi, Rawalpindi,Lahore and Peshawar, said a press release.

Novel trend of smuggling of cocaine by into Pa-kistan, by foreigner lady drug smugglers was uplifted.

According to the details ANF Rawalpindi AirportTeam arrested two foreigner lady smugglers, IichennaMbaogu, Nigerian national and Lelita PorecareGraciano, Philippine National at Islamabad Interna-tional Airport and recovered 1.3 kg of Cocaine can-

ANF seizes drugs worth million of rupees, 7 arrestedceled in their two trolley bags.

They travelled from Dubai to Islamabad by Emir-ate Airline flight No.EK-614. ANF Rawalpindi Air-port Team arrested Mehdi Hassan resident ofSheikhupura from Islamabad International Airport andrecovered 0.235 kg Methamphetamine concealed inhis bag. He also confessed of having 30 heroin filledcapsules his stomach. He was to travel to SaudiaArabia by Saudi Airlines flight no SV-723.

ANF Rawalpindi Airport Team arrested TariqMehmood r/o Gujrat from Islamabad InternationalAirport, who confessed of having 33 heroin filledcapsules his stomach. He was to travel to Greece viaAbu Dhabi by Etihad Airlines flight no EY-0233.

ANF Peshawar Airport Team arrested Zahoor-ur-Rehman r/o Khuram Agency from Peshawar Airport,

who confessed of having 20 heroin filled capsuleshis stomach. He was to travel to Bahrain by Gulf Air-lines flight no GF-0787.

ANF Lahore Airport Team arrested SameerAhmed r/o Hafizabad from Lahore Airport and re-covered 0.3 kg Amphetamine (Ice) tactfully concealedin his bag. He was destined for Damam by OmanAirlines flight No.WY-328. ANF Karachi AirportTeam arrested Muhammad Jumman r/o Larkana fromKarachi Airport and recovered 1.08 kg of heroin con-cealed in the folds of his bag. He was travelling toRiyadh (KSA) via Dubai by Emirates Airline FlightNo.EK-813.

All accused have been arrested at the spot andcases registered in ANF Police Stations. Further in-vestigations are under process.

E&T officersasked toimprove

performancePESHAWAR—Advisor to ChiefMinister for Excise and Taxa-tion, Mian Jamshiduddin hasgiven a deadline of month toofficers of the department forbringing improvement in theirperformance. He said that pro-motion of officers has beenlinked with performance.

He was presiding over ameeting of District Excise andTaxation Officers here on Mon-day. Besides, Secretary, Exciseand Taxation, Dr. RaheelSiddiqui, the meeting was alsoattended by Director General(DG) and taxation officers fromacross the province. The Advi-sor to Chief Minister said the eraof corruption and nepotism hadover and now the performanceof every officer would be moni-tored. He rebuked officers oncomplaints of corruption and di-rected to behave properly. Oth-erwise stern action would betaken against them. On this oc-casion, Mian Jamshiduddin incollaboration of U-Fone distrib-uted investigation Sims amongthe officers, which would helpassist in monitoring the perfor-mance of mobile squad.—APP

SI among14 booked in

theft caseJHANG—The police haveregistered a theft case against14 persons including a sub in-spector on the order of acourt.

According to police,Nasreen Fatima, a resident ofBasti Dewan Wali filed awrit petition in the court ofadditional district and ses-sions judge in which she al-leged that ex-SHO City po-lice station SI Iram RazaShah, ASI MuhammadAslam, 2 police constablesalong with 10 others stormedinto her house and stole cashand gold ornaments from thehouse.

The judge after hearingthe arguements ordered thepolice to register a caseagainst 14 persons includingan SI.—APP

3 cops bookedSHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Threeconstables of Malakwal policebooked for gambling. ReportedlyConstable Basharat posted atPolice Chowki Harya with twoother constables was gamblingat the post.In the meantime SIMuhammad Anwar came to visitthe post where he arrested the allthe accused with stake moneyamounting to Rs 7600 redhanded.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The Universityof Engineering and Technol-ogy, Peshawar and Sarhad De-velopment Authority (SDA),Peshawar signed three flagshipmemorandums of understand-ing at the total cost of Rs. 1.2billion.

The MoU’s are aimed toimpart trainings to the studentsfor skill development and ca-pacity building to meet the cur-rent and future requirements ofthe industries in KhyberPakhtunkhwa. The Vice Chan-cellor Syed Imtiaz H. Gilaniand Azam Khan, ChairmanSDA signed the MoUs in pres-ence of senior officials of UETand SDA, here today.Dr. SadiqKhatak, the focal presented thedetails of agreements. He said

UET, SDA sign MoUthe first MOU worth Rs. 4.5million is aimed to offer a se-ries of trainings to the intern-ees of Industrial Estate, Hattarby UET, Peshawar faculty.

The areas of trainings in-clude energy management,sustainable development,\R&D, industrial manage-ment, product process im-provement, quality control,sales and marketing and inter-national certifications andsolid waste management. Sec-ond MOU at the cost of Rs.3.5 M is related to sponsoring30 undergraduate projects of

UET, Peshawar on annual ba-sis where in projects would beselected and funded by SDAbased on their viability andrelevance.

The third MoU deals withinternship programme whichwill sponsor 150 students fromUET, Peshawar is aimed toprovide two month internshipin leading industries of KP.Each internee will receive Rs.10,000/month from SDAwhile a final internship reportwould be submitted to SDA,UET and the concerned indus-try.

SHC takesnotice LLM

fee hikeHYDERABAD—A lawyer hasfiled a petition the 100 percentraise in the fee of Master ofLaw (LLM) programme of-fered by the Sindh University’saffiliated colleges.

The Sindh High CourtHyderabad Circuit Bench hereMonday summoned thevarsity’s Vice Chancellor, Reg-istrar, director Admissions andDean Faculty of Law on Feb-ruary 4.

The bench of JusticeNadeem Akhtar ordered theuniversity officials to explainthe fee hike.

The petitioner advocateShiraz Bhatti maintained thatthe varsity can increase thefee only by 10 percent.—APP

THATTA: Father Robert McCulloch (Sitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam) giving keys of newlyconstructed houses to flood victims of 2010-11 Jhirak town.

QUETTA: Trucks carrying NATO vehicles parked at Balbali check post.

Power loadshedding durationfurther increased

SHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Power load shed-ding duration has increased to 18 hours in24 hours. Low voltage is another nuisance.When electricity for short intervals is sup-plied it starts playing hide and seeks game.

People routine is being disturbed badly.Main victim are the women folk who facehardships in preparing meals in the eveningand breakfast at dawn. Residents haveurged federal and provincial rulers to takesolid steps to ensure regular power supplyas they promised in last year election cam-paign.

They also drew attention of rulers to-wards increasing price hike and its nega-tive effect on them. It appears that aftercoming to power, the rulers had completelyignored to resolve public problems, theycomplained.

They also pointed out deteriorating lawand order situations. Street crimes had in-creased. Incidents of dacoity, robbery, theftand cattle lifting take place and culpritswere not traced out. Roads in the district

are in bad shape and the government wasnot repairing them.

Encroachment mafia has become veryactive and it had occupied both sides andcenter of bazaars leaving no space forpeople to walk freely. Even foot paths hadbeen occupied by mafia group. Law en-forcement agencies when contacted saypolitical forces do not allow them to takeaction against the encroachers. People ingeneral are not happy with the governmentbecause of its continued apathy.

On the other side litigant public com-plains about frequent boycott of courts bylawyers. They said they had been suffer-ing great loss in terms of time and moneydue to frequent strike of lawyers. Theircases continue pending in courts over yearsand their efforts to seek justice in timehardly succeed.

On every date they have to pay somemoney to court officials for knowing nextdate of hearing. They called upon the rul-ers to take notice of their plight and makePakistan as an Islamic welfare state in truespirit.

ABDUL KHALIQ QURESHI

A B B O T T A B A D — H e a v ysnowfall in Naran, Kaghanvalleys, Galyat, Thandiani,Nathiagali, Mirajani, ChanglaGali, Mirajani, Musa kaMasallah, along with most ofthe upper parts of the sur-rounding adjacent to hilly ar-eas of Hazara. The entire roadlinks were disconnected fromrest of the country. Snowstarted Sunday midnight andit was continuing with shortintervals.

The link roads untoNathiagali, Thandianiamongst many other parts ofhill tops were closed due tolandslidings and heavysnowfall due to which entireresidents of hilly areas weredeprived of essential dailyuse commodities because ofblockading of road leading tosuch remote mountainous ar-eas of Galyat.

The communication sys-tem has been disrupted in theentire area on account of

Heavy snowfall atHazara hilly areas

which many people say thattheir living standard smashedaway from top to bottom, and

severe cold and icy windshave paralyzed their lives.

The entire districts ofHazara, includingAbbottabad, Mansehra,Battagram, Torghar andKohistan were receiving in-termittent rains with snowfallhas caused chilliest weatherthat had compelled the resi-dents to remain indoor. More-over, there is no electricityand supply of gas. The localMet Office has predictedmore snow and rain fall.

APP adds: Western dis-turbance is affecting upperparts of the country. A freshwestern disturbance wouldfollow current westerly waveafter one day. Moreover, rain(with snowfall over the hills)is expected at scatteredplaces of Malakand, Hazaradivisions, Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, while at isolatedplaces of Islamabad,Rawalpindi, Gujranwala,Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta ,Zhob & Kalat divisions.

In addition, next 48 hrsweather forecast, rain (withsnowfall over the hills) is ex-pected at scattered places ofMalakand, Hazara divisions,Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan,while at isolated places ofIslamabad, Rawalpindi,Gujranwala, Sargodha,Lahore, Peshawar, Kohat,Bannu, Quetta , Zhob &Kalat divisions.

KARACHI—The Sindh government is sending a requestto Islamabad for asking India to return the famous statueof the Dancing Girl, which is in possession of the Indianauthorities since 1946. “We are writing to the federal gov-ernment to help us repatriate our exiled heroine back to usfrom India,” a member of the Sindh cabinet said. The twomost famous artefacts belonging to Moenjodaro, regardedas one of the world’s most ancient planned cities, are theKing Priest and the Dancing Girl. Officials said the tworelics had been transported by British archaeologist SirMortimer Wheeler to Delhi in 1946 to be put on exhibitionand had remained there since then.

In 1947, after the partition of the subcontinent, Paki-stani authorities asked New Delhi to return the two relicsalong with several others, including the Fasting Buddha.A Pakistani official had visited Delhi and succeeded ingetting the King Priest and the Fasting Buddha. But theIndians refused to hand over the 10.8cm dark bronze Danc-ing Girl statuette. A legend says the Indian authorities hadrefused to hand over both the Moenjodaro relics and askedthe Pakistani authorities to choose from the King Priestand the Dancing Girl, and the Pakistanis chose the KingPriest.—INP

Pakistan to seek returnof statue from India

MUZAFFARGARH—Another accused hasbeen arrested in the alleged gang rape caseof a woman on the orders of Panchayat.The number of arrested persons has nowreached 9. Key suspect Ghulam Yaseen isalready in police custody and is on physi-cal remand.

While 7 are in district jail. One accusedSaeed Ahmed has been released on interimbail. The incident took place a week agowhen a villager sought the formulation of aPanchayat after he accused a relative of his,of having an affair with his wife.

Muzaffargarh gang rapecase: Another accused arrested

The accusers cried revenge and forcedto bring his sister to the site where thePanchayat was held. Police and witnessessaid the Panchayat hearing lasted for fewminutes. The Panchayat leader, identifiedas Nawaz, sentenced the woman to beraped by the men from the aggrieved party.Woman was taken to a room where a manbelonging to the complainant’s sidestripped and hit her.

It merits mentioning that Supreme Courthas also taken notice of the incident and hasordered IG to appear before the court.—Online

Girl killed,five injured in

Bannu fireBANNU—A girl lost her lifewhile five others receivedburn injuries when fireerupted in a house due togas leakage from heater inBannu on Monday morn-ing.

According to police,fire erupted in a house dueto gas leakage from theheater in Mewahkhel areaof Bannu early today morn-ing

Due to the fire, a girl re-ceived severe burn and in-juries and could not sur-vive while five others in-cluding a woman werewounded who were shiftedto hospital for treatment.—Online

Peshawar cinemablasts case

lodged againstunidentified menPESHAWAR—Police haveregistered Peshawar cinemablasts case against uniden-tified men.

The case was lodgedunder terrorism act, section302 and other acts. It wasregistered on the complaintof SHO Khan Raziq policestation.

At least four people losttheir lives and dozens oth-ers were injured when twohand grenade blasts in quicksuccession ripped througha packed cinema house inPeshawar on Sunday.

According to CCPONajibullah who visited thesite of incident, the blastswere carried out with thehelp of hand grenades.—Online

MULTAN: Students of Nishtar Medical College performing during Funfair 2014.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The Health Department of theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa government is set tolaunch a project with the help of $16 millionforeign funds which will effectively trans-fer the administrative control of thehealthcare infrastructure in the crisis af-fected districts of the province to foreignprivate companies.

It is feared that this project will createnew security issues for the security agen-cies. The issue which is causing great con-cerns and doubts is that quite a few foreigncompanies, some local companies of for-eign origin, and local companies commonlypartnering foreign companies are underserious consideration of the KPK HealthDepartment.

Save the Children (which is highly infa-mous for association with Dr Shakil Afridi)of US origin, UK-origin Morlin (which isalso a part of Save the Children), MalteserInternational with HQ in Europe andAmerica, GIZ of German origin, UK-basedInternational Medical Corp, CHIP (originallySwiss) etc are included in the list from whicha selection is to be made very soon.

The project shall transfer the manage-ment of health infrastructure of the KPKgovernment like basic health units (BHUs)to foreign private companies. It means that

Security fears linked to KPgovt’s foreign funded

healthcare projectthe staff of these foreign companies shallassume the managerial control of the BHUsetc. These foreign companies will being theirown staff and the BHUs staff will be at themercy of these companies.

The project named “Revitalisation andStrengthening the Health Services Deliv-ery in Crisis Affected Districts of KhyberPakhtunkhwa under Public Private Partner-ship” will receive $16 billion from “MultiDonor Trust Fund”, a consortium of for-eign donors including Australia, Nether-lands, Denmark, European Union, Finland,Germany, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, UK andUSA. The MTDF is led by World Bank.

The project will cover six out of 25 dis-tricts of KPK including Buner, Kohistan,Torghar, Lower Dir, Dera Ismail Khan andBattagram. Pakistan’s internal security willbe seriously undermined if companies withforeign connections are given a licence toreplace the provincial government in theremote and sensitive areas of KPK.

It shall seriously undermine the secu-rity of the country, if it is infiltrated bysuch elements in its own backyard. It canalso invite serious reaction from thosewho disapprove the presence of such el-ements in our midst. The present difficul-ties in fighting polio are the outcome ofthe Shakil Afridi, Save the Children andCIA triangle.

6 prisonersescape fromDalbandin

police stationCHAGAI—Six prisoners es-caped from Dalbandin PoliceStation after breaking thebackside of the lock-up, atnight between Sunday andMonday. District Police Of-ficer, Chagai, Asad Raza toldmedia, here on Monday thatthe six accused wanted in dif-ferent cases including themurder, theft, dispute andothers were arrested and de-tained in the lock-up of PSDalbandin. “At night be-tween Sunday and Monday,the six accused taking thebenefit of extreme coldweather, broke the back wallof the lock-up and escapedfrom the police station,” hesaid. He said that the accusedwere residents of different ar-eas of Chagai district.

“The police have beenconducting raids at thehouses of their relatives inorder to re-arrest the ac-cused,” the DPO said. Hesaid that the police person-nel deployed at Dalbandinpolice station were beinginterrogated. He said that asearch operation has beenlaunched. Further probewas underway.

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D —Pres iden tMamnoon Hussain onMonday stressed forstrong and vigilant over-sight at all levels in thecountry, especially the Fed-erally Administered TribalAreas (FATA), to ensureeffective and vigorousanti-polio drive and reachout to each and every childacross the country.

He called for engaginglocal populace, especiallythe influential people in-cluding Imams and Ulema,

President for effective, vigorousanti-polio drive

religious scholars and thetribal elders, in the fightagainst polio and persuad-ing people to vaccinatetheir children against po-lio.

The President was chair-ing a briefing on polio situ-ation in the country here atthe Aiwan-e-Sadr.

He said Imam-e-KaabaSheikh Abdur Rehman Al-Sudais was being invitedto visit the country as partof government’s efforts toremove misperceptionsabout polio vaccinationand expressed the hope

that his visit would helpstrengthen thegovernment’s efforts tomake Pakistan a polio-freecountry.

The President said anumber of renowned Is-lamic scholars had given‘Fatwas’ in favour of poliodrops and hoped that thevisit of Imam of HolyKaaba would help the gov-ernment in convincing thepeople about the impor-tance of polio drops fortheir children’s health asthe people of Pakistan heldthe Imam in high esteem.

Abducted boyrecovered, died

in hospitalFAISALABAD—A 4-year-oldboy who was abducted acouple of days ago and wasrecovered by police in pre-carious condition, died inhospital.

According to police,Shah Zaib son of ShakeelSiddiqui resident ofMohallah Maqsood AbadSamanabad was abductedtwo days back outside hishouse. His captor demandedRs 500,000 as ransom for therelease of the boy.

Samanabad police af-ter registrat ing a case,took Nauman alias Nomiinto custody on suspi-cion. The accused, duringinvest igation, revealedabout the whereabout ofthe boy. The police raidedat a godown adjacent tothe house of accused andfound the boy with tap onhis mouth and hands tiedwith string and his condi-tion was critical.

The police shifted theboy to Allied hospital wheredoctors put him intensivecare unit where he died.

Meanwhile, ProvincialMinister Rana Sana Ullahvisited the house of ill-fatedboy and condoled with hisfather.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The districtgovernment Monday de-cided to restrict the move-ments of Afghan refugeesresiding in various areas ofthe provincial metropolis,besides keeping strict vigi-lance of their camps.

The decision was takenby Commissioner PeshawarDivision Capt. (R) MunirAzam in a high level meet-ing held here to review se-curity situation inPeshawar.

The meeting reviewedtarget killing of Ulema of dif-ferent sects, kidnapping forransom and cases of extor-

District Govt decidesto restrict Afghan

Refugees’ movementtion and decided to activatepeace committees and sur-veillance system at“Mohalla” levels.

The meeting directedofficials of law enforcingagencies to have contactswith people and take imme-diate action on public com-plaints, besides deployingsecurity officials in residen-tial areas, shopping centresand public places to protectlives of citizens.

At the end of the meet-ing, the Commissioner di-rected all security bodies tostrengthen coordinationwith each other and holdpeace and security meetingevery month.

25 mortar shellsrecovered

SWAT—Law enforces haverecovered 25 mortar shellsin a search operation con-ducted at Mangaltaan areahere Monday, securitysources confirmed.

According to details, ona tip off security forces andpolice started a search op-eration in Mangaltaan areaof district Charbaagh andrecovered 25 mortar shells.The shells were sack-wrapped and hidden in acave.—APP

Beware of those whomay sabotage dialogueAS preparations are afoot for dialogue with Taliban and both sides

have expressed their willingness to carry forward the process in ameaningful and result-oriented manner, fresh attempts are being

made apparently by some vested interests to sabotage the move. On Sun-day, five people lost their lives and over thirty sustained injuries whentwo hand grenades were lopped at spectators in a cinema hall in Peshawar.

In the first place, it is something really serious that despite frequentincidents of terrorism and subversion, the Government as well as thecivil society is not adopting necessary security measures to avoid lossof lives and property. One fails to understand as to how a person suc-ceeded in taking grenades inside the hall despite warning to cinemahouse owners by the authorities concerned to remain vigilant againstpossible incidents of terrorism. Taliban have distanced themselves awayfrom the attack but the incident was obviously planned to create misun-derstanding as Taliban are on record issuing Fatawas and statementsagainst cinema houses and video shops. KP Information Minister has apoint when he says the attack was planned by a third force with nefari-ous designs of undermining the dialogue process. Earlier, it is known toall that the United States always droned the dialogue process but in viewof the universal condemnation in Pakistan and negative reaction from theworld community as well, the US seems to be exercising somewhat re-straint in that regard but it is understood that US agents are spread all overthe country and are capable to carrying out terrorist and subversive activi-ties in collaboration with their local cohorts. There is also evidence ofpresence of Indian agents, arms and money in FATA, KP and Balochistanbesides activities of agencies of some other countries. Criminal elementsare also active in the garb of Taliban and they are capable of doing any-thing for a few bucks. We would, therefore, urge both the Governmentand Taliban and more so to Taliban to exercise vigilance against thosewho might be interested in derailing the dialogue process.

Thickening drama ofImran Farooq’s murder

AIRING of a documentary by BBC on the murder of MQM leader Dr.Imran Farooq has thickened the controversy surrounding the case

and it is taking new dimensions with the passage of time. The documen-tary, which identified two alleged culprits, created a stir among support-ers and sympathizer of MQM Chief Altaf Hussain, who himself spoke atlength on the issue a few days back.

After an emotional statement on Thursday by MQM supremo who spokeout against the “false allegations” and “negative propaganda” being spreadabout him, and advising party cadres to foil the “conspiracy”, the MQMmade a show of strength mainly in Karachi on Sunday where party loyalistsexpressed their full support to their leader. Senior leader of the party Dr.Farooq Sattar, who is enraged over allegations, termed propaganda againstAltaf Hussain as propaganda against Pakistan’s survival and stability, indi-cating how precarious the issue has become. Meanwhile, British authoritieson Sunday formally wrote to Pakistan demanding handing over of suspectsin murder case of Dr Imran Farooq, who was assassinated in London in2010. In a 20-page letter to Federal Interior Ministry, the London Metro-politan Police claims that trail of the MQM leader’s murder goes to Paki-stan. Scotland Yard and London Police are known for their professionalismbut it is intriguing that Imran Farooq murder case has been allowed to lin-ger on for about three and a half years, which casts not only negative asper-sions on performance of London Police, but also creating problems as weare witnessing today. MQM has never opposed investigations into the mur-der of its erstwhile senior leader but it has legitimate concerns about mediacampaign. Therefore, the prudence demands that the case should be handledin pure professional manner without involvement of media and taken to itslogical conclusion. British authorities as well as Government of Pakistanshould also make it clear as to who the two suspects are.

Fabulous idea ofmarvellous new Silk RoadCHINESE President Xi Jining has told a visiting high level delegation

that his country wanted to work with Gulf Coperation Council (GCC)to promote the building of the new Silk road economic belt across Asiaand Europe. Earlier during his visits to Central Asia and South East Asia,Mr Xi Jining proposed the establishment of two Silk roads to link withthese regions. Another project of far reaching importance which is underactive consideration and will be implemented in due course of time, isPakistan-China trade corridor that would link China to Gwadar port inBalochistan.

Armed with tens of billions of dollars in investment deals and ro-mantic tales of ancient explorers, the fabulous idea of marvellous newsilk roads advanced by President Xi Jining is remarkable and reflectshow China has futuristic view that would change the map of world’strade and economic collaboration. GCC countries have welcomed theChinese initiatives and some of them have already announced that theywould actively participate in the construction of the new Silk Road eco-nomic belt and the Maritime Silk Road. The GCC enthusiasm for theSilk Road partnership with China fits in perfectly with the historicalrole the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf played in connecting Asia, Af-rica and Europe. Ancient Arabian merchants nearly monopolized thatrole for centuries, until European powers wrested it from them in the16th century. The proposal by President Xi that China and Central Asiancountries should build an “economic belt along the Silk Road”, a trans-Eurasian project spanning from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea andto the South Asian countries to build a new maritime silk road as well asto the GCC for the new economic belt across Asia and Europe, wouldtransform the world and give a leading role to China which has emergedas a super power. Like the past achievements including the Great Wall,we expect that the Chinese would succeed in achieving this vision ofbuilding Silk Roads if one keeps in view how much importance Chinais attaching to the new initiatives, which are being promoted with greatfanfare at both the official and popular levels.

To talk, or not to talk to Taliban?

Syria’schemicalweapons

PRESIDENT Obama boastedin his State of the Union address last week that “Ameri-

can diplomacy, backed by thethreat of force, is why Syria’schemical weapons are being elimi-nated.” In theory, the statement iscorrect, but in practice, the land-mark effort to destroy an entirestockpile of dangerous chemicalweapons has stalled. If the effortcannot be put back on track, it willraise anew the question ofwhether Mr. Obama is still seri-ous about his “threat of force.” Noone should be surprised that theinternational effort is behindschedule. The original deadline toremove all so-called Priority Onechemicals, the most dangerous, byDec. 31, and all Priority Twochemicals by Feb. 5, was terriblyambitious for an operation that iscomplex even in peacetime anddoubly difficult in the midst of acivil war. The chemicals must betransported to the coast, then by seato a destruction facility on board aUS vessel, the MV Cape Ray, andneutralized safely.

But the effort has stalled. Syriahas failed to fulfill its part of thedeal, moving only 4 percent of thechemicals to the port at Latakia.According to a statement madeWednesday by the United States tothe executive council of the Orga-nization for the Prohibition ofChemical Weapons in the Hague,Syrian President Bashir al-Assadis, in effect, slow-walking thechemicals in order to obtain moresecurity equipment. US Ambassa-dor Robert P. Mikulak told thecouncil that Syria has demanded“armoured jackets for shippingcontainers, electronic countermea-sures, and detectors for improvisedexplosive devices.” He said thedemands are “without merit” and“display a ‘bargaining mentality’rather than a security mentality.”Mr. Assad’s gambit is unaccept-able. The chemical weapons re-moval was the direct outgrowth ofthe use of poison gas to kill morethan 1,400 people last year, includ-ing women and children. The evi-dence pointed directly at Mr.Assad’s forces for use of thechemical weapons. Further delayby Syria in the movement of thesedeadly substances to the coast willonly compound Mr. Assad’s com-plicity in the grave crime of theoriginal attack. Now, just monthslater, it appears that Mr. Assad isplaying games. This cannot be tol-erated. Mr. Obama has been no-ticeably adverse to direct US mili-tary action in Syria, but if Syriacontinues to treat the chemicalweapons as a bargaining chip, thethreat must be made real, and usedif necessary. Russia, Syria’s pa-tron, claimed Friday that Mr. Assadis “acting in good faith.” Ratherthan provide such cover, it oughtto swiftly persuade Mr. Assad toquit this reckless game of chicken.— The Washington Post

*****

Hate crimesin India

THE magnitude of hatecrimes in the Indian capitalhas crossed the barrier of the

unbelievable. The beating to deathof a young student from India’snorth eastern state of ArunachalPradesh last week, over an argu-ment regarding his distinctivelydifferent looks and clothing, is an-other tragic statistic in the spate ofhate crimes on the rise in the capi-tal. Its continuing bias for fellowIndians who gravitate to it fromother parts of the country seekingeducation or employment is reflec-tive of the larger fraying of the In-dian democratic fabric, a rendingthat is in process. The repetitivenature of crimes in Delhi due tochauvinism, ethnic discriminationand women disempowerment areinarguably more the norm than theexception and they are testimonyto the sub-text of intolerance thatunderlines Delhi’s cosmopolitandemographic. If Delhi continues toallow such unforgivable incidentsto take place, despite being thecapital of the world’s largest de-mocracy and a country that pridesitself on its cultural and ethnic di-versity, it is guilty of being unableto honour its enviable privilege.There is little hope for the rest ofIndia if its capital is a bad rolemodel. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

THE burning question, weighingheavily not only on the decision

making process of the federal gov-ernment, but also on the mind of ourpopulation at large; seems to be:Whether to talk to Taliban or not?Our political parties also have a var-ied stance, on this issue, dependingupon their ideological and politicalpositions. It has to be understood thatPakistan, is today facing a full-blown religious insurgency, whichrequires firm counter insurgencymeasures. These measures requireboth Talk and operation against in-surgents. In other words, it has to beboth fight and talk; and not just talkor fight. Talks or negotiations as anessential element of counter insur-gency measures, are essential, butto accept, that the insurgency couldbe over come, just by negotiationwith out the use of force by the state,would be a flawed position

Ideally, there should be no talksby the government with militant or-ganization, which do not accept theconstitutions of Pakistan, and har-bors militant wings. But recogniz-ing the situation on the ground; andin face of the existential threat thatPakistan faces; talks can be held withmilitants, but only as a mean to theend and not the end in itself; whichhas to of-course, be the creation ofpeace in Pakistan. Talks can, how-ever, be only one aspect of counterinsurgency efforts, which requiresmany other aspects like re-orienta-tion and assimilation of individuals,

affected by and involved inthe insurgency.The four-member commit-tee, formed by the PrimeMinister, to hold negotiationswith the militants, seems tohave a very difficult and un-

enviable task before them. This taskof the committee is difficulties be-cause of the absence of any concreteterms of reference before them. Themilitants with whom they are to ne-gotiate, have not proved to be ratio-nal actors in past, and have refusedto accept the state and constitution ofPakistan. The avowed aim of the mili-tants is the promulgation of an Islamicsystem, based on their interpretationof Islam. Short of this objective oftheirs, they ado not seem to be ame-nable to any other understanding.

As talks, necessarily, involvesgive and take; one fails to understand,what the govt delegation could giveto dogmatic demands of the militants.Some government spokesman, haveclaimed, that talks would be held withonly those groups of militants, whoaccept State and constitution of Pa-kistan. This condition, however,seems very for fetched; and may nothave many subscribers amongst mili-tant groups. Talks with militantgroups, may be more successful, af-ter force has been used against them,and cost of militancy made suffi-ciently unbearable for them.

In Pakistani context, the divi-dends from both talks and operationshave been mixed. From the Shakaiagreement, with Nek Mohammad inSouth Waziristan in 2004, more thana dozen agreements have been madewith the militants. None of theseagreements could hold, due to theinherent expanding desire of the mili-tants, to bring more territory under

their sway and influence. The peaceagreement in Swat is another verygood example, where taking advan-tage of cease-fire, the militants tookover a few more districts, before armyoperation was held against them.

The opponents of military opera-tions against the militants, point outto the failures of the operations. Firstof all, this assertion is not true. Armyhas conducted, very successful opera-tions, in Swat, Bajaur and SouthWazirsitan. But as mentioned earlier,military operations, is only one partof a successful counter insurgencyoperation. Once the area is clearedof insurgents, other counter insur-gency measures like rebuilding of in-frastructure; and rehabilitation of thelocal population has to take place.This task comes in the remit of the ci-vilian authorities, which due to lackof capacity, are unfortunately not al-ways up to the task.

Another important factor, contrib-uting towards less than satisfactory re-sults of military operations against theTaliban, has been the concept of goodand bad Taliban; to which are govern-ment and army subscribe. There hasbeen a very deep seated belief, preva-lent in our defense establishment, thatcertain Taliban groups like the Haqaninet work, operating in NorthWaziristan, is pro-Pakistan; and couldbe effectively used as Pakistan’s stra-tegic asset in Afghanistan, after thewithdrawal of US forces by the end ofthis year. This thinking is clearly faulty,and has to be given up.

Similarly the Punjab Govern-ment of PML-N has been very softon sectarian terrorist groups likeLashker – Jhangvei and Sepah – e –Sahaba. The main concern of thePunjab Government, it seem, hasbeen to protect the mainland of

Pak-China relations

SINO-Pakistan relations beganin 1950 when Pakistan wasamong the first countries to

break relations with Taiwan and rec-ognize the People’s Republic ofChina. Pakistan also supportedChina over the issue of Hong Kongand Taiwan and condemned themachinations against China in thename of Tibet. China on its part hassupported Pakistan in its just causes,and helped Pakistan in variety ofprojects including Gwadar PortProject and Saindak Copper Projectin Balochistan. Earlier, MachineTool Factory of Karachi and HeavyMechanical Complex at Taxila werealso established with China’s help.China has extended full cooperationto make Pakistan self-reliant by pro-viding know-how with a view tostrengthening and ensuring territo-rial integrity and sovereignty of Pa-kistan. At the present Beijing andIslamabad are involved in joint pro-duction of JF-17 Thunder aircraft,which has the most sophisticatedavionics. The launch of JF-17 Thun-der aircraft production project wasdescribed as a giant leap towardsindigenization, which will help Pa-kistan maintain minimum level ofdeterrence in both conventional andunconventional fields.

Pakistan has always appreciatedand expressed its gratitude for thecontinued Chinese help for theprogress and prosperity of Pakistan.Pak-China friendship is a majorsource of concern for anti-Pakistanlobby. Such lobbies are trying tocreate fissures between China and

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 2852027-8, Ext: 116Email: magazinesocialdiary@hotmail.com —Proverb

Punjab, what these sectarian terror-ist did in other parts of country, es-pecially Baluchistan, has not beenof much concern to the provincialPML-N government. Now thatPML-N also rules in centre, and isresponsible for whole country, onehopes that their attitude will change.

In a surprise move, the Talibanhas also nominated a five-membercommittee, to negotiate on its behalfwith the government. The compo-sition of the committee, which be-sides others, also include the nameof PTI chairman Imran khan, whichmay be a source of some discomfi-ture for him. It would have beenbetter, if the Taliban had constituteda committee of its own members tonegotiate on its behalf. The pres-ence of their own committee willgive more gravitas to the talks. Ne-gotiations should be held by allmeans, but never at the expense ofcompromising the sovereignty andvital interests of Pakistan.

To sum it up, fighting and over-coming the Taliban insurgency, is go-ing to be a long drawn out process;both the government and masses,have to show considerable patience.The option of talks with the militantsshould always, be on the table; butthis option, should be used as one ofthe many instruments, to carry out, asuccessful counter insurgency opera-tion. Due to the lack of vision anddecision based on self-interest of ourleaders, both civilian and military, weare in the militancy quagmire for thelong haul. As a nation we have to bepatient, and be prepared for both tem-porary reversals and sacrifices, tocome out of the mess that we findour self’s stuck in today.—The writer is author, citizenjournalist and entrepreneur.

Pakistan, but given thetime-tested friendshipthey are bound to fail.China-Pakistan Eco-nomic Corridor (CPEC)is a source of threat tothose countries compet-ing with China. There isa perception that detrac-tors of both countries

have devious plans to create threatsto Chinese security in Pakistan to stopChinese investment. However, Paki-stan is determined to ensure theirsafety and security. Those opposedto Pak-China’s strong ties are tryingto link the ETIM issue in Xinjiang toPakistan and Taliban. Pakistan holdsChina in very high esteem, andknows that stability of Pakistan iscornerstone of Chine’s policy. There-fore, one cannot even imagine thatPakistan would ever be involved inany scheme detrimental to China.Both China and Pakistan cherish theirfriendship and consider their friendlyrelations as everlasting.

China is, indeed, a peace-lovingcountry and it has neither bullied itssmaller neighbours nor has it evertried to extend hegemony over othercountries. It is more interested inimproving its economy rather thanengaging itself in any military en-tanglement because it believed thateconomic strength can help increasemilitary strength. That is why it hashitherto opted to seek political andnegotiated settlement of the Taiwanissue although it has left no doubt inany one’s mind that it will not hesi-tate to go to any extent to retrieve itsterritory that was separated byChiang Kai Shek through a con-spiracy. Anyhow, China’s policy ofhaving friendly relations with all itsneighbors should not be misunder-stood, as it has the capability and theresources to give adequate responseto those harboring evil designs. Infact, the tolerance China shows toother countries is its strength. How-

ever, propagandists continue raisingdoubts about Pak-China all-weatherfriendship. When they cannot findany issue to make a dent in Pak-Chinarelationship, they start publishingcorruption reports through selectedgroup of journalists in the West.

Unfortunately, regional and inter-national powers including US, West-ern powers, India and Japan, drivenby their imperial designs to seize andgrab energy (oil, gas and coal), goldand other natural resources, wish tocreate a wedge between China andPakistan. Their misleading analysisand skewed reports using jargons aremeant to create a sense of mistrustand misperceptions among them. Arecent analysis titled “China in Pa-kistan: An Awkward RelationshipBeneath the Surface” published byRoyal United Strategy Institute(RUSI Newsbrief of 15 Jan 2014) isa case point. USA and western pow-ers being economic rivals of Chinaare trying to create suspicions be-tween China and Pakistan, but bothfriendly countries continue with theirplanning to undertake mega economicprojects like China-Pakistan Eco-nomic Corridor (CPEC) connectingPakistani port of Gwadar with Kashgar(Xinjiang region) China, constructionof dams and Chinese investment inPakistani textile, energy, banking,commerce and industry sectors andnumerous other development projects.

Pakistani writers like ShaheenSehbai, wittingly or unwittingly sub-scribe to foreign propaganda againstChina - a strategic partner and all-weather friend of Pakistan. In hisUrdu article titled “Cheen KiWikileaks” (JANG-27th January2014), he expressed bitterness overPak-China cooperation claiming thatrampant corruption in China will behazardous for Pakistan. He also sug-gested that government of Pakistanshould not place all eggs in Chinesebasket. His article seems to have dam-aging content for Pakistan. Although

You can’t tella book by itscover.

he claims to have picked up detailsof Chinese corruption from foreignWebsite (The Global Mail and In-ternational Consortium of Investi-gative Journalists), yet timing ofsuch reports clearly shows a mindsetand a game-plan to create negativeimpressions about Pak-China part-nership. The propagandists arelaunching their anti-China campaigninvolving Pakistani writers to gaincredibility. Pak-China partnershipare resolved to exploit regional eco-nomic opportunities and completemega development projects, whichwill automatically counter anti-China propaganda and frustrate thedesigns of the intriguers.

China has indeed helped Paki-stan in economic and defencespheres. Last year, the governmentformally awarded the contract forexpansion and operation of GwadarPort to China, which is being oper-ated by the state-run Chinese firm,China Overseas Port Holding Com-pany (COPHC). The fact remainsthat the port has the potential to giveeconomic boost to its economy andmake Pakistan as trade corridor forCentral Asian States, China and theGulf, as 60 per cent trade of gas andoil is channeled through this route.Pakistan would be in a position tooffer Central Asian countries the ac-cess to sea through Gwadar Port, ascommunications network linkingPakistan to Central Asia is inprogress. Having that said, China willexpedite the development of portwhich will increase the Gross Do-mestic Product (GDP) of the prov-ince, and consequently per capita in-come of the people of Balochistan.Both countries are on one page sofar as their strategic thinking andpolicy framework are concerned.Pak-China excellent relations arereflective of strong bonds andfriendship, free of petty prejudices.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Akbar Jan MarwatEmail:marwat.akbarjan@gmail.com

Voice of the People

Unjustified gassecurity deposit

ENGR M AKRAM NIAZI

1. SNGPL and SSGCL have im-posed additional security depositsof several thousand rupees on theassumption as if all the law-abid-ing consumers, including thosepaying gas bills regularly for over10 or 20 years, will be defaulterssome day and disappear. Thesestate-owned companies will collectRs.14 billion, rather already col-lected. OGRA has approved it.Now, even suppliers of electricity,water and other services may fol-low suit which will hurt employ-ees of these gas companies as well.

2. Individual consumers can-not afford justice through courts, op-posed by these rich companies. In ademocracy, people’s representativesare expected to look after interest ofcommon citizens. Now, it is to beseen whether our worthy parliamen-tarians and Minister for Petroleumexamine this concept of extractingmoney from helpless consumers,based on total distrust in all citizens.—Rawalpindi

Right moveby government

ABDUL WAHID

Apropos the report that a criminalcase for a blast in Rawalpindi hasbeen registered against the chief ofand the spokesman for the bannedTTP wherein they have been nomi-nated as accused for the crime.The move should receive due appre-ciation from all sections of societysince they left no option for thisgrieved nation but to curb the crimeat any cost. It seems that a consen-sus is developing that a full-fledgedwar should be declared on the TTPand its allies. It may, however, bepointed out that in view of the spe-cific claim made by the TTP that theattack in question was made bythem, the inclusion of the TTP chiefand the spokesman should not havebeen included just as abettor but asthe main accused. Keeping in viewthe sophisticated means and meth-ods of terrorism, particularly the vastutilisation of suicide attacks man-aged by the upper level hierarchy ofthe TTP, any offer of talks with themilitants seems to be a mockery.If there is any discrepancy or lacunain the prevailing law, it should beamended accordingly so that theconspirator, abettor and manager ofterrorist attacks could be brought tojustice in its real terms and spirit.—Karachi

Negotiationswith Taliban

S R H HASHMI

Generally speaking, it would makesense to try to resolve disputesthrough negotiations instead of re-sorting to brute force. However, alot depends on what exactly theproblem is which would, in turn,determine whether it is capable ofbeing solved through negotiations ina satisfactory manner?

There can be situations wherethe two sides to the dispute may beso far apart that there may not be ameeting point because in order toarrive at it, one of the parties wouldhave to make a fundamental changein its stance which it may not beprepared to do simply because do-ing so would amount to abandon-ing its mission. In such cases, thenegotiation process would come tonothing and would be a completewaste of time and resources. Evenin a case like described above, theparties might want to conduct thenegotiations, if for no other reason

TTP is more than politicalPROFESSOR ALYA ALVI

TTP, a banned entity in the records of the Pakistan’s state papers, has nominated five negotiators,who are not from within TTP especially Imran Khan. Isn’t it a very clever move on part of the TTP,

which in other words has maligned the head of an emerging political party of national standing and acouple of others who are already thought of being on the back of the banned TTP and want to create astate within the state of Pakistan thus to push the solidarity of the country onto a total chaos, confusionand collapse? This is their psychological win number one to controversialize the men like Imran Khanand dub all including the other four as ‘their men’ and responsible for all terrorism in the country. Thenominated five are, obviously the men of higher stature as compared to the four-member governmentteam, which consists of two journalists and two ex-officials; though their professional integrity is beyondany doubts yet it is not known whether they can withstand pressure, gives TTP another psychologicaledge. Yet in another move, they have further expanded the list of their nominees and has designated aknown terrorist as head of the team which includes prominent figures from PTI, JI, JUI-F, JUI-S and amaulvi from Islamabad known for his anti-state activities. But the most of all is the cleverest of all thatthe TTP has vowed to provide iron-clad security to peace negotiators in the areas under their control.That means the security they guarantee is more reliable than the security that the government mayguarantee. It shows of the brains working within the ruthless ‘madness’ or the think-tanks thinking forthem. They are not alone the lone warriors challenging the state of Pakistan, they are more political thanour politicians. It simply means that the ball has been thrown back not only in the government’s courtbut also in the five individuals they have nominated. Especially Imran Khan seems to be in dire straits.It is a formal recognition of a banned outfit and a group of oulaws to be at par with the state and mobilizethe affairs to their interests which is of course against the sovereignty of Pakistan as a sovereign country– a bog question mark for the Constitutional system and Parliament / government of Pakistan. But thisis high time for him to learn real politicking. Is there no one on government’s side, in the intelligentsiaand media who is capable enough of not only outsmarting the Taliban on table but also move ahead withclear dominance and clarity? Otherwise, such psychological retreats would add to nation’s dismay.‘Fazlullah ka roshan chehra’ column is the indicator.—Rawalpindi

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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.

—Editor

Musharraf’s trial: Act of vengeance or justice

WE’VE been hearing andreading about article 6 ofConstitution of Pakistan

for months with reference to PervaizMusharraf’s trial. From past fewmonths the trial and the story ofGeneral Musharaf is getting a greathype. As we all remember that newlyPrime Minister Nawaz Shareef an-nounced in National Assembly on24th June 2013 that Federal Govern-ment has decided to prosecute Gen-eral Pervez Musharraf under Article6 of the Constitution of Islamic Re-public of Pakistan.

There are some queries regard-ing this trail that only Musharrafshould be charged with ‘high treason’or those persons who aided him inhis act of ‘high treason’ should alsoface the same charge? Secondly fromthe history of Pakistan is Musharrafthe only one who has abrogated theconstitution? Is no one else in Paki-stan guilty of the same heinouscrime? Thirdly there are numbers ofpoliticians in almost all parties whosupported the dictator for all uncon-stitutional steps by him back in ’99& ’07. What about them?

I am not here to support or de-fend Pervez Musharraf neither I for-give this crime of high treason. As acitizen of Pakistan I have a strong be-

lieve that anyone who abrogates theconstitution should be treated underlaw without any free hand. We allknow that majority of the problemswhich Pakistan is facing and passingtoday is due to Musharraf and his re-gime. But what about a large numberof other people who are guilty of thesame crime of flouting the constitu-tion and still are enjoying immunityon one pretext or the other.

Section 1 and 2 of the article 6says any person who abrogates or at-tempts or conspires to abrogate, sub-verts or attempts or conspires to sub-vert the Constitution by use of forceor show of force or by other uncon-stitutional means shall be guilty ofhigh treason. Section (2) defines thatany person aiding or abetting the actsmentioned in clause (1) shall likewisebe guilty of high treason.

The question here arises is thatas evident from the 6(2) any personwho “Assists” abrogation/subversionmust also be tried of high treason. Soaccording to 6(1) Musharraf can betrialed, but how about 6(2) as the onewho assisted him in the coup? Whatabout them? As no action is beingtaken on them. As many generals,including the ex-army men, judges,politicians, bureaucrats and otherswere in the dock with Musharraf asthey “aided, abetted and collabo-rated” with him in ‘subverting’ theconstitution in 1999 and 2007. Ex-treme level of hypocrisy is that thesepeople served the dictators and reaped

the benefits of their associations butnow they are the self-styled champi-ons of democracy. Strange but true.

We all know that Constitution ofPakistan has been violated and des-ecrated time and again. As constitu-tion of Islamic Republic of Pakistan1973 which political party or leaderworked for article 3, 11, 25 (1), 32 and38 etc. We will find not a single partywho seriously worked for the welfareof the people so in other sense we cansay they have also abrogated the con-stitution with impunity. These leadersand political parties only act on theirprofits and power politics as they haveplayed havoc with the life, property,honor, dignity and respect of the citi-zens. They have introduced with“thana and Patwari system” whichhave seriously damaged the freedomof people. They have plunged the na-tion in worst kind of slavery, wherebythe MNAs / MPs are no less than ademi gods for their people. Aren’tthese rulers and political parties guiltyof abrogating the constitution?

In a country where tax evadersroam scot free and infact look moreprosperous. In a country where ter-rorists are infact being requested toconsider negotiations with the gov-ernment after playing football withheads of our martyrs. In a country,where corrupt politicians have beenNROed and now talk about patrio-tism. In a country, where rapists andkillers have more rights and not asingle of them being hanged. In a

IT was a Christmas message Iwas supposed to give at the local YMCA. I was there that

evening on the stage, halfwaythrough my talk, when I saw theeyes of the whole audience moveto the side of the hall. I looked andsaw two priests in their white cas-socks walking across. Immediatelythe organizers, the chairman and thesecretary followed by a retinue of

other office bearers got up. They wel-comed the two priests, took them totheir seats at the front of the hall, justbelow where I was speaking andseated them there.

I looked at the audience, their eyeswere fixed to the tamasha that washappening: I wondered whether Ishould stop or continue, but I went onand slowly the audience returned theirattention to what I was saying. I knewI had lost them for a whole minutewhile the charade had taken place, notbehind, but right there in front of thehall. The chairman, the secretary, andtheir retinue of helpers then sat backand looked up at me with smiles ontheir faces; they had completed a task,

now they waited for me to completemine, so they could get on with thenext: I plodded on, knowing as aspeaker I had lost the moment, andmost probably the evening. You haveseen such too I am sure; organizersso busy organizing their event, theyfail to notice that they are disruptingthe meaningfulness of the program.

For them, the talk, the message isnot important: It is to them, a mentionin their AGM report that a meeting wasconducted, attended by a few hun-dreds. I have seen priests in churchbeckoning peon when another priestis praying and telling the peon toswitch off the lights in the main porchor to tell the choir to sing softer or

The busy organiser..!louder. For them, prayer is not an actof communicating with their God,but a time when they can see thateverything is being well organized.

Not for them the meaning orcontent of an event, but just theholding of it for their record books.I tried to put more force into myspeaking that evening, even usedsome drama and a joke to get thepeople’s attention back, but fromtheir looks as they returned to me, Iknew the organizer had won: Hehad stolen the moment and musthave been busy jotting down in hisreport, ‘The Christmas programwas a huge success..!’—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

country, where moral policing isdone by those who have had theirhands and heads fully dipped in theturmoil which we see in Pakistanof today and we are informed ev-ery day on media while trying Presi-dent Pervez Musharraf is so neces-sary for the sanctity of the countryunder part of Article 6. How this isgoing to put Pakistan back on trackon prosperity? How this is going totake care of all the financial woesof my country? How this wouldsolve terrorism issues we face in thecountry today?

If Musharraf can be trialed thenwe have to open the criminalPandora box in which all the secretsof those people are kept who abro-gated the constitution. Taking outone person out from that box is notcalled a pure justice. Everyone is acriminal, it is unjust to hang oneand leave all others. And it is im-possible to hang all. So I suggestthat there should be a independentTruth and Reconciliation Commis-sion instead of courts in which dif-ferent stakeholders should be in-cluded and criminals linked withpolitics, army men, judiciary andbureaucrats should be trialed infront of that commission and theyhave a complete charge to pardonor make him arrest. While doing sotell the world that Pakistan is a law-ful and democratic State.—The writer is a human rightspractitioner.

Troubling questions for India after gang-rapes

THE gang-rape of visiting tourists women is prompting concern for the safety of foreign

travellers and raising questions overhow much progress has been madein India after a year in which consid-erable attention has been focused onthe prevalence of rape.

Indian police said that a 51-year-old Danish tourist was gang-rapedlast month in the popular Paharganjdistrict after asking a group of menfor directions to her hotel. Police havearrested two people in connectionwith the rape, according to the BBC.

The Danish ambassador con-firmed to Bloomberg that a Danishcitizen was involved in a rape case,but had no further comments. Thewoman was apparently travellingalone and was on the final day of hertrip, BBC writes. She boarded a flightout of India after the dastardly act.

The incident comes a year afterthe rape and death of a 23-year-oldstudent in a bus in New Delhi thatsparked mass protests across thecountry and a national dialogue onthe position of women in society and

the pervasiveness of rape. Since thatincident, a string of other high-pro-file rape cases kept the topic in thenews both at home and internation-ally. At least two other foreign tour-ists have been gang-raped, includinga Swiss tourist, an American womancamping with her husband, and awoman from the UK who jumped outof the window of her hotel to avoidan assault from hotel staff, accordingto the Indian Express.

The rape this August of a youngphotojournalist in Mumbai – long re-garded as safer for women than NewDelhi – and reports of rapes of youngchildren were especially shocking inIndia and caused large protests.

The government has made someeffort to crack down on the problem.Last March it passed a new law thatstrengthened the punishments forrape convictions by making the deathpenalty applicable in more cases. InSeptember, a New Delhi court sen-tenced four men to death for the rapeof the student on the bus.

Activists argue that far more,however, could be done. Of 23 otherrecent rape cases in that same NewDelhi court, 20 resulted in acquittal,Kavita Krishnan of the All India Pro-gressive Women’s Association told

Views From Abroad

The Christian Science Monitor thisfall: Justice seems to have becomerare in India, she argues: ‘it appliesonly to a case where there is publicoutrage. The process of prosecutionneeds to be improved so that everyrapist knows he is not going to goscot-free,’ she says.

The cases have taken a toll ontourism, with the number of femaletourists travelling to India droppingby 35 percent in the first three monthsof last year, according to an Aprilstudy by the Associated Chambers ofCommerce and Industry in India. Butone hopeful result is that it appearswomen may be more willing to re-port assaults. The Associated Pressreports that between January andOctober last year, 1,330 rapes werereported in Delhi and its suburbs,compared with 706 for all of 2012.

Shivam Vij, The Monitor’s NewDelhi correspondent, explained lastyear that many expert blame the mis-treatment on “deep-seated patriarchalnorms, especially in the more agrar-ian northern parts of the country – acultural explanation for why higherincome and educated segments alsopractice sex selection and why someregions in this diverse country areworse for women.” Yet those expla-

Chelsea Sheasleynations are only one part of the pic-ture, Mr. Vij reports. “India also hasmatrilineal traditions that were erasedby colonialism, notes women’s activ-ist Madhu Kishwar. Northeasternstates and tribal populations with thatlegacy have better sex ratios.”

Women face other gender in-equality issues in India, as Monitornoted in a feature on women’s statusin India: The World Economic Forumranked India 105 on the Gender GapIndex in 2012, up from the year be-fore, but below its 2006 ranking, andfar below countries like Ghana andBangladesh. It scored highest on po-litical empowerment and lowest inwomen’s health and survival.

The challenges faced by Indianwomen reflect broader contradic-tions: Two decades of economicgrowth and globalisation havebrought improved opportunities butalso greater inequality. That paradoxwas captured in a July survey thatranked India as the worst place to bea woman among the Group of 20countries that make up the world’sbiggest economies, based on param-eters like health services, threat ofviolence, and property rights.— Courtesy: The Christian ScienceMonitor

The $100 billion war

THE cold war resulted in an endto bipolar world, disintegrationof the former Soviet Union and

declaration of the unipolar world, vic-torious the USA. The end of the coldwar didn’t end wars for the USA.Since an end to cold war, the US hasbeen at war for 16 out of 23 years.Among those wars the ‘War on Ter-rorism’ is the most expensive and themost prolonged war. The US hasspent $ 100 billion and a dozen ofyear, but still in the state of war.Recently, in a State of Union speechon January 28, 2014 the US Presi-dent Brack Obama being staunchlydetermined to come out of the quag-mire of war stated, “We will com-plete our mission there by the endof this year, and America’s longestwar will finally be over.”

Pentagon presented two options;either ‘zero option’ completes with-

drawal of American troops from Af-ghanistan or to retain 10,000 Ameri-can soldiers. Practically, the US hasto cope with many challenges in Af-ghanistan, the challenge of fledglingdemocracy, the challenge of stubbornattitude of Karzai, the challenge ofenactment of the bilateral securityagreement which allows the legalphysical presence of the US in Af-ghanistan; without it the US wouldbe forced into a complete drawdownof its troops from the region, the chal-lenge of hefty funding and financialsupport of post 2014 while facing afiscal cliff. Hence, a challenging wareven after spending $100 billion.

According to the recent report inthe New York Times, on January262014, the US should refrain fromfor the ‘zero option’. It maintains thatthe US should stay to defend theAmerican facilities, conduct counter-terrorism raids including those ineastern Afghanistan where drones andnuclear monitoring are based. In thecase of the ‘Zero option’ the US willlose its base in Afghanistan to con-

duct drones and “nuclear monitoring”over the place, “That’s where the big-gest problem is,” Pakistan. The USparanoia about Pakistan’s nuclearweapons security and safety is notnew. This issue keeps the US Presi-dent Barack Obama awake at night,as the US perceives Pakistan’s inabil-ity to secure it nukes.

Objectively, Pakistan has devel-oped tactical nuclear weapons tostrengthen self- defense and to con-tain its arch rival’s aggressive ColdStart doctrine. Being a responsible na-tion, in this world of ‘Realism’ Paki-stan is not oblivious to changing se-curity dynamics in the world gener-ally and in South Asia particularly.Pakistan is continuously upgradingweapon systems to sustain credibil-ity of “full spectrum deterrence,”while in bearing mind the nuclearsafety and security, is paramount.

Pakistan has had maintained andasserts that Pakistan Nuclear Weap-ons are well dispersed, safe and se-cure insulated from the US self-imagined “rouge.” No terrorists

have dared to access Pakistan’s safeand secure strategic assets. Indeed,“Pakistan outranked India innuclear material security, a fact en-dorsed by the Nuclear Threat Ini-tiative (NTI) 2014 report.”

Hence, to retain troops in Af-ghanistan and operationalization ofdrone base under the pretext of un-safe Pakistan nuclear weapons isbaseless. The drone feud has bol-stered trust deficit betweenIslamabad and Washington. The USshould not perceive the post Af-ghanistan situation through narrowlens of self- raised nuclear issue. TheUS President “prudent limits on theuse of drones” should completelyhalt drone strikes on Pakistan.

The US can only “set an ex-ample for the rest of the world” bymutual confidence building, recon-ciliation, cooperation on nuclear is-sue and not leaving alone its non-NATO ally as it did in the wake ofcold war.—The writer is freelancecolumnist.

Salman AliEmail:salmanali088@gmail.com

Saima GhazanfarEmail:khan007_feroz@yahoo.com

than to postpone having to take de-cisions that might have a blowback,as seems to be the case with our gov-ernment, thus postponing the inevi-table out of sheer cowardice whilethe objective of the other party maybe to gain some advantages like therelease of some of its comradeslodged in prisons and to gain timeand opportunity to regroup and re-assemble to prepare for a more vig-orous assault.

While the government has al-ready announced its team for the ne-gotiations, the one nominated byTaliban presently consists of non-Taliban individuals. However, ac-cording to reports, Taliban are pre-paring lists of their demands and maywant Taliban prisoners released witha view to nominating some of themon their negotiation team.

In the meantime, Taliban spokes-man Shahidullah Shahid is reportedto have stated categorically that theobjective of Taliban is to get Shariaintroduced in Pakistan, whetherthrough peace or war.

In these circumstances, I thinkthe starting point should be to ascer-tain from Taliban as to what are thedetailed steps that they would wantthe government to take to ensureSharia-enforcement in Pakistan totheir satisfaction. Taliban have beeninvolved in a violent struggle for theenforcement of Sharia which hasgone on for years and has alreadyresulted in the death of thousands ofPakistanis, including Armed forcesand law-enforcement personnel. So,if they have gone to such an extentin their attempt to get Sharia enforced,they must have worked out measureswhich need to be introduced to makePakistani systems Sharia-compliant,to their liking.

The government negotiatingteam members owe it to the nation toact with integrity and ascertain rightin the beginning as to what theTaliban want and whether it wouldbe acceptable to the government andthe nation.

I hope the team members will notjust play in the hands of the govern-ment by keeping the nation engrossedin useless debate on peripheries formonths while ignoring the central is-sue, thus providing the governmentan opportunity to slip through manydubious deals which needed greaterscrutiny but did not catch attentionof the people because they, and themedia, were busy fuming and froth-ing over a dead-end issue.—Karachi

Nuclearplants’ safety

HUSSAIN SIDDIQUI

This is with reference to the criticismabout the sites chosen for nuclear re-actors. The spokesperson of the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs has said thatthe country has impeccable record forsafety and security in operatingnuclear power plants, and the bestpractices and standards set by theIAEA are followed.

A comprehensive legislationgoverning civil atomic energy activi-ties has been in place since 2001,whereas its functionality dates backto 1984, and rules and regulations areregularly reviewed with the help ofthe IAEA.

The Pakistan Nuclear Regula-tory Authority (PNRA) is thus ableto exercise control, monitoring andsupervision of all activities relatedto application and use of atomic en-ergy and matters incidental thereto,adhering to high international stan-dards.

The PNRA has the necessary ca-pacity, capability and competence, aswell as supporting infrastructure, toperform its duties diligently, whichincludes regulating operation of ex-isting power plants, grant of licencefor new sites and certification of newnuclear designs. A number of mea-

sures post-Fukushima have beentaken by the PNRA towards greaterintegration in the areas of plant safetyand security through sharing interna-tional experiences and expertise, soas to minimize major accidents, and,at the same time, emergency planningand preparedness has been strength-ened at the national level.

PNRA’s institutional mechanism,coupled with adoption of internation-ally- benchmarked practices, haveresulted in safe operations of allnuclear power plant installations, andthe PNRA is now globally recognizedas a credible and independent regu-lator. It ensures safety and securityin radioactive and nuclear materials,without any government intervention.While it protects operators and thepublic against undue radiologicalrisks, it establishes standards on li-ability for nuclear damage as well.For the purpose, the authority issues,at intervals, regulations for the imple-mentation and performance of theobligations both by the public andpower-sector installations.—Islamabad

Education inrural Sindh

TAMOOR SULAIMAN KAZI

This is apropos to the Annual Statusof Education Report (ASER), wouldlike to add some of my observations:First, a conference of highly-quali-fied serving and retired professorsand eminent scholars should be im-mediately convened by the SindhEducation Department to seek theirsuggestions.

All ghost schools should imme-diately start functioning properly,and ghost teachers be told to attendschools to educate children. It is thegovernment and the education de-partment, which have togetherhelped to worsen the education sys-tem in Sindh.

When new teachers are ap-pointed, they should be given sixmonths’ extensive training in fullydedicated prominent training insti-tutes in Pakistan. They should alsobe periodically imparted managementtrainings and academic skills. This isnecessary for them and the future oftheir students.

The US Consul-General in hisaddress at Sana’s Sindh conventionon education on Jan 11 had said that$155m would be spent on the SindhBasic Education Programme with theconstruction of 120 new schools (inseven districts of North Sindh andfive towns in Karachi). I hope thegovernment and the education depart-ment would do their utmost to utilizethe funds for the betterment ofSindh’s students.—Karachi

Jirga ordersgang rape

COL. RIAZ JAFRI (RETD)

If the Jirga at Muzzafargarh has re-ally sentenced a 40 year old widowto be gang raped by five men then ithas committed an offence under theHadood Ordinance and all the mem-bers of Jirga giving such a verdictwarrant to be stoned to death.—Rawalpindi

Police officers evacuate children from a Moscow school. An armed teenager burst into his Moscow school and killed ateacher and policeman before being taken into custody.

Traffic makes its way slowly down Hudson Street as heavy snow falls in New York. Afterseveral days of mild weather, snow has returned to the Northeast.

TIMOTHY SNYDERFEB

As Russian leaders, diplomats and commentators ponder the division ofUkraine, we must begin to ask what this

would actually mean. If the present crisis endswith the fragmentation of the Ukrainian state, theresult will be disastrous for all concerned, includ-ing Russia. The risk is that, in conditions of chaosand in the absence of a decisive Western stance,Russia could follow the logic of its current com-mitments to a very dangerous conclusion.

Unlike Europe and the United States,Russia has a clear stance on Ukraine. VladimirPutin’s hope for the future is his EurasianUnion, to be established next January as a ri-val to the European Union. Belarusian andKazakh strongmen are game to join his dicta-tors’ club. But since the idea has little popularsupport anywhere, Eurasian integration cantake place only in conditions of Russian domi-nation and local dictatorship. For Mr. Putin,the Eurasian Union would be meaninglesswithout Ukraine. Eurasian ideology is the

brainchild of Alexander Dugin, who has neverdisguised his admiration of fascism. His websitepublishes Russian strategists who claim thatUkraine is not a sovereign state.

The current crisis in Ukraine began becauseof Russian foreign policy. The Ukrainian gov-ernment, led by Viktor Yanukovych, seemedpoised to sign a popular association agreementwith the European Union. Mr. Putin jumped inquickly with cash and low gas prices for Mr.Yanukovych, who then abruptly changed course,refusing to sign it. Because Mr. Yanukovych’sfamily has amassed unbelievable wealth duringhis presidency, he might also have been con-cerned about the possibility that the EuropeanUnion would bring the rule of law. This wouldnot be a risk in the Eurasian Union.

Since late November, millions of Ukrainianshave campaigned for a pro-European course, onlyto find themselves branded extremists, foreignagents and criminals. With the Russian moneycame the Russian model of rule. Yanukovych hadthe Parliament illegally “pass” legislation that madeUkraine a dictatorship on Jan. 16.

The new laws were imitations of Russianones. But Ukraine is not Russia. Too manyUkrainians have tasted too much freedom fortoo long. The people resisted this sudden attemptat tyranny. Mr. Yanukovych lost control overlocal institutions of power, and last week madegestures toward the opposition by accepting theresignation of an unpopular prime minister andreversing some dictatorial laws. But grotesquerepression continues under a ministry of inter-nal affairs with close ties to Russia, and themilitary’s leadership is making noises about“stability.”

If Russia does intervene again, the next stagemight be an internal coup, where pro-RussianUkrainian politicians take power, perhaps retain-ing Mr. Yanukovych as a figurehead. The Ukrai-nian politicians responsible for the violence de-pend on Russian intervention for their politicalsurvival. If Russia supports an internal coup inUkraine, resistance will only increase.

For the time being, the Olympic Games atSochi might constrain Russian policy, since Mr.Putin has little interest in looking like an imperi-

alist aggressor while playing host to the world.Before and during the Games, it would beworthwhile watching for three signs of escala-tion: If Russian propaganda insists that theUkrainian opposition are Nazis and anti-Semites (such manipulative exploitation of thememory of World War II is already underway);if terrorist attacks in Russia during the Olym-pic Games are blamed on Ukrainian national-ists; and, finally, if Russian forces ostensiblyin southwestern Russia to secure the Gamesare assembled not to the east of Sochi but tothe west — along the Ukrainian border.

If the European Union does not act andthere is a Russian-backed internal coup inUkraine, the likely consequences are militarydisaster for Russia and political crisis in theEuropean Union. If European diplomats canbroker a solution, Russian diplomats and pun-dits will protest that Ukrainian democracy isnothing but Western meddling. But in theirhearts, most Russians, if perhaps not quite all,will be relieved.

—Courtesy The New York Times

MOSCOW—A 10th-grade stu-dent armed with two rifles burstinto his Moscow school onMonday and killed his geogra-phy teacher and a policemanbefore being taken into cus-tody, investigators said. Theboy’s father played a key rolein helping to free students be-ing held as hostages and pre-vent further violence, the citypolice chief said.

None of the children inSchool No. 263 at the timewere hurt, said KarinaSabitova, a police spokes-woman at the scene. Some ranfrom the building with theirteachers without stopping toput on their coats even thoughthe temperature was belowfreezing. The school in north-east Moscow is for children ingrades one through 11, as istypical in Russia.

The student gunman alsoseriously wounded a secondpolice officer who had re-sponded to an alarm from theschool, investigators said.

Such shootings in Russianschools are extremely rare. Anyattack on a school, however,unavoidably brings back

Student kills teacher,policeman in Moscow school

memories of the Beslan schoolsiege in 2004, when Islamicmilitants from Russia’s NorthCaucasus took about 1,000people hostage, most of themchildren. More than 300 hos-tages were killed when Russiansecurity forces stormed theschool.

Russia is on alert for ter-rorist attacks, especially afterIslamic militants asserted re-sponsibility for twin suicidebombings in the city ofVolgograd in December andthreatened to strike during theSochi Winter Olympics, whichbegin Friday in the Black Searesort. Monday’s attack, how-ever, has raised no suspicionsof any link to terrorism.

The armed teenager en-tered the school after threaten-ing the security guard, whomanaged to hit an alarm beforefollowing the student to hisclassroom, the spokesman forRussia’s main investigativeagency said.

“Without saying a word, hefired several shots at the geog-raphy teacher,” said VladimirMarkin, spokesman for the In-vestigative Committee.—AP

BERLIN—Germany’s foreign ministersays it is important to keep the EuropeanUnion’s door open to Turkey followingturbulence over a corruption scandal, andhe’s advocating opening two new sectionsof its membership talks.

Turkey’s talks on joining the EU be-gan in 2005 but have long been effectivelystalled, mainly due to Turkey’s disputewith EU member Cyprus and skepticismin some European nations about admittinga populous, largely Muslim country. Re-cent corruption allegations and Turkey’shandling of them also have caused con-cern.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Monday it wouldmake sense to open the sections ofTurkey’s membership negotiations that

German FM: Keep EU door open to Turkeyaddress justice and human rights.

Steinmeier said after meeting his Turk-ish counterpart that this would enable a“serious conversation about how thingsstand in Turkey at the moment.

Europe is our common home that wehave united around common norms, prin-ciples and values. As a part and parcel ofthe European family, Turkey not only hadan influence on the political, economic andsocio-cultural developments in the Conti-nent but has also been influenced by them.An overall evaluation of the history ofEurope cannot be made without analyz-ing the role that Turkey played in the Con-tinent. As in the past, the destinies of Tur-key and other European countries are in-tertwined. We face the future together.Therefore, relations with the EU are a fun-

damental aspect of the Turkish foreignpolicy. In this context, our goal to becomean EU member is a strategic choice

Turkey is going through a comprehen-sive political and economic transformationprocess. The impetus created by Turkey’saccession negotiations has been influentialin this process as well. Large-scale reformsare being realised in order to attain the high-est norms and standards in the field of de-mocracy, the rule of law and human rightsin line with the needs and expectations ofthe society. The Constitutional amendmentpackage adopted by the referendum held on12 September 2010 was an important stepin the reform process. On the other hand,work is also under way to prepare and adopta new, progressive and comprehensive con-stitution.”—AP

BERLIN—Iranian Foreign Minister JavadMohammad Zarif said a final deal with worldpowers on Tehran’s nuclear program is possiblewithin six months if there is good will and hewas not worried about the U.S. Congress tryingto impose new sanctions.

U.S. President Barack Obama used his Stateof the Union address last week to veto any leg-islation that threatens the talks with Iran. U.S.senators including some of Obama’s Democratshave co-sponsored a bill that would impose newrestrictions on Iran if talks on a permanent ac-cord falter.

“With good will we can reach an agreementwithin six month,” he said in a speech to theGerman Council on Foreign Relations. “I don’tfear a decision in the U.S. Congress ... The U.S.

Nuclear deal possible in six months: Zarifpresident has promised to veto it.”

Zarif was visiting Berlin after meeting U.S.Secretary of State John Kerry and other mem-bers of the six powers negotiating with Iran atthe annual Munich Security Conference at theweekend. Iran reached a landmark preliminaryagreement with them in November to halt itsmost sensitive nuclear operations, winning somerelief from sanctions in return. Talks with thesix powers about a definitive settlement beginin Vienna on February 18.

Zarif told Reuters in an interview on Satur-day, however, that Iran was not prepared, as partof a long-term deal on the scope of its nuclearactivity, to give up research on advanced centri-fuges that could greatly speed up its enrichmentof uranium.—Reuters ABDULRAHMAN AL-RASHED

We know there is no sacred political work, constitutionsincluded. Constitutions have always been written, rewritten, burnt and burnt again. What is important is to

be realistic. Constitutions, regimes and political and civil workare a human production that reflect society’s culture and experi-ence. The old constitutions of the Arab world during the firsthalf of the 20th century used to reflect better cultures - perhapsbecause they were influenced by colonization which led to adeveloped understanding of the modern state.

Later constitutions were more enlightened than those thatfollowed perhaps because governing elites imitated the colonizer.This was the case in Tunisia when Habib Bourguiba formulatedthe constitution of the modern state in 1959. Egypt’s constitu-tion, before Bourguiba in Tunisia, reflected the desires of themilitary after they took over the country’s administration. In 1971,Egypt’s constitution became more objective during the era ofPresident Anwar Sadat. Consequently, it was more in line withthe nature of the Egyptian people. Hosni Mubarak, however, lateradded an article that gave him more control over state affairs.

The new Tunisian constitution has been described as the bestcivil constitution in the Arab world. It has attained the approvalof the Islamists and the liberals and achieved an outstanding re-sult in the vote as 200 supported it and only 12 objected to it!

So, it garnered a semi-consensus despite its liberalism andthe clarity of its interpretation of civil rights. In Egypt, the con-stitution was criticized upon the allegation that it is not based onshariah law, although it is a lot more Islamic than the Tunisianconstitution. In the Egyptian constitution, Islam is the religionof the state and shariah is the primary source for the state’s laws.However, the Tunisian constitution rejected listing sharia as asource for legislation. Unlike the Egyptian constitution, the Tu-nisian constitution frankly rejects the involvement of religion inthe state’s affairs. The Tunisian constitution also prohibits thepolitical exploitation of mosques and criminalizes acts of accus-ing others of infidelity and of inciting to hatred and violence.

Parliaments were suppressed in the name of fighting the re-mains of colonization and in the name of fighting the Zionist en-emy All this happened due to the approval of the constitution bythe majority of the Islamic Ennahda Party and most other IslamicTunisian members of parliament. In Egypt, the 50-member com-mittee wrote and reviewed the constitution and promoted a sys-tem that takes into consideration conservative Egyptian culture. Aconstitution that very much resembles the Brotherhood’s constitu-tion was born, and despite that, they attacked it.

As I said, constitutions are a mirror of time, society and cul-ture. They change as circumstances change. Who knows, he whowill govern Tunisia tomorrow may rewrite the constitution justlike Zein al-Abidine bin Ali did. Over the duration of 10 years,bin Ali went from being a military attaché in Poland to becom-ing an ambassador then a minister and then Tunisians heard himon the radio declaring himself president. The Islamists supportedhim for three years and cheered for him and then they disagreedwith him over the Gulf crisis after they supported Saddam’s in-vasion of Kuwait.

They ended up as hollow political powers signing thepresident’s decisions without argument. Look at Syria for ex-ample. Imagine, it is one of the oldest Arab countries to build aparliament - the People’s Council inaugurated in 1931. How didits political progress stall to see it become one of the most dicta-torial countries in the region in less than 50 years?

—Courtesy Asharq al-Awsat

Arabs, culture andconstitutions

Don’t let Putin grab Ukraine

BERLIN—A group of com-puter hackers and human rightscampaigners in Germany an-nounced Monday that they aresuing their government for al-legedly breaking the law byaiding foreign spies.

The Chaos Computer Cluband the International League forHuman Rights submitted a crimi-nal complaint to federal prosecu-tors claiming that ChancellorAngela Merkel, her governmentand security officials toleratedand even helped members of theU.S. National Security Agencyand Britain’s GCHQ to spy onGerman citizens.

The groups point to docu-ments released by NSA leakerEdward Snowden as evidencethat the emails, social mediamessages and phone calls ofordinary citizens are screenedbeyond what is allowed underGerman law.

“With this criminal com-plaint, we hope to finally ini-tiate investigations by the Fed-eral Prosecutor General againstthe German government,” theChaos Computer Club said in

Hackers sue Germangovt over NSA spying

the statement. The group callsitself Europe’s largest associa-tion of hackers; it regularlycampaigns for greater privacyrights and exposes flaws inelectronic security systems.

Federal prosecutors havebeen considering for monthswhether to open an investiga-tion of alleged NSA activities.They will now have to considerwhether to open an investiga-tion on the basis of the newcriminal complaint as well.

While the German govern-ment has expressed misgivingsabout some of the reported al-legations and is seeking to ne-gotiate a ‘no-spy’ agreementwith the United States, oppo-sition lawmakers have accusedMerkel’s administration of fail-ing to put sufficient pressure onWashington for fear of jeopar-dizing diplomatic relations andintelligence cooperation.

Merkel’s spokesman,Steffen Seibert, noted that “ev-eryone in Germany can file acriminal complaint” and de-clined to comment on the hack-ers’ suit.—AP

Palestiniansaccuse settlers ofattacking farms

RAMALLAH—A Palestinian of-ficial is accusing Jewish settlersin the West Bank of attackingolive groves belonging to Pales-tinians and uprooting some 1,700seedlings. Agriculture MinisterWaled Assaf said on Monday thatthe attacks took place in two vil-lages north of Ramallah. He saidthe Palestinian govt will help thevillagers with new seedlings toplant.

The Israeli police say theyare investigating the incidentand can’t say who was behindit yet. In recent years, a fringeof extremist settlers have carriedout acts of vandalism in retalia-tion for Palestinian attacks andto protest what they perceive asthe Israeli govt’s pro-Palestin-ian policies.—AP

Clashes overmosque raid

MOMBASA—Muslim youthsangry about a police raid on amosque used by firebrandpreachers in the Kenyan portcity of Mombasa clashed withpolice for a second day on Mon-day, a Reuters witness said.

Smashing Islamist recruit-ment networks among its Mus-lim minority has become a pri-ority for Kenya, a country stillreeling from a September raidby Somali militants on a luxuryshopping mall in Nairobi. Atleast 67 people were killed. TheUnited States had also frozenRogo’s assets.—Reuters

COLOMBO—The governmentof Pakistan has funded the con-struction of two clean drinkingwater supply projects for thevulnerable communities inKodapokuna Village ofPolonnaruwa District in theNorthern

Central Province of SriLanka. The High Commis-sioner of Pakistan in Sri LankaMajor General ® QasimQureshi visited the beneficiarycommunities and handed overthese projects to them in thepresence of the communityleaders.

The Kodapokuna Village issituated 50 Km away fromPolonnaruwa city, and is inhab-ited by 155 Tamil and 148Muslim families. These fami-lies were displaced during thethree decades long war andwere resettled in this village.

Last year, Government ofPakistan sponsored 6 CleanDrinking water supply projectsfor the needy Sinhalese, Mus-lim and Tamil communities ofRotawewa, Awweinagar and

Pakistan sponsors clean drinkingwater supply projects in Sri Lanka

Track 6 Village of theMorawewa DS Division ofEastern Province andNeerayipitty East andKumarapuram villages inMullaitivu district of the North-ern Province of Sri Lanka.

The people in these villages,especially women had to walklong distances to carry water fordrinking and bathing which cre-ated hardship for these remotevillage communities. Realizingthe difficulties faced by the re-settled communities, the HighCommission of Pakistan in SriLanka sponsored the construc-tion of community wells for theremote communities to benefitover 300 families directly ondaily basis.

The two projects wereimplemented with the assistanceof Muslim Aid Sri Lanka, afterunder taking vulnerability as-sessment for the provision ofclean drinking water. The wa-ter supply projects underscorePakistan’s commitment toachieve the Millennium Devel-opment Goals on water. —INP

ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM

It is said that at the beginning of the last century, an Ameri-c a n

man committed a capital crime and was sentenced to lifei n

prison. The prison wasn’t in the close proximity of anytown. So, the security wasn’t as tight as many other prisons.After spending 5 years in the prison, he decided to escapebecause he had nothing to lose. So, he thought of an escapeplan with one of his trusted friends. All he needed from hisfriend was to leave a car at a pre-designated location and hewould take care of the rest.

The prisoner’s friend visited him on the D-Day and gavehim a sketch of the getaway car’s location. Later on, the pris-oner was able to escape and was able to locate the car. But, hestood by the car for a long time and the prison guards realizedthat he escaped. A search team was sent to look for him andcaught him near the car and brought him back to his cell andthe guards were puzzled of why he just didn’t drive away.Well, he didn’t know how to start the car even though he wasknown to be one the most experienced drivers.

As a matter of fact, the prisoner went to jail at a timewhen cars were started by a handle attached to the front of theautomobiles. And during the years he was in jail, the car keywas invented and the crank handle simply became a thing ofthe past. His friend assumed he knew of the new invention,which is called the ignition key. Well, I read about this littlestory long time ago but can ta similar thing happen to othersthese days with the new changes in the automobile industry?The answer is yes, it can. It happened to a friend of mine justthis past week in the American Capital, Washington.

Before my friend’s arrival to Dulles International Airport,he reserved an SUV at Avis. But his flight was delayed due toheavy snowfall on Jan. 23. Upon his arrival all SUVs hadbeen taken. This is a normal thing at American airports. Manyvisitors would switch their small cars for bigger cars for safetyreasons during snowstorms. When my friend arrived at Avis,the agent politely apologized and offered him another car (atop brand in the industry) as compensation.

My friend was glad and took that car. But this friend hadnever owned or even drove that car before. Because of hisrush to drive away after the delayed flight, he didn’t havetime to familiarize himself with the many gadgets the car hadto offer. My friend drove the car from the rental company lotand immediately stopped at the red light next to the rentalcompany with little skid because of the icy road. The front ofhis car was in the middle of the intersection.

And all of a sudden, the engine just quit. He panicked ofwhy did the engine stop running and was more panicked whenhe saw a police car next to him signaling him to back up alittle to clear the intersection. In America, when a policemantells you to stop or move, you just do it. But my friend couldn’tmove because the engine was not running and didn’t knowwhy and pushed the ignition button. My friend rolled downhis window and the policeman did the same. So, my friendtook out the clearly known red and white rental agreementand told the policeman that he just rented the car and the carjust stalled.

The policeman smiled and lit up his flashing warning lightsand got out of the car to help my friend. They contacted therental company’s office. At the end, it turned out that my frienddidn’t need any help. Some types of cars of a particular brandare designed to shut the engine when the car stops to savefuel and it would start again the minute you press the gaspaddle or raise your foot from the brake pad.

Ten years ago, the car keys started to disappear. Cars noware started by keyless system. And short time ago we sawcars that parked on their own. This parking system saved manypeople from embarrassing moments. And finally, few monthsago, we saw the introduction of cars that do not need a driver.

—Courtesy Arab News

Catching up withtechnology

mostly Taliban.Ehsan said that the Taliban will wait

to see what the five members ap-pointed by them have to say aboutrepresenting them, adding that if theydid not agree to be a part of the com-mittee, the Taliban will give new namesfor it.

The four-member committee ap-pointed by the government comprisesAdviser to the Prime Minister on Na-tional Affairs Irfan Siddiqui, former ISIofficial Major (retd) Muhammad Amir,senior journalist Rahimullah Yousufzaias well as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insafleader and former Pakistan ambassa-dor to Afghanistan Rustam ShahMohmand.

The five-member committee namedby the TTP includes Jamaat-e-Islamileader Prof Mohammad Ibrahim, JUI-S chief Maulana Samiul Haq, JUI-Fpolitician Mufti Kifayatullah, LalMasjid prayer leader Maulana Abdul

Govt, Taliban first meeting todayFrom Page 1

Aziz and PTI Chairman Imran Khan.Speaking to media, the

government’s negotiator IrfanSiddiqui said the meeting between thetwo committees is scheduled to be heldat 2 pm.

Earlier on Monday, the five-mem-ber committee, nominated by the Pa-kistani Taliban to facilitate the dia-logue process with the government,held its first meeting in the federal capi-tal.

The meeting, chaired by MaulanaSamiul Haq, was attended by ProfIbrahim and Maulana Abdul Aziz.

Earlier, following a meeting of theTaliban’s committee, Maulana SamiulHaq informed reporters that several at-tempts would be made to sabotage thedialogue process.

Mufti Kifayatullah could not par-take in the meeting whereas Khan waschairing a meeting of his party’s corecommittee.

Sources said that addressing the meet-ing, Samiul Haq said the four-membercommittee nominated by the federalgovernment to further the dialogueprocess with the Taliban had not con-tacted them, adding that the negotiat-ing team would soon finalise its strat-egy.

He expressed the hope that thegovernment would find a better solu-tion to problems while holding dia-logue with the Taliban.

Meanwhile, Prof Ibrahim had saidhe was very optimistic about negotia-tions with the Taliban while underscor-ing that problems could only be re-solved through dialogue.

He moreover said that the Talibanwould first demand the implementa-tion of Shariah law in Pakistan and saidif the government really wanted toimpose it in the country in a demo-cratic manner, it could have easilybeen done in the past 65 years.

unanimously by the JUI-Fmembers.

“I pray for the successof peace talks but I am nothopeful that talks wouldsucceed,” said FazlurRehman.

Describing reasons fordistancing his party from dia-logue, the JUI-F chief saidthat they were neither con-sulted nor informed aboutthe government’s decisionto initiate peace talks withTehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Maulana Fazlur Rehmanalso expressed his reserva-tions over his party pro-posed Jirga system beingignored in peace process,which he emphasized en-joyed the trust of both theTaliban and political parties.

“Mufti Kifayatullah willnot be part of the committeesuggested by the TTP fornegotiation with the gov-ernment,” he said reactingto inclusion of the JUI-Fleader in Taliban’s negotiat-ing team.

Fazl said that he was notexpressing mistrust on thecommittees, adding that heis only briefing about theparty’s decision.

He said Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif had not con-sulted his party over the is-sue of peace process, how-ever, he added if the gov-ernment seeks his party’scooperation then it can of-fer assistance.

The JUI-F chief furthersaid that the Grand Jirga wasassured on February 28, 2013that it would be given a taskfor the restoration of peace.

“I was the first who de-manded to bring the issuein the parliament.”

The JUI-F chief said thatthe Taliban named MuftiKifayatullah with good faith.The Taliban, however,should have named theirrepresentatives for the com-mittee, he added.

Fazl dissociatesFrom Page 1

supporter of negotiationswith the militants.

However, the core com-mittee meeting decided thatKhan would not representthe Taliban committee.

According to theparty’s statement, the nego-tiations should be heldwithin the framework of theConstitution in a transpar-ent and open environment,adding that there should bea ceasefire between thegovernment and the Taliban.

PTI spokeswoman ShireenMazari told media that becausea senior party figure, RustamShah Mohmand, was already onthe government team, Khan’spresence was not needed.

“The core committee ofPakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf ap-preciated Tehrik-i-TalibanPakistan’s offer to our chair-man Imran Khan to becomepart of their committee,”Mazari said. Separately, themeeting stressed that PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif shouldincrease pressure on the USgovernment to stop droneattacks on Pakistani soil.

Imran notFrom Page 1

The Islamic State, mean-while, largely eclipsed theNusra Front in many partsof northern Syria.

Charles Lister of theBrookings Doha Center saidthe Al Qaeda statement re-flected its ‘’attempt to de-finitively re-assert somelevel of authority over thejihad in Syria.’’

It also showed Al Qaedaleadership’s failure to take agenuinely commanding linein the rivalry between theIslamic State and the NusraFront, and made it inevitablethat al-Zawahri had to issuea decisive ruling with per-manent consequences, saidLister.—Agencies

Al QaedabreaksFrom Page 1

Since the start of the trial,Musharraf has not appearedbefore the court. The pro-ceedings against him startedlate December last year.

The 70-year-old retiredgeneral is currentlyhospitalised at the ArmedForces Institute of Cardiologyin Rawalpindi. He was rushedto the AFIC and admitted thereexactly a month ago, after hecomplained of chest pain enroute to the court.

MusharrafservedFrom Page 1

Ball now in Taliban’s courtFrom Page 1

for durable peace in the region.On the Balochistan issue, he said,

“Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch willtake all stakeholders on board for durablepeace in the province in the larger interestof the country.” He said he was confidentthat the Balochistan government would re-solve all issues and his support and coop-eration would always be with them.

Replying to a query, he said hisgovernment had inherited all problems fromthe previous regimes and was striving hardto resolve them by taking measures throughcomprehensive policies. Answeringanother question, Nawaz Sharif said thenational economy had improvedremarkably owing to prudent policies andmeasures adopted by the government.

Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif saidhis government inherited a country whichwas beset with multiple crises and the over-all economic and law and order situationwas bleak to that extent which could not bevisualized. He said his government initiatedsuch shrewd and prudent policies whichwere going to be proved fruitful to bringthe country back from the quagmire of thecrises.

Talking about Pakistan’s relations withits foreign countries including India and Af-ghanistan, he said Pakistan wanted to buildgood and friendly relationships with all thecountries including India and Afghanistan.He said since his government had initiateddialogue process with Taliban to solve theinner crises so on the same line, his gov-ernment was interested in to resolve all out-standing issues through talks with Indiaand Afghanistan.

Answering a question about peace talkswith Taliban, the Prime Minister said heannounced during the session of the Na-tional Assembly that he was personallyoverseeing the dialogue process and be-sides him, Interior Minister Ch Nisar AliKhan would also monitor this dialogue pro-cess. He said all the members of the Talibancommittee were respected and from thegovernment side, a committee was also con-stituted so both the committees should startwork to mature the peace process as soonas possible.

Replying a question about economicrevival of the country, Prime Minister saideconomic prosperity is directly linked withlaw and order situation of the country andterrorism played havoc with the lives of thepeople but now the economic policies initi-ated by finance minister Ishaq Dar hasstarted yielding positive outcomes.

He said his government was fully awareof the miseries of the people and over alldeteriorating economic situation. He saidunder such circumstances, policies are be-ing made towards the restoration of healthyeconomic activities in the country.

Earlier, the prime minister held a meet-ing with senior journalists, columnists andintellectuals, including Ataul Haq Qasmi,Mujeeb ur Rehman Shami, Rauf Kalasra,Najam Sethi, Ata ur Rehman, MasoodAshar, Sajid Mir and Sohail Warraich anddiscussed matters of national importance.Talking to them, Nawaz said restoration ofpeace through dialogue is the best optionfor the country. He said all possible stepswould be taken to bring back the alienatedBaloch groups into political mainstream.

Steps being taken to cutpower shortage: CM

From Page 1

IMF finds Pak micro finance situationFrom Page 1

Asif Ali Zardari. The NAB Additional

Prosecutor, Akbar Tararsubmitted the rejoinderagainst the petition filed bythe accused seeking acquit-tal in all the five references.He argued that the accusedcould not be acquitted sincetestimonies are yet to be re-corded against him. Thecounsel claimed that ‘solidproofs’ of corruption havebeen found. It may be re-called that during the previ-ous hearing, Asif AliZardari’s counsel, FarooqH. Naek had filed the peti-tions for acquittal of his cli-ent in the references thatincluded polo ground, SGS,Cotecna, ARY and Ursustractors. The petitionermade a plea that there wasneither any solid evidencenor any witness existagainst his client Asif AliZardari and, therefore,

NAB opposes Zardari’s acquittal pleaFrom Page 1

prayed to the court for hisacquittal order.

Later, talking to the me-dia Farooq H. Naek said thatNAB has opposed the ac-

quittal plea of Asif AliZardari, adding that NABwould be presenting newwitnesses and he would ar-gue against the NAB rejoin-der in the next hearing to beheld on February 24. —INP

pipelines, adding that Oiland Gas Development Au-thorities-led (OGDC) au-thorities were engaged in itsmaintenance.

Sabotage of gas pipe-lines is a characteristic tac-tic of tribal militants and isfrequently witnessed inBalochistan. However, theprovince also suffers fromattacks carried out byTaliban militants.

Gas supplyFrom Page 1

pronounced dead on arrival.AIG Police Shahid Hayat

later visited the hospital andmet with relatives of the de-ceased.

Four copsgunned down

From Page 1

cent, Coke & Petroleum Products 8.8 per-cent, Iron and Steel products 4.4 percent,Food Beverages & Tobacco 7.7 percent,Chemicals 3.2 percent and Textile 2.1 per-cent, he added. He further said that thecredit to private sector also increased toRs 231 billion as compared to Rs 53 bil-lion during January Fiscal Year2014 overJanuary Fiscal Year 2013.

The Finance Minister said that the ar-rival of important crops such as cottoncrop had posted a growth of 7.5 percentover last year as well, while other agricul-ture crops production were also likely togive comfort to growth targets.

Dilating on the external front,theFinance Minister said that exportswere showing positive result at 3.2 per-cent over last year. The value added ex-ports are taking place which will be fur-ther increased due to accessing GSP plusstatus, he added. Senator Ishaq Dar said

Authority has been established in the prov-ince and its capacity is being built. He saidthat private sector is being fully encour-aged to promote investment in Punjab. Heexpressed these views while talking to adelegation of International Finance Corpo-ration (IFC) which is a subsidiary organiza-tion of World Bank, here on Monday.

The delegation included the head ofIFC’s investment department for MiddleEast and North Africa Andrei Mikhnev, Dr.Amjad Bashir and Saima Zubairi. Provin-cial Minister for Finance Mian MujtabaShuja-ur-Rehman, Minister for Industry Ch.Muhammad Shafique, Secretary Finance,Sectary Industries, Chairman Punjab Rev-enue Authority as well as concerned offic-ers were present. The meeting agreed tocooperate for improvement of taxation sys-tem as well as investment and energy sec-tors. Talking to the delegation, the ChiefMinister said that Punjab government andIFC are working together for improvementin various sectors however there is a needfor further cooperation to enhance theirperformance.

He also stressed the importance for ref-ormation of taxation system for increasingresources for implementation of develop-ment and public-welfare projects. He saidthat full benefit is being taken of expertiseand experience of IFC for the capacity-building of Punjab Revenue Authority. TheChief Minister said that the role of privatesector is of vital importance for national de-velopment as the targets of developmentcannot be achieved without participation

of private sector. He said that Punjab gov-ernment is bringing forward private sectorand more facilities are being given to it forinvestment in energy and other sectors.

He said that cooperation of IFC is es-sential for provision of the best facilities toinvestors which will also help in improvingefficiency of government institutions and en-couragement of private sector for invest-ment. He said that IFC should also encour-age private sector for the construction ofsilos. He said in addition to curbing theft ofwheat, construction of silos would also helpin storage of wheat in a proper manner.Shahbaz Sharif said that government haspromoted a corruption-free culture and creditgoes to Pakistan Muslim League-N govern-ment that no corruption case has surfacedduring its tenure. He said that transparencyis the hallmark of Punjab government andthis fact has also been endorsed by interna-tional institutions. He said that due to busi-ness-friendly policies of Punjab government,foreign investors and companies have ex-pressed keen interest in investment in vari-ous sectors in the province.

The leader of IFC delegation AndreiMikhnev while speaking on the occasionsaid that IFC is already working with Punjabgovernment in different sectors and coop-eration will further be promoted. He said thatPunjab is the only province of Pakistan wherepositive changes are being witnessed. Hesaid that Punjab province is making rapidprogress under the leadership of Chief Min-ister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif.

that the imports increased by 3.9 percenthigher than last year. The important thingis that import of machinery at 26 percentover last year is the indication of eco-nomic activities taking place, he added.

The Finance Minister said that remit-tances showed an increase of 9.5 percenthigher than last year which was helpingBalance of Payment (BOP) position andadded that he was hopeful that therewould be further improvementinBOPposition and foreign exchange re-serves on account of expected foreigninflows.

The important indicator which theMinister said the headline inflation whichwas measured by Consumer Price Index(CPI) had been contained to 7.9 percent inJanuary2014 as compared to 8.1 percentJanuary 2013. Similarly Core inflation alsocontained to single digit at 8.4 percentagainst 10.3 percent last year, he added.

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Roots Inter-national Schools is now thethird largest education sys-tem and takes immensepride under the leadershipof Mr. Walid Mushtaq.Roots has innovated mod-ern education standards,with universally acclaimedacademic excellence and all-round development of stu-dents with nearly 10,000 stu-dents and branch networkof 40 Campuses and a pres-ence in more than 10 citiesacross Pakistan.

Established since April1988, RIS has revolutionizedthe modern education stan-dards, with an academic ex-cellence which is com-mended all over the worldand has gone a long way inthe all-round progress ofthe students.

In the period of 25 yearsRIS has been achieving a lotof gratitude and salutationfrom all over the world. Asan institution, Roots Inter-national Schools is commit-ted to excellence and dis-tinction. We educate andstimulate our students to beresponsible, imaginativeand ethical world citizenswith the skills and desire to

Summit of Entrepreneurship2014 for youth empowerment

think ingeniously, reasoncritically, communicate meri-toriously and learn continu-ously. We provide them withan educational environmentcharacterized by high stan-dards and a clearly defined,appropriately interrelatedcollege preparatory curricu-lum, implemented by a su-perior staff in partnershipwith students, parents, andthe community.

The “RISE for YouthEmpowerment 2014” is a twodays forum on career coun-seling, entrepreneurshipand leadership based on theeconomics, international re-lations, media, business andglobal economy. The themeof the summit is a “cross-cultural exchange of youngideas concerning the futureof entrepreneurship.”

The main objective ofthe “RISE for Youth Em-powerment 2014” is to facili-tate an exchange of ideasacross an ethnically diverseand socially responsiblegroup of young interna-tional leaders and entrepre-neurs.

The summit blends so-cial interaction with culturaland educational compo-nents into one cohesive ex-p e r i e n c e .

SC summons defence secretaryFrom Back Page

some misconception hasdeveloped. Court observedSHC had not accepted thisplea of yours. Reply to itwhere is Hafiz Jamil. Repre-sentative of defence minis-try said “ I have stated oneand same thing before com-mission and court . Thecourt remarked “ on onehand you don’t come in timeand on the other hand youargue. Representative ofdefence ministry said heshould be given time and hewould see the matter.

Justice Amir Hani re-marked “ you should notbother to come here if youhave to assist this way andyou have no information.Your man was present there.We are not responsible ofyour file. You are talking sodeliberately. Has defenceministry no knowledgeabout it. The representativesaid to his view defence min-istry should have knowl-edge about it. Justice AmirHani Muslim inquired fromAAG “ what should we do.He said time has beensought for two weeks in writ-ing. Justice Amir Hani re-marked “ we can not give somuch time. We should give15 days time for what pur-pose. May be all the allega-tions of defence ministry are

correct. But tell us the facts.Tell us where he is. If youthink we will close our eyesbut we can not do so. Lawis in place in this country.We will summon defencesecretary.

Don’t tell us about theprocedure of internmentcenters. We know everything. The matter can be re-solved within one minute.We know how the atten-dances are marked. We willseek oath from you just nowand you will have to tell ev-ery thing. Do you knowabout system or otherwise.

Justice Amir Hani re-marked “ you are workingbeyond the system. If you aredoing so then you are doingwrong. You have to work un-der system,. Every one has itslimits. We want to knowabout that youth. You wantdate but we will summon de-fence secretary. The courtinquired who is chief inchargeof detention centers. Repre-sentative of defence ministrysaid 40 to 42 internment cen-ters are operating. Every cen-ter has its own incharge. I amworking with reference to ISIand GHQ. Justice Amir Haniremarked “ give us in writingthe information from opera-tor to officer about whom youare talking about. —Online

The socio-economic de-velopment of the countryand the progress and pros-perity of the people of Paki-stan is directly linked to thepeace and security in allparts of the country, thepresident remarked. Thepresident expressed confi-dence that serious efforts ofpeace dialogue committee

would prove instrumental inestablishing enduring peaceand security in the county.

Irfan Siddiqui thanked thepresident for the meeting andassured that the committeewould work with full dedica-tion and commitment to holdresult-oriented talks aimed atestablishing durable peace inthe country.—INP

Irfan meets PresidentFrom Back Page

Published by: Zahid Malik from Ali Akbar House Markaz G-8, Islamabad and printed by Gauhar Zahid Malik at Al Umar Printers

Twin landmineblastsMIRANSHAH—Two landmines blasts took place at theroute of security forces convoyhere but no loss was reported.Security sources said that un-known miscreants had installedlandmines at Khar-QamarRoad which exploded at08:50AM on Monday whileother landmine blast occurred atMiranshah-Goya Road nearKalangar check post at 10:00amin North Waziristan Agency.However, no causality or prop-erty damage was reported inboth the explosions. Securitysources said that forces convoywas due to pass through thesaid routes but as the blastswere premature therefore nodamages took place. —INP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Senate onMonday unanimously passed aresolution calling upon thegovernment to revisit the Offi-cial Secrets Act 1923 to makeit consistent with the constitu-tionally guaranteed right to in-formation‚ fair trial and funda-mental rights.

The resolution was movedby Farhatullah Babar. Anotherresolution moved by Babar ear-lier‚ was also adopted by theHouse recommending the gov-ernment to publish the namesof judges of the superior judi-ciary who have dual national-ity.

Leader of the House RajaZafar ul Haq said when the is-sue was raised in the past‚ theSupreme Court had informedthat there was no ban on dualnationality of judges. Federal

Senate seeks to amendOfficial Secrets Act 1923Demands publication of judges names holding dual nationality

Shariat Court and BalochistanHigh Court had informed thatnone of their judges held dualnationality.

The house also passed an-other resolution moved bySyed Tahir Hussain Mashhadirecommending the governmentto take effective steps for nar-cotics control in the county.

Speaking on a resolutionmoved by Senator TalhaMahmood‚ Minister for SafronAbdul Qadir Baloch said thegovernment is making all-outefforts to overcome unemploy-ment in the country.

He said the government istaking concrete steps to provideconducive environment to pri-vate sector and to attract inves-tors.

The minister said govern-ment is making efforts to im-prove law and order in thecountry and overcome energy

crisis. On a resolution movedby Tahir Hussain Mashhadi‚the minister said the govern-ment is reviewing mismanage-ment and over-staffing in PIAand also taking measures toaddress the issue.

Speaking on a motionmoved by Nisar Muhammadregarding responsibility of theFederation in pursuance of Ar-ticle 148 of the constitution‚ thesenators said it is the responsi-bility of the government tocounter external aggression andinternal disturbance. They saidcomplete protection of the lifeand property of citizens is theresponsibility of the govern-ment.

Those who spoke on theoccasion include Tahir HussainMashhadi‚ Ilyas Bilour‚ ZahidKhan and Lala Rauf. TheHouse will meet at 10:30 amTuesday.

NEW DELHI—Thousands of disabledpeople protested in the Indian capital onMonday, demanding parliament passlong-awaited legislation that gives themequal rights including to education andemployment.

Thousands with intellectual or physi-cal impairments gathered to support thebill drafted for the country’s 40-90 mil-lion disabled people, who have long beenamong the most excluded and stigmatisedin society.

“We have been waiting since indepen-dence for this, some of us evenlonger,”National Association of the Deaf

president Zorin Singha said of thecountry’s estimated 18 million deaf people.

“This bill will change everything forus,” he told AFP, sitting in front of IndiaGate among a crowd of supporters wav-ing placards that read, “We want our rights,not your charity”.

Indian political boss Sonia Gandhi haspledged to push for the bill’s passing whenthe national parliament sits this week forthe final session before her ruling Congressparty faces general elections due by May.

But its introduction and passagethrough the chaotic and often dysfunctionalparliament is uncertain, with 126 other

bills already pending in the parliamentwhich is set for a 16-day session.

Singha singled out the right to edu-cation as a highlight of the bill, which willguarantee that disabled students are en-titled to teachers trained to meet theirneeds. “Basically my school taught menothing at all.

The school had no teachers for deafstudents and there were no alternatives.They just kept trying to force me to speakeven though they knew I was deaf,”Singha said. Some disabled groups haveopposed the bill, which would replace onefrom 1995.—AP

Thousands of India’s disabledprotest to demand equal rights

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Information andBroadcasting Pervaiz Rashid said on Mondaythe government wanted to listen to the view-point of Taliban so that it could know their con-cerns and make Pakistan a peaceful and securecountry.

Talking to newsmen after attending an eventhere at Lok Virsa, he said both sides wanted tohold talks in an open-ended atmosphere.

He said the Shura of Taliban had nominatedits negotiating team, which would hold talks withthe government.

Replying to a question about various fac-tions of Taliban, the minister said focus shouldbe on those, who wanted to hold talks.

The talks process was going through a cer-

tain phase and Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif was personally supervising it, headded. Answering another question, PervaizRashid said the Taliban had nominated PakistanTehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan to advocatetheir case. He should plead their case now alsoas he had had already been advocating the sameby making speeches, holding sit-ins and takingout rallies.

The Information Minister said it was base-less that there would be any danger to thegovernment’s negotiating committee. “Wherevertalks are held in the world, negotiators are givenrespect,” he remarked. He said the Balochistangovernment would hold a judicial inquiry intothe Khuzdar mass graves issue. —APP

Govt wants to listen toTaliban’s concerns: PR

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Pakistan People’s Party Vice-Chair-man and former Prime Minister Yusaf RazaGilani has demanded of the government to bringthe matter of his abducted son, Ali Haider Gilani,up when any peace dialogue starts with Taliban.

He said he discussed the matter of his ab-ducted son with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifpersonally when he called upon him and re-quested the Prime Minister to put forward theissue of his abducted son when any negotiationwith Taliban held on exchange of detainees.

Yusaf Raza Gilani was talking to media per-sons at his residence here on Monday. YusafGilani said he prayed for the success of the peaceprocess going to be held between the govern-ment and Taliban and PPP had assured all itssupport to the government in this regard.

He said no one could predict at this prema-ture stage in which direction this peace processwould go.

However, he said it was earlier decided inAll Parties Conference (APC) that all the dia-logues with Taliban would be strictly held in

Gilani demands talks onson’s abduction with Taliban

the radius of the constitution. Dispelling thisimpression that PPP was divided on the issue ofdialogue with Taliban, he said PPP leadershipespecially PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto wason a same page in regard of dialogue withTaliban. Answering a question about inductingBilawal Bhutto in National Assembly, he said itwas yet to be decided whether Bilawal Bhuttowould contest elections or not at this stage.

Replaying to a question about PervezMusharraf, Gilani said any trial against Musharrafshould be started from 12 October 1999 when hecommitted coup against an elected government astrial from 3 November meant nothing and makethe case more complicated. When he was askedabout progress in the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI)case he responded with smiling face that he didnot know about any progress in IJI case but in thecase where in he was implicated there was absoluteprogress.

He said PML-N and Shahbaz Sharif wronglybranded Asif Zardari as “Ali Baba” and his aidesas “Chaali Chor but in fact Asif Ali Zardari wasthorough gentleman that is why now PML-Navoided branding him Ali Baba and his aides asChaali Chor.

Peshawar blasts

Jundullahgroup claimsresponsibility

PESHAWAR—Death toll ofPeshawar cinema blast climbsto six as another victim suc-cumbed to injuries at hospitalhere on Monday.

It is worth to mention herethat five persons were killedand several others injured intwo blast in Picture House Cin-ema on Sunday night. Mean-while, banned militants groupJundullah has claimed respon-sibility for the blast in the cin-ema. —INP

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—With the USexpected to draw down troopsin Afghanistan in 2014, InteriorMinister Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan told the American ambas-sador to Pakistan Richard Olsonthat Pakistan’s interests in re-gional security in the post-2014scenario must be respected.

In a statement released onMonday, the minister and theAmerican ambassador dis-cussed issues pertaining to bi-lateral relations with particularreference to the security situa-tion in the region and review ofthe recently concluded strategicdialogue.

Nisar said Pakistan wants tofurther strengthen its relationswith the US, based on mutualtrust and transparency.

He reminded Olson thatPakistan has an important roleto play in the post-2014 scenarioand hoped that the US will re-spect its interests in regionalsecurity.

Olson expressed his satis-faction over the recently con-cluded fourth round of ministe-rial strategic dialogue whichrecently took place in Washing-ton. He added that a very posi-tive interaction took place be-tween the two delegations with

Respect Pak regionalsecurity interests,Nisar tells Olson

ISLAMABAD—Supreme Court (SC) has sum-moned defence secretary on February, 17 to seekhis explanation on non compliance of court’sorders in Hafiz Muhammad Jamil missing per-son case. Justice Amir Hani Muslim remarked“ government and intelligence agencies shouldnote it well no one would be allowed to takeany step beyond law. On one hand director le-gal comes here late and on the other hand heholds no information about Hafiz Jamil.

He further remarked “ the court should notbe made to understand that how the internmentcenters function. We are silent for some reason.But it should not be construed that we don’t haveany knowledge about the new law. If some isdoing any thing beyond law then he is doingwrong. You even don’t know that reasons arementioned in the detailed order and high courthas already issued order. Commission has alsorecorded it in its order. Now the defence minis-try is violating human rights. He gave theseremarks during the course of hearing of HafizMuhammad Jamil case here Monday by a 2-member bench of SC. At the inception of hear-ing of the case, standing counsel, Talat Hussaintold the court Additional Attorney General(AAG) Tariq Khokhar is obtaining informationand directives from defence ministry in respectof both missing persons. He will appear beforethe court within some time. Court remarked “defence ministry officials have not come as yet.

Missing persons’ case

SC summons defence secretaryon non-compliance of its orders

The court was told that one officer of de-fence ministry has come. AAG is talking to him.Later AAG Tariq Khokhar and police officersappeared in the court. The court inquired whathas been done with reference to Hafiz Jamil.

Tariq Khokhar told the court an order wasissued on January, 20, 2014. There is differencein the report filed in Sindh High Court (SHC). 3lists have been filed The commission is inves-tigating about the list which was filed by AmnaMasud Janjua. Amna Masud Janjua told this caserelated to detention center. Justice Amir HaniMuslim remarked how is the matter of enforceddisappearance and detention is looking in thiscase. The thing is correct what they say that thereare 3 categories. Enforced disappearances, de-tention and the third list is related to investiga-tion. Amna Masood said please summon theorders of SHC and see it. Tariq Khokhar saidthe hearing has not been completed so far inSHC. Hakim Ullah versus federal governmentis case of 2011. Amna Masood Janjua told thecourt that defence ministry had said HafizMuhammad Jamil has been traced out and he isin detention center. But internment center isbeing located. The court summoned SHC or-ders in this regard. AG provided the order. Thecourt remarked “ order is telling that Amna issaying correct. Defence ministry has done what.

Representative of defence ministry said

Continued on Page 7

understanding of each other’spositions.

Earlier in the day, Olsonsaid that the US intends to re-main engaged with Pakistan andAfghanistan after the 2014 drawdown of troops.

“Our plan is to continue toengage with Pakistan and Af-ghanistan. If we are invited bythe Afghans to have some re-sidual force, it will require thesigning of the Bilateral SecurityAgreement,” Olson told RadioPakistan in an interview.

“We favour the governmentof Pakistan efforts to establishits writ through its territoriesand in areas where there arenon-state actors that are actingagainst our common interests.”

When asked to comment onthe future situation in Afghani-stan after the withdrawal of theUS and ISAF forces, he said itwas hard to predict, however theAfghan National Army wasnow well trained to handle anysituation. The envoy said Paki-stan and US were on the samepage on resolving Afghan issue.

“We have been a good part-ner of Pakistan in the energysectorand we have had projectsin past four to five years thatadded 1000 MWto the nationalgrid; both in hydel and thermalsectors.”

Irfan meetsPresident, hopefulof talks outcome

ISLAMABAD—Special Assis-tant to Prime Minister on Na-tional Affairs and coordinatorof peace dialogue committeeIrfan Siddiqui called on Presi-dent Mamnoon Hussain at theAiwan-e-Sadr on Monday anddiscussed matters pertaining topeace talks.

The president said that asmember of peace dialoguecommittee, the government hasentrusted Irfan Siddiqui with anassignment of great nationalimportance and expressed thehope that dialogue with Talibanwould start soon as the entirenation was looking towardsholding of successful andmeaningful dialogues to ensurelasting peace and security in thecountry.

The president said thatpeace and stability is the topmost priority of the govern-ment and every possible effortwould be made to restore peaceand normalcy in the country.

Continued on Page 7

10 killed in roadmishapsSIBI—A passenger coach enroute from Quetta to Nawa bshahcollided with a tractor trolley andfell into a ten feet deep ravine.Another car carrying three pas-sengers including a woman alsocollided with the passengercoach forcing itself into the ra-vine. The accident resulted intoinstant death of all four peoplein the car, the driver of the trac-tor trolley and six passengersfrom the coach. The tragedy alsoleft fourteen injured who wererushed to the Civil Hospital byrescue personnel. Heavy contin-gent of Levis and Frontier Corps(FC) reached the site and cor-doned off the area. The inten-sity of the collision led the trac-tor trolley to disintegratewhereas the car was completelydestroyed.—Online

LHC takes notice ofassault on minor girlStaff ReporterLAHORE—Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Monday tooknotice of a press report on ad-ministrative side regardingassault on a ten-year-old mi-nor girl in Garh Maharaja. TheCell has directed the District& Sessions Judge, Jhang tolook into the matter and sub-mit a detailed report regardingsteps taken by police alongwith his own comments withina week. According to details,in suburban village HassuBaleel, daughter of a labourer,a student of 6th class was play-ing outside her house whenaccused Siddique and his twoaccomplices abducted andtook her to an unknown place.

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Affairs and Coordinator of Peace Dialogue committee,Irfan Siddiqui called on President Mamnoon Hussain at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.Man arrested for

torturing wifeSUKKUR,—The police on Mon-day arrested an accused in-volved in publicly torturing hiswife. SSP Sukkur Fida Hussainsaid that the culprit overtly tor-tured his wife Saima Sheikh inmain Bazaar at Minara Road ofSukkur on Sunday. He draggedher out of a vehicle pulling herhairs, slapped and later took heraway in his vehicle. The policeregistered a case against the ac-cused and arrested him duringa raid. Police said that torturedvictim lady is mentally re-tarded. —INP

9 cops injured inPM’s motorcade

accidentLAHORE—Two vehicles escort-ing Prime Minister NawazSharif in Lahore Monday metaccident in which at least ninesecurity personnel werewounded however Prime Min-ister remained safe, officials said.According to police officials,Prime Minister convoy was onhis way to Lahore airport aftermeeting with senior journalistswhen one vehicle escorting PMturned turtle after its tyre burst,the second car behind it collidedwith it resulting in injuring 9policemen.

The accident took place atthe Mall on canal bridge, offi-cials said.

Officials added that atleast nine security personnelwounded in accident werelater shifted to Services Hos-pital where condition of fouris reported—Online

PM to visitTurkey from

Feb 12AN K A R A/IS L A M A B A D—Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifwill fly to Turkey on February12 ahead of the crucial trilat-eral summit that will be at-tended by the leaders of Paki-stan, Afghanistan and host Tur-key.

The summit , the eighth ofits kind since 2007, is beingheld against the backdrop of theplanned withdrawal of the bulkof US troops from Afghanistanthis year, President HamidKarzai’s reluctance to sign asecurity pact with Washingtonand the presidential elections inthe war-torn country.—INP

GOVERNMENTS could slow or even reverse the growing obesity epidemic ifthey introduced more regulation into the

global market for fast foods such as burgers,chips and fizzy drinks, re-searchers said on Monday. Astudy published in the Bul-letin of the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) sug-gested that if governmentstook firmer action, theycould start to prevent peoplebecoming overweight andobese - conditions with seri-ous long-term consequencessuch as diabetes, heart dis-eases and cancer.

“Unless governmentstake steps to regulate theireconomies, the invisiblehand of the market will con-tinue to promote obesityworldwide with disastrousconsequences for future pub-lic health and economic pro-ductivity,” said Roberto DeVogli of the University of California, Davis, inthe United States, who led the study.

The WHO is urging governments to domore to try to prevent obesity happening in thefirst place, rather than risking the high humanand economic costs when it does.

Suggested policies include economic incen-tives for growers to sell healthy, fresh foods;disincentives for industries to sell ultra-pro-cessed foods and soft drinks; cutting subsidiesto growers and companies who use largeamounts of fertilizers, pesticides, chemicals andantibiotics; and tighter regulation of fast-foodadvertising, especially to children.

The research analyzed the effect on obe-

sity of deregulation in the economy overtime, including in the agriculture and foodsectors, and the resulting increase in so-called “fast food transactions” - in other

words, the number of timespeople bought fast food. The re-searchers compared the numberof fast food transactions withbody mass index (BMI) in 25high-income countries between1999 and 2008.

They found that, as theaverage number of annual fastfood transactions increasedfrom 26.61 to 32.76 per person,average BMI increased from25.8 to 26.4. Someone with aBMI of 25 or more is over-weight, while a BMI of 30 ormore is considered obese.

Vogli said that, while theresearch was based on data fromwealthy countries, its findingswere also relevant to developingcountries. “Virtually all nationshave undergone a process of mar-

ket deregulation and globalization - especiallyin the last three decades,” he said. The averagenumber of fast food transactions per person in-creased in all 25 countries. The sharpest gainswere in Canada, Australia, Ireland and NewZealand, while the lowest were in countries withmore stringent market regulation - such as Italy,the Netherlands, Greece and Belgium. FrancescoBranca, director of the WHO’s Department ofNutrition for Health and Development, said thefindings showed how important public policieswere in addressing obesity. “Policies targetingfood and nutrition are needed across several sec-tors including agriculture, industry, health, so-cial welfare and education,” he said.

Study finds deregulationfuelling obesity epidemic

Mr. Zahid Malik, and Chairman, Federal Capital Committee of All Pakistan NewspaperSociety presiding over a meeting of the committee held to discuss some crucial issues facingthe print media.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—It was in 2006, July 22, when Timesof India published a report on Pakistan’s fast emerg-ing education and science scenario under the lead-ership of visionary Dr Atta-ur-Rehman. The reporttitled “Pak threat to Indian science” warned the In-dian government in the following words: “Pakistanwould soon join China in giving India a serious com-petition in science.” However, the Indian govern-ment did not have to worry long when in October2008 Dr Atta-ur-Rehman resigned from office ondifferences with the PPP government. Indiangovernment’s fears were justified as Dr Atta-ur-Rehman had given a quantum boost to the develop-ment funds of the higher education i.e. around 3,500percent. But with his disappearance from the scenethings started going from bad to worse and todayhigher education in Pakistan is suffering due to ad-hocism and whims of the rulers. Even today after

Will HEC ever regain its past glory?

Dr Atta hopes PML-N government will make a differencepassage of eight months, we don’t have a chairmanof this key education promoting institution.

Eminent scholar, researcher and former Chair-man of HigherEducation and DrAtta-ur-Rehmanwhile talking toPakistan ObserverMonday urged thepresent govern-ment to generallyinvest in educationsector which inother words willbe an investmentin the future of thecountry.

Dr Attahoped, in the com-ing budget the

PML-N government would fulfill its promise of al-locating 5 percent of GDP to education sector. Atpresent it is a meager 1.9 percent, said the FounderChairman of HEC. Dr Atta-ur-Rehman regretted theprevious PPP government did everything it could toruin the higher education in Pakistan. “Anywherein the world, higher education is the indicator withwhich you can measure a country’s developmentplans, its long-term uplift policies and above all itsdoctrine of growth. Unfortunately, Asif Ali Zardari-led PPP government took the well-established andadequately funded Higher Education Commissionas a liability. Instead of further strengthening thecommission they held its funds, diverted them toother projects which affected studies and researchwork of thousands of young scholars at the foreignuniversities. “Was this a national service?,” inquireda visibly disturbed former HEC chief. Even nowPPP government in Sindh is going to establish itsown provincial HEC which again is in gross viola-

tion of law and constitution, said he. If every prov-ince is allowed to constitute its own provincial highereducation commission, it might result in provincialprejudices. A province’s commission may differ withthe policies of the other province and consequently,form its own policies and this in the long run wouldharm our national interests, he explained.

Against Sindh government’s decision, he hasfiled a writ petition in the Sindh High Court. He haschallenged the Sindh Assembly’s passage of the bill“SIndh HEC.” In my writ, I have submitted HigherEducation is a federal subject and according to the18th Amendment there is no provision in law for aprovincial HEC, he said. To a question Dr Atta saidhe expected from the present government to undoall the education unfriendly steps of the previousgovernment. “PML-N’s Marvi Memon is my co-petitioner in Sindh High Court and this shows theNawaz Sharif-government’s commitment for edu-cation uplift.

Dr Atta also filed a writ petition in theIslamabad High Court seeking early appointmentof the Chairman of the Higher Education Com-mission, which is lying vacant for over last sixmonths. In this case the court has ordered the gov-ernment to appoint chairman of the HEC by Feb-ruary 12.

Dr Atta is of the opinion if emergency measureswere not taken the entire edifice of the HEC wouldcollapse. “Our scholars, scientists from the remote ar-eas of Pakistan belonging to poor families are starvingin the foreign countries. They don’t have the funds tocontinue studies neither they can give up their research/studies in the middle. “I had asked Asif Ali Zardar backin 2008 not to stop funds for HEC but he did not agreeso I was left with no option but to resign two yearsbefore expiry of my contract,” Dr Atta said. It goes tothe credit of Dr Atta that a number of Pakistani univer-sities were recognized among 500 best universities ofthe world and some of the top universities of Asia.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—First good shower of the ongoing Win-ter season on Monday turned the weather pleasant intwin cities of Rawalpindi andIslamabad, ending the prolongeddry spell and foggy conditions.

The drizzle started on Sun-day night, as per prediction ofweather experts, turned intowidespread rain on Mondaymorning and continued till after-noon with occasional gaps.

The current Winter seasonhas not witnessed any significantrain earlier and it was the firstlong awaited significant showerfor majority of the people suf-fering from various seasonal dis-eases like allergies, fever and fludue to dr and cold weather.

The pleasant weather com-pelled majority of the people es-pecially youngsters to visit rec-reational spots and enjoy therainy day while many of themthronged the hilly areas to enjoysnowfall.

The youngsters have plannedtheir trips to the hilly picnic spotsso that they could arrange thegatherings and bar b qparties.”Winter is our favouritemonth and we are enjoying therain”, a group of youngsters atPir Sohawa said.

“We are gathered here towelcome the long-awaited Win-ter rain spell with music and bar

First winter showers turnTwin-City weather pleasant

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid and Ambassador ofJapan Hiroshi Inomata with the staff and artists during a ceremony as the Government ofJapan handed over studio video recording and editing equipment, outdoor/field recordingunit and other equipments worth 49 million Yen to National Institute of Folk & TraditionalHeritage at Lok Virsa.—PO Photo

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Minister for In-formation and BroadcastingPervaiz Rashid said on Mondaythe government was determinedto support all initiatives aimedat benefitting the rural folk andprojecting Pakistan’s magnifi-cent cultural heritage at nationaland international levels. Ad-dressing a ceremony of handingover of video recording and ed-iting equipment by the Japanesegovernment to Lok Virsa, theminister said, “Preserving ofcultural heritage is a path to-wards peace as through it we candefeat those, who want to elimi-nate our rich cultural pluralismand diversity.”

The Minister acknowledgedthe Japanese assistance in thecultural field and assured fullsupport on behalf of his minis-try and the government for ef-fective implementation of Ja-pan-funded cultural initiatives.

He said the Japanese gov-ernment was contributing sig-nificantly to the promotion ofPakistani culture through anongoing joint institutional coop-eration programme by LokVirsa and the Japanese Em-bassy.

The minister said invest-ment in culture was linked withthe protection and promotion ofcultural heritage with a view toenhance and improve the imageof country and boost tourism.

“Pakistan is highly rich inculture, which contains diver-sity, and it is also blessed withvarious architectural monu-

Govt to support efforts for protectingcultural heritage: Pervaiz

ments, that represent a symbolof excellence,” he added. “Oursocio-economic cultural linksare rooted in the great IndusValley civilization, which is5000 years old. We are also wit-nessing a globalization of cul-ture, in which people while re-taining their distinct culturalorigins, are finding commongrounds to interact, do businessand build relationships witheach other.”

Pervaiz Rashid saidPakistan’s relations with Japan

had always stood the test oftime since the establishment ofdiplomatic ties. “Both haveconvergance of views on prac-tically all international issuesand have supported each otherat various world forums. Weare thankful to Japan, whichalways came to help and res-cue Pakistan in times of needand natural calamities likeearthquake and devastatingfloods.”

Speaking on the occasion,Japanese Ambassador to Paki-

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—All Parties Hurriyet Confer-ence leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will tele-phonically address a roundtable conferencetoday at Aiwan-i-Quaid, in connection withKashmir Solidarity Day.

The event is a regular feature of NPCwith the objective to expose atrocities of theIndian troops against Kashmiri Muslims inthe Indian held Kashmir.

The NPC is holding a photo exhibitionof photographs showing acts of brutality andviolence by the Indian troops. It is a collec-tion by eminent artist Mr. Muhammad Ali.The exhibition will also remain open for gen-

eral public tomorrow.The RTC will be presided over by Zahid

Malik, Chairman NPC while former Presi-dent AJK Maj Gen (R) Muhammad AnwarKhan will deliver the keynote address andopen the exhibition prior to the RTC.

Other speakers will be Mr. Tajamul Is-lam, Director Kashmir Media Service, SyedYousufNasim, Convener Hurriyat Confer-ence as well as eminent scholars Prof.MaqsoodJafri and Prof. BashirHussainJafri.They will throw light on thecontinuous violence and aggression of Indianarmy to deprive Kashmiris of their right ofself-determination as provided in various UNresolutions.

NPC to observe Kashmir Solidarity Day

Mirwaiz to address Aiwan-i-Quaidgathering directly from Srinagar

Participants ofNational Security andWar Course visit Air

HeadquartersSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The participantsof National Security and WarCourse from National DefenceUniversity visited Air Headquar-ters, Islamabad today. The con-tingent was led by Air Vice Mar-shal Syed Razi Nawab. A brief-ing on “Organization of PAF andnature of its operations” wasgiven to the visiting participantsof Security Workshop. Later onAir Marshal Sohail Aman,Deputy Chief of the Air Staff(Operations), Pakistan Air Forceinteracted with the participants ofSecurity Workshop and an-swered their questions.

The visiting members ofNational Security Workshop in-cluded Pakistani and foreign de-fence officials and professionalsfrom different walks of life.

b q”, they said. The barani areas of the country havealso received good rain which would prove as ben-eficial for the crops.

The cold wave gripping most parts of the coun-

try will prevail during the next 24 hours, accord-ing to the Pakistan Meteorological Department(PMD), and temperatures will slightly fall withincreasing chill in the weather.

Motorists on the way at Jinnah Avenue during rain.

stan Hiroshi Inomata said theLok Virsa Museum had beenplaying a significant role in thepreservation and promotion ofPakistan’s folk and traditionalculture over the years.

“We, Japanese people, alsoadhere to our cultural norms andvalues, even in this age of sci-entific and technological devel-opment,” he added. Earlier, Ex-ecutive Director of Lok VirsaShaheera Shahid briefed theparticipants about the activitiesof her organization.

06:20 01:30

04:15

07:30

Zohr

Brothers in Islam establish

February 04

PATTAN Development Or-ganization and AnjumanSheharyan are organizingdemonstration in front ofNational Press ClubIslamabad at 3:00 pm to de-mand immediate announce-ment of Local GovernmentElections schedule inIslamabad, KP, Punjab,Sindh provinces and Canton-ment areas.

February 5

THE National Institute ofFolk and Traditional Heritage(Lok Virsa) cordially invitesyou to a luncheon of Kashmiricuisine on 5th February 2014between 1230 and 1400 hoursat Lok Virsa Complex, Gar-den Avenue, Shakarparian,Islamabad being arranged onthe occasion of Kashmir Cul-tural Festival marking Kash-mir Solidarity Day.

Students of Govt Wiqar-un-Nisa Girls College on the occasion of a dress show as part ofPunjab Youth Festival celebrations.

Irum Gilani presenting a Naat during Mehfil-e-Milad organized by Zeenat Khawaja, Seema Iqbal and Shamim Akhtar on Monday.—PO photoby Sultan Bashir

28 outlawsarrested

RAWALPINDI—Police in itsdrive against anti-social ele-ments on Monday arrested 28accused from different locali-ties and recovered illegal armsand drugs from their posses-sion. Police seized 1,010 gramcharas, 14 bottles of liquor andfive 30-bore pistols from the ar-rested accused.

According to details, R.ABazar, Jatli and Murree Policeapprehended Akbar Ali,Tassaduq, Mehmood Hussainand Haroon for carrying cha-ras respectively.

Pirwadhai, SaddarBairooni, Sadiqabad and CivilLines Police held four accusedand recovered liquor fromthem. Besides, five accusedwere arrested from differentlocalities of Banni, Westridge,Saddar Bairooni, Gujjar Khanand Kallar Syedan with liquor.Westridge Police arrestedMuhammad Jeelani and recov-ered a stolen mobile fromhim.—APP

Campaignagainst tokentax defaulters

intensifiedSTAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—IslamabadCapital Territory Administra-tion has intensified the on-go-ing campaign against foodadulterators and those plyingvehicles without payment oftaken tax.

Assistant Commissioner(Sadar) Rabia Aurangzeb con-ducted surprise inspection offood outlets in the area ofGolra Sharif and fined fivefood outlets on account of un-hygienic conditions at thekitchens.

She also conducted pricechecking in the Sadar areaand imposed heavy fines onthe profiteers for over charg-ing and not displaying therate list of fruits and veg-etables.

The administration hasimposed fines of Rs. 1,40,000 on the food outlets forfailing to comply with thehygiene and sanitation lawsduring checking in the monthof January 2014.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Inspector General ofIslamabad Police, Sikandar Hayat has di-rected all heads of police circles and zonesto fix timings for meetings with citizensin order to provide justice to them at theirdoor steps and ensure immediate solutionof their problems. Giving special direc-tions to Superintendents of Police (SPs)and Sub-Divisional Police Officials(SDPOs), the IGP said it is our top prior-ity to ensure protection to the lives andproperty of citizens.

“Such interaction will assist in elimi-nating gap between police and public be-sides building mutual confidence,” hemaintained.

The IGP categorically asked all policeofficials to focus on resolving public com-

Police to fix timings formeetings with citizens: IGP

plaints and take every possible step to pro-vide maximum relief to citizens. He saidthe help to distressed people should be ontop priority and they should be providedimmediate relief.

Policing is basically service-orientedjob and all departments of the police mustenhance coordination with each other andrespond positively and immediately afterreceiving any help seeking call from thecitizens. He said Citizen Police Coordi-nation Committees have started work atpolice stations, traffic office and Rescue15 to resolve public problems and elimi-nate concept of typical ‘thana culture’ ifany.

He directed SPs and SDPOs to remainin contact with these committees and en-sure solution of complaints at earliest. Hefurther directed that police and public co-

operation should be enhanced in order tostrengthen trust-building measures. Theconcept of friendly police is being promotedand creation of friendly atmosphere is be-ing ensured at police stations, he added.

He urged all cops to behave their se-niors and subordinates with graciousnessand ensure maximum performance by us-ing available resources honestly. SikandarHayat said Islamabad police force is cog-nizant of challenges and every problemwill be countered through capacity build-ing of the force and cooperation of thecommunity.

The IGP directed all heads of policestations to continue search operation invarious areas of Islamabad and remain incontact with the police officials ofRawalpindi for effective operation againstmischievous elements.

CITY REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—IslamabadCapital Territory (ICT) Ad-ministration during it ongo-ing campaign against adul-terated food items imposedfines on food outlets for vio-lation of hygiene and sanita-tion laws.

Assistant Commissioner(Sadar), Rabia Aurangzeb onMonday conducted surpriseinspection of food outlets inthe area of Golra andchallaned five food outlets onaccount of unhygienic condi-tions at the kitchens.

She also conducted pricechecking in the Sadar area andimposed heavy fines on theprofiteers for over chargingand not displaying the rate listof fruits and vegetables.

The administration hasimposed fines of Rs 1,40,000on the food outlets for failingto comply with the hygieneand sanitation laws duringchecking in the month of Janu-ary 2014 and directed the food

Food outlets fined forviolation of

sanitation lawsoutlets to ensure the compli-ance of food and sanitationlaws failing which stern actionwould be taken against theviolators.

The checking teams alsodisposed of unhygienic andexpired food stuff duringchecking of food outlets andtook action against the offend-ers.

Meanwhile, AC (City)Waqas Rashid, challaned 30public service vehicles fornon-payment of token tax dur-ing traffic checking at ZeroPoint and Blue Area.

As many as 193 vehicleswere checked and 163 werecleared while 29 public servicevehicles challaned for varioustraffic violations includingnon-completion of designatedroutes and imposed heavyfines on the violators on thespot.

Transporters were directedto ensure payment of token taxwithin a week and complete thedesignated routes failing whichstern action would be taken.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Islamabad High Court(IHC) on Monday reserved the verdict on itsstay order for supply of gas to CNG stations inthe Potohar region including twin cities ofIslamabad/Rawalpindi three days a week.

A single member bench comprising JusticeShaukat Aziz Siddiqui reserved the judgment af-ter the concluding arguments of both the Federa-tion and CNG stations owners’ counsel. The courtwould announce its decision on February 6.

Earlier, the court in its order said, “Previ-ous order through which all the CNG Stationsof Islamabad and Rawalpindi Regions were al-lowed to operate for three days a week, shallcontinue to hold its field and fresh order impos-

Supply of gas to CNG stations

IHC reserves verdicton stay order

ing complete ban on supply of CNG shall re-main suspended till the final decision of thecase.”

“Prima-facie, contentions of the petition-ers are not only reasonable, but supported bythe fact that in all the provinces CNG stationsare allowed to operate at least for three daysa week,” Justice Siddiqui observed in his or-der.

On December 2013, the government sus-pended gas supply to the CNG stations in thePotohar region for three months, which waschallenged in the IHC by the 77 CNG stationowners.

The IHC had directed the Petroleum Minis-try to supply gas to all CNG stations of Potoharregion including the twin cities.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Disposal of around 58,000 casesduring last calendar (2013) by Wafaqi MohtasibSecretariat (WMS) is palpably reflection of ster-ling performance of the institution, ensuring quickdispensation of much needed relief and justice tothe common man. The Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat(Federal Ombudsman) extra ordinary performancein regard to disposing of cases could be seen thatthe WMF disposed of a record number of 57,830cases during 2013, the highest rate of disposal ofcases in 30 years by the Mohtasib. As per the sta-tistics revealed by the WMS, the disposal of casesby the Mohtasib raised almost four times than av-

Wafaqi Mohtasib disposes of record 58,000 cases last yearerage disposal of cases by the WMS, i.e 16,584per year, since its inception in 1983.

Another important role of WMS is the disposalof cases through mediation between the two par-ties and in this regard, the Mohtasib did well tosettle down the issues between parties amicablywhich shows the commitment of the Secretariat.According to the rules and regulations, theMohtasib has a period of 60 days to decide on anapplication from the time of filing of a complaintwhich aims to provide speedy justice to applicants.While the time of the implementation of the deci-sions by the WMS is 30 days after a decision ismade on an application to ensure the proper fol-low up on its verdict.

The WMS, headed by Wafaqi MohtasibSalman Farooqui, has a very wide jurisdictionwhich includes Ministries, departments, divisions,statutory bodies, corporations and institutions es-tablished or controlled by the Federal government.Working with eight regional offices at Karachi,Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Multan,Dera Ismail Khan and Sukkur and a head office atIslamabad, the WMS aims to diagnose, investigate,redress and rectify any injustice done to a personthrough mal-administration of federal governmentagencies and its functionaries.

The vision of the Mohtasib is to promote highstandards of governance, accountability, efficiencyand provide easy and free of cost justice to com-

mon man through administrative justice servicesas there is no fee for filing of complaints at any ofthe WMS office by a person. The person also doesnot need to hire a counsel for himself to contesthis grievances as he has to appear in person for theremedy of his dilemma.

The WMS also enjoys the power of suo-motovested upon it against any issue of public interest inany department or organization. It also has the powerof contempt of court, interim relief to complainant,spot inspection where required, powers to grant com-pensation and authority to recommend criminal ordisciplinary action. The jurisdiction of the WMSdoes not apply to certain areas include; the matterswhich are sub-judice, external affairs of Pakistan,

Defence, Federal Public Service Commission etc.The WMS has also taken several revolution-

ary steps to gear up the progress of the institutionand to ensure expeditious and inexpensive justiceto all and sundry that includes appointments ofgrievance commissioners for CDA and overseasPakistanis. The Mohtasib has also established theoffice of National Commissioner for Child’s Griev-ance in WMS and unveiled the Passport scam. Theother landmark initiatives include; SNGPL andSSGC taking Rs 13 billion from domestic consum-ers by enhancing arbitrary 200% security depos-its, PIMS not using liver transplant machine forlast two years, reconstruction of CDA and publicforums for awareness etc.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD —Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, SpeakerNational Assembly has said that cancer is aleading cause of deaths globally and neededstringent awareness campaign to save thelives of the people who die from this fataldisease. He said this in his message on theWorld Cancer Day being observed through-out the globe tomorrow (Tuesday).

He said that the Cancer Day is observedto create awareness about the diseases andprevention aspects.

Unfortunately more than 70 percent ofall cancer deaths occur in low income coun-tries, where resources for prevention diag-nosis and treatment of cancer are limited. Hesaid that healthy diet, physical activities andliving in clean atmosphere has also proved

NA speaker for addressinginequalities for cancer treatment

helpful in reducing the risk factors of can-cer and other chronic diseases. He said thata significant proportion of cancer can becured if it is diagnosis at early stages.

He said that inequalities between devel-oped and developing counties in term of can-cer prevention, treatment and cure should beaddressed. He also called upon the NGOsinvolved in Medical field to persuade peopleto take early medication to curtail cancerafter it has been diagnosed.

He said that illiteracy, misconceptions andsocial stigmas; lack of medical and infrastruc-ture facilities are the major challenges hurdlesin combating this fatal disease. He asked thefederal and the provincial health departmentsto provide diagnostic and treatment facilitiesfor cancer at all the hospitals especially in therural areas on priority basis.

Activists of PIMS United Action Committee hold a demonstration in favour of their de-mands at PIMS Hospital.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Supreme Court(SC) has directed SessionsJudge West Karachi, GhulamMustafa Memon to hold in-quiry into social workerPerveen Rehman murder caseand present report thereofwithin two weeks.

The court also ordered po-lice to provide fool proof secu-rity to the office bearers andworkers of social organization.A 3-member bench of SC ledby Chief Justice of Pakistan(CJP) Tassaduq Hussain Jillanigave these orders during the

Protecting life, property of citizens,responsibility of state: CJP

hearing of the case Monday.CJP remarked “ law and ordersituation in Karachi will haveto be improved further.

Protecting the life andproperty of citizens is respon-sibility of the state. Presentingthe report police told the court“ we had arrested killer ofParveen Rehman but he waskilled. CJP inquired “how thepolice came to know that theperson who was killed was realmurderer of Parveen Rehman.If any investigation has beenmade from “Qabza mafia’.

If it is so then it be informedwho has conducted the investi-

gation and what situation hascome to light. Police told thecourt that the murderer had con-fessed in his statement beforehis death that he had killed her.No specific information has be-come available on involvementof Qabza Mafia in this case.

The petitioner and head ofthe social organization DrTahira told the court “we ex-press dissatisfaction over po-lice report. A Judicial commis-sion be constituted in this re-gard. Another director of ourorganization has been targetedin murderous attack. Securitybe provided to us.

2 date sheets forclass 5th exam irkstudents, teachers

ISLAMABAD—Issuance of twodate sheets by Federal Direc-torate of Education Islamabad(FDEI) for upcoming 5th classexamination has caused embar-rassment among the studentsand teachers of state run andprivate schools.

As many as 27000 studentsfrom the educational institu-tions of Islamabad are going toappear in the examination for5th class. As per these two datesheets, 5th class examinationwill take place from February,25 to March, 3 on new patternand from March, 8 to March,17 on old pattern. —Online

Drug addictsturn G-9/2 into

safe havenISLAMABAD—Residents ofSector G-9/2 have expressedgrave concern over the sectorturning into safe haven for ad-dicts and drug peddlers. “Thedrug addicts come far early inthe morning and sit on the busypassages of the sector.

They start puffing inchars-packed cigarettes andemit the smoke all around. Wehave to go to our work placesby passing through these pas-sages. They have made ourroutes impassable, said AfzaBegum, a government em-ployee working as assistant insome government office.“They are often found sittingsemi naked and when they seeany lady passing before themthey expose them to full na-kedness”.—Online

SRINAGAR: A Kashmiri woman dolefully standing in a protest that was organized againstforced disappearances of Kashmir youth by Indian Army.

ISLAMABAD: Immigrants of different AJK camps protesting for their demands in frontof Press Club.

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed being welcomed by children of a school.

SRINAGAR—On his 30th death anniver-sary Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Frontfounder Mohammad Maqbool Bhat wouldbe remembered across the globe on Feb11, the pro independence group said.

Additionally, freedom and migrationare inter relevant realities. Freedom is apattern of all holly prophets lives, Noprophet of Allah The Almighty acceptedthe sovereignty of other than Allah. Forthe sake of freedom all the prophets com-mitted migration and of course migrationis one of the pioneer activity of freedom.Since Madina Tayyaba to the creation ofPakistan, ever in the history, migration isthe very much first step of the nations to-ward get the freedom.

Specially Hazrat Mosa’s struggle wasall about the freedom of his own nation.His first demand was freedom from Firon.

‘Maqbool Day’ commemorationacross the globe

He had a long tension with Firon and allof this was a freedom fight. Firon and hisnation were fell in seven torments one byone, every time Firon promised to grantthe freedom subject to removal of torment.Torment removed but Firon did not fulfillhis promises. This is an identity of fironto not fulfill the promises. These are his-torical realities to learn the lesions.

In the meanwhile, announcing a ten-dayprogram in connection with the anniversa-ries of Bhat and Mohammad Afzal Guru,who was sent to gallows last year for hisrole in attack on Indian parliament, JKLFchief Mohammad Yasin Malik gave out thedetails of the program. On February 3 con-dolence programs will be held in Pulwomand Shupian. On February 4 programs willbe held at Varmul and Bandepur.

On February similar programs will be

held in Islamabad and Kulgam. On Feb-ruary 7 JKLF will hold condolence pro-grams in Ganderbal, Budgam and Kupwordistricts On February 10 programs willbe held across Jammu division. On Feb-ruary 9 JKLF will organize a protest rallyin Lal Chowk Srinagar.

The protest rally will raise voice forthe return of mortal remains of Bhat andGuru both of whom are buried in NewDelhi’s Tihar jail. In connection with theprograms of ‘Maqbool Day’, programswill be held across all major cities of AzadKashmir and Pakistan. Many programswill also be held in USA, UK, Canada,Europe, Belgium, Holland, Germany,UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bressels. On Feb-ruary 16 and 26 public rallies will be heldin Belgium and Nottingham in the UK inconnection with the Maqbool Day.—NNI

SRINAGAR—Chief Patron JK Mahaz-e-Azadi(MeA) Muhammad Azam Inqilabi, while casti-gating and lambasting the imperialist rulers ofDelhi for their repressive and oppressive mea-sures in Kashmir against the resistance leadersand activists, has said in his statement: “Thereis an apprehension that the unabated Indian tyr-anny and atrocities will inevitably invite unpre-dictable situation entailing wrath and revenge;and this unwholesome situation will necessar-ily subvert and sabotage the Indo-Pak processof rapprochement and reconciliation.

If Indian army officers of the rank of Briga-dier, Colonel and Major are licensed to go berserkand slaughter the innocent people with impunityand immunity guaranteed by the draconian law likeAFSPA, then how is it possible that the younghawkish military officers of Pakistan army willcontinue to watch the gruesome mayhem and car-nage in Kashmir like mute spectators?

If Nawaz Sharief, as the Prime Minister ofPakistan, could not prevent his most responsiblearmy chief (Gen. Pervez Musharraf) from em-barking on a military adventure and expeditionin Kargil sector in 1999, then how can NawazSharief control the young military hawks of Pakarmy who feel aggrieved, infuriated and fulmi-nated when Indian army personnel run amockin Kashmir thereby massacring, butchering andslaughtering innocent people in cities and towns?

The young Pak army officers, under thecompulsive doctrine of parallelism, feel over-whelmingly inclined and disposed to Milli sen-timents not withstanding their commitment asloyal disciplined activists of Pak army. The hor-rendous and ghastly situation of Kashmir val-ley compels the revolutionaries of Pakistan armyto bypass the norms of discipline and have arecourse to some daring acts of military asser-

Inqilabi castigates imperialist rulers ofDelhi for repressive, oppressive measures

Raises alarm over Pak-India Kargil type collisiontion on the LoC.

So, in the backdrop of the present ongoingagitation in Kashmir against the totalitarianismof Indian army (with special reference to its dic-tatorial stance vis-à-vis Pathribal fake encoun-ter), we hereby feel constrained to raise an alarmthat in the near future there can be an eruptionof pent-up feelings and volatile Mujahedeen ofSalah-ud-din and hawks of Pak army will inunison orchestrate a show reminiscent of Kargil-collision- the situation that still haunts the mindsof Indian and Pakistani rulers.

It is, therefore, imperative that NawazSharief facilitates the constitution of Kashmirresistance Majlis-e-Shoora (the consultativecouncil) which will comprise and consist of thesenior leaders of all the three factions of HurriyatConference, stalwarts of JKLF, Salah-ud-din(the UJC Chief) and representatives of the re-sistance organizations of Azad Kashmir.

Indian and Pakistani rulers should engagethe Kashmir Resistance Consultative Council(KRRC) in a trilateral discourse and discussionaimed at seeking of an early, honourable, prac-ticable and durable settlement of Kashmir is-sue. This is how you can checkmate and thwartthe trends of unpredictable convulsion and in-surrection and therein guarantee viable peace andtranquility in South-Asia. This is all that objec-tivity demands and prioritizes with emphasis.

Let prudence, stoicism, pragmatism, real-ism and rationalism replace obscurantism, pa-rochialism, aggressive chauvinism and sadisticpolitical cannibalism of the powers around.Please evade and avoid procrastination, tempo-rization and politics of polemics and recrimina-tion; this is indispensably paramount to allevi-ate and mitigate the sufferings of traumatizedKashmiris.”—NNI

SRINAGAR—Continuing with its weeklongprogramme, the Hurriyat Conference (M) helda protest demonstration against the exonerationof army personnel involved in Pathribal fake en-counter. During the protest, Hurriyat leaders,Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Javaid Ahmad Mir, SyedBashir Andrabi and Imtiyaz Reshi along withdozens of activists, demanded revocation ofAFSPA, PSA and other draconian laws.

They also demanded an immediate end to the‘human rights violations’ and release of all politi-cal prisoners. Speaking on the occasion, Zaffarsaid it was highly regrettable that world was in-sensitive towards the sufferings of Kashmiris. “Thearmy court verdict in Pathribal fake encounter hasvindicated Hurriyat stand that Kashmir is run bythe army and there is no regard for justice and hu-manity in the conflict-torn land,” a spokesman of

Exoneration of accused Army men‘miscarriage of justice’: Prof Bhat

Hurriyat in a statement quoted Zaffar as saying.Zaffar maintained that the Hurriyat would

continue to raise its voice against AFSPA andother draconian laws. “It will also continue tostrive for resolution of Kashmir according to thewishes and aspirations of Kashmiris.” “Pathribaldescribes the reality that how army, enjoying fulllegal immunity, is violating the human rights inKashmir. Miscarriage of justice in Pathribal caseis a blot on Indian democracy,” Prof Bhat said.

He was a man with courage. He left his jobafter a face-off with Farooq Abdullah and RajeshPilot. He never succumbed to the pressure ofoppressors and hence proved himself, a greatfreedom loving man,” he added. Taking a digon India and Pakistan, Prof Bhat said, “IfAmerica –Taliban, Pakistan Taliban can holdtalks why India-Pakistan can’t?—NNI

JAMMU—The Jammu and Kashmir governmentis contemplating a legal challenge to the Army’sclosure of the infamous Pathribal fake encoun-ter case. “Yes, we will take to legal recourse,”state Law Secretary Mohmmad Asharaf Mir toldPTI. “We are first awaiting the judgement per-taining to the closure of the case by Army,” hesaid. Asked whether the government will movethe J&K High Court on the issue, Mir said, “Yes,after we get the judgement copy, we will studyit and then move onwards.”

The state government has written to theCentre seeking a copy of the judgement of theverdict of the Army on the closure of the caseand the clean chit given to five officers, he said.

Closure of Pathribal fake encounter case

JK govt to take legal actionagainst accused

In a controversial decision on January 23, theArmy closed the case, saying it has found noevidence against its men.

The closure drew angry reaction fromJammu and Kashmir Chief Minister OmarAbdullah, who plans to take it up with PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh. “Extremely dis-appointed with the decision of the army, Ihave asked by Law Secretary to find out thefuture course of action,” Omar Abdullah hadsaid. After a raging controversy over the2000 encounter in which five civilians werekilled on the ground that they were foreignmilitants, the case was handed over to theCBI. —NNI

NEW DELHI—Two civil society groups havedemanded a judicial inquiry by a Supreme Courtjudge into the Pathribal fake encounter, sayingthe “self-acquittal” by the Army in the case hada potential of aggravating a sense of alienationand resentment among people in Kashmir.

“We are very much shocked and disap-pointed with the result of the court martial en-quiry relating to Pathribal encounter in whicharmy claimed to have killed five militants whilethe local villagers have claimed that the deceasedwere innocent,” said a joint statement byKuldeep Nayar and former Chief Justice of DelhiHigh Court Rajindar Sachar. Nayar is presidentof Citizens for Democracy (CFD) while Sacharis a former President of People’s Union for CivilLiberties (PUCL).

They noted that the CBI had inquired intothe matter and submitted before the SupremeCourt that it was a “cold-blooded fake encoun-ter.” “It is strange that the Army has claimedthat there is no evidence. This self acquittal bythe Army will only aggravate the sense of alien-ation and resentment among the Kashmiripeople.

We therefore urge upon the Government toset up a judicial inquiry headed by a SupremeCourt judge to investigate into allegations of fakeencounter relating to killings of five persons bythe Army on March 25, 2000 at Pathribal inAnantnag, Jammu and Kashmir,” it said. The

Civil society of Delhi blastssavage actions of Indian Army

Army had last week closed the infamous en-counter case saying it has found no evidenceagainst its five personnel.

Its decision drew angry reaction from ChiefMinister Omar Abdullah who said he will takeup the matter with Prime Minister ManmohanSingh. CBI, which had taken over the case in2003, had filed a charge-sheet in 2006 beforeChief Judicial Magistrate in Srinagar in whichthe agency had alleged that five personnel-BrigSaxena, Lt Col Brajendra Pratap Singh, MajSaurabh Sharma, Maj Amit Saxena and SubedarIdrees Khan - were involved in the fake encoun-ter.

The agency had alleged that the five per-sonnel were involved in gunning down five vil-lagers and later dubbing them as the foreignmilitants before media. The army personnel alsoclaimed that these persons were responsible forkilling of 35 Sikhs at Chattisinghpora on March21, 2000 when the then US President BillClinton was on a visit to India.

The CBI alleged that the killing of innocentswas a result of “tremendous psychological pres-sure” on the Army unit to show results after thekilling of Sikhs. VICTIM FAMILY AP-PROACHES COURT: Meanwhile, one of thevictim families of Pathribal fake encounter hasapproached local court in Srinagar seeking di-rections to CBI to produce the record of the casebefore the court.—NNI

Slain Kashmirjournalist

rememberedSRINAGAR—Rememberingthe veteran journalist ParvazMohammad Sultan, on his 11thmartyrdom anniversary,Anantnag Working JournalistAssociation has paid glowingtributes to him and expressedsympathy and solidarity withhis family.

Sultan was an investigativejournalist besides editor of theindependent newswire service,News and Feature Alliance(NAFA). He was shot dead byunidentified gunmen on Janu-ary 31, 2003.

The association paidglowing tributes to the jour-nalist and hailed the rolewhich he played in coveringthe nineties volatile situationand expressed sympathy withthe family.

Parvaz was shot dead byunidentified gunmen after briefconversation which evidentlyindicates that he refused tocompromise thus kept the spiritof journalism alive by layingdown his life. Special prayerswere held of the brave the jour-nalist at Khiram Dargh, his na-tive village.—NNI

Mirpur in gripof cold wave

MIRPUR—The upper regionsof either side of the Line ofControl in Azad Jammu &Kashmir (AJK) and Indian-oc-cupied Kashmir Valley andLadakh region received snow-fall here on Monday.

Cloudy weather is ex-pected with light rain over thehill during the next 24 hours.The rainfall turned the weatherchilly and resultantly peoplewent into the heavy winterclothing since the adjoining topmountainous areas. Minimumtemperature was recorded -2degree Celsius.—APP

Yasmeen: Peace insouth Asia linked

to Kashmirsettlement

SRINAGAR—APHC leaderand the Chairperson of Jammuand Kashmir MuslimKhawateen Markaz, YasmeenRaja, has said that permanentpeace in South Asia is not pos-sible without resolving theKashmir dispute in accordancewith the Kashmiris’ aspira-tions.

Yasmeen Raja addressingin Srinagar a meeting of partyactivists and people belongingto different walks of life de-plored that Indian troops werecommitting gross human rightsabuses in the occupied territoryto intimidate the Kashmiris intosubmission. She said thatIndia’s intransigent attitude to-wards Kashmir dispute was themain hurdle in the way of itssettlement.

The APHC leader paidglowing tributes to youth, AijazAhmed, who was recentlykilled by Indian troops inPulwama. She said that sacri-fices of Kashmiri martyrswould not be allowed to gowaste and the day is not farwhen people of occopied Kash-mir will live beneath the um-brella of perfect serenity andshe also termed that kashmirshave been facing Indian |Armysince long times their missionwould be accomplished at allcosts.

Yasmeen Raja also thankedPakistan for continuing itsmoral, political and diplomaticsupport to the Kashmircause.—KMS

Kashmir girlsdevelop

Android appCHANDIGRAH—A group offour Kashmiri girls, studyingengineering in a Punjab col-lege, claim to have developedan Android application (app)that will help their institutionbecome a paper-free campus.

The girls, pursuing an en-gineering degree course in Ary-ans College of Engineeringnear here, said official noticesand other communicationmeant for students can be ac-cessed by students of the insti-tution from the app instead ofchecking the paper notices, theIANS reported.

The students — Rumaisa,Zeenat, Sadiya and Yusra, allBachelor of Technology stu-dents at Aryans — are from theKashmir Valley. They devel-oped the app under the guid-ance of their teachers, espe-cially head of department,projects, Manpreet Mann.“Notices intended for studentsbelonging to the college will beuploaded in students’ login.

This has eliminated theneed of notice boards in thecollege. All the official noticesfor the staff will be uploadedin the staff login. “The out-siders will be able to see all thenecessary information aboutAryans Group of Colleges andthe updates about the eventshappening in the college,” thegirls told media here.

Called the ‘Aryans An-droid App’, it can be down-loaded on mobiles having An-droid version 2.3 and above.Complimenting the studentsfor developing the app, AryansGroup of Colleges chairmanAnshu Kataria said the studentswould be encouraged furtherfor technological development.Kataria announced that the col-lege has decided to sanction anamount of Rs.1 lakh to the stu-dents for any other jointproject.—NNI

Yasin Malik alongwith associates

arrestedISLAMABAD—Indian policearrested the Chairman ofJammu and Kashmir Libera-tion Front (JKLF), MuhammadYasin Malik, and his associatesin Pulwama on Monday.

The police tookMuhammad Yasin Malik alongwith other party leaders intocustody from Awantipora areaof Pulwama when they were ontheir way to Islamabad town.They were scheduled to partici-pate in a demonstration in thetown against the Indian Army’sdecision of exonerating its per-sonnel involved in the infamousPathribal fake encounter case.

Besides Yasin Malik, oth-ers who were arrested includedBashir Ahmed Butt, NoorMuhammad Kalwal, SheikhAbdur Rasheed, MushtaqAhmed Ajmal, MuhammadSiddique Shah, BashirKashmiri, Muhammad HanifDar, Shahid Makaya,Muhammad Ibraheem,Ghulam Rasool Hazarvi,Muhammad Ameen andAashiq Ahmed.

Indian Army personnel hadkilled five innocent Kashmirisin Pathribal area of Islamabaddistrict on March 25,2000. TheArmy had claimed that thekilled persons were foreignmilitants who were involved inthe killing of 35 Sikhs inChattisinghpora area of thesame district a few days ago.Later, it came to fore that thevictims were innocent civiliansand killed in cold-blood by thetroops. On January 23, thisyear, the Army announced toclose the Pathribal fake en-counter case.—APP

SRINAGAR—The veteran Kashmiri Hurriyetleader, Syed Ali Geelani, has appealed to theEuropean Union to play an effective role inresolving the Kashmir dispute in accordancewith the Kashmiris’ aspirations.

Syed Ali Geelani, who is in New Delhi,in a telephonic address to an InternationalConference organized by Islamic Forum inGreece said that the Kashmiri people werenot against India or its people, but theywanted the fulfillment of those promiseswhich were made by Indian rulers to heldplebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir. He saidthat the right to self-determination was thebirth right of every citizen and Kashmiripeople were fighting to achieve the sameright.

The veteran leader, while referring to thevisit of a European Union delegation to oc-cupied Kashmir in 2004, said that after ana-lyzing the situation in the territory, the del-egation described the Kashmir as “the mostbeautiful prison in the world” in which

Geelani appeals EU to helpresolve Kashmir dispute

people were deprived of their basic rights.Referring to the continued and serious

human rights violations by Indian troops andpolice personnel in the occupied territory,Syed Ali Geelani said that there were morethan 600 graveyards of martyrs. “Ten thou-sand people had been disappeared in custodyand the same no of people were buried inunmarked graves while one lack people hadbeen killed by Indian forces during last 24years,” he pointed out.

Thanking the organizers of the confer-ence for giving him a chance to express hisviews, the veteran leader urged them to playtheir role in highlighting the sufferings ofthe Kashmiri people at the world level. “AsI have been denied the travel documents andfrom last three years the authorities are notallowing me to move out of my house, so Iappeal to the international community andcivilized world to monitor the situation inKashmir and check the facts of Indian de-mocracy,” he added.—KMS

LCCI-LabourDept. to hold

‘Made in PunjabExhibition’SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The LahoreChamber of Commerceand Industry (LCCI) incollaboration with LabourDepartment will holdMade in Punjab Exhibitionon the occasion of SouthAsia Labour Conference(SALC-2014) scheduledfor April 24-26 in Lahore.The consensus was de-veloped at a meeting be-tween LCCI President En-gineer Sohail Lashari andProvincial SecretaryLabour Capt (R)Muhammad Yousaf. LCCISenior Vice PresidentMian Tariq Misbah, VicePresident Kashif Anwar,former Senior Vice Presi-dent Malik Tahir Javaidand Commissioner PESSIFarhan Aziz Khawaja alsospoke on the occasion.

LCCI Executive Com-mittee Members MianZahid Javaid Ahmad,Muhammad Afzal, ZafarMehmood andMuhammad Haroon Aroraalso attended the meeting.Both the sides agreed thatthe SALC 2014 would agolden be opportunity forthe business communityof Punjab to show itsstrength as around 700 for-eign and local dignitarieswould be participating inSouth Asia Labour Confer-ence and Exhibition.

Civil Aviationdepartment

inks deal withAir Arabia

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—The Ras AlKhaimah, Monday De-partment of Civil Aviation(DCA), Ras Al Khaimahannounced today that ithas signed a strategicpartnership with AirArabia, enabling the air-line to become theEmirate’s designated car-rier operating servicesfrom Ras Al Khaimah In-ternational Airport. Con-necting Ras Al Khaimah toseveral destinations in theregion, the major new col-laboration is set to witnessa significant increase inthe number of destina-tions accessible to resi-dents of Ras Al Khaimahand neighboring North-ern Emirates.

The launch of partner-ship between the low-costpioneer and the Depart-ment of Civil Aviation,RAK is expected to sup-port Ras Al Khaimah’sstanding as an attractivetourist destination, whileacting as a key catalyst forthe further economic de-velopment of the Emirate.The development alsomeans that Air Arabia nowbecomes the official carrierof Ras Al Khaimah Emirate.

KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

Currency Selling Buying

Bullion Rates

RS PER 10 GRAMS

USA 105.00 104.00

UK 172.83 172.50

Euro 141.87 141.60

Canada 94.66 94.48

Switzerland 115.92 115.70

Australia 92.04 91.87

Sweden 16.06 16.03

Japan 1.0276 1.0257

Norway 16.76 16.73

Singapore 82.23 82.17

Denmark 19.01 18.98

Saudi Arabia 28.05 28.00

Hong Kong 13.55 13.52

Kuwait 371.74 371.03

Malaysia 31.44 31.38

Newzealand 85.40 85.24

Qatar 28.89 28.24

UAE 28.64 28.59

KR. WON 0.0969 0.0966

Thailand 3.198 3.191

Gold Tezab 47142.00Silver Tezabi 788.75

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct)43380.00Gold 22 Ct 39660.00SilverTezabi 686.00Silver Thobi 627.00

Gul Ahmed’searnings riseup to 233%OBSERVER REPORT

KA R A C H I—Gul AhmedTextile, one of thecountry’s largest compos-ite mills and a trend setterin introducing lawn, hasposted a handsome profitbefore tax of Rs 670 millionand after tax of Rs.570 mil-lion for the six-month pe-riod ending December 31,2013, up 233% againstRs.171 million for the cor-responding period of theprevious year.

The profit marginjumped from16% to 19%while its sales have also in-creased in the first half offiscal year 2014. On the otherhand, earnings per share in-creased to Rs.3.12 againstRs.0.94 in the previous pe-riod. On a positive note thecompany foresees a pro-ductive 2014 as GSP Plusbenefits will come. Fromyarn to raw material and fin-ished products coveringgents and ladies fabric, gar-ments, shoes, handbagsand home textiles GulAhmed has the advantageof showcasing them at‘Ideas,’ an exclusive chainof 42 stores across the coun-try with more coming upsoon.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Entrepreneurs’ Organization(EO) is a global network of dynamic indi-viduals, providing an enabling environmentfor entrepreneurs to learn and grow to attainprofessional and personal enhancement. ItsKarachi Chapter is proud to announce therecognition of six of its members in theAllWorld Pakistan100, a ranking presentedby Bank AlFalah highlighting the 100 fast-est growing private companies in the coun-try. Entrepreneurs’ Organization takes pridein its network of exceptional individuals.

Mr. Fahad Shoukat, Mr. Qasim Habib,Mr. Ibrahim Shamsi and SanaullahAbdullah, Mr. Mohammad Ovais, and Mr.Shakir Husain were among the winners ofAllWorld Pakistan100 and held the rankingof 36, 42, 46, 47 and 65 respectively. Mr.Fahad Shoukat of Shafi Gluco Chem (Pvt)Ltd. Stood at No. 36 and is currently oper-ating as the Executive Director for the com-pany. Shafi Glucochem produces and ex-ports rice syrups, proteins and derivativesand employs more than 200 individuals.The company grew by 78% during the pe-riod 2010 to 2012, with the experienced rev-enue ranging between $10 – 20 Million.Rank No. 42 was held by Mr. Ibrahim Shamsiand Sanaullah Abdullah of Aladdin Amuse-ment Park (A.A. Joyland), which is one ofthe prime recreational spots of Karachi. Em-ploying more than 500 people and operat-

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—KE Electric has announcedthat it has been given an Islamic Instru-ment IPO Award in an annual IPO Sum-mit organized by the South Asian Fed-eration of Exchanges. K-Electric, for-merly KESC will offer Pakistan’s firstlisted Shariah compliant instrument, orSukuk, that will be launched for all inter-ested investors.

AZM Sukuk will provide investors lu-crative value for their investment and willbe listed at the Karachi Stock Exchange,the Lahore Stock Exchange & theIslamabad Stock Exchange. It is a trulyunique investment opportunity for all in-

ISLAMABAD—The Securities and ExchangeCommission of Pakistan (SECP) has issueddraft Unit Linked Products and Funds Rules,2014, to elicit the public opinion. In this regardthe Commission has issued through S.R.O68(I)/2014 on January 30, 2014, says a state-ment. The life insurance business underwrit-ten in unit-linked form has increased consider-ably over the past few years, reflecting an over-all increase in private life insurers’ market share.

A need has been felt to introduce com-prehensive regulations/rules for unit linkedbusiness to ensure the protection of poli-cyholders’ interest as well as strengthen-ing insurer’s internal controls over invest-ment policy and processes. The new ruleshave addressed broad product featuresfrom a regulatory perspective, such as mini-mum financial protection, premium index-ation and maximum aggregate commissionon unit linked business.

However, the primary focus of theserules has been on addressing the investment

SECP issues draft Unit LinkedProducts and Funds Rules

KARACHI: Group photograph taken on the occasion of the visit of Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia,Rossalis Rusman Adenan, who led a delegation during their visit to Pakistan Beverage Limited.

MD addressesIPO Summit

KARACHI—The 4th Paki-stan IPO Summit – 2014 ofthe South Asian Federationof Exchanges (SAFE) (abody of SAARC) was heldhere in a local hotel on Mon-day. Muhammad ZubairMinister of State forPrivatization Government ofPakistan & ChairmanPrivatization Commission,was the chief guest on thisoccasion.

CEOs of the leading Pa-kistan companies listedwith the Stock Exchanges ofPakistan participated in theSummit in search of newvenues of Investment andCooperation. ManzoorAhmed MD, NIT presenteda brief but comprehensivepresentation on NIT Fundsin this august gathering. Hespecially underlined theoutstanding performance ofNI(U)T fund, currently Out-performing KSE-100 IndexBenchmark. He describedthe stability of NIT by stat-ing that recently NIT hassettled the entire borrow-ings of 17.2 billion with 9billion markup of its StateEnterprise Fund (SEF). Hereferred to NIT’s role in thestability of Stock Exchangein the past and renewed thecommitment for any futurechallenge(s).—PR

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufac-turers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) has receivedoverwhelming response from the exhibitors and majorityof the stalls have already booked for Made In PakistanExpo 2014 being held in Mumbai India. Addressing a pressconference here today the Chairman PRGMEA, ArshadAziz said that if all goes well and the PRGMEA event heldin a big way, the event might fetch at least $100 millionexport orders. Former Chairman PRGMEA, Ejaz Khokhar,Shaikh M Shafiq and joint organizer Evecon’s DirectorMir Nasir Abbas were also present on the occasion.

He said that Pakistani garments especially ladieswearand law are in great demand in India and the long termbusiness deals among the two countries will flourish thebilateral trade and Pakistan’s value-added sector could begiven big boost. While spelling out details Aziz said that‘Made In Pakistan Expo which would be held in Mumbai,India from April 3-7, 2014 in order to promote Pakistan’sgarments and clothing in the neighbouring country hasbeen duly endorsed by the ministry of commerce and min-istry of textile industry.

He added that PRGMEA has arranged B2C and B2Bmeetings between the Pakistani exhibitors and manufac-turer with Indian buyers and trade delegation would alsovisit India on the occasion. so that Pakistan exhibitorscould avail maximum benefit from the event. He said thatbeside readymade garments, fashion clothing, and hometextiles, handicrafts, marble items, food items and othergoods would also be displayed in the event. He said thatthere is some problem being faced in obtaining Indian visabut majority of the exhibitors is getting visa.

He said that PRGMEA has asked the Indian govern-ment to reduce duty tariff on Pakistan’s garments and re-move non-tariff barriers in general imposed by Indian gov-ernment on Pakistan’s exports.

Mumbai textile expogets good response

K-Electric receives Islamicinstrument IPO Award

KE Sukuk to be listed on stock exchanges

vestors having a minimum investment ofPKR 10,000. The First listed Sukuk is ofPKR 6 Billion (inclusive of a green shoeoption of PKR 500 Million).The Sukuk willbe offered for 3 tenors, namely 13 months,3 years & 5 years. Each Sukuk is rated A+by the JCR-VIS and the Islamic Interna-tional Rating Agency.

The structure of this Sukuk has beenapproved by the Transaction Shariah Ad-visory Board which consists of the follow-ing Islamic Scholars: Mufti Muneeb UrRehman, Dr. Zubair Usmani, MuftiMuhammad Yahya Asim & Mufti IrshadAhmad Aijaz. KE believes that this issue ofSukuk will pave way for the developmentof Capital markets for Islamic Instruments.

Six EO Karachi membersnamed in the All World

Pakistan100ing at a growth rate of more than 65%, A.A.Joyland has managed to earn revenue ofup to $5 million during 2010 and 2012.

At No. 46 of Fast100 was Mr. MohammadOvais of CTW Streebo. A software automa-tion systems provider with revenue of up to$1 million, CTW Streebo operates as a busi-ness partner of IBM and includes clientelelike CitiBank, Deloitte & Honda. At No. 47 is athree time winner, Mr. Qasim Habib from Cot-ton Web (Pvt) Ltd. Employing more than 1500employees, Cotton Web is one of the leadingtextiles and fashion companies in the countrywith an established global clientele. It experi-enced a growth rate of 53% during 2010-2012,and revenue going as high as $50 million. Thefounder and CEO of Creative Chaos, a lead-ing web and technology firm, Mr. ShakirHusain stood at No. 65 in the ranking.

His company provides leading solu-tions to its global clientele including CokeStudio, a highly popular music program air-ing in 16 countries. Creative Chaos em-ploys about 150 people and earns revenueof $1-5 million with a growth rate of 30%achieved during 2010-2012. The winnerswere announced at an award ceremony re-cently held at a local hotel. This group of100 grew and averaged at 136% from 2010-2012, according to the report, and managedto create up to 20,000 jobs. Entrepreneurs’Organization Karachi Chapter consists of52 members, engaging together for mutualand individual growth.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—South Asian Federation of Exchanges, (SAFE) in col-laboration with its Lead Promoters; Karachi, Lahore and IslamabadStock Exchange held the Fourth Pakistan IPO Summit of the seriesstarted in 2011. The event was held with the apex corporate andsecurities market regulator, SECP, as Principal Patron. The Ministerof State for Privatization, Mr. Mohammad Zubair, graced the occa-sion as a Chief Guest, along with Mr. Zafar Abdullah, CommissionerSMD-SECP and other senior professionals from the capital marketfraternity. The Event partners of the Pakistan IPO Summit 2014 in-cluded some of the leading capital market institutions like AKD Se-curities, HBL Asset Management Ltd. and Arif Habib Ltd. Treet Cor-poration Limited and Hascol Petroleum were showcased as featuredIPO companies and also supported the event as Gold Sponsors.

The event started with the Inaugural ceremony wherein Mr. AftabAhmad Ch., MD LSE and Secretary General SAFE addressed theaudience with opening remarks. He stressed on the need for theexchanges to take up the efforts for encouraging further listingsmore vigorously and assume responsibility for leading the IPO mar-ket in Pakistan. He also presented certain suggestions to the regula-tor and exchanges to improve systems and regulation to facilitatethe private enterprises in the listing process. His opening remarkswere followed by a welcome speech by Mr. Nadeem Naqvi, MD KSEand Vice Chairman SAFE. In his speech Mr. Nadeem Naqvi pre-sented some very realistic and innovative ideas to reform the IPOmarket in Pakistan and most articulately acknowledged the appre-hensions of the private enterprises and strived to address criticismin this regard. Mr. Nadeem Naqvi also commented and praised therole of the present government in the recent boost seen by the Paki-stan capital markets and highlighted the strengths and achievementof the stock exchanges in Pakistan.

Mr. Mohammad Zubair was called upon to address the gatheringas the Chief Guest. His brief but eloquent address was much liked bythe audience. Mr. Zubair stated the views of the present governmentin terms of economic development and commitment to the agenda of

SAFE holds Fourth Pakistan IPO Summitprivate public partnerships. He also explained the privatization goalsof the present regime and confirmed the timely and effective stepstaken by Privatization Commission to achieve the government agendain fair, transparent and effective manner. This years’ Pakistan IPOSummit 2014 presented two new and eminent features of Special IPOMarket Contribution Awards and Companies making future Second-ary Public Offerings (SPOs). Both features were very received in thecapital market and the awards assumed a high profile status sinceannouncement. SECP was presented the Regulatory facilitationaward, while Treet Corporation Limited and K Electric Ltd. wereawarded for Innovative Market Instrument and Islamic InstrumentIPO respectively. In the financial services industry the categories ofAwards included Book Runner of the year 2013 for which AKD Se-curities was awarded the first Award for their role in two of only threeIPOs in the given year, and for the historic success of both thetransaction. Along with them, Next Capital Pvt. Ltd. was also awardedfor the same category, acknowledging their role for two successfulIPOs in 2013. An appreciation award in the Book Runner categorywas accorded to Arif Habib Ltd. for their role with Avenceon IPO.

The Awards were presented by Minister of State for Privatization,Mr. Muhammad Zubair, who appreciated the Awards initiative andeach winning entity. The last category of the Awards was for Maxi-mum mutual fund IPOs by an AMC in 2013. The lead award wasgiven to UBL Fund Managers for launching 7 fund IPOS in 2013while Al Meezan Investment Management Ltd. was given an awardof appreciation for three mutual fund, Shariah compliant IPOs in2013. The event was of much interest to a host of participants repre-senting government departments, apex regulator, exchange institu-tions, asset management companies, investment banks, underwrit-ers and senior industry officials. Participants were captivated by aspecial session on Real Estate Investment Trust IPO led by a re-vered market expert, Mr. Nasim Beg, Director, Arif Habib Groupwherein panelists included Mr. Mohammad Ejaz, CEO, Arif HabibREIT Management Ltd., Mr. Muhammad Shoaib, CEO, AlmeezanInvestment Management Ltd. and last but not the least Mr. HussainLawai, President & CEO, Summit Bank Ltd. who brought some sea-

soned and experienced practical perspective to the discussion ofthe session.

Another much awaited session of valued blue chip companiesconsidering a Secondary Public Offering (SPO). The featured com-panies in this session included investor favorites like OGDCL, PPL,UBL, HBL and NIT. Represented by their senior management, Mr.Riaz Ahmed-MD OGDCL, Mr. Kamran Wahab-GM Finance PPL, Mr.Rayomond Kotwal-CFO UBL, Mr. Aman Siddiqui-Head Strategy &Investment HBL and Mr. Manzoor Ahmed-MD NITL, the sessionwas well received and created much stir in the audience.

The Advisory session in the IPO Summit was aimed at dispellingmyths related to IPOs in the mind of private enterprises especially interms of regulatory apprehensions of cumbersome compliance. Thepresentation in this session were made by Mr. Farid Alam-CEO AKDSecurities, Mr. Zeeshan Afzal-ED Corporate Finance and Mr. AsherSaeed-Head of Investment Banking; Shajar Capital Pakistan Ltd. Giventhe advice and convincing arguments for IPOs provided in this ses-sion by such respected and successful advisors, the session servedto alleviate various fears and misunderstanding in terms of IPO pro-cedures and outcome for private enterprises. The most significantsession of the event was the featuring of potential IPO companieswho were brought forward to present their corporate profiles to thisgathering of market experts to assess the advantages for their com-panies of listing. The list of potential companies included private aswell as state owned enterprises and presented a great mix, creatingmuch interest in the audience. Starting with an Innovative upcomingIPO of PPTC by Treet Corporation Limited and featuring excitedlyawaited IPO of Hascol Petroleum Ltd. the session served to fulfill thebasic purpose of the endeavor to identify and encourage potentialprivate enterprises to consider and discuss public listing. Other fea-tured entities included Hyderabad Electric Supply Company Ltd.and Heavy Electrical Complex Ltd., two SOEs who may considerdivestment of government share though stock markets. The longdistance participation of BBJ Pipe Industries Ltd. via video link wasmuch appreciated and provided an avenue to include companieslocated at a distance to benefit from the event.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Under the directives ofPrime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif foran early revival of PIA, all out effortsbeing carried out on urgent basis toput the national airline on the righttrack. Shujaat Azeem, Special Assis-tant to Prime Minister on Aviation saidhere Monday at PIA Head Office whileaddressing senior airline officials andrepresentatives of all PIA Union andAssociations. He said if newer aircraftare acquired PIA can break evenwithin one year time. He said that PIAflights to Najaf and Mashad will com-mence from next month.

The meeting was also attended bySecretary Aviation & Chairman PIA,Muhammad Ali Gardezi and Manag-ing Director PIA, Muhammad JunaidYunus. Shujaat Azeem said that PIA

PM directs for all out efforts torevive PIAneeds at least 45 aircraft and effortsare being made to get at least 20 air-craft that will be inducted in PIA fleetvery soon and would include all threeranges; long, medium and short haulaircraft. He said that all employeesshould work as One Team for the bet-terment of the airline. I believe in mu-tual trust and want to take all unionand associations in to consultationand not confrontation, he said. It willbe a regular feature and you will seethat our good intentions bearing fruit.

He instructed officials deputed at air-ports to be present at airports to take careof passengers. PIA passengers shouldbe well taken care off on the ground aswell as on board. Employees of all cadreswill be rewarded for their efficiency butslackness and corruption will not be tol-erated at any cost and punitive actionswill be taken against those found guilty.

There will be zero tolerance towards cor-ruption. The airline management is mak-ing efforts to curtail losses and increaserevenue base by way of closing loss mak-ing routes and increasing frequencies toprofitable routes.

He said that PIA flight Kitchen,Training Centre and Engineering aredoing a very good job and have theexperience, capability and capacity tobecome Strategic Business Units. Weare trying to establish MRO and effortswill be made to earn revenue by offer-ing the services to other airlines andorganizations, he said. The meetingwas attended by airline’s Directors,General Managers and office bearersof CBA Peoples Unity, PIASSA,PALPA, SEAP, ATAP, CBA, PACCAand Air League; all assured Mr. ShujaatAzeem of their full support and assis-tance for the betterment of the airline.

governance process of the unit linked funds,net asset valuation methodology and thedisclosure of investment risk to the insur-ance policyholders. The new rules have alsobroadened the statutory role of the ap-pointed actuary by requiring his inclusionin the investment committee. The draft rulesrequire that the investment governance pro-cess be more structured, documented andconsider the asset as well as liability charac-teristics of the insurance portfolio.

It is further required that statutory audi-tors should give a separate opinion on the ac-counts of unit linked funds. A statement ofinvestment performance measurement has alsobeen required. The draft rules also require thatan annual statement of the unit account shouldbe sent to policyholders to improve communi-cation of insurance policy benefits to the cus-tomers. The growing popularity of unit linkedproducts is due to the flexibility that insurershad in the product design and relatively lowerlevel of investment guarantees.—APP

LAHORE: Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board Ch Zaka Ashraf presiding over governing board meeting at National Cricket Academy.

MULTAN: Players in action in karate competition during Youth Festival at GovernmentGirls High School Moon Light.

CHINIOT: Players of Tehsil Lalian and Tehsil Bhowana football teams struggling to get hold on the ball during finalof District Level competitions under Punjab Youth Festival.

IS L A M A B A D—Pakistan’sfinest umpire Aleem Darfeels his fellow officials arenot paid well and are neithergiven required benefits bythe Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) saying he has askedthe board to have a reviewon it.

Talking to a private newschannel, Aleem Dar said In-dia pays double to theirumpires and even the valueof their currency is higherthan ours.

“In other countries ex-players associated with thegame are becoming umpiresbut this is least seen in Pa-kistan (a former player be-coming an umpire) just be-cause the umpires are notpaid well,” he said.

Dar asks PCB to payumpires well

Dar said he had askedthe board to provide the

umpires with central con-tracts improving their feestructure and providing

them with all other facili-ties.

“When umpires are onduty they must be givenstay in the best hotels as itis necessary for an umpireto have a peace of mind andget proper sleep to do hisjob well,” he said.

However Aleem Dar saidcomplete fitness tests ofumpires should be con-ducted after every sixmonths. “Being strong in allaspects is needed as anumpire,” he added.

Speaking of the unfortu-nate errors in decision-mak-ing during the domesticcricket tournaments in thecountry, Dar said umpiresare human beings and canmake errors.—APP

Sajid slams 90as Omar

Associates liftVeterans Cup

KARACHI—Former Interna-tional Sajid Ali slammed ahurricane 90 as Omar Asso-ciates won the 4th NationalVeterans Cup Plus 50 CricketTournament by beatingLahore Lions by 38 runs atLCCA Ground Lahore, Paki-stan Veterans Cricket Asso-ciation announced on Mon-day.

Sajid clubbed 14 bound-aries and hoisted one six inhis 57- ball knock as sent tobat first Omar Associatesraised a mammoth 194 forthe four wickets in 20 overs.

Nadeem Moosa made 3816-ball cameo with two sixesand three fours.MohammadAslam hit five boundaries inhis 35 runs off 29 balls.

Lahore Lions in replywas restricted 148 for lossof six wickets in 20overs.Tariq Siddiquicracked 36-ball 58 laced withfour sixes and fiveboundaries.Babar Butt hitan unbeaten 33 in 38 ballswith threeboundaries.Sagheer Abbastook two wickets for 33runs. At the presentationceremony Pakistan CaptainMisbah-ul-Haq was theChief Guest and distributedthe prizes.

Omar Associates Cap-tain Ashraf Pakhali receivedthe winners trophy whileAshiq Hussain Qureshi re-ceived the runners-up tro-phy. Sajid Ali was declaredbest batsman of the tourna-ment and also named manof the match of finale.

Farriduddin got bestbowler award and TahirRasheed was named bestwicketkeeper of theevent.All the Prize winnersbelonged to Omar Associ-ates.—APP

PPL, Attockwin in Parco

T20 CupKARACHI—Pakistan Petro-leum Ltd (PPL) and AttockPetroleum won their matchesin 5th Parco Cup Twenty20Cricket Tournament,Organisers announced onMonday.

At DHA Moin KhanAcademy Ground, PPL beatPSO by 38 runs thanks to bril-liant all-round show by SonaBugti.

Talented Sona blasted anunbeaten 52 in 23 balls withseven boundaries, two sixesand also grabbed three wick-ets for 18 runs.

In the other match at NBPSports Complex.Attock Petro-leum registered an exciting twowickets victory over ENI Paki-stan with one ball to spare.

Off-spinner Atif Khancaptured four wickets for 18runs but failed to save his teamfrom defeat.

Summarised scores: PPLbt ENI by 38 runs. PPL 183-6in 20 overs (Sona Bughti 52,Umar Draz 45, Umair 30) 145 allout in 19.4 overs (M.Yaseen50, Shaji Yar Khan 24, Kamran17, Sona Bughti 3-18). Attockbt ENI Pakistan by two wick-ets. ENI Pakistan 162-7 in 20overs (Salman Raza 51, JunaidSiddique 40, Hasan Mazhar11) Attock 163-8 in 19.5 overs(M.Saeed 39, M.Haque 33,Samad Khan 18, Atif Khan 4-18, Furqan Khan 3-33).—APP

KARACHI—Former Chief Executive Paki-stan Cricket Board (PCB) Arif Ali KhanAbbasi has greeted United Arab Emirates(UAE) Minister of Sports, Culture and YouthAffairs’ Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak AlNahyan and other officials for Emiratesqualifying for next 2015 Cricket World Cupbeing jointly staged by Australia and NewZealand early next year.

“This is a great achievement that UAEhave qualified for the mega cricket eventfor the third time,” he said in statement is-sued on Monday.

“UAE is a great friend of Pakistan andthey have achieved excellence in cricket andcreated a world-record by holding over 200ODIs at Sharjah Stadium,” he said.

He said UAE deserved a great deal ofappreciation for promoting and supportingcricket by providing the world class facili-ties to Pakistan team for playing their homeseries in UAE.

He said the name of Abdul RehmanBukhatir is well known in cricket fraternityacross the world for his contribution forpromoting cricket and extending supportfor needy cricketers through his Cricketer’sBenefit Fund Series (CBFS).

Abbasi greets Nahyan forUAE qualifying for 2015

Cricket World CupHe hosted the inaugural Cricket Asia

Cup in 1984 and Australasia Cup in 1986 inSharjah.

Arif Abbasi, a former Chief of PakistanHockey Federation (PHF) and Sindh Olym-pic association also felicitated AbdulRehman Falaknaz, Chairman of DubaiCricket Association and Vice ChairmanRedda Abbas.

UAE made their World Cup during the1996 competition jointly hosted by Indo-Pak.

Emirates team led by Pakistan-bornKhurram Khan qualified for the champion-ship despite 41 runs loss to Scotland in ICCCricket World Cup Qualifier New Zealand2014 (CWCQ) at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval, Lin-coln, near Christchurch on Saturday.

After winning the qualifiers final, Scot-land will join Afghanistan, four-time cham-pion Australia, co-host New Zealand,Bangladesh, three-time finalist England, and1996 champion Sri Lanka in Pool “A”.

UAE will be placed in Pool ‘B’ alongwith defending champion India, Ireland,1992 champion Pakistan, South Africa, two-time champion West Indies and Zimba-bwe.—APP

LAHORE—A three member delegation ofPakistan Deaf Cricket Association lefthere on Monday for Dubai to attend DeafInternational cricket council meeting be-ing held there tomorrow, Tuesday.

The delegation comprises President,PDCA, Abdul Salam, Secretary, IrfanMiraj and manager, Zaheer ud din Babar.

“The main item on agenda of the meet-ing is to finalise the dates of inauguraldeaf T20 world Cup which Pakistan willbe hosting during the current year,” saidZaheer while talking to APP before thedeparture.

He said they are updating ICC offi-cial for Disable cricket Andy Hobbs onthe progress being made on hosting themega event in a trend setting manner inPakistan.

PDCA official said Pakistan CricketBoard is fully supporting them and the

Three-member delegationof PDCA off to Dubai

activities of deaf cricket and it is hopedthat with their cooperation and help theywould be able to hold the mega eventsuccessfully.

“We will be giving a presentation onsecurity measures and allied issues tobe adopted for the protection of all theforeign teams and we are confident thatICC would fully support us on holdingthe Cup in Pakistan,” he said adding“Staging of the Cup will help in sendinga positive message regarding Pakistanwhich is safe to stage el i te sportsevents .”

He expressed his gratitude to PCB forpaying special attention to cricket of deafcricket. “With the continued support ofthe PCB we were able to organize theAsia Cup last year in Lahore and we lookforward to the holding of T20 World Cupthis year.”—APP

ISLAMABAD—Former Cricketer Mudassar Nazar on Mon-day said an all-rounder head coach can be good for thePakistan team but urged that specialists are definitelyneeded for all three facets of the game.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has invited applicationsfor the positions of Head Coach, Batting Coach and Field-ing Coach for the national team. An advertisement hasalso been floated in this regard on the board’s website. Toevaluate and recommend a candidate for the jobs the PCBhas made a committee comprising Subhan Ahmad, JavedMiandad, Intikhab Alam and Wasim Akram. The final datefor receipt of applications is February 6.

Mudassar Nazar, who played 76 Tests and 122 ODIsfor Pakistan between 1976 and 1989, scoring almost 7,000runs and taking 175 wickets, said the head coach is themain man at the end of the day.

“A coach should be using all of that time at their dis-posal to look after the Pakistan ‘A’ team or the Under-19sand to look at who is coming through. If some playersdon’t perform well on a tour than that doesn’t mean theyshould be thrown out of the squad. A coach should actu-ally need to work with them,” he said.

Mudassar, who is currently the Head Coach at the theICC Global Cricket Academy, specialising in batting anddevelopment programmes, said there is a huge need for acoach.

“If you look at how teams prepare for Tests, ODIs andT20s, you will see that a lot of thought goes into it. Teamscarry out video analysis, have meetings and also discussthe psychological side of it,” he added.

However Mudassar said if PCB appoints Waqar Younisas head coach again it would be good. “When Waqar wasin charge he had two able students with him in Aaqib Javedand Ijaz Ahmed and they all worked really well together,”he said. He said Mohsin Hasan Khan benefited a lot fromwhat Waqar Younis had done with the cricket team as thingswere in place and players were responding well.

Mudassar wants anall-rounder head coach

for Pakistan team

Capital beatMedicos in

friendlycricket match

I S L A M A B A D — C a p i t a lGymkhana hammeredMedicos Club by 127 runsin a friendly cricket matchplayed here at CapitalCricket Ground (G-9).

Medicos Club won thetoss and invited CapitalGymkhana to bat first. Capi-tal Gymkhana posted a totalof 273 runs for the loss ofsix wickets in the allotted 35overs.

Capital Gymkhana scor-ers were Osama Safdar (56),Daud (54) and Asif Malik(52).For Medicos, Sohail andNoman bagged two wicketseach for 44 and 47 runs, re-spectively.

In reply, Medicos werebundled out for just 147 runsin 24 overs. Mudasar topscored with 32 while Osmanmade 28 runs. For CapitalGymkhana, off-spinnerAhmed Rehman grabbedfour wickets for 14 runswhile Usman Zia and AsifMalik took two wickets eachfor 28 and 30 runs, respec-tively.—APP

PYF providesunique

opportunities toyouth: Ahsan

SIALKOT—Federal Minis-ter for Planning and Devel-opment Ahsan Iqbal said onMonday the Punjab YouthFestival had providedunique opportunities to theyouth to shine.

Addressing the partici-pants after distributing prizesto the winners of differentcompetitions at DistrictSports Complex Narowal, hesaid the Punjab Youth Festi-val had invigorated new en-thusiasm, sportsman spirit,encouragement, toleranceand good mental thoughtsamong the young genera-tion.

The Minister said thatthe promotion of sportswas vital to develop ahealthy society by ensuringequal opportunities to thetalented youths.

MPAs Rana AbdulManan, Khawaja WaseemButt, Narowal DCO SyedNajaf Iqbal, Assistant Com-missioner Behzad Adil,EDO (Health) Narowal Dr.Imtiaz Ahmed Chatta, Dis-trict Officer (PopulationWelfare) Narowal GhafranSaqib Chopra and localPML-N leaders were alsopresent.—APP

SPORTS REPORTER

LAHORE—The 28th Meeting of PCBGoverning Board held on Monday atNational Cricket Academy. ChairmanPCB Ch. Zaka Ashraf presided overthe meeting.

The meeting was held to discussthe proposed changes to ICC Gover-nance and the guiding principles dis-cussed at the last ICC Board meeting.The Board received a detailed presen-tation on the proposal which is to bediscussed at the next ICC Board meet-ing on 8th February 2014 at Singapore;

PCB meeting discussesproposed changes to

ICC governanceThe Board Members deliberated andexpressed serious concerns on themodel proposed by BCCI, ECB and CAwhich was neither in line with prin-ciple of equity nor in the interest ofgame of cricket.

The Board has reiterated the posi-tion that Chairman PCB request audi-ence with the Patron of PCB, H.E thePrime Minister to apprise him on thismatter of immense significance and ofnational interest which will have widereaching impact on future of cricket inPakistan.

The Board appreciated and sup-

ported the stance taken by ChairmanPCB at the last ICC Board meeting atDubai.

The Board authorized ChairmanPCB Mr. Zaka Ashraf and COO Mr.Subhan Ahmad to engage with otherBoard members to align the commonposition and take other requisite re-medial measures in the interest ofcricket in Pakistan.

The Board welcomed the newBoard members namely Mr. YousafNaseem Khokhar (WAPDA), Mr.Aman Aziz Siddiqui (HBL) and Mr.Noor ul Haq Baloch (FATA).

Bipin DaniObserver

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—ICC’s first woman umpireKathy Cross believes that officiating inthe men’s match is not difficult.

Speaking exclusively over telephonefrom Wellington, where she had just fin-ished the one-day Club match betweenthe men’s teams of Eastern Suburbs andKarori Cricket Club, she said, “it is anhonour to be selected to the ICC Associ-ate and Affiliates Panel of internationalumpires. The selection will provide greatopportunities and broaden experiences”.

“I am already experienced in umpiringWomen’s cricket and am now eligible forappointments to ICC Cricket League Di-visions 3-6, in addition to women’scricket”.

“The first opportunities for selectionwill be in the WCL Divisions 5 & 4, willtake place in the next few months”.

“My appointment will hopefully leadto more female officials coming throughthe ranks”, she added.

“I don’t get disturbed or embarrassedwhen the male players use the tactics ofsledging the opponents. My job is to

I don’t get embarrassed whileofficiating in men’s match: Kathy

ensure that the match is played in truesportsman spirit”.

Interestingly, the 57-year old Kathy’sfirst appointment in the men’s Test matchwas in 2002 when she discharged theduty of a fourth umpire in Test matchagainst England at Wellington. “I keptmyself very busy then”, she recalled.

According to Rodger McHarg, theUmpiring Manager at New ZealandCricket (NZC), she finds no issues whileperforming duty in men’s match.

“Kathy Cross umpires in Wellington– and umpires senior men’s club cricketvery frequently- with no issues. Kathyknows how to apply the Laws and Play-ing Conditions- and that is why she isbeing promoted to the ICC A & A Panel”,he said over telephone from Christchurch,exclusively again.

“She does not get embarrassed at anystage. Kathy will be standing in severalODI women’s matches at the end of Feb-ruary when NZ play West Indies in a se-ries here in NZ, before she goes to Ma-laysia for a ICC appointment to a Divi-sion 5 Tournament in March”, he furtherinforms.

“She has stood in NZ Cricket mensList A matches”, he signed off.

SAN DIEGO: Andy Murray’s win over Sam Querrey gave Britain its first Davis Cup win over the US.

SAN DIEGO—Less than five months afterhaving back surgery, Wimbledon championAndy Murray propelled Britain into the nextround of the Davis Cup and earned sometime off.

Murray beat Sam Querrey 7-6 (5), 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-3 to clinch Britain´s opening-round victory against the United States onSunday at Petco Park.

Murray won his 18th straight Davis Cupsingles match and Britain beat the Ameri-cans for the first time since 1935.

Britain advanced to the World Groupquarterfinals for the first time since 1986. Itwill face Italy, which defeated Argentina.The United States is relegated to the WorldGroup playoff in September and will needto win to stay in the World Group.

The last time Great Britain won in theUnited States was in 1903 in the WorldGroup Challenge Final at the LongwoodCricket Club in Boston. American captainJim Courier was asked to put that in per-spective.

Murray split tiebreakers with Querreyin the first two sets, breezed through thethird set in 29 minutes and won the matchwhen Querrey returned a serve long.

Murray beats Querrey;Brits top US in Davis Cup

WHANGAREI—The first five Indians in the batting or-der in the Whangarei practice game will all be part ofthe first Test XI in Auckland. Of them, the first threefell after getting starts, and the next two made fiftiesbefore retiring.

All five spent at least an hour each in the middlebut the Indians would have wanted the top-order bats-men to have had a longer hit on the flat pitch beforethe side heads back to Auckland. M Vijay went in the

second over of the secondday, losing his off stumpas he tr ied playing apitched-up delivery fromthe crease.

Shikhar Dhawan andCheteshwar Pujara carriedon without any trouble butDhawan ran himself out,going for a third run afterpunching through extracover. Pujara was quitesolid in his first outing af-ter arr iving in NewZealand.

He left well , pushedforward to defend confi-dently, and cut in his vig-orous fashion wheneverhe got width. Having mo-tored to 33, he missed an

incoming delivery off the back foot to be trapped infront. Vijay played 56 deliveries, Dhawan 68 and Pujara66.

While none could reach the point where they hadthe luxury of retiring, whatever practice time they man-aged before the first Test was still better than fallingearly. Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane helped them-selves to some more batting practice, making 59 and60.

Rohit had a few unconvincing slogs at the spin-ners, but none of the mis-hits was realistically a chance.

Both batsmen were hardly bothered against an at-tack comprising fringe domestic players. After thesetwo walked off within a few overs of each other, AmbatiRayudu, the reserve Test batsman, put in an unbeaten,two-hour stint that fetched him 49.

Wriddhiman Saha did not last long but R Ashwincame in to play some outstanding strokes. He hookedsuccessive sixes when he was bounced and pulled asconvincingly. Ashwin cracked 46 off 51, and the matchwas called off soon after his dismissal.—Online

IOC chiefsays 7-yearrule not set

in stoneSOCHI (Russia)—An In-ternational Olympic Com-mittee rule that forces asport to wait seven yearsbefore it can potentially

become part of the Gamesprogramme is “more or lessobsolete,” IOC PresidentThomas Bach said onMonday.

Bach, who took overfrom Jacques Rogge in Sep-tember, is eager to revampthe organisation, change thebidding process for candi-date cities and refresh thesports programme. The factthat the seven-year rule wasincluded in the OlympicCharter should not pose aproblems, the German toldreporters. “I know that theOlympic Charter is not setin stone, we have toevolve, adapt to moderntimes,” said Bach, who hasgiven hope to baseball andsoftball to be included inthe 2020 Tokyo Olym-pics.—APP

Rohit, Rahane makefifties in draw

Australia’s testwarm-up inSouth Africa

cancelledCAPE TOWN—Australia’sonly warm-up fixture aheadof the three-match test se-ries against South Africa hasbeen cancelled after torren-tial rain in Potchefstroom leftlittle chance of play.

The four-day matchagainst a South African In-vitational XI was due to beplayed between Wednes-day to Saturday, but withconditions unlikely to im-prove in the coming days,Australia have opted in-stead for more nets.

“Cricket South Africa(CSA) and Cricket Australia(CA) have reached a col-laborative decision to can-cel Australia’s four-daywarm-up match against aSouth Africa Invitational XIscheduled from 5-8 Febru-ary in Potchefstroom,” CSAsaid in a statement on Mon-day.

“There has been torren-tial rain in the area over thelast few days which has ham-pered the squad’s training,with the forecast for the com-ing days also lookinggloomy. “Australia will travelto Johannesburg today, andare scheduled to have prac-tice at SuperSport Park inCenturion today (Tuesday)morning.” —APP

Murray leaned back and pumped both fists,and then swatted the ball into the standson the opposite end of the court before join-ing his teammates in a celebration huddle.

Later, he had a hot bath, an ice bath andother treatment on his back. Britain clinchedthe match at 3-1. The fourth singles matchwas cancelled. Murray reached matchedpoint on Querrey´s serve in the eighth gameof the fourth set before the American wonthree straight points to stay alive.

After falling behind 15-30 in the ninthgame, Murray got a new racket. He thendouble-faulted, giving Querrey break point.Murray won the next three points to clinchthe match.In the first-set tiebreaker, Murraywas down a mini-break before rallying towin when Querrey hit a drop volley into thenet.

Querrey won the second-set tiebreakeron a forehand passing shot and then jumpedfor joy.

Murray immediately rebounded bybreaking Querrey twice to go up 4-0 in thethird set. He broke Querrey again to winthe set in a seventh game that went to deucefour times, clinching it when Querrey hitinto the net.—AP

CHITTAGONG—Bangladesh arelooking for an all-round improvementas they try to bounce back from amassive defeat in the first Testagainst Sri Lanka when the secondand final match starts on Tuesday.

The hosts were annihilated by aninnings and 248 runs inside four daysin Dhaka last week, having beenbowled out for 232 and 250 in goodbatting conditions in which Sri Lankapiled up 730-6.

Mahela Jayawardene led the waywith an unbeaten double-century andtwo others scored hundreds asBangladesh conceded their highestTest total in another morale-sappingloss.

Bangladesh all-rounder ShakibAl Hasan said his team-mates hadput the setback behind them andlooked forward to playing a goodTest on a good pitch at the ZahurAhmed Chowdhury stadium inChittagong.

Bangladesh seek revivalafter first Test flop

“Everyone was a bit down andsad after the loss in Dhaka, but theyare fine now and focused on the nextmatch,” Shakib said. “Matches cango bad, but coming back is very im-portant.

“We have come back from situa-tions like these before, so we havethat experience. But we have to im-prove in all aspects, especially thefielding.”

Shakib said each of the high-scoring Sri Lankan batsmen, includ-ing Jayawardene, were let off in thefield through dropped catches ormissed stumpings.

“Had we grasped those opportu-nities, they may not have scoredmore than 500 runs,” he said. “Andthere is plenty of difference between500 and 700.”

Bangladesh could play an addi-tional slow bowler in either left-armerAbdur Razzaq or off-spinnerMohammad Mahmudullah to back upShakib and Sohag Gazi on a wicketthat could take turn as the matchprogresses.

Sri Lanka were dealt a blow as twokey bowlers were ruled out of theTest due to injuries and ordered toreturn home to recuperate.

Frontline left-arm spinnerRangana Herath suffered a recurringknee injury and seamer ShamindaEranga picked up a thigh injury dur-ing the first Test.

A statement from Sri LankaCricket said the duo will be replaced

by Thisara Perera and Kusal Perera,who are expected to arrive before thetoss on Tuesday.

Sri Lankan veteran KumarSangakkara expected another match-winning performance by his team, butrefused to take victory for granted.

“We’re pretty much used toBangladesh putting up a good fight,”said Sangakkara. “They pushed usin the series in Sri Lanka and wewalked away with a one-all draw inthe one-dayers.

“We won’t expect anything lessthan that from them here. The earliergame may have been easier than wethought it would be, but we expect itto be different here.”

Sri Lanka have won 14 of their 15Tests against Bangladesh, eight ofthem by an innings margin, and drawnthe other.

Bangladesh (from)- MushfiqurRahim (capt), Tamim Iqbal, MarshallAyub, Shakib Al Hasan, NasirHossain, Mominul Haque, ShamsurRahman, Mohammad Mahmudullah,Imrul Kayes, Abdur Razzak, SohagGazi, Robiul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Al-Amin Hossain.

Sri Lanka (from) - AngeloMathews (capt), Dinesh Chandimal,Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva,Kumar Sangakkara, MahelaJayawardene, Kithuruwan Vithanage,Kusal Perera, Dilruwan Perera,Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep,Thisara Perera, Vishwa Fernando,Ajantha Mendis.—AFP

SOCHI (Russia)—Norwegian slopestylesnowboarder Torstein Horgmo, one of theOlympic gold medal favourites, was takento hospital after crashing in training onMonday on a course widely condemned astoo dangerous.

The 26-year-old crashed on the rail fea-ture of the slopestyle course at Rosa KhutorExtreme Park, Norway’s team manager Tho-mas Harstad confirmed.

“He landed on his face and his rightshoulder,” said Harstad.

Horgmo’s accident follows a stream ofcriticism from competitors over the safetystandards of the course.

“I saw that he fell over the rail andtrashed pretty hard. He tried a really hardtrick (switch hardway backside 270)—prob-ably the hardest trick you’ll see all day. Hewas transferring from one jump to anotherrail,” said Norwegian teammate StaaleSandbech.

Sandbech said he could not give anopinion on Horgmo’s condition.

“I have no idea. You never know whenyou crash. A crash can look bad and you’refine or the opposite but he’s a tough Vi-king,” he said.

“Hopefully he can bounce back.”After the accident, Horgmo was placed

File photo: Norwegian slopestyle snowboarder TorsteinHorgmo.

Snowboarder Horgmo breakscollarbone, out of Olympics

in tarpaulin and carried down the courseby several medical staff to the medical tent.

He was seen flexing his hands as hewas taken in for an examination.

Harstad said Horgmo was consciousbut in pain and the extent of his injurieswere not yet clear.

Horgmo is ranked third on the WorldSnowboard Tour for this season.

Ireland snowboarder SeamusO’Connor, who was out training at the sametime as Horgmo, said he anticipated therewould be injuries.

“The course needs some work. Theyoverbuilt the jumps because they were an-ticipating that the snow would melt,” saidO’Connor.

“At the moment the riders are nothappy. The rails up top are too close.

“The riders need to speak up about theconditions. The rails can’t be fixed but theycan fix the jumps.”

On Sunday, Australia’s Torah Bright,who is attempting a snowboard treble atSochi, said she was concerned that the lead-ing experts in course construction were notbeing employed to oversee the work.

“I do know that concerning pipe andslopestyle, the business’s best aren’t herebuilding the course,” said Bright.—AFP

GOVERNMENTS could slow or even reverse the growing obesity epidemic ifthey introduced more regulation into the

global market for fast foods such as burgers,chips and fizzy drinks, re-searchers said on Monday. Astudy published in the Bulle-tin of the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) sug-gested that if governmentstook firmer action, they couldstart to prevent people be-coming overweight andobese - conditions with seri-ous long-term consequencessuch as diabetes, heart dis-eases and cancer.

“Unless governmentstake steps to regulate theireconomies, the invisible handof the market will continue topromote obesity worldwidewith disastrous consequencesfor future public health andeconomic productivity,” saidRoberto De Vogli of the University of Califor-nia, Davis, in United States, who led the study.

The WHO is urging governments to domore to try to prevent obesity happening in thefirst place, rather than risking the high humanand economic costs when it does.

Suggested policies include economic incen-tives for growers to sell healthy, fresh foods;disincentives for industries to sell ultra-pro-cessed foods and soft drinks; cutting subsidiesto growers and companies who use largeamounts of fertilizers, pesticides, chemicals andantibiotics; and tighter regulation of fast-foodadvertising, especially to children. The researchanalyzed the effect on obesity of deregulation

in the economy over time, including in theagriculture and food sectors, and the result-ing increase in so-called “fast food transac-tions” - in other words, the number of times

people bought fast food. Theresearchers compared the num-ber of fast food transactionswith body mass index (BMI)in 25 high-income countriesbetween 1999 and 2008.

They found that, as theaverage number of annual fastfood transactions increasedfrom 26.61 to 32.76 per per-son, average BMI increasedfrom 25.8 to 26.4. Someonewith a BMI of 25 or more isoverweight, while a BMI of 30or more is considered obese.

Vogli said that, whilethe research was based on datafrom wealthy countries, itsfindings were also relevant todeveloping countries. “Virtu-ally all nations have under-

gone a process of market deregulation andglobalization - especially in the last three de-cades,” he said. The average number of fastfood transactions per person increased in all25 countries.

The sharpest gains were in Canada, Aus-tralia, Ireland and New Zealand, while thelowest were in countries with more strin-gent market regulation - such as Italy, theNetherlands, Greece and Belgium.

“Countries where the diet is transitioningfrom one that is high in cereals to one that ishigh in fat, sugar and processed foods needto take action to align the food supply withthe health needs of the population.”

Study finds deregulationfuelling obesity epidemic

Information Minister Sharjeel Memon addressing Assembly session.— PO photo Sultan chaki

Folk singers performing during Sindh Festival at Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh Chief Min-ister (CM) Syed Qaim Ali Shahsaid that as many as 55,000youths would be provided train-ing for skills with stipend incen-tives under Benazir BhuttoShaheed Youth DevelopmentProgramme (BSYDP) duringcurrent calendar year, enablingthem to get job opportunities inpublic-private sectors and toearn their livelihood form selfemployment in the market.

He said that as many as1,98,000 youths had been pro-vided job training in differenttrades during his last tenure ofgovernment, out of which morethan 60,000 youth have beengot themselves absorbed in Pri-vate & Public sectors whilemany thousands were earningfrom self employment in themarket under this programme.

This he observed while pre-siding over meeting with man-agement of Benazir BhuttoShaheed Youth DevelopmentProgramme (BBSYDP) at CMHouse Karachi today.

Sindh Chief SecretarySajjad Saleem Hotiyana, Sec-retary to CM Rai Sikandar, Spe-cial Secretary to CM AbbasBaloch, Secretary FinanceSohail Rajput, ChairmanBBSYDP Air Marshal (R)Riazuddin Shaikh, M.DBBSYDP Karim Bux Siddiqui,Consultant to CM on Youth De-velopment Engineer TaimoorSiyaal, and Suleman Dasti andother officers attended.

The CM said that successof BBYSDP could be gaugedfrom this fact that 84000 appli-cation have been received fromthe youth for getting trainingwhere as the institutions withthe BBSYDP have the enrol-ment capacity only for 53,000candidates. He said thatBBSYDP has been appreciatedby the World Bank and other In-

ternational Donner Agencies,especially with reference to pro-vide qualitative skill develop-ment training to minimize thepoverty and unemploymentfrom the society.

He said that after the bigachievements of the BBSYDP

the International DonnerAgency IDA has offered1606.88 million soft loans toprovide job skill training to ad-ditional 45,000 youths within 3years.

Besides UNICEF has alsooffered financial assistance toprovide alternate job training to

the 8000 children’s of the farm-ers of cotton growing areas inGhotki and Khairpur districts toreplace them from health haz-ards labour (cotton picking) togreen job. Similarly the WorldBank has also offered the $100million for the youth develop-

ment schemes in the Sindh headded and said that hopefullythese initiatives of this govern-ment to minimize unemploy-ment provide income and em-ployment opportunities to theyouths in millions in near future.

He said that it will furtherincrease the purchasing power

of people and encourage invest-ment to meet the demand of themarket.

Appreciating the effortsmade by the management of theBBSYDP for running theprogramme on merit and in ef-ficient manner, the CM directed

the officers to enhance the in-stitutional network of thisprogramme in such a way sothat not only all the applicantsbe enrolled for training but theyshould be absorbed in the jobsin public and private sector andenable to run their own busi-ness after training. The Chief

Minister Sindh also directedthe management to establishthe youth employment facili-tating centre (YEFC) in eachdistrict to guide the youth forgetting training, jobs and selfemployment for their futurecareers. Chairman BBSYDP

Riazuddin Shaikh and M.DKarim Siddique briefed themeeting about the achievementsand future plan of institution.

Qaim announces training with stipendsto 55000 youth under BSYDP

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah presiding over a meeting of Shaheeed Benazir Bhutto Youth Development Programmeat CM House.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Chief MinisterSyed Qaim Ali Shah said that theSindh government had carved outrational plans for the rehabilitationof the flood-affected population ofthe province and the people that livedbeside the River belts and had suf-fered from the floods.

Sindh government spent Rs 47billion on their rehabilitation for theflood affectee of right bank of SindhRiver while Rs 11 billion were spent

on the rehabilitation of the floodaffectees of left bank of the SindhRiver. The CM stated this duringquestion hours in Sindh assemblyMonday. He said that the populationthat had lived beside the banks ofRivers and coastal belts were in di-lapidated condition but the Sindhgovernment had raised their livingstandards through gigantic measures.

CM said that around 2 millionacre land beside the coastal belt hadbeen inundated and become part ofSea. However, Sindh government

had through prompt measures helpedthe people living alongside thecoastal belt to raise their living stan-dard especially in Thatta, Badin andSajawal districts.

He said that the Sindh govern-ment was constructing residentialunits for the poor people of the prov-ince. A two-way road was also be-ing constructed in Keti Bandar whilecoal-based electricity power plantswould be established at Keti Bandarand those power plants would becompleted during the tenure of the

sitting Sindh government.The CM said that the Sindh gov-

ernment had paid attention to preventthe forest from being depleted andvanished and in that regard hadplanted saplings of Timor tree andalso made a record of planting 10,000saplings just in a day.

She said that the Sindh govern-ment was also working on otherprojects for developing the areasalongside the coastal belt of whichone was the Sindh Coastal Commu-nity Development project.

Provincial Govtrehabilitating flood-hit people

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Minister for Information,archives and Local Government SharjeelInnam Memon said that all the political par-ties of the country had given a mandate to theFederal Government for taking the process ofpeace talks with Taliban. Sindh governmentdid not have any concern over committees thusannounced for participating in the peace talkswith them but the only demands was that thebloodshed should be stopped.

The Federal Government having got thatmandate for holding talks with Taliban shouldnow take the required steps to implement themandate in letter and spirit so that the terror-ism could be eliminated from the country andpeace be restored. Sindh government wantedto see peace prevailing in nook and cranny ofthe country and that the killings of the inno-cent civilians in bids of terrorism should cometo an end now. The Minister said that he wasignorant to arrest of assassin of Dr ImranFarooq in London and if any was arrested, he

could have so far been produced before thecourt, which did not happen. He was talkingto newsmen inside the Sindh assembly pre-mises after the session of Sindh assemblky wasconcluded Monday.

In reply to a question about objections raisedby certain quarters of the political parties andcoil society, the Minister said that BilawalBhutto Zardari was on his mission to introducethe ancient Sindh Civilization that dated backto some 5000 B.C and the Sindh Festival cel-ebrations were being attended by a large num-ber of dignitaries from the country and abroad,which was a proof that Bilawal Bhutto Zardarihad did his things in a right direction to saveand preserve, promote and familiarize the an-cient Sindhu Civilization to the people aroundthe world. He said that the revenue that wouldbe gathered from variety of festivities under theSindh Festival would suffice to meet the ex-pensed of the Sindh Festival and hence it wasnot possible for him or anyone else to put acheck on the media for carrying distorted, fake,baseless and unrealistic reports.

Only peace talks mandategiven to Fed Govt in APC

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh Minister for Prisons, Minesand Minerals and Anti-Corruption EstablishmentManzoor Hussain Wassan said that he had al-ready predicted that the year 2014 would be fullof problems and dangerous incidents due towhich the future of certain political parties wouldbe highly in hot waters. The peace dialogues withTaliban might hardly be successful and thebloodshed would further go on in the country.

He expressed these views while talking tothe newsmen in the Sindh assembly prior to com-mencement of Sindh assembly session Monday.

The Minister said that London had also beenactive and hence chances were high that some-thing meaningful would certainly happen. Thekillers of the innocent man (Dr Imran Farooq)should face the music.

While responding to another question aboutformation of committee for holding peace dia-logues with Taliban, the Minister Wassan said thatthe bloodshed would further be escalated in thecountry and the peace dialogue process did notlook to be successful. However, the security forceswould be successful in their action against terror-ist. He said that Pervez Musharraf would have noother choice except to appear before court of law.

Peace talks with Talibannot to bear fruit: Wassan

Ban ontransfers,postings

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh Senior Min-ister for Education Nisar AhmedKhuhru said that ban had beenimposed on appointments andtransfers and postings of schoolteachers across the province.Private schools had been issuedstern warning that they shouldimmediately start teachingSindhi language as a subject orelse the Sindh Education Min-istry would take stern actionagainst them.

This he said in Sindh assem-bly during question and answerhour on Monday.

The Minister also warnedthe owners of private schools toensure free education for 10 percent of total strength of studentsand said that he was fully deter-mined to eliminate the cultureof unfair means usage duringexaminations and for reopeningof closed schools. He appealedto the members of Sindh assem-bly and political parties to ex-tend their cooperation and sup-port for reopening closedschools in the province.

Amicable solutionof Kashmir issue

KARACHI—General Secretaryof Jamaat-e-Islami (Women-Wing), Dr Rukhsana Jabeen hascalled for amicable solution ofKashmir issue.

In a statement on Monday,she said that the dispute can notbe ignored and it has to besettled in accordance to the de-sire of the inhabitants of Kash-mir themselves.

Dr Rukhsana Jabeen saidthe issues have to be regularlyand forcefully raised on all in-ternational forums besides con-stant lobbying to make worldrealize the plights ofKashmiris.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—A meeting for for-mation of the standing commit-tees of Sindh assembly wouldbe held today (Tuesday).

This was decided on Mon-day during the session ofSindh assembly. MuttahidaQaumi Movement lawmakerSyed Khalid Ahmed hadpointed out that particular

matter through a privilegemotion wherein he had statedthat formation of standingcommittees and public ac-counts committees were con-stitutionally inevitable afterthe general elections.

However, Sindh govern-ment had not yet formed therequired standing committeeeven after several months hadpassed since the holding of

general elections. This had in-sulted his privilege. Respond-ing to the privilege motion ofAhmed, Sindh Minister forParliamentary Affairs DrSikandar Meendhro said thatthe since the assembly had thepowers for constitute standingcommittees hence it could notbe a privilege motion and theprivilege of any lawmaker wasnot affected.

Sindh PA Standing bodies meeting

GOVERNMENTS could slow or evenreverse the growing obesity epidemicif they introduced more regulation into

the global market for fast foods such asburgers, chips and fizzy drinks, researcherssaid on Monday. A study published in theBulletin of the WorldHealth Organisation(WHO) suggested that ifgovernments took firmeraction, they could start toprevent people becomingoverweight and obese -conditions with seriouslong-term consequencessuch as diabetes, heart dis-eases and cancer.

“Unless governmentstake steps to regulate theireconomies, the invisiblehand of the market willcontinue to promote obe-sity worldwide with disas-trous consequences for fu-ture public health and eco-nomic productivity,” saidRoberto De Vogli of theUniversity of California, Davis, in the UnitedStates, who led the study.

The WHO is urging governments to domore to try to prevent obesity happening inthe first place, rather than risking the highhuman and economic costs when it does.

Suggested policies include economic in-centives for growers to sell healthy, freshfoods; disincentives for industries to sell ul-tra-processed foods and soft drinks; cuttingsubsidies to growers and companies who uselarge amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, chemi-cals and antibiotics; and tighter regulation offast-food advertising, especially to children.

The research analyzed the effect on obe-

sity of deregulation in the economy overtime, including in the agriculture and foodsectors, and the resulting increase in so-called “fast food transactions” - in otherwords, the number of times people boughtfast food. The researchers compared the

number of fast food transac-tions with body mass index(BMI) in 25 high-income coun-tries between 1999 and 2008.

They found that, as theaverage number of annual fastfood transactions increasedfrom 26.61 to 32.76 per person,average BMI increased from25.8 to 26.4. Someone with aBMI of 25 or more is over-weight, while a BMI of 30 ormore is considered obese.

Vogli said that, whilethe research was based on datafrom wealthy countries, itsfindings were also relevant todeveloping countries. “Virtu-ally all nations have undergonea process of market deregula-tion and globalization - espe-

cially in the last three decades,” he said. Theaverage number of fast food transactions perperson increased in all 25 countries. Thesharpest gains were in Canada, Australia,Ireland and New Zealand, while the lowestwere in countries with more stringent marketregulation - such as Italy, the Netherlands,Greece and Belgium. Francesco Branca, direc-tor of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition forHealth and Development, said the findingsshowed how important public policies were inaddressing obesity. “Policies targeting food andnutrition are needed across several sectors in-cluding agriculture, industry, health, socialwelfare and education,” he said.

Study finds deregulationfuelling obesity epidemic

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—On the directions of PunjabChief Minister, Muhammad ShahbazSharif, the Provincial Youth Affairs De-partment has short listed 56 thousand reg-istered applicants seeking for jobs underPunjab Youth Internship Programme.

Under this programme, six monthsinternship with a stipend of Rs.12 thou-sand per month is being given to thosewho have completed sixteen years edu-cation or diploma in technical educationafter matriculation in 2011 or afterwards.In the first phase, 19400 jobless male andfemale graduates have been placed invarious government institutions and pri-vate sector industrial organizations.

It was disclosed in a meeting presidedover by Provincial Minister for Educa-tion and Youth Affairs, Rana MashhoodAhmed Khan held here today to reviewthe progress in Punjab Youth InternshipProgramme.

The members of steering committeeestablished for this purpose participated

in the meeting. Provincial Secretary YouthAffairs Muhammad Khan Khichi informedthe meeting that in the first phase, 19400unemployed youth of sixteen to 30 yearsof age fulfilling the prescribed require-ments have started working from Febru-ary 01, 2014. Out of these, 80 percentskilled persons are given internship in pri-vate industrial organizations while remain-ing 20 percent highly qualified unemployedyouth has been placed in government de-partments. Youth Placement Bureau estab-lished in PITB, Lahore has completed theirplacement according to the option givenby the applicants out of three preferentialdistricts.

Provincial Minister Rana MashhoodAhmad Khan directed the steering commit-tee to organize orientation seminars in thecities having clusters of industry likeLahore, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Gujranawala,Multan, Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur incollaboration with the relevant Chambersof Commerce and Industry to promoteawareness in making the Punjab Youth In-ternship Programme a real success. He also

directed to formulate special monitor-ing teams to check at random attendanceas well as performance of the interneesand ordered to ensure that the femaleinternees would be given placement atthe nearest to their homes.

He told the meeting that govern-ment will continue to provide opportu-nity of internship to degree-holders ofBS Honours, MA, MSc, MBA, BDS,MBBS, M.Phil and graduates of HumanResource Management in a phased man-ner. these include diploma holders inrecognized trades from Punjab Techni-cal Education Board.

Besides TEVTA and training insti-tutions of Punjab Vocational TrainingCouncil, the youth completing diplomafrom recognized private institutions oftechnical education, health technicians,agri and veterinary technicians and para-medics are also eligible.

He also ordered to allocate 20%quota for southern districts of Punjabout of the total number of internees.

LAHORE—Punjab Emergency Service (PES)Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer has directedthe district emergency officers (DEOs) to launchan awareness drive among the people to teachthem how to cope with emergencies.

He said this while presiding over a meetingof Rescue officers at Rescue-1122 Headquar-ters here on Monday.

Briefing the PES DG, the officers said thePES rescued 49,167 victims of emergencies byconducting 46,738 rescue operations in January.However, 15,554 road accidents, 24,129 medi-cal emergencies, 906 fire incidents, 34 buildingcollapse, 1,682 crime, 29 drowning incidents, 9explosions and 4,395 other emergencies werereported in Punjab.

The provincial monitoring cell briefed theDG that 215 persons were killed while 18,401sustained injuries in 15,554 road accidents in

the Punjab during the month of January.These 46,738 rescue operations in January

include 8,605 operations in Lahore, 5,178 inFaisalabad, 3,559 in Multan, 2,472 inGujranwala, 1,407 in Bahawalpur, 1,704 inRawalpindi, 1,612 in Dera Ghazi Khan, 1392 inSargodha, 1,678 in Rahim Yar Khan, 1,592 inSahiwal, 1,179 in Sialkot, 303 in Murree, 1,333in Jhang, 695 in Toba Tek Singh, 794 inMuzafargarh, 697 in Rajanpur, 440 in Mianwali,518 in Pakpattan, 653 in Kasur, 658 in Gujrat,827 in Bahawalnagar, 424 in Jehlum, 758 inAttock, 1,184 in Khanewal, 593 in Vehari,269 in Chakwal, 757 in Okara, 473 inHafizabad, 1,131 in Sheikhupura, 777 inLodhran, 325 in Nankana Sahib, 469 inKhushab, 354 in Mandibaha-ud-din, 527 inNarowal, 462 in Layyah, 546 in Bhakkar and393 in Chiniot.— APP

DEOs asked to launchawareness drive

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Provincial Minister for Law &Local Government, Rana Sanaullah Khan hassaid that Pervaiz Elahi cannot hoodwink thepeople by his hollow claims. He said thatmasses can fully differentiate between thosewho pay lip service and those who takepracticable measures and it is proved by thefact that Q-League was totally rejected in thegeneral elections.

Commenting on the statement of PervaizElahi at a private TV channel, Rana Sanaullahsaid that incomplete projects of Pervaiz Elahigovernment were finished by Muslim League–N leadership.

He said that Pervaiz Elahi cannot name evenone project which had been brought to comple-tion by him. He said that IT tower, Lahore Kasur

56,000 applicants short listed underYouth Internship Programme

Sanaullah criticisesPervaiz Elahi

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Government College University’sEnvironment Protection Society in collaborationwith World Wildlife Fund Pakistan and PakistanGreen Enviro-Engineering Monday organised aone-day seminar to observe the World WetlandsDay.

GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr MuhammadKhaleeq-ur-Rahman was the Chief Guest on theoccasion, while Dean Faculty of Sciences ProfDr Islamullah Khan, WWF Pakistan represen-tative Najmul Huda Khan, University of Veteri-nary and Animal Sciences Dean of Fisheries andWildlife Prof Dr Muhammad Ashraf and EPSAdvisor Dr Tabinda were also present there.

Vice Chancellor Khaleeq-ur-Rahman, in hisaddress, urged the students to take part in thesocial activities to save the environment. “Be-ing citizens, we have forgotten our responsibili-ties and to make Pakistan a developed country,we must follow the disciplines of a society de-cided by the Islam,” he said.

Prof Rahman said that foreign experts hadpointed out almost 15 years ago that Lahore

GCU marks WorldWetlands Day

Road, Lahore Ring Road and Thokar Niaz BaigFlyover were those projects which had been leftincomplete by Pervaiz Elahi & Company andwere executed by Muslim League-N govern-ment. Rana Sanaullah said that Ch. PervaizElahi has learnt no lesson from his shamefuldefeat in general elections. He said that ifPervaiz Elahi has done anything for the wel-fare of the people, he would not have been re-jected by the masses.

He said that Pervaiz Elahi promoted onlyloot, corruption and nepotism during his tenureand his cronies plundered provincial resourceswhereas Muslim League-N government gavedue importance to transparency and merit in theprovince and utilized all its energies for thebetterment of the masses.

He said that Muslim League-N will con-tinue to serve the people in future as well.

LHC takesnotice ofassault onminor girlSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Lahore High Court(LHC) on Monday took noticeof a press report on adminis-trative side regarding assault ona ten-year-old minor girl inGarh Maharaja.

The Cell has directed theDistrict & Sessions Judge,Jhang to look into the matterand submit a detailed reportregarding steps taken by policealong with his own commentswithin a week.

According to details, insuburban village Hassu Baleel,daughter of a labourer, a stu-dent of 6th class was playingoutside her house when ac-cused Siddique and his two ac-complices abducted and tookher to an unknown place. Theymolested her and when she gotunconscious, they threw her ata deserted place and fled away.Police shifted the victim to ahospital and registered a caseagainst the said nominated ac-cused persons. However, ac-cording to the news report, theaccused were still at large.

PU wins allPakistan

Music FestivalMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Punjab Universitystudents including Institute ofCommunication Studies’(ICS) Ali Hassan Razzaq andCollege of Art & DesignGhufran Chisti have won 1stand 2nd positions respectivelyin All Pakistan Music Festival2014 at LUMS.

This is a rare honorachieved by PU students in amusic festival. PU Vice Chan-cellor Prof Dr MujahidKamran has congratulated thestudents and hoped that underthe supervision of DirectorStudents Affairs ShahidMehmood Gull and DeputyDirector Muhammad ZubairAkram, to clinch positions.

WSB officialpasses away

L A H O R E — C h a u d h r yMuhammad Siddique, Accoun-tant of WAPDA Sports Board(WSB), passed away hereMonday.

The WSB organised a con-dolence meeting participatedby the WSB President YousafNaseem Khokhar, GeneralManager (Sports) WAPDAKhalid Mahmood, DG (Sports)Mian Riffat Mehmood, WSBFinance Secretary SyedHaroon Masood and WSBGeneral Secretary ImdadullahMemon.—APP

Plan to curbterroristson cards

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A security plan tocurb terrorist activities and im-prove law and order in Punjabhas been finalized and willsoon be presented to ChiefMinister Punjab for approval.

This was disclosed by theChairman Police ReformsCommittee & Minister for En-vironmental Protection, Col.(Retd) Shuja Khanzada whilepresiding over a review meet-ing regarding security arrange-ments in the province here to-day.

The Minister stated thatgovernment is monitoring allcheck posts set up at differentpoints in the province for bet-ter security arrangements. Hesaid that government will pro-vide funds for up-gradation ofthe existing check posts as wellas set up new check posts atsensitive points. Col. Retd.

Shuja Khanzada told thatclose circuit cameras will beinstalled at check posts andthere will be no compromise onlaw and order.

Students taking part in Mehfil-e-Milad at a local school in Johar Town.

Students visiting the stall during a Cultural Show in connection with Punjab Youth Festivalat Post Graduate Islamia Girls College, Copper Road.

A view of accidental vehicle of Elite Force after cars of protocol convoy collided with eachother at the Mall on occasion of arrival of the Prime Minister at Al Hamra Hall.

would face water scarcity, but nobody caredabout it. He said that even the water of posh so-cieties had now been contaminated.

Prof Dr Muhammad Ashraf, in his lecture,pointed out that wetlands were not only muchimportant for a country’s environment andbiodiversity but also for its economy. He saidthat any water area having 6-metre depth is calledwetland. He said that Wetlands Day had beenmarked since 1971 when the Convention on Wet-lands or Ramsar Convention was signed by 18countries on February 2 in the Iranian city ofRamsar.

He said that the main wetlands of Paki-stan include Astola Island (country’s largestwetland), Chashma Barrage, Drigh Lake,Haleji Lake (Asia’s largest bird sanctuary),Hub Dam, Indus River Delta, Jiwani Coastal,Jubho Lagoon, Kinjhar Lake, Miani Hor, Runnof Kutch, Tanda Dam, Taunsa Barrage,Thanedar Wala, Uchalli Lake and Deh Akro-II Desert Wetland Complex. Najmul HudaKhan said that WWF has added glacier lakesand floods in the definition of wetlands. Hesaid out of 2177 Ramsar