pakistantoday.com.pk Wednesday, 21 September, 2011 Shawwal 22, 1432Rs15.00 Vol II No 87 32 Pages Lahore Edition

PROFIT | PAGE 05

No US ultimatumto attack Haqqaninetwork: HinaPAGE 10 PAGE 18

Madhuri Dixit in ‘Bigg Boss 5’

IMF calls on Europeto get ‘act together’ on debt

QUETTAShahzada zuLfIQar

at least 29 people werekilled and anotherseven injured whenunidentified armedmen opened fire on

shia pilgrims travelling to iran ontuesday. the Lashkar-e-Jhangviclaimed responsibility for the attack,saying such attacks would continue.the gunmen ordered pilgrims offtheir bus, lined them up and assas-sinated them in a hail of gunfire inMastung, a district 50 kilometressouth of Quetta.

the bus driver, khushal, toldreporters that armed men riding intwo vehicles intercepted the busnear Ghunja Doori area in Mas-tung and asked the passengers toget off, adding that after liningthem up, the assailants opened in-discriminate fire. some of the pas-sengers saved their lives byrunning away while the attackersreloaded their automatic rifles, hesaid, adding however that they didnot harm the driver and cleanerand asked them to stay away.

twenty of the passengers diedon the spot while another 12 wereseriously injured. six of the injuredlater succumbed to their injuries atthe district headquarter hospital.“the attackers then fled in their ve-hicles,” he said. an hour after thefirst attack, a group of relatives ofthe Ghunja Doori victims were at-tacked in the akhtarabad area, inthe outskirts of Quetta, when theywere on their way to the scene ofthe killing. two of them died in-stantly while two others were in-

jured. One of the injured later suc-cumbed to his injuries in BolanMedical Complex Hospital. Homeand tribal affairs secretary nasee-bullah Bazai said the governmentnormally provided security to pil-grims, but unfortunately the pil-grims and shia organisations hadnot informed the Home Officeabout their movement.

Mastung Deputy Commis-sioner saeed Umran told Pakistantoday that the attackers were fol-lowing the pilgrims’ bus from theoutskirts of Quetta. Meanwhile, alisher Haideri, purportedspokesman of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi,called a number of newspapers andnews agencies’ offices and claimedresponsibility for the attack. Heclaimed that LJ activists wouldcontinue such attacks against theshia community and threatenedtransporters and administrationofficials against providing servicesto the community. He said the LJhad accepted karachi police officialChaudhry aslam’s challenge andwould “teach him a lesson”. themembers of shia communitystaged a rally in Quetta to registertheir protest against the killings. mOuRning: the Balochistanshia Ulema Council announced aweeklong mourning and demandedthe government arrest the culprits.the Hazara Democratic Party andthe Etahad Benul MuslimeenBalochistan also condemned the at-tacks and criticised the governmentfor failing in its responsibility toprotect the life and property of thecitizens. several shia organisationsalso announced a shutter-downstrike today (Wednesday).

29 shia pilgrims slain in mastung g lashkar-e-Jhangvi claims responsibility, says it

has accepted Karachi police official’s challenge

Burhanuddin Rabbani

afghanistan’s‘man of peace’ assassinated

KABULagencIeS

a taliban suicide bomber with concealedexplosives in a turban on tuesdayassassinated former afghan presidentBurhanuddin Rabbani, who was leadinggovernment peace efforts, police said. thebomber struck during a meeting at thekabul home of Rabbani, who was last yearappointed chief of the afghan High PeaceCouncil that President Hamid karzaitasked with negotiating with the taliban.His death is the most high-profile politicalassassination since the 2001 Us-ledinvasion ousted the taliban from powerand comes just two months after karzai’sbrother ahmed Wali karzai was alsokilled. the attackers arrived at Rabbani’shouse with Mohammad Massom stanikzai,Rabbani’s deputy, for a meeting before theturban bomber detonated his explosives,according to one source amid conflictingreports of the incident.SpEciAL mESSAgE: a member of theHigh Peace Council, Fazel karim aymaq,said the men had come with “specialmessages” from the taliban and were“very trusted”. kabul criminalinvestigations chief Mohammad Zahersaid two men “negotiating with Rabbanion behalf of the taliban” arrived at hishouse, one with explosives hidden in histurban. “He approached Rabbani anddetonated his explosives. Rabbani wasmartyred and four others includingMassom stanikzai (his deputy) wereinjured.” the bomber struck close to theUs embassy, making it the second attackwithin a week in kabul’s supposedly securediplomatic zone. the killing promptedafghan President Hamid karzai to cutshort his visit to the United states, hisspokesman said, adding he was stillexpected to meet Us President BarackObama as scheduled before leaving. twoof the former president’s political allies,who did not want to be named andspeaking before police confirmedRabbani’s death, wept as they told aFP hehad been killed. “Yes, he is dead,” said oneof the two sources by telephone. thetaliban were not immediately reachablefor comment, but the insurgency led by itsmilitia has hit kabul increasingly hard inrecent months. Meanwhile, British Foreignsecretary William Hague said Rabbani’sassassination would not hurt afghanistan’sbid for peace and reconciliation.

Dengue claims

7 more livesLAHORE: the dengue virus caused sevenmore deaths in Lahore on tuesday, taking thetotal number of people dying due to the virusin the provincial capital to 65. However, thePunjab Health Department was still in a stateof denial, saying 19 people had died due to thedeadly virus. Unofficial sources claimed thattwo dengue patients had passed away in MayoHospital and one each in ittefaq and Jinnahhospitals. On the other hand, the number ofpatients infected with dengue was on the risewith 1,110 new cases being reported in theprovince on tuesday. Of the 1,110 cases, 974were reported in Lahore alone. the sriLankan team visited the Children’s Hospitalwhere it trained doctors on how to treatchildren suffering from dengue. Meanwhile,100 foggers from Germany reached Lahore ontuesday to assist the fogging campaignagainst dengue vector mosquitoes.DEnguE cAmpAign: Meanwhile,Punjab Chief Minister shahbaz sharif told ameeting that the scourge of dengue virus willbe controlled through collective efforts andcoordinated strategy. shahbaz said thegovernment was moving in the right directionfor eliminating dengue virus and short andlong-term polices were being evolved, addingthat besides establishment of a specialtaskforce against dengue, a research cell hadalso been set up on permanent basis under hisdirect supervision while a team of mastertrainers was also being prepared with theconsultation of sri Lankan experts. staff RepORt

GUJRANWALAMuhaMMad ShafIQue

an anti-terrorism court in Gujran-wala on tuesday awarded death sen-tences to seven men on four countsand life imprisonment to six othersbesides sentencing three years’ im-prisonment each to all police offi-cials, including former sialkot DPOWaqar ahmad Chohan, in thesialkot lynching case.

the court of Mushtaq ahmadGondal announced its verdict anhour before midnight in the courtroom of the Gujranwala CentralJail where proceedings had beengoing on since tuesday afternoon.the judge took hours to reach adecision before announcing it in apacked court room. those whowere sentenced to death wereMuhammad amin, Jamil, aliRaza alias Peter, Rashid, Muham-mad iqbal, sarfraz ahmad andshafique alias Fauji.

those given life imprisonmentinclude ateeb alias nosha, asgharali, Qaisar, Hassan Raza, Muham-mad Waris and Jamshaid. the

court acquitted five accused. For-mer DPO Chohan, sHO Ranailyas, asi Muhammad Waris, con-stables Bashir ahmad, tariq Mah-mood, Muhammad akram,Mubarak ali, naseer ahmad andMuhammad Yasin were awardedthree years in prison under 155-Cof the Police act. teenaged broth-ers, Hafiz Mughees and HafizMuneeb, were mercilessly torturedto death by a mob in the presenceof police officials in Buttar Villagein sialkot on august 15, 2010.

sialkot saddar police stationlodged two FiRs, the first on au-gust 15 in which the two brotherswere accused of murder and rob-bery while the second was lodgedafter the video of the lynching wasreleased by news channels leadingto a suo motu notice by thesupreme Court. according to tVreports, the family of the two boysexpressed satisfaction at the ver-dict. the boys’ grandfather saidthe family had been receivingthreats to stop following the casebut they had vowed not to let thekillers escape justice.

7 Sentenced to death

Sialkot lynching caSe

g former DpO among 9 policemen sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment

Hafiz Mughees and Hafiz Muneeb

Quetta: a boy weeps at a hospital on tuesday following an attack on Shia pilgrims by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists. afp

g Most politicians endorse nawaz’s proposal g MQM terms demand ‘vague, illogical’

BAdiN: Flood-affected villagers carry water pots on their heads near a makeshift camp on Tuesday. AFP

02Wednesday, 21 September, 2011

News

Comment

Full Comments on Page 12 - 13

mending frayed ties:Pak-US relations still in the doldrums.

Premature polls:Let democracy find a foothold.

dr hasan Askari Rizvi says:Talking tough: The carrot and stick routinewon’t work.

Shaukat umer says:

Power is as power does: The new imperialproject.

harris bin munawar says:

Disaster update: On politicians and pests.

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE

TAhiR NiAz/NASiR BuTT

POLITICAL leaders have en-dorsed the demand of Pak-istan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharifto barr political parties with

militant wings from contesting elec-tions, while the Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) called the demand“vague and illogical.”

Reacting to Nawaz’s statement,Awami National Party (ANP) memberHaji Adeel said his party had no ob-jection to the proposal. “We neitherhave a militant wing nor do we objecton barring political parties from tak-ing part in elections which have mili-tant wings,” he said.

The Awami National Party (ANP)

general secretary said the demand toban political parties with militantwings was a good omen.

PML-Q Senator Naeem HussainChattha calling for de-weaponisationin the country said militant wingswere unacceptable in democracies.

MQM official spokesman WasayJalil said Nawaz had issued a sweep-ing statement and it would have beenbetter if he first defined “militantwing.” “His party may also possess amilitant wing too,” he said. He saidNawaz’s statement was not worth re-acting to since it was ‘vague and illog-ical.’ He said Nawaz should firstpresent concrete proof then makesuch demands.

Jamaat e Islami (JI) General Sec-retary Liaqat Baloch said the JI be-lieved in a peaceful political struggle

and had never been involved in mili-tancy. He said JI was the only politi-cal party which had struggled abidingby democratic norms.

Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) Information Secretary Kamil AliAgha said his party had demandedall stakeholders in Karachi must betaken onboard and a unanimouspolicy must be devised to restorepeace there.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)Punjab General Secretary Sami UllahKhan partly agreed with the demandand said terrorist activities and tar-geted-killing should be stopped im-mediately. Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf(PTI) Information Secretary UmerSarfraz Cheema said agreed withSharif and said political parties withmilitant wings should be banned.

�Political parties with mili›tant wings be barred from

PML-n itself

has militant

wing, claim

PPP leadersKARACHI

STAFF REPORT

The PML-N itself has a militant wing inthe party, PPP leaders said in a joint pressconference on Tuesday.They also stressed the PML-N leadershipshould focus on helping flood victims in-stead of playing politics. The press confer-ence was attended by PPP leadersincluding Raja Pervez Ashraf, Sindh Minis-ter for Information Nazar MuhammadGondal, Sharjeel Inam Memon, and SindhLaw Minister Ayaz Soomro. They said theyappreciated Mian Nawaz Sharif’s visit toSindh’s flood affected areas but it is not atime for politics when people were suffer-ing from floods and dengue. Reacting toNawaz Sharif’s demand to holding freshelections, the PPP leaders said generalelections will be held in due time. Accord-ing to them, the PPP was not afraid of gen-eral elections but questioned whether itwas appropriate to ask flood and dengue-affected people for votes? Referring toNawaz Sharif’s meeting with SNF ChiefMumtaz Bhutto, Raja Parvez Ashraf saidthat these people have never visited floodaffected areas or extended support tothem. Without mentioning Bhutto he saidthat those who are unable to win a unioncouncil seat were criticising the PPP. Onother hand, he said, President Zardari waspersonally monitoring the relief and reha-bilitation activities after a medical checkup. He said the government does not claim100 percent assistance to flood victims butwas trying its best and said flood victimswill be given Rs 40,000 each after con-ducting collecting figures by NADRA and athird party. To another question formerfederal minister for water and power, ad-mitted that design of the Left Bank OutfallDrain (LBOD) was controversial. However,he said, the flood only broke out whenwater discharge exceeded its capacity.

With the assassination of soft-spoken ProfBurhanuddin Rabbani, the National Rec-onciliation Policy of Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai not only faces serious trou-ble, but Pakistan has also lost one of itsmost sincere friends.

Belong to Badakhshan province ofAfghanistan, Prof Rabbani was amongstthose Afghan elders who migrated toPakistan soon after the Soviet Union-backed coup against former monarchMohammad Zahir Shah in the early1970s. He remained in Peshawar untilthe fall of former President Dr Najibul-lah’s regime in April 1992.

During his two decade exile in Pe-shawar, Prof Rabbani not only played akey role in assembling likeminded Afghansagainst the former Soviet Union and theregimes it backed, but even maintainedcordial relations with Pakistan. Even afterhis return to Afghanistan, Prof Rabbani

tried his best to establishing trust-worthyrelations between Pakistan andAfghanistan at each and every level.

Beside the assassination of Prof Rab-bani, Masoom Stanakzai sustained seriousinjuries in Tuesday’s suicide attack onRabbani’s well-guarded residence.Stanakzai is amongst most confidentialaides to President Karzai and was servingas the secretary of the 68-member Recon-ciliation Commission headed by Prof Rab-bani. Both of them played important rolein convincing leading Taliban command-ers to join dialogue and reconcile withPresident Karzai’s government.

Prof Rabbani was educated at MadinaUniversity, Saudi Arabia and Al AzharUniversity, Egypt, before joining KabulUniversity in mid 1960s. In Kabul Univer-sity, he become part the Islamists who notonly opposed the uprising of former SovietUnion-backed progressive elements, butopposed King Zahir Shah’s regime. TheseIslamists later on established links withPakistan’s spy agencies and slipped intoPakistan when late Maj Gen (r) Naseerul-

lah Khan Babar was serving as the inspec-tor general of Frontier Corps and laterKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (NWFP) governor.He was also accompanied by his most con-fidential commander Ahmad Shah Masud,who was killed in a suicide attack on Sep-tember 7, 2001. Rabbani’s Jamiat Islamiwas part of the four hard line Jihadi-par-ties’ alliance.

But despite the alliance, his party hadhostilities with Hizbe Islami of EngineerGulbadin Hekmatyar. The hostilitiesemerged not on ethnic or lingual grounds,but over religious and jihadi differences.

According to infamous Peshawar Ac-cord brokered by former prime ministerMian Nawaz Sharif amongst the Afghan ji-hadi groups, Prof Rabbani assumed the of-fice of the president in June 1992. Hisremained in office for four months, but in1993, with the support of his colleagues likeProf Abdul Rab Rasool Sayaf, MaulviYounas Khalis and Maulvi Nabi Moham-madi, Rabbani convened his self-styledShura Ahl-o-Aqad (Loya Jirga) and declaredhimself the president for a four-year term.

The move resulted in fighting betweenthe government and opposition alliance,especially with the HIA of Hekmatyar andJunbash-e-Milli Islami of Rashid Dostam.The hostilities concluded with the en-trance of Taliban as victors into Kabul inSeptember 1996. During this period, SaudiArabian Intelligence Minister ShehzadaBandar made hectic efforts for reconcilia-tion, but in vain.

From September 1996 until November2001, Prof Raqbbani led the Northern Al-liance, but he and Hekmatyar remainedhosts of the Iranian government. After thefall of the Taliban, Prof Rabbani not onlyreconciled with Hekmatyar, but even of-fered him hospitality in his nativeBadakhshan province. Both of themadopted a similar stance against Taliban.

Rabbani governed Kabul for couple ofdays after the fall of Taliban as the interimpresident, but later vacated the office forPresident Karzai in accordance with theBonn Accord. Later he become candidateagainst President Karzai in June 2002Loya jirga, but lost. Similar was his posi-

tion in October 2004 presidential election.Despite such opposition, he got maximumrespect of President Karzai and on suchgrounds, was named the president of thePak-Afghan Joint Jirga held in August2007 at Kabul.

About a year ago, Rabbani waspicked the chairman of the National Rec-onciliation Commission. A couple ofmonths ago, Prof Rabbani visited Pak-istan and held meetings with authoritiesand politicians. He also met Maulana Fa-zlur Rehman and Jamaat–e-Islami lead-ers, with a request to help him inachieving the goal of reconciliation withthe Taliban, Hizbe Islami Afghanistanand other resistance forces.

Afghans have called the assassinationof Prof Rabbani a blow not only to the rec-onciliation process of Hamid Karzai, butharmful to the very interests ofAfghanistan. Rabbani had always opposedthe disintegration of Afghanistan on ethnicgrounds and his assassination could makeeasy the task for those who favour the di-vision of the war-torn country.

Rabbani’s assassination: Pakistan loses a trusted friendSituationer

ShAmim ShAhid

SC displeased with

police reports

on Karachi situationKARACHI

APP

Two-member bench of Supreme Courtcomprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamaliand Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani Tuesdayexpressed dissatisfaction over the reportssubmitted by Karachi police in compliancewith interim order in suo motu case on lawand order situation in Karachi. The benchalso summoned Sindh advocate general,Sindh Police inspector general, CCPO andDIGs of Karachi to appear before the courton Wednesday. Chief Justice of PakistanJustice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhrytook suo motu notice of law and order situ-ation in Karachi on August 22 and consti-tuted a larger bench for hearing of thecase. The bench comprising Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, JusticeAnwer Zaheer Jamali, Justice Sarmad JalalUsmani, Justice Amir Hani Muslim andJustice Ghulam Rabbani completed hear-ing of the case on September 15 and re-served judgement.

03Wednesday, 21 September, 2011

News

ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

THE National Disaster Manage-ment Authority (NDMA) chair-man on Tuesday admittedbefore the Senate that no na-tional disaster policy had been

drafted to prepare for floods this year. He also claimed Sindh’s provincial

government had hampered rescue and re-lief operations by seeking control of thedistribution of essential items amongstflood victims.

NDMA Chairman Dr Zafar Qadirsaid, “The provincial government ob-jected to a NDMA-led rescue and relief

operation, terming it a violation ofprovincial autonomy. Now the NDMA issupplying essential items to the provin-cial government which distributes themamong affected people through districtadministrations.” He said the demandfor tents and temporary shelters was in-creasing each day as flood water was notreceding and stagnant water posed athreat to standing houses. He said theNDMA had estimated that a million tentswould be needed in coming days.No disaster policy, No meetiNg:Intervening, Senate Chairman FarooqNaek asked the NDMA chairman to ex-plain why the NDMA, mandated by an actof the parliament to formulate a coherent

strategy to manage natural disasters, hadfailed to do its job? He also asked theNDMA chairman to outline the nationaldisaster policy and brief the Senate if theNational Disaster Management Commis-sion had met prior to the flooding.

Responding to the query, the NDMAchairman admitted that no national disas-ter policy or coherent of plan action ex-isted since floods of this magnitude hadnot been predicted. He also said the Na-tional Disaster Management Commissionhad not met before the floods. No voluNteers workiNg forNdma: Naek further asked the NDMAchairman to detail how many people weretrained by National Institute of Disaster

Management (which falls under theNDMA) last year and the number of vol-unteers it had.

Responding to the query, Qadir saidno volunteers were working with theNDMA and only a few Provincial DisasterManagement Authority and District Disas-ter Management Authority officials hadbeen trained.

Naek further asked Qadir that whetherthe NDMA has raised a National DisasterResponse Force (NDRF) as it had been au-thorized to by the NDMA Act. Qadirreplied in the negative, stating no NDRFhad been created since the NDMA did notpossess the funds to create it.

Earlier an official source in the United

Nations confided to Pakistan Today thatNDMA is responsible for escalating thelosses caused by the flooding in Sindh andconverting the situation into a disaster asit did not let the world humanitarian assis-tance intervene into the crisis until thepresident and the prime minister took no-tice of the situation.

“We were cognizant of the fact thatthe NDMA will not be able to cope withthe disaster, so we offered our assis-tance in the initial days of flood in theprovince, but the NDMA told us to stayaway and did not let us intervene intothe crisis,” the official said, adding thatthe delay let the Sindh flood convertinto a disaster.

KARACHI

RAzzAk ABRO

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Presi-dent Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday demandeddisqualification of political parties withmilitant wings in Karachi, saying peacein the economic powerhouse of the coun-try was not possible unless such partieswere barred from taking part in parlia-mentary politics.

Talking to reporters after meeting thelocal businessmen community here,Nawaz said such parties should not be al-lowed to contest elections, adding thatthey should be allowed to participate inparliamentary politics only after abolitionof their militant wings.

“Their militant wings have become amenace. These parties should be barredfrom participating in elections by theSupreme Court, the Election Commissionof Pakistan or the government,” he said.

Asked to identify the parties, he said,“Everybody knows about them.” He saidmaintaining peace in Karachi was neces-sary for the country’s economic progress,and he had focused on both things dur-ing his tenure.

“It was the reason I launched an oper-ation in Karachi with help of the PakistanArmy in 1992,” Nawaz said.

Asked whether he was of the opinionthat such operation was again needed inthe city, The PML-N chief said the situa-

tion could be controlled by giving theRangers more powers.

Asked about the possibility of joint ef-forts by the PPP and PML-N for the reliefand rehabilitation of flood-affected popu-lation of Sindh, Nawaz said the govern-ment had failed to improve itsperformance. “In this situation the peoplewill get fed up of the government and itwill have to go,” he said.

Nawaz demands ban onmilitant wings in parties

SC questions

non-implementation

of 7th Wage awardISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

A three-member Supreme Court bench onTuesday questioned non-implementation of7th Wage Board Award, pointing out thatthere was no stay order against it. The bench comprising Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry, Justice TariqParvez and Justice Ghulam Rabbani washearing three civil petitions for Leave toAppeal (CPLA) filed by the All PakistanNewspapers Society (APNS) and othersagainst Sindh High Court (SHC) decisionon the validity of 7th Wage Board Award.Abdual Hafeez Pirzada appeared forAPNS and other media houses whereasSalman Akram Raja appeared forPakistan Federal Union of Journalists(PFUJ). On May 31 a Division Bench ofthe SHC rejected three differentconstitutional petitions filed by APNS andother media houses challenging the vires ofthe Newspapers Employees Conditions ofService Act (NECS) 1973. The ImplementationTribunal for Newspaper Employees haddeclared that the implementation of theAward was binding on the newspapersowners. The SHC in its verdict had directedthe newspaper owners to implement the7th Award for newspaper employees.During the hearing, Pirzada contendedthat after the passage of 18thConstitutional Amendment, the WageBoard Award had become provincialsubject whereas the Board was theexecutive body instead of judicial body.

MQM, Musharraf and

iSi were involved

in May 12 killings,

Sattar told uS MONITORING DESK

Wikileaks has revealed that Mu-tahidda Qaumi Movement leaderDr Farooq Sattar said certainMQM workers, former presidentPervaiz Musharraf, landlords,Inter Services Intelligence (ISI)and other political parties wereinvolved in the May 12, 2007mayhem in Karachi, a private TVchannel reported on Tuesday.A diplomatic cable sent fromKarachi to Washington on 17May, 2007 contained details of a40-minute phone conversationbetween Sattar and Charge d’af-faires US Consulate Peter Boday.During the conversation Sattaradmitted that certain members ofhis party were involved in theMay 12 incident and the partyshould consider unarming itsmilitant wing.According to the cable Sattar hadinformed government officialsabout those involved in the inci-dent, adding that sloganschanted in favour of Musharrafwere not made on his recommen-dation and MQM Chief AltafHussain had dismissed his rec-ommendation on the issue.

04Wednesday, 21 September, 2011

News

ISLAMABAD

Shaiq huSSain

The assassination of formerAfghanistan presidentBurhanuddin Rabbani by asuicide bomber in Kabul onTuesday has inflicted adeadly blow to the ongoingprocess of reconciliation be-tween the Karzai govern-ment and the MullahOmar-led Taliban.

Professor Rabbani waschairman of the High PeaceCouncil which was set up byPresident Hamid Karzai lastyear to develop a frameworkfor peace and regularly heldmeetings with the Talibaninsurgents on both sides ofthe Pak-Afghan border.

Rabbani, a Tajik and for-mer warlord from northernAfghanistan fought against

the Taliban and was a con-troversial choice as head ofthe peace council and his ap-pointment was supposedlymeant to please the non-Pashtun Afghans who weredeeply suspicious of anypeace deals with the Taliban,who are mostly AfghanPashtuns.

Nonetheless, the impor-tant thing was that Rabbaniwas acceptable as head ofpeace council not only to theUS and other western pow-ers like the UK but also tothe regional states like Pak-istan, Iran, Russia, Tajik-istan and India.

Karzai was in New Yorkfor the UN General Assem-bly meeting but he cut hisvisit short to return to Kabulwhen he was informed aboutthe killing of Professor Rab-

bani clearly reflecting thesignificance of the veteranAfghan leader in the currentAfghanistan situation andespecially the reconciliationprocess, which had juststarted showing some signsof progress.

The diplomatic circles inIslamabad and Pakistani au-thorities, shocked by thesudden demise of theAfghan leader, believe thathis assassination would haltthe reconciliation process al-together as it would be verydifficult to nominate his suc-cessor of equal stature andalso someone who was ac-ceptable to most of thestakeholders in the currentAfghan imbroglio.

Authorities in Kabulhave already started point-ing figures towards the Tal-

iban holding them responsi-ble for Rabbani’s death.

Afghan officials told var-ious media organisationsthat Professor Rabbani andhis another close associate,Masoom Stanakzai, who gotseriously injured in the sui-cide attack, were holding ameeting with a pair of Tal-iban insurgents and one in-surgent blew himself upafter embracing the formerAfghan president.

However, a Pakistani of-ficial said it would be tooearly to hold the Taliban re-sponsible for the attack andthat would not be a wisething to do. He said the au-thorities in Kabul and theUS officials should go forthorough investigations tosee which forces could havegained any advantage from

Rabbani’s killing and whowere against the reconcilia-tion process.

“Irrespective of whoso-ever has killed ProfessorRabbani, it’s for sure that itis a serious blow to the peaceprocess in Afghanistan. Wehave begun to hear that Tal-iban are opening offices inTurkey and in Qatar andmeetings between them andAfghan officials as well asUS authorities were happen-ing here and there but thatmomentum created aftermonths of hectic work willcome to a halt,” he said.

An Afghan diplomat inIslamabad said, “No doubtRabbani’s death will alsohave deep impact on thePak-Afghan ties.”

“Rabbani was one of fewAfghan leaders, who enjoy

close friendly ties with Pak-istani leadership and hisdeath would be create a hugespace,” the diplomat said re-questing anonymity.

President Asif AliZardari and Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani con-demned in the strongestterms the terrorist attackwhich led to the killing ofBurhanuddin Rabbani, andinjured many others.

“On behalf of the peopleand the government of Pak-istan, the Pakistani leader-ship has conveyed to thebrotherly people and gov-ernment of Afghanistan, ex-treme anger and shock onthe terrorist attack,” said aForeign Office statement.

It said the people of Pak-istan stood by their Afghanbrothers and sisters in this

moment of grief on losing avisionary leader who was ac-tively pursuing peace andreconciliation inAfghanistan.

Pakistani leaders saidProfessor Rabbani was afriend of Pakistan withwhom we were workingclosely within theAfghanistan-Pakistan JointCommission for Reconcilia-tion and Peace on a visionfor peace and prosperity inAfghanistan.

“Professor Rabbani hasbeen martyred by the ene-mies of peace inAfghanistan,” the ForeignOffice statement said.

Rabbani’s death is likelyto embolden those opposi-tion figures who are moststrongly opposed to a peacetalks with insurgents.

ISLAMABAD

STaFF REPORT

THE National Disaster Manage-ment Authority (NDMA) chair-man on Tuesday admittedbefore the Senate that no na-tional disaster policy had been

drafted to prepare for floods this year. He also claimed Sindh’s provincial

government had hampered rescue and re-lief operations by seeking control of thedistribution of essential items amongstflood victims.

NDMA Chairman Dr Zafar Qadir said,“The provincial government objected to aNDMA-led rescue and relief operation,terming it a violation of provincial auton-omy. Now the NDMA is supplying essen-tial items to the provincial government

which distributes them among affectedpeople through district administrations.”

He said the demand for tents andtemporary shelters was increasing eachday as flood water was not receding andstagnant water posed a threat to standinghouses. He said the NDMA had esti-mated that a million tents would beneeded in coming days.No DISASter poLIcy, No MeetINg:Intervening, Senate Chairman FarooqNaek asked the NDMA chairman to ex-plain why the NDMA, mandated by an actof the parliament to formulate a coherentstrategy to manage natural disasters, hadfailed to do its job? He also asked theNDMA chairman to outline the nationaldisaster policy and brief the Senate if theNational Disaster Management Commis-sion had met prior to the flooding.

Responding to the query, the NDMAchairman admitted that no national disas-ter policy or coherent of plan action existedsince floods of this magnitude had notbeen predicted. He also said the NationalDisaster Management Commission hadnot met before the floods. No voLuNteerS workINg forNDMA: Naek further asked the NDMAchairman to detail how many people weretrained by National Institute of DisasterManagement (which falls under theNDMA) last year and the number of volun-teers it had.

Responding to the query, Qadir said novolunteers were working with the NDMAand only a few Provincial Disaster Man-agement Authority and District DisasterManagement Authority officials had beentrained.

Naek further asked Qadir that whetherthe NDMA has raised a National DisasterResponse Force (NDRF) as it had been au-thorized to by the NDMA Act. Qadirreplied in the negative, stating no NDRFhad been created since the NDMA did notpossess the funds to create it.

Naek said the dengue epidemic alsoconstituted a ‘disaster’ and fell under theNDMAs purview. He said he had ruledafter reading dengue reports in 2010 thatall provincial health ministers and the fed-eral health minister should evolve a strat-egy to control future outbreaks of denguebut nothing was done.

He said the NDMA had done nothingto reduce flood losses. He said if the stepsthe NDMA had ignored had been taken theflood situation would have been mitigated.He said the NDMA should now focus on

rescue and relief efforts and ensure thetimely provision of essential items to floodvictims.

Earlier an official source in the UnitedNations confided to Pakistan Today thatNDMA is responsible for escalating thelosses caused by the flooding in Sindh andconverting the situation into a disaster asit did not let the world humanitarian assis-tance intervene into the crisis until thepresident and the prime minister took no-tice of the situation.

“We were cognizant of the fact that theNDMA will not be able to cope with thedisaster, so we offered our assistance in theinitial days of flood in the province, but theNDMA told us to stay away and did not letus intervene into the crisis,” the officialsaid, adding that the delay let the Sindhflood convert into a disaster.

KARACHI

Razzak aBRO

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President NawazSharif on Tuesday de-manded disqualification ofpolitical parties with mili-tant wings in Karachi, say-ing peace in the economicpowerhouse of the countrywas not possible unlesssuch parties were barredfrom taking part in parlia-mentary politics.

Talking to reportersafter meeting the localbusinessmen communityhere, Nawaz said such par-ties should not be allowedto contest elections,adding that they should beallowed to participate inparliamentary politics onlyafter abolition of their mil-

itant wings.“Their militant wings

have become a menace.These parties should bebarred from participatingin elections by theSupreme Court, the Elec-tion Commission of Pak-istan or the government,”he said.

Asked to identify theparties, he said, “Every-body knows about them.”He said maintaining peacein Karachi was necessaryfor the country’s economicprogress, and he had fo-cused on both things dur-ing his tenure.

“It was the reason Ilaunched an operation inKarachi with help of thePakistan Army in 1992,”Nawaz said.

Asked whether he wasof the opinion that suchoperation was againneeded in the city, ThePML-N chief said the situ-ation could be controlledby giving the Rangersmore powers.

Asked about the possi-bility of joint efforts by thePPP and PML-N for the re-lief and rehabilitation offlood-affected populationof Sindh, Nawaz said thegovernment had failed toimprove its performance.“In this situation the peo-ple will get fed up of thegovernment and it willhave to go,” he said.

Rabbani’s death deadly blow to Afghan reconciliation process

Nawaz demandsban on militantwings in parties

‘Pakistani

Anna Hazare’s’

strike ends

on 9th dayISLAMABAD

STaFF REPORT

The hunger strike of the“Pakistani Anna Hazare”,Raja Jahangir Akhtar, fi-nally came to an end onTuesday after he was as-sured by member parlia-mentarians, who visitedhis protest camp, that hisanti-corruption bill wouldbe brought to parliament.Social activist Akhtarlaunched his “hungerstrike till death” on Sep-tember 11 to press thegovernment to bring a billagainst corruption and tocurtail the defence budget. Several MP’s includingAnoosha Rehman of thePML-N, Lashkari Raisaniof the PPP, Hasil Buzenjoand Farah Naz Isphahaniof the PPP and renownedlawyer Aitzaz Ahsan vis-ited his camp on the ninthday.The MP’s assured Akhtarthat his bill would be pre-sented in the next sessionof parliament after whichJahangir decided to endhis “fast unto death”’Talking to Pakistan Today,Akhtar said he ended hisstrike after getting a firmassurance from memberparliamentarians. He saidhis struggle would be con-tinued for the welfare ofthe country.

ISLAMABAD

STaFF REPORT

Half a dozen journalists andfamily members of slain jour-nalist Saleem Shehzadrecorded their statementswith the probe commissionon Saleem Shehzad here onTuesday. The meeting of thecommission was held at theSupreme Court premises ofwith Justice Mian Saqib Nisarin the chair. Federal ShariatCourt Chief Justice AghaRafiq, Islamabad InspectorGeneral of Police Binyamin,

Punjab IGP Javed Iqbal andPakistan Federal Union ofJournalists President PervezShaukat attended the hearingof the commission.

A source told PakistanToday that the InterservicesIntelligence Agency (ISI)would submit its response onthe subject on September 27,adding that the widow ofShahzad and his brother,Waseem Panwar, submittedtheir respective statementswith the commission regard-ing the matter while journal-ists including Jahangir, Amir

Sohail, Azaz Syed, AbdulSalam Somroo, and FarrukhNawaz submitted their state-ments before the commission.

The commission wasprayed for giving recom-mendation to the parliamentfor legislation regarding thejournalists’ protection. Dur-ing the proceedings, thecommission was also pro-posed by the journalists tovisit all the provinces of thecountry for meeting with thejournalists as they were fac-ing different problems in dif-ferent provinces.

Journalists, family record statementsin Saleem Shahzad case

UAE Free Zone Authority

apologises to

Najeeb Makhdoom

ISLAMABAD: Rebuttingthe news regarding NajeebMakhdoom, son of Com-merce Minister MakhdoomAmin Fahim, the seniorminister’s spokesman saidNajeeb Makhdoom is a res-ident of Dubai since 1998and had not been barred byanyone. On Saturday after-noon while going to Pak-istan for his usual businesstrip, he was informed bythe immigration officialsthat his name is reportedin a pending case with afree zone authority. Gni

Badin: Flood-affected villagers carry water pots on their heads near a makeshift camp on Tuesday. AFP

wednesday, 21 September, 2011

at least someone is benefiting from dengue

Money ALL The wAy

PAge 08

CMYK

LAHORE

YaSiR haBiB

THe Lahore Development Author-ity (LDA), facing financial and ad-ministrative turmoil with itsbudgetary deficit standing at morethan Rs 2 billion, is on a rampage

to sell its assets to avoid impending bank-ruptcy, Pakistan Today has learnt.

Over the last three months, hundredsof assets in shape of plots, dispensaries,plazas and buildings have been put onauction to generate money to save the au-thority, getting cash-strapped day-by-day, from deep looming crisis.

As per the 2011-12 budget announcedby LDA, it has been estimated to have re-sources at Rs 20 billion against expectedexpenditure of Rs 22 billion, including Rs15 billion earmarked for developmentworks. LDA’s asset selling drive has beenintensified to reduce the gap between re-sources and expenditures. However, ac-cording to a senior LDA official, it willprove to be exercise in futility as the drivewas nothing but half-baked strategy for-mulated by LDA DG Abdul Jabbar Sha-heen. “Unless LDA takes step to mitigateadministrative irregularities, financialplunge is a must,” he added.

At present, LDA has been advertisingto sell Park and Ride Plaza, Finance andTrade Center, Johar Town, plots and dis-pensaries. It has also planned to buildmore parking plazas with an aim to sellthem as business and earn money.

Meanwhile, LDA has already estab-lished a Lahore Regeneration Agency(LRA) to ensure maximum utilisation ofavailable resources to generate revenuefor the development of infrastructure. For

the purpose, the agency has initiatedlong-term ventures in various commercialareas of the city. The agency has plannedto construct commercial and car parkingplazas besides other viable trade centresin the city and facilitate expatriates, espe-cially in the United States, europe andMiddle east, to invest in the ventures.New agency has been tasked to completemega projects in busy commercial and in-dustrial localities of the city and the rev-enue generated from these projects wouldlater be spend on city’s development. Themega projects include parking plazas,commercial plazas and other buildings.

Besides, LDA has stepped up its effortsto establish a Central Business District(CBD) in the city comprising of Jail road,Main Boulevard, MM Alam Road, segmentof Hali Road and Shahrae Noor Jehan, Gul-berg for inducing more investment, businessand employment opportunities in the city.Work on the first phase has already beenstarted in the form of construction of first‘Park and Ride Plaza at the Liberty Market.

With a view to mint money to dispel fi-

nancial crisis, LDA also planned re-auc-tioning of 31 petrol pumps whose lease hasexpired over the last many years. The movecame after Public Account Committee ofPunjab Assembly grilled former LDA DGUmer Rasool over the irregularities in thelease properties on May 14, 2011. Thepetrol pumps are situated at Gulberg,Faisal Town, Shah Jamal, Shadman, Sabza-zar, Allama Iqbal and Ravi Town. However,the plan could not be executed in totality,so it could not help rack up LDA’s income.

In a desperate manner, LDA recentlyannounced new commercialisation policyon July 2 with incentives including with-drawal of all sorts of bars on the buildingheight and plot size. LDA also dropped anumber of development projects includingTownship Degree College, Urology Hospitaland Nawaz Sharif Sports Complex. It alsodumped the mega project called LDA tower.The 40-story skyscraper, called LDA tower,has been planned to be constructed at JailRoad as per future plan list under vision2025 designed to uplift city in lines withhigh-tech modern metropolises in the world.

LAHORE

adnan Lodhi

An example of academic corruption andfavouritism will be witnessed today at thePunjab University (PU) where the varsityadministration will appoint Social WorkDepartment lecturer Syeda Mahnaz Has-san to the post of assistant professor (AP),Pakistan Today learnt on Tuesday.

PU sources disclosed that a high-up inthe administration “created” the AP post es-pecially for Mahnaz to promote her. Sourcessaid that a PU “influential” only invited hisblue-eyed candidate, Mahnaz, for the inter-view, rejecting the applications of other eli-gible candidates for the said post. Sourcessaid that Mahanz was also the superinten-dent of PU Hostel No 3 and was thus gettinga “special favour”. Sources added that shehad a five-year teaching experience.

PU faculty and applicants for the saidpost demand LHC chief justice, Punjabgovernor and chief minister take notice ofthis corruption and set up an enquiry toprobe into the matter.CaNDIDaTeS ‘SIDeLINeD’: Accordingto sources, PU advertised the post of AP atSocial Work Department some months agoand according to the criteria mentioned inthe advertisement, an MPhil degree and afive-year teaching experience was requiredto apply for the said post. Three female can-didates applied for the post, out of which twowere “sidelined by the influential”, despitethat they met the criteria, and only Mahnazhas been called for the interview today. Thehigh-up barred the department to sent callletters to other applicants and advised to“keep the matter secret”, sources revealed.FaCULTY, oFFICIaLS CoNDeMN:After the news regarding this violation ofmerit and favouritism reached PU facultymembers, they showed their concern for a

senior member who had been denied herright to appear in the interview.

A PU official said it was “surprising”how the other two candidates were deniedtheir right of appearing in the interview. Hesaid that “secretly” a selection board was setup that would conduct Mahnaz’s interviewtoday “without following any merit”.

A PU official, seeking anonymity, saidthat it was the murder of merit that femaleswere not called for the interview. He con-demned the incident and requested PU VC totake notice of the issue and nullify the selec-tion. He said that the official always favouredthe PU VC and appreciated his efforts but op-posed corruption and favouritism. ‘WhY WaS I NoT CaLLeD?’ A candi-date who applied for the post but was deniedher right, Norina Tariq, a faculty member ata government college, said that she hadteaching experience of 24 years and had anMPhil degree as well but she was not sent thecall letter for the interview. She condemnedhow an influential at the varsity misused hispowers. She said that when she inquiredabout the matter, an official said that she wasnot called because she did not have enoughpost-graduate experience. She said she wassurprised because the requirement of post-graduate teaching experience was not men-tioned in the advertisement. No governmentcollege in the province was holding post-graduate classes for social work, so there wasno point in having a post-graduate experi-ence in the said field, she added. She de-manded the CM take notice of the issue.‘We NeVer CoMProMISeD oNMerIT’: A PU administrative official,while clearing the administration’s stance,said that selection was being done on meritand other females were not called for theinterview following the merit policy. SyedaMahnaz Hassan was not available for com-ments despite repeated requests.

PU female teacher tohave her way todayg Two eligible female candidates ‘sidelined’ for post of

AP in social work department

The

last

resort

Authority

selling its

assets to avoid

bankruptcy

Laboratories face the brunt of overcharging

Lahore: The City District Government Lahore (CDGL) on Tuesday sealed medicaldiagnostic laboratories after they were found violating the Section 144 imposed in thedistrict to fix the price of CBC blood test at Rs 90. Cases were registered against sixhospitals and two laboratories under Section 144. Teams of price control magistratesheaded by District Officer Amin Akbar Chopra raided the laboratories overcharging for theCBC test and registered cases against Baloch Hospital Dharampura, Bajwa HospitalShahdara, Surraya Azeem Trust Hospital Chauburji, Sarwat Anwar Medical ComplexTariq Block Garden Town Lahore, MediCare Trust Hospital Badami Bagh, Hafeez HospitalAllama Iqbal Town, Zeenat Lab Lawrence Road and Hafeez Medical Centre Ghazi Chowk.Drug inspectors sealed Al Farooq Lab Thokar Niaz Baig, Central Lab, High Vision Lab,Zeenat Lab Shalimar Link Road, Bokhari Lab Jail Road, Meri Test Lab Jail Road, BritishLab, Cardiax Lab, Family Care Lab, Friend Lab, Farooq Lab, Al Minhaj Lab, Juice CornerLab, Anmol Lab, National Lab and Medi Touch Lab. Staff RepoRt

06Wednesday, 21 September, 2011

Lahore

CINEMA FILM TIMEDHA MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 1:00 PMPH: 35747531 LOvE MAIN gHUM 3:40 PM

COWBOYS & ALIENS 6:40 PMBODYgUARD 9:00 PMMERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 11:40 PM

CINE STAR BODYgUARD 2:30 PMPH: 35157462 MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 5:00 PM

COWBOYS & ALIENS 8:00 PMMERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 10:30 AM

CINE gOLD MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 3:00 PMPH: 35340000 BODYgUARD 6:00 PM

MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 9:00 PMMERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 12:00 PM

SOzO WORLD MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 12:00 PMPH: 36674271 BODYgUARD 3:00 PM

MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 6:00 PMBODYgUARD 8:45 PMMERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 11:15 PM

SOzO gOLD BODYgUARD 12:05 PMPH: 36674271 BOL 2:30 PM

BODYgUARD 5:30 PMMERE BROTHER KI DULHAN 8:00 PMBODYgUARD 11:00 PM

Lahore

Shafiq ShaRif

PUnJAb Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharifhas ordered police deployment for the im-plementation of dengue related measuresadopted by the provincial government,Pakistan Today has learnt.

According to the government’s data, morethan 6,000 citizens of the city have fallen victimto dengue fever since the epidemic gripped thecity, whereas according to the unofficial dataabout 11,000 men, women and children havebeen reported dengue positive.

The CM has ordered all departments of thePunjab government to take extraordinary meas-ures against dengue. The CM not only ordered hissubordinates to provide maximum healthcare fa-cilities to the citizens at government hospitals butalso directed private hospitals and laboratoriesto help Punjab government in controlling thedeadly epidemic. Similarly, the CM has also or-dered the Lahore Police to help other depart-ments to control dengue in the city.

Sources claimed that the Lahore Police cameinto action when political and civil administra-tion failed in implementing prices set by the Pun-

jab government for helping dengue patients.A retired police official, on anonymity, said

that basically, the implementation of price con-trol lists was the responsibility of price controlcommittees and implementation of law at pri-vate laboratories was the work of health inspec-tors, however the police officials were checkinglaboratories, which were overcharging fordengue tests, and controlling the prices of fog-ging machines.

Lahore Police DIG Operations GhulamMehmood Dogar said that helping people in dan-ger was their prime responsibility. He said thatthe Lahore Police was duty bound to work for thegovernment. SSP Operations Shaukat said thatworking to control dengue had not disturbed La-hore Police’s core work. He said that registrationof case was their responsibility and they wereperforming their duties and nothing else.

SP Investigations Shoaib Khurram Jaanbazon the issue said that according to police order2002, police could also be used for social cause.He said that citizens were facing an emergencysituation in the city and protecting their lives andproperty was their prime responsibility. He saidthe Lahore police had donated their one daysalary for helping dengue victims.

The citizens have also started seeking thehelp of Lahore Police since the implementationof Section 144 in the city. Sources in Lahore po-lice told that the police was receiving and re-sponding to about 20 to 22 emergency callsdaily, regarding overcharging of laboratories,overcharging on sale of fogging machines andabout the misconduct of hospital staffers.Sources said that usually people called 15 dur-ing 12pm to 8pm about such issues. Sourcesclaimed that locals were contacting the policeeven when someone was washing his car or bikein the street or when somebody had a complaintregarding the fumigation campaign.

However, policemen are facing serious prob-lems at the police station level due to polices’ in-volvement in controlling dengue. A station houseofficer on condition of anonymity told PakistanToday that some policemen were also victims ofdengue and their family members were also suf-fering. He said that though working for the na-tion was their prime responsibility but lack offacilities and with little strength, it was little dif-ficult for an SHO to cover all the aspects. He saidthat DIG Operations in a directive no5158/06/PS had directed all SHOs to help theraiding parties raiding at different laboratories tocontrol price, to monitor fumigation spray, tokeep a check on education institutes i.e. schoolstill September 25, to help the citizens on differentstalls installed at different government and pri-vate hospitals and to provide security at hospi-tals. He said to cover all these aspects excessivestrength of police staffers was required. He saidthat activities of fraud, cheating and pick pocket-ing were on the rise due to excessive patients ofdengue fever.

Lahore

Staff RepoRt

Sheikh Zayed Hospital dengue ward isworking without nets despite medical ex-perts’ warning that patients should be keptin isolated wards, Pakistan Today learnton Tuesday.

The dengue ward in Sheikh Zayed,where dengue patients are being treatedfor free, was set up on the directions ofPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. How-ever, the hospital administration ignoredthe guidelines issued by medical expertsabout management of dengue patients.

Acting King Edward Medical University(KEMU) Vice Chancellor Professor AsadAslam said dengue patients were to be keptin isolation inside mosquito nets to avoidthe disease’s spread. He said mosquitoeswould transfer the virus from patient and itwas necessary to keep him out of mosqui-toes’ reach. He said that if an infected per-son was bitten by a mosquito it became thecarrier of dengue virus also and on bitingothers the disease transferred to others.

Aslam said it was the major reason whythere were more than one reported pa-tients from one home. Even the PunjabHealth Department has issued directionsto medical superintendents of all publicsector hospitals to set up isolation wardsfor dengue patients. Other hospitals haveset up wards and patients have been putunder mosquito nets. However, SZH still

lacks the nets which the medical expertsconsider fatal as the disease has already as-sumed “epidemic proportions”.

Allama Iqbal Medical College PrincipalProfessor Javed Iqbal, who headed thecommittee which devised the WHO proto-col for treatment and management ofdengue classic, dengue hemorrhagic anddengue shock syndrome, said the commit-tee had recommended “drug impregnated”nets for dengue patients. “Putting the pa-tient under a net does not benefit the pa-tient but those attending him andproviding him care. It is to help avoid thespread of the deadly fever,” Akram added.

SZH Administrator Dr Akbar Sheikhsaid that it was advised by SZH focal per-son for dengue Professor Farukh Iqbal thatmosquito nets were not recommended fordengue patients as according to him thesedid not have a role in curbing the spread ofthe disease.

SZH dengue ward without mosquito nets

Is the dengue mosquitoreally afraid of police?

07Wednesday, 21 September, 2011

Lahore

Dr Tariq Rehman

appointed BNU dean

Lahore

pR

Dr Tariq Rehman, a Higher EducationCommission (HEC) distinguishednational professor and professoremeritus at the national Institute ofPakistan Studies (nIPS), Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad hasjoined the beaconhouse nationalUniversity (bnU) as school ofeducation dean replacing Dr SabihaMansoor, who was recently appointedLahore College for Women University(LCWU) vice-chancellor. Dr Rehmanserved as nIPS director from June2007 to June 2011. He is a highlypublished scholar with over 93 articlesin scholarly journals, 18 books, sixencyclopedia articles, 30 contributionsto books and several book reviews.

Outages return

Lahore

Staff RepoRt

The city witnessed six to seven hoursof load shedding on Tuesday creatinga lot of problems for citizens whileoutages are expected to increase indays to come. Electricity was closedfor one hour after every three hourscausing inconvenience to the people,who said that power demand haddeclined but still they were facinglong hours of load shedding. Theweather had changed a lot in the lasttwo weeks and usage of airconditioners had decreasedsignificantly, businessman SohailRehmat said adding that even thenthere was no relief from loadshedding. “Power is closed twice inthe night and four times duringdaytime due to which we cannotperform our daily tasks,” he lamented.According to PEPCO, powergeneration remained 13,044MWwhile demand surged to 16,602MWcreating a shortfall of 3,558MW.

Transfered LAhORE: Punjab Police InspectorGeneral (IGP) Javed Iqbal on Tuesdaytransferred Punjab Investigationbranch Senior Superintendent ofPolice (SSP) Captain (r) UsamaMumtaz Raja and posted him asSheikhupura Investigation SSPagainst an existing vacancy withimmediate effect. Lahore Capital CityPolice Officer (CCPO) Ahmed RazaTahir transferred City Traffic PoliceDeputy Superintendent of Police(DSP) Tahir Hussain and appointedhim Sabzazar DSP with immediateeffect. Staff RepoRt

Lahore

adnan Lodhi

SEnIOR professors of the PunjabUniversity (PU) Institute of Edu-cation and Research (IER) havesubmitted an application to PUvice chancellor and Punjab gover-

nor against IER Dean Dr Hafiz Iqbal, ac-cusing him to have attained his positionthrough fraudulent means and demand-ing his termination. Sources told Pak-istan Today that the varsityadministration was hesitant to take ac-tion against IER dean because he wasbacked by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

Dr Iqbal obtained a third division inbSc and was involved in academic corrup-tion; he got a promotion to the post of as-sistant professor and then professor byfraudulently showing himself on deputa-tion in IER and without adequate experi-ence and years of service, alleged PU IER

professors in the application titled “Termi-nation from the Post of Professor of Educa-tion and Assistant Professor of Educationand Disciplinary Action for Getting benefitThrough Concealment of Facts/Fraudulentbehaviour and Dishonesty”.

The three PU IER professors whosubmitted this application are: DrMuhammad Saeed Shahid, Dr Abid Hus-sain Chaudhary and Dr Rafaqat AliAkbar. The professors demand Punjabgovernment play its role and ask PU VCto start an enquiry against IER dean.APPLICATION’S SALIENT FEATURES:

The application accused Hafiz Iqbal offraudulent behaviour, academic corrup-tion and concealment of facts, throughwhich he raised himself to the position ofprofessor of education and faculty of edu-cation dean, and demand his terminationfrom the said post and initiate an enquiry.

The application highlights the follow-ing irregularities: a) Hafiz Muhammad

Iqbal passed his bSc examination in1974 securing 281 marks out of700 in third division b) Heshifted from being a biologylecturer for intermediate stu-dents to teaching Education atIER with inadequate experienceof post graduate teaching d)He showed himself on dep-utation in IER to get him-self a promotion e) Heshowed his post graduateteaching experience at Direc-torate of Staff Development,which is not a competent institutionwhose experience should be considered f)After serving at IER as lecturer only forone year one month and twenty sevendays, he was appointed as assistant pro-fessor, while requirement for the saidpost was six years teaching/research ex-perience in the relevant field g) Hepassed his Masters in Education (MEd)

and was selected as professor of Educa-tion with teaching experience of just eightyears six months and 23 days as lecturer,while 15 years of teaching/research expe-rience was required for the said post.BACKED BY JI: A senior PU adminis-

trative official said that they hadasked Hafiz Iqbal to file his reply to

the allegations but he did notconsider their requests be-cause “he was backed by JI.”He agreed to what the three

professors had to say aboutHafiz Iqbal and admitted that

Iqbal was not eligible toeven become a lecturerand he termed his being a

dean “tragic”. However, hesaid that administration

could not take action againsthim as an action could agitate JI,

which will start protests in the varsityas Hafiz Iqbal was also the relative of asenior JI leader. The official said thatthey were planning to bring this case inthe syndicate as it was “shameful” that athird divisioner worked as PU dean.FACULTY CONDEMNS: PU facultymembers condemned PU administrationfor taking an action against hafiz Iqbal. An

IER faculty member said that they were sur-prised that the varsity terminated Iftikharbaloch for “moral corruption” but was hes-itant to sack Hafiz Iqbal. He said that if theadministration believed in merit, it shouldnot stay silent over the issue. He said thePunjab CM should take notice of this issue.IER DEAN REPLIES: Hafiz Iqbal toldPakistan Today that he had already filedan application to the varsity administra-tion and Higher Education Commission(HEC) against these professors, who havebeen “illegal selected”.

Iqbal confessed that he obtained athird division in bSc but clarified that itwas not contrary to the selection rules atthe time of his appointment. He allegedthat one of the applicants, Dr Rafaqat AliAkbar, had obtained a third division in Fsc.

Iqbal said that he had a first division inmasters and also held a foreign degree. Hesaid that all the professors who filed an ap-plication against him were selected ille-gally after the rejection of the selectionboard on March 29, 2011; they were se-lected just before the syndicate’s meeting.He said that none of these professors wereable to publish any research article in anyof the HEC recognised journals which wasnecessary for the completion of Phd.

Lahore

Staff RepoRt

The International Labour Organization (ILO) incollaboration with the Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency will train 5,000 women inPakistan with a view to strengthen nationalmechanism to promote equal employment op-portunities for women and to enhance skills ofpoor women in rural and urban areas of the se-lected districts, said ILO national Project Coor-dinator Farida Khan, while addressing a mediaforum on Tuesday. The media men from differ-ent newspapers, TV channels and radio stationssigned a roundtable declaration in which theyvowed to play a key role in empowering womenby improving their public profile through a fairand representative coverage of working women.

Dr Farida said gender discrimination was atthe highest ebb in Pakistan in the name of falsereligious values. The ILO has initiated a projecttitled “Promoting Gender Equality for DecentEmployment (GE4DE)”. According to the proj-ect, gender equality at workplace was a funda-mental human right and was instrumental in

achieving poverty alleviation, she added. Theproject would focus on media to increase aware-ness and gender sensitive reporting of issues ofgender equality, she said.

Dr Farida said, “We started with small pilotprojects and already we have reports of a groupof women in Gwadar who have set up their owncatering business in traditional sea food and,during Ramzan, reported an income of Rs 1,000per person per day. In Karachi, we took somewomen who were working in worst of conditions,sorting fish and cleaning shrimps and prawns,and trained them to work for a fish processingfirm. A group of those women has been pickedfor further training as factory supervisors.”

Muneeza Hashmi said that women couldfoster better treatment of women in the mediaby promoting sound media education pro-grammes, by teaching others, by revisiting theprogrammes and news items which insult thedignity of women. Punjab University MassCommunication Department Director Dr AhsanAkhtar naz said media should highlight theproblems of women instead of using them onlyfor glamour and advertisements.

LHC stops LDA fromappointing officials

Lahore

Staff RepoRt

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday restrained theLahore Development Authority (LDA) from making furtherappointments for the post of legal assistant directors andissued a notice to the LDA director general for September 26.LHC Justice Umar Ata bandial issued this order on a petitionmoved by Sohail Mushtaq, a candidate, who contended thatLDA’s appointment of four legal assistant directors was not basedon merit, as those appointed had secured less than 50 percentmarks on the nTS while Mushtaq had more than 50 percentmarks on the test. He said that he had been rejected after theinterview, while the other candidates had been awarded

extraordinary marks on the interview andwere selected. Mushtaq alleged that the

appointments had not been made onmerit; rather were the result of

political interference. The petitioner-lawyer also challenged the abolition

of one of the seats for the said post.He requested that the court set

aside the appointments madeon political grounds. The

court issued a stay order andsought reply from

respondent.

iS thiS woRth eating? a man sells fruit at railway station covered with flies, bees and wasp. Irfan CHaudHry

3 PU IER teachers want Hafiz Iqbal out g Professors accuse their dean of academic corruption, demand vC sack him

g Dean accuses applicant professors of being illegally selected

g Administration hesitant to take action against JI-backed dean, says PU official

ILO to train 5,000women in Pakistan