LAHORE—This time againMuttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM), still struggling to dis-card a tag of regional politicalparty, is not in a position toclinch even a single seat fromnational or provincial constitu-encies across Punjab in upcom-ing general elections 2013.

MQM has announced tofield candidates in every dis-trict of Punjab yet it failed tobring forward a single poten-tial candidate who can chal-

lenge his opponent in forthcom-ing general elections in Punjab.In the absence of powerful andinfluential candidate, MQM hasnot yet finalized list of its can-didates though it has set April10 deadline for displaying thelist of final candidates.

The educated middle classin Punjab who has got politicalwisdom conceives MQM keyaccountable for law and orderdeterioration in Karachi andthey fear if MQM gets seats inPunjab it could spread mania ofextortionists across the prov-ince. The MQM claimed itselfto be the force of change in

MQM set to have its tactical presence across Punjab

Continued on Page 6

Punjab, however, this role andslogan had already been grabbedby the PTI due to MQM’s al-leged militant characteristic andits involvement in May 12, 2007mayhem in Karachi. Some left-wing political entities in Punjabshowed their interest to joinMQM but later they avoided onthe ground that MQM repute inPunjab in regard of supportingformer President of PakistanGeneral (R) Pervez Musharrafand alleged presence of militantgroups in MQM is so negativeand destructive to be attachedwith this party.

MQM has decided to

launch two candidates includ-ing Mirza Furqan Ali Mughal(PP-196) Multan- III andIftikhar Ahmed Randhawa(NA-159) in upcoming generalelections who they think are bitstrong to bag comparativelymore votes but not considerthem being strong enough tosecure representation fromPunjab.

In Lahore, the coordina-tion committee of MQM hasstrongly recommended AyeshaAhad from NA-119 Lahoreagainst PML-N’s Hamza

SC: Gilani nomore enjoysimmunity

ISLAMABAD—Chief Justice ofPakistan Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry has remarked SyedYousuf Raza Gilani remains nomore Prime Minister therefore,immunity to him stays no more.‘The CJP gave these remarkswhile presiding over a 3-mem-ber bench of SC during the courseof hearing of Hajj corruption casehere Tuesday.

Investigation officer HussainAsghar told the court ZainSukhera and Najib Ullah havebeen granted bail. Syed YousufRaza Gilani’s assets haveswelled dramatically and the fat-tening of assets came to lightfollowing initiation of Hajj cor-ruption case. He further told lawministry had prevented him fromholding investigations againstYousuf Raza Gilani.

The CJP observed “when theumbrella of immunity has beentaken off from him then who isstopping the proceedings to beinitiated against him. DirectorLegal FIA Azam Khan told thecourt former DG Hajj Rao Shakilwas arrested and his accounts hadbeen freezed. Former secretaryestablishment Ismail Qureshiwas in US and Aftab Islam,former joint secretary of minis-try of religious affairs was alsounder arrest. Former minister forreligious affairs Hamid SaeedKazmi was on bail and his nameand name of other officers whoare allegedly involved in thisscam have been put on ECL.Assets of Ahmad Faiz have beenconfiscated.

Iftikhar Chaudhry inquiredas to why Ahmad Faiz has not

Continued on Page 6

SHO, 3 copstortured inKarachiKARACHI—Four policemenincluding an SHO weretortured by the guards of aninfluential leader’s relatives inDefence area Tuesday.

According to sources, apolice team was attacked andtortured when it arrived in Gizriafter getting the information ofa clash between two groups.The cops had tried to take theculprits to police station butinstead of proceeding withthem, they tortured thepolicemen including SHO GizriSuhail Ahmed. The injuredSHO and policemen includingFarid, Dilawar and MuhammadAslam have been shifted tohospital for treatment.

The SP told that the guardsof Sardar Sanaullah Zehri andCaptain (retd) ShehryarDurrani have been arrested fortorturing the policemen.—INP

SC rejects plea toarrest MusharrafCourt ready to open Pandora’s

box to reach the bottom: Justice JawadISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt on Tuesday rejected a pleato arrest former president Gen-eral (retd) Pervez Musharraf andordered his counsel to submit hisreply by April 15 in the ongoingtreason case against the formermilitary ruler.

A two-member bench of theapex court, comprising JusticeJawwad S. Khawaja and JusticeKhilji Arif Hussain heard thecase against the former militaryruler retired general seeking histrial under Article 6 of the Con-stitution for imposing the stateof emergency in 2007.

The court rejected the re-quest seeking the arrest of theformer military ruler.

Former President and chiefof All Pakistan Muslim LeaguePervez Musharraf has chal-lenged rejection of his nomina-tion papers filed from NA-48,Islamabad. Musharraf’s counselQamar Afzal filed the appeal atthe election tribunal against re-

jection of his papers.It may be mentioned that

Musharraf’s nomination papersfor upcoming May 11 polls were

rejected from Islamabad,Karachi, Kasur while his paperswere accepted from Chitral.

Rival political parties have

vowed to challenge approval ofhis papers from Chitral.

Justice Jawad S Khawaja ofSupreme Court remarked courtis ready to open Pandora’s boxto reach the bottom of the mat-ter. Notification on placement ofPervez Musharraf name in ExitControl List (EC) was presentedby government of Sindh andministry of foreign affairs in thecourt.

Ahmad Raza Kasuri on be-half of Pervez Musharraf arguedthat court’s notice was receivedby his client at midnight whilethe petitions run into 5 number.It is essential to give reply to eachand every para while the generalelections are in sight and PervezMusharraf is undertaking politi-cal visits of the country beingpresident of All Pakistan MuslimLeague Motive behind such ap-plications is to impede his politi-cal activities and prevent himfrom making contacts with the

Continued on Page 6 Forces consolidatingpositions in Tirah Valley

110 insurgents killed, 23 troops martyredTARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—With the securityforces consolidating their posi-tions in the troubled Tirah valleyof Khyber agency on Tuesday,110 militants were gunned downin air and ground offensives thatalso led to the Shahadat of 23soldiers including a Major and a

lieutenant. Credible sources inthe Army told Pakistan Observerthe trouble makers were on therun.

On the other hand the UNbody dealing with the rehabilita-tion of the displaced persons saidthe infightings in the volatileTiraah valley has forced morethan 40000 people mostly

women and children to migrateto the safer places. The Armyled security forces, it may be re-called, had to kick off a grandoperation in the Tirah valley inthe wake of continuousinfightings between banned outfits Lasher-e-Islam, Ansaar Ul

Continued on Page 6

Punjab toobserve twoweeklyholidaysSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab cabinet methere on Tuesday undercaretaker Chief MinisterNajam Sethi to discuss theissue of load-shedding anddecided to observe 2 weeklyholidays in the province.

Addressing the meeting‚the Chief Minister said that hewould raise the issue of powerload-shedding with the PrimeMinister.

He said that the federalgovernment should play itsrole in ending load-shedding.

Najam Sethi has demandedto convene a meeting of thecouncil of common interestsover the issue of power crisis.

PTI opens its manifesto

Local Bodies polls, grafteradication prioritisedSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Pakistan-Tehrik-i-Insaaf unveiled its mani-

festo for the coming election onTuesday. The ceremony was at-tended by party chief Imran

Khan, Dr Shireen Mazari,Firdous Shamim Naqvi and otherparty leaders.

The new Pakistan arising out

of PTI’s election into powerwould not fight any othercountry’s war, the manifesto re-

vealed at a local five-star hotelin Lahore said.

Khan said so far he had ful-filled every promise he had madeand had conducted intra-partypolls and awarded party ticketsto the youth in this regard, add-ing that he would not make anypromises which could not be ful-filled.

Revealing the party’s mani-festo, Khan announced that lo-cal body elections would be heldwithin 90 days of PTI’s electioninto power.

He vowed to eliminate cor-ruption from the country, addingthat he would not form any kindof a coalition government.

He was of the view the par-liamentarians’ job was to makepolicies and not to carry out de-velopment projects. The PTIchief said his government wouldlegislate on policy and the localgovernment would carry out de-velopment work.

He further said that if hisparty was elected into power theentire country would be de-weaponised, with first priority

ISLAMABAD: Chairman PTI Imran Khan and MakhdoomJaved Hashmi holding a copy of PTI manifesto during itslaunching on Tuesday.

Continued on Page 6

SHARAFAT KAZMI

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterMir Hazar Khan Khoso has di-rected the Ministry of Water andPower to take immediate mea-sures to improve power situationand use all available resources toensure power generation is opti-mized so that minimum loadshedding is carried out in thecountry. It was decided that theMinistry of finance would injectan amount of twenty billion ru-pees immediately to ensure fuel

supply to thermal power plants. He gave this direction whilechairing a high level meeting toreview the power generationplants here on Tuesday. The meeting was called todiscuss power situation in thecountry after the Prime Ministertook cognizance of reports ofexcessive load shedding in thecountry, appearing in the media. The Additional Secretary,Ministry of Water and PowerArshad Mirza informed thePrime Minister that the immedi-

ate cause of increase in load shed-ding was disruption of gas sup-ply to Uch Power Plant becauseof sabotage. The Prime Minister said thatall necessary measures should betaken to ensure the power instal-lations, transmission lines andpower installations are fully se-cured throughout the country. Noinstallation should be left unat-tended and a security plan shouldbe submitted spelling out detailedarrangements for their protection.

Use all at-hand resourcesto end power outage: Khoso

Rs20b set aside for thermal power plants

Continued on Page 6

Continued on Page 6

Ballot papersprinting from

April 20STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Election Commis-sion of Pakistan will start print-ing of ballot papers from April20 and about two hundred mil-lions ballot papers will beprinted for the national as wellas four Provincial Assemblies’seats.

According to an officialseeking anonymity told thisscribe that that four printingpresses including Printing Cor-poration of Pakistan Lahore,Karachi, Security Printing PressIslamabad and Karachi will printthese ballot papers.

Mehboob Anwar, ProvincialElection Commission Punjabsaid that about 500,000 pollingstaff will be deployed to performelections duties on May 11 andtheir training will be startedfrom April 15.

Continued on Page 6

CommentMuzaffar Ali

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—Almost twoweeks have passed since his in-duction as caretaker Prime Min-ister, Mir Hazar Khan Khoso isstill in search of a technocrat asFinance Minister to manage na-tional economy and to prepareinitial budgetary proposals.

Insiders said many ex-bu-reaucrats and technocrats haverefused to take the responsibilitydue to distressing economy. Sofar, Khoso, a non- technocrat ishandling the Ministry with the

help of newly appointed FinanceSecretary Nasir MahmoodKhosa, who recently served asChief Secretary Punjab .The pa-thetic condition of economy de-mands a professional man totake over the charge, especiallywhen the time is approachingfast for the new national budgetto be presented in the new Na-tional Assembly in the first weekof June.

The next government afterthe elections is expected to be inplace not before May 20 which

PM still in searchof Finance MinisterFS preparing budgetary proposals

Continued on Page 6

ECP takes noticeof controversial

remarksISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP)on Tuesday took notice of con-troversial remarks by caretakerInterior Minister Malik Habibwhich drew criticism from sev-eral mainstream political parties.

The ECP asked for the recordof Malik Habib, who reportedlycalled Nawaz Sharif a ‘nationalhero’. Earlier, the caretaker in-

terior minister dismissed the no-tion of being a supporter of PML-N chief.

He came under fire fromPTI, PPP, ANP, MQM and PML-Q, who straightaway called forhis resignation. Chief ElectionCommissioner Fakhruddin GEbrahim has said that proposalof Inter-Provincial transfers in thebureaucracy was underway inorder to ensure transparent elec-tions. During the meeting, leader

See also Page-8Iran unveilsuranium sites,

renews defiant toneTEHRAN—With words of defi-ance, Iran announced twonuclear-related projects Tuesdaythat expand capabilities to extractand process uranium — modestadvances in Tehran’s atomic ef-forts but ones symbolic of its re-fusal to slow nuclear work evenas talks with world powers overthe disputed program remaindeadlocked.

The twin sites reflectTehran’s goal of greater self-suf-ficiency through the entirenuclear fuel cycle from uraniummines to enrichment labs.

Yet the timing — just daysafter the latest round of negotia-

ISLAMABAD: Zahid Malik, Editor-in-Chief, Pakistan Observer, in conversation with HE Abdul Aziz Ibrahim Saleh Al-Ghadeer, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. They discussedmatters of mutual interests.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

All Pak QuranConference onNovember 7

MULTAN—More than 100schools will participate in the11th All Pakistan Quran Confer-ence to be held on Nov 9, 2013at Govt Jamaul Aloom HighSchool. The conference will beorganized under the auspices ofBahauddin Zakariya University(BZU) and Board of Intermedi-ate and Secondary ExaminationMultan, said a handout issuedhere on Tuesday.

The organizing committeeincluding the Chairman of theconference, Khalid MehmoodHiraj, Secretary General AWNisar, Chief Coordinator,IlyasSiddique, Prof Shakeel AhmedQureshi and Head of IslamicStudies Department, Prof DrSaeed-ur-Rehman called on VCBZU, Prof Dr khawaja Alqamaat his office.—APP

Admin toextend full

support to ECOUR CORRESPONDENT

SAHIWAL—CommissionerSahiwal division MuhammadAbdullah khan Sumbal has saidthat foremost duty of divisionaland district administrations isholding free and fair generalelections and all out supportwill be extended to ElectionCommission to achieve this ob-jective. This he said whilechairing a meeting at his officeto review the arrangements isbeing made for the elections.During election campaign,Code of Conduct will be imple-mented in letter and spirit andstrict action will be takenagainst violators, he said.

The District CoordinationOfficers Dr Sajid MahmoodChouhan, Ihsan Bhutta and DrIrshad Ahmed, Additional Com-missioners Nasir Jamal Hotianaand Mahmood ul Hassan Ziaand Assistant Commissionersfrom all three districts were alsopresent in the meeting. He di-rected that close liaison shouldbe established with all stake-holders and prompt actionshould be taken on any com-plaint regarding wall chalking.He also directed to finalise trans-portation plan within a week totransport election staff and ma-terial to each polling stationwithout any hindrance.

374 polling stationsdeclared sensitive

MIRPURKHAS—To maintainlaw and order on polling day, outof 2086 polling stations inMirpurkhas region, 374 havebeen declared as highly sensitive,while 814 as sensitive and 898as normal for general elections2013. Owning to threats of vio-lence in the region, a fullyequipped security plan has beenprepared for these polling sta-tions of 8 National and 17 pro-vincial assembly seats, where19104 personnel of the Law En-forcement agencies will be de-ployed as well as well as volun-teers to maintain law and orderand provide security to voters.Mirpurkhas division comprisesfour districts, includingMirpurkhas, Sanghar,Umerkot.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The Department ofArchaeology, Hazara UniversityMansehra with the support ofSchool of Archaeology and An-cient History, University of Le-icester UK has planned to intro-duce MA programme in Heritage

HU to introduce HeritageManagement Studies as syllabi

Management Studies. Theprogramme is funded by the Brit-ish Council Islamabad under theTransnational Education Program.Talking to media, Dr AbdulSamad, head of Department ofArcheology, Hazara University,explained that “there is no matchof our unique cultural heritage in

the world but very limited stepshave been taken so far for preser-vation and promotion of our cul-tural diversity.

The course is especially de-signed to meet international stan-dard, which eventually will leadto the capacity building of the cus-todians of our heritage.

RAHMATULLAH KHAN

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Information Min-ister Musarrat Qadeem has saidthat a comprehensive securityplan has been prepared for up-coming general elections as65,000 police personnel backedby workers of civil defense andforest guard will be deployed onpolling station. Speaking at a‘guest hour’ programme ar-ranged by Peshawar Press Clubon Tuesday, the minister saidthat army would also be de-ployed if it needed on sensitivepolling stations.

She said that the interimgovernment was making all itsefforts to hold the forthcomingelections free, fair and transpar-ent with continuation of demo-cratic process. A well-coordi-

nated system would be developedbetween police, law enforcementagencies and other relevant gov-ernment line departments to cre-ate a favorable environment forholding general elections inpeaceful manner, she added.

Flanked by provincial In-formation Secretary HaneefOrakzai and Director Informa-tion department Shoaibuddin,she said the government wasforemost responsibility to holdelection in a fair and transpar-ent way. She maintained thatthe steps were being taken tofully implement basic code ofconduct of Election Commis-sion of Pakistan for the elec-tions. Ms Qadeem said that aconspiracy was being hatchedto delay the elections by vari-ous tactics, but the governmentwould foil all such attempts.

She further said that securitywasn’t too much bad as predi-cated earlier for the holding

elections.Referring a search study, she

informed that the women votersturnout were remained zero inmore than 564 polling station in

past elections in the country, inwhich around 55 polling sta-tions were in KP province. “I’ll share this figure with Elec-tion Commission of Pakistanand I request the EC to declaresuch polling stations null andvoid wherein women less voteswould be casted,” he de-manded.

She urged the media to playits role for creation of aware-ness about the significance ofwomen votes, which could onlymake possible maximum par-ticipation of women in theforthcoming general elections.“We would take appropriatesteps to make ensure a greatturnout of women voters at thepolling stations, she vowed andstressed that it was mandatoryto women fully participate inelections.

Comprehensive polls security plan devised

65,000 cops to be deployed;Army can be called, if needed

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—President of AwamiNational Party (ANP) AsfandyarWali Khan has revealed that hisparty was under tremendous pres-sure from the United States not toenter into peace agreement withmilitants in Swat but it ignored thepressure in view of ground reali-ties. The ANP chief was respond-ing to a question in a wide-ranginginterview with Radio Pakistan aspart of coverage of Elections-2013.Radio Pakistan and Business PlusTV would broadcast the interviewsimultaneously at 07.05 pm. onFriday. Its audio and video versionswould be available on RadioPakistan’s website ‘radio.gov.pk’ aswell.

Asked you were known foranti-Americanism and how youbecame pro-US, Asfandyar Walisaid before Swat peace agree-ment, the then US Assistant Sec-retary of State Richard Boucherand then Ambassador AnnePatterson pressed him not to gofor peace deal at a 50-minutemeeting at Frontier House inIslamabad. Asfandyar said henever had such a bitter meetingwith any one as was the meetingwith Richard Boucher. He saidhe categorically told the Ameri-

can side that we know our tradi-tions and customs very well andwe have to go for the peace deal.

The ANP leader said theywent ahead with peace agree-ment with militants in Swat butit was violated by the otherside and writ of the Govern-ment was challenged. In thisbackdrop, there was no other

choice than to go for operation.Asfandyar said the operationagainst extremists and terror-ists in Swat and Malakand suc-ceeded as it had political own-ership. The ANP chief, how-ever, made it clear that thearmy was called in Swat not byANP but the then MMA Gov-ernment in the province.

ANP resisted US pressurenot to sign Swat peace deal

SWAT: Widow of martyred journalist Abdul Aziz Shaheen addressing a press conference.

HYDERABAD: Students busy in solving the question pa-pers during annual SSC Part II (Matric) examination at allocal school.

STAFF REPORTER

PE S H AWA R—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor, Engi-neer Shaukatullah deliveredseven state of the art mobilehospitals; each fitted in asingle vehicle and also encom-passing Ex-ray and other qual-ity medical accessories to theDirectorate of Health Services,FATA at Governor’s House,Peshawar Tuesday.

Each mobile hospital willbe manned by both female,male doctors and the relevantparamedical staff.

Governor delivers 7 modernmobile hospitals to Fata

It merits a mention here thatthe entire lot is a part of theproject which is funded by Ger-man grant to the tune of Euro5.38 million under which solarenergy system and medicalequipments will also be pro-vided in one year time to fullyfunctionalize twenty out of theexisting mother childhealthcare centres as well as100 health houses each beingadministered by leady healthworkers as a part of the ongo-ing efforts to improvehealthcare services in FATA.

The Governor also in-

spected some of the equip-ments displayed as a token ofthe facilities to be providedunder the programme. Repre-sentatives of the Ministry forDevelopment and EconomicCooperation of the FederalRepublic of Germany espe-cially the country coordinatorsand senior officials of BMZ,KFW, and GIZ were alsopresent, besides Principal Sec-retary to Governor,Muhammad Abid Majeed andthe Secretary Social ‘Sector,FATA, Aftab Akbar Durrani onthis occasion.

M HALEEM ASAD

TIMERGARA—Speakers of adaylong seminar said the ma-ternal mortality ratio could bereduced in Pakistan throughraising mass awareness particu-larly in mothers. A non-govern-mental organization, theKhwendo Kor organized theseminar titled ‘causes, impactsand prevention of maternalmortality in Dir Lower’ at theDHQ hospital Timergara onTuesday. A total of 50 partici-pants including doctors, ladyhealth supervisors, lady healthworkers, lady health visitors,

nurses and health techniciansattended the seminar.

The KK district advocacycoordinator Amin Jan intro-duced the project “SavingMothers in Communities” withthe collaboration of Mercycorps .He informed them thatPakistan is in 3rd rank after In-dia & Nigeria in maternal mor-tality. He highlighted that ma-jority i.e. 75% deliveries in ru-ral were still conducted athomes with unskilled hands,which was alarming. He saidthat main cause of MaternalMortality Ratio was postpartumHemorrhage, which was pre-

ventable. A senior medical of-ficer Dr Khaista Rahman whilespeaking on the occasion in-formed the participants that fivemillion ladies became pregentevery year in Pakistan and 75%ladies in rural areas and 65% inurban areas delivered at homes.He further told that due to lackof timely care result maternaldeath in Pakistan as comparedto the world was high.

He informed the partici-pants that one mother died inevery 20 minutes, which meantthree mothers died in every onehour in our country. He said thatin Pakistan one mother died in

89 mothers due to maternity.He discussed the differentcauses of maternal death andhighlighted Postpartum Hem-orrhage as its main causei.e.24% of MMR in Pakistan.He discussed the vulnerabilityof PPH and told that due to70% deliveries at homes,mothers did not receive timelyskill labor and care for preven-tion of the PPH. He asked theparticipants to raise massawareness on the issue and saidthat LHWs could play theirpositive role for prevention ofMMR on humanitarian basesand for the sake of their nation.

Mass awareness vital to reduce maternal mortality ratio

BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD—Local traders,daily wagers, powerloom work-ers and owners and lawyers onTuesday protested against theunprecedented power outage inthe city and rural areas which hascrippled the normal life. The law-yers on the call of DBAHafizabad today boycotted thecourts to protest against 18 to 22hours loadshedding in the area.Children and families ofpowerloom workers took out amock funeral of WAPDA to pro-test against ever-increasingpower outage which has deprivedthem of two-time meal. He de-manded decrease in the durationof loadsheddings to enable them

to make their livelihood.*****

An armed bid to kidnap afive-year-old child was foiled byhis maternal uncles in Doaba to-day. However, the accusedopened firing resultantly threepersons were seriouslywounded. The police have reg-istered a case against the ab-sconding accused. According topolice source, Tasleem Pathaniwas married to Rafique Pathanin Kot Ladha and gave birth toAli Sher out of her wedlock.Rafique had divorced Tasleemsome time past and she con-tracted second marriage withMuhammad Farooq and settledalongwith her five-year-old sonAli Sher in Doaba. Today

Rafique and Abid raided herresidence and attempted to kid-nap Ali Sher which was resistedby her maternal uncles. There-upon, the accused opened firingas result of which MuhammadBoota, Irshad and Waheed wereseriously wounded and were re-moved to the DHQ HospitalHafizabad.

*****Captain (R) Muhammad

Zafar Iqbal has taken over asDCO Hafizabad vice Dr. FarahMasood transferred toT.T.Singh. Faisal Ali Raja hastaken over as DPO Hafizabadvice Gohar Mushtaq Bhuttatransferred to Narowal. Mean-while, Waris Bharwana hastaken over as DSP Sadar

Hafizabad vice Tariq Warraichtransferred to Attock.

*****Zulifqar Ali Chand Bhoon,

city President PPP Hafizabadhas quit the party and joinedPML-N. Already District Presi-dent PPP Fayyaz Ahmad Awanand 26 office-bearers of Districtand Tehsil PPP and PYO haveabandoned the party and joinedPML-N causing serious blow toalready bleak position of theparty in the district. MalikFayyaz Awan and Chand Bhoonand their families remained as-sociated with the PPP since 1977and they have abandoned theparty due to deviation of theparty leaders from the vision ofShaheed Z.A. Bhutto.

Protest against woeful power outage

Sovereignty,self-reliance

PML-N manifestoSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Provincial jointsecretary of PML-N, KhyberPakhtunkhwa and candidatefrom PK-5, Farhad Ali KhanTuesday said his party aftercoming into power will focus onself-reliance and no compromisewould be made on country’ssovereignty. Addressing differ-ent electioneering meetings inPalosai, Ghareebabad,Danishabad and Tehkal, thePML-N candidate said that af-ter getting thumping majorityPML-N will give the gift of anew Pakistan to the nation wherethere neither will be any fearsof load shedding, unemploy-ment and terrorism.

On this occasion a largenumber of people announcedjoining PML-N and extendedfull support to him in the upcom-ing general elections. Interestingcontest expected on PK-32,Swabi 2: An interesting contestwas expected on PK-32, Swabi-2, known as strong-hold of ANPwhere all the mainstream politi-cal parties have fielded their can-didates to capture the seat.

From the constituency,former MPA and district presi-dent ANP, Haji Rehman UllahKhan’s son Ameer Rehman, NaibAmeer JI, KPK, Mushtaq Ahmedand Chirman Awabi JamhuriIttehad, Shahram Khan Tarakaiwere in the run and all seemed tobe confident to win the election.

Stop officialprotocol toQaim: ECP

ISLAMABAD—Election Com-mission has directed Chief Sec-retary Sindh to stop formerChief Minister Sindh Syed QaimAli Shah from using official pro-tocol for his political meetingsand report the Commission backwithin three days. In his letter,the Secretary Election Commis-sion Ishtiak Ahmad Khan hasdirected the Chief SecretarySindh Raja Muhammad Abbasthat a serious view of the viola-tion of ban of election code ofconduct has been taken by theElection Commission.

Secretary Ishtiak Ahmadalso directed Raja MuhammadAbbas to immediately transferDeputy Commissioner and Dis-trict Police Officer Khairpur asthey had served as Secretary andSecurity Incharge at the resi-dence of former CM SindhQaim Ali Shah.

Chief Secretary was alsodirected by the Commission toconvey former CM Sindh toavoid the use of official proto-col as it is the violation of codeof conduct and is against theprinciple of provision of levelplaying field to all contestingcandidates.—APP

KP rich innatural resources

STAFF REPORTER

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Caretaker ChiefMinister Justice (R) TariqParvez Khan has said thatKhyber Pakhtunkhwa is veryrich province in terms of waterand other natural resourceswhich can be utilized to boostthe economy of the province,resolve the issue of energy cri-sis and create employment op-portunities provided that wework with will, honesty and de-votion.

He expressed these viewswhile talking to provincial care-taker minister for Energy &Power, Irrigation and PublicHealth Engineering, Mr.Mohammad Younas Marwatwho called on him at his officeon Tuesday and discussed withhim matters related to the over-all performance, ongoingprojects and other important is-sue of his departments.

The chief minister said thatthe supply of clean drinkingwater to the public was the fore-most responsibility of the gov-ernment.

NP to sweep general pollsQUETTA—National Party central leaderSardar Kamal Khan Bangulzai, the candi-date for NA- 268 and PP-36 has said thatNational Party would sweep in generalelection. He was addressing a public gath-ering here on Tuesday at Marriage MelonHall, adding that people should not givevote to those people who are corrupt anddishonest. Former rulers did not work forthe province and the citizens as there is noelectricity, gas and no edible water for the

citizens in the respective areas due to their corruptions, Sardaradded. National Party leader Nawab Muhammad KhanShahwani, the candidate for PP-38 urged the people to vote forNP in general election. The High Court of Balochistan on Mon-day accepted an application of former Balochistan Minister AliMadad Jattak against sentence in fake degree case, for hearing.The court set the hearing date as April 15 and summoned theProsecutor General and Provincial Election Commission in thisregard. Jattak has been awarded two-year imprisonment with afine of Rs. 10,000 after his conviction in the fake degree caseby Additional District and Sessions Judge-VI Quetta. Earlier,Caretaker Chief Minister Balochistan, Nawab Ghous BakhshBarozai Monday inaugurated cleanliness campaign and gaveapproval to the uplift projects to be launched for the beautifica-tion of the provincial capital during his visit to the Quetta Met-ropolitan Corporation here. Secretary local government bod-ies, Mehmoodul Hasan, Principal Secretary to CM SarwarJaved, Commissioner Quetta Qambar Dashti, SSP Traffic, andAdministrator Quetta Metropolitan Corporation were alsopresent. Caretaker CM Balochistan was briefed about the drive.He was also apprised about the dearth of the machinery andlack of manpower available to the department for maintainingcleanliness in the city.—APP

ANP for prosperous PakistanISLAMABAD—Senior Vice PresidentAwami National Party (ANP) SenatorHaji Muhammad Adeel on Tuesday saidthat ANP’s election manifesto ‘Pur-Aman Pakistan’ promises a peaceful andprosperous Pakistan. Presenting ANPmanifesto at a policy seminar, he said,“progress is only possible in a peacefuland stable environment, that’s why “Pur-Aman Pakistan” is ANP’s slogan for2013 elections”, he said. He was speak-

ing at a policy seminar on manifesto of Awami National Partyunder the title “Relevance of Manifesto in Political Dynam-ics of Pakistan”.The event organized by Sustainable Devel-opment Policy Institute (SDPI) was third in the series ofseminars, planned to bring manifestos of political partiesinto discussion and their impact on electorates in the run upto the general elections. Shakeel Ahmad Ramay of SDPImoderated the proceedings. He said, ANP is committed toevolve a national consensus on extremism with peace andnon-violence as guiding principles. “ANP believed in dia-logue with militants who recognize constitution and the writof state and renounce violence”, he added. He said, ANPmanifesto secure social and economic rights for all federat-ing units of Pakistan as equal partners in the federation. Re-garding status of FATA, he said, annexation of FATA withKhyber Pakhtunkhwa is possible but only in accordance withthe wishes and expectations of people living in tribal ar-eas.” Talking of ANP’s commitment to education, he ex-pressed that, ANP government would increase educationbudget to six percent of GDP. “In last five years of ANPgovernment, nine new universities were established alongwith campuses in every district of the province.—APP

Mengal links peace to strong govtQUETTA—Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal, thechief of Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) said that peace couldonly be achieved in the province by form-ing a strong government after elections2013. He was addressing a press confer-ence at his residence. Balochistan is fac-ing crises like law and order and poverty,he said adding that only a strong govern-ment could restore peace in the province.He stressed for conducting free, fair and

transparent elections. “During the last 15 years, a so-calledpolitical leadership was created that minted financial benefitsand now these elements were putting hurdles in the way ofelection drive in Baloch belt,” he claimed. Mengal was of theview that elections were not solution of the Balochistan issueadding that however, it could help bring improvement in theprevaling situation. He said that some armed groups were atlarge in electoral constituencies who were hurling threats tothe political forces who want to participate in the general elec-tion. He claimed that some elements were behind religiousextremism, political victimization and tribal feuds prevailingin Balochistan. He demanded rehabilitation of internally dis-placed Baloch people, recovery of missing persons and re-lease of political prisoners. Caretaker Chief MinisterBalochistan, Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Barozai Monday inaugu-rated cleanliness campaign and gave approval to the upliftprojects to be launched for the beautification of the provin-cial capital during his visit to the Quetta Metropolitan Corpo-ration here. Secretary local government bodies, MehmoodulHasan, Principal Secretary to CM Sarwar Javed, Commis-sioner Quetta Qambar Dashti, SSP Traffic, and AdministratorQuetta Metropolitan Corporation were also present. CaretakerCM Balochistan was briefed about the drive. He was alsoapprised about the dearth of the machinery and lack of man-power available to the department for maintaining cleanli-ness in the city.—APP

Oral hygiene can curb dental diseasesHYDERABAD—The Oral and Dental Car-ies and gum diseases are common in oursociety. These can only be prevented if se-rious attention is paid to the teeth andsmoking, Dean of the Institute of Den-tistry, Liaquat University of Medical andHealth Sciences (LUMHS) ProfessorNoor Muhammad Khoso said. Talking toAPP here Tuesday, he said inadequate oralhygiene and rheumatoid arthritis increasethe risk of losing teeth due to periodontal

disease. Prof Khoso said that the periodontal disease is a majorreason for losing teeth, but there are some factors that appearto increase the risk. He said that whitening of the teeth with ableach is a dangerous practice and many doctors do it formoney, which is a risk to the patient’s health. The dentistsshould inform their patients about the side effects of the pro-cedure they are about to go through, he added. About the dietProf Khoso called for reducing consumption especially, fre-quency of intake of food and beverages containing sugar. Theyshould be consumed only as part of a meal, he said. Snacksand beverages should be free of sugars and frequent consump-tion of acidic drinks should be avoided, he added. He saidthat the oral and dental health are integral parts of good over-all health, and dental caries is the most common chronic in-fectious disease of adult age and childhood. Prof NoorMuhammad said that dental patients with severe dental cariesmay experience chronic oral pain and infection, be malnour-ished and suffer from low self-esteem because of missing ordefective teeth. He suggested that the sugars, particularly non-milk sugars in items other than fresh fruits and vegetables,are the major dietary causes of caries and frequency of intakeis a more important factor than the amount.—APP

SHAFFAAT MALIK

TALAGANG—Illegal use ofgreen number plates, tintedglasses, plying unregistered ve-hicles and other types of non-prescribed registration plates onvehicles and underage driverscan be seen in Talagang and in-creasing day by day.Personalised plates like ‘Ap-plied For Registration’, or‘AFR’ for short is the commonthing now a days.

The unauthorized and inex-perience drivers of the publictransport vehicles are posinggreat threat to the lives ofpeople due to the negligence ofTalagang Police. The publiccircles of Talagang demandingstrict action against them. Themost of drivers of these vehiclesare not only unauthorized butalso inexperience and underagethat might cause major acci-dent, they added.

Several people have suf-fered injuries due to these in-experience and unlicensed driv-ers who usually make illegalturns and drive ruthlessly. Theydemanded from the authoritiesconcerned to place restrictionon the age of rickshaw drivers.

They also demanded that heavyfines would be imposed on any-one illegally using blue lights orgreen license plates on his ve-hicle. Traffic overload has be-come a major problem ofTalagang like any other place ofthe country. Traffic jams androad accidents have become aroutine matter for Talagang.

The main road of the townis witnessing frequent trafficjams at peak hours, every day,causing problems to people.Traffic jams not only delay themotorists but also causes thevehicles to burn more fuel whichis the main cause of pollution.According to reports, no trafficpolice personnel are seen on thescene, leaving the matter for themotorists to sort it out them-selves, who further worsen thealready choked lanes by attempt-ing to make their way out of thecommotion.

Traffic jams are easily man-aged when a traffic cop is onduty. Sometimes, the traffic jamis not caused by the number ofvehicles, but due to senselessdriving by the motorists. Peopledemands serious attention of lo-cal authorities to solve these is-sues on priority basis.

Illegal use of green numberplates increasing day by day

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Meteo-rological Department (PMD)Tuesday forecast scattered rainand thundershower for upperareas of Punjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Balochistan,Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir onWednesday. The prevailingweather system at upper partsof the country will start weak-ening from Wednesday after-noon. The weather will remaindry from Wednesday eveningonward till next three to fourdays across the country.

The maximum tempera-tures recorded during the last 24hours were Islamabad 31 C,Lahore 35 C, Karachi 31 C,Peshawar 32 C, Quetta 22 C,Skardu 20 C, Murree 20 C,Muzaffarabad 30 C, Gilgit 25C, Faisalabad 35 C, Multan 34C and Hyderabad 30 C. Thepollen count recorded inIslamabad was 663 per cubicmeter. The rainfall recordedduring the last 24 hours wasParachinar 67 mm, Quetta 24,Karachi 23, Nokkundi 11,Turbat 10, Kalat and Ormara08, Hyderabad 07, Panjgur 06,Lasbella 05, Khuzdar 04,Astore 03, Rawalpindi 02, Dir,Drosh, Kohat and Peshawar 01

Scattered rain,thundershower likely

mm.The Karachi Met Office has

forecast fair/partly cloudyweather with hazy morning in themetropolis over the next 24hours. It said rain/thunderstormis likely to occur at a few placesin Quetta, Kalat, Nasirabad and

Zhob divisions of Balochistan, atone or two places in Larkana andSukkur divisions of Sindh. It saidthe maximum and minimum tem-peratures are expected to remainin the range of 31 to 33 and 20 to22 degree celsius respectively.The Multan Met office has fore-cast partly cloudy weather withchances of thunderstorm and rainfor the city and its suburbs dur-ing the next 24 hours.

On Tuesday, maximum andminimum temperature was re-corded as 32.3 and 20.5 degreecentigrade respectively. Humiditywas recorded as 67 per cent at 8am and 31 per cent at 5 pm.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—COMSATS In-stitute of Information Technol-ogy (CIIT) held its 51st convo-cation and awarded graduateand post-graduate degrees tomore than 500 successful can-didates, here Tuesday. Studentssecured BS degrees in disci-plines of Bachelor of Science inBio informatics, Business Ad-ministration, Electrical Engi-neering and Architecture.

PhD degrees were awardedto 5 students in disciplines ofPhysics,8 in Mathematics,1 inBio Sciences and 2 in Manage-ment Sciences. Federal Minis-ter for science and TechnologyDr. Sania Nishtar was the chiefguest, who awarded degrees andmedals to successful candidates.Rector CIIT Dr. S.M. JunaidZaidi (SI) addressed the gath-ering and said that knowledgeacquirement and higher educa-tion are transforming virtuallyevery aspect of today’s world.IT institutions have been trustedto be the centre stage ofacademia. These institutionshave the mandate to evolve aknowledge based socio-eco-nomic culture in the country tohelp the nation to face the mod-ern challenges of Globalization.

There were more than 550students, who secured BS de-

COMSATS: Convocation of CIIT, Islamabad Campus

More than 500 successful candidates awarded degrees

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Information Technology, Education and Training, Dr SaniaNishtar awarding Gold Medal to a student at the Convocation of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology.

grees in disciplines of bachelorof Science in Bio informatics,

Biosciences Business Adminis-tration, Electrical (Telecommu-

nication and Computer Engi-neering), Electronics, math-

ematics and Architecture fromIslamabad Campus. PhD de-

grees were awarded to 05 stu-dents in disciplines of Physics,

08 in Mathematics, 01 in BioSciences and 02 in Management

Sciences. On the occasionChancellor’s, Institute and Cam-

pus Medals were also awardedto position holding students

from Islamabad campus of CIIT,Graduate and post graduate stu-dents bagged Campus medals,Institute medals andChancellor’s Gold medals withhighest 3.3- 3.89 CGPA in theirrespective disciplines.

Dr. Sania Nashtar, Federalminister of Science and Technol-ogy, Minister of InformationTechnology, Minister of Educa-tion and Training and ChancellorCIIT was the Chief Guest on theoccasion, awarded degrees andmedals to successful students. Sheaddressed the gathering and appre-ciated the efforts of CIIT faculty,faculty, Management and vision-ary leadership. She said that CIIT,recognizing its duties, is commit-ted to provide the best opportuni-ties for learning and personal de-velopment within a caring andsupportive environment.

The medalists included AsadJaved, Muhammad Saad Nawaz,Sarhad Manzoor, Fareeha Amjad,Tayyaba Zaheer, Naimah TehreemQazi, Sidra Asdiq, Nayab Kiran,Faria Hassan, Sehrish Kanwal,Irum Javaid Siddiqui, MahaAleem, Saima Noureen, BushraMumtaz, Hafsah Riaz, BushraResham, Muhammad Arsalan,Muhammad Jehangir Khan,Muhammad Haseeb, Inam Ullah,Hafiza Maryam Aslam, Syed ZainAbbas and Maryam Mubarak forfall 2012.

HYDERABAD—At least tenpassengers including fourwomen lost their lives and 14others received injuries when anair-conditioned coach collidedwith a long vehicle on IndusHighway at village DaadShaheed near Aliabad town,here on Tuesday. According toEdhi Welfare Centre, the acci-

dent took place at around 04.00hours when the driver ofLarkana bound air-conditionedcoach lost control over the steer-ing and it collided with a longchassis truck coming from op-posite direction at village DaadShaheed.

As a result of collision, tenpersons including four women

received critical injuries and losttheir lives before they could getany first- aid while 14 others wereleft injured. Three out of the 10deceased persons have been iden-tified as Shamshad Begum,Zubeda and Arif while the injuredpersons who were shifted toLiaquat University HospitalJamshoro and City Branches have

Man shot wife dead, commits suicide

Collision kills 10, injures 14 on Indus Highwaybeen identified as MuhammadArif, Saeed, Liaquat, MuhammadDin, Muhammad Saleem,Imamuddin, Muhsin, Akhtar, Asif,Shakeel, Sajid Ali, Barkat Ali,Punhu Khan and Bayam.

The bodies of the deceasedwere shifted to the mortuary ofLiaquat University HospitalCity Branch for identification

and medico legal formalities, thevolunteers of Edhi Welfare Cen-tre informed.

Khanewal—A man com-mitted suicide after killing hiswife over a family dispute hereat Dingyan Pullan in limits ofKuhna police station on Tues-day. According to police, RabNawaz (27) of Dingyan Pullan

had a dispute with his wife oversome family issues and his wifeHaseena Bibi was living withher parents. The accused askedher to come back but she re-fused. On Tuesday, he shot herdead and commited suicide byshooting himself . Kuhna policetook the bodies into custody andstarted investigation.—APP

Treason case: LetPakistan move forwardFORMER President Pervez Musharraf’s decision to return to the

country to take part in the elections is being viewed in differentways by different analysts and commentators. Some of them be-

lieve that the kind of hostile atmosphere that the former ruler has discov-ered on his home coming must have disappointed him. Others, however,believe that the former President would not have taken a plunge into thedark without getting some local and foreign guarantees and therefore,nothing is going to happen in concrete terms.

In this backdrop, begin the proceedings of high treason case againstretired General Pervez Musharraf for imposing state of emergency in2007 on five identical petitions. His party – APML – has already de-clared that Musharraf would not appear before the court in person be-cause of security concerns and that a team of lawyers would defend hiscase in the apex court. Without commenting on nature of the case, as thematter is subjudice, it doesn’t seem to be a plausible option to go for thishigh profile case at a time when general elections are just a month awayas this would unnecessarily distract attention from holding elections toensure peaceful, smooth and timely transition to the next elected Gov-ernment. It is, perhaps, in this backdrop that Information Minister ArifNizami, told newsmen in Lahore on Monday, that Musharraf should begiven space to contest elections and that the caretaker Government wouldnot indulge in issues like Mush case. This is also a message that institu-tion and continuation of high treason proceedings would not be possiblein the given environment and that there are powerful players involved.This perception is strengthened by treacherous silence adopted by PML-N and even like of Talal Bugti, who have previously been vociferouslybeen demanding bringing the former President to book for violating theConstitution and in the murder case of Nawab Akbar Bugti. Musharraf isnot only one of the former Army Chiefs, who are well taken care of bytheir colleagues in uniform, but also a President of the country well con-nected outside the country. Therefore, an extreme action against him canpush the system towards a complicated scenario. The judiciary, the care-takers, the public opinion and above all ECP should see to it that there islevel playing field for all parties and that there is no bias or favour to-wards some parties as is the case at the moment.

School premisesunder influentials

IT is a pity that despite awareness among people and raising of the issuerepeatedly by national media, the problem of ghost schools is still haunt-

ing the nation as a large number of such institutions exist in differentparts of the country. The Supreme Court, which is hearing the case on thesubject, was told on Monday that still 266 schools in Punjab were underoccupation of influential people.

This is really unfortunate that abhorring ghost schools should stillexist in this era of social revolution where things are changing at a fastpace for the better. Judiciary is active and public opinion is so strongthat two former Prime Minister have been debarred from contestinggeneral elections and many of the fake degree holders sent behind bars.This shows penchant for rule of law but existence of ghost schools andthat too, as reports suggest, in thousands in almost all provinces espe-cially Sindh and South Punjab, shows collusion between officials con-cerned and influential people who are either blocking the way of mak-ing schools operational in their areas because of their petty personalagenda or are misusing official buildings as cattle pens. This situationis unacceptable in a country where literacy rate is dismal and millionsof students are either out of schools or drop out during course of stud-ies. The Federal and Provincial Governments are already spending verylittle on education and whatever is being spent must not be allowed togo waste. It is time that a full scale and ruthless operation is launchedto identify and eliminate each and every ghost school.

Look, how Tirahmilitants are entrenchedA DECISIVE operation is underway in Tirah Valley against militants

who are well entrenched at the mountaintops and planning and car-rying out terrorist activities from their safe havens in different parts ofKhyber-Pakhtunkhwa particularly in Peshawar. Heavy fighting whichstarted on Friday has left thirty soldiers and over 100 militants dead asthe security forces attempted to wrestle control of the remote mountain-ous valley from Taliban and their allies.

The army launched its offensive in Tirah Valley, located in KhyberAgency, after weeks of fighting between rival militant groups forcedmore than 40, 000 civilians to flee the area. According to reports theoperation was planned for many months after authorities felt that mili-tants were consolidating their positions there and that an offensive wasneeded to root them out. Though exact number of heavily armed mili-tants in the area is not known, yet Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) and Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) have their strong presence. Tirah Valley had remainedthe strong hold of militants since the insurgency started after the USinvasion of Afghanistan. Since its deployment army has cleared manystrongholds of Taliban but they return under civilian disguise after some-time. It is a fact that they are funded and armed by foreign forces as theweapons recovered from their custody are of foreign origin. Also theycannot persist with their activities for a long time unless and until theyhave sources of supplies. However the armed forces backed by the na-tion have the resilience and capacity to sort out such problems. Wewould suggest that once Tirah Valley is cleared of the heavily entrenchedmilitants and normalcy is restored, the army and the FATA administra-tion should ensure that adequate security measures were in place sothat the militancy could not raise its ugly head again.

Indian elections & Muslim community

Whenever books areburned men also inthe end are burned.

Washington’swise move

War hysteria looms at largefrom the Pacific to theAtlantic. Nonetheless,

the Pentagon’s decision to postponeits scheduled test of an interconti-nental ballistic missile is a wisemove. This has come at a timewhen North Korea has threatenedthe United States and its ally, SouthKorea, of an all out war in case ofany provocation. Pyongyang hadupped the ante since the UnitedNations slapped it with fresh sanc-tions in the wake of its third nucleartest conducted in the month of Feb-ruary. The timely delay in stallingthe shooting of Minuteman-3 mis-sile from the US is likely to createthe right aura for kick-starting talks,and it is incumbent upon the com-munist state to reciprocate by low-ering its guard.

Notwithstanding the uneasycalm that has prevailed across thePacific Rim, the region and theworld at large could burst into aconflict. The probability of a full-blown war is still in the air, and con-secutive diplomatic and militarysteps have acted as litmus in wors-ening the geo-strategic equation.That includes the political-cum-military deal signed between Seouland Washington, in which the lat-ter agreed to send in its missiles andmen crashing across the Armisticeline into the Stalinist state — evenin case of a slight provocation. Thisis too deadly an equation to be ig-nored, and it has propelled NorthKorea to indulge in a series of re-actionary steps. Though the US andthe South Korean officials havesought to play down fears of a con-flict on the Korean peninsula inrecent days, the uneasiness in dip-lomatic activity in world capitalsand the mobilisation of militarygear is testimony to the fact that allis not well in the region.

China along with the good of-fices of Asean countries can extenda diplomatic umbrella of aid andassistance, thus guaranteeing theimpoverished North Korea to re-turn from the brink. Only an activegeo-economic policy could con-vince the leadership in Pyongyangto desist from militarism in theregion, as it could pay it with divi-dends in the form of opening upof its society and instant interna-tional acknowledgment. It is agood omen that despite threatsfrom the regime in Pyongyang,none of the foreign missions haveplanned to move out, and theirpresence inside the rogue capitalcould act as a deterrent in retain-ing peace and security in the re-gion.—Khaleej Times

*****

A disaster forNATO in

Afghanistan

The killing of at least 10 children by Nato in an air attackin eastern Afghanistan is a di-

saster for the international forcesand the government of Afghanistan.The continuing deaths of civilianshas become a major issue that Af-ghan and Nato forces have failedto deal with effectively. Publicopinion has naturally become in-flamed to the point that popularresentment of Nato and Afghanforces has increased dramatically.This has meant that the politicalimpact of civilian deaths hasgreatly outweighed any militaryadvantage that may be accrued byattacking sites where civiliansmaybe present.

The details of what happenedthis week are still emerging, but itis clear that a joint Nato-Afghan pa-trol was in the troubled Shigal dis-trict of Kunar province, which bor-ders the far northern district ofChitral in Pakistan, where theTaliban have safe havens. The pa-trol was attacked and, during an 18-hour battle, coalition forces calledin air support, which destroyed sev-eral buildings including a house.Afghan authorities said a seniorTaliban commander was in thehouse and that Nato-Afghan forceswere not aware of the presence ofwomen and children since theyclaimed they came under fire fromthe house. President Hamid Karzaihas tried to use the natural popu-lar anger over the killings by ban-ning Afghan forces from callingin air strikes and condemning theuse of unmanned drones to attacktargets, which may have civilianpresence.—Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

Heinrich Heine—German poet

No doubt, the Bhartiya JanataParty is less rhetorical thanbefore in its references to

Muslims. There can be two reasonsfor this. One, the party has its eyesfixed on the scenario after the par-liamentary elections in early 2014.It would need the support of secu-lar parties to have a majority in theLok Sabha, the lower house. Anyadverse remark against the Mus-lims may cost the party and endan-ger its chances of constituting a vi-able coalition.

Two, the BJP feels that it canafford to give the impression of be-ing liberal at a time when softHindutva has engripped even theleftist parties. The Congress is seensteadily losing its secular creden-tials in the past few years despitethe fact that Muslims, by and large,voted in favour of Congress. Butthe biggest dilemma facing theMuslim community today is whoamong all parties is liberal. Theradicalization of the community isnot the answer, as it is happening.This would be used as an evidenceto stigmatize the community. Mus-lim terrorism has no chance againstHindu terrorism simply because ofthe numbers.

I realize that some Muslimsout of desperation have taken toviolence. But this is the pathHindu militant organizations likethe Bajrang Dal, Ram Sena andVishwa Hindu Parishad want thecommunity to take. The guilt of

BD insurgency’s footprints

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Sunday Magazine

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Sheikh Mujibur Rahman hadnurtured the dream of independent Bengal from early

days. He and his henchmen got intouch with Indian intelligence agen-cies and during one of the meetingsin Agartala in November 1963, fi-nalized the plan to detach East Pa-kistan from rest of Pakistan. Underthe garb of remedying political andeconomic grievances of East Paki-stan, he formulated six points for-mula and fanned Bengali national-ism. Unearthing of Agartala con-spiracy case in 1968 turned the se-cessionist into a hero in the eyes ofBengalis. Indian media was instru-mental in lionizing Mujib.

Breakup of One-Unit Scheme,one-man-one-vote and change ofseparate electorate to joint elector-ate by Gen Yahya Khan so as toappease the agitating Bengalisgave the Awami League (AL) elec-toral victory in a platter. Year-longelection campaign allowed Mujibto use high-handed tactics to notonly intimidate the people of EastPakistan but also inflame Bengalinationalism. Indian media andsecular Bengali intellectuals pre-sented West Pakistan as a villainand publicized Mujib’s six pointprogram as a panacea for all theproblems of East Pakistan, whichin actuality amounted to secession.All criminal and illegal acts of ALthugs were ignored under thepolicy of appeasement.

After sweeping the electionsthrough massive rigging, Mujiband his henchmen became more ar-rogant and uncompromising. Theystubbornly maintained that newconstitution will be framed strictly

these organisations hasbeen proved from the bombblasts at Malegaon, Ajmerand Hyderabad. Initially,the suspicion was on Mus-lims—as is the police prac-tice—and the Muslim youth

was picked up. At Hyderabad, theywere beaten by the police. But a de-tailed investigation revealed aHindu hand.

In fact, the random arrests ofMuslim youth are the biggest worryof the community. A delegation, in-cluding Hindus, has met Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh to seek rem-edy. His promise to take action haslessened the number of Muslimyouth’s detention, but the commu-nity is far from satisfied. Many Mus-lim young men are still rotting in jail,awaiting their cases to be posted forhearing. Worst is the loss of theiryears which could have been utilizedin pursuing higher studies or doingsome useful work.

Had there been accountability,such chauvinist deeds by the policewould not have taken place. Youngmen have been released when lawcourts have found that there is noevidence against them. Who madethe mistake? Who is responsible forillegal arrests? He should be pun-ished if the impression that the Mus-lim youth was picked up without anyrhyme or reason is to be removed.

I am more worried about the in-creasing distance between Hindusand Muslims. True, they have nosocial contact with one another. Butthe give-and-take attitude is lan-guishing. The only redeeming fac-tor is that there has been no majorriot after the Gujarat carnage. Thisdoes not mean that the country hasmanaged to curb communalism.

Assam is a recent example. I wasrecently in Kerala. I found even theleftists contaminated. This is onestate where Christians are spreadingtheir arms as the Hindus and Mus-lims are doing at the expense ofamity. Strange, the best of economicideology fails when the feeling of

religious superiority takes over. Inour backyard, Uttar Pradesh, smallcommunal riots have taken place inhundreds. The media has not giventhem any publicity. In fact, it doesnot talk about communal riots un-less they are really big ones. On one

hand is the example of Delhi wherestudents of all castes and religionscame together to protest against thegang rape of a 23-year-old girl andshowed that when it was the ques-tion of resisting tyranny, all weretogether. On the other, a processionthrough a “wrong” route brings outswords from sheaths. I really be-lieved, like the Congress leadersAbul Kalam Azad and Khan AbdulGaffar Khan, that communalismwas the creation of the British andit would go after they had quit. ButI have been proved wrong. Thesame type of madness which I sawbefore partition is just below thesurface even now. The political par-ties bring that frenzy to the fore ifand when they find it advantageousto them in elections or some otheroccasions. Even after 65 years ofindependence, secularism has nottaken roots. What it boils down tois that the spirit of accommodationis drying up. One way to give secu-larism a chance is to punish thosewho in any way harm it. The de-structors of the Babri masjid are yetto be punished. In the same way,Modi has not been touched for thekilling of 3000 Muslims. Instead,he is elevated in the party.

I have this uncomfortable feel-ing that communalism is getting le-gitimacy. More and more peopleare turning fanatics. Even the po-lice or the other security forces havenot escaped contamination. Littledo they realise that democracy hasno meaning if pluralism is not there.Hatred and bias have to be elimi-nated from body politics, if democ-racy has to survive.—The writer is a veteran Indianjournalist, syndicated columnist,human rights activist and author.

in accordance with six pointsand refused to accommodateviewpoint of second largestparty PPP. The situation be-came uncontrollable inDacca on 1 March afterYahya unwisely postponed

inaugural session scheduled inDacca on 3 March on the insistenceof Bhutto and hawkish Generals. Itsparked horrible conflagration andlet loose genie of Bengali national-ism. A state within state was createdand Bengalis took orders fromMujib only. Everywhere the chant-ing of ‘Joi Bangla’ could be heard.New Bangladesh flag was hoisted.Mujib’s hostile tantrums amountedto virtual independence. In order toprovoke Gen Yahya to use force andthus give an excuse to start a popu-lar civil war aided by India, aplanned massacre of non-Bengalisincluding Biharis and pro-govern-ment Bengalis and rape of West Pa-kistani girls was unleashed. Theirproperties were torched and valu-ables looted.

The madness continued till 25March filling the roads and streetsof Dacca and other major towns withblood. Stench of the dead bodies lit-tered on the roads unattended be-came unbearable and it became dif-ficult to breathe. Over 100,000people, mostly Biharis were hackedto death. Stories of ‘torture to death’are too horrifying and blood curdlingto narrate and have been narrated inhundreds of books.

Our media was blanked on theill-conceived ground that broadcast-ing of atrocities would evoke a se-vere backlash against Bengalis inWest Pakistan. The biased westernmedia team located in Dacca turneda blind eye to the carnage of non-Bengalis. It also turned a blind eyeto India’s meddling and induction of90,000 Indian soldiers in West Ben-gal in March 1971. The troops con-fined to barracks kept hearing the

savageries committed on men inuniform and their families with im-potent rage. Attacks on Army pick-ets were stepped up and the Armyjeered at. Soldiers were spat uponand called Yahya dogs.

Sizeable number of men inKhaki and their families particularlythose serving in East Pakistan Rifles(EPR) and East Pakistan CivilArmed Forces were hacked to death.By such acts, the Army was beingdeliberately provoked to lose pa-tience and to take punitive action.This would have given Mujib andhis henchmen a weapon to whip upanti-Army emotions thereby dub-bing the Army as an occupationArmy. It would have paved the wayfor civil war thereby fulfilling therequirement of India. Yahya’s re-gime was subjected to extreme criti-cism for its procrastinating attitudeand its passivity to confront Bengalidefiance against the state. All thosewho mattered in West Pakistan andpro-Pakistan Bengalis exerted ex-treme pressure on President Yahyato take punitive action against thedissidents. Even Bhutto prodded himto use full force regardless of casu-alties before it was too late.

It was on the evening of 24March 1971 when Yahya got con-vinced that Mujib didn’t want any-thing short of confederation that hegave green signal to Gen Tikka Khanto save the federation. Orders to unitcommanders were passed verballyon the morning of 25th March. Thetoughest challenge was in Daccawhere the outcome of crackdownwould have decided the fate of EastPakistan. The city and its suburbshoused heaviest concentration ofarmed rebels followed byChittagong. As per foreign press re-ports, there were 200,000 weaponswith the militants in East Pakistan.

Despite extremely heavy odds,the troops numbering 12000 wentinto action and by early morning of

26th, Dacca was cleared of miscre-ants and in next few days all othercritical towns were also taken oversince the rebels had fled. Rein-forcement from West Pakistan wererushed in only when it was foundthat EBR, EPR and Police had alsorebelled and rebellion had gottransformed into a well-plannedcivil war supported by India.

When the prejudiced foreignjournalists were ousted from Daccaby Gen Tikka, the jilted journalistsgot settled in Calcutta and playedinto the hands of Indian media.Indo-western-AL media cooked upfabricated stories of all kinds ofatrocities and quoted highly bloatedfigures of those killed in Army ac-tion on 25th March and subse-quently. It is ironic that today theAL led government at the behestof India is demanding apologyfrom Pakistan for the so-called warcrimes, and is convicting agedJamaat-e-Islami members throughKangaroo courts, who had playedtheir honorable part to save theirmotherland, but is completely ig-noring the barbarities of its ownmembers against Biharis and WestPakistanis and their collaborationwith hostile India.

Can we notice the footprints ofIndia in Balochistan and in Karachiwhere quite a few similarities withformer East Pakistan crisis can bediscerned? Are we alive to the twobrewing lavas which are primed toburst? The only thing which prob-ably has frustrated the designs ofour adversaries is that the Armykept itself aloof. Hence the storyof ‘genocide’ couldn’t be played.‘Missing persons’ story played upin Balochistan didn’t prove so tan-talizing to evoke an internationaloutcry, particularly when groundchecks negated the stance of pro-pagandists.—The writer is a retired Brig, adefence analyst and a columnist.

Kuldip NayarEmail:kuldipnayar09@gmail.com

Asif Haroon RajaEmail: asifharoon7751@yahoo.com

I realize thatsome Muslims out

of desperation havetaken to violence.But this is the path

Hindu militantorganizations likethe Bajrang Dal,Ram Sena andVishwa Hindu

Parishad want thecommunity to take.The guilt of theseorganisations hasbeen proved fromthe bomb blasts atMalegaon, Ajmerand Hyderabad.

Initially, thesuspicion was on

Muslims—as is thepolice practice—and

the Muslim youthwas picked up.

Voice of the People

Election does not mean juststamping a piece of paper andthrusting it into the ballot box;

election means far more. Since veryafter the creation of Pakistan, the poli-ticians have been raising a great hueand cry that military dictators neverlet them do their work independentlythat is why they had never been ableto deliver what was expected fromthem. But in the last five years thesituation remained altogether differ-ent. The army remained all aloof fromthe political affairs and the politicalparties remained at liberty through-out the tenure.

Some people say that the creditgoes to the Army Chief GeneralKiyani while others are of the opin-ion that army as an institution wasnot in favour of repeating the experi-ence of derailing the train of democ-racy; though during all those fiveyears, it happened so many times that‘democracy stricken’ people gaveSOS signal to the army. Now theball is in the court of the people ofPakistan. The 11th of May, 2013would be a day when they would befree to paint their tomorrow with thecolours of their own choice. Twothings are very important in this re-gard; the first one is that on the Elec-

See you on election day

Hurdles inHEC’s wayQARINA MEHMOOB

No doubt, universities or otherhigher education institutions play anextraordinary role in the socioeco-nomic development of any country.Pakistan has already the lowest rateof spending on higher education inSouth Asia. The Higher EducationCommission is the only institutionwhich plays a key role in themodernisation of the existing setupof the public and private educationsectors of Pakistan. It is feared insome academic quarters that themode of payment to the HEC hasbeen complicated by diverting it tothe ministry of education as per thecabinet division’s decision notifiedon Feb 22, thus the chance of latepayment to the HEC causes delaysin all aspects, inclusive of a veryserious issue of stipends payment toPhD scholars studying abroad.

The HEC is the only institutionwhich works for impartingtrainings of university scholars andputs a check on university facul-ties to improve their professionalperformance. The HEC has a na-tional task to enhance and createnew avenues of higher education.Any bureaucratic hurdle may affectthe overall performance of thisprestigious institution.—Via email

No hopeARSHMAN NASEER

Pakistan’s economic woes reachedtheir peak under Zardari’s five yearsof what was supposed to be a demo-cratic government. Domestic andforeign debt has more than doubledduring the past five years, while thecrippling energy crisis has strangu-lated industry and rendered millionsjobless. The various daylight robber-ies or scams could not have been ac-complished without the connivanceof top civil bureaucrats and techno-crats of this country. As for anyhopes of human resource develop-ment plans, they have been dashedby appointing unqualified retiredkhakis or cronies.

Our diplomatic isolation anddeficit in export/imports will con-tinue as long as positions at key em-bassies are filled with political ap-pointees. No wonder the CDA chair-man who resisted alloting plots tobaboos was removed, because ourcivilian and khaki establishmentwould not have allowed such a pre-cedent to be set in a country wherenational security is at risk if real es-tate allotments are not facilitated, butnot when terrorists are free to enterand wreak havoc on the country.—Karachi

Sellingour future

HAFIZ SHOIB ATTARI

Every political party in the countryis all set, manifesto in hand, to con-test in the coming elections. Is it fairto contest – and win – elections bymaking false promises to innocentpeople and by buying voters?

There are already rumours of in-dividual candidates trying to buyvotes – for a mere five grand! Sowe will sell our five-year future justfor five thousand rupees? And thenwe say we want peace and harmony.—Karachi

What’s thereto celebrate?

M FAZAL ELAHI

What is there to celebrate except thatthe ostensibly democratic govern-ment, for the first time in the his-tory of this country, has completedits five-year term? Rest has beennothing but half a decade of mess inalmost every area of governance.Without any ambiguity completionof its five-year tenure is a landmarkachievement for the preceding gov-ernment and having done so it hasreceived appreciation from a cross-section of people and powers thatmatter within the country. Evensome democratic governments ofthe West such as the United States,Great Britain etc. eulogized this

Ghost employeesASADULLAH LASHARI

Much of the media attention on corruption tends to be personal, focusing on the crimes and misdemeanors of specific individuals while forgetting that the biggest corruption problem Pakistan

faces today is systemic. An inquiry conducted in Punjab by the collector sector of Accounts found thatthe Punjab Accountant General made salary payments to talling Rs. 39 billion in last financial year thatwent to “Ghost” employees who exist only on paper. Payments were made using fake ID card numbersor the IDs of deceased persons. This allows government workers to draw double pay or give politically-connected individuals a salary for which they have not worked. The existence of ghost employees blocksjob opportunities for deserving people. On paper, when the government already seems so overstaffed, itwill be reluctant to hire more people, even though many of the employees exist only on paper. Workingfor government departments is the chief employment opportunity for the lower middle class and this isbeing stymied by ghost employees. It is time rotten practice of paying “ghost” employees is rooted out.—Karachi

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

are requested to typetheir letters legibly withdouble spacing and only onone side of the paper.

—Editor

positive development and declared itas a good omen for democracy in Pa-kistan.

The question that, however,arises is can the past government becategorized as a successful demo-cratic government just because itcompleted its prescribed term? No,it cannot. It is a universal fact thatsuccess or failure of any governmentis reflected in its good or bad gover-nance for which people vote themto the citadel of power. If looked atfrom the point of view of this defi-nition, very little could be listed aspositive that the previous govern-ment has done for the well being ofthis nation. Had it worked whole-heartedly and sincerely for the ben-efit of this country and its people itwould have had all the justificationin the world to celebrate its successin a befitting manner. Unfortunately,however, the situation has been ab-solutely contrary to this.

Today’s Pakistan has become acountry where corruption is rampant,law and order has gone haywire, thestate has bitterly failed to provide itspeople the basic amenities of life likefood, clothing, shelter, education andhealth, the state has completely failedto provide security to its people, theeconomy is on the verge of total col-lapse, galloping inflation is ruthlesslycutting through the purse of peoplebelonging to every stratum of the so-ciety, massive flight of both humanand financial capital has become theorder of the day, human rights arebeing blatantly violated, the rule oflaw is being audaciously desecratedby those at the helm, the downtrod-den masses are becoming poorer andthe opulent rulers of the country arebecoming richer by the day. In short,all that should not have happened isbrazenly happening in this country to-day. The picture is not optimistic atall. It is, in fact, gloomy and ex-tremely disappointing.—Islamabad

An encouragingstep

ARSHMAN NASEER

Kudos to the ECP and the CJ forsending fake-degree holders to jail!This step will hopefully pave the wayfor our talented and well-deservingyouth to find place in politics andgovernment institutions. These posi-tions are currently occupied by thenear and dear ones of these corruptpoliticians. The fake-degree checkshould be extended to all departmentsand institutions. Our youth shouldrealise that change is taking placeright before our eyes. The young onesneed to make full use of this time.Imagine: if just two people (the CJand the CEC) can achieve this much,what would a good prime minister beable to manage?—Karachi

Threat toeducationistsASADULLAH LASHARI

Three fatal shots into the upper bodycavity was the “compensation” re-ceived by Ms Shehnaz Ishtiaq, ateacher who dedicated 22 years of herlife to students in the troubled Khyberagency. Her devotion was evidencedby her husband’s statement then whenasked to transfer to a safer location,Mrs. Ishtiaq refused, saying that shewanted to serve only the people ofthat particular area. Now, this head-mistress at community Girls schoolin Shahkas will no longer be able toshop for her brother’s upcoming wed-ding and leaves behind three children.Why would we have expected any-thing different? The security situationin the area is known to anyone. Thetribal areas have been the setting formurders of many civilians, includingaid workers, Mrs Istiaq’s school wasalready once forced to move locationdue to security concerns. Unfortu-nately, security threats followed herand took her life as her 14 years oldson escorted her to school on themorning of march 26.

Hopefully, the security situationimproves before many hopefulyoungsters like Malala and manyteachers like Mrs Ishtiaq are forcedto move out of the country, simplybecause their right to education andtheir right to peruse a career are un-der threat.—Karachi

BJP eyes Muslim vote

The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) finds that many odds arestacked against it as it prepares

itself for the next general elections.Several party members and allies ofits coalition — the National Demo-cratic Alliance (NDA) — have al-ready signaled their opposition toGujarat Chief Minister NarendraModi being nominated as their primeministerial candidate. The BJP campis now divided into two — thosewho favor Modi for the key posi-tion and those who are against him.The anti-Modi group in the partywants senior leader L.K. Advani tobe in prime ministerial race. And thisis just a tip of a complicated dilemmaaffecting the BJP. Also, there is agrowing realization in the party, evenamong its hard-core extremist ele-ments, that the party cannot exploitits communal card any more for par-liamentary elections.

Therefore, the party has del-egated a few of its senior leaders towoo Muslim celebrities to party’sfold, according to some sources. Asa matter of fact, the BJP has someMuslim faces, but their political ap-peal is confined to a just few con-stituencies. Muslim leaders whojoined this party after having beenremoved from the Congress partyare not expected to be of much helpin increasing party’s fortune in par-

liamentary elections. Internally, theBJP views them as “spent bullets.”Also, secular credentials of bothAdvani and Modi are severely dam-aged by their past record.

Both of them are accused of hav-ing promoted communal politics thatalienated the country’s secular andMuslim voters. Advani played a keyrole in raking up the Ayodhya issue,which led to demolition of BabriMasjid at Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh,on Dec. 6, 1992. The demolition wasaccompanied by nation-wide riots.The BJP’s commitment to build atemple at the controversial and dis-puted site in Ayodhya helped it gainpolitically and emerge as an impor-tant national party. However, whenthe party was confronted with theproblem of seeking support of secu-lar parties to lead a coalition gov-ernment at the center, it had no otheroption but to remain silent on thiscommunal issue.

The BJP, which won only twoseats to Lok Sabha in 1984 elections,definitely came a long way in lessthan two decades. Yet, the party wasnot able to form the government onits own strength, because of whichthe first BJP government with AtalBehari Vajpayee as its prime minis-ter lasted only for 13 days (May 16-31, 1996). Subsequently, for a briefperiod, Indian center witnessed in-stability, with non-Congress andnon-BJP parties forming a UnitedFront government. The BJP returnedto power in 1998 and in 1999, not

on its own strength, but with the helpof its allies as part of a wider coali-tion. Not surprisingly, the recentlypassed resolutions of BJP have re-mained silent on Ayodhya issue eventhough some party leaders assert thatthey still remain passionate andproud about their Ayodhya agitation.The party knows that a political com-mitment to Ayodhya issue can costit secular allies in the NDA.

The BJP cannot afford to takethis risk. The BJP is also well awarethat had Gujarat-carnage (2002) nottaken place, the NDA may have re-turned to power in 2004 elections.Modi’s national and secular imagestill stands tainted by the Gujarat car-nage. True, Modi’s success inGujarat assembly elections cannotbe overlooked. However, it cannotbe missed that Gujarat is a two-partybattleground — the BJP and Con-gress — where Muslim votes do notplay a decisive role. Muslims con-stitute less than 10 percent ofGujarat’s population. The picture istotally different at the national stage.Though Muslims form less than 20percent of the country’s population,the importance of their vote has risenbecause of the emergence of numer-ous regional parties. This apparentlyexplains the BJP’s attempt to wooMuslims to its camp. However, it isalso not totally sure of whether thisdrive will help it in parliamentaryelections or not.

The party is, however, wellaware that Gujarat carnage remains

Nilofar Suhrawardy

tion Day, we must not limit our-selves to our homes; in the largerinterest of the country, we willhave to come out and go to thepolling stations. Second impor-tant thing is the right choice of thecandidate we vote for. If we cast

our vote in favour of someone whohad been involved in any kind of moralor financial corruption in the past, itmeans we are supporting, favouringand sheltering his corruption. The useof vote is a very sacred national re-sponsibility and any careless approachand nonsense behaviour regarding thisresponsibility would result in a severenational loss.

For the promotion of democracythe fair, free and transparent electionis compulsory in every democratic so-ciety and same must be the case withPakistan. But unfortunately in Paki-stan, most of the people are not awareof the importance of vote. Accordingto a survey, in spite of the facility ofcasting their votes through postal bal-lot system, most of the governmentservants who are deputed at the poll-ing stations as presiding and pollingofficers on the Election Day, do notuse their right of vote. Sixty percentof the people from the urban areassimply stay at home and enjoy theelection process in the manner theyenjoy a one-day cricket match. It isonly the rural areas where the politi-cians succeed in dragging the votersout of their homes but these votersare never independent in use of theirprecious right of vote. They are al-

Views From Abroad

Facts aboutsolar system

KIRAN ZEHRA

The solar system is around 4.6 bil-lion years old. There are eight majorplanets and over 100 moons in thesolar system. Other objects in thesolar system include dwarf planets,asteroids and comets. Its many bod-ies are visible to the naked eye. Mer-cury, Venus, Earth and Mars are thesmall rocky planets. Jupiter, Saturn,Uranus and Neptune are the gas gi-ants. The sun is by far the largest ob-ject in the solar system.

All the planets orbit the sun inan eliptical, oval shaped path. In thegalaxy, the Solar system is knownas “The Milky Way”. Astronomershave found many other stars in ourgalaxy which have planets orbitingaround them. There are around 200billion stars in the milky way. TheVoyager 1 spacecraft is the furthestman-made object in the solar sys-tem, it is around 11 billion miles (18billion km) from the sun and is stillsending data back to Earth.—Karachi

Kashmir issueHUMNA KHAN

It was heart-wrenching to see signifi-cant figures from a host of arenas,including particularly, politics, aca-demics and media, proposing cordialrelations with India, putting the Kash-mir behind the curtain.

There is no doubt that an ami-cable relationship with India will bearfruition in economic spheres. Indianforces continue to heedlessly violatethe basic human rights of our fellowKashmiris. We need to realise that thepeople of Kashmir are a part of us,and make their loss to our sorrow andtheir triumph to our win. Actually, weare prioritising a better economic out-look over our blood in the north.—Karachi

Inflation inPakistanARIBA KHAN

In Pakistan inflation has become anunending disease to our economy.Once a state is caught in the circle ofinflation then it is difficult for it toget rid of it. This sinister issue of in-flation and its resultant consequenceshave made the survival of commonbut wretched people much harder.This country Pakistan is lagging be-hind deliberately due to many reasonsbut one of them is skyrocketing in-flation of everything around us. Wecannot figure out how much strugglean average person makes to get backin return the basic necessities of lifesuch as food, shelter and clothing. Hehas not given the right to get goodeducation for himself and his family.He is deprived of the common privi-lege of health and security which arebasic things to claim. So unfortu-nately because of this their familiesare forced to promote child labor sothat they can at least survive.

The rise of prices in Pakistan canalso be attribute to the despicable actsof traders. Their only motive is to getmaximum profit. This has created aclass of people who are becoming richerday by day and the other classes arebecoming poorer. One of the most im-portant reasons for inflation is the defi-cit budgeting. In order to cover the gapPakistan has been printing more papercurrency because foreign aid and taxescannot cover up the deficit. Thereforethere will be greater circulation of pa-per money. Wrong taxation policy hasalso been responsible for the rise inprices. The hike in taxes results ingreater desire to avoid taxes. Thus pub-lic takes wrong way of not paying taxesand there will be escalation in prices.Government should downsize the bud-get deficit by cutting administrative ex-penditures and increase in revenues bybroadening the export.—Via email

ways under the pressure of the feu-dal lords, their tribal heads and of thelandowners whose lands they are cul-tivating. It is the responsibility of themedia, the teachers and the religiousscholars to educate them and makethem understand the impact of theirvotes on the future of Pakistan.People must be conveyed the ideathat vote is a national obligation andit should be cast sensibly only infavour of the political parties whichsurely and purely belong to Pakistanand aspire to work only in the inter-est of the country.

The people of Pakistan are luckyenough that under the guidance andcommand of Mr. Fakhruddin GIbrahim, the Election Commission ofPakistan is making all possible rig-orous efforts to hold fair, free andtransparent elections. More fortunateis the fact that the Pakistan Army isproviding resolute support for thecompletion of the electoral process.The provincial caretaker govern-ments are also doing all their bestpossible to keep the electoral processabove board. The impartiality of theElection Commission of Pakistan, theprovincial caretaker governments andthat of the Pakistan Army would pavethe way to fair and transparent elec-tions but all these efforts would gowaste if the voters do not realize theirresponsibility.

It has also been in the media thatsome of the terrorist elements havethreatened to disrupt the electoral pro-cess in Pakistan. According to a re-

cent report published in variousnewspapers, a militant organizationin North Waziristan Agency has dis-tributed a handbill among the localpeople. This handbill has tried toconvince them to reject the demo-cratic process in FATA. The solitaryaim of this propaganda seems tocensure the process of elections inFATA and promote an atmosphereof mayhem and chaos. It seems thatthe leaders of the militant organi-zations are frightened of demo-cratically elected people whowould become a challenge andthreat to their authority and su-premacy. Moreover some of theforeign diplomats are also tryingto influence this process of electionby paying regular visits to the hi-ups of various political parties.

Such foreign diplomats are con-stantly in contact with the politicalleaders who have authority of allo-cating party-tickets to different can-didates. We as a nation must beaware of all such conspirators whoare doing all their possible effortsto mar the election process and in-tend to create problems for us in thenear future. Democracy is the onlysolution to the problem of extrem-ism and terrorism. We will have tojoin hands together to crush theforces which are eager to derail theprocess of democracy in Pakistan.The most important thing to be re-membered is that our silence on theElection Day would not be lessthan a severe crime.

a major obstacle to secular allies ac-cepting Modi as party’s prime min-isterial nominee. It is as yet tooearly to black out Gujarat carnagefrom Modi’s political record. Tokeep this dark chapter away fromthe public debate, the BJP is goingoverboard in publicizing develop-ment of Gujarat with Modi as thestate chief minister. Yet, even thishype is now being punctured byvarious questions raised on the le-gitimacy of claims being madeabout Gujarat’s development. Be-sides, even if the developmentclaim stands true even to a certaindegree, the anti-Modi front does notlike him to be a prime ministerialcandidate. It does not want Gujaratcarnage to be repeated elsewherein the country. There are also ele-ments within the BJP who are waryof Modi’s authoritarian attitude.They are apprehensive that Modi’sstyle of politics may reduce theirown importance within the party.The BJP is thus faced with a majordilemma. Modi is not as acceptablewithin the party and by its “secu-lar” allies as it was earlier believedwhile Advani and his camp have notyet given up hopes.

Amid all this, the party realizesthat prospects of it returning topower without support of Muslimvotes and “secular” parties are prac-tically non-existent. Against thisbackdrop, the billion-dollar politi-cal question confronting the BJP ishow to win over Muslim

US and North Korea tussle

North Korea and the UnitedStates are on the brink of warfollowing the former’s threat

to launch an attack over the U.S. Thethreats come after the U.S. and SouthKorea began their military exercisesin March, which North Korea viewedit as an action by the U.S. to imposeits hegemony over North Korea.

The military drills were not theonly reason that fuelled to animositybetween the U.S. and North Korea.On February 12, North Korea con-ducted an underground nuclear testthat shook the international commu-nity. It was only after North Korea’srogue behaviour that South Korea in-creased its military status to avert anypossible aggression coming fromacross the border. Coincidentally, itwas during this period that the U.S.and South Korea began their jointmilitary training. According to SouthKorea’s defense ministry, NorthKorea’s nuclear test, the third in sevenyears, surpassed a blast of 6–7 kilo-tons. In addition, the North has vio-lated orders of the UN and China’ssuggestion for not taking such a step.

Albeit the test poses a directthreat to the world and the SoutheastAsian region, it also places NorthKorea in a position to intimidate theWest. Pyongyang is tussling againstWashington over the influence andcommanding stance that the U.S. isholding over North Korea.Pyongyang wants to sign a peacetreaty, assure security guarantees and

wants the U.S. to remove 28,500 ofits troops stationed in South Korea.

North Korea’s supreme leader,Kim Jong-un views the US-SouthKorea military exercises as ground-work for a possible U.S. invasion.Following the nuclear tests, the UNhas also imposed sanctions overNorth Korea, which Pyongyang be-lieves is Washington’s strategy totopple Jong-un’s government. Iflooking into Washington’s eyes wasnot enough, North Korea also threat-ened South Korea of a nuclear warfollowing the cancellation of all non-aggression pacts. South Korea is notbending its knees in what the inter-national community views as a boldmove under the tenure of PresidentPark Geun-hye, the country’s firstwoman President, who took chargeon February 25. In a stern warning,South Korea’s Defence Ministry saidthat it would evaporate North Koreafrom the face of the Earth if it everused a nuclear weapon.

North Korea is either playing itscards well or making an unwise moveby planning to engage with bothSouth Korea and the U.S. in battle.The U.S. foreign office believes thatNorth Korea is only good at fightingwith words and that such treat, donot pose a real danger. However,Washington is following a counter-offensive strategy to ward off anyimminent danger coming fromNorth Korea. Even with a NorthKorea-U.S. war out of the question,the North can launch an attack overthe South for the former has a di-verse collection of missiles and otherweapons capable of striking SouthKorea. Pyongyang declared a state of

war against Seoul a few days afterthe South Korea-US military exer-cises began. Where the U.S. took se-rious notice of the issue, South Ko-rea ignored the threat by saying thatit was North’s old habit of spreadinghollow fears.

The two Korean nations have along history of animosity that datesback to the Korean War (1950-53).Although the Korean War ended in1953, it never concluded on a formalnote, as it was a ceasefire signed withthe U.S. known as the Korean Armi-stice Agreement. Following the US-South Korea military training, NorthKorea has cancelled the agreement.Furthermore, Pyongyang has cut allhotlines with South Korea, the UN,and the U.S. The North Korean ag-gression over South and the U.S.are shades of the Cold War as theKorean War was one of the manyconfrontations the U.S. had withRussia had during that era. How-ever, in the current scenario, theU.S. will engage in any battle reach-ing out to the Korean Peninsula forit could hurt its economy.

If the nuclear test and threats ofwar have not been enough, North Ko-rea also announced to restart itsnuclear facility, the YongbyonNuclear Scientific Research Center,which was dormant for the past fiveyears. The U.S. Secretary of State,John Kerry was the first to go vocalby saying that the U.S. will not ac-cept North Korea as a nuclear state.North Korea’s nuclear plant includesa uranium enrichment facility thatposes a serious cause of concern forthe U.S. and the Southeast Asian re-gion in particular. The U.S. is already

dealing with Iran over its nuclear re-actor and with North Korea harbor-ing similar intentions, the U.S. maychoose between a negotiation tableand an aggressive strategy to counterany threat gazing at Washingtonfrom Pyongyang.

Moreover, any nuclear activityby North Korea will also affect itsneighbor, China, the North’s solitaryally. Where China is progressing tobecome the world’s top economy, arebellious attitude by North Koreamight divert Beijing’s attention to-wards solving its regional issues.

The UN is also looking for pos-sible solutions to avert any seriousdestruction because of NorthKorea’s aggression. The UN Secre-tary General, Ban Ki-moon, a SouthKorean himself, said that,

The North Korea-US tussle mayhave given US-China relationshipto flourish at a time when Washing-ton is seeking to correct its ties withAsia. The U.S. State Departmentviews the North Korea predicamentas an opportunity for the U.S. andChina to work together for a com-mon solution. Moreover, Washing-ton now has an opportunity to rein-force its policies in the Asian regionas the Middle East preoccupied itsattention for years. While Chinaand the U.S. can solve the conflictsof the Korean Peninsula, Chinamight not want the U.S. to have aphysical presence in the SoutheastAsian region, for it may affectChina’s plans of economic progress.The days to come will be crucial forthe North Korea-US relations.—The writer frequently writes onregional current issues.

Ali Sukhanver Email:alisukhanver@hotmail.com

M Omar IftikharEmail: tweets @omariftikhar

Pak stability, prosperitydear to Saudi leadership

Ambassador Naeem calls on Prince FahadSTAFF REPORTER

TABUK—The Ambassador con-veyed the greetings of the Paki-stani leadership to the Governorof Tabuk which he warmly re-ciprocated. The Governor saidthat Pakistan’s stability andprosperity was very dear andclose to Saudi leadership. Hesaid that Pak-Saudi relationswere of strategic nature and itwas the endeavour of the Saudileadership to further deepenthese ties.

The Ambassador admiredthe hallmark economic stridesmade in Tabuk region especiallyin the fields of agriculture and

education. During the meeting,they also discussed issues ofmutual concern relating to bilat-eral relations between the twobrotherly countries.

The Ambassador appreci-ated the important role of theGovernorate of Tabuk for thewell-being and comfortable stayof Pakistani expatriate workersliving in Tabuk region and addedthat the Embassy of Pakistan hasalways received prompt supportfrom the Governorate at all oc-casions.

The Ambassador discussedwith the Governor issues relat-ing to the Pakistani communityin the Tabuk region including

COURT NOTICE

In the Court of SyedImam Ali Shah, JudgeBanking Court No-II

Gujranwala

Suit No.79/2012Iftikhar Ahmed Colar S/OMuhammad Malak Colar R/O Kote Waris —PlaintiffVersusManager Faysal Bank Ltd —DefendantSummons U/S 9 (5) of theFinancial Institutions (Re-covery of Finances) Ordi-nance; 2001 (OrdinanceNo.XLVI of 2001)Summons to: Manager FaysalBank LTD. G.T Road ZiaPlaza, Branch Gujranwala.WHEREAS the aforesaidplaintiff has instituted a suitagainst you for rendition ofA/C. A Summons u/s 9(5)Ordinance XIVI of 2001 re-ferred to above is hereby is-sued requiring you to makewithin 30 days of the serviceof the Summon, an applica-tion for leave to defend thesuit in the form of writtenstatement U/S 10 of the saidordinance.Take notice that on your fail-ure to file such applicationwithin time specified above,the Banking Court shall passa decree as prayed for in theplaint, in the favour of theplaintiff Banking Company.Next date for further proceed-ings, in the case has beenfixed on 07.05.2013.

Given under my hand andthe seal of the court, this28.03.2013

Seal of the CourtBanking Court II

Gujranwala

COURT NOTICE

In the Court of AssistantCommissar/Collector

Malakwal

Arshad Mehmood Vs Hamid Mehmood etcAplication for Cancellation ofIntaqal.Memo.

Ghulam Mohammad S/oUmar Hayat caste Gondal R/o Sanda Tehsil Malakwal DistMandi bahaudin.

Whereas the services ofabove mentioned respondentsis not possible through ordi-nary means, therefore, he isdirected to attend this courtpersonally or through hiscouncil on 17-4-13. Other-wise the ex party proceedingsshall be taken against him.

Given under my hand andseal of the Court.

Sd/-Assistant Commissar/Collector Malakwal

TABUK: Ambassador of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Naeem Khan called on theGovernor of Tabuk, Prince Fahad bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz in his office on Tuesday.

Islam and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pa-kistan (TTP) since their activitieswere not only created a seriousLaw and Order situation in theregion but was also posing seri-ous threats to the writ of the gov-ernment.

Official and independentsources told Observer that thenumber of miscreants gunneddown during the last four dayshas exceeded well over 100while 23 soldiers including aserving major and a Lieutenantof the Pak Army embraced mar-tyrdom during this period. Whilesome foreign news agencies haveput the casualties on part of thesecurity forces at thirty saying 97militants have been killed theArmy sources ridiculed the same.“We lost 13 troops including twoofficers in four days action”.Military sources said.

The volatile Tiraah valley, itmay be recalled, has been in thegrip of fierce infightings andbloodshed for the last manymonths and in the month of Janu-ary alone fierce clashes betweenthe two-outlawed groups of mili-tants i.e. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pa-kistan (TTP) Lashker-e-Islamand Ansaar ul Islam (said to be apro-government militant group)

Forces consolidatingFrom Page 1

in the valley resulted in killingof more than 110 people.

The fighting between the twomilitant groups infact began inthe remote valley near the Afghanborder when the militants fromTTP reportedly captured the baseof militant group Ansaar ul Islam,who tried to re-take the base lead-ing to the killing of many civil-ians as well. Since then, the se-curity forces have been conduct-ing operation in the region in or-der to purge the area from themiscreants.

A well-placed source in theArmy told this scribe on Tues-day that the security forces wereconducting operation againstmilitants in Akakhel, MaidanBagh and Bar Qambar Khel ar-eas of remote Tiraah valley inKhyber Agency and implyingboth ground and air forcesagainst the militants. “Today ourforces have further consolidatedtheir positions in the troubledvalley and we will soon be ableto clear the area from the mili-tants”. A military source told ob-server.

The locals and the indepen-dent sources said the securityforces were coming hard againstthe trouble makers in those areasand were reinforced by the PAFwar machines. “The gunship he-licopters and jet fighters alsopounded militant’s positions inthe region and inflicted heavylosses on them”. A local said andmaintained that it appears thatAnsaar ul Islam and QuamiRazakaars (volunteers) were ex-tending support to the Armyagainst TTP militants who wereresponsible for the unrest in theregion as they wanted to estab-lish their strong holds in Tiraahvalley.

Spread over 100 kilome-ters, the remote Tiraah valleyholds strategic importance as itborders with three agenciesKhyber, Aurakzai as wellKurram and also closed to PakAfghan border.

Shahbaz Sharif. Being a sup-posed wife of Hamza Shahbaz,a son of PML-N former ChiefMinister Punjab Mian Shahbaz,she could cause perpetual irrita-tion for Hamza Shahbaz. Somepolitical experts believe thatNA-119 would become an inter-esting battle field if the MQMawards party ticket to AyeshaAhad as the political force op-erating from Nine-Zero has themastery over launching propa-ganda drives, especially whenthey have some evidence againsttheir opponent.

Furthermore, MQM is intouch with Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP) central leader andformer Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani for seat adjust-ment for NA-150 Multanwhere MQM nominated candi-date Iftikhar Randhawa is con-testing the election. In return,the MQM would supportGilani’s son Abdul QadirGilani in NA-151.

The MQM had dividedPunjab into three zones — cen-

MQM set to have its tacticalFrom Page 1

tre, south and upper Punjab. Al-though all these three zones arebeing headed by the local lead-ership but reportedly Nine-Zerois still the epicenter of their realpower. MQM chief AltafHussain designated powers toDeputy Convener of MQM DrFarooq Sattar to handle the elec-toral affairs in Punjab but know-ing the weak political links, topMQM leadership avoid visitingPunjab except occasional visitsof Raza Haroon to finalize thelist of aspirants. Although a co-ordination committee compris-ing Saif Yar Khan, KanwarNaveed, Salim Tajik and IftikharRandhawa under the chair ofFarooq Sattar has been consti-tuted but it proved ineffective.

Apparently, MQM leader-ship is of the opinion that win-ning seats in Punjab is not itsstaple objective since they arestill working to spread the ide-ology of MQM in poor andlower middle strata of the prov-ince. Secondly, MQM, amongpolitical party representing Urdu

speaking community, is also tar-geting the “Urdu-speakers” ofPunjab .

It is pertinent to mentionhere that in 2008 elections,MQM had fielded 39 candidatesfrom Punjab with the hope tobag al least one seat but couldnot secure single.Deputy Convener of MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) Dr.Farooq Sattar has said that con-spiracies are being hatchedagainst the spread and popular-ity of the MQM in the Punjabprovince but the other MQMPunjab leaders Dr Shahzad AliShamsi, Waseem Khokhar,Mian Attique, Sarfraz Nawazand Shamshad Jafferi said thatthey had fielded candidatesfrom each district and they arehopeful to get some seats fromPunjab. They said the MQM isthe only political party, whichprovides financial support toits candidates and most of itscandidates in Punjab would getthe election funds from theNine-Zero.

The Prime Minister was toldthat load shedding in urban ar-eas was 10-12 hours whereas inthe rural and far flung areas itextended from 16 to 18 hours. He observed that thoughthe prime responsibility of hisgovernment was to hold generalelections in the country it wasduty of the government to pro-vide relief to the people and en-sure that basic necessities likeelectricity are available to them. The Prime Minister was toldthat power situation which hadplunged two days back is nowimproving which he termed as

Use all at-hand resourcesFrom Page 1

encouraging. He directed the Ministries ofWater and Power, Petroleum ,Interior and Finance to firm upshort term and medium termplans with a view to minimizeload shedding in the country sothat normal routine life is af-fected the least. The Prime Minister directedthe Ministry of Water and Powerto ensure the implementation ofthe plan worked out by the gov-ernment and assure that unin-terrupted fuel is provided to ther-mal Power Plants .The Planshould be implemented in a

manner that minimum loadshedding is required and thatthere is no unannounced loadshedding. The Prime Minister also di-rected that new gas reservoirs beidentified for provision of sup-ply of gas to Thermal PowerPlants to improve generation,fuel mix and reduce cost of elec-tricity. He directed WAPDA to startan urgent drive to recover stuckup recoverables with NAB,KESC and FBR to improve li-quidity and overcome circulardebt issue.

been arrested so far. If he is soinfluential person, he furtherquestioned. . Azam Khan saidour 3 teams had left for SaudiArabia to arrest Ahmad Faiz. Hekept on changing his place de-spite being identified. Evidencesare found but he is not beingfound.

Hussain Asghar gave state-ment of the similar nature. Thecourt remarked Pakistan em-bassy be contacted to arrest him.Hussain Asghar said immunitybeing enjoyed by the formerPrime Minister Syed YousufRaza Gilani is causing delay inthe case. Court remarked “ heremains no more PM, therefore,immunity stays no more withhim and FIA can summon him.—Online

SC: Gilani nomore enjoys

From Page 1

PTI manifestoFrom Page 1

expedition of pending Diyatcases, labour issues, change ofsponsorship and professions.The Governor assured the Am-bassador that he would resolveall those problems includingprovision of medical facilitieson priority basis.

The Ambassador thankedthe Governor for extending sup-port to the Pakistani communityin Tabuk.

Prince Fahad Bin Sultanreassured the Ambassador thathe and his staff at the Gover-norate would always try to re-solve the issues of Pakistanicommunity based in Tabuk onpriority basis.

ISLAMABAD: Lt Gen (R) Asif Yasin Malik, Secretary Defence and Chairman CAA Board,inspecting the New Benazir Bhutto International Airport Project.

people. “We want hearing ofthese applications be adjournedafter the general elections areheld. six weeks time be allowedand hearing be put off till May20 so that all the political mat-ters are accomplished Musharrafrespects judiciary but he hassome reservations with regard tohearing of the case”.

Justice Jawad S Khawaja re-marked “if you have some ob-jection over bench then tell usnow and give legal arguments onthis count. If it is deemed properwe will rescue from the benchand will request the Chief Jus-tice to constitute new bench.Kasuri said Musharraf had re-turned to Pakistan to steer thecountry out of crisis.

He has returned voluntarily.The court said “ don’t grow sen-timental. We have nothing to dowith it why he has come andwhat are his motives.

We only want to ascertainhis stance on the petitions filedagainst him.Ahmad Raza Kasurisaid statement has come fromfederal interior minister thatgovernment has nothing to dowith the hearing of the court.

SC rejects plea to arrest MusharrafFrom Page 1

Notice is served on us at mid-night and how can we makepreparations of the case so hur-riedly. Copies of the petitionshave not been provided to us.When I was member of parlia-ment you would then be studentof college or school.

Justice Jawad S Khawaja re-marked “ we don’t want to getinto the matter where did you goand where not. We are ready togive you appropriate time but wecannot allow you 6 weeks time.Kasuri said “ for what so muchhaste is there. This is not a sa-cred case.

Justice Jawad S Khawaja re-marked matter is running since2009 and even then you are de-scribing it hasty. Kusuri said “if you open this case thenPandora box will stand open andbig names will come in this case.Name of the sitting army chiefwill also come and the matterwill go too far beyond

Justice Jawad S Khawaja re-marked “ if matter goes too farbeyond then let it go. We don’tcare for it. What was not donewith the people behind thescene? Commission upon com-

missions were constituted and ifthe names of those who are be-hind the curtain come then letthem come.

Justice Khilji Arif Hussainremarked “ such time comeswhen the people resolve thatnothing ultra constitutional willbe allowed to take place.

This time has come now.You had proceeded to East Pa-kistan. What had happenedthere? Have you forgotten thehistory? Come what may no stepbeyond law and constitution isacceptable now. Country re-mained in the grip of martiallaw for 64 years. People werenot given access to corridors ofpower. Now every thing willtake place in keeping with lawand constitution. No one will beallowed to ambush on the coun-try. Country can not afford moreexperiments now”.

The court rejected the pleaseeking adjournment of hearingtill May, 20 and sought reply on5 petitions till April, 15. It alsorejected the plea for arrestingPervez Musharraf. The hearingof the case was adjourned tillApril, 15.—INP/Online

Defence Secyreviews progress

at new airportSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Defence Secre-tary and Chairman Civil AviationAuthority (CAA) Board of Di-rectors (BOD) Lt. General (Retd)Asif Yasin Malik on Monday vis-ited the new Benazir Bhutto In-ternational Airport, Fateh Jang,and reviewed the work inprogress there.

Asif Yasin was flanked byAir Marshal (Retd) KhalidChaudhry, Director General(DG) CAA, other high ups andMinistry of Defence and Offi-cials of CAA.

According to CAA Spokes-man, the Secretary Defence Lt.General (Retd) Asif Yasin Malikinspected the ongoing work onthe site and expressed his satis-faction over the work pace aswell.

He urged the contractors andauthorities concerned to com-plete the work in stipulated timeframe in a bid to provide best airtravel facilities to the passengers.

The Secretary was alsobriefed in detail about the newairport project, added CAASpokesman.

TENDER NOTICE

Govt. Post Graduate College requires sealed tenders for provision of sci-ence apparatus from Govt. registered firms.Apparatus for physics, Chemistry lab Amount Rs.10,00,500The tender farms and the list of required apparatus with all details can betaken from the principal office during office hours on payment of Rs: 1000(not refundable)Terms & conditions1 The last date of receiving of tenders is 22/04/2013 the tenders willopen at 12:00 pm. In the presence of the representative of the firms.2 Registered firms would have to submit 2% call deposit as advance inthe name of undersigned ,this advance CD will refundable and will b re-turned after the completion of tender.3 The firms will be responsible of all taxes and Govt. duties.4 The Principal reserve the right to reject any one or all tenders withouttelling any reason, no appeal or case can be filed in any court or authoritymoreover principal has the right to change the condition of the order.5 Successful firms must should provide the order in 15(fifteen ) daysotherwise the call deposit will fascinated and tender will be cancel and willbe given to the other lower rate firms.6 The approved tender firms will submit 3% extra call deposit, this firmwill get apparatus checked before the supply by the technical committeewhich is held by under signed.7 incomplete and the tenders received after due date will not be consid-ered.8 The tender of black list firms will not considered also.

PRINCIPALGOVT POST GRADUATE COLLEGE CHAKWAL

Fissures in PPPover tickets

NAZIR SIYAL

LARKANA—PPP is under severethreat of losing candidates in sev-eral constituencies of Larkanaand Kamber-Shahdakot district.

According to the politicalsituation developed after the briefcandidatures and submission offorms by the various PPP candi-dates without prior consultations,on PS-37 former MPA AyazSoomro was dropped and nomi-nated to new faces MohammedAli Bhutto or Abdul Fatah Bhuttobrother of later MNA AnwerBhutto. The PPP pulled out an-other candidate Haji Munwer AliAbbasi from PS-38 and nomi-nated Khurshed Ahmed Junejoformer Zila Nazim Larkana. It isalso worth mentioned here thatAbbasi family candidates amongDr. Safdar Ali Abbasi on NA-205, his nephew Mouzam Abbasion NA-204 and former MPA HajiMunwer Ali Abbasi on PS-38will contest as independent can-didates in Larkana and Kamber-Shahdadkot.

The Abbasi Kalhoro commu-nity has largely protested andcriticized across province overignoring close associated familyof Shaheed Benazir Bhutto fromawarding the party tickets on theoccasion. The people of Larkanaand workers of PPP are annoyedover the decision for ignoringveteran politicians of PPP inLarkana. The sources disclosedthat the PPP has also decided towithdraw former MNA ShahidHussain Bhutto the cousin ofBenazir Bhutto from NA-204replacing by present GeneralSecretary Larkana district AbdulFatah Bhutto.

Nadir Khan Magsi a poten-tial candidate of PPP on PS-40has been disqualified and re-jected his nomination papers af-ter the fake degree certificatesfrom HEC, simultaneously theLarkana-I, PS-35 constituencyticket has been given to AltafHussain Unar by neglectingformer MPA Ghulam SarwerSiyal.

PPP is to reshuffles candi-dates for several provincial seatsincluding PS-41 and PS-42,where new figures will be replac-ing former MPAs Aziz Jatoi andNajamddin Abro in Kamber-

will not have adequate time tofirm up the budget. The delayeddecision in the Ministry for pay-ment to companies for supply ofoil to power plants has again up-set the countrymen, who havebeen braving load shedding from15 - 22 hours daily.

Finance Ministry sourcessaid Finance Secretary NasirMahmood Khosa has started pre-paring budgetary proposals withthe coordination of the concerneddepartments including FBR andPlanning Division.

PM stillFrom Page 1

tions ended again in stalemate —reinforces a broader suggestionthat Iran plans to push ahead withnuclear projects even at the po-tential risk of threatening the dia-logue with U.S. and other envoys.

It also could amplify ques-tions about Iran’s commitment tothe talks — which have, for themoment, hushed earlier talkamong its adversaries about mili-tary options — and emboldencalls by some U.S. lawmakers foreven tougher sanctions. Iran’sgambit appears built around itsdrive for formal acknowledg-ment from Washington and othercapitals of its “right” to enrichuranium, the process to makenuclear fuel. Iran, in tandem,wants the West to pull back onsanctions in exchange for somenuclear compromises.—AP

Iran unveilsFrom Page 1

of the opposition team, ImtiazSheikh, expressed concern overtransfers and posting ahead of thegeneral elections. The CEC saidall reservations concerning pollswould be removed, and proposalof Inter-Provincial transferswould be actively considered inorder to ensure free, fair andtransparent poll.

Meanwhile in a letter to lead-ers of one hundred and eighty sixpolitical parties,Chief ElectionCommissioner Fakhruddin GIbrahim called upon all politicalparties to strictly abide by thecode of conduct. He said respectof code of conduct is imperativeto make electoral atmosphereconducive.

He warned that nobodywould be allowed to sabotageelection process. The chief elec-tion commissioner urged politi-cal parties to promote peace andbrotherhood during the polls.

Meanwhile the Chief Elec-tion Commissioner FakhruddinG Ibrahim has called upon allpolitical parties to strictly abideby the code of conduct. In a let-ter to leaders of 186 politicalparties‚ he said respect of codeof conduct is imperative to makeelectoral atmosphere conducive.

He warned that nobodywould be allowed to sabotageelection process.

The chief election commis-sioner urged political parties topromote peace and brotherhoodduring the polls.

Meanwhile‚ talking to a del-egation of Opposition IttehadSindh in Karachi‚ Fakhruddin G.Ibrahim said reshuffle of bureau-crats is under consideration toremove the reservations of thepolitical parties.

The delegation demandedinter-provincial transfers of bu-reaucrats in Sindh like that ofPunjab province.—NNI

ECP takes noticeFrom Page 1

accorded to Karachi.The manifesto also

emphasised on the prevailingenergy crisis in the country andpledged an end to electricity load-shedding from the country withinthree years’ time.

It further said that the publicat large would be empowered andthat the provincial governor andchief minister houses would beconverted into libraries and edu-cational institutes.

The anti-terrorism lawswould also be changed, the mani-festo promised, while highlight-ing terrorism as a key issue con-fronting Pakistan.

Mumtaz :80 pc candidates

corruptSTAFF REPORTER

LARKANA—PML Nawaz leaderSardar Mumtaz Bhutto has saidthat about 80 percent corrupt andnotorious politician forms havebeen approved, but no one asksquestions from Zardari that he isfalling under the article 62 and 63.

Mumtaz Bhutto in a Pressstatement lamented that, “the Re-turning Officers are questioningabout the wives, but Zardari is stillPresident of Pakistan who facedmore than 10 cases of murders andcorruption cases disposed off un-der the NRO by the PervezMusharaf. Despite of the reopen-ing the NRO and other criminalcases, still he is free and rulingover Pakistan.

No affiliationFrom Back Page

He said that security of VIPs andkey politicians as well as sensitiveareas in the federal capital and otherparts of the country is being height-ened. He said that the focus of thecaretaker set up is on holding freeand fair general elections and theministry will carry out its respon-sibility in the best way.

The Interior Minister saidour focus is on providing foolproof security to the politicalleaders and the general public.Speaking on the occasion, Addi-tional Secretary Election Com-mission, Muhammad Afzal Khansaid that no compromise will bemade on the national interest.

He said foolproof arrange-ments have been made for theholding of the general elections.He emphasized the media to playits role for free and fair electionssaying that media should monitorthe polling proceedings on May11. He said caretaker govern-ments must be impartial addingthat the commission would nottake any pressure from any side.Afzal Khan said that said thatpolitical leaders should also ar-range their security arrangement.

Meanwhile, a disturbing situ-ation occurred when additionalsecretary Election Commission,Muhammad Afzal Khan inter-rupted the journalists and saidtheir job is to ask questions andnot debate. On this annoyed me-dia persons said questions arebeing asked to interior ministerand Mohammad Afzal Khan hasno right to interfere. On seeingthat the situation has become outof control the Interior Ministercooled down the tempers andMohammad Afzal left from thescene.—Online

Shahzada Jamalfor loweringdrugs prices

ISLAMABAD—Federal Ministerfor National Regulations andServices Shahzada Jamal Nazirhas urged to formulate a taskforce to check quackery as it iscausing spreading of ailments.He also directed to prepare pric-ing policy of drugs at the earli-est in order to provide medicinesto the people at lower prices.

He expressed these viewswhile chairing separate meet-ings of Drug Regulatory Author-ity of Pakistan (DRAP) and Pa-kistan Medical & Dental Coun-cil (PMDC) here on Tuesday.

The meeting was attendedby Secretary Ministry of Na-tional Regulations and Services,Imtiaz Inayat Elah, Senior JointSecretary Arshad Farooq Fahimand other high officials of theministry.

Briefing to the minister, Se-nior Joint Secretary and ChiefExecutive Officer of DRAP,Arshad Farooq said DRAP Actsafeguards the interest of thepatients, the pharmaceutical in-dustry and the officials workingin the authority.

Talking about the functionsof the DRAP he said quality as-surance, quality control and postmarketing surveillance of drugshas been given due recognitionadding a separate division isbeing established to assure af-fordable prices for the patientsas well as make pharmaceuticalindustry sustainable.

Manufacture licensing, pric-ing, import, export and controlof drugs are the main functionsof the authority. A campaign isbeing launched to control spuri-ous drugs and for the purpose atask has been constituted, theCEO added.

The minister was informedthat a separate department hasbeen established for the sake ofquality control of drugs. Prov-inces have also drug testinglaboratories while central druglaboratory is in Karachi. A Na-tional Surveillance Laboratory isalso being set up by the federalgovernment.

DRAP, CEO informed theminister that there is a need tostrengthen laboratory network,pharmacovigilance and postmarketing surveillance, estab-lishment of Bio-equivalencecenters and adoption of coordi-nation mechanism by prov-inces.—NNI

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

M U M B A I — F o r m e rwicketkeeper Farokh Engi-neer says he may be theonly Indian cricketer whomay have had meeting withMargaret Thatcher morethan once.

The ex-British PrimeMinister MargaretThatcher died at the age of87 in London on Monday.

“I met the UK’s firstwoman PM on at least 5-6times”, Engineer, who iswell-settled in England, butnow in India, airing his ex-pert comments on IPLmatches, said.

Silly to say that Thatcher was Out!... LBW : Alderman: David Gower

“Every year duringChristmas, we used to havea party at the residence offamous novelist Jeffrey Ar-cher, where I met Thatcherseveral times”, he said.

“I also played golf withher husband Denis Thatcher,who expired some ten yearsago”, Engineer recalled.

Interestingly, on the oc-casion of Thatcher’s death,former Australian top orderbatsman Dean Jones remem-bered his country-man TerryAlderman, who, on Ashestour to England in 1989,grabbed 41 wickets, 19 ofwhich were declared LBWs.

“English papers werevery upset with Alderman’sLBW success. When the

team was returning home agraffiti on the tube station-wall said, Thatcher out andsomeone came and wroteunderneath : LBW- Alder-man”, Dean Jones said toan Indian TV channel.

When contacted Alder-man in Perth, he refused tocomment on the incident.

However, David Gower,the then captain of the En-glish team, when contacted,asked initially, “who hasnarrated this incident ?”“Yes, facts are facts andthey will remain facts (grab-bing LBW wickets by Al-derman), but to say this(Thatcher Out, LBW : Al-derman) is silly”, he saidexclusively.AUGUSTA: Rickie Fowler of the United States hits a shot during a practice round prior

to the start of the 2013 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.

LARKANA: Habib Bank player Asad Shafique playing shot in cricket match between Habib Bank and State Bankteams during President’s Cup One-Day Cricket Tournament at Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto InternationalCricket Stadium, Garhi Khuda Bakhsh.

KARACHI—India will defendits No.1 One-Day Interna-tional (ODI) ranking and willalso try to match Australia’sfeat of holding both the 50-over global titles at the sametime.

Seven of the eight par-ticipating sides have namedtheir best cricketers in thepreliminary squads for theprestigious ICC ChampionsTrophy 2013 - the only na-tion versus nation tourna-ment of the year to bestaged at Cardiff Wales Sta-dium, Edgbaston and TheOval from June 6 to 23, saidan ICC media release onTuesday.

Defending championAustralia has submitted itsprovisional squad to the In-ternational Cricket Council(ICC), as required, but hasopted not to release thenames.

New Zealand has be-come the first side to an-nounce its 15-member squadwhile Australia, England, In-dia, Pakistan, South Africa,Sri Lanka and the West

Indies are expected to trimtheir provisional squads andannounce the final line-upson or before the May 6 cut-off date.

The ICC Champions Tro-phy will fea-ture the topeight-rankedsides in theworld onlybest versusthe best 50-o v e r - a - s i d et o u r n a m e n tbeing held be-tween the ICCCricket WorldCup 2011 inthe Asian sub-continent, andthe ICC Cricket World Cup2015 in Australia and NewZealand.

The importance and sig-nificance of this tournamenton the international calendarcan be gauged from the factthat all the sides have namedtheir most flamboyant, char-ismatic and well-known crick-eters, including AlastairCook, James Anderson,Stuart Broad, Kevin

Pietersen, Graeme Swann,Jonathan Trott (all England);Mahendra Singh Dhoni,Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli,Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh(all India); Brendon

M c C u l l u m ,Martin Guptill,Ross Taylor,Daniel Vettori(all NewZ e a l a n d ) ;M i s b a h - u l -H a q ,M o h a m m a dHafeez, SaeedAjmal, ShahidAfridi, UmarGul (all Paki-

stan); AB de Villiers, HashimAmla, Jacques Kallis, GraemeSmith, Dale Steyn (all SouthAfrica); Tillakaratne Dilshan,Mahela Jayawardena, LasithMalinga, Angelo Mathews,Kumar Sangakkara, (all SriLanka) and Darren Bravo,Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle,Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard,Kemar Roach, Darren Sammyand Marlon Samuels (allWest Indies).

Of all the players named

in the squads, only ShahidAfridi, Kallis and Vettori fea-tured in the inaugural editionof the tournament in Dhakain 1998.

Australia will aim tocomplete a hat-trick of titles,after it won the past twoevents in India and SouthAfrica in 2006 and 2009, re-spectively. At the CricketClub of India in 2006, Aus-tralia defeated the WestIndies by eight wickets andthen three years later be-came the first side to suc-cessfully defend the titlewhen it beat New Zealand bysix wickets at Centurion.

For India, which sharedthe title with Sri Lanka whenthe event was staged in SriLanka in 2002, it will be anopportunity to matchAustralia’s feat of being theholders of both the 50-overtournaments - the ICC CricketWorld Cup and the ICCChampions Trophy.

England and Pakistan arethe two sides in the eight-team contest not to have wonthe tournament.—APP

World’s top cricketers named insquads for Champions Trophy

SPORTS REPORTER

LAHORE—Pakistan test andone day captain Misbah ulHaq said on Tuesday that con-fusion is being created by dif-ferent means to disrupt theharmony of the team ahead ofan important assignment, theChampions Trophy in En-gland this summer.

He was addressing a newsconference here on Tuesdayat Gadaffi Stadium alognwithNational T20 captain,

Muhammad Hafeez to dispellthe impression of differencesbetween them.

“We are good friends andthere is no truth in the ongo-ing propaganda that we havedeveloped differenes or a riftis going on between us,” saidMisbah.

Both the captains stronglyopposed the recent statementof former PCB Chairman, IjazButt who accused National

Misbah, Hafeez deny rift reports

Confusion being created todisrupt harmony of team

T20 captain Hafeez for his roleto join hands with coach DaveWhatmore to design a con-spiracy against Misbah.

“There is no truth in it andwe enjoy coordial friendly re-lations,” said both the cap-tains.

Misbah pointed out thatthe ongoing propaganda cam-paign can bring adverse im-pact on the team which is yetto start its preparations for theChampions trophy.

“In the past as well, I

have contradicted suchbaseless statements whichaimed at creating confusionto harm the interest of Paki-stan cricket and it is sad thatsome quarters are still busyin the same practice,” headded.

“It is the high time that weshould not pay any attentionto such baseless propagandaand start our preparations forChampions Trophy which is

going to a challenging event”,he asserted.

Hafeez said “ I have noth-ing doing with the exclusionor inclusion of any player inthe side and it is the job of theselection committee to pick theplayers and my job is to getbest out of the combinationhanded over to me”, he as-serted.

“I enjoy very good friendlyrelations with Misbah and Ilearnt a lot from him when hewas the captain and still I seek

his advice at times,” he saidadding, “ When I play in testand one day formats I alwaystry to rise to the occasion be-ing a useful force for my teamand captain”.

He said it was unfortunatethat he was being associatedwith the unfounded sagas thathe was hand in hand withWhatmore to make things dif-ficult for former T20 captain,Misbah.

KARACHI—Pakistan Bil-liards and Snooker Federa-tion (PBSF) Tuesday namedan 8-member Pakistan squadfor the 29th Asian SnookerChampionship being heldhere from April 27.

Being the host countryAsian Confederation of Bil-liards Sports (ACBS) has al-lowed Pakistan to field eightcueists based on the rankingafter the 38th NationalSnooker championship.

Players ranked from 1 to7 have been selected as perthe PRC alongwithMuhammad Asif.

Pakistan team includedReigning World Champion

PBSF name 8-member squad

17 countries confirmparticipation in Asian snooker

Muhammad Asif, FormerAsian number twoMuhammad Sajjad, NationalChampion Hamza Akbar,Imran Shehzad, Abdul Sattar,Babar Masih, Shahid Aftaband Abu Saim.

Except for Abdul Sattar,rest of the 7-member of thePakistan team are fromPunjab.

In the meantime afterclosing date on Sunday, 17-nations have confirmed theirparticipation in the eventscheduled to be held at theSheraton Hotel from April 27to May 3.

Countries included Af-

ghanistan, China, HongKong, India, Iran , Iraq, Ku-wait, Mongolia, Pakistan,Philippines, Qatar,Singapore, South Korea, SriLanka, Syria, Thailand andUnited Arab Emirates (UAE).

Lahore: Altogether sev-enteen countries have con-firmed their participation inthe Jubilee Insurance 29thAsian snooker champion-ship being played from April27 to May 3 at Karachi.

“It is a big moment in thehistory of Pakistan snookerthat a galaxy of Asian coun-tries will be taking part in themega event which will en-hance the image of our coun-try as a suitable venue forhosting elite snookerevents”, said Alamgir AShaikh, President, PakistanBilliard and Snooker Asso-ciation on Tuesday.

The participating coun-tries are Afghanistan, China,Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq,Kuwait, Mongolia, The Phil-ippines, Qatar, Singapore,South Korea, Sri Lanka,Syria, Thailand, United ArabEmirates and hosts Pakistan.

He said Pakistan being thehost country has been allowedto field eight players and thePBSA has finalized their namesas per the latest rankings afterthe 38th National Snookerchampionship held recently.

“Players ranked from 1 to7 have been selected as perthe ranking along withMuhammad Asif being thecurrent IBSF World SnookerChampion as player no.8”,said PBSA chief.—APP

Pakistan qualifyfor WinterOlympics

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan hasqualified for the prestigiousOlympic Winter Games (OWG)to be held in Sochi, Russia inFebruary next year after par-ticipating in International SkiFederation (FIS) races held inEurope and Asia.

According to Ski Federa-tion of Pakistan (SFP) official,Pakistan has attained the re-quired FIS points thus ensur-ing a birth in the event, re-ported a private news channel.

The Pakistani contingentcomprising one coach andthree athletes participated inthe FIS races held from Febru-ary 17 to March 18. The raceswere held in Italy, Lebanon andTurkey.

The contingent was sentfor participation in the eventsin order to achieve the qualifi-cation points for OWG 2014.Mir Nawaz, Karim and MAbbas of Pakistan Ski teamhave achieved 137, 130 and 122FIS points respectively.

It is worth mentioning thatthe national flag was hoistedin the Winter Olympics for thefirst time when MuhammadAbbas of PAF participated inthe Giant Slalom discipline ofAlpine Skiing during the Olym-pic Winter Games 2010, heldin Vancouver, Canada.

The SFP after achievingthis milestone is making con-tinuous efforts to uphold thecountry’s name in succeedingOlympics and with the sameaim, the Pakistani contingentwas sent to participate in theFIS races. Moreover, SFP hasa large number of talented ath-letes who have the ability toqualify for the Olympics.

Skiing is fast gainingpopularity in Pakistan and anational championship is heldin the northern KarakoramMountains far from the stiflingplains of Punjab, where sum-mer temperatures can top 50degrees Celsius (122 degreesFahrenheit). The SFP, formedin 1990, is run by the PakistanAir Force.—APP

IS L A M A B A D —Pakis tan’sformer renowned off spinnerSaqlain Mushtaq will rejoinBangladesh as their spin bowl-ing consultant for the side’stour of Zimba-bwe.

He will jointhe squad inDubai todayfrom where theteam will travelto Harare.

T h eB a n g l a d e s hCricket Boardhas a deal withthe off spinnerfor 100 days ofwork this year,after his previ-ous contractended last December.

This will be Saqlain’s firstassignment with Bangladeshin 2013. He wasn’t with theteam on their tour of Sri Lanka.

“We will only callSaqlain when the needarises,” BCB’s cricket opera-tions chairman EnayetHossain Siraj said. “We will

not ask him tostay with usfor a pro-longed pe-riod. He willwork for 100days in a year,and this willstart with theseries againstZimbabwe.”

S a q l a i nwas appointedin July lastyear when Ri-chard Pybuswas head

coach. He was with the teamduring the World Twenty20 inSri Lanka and the subsequenthome series against WestIndies.—APP

Saqlain back as BDspin consultant

PM felicitatesU-16 hockey

teamISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterJustice (R) Mir Hazar KhanKhoso on Tuesday felici-tated Under-16 Hockey teamfor winning a title in the AsiaCup and said that the play-ers deserved accolades fortheir brilliant performance inthe tournament, held atSingapore.

Welcoming the cham-pion under-16 hockey teamof Asia Cup on their home-coming, the Prime Ministersaid the triumphant team pro-vided an opportunity to thenation to rejoice.

The Prime Minister alsocongratulated the manage-ment and said that the play-ers played brilliantlythroughout the tournamentand they rightly deservedthe title.—APP

Shahzada Ahsan Ashraf Sheikh, Federal Minister for Industries and Production visitedthe Offices of Pakistan Observer yesterday and discussed with Mr. Zahid Malik, Editor-in-Chief, some of the initiatives being taken by him for multi-dimensional improve-ments in the Ministries. Also seen in the picture is Mr. Gauhar Zahid Malik, ExecutiveEditor of the Paper. —PO photo by Sultan Bashir

Interior ministry torecruit 2700 copsISLAMABAD—Interior Minis-try has decided to recruit2700 police personnel in theCapital Police prior to generalelections. Sources told thatthe recruitments would bemade on the posts of Assis-tant Sub Inspector (ASI) andConstables level in the capi-tal police. The recruitmentswould be made prior to gen-eral elections and in this re-gard advertisements for thevacant posts would be pub-lished in the dailies in a dayor two According to sources,the Interior Minister has madea final decision not to trans-fer Inspector General (IG) Po-lice Islamabad.—Online

MD USC removedISLAMABAD—Managing Di-rector Utility Stores Corpo-ration of Pakistan, MajorGeneral (Retd) MuhammadMalik Farooq was sackedfrom his position, here onTuesday. According to a pri-vate news channel, the MD,signed to hold the post tillNovember of this year, wasremoved after his contractwas annulled by the govern-ment. The reasons of thisdevelopment are so farknown but sources suggestthat it is a part of the changesin the top positions after thecaretaker setup has been putin place. Meanwhile, accord-ing to sources, governmentmay also stir some change inthe bureaucracy of the coun-try, appointing and removingsome officials. —NNI

PM due in QuettatodayQUETTA—Caretaker PrimeMinister Mir Hazar KhanKhoso who was due inQuetta on Tuesday couldnot come due to inclementweather. Official sources saidthat the prime minister wouldreach his home province onWednesday. During his visit,Prime Minister Khoso willmeet Governor BalochistanNawab Magsi and CaretakerCM Balochistan NawabBarozai and discuss issuespertaining to the law and or-der situation in the provincewith special reference to gen-eral elections 2013. —INP

Libyan Consulatein Karachi soonStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—The LibyanEmbassy in Islamabad hasdecided to reestablish itsConsulate in Karachi, as ithas felt immense need of thecitizens and people living inthe city’s vicinity. The em-bassy has taken this deci-sion in the largest interestand upon repeated requestsof Pakistanis while keepingin view the hardships anddifficulties they faced in ap-plying for Libyan visa andtraveling to Islamabad in thisregard, a news release issuedby Embassy of Libya,Islamabad, said.

NEW DELHI—India’sdeep unease over China’sgrowing military might andassertiveness as well as in-transigence about theboundary dispute reso-nated at a military brassconclave on Monday, withIndian defence ministerAK Antony also underlin-ing the threat posed by theexpansive nexus forgedbetween Beijing andIslamabad, Indian mediareported on Tuesday.

China’s approach toIndia on the long-standingboundary dispute andother issues, even after the

recent leadership change inBeijing, “is not likely tochange” in the foreseeablefuture. Consequently, the In-dian armed forces need to“constantly develop” theircapabilities to achieve“minimum credible deter-rence” against China, saidAntony.

The minister, addressingthe closed-door Army com-manders’ conference, didpoint out the governmentwas trying to resolve issueswith China in a “peaceful”manner, and also cited thenew bilateral boundary man-agement mechanism as “a

positive development”.But Antony also

stressed it was crucial tomodernize the armed forcesto counter China’s “militaryassertiveness”, including itsmassive development ofmilitary infrastructure alongthe 4,057-km Line of ActualControl (LAC) as well as inother neighbouring coun-tries, like the Gilgit-Baltistanareas of Pakistan, said In-dian officials.

India has belatedlytaken some steps to strate-gically counter China butmuch more needs to be doneat a rapid clip. While IAF is

now progressively basingSukhoi-30MKI fighters inthe north-east and the Navyis bolstering force-levels onthe eastern seaboard, theArmy’s Rs 81,000-crore planto raise a new mountainstrike corps with associatedstructures is yet to take off.

Holding that the recentChinese takeover ofPakistan’s strategically-lo-cated Gwadar port near theIranian border has furtherstrengthened the economicand security linkages be-tween the two countries,Antony promised all gov-ernment support to the

armed forces for “the neces-sary measures” needed totackle “any emergingthreats”. Pakistan, he said,poses “a unique threat” dueto its rapidly growingnuclear arsenal, militarymodernization with the helpof China and the US, and itscontinuing support to alarge number of terroristgroups undertaking “proxywar” in Jammu and Kashmir.While India “welcomes” theforthcoming elections in Pa-kistan - to be held on May11 - it is unlikely its “anti-India stance” and its “ob-session” with J&K will ever

abate. With the terror in-frastructure in both Paki-stan and Pakistani part ofKashmir still very much in-tact, India will need tomaintain its policy of de-terrence against its west-ern neighbour. Moreover,with Afghanistan headedfor instability after the USwithdrawal next year,Pakistan’s continuingsupport to the Taliban andinroads into the country isa source of worry. Indianeeds to be prepared todeal with “any spillovereffect” as well, addedAntony.—Online

India alerts its army against threats from China, Pakistan

Notices issued toseveral ex-MPs

ISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt of Pakistan (SCP) onTuesday again issued no-tices to former lawmakers toappear before the court dur-ing next hearing in dual na-tionality case. A three-mem-ber bench of SC headed byChief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry heardthe petition regarding dualnationality of former lawmak-ers.

Former members of theNational Assembly includingDonia Aziz, Jamil Ashraf Malik,Sabeen Rizvi and Javed Tarkaiappeared in the court to sub-mit replies regarding their dualnationality.

However, no representa-tive of MQM’s Haider AbbasRizvi, Raza Haroon, AsghariTaqvi and Abdul MueedSiddiqui appeared in thecourt. The courtordered to issue noticesagain to absent lawmakersfor appearing in the courtduring next hearing and ad-journed the hearing till April16.—INP

BEIRUT—Al-Qaida’s branchin Iraq said it has merged withSyria’s extremist Jabhat al-Nusra, a move that shows therising confidence of radicalswithin the Syrian rebel move-ment and is likely to trigger re-newed fears among its inter-national backers. A websitelinked to Jabhat al-Nusra con-firmed on Tuesday the mergerwith the Islamic State of Iraq,whose leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, first made the an-nouncement in a 21-minuteaudio message posted on mili-tant websites late Monday.Jabhat al-Nusra has taken anever-bigger role in Syria’s con-flict over the last year, fightingin key battles and staging sev-eral large suicide bombings.

The U.S. has designated ita terrorist organization. TheSyrian group has made littlesecret of its ideological ties tothe global jihadist movementand its links across the Iraqiborder, but until now it has notofficially declared itself to be

Iraqi al-Qaeda, Syriamilitants announce merger

part of al-Qaida. Al-Baghdadisaid that his group — the Is-lamic State of Iraq — andSyria’s Jabhat al-Nusra willnow be known as the IslamicState in Iraq and the Levant.“It is time to announce to theLevantine people and thewhole world that Jabhat al-Nusra is merely an extensionand part of the Islamic State ofIraq,” he said.

He said that the Iraqigroup was providing half of itsbudget to the conflict in Syria.Al-Baghdadi said that the Syr-ian group would have noseparate leader but instead beled by the “people of Syriathemselves” implying that hewould be in charge in bothcountries. The formal mergerof such a high-profile Syrianrebel group to al-Qaida is likelyto spark concerns among back-ers of the opposition who areenemies of the global terrornetwork, including both West-ern countries and Gulf Arabstates.

I S L A M A B A D — S u p r e m eCourt (SC) while issuing or-ders for inclusion of JusticeKhalij Arif Hussain in thebench hearing dual national-ity case has adjourned thehearing till April, 16.

A 3-member bench of SCpresided over by the ChiefJustice of Pakistan IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry tookup the case for hearing Tues-day.

At the inception of hear-ing, Sardar MuhammadAslam counsel for the formerMNA, Jamil Ahmad Maliktold the court reply could notbe filed due to shortage oftime. The detailed reply per-

It may increase resentmentof Jabhat al-Nusra amongother rebel factions. Rebelshave until now respected theradical group’s fighters for theirprowess on the battlefield, buta merger with al-Qaida willcomplicate any effort to sendarms to rebels from abroad. Awebsite linked to Jabhat al-Nusra known as al-Muhajir al-Islami — the Islamic emigrant— confirmed the merger. Theauthenticity of neither mes-sage could be independentlyconfirmed, but statementsposted on major militantwebsites are rarely disputed byextremist groups afterward.Jabhat al-Nusra emerged as anoffshoot of Iraq’s al-Qaidabranch in early 2012, as one of apatchwork of disparate rebelgroups in Syria. One of the mostdramatic attacks by the groupcame on March 4, when 48 Syr-ian soldiers were killed in a well-coordinated ambush after seek-ing refuge across the frontier inIraq —AP

taining to dual nationality ofJamil Ahmad Malik would befiled today. CJP in-quired if Jamil Ahmad Malikwas holding the citizenshipof Holland being borne inHolland. The court was toldthat Jamil Ahmad Malik hadnot secured citizenship.

The CJP remarked whileaddressing counsel of JamilAhmad Malik that “ your cli-ent had said while filingnomination papers that hefulfilled the provisions ofarticle-63.

Attorney General toldthe court that he would notgo out of ambit of article 100of the constitution. —Online

SC adjourns hearing ofdual nationality case

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Postal ServicesArif Nizami called on Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Tuesday.

Nizami discussesmedia policywith KhosoSHARAFAT KAZMI

ISLAMABAD —Minister forInformation and Broadcast-ing, Arif Nizami called onPrime Minister Mir HazarKhan Khoso in Islamabadon Tuesday and discussedthe media policy to be pur-sued by the caretaker gov-ernment. While talking to Informa-tion Minister, the Prime Min-ister said that the focus of thegovernment is to hold free,fair, transparent and credibleelections in the country. The Minister exchangedviews with the Prime Minis-ter on various issues relatingto the role of the Ministry anddisseminating the messagethat the caretaker govern-ment is impartial. The PrimeMinister directed the Infor-mation Minister to gear upthe Ministry for a proactiverole and engage the mediafor effective disseminationof information.

Steps topromote foreigninvestment: Alvi

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh caretakerChief Minister Justice(Retd) Zahid Kurban Alvisaid that provincial govern-ment was taking steps topromote the foreign invest-ment in Sindh and for thispurpose provision of facili-ties to investors was toppriority.

This he said while pre-siding a high level meetingat CM House Tuesday.Sindh Board of InvestmentChairman ZubairMotiwala,Sindh SecretaryFinance Sohail Rajput andSenior Member Board ofRevenue Sindh ShazarShamoon and Secretary andUtilization Saqib AhmedSoomro attended.

The matters related toprojects running under For-eign Investment includingwind power energy projectsin Thatta, Marbal city, Edu-cation city, Pak-Japan Spe-cial Economic Zone andKhairpur Economic Zonewere discussed in details.

The CM urged upon theparticipants of the meetingto take effective steps to re-move the obstacles inprojects running underforeigninvestment.

Encouragements ofForeign investment wouldalso create employment op-portunities.

ECP placesscrutiny dataon website

ISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan hasreleased data pertaining tothe scrutiny of all candidateswhose nomination papershave been accepted for thecoming general election 2013here on Tuesday.

The data, released onECP’s website, comprisesdetails from National Ac-countability Bureau (NAB),State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)and the Federal Board ofRevenue (FBR) on the can-didates’ tax records as wellas any loans that they mayhave taken.

The record cleared formerpremier and Pakistan MuslimLeague (PML-N) chief MianNawaz Sharif, chairman Paki-stan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI)Imran Khan, Awami NationalParty (ANP) chief AsfandyarWali Khan and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) head MaulanaFazal ur Rehman.

Muttahida QaumiMovement’s Farooq Sattarwas also cleared, however, in2010; the former lawmakerdeclared no income and paidzero taxes.—INP

ISLAMABAD—Caretaker Fed-eral Minister for Interior Af-fairs, Malik Habib on Tues-day clarifying his positionsaid that he has no affiliationwith any political party andhis main objective is to en-sure holding of free and fairelections without any bias.

Malik Habib during ajoint media briefing along-with Additional SecretaryElection Commission of Pa-kistan, Afzal Khan, said thathe is the interior minister ofthe country and does not fa-vor any single political party.He said that he is unbiasedand will remain unbiased un-til he succeeds in holdingpeaceful elections in thecountry.

Giving his response aftermost of the mainstream po-litical parties demanded hisresignation over favouringNawaz Sharif, MalikMohammad Habib Khan de-nied any links with the politi-cal parties of the country.“As I had said earlier, I haveno link with any other part,”

he said adding that his votewas for 200 million people ofthe country.

“I started today’s speechby name of late BenazirBhutto, doest it mean I haveaffiliation with PeoplesParty”, Habib asked. It ispertinent to mention herethat a statement of the incum-bent about the PML-N chiefNawaz Sharif drew criticismfrom all major political partiesof the country, forcing theformer to clarify his impartial-ity. Habib further said that herespected all political leadersand it was the ministry’s re-sponsibility to provide secu-rity to them. According tothe caretaker interior minis-ter, the decision to deployarmy at any polling stationwould be made by the Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan.Habib said that maintaininglaw and order is the respon-sibility of the provincial gov-ernments; the federation canonly lend a helping hand tothem.

No affiliation with anypolitical party: HabibEC not to take any pressure: Afzal

Pak Hindus refuseto return home

NEW DELHI—The IndianMinistry of External Affairs(MEA) on Tuesday gave onemonth extension to PakistanHindus, who have refused togo back to their country dueto what they called rising ex-tremism there.

The MEA gave onemonth extension to the Paki-stan Hindus after their visasexpired.

As per report, hundredsof Pakistan Hindu families arecurrently living in shelterhomes since November 2011after their tourist visas ex-pired. Currently, there aremore than 450 Pakistani citi-zens living in various shelterhomes across various statesin India.—INP

Continued on Page 6

NORFOLK—The Air Forcebegan grounding about one-third of its active-duty com-bat aircraft on Tuesday be-cause of automatic federalspending cuts, includingsquadrons of fighters, bomb-ers and airborne warning andcontrol craft.

The stand down will af-fect units stationed in the U.S.,Europe and the Pacific,though the Air Force didn’timmediately provide a list ofthe units and bases that willbe affected. Some units thatinclude F-16s, F-22s, A-10sand B-1s will stand down af-ter they return home from theirdeployments. Other units be-gan the stand down Tuesday.

“We must implement a

tiered readiness conceptwhere only the units prepar-ing to deploy in support ofmajor operations like Af-ghanistan are fully missioncapable,” Gen. Mike Hostage,commander of Air CombatCommand at Joint Base Lan-gley-Eustis, said in a state-ment. “Units will stand downon a rotating basis so our lim-ited resources can be focusedon fulfilling critical missions.”

The Air Force says thestand-down is the result ofcuts to the command’s opera-tions and maintenance ac-count. The Air Force says itmust reduce its flying byabout 45,000 fewer traininghours by Oct. 1 than previ-ously scheduled.

“The current situationmeans we’re accepting therisk that combat airpower maynot be ready to respond im-mediately to new contingen-cies as they occur,” Hostagesaid.

The Air Force says it gen-erally takes 60 to 90 days toconduct the training neededto return aircrews to mission-ready status. For affectedunits, the Air Force says it willshift its focus to ground train-ing.

That includes the use offlight simulators and academictraining to maintain basicskills and aircraft knowledge,Air Combat Commandspokesman Maj. BrandonLingle said.—AP

US Air Force beginsgrounding combat aircraft

OUTSIZED school bags are turninginto a curse for kids, 80 percent ofwhom carry loads up to a fifth of

their body weight, really taxing theirbacks, says a new research from the char-ity BackCare.

Studies show that car-rying any more than atenth of your body weightcan cause spinal damage.Experts warn we are fac-ing an epidemic of backproblems in young adultswhen the long-term ef-fects of this early damagestarts to appear.

“We are seeing in-creasing numbers ofyoung adults coming fortreatment in relation toback trouble and this canoften be traced back tocarrying heavy bags toschool,” warns PeterSkew, an Essex-based ex-pert in musculoskeletalmedicine, the Daily Mail reported.

Skew, vice-president of BackCare,adds: “Children’s skeletons are still devel-oping, and having a heavy bag slung overone shoulder can exert unnatural force onthe spine, muscles and attachments.

“Rather like exercising only one sideof your body in the gym, you quickly getunilateral muscle-loading, which can causethe small muscles in the back to tightenand compress the spine,” adds Skew.

A 2007 British study showed that 13to 50 percent of 11-17 year olds have ex-perienced back pain. And it’s been shownthat if you experience back pain as a child,

you are four times more likely to have toendure back pain as an adult.

“Picking up and swinging a heavybackpack onto your shoulder multipletimes a day is potentially more damag-

ing to a growing body thanhaving to walk a long dis-tance with a static load,”says Skew.

It’s not just getting toand from school that’s theproblem, because mostschools no longer providelockers or desks to storebooks (children si t attables), so children have nochoice but to carry every-thing around with them allday.

Skew says youngpeople are made even morevulnerable to back problemsby their increasing inactiv-ity - muscles don’t developproperly if you spend yourt ime playing computer

games instead of running around. This iscompounded by poor posture and one-size-fits-all furniture.

The weight of the bag is not the onlyfactor to consider: the type of bag yourchild is carrying can contribute to painand strain.

The ideal school bag, according toLorna Taylor, paediatric physiotherapist,is a not-too-large backpack with wide,padded straps to spread the load, and awaist belt.

Heaviest items should be closest tothe spine, which is the centre of gravity,to reduce the strain.

Heavy schoolbags maycause spinal injury

ISLAMABAD: A view of traffic jam at Kashmir Highway creates problems for the commuters due to the poor performance of CDA on widening ofthe Highway.

RAWALPINDI: Sheep grazing at railway track may cause any mishap and needs attentionof authorities concerned.

Hamdard Varsity carries forwardHakim Said’s mission: Sadia Rashid

Japanese ambassador lauds HU’s achievementsASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—Chancellor,Hamdard University,mohtarma Sadia Rashid saysthat the university founded byShaheed Hakim MohammedSaid will carry forward hismission of making Pakistan adeveloped and prosperouscountry through promotingsciences, technology and hu-manities.

She was delivering herpresidential address at the 10thDegree Awarding Ceremonyof Hamdard UniversitiesIslamabad campus on Tues-day.

The chancellor reviewedthe progress achieved by theuniversity over the past yearsand touched on its academicplans to be taken up shortly.She was satisfied to note thatthe university was serving thecountry as was envisioned byits founder. The HU believesin educating the youth in a waythat they are able to play a vi-tal role in achieving the objec-tives set forth by the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnahfor Pakistan.

Eminent nuclear scientistDr. A. Q. Khan was the guestof honour on the occassional

The vice chancellor of theuniversity Prof. Dr. HakimAbdul Hannan in his addresshighlighted distinctions andother achievements ofHamdard University. He saidthe stress was on quality and

character building of the stu-dents. He expressed the confi-dence that the university wouldcontinue its march towardsgreater achievements with thepassage of time.

Director General, Hamdard

University, Islamabad Cam-pus, Prof Dr. Nazeer Ahmedpresented report on various as-pects of the university. He saidHamdard University is thelargest one of Pakistan in theprivate sector. He said the uni-

versity enjoys high reputeamong the leading universi-ties both in Public and Privatesector.

Ambassador H.E. HiroshiOE of Japan who was theChief Guest at the DegreeAwarding Ceremony ofHamdard University, in hisaddress, greatly appreciatedthe role being played by theuniversity in promotinghigher education in Pakistanwith its stress on science andtechnology.

He said, Pakistan canachieve rapid progressthrough popularisation of sci-ence and technology. He washappy to note that there wereefforts in Pakistan for promot-ing science and technology.

The ambassador saidfriendly relations between andhis country have been growingover all these years and the twocountries have always desiredto strengthen bilateral rela-tions. “Japan has always beenhappy to assist Pakistan in itsdevelopment efforts. Japan isalso helping Pakistan in pro-moting higher education”. Heheld out the assurance that Ja-pan would continue cooperat-ing with Pakistan in the fieldsof economy and education.

ISLAMABAD: Renowned Nuclear Scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan giving away degree to astudent during the 10th Degree Awarding Ceremony of Hamdard University, in Islamabad.Chancellor HU Saadia Rashid and SI Director General HU Prof Dr Nazeer Ahmad are alsoseen in the picture.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

April 10

SILVER Jubilee Celebra-tions & Award DistributionCeremony, organized by theRoots Schools System, atthe Jinnah Convention Cen-tre, Islamabad, 9 a.m.

*****OPENING of Exhibition ofminiature paintings by Pro-fessor A M Mansoor, atJharoka Art Gallery, HouseNo. 8, Street 28, Sector F-8/1, Islamabad, 4:30 pm.

ISO 9001:2008certification of FUI

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Foundation Uni-versity Islamabad (FUI) hasbeen awarded the ISO9001:2008 Quality ManagementSystem Certificate by the NQA,UKAS accredited certificationbody.

The award was officiallypresented to President, FUI Lt.Gen. Muhammad Mustafa KhanHI (M) (Retd) by the DirectorIntegrated Professional Solu-tions (IPS), Engr. Khalid Ahmedon behalf of NQA. Rector FUI,Maj. Gen. Gul Muhammad HI(M) (Retd) was also present onthe occasion.

The certification covers abroad scope of science, busi-ness, engineering, health andother specialized fields.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that the HEC has alsoawarded W-4 the highest aca-demic rating category to Foun-dation University Islamabad.

Qarz e Hasnafor students

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The ShifaTameer e Millat University,Islamabad and Ihsan Trust,Karachi have signed a MOU.

In accordanc with the MOUthe deserving students ofSTMU will be faicliated inavailing the Qarz e Hasna fromIhsan Trust.

The Memorandum of under-standing (MOU) was signed byCh. Muhammad KhalidMahmood, Treasurer/ Chief Fi-nance Officer of STMU and Mr.Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, FounderTrustee for Ihsan Trust, Karachiat Shifa Tameer e Millat Univer-sity Islamabad.

Dr. Muhammad Ata, Chan-cellor and Senior Officials in-cluding Executive Director ofAllied Health Sciences and Prin-cipal, Shifa College of Nursinggraced the occasion.

Body of youngboy found

ISLAMABAD—A dead body ofstudent was recovered from thejurisdiction of Industrial Areapolice station here.

Police claimed that he wasshot dead and the pistol was alsokept nearby him.Later on, the de-ceased was identified shahwaizIqbal S/O Amir Iqbal and he be-longed to Attock.—Online

New CPOtakes charge

RAWALPINDI—Newly ap-pointed City Police Officer(CPO), Rawalpindi, AbdurRazzaq Cheema on Tuesdaytook charge of his office.—APP

ISLAMABAD—E-voting systemfor Overseas Pakistanis is secureand technically ready to be de-ployed subjected to the final ap-proval of Election Commissionof Pakistan.

These views were expressedby Chairman NADRA TariqMalik while briefing the FederalMinister for Overseas Paki-stanis, Barrister Feroz JamalShah Kakakhel who visitedNADRA Headquarter Tuesday.

Chairman NADRA TariqMalik briefed the Minister bydemonstrating e-voting systemfor Overseas Pakistanis. Duringhis presentation, ChairmanNADRA informed the Minister

E-voting system forOverseas Pakistanis

that its solution is secure andtechnically ready to be deployedsubjected to the final approvalof Election Commission of Pa-kistan.

Minister for Overseas Paki-stanis showed his keen interestin extending e-Voting facilityfor Overseas Pakistanis.

He appreciated NADRA’sunflinching efforts in preparingtransparent and most crediblesoftware well in time. Mr.Kakakhel committed that Min-istry of Overseas Pakistanis iswilling and ready to work on alladministrative deliverables.

He said Ministry’s top pri-ority is to protect rights of over-

seas citizens living abroad. Inorder to give right of voting tothe overseas Pakistanis the Min-istry will immediately act in thisregard as soon as directions fromECP or SC are issued, he added.

Meanwhile, officials ofRawal Town Municipal Admin-istration (RTMA), conductingoperation against illegal adver-tising, have removed 110 ban-ners of different contesting can-didates in the city.

The officials are also send-ing reports to the related policestations for action against thecandidates who have continu-ously been violating advertise-ment related laws.—Agencies

ISLAMABAD—The Higher Edu-cation Commission (HEC) onTuesday approved the Memo-randum of Understanding(MoU) with Pakistan Bar Coun-cil (PBC) aiming at enchainingthe quality of law education inPakistan.

The approval was given inthe 28th meeting of Commis-sion, governing body, of HigherEducation Commission HECheld here on Tuesday.

Through this MOU, HEC incollaboration with PBC will beresponsible to develop and fur-nish policy guidelines to revampand strengthen the process ofaccreditation of Programs in lawconducted in all Institutions ofhigher education in Pakistan rec-ognized by the PBC and willdevelop criteria for recognitionof Programs in Law at the un-

HEC, PBC sign MoU on law educationdergraduate and postgraduatelevel, curriculum of Programsand Criteria for appointment offaculty, a press release said.

The meeting was chaired byDr. Javaid R. Laghari Chairper-son HEC and attended by QamarZaman Ch. federal secretaryfederal ministry of educationand training, Ikhlaq Tarar fedralsecreatry ministry of S&T, Prof.Dr. A.Q Mughal vice chancllorSindh Agricutlure UniversityTandogam, Prof. Dr. Ihsan ViceChancllor Abdul Wali KhanUniversity Mardan, Prof. Dr.Nilofar Shaikh Former Vice-Chancellor SALU Khairpur,Engr. Syed Imtiaz HussainGilani Vice Chancellor KPKUET Peshawar, Engr. AhmedFarooq Bazai Vice-ChancellorBUITMS Quetta, Lt. Gen. AghaM. Umar Farooq former Presi-

dent NDU Islamabad, SenatorMrs. Razina Alam Khan andProf. Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ex-ecutive Director HEC.—NNI

ISLAMABAD—Under umbrella‘Science for the Society’, thestudents of the Department ofPhysics, Allama Iqbal OpenUniversity (AIOU) have in-vented some scientific devicesuseful in daily lives for thewellbeing of the society.

The devices included de-tecting stick for blinds, learning-kit for the use in schools andcolleges, a costly machine byspending Rs 3,000 only.

These devices were alsoexhibited by M.Phil (Physics)’students in the Science Com-plex, AIOU during the 2-dayfirst National Conference onPhysics and Emerging Sci-ences being arranged by theDepartment of Physics re-cently.

During visit to exhibition,

Obstacle detectingsticks for blinds

the Vice-Chancellor AIOU,Prof. Dr. Nazir Ahmed Sangi hasadvised the students to furtherimprove their products for thesociety.

Hundred thousand obstacledetecting sticks would be pre-pared aimed at distributingamongst the deserved blindsacross the country, he said.

Dr. Sangi said that the Uni-versity was steadily movingahead to expand itsinfrastructural network and dur-ing the recent year, the AIOUmade good efforts further up-grade its academic standard andits educational ranking.

He said that at present, onecan find AIOU students andgraduates working in almostevery organization of the coun-try.—APP

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A solo exhibitionof miniature painting by SheikhMansoor will start here today,(Wednesday), at Jharoka ArtGallery.

Renowned artist Prof. S.M.Mansoor would display his 27

Solo exhibition at Jharokalatest modern miniature paint-ings, where he has reflected amore tolerant vision towardsculture and society with focuson modern uniformity.

Mansoor has welcomedpopular ideas to construct his artin a new light. Artistic anarchyhad negative connotations in the

past, when multiplicity was sac-rificed at the name of totality.

In Mansoor’s miniaturepaintings one enjoys the new-ness, because each piece of artis overwhelmed with excite-ment. He had eliminated all theconventions of traditional min-iature painting.

Success in businessrequires training anddiscipline and hard

work. But if you’re notfrightened by these

things, the opportuni-ties are just as greattoday as they ever

were.

— David Rockefeller

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Pierre Lignot,Regional Director of the Ex-ternal Trade Agency of France(South Asia) has offered toplay the role of a bridge be-tween French companiesbased in India with counter-parts in Pakistan to promotetrade and industrial activity inthe private sector

Speaking at KarachiChamber of Commerce andIndustry (KCCI) he recog-nized the role of KarachiChamber of Commerce & In-dustry in promotion of trade

French companies based in India willing to promote trade in Pakistanand industry and socio-eco-nomic development of Pakistan.

Being the Head of FrenchExternal Trade Agency forSouth Asia based in New Delhi,he elaborated that French TradeCommission was engaged in theexternal affairs of France withIndia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka andBangladesh.

The key mission is to pro-mote trade relations betweenFrance with South Asian coun-tries. The Trade Commissionassist French-based companiesseeking potential partners in theregional markets of South Asia.He stated that the French Trade

Commission can assist in bridg-ing French companies based inIndia with Pakistani companies.Customized services can be pro-vided to interested KCCI’smembers for match-makingwith French companies.

Speaking on the occasionthe KCCI President MuhammadHaroon Agar urged RegionalDirector of the External TradeAgency of France (South Asia)Pierre Lignot to invite newFrench investors to invest inPakistan.

Pakistan and France haveabout $1.3 Billion bilateraltrade volume. Pakistan has sur-

plus in Trades. For last 63years, a close relationship intrade, diplomatic affairs, edu-cation and investment is wit-nessed. The France Pakistanrelations are historicallybonded and friendly based onmilitary, defence, cultural, edu-cational cooperation and eco-nomic ties. Trade between thetwo countries is generally in-creasing with time. Pakistanand France Commission is es-tablished in order to boost thebilateral trade between twocountries. In the year 2012, Pa-kistan exported worth $441.1508 Mn commodities to

France while imports fromFrance to Pakistan stood at $468.2076 Mn. In August 2010,France and Pakistan agreed toset up a joint commission toundertake cooperative projectsin food and agriculture, eco-nomic development, securityand medical training. Recently,Pakistan and France havesigned an agreement on eco-nomic and commercial relation-ship.

This Joint Declaration onEconomic and CommercialPartnership was signed by Min-ister of Foreign Affairs, HinaRabbani Khar on behalf of Gov-

ernment of Pakistan and Minis-ter of State for External Trade,Mr Pierre Lellouche, on behalfof Government of France. Un-der this declaration, both thecountries try to develop a frame-work of closer economic coop-eration, enhancing trade and in-vestment links in order tostrengthen the mutual relation-ship between two countries.France is also trying to over-come the current energy crisisfaced by Pakistan through AFD(Agence francaise de develop-ment).

France is one of the mainsuppliers of defence equipment.

France and Pakistan can coop-erate for the establishing indus-tries for defence production andcan transfer technology for thispurpose to Pakistan. France isa good market for Pakistani tex-tile products especiallyreadymade garments, bed wearand knitwear. He added that al-though Pakistan is 65th in thehierarchy of trading partners ofFrance, he was hopeful that af-ter attainment of GSP Plus,Pakistan’s trade with Francewill make a quantum leap.Moreover, he also invitedFrench Exhibitors, throughFrench External Trade Agency,

KARACHI: Shafqat Sultana, President First Women Bank Ltd inaugurating the FWBLHuman Resource Development Centre. Dr Asrar Siddiqui, Zahida Channa, Shaheen Zamir,Kauser Safdar and other executives are present on the occasion.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—HBL, Pakistan’slargest bank, joined hands withMETRO-Habib Cash & CarryPakistan, a leading wholesalechain to provide customized andconvenient banking solutions.Present on the occasion were Mr.Nauman Dar, President & CEO,HBL and Mr. BouzenethBenaouda, Managing Director,METRO-Habib Cash & CarryPakistan. An agreement wassigned by Mr. Faiq Sadiq-Head ofPayment Services Group, HBLand Mr. Akkas-ul-Hussaini Divi-sional Head of Finance, METRO-Habib Cash & Carry Pakistan. Asper agreement, HBL would beproviding state of the art cash

HBL to provide banking solutionsto Metro Cash & Carry

management solutions toMETRO-Habib.

This long term strategic busi-ness alliance will provide innova-tive and end-to-end technologydriven banking solutions toMETRO-Habib Cash & CarryPakistan, enabling it to achieve itsfinancial efficiency goals and helpenhance the experience of its cus-tomers, vendors and employees.

Nauman Dar expressed hisadmiration for METRO-HabibCash & Carry’s role in facilitatingPakistan ’s consumer economy byproviding price rationalization. Hesaid, “As an industry leader, HBLis committed to its responsibilityof adding value to the lives of themasses through building allianceswith, and facilitating companies

and organizations.” Also speakingon the occasion, Mr. BouzenethBenaouda, Managing Director,METRO-Habib Cash & CarryPakistan said, “We are pleased toextend our association with HBLand look forward to a successfulbusiness venture with them. Wehope together with HBL, we canprovide effective and efficientvalue added services to our custom-ers.”

Further HBL has already in-stalled ATMs at all METRO-Habib Cash & Carry Pakistanstores, which will provide greatconvenience to their customers.The two organizations also planto enhance cooperation in otherbusiness areas of common inter-est in the near future.

ISLAMABAD: Nauman Dar, President and CEO HBL, Faiq Sadiq, Head, Payment Services HBL, Akkas-ul-HussainiDivisional Head of Finance Metro-Habib Cash and Carry and Bouzeneth Benouda, Managing Director, Metro-Habib Cashand Carry exchanging documents after signatures.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—A high level meet-ing of existing zones/industrialestates was held at Punjab Boardof Investment & Trade (PBIT)here today to review issues per-taining to special economiczones (establishment and ben-efits) in light of the SEZ Rules,2013. Representatives of PunjabIndustrial Estates Developmentand Management Company(PIEDMC) and Faisalabad In-dustrial Estate Development andManagement Company(FIEDMC), besides others, at-tended the meeting.

Vice Chairman PBIT,Nadeem Hasan Asif showcased

PBIT plans SEZs to boostfurther economic activities

the Initiatives of establishmentand regulation of SEZs to the ex-isting zones/ industrial estates inlight of the recently approved SEZAct, 2012. Under the Act, exemp-tion from customs duties and taxesfor all capital goods imported intoPakistan for the development,operations and maintenance of aSEZ; exemption from all taxes onincome accruable in relation to thedevelopment and operations of theSEZ for a period of 10 years, start-ing from the date of signing of thedevelopment agreement will be-come affective for the investors.

A detailed briefing on theoccasion covering various prac-tical aspects of the legislationwas also given which covered;

implementation mechanism ofthe SEZ Law; attracting and fa-cilitating the potential busi-nesses for colonizing such es-tates for expanded business ac-tivity; the timeframe to initiateand process SEZ application andits eventual impact on employ-ment generation.

The meeting agreed thatPBIT will endeavor to assist in-dustrial estates in establishingSEZ Desks. The provincial SEZAuthority is housed within thepremises of PBIT and thereforethe platform of PBIT will beavailable for any coordinationand support to the industrial es-tates in matters of implementa-tion of the SEZ Act, 2012.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—TUSDEC (Tech-nology Upgradation and SkillDevelopment Company) haslaunched the course of Fash-ion Design for women in col-laboration with FWBL (FirstWomen Bank Limited) toimplement USAID GenderEquity Program. The course isbeing organized at NIDA (Na-tional Institute of Design andAnalysis) Karachi and Lahorecentres, where a total of 40women are being trained onthe modern lines of appareldesigning.

TUSDEC has engagedhighly seasoned trainers to im-part the course curricula re-

TUSDEC fostering womenvocational education

vealing the redbrick of fashiondiscernment. According to oneof the trainers, the course spanon a duration of four weeks inwhich the trainees will be out-fitted with creative styling, pat-tern making and entrepreneur-ship skills. Greater emphasizewill be laid on practical exer-cises.

The trainees will be ap-prised with both conventionaland most forward fashion trendsas well as the forecasts whichwill help them fine-tune theircreativity while classifying theirown esthetics. The companysource shared that the course hasbeen specifically launched forthe women belonging to meagerincome backgrounds, who can

not afford to attain qualitytrainings due to escalated costrolls attached.

TUSDEC has also facili-tated all the trainees with theprovision of free of cost toolkits as well as the transporta-tion facility. At the coursecompletion, the trainees willexhibit their work and will becertified for their training,which will aid them in optingfor a formal employment orinstigating their own business.

The source further sharedthat this is subsequently the sec-ond batch of trainees asTUSDEC has already imple-mented four vocational coursesof fashion design and domestic

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Asia is movingalong a dangerously unsustain-able energy path that will resultin environmental disaster and agaping divide in energy accessbetween rich and poor unless theregion dramatically changescourse, says a new Asian Devel-opment Bank (ADB) report.

Asia’s Energy Challenge, thespecial theme chapter in ADB’sAsian Development Outlook2013 (ADO 2013) released Tues-day, highlights the complex bal-ancing act the region faces todeliver energy to all its citizenswhile scaling back its reliance onfossil fuels. If by 2035 Asiamerely expands energy accesswithout fundamentally changingthe way it consumes, the reportpredicts the region’s oil con-sumption will double, natural gasconsumption will triple, and coalconsumption will rise a whop-

Asia’s prosperity requiresmajor change in energy use

ping 81%, with costly and dev-astating environmental impacts.

Asia’s limited indigenous en-ergy resources present an addi-tional challenge. With only 9% ofproven global oil reserves, the re-gion is currently on track to almosttriple oil imports by 2035, render-ing it significantly more vulner-able to external supply shocks.

In Asia, 1.8 billion peoplestill rely on wood and other tra-ditional fuel as their primaryenergy source, it adds. Sincemodern energy access is essen-tial for their social and economicadvancement, Asia must find thepolitical will and innovation toscrap outdated policies andrecalibrate its energy mix.

For one, policymakers willneed to replace general fuel sub-sidies that artificially lower thecost of power and impose hugefiscal burdens with targeted sub-sidies for the poor.

The report suggests elimi-

nating wasteful subsidies world-wide would also lower CO2emissions by 2.6 billion tons in2035. Carefully designed sup-port for renewable energy tech-nologies must be stepped up.Next generation wind, solar andbiofuel technologies, which areexpected to be more cost com-petitive than current options anddo not compete with food crops,offer potential solutions.

Asia has great potential inshale gas, with the PRC havingthe world’s largest endowment.But technical uncertainties suchas leakage and water contami-nation must be addressed.

The Fukushima disasterpowerfully underscored the risksof nuclear power, but a phase outwould see a sharp spike in fossilfuel use. A far greater focus ongreen, energy efficient cities andtransport systems, along withscaled up research into clean en-ergy, are equally critical.

to participate in KCCI 10thMy-Karachi, Oasis of Har-mony Exhibition scheduled tobe held in July 2013 which isa showcase and B2B & B2Cplatform where local and for-eign exhibitors participate. AnInternational Pavilion isplanned for foreign exhibitorsthis year too.

Hidayat Hussain, BusinessSupport Officer, PakistanFrance Business Alliance,Shamim Firpo, Senior VicePresident KCCI, and Manag-ing Committee Members ofKCCI also participated in themeeting.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Last week, ahigh-level delegation of Ameri-can cotton scientists visited Pa-kistan to review progress andplan new strategies with Paki-stani counterparts to fight theCotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV),a devastating disease that affectscotton yields in Pakistan andcaused the loss of an estimated1.5 million bales or 15 percentof this year’s total harvest. Theteam visited labs in Lahore andFaisalabad and observed experi-

US, Pakistani scientists work togetherto produce disease-free cotton

mental disease-resistant cottonbreeds grown in greenhousesprovided by the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture (USDA).

According to a press release,the visit is part of a multi-year col-laboration with Pakistani scientiststo develop a cotton seed resistantto CLCV. This cooperation be-tween U.S. and Pakistani scientistson cotton is a prime example of thework the United States does to en-hance the productivity of Pakistan’sagricultural sector, especially forsmall farmers.

Dr. Brian Scheffler, USDA’s

Lead Scientist in the Cotton Pro-ductivity Enhancement Program(CPEP), was impressed with theprogress that Pakistani counter-parts at the National AgricultureResearch Institute (NARC), theUniversity of Punjab Institute ofAgricultural Sciences, the Cen-tral Cotton Institute in Multanand Sakarand, and others, hadmade. Pakistani scientists arepainstakingly testing thousandsof samples of cotton germ plasmto find a high-yielding cottonseed variety that provides pro-tection from CLCV.

SC reservesverdict on S&EC

chairman’sinduction case

ISLAMABAD—Supreme Courthas reserved the decision regard-ing the appointment of Chair-man Security and ExchangeCommission, which would beannounced after two weeks.

The two-member bench un-der the headship of JusticeJawad S Khawaja resumed thehearing of the case on Tuesday.The counsel of the applicantAfnan Karim Kundi , whileSulman Akram Raja on behalfof Chairman Security and Ex-change Commission appearedbefore the court.

Kundi , the lawyer of appli-cant said in his arguments thatthe Prime Minister took the de-cision inspite of opposed bySenate standing committee.Moreover 247 officers were by-passed as the appointment wasmade without giving advertise-ment in media.

Sulman Akram Raja told thecourt that necessary rules andregulation were followed in theappointment of his client, as af-ter reviewing his education andexperience, there is no need totake action against him.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Pakistan Associa-tion of Automotive Parts & Ac-cessories Manufacturers(Paapam) on Tuesday urged thegovernment to ensure equal sup-ply of electricity throughout thecountry as the province ofPunjab is the worst hit by theelectricity shortage.

Addressing a meeting ofmanaging committee ofPaapam, Chairman Munir Banaand Vice Chairman Usman

Paapam seeks end ofdiscriminatory power outages

Malik said that industrial pro-ductions had nosedived due toprolonged and unscheduledpower cuts, as small industrialunits located in Kotlakhpat In-dustrial Estate, Qauid-e-AzamIndustrial Estate, Kattar BandIndustrial Estate, Sundar Indus-trial Estate and Industrial Clus-ters at Multan Road are facingpower breakdowns of up to 20hours. They said that industrialunits were on the verge of col-lapse but LESCO authorities areplaying the role of silent spec-

tator and paying no heed.Expressing grave concern

over repeated incidence of un-scheduled hours-long poweroutages, Paapam chairmanMunir Bana demanded of theLESCO authorities to ensurepower supply to the industrialareas as per industrial schedules.

He demanded the govern-ment to suspend 650MW elec-tricity supply to other provincesand divert it to Punjab to over-come power crisis. He said theContinued on Page 11

Continued on Page 11

LCCI’scountry-specific

economic roadmapfor envoys

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore Cham-ber of Commerce & Industry(LCCI) on Tuesday handed overcountry-specific roadmap toPakistan Ambassadors to Thai-land, Uzbekistan and Cambodiathat would help strengthen liai-son, increase bilateral trade andpromote economic cooperation.

The Ambassador to Thai-land Sohail Khan, Ambassadorto Uzbekistan Riaz HussainBukhari and Ambassador desig-nate to Cambodia Amjad AliSher had a detailed meeting withthe LCCI members and identi-fied areas of mutual cooperation.

The LCCI President FarooqIftikhar, Senior Vice PresidentIrfan Iqbal Sheikh, Vice Presi-dent Mian Abuzar Shad, formerSenior Vice President SohailLashari and former Vice Presi-dent Aftab Ahmad Vohra wereprominent among the partici-pants belonging to almost allsectors of economy.

Maximum facilitiesto exportersObserver ReportHYDERABAD—The exportersare playing a vital role inintroducing the country’sproducts in internationalmarkets and the government isfully committed to providemaximum facilities to themwith the objective to enhanceforeign reserves. These viewswere expressed by DeputyDirector Trade DevelopmentAuthority of Pakistan (TDAP)Hyderabad Mumtaz AliLeghari while holding ameeting with the exportershere at his office on Tuesday.He assured that all genuinedemands will be addressed bythe government at the earliestso that the exporters could findnew avenues of introducingthe country’s products andhelp the government inenhancing the foreign reserves.However, he called upon themto ensure the exports of qualityproducts in order to avert a badimage of the country.

LSE up by 25.94pointsStaff ReporterLAHORE—Lahore StockExchange on Tuesday witnessedbullish trend by gaining 25.94points as the LSE-25 Indexopened with 4163.49 and closedat 4189.43 points. The market’soverall situation also corre-sponded to an upward trend as itclosed at 1.613 million sharesagainst previous turnover of1.298 million shares, showingan upward move of 315,000shares. While, out of the total106 active scrips, 31 moved up,59 remained equal with 14down values. Engro CorporationLimited, Thal Limited andDawood Hercules Corporationwere Major Gainers of the dayby recording increase in theirper share value by Rs 5.71, Rs5.10 and Rs 1.58 respectively.Pakistan Petroleum Limited,National Bank of Pakistan andFatima Fertilizer Company losttheir per share value by Rs 1.18,Re 0.41 and Re 0.30. TheVolume Leader of the dayincluded Lafarge PakistanCement with 385,000 shares,Dewan Farooq Motors Limitedwith 140,000 shares and TheBank of Punjab Limited with100,000 shares.

Oil prices riseLONDON—Global oil pricesrose Tuesday on the back ofupbeat quarterly earnings fromAlcoa and supportive inflationdata from top energy consumerChina, analysts said. BrentNorth Sea crude for delivery inMay won 42 cents to $105.08per barrel in early afternoondeals in London. New York’smain contract, West TexasIntermediate (WTI) light sweetcrude for May, added eightcents to $93.44 per barrel. Themarket had already rallied onMonday in a technical reboundafter last week’s sharp fall onpoor US jobs data.—APP

Gold Tezab 50700.00Silver Tezabi 840.00

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 50420.00Gold 22 Ct 46010.00SilverTezabi 895.00Silver Thobi 815.00

USA 98.30 98.10

UK 150.70 150.39

EURO 127.70 127.44

Canada 96.65 96.46

Switzerland 105.20 104.98

Australia 101.93 101.72

Sweden 15.24 15.21

Japan 0.9976 0.9955

Norway 17.16 17.13

Singapore 79.23 79.07

Denmark 17.13 17.09

Omani Riyal 255.00 250.00

Saudi Arabia 26.21 26.16

Hong Kong 12.66 12.64

Kuwait 344.19 343.49

Malaysia 32.15 32.09

Newzeland 82.68 82.51

Qatar 27.00 26.95

UAE 26.76 26.71

KR WON 0.0863 0.0861

Thailand 3.361 3.354

Increasing petroleumimports matting

foreign exchangereserves: Minister

IS L A M A B A D —Federa lMinister for Petroleum andNatural Resources SohailWajahat Siddiqui has initi-ated consultations withstakeholders to resolve en-ergy crisis through short-term measures.

In this regard, he heldfirst meeting with a delega-tion of the All Pakistan CNGAssociation (APCNGA) onTuesday led by GhiyasAbdullah Paracha, Chair-man Supreme CouncilAPCNGA. Brig. (retd)Iftikhar, Ashar Haleem andothers were also present onthe occasion.

Minister for PetroleumSohail Wajahat Siddiquisaid that increasing petro-leum imports are eating upprecious foreign exchangereserves therefore he wantsto boost efficient use ofnatural gas. He informedthat reducing line losses, gastheft and ensuring just dis-tribution of gas are high onhis agenda.

The minister acceptedthat CNG is a highly ben-eficial commodity for thepoor and mediocre peopleof the country and said thathe will take an effectivedecision within days tosettle issues.

Siddiqui asked theAPCNGA officials to bringimplementable recommen-dations on Wednesday sothat it can be reviewed indetail before implementa-tion.

On the occasion, GhiyasParacha lauded the move ofthe minister and apprisedhim of the problems of 3.7million owners of cars con-verted on economic fuel andeighty million people usingCNG vehicles for transpor-tation.

He said that CNG sec-tor has been getting gas forthree days a week duringwhich working hours havebeen reduced to sixteen dueto power loadshedding leav-ing business unviable.

Paracha said that nobusiness could remain vi-able while working for threedays a week and deprived ofthe operational cost. He saidthat CNG and industrial sec-tor are being destroyed un-der the garb of gas scarcitythat is contrary to the groundreality.

Building his case, theleader of the CNG sector in-formed meeting that recentexplosion in a main gaspipeline was not an act ofterror but high pressurecaused the blast.

He said that APCNGAwill extend all out coopera-tion if the petroleum min-istry is serious in resolvingthe energy crisis and hopedthat situation will swing tonormal within days if ourrecommendations are ac-cepted.

During the meeting,both sides agreed to resolvegas crisis and issues of CNGsector jointly to end suffer-ings of masses and ensurenational development.—INP

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

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — S h a h z a d aAhsan Ashraf Sheikh FederalMinister for Industries & Pro-duction Shahzada Ahsan AshrafSheikh said that PakistanMarble Stone is of superiorquality and need to explore in-ternational market for the sup-ply of marble stone.

He said that in the countrythere is no shortage of naturalresources, “What we need to dois to exploit these resources ac-cording to the international stan-dards and by introducing the fin-ished products in the interna-

Pakistan Marble Stones tobe introduced in int’l market

tional markets foreign exchangecan be earned”. He said thiswhile chairing the briefing ses-sion about the Pakistan StoneDevelopment Company(PASDEC). He assured that ev-ery possible support will be pro-vided to PASDEC for the devel-opment of the marble stone in-dustry in Pakistan.

He also stressed on exploit-ing of the granite reserves avail-able in the various part of thecountry. The Minister was briefabout the working of thePASDEC, its various ongoingprojects throughout the countryand issues involved. The Min-

ister observed that by promot-ing stone industry in the troublearea of Pakistan like Balochistanand FATA employment oppor-tunities can be created whichwill result in the eradication ofterrorism and militancy in theseregions.

“This will lead to the eco-nomic prosperity in these areasin particular and the whole coun-try in general”. Latter, a brief-ing was given to the Minister onthe Pakistan Steel Mills. It wastold that Russia is will to pro-vide $1Billion package for theexpansion of the Pakistan SteelMills.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Industries and Production Shahzada Ahsan AshrafSheikh chairing the briefing session on the Pakistan Stones Development Company.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—University of Vet-erinary and Animal SciencesLahore Vice-Chancellor Prof DrTalat Naseer Pasha has said thatbuffalo is the mainstay of ruraleconomy of small farmers inmany developing countries, in-cluding Southeast Asia.

The Vice-Chancellor saidthis while addressing an inter-national symposium on “BuffaloResearch Development” here onTuesday. Secretary Livestockand Dairy Development Depart-ment Punjab Irfan Ellahi waschief guest at the inaugural cer-emony of the symposium whileProf Dr Prem Kumar Uppalfrom India, officers from theL&DD Department and UVASfaculty members participated inlarge numbers.

Sharing the results of recentbuffalo milk competition in thePunjab Livestock Show ar-ranged by the UVAS, the Vice-Chancellor said that a Nili Ravi

Buffaloes vital part of ourrural economy: Dr Pasha

buffalo of Muhammad YousafDogar from Multan broke therecord of highest yield with47.239 kilogram milk in 36hours and won the first prize. Abuffalo of Rana Javed fromFaidalabad won the second po-sition with 45.118 kg milk whilebuffalo of Ch Nazir also fromFaisalabad got third positionwith 42.639 kg milk yield. Hesaid such livestock shows andmilk competitions were ar-ranged by the UVAS to encour-age farmers to rare good breedsof buffalos.

He said that buffalo hadbeen an integral part of livestockagriculture in Asia for over 5000years producing milk, meat,draft power and hides. He saidthat Pakistan is the 2nd largestcountry of the world after Indiain having buffalo, which is dairytype, contributing over 60% oftotal milk production.

He said that another eco-nomic contribution of buffalo isa source of meat. He called for

launching an extensive programof progeny testing for Nili-Raviand Kundi breeds in their hometracts. He hoped that with thesupport of the government andefforts of the scientists, buffalowill be the “Animal of Future”.

The Secretary Livestockspoke about the initiatives ofthe Punjab government for live-stock development in Pakistanwhile Prof Dr Prem KumaUppal threw light on initiativesof Indian Punjab governmentfor livestock development inIndia. Other experts spokeabout “buffalo genetic im-provement strategies”, “slowreproduction of buffalo”, “buf-falo as an animal of choice forrural development”, “con-straints and solutions of feedsand feeding in buffalo”, “healthissues and its impact on exportpotential of buffalo meat”,“new extension model of smallholder buffalo farms”. A paneldiscussion was also held on theoccasion.

Warid bringsperfect int’l

calling packageSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Warid Telecom,leading the way in innovation inPakistan’s telecom industry hasintroduced new & attractive in-ternational call rates for SaudiArabia, Iran and UAE effectiveimmediately for all its prepaidsubscribers.

Prepaid customers can nowcall on fixed line and mobilenumbers of these countries for20 paisas per second only! Theoffer can be availed by sending“ON” to 3333 via SMS. Dailysubscription charges of Rs 1+taxwill apply.

This move is part of Warid’sfocus on providing innovativeservices tailored to its clients’needs and reflects the continuedcommitment to provide thepeople of Pakistan with the abil-ity to stay connected with theirfriends, family and loved onesaround the world in the mostconvenient way.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Ministerfor Communications, Ports andShipping Asadullah KhanMandokhel has said thatprogress of a country dependson development in its construc-tion industry and every possiblestep will be taken to solve theproblems of this industry in ourshort tenure.

He expressed these viewswhile addressing a representa-tive meeting of ContractorsAssociation of Pakistan andNHA top brass.On this occa-sion, all NHA members andother high officials were alsopresent.

The Federal Minister forCommunications said thatthere was no doubt that therewere problems in makingtimely payments to the con-tractors, however, it was worthappreciation that, despiteshortage of funds, the NHAhas continued to make pay-

Healthy construction industry must forfast economic progress: Mandokhail

ments to its contractors, andwe are making efforts to findnew means to generate morerevenue and therefore, the TollSystem is being upgradedalong modern lines.

The Federal Minister as-sured the contractors and con-sultants that, for the early reso-lution of problems, a steeringcommittee will be set up soonin consultation with all thestakeholders, whereas, a com-pulsory fortnightly report willbe sought to get an update onprogress on all ongoingprojects and for finding waysand means to solve the prob-lems faced by the constructionindustry.

To further improve the NHAcode, the Minister for Commu-nications urged the contractorsto come up with their recom-mendations within two days.

The Minister said that hewill make an exclusive requestto the Prime Minister to orderthe Finance Department for

early release of the NHA fundsthat are due. The progress of acountry depends on the Com-munications Sector and it wasthe endeavor to take concertedsteps in order to steady thefunctioning of NHA, the min-ister said.

Member Admn NHA,Naseer Ahmad Rana, in his in-augural address, termed theconvening of this meeting byFederal Minister for Commu-nications, a welcome and en-couraging step, and said that therole of Contractors and Con-sultants of basic importanceand NHA cannot complete itsprojects without their contribu-tions, and for sustained devel-opment, dependence on roadsis increasing day by day, headded.

Therefore, the importanceof this sector has increasedmanifolds,he said adding itshould be our endeavor to con-struct world standard roadsand take unified measures to

meet the challenges faced byus.

Member Planning NHARaja Nosherwan, in his conclud-ing remarks, said that this rep-resentative meeting is unique inthe respect that it will provideus a platform to understand eachothers’ problems and solvethem.

He said that the role of con-tractors and consultants in theconstruction of highways andmotorways is of prime impor-tance and we need to make com-bined efforts to put our countryon the road to progress.

Others, who spoke on theoccasion, included consult-ants’ representatives NasirKamal, Usman Yaseen Awan,Arshad Dad, Haji NoorMuhammad, Wajid Iqbal,Abdul Aleem Khan andRizwan Baig.

They elaborated on the is-sues faced by the constructionindustry and urged their earlyresolution.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Unabated in-crease in cost of production inthe face of unchanged drugprices for the last 11 yearscompelling multinationalpharmaceutical companies towind up production in Paki-stan.

Tariq Wajid, ChairmanPharma Bureau, a representa-tive body of the research-based multinational pharma-ceutical companies operatingin Pakistan, said that enor-mous increase in input costs,more than doubled utility ex-penses, raw material and de-preciating rupee and no priceincrease since 2001 have

Input cost rise compells multinational Pharma to wind uppushed the pharma industry toverge of collapse. If a price ad-justment is not allowed soon thepatients in Pakistan will sufferdue to non availability of afford-able quality medicine.

Talking to a group ofmediamen he said that multina-tional pharmaceutical compa-nies in Pakistan are committedto produce quality products un-der good manufacturing prac-tices despite continuous increasein the cost of doing business inthe country which is highest inthe region.

However, if the prices ofmedicines are not adjusted con-sidering a 12 year gap, the com-panies following internationalsafety and efficacy standards

will be forced out of business.The only other option of cuttingdown expenses will compro-mise quality and that he said wasneither acceptable to the indus-try or the patient.

He said that last year Paki-stan experienced an inflationrate of 7.93% as compared to9.75% in 2011, whereas CPI onDecember 2011 was at 160.12vs.172.82 on December 2012,now a change of 12.7 points.

He informed that as per theState Bank of Pakistan, USD on31st December 2001 stood at 59PKR which is around 98 PKRtoday (up by 66%). Similarly,GBP, EUR and JPY have in-creased from PKR 85. 53 and0.46 on 31st December 2001 to

PKR 155, 130 and 1.11 respec-tively.

He also highlighted a priceincrease of 215% on food items,163% in fuel, 179% in Electric-ity & Gas, 166% in Transporta-tion & Communication since2002, according to publishedgovernment statistics for thesame time period. However, thepharmaceutical manufacturersin Pakistan did not get any ad-justment in prices apart from afew hardship cases.

He said that it is becomingquite difficult for the companiesto stay afloat, as in Pakistan theprices of medicines received alast across the board price in-crease in 2001. “This in turn ismaking in several instances the

production of drugs unviabledue to the cost incurred againstreturn. This is the reason manylocally manufactured productsare vanishing from the shelves,and giving rise to illegally im-ported counterparts,” he rea-soned.

He went on to say that thegovernment should seriouslyconsider the demand of pharma-ceutical companies to make nec-essary inflationary price adjust-ments because stoppage of es-sential medicines will have adetrimental impact on the treat-ment of thousands of patients.

He said that not a singlepenny has been invested in thesector for last two years in-spiteof findings of independent inter-

national consultants that phar-maceuticals are a ‘sunrise indus-try’ with ‘tremendous growthpotential’.

The chairman Pharma Bu-reau further said that the indus-try is at serious risk of becomingeconomically unviable as it mayno longer be able to absorb the60% increase in its operationalcosts during the past 5 years(mainly resulting from the de-cline in the PKR versus theUSD). ‘The magnitude of theproblem is evidenced from thefact that during the past 5 yearsno less than 4 MNCs have closedtheir operations in Pakistan.

Pharma Bureau Pakistan is astrong proponent of prudentregulations of the pharmaceuti-

cal industry, however, it stronglyopposes over regulation that isagainst the interests of both con-sumers and the industry. ‘Theultimate sufferer would be thepatient who might end up pay-ing a very high price for coun-terfeit drugs, thus risking hislife,’ added the chairman.

If price adjustment is notmade, the country will faceacute shortage of quality andefficacious drugs including lifesaving essential drugs. ‘Thiswill open a door for counter-feit drugs whose consequenceswill be tragic as we have seenin the recent past. It will alsodestroy people’s faith in multi-national and national pharma-ceutical companies,’ he added.

HYDERABAD: Consul General France, Christian Ramage addressing the inaugural cer-emony of ‘Travelling Expo on Energy, for a Sustainable World’ organized by Pakistan Sci-ence Foundation and CCSTI France at Sindh University.

Etihad airwayswins globalCSR awardSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—For the secondyear running, Etihad Airways,the national airline of the UnitedArab Emirates, has won the Glo-bal Corporate Social Responsi-bility Leadership PremiumAwardat the 2013 CSR BusinessExcellence Awards, organisedby the National Forum for En-vironment and Health in Paki-stan.

The award recognisesEtihad Airways’ ongoing com-mitment to incorporating ethicalvalues and respecting individu-als, communities and the envi-ronment.

Accepting the award on be-half of the airline, Etihad Air-ways’ Area General Manager forPakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal,Sri Lanka and the Maldives,Amer Khan, said: “Wearehonoured to receive thisaward, as recognition of our ef-forts and active participation incauses that assist people andcommunities across Etihad Air-ways’ global network.

“In Pakistan, we will con-tinue our ongoing corporate so-cial responsibility programs thatfocus on human developmentand economic empowerment insupport of underprivileged com-munities.”

Etihad Airways’ CSR initia-tives in Pakistan during 2012included on going flood relief,sponsorship of the SpecialOlympics team and support forDeaf Reach Schools and Train-ing Centres.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The EmployeesOld-Age Benefits Institution(EOBI) is ready to invest itsfunds in electricity generationprojects to enhance its revenuesand help ease the energy crisisin the country.

These remarks were madeby EOBI chairman, Zaffar IqbalGondal while addressing busi-ness community at IslamabadChamber of Commerce & In-dustry (ICCI). He said thatEOBI has also invested in realestate projects which would in-crease sources of income for thewelfare organization.

He said the increase in therevenue of the institution wouldenable it to enhance pensionbenefits for workers registered

EOBI to invest more onpower generation

with it. Gondal said that previ-ously minimum monthly pen-sion of workers had been fixedat Rs1500, but now it has in-creased up to Rs3600 per month.He advised EOBI officials tohold regular meetings of Advi-sory and Dispute ResolutionCommittees to avoid miscon-ception and resolve the prob-lems faced by the business com-munity of ICCI.

Chairman EOBI said thatEOBI is planning to invest in acoal-water-slurry project as coalis available in abundance. Hesaid that EOBI offered to investRs15 billion for Bhasha dam butit could not get through byWapda.

He further elaborated thatagreement had been signed withNadra’s E-sahulat service and

Easy Paisa service that wouldalso be offered for quick deliv-ery of pensions to the EOBI pen-sioners. He admired the employ-ers’ positive role for payingEOBI contribution due to whichEOBI funds had increased to Rs.253 billion from Rs 149 billionin a short span of time.

Speaking on the occasion,Saeed Ahmed Bhatti, ActingPresident ICCI appreciated theimportant role of EOBI in pov-erty alleviation by providingvaluable pension benefits to theinsured persons.

He said that ICCI should begiven representation in EOBIBoard of Trustees in order forsmooth resolution of problemsof business community and in-sured employees of private sec-tor.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—An inauguration cer-emony of traveling expo titledwith “Energy for a sustainableworld” was organized at Dr N.ABaloch Model School, Old Cam-pus Hyderabad by Pakistan Sci-ence Foundation (PSF)Islamabad, Embassy of Franceand Scientific, technical, industrialand cultural centre (CCSTI) un-der the auspicious of the Univer-sity of Sindh, Jamshoro in a bidto understanding the relationshipbetween energy and development,the future difficulties of accessingstocks from certain sources andthe effects our constantly increas-ing needs have on climate change.

The Consul General (CG) ofFrance in Karachi ChristianRamage, vice chancellor Prof.Dr Nazir Ahmed Mughal inau-gurated the traveling expo.

Traveling Expo inauguratedat SU old campus

The expo was attended bymembers of PSF Dr KhalilAhmed Ibupoto, B.S Chaudhry,Dr Imdad Ali Ismaili, DrParveen Munishi, Dr SarfrazHussain Solangi, PrincipalModel School Hyderabad AhsanShah Rashidi & a number of rep-resentatives of civil society,teachers and students.

Later, addressing the cer-emony, PSF representative DrKhalil Ahmed Ibupoto said thatthere were two reasons of the es-tablishment of Pakistan ScienceFoundation (PSF), first researchin the field of science and sec-ond popularizing of science add-ing that PSF had started work-ing with the govt. of Francesince 2008 in an attempt to con-duct research and it succeededto get the required objectives inthe field of mathematics, chem-istry and environment sciences.

government decision to giveelectricity to Punjab would helprevive economic activities in theprovince as due to an acuteshortage of electricity it was thetrade and industry that sufferedbadly.

He said that cheaper and un-interrupted power supply is theonly way to achieve economictargets set for the year 2013. Thecrisis in industrial sector was notonly causing flight of capital andrelocation of industrial units tocountries like Bangladesh andMalaysia but had also reducedgovernment revenues drastically,

he said.He said that the industrial

area is being treated as domes-tic consumer and power outagesafter every one hour had badlycurtailed productions.

Mr Bana said that due tolong power cuts the investmentscenario had spoiled in the prov-ince and so much so that all in-dustrial units had curtailed theirproductions. He said acute elec-tricity and gas shortage had notonly crippled the trade and in-dustry but also brought wide-spread unemployment and pov-erty.

Paapam seeksFrom Page 13

tailoring in collaboration withFWBL (First Women Bank Lim-ited) at its NIDA Lahore andKarachi centres. The tracer studiesfor the previous courses have re-vealed considerable number ofwomen engaged in any formal avo-cation earning out a decent livingfor them. Adhering to its mandateof skill development, TUSDEC isfostering vocational trainings forthe vulnerable women in its variedactions under implementation.

Enabling the prospects ofwomen socioeconomic empow-

erment is one of the most sapientenactment to fuel up the eco-nomic furtherance in the countryas women formulates a majorpart of our population. Accord-ing to the company spokesper-son, TUSDEC appreciates andlook forward to strengthen sucha meaningful alliance with FirstWomen Bank Limited, consider-ing it one of the most objectivefusion of activities which canfurther render benefits on vari-ous development avenues ofwomen empowerment.

TUSDECFrom Page 10

Pepsi signsbeverages supplyagreement withJohnny Rockets

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pepsico has alwaystried to provide the best of its prod-ucts to bring smiles on faces andthe company has always been anintegral part of food business inPakistan, Jahanzeb Qayum Khan,Country Manager Beverages,Pepsico said here on Monday.

Jahanzeb Khan was address-ing a ceremony organized here byPepsico International. During theceremony an agreement wassigned between Pepsi and JohnnyRockets whereas Pepsi will be theexclusive beverage partner for theworld renowned restaurant brand.Abdul Wahab - ChairmanBandhani Group of Companies,Mr. Monavar K. Ahmad – CEOand Mr. Abid Shah – Group Co-ordinator. Whereas, Mr. JahanzebQayum Khan, Mr. Yaser Ghani,Ms. Romana Aziz Khan , Mr.Mohammad Khosa, Mr. AdnanAbbasi and Mr. Awais Amin werealso present there at the occasion.

PepsiCo will provide bever-ages for all Johnny Rockets’ out-lets in Pakistan. Romana A. Khan,PepsiCo Director said at the occa-sion, “Providing our customerswith the best in class beveragesremains PepsiCo’s key focus.”

Sunflowercultivated over1,145,000 acres

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Caretaker Minis-ter for National Food Security andResearch (NFS&R), Mir HassanDomki here on Tuesday was in-formed that area under sunflowercultivation increased from185,000 to 1,145,000 acres andarea of canola was increased from8,000 acres to 260,000 acres.

The minister visited PakistanOilseed Development Board’s(PODB), Central Office whereManaging Director, PODB, SyedMuhammad Nasir Ali, gave apresentation about the objectiveand functions of PODB.

He said that PODB wasplaying its role to increase theareas of sunflower and canolaand also striving hard for pro-motion of oil bearing tress likeolive and oil palm cultivation.

OUTSIZED school bags are turninginto a curse for kids, 80 percent ofwhom carry loads up to a fifth of

their body weight, really taxing their backs,says a new research from the charityBackCare.

Studies show that car-rying any more than a tenthof your body weight cancause spinal damage. Ex-perts warn we are facing anepidemic of back problemsin young adults when thelong-term effects of thisearly damage starts to ap-pear.

“We are seeing increas-ing numbers of youngadults coming for treatmentin relation to back troubleand this can often be tracedback to carrying heavy bagsto school,” warns PeterSkew, an Essex-based ex-pert in musculoskeletalmedicine, the Daily Mailreported.

Skew, vice-president of BackCare,adds: “Children’s skeletons are still devel-oping, and having a heavy bag slung overone shoulder can exert unnatural force onthe spine, muscles and attachments.

“Rather like exercising only one sideof your body in the gym, you quickly getunilateral muscle-loading, which can causethe small muscles in the back to tighten andcompress the spine,” adds Skew.

A 2007 British study showed that 13 to50 percent of 11-17 year olds have experi-enced back pain. And it’s been shown thatif you experience back pain as a child, you

are four times more likely to have to en-dure back pain as an adult.

“Picking up and swinging a heavybackpack onto your shoulder multipletimes a day is potentially more damaging

to a growing body than hav-ing to walk a long distancewith a static load,” saysSkew.

It’s not just getting toand from school that’s theproblem, because mostschools no longer providelockers or desks to storebooks (children sit at tables),so children have no choicebut to carry everythingaround with them all day.

Skew says youngpeople are made even morevulnerable to back problemsby their increasing inactivity- muscles don’t developproperly if you spend yourt ime playing computergames instead of runningaround. This is compounded

by poor posture and one-size-fits-all fur-niture.

The weight of the bag is not the onlyfactor to consider: the type of bag yourchild is carrying can contribute to pain andstrain.

The ideal school bag, according toLorna Taylor, paediatric physiotherapist,is a not-too-large backpack with wide,padded straps to spread the load, and awaist belt.

Heaviest items should be closest to thespine, which is the centre of gravity, toreduce the strain.

KARACHI: PML-N leader Ghaus Ali Shah chairing 10-party meeting at PML-F House.

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister presiding over a meeting with Chairman BOI and senior members.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI: A worker putting Sheesha Huqqas in the mobile after a raid by DHA personnelagainst Sheesha Bars.

KARACHI: Bomb disposal squad personnel diffusing a bomb which was found in an autorickshaw at Khawaja Ajmer Nagri.

Heavy schoolbags maycause spinal injury

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Scholars andparliamentarians representingdifferent South Asian statesidentified that there was de-mocracy deficit in the entireregion that had caused weak-ening voice of minorities.People had become merelyvote banks and the states wereexperiencing electoral vio-lence and attacks on the rivalgroups.

They were speaking at thefirst of two-day South Asianconference on ‘Religious Mi-norities and Human Rights:

Scholars call for end todiscrimination against minorities

Challenges and Opportunities’organised by Pakistan Instituteof Labour Education and Re-search (PILER) at a local hotelTuesday.

I A Rehman of HumanRights Commission of Pakistan(HRCP), who presided over thefirst session said the entire SouthAsia was in the grip of funda-mentalism. There were forces,whether it was military and re-ligious states using religion fordividing the people.

Those, who used to preachfor peace now, had become vio-lent. For example, in Sri Lanka,Buddhist monks, who were

preaching non-violence, had be-come violent. “We should havebroader canvases to understandand deal with the situation, hesaid and called the scholars hail-ing from abroad that “If you wantto learn the case of minority youshould come and see how minori-ties in Pakistan are battling fortheir rights and survive.”

Senator Saeed Ghani, asso-ciated with Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) realized the fact thatthe country needed to be trans-formed into a free society. PPPwas facing pressure and atroci-ties since the decades. The partydespite being in the government

had never dared to come intoconfrontation with such ex-tremists, he added.

He disclosed that extrem-ists had penetrated in all ma-jor political parties and theywanted to bring these peoplein the parliament. He warnedthat in case any party compro-mises and gave these elementsopportunity to reach at parlia-ment it could be destructivefor the country in future.

Mayeenuddin Badal a,member of the Bangladeshparliament said people weremisinterpreting Islam for theirpolitical gains.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Jamaat-e Islami(JI) Karachi Chief MuhammadHussain Mahenti said that the JIcandidates fulfilled each andevery article of the Constitutionincluding Article 62 and 63.

This he said while address-ing a meeting of the JI officebearers at Idara-e Noor-e HaqTuesday.

Mahenti said that the suc-cessful scrutiny process of the

JI candidates meet criteriaof Article 62, 63: Mahenti

candidates was an open provethat the JI was an only party,which could provide an honestand sincere leadership to thepeople of the country.

He informed that the JI can-didates had filed the nominationpapers for contesting generalelections on provincial and na-tional assemblies’ seats from thecountry, but none of its candi-dates found guilty in fake degreecases or bank defaulters.

If the transparent elections

will hold in the country, then JIto be the only party which willhas a mandate of the people, saidMahenti. He said that no onecould pointed out the finger onthe honesty and sincerity of theJI leaders even its oppositionparties were fully aware by thisfact that the JI leaders had pos-sess an exemplary character.

Mahenti said that the JI can-didates and workers could com-municate freely with the peopledue to their positive characters.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The process of re-moving flaws in voters’ lists es-pecially after severe protest andobjections by the political and re-ligious parties in Karachi, theElection Commission had com-pleted the work. The new cor-rected voters’ list had emergedwith increase in voters that totaledto 7.1 million, which were 6.8million before the work for re-moving the flaws was com-menced. The new voters’ list was

300,000 votes added tonew voters’ list in Karachi

being printed on paper and wouldshortly be made public by theElection Commission of Pakistan.

The new voters’ list showedaddition of around 300, 000 vot-ers and thus total the number ofmale and female voters in the cityhad come to 4,080,000 and3,020,000 respectively.

While talking to PakistanObserver, Jamaat-e Islami Sindhchapter Chief and JI contestantfrom NA-245 Dr Meraj Ul HudaSiddiqui said that the flaws in thevoters’ lists were of two catego-

ries, the internal displacement andthe external displacement. The JIwould see if the voters’ list wasfree from the flaws and the shift-ing of voters to other constituen-cies was addressed or not.

He said that it was the JI thathad moved the Supreme Court ofPakistan on that issue while Paki-stan Muslim Leagues had alsojoined the JI on the same issue andthe Supreme Court of Pakistan hadordered the election commission ofPakistan to rectify the flaws andprepare fresh voters’ lists.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—KMC Administra-tor Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi hassaid that the parking of oil tank-ers on Zulfiqarabad Oil TankersParking Terminal (ZOTPT)would start soon. This projectwas being completed with a costof Rs313million. Constructionof this terminal would help mini-mize environmental pollutionalong with public interest andespecially the problem of park-ing of a large number of oil tank-ers near Shirin Jinnah Colonywould be resolved as well. PSOand other oil companies wereasked to perform their respon-sibilities so that this importantproject could complete on time.

He said this while address-ing a meeting held about the

ZOTPT to reduce heavytraffic from roads: Zaidi

construction of Zulfiqarabad OilTankers Parking Terminal.Project directors and other offi-cials concerned were present.

The meeting was informedthat the provision of water inunderground tank of ZOTPThad been ensured and 95 percentof overhead tank had been com-pleted and shields for 9660people have also been built.

Besides, police check postson internal and external routes,waiting place consisting of tworooms for rangers along with thefacilities of toilet and bathroomhave been built whereas threetyre shops, boundary walls andconstruction of mosque andparking area have also been builtby KMC however works fromdifferent oil companies werebeing delayed as these works

were completed oil tankerswould start parking here.

The Administrator said thecompletion of this project hadbeen facing minor problemswhich would be resolved withthe collaboration of all stake-holders soon. The infrastructurefor more than 10 thousandpeople was available and 2375oil tankers could be parked onZOTPT, which was being com-pleted with a cost ofRs313million.

He said the leveling dress-ing of 200-acre land on ZOTPTwas done where 6 to 8 feet onvarious locations was filled withsoil whereas Rs700millionwould be required for construc-tion of second phase for whichrequest would be made to Gov-ernment of Sindh.

No bar onmarriage of

choice in IslamSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Head of MadrassaArif-ul-Hussaini, MaulanaAllama Syed Muhammad JawadHadi has highlighted the impor-tance of marriage and criticizedforced marriages which are notallowed in Islam.

Maulana Hadi said, “Islamlays special emphasis on mar-riage and the relationship be-tween husband and wife”. Islamrecognizes the importance ofcompanionship and promotesmarriage as being the foundationof families. Furthermore, mar-riage also protects individualsfrom immorality and legitimizesnatural desires. Maulana Hadidispelled the widely held notionof arranged and forced mar-riages being acceptable in Islam.He said, “Islam allows marriageby choice. There is no room forcontrol or force in marriage.”

Arranged and forced mar-riages are a part of Pakistanisociety. Marrying children tosettle debts, blood feuds and inexchange for money, property orpower are equally common, par-ticularly in the rural echelons.Child marriages - or those inwhich the ‘bride’ or ‘groom’ arebelow the legal age (as per theMuslim Family Law Ordinanceof 1961), are freely and fre-quently practiced. Islam is erro-neously quoted to justify these,and similar, illicit acts.

PPP asksMalik Habib

to quitIRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Election Cell ofPakistan People’s Party Sindhdemanded the resignation ofFederal care-taker Minister forInterior Malik Habib. The state-ment said that not only the Min-ister had openly supported PML(N) but a few days back had alsosaid that the care taker govern-ment will continue to work forthe next three years.

The statement said that thereal motives of the Interior Min-ister have become crystal clearnow. His real agenda is to cre-ate a justification for the post-ponement of elections instead ofholding elections on the ap-pointed date.

Like Zia ul haq, he too doesnot want that elections should beheld till there is an assurance ofgetting “positive results”.

PPP Election Cell has ex-pressed serious concern on thefact that not only the Law En-forcing Agencies but the intelli-gence agencies are working un-der a person whose partiality andreal agenda are now obvious toeveryone.

The statement said that inthe present situation, the openpartiality of the Federal InteriorMinister cast new doubts on theimpartiality of the entire FederalCaretaker Government.

Thus it is demand MalikHabib’s resignation or dismisseshim to restore the credibility ofthe Caretaker setup.

DHA continuescrackdown onSheesha cafes’

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—DHA Security andVigilance in coordination withPolice contingent conducted ef-fective raids on a number ofSheesha Bars located onKhayaban-e Sehar in DHA Ph-VI, confiscated the equipmentand sealed the parlours. Thiswas part of the ongoing cam-paign to close down all theSheesha Bars in DHA.

It may be recalled thatSheesha smoking has become amenace and is eating the vitalsof the society. Sindh High Courtand the interim government hadalready directed closure of allillegal Sheesha parlours operat-ing in the area.

Many parents have alsorequested DHA to close downSheesha Bars in Defencewhich are instrumental inspreading waywardness in so-ciety.

Director Security & Vigi-lance DHA, Brig. (Retd)Azhar Manzoor said that DHAhas enhanced security mea-sures in Defence and is all outto ensure provision of secure,safe and peaceful living envi-ronment to residents.

He said that DHA Vigilancewould continue its efforts to closedown Sheesha restaurants andvice dens operating in the area.

AROUND 390 million people are infected each year with dengue fever -the world’s fastest-spreading tropi-

cal disease - more than triple the currentestimate by the World Health Organization,experts said.

The new finding, basedon several years of analy-sis, underscores the grow-ing burden of the mosquito-borne viral disease, whichis also called “breakbonefever” because of the se-vere pain it can cause.

There is as yet no ap-proved vaccine or specificdrug to treat dengue, whichis not normally fatal butlands many victims in hos-pital. Researchers fromthe University of Oxfordand the Wellcome Trustpresented their results,along with a detailed mapof dengue distribution, inthe journal Nature.Their new figure includes 96 million severecases and approximately 300 million mild orasymptomatic episodes. That compareswith the WHO’s most recent estimate foroverall infections of 50-100 million a year,

The high number of relatively mild casesoffers little cause for comfort, since it sug-gests the reservoir of disease is far largerthan expected. What is more, dengue is adisease that hits more than once and peoplewho get it mildly first time are more likely tohave a serious episode if bitten again by aninfected mosquito.“The asymptomatic pa-tients, in terms of the future burden of dis-ease, are a very important contributor,” said

Experts triple estimate ofworld dengue fever infections

Jeremy Farrar, director of OxfordUniversity’s tropical disease research unitin Vietnam.

Spread by the Aedes aegypti mos-quito, dengue has grown rapidly along

with urbanization and global-ization because it thrives intropical mega-cities and iseasily spread in goods con-taining small puddles of wa-ter, such as used tires.Climatechange is also making moreparts of the planet habitablefor the dengue-spreadingmosquito.

As a result, half theworld’s population is nowexposed to the disease,mostly in the developingworld - but also in parts ofsouthern Europe and thesouthern United States. Lastyear Europe experienced itsfirst sustained transmissionof dengue fever since the1920s with around 2,000people infected in the Portu-

guese archipelago of Madeira.Farrar said more such outbreaks were

likely in future, since the mosquito wasalready present in southern Europe andthere were increasing numbers of peopletravelling to and from dengue-infectedareas.

The researchers estimated that 70 per-cent of the world’s serious dengue caseswere in Asia, with India alone accountingfor 34 percent of the total. The Americas -mainly Brazil and Mexico - made up 14 per-cent, while Africa’s dengue burden wasnearly as large.

LAHORE: PU VC Dr Mujahid Kamran presenting souvenir to Pakistan Science Foun-dation chairman Dr Manzoor Hussain in Innovation Summit.

LAHORE: Students perform during Annual Music Festival organized by British Grammar School.

LAHORE: Visitors taking interest in the paintings displayed during an exhibition atAl-Hamra Art Gallery.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Plagiarism in Pa-kistan has increased with theimprovement in quality ofhigher education and it is,therefore, one of the biggestchallenges for universitiesand the Higher EducationCommission (HEC).

These views were ex-pressed in a workshop on“plagiarism” here at the Uni-versity of Health Sciences(UHS) on Tuesday. The work-shop was organized by UHSQuality Enhancement Cell(QEC) and it was facilitatedby Dr. Allah Rakha, DeputyDirector QEC.

Dr Allah Rakha said thata large number of cases ofplagiarism by the teachingcommunity, especially thePhD scholars, have so farcome to lime light and beenreported in media. He addedthat HEC had taken several

important initiatives to com-bat plagiarism including theformation of Quality Assur-ance Division, which in 2007announced HEC’s PlagiarismPolicy to discourage copiersand encourage researchers,students and teachers to pro-duce original work.

The objectives of thispolicy were to apprise stu-dents, teachers, researchersand staff about plagiarism,how it could be avoided andintroduce ways to discour-age plagiarism by regulatingand authorizing punitive ac-tions against those foundguilty, Dr. Allah Rakha main-tained.

He explained that HECPlagiarism Policy stated thatplagiarism is “taking and us-ing the thoughts, writings,and inventions of anotherperson as one’s own. It is thecontext where one misrepre-sents ideas, words, computer

codes or other creative ex-pression as one’s own andmanifests it in a variety offorms, which include verba-tim copying, near-verbatimcopying and paraphrasingsentences with or withoutciting the source properly.Ways for detecting plagia-rism include the mixed cita-tion styles, lack of referencesor quotations, unusual for-matting, anomalies of dictionand anomalies of style”.

Dr Allah Rakha said thatHEC last year allowed theplagiarism detection service,Turnitin, to access all publicand private sector universi-ties for greater efficiency inimplementing the plagiarismpolicy. He added that UHSwould conduct workshopsfor the faculty and post-graduate medical students toapprise them about plagia-rism and how it could beavoided.

Plagiarism still a bigissue for universities

3000 SikhYatrees arrive

todaySTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Some three thou-sands Sikh Yatrees will arriveat Pakistan through Wagahborder from India by specialtrains to celebrate the BaisakhiFestival here on Wednesday.

Evacuee Trust PropertyBoard (ETPB) officials willreceive the Sikh yatrees atWahga and these yatrees willstay in Pakistan till April 19.

According to officialschedule, after customs andimmigration clearance, SikhYatrees will departure forGurdwara Panja Sahib,Hassanabdal where they willperform their religious rituals.The main religious functionwill start on April 11 at 8.00am with Arambah Paath sahib,on April 12 Madah Ki Ardasand April 13 Bhog AkhandPaath Sahib will perform.

On April 13 they will de-parture for Gurdwara janamAsthan, Nankana Sahibwhere they will stay two days.They will also visit toGurdwara Sacha Sauda,Farooqabad. On April 16they will departure fromNankana Sahib to GurdwaraDera Sahib Lahore. Duringtwo days stay in Lahore theywill also visit Gurdwara RorriSahib, Eninabad of DistrictGujranwala. On April 19morning Sikh Yatrees will de-parture for India.

LAHORE—Lahore Drug FreeCity Project has de-notifiedten NGOs for displaying lack-luster and poor performancein carrying out the anti drugactivities in the city.

In this regard, a meetingof Lahore Drug Free CityProject was held here on Tues-day, under the chairmanshipof its Project DirectorMuhammad Altaf Qamar atRegional Directorate of AntiNarcotics Force Punjab,Lahore Cantt.

The meeting was also at-tended by Force Commander,Anti Narcotics Force Brig.Shahid Afzal, Project Man-ager, Syed Nadeem Abbas, DGSocial Welfare, Department

Lahore Drug Free City Project:10 NGOs de-notified

and Director News of DGPR.The meeting reviewed

and assessed the perfor-mance of non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs), asso-ciated with Drug Free CityLahore Project and decideddisassociation of ten NGOsfrom the project, whose per-formance has not been up tothe mark. The meeting alsodecided for the enlistment offour new NGOs, which wouldbe associated with the DrugFree City Lahore Project.

Ten NGOs which havebeen de-notified and disasso-ciated include Aghaz-e-Nau,Al-Madina and Holy SeeTrust, Revival of Heritage,Roshan Rasta Rehab Centre,

Social Harmony Awareness &Development Organization(SHAAD), Rising YouthCouncil of Pakistan, WorkingWoman Development Foun-dation, Shamrina WelfareFoundation, Pakistan Asso-ciation of Health & SpecialEducation and Young Re-formers Organization.

Meanwhile, Four newNGOs, which have been en-listment and would be asso-ciated with the Drug FreeCity Lahore Project, includeMass Foundation, Help DayFoundation, Women Healthand Vocational Society andCommission for Researchand Human Develop-ment.—Online

Waraich filesappeal against

rejection ofnomination papersLAHORE—PPP leader ImtiazWaraich on Tuesday filed anappeal in Election Tribunal,challenging rejection of hisnomination papers.

Ayaz Amir’s appeal willbe taken up by the tribunalon Wednesday.

Meanwhile, election tri-bunals continue to hear ap-peals of those, whose paperswere rejected by returningofficers during the process ofscrutiny.—Online

LHC allows AshrafWathra to work as

SBP deputy governorLAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Tuesday al-lowed the Deputy GovernorState Bank of Pakistan (SBP)Ashraf Wathra to continuehis job.

It should be mentionedthat earlier the LHC hadbarred the deputy governorfrom his job.

A bench of LHC on Tues-day resumed the hearing of apetition moved against theappointment of AshrafWathra as SBP Deputy Gov-ernor.—INP

Three copsinjured in groups

clash, 10accused held

LAHORE—Three policemenwere injured in an armed clashbetween two rival groupshere late Monday night. Po-lice arrested 10 accused in-volved in the fire exchangeover property dispute.

According to details, tworival groups hailing fromNawab Town located atShaukat Khanum Road,traded fire when armed menof one group tried to grab apiece of land owned by theother group.

Upon getting the infor-mation heavy contingent ofpolice reached the scene andtried to calm down the situa-tion. However, the miscre-ants started firing at policeinjuring two additional sub-inspectors and a constable.The injured cops wereshifted to hospital for treat-ment. The police registered acase against the armed menof both groups and nabbed10 accused involved in fir-ing.—INP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)spokesperson SenatorPervaiz Rashid said Tuesdaythat a baseless propagandaof seeking disqualification ofNawaz Sharif and ShahbazSharif would die itself.

He said that superiorcourts have rejected allega-tions of loan default and taxevasion against Nawaz Sharifand Shahbaz Sharif. “Evenfinancial institutions such asState Bank of Pakistan, FBRand NAB have failed to con-ceal facts on the basis of theirrecord. Instead, they had toannounce that all the busi-ness dealings of the twobrothers are clean of anywrongdoing,” the PML-NSenator said.

He said that reports pub-lished in English and Urdudailies of a group have beenprepared from the materialcompiled by the PPP duringthe era of political confron-tation, adding, “Pervaiz

Baseless propaganda againstSharifs shall collapse: Pervaiz

Musharraf also inherited thesame pack of lies.”

Pervaiz Rashid said thatthe services rendered by theSharifs to strengthenPakistan’s economy couldnot be ignored. He said thatthe record vindicates that theSharif family faced no suchallegations before NawazSharif entered the politics.“The PPP governmentnationalised Ittefaq Found-ries in 1971 in revenge for theSharifs’ supporting the sonof Allama Iqbal in elections,”he said.

The PPP, the Senatoradded, continued victimisingthe Sharifs in its second andthird tenure as well. He saidthat Musharraf also did thesimilar harm to Nawaz Sharifand his family. “All the base-less allegations against theSharif family have been lev-elled by the person who hasbeen proved a criminal beforelaw,” the PML-N leader said.

With elections on thecorner, the opponents of thePML-N have resorted to such

accusations, he said. He alsoquoted the Lahore HighCourt’s verdict of 2002, whichsays, “The undisputed fact,however, remains that thetwo companies i.e. the prin-cipal debtor, have placed allthe assets and properties atthe disposal of the court atthe initiative of the creditorbanks. The banks themselveswant to realise their dues bythe disposal of the propertiesof the two companies, whichhas already been acceptedby the said companies. It is,therefore, a case in which thecreditor has taken over theassets and properties of theprincipal debtor.”

He said the Sharif familywas itself eager to hear theverdict reserved on Decem-ber 3, 2012. “The fact that thefamily itself moved the courtsuggests it is not afraid ofany baseless case against it,”the senator said, adding,“Those who have resorted toallegations are now bound toexplain whether they respectthe law of land or not.”

LAHORE—Important ma-chinery such as MRI andFlow cytomitry machineswhich are employed to diag-nose cancer are out of orderat Children’s hospital due towhich a number of child pa-tients, mostly from poor fami-lies have suffered.

According to informationmade available by hospitalsources, the MRI machine isout of order for the last two anda half years and the patientshave to arrange tests from pri-vate hospitals which charge.

Around Rs. 10, 000 pertest. As many as 10 patientsvisit this hospital every dayfor this test and return dis-appointed, said sources.

Similarly, Flow cytomitry

MRI, cancer diagnosticmachines non-functional

machine, a laser based tech-nology routinely employedin the diagnosis of healthdisorders, especially bloodcancers, is out of order forthe last three to four years.

Indigent, needy families ofpatients are forced to get thiscostly test done privately.Around 10 to 15 patients requir-ing this test visit the hospitalevery day. According to a doc-tor at the Children’s hospitalthis test costs Rs. 17, 000 toRs.22, 000 at private hospitals.

The officials from themanagement of the hospitalsaid that they had written sev-eral times to the Punjab Healthdepartment to seek their helpand attention but the effortswent in vain.—APP

Riaz urges PMto sack interior

ministerLAHORE—PPP leader RajaRiaz Ahmad has alleged thatcaretaker Interior MinisterMalik Habib Khan is sup-porting the PML-N in its elec-tion campaign and he shouldbe “sacked immediately”.

Addressing a press con-ference at Lahore Press Clubon Tuesday, he said if thecaretaker interior ministerhad to support the PML-N,he should “resign himself”.He demanded the caretakerPM to sack him.The ECPshould take notice of his con-troversial statements.

The PPP leader paid trib-utes to the Punjab caretakerchief minister for reshufflingthe bureaucracy as it was animportant step to ensure free,fair and impartial elections.

He alleged that formerPunjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif was still usingofficial vehicles and securitypersonnel. He demanded care-taker Punjab Chief MinisterNajam Sethi to get back all thefacilities addind, the formerCM should use only those fa-cilities which the constitutionallowed him. He said the PPPwould actively contest elec-tions on all seats in the coun-try, adding the party campaignwas effectively in progress inPunjab.—APP

PTI: May 11day of

accountabilityLAHORE—Once into powerPakistan Tehreek-e-Insafwould end inflation and un-employment in the countryon priority basis, stated PTIleaders here Tuesday.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) Punjab president EjazChaudhary, general secretaryDr. Yasmeen Rashid and sec-retary information AndleebAbbas in a joint statementstated this on Tuesday. Theysaid people will weed out suchpolitics which have harmedthe interest of commonman.They slated the “poli-tics” of Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz and PakistanPeople’s Party which affectedthe life of masses.—APP

On duty womenurged to seekpostal ballot

LAHORE—Women whohave to be on duty away fromtheir constituencies on poll-ing day of general elections2013 must submit their appli-cations to seek postal ballotby April 15.

About 200,000 womenwill not able to cast theirvotes in case they failed toapply for the postal ballotby the said date, a spokes-man of Gender ElectionMonitoring Cell (GEMC) ofAurat Foundation saidhere on Tuesday.

The Cell will continueraising voice to highlightsuch issues with a view toensure maximum participa-tion of women in the nextgeneral elections, thespokesman said and addedthat the initiative is part ofefforts of Aurat foundationfor women empowerment.—APP