RAWALPINDI: Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf coming out after appearing in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench onWednesday.

SC suspends notification forex-ministers ‘lifetime perks’

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt on Wednesday suspendeda notification under which the ex-PPP government was entitled tolifetime security and other perks.

A five-member bench of theapex court, headed by chief jus-tice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, resumed the hearingof the case pertaining to securityprotocols and privileges forformer premier Raja Pervez

Ashraf and federal ministers.Controller General Atif

Usman duly said before the courtthat Rs.290 million were spentannually on security protocols forthe PM and federal ministers,adding that provincial fundswould be further used for secu-rity of the ex-premier.

The chief justice remarkedthat Interior Minister RehmanMalik would have to explain incourt his reasons for entailinglifetime security.

He said that under Article9 of the Constitution, it was theduty of the state to provide pro-tection to all its citizens, but in-quired under what law a notifi-cation on lifetime security wasissued for an interior minister.

The bench ordered to sus-pend the notification which sanc-tioned benefits and privileges.

It also summoned the HomeSecretary to personally appear inthe court for the next hearing ad-journed until today.

Balochistan quake-hit town

Thousands waitfor rehabilitation

MASHKEL—Thousands ofpeople, including women andchildren, are awaiting relief outin the simmering heat ofBalochistan’s border town ofMashkel.

The remote village was badlyaffected Tuesday by a massive7.8 magnitude earthquake in Iran,which sent tremors across theborder and saw most of it’s mudhouses and shops destroyed.

Forty people have been re-ported to have been killed whileover 100 are injured. Militaryhelicopters have airlifted some 20critically injured to CMH Quetta.

Relief efforts are underwayby the Pakistani military, but lo-cals complained of a shortage offood supplies, drinking water andtents. The area has been withoutelectricity since it was jolted bythe powerful tremors.

Locals said the area getselectricity from Iran across theborder. Two aftershocks havestruck the area since this morn-ing and residents are still in a state

of panic and fear. More than2,000 houses and dozens of shopshave been razed to the ground bythe earthquake.

Mashkel is a remote villageclose to the Paki-stan-Iran bor-der and is the worst affected bythe earthquake. It has a popula-tion of around 15,000.

It took at least 20 hours forthe media, to reach the affectedarea. Locals said when the earth-quake struck Mash-kel, not a

single doctor was present in thevil-lage. The only available fa-cility was a rural health centreoperated by a lone dispenser,barely able to cater to the injured.This resulted in additional casu-alties which could have beenavoided had prompt medical helpreached in time.

Haji Abdur Rasheed Reiki,the head of elders of Mashkel, isa worried man. “No help hasreached us. It is just the military

which is helping us in a limitedway. There are no signs of anycivilian administration or amechanism for the provision ofmedical aid. We need food anddrinking water desperately. Theweather is very hot too. It willtake weeks for us to rebuild ourhouses. But for that we needhelp,” he told. Reiki said mostfamilies were taking shelter un-der the trees.

Dost Mohammed, a veg-etable vendor, saw his shop andhouse destroyed.

Facing an uncertain future,he has already started rebuildinghis house but is still worriedabout his business.

“My shop is destroyed and Idon’t know whether the govern-ment will help us to rebuild ourshops and houses. Right nowthere is no hope as no one is com-ing for our help. We are very faraway from cities but I request mybrothers in other parts of theprovince to send us help,”Mohammad said.—Agencies

RAO ATIQ UL AMIN KHAN

MUZAFFARABAD—PresidentAsif Ali Zardari resolved onWednesday that Pakistan alwayswanted good relations with itsneighbors including India andonly the composite dialoguewere the key to the peacefulsettlement of the Kashmir con-flict. Addressing joing session ofboth houses of the Azad Jammu& Kashmir Parliament includ-ing AJK Legislative Assemblyand the AJK Council inMuzaffarabad, the Presidentasked India to avert the path ofviolence and move for grantingKashmiris their birth right of selfdetermination according to theUN resolutions.

President said that the glo-bal issue of Kashmir was lyingunresolved since last 65 years asthe world community could notget the issue settled in line withthe international norms and com-mitments. The President of Pa-kistan reiterated that Pakistanwill continue moral, political anddiplomatic support to the peopleof Jammu & Kashmir for theirjust and principled struggle for

Zardari urges early peacefulsettlement of Kashmir dispute

Addresses joint sitting of AJK Council, Assemblytheir right of self determination.AJK Prime Minister Ch. AbdulMajeed and leader of oppositionin AJK Legislative Assembly and

former Prime Minister RajaFarooq Haider also addressed thesession. Both the Kashmiri lead-ers thanked the people and thegovernment of Pakistan for ex-tending unflinching support to

Kashmriris cause of freedom andtheir birth right to self determi-nation. The President Zardarisaid resolution of Kashmir issue

is of vital important to bring longlasting peace and stability in theregion. Asif Ali Zardari said Pa-kistan will continue moral diplo-matic and political support to

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK President Sardar MuhammadYaqoob Khan receiving President Asif Ali Zardari on his ar-rival here on Wednesday.

Continued on Page 6

ASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—Federal Ministerfor Information and Broadcast-ing, Arif Nizami said hereWednesday that access to infor-mation was right of the peoplein a democratic society and thegovernment believes in that right.

He was addressing a recep-tion hosted in his honour by Pa-kistan Observer.

The Federal Minister as-sured the media persons that free-dom of media would be pre-served as it was essential for pro-moting democratic culture inPakistan. He said, he was fullyaware of the problems beingfaced by newspapers and othermedia outlets. “I am taking allpossible steps on urgent basis toaddress these problems so thatthere is conducive environmentfor the media owners and prac-ticing journalists”.

Arif Nizami said, Pakistan ismoving to general elections and Continued on Page 6

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) and the Pakistan

Muslim League-Q PML-Q

Pak prosperity was haltedby rival party: Bilawal

would defeat the looters and ex-ploiters in upcoming generalelections. Making vociferousclaims of victory prior to enter-ing the circle of combat wouldnot bear fruits but the actual vic-tory in elections would be ownedby the PPP and the PML-Q withthe tremendous support of themasses.

Those that had been shout-ing on power load sheddingshould also tell the nation as whowas in power when the powergeneration contracts signed dur-ing the tenure of PPP’s slainleader Benazir Bhutto were can-celled and inflicted the peoplewith unending load shedding.

The certain class of politi-cians had under the aegis of the

Musharraf getsinterim bail in

BB murder caseISLAMABAD—A local court hasgranted interim bail to formerpresident and chief of All Paki-stan Muslim League (APML)Pervez Musharraf in BenazirBhutto assassination case.

The court also askedMusharraf to submit two suretybonds in the sum of Rs500, 000/each. The interim bail will beeffective till April 24.

The former president is oneof the key accused in 2007 as-sassination of former two-timePrime Minister Benazir Bhutto.—NNI

Seeking votes onreligion, ethnicity basis

ECP announces3-year jail for

candidatesISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP)has announced that candidateswho seek votes on the basis ofreligion and ethnicity will besentenced to three years inprison.

The ECP in a communiquéissued on Wednesday said thatprison terms would also behanded to candidates who usebribery as a means to gain votes.

Three-year jail terms willalso be awarded for casting fakevotes and stopping others fromvoting. —Agencies

Shahbaz demandsremoval of all

governorsSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz PML-N leaderand former Punjab Chief Minis-ter Mian Muhammad ShahbazSharif said that the day of May11 would be a historical day andwould decide the future path of

the country toward self-relianceand prosperity. PMLN nomineeswould sweep the general elec-tions across the country and thePakistan People’s Party would bedefeated across the country. Thematters pertaining to seat adjust-ments among the alliance of 10

Access to information right of people: NizamiContinued on Page 6

Imran, Waqaspapers accepted,

Wajahat’s rejectedSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—An election tribunalof the La-hore High Court dis-missed on Wednesday all peti-tions filed against the nominationof Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI)chief Imran Khan, declaring himas eligible to contest the upcom-ing elections.

PTI chairman will be con-testing from NA-1 (Peshawar –II), NA- 56 (Rawalpindi – VII),NA-71 (Mianwali – I) and, NA-126 (Lahore – IX).A local Pindiresident had raised the objectionto Imran’s nomination from NA-56 alleging that in his memoir,“Me and My Pakistan,” ImranKhan “had confessed to consum-ing liquor,” thus violating theconstitution. Meanwhile, AwamiMuslim League leader SheikhRashid Ahmed has with-drawnhis nomination papers in supportof Khan for the NA-56 seat.

Continued on Page 6

Picture on Back Page

CEC orderspoliticians’foolproof securityISLAMABAD—Chief ElectionCommissioner Fakhruddin G.Ebrahim has orderedfoolproof security for thecandidates of all the politicalparties.

“The Election Commis-sion has taken notice ofwidespread media reports thatquote senior leadership ofANP wherein grievance ismade that ECP has caused thewithdrawal of security fromANP leadership in KhyberPukhtunkhwa,” said astatement issued by theelectoral body.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Addressing theinvitees at the well-attendedhigh-profile reception hosted towelcome elevation of ArifNizami as Federal Minister forInformation & Broadcasting, MrZahid Malik, Editor-in-Chief,Pakistan Observer, said he feltsad to note that the role whichthe Information Ministry and itsattached Departments could playin image-making of the Govern-ment and that of the State had notbeen duly recognized by the suc-cessive Governments.

Mr. Malik said that the pro-fessional handling of domesticand foreign media was also a

Image-making potentials of Informa-tion Service need to be recognized

Zahid Malik urges forcountrywide celebrations ofWorld Press Freedom Day

highly challenging task and theInformation Officers are privi-leged specialists to meet the chal-

the care taker government wascommitted to ensuring peacefulatmosphere in the country so thatthe polls would be transparentand fair in all respects. “The me-dia has a great responsibility in

promoting democratic process inthe right direction. The informa-tion ministry would provide allpossible facilities to the media tohelp the journalists in fulfillingtheir professional responsibilities

during elections”. In response tosome proposals by Zahid Malik,the minister agreed that there wasneed for restructuring of the min-istry with a view to making it

‘Freedom of media will be maintained’

Continued on Page 6

Egypt’s Mubarakordered back toprison: ProsecutorCAIRO—Former EgyptianPresident Hosni Mubarak wasordered to be transferred backto prison from a militaryhospital on Wednesday on therecommendation of a medicalteam after he appeared fitter athis aborted retrial.

The prosecutor general’soffice said it had decidedMubarak would be returned toTorah prison on the outskirtsof Cairo. —Reuters

5 more killed inSWA US drone strikeWANA—At least five personswere killed and seven others in-jured when a US drone strucka compound in SouthWaziristan Agency (SWA) hereon Wednesday.

According to details, an un-manned US spy plane fired twomissiles at a residential com-pound located in villageSararogha of Babar Kot in SWA.

As a result of missiles strikethe compound was destroyedcompletely resulting in death fivepeople and leaving seven othersinjured.—Agencies

Picture on Back Page

Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Arif Nizami addressing a receptionhosted by Pakistan Observer on behalf of Editors and Publishers of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

305 polling stationsmost sensitive

SHER MUHAMMAD KHAN

MULTAN—Election Commis-sion of Pakistan has declared305, out of 1,572 polling sta-tion of Multan district, asmost sensitive where armedclashes and murders were re-ported in previous elections,while 374 polling stationswere declared as sensitiveand remaining 893 were gen-erally normal.

Regional Election Com-missioner Ashfaq AhmedSarwar said that ElectionCommission will publish thefinal list of polling stations.Official sources said that re-turning officers wereauthorised to increase thenumber of polling stations tofacilitate the voters. How-ever, no polling stationwould be established at pri-vate property.

PTI workers protestagainst ‘unjustified’

ticket awardOUR CORRESPONDENT

HAFIZABAD—Workers ofPakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf onWednesday took out a rallyin front of Press Club to pro-test against unjustified dis-tribution of tickets and ignor-ing the genuine workers ofthe party. Led by DistrictPresident PTI Ch. AmanUllah Sandhu, District Gen-eral Secretary and ticketholder for NA-103 MianAkhtar Hussain Bhatti,Afzaal Hussain Hanjra TehsilGeneral Secretary, HusnainAfzaal Senior Vice President,the workers raised slogansagainst Ejaz AhmadChaudhary, Chairman Parlia-mentary Board for awardingthe ticket for PP-106 to Ch.Qasim Tarar who has no con-nection with the PTI.

The ticket holder for NA-103 Mian Akhtar HussainBhatti and Rai Ishaq Kharalcandidate for PP-107 an-nounced that if party ticketto Qasim Tarar was not with-drawn they would return thetickets and would boycottthe election. Already office-bearers of 42 union councilshave tendered their resigna-tion to protest against theaward of party ticket to QasimTarar and ignoring RaiQamar-uz-Zaman Kharal.Four activists of the partyclimbed over 75 feet highwater reservoir and at-tempted to commit suicide byjumping down but on thepersistent request by Presi-dent of the district PTI theycame down later.

4 sites selected forelection meetings

in SahiwalOUR CORRESPONDENT

SAHIWAL—District Coordina-tion Officer Dr Sajid MahmoodChouhan has selected foursites for holding of publicmeetings during election cam-paign by political parties andcandidates. The selected sitesare Sheikh Zafar Ali Stadiumand Eagle Football Club inSahiwal and Rai Ali Nawaz Sta-dium and Nawaz Sharif park inChichawatni. He also issuedinstructions that all candi-dates should apply for per-mission to hold public meet-ings 3 days before the eventto ensure proper security ar-rangements. He said thatcode of conduct for electioncampaigns should be imple-mented with letter and spiritand strict action will be takenagainst the violators.

ISLAMABAD—Leader of theAwami National Party (ANP)and former minister for Paki-stan Railways GhulamAhmed Bilour has said thatalliance with any politicalparty will be decided aftergeneral elections. Talking toa private TV channel, he saidthat party leadership wouldbe decided about future po-litical alliance not an indi-vidual.

He said that ANP was theonly political party which al-ways sacrifices the lives ofleadership and workers inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).Responding to a question hesaid that terrorist threatswere given to the party lead-ership and due to thesethreats it could not organize

political meetings in open air.He said that they were not

frightened of these threats,attacks and would continueelection campaign, addingelection should be held ontime.—APP

920,972 votersto cast votesin Chakwal

CHAKWAL—There are about920,972 registered voters inthe District including 486,756male and 4,342,016 femalevoters for two national andfour provincial assemblyseats. The total number ofregistered voters in NA 60 is486,070 while there are463,677 registered voters inNA 61, official sources saidon Wednesday.—APP

Former MPAallowed to

contest pollsSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Former memberof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa As-sembly, Khalifa AbdulQayyum has been allowed tocontest in forthcoming gen-eral elections. The verdictwas issued by the electiontribunal Wednesday, allow-ing the aforementioned tocompete in elections from NA24 and PK 64 constituenciesof Dera Ismael Khan.

Earlier, a sessions courthad awarded imprisonmentof three years and rupees5,000 fine to the ex MPA. It ispertinent to mention herethat PPP’s candidate JamshedDasti was also allowed tocontest elections after hisimprisonment in fake degreecase was annulled.

Future alliance afterelections: Bilour

HYDERABAD: Gypsy ladies filling water in their pots at Jamshoro Road well.

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Workers preparing pana-flex at a printing Press.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—An impressiveceremony on the occasion ofcommissioning of 4th F-22Pship PNS ASLAT, indig-enously built at Karachi Ship-yard & Engineering WorksLtd was held today. AdmiralMohammad Asif Sandila,Chief of the Naval Staff,graced the occasion as ChiefGuest. The ceremony wasattended by high ranking of-ficials/dignitaries from Chinaand Pakistan including HEAmbassador of Peoples Re-public of China, Vice Presi-

Commissioning ceremonyof F-22p frigate held

dent China State Shipbuild-ing Corporation. (CSSC).

The commissioning ofPNS ASLAT and its handingover to Pakistan Navy’s Fleetculminates the historic con-tract signed in 2005 for con-struction of three F-22P shipsin China and transfer of tech-nology for indigenous con-struction of fourth ship atKarachi Shipyard. The timelyand successful delivery of allships including the indig-enously built 4th ship, speaksvolumes of cooperation andcommitment of CSTC/HZShipyard, Karachi Shipyard

SHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Ver-dict under which ElectionCommission authoritiesbarred former PresidentPervez Musharraf from com-peting next elections hasbeen ill received by the pub-lic including members of civilsociety, a survey report re-vealed. Saeed Farhi Advo-cate, a member of Malikwalbar said that it was right ofevery Pakistani to participatein parliamentary electionsand ultimate power lied withvoters to decide his suitabil-ity through use of vote. Todeprive any person of hisright to election on differentpretexts is against the basicprinciples of democracy.

As yet there is no foolproof procedure on how tojudge a particular candidateon the touch stone of ar-ticles 62 and 63 of the con-stitution especially in ab-sence of verdict of anycompetent court aboutconviction of such candi-date, he added and termedknocking out Musharraffrom election arena ashighly controversial.

Former president of pressclub, Mandi Bahauddin, RajaMuhammad Sarwar said thatit was being observed thatsome candidates have beengiven clean chit to contestelections while leaders ofother parties were beingbarred with similar allega-tions against them and said

this was against the normsof justice.

Raja Akram Advocatesaid that rejection of papersof Gen Musharraf havespoiled image of the ECP asa whole. He said thatMusharraf served the coun-try as a soldier and then tookover the country when na-tional institutions were al-most on the verge of disman-tling. He said that People, in-cluding lawyers’ community,had celebrated the takeoverby distributing sweets. Acomparison shows that hisregime was far better than theera of democratic govern-ment. Sub-Major Bashir(reted), President PakistanEx-Servicemen Society,Mandi Bahauddin Tehsil.

Civil society resentsMusharraf paper rejection

KARACHI: Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Asif Sandila in a group photo during commissioning ceremonyPNS ASLAT (1).

Excavator falls,driver killedM HALEEM ASAD

TIMERGARA—An excavatorwent out of the driver’s con-trol and plunged into a 500 feetdeep ravine at Utala Dushkhelon Wednesday while excavat-ing in hard rocks in hilly area.The driver identified as ZiaurRahman, 18, son of AliRahman, a resident of DheraiTalash was killed on the spot,residents told this reporter.

Sources said the excavatorwas levelling path for a link roadwhich skidded off a rock andplunged into deep ravine. Eye-witnesses said the driver triedto jump down but failed. Mean-while father of the driver, whois also a labourer fell uncon-scious when he reached thefuneral prayer. The deceasedhad married one year ago andhad been working on the exca-vator for the last three years.

SHAFFAAT MALIK

TALAGANG—The NA-61Talagang is one of those con-stituencies where a tough com-petition is expected in upcom-ing general elections. All theleading political parties likePakistan Muslim League (N),Pakistan Muslim League (Q)and Pakistan Tehrek-i-Insafhave strong presence in thisconstituency. Based on cur-rent political situation in NA-61 no anticipated winner canbe singled out in this constitu-ency and all depends on moodand trend of polling day.

Family politics holdsdominance over party poli-

tics in this constituency.Tammans are one of the mostinfluential and vibrant politi-cal families of the area. Theyhave been winning this con-stituency for the last 28years. Ch. Pervez Ellahi, astrong contender, is posingserious threat to Tammans.He took more than 90,000votes in last elections butcould not make it and lost bycouple of hundred votes.

Sardar Mansoor HayyatTamman has won this con-stituency for three times andnow he wants to contestagain under PTI plateform.He had got more than 37,000votes in bye-election of this

constituency in 2010. The50,000 new registered votescan change the whole sce-nario of upcoming elections.Apparently PML-N localleadership is not on the sameboat and it can cause seriousdamage to them.

Sardar Ghulam Abbas,former district Nazim, has an-nounced his support forPML-Q in NA-61 and PP-23.Former district Nazim has gotample support in these con-stituencies. The PML-N’sformer MNA from NA-60 AyazAmir can play a role in NA-61as he is no more PML-N’scandidate for NA-60. So it willbe very though game to win.

Tough contest expected in NA-61

PESHAWAR—The fourthphase of general elections2013 regarding acceptance orrejection of appeals by thecandidates was successfullycompleted here on Wednes-day as the Appellate Elec-tions Tribunal of PeshawarHigh Court allowed majorityof candidates to contest theupcoming polls duringseven days proceeding thatwas commenced on April 11.On the Final Day of the Pro-

ceeding here on Wednesday,the Appellate Tribunal ofPeshawar High Court, pre-sided over by Justice MianFasihul Mulk and membersJustice Mazhar AlamMiankhel and Justice IrshadQasir allowed former MemberProvincial Assembly, KhalifaAbdul Qayyum to contestgeneral elections 2013 fromNA- 24 and PK-64 DI Khan.Khalifa Abdul Qayyum hadchallenged the verdict of Re-

turning Officer of NA-24 andPK-64 DI Khan for rejectinghis nomination papers on theground that on April 2, Addi-tional District and SessionJudge had sentenced him(Khalifa Abdul Qayyum) tothree years in prison andpenalty of Rs5,000 in a fakedegree case.

Khalifa Abdul Qayyumhad won the election-2008as an independent candidatefrom PK-64 DI Khan. Simi-

larly, the Tribunal also ac-cepted the appeal of Jamaatulema Pakistan (JUP) candi-date for PK-I Peshawar,Yasir Farid after he produceda receipt of Rs. 11000 sub-mitted by him as PTCL duesand allowed him to contestelections. His nominationpapers were rejected on thegrounds for noting submit-ting PTCL’s dues. Likewise,the appeal of another candi-date from PK-25 Mardan,

Syed Yasir Ali was also ac-cepted by the Tribunal andallowed him to contest elec-tions.

The Tribunal also dis-missed the appeal of appel-lant Abdul Raziq, who hadfiled objections against ri-val Abidur Rehman. Thepetitioner alleged the re-spondent Abidur Rehmanwas a defaulter of TESCOand concealed his ac-count.—APP

Election 4th phase completed in KP

Businessmenarrested

SHARAFAT KAZMI

I S L A M A B A D — N A BRawalpindi has arrestedMufti Ehasan ul Haq, ChiefExecutive M/S FayaziGujranwala Industries Ltd.The accused person was al-leged for corrupt practices byway of cheating public atlarge by receiving huge vol-ume of funds from generalpublic for inducing in socalled business on profit &loss basis. The accused per-son defrauded an amount ofRs. 220 million. He has beenarrested and produced be-fore the Accountability CourtRawalpindi on Wednesday.

10-membercommittee to carry

poll campaignP E S H A W A R — P a k i s t a nTehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) activist,Asif Yusuf here Wednesdaydisclosed about formation ofa ten members committee tocarry out campaign for PTIand inform masses aboutparty’s manifesto. He saidthat election campaign will belaunched for the party chiefin NA-1 as people are look-ing towards PTI forchange.—APP

BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

H A F I Z A B A D —Fol lowingkickstart of election cam-paign by Quaid of PML-NMian Muhammad NawazSharif Monday, hustle andbustle in electioneering hasbeen started here. Thirty-sixTraders Unions of differentmarkets here held a meetingunder the chairmanship ofSheikh Muhammad Soba pa-tron-in-chief, which was at-tended among others by HajiMuhammad Afzal Lasani,Khalid Javed Lahoria andMalik Yasir Noor unani-mously decided to supportthe candidates of Ch. MehdiHassan Bhatti group in all theconstituencies in the districtdue to his pro-people andpro-development policiesduring the past thirty years.

Zawar Qamar Abbas a can-didate of Majlis Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen for PP-105 has with-drawn his candidature in favourof Dr. Muzaffar Ali Sheikh can-didate of Ch. Mehdi Group forPP-105. All the candidates ofCh. Mehdi Hassan Bhattigroup i.e. Dr. Muzaffar AliSheikh (PP-105), Rai JahanghirAli Kharal (PP-106), Pir Syed

Electioneeringkickstart after PML-Ncandidates nomination

Shoaib Shah Nawaz (PP-107),Ch. Shoukat Ali Bhatti (NA-102) and Ch. Liaquat AbbasBhatti (NA-103), who wereawarded PML-Q tickets havereturned the tickets and an-nounced to contest the electionas independent candidates,which vanished the PML-Qfrom the district for ever.

The election tribunal hasdismissed the appeals filedagainst the acceptance ofnomination papers of Ch.Liaqat Abbas Bhatti andMian Shahid Hussain Bhatti(NA-103) and Ch. ShoukatAli Bhatti (NA-102) were dis-missed. Rai Riasat Ali Kharaland Rai Jahanghir Ali Kharalcandidates for PP-106 whosenomination papers were re-jected were allowed to con-test the elections by the elec-tion tribunal.

Although, candidates ofall the parties have filed theirnomination papers to contestdifferent constituencies, yetPPPP, PTI and JI have failedto field potential candidatesand there would be toughcontest only between thecandidates of arch rivals, Ch.Afzal Hussain Tarar and Ch.Mehdi Hassan Bhatti Group.

and Naval Headquarters.PNS ASLAT is fitted with

state of the art weapons andsensors, which make it ahighly potent platform ca-pable to operate under multithreat environment. Inclu-sion of this unit in PakistanNavy’s Destroyer Squadronshall further strengthen andaugment its capabilities todefend the sea frontiers.

Chief Guest congratu-lated all those who partici-pated in this project, espe-cially, workers and manage-ment of KS&EW and ChineseEngineers/Technicians for

their support, cooperationand untiring efforts. Con-struction of PNS ASLAT hascertainly enhanced capabili-ties of Karachi Shipyard in theindigenous construction ofwarships, not only for Paki-stan Navy but for othernavies of the region. Con-struction of warship andother platforms like Fast At-tack Craft (Missile), SmallTanker cum Utility Ships,Tugs etc at Karachi Shipyardreflects indigenization policyof the government especiallyattaining self-reliance in de-fence capabilities.

Educational facilities for studentsISLAMABAD—Caretaker Federal Min-ister for Education Sania Nishter saidpresently 10,825 students fromBalochistan, Gilgit Baltistan and FATAare availing access to free higher edu-cation and this facility will be extendedto more students in future . In a pressconference held here, Sania Nishtersaid the fee waiver package for FATA,GB and Baluchistan students wasaimed at providing free access to

higher education to the students of Masters, MS/M Philand PhD. The scheme is being implemented by HigherEducation Commission (HEC) with the active involve-ment of the universities, education secretaries and theeducation ministry. The students of FATA are being fa-cilitated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa universities under thisscheme while the students of Baluchistan and GilgitBaltistan are getting this facility in their respective uni-versities. The minister said the HEC is paying tuition andmandatory fee for the students of these areas and ac-commodating more and more students through adoptinga procedure to facilitate the less privileged. The studentswho are already availing any scholarship or studying onself-finance basis will not be accommodated under thisscheme. Sania Nishter said this scheme will help govern-ment increase the ratio of literacy rate in the country andbenefit the deserving students. Meanwhile Caretaker pro-vincial minister for local government, finance and plan-ning and development directed local authorities to removelegal flaws in different township schemes initiated by localauthorities. Presiding over a high level meeting here, hesuggested that local authorities should have to take sharein property tax. He said that a timeframe should be to theallottees of the plots for taking possession and if the ownerfails to take the possession at that time then the allotmentmust be cancelled.—APP

Governor for timely completion of Fata projectsStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—The Khyber PakhtunkhwaGovernor, Engineer Shaukatullah hasasked the respective authorities of thenational building departments workingunder the aegis of FATA Secretariat es-pecially its Department of Planning andDevelopment to ensure timely comple-tion of the ongoing projects. He saidtheir would be no compromise on qual-ity of work as well, otherwise the con-cerned head of the department will con-

sider responsible. He was presiding over a high level meet-ing at governor’s house, Peshawar on Wednesday whereinpace of progress on developmental projects in FATA wasreviewed in detail. The meeting was attended by the Addi-tional Chief Secretary, FATA, Dr. Tashfin Khan, adminis-trative secretaries and the heads of respective departments.Talking on a point the Governor also stressed to give extracare in the preparation process of feasibility studies ofany project and make sure that there should not by anydispute in that respect. He also urged to give priority toimprove infrastructure facilities in FATA. Earlier, a delega-tion of doctors, representing Specialist Doctors Associa-tion also called on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor,Engineer Shaukatullah at Governor’s House, Peshawar andapprised him about the state of healthcare facilities beingoffered under the aegis of their respective health institu-tions as well as certain deficiencies being faced in thisrespect. The Governor gave a patient hearing to the paintsraised by members of the delegation and assured to takesteps to resolve them at the earliest. He also advised thedoctors to ensure efficient working of their respective healthinstitution and provision of better health care facilities forthe people of FATA.

ANP committed to fight terrorISLAMABAD—Awami National Party(ANP) President Asfandyar Wali Khanhas said that ANP is fully committedto fight against the terrorism and ex-tremism in the country. He said thatthe caretaker government should pro-vide security to his party leaders andelection contestants in public gather-ings. President ANP strongly con-demned the explosion during hisparty’s corner meeting in Peshawar

where at least nine people killed and dozens of otherswere injured. He said that ANP has a history to fightagainst the non- democratic forces and added that conti-nuity of democratic system is only solution to eradicatethe menace of terrorism in Pakistan. He added that elec-tion should be held ontime according the constitutionand level playing field should be provided to ANP forensuring transparency in coming election. The ANP Presi-dent, talking to a private news channel, said that the po-litical parties could resist the terrorists through politicalmeans to continue the democratic process in the coun-try. Asfandyar said that his party had rendered sacrificesfor the stability of democracy. Replying to another ques-tion, he said that it was need of the hour that all thepolitical stakeholder should adopt a joint strategy tomaintain peace in the country.—APP

Probe into salary non-payment plaintH Y D E R A B A D — C o m m i s s i o n e rHyderabad Dr. Riaz Ahmed Memon hasasked the Deputy CommissionerHyderabad to enquire in to the matterof non-payment of salary to sanitaryworkers and warned the Municipal Com-missioner Hyderabad to remove all gar-bage heaps, maintain cleanliness withinfour days failing which strict actionwould be taken against him. The Com-missioner issued such directives while

presiding over a meeting regarding cleanliness at his of-fice here. The Commissioner also directed the MunicipalCommissioner to prepare a comprehensive taluka- wisecontingency plan for cleanliness and ensure full sweepingin the city within four days. Expressing his apprehensionover unhygienic and dirty conditions due to unattendedheaps of garbage, debris, filthy water ponds on the roadsand streets, the Commissioner said that such a situationmay lead to outbreak of fatal communicable diseases inthe city. He termed it as apathy of the concerned officersand organisations who according to him have created asituation on their so called pretext of insufficient funds.He said that after implementation of last National FinancialAward (NFC), the funds of each organisation have beenincreased as compared to previous N.F.C. award, whereasthe performances specially of H.M.C. has declined. He saidthat financial constraint was just an excuse of the officersconcerned and if so, he would like to get it enquired andaudited and who- so- ever is found guilty would be takento task. The Commissioner also directed the MunicipalCommissioner to submit him list of sanitary workers alongwith their working areas and added that he would paysurprise visit to see, whether they are performing theirduties. While discussing about permanent solid waste dis-posal, the Commissioner asked the Deputy CommissionerHyderabad to invite the successful methodology/ modelfrom other districts of the country, so that the same couldbe applied here at Hyderabad.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) on Wednesday fore-cast mainly hot and dryweather for most parts of thecountry during next 24 hours.Day temperatures are likelyto remain 2 to 6 C abovenormals in Sindh, Balochistanand Southern Punjab duringnext two days.

The weather will remaindry and hot in Punjab,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Balochistan, Sindh, GilgitBaltistan and Kashmir duringthe next 24 hours. Accordingto the synoptic situation, thewesterly weather system ear-lier prevailing in the northernparts of the country has nowmoved toward eastwards.

The highest maximumtemperatures recorded dur-ing the last 24 hours wereDadu 44 C, Lasbella andTurbat 42 C. The maximumtemperature recorded in themain cities were Islamabad 28

C, Lahore 35, Karachi 35,Peshawar 29 C, Quetta 25 C,Skardu 24 C, Murree 13 C,Muzzafarabad 22 C, Gilgit 22C, Faisalabad 34 C, Multan38 C and Hyderabad 40 C.

The Met Officer here onWednesday predicted dry

weather for most parts ofKhyber Pakthunkhwa duringnext 48 hours. According to MetOffice Spokesman here, conti-nental air is prevailing over mostparts of the country. Mainly hotand dry weather is expected inmost parts of the country dur-ing next 24 hours while daytemperatures are likely to re-main 2 to 6 C above normal inSindh, Balochistan.—APP

NAZIR SIYAL

LARKANA—A rival Siyal com-munity groups in PS-35, PPPformer MPAs’ son and PML-Q leader announced to shuntheir differences and seat ad-justment by support each othercandidates in NA-204 and PS-35, Babu Sarwer Siyal of PML-Q withdrew from PS-35 to sup-port Tariq Siyal a candidatehere on Wednesday.

In a joint press confer-ence two rival groups of Siyalcommunity men in PS-35,among former PPP MPAGhulam Sarwer Siyal and hissone Independent candidateTariq Siyal and SecreatryGeneral Sindh Pakistan Mus-lim League-Q Babu SarwerSiyal reached to aconcluision for seat adjust-

ment and ended theirenemities and differences onvarious issues. The PML-Qleader withdrew from PS-35 tosupport Tariq Siyal an inde-pendent candidate son offormer PPP MPA GhulamSarwer Siyal, those who quitPPP two days back in Larkana.

While in a question, Siyalcommunity candidate Tariqtold that not only PML-Q hasoffered them to join party butdifferent other political partiesapproaching for join in, heconfirmed that the doors areopen in politics. They havealso announced to supportPML-Q candidate BabuSarwer Siyal on NA-204 con-stituency of Larkana and jointstruggle for the victory. Theysaid their agreement is on lo-cal level apart form the par-

ties and other issues, while toshun their differences in thecommunity is a prime objec-tive all of us they said.

PML-Q leader BabuSarwer Siyal has only goodrelations with Altaf HussainUnar, who left the party onhis own wishes and did notdiscuss anyone PML-Q work-ers and leaders he said. Mean-while, former senator Dr.Safdar Abbasi and formerMPA Haji Munwer Ali Abbasiclose to Benazir Bhutto haveannounced independent can-didates on NA-204, NA-205and PS-38, while in press con-ference a day back, ShahfqatHussain Unar a nephiew ofAltaf Hussain Unar has alsoannounced to contest as anIndependent ally of Abbasifamily.

Q U E T T A — P a k i s t a nPeoples Party and PakistanMuslim League-N havefielded their candidates forgeneral elections 2013 inBalochistan but have toface the wrath of those notawarded the tickets. Politi-cal sources told APP hereon Wednesday that someunrest was reported in oldparty workers who were notawarded party tickets asboth parties awarded theirtickets mostly to tribal chief-tains or influential persons.However, they opined thatit is first time for PML-N

that it has got support ofsome influential tribal chiefsand big politicians inBalochistan includingSardar Sanaullah Zehri,Nawabzada LashkariRaisani, Mir Jan Jamali andmany others.

“Earlier, PML-N had noits single member inBalochistan Assembly asSardar Sanaullah Zehri andCap (retd) Abdul KhaliqAchakzai joined PML-N af-ter winning elections 2008.However, now it hasemerged as one of the bigpolitical parties of

Balochistan and hopeful offorming next provincial gov-ernment in this province,”they said. On other side, PPPBalochistan has inner differ-ences due to two groupswithin the party. Mir SadiqueUmrani is leading a groupwhile detained PPP leaderHaji Ali Madad Jattak leadsanother group of partyworkers. However, the partysources said that senior PPPleader Faryal Talpur, the sis-ter of President PakistanAsif Ali Zardari has urgedthe both leaders to shuntheir differences.—APP

ISLAMABAD—National Di-saster Management Author-ity (NDMA) has so far dis-tributed 5 ton medicines, 2000kg dry ration, tents and blan-kets an immediate relief to theearthquake hit areas ofBalochistan, says data re-leased by NDMA. A total ofseven doctors and 24 para-medical staff have alsoreached Mashkel for carryingrelief activities.

Likewise the ProvincialDisaster Management Au-thority (PDMA) has dis-patched 60 tents, 50 blanketsand 500 food packets, 20trucks carrying 110 food

packets, 350 tents, 100 bagsof Dal (50kg each), 100 watercoolers, 100 lamps, 100 bagsof sugar, 10 bags of tea (50kgeach) to Mashkel. A total of35 people have been re-ported dead and 150 sus-tained injuries in earthquakein Balochistan last day, saysdata released by NationalDisaster Management Au-thority (NDMA). Accordingto the data, 700 houses havebeen damaged in districtWashuk, Mashkhel townBalochistan. Some buildingsin Panjgur have been partiallydamaged, but no loss of lifeis reported.—APP

NAWABSHAH—Three peopleincluding two female workersinjured on Wednesday as vil-lagers attacked on polio vac-cinators near Qazi Ahmedtown of District Benazirabad.The villagers pelted stonesat the team as soon as itreached village Hyat Mari forvaccination, officials said.

The attack resulted in in-juries to team in-chargeKhalid Soomro, female mem-bers Abida Mughal and

Fouzia Mughal.On receivinginformation Polio Zonal In-charge Taluka Hospital DrSaleh Unar rushed to the sitealong with the police.

In the meantime DistrictHealth Officer Dr BahadurKhan Khero told APP that morethan 2,72,450 children belowfive years age would be admin-istered polio drops and 653Polio teams including mobileteams were constituted toachieve this target.—APP

GUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

CHITRAL—Senior workersof Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) have rejected ticketholders of PPP at PK-89 andNA-32, Chitral. Addressing apress conference former dis-trict Naib Nazim Sultan Shah,SP retired Saeed Khan Lal,Haji Inzar Gul, former NazimUnion council Sheshi KohSher Muhammad, AC retiredSardar Muhammad Khan,Haji Muhammad Shifa, presi-dent Trucks Owners associa-tion, Habib Hussain Mughal,president Trade Union

Chitral, former Nazim UC AyunRahmat Elahi and others saidthat they were loyal workersof PPP but central leadershipnever counselled party work-ers during distribution ofparty tickets for election 2013.

They said that they triedtime and again to convincecentral leadership to distrib-ute party tickets after propercounselling with workers butthey ignored us. They saidthat former Tehsil NazimSartaj Ahmad Khan is a wellknown and popular leader ofChitral and that is why theyproposed him as nominated

candidate for PK-89 of pro-vincial assembly seat. HajiInzar Gul and SherMuhammad said that duringgeneral election 2008 PPP ig-nored its workers and theircandidate could not make itto National Assembly seat.

They said that they be-longed to Gujar tribe having12,000 votes which will be castin favour of Sartaj AhmadKhan. They said that they hadbeen cheated by the provin-cial leaders. The party leadershad been saying that theywould come to Chitral and re-solve this issue but they did

not turn up and just contin-ued to change dates. Theygave deadline of 2 days that ifparty ticket for PK-89 was nottaken back from Saleem Khanawarded to Sartaj Ahmad Khanthey would badly defeat PPPcandidate on this constituencyin general election 2013.

A large number of peoplebelonging to different walksof life assured full support toSartaj Ahmad Khan on thisoccasion. Former Naib NazimSultan Shah also announcedto withdraw from PK-89 ascandidate in favour of SartajAhmad Khan.

Ticket award: PPP workerspitted against own party

Three polio workershurt in village attack

Temperatureslikely to increase

NDMA distributesmedicines, dry ration

Balochistan elections;PPP, PML-N field players

Rival draw nearer forseat adjustment

2 killed, one injuredin road accident

MIANCHANNU—Two personswere killed while another sus-tained serious injuries when atrailer hit their motorcycle atAdda Iqbal Nagar. Accordingto police, Zafar Iqbal ofMohsinwal, along with AbdulRasheed of Faisal Town andan unidentified, was going to-wards Chichawatni by a mo-torcycle when a rashly driventrailer (TLU-796) coming fromopposite direction hit them. Asa result, Zafar Iqbal and uni-dentified person died on thespot while Abdul Rasheed wasshifted to Nishtar Hospital ina critical condition.—APP

HYDERABAD: Hermophilia patients, doctors and parents attend the awareness walk about Hermophilia on the eve ofWorld Hermophilia Day organized by Fatmid Foundation.

FAISALABAD: Policemen arresting a lawyer Rana Sarfraz who opened fire on 3 peoplein the Sessions Court.

Are we heading forbloody elections?

FEARS that the elections could turn violent are coming true as militants and terrorists are bombing and attacking candidates and theircaravans and public meetings in different parts of the country, raising

serious questions about ability of the Government to hold elections in peace-ful atmosphere. On Tuesday alone, 20 people were killed and over 60 oth-ers injured when an ANP election meeting was targeted in Peshawar andfour people lost their lives when terrorists hit caravan of Sardar SanaullahZehri, President of PML-N’s Balochistan Chapter.

Security in elections is becoming a serious issue and the situation callsfor urgent coordination among all law enforcing agencies to prevent threatsto leaders, workers and supporters of different political parties. Directionof the Election Commission and resolve of Interior Minister MalikMuhammad Habib to provide security to leaders of political parties is astep in the right direction but steps are also needed to be taken to improveoverall security environment. For this purpose, cooperation of PakistanArmy and Rangers should also be sought not just for polling day but alsoduring electioneering so that designs of the forces that want to derail theprocess of democratic transition are foiled. Attack on PML-N leader inKhuzdar, in which Zehri lost his near and dear ones, has exposed hollow-ness of the claims by ANP leadership that only their party was being tar-geted and that some of other parties have soft corner for militants. TheKhuzdar tragedy shows that the only objective of the negative forces is tocreate confusion, chaos and instability and they lose no opportunity to hitany target anywhere. There is also a strong perception that electoral vio-lence in Balochistan is being spearheaded by those who are opposed to theelectoral participation and are instead working for break up of the countryat the instance of some foreign powers and feel that the decision of thenationalist parties of the province to take part in elections would not onlyisolate them but render irrelevant. Anyhow, while urging the Federal andProvincial Governments to increase security and not to listen to those whoare prompting them to withdraw security from leaders in the name of with-drawing official protocol, we would also expect people to exercise greatervigilance themselves. The task becomes easier if big public meetings, ral-lies and caravans that are easy target for terrorists are avoided and insteadfocus is shifted to corner meetings and door-to-door canvassing.

Red Cross chief toocondemns drones

A REPORT, a few months back, on the US image in the world foundwidespread opposition to the Obama administration’s increasing use

of unmanned drone strikes to kill terror suspects. The Pew Research Centre’sreport said that in 17 of the 21 countries surveyed, more than half of thepeople disapproved of US drone attacks targeting extremist leaders andgroups in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Since then, several developments had taken place, which highlightedgrowing opposition to drone strikes among international public opinion.There is also a feeling at the UN that the international community has to beforceful in demanding a halt to extrajudicial killings in the garb of droneattacks. And Red Cross chief Peter Maurer has also joined the saner voicesby condemning the US drone strikes. Though his opposition was not un-qualified as he maintained that a drone used in Afghanistan or Yemen is adrone used within the context of an armed conflict and is thereby usedlegitimately but drone use in Pakistan was particularly problematic but weare sure that an open debate among relevant circles would one day bring anend to this abhorring practice. Legitimising use of drone in armed conflictsituation amounts to ignoring the most important aspects of breach of sov-ereignty of other nations and collateral damage. There is no credible evi-dence that the use of drones has made America safer than before, rather it isexposing the United States and Americans to more dangers and hatred.There are also serious doubt about accuracy and efficacy of these attacks,as many of the high value targets claimed to have been killed in one suchstrike resurface afterwards. Evidences suggest that the strikes have aidedmilitant recruitment and motivated terrorist activity. There is, therefore,need to stop these attacks as they do more harm than benefit, if any.

Boston Marathon bombingTHE incident of Boston Marathon bombing has been condemned world

over as an event of celebrations attended by thousands was turned intobloodshed. While three people were killed in the gory incident, more than176 were injured and several of them had to undergo amputation of parts oftheir bodies.

The FBI and local police are intensifying their probe into Monday’sbombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, vowing a worldwideinvestigation and appealing to the public for tips and cellphone picturesthat might yield clues about who was behind the horrific attack. The inves-tigators say that there were no claims of responsibility and the range ofsuspects and motives remains wide open. That means they are clue less ifthe bombs were the work of a homegrown or foreign threat but PresidentObama called the attack terrorism. According to investigators, pressurecookers used in the blasts were filled with nails, ball bearings and blackpowder, and the devices were triggered by “kitchen-type” egg timers. TheUnited States has the necessary hi-tech gadgets and capable investigatorsto identify the culprits but the officials leading the investigation are pittingtheir hopes on the public as they believe the instigators of the attack maywell have revealed themselves to others in one way or the other. Whateverinvestigators find, whenever they find it, it won’t take away the pain theinnocent people suffered. Scores who are not grieving loved ones are facedwith a lengthy physical recovery. There will be the psychological battle aswell living with the memories of the deafening blasts, the carnage, the fearas they searched for loved ones. Pakistani people share the grief of theAmericans, as they have been passing through these types of bombingsand loss of innocent lives at the hands of terrorists almost on daily basis.

High stake elections ahead

Gluttony is anemotional escape, asign something iseating us.

Gold andcommodities

The “barbarous relic” is howKeynes referred to gold, andrecent buyers of the stuff

might not be too well disposed toit either. Over Friday and Monday,gold suffered its biggest plunge invalue in 30 years. At one point onMonday, the market price of a troyounce dropped by over $30 in justa few minutes. Even after a mildrecovery yesterday, at $1,363 anounce, the not so precious metalremains more than $200 belowwhere it began on Friday.

Why the plunge? Very few ofthe explanations are especiallypersuasive. A slowdown in China(which is a major buyer of com-modities)? Hardly news. Ditto thesigns of a (very) mild pickup inthe US. As for the reports that thecentral bank of Cyprus will cashin 10 tonnes of its gold holdingsto pay for its economic and fiscalcrisis, that sale – while notewor-thy by recent European standards– would be of only 0.2% of theworld’s reserves. The more accu-rate explanation may be the mostprosaic: that after hitting an all-time peak of $1,920 an ounce inSeptember 2011, gold has simplygone up far enough in price forholders to start selling it. Even be-fore the turbulence of the past fewdays, it had already been headingsouth. Much the same could besaid of many other commoditiesthat have been falling over the pastfew days. Which leads us to an in-triguing irony.

Ever since the crisis broke out,a vocal minority of investors haveused gold as a critique of westerneconomic-rescue policies. All thosebillions pumped into moribundeconomies in Britain and the USand Japan; all those many-phasedquantitative-easing programmes bycentral banks; the generaldebauchment of currencies, so thatthe pound is now worth around20% less than it was when RBSand Lloyds-HBOS fell over – anargument wheeled out over andover is that all this semi-Keynesian loucheness is bound toproduce the mother of all inflation-ary booms, and the best insuranceagainst that is gold.

Take that old saw about goldbeing an ideal protection againstrising inflation. Over the very longterm, true. Over any othertimeframe, equities are just as ef-fective a hedge. But in any case,after nearly £400bn of Bank ofEngland cash, this Weimar-stylehyperinflation has yet to turn up.Which leaves us with the irony: thatthose who spurn sterling as beingtoo easily debased in value havethemselves invested in an asset thathas no easily appraisable value.How much a gold bar is worth isreally down to whatever a buyerand seller agree it’s worth. It’s anasset, not an inviolable store ofwealth – whatever the goldbugssay. — The Guardian

*****

A heinousact of hate

For now, the toll is three dead— including an eight-year-old child — and 140 injured,

after two bombs went off close tothe finish line of the BostonMarathon. It is important that theattack’s perpetrators are brought tojustice. It is all the more heinousbecause of the cold-bloodedmanner in which the civilians weretargeted at an international eventthat celebrates human achievement.Even in civil conflicts or wars ofnational liberation, where the deathtoll is often much higher, there arerules of engagement that try toprotect civilians.

The US administration has sofar shown admirable restraint in theimmediate aftermath of the attack.While making his anger clear,President Barack Obama refused topoint fingers until moreinformation was available. It isnecessary to be calm at this time toprevent an angry overreaction andthe dangerous consequences.Revenge is not justice and will onlyperpetuate a cycle of anger andviolence. Rather, inspiration must bedrawn from those who finished therace despite the blasts and helpedeach other in the aftermath. It is byshowing that they cannot succeed incowering people that terrorists willbe defeated. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

Peter De Vries—US writer

With the completion of termof five years PPP regime,virtually everything in the

country seems subordinated to thegeneral elections announced forMay, 11. At the core of the on-goingpolitical crisis of destructive andblood-letting law and order situa-tion, worst ever economy, tensionand conflict at the expense of publicinterest, insecurity and uncertaintythat can be hugely detrimental tothe progress of Pakistan towardsdemocracy, is the coming parlia-mentary election. It is now electionseason. Pakistan goes to the pollsin coming month. Themes runningthrough the election campaigns,amongst other issues, include high-est food inflation, unprecedentedcorruption and bad governance, lackof development, energy crisis, andrepercussions of national scandals.Unfair and outdated election lawsare also at the core of many prob-lems. Mere conducting of electionsperiodically doesn’t prove that wehave an effective democracy. Thepoverty, unemployment, illiteracylevels indicate the inefficiency of ourpolitical system.

Who will gain the mandate toform the government, and who willbe given the responsibility to be in

After BD, India eyes Balochistan

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

When India was partitionedand moth eaten Pakistandeprived of West Bengal,

East Punjab, large slices of WestPunjab and Kashmir came into be-ing on August 14, 1947, WestPunjab was relatively more devel-oped than all other provinces whichbecame part of Pakistan.Balochistan, Sindh and East Ben-gal were under developed but EastBengal was the poorest of all. Inunited India, it had been among themost prosperous provinces duringthe golden rule of Mughals. How-ever, it was ruthlessly plunderedby the British joined by the Hin-dus after the battle of Plassey in1757 in which Siraj-ud-Daulahwas defeated because of the treach-ery of ill-famed Mir Jafar and someHindu Mahajans. If Mir Jafar knewbeforehand that he will be kickedout by Robert Clive two years laterand that within a decade the Mus-lim ruling elites of Bengal will loseall their powers and privileges, MirJafar would not have committedtreachery in 1757.

The Muslims of East Bengalwere so fed up of their cruel mas-ters that they became the ardentsupporters of Pakistan Movement.A.K. Fazl-ul Haq, the then chiefminister of Bengal, moved the his-toric 1940 Lahore Resolution.Sheikh Mujibur Rahman andMaulana Bhashani were among thepassionate supporters of Pakistanwho later changed colors. In the1946 elections, Muslim League se-cured maximum votes from EastBengal. In 1948 when Quaid-e-Azam addressed a huge gatheringin Dacca and asked the audience totell him whether they wanted to re-main with Pakistan or join India, thepeople vociferously shouted ‘Paki-stan’. Their love for Pakistan wasslowly and gradually transformedinto hatred by the psychological

opposition is always left tothe people in civilized na-tions. In our case the elec-toral game is played from azero-sum platform of a pre-determined result — oneside stubborn to have it pre-

determined that they will continueto hold power, while the other is de-termined to go to power that was lostthe previous time. Over the yearssince restoration of looting and plun-dering “democracy” unseating the“dictator”, our leaders on both sidesof the political spectrum haveworked hard to have in place an elec-tion structure and process that canensure only their victory.

The right to vote is fundamentalto democracy. Democracy is said tobe an ideal form of government inwhich people are governed by theirown elected representatives. How-ever voting is a meaningless exercisewithout choice. Free and fair electionsare essential in assuring the “consentof the governed,” the bedrock ofdemocratic politics. Every votershould be able to vote for a candidateof his choice, and each single voteshould be worth the same. Unfortu-nately electoral system in Pakistan isoutmoded, unfair, and undemocratic,due to which it has been governed bythird-rate leaders who, along withtheir cronies, have plundered thenation’s wealth and ruined thecountry’s institutions. The positiontoday is one can’t get even a deathcertificate without paying a bribe. Themeasures that need to be taken to en-

sure that elections are free and fair sothat this vital aspect of our democ-racy is truly well-served and our votefor the candidate or party we supportis not made a mockery of.

Democracy is theoretically aform of government in which thevoice of the people is supreme andwhere the laws are fashioned accord-ing to their wishes, but it is not thecase in our country due to quality ofleaders we elect. We enjoy everyright in theory, but not in practice. Theidea of a socialistic pattern of societyhas remained a dream only. There issupport of politicians only for keep-ing the current system status quo.Most of the educated class doesn’tvote, their vote hardly counts if theydo. They abuse their votes. They areeasily bought by the capitalist politi-cians. Our democracy has thereforebecome a democracy of the rich, forthe rich and by the rich. No singleparty in Pakistan can claim to be re-ally democratic. Inner party democ-racy among political parties does notexist any more. Elections are eithernot held or only an eye wash for partypositions in these parties.

Most of the Pakistanis do not caremuch for democracy per se, whichhad always been the prerogative ofthe intelligentsia. The questionwhether democracy has a future inPakistan has aroused grave concernamong our educated ones. Even themost pious optimist believes that ourdemocracy has a bleak future. De-mocracy has not yielded desired re-sults in the past. For becoming a de-

veloped nation, again it lies in thehands of people in coming elections.

Can there be any light at the endof the tunnel? The answer is no andyes. No, if the mutual distrust, ten-sion, worst law and order situation,energy crisis, and plundering of na-tional assets continue. In that case theend-result can help anything but de-mocracy and democratic aspirationsof the people. The answer can be yes,if there is a realization at the top thatenough is enough; that there is nooption but to quit the evils and sin-cerely work for the country for thegood of the people and democracy;they are also the ones who don’t needto be reminded of the ill-effects forthe nation in general and for them inparticular, of the failures in the pastto ensure peaceful transition.

Further, we can’t put the entireblame for current state of affairs onour political system because it is notfunctioning in vacuum. The societyhas share in the blame. The behaviorof our political system is its responseto the society and to reform our po-litical system, we need to reform so-ciety and its subsystems. This iswhere electoral reform becomes im-portant. Sincerity, loyalty and com-mitment are the basic tenets of de-mocracy. Real democracy will comeinto being only when the masses areawakened and take part in the eco-nomic and political life of the coun-try. Let us not let it be killed prema-turely for politicians’ follies. We mustuse our right of vote wisely favoringonly the deserving candidates.

operators of India and influ-ential Hindu minority resid-ing in East Bengal. Their ma-jor focus was directed againstthe youth and the seculars whofelt more homely with Hinduculture rather than Islamic cul-

ture. They saw the latter too suffocat-ing and devoid of fun and frolic.

A large section of the educatedBengali Muslim elite saw themselvesmore as Bengalis and less as Mus-lims and they did not even bother tofind out how the Indian political re-gime were treating the KashmiriMuslims and Indian Muslims.Blinded by their hatred for Islam,those Secular-Bengali-Muslims re-mained totally ignorant that theBengali Muslims in West Bengalwere facing far greater discrimina-tion than the discrimination theyfaced within Pakistan. They com-pletely forgot the extreme atrocitiesand discriminatory behavior of theupper-caste Hindu BengaliBhadroloks against Muslim Bengalisbefore 1947. It was imbecile andunforgivable on their part to considerWest Pakistanis as sworn enemiesand Hindus as friends and to seekindependence with the help of India.

India not only wanted to dividePakistan to give a deathblow to two-nation theory, but also to do it in abloody and vicious manner to ensurethat the separation of Bangladeshfrom Pakistan should take placethrough the most bitter and viciousstruggle possible so that the memoryof those atrocities could be used tolegitimize the suppression of Islamin Bangladesh, just as the Zionistsuse the memory of the Nazi Holo-caust to oppress the Palestinians anddeprive them from their right of selfdetermination and their right of re-turn. They wanted to show to theworld that Muslims cannot rulethemselves and the Muslims of thesub-continent will be better off if theysubmit to the Indians. It was alsonecessary to show to the millions ofMuslims in India that they are luckyindeed that they are citizens of Indiaand not Pakistan. Basant Chaterjeerevealed in his book ‘InsideBangladesh Today’, that Pundit

Nehru had been scheming since Au-gust 1947 to reclaim East Bengal andto make it an integral part of IndianUnion. The long-term master plan toreclaim East Bengal was always theresince August 1947, but the reclama-tion project suddenly became ex-tremely urgent for the Indian Politi-cal High Command after the 1962debacle. In that war India was thor-oughly humiliated by the ChineseArmy. Indian defence completelycollapsed and the Chinese were ableto march down into the Assam plainwithout any Indian resistance what-soever. The entire state machinerycollapsed and panic set in.

After the humiliating defeat in1962, the Indians realized that if theyever have to fight against China again,they will need a better transport andlogistics infrastructure. The ChickenNeck obstacle had to be removed andIndia needed to establish unfetteredroad, rail and-river right-of-waythrough East Bengal to North EastFrontier and Arunachal. Creation ofBangladesh was the solution andAwami League under Sheikh Mujibwas the answer. Agartala Conspiracywas a tactical element in the long-term North-East Strategic Plan ofIndia. Treachery of Mir Jafar in 1757was to be repeated by Sheikh MujiburRahman and East India Companywas to be replaced by All India Com-pany, i.e. RAW.

Mujib was invited to Agartala onNovember 3, 1963, just a year after1962 war. That was the only occa-sion he visited Agartala. The“Bangabandhu” had come to test thewaters to secure Indian help for hiscause. After holding series of discus-sions with Mujib, Tripura Chief Min-ister Sachindra Lal Singh accompa-nied by Chief Secretary B. Ramanflew to New Delhi to meet PrimeMinister Jawaharlal Nehru. In hisbook, ‘Role of RAW in Liberation ofBangladesh’, B. Raman disclosed themeeting with Nehru in which Indianhelp for Mujib’s contemplated seces-sion movement was discussed. Cur-rent Bangladesh PM and daughter oflate Mujib, Sheikh Hasina Wajidclaimed, as reported in Bangladeshmedia on 8 March 2010, that Mujib

planned separation from Pakistan in1969 in London. Dr Kalidas Baidyain his book ‘Ontoraler SheikhMujib’, Kolkata, 2005 ultimatelyspelled out the details of Mujib’sconnections with the Indian policymakers as early as 1950s.

In the Indian game plan for EastBengal, the most crucial role wasplayed by the Bangladeshi academ-ics and journalists who consciouslyopted or unconsciously got en-snared, due to their lack of histori-cal perspective and short-termism.The first shot in this Indian gameplan was fired by Rehman Sobhan.He was an economist at the Paki-stan Institute of Development Eco-nomics and was an extremely closeand long-term associate of econo-mist Amartya Sen. He wrote a pa-per in 1966 in which he highlightedeconomic disparities between twowings and step motherly attitudegiven to East Pakistan. He fudgedthe figures. The entire East Bengalpress and political activists took theissue on board and soon it snow-balled into a secessionist movement.RAW coordinated and guided themovement behind the scene. RAWalso provided unlimited financial,intelligence and material support.

On 22 February 2011, on the an-niversary of the withdrawal ofAgartala conspiracy case, a surviv-ing conspirator and Deputy Speakerof the Bangladesh Parliament Colo-nel Shawkat Ali confessed to Par-liament at a point of order that thecharges read out to them were ac-curate, stating that they had formeda Shangram Parishad under SheikhMujib for secession of East Paki-stan. He was among the 35 accusedin Agartala case.

It must be noted that in 1968 theworld was led to believe thatAgartala conspiracy case againstMujib and others was false. Ourpoliticians ignored Ayub Khan’spleadings and forced him to releaseMujib and invite him to RoundTable Conference.AfterBangladesh, India has now set hereyes on Balochistan.—The writer is a columnist and adefence analyst.

Shaukat M ZafarEmail: smzafar101@gmail.com

Asif Haroon RajaEmail: asifharoon7751@yahoo.com

Voice of the People

As part of neo-imperialism, external meddling in the affairsof small countries by the pow-

erful countries is owing to the unequalworld order. When less developedcountries reject the undue demandsof the big powers, in the unipolar sys-tem, the US-led major states whichhave strong hold on the UN SecurityCouncil, and its financial instituteslike IMF and World Bank use vari-ous tactics like pressure, coercion,conditionalities and sanctions to im-pose their decisions on the weakcountries which have been facinggrave political and economic crises.

Although Pakistan has beenblocking the interference of Americaand some western countries, yet theyare using some other techniques ofintervention—especially in the elec-tions 2013. Because some main-stream political parties have openedthe door of external meddling in theinternal affairs of the country. In thisrespect, the Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) made a unique misad-venture by submitting a memoran-dum to the United Nations (UN)

Meddling in internal affairsTribute to

Mehdi HassanKULSOOM KAZMI

Mehdi Hassan Khan ( July 18, 1927– June 13, 2012) was a Pakistanighazal singer and a former playbacksinger for Lollywood. He was fa-mously known as the “King ofGhazal”. In 1979, he was awardedK. L. Saigal Sangeet ShehenshahAward by the Government of India.Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar, whohas been awarded Bharat Ratna,once compared his songs to the“voice of god”. He was honoredwith Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Pride of Per-formance and Hilal-e-Imtiaz by theGovernment of Pakistan.

In 1983, in the court of KingBirendra he was awarded GorkhaDakshina Bahu by theGovernmentof Nepal.He remained a leadingsinger of film industry along withAhmed Rushdi. Mehdi Hassan diedon 13 June 2012 after a protractedillness, in a private hospital inKarachi. Populus Global in associa-tion with Musicolor organised thefirst tribute to shahensha-e-ghazalMehdi Hassan on 14 July 2012.Ustad Mohan Khan, ganda bandhshishya of the ghazal king paid trib-ute to his gurue kept up the routineof practice on a daily basis.—Karachi

Cold war orworld war

MIR MURTAZA HUSSAIN

Conflits between North Korea andSouth Korea are not rare as both ofthe two states are trying to emerge asnew and more developed states.Things went worse when Northkorean young dictator Kim Jong Euncut off the lines of communicationwith South Korea and his allies in-cluding US and declared his state inthe war zone with South korea . Hint-ing at a missile launch, North Koreadelivered a fresh round of war rheto-ric with claims it has “powerful strik-ing means” on standby.

Seoul and Washington specu-lated that it is preparing to test-firea missile designed to be capable ofreaching the U.S. territory of Guamin the Pacific Ocean.This statementignited an alarming situation allaround the globe as chances of worldwar 3 are incresing day byday,whether it is the south and northkorea’s conflit or the instability incentral Asia. Thing are pretendingto be not like before where the worldpeace was idea of many.—Karachi

The Tirah ValleyIQRA AKBER

This is to draw attention of the con-cerned authorities through this esti-mated newspaper that the entire coun-try is gripped with election fever asthe polls come closer, as announced,on May 11, 2013.On the other hand,an entire population has been dis-placed from Tirah as the fight con-tinues there and thousands of fami-lies are desperately seeking shelter atrefugee camps setup for them by thepolitical administration of Fata in theOrakzai and Kurram agencies.

Lying close to the Afghan-Pa-kistan border, control of Tirah forthe government of Pakistan has beendifficult, the area has been virtuallyindependent since colonial times. In2003, for the first time since the in-dependence of Pakistan, Pakistanitroops entered the Tirah valley.[1]

It is also an area where the gov-ernment has been trying to cut downon poppy cultivation.[2] The areaalso has a history of kidnapping andfeuds, the dominant ethnic grouphere are the Pashtuns. There areminority communities referred to asHamsaya such as the Sikh commu-nity. Moving on, the situation inTirah Valley is spiralling out of con-trol as the battle in Tirah Valley isessentially a militant turf battle withthe Lashkar-e-Islam and the TTPfacing off against the Ansar-e-Islam,which is allied with pro-governmenttribesmen. Caught in the middle arethe residents of Tirah Valley, an es-timated 150,000 of which have hadto flee the area. This is pathetic,media should give importance toissues emerging in the Tirah valleyas our media gives importance to theevents held in big cities of Pakistan.—Karachi

Short-cutspoils talent

SANA MALIK

Dear Parents, please do not kill yourson or daughter’s creativity by forc-ing them to attempt Central Supe-rior Services (CSS) Examinationafter their graduation. I am sure youwant their careers to shoot in no timeand CSS is the best ladder for that,but for one minute try to think howrestricted you made their minds. The

Cheating in Board examsSYEDA AREEBA RASHEED

I want to draw the attention of the concerned department throughyour newspaper to the serious issue of cheating which is still be-

ing done in SSC Board Examination. Recently a special team ofKarachi Matric Board led by Controller of Exams, raided BaldiaBoys Secondary School and managed to catch 50 students and 3members of cheaters mafia red-handed. The raid team also caughtone replacement candidate who was giving paper of someone elsein the exam centre. None bothered to identify him as fake candidatein the exam centre. It was paper of English being taken by the MatricBoard in Karachi and same stories of open cheating were reportedfrom most of the areas. We all know that Pakistan’s image is notvery good in the outside world so we should take some steps to over-come this major problem, which is increasing day by day.—Karachi

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

time right after graduation when theyprepare for the CSS examination isthe golden time that they waste bygambling in for CSS game.

At that time the best Organiza-tions of Pakistan are waiting to hirethe new and fresh minds. Think for awhile, your son can be the nextArdeshir Cowasjee of Pakistan, yourdaughter may be next SharmeenObaid Chinoy and bring next Oscarto Pakistan, you son has all the po-tential to represent Pakistan likeAisam ul Haq. All these people havenot done CSS but have surely madePakistan proud worldwide. Do notscare them from struggling and do notteach them the short cuts. They maybe able to do much better by quittingCSS, taking the long way by goingin their desired field.—Via email

Education: Keyto successSAMRA SALEEM

There has been a lot of flaws in theeducation system of Pakistan whichcontribute to high illiteracy rate.Firstly, the education system is basedon unequal lines. Quality of educa-tion is different in both, private andpublic sector. This creates a sort ofdisparity among people, dividingthem into two segments.

This is the major cause for thedropout in rural areas and in public sec-tor. Secondly, regional disparity is alsoa major cause. The schools in Karachiare much more groomed than inBalochistan. The third major cause offlawed education system in Pakistanis gender discrimination. In FATA, theliteracy rate is deplorable constituting29.5% in males and 3% in females.Fourthly and the most importantly, thelack of technical education that hasnever been focused. Pakistan has beenfacing several other problems as well.But if the authorities will focus on theeducation system, gradually all otherproblems will be solved.—Karachi

A spoiling trendGUL AFROOZ

Cheating in board examinations isvery common in Pakistan. No strictaction is taken against those whocheat. The invigilators, especially ofgovernment schools, encourage stu-dents to cheat. Students openly bringtheir textbooks and other cheatingmaterial in the examination hall, withno one checking against this practice.Invigilators have been known to askstudents to hide their cheating mate-rial if anyone from the board depart-ment comes for a round. The govern-ment should look into this matter andsolve it immediately because it isunfair for deserving students whospend the whole year working hardonly to be upstaged by cheats duringexaminations.—Via email

Characterassassination

HASHIM ABRO

Regrettably, our politicians haveearned notoriety for their attacks ontheir political opponents, from slyinnuendo to dragging skeletons fromhidden closets. Their allies and en-emies in the media do this too, and alibelous headline can cause damagethat no retraction can erase. Shock-ingly, character assassination and as-sassination, not only of politicians butour educationists, academicians andother celebrated and enlightened in-dividuals have become fashionable inour society. Whenever I had an op-portunity to watch any television“Talk Show” or attend any press con-ference I find our politicians attack-ing each other personally.

Today one of my students of Po-litical Science asked me, “Why ourpoliticians have become so muchvirulent and scurrilous and why wall-to-wall character assassination ofeach other? Like my student, manyothers in this country want an answerto this very important question. Isthere any in the political circles toanswer it? If not, then, this nation willbe left with no option but to lose trustin its politicians. Since most of thepopulation of this country depends on

Atoning for torture inflicted

It’s never easy in this volatile worldto advance America’s strategicaims. For more than four decades,

in the service of Democratic and Re-publican presidents, it was often myjob to persuade foreign governmentsto adhere to international law and ob-serve the highest standards of con-duct in human rights — including thestrict prohibition of torture. A reportreleased Tuesday by an independenttask force on detainee treatment (towhich I contributed) makes it clearthat US officials could have used thesame advice.

Unfortunately, the USgovernment’s use of torture againstsuspected terrorists, and its failure tofully acknowledge and condemn it,has made the exercise of diplomacyfar more daunting. By authorizingand permitting torture in response toa global terrorist threat, US leaderscommitted a grave error that has un-dermined our values, principles andmoral stature; eroded our global in-fluence; and placed our soldiers, dip-lomats and intelligence officers ineven greater jeopardy. It’s not justthe Bush-Cheney administration that

bears responsibility for diminishedUS standing, although the worstabuses undeniably took place in theyears immediately after the Sept. 11,2001, attacks. The Obama adminis-tration also has failed to be as openand accountable on such fundamen-tal questions of law, morality andprinciple as a great power that widelysupports human rights needs to be.What can be done to mitigate thedamage and set this country on a bet-ter course?

First and foremost, Americansneed to confront the truth. Let’s stopresorting to euphemisms and call “en-hanced interrogation techniques” —including but not limited towaterboarding — what they actuallyare: torture. Torturing detainees fliesin the face of principles and practicesestablished in the founding of ourrepublic, and it violates US law andinternational treaties to which we area party. Subjecting detainees to tor-ture, no matter how despicable theiralleged crimes, runs counter to thevalues embodied in the US Constitu-tion. Too much information about theabuse of detainees remains hiddenfrom the American people. Specifi-cally, the Obama administration’songoing concealment of the detailsabout our use of torture has made it

impossible for the United States tocomply with its legal obligations un-der the UN Convention Against Tor-ture and has contributed to a disturb-ing level of public support for tortur-ing suspected terrorists.

President Obama should directrelevant officials to declassify asmany related documents as possibleas quickly as possible — startingwith the more than 6 million pagesof classified documents that werethe basis for the Senate intelligencecommittee’s recent report on theCIA’s interrogation program, andthe still-secret report itself — sothat the American people may fi-nally learn what was done in ourname. Admitting our mistakes is theonly legitimate basis on which wecan reassure the world that Americaremains committed to the rule oflaw and to upholding human rightsand democratic values. Second,Congress needs to work with theadministration to close the loop-holes that allowed torture to occurunder a pretence of legality. In2009, Obama signed an executiveorder giving interrogators clear in-structions about permissible tech-niques. But future presidents couldreverse course with the stroke of apen — and no public notice.

Thomas R Pickering

against delimitation of con-stituencies in Karachi by Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan(ECP). For the purpose,MQM-US Central OrganizerJunaid Fahmi filed a memoran-dum to UN, casting grave con-

cerns over redrawing of constituen-cies, terming it gerrymandering,which was considered by the partyagainst the spirit of and principle ofone-man-one vote.

The memorandum also said thatthe ECP move was unlawful and un-constitutional, based on a conspiracyto divide MQM vote bank. In thismemorandum, MQM declared thatthe redrawing of constituencies wasan attempt to negate the mandate ofMQM and to push the third largestpolitical party of Pakistan against thewall—these methods were being usedto weaken MQM. The fact of thematter is that in the Karachi unrestcase, the larger bench of SupremeCourt of Pakistan has issued ordersto the ECP to ensure free and fair elec-tions. The ECP was given the author-ity to carry out delimitation proce-dures wherever it found that creatingnew constituencies were necessary.However the organisation will be re-quired to prove that those areas wheredelimitation will be carried out areviolence-prone which require extraattention. The apex court had given

Views From Abroad

our independent and active media forthe ‘truth’, which gives the mediaimmense power and hence also a tar-get for politicians who may try to in-fluence or even infiltrate newspapersand other broadcasters. However, theenlightened media men and power-ful media houses/outlets are re-quested to try to change minds, atti-tudes and professional values so thatsmear campaigns against individuals-politicians-parties and other organi-zations may not become their featurebecause such unethical, immoral andamoral practices erode and destroythe societies in the long run.—Via email

Load-shedding& students woes

RAMSHA SHAKEEL

Load Shedding and power blackoutshave become severe in Pakistan inrecent years. These days everybodyis seen protesting against load shed-ding. The Government has com-pletely failed to grapple with thisproblem and it is escalating with ev-ery passing day. Every sector of lifeis badly affected, but the most pitifulare the students.

Examinations for different levelsare on-going in various institutions,thousands of students are giving theirboard exams without electricity andstudents are suffering because they areunable to focus on studies and manyexams have gone into abeyance dueto severe electricity crisis. Studentsrequest the KESC authorities to stopload shedding to facilitate studentswho are preparing for their exams.—Karachi

*****M AHSAN KHALID

Load shedding is the main issuewhich became an headache not onlyfor the citizens of Karachi but all overPakistan. Our lives depend entirelyon the usage of electricity. Everythingfrom running household chores to therunning of the economy depends onelectricity.

People are facing many problemsas their life is totally disturbed be-cause of loadshedding. Student faceproblems in their studies. On the otherhand factories are closed. Becausemostly work in factories is based onelectricity. Middle class people can’teven afford generators which are veryexpensive as well as rates of fuel andpetrol are very high. So it is the re-sponsibility of our high authorities toput forward a good and permanentsolution.—Karachi

Clean leadershipneeded

MUHAMMAD RAFIQUE

I am very disappointed to say that Ihave not seem a good quality leaderafter Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad AliJinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan who hadall capabilities of leading nation andcountry towards progress and pros-perity. They were role model of thenation because they cared for nationbut these qualities are rare in today’sleaders. They just do nothing and soalso responsible miserable conditionof our country.

Pakistani people need a leaderfrom middle class or lower middleclass family who should be free fromprejudice. He/she must have ability tosolve the problems and fulfil the needsand requirements of people and he/sheshould be brave and democratic andbrevity comes with religious. If theECP does not enforce itself in suchmatters, the same cheats and dishon-est persons will once again be able tocontest the elections and possibly winalso. And, that will be the end of thehopes of the nation of ever getting aclean and honest leadership.—Via email

such orders earlier as well, whichwere widely appreciated by thepeople, but the ECP failed to attainany objectives through thoughtfulimplementation of the verdicts. Thistime, the court said that the remarksgiven were not mere observations butorders which needed to be imple-mented. ECP was also given thepower to call in army if required.

However, when the SupremeCourt rejected the MQM petitionagainst the delimitation of electoralvoting zones in Karachi, its leadersbecame more furious against thejudges and ECP’s genuine move bylaunching an illogical campaign andblame game. In the recent past, MQMleader Farooq Sattar stated that Elec-tion Commission’s notification for re-drawing electoral constituencies wasequivalent to pre-poll rigging and thepeople of Karachi were being pun-ished. Besides, by setting aside theorders of the apex court, on the in-struction of its leaders, on March 25,this year, MQM workers gatheredoutside the office of election commis-sion in Karachi and chanted slogansagainst ECP. Nevertheless, MQMwas part of the coalition governmentand enjoyed all the perks and privi-leges—powers of the governance forfive years. It has consented in the pro-cess of appointing the ECP andshould have shown some decency to

stand by its words. Now, mistruston the ECP shows MQM’s contra-diction, and approaching UN for thepurpose is totally unfair decision,and is unacceptable way. Urging in-ternational community like UN touse its influence for holding fair andfree elections and putting pressureon ECP to stop pursuing the pro-cess of delimitation of constituen-cies in Karachi is obviously an un-desirable misadventure by MQM asa political party of Pakistan.

In this context, the memoran-dum submitted at UN will tarnishthe image of Pakistan as a sover-eign state. It also creates doubt aboutthe ECP integrity and the govern-ment of Pakistan. It certainly speaksvolumes about MQM’s mind-set topromote their party line even at thecost of state of Pakistan. Nonethe-less, involving international com-munity in purely internal affairs ofPakistan is immature step by MQMand needs to be viewed seriouslyby all segments of the society suchas media, civil society, politicalparties and general masses. At thiscritical hour, while all the politicalparties believe in fair and free elec-tions, having trust on the ECP,MQM’s submission of the memo-randum at UN tantamounts to in-viting foreign meddling in the in-ternal affairs of Pakistan.

Instead of being told to rely onsecret legal memos or doctors’ un-ethical monitoring of brutal interro-gation sessions, interrogators shouldbe given unambiguous orders thatall detainees are to be treated in strictcompliance with Common Article 3of the Geneva Conventions, whichis the basic provision of internationallaw outlawing torture. And thereshould be clear, public rules ensur-ing prompt access to detainees bythe International Committee of theRed Cross. Third, the United Statesmust not transfer detainees to tor-ture in other countries.

Democracy and torture cannotpeacefully coexist in the same bodypolitic. Successful human rights di-plomacy and torture can’t either.Our country and its place in theworld — as well as the Americansbravely serving in military, intelli-gence and diplomatic posts aroundthe globe — deserve nothing less.The writer is a member of the Con-stitution Project’s Task Force onDetainee Treatment. He wasundersecretary of state for politi-cal affairs from 1997 to 2001 andserved as ambassador and repre-sentative to the United Nations from1989 to 1992.— Courtesy: The Washington Post

Many years ago, MelGibson or was in MelBrookes brought out a

movie, called ‘Silent Movie’. It wasa surefire hit. Bollywood whichimitates anything Hollywood, hasnever been able to bring a silentmovie onto the Indian stage, till ascript writer this morning in a stu-dio was startled hearing his direc-tor shouting, “Come here!” “Yes sir,are there any changes you want meto make in the script?” “From now

on all stories and scenes will have tohave a jail background!”

“You mean one scene should beshot in a jail sir?” “All scenes!”shouted the director, as the producerseated nearby nodded vigorously.“But sir, the audience could get boredwith only jail scenes!”

“Do we have a choice?” askedthe director as the producer noddedeven more vigorously. “All our he-roes are either in jail, facing arrestor will be in jail in a week or two!We will have to shoot in jail, fromnow on”

Later at the home of the samescript writer, the same creative geniusfor whom ideas, words, sentences,commas, and full stops came tum-bling out and who then shaped them

with ingenuity into filmy dialoguesand monologues now looked withfrustration out of the window, “I don’tknow what to write!” he whisperedto his wife, “Listen to this, and tellme how this sounds, ‘The hero runsround a prison tree, the heroine jumpsfrom the first floor cell onto theground, the villain, jumps down fromthe prison tree where he has been hid-ing, right in front of the heroine, andthe hero jumps in front of him andkills him!”

“That is the plot you wrote forthe last movie!” said his wife thought-fully. “And will be same for the next hun-dred movies!” whispered the writerwearily looking in the direction of theSupreme Court. You need new

Silent movie..!ideas!” “What new jail ideas canone have?” “What did Kiran Bediintroduce in jails?”“You mean…”

“Yes husband, I mean youcould have the cheapest movie writ-ten for Bollywood cinema. Nowords, no sound, just all the inmatesdoing their Vipasana!” Like I said,one has to acknowledge that youcannot put Bollywood down. Wordhas it producers are falling overthemselves to make a dozen mov-ies with just scenes of jail inmatesdoing meditation in absolute si-lence. Out of sheer necessity, in-genious and creative juices flow.Our own silent movies will soon beout by the dozen, thanks to our he-roes..!Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

Another bitter truth!

The ultimate beautiful, extrovert, adventurous girl steps outin the world meets a guy and

falls in love. When the familydoesn’t approve of it she runs awayfrom home but is rejected by the guywho claimed to love her a lot. Shesuffers a lot, feels dejected initiallybut in the end meets her true lovewho supposedly is the richest manin the country. If this sounds famil-iar, don’t be surprised. This is thestory of a very famous film JAB WEMET featuring the stunning KareenaKapoor and Dashing Shahid Kapoor.But let me tell you a story you mightnot have heard.

She Wakes up every morning at6 o clock, cleans up the whole house,make breakfast for the in laws,washes everybody’s clothes, cooksmeals thrice a day, takes care of thewhole house along with a 9 monthsold daughter—It is the story of a sev-

enteen years old Taskeen Fatimawho followed Kareena’s footstepsbut couldn’t mold her destiny in thesame way. Must be thinking howcruel the in laws are?

Or may be, how could any par-ents do that to a daughter? This lifehas been chosen by Fatima herself.Yes! Fatima ran away with TalhaButt two years back. “We had anamazing time, initially. We kept ontravelling from Lahore to Karachithan to Islamabad. Talha was be-ing so nice to me. He used to takecare of me, used to fulfill every-thing I asked for. He was amaz-ing. After 8 months, when Talhaconvinced his mother and my fam-ily backed off, we got back toLahore”. Than how did it go atTalha’s place, I asked.

“Since the day we got backhome, his family is good to me. Theylove me and our daughter butTalhais a total different person. He isbored of me now, I guess. He doesnot love me anymore. He does notcare for me. It is no more a husbandwife relation; it’s just two people

know each other because they haveto go sleep together every night. Ourrelation is only about having sex.Everything has died.

Everyday, Talha beats me up,abuses me, insults me in front of ev-eryone, tells me that he has commit-ted a mistake marrying me and Ihave made his life hell. At night, hecomes in our room, says sorry forthe day and wants me to sleep withhim. We even slept together when Iwas 9 months pregnant. I was insuch bad condition but Talha wantedit to happen every night and I couldnot say no to him. Divorce has nomeaning for him. He honors me withthe word “Talaaq” almost everyday”. How you feel about everythingnow, I asked

“I feel miserable. I wish thetime gets back and I start live withmy parents again. They will not ac-cept me. I broke their hearts, trustand respect. My father was so dis-hearten after this incident that hehas made my Death Certificate andI have died for him. My motherused to call me when I ran, she used

to cry a lot and beg me to comeback. I wish I would have listenedto her. Now, I call them manytimes but they do not pick up mycall”. She paused for a while andthen continued “Now, through thisinterview I want to tell every girlthat your parents will never dowrong to you. Thing like lovenever exists. Please do not takeany wrong step being emotional.Do not plan your future withsomeone who does not even haveany future plans for themselves.”

I could see a regretful feelingin her voice. Her last sentenceended my story and gave a moralthat I couldn’t write in years. “Iwant to request parents that pleasedo not restrict your kids. Let themexplore their surroundings. Letthem know the difference betweenright and wrong because if you willnot do that, they will naturallylunge towards the wrong thing. Ihave made a mistake. Please youdon’t.”—The writer is a student atInstitute of Business Management.

Sajjad ShaukatEmail: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

Sana Malik Email: sanaz.1@live.com

LOST OF CERTIFICATE

My Matric Certificate rollno. 97767 supply year 2005passed from Multan Boardhas been lost. any one findplease inform me.Samreen Agher D/o AsgherAli R/o House No. 18,Street No. 8, W Block NewMultan, District Multan.

CHANGE OF NAME

I have changed name of myson from MuhammadShahmir Fawad toMuhammad Shaheer FawadSidiqui. So next call, writeand read by his new nameMuhammad Shaheer FawadSiddiqui S/O Fawad HussainKamran, resident of HouseNO. 215 Street 52, Sector G-10/3, Islamabad

PUBLIC NOTICE

Notice of public at large 1 plotNo-411block of phase 6morning 1 kanal situatedDHA Lahore cantt to pur-chases mr. Arshid Ali khokars/o mr. Shafi r/o h.no 197mohallah Eden avenue ext airport road Lahore if anybodyobjection or claim contact mr.Ahsan Athar S/O NazimHussin khan R/O H.NO- 2o1/1-R mohallah phase 2 DHALahore cantt

LOST AND FOUND

MY PLOT NUMBER 868SECTOR 3 ,10 MARLAOVERSEAS ENCLAVERAWALPINDI IN THENAME OF SYED ZAHIRSHAH S/O SYEDMAHMOOD SHAH ORIGI-NAL ALLOTMENT LET-TER/TRANSFER LETTERHAS BEEN LOST IF ANYBODY FOUND PLS CALL0300-8598801

COURT NOTICE

In the court of Mr. MOHAMMAD TARIQ WALI JudgeBanking Court 1, 13-A Qafla Road, Tehkal Payan

Peshawar at camp court BannuCase no 76/1 2013 date of hearing 21/5/2013Suit for recovery of Rs 749069/50United Bank Ltd Predy gate branch through manager VS FidaMohammad Khan & others.NOTICES VERSUS=1) Fida Mohammad Khan s/o DilawarKhan 2) Jamal Khan s/o Munirullah Khan 3) Baz MohammadKhan s/o Ali Safdar Khan Rs/O Bazaar Ahmad Khan districtBannu.Whereas the plaintiff Bank has instituted a suit for the recoveryof Rs 749069/50 against you under section 10(2) of the finan-cial institution (recovery of finances) Ordinance 2001. You arehereby summoned to obtain leave of the court to appear anddefend the suit within 30 days after receipt / publication of thenotice in the newspaper failing which an exparte decree shallbe passed in favor of the plaintiff Bank with costsSeal of the court Judge Banking court 1 Peshawar

COURT NOTICE

In the court of Mr. MOHAMMAD TARIQ WALI JudgeBanking Court 1, 13-A Qafla Road, Tehkal Payan

Peshawar at camp court BannuCase no 71/1 date of hearing 23/4/2013Suit for recovery of Rs 345370ZTBL through manager Bannu branch VS Gul Zali KhanNOTICES VERSUS=1) Gul Zali Khan 2) Noor Zali KhanSs/o Jangi Khan R/O Wazir Sarhadi Khel district Bannu.Whereas the plaintiff Bank has instituted a suit for the recov-ery of Rs 345370 against you under section 10(2) of thefinancial institution (recovery of finances) Ordinance 2001.You are hereby summoned to obtain leave of the court to ap-pear and defend the suit within 30 days after receipt / publica-tion of the notice in the newspaper failing which an expartedecree shall be passed in favor of the plaintiff Bank with costsSeal of the court Judge Banking court 1 Peshawar

more vibrant, suited to imagemaking of Pakistan. He alsoagreed that 3 May would be cel-ebrated on a large scale in Paki-stan as media freedom day.

The reception was attendedby Secretary Information AghaNadeem, other senior officialsof the ministry, MD PakistanTelevision, former informationsecretaries and senior journal-ists. Addressing the receptionformer secretary informationKhwaja Ijaz Sarwar expressedthe hope that the information

minister would play a very sig-nificant role for the nationalcause.

Eminent journalist,Khushnood Ali Khan in his briefspeech said, he was very happyto note that the federal informa-tion minister was fully aware ofthe challenges being faced bymedia and he was trying to helpthe media industry with all sin-cerity.

Editor in Chief Daily Ausaf,Sardar Mehtab Khan said the printmedium was passing through a

difficult phase and looked to thefederal information minister forhis cooperative gesture.

Prominent journalist,Rukhsana Saulat said, it was anhonour for the community of jour-nalists that a journalist has as-sumed the charge of federal infor-mation ministry.

Editor in Chief Daily Paki-stan, Sardar Khan Niazi said, hewas deeply impressed by the fed-eral information minister for hisinitiatives to resolve issues beingfaced by the media industry.

Access to informationFrom Page 1

lenge, therefore, they should befully taken on board on policyplanning of the Government ofPakistan.

He was of the view that themother of all problems of Paki-stan today was its dented image,therefore, the first pre-requisitewas to give due recognition to thesuperb professionalism of theInformation Service.

He recommended that as amatter of principle, the Secretaryof the Ministry of Informationand the Heads of the attached De-partments including that of thePTV and the PBC should neces-sarily be technocrats from the In-formation Service. “As Chair-

Zahid Malik urgesFrom Page 1

man PARC cannot be appointedIGP, Islamabad, similarly non-In-formation Service officers shouldnot be saddled with the respon-sibility of running different De-partments of the highly-technicalInformation Ministry,” he em-phasized.

Expressing satisfaction overthe freedom which the present-day media, by and large, enjoys,Mr. Malik said that at present theInformation Service stoodmarginalized which was not inthe interest of the State.

Mr Malik also suggested thatthe World Press Freedom Day onMay 3 should be celebrated in abig way and APNS, CPNE and

PFUJ and other stakeholdersshould organize functions to puta clear and loud message across,come what may.

Media would not, under anycircumstances, compromise thePress freedom.

He also advised the media tomeditate during the caretakers’period and be ready to face thechallenges of a new somewhatcorruption-free Pakistan which,he said, was bound to emergeafter 2013 elections.

The reception was hosted bythe Pakistan Observer on behalfof the Editors and Publishers ofthe twin cities of Islamabad andRawalpindi.

Kashmiris for their just right ofself determination.

He said Pakistan has takenvarious steps at internationallevel to resolve the issue whichis hindering development of theregion .President Zardari saidPakistan wants constructive andresult orientated with India toresolve all outstanding issues in-cluding Kashmir to bring stabil-ity in the area.He called upon theinternational community to lookinto the long standing Kashmirissue which has badly affectedpeace in the area. Asif Ali Zardarisaid Pakistan believes that anyresolution of the Kashmir disputemust be centered on theKashmiris themselves and theyshould be associated with the dia-logue process.

He said Pakistan emphasizesthe need for meaningful and con-structive dialogue to resolveKashmir issue. The Presidentpointed out that Pakistan was themost worst victim of the terror-ism. He emphasised that it wasenjoined upon both of the coun-tries (India and Pakistan) not toallow the terrorists to dictate andimpose their (terrorists) agenda.Zardari said that Jammu & Kash-mir people were continuing theirindigenous struggle.

Zardari urgesFrom Page 1

Moreover an election tribu-nal disallowed Pakistan MuslimLeague – Quaid’s (PML-Q)Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain,brother of party chief ChaudhryShujaat Hussain, to contest theupcoming elections. Wajahat hadsubmitted his papers to contestelections from NA-104 constitu-ency in Gujrat. His opponentGhazanfar Gul, belonging to thePakistan Muslim League –Nawaz (PML-N) had gone to thetribunal to fight the re-jection ofhis papers.

Imran, Waqas papers accepted, Wajahat’s rejectedFrom Page 1

Australian HC opens AustraliaDay in Spring receptionSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The AustralianHigh Commissioner to PakistanPeter Heyward opened the Aus-tralia Day in Spring receptionat a local hotel on Wednesday.

Speaking on the occasion,Peter said the Australia Day inSpring would furtherstrengthen Australia-Pakistanties in the Punjab and show thediversity of Australian art andculture.

Australian Day in Spring inLahore would feature a perfor-mance by unique Australian hu-morous singing trio “Chrome”from Sydney.

Consisting of talented per-formers Craig Fortey, GraemeRhodes and Paul Wilson,Chrome has performed at manyprestigious arts and cultural

events and expositions includ-ing the 2010 World Expo inShanghai.

Australia’s HonouraryConsul in the Punjab SalimGhauri also assisted the HighCommissioner at Australia Dayin Spring in Lahore.

The Australian High Com-missioner also awarded certifi-cates to Ali Faateh Foundationand Good ThinkersOrganisation for human devel-opment.

He also inaugurated the ex-hibition called ‘The Cameleers– Australia’s Muslim Pioneers’– a collection of historic pho-tographs that tells the story ofthe arrival of camels in Austra-lia from areas that are now partof Pakistan.

Deputy High Commis-sioner of Australian High Com-mission Paul Mollay said thatAustralia’s world leading min-ing equipment, technology andservice companies can play asignificant role in the explora-tion and maximization forPakistan’s natural resources.

Talking to reporters, hesaid, “Australian can supportPakistan, especially the prov-ince of Sindh in the develop-ment of lignite coal mining inSindh, which has large depos-its of brown coal/lignite inThar. Australian can offer Aus-tralian expertise and technologyin lignite mining and in the de-velopment of lignite basedpower plants.”

military dictators toppled theelected democratic governmentof the PPP but still the PPP hadfrequently defeated them with theoverwhelming support of themasses.

PPP Chairman BilawalBhutto Zardari said this whiletalking to former Premier of thecountry Syed Yousuf RazaGilani, Mian Manzoor Watto andother leaders of the PPP in Punjabthrough video conferencing at thePPP Media Cell in the city.

Pak prosperityFrom Page 1

political parties had been decidedand the people of the province ofSindh would only elect the hon-est candidates bearing support ofthe PML-N. This he stated whileaddressing a press conference af-ter he held meeting of the PML-N Parliamentary Board Wednes-day in Clifton, Karachi.

Shahbaz demandsFrom Page 1

An election tribunal accepted theappeal of Pakistan MuslimLeague – Nawaz (PML-N)leader Sheikh Waqas Akram,making him eligible to contest theupcoming elections from NA-89Jhang IV constituency onWednesday.

Earlier, a returning officerhad rejected Akram’s papers af-ter his A-level certificate wasdeclared fake. Akram was theformer federal minister for edu-cation and training.

The appeal filed by Akram

against the returning officer’sdecision was accepted by theelection tribunal.

On the NA-89 seat, Akramwill contest against chief of AhleSunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ)Maulana Muhammad AhmadLudhianvi.

In the 2008 general elections,Akram, who contested NA-89 onthe PML-Quaid’s ticket, emergedvictorious after securing 51,733votes, while Ludhianvi secured44,894 votes as an independentcandidate.

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Saleem Malik,the former Pakistani captainhas not re-applied for thebatting coach position.

“I have not applied yet.I am waiting for the replyfrom the Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) about my po-sition”, Malik, who turned51 yesterday, said over tele-phone from Lahore.

In October last year,the former batsman hadsubmitted his application

Saleem Malik not re-applyingfor batting coach job

to the board for the battingcoach post. Neither his ap-plication was acknowl-edged, nor any reason wasgiven for its rejection andthat made Malik to file a caseagainst the PCB.

Interestingly, the Courtruled in favour of Malik andordered the PCB to reply in30-days about his position.

His lawyer, Aftab Gul,when approached in Lahore,said, “Saleem Malik has ev-ery reason to sue the PCB forcontempt of the court order”.

“There is no life-ban onMalik and he should be

treated like any otherplayer. If he wants to servethe team, he should not bedeprived off”, lawyer Gul,also the former player, said.

It is not clear whetherthe proper procedure hasbeen followed at the ICClevel for removal of his life-ban.

In 2008, when the life-ban was apparently lifted,Saleem Malik claimed tohave been approached forthe National Cricket Acad-emy (NCA) duty. However,the PCB denied about anysuch offer.

HARARE: Brendan Taylor leaves one outside off during Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh 1st Test on Wednesday.

BEIJING—China’s GuanTianlang astonished theworld when he made theMasters cut at the age of 14,but his record as the Euro-pean Tour’s youngest everplayer is set to ripped up bya boy aged only 12.

In two weeks’ time YeWocheng, a precocious pre-teen from the country’ssouth, will lower Guan’srecord to scarcely believableterritory when he tees off atthe Volvo China Open,organisers confirmed onWednesday.

It comes just a year afterGuan played the same eventin Tianjin aged 13 and 177days. He followed that witha bravura performance lastweek at Augusta National,finishing with the Silver Cupas the Masters’ top-placedamateur.

Should 12-year-old Yemake the cut, he will easilyoutdo Hong Kong’s JasonHak, who became the young-est player to reach the week-end rounds of a EuropeanTour event, aged 14 and 304days, at the 2008 Hong Kong

HARARE—Zimbabwe hadtheir backs to the wall for thefirst half of the day, only forcaptain Brendan Taylor tolead a fightback with his thirdTest century. It was an im-pressive knock from Taylorand, given the circumstancesleading up to the match, hisunbeaten 105 may be one ofthe best knocks by a Zimba-bwean batsman in recenttimes.

The home side endedthe first day on 217 for 4, asignificantly better positionfrom where they started thegame. Taylor’s knock meantthat Bangladesh werepushed to the fringes of thisgame as they floundered agood opportunity to takecommand. Still , the fourwickets would give themhope of a better secondday, with the knowledge

Taylor’s ton leads Zimbabwefightback against BD

that Zimbabwe have fewexperienced batsmen intheir line-up.

Taylor’s positive attitudeshould rub off on his team-mates in the dressing-room,especially the other free-flow-ing batsmen.

He began his inningswith a lofted six off EnamulHaque jnr, and continued todominate Bangladesh’s mostused spinner on the day. Heswept Enamul with comfortand drove him, regardless ofa deep fielder’s positiondown the ground.

Against the pacebowlers, Taylor was stead-fast and batted them outwithout taking too manyrisks. He left deliveries thatwere close outside theoffstump, especially thosethat didn’t let him free hisarms. He drove the ball welloff the seamers, too, butwaited for scoring opportu-nities on the leg-side, as theBangladesh bowlers lostsome of their energy in thesecond and third sessions.

Taylor reached his cen-tury off exactly 200 balls, withone of his signature shots,flaying the ball through coveroff the front foot. He re-mained unbeaten on 105 off211 balls at stumps, withElton Chigumbura at theother end on six.

Taylor survived adropped catch off Enamul on35, when Shahriar Nafeescouldn’t hold on to a toughchance at long-on. It wasTaylor’s only lapse of con-

centration and it was perhapsthe costliest miss of the threedropped catches on the firstday.

Nafees had earlierdropped a simple chance offTimycen Maruma’s edge inthe first over, andMohammad Ashraful haddropped Malcolm Wallerwhen the batsman was on 22.Waller went on to score hissecond half-century in Testcricket. His 55 came off 138balls with just three bound-aries, as he focused on pick-ing singles and pushing upthe run-rate during hisfourth-wicket partnershipwith Taylor. The pair added127 at 2.97 runs per over and,for the 40-odd overs theywere at the crease, Zimbabwewere a different batting sideout in the middle.

Bangladesh had theirmoments in the first sessionwhen Robiul Islam, their bestbowler on the day, removedMaruma and Vusi Sibandawithin the first 15 overs.Maruma, a middle-order bats-man and one of threedebutants for Zimbabwe inthis Test, batted cautiouslyand left most of the deliver-ies he faced. Sibanda, themore aggressive of the pair,hit one boundary and missedmany deliveries before hismiddle-stump was uprootedby a Robiul yorker.

Maruma fell leg-before tothe same bowler a few overslater and, as Rubel and Robiulcontinued to bowl tightly,Zimbabwe looked in big

trouble.Bangladesh, however,

squandered their chances attaking control. Masakadzaand Taylor added a slow 43for the third wicket and theformer’s wicket should havehanded Bangladesh enoughmomentum. They had to waitalmost three hours for theirnext wicket when Waller fellto Rubel, two overs after thesecond new ball was taken.Elton Chigumbura, playing inhis first Test since 2011, wasbowled by Rubel, but thethird umpire decided thatRubel had overstepped theline.

Mushfiqur Rahim hardlyused Sohag Gazi, continuingwith Enamul throughout thesecond session, and thepost-tea session as well. An-other folly was the lack of anaggressive field when Robiulwas bowling. He got littlesupport from the fielderswho dropped three chances.There were also some closeleg-before shouts, but onecould say that Bangladeshmade more mistakes than thehome side.

Zimbabwe’s score setsup the game nicely asBangladesh will have tooutdo them on a two-pacedwicket.

The home side should bebuoyed by their captain’s in-nings and if they can extendtheir score to the 350-runmark, the visitors will have todig deep into their battingform to have a footing in thisgame.—AFP

Zimbabwe 1st innings:Maruma lbw b Robiul . 10V Sibanda b Robiul Islam 5H Masakadza b Enamul 25Taylor not out ............ 105Waller b Rubel Hossain 55E Chigumbura not out .. 6Extras: (b1, lb3, w2, nb5)11Total: (4 wickets) ....... 217Fall of wickets 1-10, 2-22, 3-65, 4-192Bowling: ......... O-M-R-WRobiul Islam ..... 24-6-56-2Rubel Hossain . 20-6-42-1Nasir Hossain ...... 5-2-3-0Enamul .............. 29-3-76-1Sohag Gazi ....... 11-0-33-0Mahmudullah ...... 1-0-3-0

ISLAMABAD—Former Paki-stan cricket captain SalmanButt and fast bowlerMohammad Asif Thursdaylost their appeals to the Courtof Arbitration for Sport (CAS)over bans handed down tothem by International CricketCouncil (ICC) for spot-fixing.

The ICC banned Butt for10 years and Asif for sevenyears for their role in thespot-fixing scam that also in-volved fast bowlerMohammad Amir.

A statement issued bythe CAS read: “The Court ofArbitration for Sport (CAS)has dismissed the appealsfiled by the Pakistani cricketplayers Mohammad Asif andSalman Butt against the de-cisions taken by the Interna-tional Cricket Council Tribu-nal on 5 February 2011 inwhich Mr Asif receivedseven years ineligibility (twosuspended) and Mr Butt tenyears (five suspended) fol-lowing an investigation intospot-fixing in relation to “noballs” bowled during a TestMatch played in London in2010.”

The CAS said SalmanButt did not contest his liabil-ity in the case but had re-

CAS rejects Salman,Asif appeals

quested a shortening of theban.

“The CAS panel was notpersuaded that the sanctionimposed by the ICC Tribunalwas disproportionate, northat any of the mitigating fac-tors advanced by Mr Buttqualified as exceptional cir-cumstances,” the CAS state-

ment added.Mohammad Asif had ap-

pealed the termination of theICC’s decision on proceduralgrounds.

“The CAS Panel foundthat there was no evidenceadvanced by Mr Asif whichclearly exculpated him andthat his submissions did notbreak the chain of circum-

stantial evidence or in anyway undermine the reason-ing contained in the ICCTribunal’s decision.”“For those reasons, the Panelwas satisfied beyond rea-sonable doubt that Mr Asifwas a party to the spot-fix-ing conspiracy,” the state-ment said.

Meanwhile, Butt’s legaladvisor Amer Rahman in astatement said: “BothSalman and us are bitterlydisappointed with the deci-sion of the Court.”

“We will not be givingup. In the coming days andweeks, we will be exploringevery other available av-enue,” he added.—APP

Golf: Chinese 12-year-oldset to smash age record

Open.In Tianjin, Ye will com-

pete for the spotlight with agroup of ultra-young Chi-nese players, including Guanand Andy Zhang, who be-came the youngest US Opencompetitor last year at theage of 14.

Bai Zhengkai, 15, is alsoin the field, thanks to his vic-tory in last year’s VolvoChina Junior Match PlayChampionship, as isAmerica’s Jim Liu, who in2010 became the youngestUS Junior Amateur cham-pion at the age of 14.—AFP

WAH CANTT: Participating players in Junior Squash Championship for ChairmanPOF Trophy alongwith chief guest Riaz Ahmed Member POF Board at the Openingceremony of championship.

SPORTS REPORTER

WAH CANTT—Riaz Ahmed,DICR and Member POF Boardinaugurated National JuniorSquash Championship forChairman POF Trophy by cut-

National Jr Squash C’ship beginsting the ribbon at JahangirKhan Squash Complex, WahCantt. Junior players under15 and under 17 categories areparticipating in this champion-ship.

In his welcoming remarks

Mr. Muhammad Rizwan, Presi-dent POF Sports ControlBoard said that POF was play-ing a vital role in the promo-tion of sports activities in thecountry.

He further remarked thatthis junior championship hasbeen organized on the specialinstructions of Chairman POFBoard in order to hunt playersat gross root level so that newplayers of squash could befound and they may bringgood name for Pakistan at in-ternational level.

He specially thanked themain sponsor National Bank ofPakistan and cooperation ofPakistan Squash Federation.Opening match was playedbetween Mr. Omer Alauddinand Mr. Ahmed Ali in whichMr. Ahmed Ali defeated Mr.Alauddin by 3-2. A large num-ber of spectators and playerswitnessed this opening matchand appreciated the players onplaying best stroke and en-joyed very much over thegame. Quarter final of thechampionship will be playedon 18th April’ Semi Final on19th April and Final of theChampionship will be playedon 20th April’2013.

HAVANA—Fidel Castro, theretired leader of the CubanRevolution, met with Argen-tine football great DiegoMaradona the official mediasaid Monday.

“The exchange between

Maradona meets old friend Castrothe two old friends was fruit-ful,” the official CubanGranma daily reported, de-scribing the gathering as“brotherly” and “cheerful.”

The newspaper also pub-lished photos taken by one

of Castro’s sons. Castro, 86,turned over Cuba’s presi-dency to his brother Raul inJuly 2006 after falling ill, andhis public appearances sincethen have been rare.

Maradona arrived in Ha-vana from Caracas where helent his backing to actingPresident Nicolas Maduro,who was declared the winnerof a snap election to replacethe late Hugo Chavez. Theresults are being contestedby the opposition.

Castro and Maradona, 52,have had close ties since thefootball star’s first visit toCuba in 1987.

Maradona has also spenttime in a Cuban hospital totreat a cocaine addiction andan array of health prob-lems.—AFP

32nd NationalGames from

June 20: MujahidISLAMABAD—The 32nd edi-tion of National Games willbe held at Pakistan SportsComplex here from June 20 to27.

“The sports federations,who are abiding by NationalSports policy will be ex-tended letters on Thursdayto participate in theseGames,” secretary InterimCommittee of POA RanaMujahid said while speakingat a press conference here atMedia Centre, PakistanSports Complex.

He said that the federa-tions who had failed to com-ply with the decisions of Su-preme Court and Lahore HighCourt with regard to NationalSports Policy would not beinvited for the NationalGames. “A meeting of all fed-erations will be called withinnext few days to chalk outstrategy for organizing theGames in a befitting manner,”he added.

Rana Mujahid said thatthe Interim Committee wasconsisted of credible peopleand would leave no stoneunturned to promote sportsin the country.

“We are here not for per-sonal gains but to promotesports in the country. We aredetermined to take the coun-try to the heights of glory insports,” he said.

He said that the InterimCommittee in its meetingon Wednesday had takenseveral important deci-s ions .—APP

Pakistan hopesDavis Cup tie

will be restartedI S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nhopes to restart its DavisCup tie against New Zealandin an appeal to the Interna-tional Tennis Federationagainst awarding the matchto New Zealand this month.

Pakistan was up 1-0 andleading the second singles atYangon, Myanmar, when SriLankan referee Ashita Ajigaladeclared the grass-courtunplayable and ruled theAsia-Oceania Group II tie inNew Zealand’s favour.

Waqar Yousuf, the secre-tary of the Pakistan TennisFederation, told The Associ-ated Press on Wednesdaythat by next week he hopesthe ITF will finalize a date fortheir appeal hearing.

Pakistan player AisamulHaq went to London lastweek and presentedPakistan’s point of view to ITFofficials.Yousuf says the PTFwants the tie to restart withthe second singles.—AP

Zaka presentsPCB constitution

to ICC ChiefSPORTS REPORTER

LAHORE—President Interna-tional Cricket Council, AlanIsaac has praised the effortsof Pakistan Cricket Board andthe Government of Pakistanfor producing a constitutionwhich makes the process ofelecting its Chairman demo-cratically in line with theICC’s constitutional provi-sions.

He was talking to Chair-man, PCB, Mohammad ZakaAshraf who presented him acopy of the PCB constitutionin Dubai during the ICC Boardmeeting. The new constitu-tion has repealed the 2007 PCBconstitution and is compliantwith the ICC’s charter docu-ment; conforms to the require-ment of ICC with regard to In-dependence of the Boards andprevention of undue interfer-ence by Governments incricket administration inMember countries.

On the occasion, ZakaAshraf said: “It has been along, consultative andthoughtful exercise, and in-cluded input from stakehold-ers including ICC. I am de-lighted that in the end, we havebeen successful in deliveringa constitution that is in com-pliance with the ICC’s require-ment and will be beneficial forcricket in Pakistan in the longrun.” “The completion of hisextremely important task alsoreflects our commitment as aresponsible Member of theICC. PCB will continue to takeall necessary steps which arein the best interest of our GreatSport.”

Alan Isaac, President ICCwhile congratulating the PCBsaid: “I must complimentZaka Ashraf, his team and theGovernment of Pakistan forframing a new constitutionwhich is in line with the ICC’sconstitutional provisions.”

Shutter-downstrikeQUETTA—Shutter downstrike was observed in differ-ent cities of Balochistan onWednesday to protestagainst attack on PML-Nleader Sanaullah Zehri’s con-voy. On Tuesday, at least fivepeople including Zehri’s son,brother and nephew werekilled when roadside bombhit their election convoy inKhuzdar district. To protestagainst the incident, a com-plete shutter down strike wasobserved in Quetta, Khuzdar,Zehri, Kalat, Bakhtiyarabad,Dera Murad Jamali, Panjgurand other areas on PakistanMuslim League Nawaz(PML-N) call. —NNI

DSPs, SHOswarnedFAISALABAD—SSP Opera-tion Nafees Gohar on Tues-day warned that strict actionwould be taken against allthose Deputy Superinten-dents Police (DSPs) and Sta-tion House Officers (SHO)who failed in getting Mar-riage Act implemented in itstrue spirit in their respectiveareas. He said that under Mar-riage Act, the marriage hallsshould be closed at every costup to 10:00 p.m. “If any mar-riage hall will be found openafter this time. —APP

Polio workerspelted with stonesN AWA B S H A H —Unknownpeople on Wednesdaypelted stones at polio vacci-nation team in Qazi Ahmedarea of Nawabshah, injuringthree workers. The stone-throwing incident took placeat Hayat Marri Village inNawabshah. According toreports, anti-polio workers,Khalid Soomro, FauziaMughal and Aftab Mughal,were also held hostage bymiscreants. But they weretimely freed by Qazi Ahmedpolice. According to DSP,heavy contingent of policesurrounded the area to appre-hend culprits. —NNI

QUETTA: Victims of Mashakhel earthquake who were evacuated by army helicopters being treated at CMH.

ERRA team tocoordinate damage

assessment forreconstructionSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Soon after theearthquake struck border areasof Balochistan and Iran,Deputy Chairman ERRA MajGen Azim Asif has been inclose contact with Chief Sec-retary, Balochistan, NDMA,IGFC and Southern Commandto evaluate damage caused byearthquake measuring 7.9 Rich-ter scale on Tuesday.

Satellite images have beenrequested from SPARCO foraccurate assessment of dam-ages, said Deputy ChairmanERRA Maj Gen Azim Asif.

ERRA as per its mandateis closely working with NDMAand has geared up for recon-struction and rehabilitationactivities after the initial phaseof relief and rescue, he said.

Chief SecretaryBalochistan is on board andon Wednesday a high leveldelegation comprising of DGPlanning and Chief of StaffERRA was to leave forBaluchistan. After the initialdamage assessment, DeputyChairman ERRA will be goingto Balochistan to coordinatefor subsequent reconstruc-tion activities in the earthquakeaffected areas, specifically inproviding transitional housingfor the earthquake affectedpopulation. ERRA has alreadyearned international recogni-tion for its rural housingprogramme and received UNSASAKAWA Award for effec-tive implementation of RuralHousing Strategy by building600,000 seismically safehouses, in earthquake affectedareas of KP and AJK. The ex-perience, expertise and orga-nizational strength of ERRAwill be helpful in rehabilitationand reconstruction activity inaffected areas of Balochistan.

AMANULLAH KHAN

K A R A C H I — S i k a n d a rMustafa Khan, Chairman Pa-kistan Business Council hassounded a note of warningthat Pakistan with all the po-tential to become a high-growth country is fast ap-proaching a critical point be-yond which recovery wouldbecome almost impossible. Itis the time for taking drasticremedial measures, he em-phasized.

Addressing a crowdedpress conference after con-clusion of a day long sessionwhich evolved recommenda-tions on 6 critical issues con-

fronted to the economy,these recommendationswould be presented to thepolitical parties and the newgovernment post elections topave the way for recovery ofsustainable economy.

It may be noted that hePakistan Economic Forum, aconsultative body on themodel of the World EconomicForum, sponsored by thePakistan BusinessCouncil,(PBC) organized itssecond session to presentthe draft recommendationson its 6 per expert panels oncritical issues facing thecountry. It may be noted thatPBC contributes 18 percent

of the total tax collected inthe country, shares 18 per-cent exports of the total ex-ports of the country with 12percent contribution to theGDP of the country.

Replying to a questionDr. Ishrat Hussain, who wasthe chairman of macro-eco-nomic and financial stability,said that actually the ques-tion about depleting foreignexchange reserves calls forremoving trust deficit be-tween the government andthe private sector. If the gov-ernment managed to restorethe confidence of the private

Pakistan approachingfast to critical point

Beyond that recovery would be almost impossible: PBC

TARIQ SAEED

PE S H AWA R—With intwenty four hours of thedeadly bomb explosion tar-geting ANP leadership inthe interior of Peshawarwhich left at least 18 peopledead 45 others seriouslywounded, another leader ofthe Awami National Partyand candidate from PK-17was targeted with the emotecontrolled explosion inCharsadda district causinghim minor injuries onWednesday.

ANP leader FarooqKhan was on his way forelection campaigning inSardheri area when an im-provised explosive device(IED) hit his car. Sourcestold that Farooq Khan hassustained minor injuriesdue to the explosion.

“He was busy with theelectioneering of partyChief Asfandyar Wali inCharsadda, a home town ofthe ANP president, whenhis vehicle was hit by anImprovised Explosive De-vice (IED) in Sardheri areaon Wednesday”. Localssaid adding Farooq Khanwho himself is contestingon PK-17, sustained minorinjuries though his vehiclewas damaged badly.

Sources told Observerthat ANP leader was head-ing for Sardheri Bazaar fromhis home, when his convoywas targeted with a re-motely-detonated Impro-vised Explosives Device

(IED) planted beside a palmtree. Farooq Khan receivedminor injuries in the attack.The sources said.

The blast came as stringof attacks against the anti-Taliban party which is be-ing threatened and targetedby militant groups and TTPhad already threatened totarget ANP leadership thathas till date lost over twohundred party activists andsenior leaders MNAs,MPAs and even ministersincluding senior ministerKhyber PukhtunkhwaBashir Bilour who wasmartyred along with nineparty workers and policeofficers during a deadly ex-plosion in Peshawar in De-cember last.

Hardly a day earlier adeadly explosion, believed

to be suicide attack, in therally of top party leaderGhulam Ahmad Bilour at acongested area in Peshawarhad city left at least 18people dead and over 45others seriously injured.

Those killed includeSHO Kotwali, AssistantSub Inspector and two copsthough Former federal min-ister for Railways and ANPcandidate for NA-1 GhulamBilour escaped narrowlysustaining minor injuries.TTP had owned the respon-sibility of the deadly attack.

In the meanwhile HajiGhulam Ahmed BilourWednesday expressed hisparty’s resolve not to pullback in the face of rampantterror attacks against theANP and continue waragainst terrorism.

Another ANP leadertargeted in Charsadda

ALI SYED

ISLAMABAD—The prioritycommittee on defence hasproposed the defense bud-get of Rs 613 billion for nextfinancial year 3013-14 whichis up by 12 percent than thecurrent defense budget ofRs 545 billion. “We haveproposed to increase the al-location of defense budgetkeeping in view the threat ofterrorism the country is fac-ing with at priority commit-tee level,” a senior official atFinance Ministry told Paki-stan Observer.

Our immediate neigh-

boring country India has in-creased the defence budgetmanifold and to this effect theeconomic managers of thecountry are worried and haveincreased the allocation fordefence up to Rs 613 billionwhich is still not enough andincase the next governmentmanages to increase the taxbase by taking the unpopu-lar decisions, then the gov-ernment will have the fiscalspace to cater to the needsof the defense forces for thecountry which is at war withmilitants backed by manycountries.

“The officials of the Fi-

nance Ministry and PlanningCommission are also in theprocess of finalizing the lay-out of federal budget for nextfinancial year 2013-14. How-ever, development budgethas been proposed at Rs 450billion at the level of prioritycommittees.”

If this caretaker govern-ment presents the budget,then the National EconomicCouncil (NEC) will meet in thethird week of May and APCC(All Plan Coordination Com-mittee) will meet in the firstweek of the next month ofMay that will recommend thesize of development budget

to NEC for final approval.In case the next elected

government prepares thebudget, then NEC constitu-tion would be changed thatwill approve the develop-ment budget. To a ques-tion, the official said thatthe next revenue targetwould be fixed dependingupon the revenue the FBRwill be able to collect byJune 30 in the current finan-cial year. Incase FBRachieves the target of Rs2.195 trillion revenue then,the next revenue targetwould be fixed at Rs2.5 tril-lion.

Defence budget for next fiscal year proposed at Rs613b

SHARAFAT KAZMI

ISLAMABAD — Prime Minis-ter Mir Hazar Khan Khosa hassaid that Constitution pro-vides a single-point mandateto the Caretaker Governmentto conduct free, fair and trans-parent election. Addressing the cabinetmeeting here Wednesday thePrime Minister pledged to actin a non-partisan fashion andassist the Election Commission Mir Hazar Khan Khososaid they are reaching out toall political parties with a viewto create a conducive environ-ment. He condemned the re-cent wave of terrorism inKarachi and KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Balochistanand said that the culprits ofthese terrorists act will bebrought to book soon. The Government sympa-thizes with all the bereavedfamilies and pray for early re-covery of the injured in theseacts.

The Cabinet directed thelaw enforcing agencies to beefup the security. It also urgedthe Provincial Governments tokeep a vigilant eye on any sus-

picious activity and evolve amechanism to counter anysuch terrorist act with ironhand. He said the Federal Govern-ment would extend all out as-sistance to the Provincial Gov-ernments and all possible mea-sures would be taken for im-provement in Law and Ordersituation in the country. ThePrime Minister assured theNation that sincere efforts arebeing made to bring normalcyin the country.

The Caretaker Govern-ment has once again retreatedits commitment to hold elec-tions in free, fair and transpar-ent manner. Later briefingnewsmen about decisions ofthe cabinet, Minister for Infor-mation and Broadcasting ArifNizami said that the PrimeMinister said that the care-taker government would actin a nonpartisan manner.

Answering a question,the Information said that theelections would be credibleas all the political parties areparticipating in it. The Min-ister said that the cabinetcondemned the recent waveof terrorism in Karachi and

Fair polls caretakers’ only mandate: KhosoKhyber Pakhtunkhawa anddirected for arrest of those re-sponsible in such acts.

The Cabinet assured pro-viding every possible assis-tance to provincial govern-ments in maintaining law andorder situation. The Cabinetdecided to enhance securityof the candidates contestingelections as well as voters.The Cabinet offered fatehafor those martyred inyesterday’s earthquake andacts of terrorism. The Cabi-net was also briefed aboutenergy crisis in the countryand steps to ease the situa-tion. Additional resourceswould be provided to powergeneration plants.The cabinet was informedthat 7. 91 million tons ofwheat would be procuredduring the current season.

The cabinet also re-viewed consumer price index.It was noted that the pricesof ten items have decreasedand twnety eight remainedunchanged. The cabinet wastold that all heroin factoriesin the country have been de-stroyed and now not a singlefactory is working.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE— All Pakistan Tex-tile Mills Association(APTMA) leadership hasrefused to accept the loadmanagement plan of elec-tricity and gas from nextweek onwards, saying thatthe industry will registerFIRs against the concernedif tried to close the textilemills by force in Punjab.

Central ChairmanAPTMA Ahsan Bashir andGroup Leader APTMAGohar Ejaz held an emergentpress conference onWednesday evening at theAPTMA Punjab office.

The APTMA memberswould not close down millsand let the workers sit idledue to load shedding of

electricity and gas, saidGohar Ejaz.

According to him, theindustry has never wit-nessed such an abnormalload management and it issimply a sign of inefficiencyof the caretaker set up. Fur-ther, he said, it also sug-gests a clear discriminationagainst Punjab-based in-dustry.

He said the industrial-ists would approach to thecourts of law for relief incase the government deniedgas and electricity supplyin Punjab.

“We will not tolerateany discrimination againstthe industry in Punjab, asthe industry in Punjab isthe industry of Pakistan,”he said.

APTMA refuses to acceptload management plan

Marines issueIndia accusedof breaching

sovereignassurance

NEW DELHI—Italy accusedIndia of breaching the sover-eign assurance given to it andthe Supreme Court judgmentby slapping provisions of Sup-pression of Unlawful Acts(SUA), which provides formandatory death penalty,against the marines facing trialfor murder of two Kerala fish-ermen, Indian media reportedon Wednesday.

For Italy, senior advocateMukul Rohatgi argued that themarines - Massimiliano Latorreand Salvatore Girone — weresent back on the Indiangovernment’s sovereign as-surance that they would notbe awarded death penaltyeven if found guilty in thetrial.—Online

Security reviewedMIRPURKHAS—DivisionalCommissioner MirpurkhasDr Saeed Ahmed Mangnejohas said that foolproof ar-rangements on polling daywould be ensured and addi-tional force could be de-ployed on sensitive pollingstations. He was chairing themeeting of divisional electioncoordination committee, hereon Wednesday, to deliberateupon polling arrangements.The meeting was attended byDIG Mirpurkhas MuneerAhmed Shaikh, SSPs andDeputy Commissioners ofMirpurkhas, Sanghar,Umerkot and Tharparkar Dis-tricts and other officials con-cerned. Matters like conductof polling in transparent andpeaceful manner, providingsecurity to the voters, neces-sary arrangements to assistelection commission.—APP

Continued on Page 3

KARACHI: Pir Sahab Pagaro and former chief minister Punjab Mian MuhammadShahbaz Sharif during a meeting on Wednesday.

PAKISTAN’S national and provincialmechanisms for the control of Tuberculosis are performing well but

there was the need to go into the fifthgear with greater dedication in order torealize the vision of pre-TB elimination in thecountry during our life-times.

These views were ex-pressed by Dr MohamedAbdel Aziz, WHO’s Re-gional Adviser on StopTuberculosis for the East-ern Mediterranean Re-gion (EMR) while ad-dressing a meeting of na-tional, provincial and re-gional managers of Tu-berculosis Control in Pa-kistan at a meeting hereTuesday.

Dr Aziz who is head-ing a mission to Pakistanstressed that theprogrammes were work-ing under highly challenging conditionsincluding security problems in KhyberPakhtoonkhaw, Balochistan and FATAand grappling with the huge TB burdenin Punjab and Sindh but they were doingvery well under the circumstances.

He added that as Pakistan accountedfor 60% of the Regional TB burden in thecountry, its success or failure in combat-ing the disease would translate into theregion’s success or failure.

Earlier the national, provincial andregional programmes gave their presen-tations and highlighted their successesand challenges.

Dr Aziz praised the programme forhaving an over 90% treatment successrate and a gradually increasing case de-tection rate; however, there was a needto tap the private sector more in order to

detect more cases. He par-ticularly appreciated theprovince of Sindh for at-tracting a large number ofnational and internationalpartners. He pointed outthat WHO would be orga-nizing a review mission ofthe programme in Novem-ber.

Dr Ejaz Qadeer, Na-tional TB ControlProgramme Manager de-scribed WHO as a strate-gic technical and highlysupportive partner for op-erational research and ad-vocacy purposes, whichwas vital for the program.He appreciated the WHO-HQ, WHO-EMRO and

WHO Country Office for their consis-tent support.

The Mission later met with Dr Ni’maSaeed Abid, Acting WHO Representa-tive in Pakistan and exchanged views ofmutual interest. Dr Abid pledged his un-flinching support to the program as Tu-berculosis was causing such a lot ofmorbidity and mortality in Pakistan andacting as an impediment in the country’seconomic development. He was confi-dent of the national ownership and com-mitment for the program leading to enor-mous public health gains over the last12-13 years since it was rejuvenated.

WHO adviser for realizingvision of pre-TB elimination

ISLAMABAD: Models during launching ceremony of new album ‘Main Chala’ by Junaid Sami brother of renowned singer Adnan Sami.

New vistas for Pakistani studentsSTAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—Memoran-dum of Understanding be-tween National Universityof Modern Languages andGoethe-Institute Pakistanwould bring new vistas oflearning in German Lan-guage, Culture and Litera-ture not only here in Paki-stan but also in Germany,said Dr Manuel Negwer, Di-rector of Goethe-InstitutePakistan.

He expressed theseviews while addressing aceremony in which a MoUwas signed betweenNUML and Goethe Insti-tute at NUML. He told thatGoethe Institute has a 50-year old presence and hasa long history of friendshipwith Pakistan.

This MoU is not asimple academic collabora-tion rather it is a milestonefor academic, social andcultural exchanges betweentwo societies.

He further told studentsthat language learning isnot merely limited to learn-ing vocabulary, grammarand semantics rather it in-

troduces you to a new phi-losophy, history, geography,culture and polity. Every lan-guage you are in touch withbrings new reality into yourlife, he added.

Director General NUMLBrigadier Azam Jamal, whilespeaking at the occasion,said that “It is indeed start of

a renewed collaboration be-tween two institutions,which will definitely pave theway for further cooperationin the academic and culturalfields”.

He said that “NUML isthe only University of Paki-stan to conduct official exami-nations of Chinese, Korean

ISLAMABAD: Chancellor Preston University Dr Abdul Basit and chief guest QariSyed Muhammad Buzurg Shah Al Azhari with the winners of Inter-University QirratCompetition at Preston University.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

and Japanese languages.Later, the MOU was

signed by DG NUML, BrigAzam Jamal and Dr ManuelNegwer, Director Goethe-In-stitute.

The signature ceremonywas attended by Dr ThomasDitt, Cultural Attaché of theGerman Embassy, Ms Ursula

Saarbeck, Director DAADInformation Centre inIslamabad, Mr ShamimManzar, Head of LanguageDepartment Goethe-Insti-tute Karachi, Dr AnwerMahmood, Head of GermanDepartment, other deans,heads, directors, facultymembers and students.

Talking to the scribeHoD German Department DrAnwer Mahmood said that“We have a lot of place andrespect for the Goethe In-stitute in our hearts becauseGerman Department inNUML was established byit.

This MoU would pro-vide an opportunity to sendour young teachers andstudents abroad for furthertraining and upgrade de-partment with the latestteaching materials andteaching aids.

Moreover, this devel-opment would also lead toenrolment of more stu-dents for our undergradu-ate and postgraduatecourses.

In the end DG Brig AzamJamal presented Universitysouvenir to guests.

April 20

NATIONAL book foun-dation would arrange 3-days book festival on theeve of “National BookDay”. The three daysbook festival to be heldat Pak-China FriendshipCenter will commencefrom April 20.

April 24

DISTRICT Health De-partment Rawalpindiwould launch a week-long special drive to cre-ate awareness amongwomen about healthcareof mother from April 24to 30.

April 25

ALLAMA Iqbal OpenUniversity (AIOU) hasscheduled its final examsof MS, M.Phil and Ph.DProgrammes for the Se-mester Autumn, 2012 tobe started from Monday25th April, 2013 acrossthe country simulta-neously.

ISLAMABAD: DG NUML Brig Azam Jamal and Director Goethe Institute, Dr ManuelNegwere exchanging the documents of MoU at NUML.

RAWALPINDI—CommissionerRawalpindi Division KhalidMasood Ch. has directed allDistrict Coordination Officers(DCOs) and District Police Of-ficers (DPOs) of the districtsof the division to take speedysteps after preparing districtsupport plan and district se-curity plan for arrangements toensure transparent and impar-tial elections in the light of in-structions of Election Commis-sion of Pakistan(EPC).

He said that integratedcoordination be ensuredamong all departments of thelocal administration and allavailable resources be utilizedto discharge duties on the poll-ing day. He issued these in-structions while presiding overa meeting of Divisional Coor-dination Committee on Tues-day held here to discuss andreview arrangements on theoccasion of general elections2013.

Regional Police Officer(RPO) Rawalpindi, Nasim uzZaman, DCO Rawalpindi

Distt support, security plans for pollsRashid Mehmood Langrial,CPO Abdul Razaq Cheema,SSP Special Branch MohsinNaqvi, DCOs of Chakwal,Jhelum and Attock, YawarHussain, Maqbool AhmedLangah, Muhammad Iqbal,DPOs of Chakwal, Jhelum, andAttock, Ahmed Arslan , MalikAfzal Mehmood butt, AbdulQadir Qamar, Additional Com-missioner Ch. Habib Ullah,ADLG Allah Dita Najmi andother officers concerned at-tended the meeting.

Commissioner KhalidMasood Ch. directed that allhospitals at district and Tehsillevel be kept alert ensuringavailability of necessary medi-cines to meet any emergency,especially on the election day.

He said that DCOs shouldprepare emergency manage-ment plan for their respectivedistricts and all districts headsshould also be taken onboardin this respect so that arrange-ments, in hospitals, health de-partment, and rescue 1122,civil defence be ensured per-

fectly and effectively. He said that surveillance

and search be done in Af-ghan localities, hotels, Innsand waiting rooms for pas-sengers along with makingarrangements of security ofArmy installations,Mosques, Imam Barghas andcongested business cen-ters.—APP

Lectures onIqbal at

Aiwan-i-QuaidCITY REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—To com-memorate the death anni-versary of the poet of theEast, Allama MuhammadIqbal, display of documen-tary film and lectures onhis life, poetic grandeurand philosophy are under-way at Aiwan-i-Quaid andwill continue till April 23,2013, under the auspices ofthe Nazriya Pakistan Coun-cil.

A good number ofschools and colleges of thetwin cities as well as fromthe surrounding areas andAbbottabad have alreadyvisi ted Aiwan-i-Quaid toattend these events andthe NPC has invited manyother insti tutions to visitAiwan-i-Quaid during thecoming days to benefi ttheir students from thesebriefings and film shows.

The educational insti-tutes have appreciated theNPC endeavours as ahealthy and positive activ-ity which aims to inculcatelove for religion and inter-faith harmony in studentsthrough spread of Iqbal’smessage of self-respect ,ego and firm faith in fun-damental beliefs of Islam inthese lectures and f i lmshows .

Bahria UniversityWWF sign MoU

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Bahria Univer-sity Islamabad Campus signsMOU with WWF-Pakistanfor Community Service Pro-gram. Bahria University col-laborates with WWF-Paki-stan to provide Internshipsand Community service to147 students of Bahria Uni-versity Islamabad.

This programme aims toprovide the students with En-vironmental education and fa-cilitate in their professionaldevelopment.Through thisprogramme students will beexposed to the real environ-mental challenges faced by ourcountry. They will closelywork with the slum schoolsand after getting trained byWWF-Pakistan’s trainers,they will provide the same edu-cation to those poor children.

ISLAMABAD—Two girls wereabducted from the federalcapital in different incidentsWednesday.

One Sidra went miss-ing from area of I-9 policeduring shopping at I-8Markaz.

Her brother Afzal Ahmadtold the police that he parkedhis bike in I-8 Markaz andasked Sidra to wait as he hadto buy something from thenearby shop but his sisterwas found missing after hereturned there.

He expressed suspicionthat Babar Hussain, Wajid

Two girls abductedIlyas along other people hadkidnapped.

Other incident took placein the area of Barakahu po-lice. One Mangta khan fa-ther of Ishrat Bi Bi while lodg-ing report with the police toldhis daughter is missing fromMarch 27.

He further told policethat Bashir and Mushtaqwho were behind the abduc-tion of his daughter extorteda sum of Rs 75000 from himin the name of recovery of hisdaughter but she has notbeen returned so far.—Online

SANA JAMAL

ISLAMABAD—A comprehen-sive state policy along withmechanism to strengthen thepolice force of Pakistan arethe key solutions to tackleextremism, according to a Re-port launched here onWednesday.

“Despite the surge in ter-rorist attacks in Pakistan since2005, there has been no con-sistent effort to address theproblem” to fight the menaceof extremism, as indicated bythe Extremism Watch Report2011-12.

“If extremism is to be ef-fectively tackled in Pakistan,the police force has to besubstantially strength-ened and the factors debili-tating it removed, the Reportsuggests.

The ‘Extremism Watch:Mapping Conflict Trends inPakistan 2011-2012’ launchedby Jinnah Institute (JI),an in-dependent policy think-tank,recorded 379 incidents of ex-tremism from October 2011 toDecember 2012, which killedsome 559 and injured 718across Pakistan. The hardest-hit province in last 15 monthswas Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa(KPK), with 143 incidents ofextremism. The situation of

Reforming police canhelp curb extremism

Balochistan, was moretragic, where wave of violentsectarian attacks against theShia community killed 190people.

“Sectarian violence wasresponsible for the highestdeath toll across the coun-try, with 525 people killed”said Raza Rumi, Director ofJI, who moderated the paneldiscussion on the report.

Ahmer Bilal Soofi, thecaretaker Minister for Lawand Parliamentary Affairs,speaking on the launch said“the issue (extremism) is notregime specific, but statespecific and must be ad-dressed as such” He com-mented: “What we are wit-nessing in Pakistan is aunique phenomenon as thenature of conflicts in KPK isdifferent from what Karachiis experiencing while Quettahas diverse issues.”

Reforming Pakistan’s in-efficient criminal justice sys-tem was regarded as crucialfor combating extremism byMoeed Pirzada, a TV journal-ist. Strong policing with asystem to monitor the move-ment of people and vehicleswas needed.

Assessing the institu-tional capacity of policeforce, Zulfiqar Hameed in

his essay (part of the Re-port), recommends that: “is-sues of police capacity –manpower, technical exper-tise and access to informa-tion – have to be addressedas a top priority through theestablishment of counter-terrorism departmentswithin each provincial policedepartment.”

Maulana Amin Shaheediof Mjlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen said that the civiland military institutions ofthe country should wake upto the dire situation and pro-tect all Pakistani citizens irre-spective of their faith, sectand creed.

Imtiaz Gul, security ana-lyst, stated that most politi-cal parties skirt around theissue of militancy while “ex-tremism is a manifestationof unrest in society”, sys-temic failures, that includenon implementation of theconstitution and violationof the law by state institu-tions.

He also elaborated thatextremism is not a short termphenomenon containedwithin a specific geography.“If we don’t stand up to thischallenge, Pakistan will re-main isolated politically andsocially.”

There are no secretsto success. It is the

result of preparation,hard work, and

learning from failure.—Colin Powell

TAJAMMUL GURMANI

LAHOER—National Logis-tic Cell (NLC) is ready tostart goods trains and im-porting ten locomotivesfrom South Korea, while itwill use the rolling stock ofPakistan Railways. Anagreement between NLCand ministry of railways hasalready been signed in thisregard. A senior officer offreight department of rail-ways said that NLC wouldoperate goods trains underpublic-private partnership.NLC is the first organization

which is buying locomotivesfor operating any train. Somepassenger trains includingPak-Business Train, Shalimarand others were operatingunder public-public partner-ship but all private partieswere using railways locomo-tives, passenger wagonsand rolling stock of railways.

A senior officer of rail-ways, who had recently re-turned from a visit to SouthKorea, said that ten Ameri-can made locomotives of3000 horse power were beingrepaired in Korea specificallyfor the above project. The

Korean engineers were con-verting these medium gaugelocomotives in to broadgauge and a team of NLCwas also present in Korea forsupervising the work.

A senior officer of freightdepartment, while comment-ing on the new developmentsaid that railways was facingworse crisis after shortage oflocomotive. He said that outof 465 locomotives only 140locomotives were in workingcondition. The authoritieshave allocated eight locomo-tives for freight departmentand only one train was run-

ning on daily basis. Thegoods trains’ need 263,000liter diesel daily for its opera-tions but the department isunable to afford the fuel cost.Due to shortage of fuel andavailability of locomotives,freight department may notbe able to achieve its revenuetarget of Rs 6 million daily incurrent financial year, headded.

Meanwhile, NLC has de-manded some 400 oil tankswagons and 150 containerwagons from railways fortheir prospective business.NLC was planning to oper-

ate the freight trains be-tween Karachi andMuzaffargarh for oil loadingand container wagons be-tween Karachi and differentdry ports including Lahore,Faisalabad, Rawalpindi,Peshawar and Quetta.

On the other hand, therailways administration hasconstituted a three- membercommittee consisting ofChief Mechanical Manager,Revenue and Financial Ad-viser and Chief MechanicalEngineer (wagons) for review-ing and fixing the track accesscharges with NLC officials.

NLC ready for operating goods trains with own locomotives

ISLAMABAD—The Securitiesand Exchange Commission ofPakistan (SECP) with the ap-proval of the federal govern-ment has reviewed the exist-ing Ballotters, TransferAgents & UnderwritersRules, 2001 and drafted twoseparate sets of regulatoryframeworks, viz. the draft Un-derwriter Rules, 2013, and thedraft Balloters and TransferAgent Rules, 2013. “The re-vision of BTU rules is SECP’sone of the major moves to-wards development of thecapital market in Pakistan”said a statement issued by the

Commission here Wednesday.The SECP said that both

sets of draft rules have beenpublished in the official ga-zette for seeking public opin-ion as required under sub-sec-tion (2) of Section 39 of theSecurities and Exchange Com-mission of Pakistan Act, 1997.The draft rules are also avail-able for public comments at theDiscussion Forum on theSECP’s websitewww.secp.gov.pk.

The existing BTU ruleswere promulgated on June 27,2001, under Section 32C readwith Section 33 of the Securi-

ties and Exchange Ordinance,1969, to regulate the busi-nesses of the underwritersand ballotters and transferagents. The existing BTUrules were made to regulatingaffairs of the underwriters andballoters and share registrarsdespite the fact that boththese intermediaries performtotally different functions.Furthermore, since the exist-ing BTU rules have a very lim-ited scope as they merely pro-vide the eligibility criteria andthere is no licensing/registra-tion requirement for these in-termediaries.—APP

SECP reviews BTU rulesto develop capital market

ISLAMABAD—The Asian De-velopment Bank’s upcoming46th annual meeting will thor-oughly focus on empowermentthrough development and dis-cuss how vulnerable groupscan better access economic op-portunities and social serviceslike health and education. Min-isters and senior governmentofficials, business leaders, fel-low international institutions,and civil society representa-tives are set to gather in Noida,India from 2-5 May for the meet-ing.

About 4,000 experts andparticipants, including globalmedia are scheduled to attendthe event, according to ADBpress statement received here.

Asia and the Pacific’sbooming economies have seena dramatic reduction in povertyover the past two decades butthe region is still home to twothirds of the world’s extremepoor, and there has been asteep rise in inequality of in-comes and access to basic ser-vices, it added. This year’sGovernors’ Seminar, ‘BeyondFactory Asia: Fueling Growthin a Changing World’ will ex-amine the future role of factory-driven manufacturing in the re-

gion, alternative growthsources, and how individualcountries can move up the pro-duction value chain to avoidbecoming mired in a middle in-come trap.

Seminars, to be held on theoccasion, will look at the chal-lenge of creating productive,meaningful jobs in Asia, thesteps needed to quicken anddeepen regional integration,including South Asia’s fast ex-panding links to its SoutheastAsian neighbors and the mea-sures needed to mobilize morelong term finance for Asia’shuge infrastructure needs. Ses-sions will be held on develop-ment aid, and ways to boostfalling levels of assistance; aswell as how to improve the de-livery of public services to poorand marginalized groups; andfinancing universal health care.

The potential threat toAsia’s future growth from theongoing economic slump inthe US and Europe will comeunder the microscope. while anew ADB study on disasterrisk management will look athow the region can better pro-tect itself from increasingly se-vere and frequent natural ca-lamities.—APP

ADB’s annual meeting tofocus on ‘empowermentthrough development’

Conversion ratesKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Depos-its, Dollar Bearer Certifi-cates, Foreign CurrencyBearer Certificates, SpecialU.S. Dollar Bonds andprofits thereon by allbanks and for providingForward Cover on ForeignCurrency Deposits(excluding F.E. 25 deposits)by the State Bank on April18, 2013. The rates are U.S.Dollar Rs 98.3972, JapaneseYen Rs 1.0023, PoundSterling Rs 150.4198 andEuro Rs 129.7564.—APP

Asian marketsmostly bounceHONG KONG—Asianmarkets mostly rose onWednesday as a reboundon Wall Street settlednerves after a two-day sell-off sparked by weakChinese growth data. Thedollar and euro alsorecovered against the yen,while gold levelled out aftersuffering its worst fall in 30years on Monday. Tokyoclimbed 1.01 percent by thebreak, Hong Kong added0.25 percent, Sydney was0.87 percent higher,Shanghai was flat andSeoul eased 0.25 percent.Traders moved in to pick upcheap stocks on Wednes-day after the previous day’ssell-off, which was inflamedby a double bomb attack onBoston that killed at leastthree people and injuredmore than 180. Wall Streetprovided a strong cuethanks to upbeat data onhousing starts.—AFP

LAHORE: Dr Abdul Basit, Dr Musaddiq Asif, Dr Muhammad Arshad, Irfan Ellahi andDr Tallat Naseer Pasha sitting on the stage during International Livestock, Dairy andPoultry congress organized by Pakistan Veterinary Medical Association.

LSE up by7.55 points

LAHORE—The Lahore StockExchange on Wednesdaywitnessed bullish trend bygaining 7.55 points as theLSE-25 Index opened with4021.99 and closed at 4029.54points. The market’s overallsituation, however, did notcorrespond to an upwardtrend as it remained at 2.385million shares to closeagainst previous turnover of2.580 million shares, showinga downward move of 194,600shares. While, out of the to-tal 89 active scrips, 15 movedup, 52 remained equal with 22down values.

Engro Corporation Lim-ited, Engro Foods Limitedand Maple Leaf CementFactory were major gainersof the day by recording in-crease in their per sharevalue by Rs 3.25, Rs 2.97and Re 0.98 respectively.Pakistan State Oil CompanyLimited, Nishat Mills Lim-ited and Adamjee InsuranceCompany lost their pershare value by Rs 3.28, Rs3.10 and Rs 2.12 respec-tively. The Volume Leader ofthe day included MapleLeaf Cement Factory with448,500 shares, Pakistan In-ternational Airline with384,500 shares and BycoPetroleum Pakistan with247,000 shares.—APP

Cotton crop to becultivated over7.648m acres

ISLAMABAD—Cotton cropwill be cultivated over 7.648million acres of land in thecountry to produce 14.1 mil-lion cotton bales during thecrop season of 2013-14 tofulfill the domestic require-ments as well as for exportpurposes. Talking to APPhere on Wednesday CottonDevelopment Commissionerin the Ministry of Textile In-dustry, Dr. Khalid Abdullahsaid that the targets fixed forthe current sowing seasonwere as higher 5 percent overthe cultivation of last year.

Giving the province wisedetails of cotton cultivation inthe country, he informed thatthe crop would be cultivatedover 6 million acres in Punjab,1.61 million acres in Sindh whileit would be cultivated over 0.04million acres in Balochistanand 0.002 million acres inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa.—APP

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—KESC while re-jecting the concerns of busi-ness leaders over load shed-ding in industrial areas haspleaded that it consistentlysupplying power to all indus-trial zones for the last threeyears. Explaining the indus-trial load shedding for the lastfew days KESC pointed itwas due to consistently lowsupply of gas by SSGC. Thehue and cry raised com-pletely undermines KESC’sservice to the industry for thelast many years and the com-pany considers media state-ments issued by a few indus-

trialists as myopic, self-cen-tered and short-sighted.

The utility has emphati-cally stated that it was onlyKESC that adopted an indus-try-friendly policy and ex-empted all industrial zonesfrom load shedding sinceSeptember 2009. WhileKarachi industry was enjoy-ing uninterrupted powersupply, rest of the industryin the country was facinghuge power outages result-ing in substantial economicgains for Karachi industries.A study, conducted by re-nowned international con-sulting firm Mckinsey, con-firms that uninterrupted

power supply to Karachi’sindustrial units has resultedin an economic value add of1-2 Billion US dollars per an-num.

It is unfortunate that ahandful of so called indus-try leaders have shown avery prejudiced approach to-wards an obvious sectoralissue and resorted to un-called for criticism. This self-ish approach is the verycause of gas supply issue asmost of these leaders runtheir own factories on gas-fired captive power plantswhile they give anti-KESCstatements in media in orderto sound concerned.

KESC provides uninterruptedsupply to industrial zones

JS Bank selects oracleto cut costs, improve

performanceSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—JS Bank Limited,a subsidiary of Pakistan’smost progressive financialservice groups - JS Group,has selected Oracle ExadataDatabase Machine X3 toprovide an integrated plat-form to run its card and corebanking applications, withthe objective of supportingrapid growth and enhancingsystem performance. OracleExadata Database MachineX3 provides the Bank with arobust, scalable and inte-grated platform to support itsmission critical applications,and at the same time, reduceoverall operational costs byconsolidating on an inte-grated platform.

“A scalable, reliable andhighly available platform ca-pable of delivering extreme sys-tem performance was our basicneed to respond to the grow-ing opportunities and grow ourbusiness rapidly,” said ImranSoomro, CIO, JS Bank. “We areconfident that Oracle ExadataDatabase Machine is exactlywhat we needed as it providesan optimal platform for data-base consolidation enabling usto get maximum value from ourIT investments.”

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—ApproximatelyUS$1.1 billion worth of medi-cines were imported by Ni-geria in the year 2012, said aPakistan diplomat in Nigeria,Ahmed Ali Sirohey. Address-ing a reception hosted byChairman South, PakistanPharmaceutical Manufactur-ers Association (PPMA)Nadeem Chandna, he said itwas the most appropriatetime for PPMA to expandmarket for their pharmaceuti-cal products in Nigeria. Thereception was hosted inhonour of leading Nigerianpharma industrialists led byAhmed Ibrahim Yakasai.

Ahmed Ali Sirohey said

that the people of Nigeriarated Pakistani pharma prod-ucts equal to European prod-ucts and that even the Indianorigin doctors prefer to pre-scribe Pakistani medicines.“The environment is ex-tremely conductive and ourcountry’s drug and pharma-ceutical manufacturers musttake advantage of it,” said thePakistan diplomat in Nigeria.

He asked the PPMA mem-bers to visit Nigeria and wit-ness the magnitude of theopportunity awaiting them.Sirohey said that a large num-ber of Indian and Chinesecompanies were doing busi-ness and now European com-panies had also stepped intothe market.

He on the occasion alsomentioned that in Nigeria, aNational Agency for Foodand Drug Administrationand Control (NAFDAC),functional under the centralministry of health, was re-sponsible for regulating andcontrolling the manufac-turer, import, export, adver-tisement, distribution, saleand use of food, drugs, cos-metics, medical devices,chemicals and packagedwater. The Pakistan diplo-mat, on behalf of the em-bassy, assured all assistanceand services to Pakistaniexporters.

In reply to a suggestion toinclude PPMA Recommenda-tion letter for getting visa, he

replied that he would see thepossibility of doing the need-ful and suggested ointment ofa PPMA focal person for liai-sons. Nigerian industrialist,Ahmed Ibrahim Yakasai on theoccasion invited Pakistani ex-porters to do business withNigeria. He also invited Paki-stani exporters to market theirproducts in Nigeria.

Yakasai expressed grati-tude to PPMA for providingthe occasion to meet impor-tant personalities that wouldbe helpful to strengthen busi-ness relationship betweenPakistan and Nigeria. Theevent was also addressed byNadeem Ahmed Chandna andformer chairman of PPMA Dr.Kaiser Waheed.

Nigeria imports drugsworth $1b from Pakistan

Apple skids toone-year lowWASHINGTON—The once-darling tech giant of WallStreet shed more than 3percent Wednesday, fallingto its lowest level since lastJanuary, following a reportfrom DigiTimes that iPadmini shipments could fall 20to 30 percent quarter-over-quarter to 10 to 12 million inthe June quarter due to“lacking demand in themarket.” “We continue tosee risks to [Apple’s]consensus estimates,primarily with respect to theJune quarter,” wroteEdward Parker of LazardCapital Markets. “Juneshould be the troughquarter ahead of multiplenew product introductionsinto this summer and intofall.” Meanwhile, Applesupplier Cirrus Logic(CRUS) plunged more than10 percent after the audiochipmaker estimatedfourth-quarter revenuebelow Wall Street projec-tions and first-quarterrevenue forecast also fellshort of estimates. OtherApple suppliers includingQualcomm (QCOM),Avago Technologies(AVGO) and Skyworks(SWKS) also traded innegative territory.—AFP

ISLAMABAD—As the generalelections are coming closer,the printing industry busi-ness continues in full swing,fulfilling the orders of contest-ing candidates and politicalparties. The political partiesand candidates are usingpanaflex, banners and postersto publicise their slogans,flags, manifestos, feelings andsentiments.

Asmat Ullah, a composersaid that due to workload theyhave to work for long hours,however he was happy forearning more as compared tousual days. He said that sev-eral people have bookedsome of the printing pressesin advance while some candi-dates are waiting for the partytickets to launch their formal

poster campaign.“So its good that the busi-

ness will further increase incoming days,” he expected.Another expert of Panaflexmachine claimed that most ofthe people depend onpanaflex now-a-days whichthey display on the highwaysand streets poles.

He said that designers putall the pictures together andcapture images of thesegraphics and print them outvia designer jet machines insizes and material accordingto the wishes of the custom-ers. “We are hopeful that inthe coming days activity willfurther increase,” he said. So-cial media has also become auseful tool for the politiciansas well to disseminate their

messages to the masses aseffectively as never observedbefore.

Social media is being usedas a launching pad for elec-tion campaigning by almostall the major political partieswho have developed theirwebsites and have profilepages on popular social net-working sites. Attractive mes-sages based on political ac-tivities are being circulated togain maximum support of thepeople.

The parties have alsohired the services of Infor-mation Technology (IT) ex-perts for this purpose as itis the fastest way of con-veying messages to mil-lions of people simulta-neously.—Agencies

Printing industry business booms

Investorsdump gold

TO K Y O—Commoditiesfrom gold to oil recoupedsome of their earlier steeplosses but remained vola-tile after investors dumpedrisk assets overnight,gripped by worries overslowing growth in Chinaand the United States.European stock marketswere seen extendinglosses, with financialspreadbetters predictingLondon’s FTSE 100,Paris’s CAC-40 andFrankfurt’s DAX to opendown as much as 0.8 per-cent.

US stock futures wereup 0.5 percent, pointing toa rebound at the WallStreet open after USstocks dropped more than2 percent .N and the Stan-dard & Poor’s 500 indexhad its worst day sinceNovember 7 overnight,after two bombs rippedthrough the crowd at thefinish line of the BostonMarathon on Monday kill-ing at least three peopleand injuring more than100. The MSCI’s broadestindex of Asia-Pacificshares outside Japaneased 0.1 percent aftershedding as much as 1percent to come closer toa 2013 low hit earlier thismonth, dragged down byits materials and energysectors.

Markets were ripe forsome correction after re-cent rallies. US stocks hitrecord highs, under-pinned by optimism abouta steady recovery in theworld’s two largest econo-mies, despite patchy eco-nomic reports. Oil andbase metals were resilientdespite supply capacities,and investors piled uppositions shorting theyen on expectations forbold monetary stimulus.

“Broadly, risk marketshad been rallying at a pacenot in line with a tepid glo-bal growth recovery, so ina way, they are trying torevert to levels more inline with fundamentals.It’s time to book profitsfrom recent rallies andhoard cash,” said NaohiroNiimura, a partner at re-search and consulting firmMarket Risk Advisory inTokyo. Cash gold and USgold futures plunged totheir weakest in more thantwo years, pulling silverlower and dragging Tokyogold futures down almost10 percent.

Spot gold fell as muchas 2.3 percent to $1,321.35an ounce before recoveringto $1,352.56 while silvershed as much as 2.4 percentto $22.04 before trading upat $22.76. On Monday, theprice of gold bulliontumbled another $125 perounce in its biggest-everdaily loss, and its 9 percentloss was the biggest since1983. “Price actions point toa full-fledged flight of fundsout of gold markets. Goldstands to lose the most,”Niimura said, as a progressin fiscal consolidation willboost the allure of USdebt.—Online

SIALKOT: Ambassador of Nepal Bharat Raja Paudyal addressing the members of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce andIndustry.

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—The Food Depart-ment Punjab has delayed dis-tribution of gunny bagsamong the wheat growers tillApril 20 under wheat pro-curement drive 2013. Earlier,the department fixed April 15for distribution of gunnybags but later the date hadto change due to delay inharvesting of wheat.

According to a senior of-ficer of the department thisdelay was due to this reasonthat wheat was not yet readyfor harvesting since achange in the climate andspell of rain in different partsof the province.

He said the departmentdid not get wheat from thegrowers hailing any districtof Punjab even the wheatcrop was not prepared inRahimyar Khan, Rajanpurand Dera Ghazi Khan, thesouth part of Punjab.

The food departmentwould procure 4 million tonswheat at the rate of Rs 1200per 40 Kg and some 40 mil-lion gunny bags would dis-tribute for this purpose. Ac-cording to information, fooddepartment would start dis-tribution of gunny bags inLahore division from April22 and start the wheat pro-curement from April 25,sources added.

Delay in gunny bagsdistribution resented

KARACHI—Three ships car-rying containers and dieseloil were allotted berth atQasim International andFOTCO Terminals respec-tively during the last 24hours, port sources said hereWednesday. Three moreships scheduled to load/offload containers, wheatand chemical also arrived atthe outer anchorage of PortQasim during the last 24hours.

Berth occupancy was95% at the port on Wednes-day where total number of tenships namely MV. NysteadMaersk, Hinjin Los Angeles,

CGM Moliere, Faith, DiaDuong Sunrise, Recon Emre,Atlantic Glory, Chem RoadJourney, Al Soor II and Ar-gent Bright are currently oc-cupying berth to load/ offloadcontainers, cement, rice,wheat, chemical and diesel oiland edible oil respectivelyduring the last 24 hours. Acargo volume of 160936tonnes comprising 118763tonnes import and 42,173tonnes exports inclusive ofcontainerised cargo carried in4,064 containers (Boxes) werehandle at the port during thelast 24 hours, the sources fur-ther said.—APP

PQ shipping activity

KARACHI —FAKT Exhibi-tions (PVT) Ltd. extends itssignified portfolio of succes-sive events by organizing the2nd International Energy, Oil,Gas and Power Exhibitionand Conference – EGO Paki-stan 2013. The event isscheduled from 19th – 21stSeptember 2013 at Expo Cen-tre, Lahore.

EGO Pakistan 2013,Pakistan’s premier Energy Ex-hibition, originates the powergeneration with the use of re-newable energy resourceswhich are cheap and substan-tially available in the country.The event incorporates athree day conference, Em-power Pakistan 2013, along-side with the exhibition. EGOPakistan is designed to cre-

ate solutions using contem-porary technologies globally.

The event is expected toengage exhibitors from asmuch as 20 countries withmany forming national pavil-ions. The event is supportedand endorsed by the relevantministries and industrial asso-ciations like Ministry of Wa-ter and Power, PakistanAtomic Energy Commission,Private Power InfrastructureBoard, Oil and Gas RegulatoryAuthority and Punjab Boardof Investment and Trade etc.

EGO Pakistan gaugedsplendid feedback and phe-nomenal acknowledgementfrom the renowned associa-tions and decision makers ofthe industry in its first edi-tion.—NNI

Intl energy, oil, gas & powerexhibition & conference in September

FAISAL KHAWER BUTT

SIALKOT—Nepalese Ambas-sador to Pakistan Bharat RajPaudyal has said that thereare wide scope and potentialfor boosting trade and com-merce between the both coun-tries. He underscored theneed for exchange of businessdelegations for enhancingtrade and promotion of in-vestment opportunities be-tween Nepal and Pakistan andthe Nepalese Embassy willextend full coperation andsupport to the business com-munity in this regard, he said.

Addressing the members ofSialkot Chamber of Commerceand Industry (SCCI) onWednesday, the Ambassadorfurther stated that it is right timethat Sialkot should become thesupplier of sports items andleather products to theNepalese elites, adding thatNepal was almost a sole sup-plier of black cardamom andone of the major supplier ofhigh quality tea to Pakistan.

He said that agriculture hasspecial potential for expansionof bilateral trade and Nepal andPakistan can explore productsof comparative advantagefavoured by specific climaticzones in both countries. He saidthat Pakistan was the highestper capita tea consuming coun-try in the world while Nepal isone of the finest tea producers.He said that Nepal in recentpast has emerged as one of thebest quality producer of coffeeand urged upon the Pakistanitea and coffee entrepreneurs toavail advantage of geographicproximity in having these prod-ucts at competitive price. It isnoted that business interactionbetween Nepal and Pakistanhas improved in recent yearsas a result of which a large num-ber of businessmen areparticipaing in trade fairs andexhibitions.

Pakistani entrepreneurs incollaboration with theirNepalese counterparts havesuccessully organized threeconsecutive single country

trade fairs in Kathmandu in2010, 2011 and 2012 while Paki-stani businessmen have alsoparticipated in several othernational and regional trade fairsand exhibitions held in variousparts of Nepal, he added. TheAmbassador stressed upon thebusiness community of Paki-stan to extend support and co-operation in hosting similartrade fairs of Nepalese prod-ucts in Pakistan, adding thatsuch trade fairs and exhibitionswould help in identifying po-tentials tradeable products andprovide opportunity to buildcloser business links betweenthe both countries.

In his address of welcome,President Sialkot Chamber ofCommerce and Industry(SCCI) Sheikh Abdul Majidsaid that it is encouraging thatseveral bilateral trade agree-ments have been signed be-tween the two countries in thefields of trade, culture, agri-culture, establishment of jointEconomic Commission andJoint Business Council.

Wide scope of boosting tradebetween Pak-Nepal: Envoy

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The Lahore Cham-ber of Commerce & Industry(LCCI) has urged the authori-ties concerned to share its loadmanagement plan with privatesector as worsening power cri-sis is playing havoc with tradeand industry. The LCCI Presi-dent Mr. Farooq Iftikhar saidthat unannounced and un-scheduled power outages hadleft the industrialists with noother option but to stop pro-ductions.

“How one can plan pro-duction schedule when isblank about the availabilityof raw materials. Since elec-tricity is a major raw materialtherefore, its unavailability oravailability in bits and piecesis of no use to the industry.”The LCCI President said thatalmost all industrial pro-cesses need continuouspower supply and a littlebreak spoils entire process.Same is happening in “In-dustrial closures cause unem-ployment that leads to law-lessness. Therefore, the gov-ernment should understand

the ground realities and re-set its priorities regardingprovision of electricity to theindustry.” The LCCI Presi-dent said that Pakistan hadalready lost a number of in-ternational markets and thenew longer hour power cutswould further aggravate thesituation.

He said that cheaper anduninterrupted power supplyis only way to achieve eco-nomic targets set for the year2013 but neither the govern-ment is sharing its futureplans to this regard nor pay-ing any heed to the difficul-ties being faced by the tradeand industry. He said that itis astonishing that on the onehand the government circleswere talking of economicstabilitywhile on the otherhand they were not sharingany kind of roadmap toachieve this goal. He alsofeared a surge in street crimes,saying that law and ordersituation is bound to aggra-vate in the coming days asrepeated power outages inthe industrial estates is jack-ing up the graph of unem-

ployment particularly hittingthe daily wagers hard.

He said that the most of in-dustrial units had already re-duced their working to singlesix-hour shift from the previousthree shifts system. This hadled to increased level of raw-material wastage leaving pro-duction process non-profitable.Now the leading industrialunits were experiencing lossesdespite being managed profes-sionally. The crisis in industrialsector is not only causing flightof capital and relocation of in-dustrial units to the countrieslike Bangladesh and Malaysiabut had also reduced govern-ment revenues drastically.

He said that a similar situ-ation had erupted about twoyears ago but that was re-solved with the help of thebusiness community wholent a lot of input in develop-ing a viable load managementplan. The LCCI Presidenturged the President andPrime Minister to take noticeof this grave situation andact promptly act to save in-dustrial and social fabric ofthe country.

LCCI wants power loadmanagement sharing plan

LAHORE—Students of HaileyCollege of Banking & Finance(HCBF) Wednesday visitedLahore Stock Exchange as partof Campus OutreachProgramme under Financial Lit-eracy Initiative, in collaborationwith South Asian Federation ofExchange (SAFE). During theirvisit, they were given an insightabout practical aspects of vari-ous financial institutions andinvestment avenues by indus-try professionals. LSE Manag-ing Director and Chief Execu-tive Officer Aftab AhmedChaudhry was the chief guest,while, panel of professionalsincluded Regional Head IGI In-vestment, Mian Qasim Saeedalong with LSE officials.

Qasim Saeed highlightedlocal mutual funds industry andproducts being offered and saidthat mutual funds could be aneffective approach for people

to start investments offeringrisk diversification and good re-turns through proficient fundmanagement. While, interact-ing with the students, MadihaAbrahim from Investor Rela-tions Department-LSE briefedstudents on various facilitiesbeing offered by CDC not onlyto add efficiency but also forincreased transparency and in-vestors confidence.

She explained as to howinvestors could use variousCDC services for protectingtheir portfolios. Later, the stu-dents visited various banks andbrokerage houses where theywere given synopsis on thefunctioning of these institu-tions such as live market trad-ing, banking products and ser-vices, lending and borrowingservices, clearing and local aswell as international remit-tances, etc.—APP

HCBF students visitStock Exchange

Oil prices turnmixed

SINGAPORE—Oil prices weremixed in Asian tradeWednesday as concernsover weak US energy de-mand returned to spook in-vestors, analysts said. NewYork’s main contract, WestTexas Intermediate (WTI)light sweet crude for deliv-ery in May, lost steam afterrising in the morning, declin-ing six cents to $88.66 a bar-rel in the afternoon.

Brent North Sea crudehowever climbed back abovethe $100 mark after falling toa nine-month low the daybefore. The Brent contract forJune delivery rose 29 centsto $100.20 after slumping to$98 a barrel Tuesday, its low-est since July 11, 2012. “WTIprices have always been onthe basis of the US economy.The oversupply issue is stillthere, which is putting down-ward pressure on prices,”said Kelly Teoh, market strat-egist at IG Markets inSingapore.

“Markets are currentlyconsolidating. Both WTIand Brent prices will eventu-ally converge, so the dip inWTI prices is likely to be ashort-term thing,” she added.Both contracts were up ear-lier Wednesday as investorsreacted to US central bankdata showing US industrialproduction slowed in Marchbut over the first quarterposted its biggest gain in ayear. For the first threemonths of the year outputsurged at an annual rate of5.0 percent, the strongest in-crease since the first quarterof 2012. However, US crudeinventories remain high, re-flecting weaker energy de-mand.—AFP

Tokyo stocks close1.22pc higher

TOKYO—Tokyo stocksclosed up 1.22 percentWednesday thanks to a weak-ening yen and after Wall Streetrebounded from a sharp sell-off in the previous session.The Nikkei 225 index at theTokyo Stock Exchange ended161.45 points higher at13,382.89, while the Topix in-dex of all first-section issuesadded 1.50 percent, or 16.81points, to 1,136.01.

Analysts said upbeat eco-nomic numbers from theUnited States and the weakeryen were providing supportafter huge selling on Mondayfollowing the release by Chinaof worse-than-forecast growthfigures. “Economic data out ofthe US, such as new home con-struction starts and (March)industrial production, came inbetter than expected,” SMBCNikko Securities general man-ager of equities Hiroichi Nishitold Dow Jones Newswires.

“The yen looks like it isready to resume its weakeningtrend,” he added. Wall Street’sgains ended a two-day losingstreak, with Monday’s losseson the Dow the steepest in fivemonths, as selling was fuelledpartially by a double bomb at-tack in Boston that killed threepeople and wounded morethan 180. On Tuesday the Dowrose 1.08 percent, while theS&P 500 climbed 1.43 percentback towards recent recordhighs. The tech-based Nasdaqadded 1.50 percent.

US traders welcomed solidhousing starts data and goodearnings reports from giantsincluding Coca-Cola, Johnson& Johnson and Intel.—AFP

Gold climbs asbuyers chase

bullion bars, coinsSINGAPORE—Cash goldshrugged off weakening U.S.bullion futures and jumpedas much as 1 percent onWednesday as buyerssnapped up gold bars, coinsand nuggets after pricesbriefly hit their weakest lev-els in more than two years inthe previous session.

Despite the increase inphysical buying, which has ledto a shortage of gold bars inHong Kong and Singapore,bullion may not be out of thewoods yet as investors contin-ued to take their holdings offexchange-traded funds. Goldhit a session high of $1,381.80an ounce and stood at $,1379.15by 0347 GMT, up $11.36. Gold,which had tumbled to $1,321.35on Tuesday, has fallen about17 percent so far this year afteran unbroken 12-year string ofgains.

“People are actually buy-ing everything, gold bars,gold coins. People are rush-ing to get a hand on it. Wehave a problem meeting thedemand because we are un-able to get new supply,” saidBrian Lan, managing directorof GoldSilver Central Pte Ltdin Singapore.—Online

‘Toyota hybridsales over 1.2m

in a year’TOKYO—Japanese auto gi-ant Toyota said Wednesdayit had sold over 1.2 millionhybrid cars around the worldlast year, more than doublingsales in the previous 12months. The company—theworld’s biggest automaker—said it had shifted around1,219,000 million duel fuelcars, including green celeb-rities’ favourite Prius.

The figure means around14 percent of all vehicles Toyotasold last year were hybrids. Thehome market, where subsidiesfor environmentally friendlycars were in place for much ofcalendar year 2012, accountedfor more than half of the sales.Hybrids usually feature apetrol-driven engine, while anelectric motor, powered by a re-chargeable battery is used atslower speeds.—AFP

New Zealandinflation muted

in March quarterW E L L I N G T O N — N e wZealand’s inflation was a mod-est 0.4 percent in the January-March quarter, increasing theprospect that interest rates willremain on hold for the next 12months, analysts saidWednesday. Statistics NewZealand said the 0.4 percentjump in the cost of living forthe three months to March, inline with market expectations,was largely caused by an 11percent rise in cigarette and to-bacco prices after a tax hike.

Inflation rose 0.9 percentin the 12 months to March31, just below the ReserveBank of New Zealand’s tar-get band of 1.0-3.0 percent.

The central bank has al-ready predicted the officialcash rate (OCR) will remain ata record low of 2.5 percent forthe rest of the year, amid tepideconomic growth and a surg-ing New Zealand dollar.—AFP

RAWALPINDI: RCCI President Manzar Khursheed Sheikh in a group photo with Com-missioner Rawalpindi Khalid Masood Chudhary.

STAFF REPORT

LAHORE—MCB Bank Lim-ited has signed a Memoran-dum of Understanding(MoU) with Hashoo Group toprovide exclusive facilities toits privileged customers athotels across country.

According to the MOUsigned by Sohail Malik Headof Alliances MCB Bank Lim-ited and Musharraf Riaz, Di-rector Sales & MarketingHotel One (Pvt) Limited,Hashoo Group will offer spe-cial discounted rates to MCBBank debit, credit and litecard holders for using vari-ous services at Fortalice Ho-tel based in Islamabad andMultan and Hotel OneIslamabad, Lahore,Faisalabad, Karachi,Hyderabad, Sialkot andMultan.

MCB customers havingdifferent cards could getamazing discounted rates onlavish food at different res-taurants of the above hotelsand can also enjoy food, bev-erages and bakery items atdiscount rate of 10 to 15 per-cent.

Moreover, the card hold-ers could get room on 50 per-cent discount and can alsoget 15 percent discount on

every business meet-ups atBanquet Hall of FortaliceHotel and Hotel One. On theoccasion, Sohail Malik,Head of Alliances MCB BankLimited said that MCB iscommitted to provide betterliving standards to its cus-tomers as per its theme“Bank for Life”. It facilitatesits customers not only

through banking services butalso gives them benefits oftheir living needs for being aloyal customer of country’slargest bank.

He said that MCB willcontinue to explore differ-ent opportunities to enter-tain its customers in differ-ent areas making their lifeeasier and better.

MCB, Hashoo Group sign MoU

Sohail Malik, head of Alliances MCB Bank Limited andMusharraf Riaz, Director Sales and Marketing Hotel One(Pvt) Ltd, Hashoo Group after signing an MoU to provideexclusive facilities to MCB Bank’s privileged customersat Hashoo Group’s Hotels (Hotel One Pvt Ltd and FortaliceHotel Pvt Ltd across country.

Gold Tezab 50700.00Silver Tezabi 840.00

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

USA 98.20 98.00

UK 151.22 150.92

EURO 128.80 128.54

Canada 97.24 97.04

Switzerland 105.67 105.45

Australia 103.65 103.43

Sweden 15.49 15.45

Japan 0.9871 0.9851

Norway 17.22 17.19

Singapore 79.36 79.20

Denmark 17.27 17.24

Omani Riyal 255.00 245.00

Saudi Arabia 26.19 26.13

Hong Kong 12.65 12.63

Kuwait 344.56 343.86

Malaysia 32.35 32.28

Newzeland 84.79 84.61

Qatar 26.97 26.92

UAE 26.74 26.68

KR WON 0.0868 0.0867

Thailand 3.382 3.375

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

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

PAKISTAN’S national and provincialmechanisms for the control of Tuberculosis are performing well but

there was the need to go into the fifth gearwith greater dedication in order to realizethe vision of pre-TB elimi-nation in the country dur-ing our lifetimes.

These views were ex-pressed by Dr MohamedAbdel Aziz, WHO’s Re-gional Adviser on Stop Tu-berculosis for the EasternMediterranean Region(EMR) while addressing ameeting of national, pro-vincial and regional man-agers of TuberculosisControl in Pakistan at ameeting here Tuesday.

Dr Aziz who is head-ing a mission to Pakistanstressed that theprogrammes were workingunder highly challengingconditions including secu-rity problems in Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw,Balochistan and FATA and grappling withthe huge TB burden in Punjab and Sindhbut they were doing very well under thecircumstances.

He added that as Pakistan accountedfor 60% of the Regional TB burden in thecountry, its success or failure in combat-ing the disease would translate into theregion’s success or failure.

Earlier the national, provincial and re-gional programmes gave their presenta-tions and highlighted their successes andchallenges. Dr Aziz praised the programme

WHO adviser for realizingvision of pre-TB elimination

for having an over 90% treatment suc-cess rate and a gradually increasing casedetection rate; however, there was a needto tap the private sector more in order todetect more cases.

He particularly appre-ciated the province of Sindhfor attracting a large num-ber of national and interna-tional partners. He pointedout that WHO would be or-ganizing a review mission ofthe programme in Novem-ber.

Dr Ejaz Qadeer, Na-tional TB ControlProgramme Manager de-scribed WHO as a strategictechnical and highly sup-portive partner for opera-tional research and advo-cacy purposes, which wasvital for the program. He ap-preciated the WHO-HQ,WHO-EMRO and WHOCountry Office for their con-

sistent support. The Mission later met with Dr Ni’ma

Saeed Abid, Acting WHO Representativein Pakistan and exchanged views of mutualinterest. Dr Abid pledged his unflinchingsupport to the program as Tuberculosis wascausing such a lot of morbidity and mortal-ity in Pakistan and acting as an impedimentin the country’s economic development. Hewas confident of the national ownershipand commitment for the program leading toenormous public health gains over the last12-13 years since it was rejuvenated.

KARACHI: Rangers conducted a targeted operation in Jahanabad area and recovered weapons inculding SMGs, rifles and crackers.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI: Consul General of Islamic Republic of Iran Mehdi Sobhani called on ChiefMinister Justice (Retd) Zahid Kurban Alvi

KARACHI: Motorists are stuck in a massive traffic jam as the residents of Qayyumabadblocked the road during a demonstration against acute water shortage in their locality.

KARACHI: Consul General America Michael Dodman addressing US Pakistan rela-tions held Sheraton hotel organized 160thevent 21st Century business & Economicsclub Salauddin Haidar, Amena Syed, Rafiq Rangoonwala and others also seen in pic-ture.—PO Photo

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Consul Generalof Islamic Republic of IranMehdi Subhani Called onCaretaker Chief MinisterSindh Justice ( R ) ZahidKurban Alavi at Chief Min-ister House on Wednesday.

They exchanged theviews about forthcominggeneral elections and othermatters of mutual interests.

Caretaker Chief MinisterSindh said that both thebrotherly countries have al-ways enjoyed cordial rela-tions. He expressed his deepgrief over the deaths of pre-cious lives of Iranian peoplesin yesterday’s severe earth-quake and added that we are

Iranian Consul Generalcalls on Zahid

with the peoples of Iran inthis difficult and testing time.He offered the assistance andcooperation to the IranianConsul General from SindhGovernment for the affectedpeoples of Iran.

Caretaker Chief MinisterSindh stressed the need tofurther strengthen bilateralrelations especially trade,business and Agriculturefields. He said that Pakistanis Agricultural Country andthrough developing the Agro– based industry better re-sults could be achieved.

He added that Agriculturesectors needs to be devel-oped on modern scientificbasis for maximum productionof the crops. Iranian Consul

General said that there is greatdemand for Wheat, Fruits, rice,meat and textile products inIran and Pakistan can earnhuge profit by exporting theseproducts. Mr. Subhani In-formed that work on Iran Pa-kistan Gas pipeline Project isin progress, so far out of 1200Km 900 Km have been com-pleted, he hoped that peoplesof Pakistan would get benefitfrom this project in 2014.

Iranian Consul Generalfurther informed that hisgovernment has startedKarachi-Tehran andKarachi Mashad directflights through whichpeoples of both countriesare being provided bettertraveling facilities.

KARACHI—A brand that re-cently captured the spotlight,Folkloric; created by NajmaShah who started designing15 years ago as a hobby. Thebrand recently came out withits latest Summer collectionfor 2013. The brand offerscolorful clothes and acces-sories for women and girls.

Folkloric introduced itslatest stylish Semi – formalfor Women & Girls, who lovethe outfits embroidered withan oriental look in any party.Folk latest collection is made

Folkloric introduces latest stylishsemi-formal for women & girls

according to the most recentstyle. The collection is uniqueas it is accented by NajmaShah’s unique styling andunparalleled use of colors.The brand is famous for itsartistic outfits at reasonableprices.

“I’m very much thrilledabout my new collection asthe level of anticipation hasrisen for my brand and I be-lieve in growing to the junc-ture every time”, said the en-thusiastic designer. “Myfresh collection offers new

and exhilarating designs andI m sure it has something foreveryone”.

The fresh collection hasmade use of chiffons,jamawar, silk, net and malailawn. The outfits designedexemplify Najma Shah’sscreen print portraying themughal era. The outfits areperfect of dinners and par-ties. The brand is also knownfor its accessories andpurses. Folkloric’s new col-lection is available at NadiaLakdawala.—NNI

Minister,Advisers visitQuaid’s MazarKARACHI—The newly in-ducted caretaker Sindh cabi-net member/advisors visitedthe Mazar of Quaid-i-AzamMuhammad Ali Jinnah hereon Wednesday.

They laid floral wreathsand offered Fateha, said anofficial handout.

Those who visited theMazar of Quaid-i-Azam wereAdvisor for Energy and Sci-ence and Technology, Dr.Shafqat Abbasi, Advisor forRural Development, KatchiAbadies and Special Devel-opment, Fayyaz M. Shaikhand Minister for IrrigationShujah Junejo.—APP

Karachi BioethicsGroup seeks

deweaponizationof society

KARACHI—The KarachiBioethics Group (KBG) hasregistered strong oppositionto the weaponization of Pa-kistani society.

Launching on Wednes-day a petition fordeweaponization of the so-ciety, people in general havebeen asked to sign the peti-tion titled “Say No to Gun.”

The petition is conse-quent to the fact that the num-ber of Pakistanis falling toguns and deaths by targetedand random shootings is onthe rise. No segment of soci-ety was cited to be safe anylonger. According to the fig-ure of Human Rights Com-mission in Pakistan, inKarachi 747 were shot deadin 2009, 1,981 shot dead in2010, 2,200 shot dead in 2011and 2,400 shot dead in 2012.

This is more than thenumber of people killed dur-ing this period by drone at-tacks, said the KBG repre-sentative Dr. Bushra Shirazi.

It was regretted that is-suance of illegal and unregu-lated licenses for weaponshas promoted violence.

According to availablestatistics in the last five yearsthe Federal Government hasissued 1.2 million weapon li-censes and the Sindh govern-ment alone handed out 0.4 mil-lion licenses. In the same pe-riod, 69,000 licenses for prohib-ited bore weapons were alleg-edly provided to 342 MNAs.

The Karachi BioethicsGroup believes that a reviewof The Pakistan Arms Ordi-nance 1965 is imperative andthat licensing and provisionof weapons must be re-stricted only to the armedforces and law enforcingagencies in the country.

The group also remindedthat the constitution of thecountry states that it is theduty of the state to safeguardand protect, not endanger thelives of its citizens.—APP

3 cases ofdengue fever

reported in cityKARACHI—Three newcases of dengue fever werereported from Karachi onWednesday, said Dr. AamirShakil Mullick, Coordinator,Dengue Surveillance Cell,Sindh. With the addition ofthese new cases the numberof people registered to bedengue fever positive in thecurrent year, from Karachionly, has swelled to 67.

The dengue cell coordi-nator said that no case ofdengue fever has been re-ported from any other part ofthe province. all the 67 pa-tients, 47 had to be admittedwhereas 20 were attended asout-patients at different hos-pitals. Five of these patientsare still hospitalized and arebeing provided medical as-sistance.—APP

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—All PakistanMuslim League (APML)Sindh Chapter PresidentGhulam Sardar MustafaKhaskheli demanded theChief Justice of Pakistan thatelections should be post-poned for two years andGovernor Rule should be im-posed across the country.The election commission ofPakistan should approvenomination papers of theAPML Chief Pervez

APML demands CJP to postpone pollsfor 2 years, impose governor rule

Musharraf or else the APMLwould be forced to stage ve-hement protest across thecountry then there would be“Dam Dama Dam MastQalandar’ everywhere in thecountry.

He was addressing a pro-test rally outside the KarachiPress Club in condemnationto rejection of nominationpapers of the APML ChiefPervez Musharraf Wednes-day.

Muhammad BukhshLashari, Afzal Ghazi, Shahid

Qureshi, Aslam Meenai andothers also addressed.

It is pertinent to mentionthat the APML had a day ear-lier announced to stage pro-test and produce protest ral-lies across the countryagainst the decision of reject-ing the nomination papers ofthe APML Chief PervezMusharraf. The protestorshad held placards in theirhands that carried slogans infavour of the APML Chiefand in condemnation of theElection Commission.

STAFF REPORTER

K A R A C H I — M u t t a h i d aQaumi Movement (MQM)Chief Altaf Hussain saidWednesday that the Su-preme Court of Pakistan hadordered for the elimination ofNo Go Areas from the citybut Rangers had convertedpeaceful areas of the cityvulnerable on the pretext of

Residents left insecure by removal ofsafety barriers by Rangers: Altaf

orders of the SCP by remov-ing safety barriers. The eldersof the residential areas hadinstalled those barriers forkeeping their residences safefrom the robbers and out-laws. The removal of safetybarriers had led to increasein crimes as the criminals hadfound free passage to the ar-eas and started depriving theresidents of their valuable

moveable property such asjewellary, cellular phones,extortion and robbery.

Removing barriers byRangers had caused the resi-dents to face sense of inse-curity at its apex and theirmental anguish had also es-calated high, he said addingthat the caretaker govern-ment while taking Rangers,Police and other authorities.

Tessori lambastsconspirators

seeking defermentof polls

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan Mus-lim League Functional leaderKamran Tessori said that the10-party electoral alliancewas fully determined to foilthe conspiracy to defer theupcoming general electionsin the country especially inKarachi. Those that wantedto force the authorities to optfor an unpleasant decisionwould be defeated and thePMLF would severely resistthe conspiracy.

He was talking to Paki-stan Observer on Wednes-day. Tessori said that thepeople of Sindh had waitedfor the elections as the pre-vious government hadgiven nothing to them ex-cept lawlessness, insecu-rity, poverty and hunger.The PMLF had emerged asthe sole option to thepeople of the province andthe public campaigns in ur-ban and rural Sindh were acandid manifest of peoples’trust on PML-F.

WHEN her chronic stomach painand cramps were diagnosed asirritable bowel syndrome (IBS),

Newell Freivogel, a 34-year-old businessowner in Chicago, decided to try a cleanse.“I didn’t want to take medicine if some-thing natural would help,” she says. Whileshe sipped veggie smoothies and nibbledsalads, her stomach issues disappeared.But, she says, “I got split-ting headaches and wascan’t -get-off- the-couchtired.” And the minute thetwo-week cleanse ended,her IBS symptoms re-turned. Working with herdoctor, Freivogel realizedshe needed to change herdiet for life, not stop eat-ing for a couple of weeks.“What had made me feelbetter wasn’t the cleanse[itself],” she says, “but thatI’d eliminated certain trig-ger foods, such as nutsand pasta. When I identi-fied those foods and cutback on them, I got betterfor good.”

You’ve probably triedjuice as a health move too. Extolled byGwyneth and Blake, sold at juice bars andeven at national drugstore chains likeDuane Reade and Walgreens, detox juicesare now a $5-billion business, projected togrow 4 to 8 percent a year. Of course, there’snothing wrong with enjoying a “greenacolada.”

Although eating whole fruits andvegetables is healthiest (you get all thevitamins and minerals plus the added ben-efit of fiber), juices “are not bad,” saysStella L. Volpe, PhD, chair of the depart-ment of nutrition sciences at Drexel Uni-versity. “However, to use them as cleans-

The truth about juiceers is not necessary.” Never the less, themakers of juice cleanses—generally one-to five-day all-liquid diets—have uppedthe ante and are making some grandiosehealth claims with little evidence or over-sight to back them.

Beyond weight loss, flooding yourinsides with raw fruits and vegetablescan wash away just about any health

problem, suggest compa-nies with such names asJuiceRx. Their websitesclaim to help maladies likeabnormal sugar levels, acne,addiction, allergies, anxiety,bad breath, bloating, can-cer, cell damage, colds, con-tamination with chemicals,depression, diabetes, fa-tigue, headaches, heavy-metal contamination, hor-mone dysfunction, indiges-tion, lack of focus, liver dis-ease, liver stones, memoryloss, and Parkinson’s dis-ease.

“[A cleanse can] resetyour body and support itsbeing able to fight and curewhatever the illness is,”

says Tim Martin, founder of celeb favor-ite iZOcleanse. “It can help the body healanything.”

The BluePrintCleanse site promisesthat cleanses are “the perfect partner”for antibiotics and that they “fight offdegenerative diseases.” The site alsopromotes long-term cleanses as a goodidea for the truly sick, saying clients “us-ing [the cleanse] in cancer therapy havecontinued on a cleanse indefinitely, untilthey are healed”—never mind that un-pasteurized juice could introduce harm-ful bacteria to people with compromisedimmune systems.

LAHORE: Workers preparing fancy hand fans on Nisbat Road as they are in highdemand due to excessive electricity loadshedding.

LAHORE: Students taking interest in the books displayed at a 3-day Book Fair at GC University.

LAHORE: Workers are busy in preparing panaflex banners of different political par-ties, at a printing press.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Chief Justice ofLahore High Court Mr. Jus-tice Umar Ata Bandial hassaid that by an effectiveimplementation of NationalJudicial Policy, 29 districts inPunjab have achieved thetarget of disposal of oldcases (filed upto 2008). Thedistrict judiciary of Provincewas tasked to clear backlogof old cases upto March 31,2013.

Only the districts ofLahore, Faisalabad, Jhang,Multan, Sahiwal, Sargodhaand D.G. Khan are laggingbehind in meeting the tar-get .

Through a letter written

National Judicial Policy implementationhelping cases disposal: CJ LHC

by the Registrar, District andSessions Judges of theseseven districts they havebeen directed to explain thereasons why the target ofdisposal of old cases couldnot be achieved within thestipulated time i.e. 31.03.2013in their respective districts.

They have been furtherdirected to proceed with allthe old cases (filed upto2008) on day to day basis andfurnish the status of eachcase on daily basis to theNational Judicial PolicyImplementation Cell estab-lished at Lahore High Court,Lahore through E-mail. A de-tailed proforma having col-umns for mentioning name ofcourt, title of case, date of

institution, status and nextdate of hearing has also beendispatched to the concernedSessions Judges.

If the concerned judicialofficers face any problem atlocal level regarding disposalof old category cases, Dis-trict and Sessions Judges ofthe these districts shall for-mulate a policy for effectivemanagement and prompt dis-posal of the said cases attheir own end”, the LahoreHigh Court letter maintains.

They have also been di-rected to ensure the compli-ance of the directions ofHon’ble Chief Justice in let-ter and spirit as defiance shallentail strict action, the letterconcludes.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister Najam Sethi has di-rected the police to mobilizeall its capabilities for protect-ing dignity and honour, lifeand property of the citizens.

He urged that moderntechnology be benefitted forcurbing crime and improvinglaw and order situation. Healso directed that personsinvolved in extortion and kid-napping for ransom, bebrought to justice and inves-tigation be carried out onmodern lines for checkingsuch heinous crime.

The Chief Minister dis-closed that a separatehelpline would be establishedfor the information on extor-tion, kidnapping for ransomand suspected persons sothat citizens might provideinformation to the law enforc-ing agencies about such hei-

Sethi stresses use of moderntechnology for curbing crime

nous crime without any fear.The Chief Minister di-

rected that setting up ofhelpline for providing infor-mation on extortion, kidnap-ping for ransom and sus-pected persons, be consid-ered and a report be submit-ted to him immediately.

He was presiding over ahigh level meeting to reviewthe law and order situationin the province at ChiefMinister’s Secretariat, hereWednesday. Provincial HomeMinister Tariq Pervaiz, ChiefSecretary, Inspector GeneralPolice Punjab, SecretaryHome, Principal Secretary toChief Minister, Secretaries ofLaw, Finance, Information,Additional IGs, CCPO Lahoreand concerned officers at-tended the meeting.

Addressing the meeting,the Chief Minister asked thepolice to perform its dutieshonestly and diligently to

purge the society of crime. Hesaid that police officers, in-stead of sitting in offices,should go to the field andredressed the grievances ofthe people as no societycould flourish without jus-tice. He said that the com-plainants coming to policestations, should immediatelybe dispensed with justice.

He said that role of po-lice was of key importance forcurbing crime and improvinglaw and order situation andit was because of that factthat Punjab government hadprovided all out resources tothe police. Najam Sethi saidthat all possible steps werebeing taken for further im-proving law and order situa-tion. He said that improve-ment of law and order was thetop priority for holding trans-parent and peaceful elec-tions.

He vowed that no effort

would be spared for ensur-ing security to political lead-ers, processions and rallies.He directed that regional anddistrict police officers shouldremain in touch with politicalleaders regarding securityand law and order. He di-rected that strict action betaken against those involvedin aerial-firing and display ofweapons without any dis-crimination and immediateaction be taken against theviolators of code of conductof the Election Commission.The Chief Minister said thatcasting of vote in a peacefulatmosphere was the right ofvoters while caretaker gov-ernment was fully preparedto meet the challenge of se-curity and law and order. In-spector General Police,Punjab, gave a briefing oneradication of crime and lawand order situation in theprovince.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Lahore TransportCompany (LTC) has intro-duced robust reforms bytransforming the urbantransport culture for the pro-vision of efficient, affordableand safe transport facilitiesto the general public.

E-Ticketing system willbe introduced in Buses tofacilitate the private transportoperators and commutersthat will pave the way instreamlining the existing farepractices such as preventionfrom pilferages in fare collec-tion, overcharging and willalso help in future to get pre-cise statistics regarding us-age of free transport facilitiesfor senior citizens cards andconcessional student greencards.

LTC to introduce e-ticketing systemThis was stated by Chief

Executive Officer LTCKhawaja Haider Latif duringBoard of Directors meetingheld in LTC Headquarter toreview the various initiativesand proposals, here today.Members of the BOD ac-cepted the resignation of Mr.Yawar Irfan from the Chair-manship of LTC. As a resultit is decided unanimously inthe meeting that Vice Chair-man Lahore Transport Com-pany Mr. Waseem Mukhtarnow will hold the actingcharge of Chairman ofLahore Transport Company.Additional Director GeneralLDA Maryam kyani, Super-intendent Police TrafficMuhammad Azhar, Chief Fi-nancial Officer / CompanySecretary Mariam Khawar,Chief Operating Officer Omer

Pirzada, Zoha Imam, AhsenChughtai and other seniorofficials were also present inthe meeting.

Khawaja Haider Latif hassaid that to impart state of theart transport facilities is in-cluded in the top priorities ofPunjab government; in thisregard Lahore has been con-nected with the adjacent ar-eas Maraka, Kamonki, Kasur,Chunian, Muridke,Ferozwala, Shahdara,Shiekhpura, etc. through de-velopment of new routes. Hefurther said that more than 34routes have become opera-tional and millions of peopleare travelling daily on theseroutes. Newly appointedchairman also spoke on theoccasion and appreciated thevarious initiatives of LahoreTransport Company.

Int’l polioteam visitsDCO office

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—International Po-lio Team visited DCO officeLahore on Wednesday tohave briefing on Polio drivein Lahore City.

The delegation was con-sisted of Paul Roter from In-ternational MonitoringBoard, Ilyas Durree, CountryHead of World Health Orga-nization Dr. Wendy fromWHO and Altaf Bosin, Dis-trict Coordination Officer,Lahore Rizwan Mehbooband Executive District Officer(Health) Dr. Inam ul Haqbriefed the delegation.

DCO Lahore said that asmany as 6000 workers hadbeen going door to door toadminister polio drops tounder five years age childrenand special monitoring teamshad been checking the work-ing of polio teams. He furthertold that City District Gov-ernment Lahore had taken theservices of prominent walksof life and had engaged themin polio drive to make thedrive successful. Later on,the delegation paid a visit topolio control room and com-plaint cell. They appreciatedDCO Lahore and his team inmaking police drive success-ful and ensured that poliocontrol cell would beequipped with latest equip-ments.

Relief goods forearthquake

victims dispatchedSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Director GeneralProvincial Disaster Manage-ment Authority MujahidSher Dil, has said that, on theinstructions of CaretakerChief Minister Punjab,trucks of relief goods in-cluding 200 tents, 500 ricebag of 50kg, 500 flour bagsof 20kg, 1000 food hampersand other essential itemshave been dispatched imme-diately for the earthquakevictims to the affected areasof Balochistan.

He said that on the direc-tions of Government of Punjab,PDMA will continue workingtill completion of rehabilitationof Earthquake Victims.

Two more childrendie of measlesSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Two more chil-dren suffered with measlesdisease on Wednesday diedin Mayo hospital as the dis-ease is increasing acrossPunjab everyday.

According to the hospitalsources, two under treatmentchildren suffering from measlesdied. The deceased were iden-tified as seven months old Ijazand one year Iqra Jan.

Sources said that so farthe measles has hit at least9,000 children from Januaryacross the Punjab and asmany as 48 children had killeddue to the disease. Around52 measles victim children arestill under treatment in vari-ous hospitals in Lahore.

Director General HealthPunjab Dr Tanwir said theyare short ofvaccine and theycannot give drops to aboutthirty million children. Hesaid twenty eight childrenhave so far died in the prov-ince due to measles.

He said arrangements arebeing made to ensure avail-ability of vaccine and startanti measles campaign in thefirst week of June.

350 polling stationsdeclared sensitive

LAHORE—Out of total 3,354polling stations of districtLahore, as many as 350 havebeen declared sensitive forthe general elections of May11.

It should be mentionedthat the authorities have di-vided the polling stationsinto A, B and C categories.

Category A was declaredthe most ‘sensitive’, Cat-egory B being ‘very sensi-tive’ while just ‘sensitive’polling stations have beenplaced in Category C.

Meanwhile, in the wakeof threats to ANP, PPP andMQM by Taliban militants,the Punjab and federal gov-ernments have been review-ing security situation to en-sure foolproof arrangementson the voting day.—INP

PP-31: AslamMadhyana

appeal rejectedLAHORE—Retaining Return-ing Officer’s decision, the Elec-tion Tribunal on Tuesday re-jected the nomination paperssubmitted by Peoples Partycandidate Aslam Madhyanafor provincial seat PP-31Sargodha.

Former MPA Madhyanawho was found guilty inteacher torture case last yearhad submitted an appealagainst the rejection of hisnomination papers by a Re-turning Officer of the ElectionCommission of Pakistan fromPP-31 Sargodha constituency.

The Election Tribunal,however, retained the decisionof the returning officer anddeclined Madhyana’s appeal.

The tribunal said in its de-cision that PPP leader had tor-tured a school teacher and hadbroken his legs and he did notfulfill requirements of article 62and 63 of the constitution ofPakistan.—Online

LAHORE—Former chief min-ister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif onWednesday said the PML-Nafter wining general electionswould launch people’s welfareprojects in other cities of thecountry.

Talking to the party work-ers here on Wednesday, hesaid the elections would de-termine future of Pakistan,therefore, people would haveto cast their votes in favour ofdedicated leaders.

He said his last governmentin Punjab established projectslike Aashiana Housing, LaptopScheme, Daanish Schools andSolar Energy Bulbs. Theseprojects, he said, changed con-dition of people and improvedtheir living standard.

He said the country wasblessed with numerous na-tional resources and if re-turned to power again, thePML-N would utilise these re-sources for the betterment ofa common man.

Shahbaz said the PML-N

Shahbaz to launch welfareprojects in more cities

was a single popular party andit would put the country onpath to progress and prosper-ity through its revolutionarypolicies.

Meanwhile, PML-N cen-tral leader and a former MNAHamza Shahbaz SharifWednesday said that his partywould make Pakistan ‘AsianTiger’ through revolutionaryeconomic policies, if voted topower.

Talking to party officebearers, he said, that PML-Nwould implement its manifestoin letter and spirit if his partycame into power.He said, noone could deny the record de-velopment projects executedduring the last regime ofShahbaz Sharif in Punjab.

He informed that incentiveswere given to the poor whilemiddle class segments of thesociety got benefits of cashprizes, free of cost laptops andforeign tours for the positionholders were arranged withoutany discrimination.—APP

Salima inquiresafter victimsof measles

LAHORE—Punjab Ministerfor Health Salima Hashmi paida surprise visit to Mayo Hos-pital on Wednesday and in-quired after the affected chil-dren of measles.

She also inquired aboutthe provision of treatmentfacilities from the parents totheir children by the hospitaladministration.

Salima Hashmi visitedpediatric ward of Mayo Hos-pital without any prior infor-mation. She visited peadsemergency, ICU and HighDependency Unit. The on-duty doctors briefed the Min-ister regarding the healthcondition of the under treat-ment children.—APP