IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI. Karachi wasrocked with 2 bomb blastsone after another within 15minutes at unit 154 of theMuttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) located inMorwala Park in close vicin-ity of MQM headquarter,Nine Zero and MQM Secre-tariat, Saturday in AzizabadNo 8.

Two persons including a

minor succumbed to their in-juries. The minor had got hishead off his body with theblast. 28 were injured, manythem critically. Rescue ser-vice providers includingKhidmat-e Khalq Founda-tion, Edhi Foundation andChhipa Welfare Associationreached the scene andstarted their life-saving ser-vices for shifting the injuredto nearby hospitals. Those,who sustained injuries, in-

cluded volunteers of Edhiand Chhipa. Cops and news-men also sustained injuriesand were taken to a local hos-pital located in Azizabad.

The ambulances werestuck in severe trafficgridlocks due to which, sev-eral other injured could notbe shifted to hospitals. Thusthe number of the injured anddead could be more.

Twin blasts nearNine-Zero kill three 30 injured including cops, rescue volunteers,

Rangers: MQM declares mourning today

Continued on Page 6

SHARAFAT KAZMI

ISLAMABAD—Caretaker Infor-mation Minister Arif Nizami saidSaturday that neither any person-nel from the army nor any lawenforcement agency (LEA) willbe stationed inside pollingstations.

Speaking to media afterthe federal cabinet meeting,

Nizami added that army de-ployment in Sindh, Punjab,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa andBalochistan had been com-pleted.

Nizami also informed re-porters that caretaker PrimeMinister Mir Hazar KhanKhoso had directed intelli-

No army, LEA personnelinside polling stations

Continued on Page 6

Durand Line noborder: Karzai

KABUL—Afghan presidentHamid Karzai on Saturdaysaid that the government ofPakistan is looking to forceAfghanistan for the recogni-tion of controversial Durandline as the formal border be-tween the two nations by cre-ating issues including con-struction of border gates andother military installations.

Continued on Page 6

MULTAN: Ballot material being unloaded from a PAF plane at airport for distribution being managed by ECP staff.

HYDERABAD: Independent candidate for constituency PS-50 addressing a press con-ference.

PESHAWAR: Volunteers search an election candidate office of PTI following crackerbomb attack.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

TAXILA—A tough electoralbattle is in the making amongPML-N and PTI candidatesin NA-57 Taxila-Wah Canttwhich is presenting a differ-ent look this time round. It isa sure-enough battle ofnerves in NA-57 having allthe ingredients of either shat-tering the PML-N popularitycredentials or taming downthe PTI tsunami waves be-fore they could penetrate thehistorical city of Taxila. Thecity, till date, is a political for-tress of the Sharifs who ruledthe roost in Punjab for al-most two decades.

The powerful old politi-cal rivals Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan from PML-N andGhulam Sarwar Khan fromPTI are locked in intense neckand neck electoral battle toclinch NA-53 (Rawalpindi IV)slot where number of regis-tered voters has increasedfrom 291,549 in 2002 to376,874 in 2013.

Nisar who has been con-testing elections from thisconstituency in the past isalways regarded projected asoutsider by his political rivalsbecause majority of the vot-ers are from Taxila and Wahurban centers. Despite thispinching propaganda Nisarhas been winning elections

from NA-53.Unlike past elections,

Nisar Khan is facing formi-dable challenge tooutmanoeuvre GhalumSarwar Khan for variety offactors with top of the list isImran Khan factor who is at-tracting young voters en-listed in the constituency,making it quite challenging acontest even though his ri-val Sarwar Khan also facesstigma of changing politicalloyalties.

NA-53 that consists ofmajor families such Rajputs,Kattars, Kashmiris, Syedsand Gujjars is part of Potoharregion traditionally followselection trends in theRawalpindi city, meaning thatwhichever party dominatesthe election campaign trick-les down to other constitu-encies of the district and thistrend is reflected on the poll-ing day. Even though thePML-N ostensibly enjoys anedge over the rival PTI, theeffectiveness of electioncampaign of either partywould eventually turn thetide on the Election Day onMay 11.

The JI leadership hasfielded Khawaja MohammadWaqar Khan as its candidatefor NA-53 (Rawalpindi-IV)and PP-7 (Taxila-Chakri) whileProf Mohammad Waqas

Khan will be its candidate forPP-8 (Wah Cantt). On theother hand Ch Nisar Ali Khanhas good number of follow-ings in all major families thatmatters in the election arenaand because of PML-N’scandidates fielded for twoprovincial assembly seatsPP-7 (Rawalpindi-V11) andPP-8 (Rawalpindi-V111).

Another factor that givesadvantage to Ch Nisar is thepresence of PPPP candidatefrom Taxila from Syed familyand his presence would alsocause disadvantage toSarwar Khan group of PTI.The PPP has fielded two newfaces — former JusticeIntikhab Shah for NA-53 andSafeer Khan for PP-8 (WahCantt) along with former MPACh Kamran Ali Khan for PP-7(Taxila-Chkari). But their po-sition as of to-date is not im-pressive as compared toPML-N and PTI, it wouldlargely depend on how therespective parties conducttheir election campaigns.Ghulam Sarwar Khan wonfrom this constituency in2002 as an independent can-didate with 66,900 votes whileChaudary Nisar Ali Khan re-mained runner-up with57,110 votes. In 2008 Ch NisarAli won the elections with ahuge margin by securing72,257 votes and GhulamSarwar who was contestingon PML-Q ticket came asrunner up with 49,068 votes.

NA-57: It’s Lion versus Bat

Election materialreaches Multan

MULTAN—Election materialreached here on Saturday fordistricts and tehsils of theMultan division for the elec-tions. According to ISPRsources, the election materialreached at the Multan Airportfrom Karachi through anaeroplane of Pakistan AirForce. The concerned offic-ers of army, civil and judiciaryhave received the material.

Later, material was sent toall districts and tehsils of thedivision under the security ofPak army, civil administrationand police. DCO reviews ar-rangements of elections: Dis-trict Coordination OfficerBahadar Qazi directed assis-tant commissioners to com-plete arrangements of elec-tions and also ensure avail-ability of facilities on pollingstations. Presiding over ameeting to review arrange-ments about the elections, hesaid negligence would not betolerated in this regard.

The DCO directed assis-tant commissioners to informtimely the district controlroom about results and addedthat the control rooms wereset up at district and tahsillevel for elections results.Rescue 1122 organizes walk:Punjab Emergency ServiceRescue 1122 organized awalk on international fire-fighters day. The walk, led byDistrict Emergency Officer DrFarhan Khalid, started fromKalma Chowk and culmi-nated at Raza Hall KatcheryChowk. On this occasion,SSP Motorway GhulamHussain, Dr Kaleem Ullah, DrKhalid Mehmood, EngineerAhmad Kamal and otherswere also present.—APP

KHAIRPUR—Dean of Com-merce faculty Shah AbdulLatif University (SALU) Pro-fessor Lutufullah Phulpotowas shot dead here at hisresidence by unknownarmed persons on Saturdaymorning. According to detailthe family of ProfessorLutufullah had temporarilyshifted to Karachi for houserepairing at Staff QuartersKhairpur and he was livingin the upper portion. Someunknown armed men enteredin his house and shot himdead. His body was foundlying on the sofa.

As the news of his mur-der spread the universitywas closed and the teach-ers protested the incident.

They announced tomourn his death for threedays. SALU V.C stronglycondemned the incidentand demanded arrest of thekillers. According to SSPKhairpur Naveed Khawajaa pistol was also found fromthe place. A case of murderhas been lodged and inves-tigating is in progress.

Dera Ghazi Khan: Atleast three persons werekilled and more than 20 oth-ers sustained injuries in ahead on collision betweentwo vehicles here in the weehours of Saturday. Accord-ing to rescue sources, theaccident took place at IndusHighway where a passen-ger coach collided with atrailer. As a result of colli-sion, three passengers werekilled on the spot whilemore than 20 others sus-tained wounds.

Upon getting the infor-

mation, police and rescueteams reached the scene ofthe accident and started res-cue operation. The bodiesand injured were shifted toDistrict Headquarters Hospi-tal DG Khan for medico-legalformalities. According tohospital sources, conditionof some injured people wasserious and it was feared thatthe death toll may rise fur-ther. The police took bothvehicles into custody andstarted investigation.

Nawabshah : A youngboy was crushed under thewheels of a speedy buswhile a minor remained mi-raculously unhurt onSanghar Road on Saturday.An 18 years old Imran AliKhaskheli and his 4 yearsold brother were coming tocity when they werecrushed under the wheels ofa bus. Imran Ali was killedon the spot. His body wasshifted to villageMuhammad HashimKhaskheli for burial. Thebus was impounded by B-Section Police, Further in-vestigation was inprogress.

Faisalabad: A motorcy-clist was crushed to death ina road accident in Balochnipolice limits on Saturday.According to police, millworker Tasadduq Ali wasriding a motorcycle on theSheikhupura Road when aspeeding bus hit him. As aresult, Tasadduq died on thespot. Meanwhile, Safdar Ali(27) of Chak No 102-RB felldown from a running tractorand died on the Jaranwala-Khurarianwala Road. —APP

SHAFFAAT MALIK

TALAGANG—With the in-creasing number of checkposts all over the town, onemight hope some decline inillegal activities or the crimerate in Talagang but this stepof the administration hasfailed to reduce the crime rate.The people said that thesecheckpoints are nothing butanother way to harass them.The people also claim that thepolicemen are known for tak-ing bribes. Chakwal road,Traffic Chowk and SaddiqueAbad Chowk are their famousplaces where they always loveto stop motorcyclists and dealwith them accordingly.

Local and social circleshave demanded to the authori-ties to intervene in this matteras people are claiming that thepolicemen are taking bribes.On the other hand illegal useof green number plates, tintedglasses, plying unregisteredvehicles and other types ofnon-prescribed registrationplates on vehicles and under-age drivers can be seen inTalagang and are increasingday by day. The unauthorizedand inexperienced drivers ofthe public transport vehiclesare posing great threat to thelives of people due to the neg-ligence of Talagang Police.

*****Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi,

candidate for NA-61 will ad-dress a public gathering on9th of May here. PML-Qsources told that all prepa-rations in this regard are inthe final phase. The NA-61Talagang was ex-DeputyPrime Minister ’s constitu-ency in 2008 elections aswell. He has achieved 91,769votes and lost the seat innail biting finish to PML-Ncandidate Sardar FaizTamman by 432 votes.Sardar Faiz Tamman re-signed later on from his of-fice on fake degree scandal.But this time he met withChaudhary Pervaiz Elahi andannounced to join handswith the Chaudharys.

Increased number ofcheckposts fail to reduce crimes

SALU professor shot deadThree killed in road accident

OUR CORRESPONDENT

LAKKI MARWAT—Head ofPakistan Muslim League (N)Mian Muhammad NawazSharif called Pakistan MuslimLeague (N) candidate for NA-27, Lakki Marwat, and ex-fed-eral and provincial ministerSalim Saifullah Khan and dis-cussed important matters re-lating to upcoming electionsand political situation of thecountry. Nawaz Sharif has as-sured Salim Saifullah that if Pa-kistan Muslim League (N)came into power, all big citiesof Khyber-PakhtunkhwaSouthern districts like Lakki

Marwat would be made model

cities and all facilities would beprovided there.

Nawaz Sharif also appreci-ated and thanked SalimSaifullah Khan for carrying outsuccessful election campaignof Pakistan Muslim League inLakki Marwat. Salim Saifullahsaid that people of Pakistanhad shown complete trust onPML (N) leadership and PML(N) would form next Govt. Hefurther said that PML (N) wasthe only party who could pullout Pakistan from the crisis asPML (N) had visionary andable team.

At the same time SajjadaNasheen, Tonsa Sharif PirKhawaja Ataullah Khan, asannounced support for Salim

Saifullah Khan and AkhtarMunir Khan of PML (N) andasked all his followers to votefor Saifullah brothers. PirKhawaja Ataullah Khan saidthat Saifullah brothers carriedout record developmental ac-tivities for the people of LakkiMarwat and Southern Dis-tricts of KP and they had trulyrepresented them.

Salim Saifullah thankedPir Khawaja Ataullah Khanfor his support and assuredthat they would continue toserve the people of LakkiMarwat and Southern Dis-tricts with the same spiritsas they did in the past.

KP southern districts to bemade model cities: Nawaz

PIMA’s anti-smoking drive

I S L A M A B A D — C e n t r a lPresident Pakistan IslamicMedical Associat ion(PIMA) Dr Misbahul Azizhas said that his organiza-tion would launch a coun-trywide anti smoking driveto create awarenessagainst the use of tobacco.

He said that all PIMAconventions, seminars, con-ferences and other sort ofgatherings considered “NoSmoking” events, said astatement issued bySpokesman PIMA, AbdulWadood.

He said that PIMAwould also play its role topromote awareness regard-ing Polio vaccination in thecounty.

Prof Sohail Akhtar, Gen-eral Secretary PIMA andincharge Anti smokingdrive said that by imposinga complete ban or makingcigarettes unaffordable forcommon people in thecountry could prevent 40percent cancer cases and a25 percent decrease inheart ailments instantly.

He deplored that ciga-rettes were the cheapestcommodity in the country ascompared to rest of theworld and demanded gov-ernment to levy heavy taxeson cigarettes to make itunaffordable for the us-ers.—APP

Medical camporganized at

FR Tank areasSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—A three-daymedical camp and mobile hos-pital were organized by theDirectorate of Health FATA atdifferent areas of FR Tank in-cluding Jandola, Gabar Valleyand Kecha Killay where expe-rienced doctors examined largenumber of patients. Accordingto a press release, the medicalcamp was held under the su-pervision of Program Man-ager, Dr Niaz Afridi where inmore than 1500 patients wereexamined and provided free ofcost medicines.

At the camp about 612medical tests and 94 x-rayswere also conducted andsome of the patients were re-ferred to general hospitalswith recommendations of se-nior doctors. People of thearea were highly appreciativeof the role of Directorate ofHealth FATA and AssistantPolitical Agent, Colonel Ejazfor providing them such bestquality healthcare services attheir doorstep.

Call to restoretrains stop atLiaquatpur

K H A N P U R — M a r k a z iAnjuman-e-Tajiran tehsilLiaqatput has demanded therailways authorities to restorethe stopover of Zikriya Ex-press, Farid Express, Awam Ex-press and Hazara Express trainsat Liaqatpur railway station.

Talking to APP, generalsecretary markazi anujman-e-tajiran Mumtaz HussainBaloch said that railways au-thorities had withdrawn stop-over of the above mentionedtrains at Liaqatpur railwaystation from May 1. He saidthat each train was earning arevenue of Rs 600,000 permonth from the area and thewithdrawal of their stop atLiaqatpur would cause a lossof Rs 2.4 million per month tothe railways department.

Apart from, the railwaypassengers are also facing agreat deal of difficulty inreaching their destinationsdue to withdrawal of stop, headded. He threaten to stageprotest, if trains stopoverwas not restored.—APP

Eight teamsformed for WASA

dues recoveryH Y D E R A B A D — C o m m i s -sioner Hyderabad Dr. RiazAhmed Memon has consti-tuted eight recovery teamscomprising officials of Waterand Sanitation Agency(WASA) and Sindh Policeand directed for launching arecovery operation fromMay 14, 2013 in all urbantalukas of Hyderabad district.The Commissioner consti-tuted these committee hereon Friday while presidingover a meeting regarding re-covery of WASA’s out-standing dues against indi-viduals and organisations.

Deputy CommissionerHyderabad MohammadNawaz Soho, Managing Di-rector WASA Saleemuddinand other officers from linedepartments attended themeeting.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Home Secre-tary Balochistan, AkbarHussain Durrani has said thatthe government completed allarrangements to maintain law& order in the province dur-ing general elections 2013.Talking to VOA, he said thatPak Army and FC personnelwere being deployed in theprovince including all thesensitive districts to ensurefree and fair elections, add-ing that they would take uptheir responsibilities duringthis week.

The Home Secretary

said that safety of the peoplewas top priority of the gov-ernment and in this regardspecial security arrange-ments have been made par-ticularly in all the sensitiveareas. Akbar Hussain Durranisaid, “Over sixty-one thou-sand troops are being de-ployed at district and Tehsillevels besides 17,000 FC,15,000 Levies and abouttwenty thousand police andBC personnel.” The HomeSecretary welcomed the par-ticipation of those politicalparties in the current general

elections that had boycottedpreviously and said that thecaretaker government wouldensure full protection of thepolitical parties and voters.

He said that the districtsof Makran and Kalat had beentermed as highly sensitivewhile Quetta, Bolan, Jafarabad,Nasirabad and some areas ofDera Bugti have been listed assensitive. In view of prevail-ing law and order situation, theHome Secretary said that therewas no threat of attacks dur-ing the elections from a spe-cific organization or group;

however, a strategy had beenchalked out to tackle thosewho wanted to sabotage thegeneral election.

He said that Pak-Afghanborder in Balochistan wouldbe closed for the movementon polling day as per the di-rectives of the Foreign Of-fice, and the FC would alsobe deployed on vacant checkposts located at the border.Gas supply to parts ofBalochistan suspended: Gassupply was suspended toparts of Balochistan on Sat-urday after Sui Southern Gas

Company’s gas pipeline ex-ploded in Pat Feeder areanear Dera Murad Jamali.

Official sources said thatimmense gas pressure causedexplosion in the pipeline sup-plying gas to Quetta and otherparts of the province fromShikarpur. Unknown men hadattempted to blow up gaspipeline in the same area amonth back, which was foiled,they added. Local administra-tion along with bomb disposalsquad reached the site andcordoned around the entirearea.—APP

Maintaining law, order during elections top priority

PML-N to win pollsIS L A M A B A D—Pakistan MuslimLeague (N) leader Siddiq-ul-Farooqlauded Imran Khan to attract theyoungster but his slogans are diffi-cult to materialize. However, PML-Nwill win the upcoming general elec-tions. Talking to VOA, he said thathis party had extended all out sup-port to the outgoing government totackle the menace of terrorism. Headded that his party had participated

All Parties Conference (APC) and supported the gov-ernment in the parliament to adopt resolution favoringSwat operation. He stated that the PPP-led governmentcould not take action against terrorism seriously andruling parties are suffering from it. He stated that PPP isforeseeing victory of PML-N in the upcoming generalelections, therefore, it is propagating against the party.He said his party is stern against terrorism and it con-demns all kind of incidents. PML-N candidate for PS-36Larkana-I hold corner meetings: Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) candidate for PS-36 Larkana-I RizwanAhmed Kehar has said that May 11, will decide the fateof PPP leaders whose defeat is eminent. Addressingvarious corner meetings held here at different localitieson Saturday, Rizwan said that the bright future for thecountry is ahead after the success of PML-N. On theoccasion, several personalities particularly Sayed AliHyder Shah Gadi-Nasheen Dargah Peer Sher met withPML-N leader Rizwan Kehar and assured him of fullsupport by all communities. The other communityledaers among Ammanullah Brohi, Ghulam RasoolChandio, Noor Muhammed Kumbhar, Mazhar Abbasi,Mohammed Sharif, Agha Shahani at Naka No. 7 an-nounced their full support to PML-N contesting candi-date izwan Ahmed Kehar.—APP

Zaman killing inhumanISLAMABAD—Awami National Partyleader Bushra Gohar has condemnedkilling of Sadiq Zaman Khattak anANP candidate in Karachi and termedit an inhuman act. Talking to RadioPakistan, she added that it was notan attack on an individual but an at-tack on liberal forces, Pakistan anddemocratic process. She urged uponother parties to condemn the incidentand stand by the affected part ies,

otherwise they will be facing similar situation in fu-ture. She claimed that her party is receiving threaten-ing letters and law and enforcement agencies havefailed to arrest anybody. She said pre-poll rigging isunderway as some parties are allowed to launch elec-toral campaign while others are not provided level play-ing ground. Central Senior Vice President PakistanMuslim League (PML-Q) Ajmal Wazir Saturdaystrongly condemned the murder of Awami NationalParty’s candidate Sadiq Zaman Khatak and his sonNaseer Zaman in front of Rehmania Masjid Bilal Colony,Korangi Karachi. Expressing deep sense of sorrow andgrief over the murder of ANP candidate Sadiq ZamanKhatak and his son, he prayed that may Allah Almightyrest the departed souls in eternal peace and grant cour-age to the bereaved family to bear the irreparable losswith fortitude. Awami National Party leader Shahi Syedhas condemned the killing ANP candidate Sadiq Zamanin Karachi. Talking to VOA, he said that efforts areunderway to sidelined liberal forces in the upcominggeneral elections. He said when his party was in power,it could not control law and order situation due to un-certainty and upheaval in Afghanistan.—APP

PML-Q polls fight on performance basisISLAMABAD—President of PakistanMuslim League Quid-i-Azam (PML-Q) Choudhary Shujaat Hussain saidthat they would participate in elec-tions on the basis of previous per-formance. Talking to a private newschannel, he said that PML-Q had in-troduced many revolutionary devel-opmental schemes in Punjab duringthe last regime. He said that theywould continue their incomplete

projects after coming into power. Replying to a ques-tion, he said that any political party would not be in aposition for making government alone after electionand next government would also form with the col-laboration of different political parties. He further saidthat PML-Q could make alliance with Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP) rather than Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz(PML-N) in future. He said that seat adjustment withPPP on 25 seats was done while 10 seats were remainedopen for contesting elections. He claimed that PML-Qwon seats beyond the expectations of the analysts,adding that role of PML-Q would be more important innext government. Replying to another question he saidethically President Asif Ali Zardari is more sound thanNawaz Sharif. “Position of Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf isbatter than PML-N in elections”, he added.—APP

Masses to vote PPPISLAMABAD—Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) Leader Nazar MuhammadGondal Saturday claimed that masseswill vote for PPP to complete theagenda of prosperity, adding that hisparty always stand with the people.Talking to APP, he said that PPPfounder Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhuttohad given the vision for a modern andprogressive Pakistan. He said thatBhutto faced the internal and exter-

nal challenges and united the nation at critical time ofhistory. He was a statesman who fought for the rightsof common and downtrodden people. Replying to aquestion, Gondal said that even today the politics incountry revolved around the philosophy of ShaheedZulfikar Ali Bhutto adding tt was Bhutto, who initiatedmega projects like nuclear programme, Heavy Mechani-cal Complex Taxila and Silk route, which helped en-hance trade with China. To another question, Gondalsaid that the PPP restored the 1973 Constitution in itsoriginal form and provided f inancial resources toBalochistan through the National Finance CommissionAward. PPP introduced policy of reconciliation firsttime: Senior Leader of Pakistan People’s Party TajHaider has said that PPP had introduced policy of rec-onciliation for first time in the country’s history andhis party is the single largest political party havingdeep roots from Karachi to Kashmir. While talking to aprivate news channel, he said that PPP does not be-lieve in political revenge as there was no single politi-cal prisoner throughout the country during its tenure.He said that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)should provide foolproof security to leadership of allpolitical parties during the elections as it was its re-sponsibility. Replying to a question, he said that PPPhas good relations with all political parties and stressedon removing onfrontationary politics from the coun-try. He said that all political parties should sit togetherfor making a joint strategy against terrorism and shouldcondemn it openly.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

WAH CANTT—A colourfulfunction of 4th convocationof Wah Medical College washeld here in which MBBSdegrees among more than 75graduates were distributed.Chairman POF Board Lt-GenMuhammad AhsanMahmood was the chiefguest on this occasion. Be-sides students, a large num-ber of parents also partici-pated. Dr. Zaina Jabeen wasawarded best graduate awardfor 2007-12 sessions.

Chairman POF Boardannounced a cash award ofRs.5 lakh for the bestgraduate and offered heremployment in POF Hospi-tal . Moreover, Dr. ZainaJabeen achieved 8 medalsduring her academic careerin Wah Medical Collegeand Universi ty of HealthSciences. Principal WahMedical College Maj Gen(R) Ziaullah Khan pre-sented the annual report ofthe college. Principal told

that the best results of thecollege indicate the hardwork of the students, sin-cerity of faculty staff andcontribution of parents inthis success. Principal spe-cial ly mentioned thehardwork of students, par-ents and sincerity of fac-ulty staff and felicitated thesuccessful s tudents andtheir parents and expressedhis best wishes for them.

Vice Chancellor of theUniversity of Health and Sci-ences Major General (R) Dr.Muhammad Aslam also gaveaway degrees to the success-ful students. Lt GenMuhammad AhsanMahmood remarked re-marked that whereever theywould serve, they would berecognized as Ambassador ofWah Medical College andthey would have to displaythe exemplary character andsincerity in the society. It isworth mentioning that theratio of women students inthe position holders wasmore than male students.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Meteo-rological Department (PMD)Saturday forecast dust thun-derstorm with rain at few placesof Malakand, Hazara, PeshawarDivision, Kashmir and GilgitBaltistan. Partly cloudy weatheris likely to prevail in Rawalpindiand Islamabad and dust-thun-derstorm is expected at eveningand night times on Sunday. Alow pressure lies overBalochistan areas. A shallowwesterly wave prevailing overupper parts of the country islikely to persist till Sunday.

Mainly hot and dryweather will prevail in mostof the countries during thenext 24 hours. The tempera-tures will rise in Balochistanand Sindh during the next 24hours. The highest maximumtemperatures recorded dur-ing the last 24 hours wereShaheed Benazirabad 45 C,Dadu and Hyderabad 44 C,Larkana, Mitthi,Moenjodaro, Jaccobabad,Sukkar, Padidan, Lasbela,Chhor, D.G.Khan 43 C.

The maximum tempera-

tures recorded during the last24 hours were Islamabad 34C, Lahore 40, Karachi 37 C,Peshawar 36 C, Quetta 29 C,Skardu 24 C, Murree 23 C,Muzzafarabad 34 C, Gilgit 31C, Faisalabad 39 C, Multan40 C and Hyderabad 44 C. Thelocal meteorological depart-ment Saturday predicted iso-

lated rains in some upper ar-eas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwawhile in plane areas theweather was likely to remaindry during next 24 hours.

The upper parts of Hazaraand Malakand divisions werelikely to witness light rainsduring next 24 hours while inrest of the province theweather will remain dry withgusty winds in some south-ern parts..—APP

HYDERABAD—The repre-sentatives of different NGOshave demanded implementa-tion of all such clauses of theconstitutions, which guar-anteed the protection of theminorities of Pakistan in or-der to remove the sense ofdeprivation among them par-ticularly scheduled casteHindus.

Addressing a news con-ference here at HyderabadPress Club on Saturday,Veeru Kolhi of Green RuralDevelopment Organisationand candidate on PS-50Hyderabad, ZaulfiqarHelipoto of Pakistan PeaceCoalition, ShujauddinQureshi Co-Manager Paki-stan Institute of Labour Edu-

cation and Research, Dr.Ashok Thamma of HumanRights Commission of Paki-stan, Zahida Detho of SindhRural Partners Organizationand Naghma Iqtidar of Net-work for Women Rights haveregretted that in their elec-tioneering campaigns, nopolitical party has raised theissue of the injustices beingdone with minorities of thecountry.

The women of minoritieshave also been deprived oftheir rights while the minori-ties are also not getting jobsin accordance with quota,they said and added that thetrend of extortion, threats andtorture are also on rise in lo-calities of minorities.—APP

Court reinstates183 sacked

teachersGILGIT—The Chief Court ofGilgit Baltistan reinstated ser-vices of 183 teachers on Fri-day, who were dismissed amonth before by the higherauthorities of Education De-partment. Court Sources saidthat on March 14 senior au-thorities dismissed 183 teach-ers declaring their appoint-ment illegal and without ful-fillment of laid down proce-dure. The terminated teachersfiled a writ petition in the ChiefCourt seeking relief.

Meanwhile on March 23the Chief Secretary SajjadSalim Hottiana withdrew theorders of Secretary Educationand said rules for terminationof services were not adopted.The Chief Court while dispos-ing off the petition said thatsince the Chief Secretary haswithdrawn notification of ter-mination which was issued bySecretary Education, there isno justification to hear thispetition.—APP

Maangi dam projectto be included in

next PSDPQUETTA—On the directives ofCaretaker Chief ministerBalochistan Nawab GhousBaksh Barozai a meeting washeld to review proposals forBalochistan PSDP for fiscalyear 2013-14 under AdditionalChief Secretary (Development)Mohammad Aslam ShakirBaloch. Meeting decided to in-clude Maangi dam project in thenext annual PSDP to overcomethe water scarcity issue facedby the people of Quetta. Meet-ing also agreed not to incorpo-rate development scheme of in-dividual nature.

Participants of the meet-ing were unanimous to givepriority to the areas includ-ing health, education, minesand minerals, livestock, agri-culture and fisheries in PSDPto improve the socio-eco-nomic condition of thepeople of the province. MrShakir, on the occasion calledupon the heads of all provin-cial departments to prepareschemes while keeping inview their effectiveness andmasses welfare. “Depart-ments must come up with theuplift schemes benefittingthe most an ordinary man,”he maintained.—APP

IS L A M A B A D—A winningIndependent candidate willhave to join a political partywithin three days after theissuance of official notifi-cation.

According to ElectionCommission sources, ar-ticle 51 of the Islamic Re-public of Pakistan boundsan independent to join anypolitical party within threedays of the issuance of no-tification. However an in-dependent has the author-ity to remain independent.

After the joining of anindependent, a politicalparty can grab more womenor minority seats after theincrease of its strength. It

is relevant to mention herethat over 1000 independentare contesting in generalelections. Monitoring teamsstart sending code of con-duct violation reports toECP: Over 425 monitoringteams constituted by theElection Commission of Pa-kistan to monitor election-eering campaign havestarted sending violation re-ports.

According to spokes-man of ECP, the teams hadbeen assigned to monitorcode of conduct violationacross the country constitu-encies. The teams have sentaround 100 complaints pinpointing code of conduct

violations in various con-stituencies of the country.The teams have dispatchedthe reports from around 894constituencies of both pro-vincial and national to therespective returning offic-ers.

The ECP has received re-port from April 20 to April 27.Election Commission of Pa-kistan has directed the Re-turning Officers to take sternaction against the violatorsof the Code of Conduct. ECPissues the directions afterreceiving one-week’s reportby the monitoring teams re-lated to violations commit-ted by various candi-dates.—APP

HYDERABAD: Army troops on their way to deployment as a quick reaction forces onsecurity duty during general elections-2013.

BAJAUR AGENCY: Badam Zari, first ever woman candidate from NA-44 Bajaur Agency is running herelection campaign. Scattered rain

likely in upcountryIndependents to join main partieswithin three days period notified

NGOs voice safetyof minorities’ rights

TANK—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Candidate NA-25Dawar Khan Kundi Saturdaysaid that problems of thepeople would be resolved onpriority basis in his constitu-ency. Addressing a cornermeeting here, he said that itwas the prime duty of thepeople to choose right andhonest leadership by usingtheir right of vote. “I am wellaware of the problems beingfaced by the people in hisconstituency and forredressal of all these prob-lems, all available resourceswould be used,” he said.

He said that water supplyline would be repaired to fa-cilitate the people with cleandrinking water and more waterschemes would be launchedin the city. He said that gassupply line would also be ex-

PTI: People’s problemsto be resolved on priority

tended to the remaining locali-ties of the city. Dawar Kundisaid that PTI is the last ray ofhope for the deprived massesof the country. “Once PTIcomes into power it will bringrevolution in the lives of ordi-nary people with creation ofjob opportunities, social jus-tice, economic reforms andother fast paced network of de-velopment projects throughthe every nook and corner ofthe motherland” he remarked.

Abbottabad: PPP candi-date for PK-44 ShamarozKhan on Saturday said thatthe Pakistan People’s Partyhad initiated mega projectsfor the people of this city.Addressing a public meetingat Nawashar, he expressedthe hope that the PPP wouldwin the next elections withthe support of people.—APP

Wah Medical College Convocation

WAH CANTT: Lt Gen Muhammad Ahsan Mehmood, Chairman POF Board giving awaybest graduate award for the session 2007-12 to Dr Zaina Jabeen in the 4th Convocationof Wah Medical College.

Dr Zaina achieves 8 medalsduring academic career

WHO for handhygiene to

prevent infectionsQUETTA—World Health Or-ganization has called for pro-moting hand hygienic prac-tices to prevent the spread ofbacteria and reduce the lifethreatening infections. State-ment issued by WHO saidhere on Saturday that in con-nection with World HandHygiene Day there is a needto sensitizing healthcare work-ers including doctors, nursesand sanitary staff that handhygiene is the single mostimportant method of prevent-ing and controlling infectionin healthcare facilities.

“Many studies have

LAHORE—Maryam Nawaz,daughter of PML (N) ChiefNawaz Sharif, said on Satur-day that nobody is abovethe law that’s why she ap-peared before a local courtto explain her position vizi-a-viz a recent PML (N) rallyin Lahore. Talking to media,she said that she did not takeout the rally without permis-sion, adding PML (N) had amajor role in formulating elec-tion code of conduct.

“When there are mobsaround you, you just cannotask them to disperse and arally forms by itself.” She toldmedia representatives out-side the EC office that NA 120is a stronghold of her partyand wherever she goes, she

is surrounded by her support-ers. She said that she did not

take out the rally without per-mission, adding PML (N) hada major role in formulatingelection code of conduct.

Daughter of PML (N)Chief Nawaz Sharif also saidthat she is not even a candi-date and it is not her preroga-tive to run the campaign. ThePML-N leader was then ex-empted from appearance onnext hearing.

Earlier, PML-N chief ’sdaughter was given ultimatumto clarify organization of rallyin the constituency despiteorders to take permission inadvance Maryam Nawaz wasissued a notice by a local dis-trict returning officer to explainher position. Earlier this weekPTI Chief Imran Khan also ap-peared before the district re-turning officer to explain hisobjectable remarks for NawazSharif.—Online

No one is above the law: Maryam

Indians badly beatPak prisoner

FOLLOWING clearly a tit-for-tat policy, the Indian establishmentretaliated and got Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah, languishing inJammu jail, assaulted and as a consequence he received grievous

injuries. The incident, which took just one day after the death of SarabjitSingh, who was injured in a scuffle at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, sentloud and clear message of vengeance by a country that claims to be big-gest democracy and is vying for permanent berth at the UN SecurityCouncil.

Pakistan has understandably protested over and condemned theattack on Sanaullah and termed it as sheer retaliation by India, call-ing on New Delhi to evacuate the injured prisoner to Pakistan forproper medical treatment. Pakistan was prompt and forthcoming ingrant consular access, providing best possible medical treatment andfacilitating the visit of family members of Sarabjit yet regrettably theIndians are deliberately creating hurdles at every step that Pakistan isdemanding in respect of Sanaullah. But the most striking aspect ofentire episode of attacks on prisoners is that Indians are giving heroictreatment to Sarabjit Singh, who is confirmed terrorist that killed manyinnocent Pakistanis and was awarded death punishment by the courtof law after due judicial process. The announcement by the IndianCentral Government and State Government to give millions of rupeesto the family of Sarabjit amounts to rubbing salt into the wounds ofthe families whose loved ones were killed by Sarabjit in terrorist ac-tivities on Pakistani soil. The tendency of rewarding terrorists andcriminals would encourage more Indians to indulge in similar terror-ist activities against Pakistan but this is not for the first time. Samehappened to Kashmir Singh, who was released by former PresidentMusharraf at the instance of his Minister Ansar Burney. Kashmir Singhclaimed his conversion to Islam but on returning home he retractedfrom the claim and openly stated that he was an Indian spy. WhilePakistan has been soft in deciding the fate of Indian prisoners in-volved even in heinous crimes, India is not ready to even tell theexact number of Pakistani prisoners in the jail of that country.Sanaullah’s case is clearly revenge and Pakistan should expose India’sreal face before the world community at every forum.

BB’s murdermystery deepens

CHAUDHARY Zulfikar Ali, public prosecutor in Benazir assassination case, was gunned down in Islamabad on Friday. His mysterious

killing comes just before he was scheduled to submit a challan in an anti-terrorism court against former President General Pervez Musharraf (Retd)and was going to FIA headquarters to discuss the matter.

IG Islamabad is attributing the incident to some unknownMujahideen group but on the face of it, the attack is a clear attempt tocompound the circumstances that led to assassination of the PPP leader.In similar circumstances, Khaled Shahanshah, the operational chief ofsecurity of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was shot deadon 22nd July, 2008. Shahanshah after Liaquat Bagh tragedy became acontroversial figure as he was seen in a video making ‘dodgy signs’and communicating with someone while the former prime ministerwas delivering her last speech at Rawalpindi. Interestingly when theScotland Yard team was requested by the government to come to Pa-kistan and probe into the murder of Benazir Bhutto, KhaledShahanshah flew to the US. It is also not a coincident that RahmanDakaith, who allegedly killed prime witness Shahanshah, was alsokilled during a police encounter in Karachi. All this seems to be partof the efforts to delay and misdirect investigations into the assassina-tion of the former Prime Minister. But the most treacherous is the in-ability of the PPP Government to unmask the culprits during five yearsof its governance, which raises many questions about the circumstancesin which BB was murdered after killing of his two brothers.

Khoso speaks at lastWITH just few days left to the general elections, Caretaker Prime

Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso thought it appropriate to addressthe nation and take it into confidence about timely holding of elections ina fair, transparent and peaceful manner. He also made a pledge not toseek extension in tenure of the interim set up, transfer power to the electedrepresentatives without delay and leave a better Pakistani economically.

It is good of the PM that he finally broke his silence over the issueof timely conduct of general elections. There were strong rumours andsuspicions about delay in elections and according to some reports at-tempts were being made to impose emergency but these were foiled byfirm declaration by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the COAS thatcome what may elections would be held on May 11. The announcementshould have come much earlier and in a categorical manner from thecaretaker PM but he preferred to keep mum and spoke only when otherrelevant authorities conveyed a clear message in this regard. It is alsoto be seen whether or not the PM asserts his authority to fulfil his com-mitment of transferring power to the elected representatives after gen-eral elections as there are apprehensions that those at the helm of af-fairs might make frantic efforts to keep their sinking boat afloat at thecost of stability of the country. The announcement of Mr Khoso that hisGovernment will put the country on right economic track is not sup-ported by the ground realities as virtually no governance is seen any-where. No worthwhile economic initiative has been taken by the in-terim government except release of Rs 45 billion for payment to IPPs,which too should have been done weeks before if the Government wasreally bothered about the plight of the people struck by unprecedentedload-shedding. Anyhow wish you good luck Mr. Prime Minister!

The autonomy mantra!

A good critic is onewho narrates theadventures of hismind amongmasterpieces.

Malaysiaat brink ofdemocracyOne broad test of whether a

country is a democracy iswhether the results of a na-

tional election are known before thevotes are counted. For the first timesince it became independent fromBritain in 1957, Malaysia is poisedto pass that test. After half a cen-tury of maintaining itself in powerthrough a mix of authoritarianism,corruption and ethnic favoritism,the ruling United Malays NationalOrganization (UMNO) is in a deadheat with the opposition PakatanRakyat coalition, according topolls. Opposition leader AnwarIbrahim, who has overcome impris-onment and exile during a 15-yearcampaign to democratize his coun-try, has an even shot to becomeprime minister, in what wouldamount to a peaceful revolution inhis country of 25 million.

That he has reached that pointis due not only to his own couragebut also to incumbent Prime Min-ister Najib Razak, who has donemuch to liberalize Malaysia’s po-litical system since taking over in2009. Mr. Najib has repealed someoppressive laws and pared down alegal system of discrimination thatfavoured the ethnic Malay major-ity. Though his government pros-ecuted Mr. Anwar on questionablecharges of sodomy — repeating theshameful manoeuvre that once be-fore had been used to send him toprison — the opposition leader wona surprising acquittal early last year,setting up the electoral showdown.

Mr. Najib, who has been a USally, is also appealing to moderatevoters with promises to continueeconomic and political reforms.But as Sunday’s election ap-proached, the most pressing ques-tion for outsiders was whether thegovernment would stage a free andfair vote. Independent observersand media have chronicled worry-ing irregularities ranging from at-tacks on Internet sites supportiveof Mr. Anwar to the chartering ofplanes to fly thousands of peoplefrom Malaysia’s provinces on theisland of Borneo to closely con-tested districts on its peninsular ter-ritory. By staging a clean electionand vote count Sunday, Mr. Najibstill has the opportunity to breakground as a democratizer — and,quite possibly, remain in power aswell; the prime minister’s own ap-proval rating of more than 60 per-cent may carry his party through.But if the election is stolen fromMr. Anwar, all of Malaysia’sprogress in recent years could belost. The prime minister should or-der his party and election officialsto play it straight, and both he andMr. Anwar should be prepared toaccept a legitimate defeat.— The Washington Post

*****

Situationin LebanonNo party in Lebanon should

manipulate agendas when itcomes to national interest.

Lebanon is too volatile for it to riskbecoming engaged in a war that isnot of its making or get entangledin any given proxy standoff. Fol-lowing such a route will only bringwith it chaos and instability to thecountry. There is mounting evi-dence of the extent that Hezbollahis involved in the conflict in Syria.The group has recently threatenedto intervene further in the conflictif it sees any involvement from theUS. Hezbollah leader HassanNasrallah said he had called on hisgroup to step up its presence andinvolvement in the conflict in Syria.“Syria has real friends in the regionand the world. And they will neverallow Syria to fall to the hands ofthe US, Israel or extremist groups.They will never allow it. You mayask how will this happen.

The details will come later,”Nasrallah said. Yet, such an analy-sis of the situation is ill-founded asthe conflict in Syria has turned intoa proxy war in which Hezbollahitself chose to become deeply en-tangled. The group should limit itspresence to its own surroundingand should keep away from com-plicating matters further in Syria.Only the Syrian people will decidewhom they want to join hands within fighting for their freedom andrights. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

Anatole France—French writer

When we think of autonomywe always consider thatthe institution [s] seek au-

tonomy for the purpose of positiveintervention in the economy. That isperfectly reasonable. The steps forautonomy are simple. Take a statu-tory option and seek parliamentaryapproval. And always add some ca-veat in which the sitting boss hassafeguard for himself beyond theretirement age or have side append-age that works to the benefits of theauthor. I have seen such massive rig-ging in rules and autonomous statusthat one wonders whether Pakistanwill ever reach out amongst the lead-ing countries of the world. There isno doubt that we keep on talking andboasting about ourselves and howwe have a lot of potential, Well thepotential will remain potential if wehave not been able to do anythingabout that potential.

The recent happenings in someof the autonomous organizationsare interesting. There is always atussle and when it comes to agri-culture the primitive caste systemcomes into play. Even if there is nocaste card played the lousy personsin the system will talk about a casteoption. It is a pity that Agricultureshould be subjected to such inter-ventions. One talks of agriculturebecause that is the lifeline of thcountry and that lifeline is polluted.In a country where responsibilitylevels are diluted at the highest lev-els we see a tug of war betweenvarious factions. The arains, thejats, the rajputs and what have we.The pecking order is further subdi-vided into sub-castes; so that wehave any number of potential con-flicts. These by definition work be-

Such is the truth

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

The election campaign is onfull swing. The meetings aretaking place the rallies are on

move. A thrill and excitement over-whelms the whole country. Thewhole media is in a state of revela-tion and revelry; candid cameras aretaking every move of the contes-tants. Intelegentia, the political ob-serves and even the commoners arespell bounded with the feats of con-jurors contesters. People of Pakistanare fully aware of the past of boththe major political parties whichhave brought havoc to the countryand countrymen. In the catalogueof chares both the parties have along list of charges.

Our politicians have no charterbased on sympathies or sincerity forthe countrymen. In the previousGovt the plights of the people hadtouched the lowest ebb. The PPPregime and its managers never pro-duce peace of mind or better gloryto the people or tried to minimizetheir sufferings. They brought highdegree enhance to their deprivationsinstead all the powerful elite havebeen indulge in money mintingmotives and fraudulent extractionof wealth. Development funds weredished out to their favorites andKiths & Kin and special ordinanceswere promulgated to provide maxi-mum facilities of foreign tours andmedical aid abroad to them.

No doubt the economy was al-ready a bit in tatters yet PPP Govtmanaged to completely rip it apartthe average fiscal deficit during the

low the surface and intrigue allthe time against those that arein high positions.

Agriculture research insti-tute in Islamabad has pickedup from where the FaisalabadAyub agriculture research in-

stitute left. In the last week the powerplay has been such that the post ofDirector General has been played outmuch as we would play musicalchairs. In the course of one week asmany as four or five postings havebeen made. The argument is betweentwo people and the use of undue in-fluence. What is not understood bythe perpetuators of the autonomy is-sue is that to implement what is per-mitted in the statute requires cour-age and conviction. In these autono-mous organizations the Board ofDirectors operates as policy makers[usually headed by the Minister].The Minister cannot throw hisweight around and interfere in theworking of the organization. Theminister may not like it but there itis that is the rule of the system. Thereare mischief makers in the systemswho determine the behavior of theminister by giving all kinds of in-sane advice. So the organization in-stead of working for the country isembittered in petty squabbles.

Pakistan has to find people ofcourage and of ability to walk thetight rope. Short of that nothing canhappen. The people are so wantingin thought and in process that onewonders whether we were ripe forindependence. There is hardly astatutory body that is not involvedin conflict of one kind or another.Consider the Security exchangecorporation of Pakistan [SECP].Squabbling is the order of the day.Consider OGRA and the siphoningof the resources. In fact considerany regulatory body and one findsthat the regulatory body is the mostunregulated body so far it is con-cerned. What will they find in oth-ers. My PhD supervisor came here

as a consultant to the WB on open-ing of the SECP and his two pagereport had laid down that Pakistanis not ready for such institutionsbecause he did not see nay stepstowards truthfulness. He was rightbecause in that very week a HighCourt Judge passed strictures on thework of the SECP.

Pakistan chooses not to honorhonest work but wants to work onthe margins where scoundrels appearto proliferate. Consider PEMRA andall these bodies that the WB gave tous for managing the utility sector andthe service sector. Hefty sums werepaid to the personal that were asked

to be in these organizations. Thesewere pliable individuals more or lesslike plasticene. They did there ille-gal mentors work and stashed awaya lot of goodwill for themselvesthrough being fag boys for the poli-ticians. Those that did not wereseemingly on the wrong foot. Butfalse matters according to Salmond[Jurisprudence] do not prosper. Thepay back time generally comes.Those that have violated the laws ofthe land in letter as well in spirit haveto be called to the chopping block.

In one of the discussions withforeigners one was asked why Paki-stan must do what the outside worldtells them to do. What else can

mummy daddy boys do? Indepen-dence of thought is not a functionof articulateness or of educationalqualifications. It is a function of avery different upbringing. My ownview of life at the political level isthat one should take the necessarysteps in the very first week so thatthere is no misunderstanding at anytime of the day.

One has been at that politicallevel for more than two decades.It is always wise to make the cor-rect and honest statement no mat-ter what the stakes are. The agri-culture sector that I dealt with hadpolitical luminaries and some deadstarters. They always come inparadoxical manner. The wordthen goes round that here is a per-son who will answer to the call ofduty and nothing else. The man-agement practices are primitive inPakistan. There is no thought asto what is to be delivered and whatis to be sidelined. How the orga-nizations have to be ordered to de-liver. If Pakistan were to legislatea new act based on dereliction ofduty then we would see how manypeople would court arrest in thesections thereof. Are we to be hi-erarchal organized or should we beon the collegiate mode or in thefunctional mode. Depends on whatis to be delivered.

Pakistan must realize that nogovernment is worth its salt unlessit works to the benefits of the coun-try men. That is an attitude of mind.How are values and attitudes to bechanged? Try the Skinners behav-ioral school and try reading the bookcalled ‘Don’t shoot the Dog’. It isnot about shooting any one but is aclassic on behavior and how coach-ing can be done to change the atti-tudes and values. It has somethingfor everyone. But then I once es-corted Skinner to Bharakau for himto see the primary schools. He wasaghast at the way we were doing ourwork!! Primordial to say the least.

PPP’s of five years (FY 2009 – 2013)was 6.7 percent compared to a firstdeficit of 3.6 percent worsening defi-cit was wrought of generous distribu-tive policies poor power manage-ment and high level of corruption.As the Transparency Internationalreported the bad governance and eva-sion in taxes cost the base Rs. 8.5trillion. If the figure for FY 2012-13are included the average would behigher this rise in trade deficit whichresulted in energy and power crisis.The un-reparable loses which thePPP regime has brought to the op-pressed and simple people of Paki-stan will unable them to come out ofthese losses brought to the peopleyears for years.

All the five years, no heed waspaid or no practice was done to uti-lize the rich natural resources of Pa-kistan which could provide a veryhonorable and satisfactory life styleto the masses. The time which wasthe times of the people Mr. Presidentspent it on his sprees for horsing anddifferent cutting capers in the Presi-dent House. With the skill of amaz-ing twists and turns he succeed toattain the full period of five years inthe guise of public wellwisher. His-tory will never forgive him. Now asthe PPP managers know about theirevil activities the slogan of convinc-ing for votes is sung along with aparade of the coffins of Bhutoos.

I have no acquaintance person-ally or liking for Imran Khan but af-ter going through his personal his-tory book and prism of his party andhis speeches I am of the view that hemay be able to bring a positive andhelpful change to the people of Pa-kistan, if he would have not been es-corted by the flattering coterie in fu-

ture. The major tendency of people’sfor his views and vision in that he hastaken the inspiration from Quran,Quaid-i-Azam and the teachings ofa saint scholar Allama Iqbal. Histhorough study of Quran and AllamaIqbal’s work make us assured thathe will surely do nicely and stronglyfor the well being of the down trod-den people of this country who arebeing crushed by the political lead-ers and military men consequently foryears & years.

One more aspect of his life re-veals the fact that when he cameacross with the fatal disease of hismother whom he loved too much andfound himself helpless to stop herdying by inches, this was the incidentwhich took him to his innerself andperhaps he succeeded in digging outspiritualism and he twisted his angleof vision towards life and its affairs.Then with the support of teachingsof Quran he came in a better positionto understand the affairs of human be-ings. He says, due to lack of Islamiceducation our leaders don’t follow theexamples of most austerely life style.Islamic Culture is rooted in spiritual-ity which prevents human beingsfrom greed of every kind. Islam en-ables us and supports us for follow-ing the path of principles and winsmy people.

I want to practice them all. TheQuran emphases on “Justice and Edu-cation” I have worked on both, I havegive the name “Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf” to my party and have estab-lished educational institutions. Onlythese both missions can bring a happyrevolution to our society. I have takena guidance and inspiration fromQuran I want to practice all the Is-lamic Principles, not the rituals and

imitations. I believe in the originalIslamic life style, which provideseveryone peaceful and tension freelife. I was taken as the west orientedperson and it is true but certain inci-dents in my life converted me to myorigin and it is Islam. The HolyBook is a gateway to all guidancefor the human being but we con-ceived no wisdom from it and re-duced its teachings only to a payerrug and outdated set of rituals towhich the masses are historicallyaddicted to it.

In this caus-belli climate of thecountry may the Justice Party proveitself as the guide-post and peoplemay have a sigh of relief. The Quaid-i-Azam our father of the nation wasalso taken as an westernized personbut in fact he was a true Muslim,once he said, our salvation lies inadopting the Islamic commands. InIslamic system of Govt all the ac-tivities of a ruler are monitored tothe masses no one can enjoy spe-cial privileges ruling group are ser-vants to its peoples. Supreme com-mand of the country should spendits life strictly according to the Is-lamic Law because we haveachieved Pakistan on the basis ofIslam. In Islamic system the trea-sury in reality is the property of thepeople and every member of thecommonwealth is entitled to have anallowance out of the income of thestate. Islamic state should based onjustice social order and free fromexploitation and providing equalopportunities to every citizens.

Prior to close up, a proverbfrom a Philosopher for Mr Khan,“Not only must justice be done, itmust also the seen to be done.”Bravo Mr Khan.

Dr Zafar AltafEmail:dr_altaf@hotmail.com

Leaders’ profile: Nighat Leghari

Email: nighatleghari@yahoo.com

Pakistan has tofind people ofcourage and of

ability to walk thetight rope. Short of

that nothing canhappen. The peopleare so wanting in

thought and inprocess that onewonders whetherwe were ripe forindependence.

Voice of the People

Importanceof higher

M OSAMA AFNAN HANAFI

Higher education is popularly takento mean education that is imparted inColleges under Universities. Its ex-ternal test is the possession of a de-gree. Its intrinsic quality is the pos-session of a distinctive attitude to lifebased on intellectualism. Hence, aperson claiming higher educationmust not only possess knowledge butmust be able to apply it in day-to-day affairs of life. He should not be abookful blockhead. He shall have tobe worthy of the University degreehe receives ever afterwards.

Some look down upon highereducation as not of very great practi-cal utility in life. After all, India is anover-taught country. Here the plan foruplifting higher education is framedfirst, allotting enormous amount ofmoney and then the scheme of pri-mary education is fitted in with it.Judging by the poor state of primaryeducation, a highly educated man islike the beacon-light in a dead levelof sand, a Gulliver amongLilliputians. Maintaining a high stan-dard of education is the true index ofthe culture level of a country. In asense, it is a matter of national pres-tige. It fixes intellectual standards.After all, it is by its cultural attain-ments that a nation draws the atten-tion and respect of the world. We areliving today in a complex society.

The development of science, thegrowth of industries, the evolution ofdemocratic institution, the coming to-gether of nations through politics andtrade and sports have made our worlda complex place. Without knowledgeof science, how can we manage acivilization based on machinery andscientific appliances? Withoutknowledge of economics, it is impos-sible to tackle the complicated prob-lems of modern living. In short, wecannot meet the challenge of an ad-vanced civilization with the out-moded ideas of a feudal age.

Our responsibilities today are in-finitely greater than what our fathershad to shoulder. This function can befulfilled only by a higher standard ofeducation. It is, therefore, a very nar-row outlook that judges higher edu-cation by immediate material value.The purpose of education is to makeone a citizen of the whole world anda leader of the society.—Karachi

A sacred dayAQSA HYDER KHAN

Friday is the sixth day in Islamicweek. The literal more meaning ofFriday is congregation. In islam, thisday is given the most importance thanany other days of the week. EveryFriday, prayer of jummah is offeredand for this prayer special time istaken. Imams of all masjids deliverkhutbah on a special topic every Fri-day. From various ahadith, it isproven that Muhammad s.a.w.w usedto celebrate this day and he declaredjummah as weekly Eid for Muslims.He s.a.w.w used to wear clean andnew (washed) clothes, used to takebath, wear fragrance , wear surmahfor this day specially. It is taken thatprophet Muhammad s.a.w.w advisedMuslims to recite surah al-kahf onevery Friday to keep safe from thefitnah of dajjal.

Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.w de-scribed the virtues of jummah prayerin the these words; “ When the Fri-day comes, at every door of theMasjid there stand Angels who writedown ( the names of ) those whocome First, then who come next.When the Imam sits down, therecords are closed and they come tolisten to the reminder , i.e. theKhutba....” While fast on jummahis forbidden i.e. the single fast in aweek cannot be observed onjummah but it can be observed inpair i.e. with Thursday or with Sat-urday. “Narrated Abu Huraira: said,“Any person who takes a bath on Fri-

Why confuse Sarabjit Singh issue?ALI ASHRAF KHAN

The death of the convicted Indian spy in the Pakistani Kot Lakhpat jail where he was sitting in thedeath row since 1991 has received very different treatment by media in India and Pakistan. While

Pakistani media have reported just the fact of the attack, his injuries and the medical bulletin that hadbeen issued by Jinnah hospital Lahore Indian media have given it an emotional touch. They gave primeTV time to family members who named him ‘shaheed’ and Indian government officials have madeannouncements that this might damage Indo-Pak relations. And that though Sarabjit Singh had con-fessed on electronic media to his involvement in three cases of terrorist bomb blast that had caused thedeath of 11 Pakistanis and had injured many. He had told that he was trained by Indian RAW beforebeing sent to Pakistan for these operations. In the 1990s those blasts were not yet called terrorism and inSarabjit’s case they should be called Indian state terrorism because he also confessed on TV how he washired and trained by RAW. His case was heard and was given death sentence by the competent Court ofLaw; his appeal was rejected by the High Court and Supreme Court. One can see how different themeasurements are that India is applying: for Bombay attack that had exposed the incapability of theirpolice they blamed Pakistan meaning the state and government and institutions though no state institu-tion was involved. In Sarabjit’s case they call him shaheed and given him full honour and then blamePakistan for it. The only blame that could be layed on anybody is the jail management who kept the mansafe since 1991 – that is more than twenty years but Some electronic media in Pakistan were running amisleading story about the mistaken identity of Sarabjit Singh which is clearly not true. It createddoubts in the mind of people when the case is clear and even his family has accepted him as SarabjitSingh. Our Foreign Office has been extremely slow on all this not commenting on the false media reportsat all and just apologizing to India for what has happened. Is that the way to improve Indo-Pak rela-tions? Things should happen on an equal footing – to be apologetic is hardly the right way.—Karachi

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

day like the bath of Janaba and thengoes for the prayer (in the first houri.e. early), it is as if he had sacrificed acamel (in Allah’s cause); and whoevergoes in the second hour it is as if hehad sacrificed a cow; and whoevergoes in the third hour, then it is as if hehad sacrificed a horned ram; and if onegoes in the fourth hour , then it is as ifhe had sacrificed a hen; and whoevergoes in the fifth hour then it is as if hehad offered an egg. When the Imamcomes out (i.e. starts delivering theKhutba), the angels present themselvesto listen to the Khutba.”—Karachi

Using properlyboiled water

FAIZA AZAM

Access to safe and affordable drink-ing water is a basic human right. It isquite a dismal situation in our countrywhere, on the one hand, much of therural population is deprived of cleanand safe drinking water and, on theother hand, the trend of consumptionof bottled water is rising. The bottledwater has increasingly become fash-ionable among the urban populace, apractice which has led to water becom-ing the ‘blue gold’ of the 21st century.At a time when we are facing naturalproblems, companies commoditisingwater for their own benefits are pilingit up by pumping up groundwater, anessential source of fresh water in theform of springs and streams.

The bottled waters, especiallythose sold here in Pakistan, cannot berelied upon for their safety since adul-teration is a common practice. Person-ally, I am of the view that water is abasic human right and its distributionmust rest with the government. Theidea of commoditising something likewater is absurd and the governmentmust address this issue seriously. Evenif we have to consume bottled water,we must be careful about the disposalof plastic bottles. As we do not havemuch of a functional and reliable sys-tem for disposal of plastic trash, itwould be better if we all say ‘no’ tobottled water which carry so much ofan environmental risk and instead useproperly boiled water.—Karachi

Pakistanisoldiers life

M OSAMA AFNAN HANAFI

The life of a Pakistani soldier is disci-plined and very demanding. To be-come a soldier you have to make your-self extraordinary, you need to have aspecific height; and be tall, healthy andsmart. Bravery and intelligence aretraits that have to be inborn or devel-oped in these men. But soldiers alsoshould have love for their nation anda soldier is always proud to be a sol-dier of Islam and Pakistan. It is be-lieved that the freedom of the countrydepends upon the courage of its sol-diers. A soldier is always prepared todefend his nation at any time and inany weather, as it is always uncertainwhen the enemy will attack, hence asoldier is always alert. Soldiers aremade only after a tough training pe-riod, in fact there are some aspects ofthe training that never really end.

Pakistani soldiers are one of thebest soldiers in the world, when warcomes they perform brilliantly andthey have won many wars as well.Even when Pakistan is in the state ofpeace soldiers are not idle, they helpin the construction of roads andbridges in many parts of the state.They also provide assistance in timesof earthquakes and floods. In Wars,they do not only fight but aid civil-ians. The role of the Pakistani soldierduring the Indo-Pak war was amaz-ing. Our soldiers even aided the popu-lation of India; they gave them neces-sities and did not injure them. Paki-stan should be proud of its soldiers. Asoldier is said to be a real hero if hedies for the nation, and history remem-bers his name forever.—Karachi

Obama’s weakness keeps Guantanamo open

For the men and women involved in running theGuantanamo Bay prison camp,

it must have been disconcerting, tosay the least, to have heard their Com-mander-in-Chief share his personalviews on their little corner of Cubaquite so bluntly. “Guantanamo is notnecessary to keep America safe,” hesaid on Tuesday. “It is expensive. Itis inefficient. It hurts us in terms ofour international standing. It lessenscooperation with our allies oncounter-terrorism efforts. It is a re-cruitment tool for extremists. It needsto be closed.”

And so it does; but the fact that itremains open five years after BarackObama promised to shut it down is atestament both to the scale of the le-gal and moral morass it represents,and the president’s own persistentinability to translate his fine wordsinto action. It is now eight yearssince the use of torture and orangejump-suits was ended at

Guantanamo, but the hunger strikesthat appear to have pricked MrObama into having another push toshut the camp are a reminder of whatwent before. Reports fromGuantanamo, where 100 of the 166detainees are on hunger strike, give aterrible, physical expression to whatRed Cross monitors have describedas the “unprecedented” levels of des-peration among those who are beingheld in limbo, indefinitely, withouttrial or charge.

The situation is so serious that theUS Navy has had to send an extra 40medical personnel to help strap in-mates into restraining chairs, inserttubes into their nostrils and then downinto shrivelled stomachs so bags ofnutritional supplement can be forc-ibly administered. This, as Mr Obamarightly senses, is a grim humiliationfor the United States, which nowfinds itself forced to violate medicalethics to save lives it does not knowwhat to do with. It “is not going toget better”, said the president. “It’sgoing to get worse. It’s going to fes-ter.” And while Mr Obama did notcreate this suppurating wound, he is

not blameless for failing to close it.As in so many other areas, he hasbeen weak. It is true that Congresshas blocked the use of federal courtsand prisons for Guantanamo detain-ees, but there are other options which– largely out of political cowardice –the president has shied away fromusing. There are 166 detainees inGuantanamo, of which up to 16 are“high-value detainees” who were sentin from CIA black sites; 86, mean-while, have been cleared for release,and the status of the remainder is (forno good reason) classified. The vastmajority of these are not hardenedterrorists. Indeed, many are likeMohamedou Ould Slahi, aMauritanian who has just publisheda terrifying memoir of his treatmentin the facility. As long ago as 2007 itwas determined there was no evi-dence to try him on, and yet six yearslater he remains in a cage there.

Mr Obama could use his waiverpowers to order the release of manyof these “cleared” detainees if the de-partment of defence did not classifythem as a security risk, say lawyerswho work at Guantanamo. But he

Peter Foster

Views From Abroad

Electioneering thru social media

Social media has exploded as acategory of online discoursewhere common persons can

create contents, share them, book-mark them, and publish them at a pro-digious rate. Examples include,Facebook MySpace, Twietter, Digg,and Youtube. It has been estimatedthat, more than 1300 Millions userscheck their Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn and YouTube accounts onmonthly basis. Interest in social me-dia, from individuals (especiallyyouth) and businesses alike, is risingworldwide and it is setting trends andagendas in topics that range from theenvironment and politics to technol-ogy and the entertainment industry.

Researchers have claimed thatsocial media based predictions out-perform some other traditional tech-niques such as surveys and opinionspolls. In this regard, our social me-dia prediction for Pakistan electionshould be more accurate than the re-cent television surveys and polls.Pakistan is an emerging country hav-ing inchoate software industry. Ac-cording to an estimate about 10 Mil-lions people in Pakistan uses socialmedia, most of them are youth be-

tween 18 to 35 years of age. In Pa-kistan the recent estimation illustrat-ing that percentage increases in thenumber of social media (Facebook)users from Oct 2012 to Mar 2013 is12 % (almost equal to UK). Theenormity of the information aboutPakistan politics that propagatesthrough large user communities pre-sents an interesting opportunity forharnessing that data into a form thatallows us to predict the future of apolitical party. We also build mod-els to aggregate the opinions of thecollective population and gain use-ful insights into their behavior, whilepredicting future trends of a specificpolitical party.

As in Pakistan 2013’s election itis the first time most of the youth hasregistered for the votes, hence usingtheir opinions about different politi-cal parties one can infer the successor failure of these parties. In this ar-ticle, we used Brandwatch socialmedia monitoring software(www.brandwatch.com). We crawleddata from major websites includingFacebook, Twitter, Youtube, andother open social media forums(more than 100 websites in total)from January 2013 to Apr 2013.

Now come towards the overallvolume of the main political partiesin Pakistan. There are total 242 thou-sands mentions. We observe that PTI

is the most famous party over thesocial media and people are talkingcontinuously about PTI. There is abig spike at the volume curve at 22-24 March 2013, which is related to

the historical Jalsa of PTI at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on March 23,2013. Political anchor called it a hugesuccess of PTI and first step towardselection campaign of PTI. Figure 1:Overall volume of main politicalparties in Pakistan. There were about242 thousands mentions during 3

months periods (21 Jan to 22 Apr2013). 42% mentions have nega-tive sentiment whereas only 16%have positive sentiment (see foot-note about sentiments). The spikeat the lower plot at 22-24 March isclearly indicating that PTI is cap-turing social media attention. Fig2: Comparing the volume of dif-ferent parties over social media forlast three months.

The bottom line of this articleis that we can predict the future ofthe Pakistan through social mediausing simple prediction algorithms.We used two simple prediction al-gorithms, volume based and senti-ment based. The chief points of ouranalysis (based on three months datafrom Jan 21 to Apr 21, 2013) can beunderlined as follows: (1) PTI hasbuilt good auspicious momentum inrecent weeks and, if the momentumcontinues, PTI consistency has morechances of sweeping the electionsbased on our predicting algorithms.(2) PML-N has close competitionwith PTI and can be considered thesecond favorable political party. (3)PPP is the least favorable party ineyes of Pakistani nation and has lesschance to win. We will continue thisanalysis on bi-weekly basis. We willpredict the probability by which apolitical party will win in majorprovinces of Pakistan.

Peace in KarachiSAIRA M QURESHI

A metropolitan where crime groups,gangs and mafias continue to murderrivals, innocent citizens and extort resi-dents. Everyday a number of blind-folded and tied up butchered bodiesof innocent people are found in differ-ent corners of this provincial capital,which was once a classic example ofpeaceful and tolerant city.

Today, paradoxically, KarachiCity has become one of the unsafe cit-ies to live. Local police offices areshort-staffed and poorly equipped toface threats from cartel members.Some observers and research schol-ars like Khadim Hussain Soomro,(who has authored more than fortybooks on Indus valley civilization,culture and mysticism, worry about theunabated violent incidents that appearto be connected to organized crime,but he still believes that deportationof illegal immigrants, vigilant and vig-orous checkpoint at the bordering dis-trict of Sindh with Punjab andBalochistan, revival of formant Indusvalley civilization values and othersbasic rule-of law initiatives can pre-vent Karachi City from experiencingthe sort of crime wave it is goingthrough nowadays or the cycle of vio-lence currently affecting others citiesin others parts of the province.

Mr Soomro, who is a proponentof peace and interfaith harmony, saysthat Karachi is every Sindh’s capi-tal of heart, hence, we all have tomake collective and sincere effortsto make this city, a “city of hope andample opportunities, as it was threedecades ago.—Karachi

*****MUKHTAR AHMED BUTT

Apropos to your editorial “Everydayis mourning day in Karachi” (April 27)is timely reminder to caretaker gov-ernment at the centre and the provincesto chalk out clear cut strategy to savethe life and property of citizens ofKarachi who are tired of burying theirnear and dear ones. Question ariseswhen TTP gave warning that theywould disturb elections, why thisthreat was not taken seriously? Whowill be responsible for these deaths?Leaders and supporters are under per-manent fear and if the trend is not ar-rested there is every likelihood theelections may get delayed due to seri-ous security concerns.

On one hand people lift dead bod-ies on daily basis on the other handpoor are deprived of their livelihooddue to frequent strike calls that in-flicts maximum damage to alreadybroken economy. The consequencesof shut down just for day have beenrightly highlighted in the editorial butas a result losses run from Rs 6 to 7billion a day. DG Rangers has openlyadmitted that there is lot to be donein Karachi. Rangers are in state offix and confusion. On one hand theyare carrying out targeted operationagainst militants, but without localsupport and as retaliation Rangersare being shot dead. Media insteadof showing sponsored protests by theresidents against the Rangers shouldshow torture cells, construction ofbunkers in the residential area, fir-ing pits, bunkers and torture cells innarrow streets and must questiontheir existence that should be thepattern here if we are interested inbringing peace in Karachi. All par-ties should sit together and pledgeto people of Karachi that there willbe no strike calls and civilized wayof protest shall be adopted as prac-ticed in rest of the world—Karachi

So what’s the biggest problemin your life? An exam youfailed. Oh no, maybe your par-

ents don’t treat you equally amongstyour siblings. Did you say it’s more?Oho. I think it must be the new lawnprints you can’t afford where as yourneighbor just brought 5 new ones.How unfair life is, you say. I thoughtthe same until she told me her story.

I was lying in the lounge, de-pressed as ever. How God could beso unfair to me, I complained. Adumb friend of mine had gotten ad-mission at a university abroad be-cause he could afford it whereas Ican’t. I was still in the worst of allmoods when my maid Fatimahbought me a cup of tea and sat downon the floor beside the sofa. She thenasked me in Sindhi “Chah ayeinBacho”- what happened, kid. I toldher the story and she started laugh-ing loudly, as always. Her habit oflaughing loudly at everything justangered me so much more. She kept

her hand on my head and said“Bacho Allah sab theek karay ga”God will make everything fine. Ididn’t want to hear a word anymore,so I hid my face in the cushion. Shekept on talking for an hour or so untilI rose up my face from the cushionwhich was now wet with my tears.These tears were not for my sorrowsanymore, it was for hers.

Stop crying beta, she laughedagain. This is nothing. You still go toa good school, I know. Your babaloves you. Mine didn’t. She laughedloudly again. I was around 5 whenhe sold me to my husband. You knowhow old he was? Her voice risingMust have been 40 at that time. Why?I quickly asked. Money bachomoney. And then what happened? Iasked. Then bacho the same. He wasmarried already. Had 4 kids. Theyoungest one was 6 years older thanme. He used to physically abuse me.I realized it at a very later stage. Shelaughed again. Unable to understandif she was in a stable state of mind, Ipatted her back asking if she was well.Mein Theek Bacho- I am fine, kid.Do you know I used to clean the en-tire house and took care of all the fam-

ily members. Still I received constantbeatings on petty issues. She smiled.

I pointed out at her fake eyewhich my mother had paid for lastweek when we had hired her. Howdid you lose your eye? I asked.Bacho, one day I was very ill. I waspregnant with my third child whenI had a lot of pain in my eye. I askedmy husband to take me to the doc-tor but he constantly refused. Itlasted for 20 days and then onenight my eye started bleeding andthe eye ball fell out. I lost my babytoo after a few days then. I was veryill. The doctor, in the village toldme I will die. But then my brotherfinally came to save me and broughtme and kids to Karachi. Here thedoctors saved me then. Farishtay(Angels) they were, I tell you. Youhave a daughter and a son? Whatabout your brother? Why do youlive with us then? Surprised, I ques-tioned her.

He throw me out after a while wecame to Karachi. He said he couldn’tafford to keep us three together. It’sbeen five years now, I haven’t seenmy brother. My daughter and son, youask, are working in a house three

Greater sorrow!

has chosen not to, presumably forfear that they might reoffend – arisk the US public is not preparedto accept. So defeated is Mr Obamathat the head of the statedepartment’s own department forresettling Guantanamo detaineeswas reassigned this year and not re-placed: it’s not just the detaineeswho appeared to have abandoned allhope. Now, having declaring thisfresh start, Mr Obama must appointa significant White House figurewith orders to get these repatriationsmoving and begin to reverse the ter-rible damage done.

It is true that Congress will al-most certainly not allow the high-value detainees, including the 9/11accused, to be transferred to andtried in the federal courts system,but after four years of procrastina-tion a start is overdue. This must bethe beginning of a full reckoning onthe use of torture that includes thepublication of the Senate Intelli-gence Committee’s 6,000-page re-port on the post-9/11 CIA interro-gation and detention programme.— Courtesy: The Telegraph

streets from here. Very good peopleI tell you. They send my children toschool and in return they do worktheir entire home’s work. The onlything is the lady only lets me meetmy children once in 2 months.Zeenat is 10 and Rizqullah is 6, shesmiled while telling me. Wiping mytears, I asked her. Fatima, how canyou live alone? But in one sentenceshe gave me all answers. Munjhaypas Allah ahay bacho- I have Godwith me. And then she laughedagain, loudly.

That night I realized how stu-pid we are to cry at such pettyissues, get in depression for smalldiscomforts that life brings to usbut we don’t value what we have.Instead we get sad over things wedon’t possess. Kant rightly said“We are not rich by what we pos-sess but by what we can do with-out”. So laugh at all the discom-forts life bring to you, and cher-ish what you have in life becausethere are many out there whocan’t even afford the happinessthat you can.—The writer is student at Instituteof Business Management, Karachi.

As the IPL matches go on,suddenly at my age, I’malso playing a lot of cricket.

At first the youngsters hesitated toinclude me in their team, but sud-denly they feel I don’t bat toobadly, “At least uncle, you hit afour in every over!” How do I doit? No formula, it’s just that whenI stand with my bat in hand andwatch the bowler running to bowla fast ball to me, I just believe Ican connect and hit him. Most of-ten I’ve been managing!

I was sixteen when I’d first seenthose words in a book. I’d stared atthem, reread them, then wrote themdown in red ink and had it stuck bythe side of my bed. ‘Life’s battlesdon’t always go, to the faster or stron-ger man, but to the man who thinkshe can!’

Harold an accountant was readyto retire. His wife Martha, however,was less enthusiastic. As she ex-plained to a friend, “Harold has neverdone anything that required physicalexertion. He never played golf,mowed the lawn or even washed thewindows. When he retires, he will sitin his easy chair and expect me tobring him his food.”

But to Martha’s surprise, soonafter he retired Harold joined a healthclub. And one night, when he arrived

home from exercise class, he an-nounced, “I signed up for the wres-tling tournament. I’m going to wrestleFriday night!” Martha was shocked.“Please don’t do it, Harold,” shebegged. “You’re not in shape. Youwill be so beat up they will have tocarry you home!” However, hecouldn’t be dissuaded and she toldhim that if he went through with his“lame idea,” she was not going towatch. She stayed away that Fridayevening as Harold wrestled. Thenabout 10:00 p.m., just as she pre-dicted, two men practically carriedHarold home. He lay down on thecouch, every muscle strained andbruised. Before she could speak, hesputtered, “Don’t say a word, Martha!This is not the worst of it. I won to-night. I have to wrestle again tomor-

We think we can..!row night..!” Harold worked hardfor his success, but he proved thatwhen you combine sweat with thebelief you can do a certain thing,tremendous results follow. I callHarold on the phone and whisper“Harold! let’s say the words to-gether!”

“If you think you’re beatenyou are, If you think you dare not,you don’t If you like to win, butthink you can’t It’s almost certainyou won’t! And then we shout to-gether: But, life’s battles don’t al-ways go To the stronger or fasterman For sooner or later, the manwho wins Is the man who thinks hecan.. For Harold it was wrestling,for me it’s cricket, but we both thinkwe can..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Dr Mustansar Ghazanfar,Shakira Ghazanfar

Ramsha KohatiEmail: usmanalikhan6@gmail.com

Researchershave claimed thatsocial media based

predictionsoutperform someother traditional

techniques such assurveys and

opinions polls. Inthis regard, our

social mediaprediction for

Pakistan electionshould be more

accurate than recenttelevision surveys

and polls.

Nine-ZeroFrom Page 1

While speaking during apress conference, presidentKarzai said Pakistani officialshave repeated shared the is-sue formally and informallywith the government in thepast, according to Afghanmedia reports.

Karzai insisted that theAfghan government willnever recognized Durand asthe formal border line be-tween the two nations.

President Hamid Karzaipraising the Afghan borderguard who was killed duringclashes with the Pakistanisoldiers called on the Talibangroup fight Afghanistan’senemies.

His remarks are seen as aswipe against Pakistan andwill likely unsettle alreadyshaky ties with Pakistan amidUnited States efforts to per-suade Pakistan to help Af-

ghan peace process.In his speech to the

Taliban group, Karzai saidthat Taliban militants shouldturn their weapons againstthose polices where plots aremade against the Afghanprosperity instead of de-stroying their own country.

He said the Taliban mili-tants should stand with thisyoung man who wasmartyred and defended theirsoil. Hundreds of men tookto the streets of the easternAfghan town of Asadabadon Saturday, near where theclash took place, to protestagainst both Pakistan andthe United States. A day ear-lier, thousands of men inKabul rallied in support of theAfghan security forces.

In Washington describ-ing recent incidents of bor-der clashes as troubling, the

United States on Fridayurged Afghanistan and Paki-stan to resolve their disputepeacefully and bilaterally.

“We are aware of recentincidents along the border.Whenever these occur, theyare troubling. We encourageboth sides to try peacefulresolution of the border is-sues,” the Pentagon presssecretary said.

George Little told report-ers at an off-camera newsconference the border spatneeded to be worked out be-tween Afghans and Paki-stanis. “To the extent, wecan support these efforts wewill,” he promised, whenasked if the US was helpingthe two countries to resolvetheir dispute peacefully. “Ouroperations to my knowledgeare not affected,” Little con-cluded.—Agencies

Durand Line no borderFrom Page 1

SUKKUR—Muttahida QuamiMovement chief Altaf Hussainhas said that his party wants Pa-kistan to progress and developaccording to the vision ofQuaid-i-Azam Muhammad AliJinnah and Dr MuhammadIqbal.

He was addressing a hugeelection meeting in RailwayGround Sukkur via telephone.

Altaf Hussain said that theliberal, democratic and progres-sive political parties inBalochistan, Sindh and KhyberPakhtunkhwa did not have the

freedom to run their electioncampaign while conservativeparties supporting Taliban havecomplete freedom to hold elec-tion meetings and rallies.

He asked if such electionscould be called free, fair andtransparent. Altaf said that aconspiracy was being hatchedto bring the conservative par-ties and avowed supporters ofTaliban in power.

Altaf invited the armedforces to join hands with theMQM, ANP and PPP in com-bating the elements carrying

out bomb blasts and wanting toenforce baton-wielding Sharia.

“Today, the armed forces ofPakistan, law-enforcing agen-cies, and progressive politicalparties are facing difficulttimes. Liberal parties are on thetarget of barbaric terrorists.Bomb attacks and firing at theelection offices, rallies, andmeetings of the MQM, the ANPand the PPP continue un-abated.” In the end AltafHussain announced names ofthe MQM candidates fromSukkur.—Online

Progressive parties have no freedomto run poll campaign: Altaf

legation saying he was notMunaafiq (hypocrite).He said during the last fiveyears of their coalition gov-ernment, Maulana Fazalshed the blood of thousandsof innocent Pakhtuns hand-in-hand with President AsifZardari adding it was he whofor the first time since 9/11had forewarned that jumpingblindly into the US-led ‘waron terror’ would backfire andthe time proved that.

He advised Fazal to stopselling the religion and usingIslam for political gains.Imran Khan vowed that PTIafter coming into powerwould leave no stoneunturned to restore honorand respect of Pakistanisacross the globe and would

not carry the begging bowland rather he would to makePakistan a progressive demo-cratic Muslim welfare statewhere people could get alltheir basic amenities of life attheir doorsteps and will notgo abroad for jobs.

Imran Khan said if electedto power PTI will ensure sucha comprehensive systemwhere no one whosoever willbe allowed to commit injus-tice, discrimination and in-equality with anyone andthere would be zero tolerancefor cruelty and discrimina-tion.In the meanwhile an electionoffice of the PakistanTehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) wasdamaged in an explosion nearPajaggi road area here on

Saturday morning.“A time device, which wasplanted outside the office ofPTI in Peshawar was ex-ploded but did not cause anyloss of life,” a police officialsaid. The blast however de-stroyed the PTI’s electionoffice and a few adjacentshops, police added. The ex-plosion was heard from fardistances and spread fearamong residents of neigh-boring areas. ccording tobomb disposal unit, it was atime device which carried 1.5to two kilograms of explosivematerial. It was the first blastin Peshawar which targetedthe office of PTI. Imranreached Peshawar late in theafternoon to inaugurate a fewelection offices of the party.

Imran to orderFrom Back Page

to cash the sympathy votesince he lost his youngerbrother Bashir AhmadBilore a few months backand has been subjected toattacks and threats by theTaliban in the recent days.

Yet, the lackluster elec-tioneering and that too un-der the atmosphere of ha-rassment and uncertainty isdestined to badly effect theelection campaign of theANP leaders includingGhulam Bilore which givesan edge to Imran Khan overhis strong political rival onNA-1.

On the other hand inNA-2 former PPP federalminister Arbab Alamgirwould be facing ArbabNajibullah of Awami na-tional party as a close rival.Dr. Arbab Alamgir, who hadbeen holding the importantand lucrative communica-tion ministry in Yousaf RazaGilani cabinet is the son offormer chief minister ofNWFP Arbab Jehangir khanand the this family is knownfor always winning theirseats. However, owing tofalling graph of PPP, the po-litical pundits believe, DrSahib is not going to makeit this time and advantagewould go to ANP candidatesince the PTI candidate En-gineer Hamid ul Haq, AbdulBari advocate of PML (N)and Dr. Iqbal Khalil ofJamat-e-Islami are not ex-pected to give tough timeto Arbab Najibullah of ANP.

Likewise on NA-3though the PML(N) Sec-retary general Iqbal ZafarJhagra is in the run yet the

observers believe he is notgoing to be given toughtime by the PPP candidateNoor Alam khan followedby the FPCCI president andJUI candidate Haji GhulamAli. Arbab Inamullah ofANP and SajidNawaz of PTIare not likely to pose dan-ger to others. The PK-2constituency of Peshawar isperhaps the only fieldwhere the PPP candidateand the former health min-ister Syed Zahir Ali Shah islikely to emerge victoriousas like Bilores, the Syedfamily also has roots amongthe people of Peshawarspecially the dwellers of in-terior city.

He is lucky enough to befacing all the weaker candi-dates including debutants

Malik Mustafa of ANP,Shokat Yousafzai of Paki-stan Tehreek-e-Insaaf andMian Saeed Bacha of PML(N).

While all the indicatorsare pointing towards thePML (N) grabbing power inMay 11 elections, we mustbe ready for some surpris-ing results since the PTImay prove a winning horse.In that case lots of upsetmay also be seen inPeshawar.

Lacklustre electioneering in PeshawarFrom Back Page

UNITED NATIONS—The U.N.emergency relief body Fridaywarned that population dis-placement could surge amidmilitary operations and ongo-ing fighting between rivalarmed groups in northern Pa-kistan, near the Afghan bor-der.

“Nearly 76,000 people‘about 13,000 families’ havebeen displaced in the TirahValley (Khyber Agency) innorth Pakistan’s FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas,since mid-March,” JensLaerke, a spokesperson fromthe Office for the Coordinationfor Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA), told journalists inGeneva, according to a pressstatement issued at UN Head-quarters in New York.

“Government officials es-timated that more people mayleave the conflict-affectedarea in the near future, bring-

ing the number of internallydisplaced to up to 120,000people,” Laerke said, addingthat authorities also estimatethat the displaced people mayremain homeless for up to sixmonths due to the highly in-security.

The UN Refugee Agency(UNHCR) has been register-ing the internally displacedpersons in its camps. Of thenearly 76,000 people regis-tered, only about eight percent opted to stay in the Jalozaior Kurram agency camps,Laerke said. The remaining 92per cent remain outside ofUNHCR-supported camps.

“Government authorities,UN agencies and humanitarianpartners were already provid-ing basic assistance, but need$25 million to adequately ad-dress the needs of the dis-placed for the remainder of theyear,” Mr. Laerke noted..—APP

13,000 families displacednear Afghan border: UN

LAHORE: Vice Chancellor University of Education Dr Faizul Hassan awarding degrees to students during annualconvocation of the university.

At the time of blasts, thekey leadership of the MQMwas not present in the citybut was in Lahore to organisea major public gathering inPunjab.

Shops and markets wereshut immediately after theblast. Due to blasts, commo-tion and unrest had prevailedin the area while worst trafficgridlocks had prevailed inthe area and on arteries ofsurrounding areas.

Police and Rangers ar-rived at the scene and cor-doned off the entire area.However, Bomb DisposalUnit of Police also reachedthe scene one hour after theblast. Nobody was allowedto enter or leave the area.

According to peoplearound the venue of bombblast, the entire area was sunkin darkness as the load wasshed by the sole power dis-tribution company of the city.

After the blasts, Sindhhealth department imposedmedical emergency in city’smajor hospitals especially inAbbasi Shaheed Hospital.Earlier the MQM had post-poned campaign rally.

Meanwhile, uttahidaQaumi Movement Chief AltafHussian has condemned theblasts outside an electionoffice of the party inAzizabad.

In a statement issuedfrom London, Altaf Hussainoffered his condolences tothe families whose lovedones were killed and injuredin these blasts.

The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)claimed responsibility of thebombings, just the way it didin the past weeks followingsimilar attacks. TTP spokes-man Ehsanullah Ehsan tookthe credit of the bombings,reportedly, on the telephone.President Asif Ali Zardari,MQM Chief Altaf Hussain,Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat UlEbad Khan and Sindh ChiefMinister Justice (Retd)Zahid Kurban Alavi con-demned the blast.

No army, LEAFrom Page 1

gence agencies to share in-formation with provinces.The minister said elections,and not the accountability,was the responsibility of thecaretaker government. Hesaid the people through theirvote will make their formerrepresentative accountable.The cabinet approvedchanging the name of Ministryof National Regulation and Ser-vices to Health Coordinationand Regulation Division andbring all the health related de-partments under it.

The cabinet meeting notedthat despite slight improvementin the overall law and order situ-ation, dangers still persist. Themeeting stressed the need forimproving coordination amongthe intelligence agencies andLEAs. The meeting saidthe elections would be held ontime despite the death of elec-tion candidates and other vio-lent incidents. Nizami said theprime minister paid tribute to theLEAs for maintaining law andorder despite all odds.

He also appealed to the me-dia to play its role in holding offree, fair and transparent elec-tions.

COURT NOTICE

IN THE COURT OF MOHAMMAD

AMIN SHAHZAD FAMILY JUDGE

MALAKWAL.Samina Noreen etc VsAli Nawaz Suit forDissolution of Marriage &Maintenance Allowances.Memo. Ali Nawaz S/o Rajy KhanCaste Kumhar R/o PhaliaMehman near FaisalMasjid Phalia Dist MandiBahauddin

Whereas the services ofabove mentioned respon-dents is not possiblethrough ordinary means,therefore, he is directed toattend this court person-ally or through his councilon 16-5-13. Otherwise theex party proceedings shallbe taken against him.Given under my hand andseal of the Court.

Sd/-Family Judge Malakwal

Correction offather NameI, Abdul-Latif S/O Fazl Onmy (NIC) my father namehas been mentioned asMuhammad Fazl which isincorrect. I want to getchange my father namef o r mMuhammad Fazl to Fazland if any person / organi-zation /agency has any objection,the same may be intimatedin writing to(NIC) and Any Documents.

Candidate Name AbdulLatif Father’s Name Fazl

President forstreamlining

system ofcompensating

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—President AsifAli Zardari has taken note ofcomplaints of some victimsof recent violence in Quettathat the compensationcheques had not beenhonoured. He called for a re-port from the ministry con-cerned.

President’s spokesper-son Senator FarhatullahBabar said that the Presidentadvised the Finance Minis-try to look in to the com-plaints and ensure that thepromised compensation waspaid to the victims withoutdelay.

The President advisedthe ministry concerned tolook into system of payingcompensation and stream-line the procedure to facili-tate the victims and theirfamilies.

The President took noteof the complaints about in-adequate medical treatmentto those injured in the vio-lence and directed officialsconcerned to ensure properand adequate medical treat-ment of the injured.

It was the responsibilityof the state to look after thevictims and their families andthe least that needed to bedone was to make good thepromises made to the vic-tims, the Spokespersonquoted the President as say-ing.

ISLAMABAD—A anti-terror-ism court on Saturday or-dered former president Gen-eral (retd) Pervez Musharrafto remain in custody for afurther two weeks ahead ofhis trial for unlawfully sack-ing judges during his rule,officials said.

“Pervez Musharraf ’s re-mand is extended for judiciallock-up for 14 days, heshould be presented beforethe court on May 18,” JudgeKausar Abbas Zaidi ordered.

Police had asked thejudge to grant the custodialextension saying the inves-tigation into Musharraf’s ac-tivities was still under way.

Lawyers for Musharraf –who is locked in his ownhome, which has been de-clared a sub-jail while he isawaiting trial – filed a bailapplication in the court andthe judge fixed a hearing forMay 6.

The court was also askedif Musharraf’s trial could beheld inside his plush villa,citing security reasons, butthe matter was left pending.

“It has been brought intomy notice that the Chief Com-missioner of Islamabad is-sued a notification for the jail

5 US soldierskilled in

Helmand blastKABUL—Five United Statessoldiers were killed by abomb in the southern Afghanprovince of Kandahar onSaturday, a United Statesforces spokesman said, cap-ping off one of the bloodiestweeks for internationalforces this year.

The attack underscoredthe dangers faced by theNATO-led International Se-curity Assistance Force evenas they hand over much ofthe fighting to the Afghansahead of a planned departurenext year.—Reuters

Court extends Musharraf’sremand by 14 days

trial, but approval fromIslamabad high court isneeded in this regard,” thejudge said.

Musharraf was placed inpolice custody at his homefollowing his arrest on April19, in an unprecedentedmove against a former armychief of staff ahead of keyelections.

He was arrested for mak-ing a decision to sack judgeswhen he imposed emer-gency rule in November 2007– a move that hastened hisdownfall.He also faces charges ofconspiracy to murder oppo-sition leader Benazir Bhuttoin 2007 and over the deathof a rebel leader during a 2006

military operation.The retired general has

been humiliated since re-turning in March from self-imposed exile to contestelections.

However, his party onFriday announced it willboycott next week’s historicelection after a court onTuesday banned him fromstanding for the rest of hislife.

The May 11 polls for thenational and regional assem-blies mark the first time thata civilian government com-pletes a full-term and handsover to another at the ballotbox, in a country that hasbeen ruled by the military forhalf its life.

ISLAMABAD: President Asian Squash Federation David Mul called on Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chief ofthe Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force who is also President Pakistan Squash Federation at Air Headquarters.

Mike Gatting rightly deserves Lord’shonour, says Shakoor Rana’s sonBIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Mike Gatting, theformer England captain wouldhave got the surprised congratu-latory message from Pakistan onbeing chosen as MCC’s nextpresident later this year. And themessage could have been fromnone other than former umpireShakoor Rana.

“Had my dad been alive to-day, he certainly would havebeen happy with Gatting’s ap-pointment”, Shaqoor Rana’sson, Mansoor, who also playedtwo ODI’s for Pakistan, saidfrom Lahore. “MCC is old andthe world’s most famous club

and Gatting rightly deserved thishonour. Gatting was a goodplayer and captain in his days.He is well respected in the worldand we are happy with MCC’sdecision to make his the nextcaptain”, Mansoor, now attachedwith the National Cricket Acad-emy (NCA) as its batting coach,added from Lahore.

Recalling about his father’scontroversy with Gatting in1987 Faisalabad Test, whereboth came face-to-face withfinger wagging incident,Mansoor Rana said, “it oc-curred in the heat of the mo-ment and my father never hadill-feelings thereafter”.

Late on the second day of thesecond Test against Pakistan in

Faisalabad, play was dramati-cally halted when umpireShakoor Rana accused MikeGatting of cheating, after theEngland captain appeared tomove his field during a bowler’sdelivery.

The pair confronted eachother mid-pitch, swearingloudly, and Rana refused to re-sume umpiring. A day’s playwas lost, and the British Ambas-sador was called in to sootheAnglo-Pakistani relations. Thematch was drawn, the series waslost and England didn’t tour Pa-kistan again till 2000.”In fact,my dad and Gatting regrettedthat incident”.

“Of course both had no con-tacts after that infamous incident.

My father retired after the inci-dent and Gatting too didn’t playmuch thereafter”.

“It is wrongly believed thatmy dad treasured Gatting’sapology letter so much that heused to sleep with it under hispillow. It (the apology letter)was written on a small piece ofpaper. We are coming from aneducated family and my fatherwas a decent man”, the son, whoalso played a few side gamesagainst Gatting’s team, added.

Shakoor Rana died on April9, 2001, six days after his 66thbirthday. Interestingly, thecountry who put forward theneutral umpires choice in ICCmeeting after the Shakoor andGatting row was Pakistan.

LONDON—Chelsea reached theEuropa League final for the firsttime in their history after surviv-ing a first-half scare to defeatSwiss champions FC Basel 3-1in the second leg of their semi-final.

Leading 2-1 from last week’sfirst leg in Switzerland, Chelsearisked elimination afterMohamed Salah’s well-takengoal in first-half injury time putthe visitors 1-0 up on the night.

But goals from FernandoTorres and Victor Moses and aDavid Luiz stunner early in thesecond half gave last season’sChampions League winners a 5-2 aggregate victory that sets up ameeting with Benfica in the fi-nal in Amsterdam on May 15.

It was a case of third timelucky for Chelsea, who lost inthe semi-finals in both theLeague Cup and the FA Cup thisseason, while Basel fell short intheir attempt to become the firstSwiss team to reach a majorEuropean final.

Chelsea interim managerRafael Benitez will now look toend a testing season by claimingthe second Europa League titleof his career after his 2004 suc-cess with Valencia, although hisimmediate priority is to secure areturn to the Champions Leaguevia the league. “I came to do aprofessional job with the com-mitment of the players. I ampleased for them and everyonehere,” said Benitez, who has

struggled to win over theclub’s fans since arriving inNovember. “We have had avery good atmosphere, theplayers have always workedhard, and they have alwaysdone their job.”

Basel captain Marco Strellerpassed a late fitness to startat Stamford Bridge and he al-most made an immediate im-pression, shooting wide froma good position in the firstminute.

Chelsea’s fans had just takento serenading former coach JoseMourinho, who has been linkedwith a return to the club thisweek, when the hosts’ firstchance arrived in the ninthminute.

Torres’ clipped pass freedFrank Lampard, but his shotcame back off the post, leav-ing the England midfielderone goal behind BobbyTambling in the club’s all-timescoring chart on 201 goals.

Basel continued to attackgamely, however, and after be-ing thwarted once by Petr Cech,Salah broke the deadlock in stop-page time when he calmly swepthome from Valentin Stocker’scleverly disguised through ball.

The Egyptian’s strike leftBasel one goal from the final, butChelsea reasserted their grip onthe tie with a rapid three-goalsalvo in the first 14 minutes ofthe second half.

Torres claimed the first, inthe 49th minute. After a drivingrun from the excellent Eden Haz-ard, Lampard’s low shot waspushed out by goalkeeper YannSommer and Torres slid in toslam the loose ball into the roofof the goal. Moses put Chelseaahead three minutes later withanother finish from close range,this time after Torres’ low shotricocheted into his path.

Luiz saved the best for lastjust before the hour, stepping upto Lampard’s lay-off and curlinga majestic left-foot shot right intothe top-left corner from 25 yards.

Basel’s response saw FabianFrei hit the bar with a deflectedshot, while Marcelo Diaz alsotested Cech with an effort fromdistance, but for Chelsea, theworst had already passed.

The hosts might even haveamplified their lead further in thedying stages, but Sommer savedwell from substitute Juan Mataand Torres. “The second halfwent too fast — we made toomany mistakes and werecaught out cold,” said Baselcoach Murat Yakin. “ —AFP

LONDON: Chelsea’s Fernando Torres celebrates after scoring a goal against Basel duringtheir Europa League semifinal second leg soccer match.

Chelsea storms into Europafinal with win over Basel

President AsianSquash Federationcalls on Air Chief

PESHAWAR—President AsianSquash Federation (ASF) DavidMui called on Air Chief MarshalTahir Rafique Butt, Chief of theAir Staff, Pakistan Air Force whois also President Pakistan SquashFederation (PSF).

Mr.David Mui, President ofAsian Squash Federation, re-mained with him for some timeand discussed matters pertainingto Pakistan’s roles in promotingthe game of squash world over.He lauded the Pakistan SquashFederation’s efforts in introduc-ing the game at grassroots levelin the country.

He also appreciated the ex-cellent arrangements made for theongoing 17th Asian IndividualSquash Championship, in whichplayers from nine countries areparticipating.

The Air Chief emphasizedupon holding such internationaltournaments in Pakistan as theenvironment is very conducive.Mr David Mui assured the AirChief of his full support in bring-ing such tournaments to Paki-stan.—APP

Wasim joins trainingcamp of national

cricket teamA B B O T TA B A D —Pakis t anCricket team players Saturdayattended 2nd day seession oftraining camp for preparation ofnext month’s Champions Trophybeing held in England.

Pakistani legend WasimAkram also joined the camp andgave valuable tips to the players.

Talking to the media, WasimAkram said that he was reallyimpressed by this cricket ground.

He said weather conditionswere very good here for training,as ball was swinging and bounc-ing.He made it clear that themoisture is high in England, sobowler can’t bounce the ball.

To a question, Wasim Akramsaid he was disappointed by theperformance of the fast bowlersin the recent tour of South Africa.

On the second day of train-ing, the focus was on fielding,batting and bowling.—AP

NEW DELHI—India’s selectorson Saturday dropped openerGautam Gambhir and all-rounderYuvraj Singh for next month’sChampions Trophy one-day tour-nament in England.

The duo were part of the sidethat beat England 3-2 in a homeone-day series in January, withGambhir scoring just 127 runsand Yuvraj 126 in five one-dayers.

Yuvraj, treated for a raregerm-cell cancer between hislungs in the United States lastyear, was named man of the tour-nament in India’s 50-over WorldCup triumph in 2011.

Gambhir has scored 5,238runs in 147 one-dayers with 11centuries while Yuvraj has made8,211 runs in 282 matches with13 hundreds.

India are drawn with SouthAfrica, Pakistan and the WestIndies in group B of the Cham-pions Trophy, from which the toptwo will qualify for the semi-fi-nals. The other group comprisesEngland, Australia, New Zealandand Sri Lanka.

India, who shared the 2002Champions Trophy with SriLanka following a rain-hit finalin Colombo, will clash withSouth Africa in their first matchat Cardiff on June 6.

Shikhar Dhawan, whoplayed his last one-dayer againstthe West Indies in 2011, returnedto bolster the batting. He is likelyto open the innings with MuraliVijay, who also made a come-back.

Dhawan, who has so farscored 69 runs in five one-dayers,rose to fame after hammering a174-ball 187 on his Test debutagainst Australia in Mohali inMarch. With the conditions inEngland expected to favour seambowling, India named five fast

bowlers—Irfan Pathan, UmeshYadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Ishant Sharma, and VinayKumar. India picked three spin-ners—Ravichandran Ashwin,Amit Mishra and RavindraJadeja—in the 15-man squad tobe led by wicketkeeper-batsmanMahendra Singh Dhoni.

Virat Kohli, Suresh Rainaand Rohit Sharma are the otherspecialist batsmen.

India are without experi-enced opener Virender Sehwag,off-spinner Harbhajan Singh andseamer Zaheer Khan, who werenot named in a 30-man prelimi-nary squad last month. Sehwag’s

219 against the West Indies inDecember 2011 is the highestindividual score in one-dayersand he is only the second bats-man to score a double-century inthe shorter format after compa-triot Sachin Tendulkar.

But he was dropped due torecent poor form. Squad:Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt),Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli,Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik,Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma,Ravindra Jadeja, RavichandranAshwin, Irfan Pathan, UmeshYadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra,Vinay Kumar.—AFP

India axe Gambhir, Yuvrajfor Champions Trophy TOKYO—Teen running sensa-

tion Yoshihide Kiryu will makea bid to become the first Japa-nese athlete to run 100 metres inunder 10 seconds on Sunday,with a packed stadium expectedin Tokyo.

The 17-year-old high-schoolstudent equalled the world recordfor juniors on Monday afterclocking 10.01 seconds at a meetin Hiroshima, making him oneof only three men under-20 tohave run that fast.

Kiryu’s next chance to breakthe 10-second barrier will comeon Sunday at the Golden GrandPrix, the third leg of the 15-roundIAAF World Challenge series.

Speaking to reporters onSaturday he said he was focus-ing on improving his perfor-mance in the latter part of therace. “In that race in Hiroshima,I aimed at the line and sloweddown in the last 10 metres. I’mdetermined to aim further, think-ing of the line as a passing point,”he said. “I watched the video af-ter the race at home and analysedwhat was good and what waswrong. I must improve the lastpart of my running,” Kiryuadded.

Ticket sales for the meethave reportedly jumped three-fold since his record-equallingrun. Kiryu will take on sevenothers at Tokyo’s National Sta-dium on Sunday, all of them se-nior athletes and three of whom

have run under 10 seconds—Americans Mike Rodgers (9.85)and Mookie Salaam (9.97), andDerrick Atkins (9.91) of Baha-mas.

“Even if he can’t run under10 seconds, it’s almost certainthat he will make it this season,”said retired Asian record holderKoji Ito, speaking to sports dailyNikkan Sports.

Ito marked 10.00 seconds

flat at the 1998 Asian Games inBangkok.

Kiryu’s junior world recordperformance on Monday put himalongside former juniorsTrinidad and Tobago’s DarrelBrown, who logged 10.01 in

2003, and American JefferyDemps, who clocked the sametime at the 2008 US Olympic tri-als. Both were 18 at the time.

But dipping under 10 sec-onds is a tough ask.

It has been achieved by onlyabout 80 male runners, nearly allof them of West African descent,since American Jim Hinesclocked 9.95 at the 1968 MexicoCity Olympics.

In 2003, Patrick Johnson,whose mother is an indigenousAustralian and whose father isIrish, ran 9.93 to become thefirst runner without an Africanbackground to join the sprintelite.—AFP

Athletics: Japan’s Kiryu tochallenge 10-second barrier

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan numberone Amir Atlas Khan produceda scintillating performance onSaturday in FMC 17th Asian In-dividual Squash Championshipon Saturday and reserved a berthin the final.

Amir Atlas outwittedMalaysia’s Muhammad AsyrefAzan in straight sets 11-5,11-5,11-6. There was, however, nodouble joy for Pakistan as in thesecond semi-final prodigiousFarhan Mehboob’s fairy-tale runfinally came to an end. He lostto Abdullah Al Mezayan of Ku-

wait 11-8,11-3,14-2. In thewomen first semifinal, Low WeeWern of Malaysia defeated Joey

Chan in a gruelling four-setter.Wern lived up to her billing

as she overcame Joe Chan 11-7,4-11, 11-4, 11-9.

In the second semi-finalAnnie Au of Hong Kong camefrom behind to rout Delia Arnoldof Malaysia.

After losing first set she reg-istered victories in the next threesets. Both players displayed su-perb retrieving abilities but Anniekept her nerves to finish the fix-ture 9-11,11-6,12-10,11-9. Thefinals will be played on Sun-day.—APP

Amir to face Al Mezayan infinal of Asian Squash C’ship

TOKYO—Defending champi-ons Japan trounced South Ko-rea 65-5 on Saturday to win theAsian Five Nations tournamentfor the sixth year running.

Japan, who defeated thePhilippines 121-0 and HongKong 38-0, picked up an un-beatable 18 points from theirthree wins, ahead of Hong

Kong and South Korea on sixpoints apiece and the UnitedArab Emirates and the Philip-pines on zero.

Teams receive five pointsfor a win, three for a draw, andone bonus point each for a losswithin seven points, or by scor-ing four or more tries.

Stand-off Kosei Ono needed

just one minute to score the firsttry of the match, while six oth-ers crossed the line.

Captain Takashi Kikutaniand winger Kenki Fukuokascored two tries each, while fullback Ayumu Goromaru, re-peated his feat in the Philippinesto become the game’s top scorer,notching up one try and seven

conversions.Japan conceded their first

try in three games when stand-off Oh Youn-Hyung toucheddown with three minutes left onthe clock.

Japan take on the UnitedArab Emirates on May 10, whileSouth Korea play the Philip-pines the following day.—AFP

Japan beat South Korea totake Asian Five Nations

Portugal Open

Aisam, Rojermoves to semisLISBON—Top seeds Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-JulienRojer reached the semi-finals ofthe Portugal Open (ATP 250) ,beating their rivals from Indiaand Israel.

Aisam and Rojer defeatedpair of Rohan Bopanna of Indiaand Andy Ram of Israel by 4-6,6-3, 10-4, in the quarter-finals.

Aisam and Rojer, who aredefending their title, will nowface the fourth seeds Italian pairof Daniele Bracciali and FabioFogmini, ranked 25th and 41st,respectively, in the semi-final.

Last year, Aisam and Rojerwon this title by defeating thepair of Julian Knowle of Austriaand David Marrero of Spain withthe score of 7-5, 7-5. After Por-tugal Open, the pair will appearin Madrid Open next month. Lastyear they reached the quarter-fi-nals of Madrid Open.

With the Portugal Open titleon the line, Russian AnastasiaPavlyuchenkova takes on CarlaSuarez Navarro of Spain in thefinal. Pavlyuchenkova comesinto this match after a tough threeset match in the semis whereasNavarro had an easy outing in herprevious match, winning instraight sets.

Gunning to win her secondWTA Tour Title this year and herfifth overall, AnastasiaPavlyuchenkova of Russiasquares off against SpaniardCarla Suarez Navarro, who islooking to win her maiden titleon Tour. Both players haveshown some great form cominginto this match as this matchpromises to be an exciting affair.

With the last two matchesgoing to three sets,Pavlyuchenkova has shown alltraits of a good player – fromgrinding abilities to dominatingones.—Online

FCM powersfor POsISLAMABAD—Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP) hasauthorized Presiding Officers toexercise the powers of a Magis-trate of the First Class under theCode of Criminal ProcedureThe powers had been given topresiding officers appointed ateach polling station of Nationaland Provincial Assemblies con-stituencies, from May 10 to 12.They will try any election re-lated offence in a summary wayin accordance with the provi-sions of the said Code.—APP

JI leader survivesterrorist attackHANGU—Jamaat-i Islamileader Raj Muhammad contest-ing election from NA-39 sur-vived a terrorist attack here onSaturday. Some unknown terror-ists attempted to blow up the carof JI leader by planting a road-side bomb. Luckily he survivedthe attack but his car was fullydestroyed. No loss of life hasbeen reported Upon receivinginformation, Police and securityforces reached the scene andcordoned off the area.—Online

Sadiq, son laidto restKARACHI—ANP candidateSadiq Zaman Khattak and his 6-year-old son were laid to rest attheir ancestral graveyard inNowshehra on Saturday. Hun-dreds of people, ANP workersamong them, offered the funeralprayers of slain father and sonin Spin Khak area. Sadiq Zamanwas ANP candidate from Na-tional Assembly constituencyNA-254 in Karachi. —NNI

Tribal leader killedin firingKHYBER AGENCY—Unknowngunmen stormed the house oftribal leader Haider Khan andopened fire that killed him on thespot, media reports said on Sat-urday. According to officialsources, unidentified attackersambushed the house of HaiderKhan and shot him dead inTehsil Bara Sanober area ofKhyber Agency.—Online

WITH the polling daydrawing closer, theelectioneering in

Peshawar and its outskirts isgaining momentum though theactivities lack luster due toobvious reason of the menace ofterrorism which has led to a largescale bloodshed harassment anduncertainty in the region eventhough heavyweights includingPTI Chief Imran Khan are in therun from Peshawar on NA-1constituency.

While All the major partieshave fielded their candidates inthree National and 11 Provincialassembly seats in Peshawar , thePakistan People Party appears tohave almost surrendered whereas the Pakistan Muslim League(PML) Nawaz , the political Ob-server believe, has fielded rela-tively insignificant and unknowncandidates in Peshawar. Thus thetwo major parties left in the fieldare the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf(PTI) and the Awami NationalParty (ANP).

ANP is forced to curtail itselection campaigning owing to

serious threats from the militants.The only potential candidate con-testing from PPP platform isSyed Zahir Ali Shah wagingbattle in PK 2 and is expected tosail smoothly.

In fact the Awami NationalParty has been hard hit by themilitancy and during the lastfew years according to partyleadership more than 750 ANPactivists including parliamen-tarians and ministers havefallen victim to the terrorist’sattacks.

Most prominent among themwas the Senior Minister Khyber

Pukhtunkhwa and top partyleader Bashir Ahmad Bilore whowas martyred in a suicide attackat a congested bazaar in the pro-vincial metropolis in Decemberlast.

Even during the recent daysthe ANP election rallies and itscandidates were targeted morethan a dozen times. The worstamong those was a suicide at-tack on ANP senior leader andcontestant from NA-1 GhulamAhmad Bilore a couple of weeksback.

Though Mr. Bilore escapednarrowly and sustained minor in-

juries, the deadly explosion hadleft at least 18 people includinga local journalist and two policeofficers martyred and over 45others seriously injured.

The latest series of attacksforced the ANP leadership tolimit its election activities and theparty candidates are left with nooption but to almost cancel theirelection rallies and corner meet-ings, so much so that the ANPcandidates including former Rail-ways minister Ghulam AhmadBilore facing PTI chief Imrankhan on NA-1, are conductingtheir door-to-door campaign dur-

ing the night time to escape theterrorists attacks.

On the other hand the PTIChief Imran Khan is likely tocash the situation as its potentialopponent is Ghulam AhmadBilore as PPP has awarded ticketto insignificant CandidateZulfiqar Afgahni having littlesupport and sources to contest onthe bigger seat like NA-1.

The other notable candidateson NA - 1 include Shabir AhmadKhan of Jamat-e-Islami and aPML (N) ticket holder AfzalPaniala who is hardly known tofew hundred people. Though

Shabir Ahmad Khan had wonthe seat in 2003 elections fromthe platform of MMA but thistime Jamat-e-Islami is taking asolo flight reducing chances ofvictory for its candidates.

It is said the Bilore familyhas deep roots among thePeshawarites and the GhulamAhmad Bilore hasbeen winingNA-1 in the past as well. He isknown for always keeping veryclose contacts with the peopleof Peshawar and his electorates.Besides he is also likely

Lacklustre electioneering in Peshawar

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) patron-in-chief Bilawal BhuttoZardari believes party wouldwin the majority of seats withrecord number of votes in allconstituencies. “The PPP can-not be intimidated by threatsand the frustrated forces thatwere propagating against thePPP.

Bilawal said this whileaddressing public gatheringsand former premiers of thecountry Syed Yousuf RazaGillani and Raja Pervez Ashrafthrough video conferencing.According to sources,Bilawal’s exclusive messages

through video conferencingsystem had been released andplayed in all electoral constitu-encies so as to motivate themasses for casting their votesin PPP’s favour.In his video message, Bilawalsaid that those who talkedabout PPP’s accountabilitywould be caught for the sameby the masses on May 11, thepolls day. He said that beingthe patron of the PPP, he wasin full contact with the candi-dates and party leaders. Heasked the candidates to payfull attention to their electoralcampaigns and stay in closecoordination with the voters oftheir respective electoral con-stituencies.

The sources told PakistanObserver that the video mes-sages of Bilawal had gainedmomentum in rural Sindh andrival parties were confrontingdifficulties to counter the newtrend as the voters in ruralSindh that were cross with thePPP had changed their opin-ion due to their passion forShaheed Zulfikuar Ali Bhuttoand Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.Love and passion of the Jiyalasfor their slain leaders work likemagic for the party.The PPP’snew strategy of approachingvoters through Bilawal’s videomessages mentioning servicessacrifices, and threats havebrought the voters back to theparty platform.

Threats cannot intimidate PPP: Bilawal

RAWALPINDI—A special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) here onSaturday dismissed interim bailof All Pakistan Muslim Leagueleader and former presidentPervez Musharraf’s spokesmanDr Amjad Malik in lawyers

ATC orders Dr Amjad’s arrestthrashing case and ordered hisarrest.

ATC Judge ChaudhryHabibur Rahman was hearingthe lawyers thrashing case.

During the hearing, DistrictBar Secretary Zaheer Arshad

Malik told the court that lawyerswere beaten up inside the courtpremises at the behest of Dr.Amjad. Lawyers thrashing caseagainst him was registered inCivil Lines Police Station underAnti-Terrorism Act.

SituationerTariq Saeed

Continued on Page 6

SWABI: PTI Chairman Imran Khan addressing a public meeting during his election cam-paign on Saturday

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MANDI BAHUDDIN—Presi-dent Pakistan Muslim League-N, Mian Nawaz Sharif Saturdaysaid Pakistan’s fate would bedecided on May 11.

“It’s not a day of just stamp-ing on a piece of paper. It’s theday of voting for the fate of Pa-kistan. So vote for PML-N”, hesaid while delivering a speechhere. He said Pakistan’s futurewas far brighter than it ever hadbeen as now youth were onPML-N’s side.

“The youth of Pakistan isour power. They carry a great re-sponsibility of building the fu-ture”, he said. Nawaz alsovowed to start a scheme for is-suing soft loans to the youth if

PML-N were elected to power.In a statement issued from

PML-N secretariat in Lahore,Nawaz Sharif said on Saturdaythat his party has devised a strat-

egy to produce thousands of jobsand provision of gas and elec-tricity at fair prices by makinginvestments in energy sector.

Nawaz Sharif said that hisparty is not like PakistanPeople’s Party whose ministersdidn’t get time out of looting,adding that the strategy makersof PML-N are able to run theministry of Water and Power.

He said that they would getPakistan to the progressive pathin three years. If voted to rulethey would also initiate theprojects of solar energy andpower generation from biom-ass.

Power houses that are gen-erating energy while using fur-nace oil would be shifted tocoal, he added.

Nawaz: Pak destiny tobe decided on May 11

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Chairman PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) ImranKhan termed the so-called waron terror as American war say-ing he would not wait for a mo-ment to withdraw from this warif voted to power and would or-der the forces to shoot downAmerican drones if they dare across the Pakistani border.

Addressing a series of pub-lic rallies in Peshawar , Buner,Swabi and Charsadda on Sat-urday , the cricketer turned

PTI to abandon war on terror, ifvoted to power: Imran

politician accused PakistanPeople’s Party, ANP, PML(N)and even Maulana Fazal urRehman of JUI of playing sec-ond fiddle to US and servingher interest.

In the meanwhile a low in-tensity explosion in Peshawardamaged the election office ofPTI in the outskirts of the citythough no loss of life was re-ported. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief, who has mostlybeen subjected to harsh criticismfrom JUI Chief Fazal UrRehman, came hard on the

Maulana saying he was a prac-ticing Muslim and did not need acertificate from Maulana FazalUr Rehman.

He reacted sharply to Fazal’sallegation that he (Imran) be-longed to Jews lobby saying inthe presence of Maulana Fazal urRehman and Asif Zardari therewas no need of any Jews.Alhamdolillah, I am a true Mus-lim and cannot even think of de-claring Ahmadis as Muslim’s.Imran responded to Fazal’s allega-tions

Continued on Page 6

Sanaullahcontinues to beon life-support

CHANDIGARH—The conditionof Sanaullah Haq, the Pakistaniprisoner attacked by a fellow in-mate at a Jammu’s Kot Bhalwaljail, deteriorated further on Sat-urday with frequent fluctuationin blood pressure, as he contin-ued to be in deep coma and onlife-support, reports HindustanTimes

Doctors at the Post-GraduateInstitute of Medical Educationand Research (PGIMER) heresaid he remains “critically sick”.Chances of his survival are bleak,according to sources at the hos-pital.

Meanwhile, the PakistaniForeign Office said it has not re-ceived any information regardingPakistani prisoner Sanaullah’sdeath. According to the ForeignOffice, they have been in contactwith the Indian High Commis-sion in this regard. The ForeignOffice said they are also in con-tact with the Pakistani HighCommission in India and thatdiplomatic sources saySanaullah’s condition is critical.

It may be mentioned herethat according to some newsagencies Sanaullah had suc-cumbed to his injuries.

On Saturday morning, offi-cials from Pakistan high commis-sion met PGIMER officials.

Around 4.30pm, the Paki-stani officials also visited the pa-tient in the Advanced TraumaCen PGIMER spokespersonManju Wadwalkar said the con-ditions were being taken care ofby specialists. “His blood pres-sure had been going down, so athird medicine had to be added,”said Wadwalkar.

The Pakistani High Commis-sion in New Delhi said Saturdaythat the condition of SanaullahHaq remains “very critical”.“Sanaullah’s condition remainsvery critical. He is on life sup-port system in the Intensive CareUnit on ventilator. Given the se-verity of head injuries, his prog-nosis remained grim,” said astatement by the Pakistani HighCommission. Sanaullah, whohails from the city of Sialkot, wasattacked by a prisoner who wasidentified as a former Indian armysoldier nearly 24 hours afterSarabjit Singh’s death in Lahore.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Former KhyberPakhtunkhwa Information Min-ister Mian Iftikhar Hussain onSaturday accused the interimgovernment and the ElectionCommission of Pakistan, and

Iftikhar criticizes govt, ECPsaid elections results would notbe acceptable under the currentlaw and order situation.

Speaking at a press confer-ence at the Bacha Khan centre,the former provincial ministerseverely criticised the caretakergovernment and the ECP.

Hussain said that the ad-ministration and the ECP hadcompletely failed, and hadbeen unable to deliver a se-curity plan since the past oneand a half months. TheAwami National Party leadersaid that his party candidates

THE six decades’ old fast food franchiseKFC recently rolled out OriginalRecipe boneless chicken in its 4,500 US

locations.1 The new slogan: “No mess. Nofuss. No bones about it.” The company is soconvinced boneless chickens the way of the future thatthey’re actually consideringeliminating on-the-bonechicken from its menu alto-gether. According to the fea-tured article:

“McDonald’s execs be-gan experimenting with arange of non-burger options:chicken pot-pies, bone-infried chicken, deep-friedonion chunks. None of themwere successful, until theyoffered customers deep friedchicken chunks. TheMcNugget was born.

That was 1980, whenabout 80 percent to 85 per-cent of chicken consumed inthe US was unprocessed...Ten years later, the numbershad almost reversed...

While the rotisserie chicken made a bitof a comeback in the mid-‘90s, the idea ofeating the whole bird was, for the most part,a thing of the past... According to internalKFC surveys, nearly four out of five servingsof chicken in the US today are off-the-bone,the inverse of 30 years ago.”

Why might this be “a big deal”? Well, forone, processed chicken nuggets, regardless ofbrand, are far more likely to contain all sortsof additives and fillers you’d be better offwithout. For example, I wrote about the ques-tionable ingredients of McDonald’s Chicken

McNuggets back in 2010. Only half ofChicken McNuggets are actual meat. Theother 50 percent includes corn derivatives,sugars, leavening agents and completely syn-thetic ingredients.

In a 2003 lawsuitagainst McDonald’s, FederalJudge Robert Sweet2 evenquestioned “whether custom-ers understood the risks of eat-ing McDonald’s chicken overregular chicken.” But there’syet another reason for myquestioning the trend of goingboneless, and it’s even lesssavory than that . Few aretalking about this, but scien-tists have been working onbioengineering “cultured”meat for the past decade. Ac-cording to a September 2011Huffington Post article,3 sci-entists at the University ofMaastricht in the Netherlandsclaimed to be as little as 12months away from deliveringthe world’s first bioengineered

synthetic hamburger.As of this writing, the hamburger has

yet to be presented, although I doubt thatmeans the plan has been abandoned.

The article also pointed out thatLondon’s Royal Society had released a glo-bal food supply report, in which they calledfor a synthetic meat solution to feed theworld’s growing population without caus-ing environmental destruction.

“The only barriers? Overcoming thesocial stigma and the RS scientists say itcould take another decade before it rolls outto the masses,” the article states.

How can you tell you’reeating real chicken?

May 10

OPENING ceremony of theweeklong workshop on “De-velopment of Physics andLaboratory Techniques” willbe held on 10th May, 2013 at10:00 a.m. in Science Complexof the Allama Iqbal Open Uni-versity (AIOU). Vice-Chancel-lor AIOU, Prof. Dr. NazirAhmed Sangi will preside overthe opening ceremony.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Foundation Uni-versity Medical College(FUMC) has organized its An-nual Day with maximum par-ticipation of the students. Maj. Gen. Ghulam Haider,HI(M) (Retd) Director Welfare(Health) Fauji Foundation wasthe chief guest.

The chief guest distributedGold Medals, Silver Medals,Distinction Certificates andMerit Certificates among thestudents of MBBS on their re-spective academic achieve-ments.

Addressing the audience,

Maj. Gen. Ghulam HaiderHI(M) (Retd) said that theFUMC has covered severalmilestones of development andtoday it stands out as a distin-guished institution among medi-cal colleges of the country. “The well designed purposebuilt campus of the college islocated in proximity of a largeteaching hospital and providesa student-friendly atmospherehighly conducive for learning”he said.

He informed the audiencethat the construction of a build-ing to house the Dental Collegeis near its completion and it isexpected that the degree pro-

gram in dentistry shall com-mence from January 2014. He said, “Alongside the ex-haustive academic schedules,the Foundation University isequally mindful of affordingample opportunities for co-cur-ricular activities includingsports, athletics, debates andarts.

This not only serves to rec-reate and refresh the tired mindsbut also plays a positive role inpersonality development andgrooming of the young doctors.” While congratulating the stu-dents who achieved academicexcellence in various universityexaminations, he said this per-

formance is reflective of theirhard work and devotion forwhich they genuinely deserveappreciation. He admired the role of fac-ulty, adding that their compe-tence and dedication is the mostcrucial factor in the scholasticgrowth of students. He also congratulated theFUI on becoming IS0 9001-2008 certified University. Maj. Gen. Gul MuhammadHI(M) (Retd), Rector Founda-tion University Islamabad andMaj. Gen. Dr. Nasim-ul-Majeed HI(M) (Retd), Princi-pal FUMC were also present onthe occasion.

FUMC holds Annual Day

RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD—Election activities are gearingup city with each passing daygiving it a festive look as allroads, building and streets arecarrying colourful banners,posters, flags and party sym-bols.

The election activity hasassumed the shape of festivalin the city through unitingpeople into groups towards acause of selecting the politicalparty which they trust the most.

A number of representa-tives and supporters from dif-ferent political parties are en-gaged in campaigning andpeople from all walks of life es-pecially youngsters are partici-pating in election activitieswith great enthusiasm.

The markets, buildings,houses’ tops and even trees onthe roadside have been embel-lished with colorful party flags,banners and posters.

As the battle among 26candidates vying for NationalAssembly-49 constituency ofIslamabad is on its peak, the fu-ture prospects are gettingclearer with each passing day.

Among all, the majorplayers contesting for theconstituency are four includingDr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry fromPakistan Muslim League-Nawaz,Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar fromPakistan Peoples Party, ZubairFarooq from Jamaat-e-Islamiand Chaudhry Ilyas Mehrban of

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf.The unprecedented divi-

sion of voters by PML-N,Jamaat-e-Islami and PTI wouldultimately support the PPP can-didate mainly because the PPP’sjiyalas are known to be time-tested who remain stuck to the

party in all circumstances.Among the independents andthose coming from compara-tively smaller parties, there aresome candidates who have fewthousand voters in their pocketthat would also divide the sup-porters. However, considering

all pros and cons, majority ofthe factors seems favouring thePPP candidate in NA-49during upcoming electionsparticularly due to the voters’breakup caused by one-on-onecompetition between JI andPML-candidates. —Agencies

Election activity gears up,battle rages for NA-49

Delete impossiblefrom vocabulary

ISLAMABAD—Chief Justice ofPakistan Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry has advised young law-yers to delete the word of impos-sible from their vocabulary He was addressing certificateawarding ceremony of one weektraining course on legal educationfor lawyers from High Court BarAssociation Rawalpindi at fed-eral judicial academy here Satur-day.He held there can be no twoopinions on the proposition thatBar and Bench are complemen-tary to each other. A strong Barmeans a strong judiciary.

He observed active role oflawyers in society and adminis-tration of justice is most impor-tant and laudable.—Online

ICMAP inauguratesnew campusCITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Mr. GhulamMustafa Qazi, Vice Presi-dent Institute of Cost andManagement Accountantsof Pakistan (ICMAP) hereon Saturday signed anagreement to open newcampus in Rawalpindi.

Speaking at the agree-ment signing ceremony, Mr.Qazi highlighted that theinstitute has been expandedwith its regional campusesin all metropolitan citieslike Lahore, Multan,Hyderabad, Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD—Federal Investi-gation Agency (FIA) has in-cluded three Directors of theCapital Development Authority(CDA) into investigation in thebogus plot scandal.

The FIA sources said thatformer director HR along withothers CDA officials were in-volved in the allotment of bogusplot, adding that director HR

Plots’ scandalMuhammad Ali, director statemanagement Abid Latif and di-rector Mehboob have been in-cluded in the investigation pro-cess. Sources said that 22 bogusnames were inducted in ballot-ing of plots, adding that the im-prisoned CDA director had allot-ted plots to the property dealers.The price of one plot is said tobe worth of Rs 4 billion.—Online

ISLAMABAD: Students of Roots School presenting tableau during Annual Parents Day atPNCA.

ISLAMABAD: Army personnel loading election material on a helicopter to be transported to different destinations for upcoming election.

It is an immutablelaw in business that

words are words,explanations are

explanations, prom-ises are promises butonly performance is

reality.—Harold Geneen

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Housing and Works Dr. Younis Soomro called on Prime Minister Justice (R) MirHazar Khan Khoso.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The caretakergovernment is looking at thesinking economic indicatorsas silent spectators whichis a sign of major concernfor the trade and industry.S.M Muneer a leading busi-ness leader and PresidentIndia Pakistan Chamber ofCommerce and industrysaid while speaking at a re-ception given by DefenceResidents Society (DRS) inhonour of Provincial Min-

ister for IT, Mian ZahidHussain at the residence ofFarukh Mazhar.

Muneer said that while alleconomic indicators evengoing down and situation isgetting worse and caretakergovernment is not perform-ing its duty.

The foreign exchange re-serves have gone down todangerously low level gov-ernment would have to paythe loan installment to theIMF which is due nextmonth.

He warned that anti-Pa-kistan forces are trying tosabotage forthcoming elec-tions and their agenda is tocompletely destabilizePakistan’s economy. Heasked the rulers and the gen-eral public to wake up fromdeep slumber and do some-thing for their survival. Hesaid that the honest and com-petent people should bebrought to the assemblies inthe general elections. He alsodemanded of the Army Chiefto deploy army personnel in-

side each and every pollingstation in order to hold freeand fair elections.

Speaking on the occa-sion Minister of IT MianZahid Hussain said that thefirst phase of Arfa SiddiquiIT City is in completionphase and spread over 200acres of land IT city wouldbe a state of the art projectand will provide governmentofficials and general publica most modern place for ITrelated facilities. He said thatIT City would be established

on two blocks of 100 acreseach - that is already in thepossession of the IT Depart-ment.

The main objective is tobuild a cluster-concept city,which would comprise ITinfrastructure and facilitiesto help the provincial gov-ernment become a regionalcentre offering IT enabledservices (ITES) and busi-ness process outsourcing(BPO). He said that his gov-ernment has very short timeto deliver but his is making

his utmost efforts to bringsome results even in thisshortest period.

Minister of Commerceand Industries, KhalidTawab said on the occasionthat problem of low pres-sure in gas supply to theindustrial zones wouldsoon be addressed. Hepraised Mian ZahidHussain for his efforts tobring some positivechanges in IT sector. Sena-tor Abdul Haseeb Khansaid if the elections were not

held the country would beat stake. He said that theentire nation should takepart in the elections as incase of only 15 to 20 percent turnover the world willnot accept these elections.He warned that economy’ssituation is extremely badand country is on the fi-nancial collapse. Ministerof Religious Affairs SardarYasin Malik Chairman DRS,Zafar Iqbal and ManagingDirector Farukh Mazharalso spoke on the occasion.

Caretakers silently looking at fast sinking economic indicators

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Agriculturesector in the country grew atthe rate of 3.35 percent dur-ing 2012-13 while industrialsector showed a positivegrowth of 3.49 percent dur-ing the same period.

It was stated by Pakistanbureau of statistics after 93rdmeeting of National accountscommittee was held to reviewand approve the final esti-mates of National Accountsfor the year 2010-11 the ac-counts for 2011-12 and pro-visional accounts for 2012-13.

According to the data ofPakistan bureau of statistics,service sector of the country

registered a growth of 3.71 per-cent. According to the newbase GDP estimates for the year2010-11 final stands at Rs 9124billion indicting a growth of 3.66percent. The GDP estimates forthe year 2011-12 stands at Rs9522 billion showing a growthof 4.36 percent which is sub-ject of 3.59 percent over the es-timates of last year.

It further said that thework for the compilation ofquarterly estimates will beinitiated from the next fiscalyear. After a thorough dis-cussion estimates of GDP atconstant basic prices of 2005-06 and investment at currentmarket prices were approvedby the committee.

Agri sector grew by3.35pc in 2012-13

TARIQ KHATTAK

ISLAMABAD—“Strong, sound,coherent and synchronized fi-nancial system is an integralcomponent of regional eco-nomic cooperation, whichwould create preferences forincrease in cross-border tradeand investment opportunitiesand encourages flow of capi-tal amongst SAARC membercountries.” It was stated in apresentation of SAARC Cham-ber of Commerce & Industry(SCCI) at a meeting of SAARCfinance meeting organised byAsian development Bank andSouth Asian Association forRegional Cooperation at NewDelhi.

President SCCI, Mr.Vikrmajit Singh Sahney pre-sented copies of the brief re-

port on financial integrationof South Asia to the FinanceMinisters including P.Chidambrum from India andhis counterparts from Af-ghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives,Sri Lanka, Bhutan, GovernorCentral Bank Nepal and Mr.Muhammad Shehzad Arbab,Secretary Economic Affairs.

The SCCI report recom-mends regional Financial Co-operation Framework, whichincluded several measureslike investment through auto-matic route, privileged visaregime for investors, move-ment of natural persons un-der article IV- of GATT to pro-mote labour mobility by al-lowing work visas, Integrat-ing transport and warehous-ing infrastructure, access tofinancial facility i.e. local sub-

sidies and working capital fa-cility, legal cover in the eventof political upheaval/sover-eign Guarantee, avoidance ofDouble taxation Treaty at re-gional level, currency Swap-trade and investment provi-sion in local currency, invest-ment-specific Dispute resolu-tion mechanism, opening ofBank branches in all membercountries on reciprocal basis,creation of SAARC Bank withbranches in all capitals andmajor commercial citiesacross the region, cross bor-der Investment in capital aswell as financial market, co-operation between mutualfund and financing compa-nies, acceptability of finan-cial services by Mutual rec-ognition of trade/investmentfinancial instruments.

Active mechanism canexpand cross border trade

LAHORE: Mian Mohammad Mansha, Chairman Nishat Group accompanied by BishopAlexander John Malik and Bishop Irfan Malik visiting Joseph Colony after distributionof household items.

Punjab Food Deptprocures 217,709

tonnes wheatSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Food De-partment has so far procured217,709 tonnes of wheat dur-ing current wheat procure-ment drive against the targetof four million tonnes.

The department whichstarted procurement fromMay 01, 2013, is registeringnow upward trend in comingof wheat to its procurementcenters set up across theprovince to facilitate thegrowers. On Thursday, thedepartment procured 104,253tonnes of wheat while on daybefore that it had procuredaround 59,000 tonnes ofwheat.

The department has sofar distributed gunny bagssufficient for packing of over1.436 million tonnes ofwheat. It distributed gunnybags for 182,997 tonnes ofwheat on Thursday, thesources concluded.

BoP’s profit upOBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—The Bank ofPunjab (BoP) held its AnnualGeneral Meeting on April 30,which was attended by thebank’s directors, manage-ment and a large number ofshareholders. The meetingapproved the bank’s finan-cial results for the year endedDecember 31, 2012.

The bank’s profit after taxincreased to Rs1.6 billionagainst Rs0.35 billion earnedin the previous year. BoP’sincome per share also in-creased to Rs3.09 from lastyear’s Rs0.66. Similarly, thebank’s deposits and loansincreased by 12 percent and18 percent, amounting toRs266.0 billion and Rs149.6billion respectively.

The shareholders re-posed their confidence in theleadership skills and profes-sional capabilities of BoPPresident NaeemuddinKhan. Speaking on the occa-sion, Naeemuddin Khanthanked the stakeholders forplacing their trust in BoP andsaid that the bank had suc-cessfully met all challengesand now it stood in the samerow as other profitable finan-cial institutions and banks ofthe country.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan hasmissed cotton production tar-get by 1.08 million bales, mainlybecause of a decrease in har-vest area and rising cost of pro-duction.

According to final cottonproduction figures compiledby Pakistan Cotton GinnersAssociation (PCGA) for 2012-13, the country produced12,915,585 bales against lastyear’s output of 14,813,779bales, depicting an overall de-crease of 13 percent or1,898,194 bales less than theprevious year. The federalgovernment had set a cottonproduction target of 14 millionbales for 2012-2013, but the tar-get was not achieved by a

wide margin owing to poorgovernment policies, marketplayers said.

A major shortfall was wit-nessed in cotton output inPunjab, which produced9,508,418 bales during 2012-13or 21.62 percent less than theprevious year. Sindh, however,produced 3,407,167 bales thisseason against 2,681,699 balesproduced last year, showing anincrease of 27 percent.

According to PCGA data,only 13 cotton ginning facto-ries are operational across thecountry and of the total pro-duction, textile mills have pur-chased 12,162,321 bales. Asmany as 400,000 bales are stilllying unsold in cotton ginningfactories.

A massive decline was also

witnessed in exports: 353,345bales were sold for export pur-pose during this seasonagainst 1.1 million bales in 2011-12.

The cotton production tar-get was set at 14 million balesfor 2012-13 after several revi-sions, however this targetcould not be achieved becauseof a decline in the harvestedarea, said Ihsanul Haq, a lead-ing cotton trader and a formermember of PCGA’s executivebody. Main reason for the short-fall was misleading forecast byMet Department, which pre-dicted 43 percent more rainsduring April-May of last yearagainst the same period of2011. Farmers were discour-aged by this forecast and hencea decrease in sown area.

Cotton target missed

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Business com-munity has strongly con-demned the recent wave ofbomb blasts and targeted kill-ing in the city. The businesscommunity remains ex-tremely disturbed over theincreasing incidents of bombblasts and firing, and de-manded that the governmentshould take stringent mea-sures to control the deterio-rating law and order situation.

They urged all the politi-cal parties, religious factions,government and law enforc-

ing agencies (LEAs) to makeefforts to fight against theenemies who wanted to para-lyze city life. They also in-sisted on that the LEAs musttake action against those cul-prits moving in the city inplain cloth carrying and dis-playing arms.

They were of the opinionthat LEAs were helpless be-fore those elements and werenot capable to even identifythe offenders or apprehendthem. The LEAs are only giv-ing statement appealing pub-lic to remain calm and assur-ing them of excellent results.

Patron In-Chief KorangiAssociation of Trade and in-dustry (Kati) S M Muneersaid that frequent incidentsof bomb blasts, attacks onpolitical parties camps andelection offices were at-tempts to sabotage the elec-tion process in the city.

Kati ChairmanMohammad Zubair Chhayasaid that apart from paralyz-ing the city’s life, the tradeand industry also sufferedthe most due to closure ofbusiness and massive loss ofproduction and industrialwheel came to a halt.

Business communityconcerned over terror wave

Bahria varsitystudents visit LSE

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Students of BahriaUniversity Islamabad Campusvisited Lahore Stock Exchange(LSE) where, they were givenan insight about practical as-pects of various financial in-stitutions, their products andinvestment avenues by indus-try professionals.

The panel of profession-als included Zafar Iqbal fromCentral Depository Companyalong with LSE officials. ZafarIqbal explained the studentson the need for setting up CDCand various facilities being of-fered by CDC not only to addefficiency but also for in-creased transparency and in-vestors confidence.

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

KARACHI—A Swiss eco-nomic delegation was in Pa-kistan for a two-day visit ofKarachi and a day-long visitof the capital city Islamabad.The delegation was co-orga-nized by the Embassy and theConsulate General of Switzer-land in order to portray Paki-stan as an economic partnerhaving great potential for in-vestment and business ven-tures in several sectors of the

economy.The delegation was led

by Ambassador Eric Martin,delegate of the Federal Coun-cil for Trade Agreements,Head of Bilateral EconomicRelations, State Secretariatfor Economic Affairs (SECO),Federal Department of Eco-nomic Affairs. It was a highprofile public and privatesector delegation visitingPakistan after many years.

During the visit, the delega-tion met senior government

officials and businessmen.The main objective of theirvisit was to further deepen of-ficial and business to businesscontacts between Pakistanand Switzerland to exploremutually beneficial businessopportunities. The delegatesexchanged views with the Swit-zerland based multinationalcompanies operating here andhad fruitful meetings and dis-cussions with the Board of In-vestment and Trade Develop-ment Authority of Pakistan.

Swiss economic team’svisit to further up biz ties

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan FlourMills Association (PFMA)has requested PresidentAsif Ali Zardari to banwheat export for twomonths aimed at reducingthe commodity price in thedomestic market. A formalrequest has been sent bychairman PFMA ChaudhryAnsar Jawed to PresidentAsif Ali Zardari for minimumtwo months ban on wheatexport.

Generally wheat pricesdecline in the domestic mar-ket after arrival of new crop,however this year wheatprice in on the rise in the

local market. In spite a betterwheat crop during currentseason, price of commodityis gradually moving upwarddue to huge buying by ex-porters and hoarders to gainmore profit on an essentialitem, Ansar said in the letter.

He said that extraordinarybuying by the exporters, mar-ket movers and hoarders wascreating panic in the market,resulting in costly wheatgrains. We feel if this trendgoes unchecked, the price ofwheat grains will increasefurther in coming days andthereby general masses willdirectly bear the impact ofhigher wheat flour prices inthe domestic market, he

added.PFMA very humbly re-

quest to take measure sothat a ban should be im-posed on wheat export for aminimum two months untila true market picture emergeand production estimatemay be confirmed, he said.Exporters and hoardersshould also be restrainedfrom buying the commodity,so that prices come down,he added. Ansar said thatprovinces and PASSCOhas already initiated theirwheat procurement cam-paign and they will alsoface difficulties, if a tempo-rary ban on wheat exportwas not imposed.

Ban on wheat export suggested

IPO, industries joinhands with MCCIMULTAN—IntellectualProperty Organization (IPO)and provincial industriesdepartment have joinedhands with MCCI forGeographical Indications(GIs) for the economicgrowth of the people ofSouth Punjab. ProjectDirector GIs, Nasir Rafiquetold APP on Friday, thatthey had recently arrangeda workshop in collaborationwith UNIDO and IPO atMultan Chamber ofCommerce and Industry tosensitize the businesscommunity about theimportance of GIs. He saidthat by registering withIPOs the growers could getmore foreign investmentand better prices of theirproduction. He said thebusiness community wouldhave to get register theirassociations with IPO. DGIPO Tariq Feroze, DeputyDirector IPOs MuhammadIsmail and Nadia ZubairShah briefed the partici-pants of the workshop onthe importance of registra-tion and GIs. Sector experthorticulture and SPScompliance UNIDO,Muhammad AurangzaibKhan,told the participantsabout good agriculturalpractices (GAP). —APP

Farmers urged to usemodern technologyLAHORE—Cotton growersshould use modernagriculture technology toboost production. Agricul-ture (Ext & AR) DirectorGeneral Muhammad AnjumAli expressed these viewstalking to APP on Saturday.He said heavy loam soilwas suitable for cottonsowing and cotton growersshould select BT varietiesafter consulting experts andkeeping in view the lastyear result of varieties. Hesaid BT cotton FH-114,CIM-598, Sitara-009, Sitara-008, AI, MG-6, IR-3701, AliAkbar-802, GN-Hybrid-2085and IR-1542 could be sowntill May 15. Farmers shouldalso sow non-BT cotton on10 percent of land alongwith the BT variety as ithelps to deal with insectattacks, he added.—APP

Opportunities awaitbusinessmenStaff ReporterSIALKOT—AlgerianAmbassador in Pakistan,Dr Ahmed Benflis hasunderscored furtherenhancing trade tiesbetween Algeria andPakistan. Addressingmembers of the SialkotChamber of Commerce andIndustry (SCCI) onSaturday, he called uponPakistani business commu-nity to visit Algeria andexplore areas of interestand develop trade relationsfor mutual benefits of thetwo brotherly countries. Hesaid there was a brightscope for Pakistani busi-nessmen to initiate projectsin sectors such as construc-tion, roads, bridges andcement factories in Algeria,adding that golden opportu-nities awaited the Pakistanibusiness community inAlgeria. “A fair in Algeriawill be held from May 29 toJune 3 and the Pakistanibusiness community shouldparticipate in it and displaytheir products. TheAlgerian economic and itssocial sectors are playingmajor role in the bettermentof its people and we alsooffer great opportunitiesfor investment in variousindustrial and agriculturalsectors.

Gold Tezab 48857.00Silver Tezabi 831.42

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct)47900.00Gold 22 Ct 46010.00SilverTezabi 895.00Silver Thobi 815.00

USA 98.30 98.10

UK 152.58 152.27

EURO 128.26 128.00

Canada 96.83 96.63

Switzerland 104.37 104.16

Australia 101.45 101.24

Sweden 15.00 14.97

Japan 1.0081 1.0060

Norway 16.81 16.78

Singapore 79.61 79.45

Denmark 17.20 17.17

Omani Riyal 255.00 245.00

Saudi Arabia 26.21 26.16

Hong Kong 12.66 12.64

Kuwait 345.30 344.60

Malaysia 32.44 32.37

Newzeland 83.83 83.66

Qatar 27.00 26.95

UAE 26.76 26.71

KR WON 0.0886 0.0886

Thailand 3.360 3.353

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

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

EU ambassadorfor joint effortsSTAFF CORRESPONDENT

FAISALABAD—Ambassa-dor of EU delegation Lars-Gunnar Wigemark and Ca-nadian High CommissionerGreg Giokas visited UAFand had a meeting with ViceChancellor UAF Prof. DrIqrar Ahmad Khan alongwith Deans and Directors ofthe varsity. Lars-GunnarWigemark while addressingthe meeting stressed theneed for joint collaborativeefforts among variouscountries through a consor-tium in order to cope withfood security future chal-lenges.

He said that EU was pro-viding assistance to Paki-stan in the field of Horticul-ture particularly branding ofMultan Mango andSargodha Kinnow in orderto shift the financial ben-efits to the farming commu-nity at large. He added thatUNIDO had been strivingfor reduction of post-har-vest losses and develop-ment of value additionmechanism in agriculturalsector of Pakistan. EU HighCommissioner was of theview that Universities hadbeen playing a significantrole for the transformationof knowledge in order torevolutionized develop-ment sectors. He lauded theeducational & researchstandard of UAF which hadplaced this institution atTop 300 best AgriculturalInstitutions of the World.

He said that Universityhad great potential to fetchmore opportunities in EUstudent exchange programand research funding oncompetitive grounds.

He also hoped that bythe initiation of 3-Year Post-Graduate Diploma (PGD)launched at National Insti-tute of Food Science &Technology (NIFSAT) incollaboration with EUfunded UNIDO programwould pave the way to-wards assurance of foodsafety and control in theCountry.

High Commissioner ofCanada, Greg Giokas high-lighted the bilateral issuesand cooperation in agricul-tural sector and said thatboth countries were enjoy-ing cordial relations sincemany decades.

He was of the view thatsubsidized agriculturalmechanism had beenshifted in to competitivefocus agricultural produc-tivity. He urged the scien-tists for the brand recogni-tion in order to yield maxi-mum financial benefits forfarming community. He saidthat GMO Technology hadrevolutionized the produc-tivity and this is the onlyway, which could have mini-mized the risks of mall nu-trition around the Globe.

UAF Vice Chancellor,Prof. Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khanwhile briefing the Ambassa-dors highlighted the achieve-ments of the University par-ticularly vertical growth ofimpact which had placed itamong 150 Top Ranked Uni-versities of the World.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) hascalled for bringing down salestax rate to 10 percent apartfrom lowering the electricityand gas tariff clear DeputyConvener MQM Dr. FarooqSattar, while addressing busi-nessmen at the Federation ofPakistan Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (FPCCI)Regional office here on Sat-urday, Sattar said that astrong local governmentsystem is vital for sustain-able economic developmentand the MQM would playdue role in this regard.

Outlining his party mani-festo, he said that 80-percentIPPs are run by furnace oilwhich should be converted intocoal based power generation,as imported coal is muchcheaper than furnace oil. “Onlya metro bus system is not solu-

tion of the manifold problemsrather we would have to initiateMass transit system simulta-neously all over the country bylaunching city bonds and in-ternational bonds for develop-ing infrastructure in all the ma-jor cities,” he said.

Giving example of successstory of micro financing, hesaid seven million women arenot only feeding their familiesbut also contributing US $2billion to the nationaleconomy. “We would have toreset priorities to bring a realchange in the country he said,adding: “The government’srole should be restricted to fa-cilitation and regulation.” Thegovernment should provideincentives, and promote pri-vate-public partnership to kickstart the economy, he added.He said that industrial sectorwas badly hit by energy crisisand law and order in Punjaband Karachi, respectively.

MQM seeks cut insales tax rate

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—HTC, in collabo-ration with Mobilink, haslaunched the android smartphone “Butterfly”. Butterflywill be distributed to market byBrigthex. Consumers will beable to enjoy various add-onprovided by Mobilink, includ-ing a 30 days exclusivebundle,1 GB internet, as wellas a pouch and protector.

‘Butterfly’ is the latest ofthe HTC series which strivesto transform the way onehears, sees and connects withthe world. The HTC Butterflycomes with a poly carbonatebody design,1.5 GHz quad corekrait CPU, 2GB RAM andAdreno of 320 GPU. The 8 MPauto focus camera with LEDflash, geo tagging and 16 GBof built in storage allows us-ers to preserve their magnifi-

cent moments of life. “Quietly brilliant is doing

great things in a humble way,with the belief that the bestthings in life can only be expe-rienced, not explained,’ saidJohn Wang, Chief marketingofficer, HTC Corporation.’ TheYOU campaign is a perfect em-bodiment of ‘quietly brilliant’and is core to HTC as a com-pany, innovator and partner.”

“Mobilink continues to bethe leading telecom servicesprovider of Pakistan becauseof our continuous strives toinnovate and offer our custom-ers the best products and ser-vices from across the world.We are glad to partner withHTC and Brightex to bring thisone-of-a-kind phone to ourcustomers across Pakistan..”said Mr Moied Javeed, Direc-tor Marketing (MobileInternet), Mobilink.

HTC, Mobilink collaborateto launch ‘Butterfly’

STAFF REPORTER

L A H O R E — P a k i s t a nReadymade Garments Manu-facturers & Exporters Associa-tion (PRGMEA), expressingdisappointment over weak eco-nomic agenda of political par-ties, has observed that no na-tional level party has given anyplan for revival of the export-oriented industry, particularlythe value-added textile sector,which is constantly facing clo-sure. PRGMEA Central Chair-man Sajid Saleem Minhasurged all political parties toshare their economic agendaparticularly of promotion of thegarment industry which con-tributes more than 60 per centto country’s total export.

”With general electionsahead, every leading politicalparty claims to have the solu-tion for the country’s chronic

economic problems in theireconomic agenda. Whilesome parties have revealedtheir economic agendas in thelast few months, many havenot bothered to fulfill this ba-sic formality. There is not asingle political party in thecountry that has focused thisexport-oriented industrywhich earns up to 60 per centof Pakistan’s foreign ex-change, and is now in troubledue to inconsistency in poli-cies,” the chairman stated.

Sajid Minhas said thatpolitical debate and economicpolicy considerationsrequireconvergence at this criticaljuncture when the country isfaced with multiple challengesincluding industrial decelera-tion, deteriorating law and or-der situation and above allunprecedented domestic bor-rowing.

The PRGMEA Chairmansaid that Pakistan, at thispoint in time, is in dire needof stability in policy makingand strong institutions andto achieve the very objective,both the politicians and thebusiness leaders would haveto join their heads for find-ing out a common economicagenda.

To compete head-to-headwith the great nations of theworld, he said, the countryneeds a selfless and vision-ary leadership who has theability to think beyond to-morrow to tackle all the gov-ernance-related issues andfor the sake of future genera-tions. As, he said, the gen-eral elections are fast ap-proaching therefore it is im-portant that each politicalparty should clearly spell outits economic programme.

Political partieseconomic agendas weak

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A two-day Inter-national conference on “In-stitutions, Growth and Devel-opment,” organised by theGovernment College Univer-sity Lahore Economics De-partment, has concludedwith a note that the country’seconomic outlook is optimis-tic. Former Finance MinisterSartaj Aziz chaired the lastsession of the conference on“Globalization Trade and De-velopment.” Speaking on theoccasion, Bond University,Australia Economics Depart-ment Chairman Prof DrAhmad Khalid said that glo-balization did not mean dif-ferential treatment but equal

treatment for all. He reiteratedthe importance of focusing onthe standard of living ofpeople rather than mere eco-nomic growth.

“Pakistan had a goodgrowth momentum up till 2005which has been declining overthe years due to the low sav-ing-investment ratio as a per-centage of GDP. Globally coun-tries have reached saving-in-vestment ratios of 20-25%whereas Pakistan’s ratio hasbeen stunted at 15%,” ProfKhalid said. With reference togovernance issues, ProfKhalid said that the low sala-ries of public sector employ-ees were a disincentive forthem which affected their per-formance as well. He also high-

lighted the need for State Bankof Pakistan and Pakistan Insti-tute of Development Econom-ics to provide access to theirdata to encourage researchamongst young and emergingresearchers.

Eminent economist DrHamza Malik shed light on themonetary challenges faced byPakistan. From 1947-2007, Pa-kistan had outstanding stockof government borrowing ofRs.452 billion whereas cur-rently this figure stands atRs.1900 billion. The main issuefor Pakistan is to finance thisdebt. Consequently, Pakistan’sforeign exchange reserveshave been declining rapidlyover time. Over the last fewmonths, Pakistan has been los-

ing dollars at the rate of $1 bil-lion every month which is analarming rate. Consequently,Pakistan has had to resort toborrowing from the IMF. DrMalik suggested that in orderto overcome this Pakistanshould improve economic gov-ernance which would serve toattract foreign and domesticinvestment and provide a so-lution to the foreign exchangeproblems of Pakistan.

Talking on the low tax-to-GDP ratio of Pakistan, Dr Maliksaid that the original sin in caseof the Pakistani economy wastax evasion. We are stuck in avicious cycle of tax evasionwhich leads to inadequate pro-vision of services on the partof the government which fur-

ther spurs tax evasion. SartajAziz said “our growth rates arehighly dependent on foreigninvestment which is a negativeaspect of our growth.” He saidthat they needed to slowlystep up their growth rate byreviving the confidence of thebusiness community and giv-ing special attention to our in-stitutions. “Institutions likebanking, telecommunication,private transport, and print andelectronic media can be cat-egorized as emblems of suc-cess in Pakistan. However, theproblem lies in institutions likeland allocation, revenue collec-tion, local service delivery, dis-pute resolution and R&D,” theformer finance minister said.

He concluded his remarks

by saying that governancecan be improved through meritbased system of recruitmentand promotion; massive de-regulation in government sec-tor (given the high levels ofcorruption that plague thegovernment sector); and fi-nally through “Jihad againstcorruption.” Mr Asif Saeedpresented the vote of thanksand highlighted main activitiesof the two conference and ex-pressed the hope this initiativeby the Department of Econom-ics will become a regular fea-ture in the coming years.

Different other sessionswere also held on the last dayincluding on “Macroeco-nomic, Stability and Institu-tions” and “Social Sector De-

velopment”, in which speak-ers said that the gap betweenpolicy recommendations anddecision-making needed to bebridged. Several issues ofpractical relevance to Pakistanwere also discussed in thesesessions including the elec-tricity crisis, governance is-sues and an over-arching fo-cus on economic growthrather than the quality of lifeof citizens. The importance ofhuman resource develop-ment through investments insectors like public health,education and infrastruc-ture was also underscoredsince the major beneficiariesof these public sector in-vestments will be the middleand lower-middle class.

Moot on ‘Institutions, Growth and Development’ concludes

Pakistan’s economic outlook optimistic

LAHORE: Award winners with Mr. Saad Nissar, CEO TPL Direct Insurance.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE —TPL Holdingsproudly hosts a wonderful playin store for its business part-ners and dealers. The companyheld an exclusive viewing of theplay ‘Two Muska Tears’ inLahore at the Ali Auditorium onthe 23rd and 26th of April fol-lowed by a finale show on the27th with exclusive and elite in-vitations for the who is who ofthe town. From Lahore thecompany is taking the play fora one day showing at the ArtsCouncil in Faisalabad on the29th of April.

The project comes as a signof TPL’s ever growing customerbase and shows a promisingsign of the company’s invest-

ment in Pakistan’s auto insur-ance industry by networkingwith the leaders of the majorsectors.

The play by ArtTainmentProduction has been hailed asa classic Urdu comedy that hasthe audience rolling in theirseats with laughter. It’s an origi-nal bilingual play being directedand produced by ex-actor UmarSultan.

Two Muska Tears is a storyof two vagabond brothers, onewho wants to become an actorwhile the other is struggling tofind his standing in the singingworld. The two brothers residewith their boasting aunt and acompliant uncle. The storytakes a twisting turn when thebrothers try to win over the new

girl in the neighborhood thoughall their efforts go in vain.

The girl has come toKarachi to shoot a movie andthe boys see this as a goldenopportunity to fulfill their longawaited dreams. What hap-pens next is a play full of sus-pense, joy and comedy for allthe attendees. The play re-ceived raving reviews inKarachi and now owing to TPLhas had the opportunity towow the audiences in Lahoreand Faisalabad with its funscript and gags. The main pur-pose behind hosting the showwas for TPL to provide fundays that will be mutually ben-eficial in community exposure,marketing, employee and cus-tomer appreciation.

TPL proudly brings ‘2Muska Tears’ to Lahore

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Najam Sethi presiding a high level meeting on wheat procurement.

LAHORE: Dr. Farooq Sattar, Deputy Convener of MQM, addressing business commu-nity in FPCCI.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The All PakistanBusiness Forum (APBF) hasshown its disappointmentover the refusal of ElectionCommission of Pakistan(ECP) to make speedy ar-rangements to enable morethan 8 million overseas Paki-stanis to vote on May 11 elec-tions. The APBF ChairmanSyed Nabeel Hashmi ob-served that it is unfortunatethat 8 million overseas Paki-stanis cannot be given theright to vote in the upcom-ing general elections.

“Overseas Pakistanishad hoped that they wouldsoon hear good news butthat has not happened, hesaid and added that various

groups are in discussion tostart protests abroad againstthe ECP and other govern-ment agencies.”

He said that instead ofmaking practical effort tomake speedy arrangements,the ECP continued to tellabout a range of hurdles togiving overseas Pakistanisright to vote in the 2013 gen-eral election. A large numberof oversees Pakistan hadplans to take part in electioncampaign in Pakistan butthey have stayed back, helamented.

He said that despiteNADRA’s readiness to pilotthis historic effort in modern-day civic and democratic par-ticipation, Election Commis-sion refused to make arrange-

ments in this regard. APBFChairman said that unneces-sary bureaucratic hurdles arebeing erected as an excusejust to deny the overseasPakistanis of their right andthis has become a cause ofgrave concern for traders. Hefurther said he could notcomprehend as to why theoptions of Nadra’s e-votingsoftware and postal ballotwere being opposed.

The overseas Pakistaniswere an asset for the countryand denying them the right tovote was a grave injustice. Hesaid it was a fact that the Paki-stanis living in other coun-tries were sending home bil-lions of dollars every yearwhich was a major source ofour running expenditure.

APBF disappointed over not givingvoting rights to overseas Pakistanis

‘Traders willhonor Imran withgrand reception’

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—All PakistanAnjuman-e-Tajiran centralgeneral secretary Naeem Mirand Pakistan Tehreek-e-InsafPunjab president EjazChaudhary have announcedthat traders of Lahore is go-ing to organize a reception inhonour of PTI ChairmanImran Khan on Tuesday,May 7, 2013, which will beattended by a large numberof business community.

Addressing a joint pressconference on Saturday at alocal hotel, they said that PTInational campaign in-chargeAsad Umer and Lahore presi-dent Alim Khan will also at-tend the reception.

Ejaz Ch said that as thefunction is being held in ShahJamal which falls in NA122where Imran Khan is contest-ing election against PML-Ncandidate Ayyaz Sadiq, it ishoped that a large number ofPTI workers will attend themeeting. PTI leader said thatImran Khan will speak spe-cially on ‘Economic revival ofthe country and PTI eco-nomic agenda.’ He said a newPakistan is emerging and thePTI would introduce farreaching reforms to put theeconomy on right track.

Addressing on the occa-sion, APAT general secretaryNaeem Mir said that it is de-mand of traders that PTIshould announce its clearpolicy over the establish-ment of small traders’ cham-bers.

He stated that underTrade Organization Act 2013small chambers have been al-lowed but the condition ofRs. 2 million turnover formembership is also imposedwhich is not fair. He asked thePTI to annul this condition ifit is victorious in elections.Besides, PTI should alsomake promise of land, build-ing and grants provision forsmall chambers, he urged.

Wheatprocurement in

Rawalpindi, Attockdistricts starts

RAWALPINDI—Wheat pro-curement in Rawalpindi andAttock districts ofRawalpindi division will startfrom May 5 while distributionof bardana (Gunny bags)among the growers wasstarted from May, 1 saidDeputy Director FoodRawalpindi Division.

The wheat will be pur-chased at the procurementcenters at Rs 1200 per 40 kgprice and Rs 7.50 would begiven additional deliverycharges for 100 kg besidesthe wheat price. 50,000 met-ric tones is the target fixedby Punjab government toprocure wheat, he said.

Deputy Director Foodfurther said that the pay-ments will be made in this re-gard through bank accountsand no cash payment wouldbe made by any official of theFood department.

He said that no official ofthe department would be al-lowed to ask export qualitywheat from any farmer. Thewheat would be purchaseddirect from the growers andno role of middleman or bro-ker would be allowed.—APP

RCCI to organize twosingle country

exhibitions on May 28RAWALPINDI—The RawalpindiChamber of Commerce and In-dustry (RCCI) is organizingTwo Single Country Exhibitionsin Kabul (Afghanistan) fromMay 28 to 31, 2013 and inManchester (UK) from July 4to 8, 2013 to promote Pakistaniproducts in European andSAARC countries. Thelaunching ceremony in this re-gard was held at Sialkot Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry(SCCI).

President SCCI, SheikhAbdul Majid was the chiefguest of the ceremony.Whereas President RCCIManzar Khurshid Sheikh,Senior Vice President RCCIPervaiz Ahmed Warriach,Vice President Nadeem Rauf,Chairman RCCI StandingCommittee for Fairs & Exhi-bition Abdul Rauf Ch., ViceChairman Khurshid Barlasand Members ExecutiveCommittee were also presenton the occasion. Speakingon the occasion, PresidentManzar Khurshid Sheikhsaid that RCCI prime objec-tive behind organizing suchExpos is to promote the Re-gional & International trade.

He said that RCCI is theonly Chamber organized 10single country Expos in a cal-endar year in SAARCStates.—APP

THE six decades’ old fast food franchiseKFC recently rolled out OriginalRecipe boneless chicken in its 4,500 US

locations.1 The new slogan: “No mess. No fuss.No bones about it.” The company is so con-vinced boneless chicken s theway of the future that they’reactually considering elimi-nating on-the-bone chickenfrom its menu altogether. Ac-cording to the featured ar-ticle:

“McDonald’s execs be-gan experimenting with arange of non-burger options:chicken pot-pies, bone-infried chicken, deep-fried on-ion chunks. None of themwere successful, until theyoffered customers deep friedchicken chunks. TheMcNugget was born.

That was 1980, whenabout 80 percent to 85 per-cent of chicken consumed inthe US was unprocessed...Ten years later, the numbershad almost reversed...

While the rotisserie chicken made a bit ofa comeback in the mid-‘90s, the idea of eat-ing the whole bird was, for the most part, athing of the past... According to internal KFCsurveys, nearly four out of five servings ofchicken in the US today are off-the-bone, theinverse of 30 years ago.”

Why might this be “a big deal”? Well, forone, processed chicken nuggets, regardless ofbrand, are far more likely to contain all sortsof additives and fillers you’d be better offwithout. For example, I wrote about the ques-tionable ingredients of McDonald’s Chicken

How can you tell you’reeating real chicken?

McNuggets back in 2010. Only half ofChicken McNuggets are actual meat. Theother 50 percent includes corn derivatives,sugars, leavening agents and completely syn-thetic ingredients.

In a 2003 lawsuit against McDonald’s,Federal Judge Robert Sweet2even questioned “whether cus-tomers understood the risks ofeating McDonald’s chickenover regular chicken.” Butthere’s yet another reason formy questioning the trend ofgoing boneless, and it’s evenless savory than that .

Few are talking aboutthis, but scientists have beenworking on bioengineering“cultured” meat for the pastdecade. According to a Sep-tember 2011 Huffington Postarticle,3 scientists at the Uni-versity of Maastricht in theNetherlands claimed to be aslittle as 12 months away fromdelivering the world’s firstbioengineered synthetic ham-

burger.As of this writing, the hamburger has yet

to be presented, although I doubt that meansthe plan has been abandoned.

The article also pointed out thatLondon’s Royal Society had released a glo-bal food supply report, in which they calledfor a synthetic meat solution to feed theworld’s growing population without caus-ing environmental destruction.

“The only barriers? Overcoming the so-cial stigma and the RS scientists say it couldtake another decade before it rolls out to themasses,” the article states.

KARACHI: Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan talking to a delegation headed by Jameel Athar, President Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors at Governor House.

KARACHI: Supporters of Pervez Musharraf hold a protest rally.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Chief Min-ister Justice (Retd) ZahidKurban Alvi urged for bridgingthe gap between the students inurban and rural areas of theprovince so as to allowing themto benefit from the opportunityof attaining best and advancedlearning facilities abroad. Thestudents in cities like Karachihad much better educational in-stitutions as compared to thosein rural areas while institutionslike the Pakistan American Cul-tural Centre (PACC) was yet tobe extended to the remote ar-eas of Sindh so that the studentsshould also find an opportunityto acquire the ability to fluentlycommunicate with the English-speaking people.

Alvi for bridging facilities gap betweenstudents in urban, rural areas

He was addressing as theChief Guest at the PACC Sat-urday on an occasion of aprogramme hosted in hishonour. The theme of theprogramme was “PACC-Abridge between the languageand society”.

Sindh caretaker IT ministerMian Zahid Ahmed and Sindhcaretaker minister for religiousaffairs and Auqaf SardarYaseen Malik, diplomats,PACC corporate clients, mem-bers, staff, faculty, and studentswere present.

The caretaker CM said thatthe Western countries had im-posed a ban on those Pakistanistudents from rural areas thatfailed to achieve the requiredpercentage of the GAP due tolack of facility like the PACC

and due to that missing facil-ity, the students from urban ar-eas such as Karachi havingPACC like institutions for ac-quiring better communicationskills took the seats in foreigncountries.

He said that the gap shouldbe bridged as soon as possibleand those that were of the opin-ion that the law and order in ru-ral areas was more deterioratedthan the cities should witnessthe situation personally. The

law and order situation wasmuch better in rural areas ascompared to the situation inKarachi.

The caretaker CM assuredthe PACC for his full supportfor their programmes for theextension of the PACC networkin rural areas of Sindh and saidthat the students in rural areaswere in real need of acquiringthe communication skills due towhich they suffered from cap-turing certain opportunities.

KA R A C H I—Governor ofSindh Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khansaid the Jinnah TerminalFlyover on Sharea Faisal willbe opened for traffic by the endof current month. Develop-ment works in the city wereaffected due to law and ordersituation; however work on allfour flyovers of Sharah-e-Pa-kistan was continued and ow-ing to the trouble faced by thepeople these projects will alsobe completed soon.

He expressed these viewson a detailed visit of the de-velopment works of JinnahTerminal Flyover and Shahra-e-Pakistan flyovers on Satur-day. He was accompanied bythe Provincial Minister for

Ebad: Jinnah Terminal Flyoverto be opened this month

Local Government JafferKhawaja, KMC AdministratorSyed Hashim Raza Zaidi,Commissioner Karachi ShoaibAhmed Siddiqui, D.G Techni-cal Services Niaz Soomro,Project Directors and otherhigh officials on this visit.

Governor Sindh was in-formed through a briefing thatthe carpeting work on the290million worth Jinnah Ter-minal Flyover will begin fromtoday and the remaining areawill be covered from 14th to16th May besides the 800meter carpeting being carriedout simultaneously beneaththis bridge.

The construction of JinnahTerminal Flyover will remove

another traffic signal at theSharea Faisal and the peopleusing this corridor would haveeasy access to National High-way and Airport.

Later the Governor ofSindh visited the four intersec-tions of Shara-e-Pakistanwhere a flyover each was pres-ently being built to make thiscorridor signal free from TeenHatti till Sohrab Goth.

In a briefing the Governorwas informed that the con-struction of flyovers on thiscorridor would solve the oldtraffic jam problem in this areaand the people living in theadjacent densely populated ar-eas would be facilitated bythese bridges.—NNI

KARACHI—CommissionerKarachi Shoaib Siddiqui hassaid that special securitywould be provided to the poll-ing staff and for transportationof election material to the poll-ing station on the polling day.

Chairing a meeting heldhere at his office on Satur-day to review different ar-rangements about holding ofelections on May 11, he re-iterated the government andElec t ion Commiss ion’scommitment to ensure free,fair and transparent elec-tions, an official hand outsaid.

In this connection he saida joint security plan has beendevised subject to changes inaccordance with the demand

Security plandevised for polls day

of the situation. RegionalElection CommissionerSindh, officials from the LawEnforcement Agencies, po-lice, Additional CommissionerKarachi Kamran Shamshadand other government officialsattended the meeting.

The Commissioner saidthat the district administra-t ion and police officialswould jointly patrol aroundpolling stations classified asvery sensitive and polling dayto ensure security to the poll-ing staff and voters. Commis-sioner pointed out that ad-ministration is fully cooper-ating with all District Return-ing Officers and providingwhatever facilities they askfor.—APP

5 alleged TTPterrorists arrestedKA R A C H I—CID policeclaimed to have arrested fiveterrorists of banned Tehreek eTaliban Pakistan (TTP) fromdifferent areas of the metropo-lis. According to SSPChaurdhry Aslam, the CID po-lice arrested the accused fromKati Pahari and Shahra e NoorJahan areas. The accused areaffiliated with TTP Fazlullahgroup, he said.

Chaudhry Aslam said that ahuge amount explosive materialwas recovered from the posses-sion of the accused.—Online

KARACHI—Five members of afamily were killed when un-known armed men entered theirhouse and opened at fire at themhere on early Saturday morning.

According to details, uni-dentified assailants barged intoa house located in FareedColony area of Orangi Town and

Five of family shot deadopened indiscriminate firing atthe residents sleeping in thehouse. As a result of firing, allfive members including threewomen and a minor girl werekilled on the spot.

The dead bodies wereshifted to hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Police claimed that accord-ing to initial investigation themurder incidents points towardpersonal enmity. It should bementioned that the deceasedfamily belonged to Hazara Di-vision of Khyber Pakhtunkhawaand settled in Karachi for earn-ing livelihood.—INP

SSUETstudent injured

trying to getout of lift

KARACHI—A 3rd semesterstudent of Electronics depart-ment of Sir Syed University ofEngineering and Technologywas injured when he fell into theduct of lift of the University’sBlock-F. An immediate inquiryordered into the incident byVice-Chancellor Prof Dr JawaidH, Rizvi revealed that the lift,which was carrying four stu-dents, had stuck up on secondfloor of the building.—APP

A BYPRODUCT of chemicals used tohelp purify water could be to blame fora surge in food allergies, according to a

study. Researchers have found that people ex-posed to high levels of dichlorophenols, pro-duced when chlorine is added to water to en-sure it is free of bugs, tend tobe more prone to food aller-gies too, The Daily Mail Re-ported.

Elina Jerschow, assis-tant professor of allergy andimmunologyat the AlbertEinstein College of Medicinein New York, said: “Our re-search shows that high lev-els of dichlorophenol-con-taining pesticides can possi-bly weaken food tolerance insome people, causing foodallergy.

“This chemical is com-monly found in pesticidesused by farmers and con-sumer insect and weed con-trol products, as well as tapwater.”

Together with col-leagues, she looked at the incidence of foodallergies among 2,211 people who were par-ticipants in the US National Health and Nutri-tion Examination Survey.

Of those, the quarter with the highest levelof dichlorophenols in their urine were lookedat in detail.

The academics found their chance of hav-ing a food allergy for example to eggs, pea-nuts, milk or shrimp was 80 per cent higherthan those with lower levels ofdichlorophenols.

Writing in the journal Annals of Allergy,Asthma and Immunology, they concluded: “In

this population, we found consistent associa-tions between high levels of dichlorophenolexposure and a higher prevalence of food al-lergies.”

Among this group 550 or so people withthe highest levels of the chemicals, their

chance of having both a foodallergy and an ‘environmental’allergy for example to pollenwas 61 per cent higher.

Dr Jerschow said: “Pre-vious studies have shown thatboth food allergies and envi-ronmental pollution are in-creasing in the United States.

“The results of ourstudy suggest these two trendsmight be linked, and that in-creased use of pesticides andother chemicals is associatedwith a higher prevalence offood allergies.”

However, she said thatfurther studies were necessary“to confirm this link”.

If firm evidenceemerged that dichlorophenolstriggered allergies, Dr

Jerschow cautioned that avoiding tap waterwas unlikely to solve the problem.Otherdichlorophenol sources, such as pesticide-treated fruits and vegetables, may play agreater role in causing food allergy, she said.

Chlorophenols are a byproduct of chlo-rinating water. When the chlorinating agentis added, it reacts for phenols - organic com-pounds found in plants - which creates a rangeof chlorophenols.

According to the World HealthOrganisation, there are no guidelines for con-centrations of dichlorophenols because dataon toxicity “are limited”.

Water purifier chemicalincreases food allergy risk

LAHORE: Firefighters presenting a mock demonstration during a ceremony in connectionwith World Firefighters Day at Rescue 1122 Headquarters.

LAHORE: Vice Chancellor University of Education Dr Faizul Hassan awarding degrees to students during annual convo-cation of the university.

EducationVarsity holds

3rd convocationMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The third convocationof University of Education heldhere on Saturday at Bank RoadCampus auditorium which waspresided over by the Voice Chan-cellor Dr Faiz ul Hassan. The con-vocation ceremony was startedwith the recitation of Holy Quran.

Voice Chancellor (VC) in hiswelcome address lauded the ef-forts and commitment of the gov-ernment towards education asincreasing budget allocation wasa clear evidence of their support.

By giving a short introduc-tion of varsity, he said that Uni-versity of Education was estab-lished in 2002 as a specializeduniversity for teacher education,which was essentially a new con-cept in Pakistan. He said that var-sity was not only providing aquality education to students invarious disciplines at its 10 cam-puses spreading all over thePunjab but it has a unique posi-tion regarding teacher educationas the real key for quality educa-tion. The voice chancellor con-gratulated the graduates particu-larly the award winners on theirbrilliant performance and saidthat this was indeed a memorableoccasion for the student theirfamilies and teachers.

During the convocation DrFaiz ul Hassan conferred de-grees upon the graduates andpostgraduates of various disci-plines. More than 36 thousandstudents form various disci-plines and programs wereawarded with the degrees. Ex-Vice Chancellors of the varsityDr Ghulam Mustafa Habibullahand Dr Manawar Mirza, Regis-trar Bashir Ahmad Ch, Control-ler Examination Dr AshiqHussain Dogar, all Principals andDirectors of the campus and di-visions, Educationists, Studentsparticipated in the convocation.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) Presi-dent Mian Nawaz Sharif Satur-day said his party has a clear en-ergy vision to ensure that gas andelectricity can be supplied to allurban and rural consumers con-tinuously at an affordable price.

“We have made planning toalso ensure that energy resourcesare allocated through regulatedmarket forces and not for per-sonal financial gains of the pow-erful. Large-scale investment in

the energy sector can createthousands of new jobs and con-tribute to social, educational,economic and industrial devel-opment,” Nawaz said while ad-dressing the PML-N workers athis Raiwind residence today.

Talking to them, Nawazsaid the multi-dimensional en-ergy crisis, which posed mani-fold challenges for the govern-ment, people and industry, willrequire effective and sustainablesolutions through short-termmeasures and medium-termplans which must be undertaken

in a coordinated manner; not justplan to fill the gap of 6000 MWcapacity that exists today, butplan for the increased demandthat our growing population andgrowing economy will generate.

According to him, reliableand reasonably priced energy isvital for the economic and socialdevelopment of Pakistan.

The PML-N leader said theybelieve in rendering selfless ser-vices to the masses and aftercoming into power, we woulddevote all energies for better-ment of people and uplift of the

country. It may be noted thatdespite 65 years of indepen-dence, the nation is facing ashortage of over 6,000 MW andat least 40% of Pakistan’s popu-lation does not have access toelectricity.

Nawaz said that the PML-Nwill develop alternative renew-able energy sources, such as so-lar, wind, bagasse, biogas, andbiomass projects, especially foroff grid and micro-grid applica-tions. We would also introduceNet Metering System for smallelectricity consumers.

PML-N to induct large-scaleinvestment in energy sector: Nawaz

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The EmergencyService (Rescue 1122) com-memorated “InternationalFirefighter Day” on Saturdayall over the Punjab province.

All the District EmergencyOfficers (DEOs) conductedseminars, awareness activitiesand organized special functionsin remembrance of martyredfire fighters of Rescue 1122,who lost their lives while sav-ing the lives of others.

While addressing the rescu-ers at Emergency ServicesAcademy, DG Rescue PunjabDr. Rizwan Naseer, flanked bySecretary Fire Safety Commis-sion Rafey Alam, Director Ad-ministration Brig (r) Dr. ArshadZia and other senior rescue of-ficials, congratulated the rescu-ers on celebrating this day. Healso paid rich tribute to the ser-vices of those firefighters, whosacrificed their lives sayingfirefighter is the real hero of so-ciety and firefighting is a nobleprofession. “They lost theirown lives but succeeded in pro-viding a sense of safety to citi-

zens by their passion, profes-sionalism and effective firefighting,” he added.

Dr. Rizwan Naseer furthersaid that Punjab EmergencyService (Rescue 1122) has es-tablished modern Fire Serviceand Disaster Emergency Re-sponse teams in Pakistan inlimited resources on modernline and rescuers have beentrained with latest equipments& vehicles in Emergency Ser-vices Academy to maintain In-ternational Standard.

Later, DG Rescue led aFlag March comprising of firevehicles including Aerial Plat-forms, Turn Table Ladders, FireInvestigation Unit, and others.

The Flag March startedfrom Emergency ServicesAcademy moving towards JailRoad, via Shadman Chowk,Governor House, Mall Road,Canal Road, Muslim Town,Ichhra and ended again at thestarting point.

The fire rescuers, lead firerescuers and other rescue offi-cials clothed in fire suits stand-ing on fire vehicles raised slo-gans of fire safety.

Rescue 1122 commemoratesInt’l Firefighters Day

ThalassaemiaDay observed

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—In anticipation of theInternational Thalassaemia Day(May 8), the PunjabThalassaemia PreventionProgramme observed athalassaemia awareness and pre-vention week here on Saturdayand organized a first seminar atFatima Medical College.

In Pakistan five per centpeople (i.e. 8 million) carry agene for thalassaemia. Each yearmore than 60,000 children areborn with severe form of diseasei.e. thalassaemia major. In remoteand rural areas due to non-avail-ability of diagnosis facilities alarge number of children die be-fore diagnosis. More than 20,000children are registered with dif-ferent NGOs and governmentteaching hospitals in major cit-ies. According to a press release,seminars, pre-marital screeningcamps and walks would be ar-ranged in 16 districts (Lahore,Rawalpindi, Multan,Bahawalpur, Sheikhupura,Kasur, Gujranwala, Faisalabad,Vehari, Khanewal, Lodhran,Muzaffargarh, Bahawalnagar,Jhelum, Attock and Toba TekSingh) of Punjab.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Over two millionchildren of six months to 10years have been vaccinatedagainst measles in a specialcampaign launched from April29 till May 5.

Talking to media personshere on Saturday, Additional Di-rector EPI Dr Nazir Hussain saidthat during the special anti-measles campaign, the healthdepartment had set a target ofadministering vaccination to atleast three million children inLahore district and vaccinatorshad achieved the target of overtwo million.

He said that school childrenhad also been vaccinated againstmeasles in schools. He said thatvaccination was being carried outby 900 injectors at fixed pointsto vaccinate children.

The facility is also being pro-vided at all government hospitalsof Lahore. Around 5,000 health

workers are involved in the spe-cial drive, he added. MeanwhileEDO Health Lahore Dr ZulfiqarAli pointed out that 600 mobile,165 schools and 265 fixed teamshad been assigned the task of vac-cination which had also been pro-vided with necessary training. Hesaid an epidemic control roomwas also working at EDO Healthoffice with phone no 042-99237028.

Meanwhile, over 10,788cases of measles have been re-ported in Punjab during the lastfive months with the addition of46 new cases during the last 24hours. According to health de-partment officials, at least 64deaths have been reported so far,including one at Children Hos-pital on Saturday. Most deathsoccurred in Lahore, Gujranwala,Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan andKasur. During the last 24 hours,around 100 cases of measleswere reported in Punjab, includ-ing 48 in city hospitals.

Over 2m childrenvaccinated against measles

100 new cases reported

Gangsters bustedSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—CIA Model Townpolice busted an inter districtdacoit gang and arrested its threemembers and recovered stolenproperty besides illicit weaponsfrom them.

During preliminary interro-gation, the gangsters committedcrimes in Lahore, Gujranwala,Sheikhupura and NankanaSahib. A special police team ledby DSP CIA Model Town con-ducted a raid and arrestedManzoor ring leader of the gangand his two accomplices Warisand Amjad.