e-paper pakistantoday 05th december, 2012

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Wednesday, 5 december, 2012 Muharram 20, 1434 Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 158 19 pages Karachi edition PAGE |19 PAGE |04 Pakistan, US cement defence cooperation Raisani ready to step down if someone else can improve situation President Zardari offers South Korea free trade LAHORE StAff REpoRt T HE Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N), the ruling party in Punjab, on Tuesday swept by-polls conducted in two national and six constituencies of Punjab, while the Pakistan People’s Party returned victorious in by- polling held in a single constituency of Sindh. The PML-N candidates only lost a single seat in Punjab’s by-polls to PML-Quaid in Narowal, putting critics in their place. How- ever, analysts opine that by-polls at such a late stage in legislature’s life usually return candidates of ruling parties victorious, as the masses attempt to garner maximum bene- fits from parties sitting in assemblies. Tuesday’s polling generally remained peaceful despite sporadic reports of vio- lence and jubilatory firing at various polling stations. The by-polls were con- ducted in NA-107 Gujrat constituency, NA- 162 Sahiwal, PP-226 Kasowal, PP-26 Jehlum, PP-92 Gujranwala, PP-122 and PP-129 Sialkot, PP-129 Narowal and PS-21 Naushero Feroz constituency of Sindh. Per details, PML-N’s Hanif Jatt defeated PPP and PML-Q’s joint candidate Begum Naseem Langrial, bagging 42,294 against 35,369 votes in PP-226 Kasowal constituency. PML-N’s Chaudhry Ikram bagged 27,291 in PP-122 Sialkot to outclass PPP’s Raja Amir, who managed 4,797 votes, while Moshin Ashraf, also from the PML- N, polled 55,120 votes in PP-129 Sialkot constituency to beat PML-Q’s Ansar Baryal, who got 30,848 votes. Results in PP-92 Gujranwala also favoured the PML-N, where Nawaz Chohan got 36,547 votes to win against PPP’s Lala Asadullah with 16,492. PML-N Zahid Iqbal won the NA-162 Sahiwal by-polls by secur- ing 75,970 votes, defeating independent candidate backed by PTI, Rai Hassan Nawaz, who secured 65,755. In NA-107 Gu- jrat, PML-N’s Hanif Awan won with 106,658 votes against PML-Q’s Chaudhry Rahman Naseer with 76,041 votes. PML-N trounces PPP, ‘Q’ in Punjab by-polls Continued on page 04 Judicial commission to probe ‘Operation Silence’ ISLAMABAD StAff REpoRt The Supreme Court on Tuesday constituted a one-man judicial commission for conduct- ing within 45 days a “thorough probe” into the military operation against alleged mili- tants who took refuge in Lal Masjid in 2007. The commission would be headed by a judge of the Federal Shariat Court, the court said. The court direction may further ignite tensions between the military and judiciary, as the critics of the judiciary would get an- other opportunity to question its orders. The judiciary has been questioned time and again in the past by critics for setting free militants captured by security agencies. The military operation at the seminary had also polarised the society in 2007. Earlier, a three-member bench resumed hearing in a number of pleas seeking initia- tion of proceedings against those responsible for the Lal Masjid operation. The bench com- prised Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Azmat Saeed. During the hearing, the bench observed that despite the issuance of direc- tions to the authorities time and again, police did not come up with a satisfactory answer. It said since there was no evidence or find- ings, they were compelled to have an opinion that a judicial commission would have to be formed to probe into the matter. The bench also dictated the terms of ref- erence (ToRs) for the commission, directing it to determine the causes of incident that took place between July 6 and July 12, 2007, at Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa, the number of male and female casualties, the casualties suffered by law enforcement agencies and the bodies handed over to relatives. The commission would also probe whether any compensation was paid to the heirs of victims of the operation by the state and whether any action was taken under the law against those responsible for the inci- dent, besides evaluating the available mate- rial collected so far, the court directed. During the hearing of Islamabad Police Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Tahir Alam Khan informed the bench that the relevant record showed that a total of 103 bodies were recovered from the mosque, including 88 of militants, 11 of personnel of law enforcement agencies and four of civilians. The chief justice asked how could it be es- tablished that 88 of those killed were militants. Khan said they had collected the DNA tests of these people who had holed up in the courtyard of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. To the bench’s query, the AIG replied that no fe- male body was recovered during the incident. Upon this, Justice Azmat Saeed observed that such an answer was unacceptable as there were reports of minor girls having been killed in the operation. KARACHI AAMIR MAJEED Despite a strong backlash from certain polit- ical quarters led by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tues- day stuck to its order on delimitation of elec- toral constituencies in the violence-hit financial hub of the country, Karachi. The bench five-member bench led by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali passed an in- terim order on Tuesday, asking the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Sindh government to complete the delimitation process at the earliest. The bench, also comprising Justices Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed, was hearing the Karachi law and order implementation case. During the hearing, ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan informed the court that the task of delimitation of constituencies in Karachi had been taken up with the Sindh government. He said the ECP would hold three meet- ings with officials of the Sindh government to make substantial progress in the delimita- tion process. Khan also assured the court that the work would be done in the shortest possible time after taking all stakeholders on board and the report would be submitted be- fore the court soon. He conceded that neither Article 51(5) nor Section 7(2) of the Delimi- tation of Constituencies Act 1974 were hur- dles in compliance of such observation. The Sindh chief secretary also assured the court of cooperating with the ECP for winding up delimitation of constituencies in Karachi per the court’s orders. SC refuses to budge on Karachi delimitation issue g Wins seven of eight constituencies in Punjab, PML-Q takes one seat g PPP wins by-poll in single Sindh constituency g SC CJ says unsatisfactory response from police forced court to order fresh probe into Lal Masjid operation Continued on page 04 PAGE |04 KHI 05-12-2012_Layout 1 12/5/2012 1:54 AM Page 1

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Page 1: e-paper pakistantoday 05th December, 2012

Wednesday, 5 december, 2012 Muharram 20, 1434Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 158 19 pages Karachi edition

PAGE |19PAGE |04

Pakistan, UScement defencecooperation

Raisani ready to step downif someone else can

improve situation

President Zardarioffers SouthKorea free trade

LAHORE StAff REpoRt

THE Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the ruling party inPunjab, on Tuesday swept by-pollsconducted in two national and six

constituencies of Punjab, while the PakistanPeople’s Party returned victorious in by-polling held in a single constituency of Sindh.

The PML-N candidates only lost a singleseat in Punjab’s by-polls to PML-Quaid inNarowal, putting critics in their place. How-ever, analysts opine that by-polls at such alate stage in legislature’s life usually returncandidates of ruling parties victorious, as themasses attempt to garner maximum bene-fits from parties sitting in assemblies.

Tuesday’s polling generally remainedpeaceful despite sporadic reports of vio-

lence and jubilatory firing at variouspolling stations. The by-polls were con-ducted in NA-107 Gujrat constituency, NA-162 Sahiwal, PP-226 Kasowal, PP-26Jehlum, PP-92 Gujranwala, PP-122 andPP-129 Sialkot, PP-129 Narowal and PS-21Naushero Feroz constituency of Sindh.

Per details, PML-N’s Hanif Jatt defeatedPPP and PML-Q’s joint candidate BegumNaseem Langrial, bagging 42,294 against

35,369 votes in PP-226 Kasowal constituency. PML-N’s Chaudhry Ikram bagged

27,291 in PP-122 Sialkot to outclass PPP’sRaja Amir, who managed 4,797 votes,while Moshin Ashraf, also from the PML-N, polled 55,120 votes in PP-129 Sialkotconstituency to beat PML-Q’s AnsarBaryal, who got 30,848 votes.

Results in PP-92 Gujranwala alsofavoured the PML-N, where Nawaz Chohan

got 36,547 votes to win against PPP’s LalaAsadullah with 16,492. PML-N Zahid Iqbalwon the NA-162 Sahiwal by-polls by secur-ing 75,970 votes, defeating independentcandidate backed by PTI, Rai HassanNawaz, who secured 65,755. In NA-107 Gu-jrat, PML-N’s Hanif Awan won with106,658 votes against PML-Q’s ChaudhryRahman Naseer with 76,041 votes.

PML-N trounces PPP, ‘Q’ in Punjab by-polls

Continued on page 04

Judicial commission toprobe ‘Operation Silence’

ISLAMABADStAff REpoRt

The Supreme Court on Tuesday constituteda one-man judicial commission for conduct-ing within 45 days a “thorough probe” intothe military operation against alleged mili-tants who took refuge in Lal Masjid in 2007.

The commission would be headed by ajudge of the Federal Shariat Court, the courtsaid. The court direction may further ignitetensions between the military and judiciary,as the critics of the judiciary would get an-other opportunity to question its orders. Thejudiciary has been questioned time andagain in the past by critics for setting freemilitants captured by security agencies. Themilitary operation at the seminary had alsopolarised the society in 2007.

Earlier, a three-member bench resumedhearing in a number of pleas seeking initia-tion of proceedings against those responsiblefor the Lal Masjid operation. The bench com-prised Chief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and JusticeAzmat Saeed. During the hearing, the benchobserved that despite the issuance of direc-tions to the authorities time and again, policedid not come up with a satisfactory answer.It said since there was no evidence or find-ings, they were compelled to have an opinionthat a judicial commission would have to beformed to probe into the matter.

The bench also dictated the terms of ref-erence (ToRs) for the commission, directingit to determine the causes of incident thattook place between July 6 and July 12, 2007,at Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa, the numberof male and female casualties, the casualtiessuffered by law enforcement agencies andthe bodies handed over to relatives.

The commission would also probewhether any compensation was paid to theheirs of victims of the operation by the stateand whether any action was taken under thelaw against those responsible for the inci-dent, besides evaluating the available mate-rial collected so far, the court directed.

During the hearing of Islamabad PoliceAssistant Inspector General (AIG) Tahir AlamKhan informed the bench that the relevantrecord showed that a total of 103 bodies wererecovered from the mosque, including 88 ofmilitants, 11 of personnel of law enforcementagencies and four of civilians.

The chief justice asked how could it be es-tablished that 88 of those killed were militants.

Khan said they had collected the DNAtests of these people who had holed up in thecourtyard of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. Tothe bench’s query, the AIG replied that no fe-male body was recovered during the incident.

Upon this, Justice Azmat Saeed observedthat such an answer was unacceptable asthere were reports of minor girls having beenkilled in the operation.

KARACHIAAMIR MAJEED

Despite a strong backlash from certain polit-ical quarters led by the Muttahida QaumiMovement, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tues-day stuck to its order on delimitation of elec-toral constituencies in the violence-hitfinancial hub of the country, Karachi.

The bench five-member bench led byJustice Anwar Zaheer Jamali passed an in-terim order on Tuesday, asking the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) and Sindhgovernment to complete the delimitationprocess at the earliest.

The bench, also comprising Justices KhiljiArif Hussain, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany,Justice Amir Hani Muslim and JusticeMuhammad Ather Saeed, was hearing theKarachi law and order implementation case.

During the hearing, ECP Secretary IshtiakAhmed Khan informed the court that the taskof delimitation of constituencies in Karachi hadbeen taken up with the Sindh government.

He said the ECP would hold three meet-ings with officials of the Sindh governmentto make substantial progress in the delimita-tion process. Khan also assured the courtthat the work would be done in the shortestpossible time after taking all stakeholders onboard and the report would be submitted be-fore the court soon. He conceded that neitherArticle 51(5) nor Section 7(2) of the Delimi-tation of Constituencies Act 1974 were hur-dles in compliance of such observation.

The Sindh chief secretary also assured thecourt of cooperating with the ECP for windingup delimitation of constituencies in Karachiper the court’s orders.

SC refuses to budge onKarachi delimitation issue

g Wins seven of eight constituencies in Punjab, PML-Q takes one seat g PPP wins by-poll in single Sindh constituency

g SC CJ says unsatisfactory response from police forcedcourt to order fresh probe into Lal Masjid operation

Continued on page 04

PAGE |04

KHI 05-12-2012_Layout 1 12/5/2012 1:54 AM Page 1

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‘ppp, allies not sincere in restoring peace in Karachi’ navy dolphins losing out to robots

Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

LAHORESHAHAb JAfRy

Last week’s failed suicide attack on MullahNazir in his Wana stronghold in SouthWaziristan Agency could be the precursorto a violent blood feud in the Tribal Areasand highlights the vulnerability of the so-called good Taliban, according to informa-tion available with Pakistan Today.

Nazir heads the Ahmedzai Wazir tribein SWA, and despite his affiliation with alQada and the Taliban, has upheld a nego-tiated truce with the government that rulesout attacks on the Pakistani military, evenas his forces remain committed to the anti-ISAF insurgency in Afghanistan.

Over the last few years, he has emergedas the most prominent in a bunch of com-manders bolstered by the military to confrontthe uprising in the Tribal Areas, assuming theproverbial lynchpin status in the officialcounter insurgency (COIN) strategy.

Though different accounts of the attackitself, and subsequent developments, havereached the press, it is widely believed thatthe hit was orchestrated by rival Mehsudtribesmen dominating the TTP, including itsleader Hakimullah Mehsud.

The Wana grand jirga’s Saturday deci-sion to expel all Mehsuds from Wazir areasby December 5 confirms the suspicion. “Theburden of proof is now on the Mehsuds,”says Rasheed Safi, head of news at RadioBurraq that transmits news in the TribalAreas. “But for now they will have to leavetheir sanctuary in Wana, or blood will flow”.

Yet Nazir is an enigmatic leader whoseviews have not always confirmed with dom-inant currents in the area, and whose free-

wheeling and sometimes self-contradictorypositions have drawn enemies from allaround, including the four-party shura-e-murakeba that includes the Pakistani Tal-iban and the Haqqanis. He has survivedseveral assassination attempts, includingdrone strikes, and his list of enemies re-mains extensive. And despite the straight-forward narrative confirming Mehsud guilt,conspiracy theories abound, including pos-sible divide and conquer tactics central tothe official COIN campaign.UsUal sUspecTs: The Wazir-Mehsudrivalry is a part of the complicated web oftribal conflicts as old as the rugged, uncon-querable hills of Waziristan, yet the twohave been known to join hands in typicalPashtun chivalry whenever a foreign forcehas upset the regional balance. And it wasno different when a confluence of foreignand internal forces – NATO invasion inAfghanistan, Pakistani military action,refugee influx – forged the TTP in 2007-08,an uncomfortable umbrella alliance bro-kered by al Qaeda, with Mehsuds at the top.

And it wasn’t long before differencesemerged, especially as cracks developed be-tween Mullah Omer’s and al Qaeda’s visionswith regard to the overall insurgency – theformer wishing to restrict it to the NATO in-vasion inside Afghanistan and the otherwith a more globalist agenda, with Pakistanamong the prime targets.

The good Taliban label comes fromthis time when the Pakistani intelligencewas able to leverage Nazir’s and Omer’s re-luctance to engage in the Pakistani frontierand initiate a squabble between the forma-tion’s top ranks.

Nazir subsequently cooperated with the

military to expel Uzbek fighters from hisarea, who had begun a ruthless campaignagainst Pakistan after its leader, Tahir Yu-dashev, issued a fatwa regarding prioritisingattacks on the Pakistani military.

Uzbeks formed a crucial part of the alQaeda network that infiltrated the TribalAreas with hopes of expanding the wardeeper into Pakistan, and never forgaveNazir for the 300-odd massacred.

Like the Mehsuds, they have had rea-sonable cause against Nazir, and may wellhave tried to take him out. If true, theseUzbeks have just deepened the cleavagewithin prominent factions of the insurgency.Mullah Omer has called for cessation of at-tacks on the Pakistani military since 2008,yet the Mehsuds in the TTP have leaned to-wards al Qaeda’s demands of deeper incur-sions inside Pakistan.

Omer’s Quetta shura has been restrictedin its criticism, though, since it depends on‘personnel’ from the agencies for its own op-erations in Afghanistan.“It is a very compli-cated situation,” said RaheemullahYousafzai, a veteran journalist and noted ex-pert on the insurgency. Nazir’s refusal tocomply with al Qaeda demands made him anatural target, he adds, and the move againstthe foreigners was bound to generate ill will.

Nazir was one of the commanders thatviewed al Qaeda as guests as opposed totheir strangely accepted status as ideologicalmentors in the tribal belt. He repeatedlycomplained of deepening al Qaeda influenceto Mullah Dadullah, Mullah Omer’s deputy,early in the insurgency. Yet al Qaeda suc-ceeded in financing a conglomerate of splin-ter groups and deepened penetration inPakistan. The TTP, supposedly loyal to Mul-

lah Omer and al Qaeda, actually negated theformer’s orders of concentrating solely onAfghanistan. It could well be, sources tellPakistan Today, that al Qaeda engineeredthe hit on Nazir to drag his group into themain Pakistani theatre of war, somethingthe Wazirs have resisted so far.

There are also hints that the militarymight be involved.Breakdown of The aTTack: “It’sa strange sequence of events. Much is un-clear, just like an Ignatius novel,” says a re-tired army officer familiar with COINstrategy. A little boy, or a teenager, eithercarried a wheel barrow, or rode a motorcycleloaded with explosives into Nazir’s SUV, justwhen he was outside taking a phone call,maybe surrounded by bodyguards, but mostprobably still visible enough, and clearly notin the vehicle. He got a scratch in the leg,and did not need airlifting to Pindi CHM likeanother, smaller Taliban commander TaasilKhan earlier from Shakai in SWA. In strictlymilitary terms, he says, the “info” is not suf-ficient to prove whether it was an assassina-tion attempt or a “warning shot”.

The more counterinsurgency becomes“intel intensive”, the more the official ma-chinery positions pockets against one an-other, he adds, the classic divide andconquer doctrine. Unconfirmed reports alsoindicate that three TTP members were ar-rested on suspicion shortly after the attackand the following gunfight in Wana’s mainRustam Bazaar.

“We cannot confirm this development,but sources indicate all three were let loose,obviously with Nazir’s approval,” says Sai-fullah Mahsud, Director at the FATA re-search centre, an Islamabad based think

tank specialising in the Tribal Areas.“If that is true, then perhaps it is more

complicated than simply Mehsudvendetta. And I’m pretty sure he knowswho is behind it all.”Still, things remainfar from clear. “Intelligence agenciesaround the world have been known to em-ploy such tactics, pitting one against theother, but the matter of the three released,even if true, could be for a number of rea-sons,” says Raheemullah Yousafzai. “It ismore likely an internal issue.”

For now, the jirga’s word is final and,guilty or not, the Mehsuds must leave.Andwhether it was the rival tribe, or foreign mil-itants, or the wider al Qaeda network, oreven the government itself that was respon-sible, last week’s development is certain tomark a new chapter in the tribal insurgency.

If the TTP has violated the oath andcome after him, the tribal compulsion ofbadal will mandate war. If al Qaeda hasbankrolled another external incursion, thewazirs will again join the government to flushout foreigners. And if there is official hand,the blowback is bound to affect COIN efforts.

Whichever party was behind the attack,it has most likely succeeded in luring MullahNazir back to Pakistan’s war, however muchhe avoided local confrontation, even shelter-ing rival Mehsuds despite government dis-approval. As these former guests leave, allparties concerned will prepare for more war.

“If the Mehsuds don’t leave there willbe blood,” says Rasheed, and the “TTP willbe affected. Most will just make it to Bannuand DI Khan. The IDP situation will dete-riorate. Winter is setting in. TTP logisticsand coordination will be disrupted. Thingswill get worse”.

Good Taliban dragged into Pakistani theatre of warg Analysts fear failed attack on Mullah Nazir will invite more bloodshed

WASHINGTONSpEcIAL coRRESponDEnt

THE Obama administration haslaunched a post-election push torestart moribund peace talkswith the Taliban, despite resist-ance from the US military,

mixed signals from Pakistan and outright re-fusal by the militants themselves, accordingto US officials.

Senior White House and State Depart-ment officials reiterated the administration’snegotiating position, including its willingnessto exchange prisoners with the Taliban, to areluctant Defence Department at a meeting ofnational security deputies two weeks ago,Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The same message was conveyed by Sec-retary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton toPakistan’s foreign minister Monday in Brus-sels, along with an appeal for Pakistani coop-eration with a separate negotiating effort bythe Afghan government.

Douglas Lute, President Obama’s top ad-viser for Afghanistan and Pakistan, wasscheduled to meet with Pakistan’s army chiefGen Ashfaq Kayani on Tuesday in Brussels,where Clinton is attending a NATO meeting.

The paper said relations with Pakistanhad slowly improved this year, capped by ahard-won deal to reopen transit points fromPakistan for the resupply of US forces in

Afghanistan. Both sides have emphasised im-provements in counterterrorism coordina-tion, while tacitly ignoring Pakistan’s demandfor a stop to US drone strikes in Pakistani ter-ritory. But many in the US military’s com-mand headquarters in Afghanistan remaindoubtful of Pakistan’s willingness to use itsrelationship with the Taliban to help forge apolitical solution to the war and are reluctantto include Pakistan in any of their planningfor the drawdown of US combat forces or fora follow-on military presence after 2014.

As a result, an administration officialsaid, Pakistan had been getting an inconsis-tent message about how serious the adminis-tration was about peace talks and a long-termUS military presence in Afghanistan of up to10,000 troops.

After more than a year of sporadic talks,the Taliban cut off the US negotiating channelin March, accusing the administration of uni-laterally changing the terms of a potentialprisoner swap. Even if the Taliban hadwanted to re-engage, officials said, adminis-tration policy had been largely frozen becauseof presidential campaign concerns and themilitary’s concentration on the summer fight-ing season in Afghanistan.

“Now we’ve had the election, the fightingseason is over” in Afghanistan, “and we’restarting to get little reports here and therethat the Taliban are coming around,” the ad-ministration official told the paper.

US pushes to restart peace talks with Taliban

SEoUL: president Asif Ali Zardari reviews

the Guard of Honour at the South Korean

president’s office on tuesday. INP

KHI 05-12-2012_Layout 1 12/5/2012 1:54 AM Page 2

Page 3: e-paper pakistantoday 05th December, 2012

03NewseDitoriALplight of minorities:

coMMeNt

Articles on Page 10

Not the ideal one.

Dr James J Zogby says;Why the panic?: The UN’s Palestine vote.

Lalarukh farooq says;Don’t we all?: Poor or rich, everyone needs help.

ArtS & eNtertAiNMeNt

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buSiNeSS

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SPortS

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Salman Khan’s growing fondness for priyanka chopra cnG associations under the gun

Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

fighting pakistan go down to Australia

ISLAMABADKASHIf AbbASI

pAKISTAN, the land ofthe pure, is not meantfor the poor. Despite itslarge population livingin poverty apart from

the sharply vanishing middle class, itis a place where survival of the rich-est is ensured.

Cars are no exception in this coun-try where skyrocketing inflation hasbeen punishing its citizens to unprece-dented degrees. In the absence of an ef-fective and respectable mass transitsystem even in the major cities, cars arethe only realistic option for families tomove around. But, thanks to the Pak-istan People’s Party (PPP) governmentfor restricting that option too.

With the government’s recent deci-sion to reduce the importable age ofused cars from five to three years, thecommon man will be left with no choicebut to pay more. How? Because three-year-old imported cars cost signifi-cantly more than the five-year-old ones.Alternative? New cars marketed bylocal assemblers at much higher prices.

The PPP-led government’s decisionto limit the imports of used cars willbring dividends for local industrialists,while limiting people’s access to better-quality, cheaper cars.

Official sources told Pakistan Todaythat the Ministry of Industries, in con-nivance with local car assemblers, hadmade the decision to promote the inter-ests of multi-billionaire industrialists atthe expense of the common man’s hard-earned money.

On the other hand, used-car dealerscomplain that their businesses wouldsuffer badly. “The reduction in the agelimit of importable cars would badly in-fluence the used cars’ business in Pak-istan. In Japan, a three-year-old car isway more expensive than a five-year-old one. Our people cannot afford pur-chasing a three-year-old imported car,”said HM Shahzad, chairman of the All-Pakistan Motor Dealers Association.

Criticising the eventual monopolyof the three local car assemblers – theIndus (Toyota) Motor Company Lim-ited, Pak-Suzuki Motor Company Lim-ited, and the Honda Atlas Cars Limited– after the government’s decision,Shahzad said that it was sheer injusticewith the people of the country as theywere now forced to purchase only thelocally assembled cars. “The govern-ment claims that the local industry isunder threat from the imported carsbusiness, but in fact during the last fouryears up to June 2012, the local assem-blers have made large profits,” he said.

He said that after the government’sdecision, people would be forced topurchase the poorly-manufactured800CC Suzuki Mehran for Rs 650,000,and Suzuki Cultus for Rs 1 million. Hesaid that both of these cars had becomeobsolete in Japan several years ago.

Giving details, Shahzad saidthat between June 2011and June 2012, asmany as 54,000 usedcars had been im-ported and the gov-ernment earnedRs 30 billion incustoms duty. Hesaid the govern-ment’s decisionwould not onlydeprive the mid-dle class of afford-able cars, but will also deprive

the national exchequer of Rs 30 billionevery year.

Hasan Danji, another used-cars’dealer, said the powerful “Auto Mafia”would further increase the prices of carsafter the government’s decision to re-duce the age of importable cars. “Themonopoly of local assemblers will befirmly established and we should nowbe ready for a new increase in car pricesand black marketing,” he said.

Danji said the “Auto Mafia” wasincreasing car prices under the pretextof Rupee-Yen parity. “But in reality,they are purchasing parts from China,Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore,and not from Japan,” he said. “Oneauto part which is being sold in Japanfor $10 is being purchased by our as-semblers for $2 from China. So theprices of cars should be reduced, notincreased,” he added.

He said that previously the Pak-istani customers could choose between18 available models of used importedcars of 650CC, but now they only couldbuy Suzuki Mehran in this price range.He said that while on one hand thegovernment was complaining about theshortage of CNG, but on the other ithad restricted the import of used carswith smaller and more efficient en-gines. hITTInG oVerseas pakIsTanIs:A senior government official told Pak-istan Today that the decision would causeinstant loss to overseas Pakistanis en-gaged in exporting used cars to Pakistan,particularly those who had booked theconsignments in advance. “The overseasPakistanis, who have purchased carsworth millions of dollars for Pakistan andare holding them for shipment in Japan,will go bankrupt instantly. In addition,thousands of Pakistani fami-

lies engaged in this business in Pakistanwill lose their source of livelihood,” hesaid.MonopolIsed: The CompetitionCommission of Pakistan (CCP), a sub-sidiary of the Finance Ministry responsi-ble for breaking the monopoly ofbusiness cartels in the country, also be-lieves that there should be a five-year agelimit for used cars instead of three years.“Our domestic car manufacturers are notexporting firms; they are just catering tothe domestic market. Therefore this mayresult in a loss of consumer surplus, andproducers would gain at the expense ofconsumers,” a CCP official said.

In addition, from the competitionperspective, the policy goals of con-sumer protection, technology upgrada-tion and a culture of innovation goalscould perhaps be better achieved by al-lowing imports of five-year-old cars, hesaid. However, the commission is alsoof the view that any short-term meas-ures in the form of Custom General Or-ders (CGOs) and the StatutoryRegulatory Orders (SROs) need to beavoided and a long-term policy shouldbe preferred for the benefit of car deal-ers and consumers. coMMerce MInIsTrY: The Com-merce Ministry, which is supposed tolook after the affairs related to importsand exports, initially opposed the initia-tive taken by the Ministry of Industriesto reduce the age limit of importablecars. However, at later stages, the min-istry kept mum over the issue and didnot opt to challenge the initiative.

When this scribe visited the Com-merce Ministry to document its per-spective on the issue, almost all officerscontacted in this regard refused to talk.“A powerful minis-

ter, who on the behest of local assem-blers can get a summary approved fromthe ECC in few days, can get me trans-ferred if I share any information withyou,” said one senior official of the min-istry in response to a query. Similarly,the public relations officer (PRO) of theministry also refused to speak on theissue.MInIsTrY of IndUsTrIes: TheMinistry of Industries, which comesunder Deputy Prime MinisterChaudhry Pervaiz Elahi who also holdsthe portfolio of a senior minister,moved the summary of reducing theage limit of used cars, and got it ap-proved from the ECC. The ministry hasbeen claiming that it had acted deci-sively in greater national interest, andthat it was necessary for the local indus-try’s survival.local Vs IMporTed cars: Theclaim that used imported cars are af-fecting the local car industry does notstand up to facts. Figures show thatlocal assemblers have been doing goodbusiness over the last three years untilJune 2012. Only in the third quarter of2012, the sales have dropped. Accord-ing to the people involved in the busi-ness, the main reason for lower salesin the last quarter of the ongoing yearis the ban on CNG equipment, promi-nently in Suzuki Mehran. Further-more, the sales of Suzuki Alto andDaihatsu Cuore have gone down be-cause no new models have been intro-duced. Analysts say these are the mainfactors for the decrease in sales duringthe last four months. MoTor dealers: Being a majorstakeholder in car business, the All Pak-istan Motor Dealers’ Association(APMDA) has written a letter to theprime minister, seeking his attention

on the issue. “This decision is a stabto the Pakistani consumers as

well as overseas Pakistaniswho send billions of dol-lars to their motherlandin remittance,” the lettersaid. The APMDA fur-ther said that the deci-sion had been takenonly to satisfy thestrong lobby of localcar assemblers with-out taking the con-cerns of the used car

dealers into account.The association requested

the PM to term the ECC’sdecision “null and void”.

After the introduction of thenew policy, used-car dealers have re-quested the chief justice of Pakistan totake suo motu notice of the issue.

You gotta be much richer to own a car!

rehman Malik announces to lift ban on Pakistan origin card

IslaMaBad:Interior MinisterRehman Malikannounced onTuesday to lift aban on PakistanOrigin Card(POC) that wasimposed duringMusharraf’sregime.The POC is is-

sued to overseas Pakistani’s spouses andtheir children who are not Pakistani and amarriage certificate duly attested by therespective embassies of Foreign Office willbe accepted in this regard.Malik said now all Foreign Missions,Nadra offices will be able to issue thesePOCs for foreign spouses and children ofPakistani nationals. He said this initiativeof present government would help facili-tate around 19,925 applicants who areasked to revalidate their POCs. Around117,743 POCs have already been issued, hesaid. Malik said this is a gift for overseasPakistanis whose contribution for thecountry is appreciable. The minister alsoannounced the elimination of Black Listdue to which thousands of Pakistani werefacing hardships. People whose nameswere blacklisted owing to possession orapplication for dual passports can get onepassport with the submission of an affi-davit, he said. He also announced to ter-minate Rs10,000 fine which was beingimposed by Nadra for applying or possess-ing dual Computerised National IdentityCards (CNIC). The minister also an-nounced that the passport validity hasbeen extended from five to 10 years. App

g Govt reduces age limit of used cars from 5 to 3 years g Local car dealers say decision taken to appease local assemblers

IslaMaBad: Sensing something fishy in the decision, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance,Revenue and Economic Affairs on Tuesday directed the Commerce Ministry to not issue any notification untilsurveys were completed by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) and the National Tariff Commission(NTC) of Pakistan. The committee held its meeting at the Parliament House with Khawaja Sohail Mansoor in thechair. The committee membe rs were of the view that some ambiguities had been found in the matter of imports ofthree-year-old cars in the country. Additional Commerce Secretary Fazal Abbas told the committee that theMinistry of Industries had contacted the Ministry of Commerce, showing its interest in reducing the age limit ofused importable cars. However, Abbas added that after being contacted by the Ministry of Industries, theCommerce Ministry directed the CCP and the NTC to conduct studies to check the outcome of this proposal.“Surprisingly, the Ministry of Industries got the proposal approved from the ECC without waiting for the results ofthe studies being carried out by the CCP and NTC,” Abbas said. He added that the CCP and NTC were still workingon the reports and their findings would be revealed soon. Upon this, committee member Abdul Rashid Gondal saidthe committee had observed something wrong in the policy passed by the ECC. After showing its seriousreservations about the policy approved by the ECC, the committee directed the Ministry of Commerce not to issuethe Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) in this regard before the reports of the CCP and the NTC. StAff REpoRt

NA body orders ministry to stay notification until surveys complete

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04

QUETTASHAHZADA ZULfIQAR

BA L O C H I S T A NChief MinisterAslam Raisani onTuesday said he was

ready to step down if anybodyelse could come and improvelaw and order in Balochistan inthree months.

During a debate on the lawand order in the Balochistan As-sembly, Raisani expressed dis-pleasure over certain remarksmade by Jafar Khan Man-dokhel. “I challenge Mandokhelor anybody else to come forwardand improve the province’s lawand order within three months,”Raisani said, adding that if any-body was successful in doingthat, he would happily stepdown and go home.

He demanded the fed-eral government help theprovincial government inevolving a comprehensivestrategy for the restorationof peace in the province.

The assembly session,presided over by the deputyspeaker, Matiullah Agha, alsopassed an adjournment mo-tion against the Senate’sStanding Committee on Fi-nance for seeking details of de-velopment schemes inBalochistan, saying it wasagainst provincial autonomy.

At the outset of the pro-ceedings, provincial ministerShahnawaz Marri moved a res-olution, saying the federal gov-ernment was bound by Article148(8) of the constitution toassist the provincial govern-ment in improving its law andorder, adding that the federaland the provincial institutionsshould jointly devise a strategyfor the restoration of peace inthe province. PML-Q’s Man-dokhel said the law and orderin Balochistan was deteriorat-ing day by day. He said travel-ing on the Quetta-Karachihighway was not possible with-out security guards, addingthat improving Balochistan’s

law and order was the govern-ment’s responsibility.

Balochistan Irrigation Min-ister Sardar Aslam Bezinjo saidthe law and order of Balochis-tan started aggravating in theregime of Pervez Musharraf,adding that the relatives ofmissing persons and of thosewhose mutilated bodies werefound never held the Balochis-tan government responsible.He said the chief justice of Pak-istan should focus on the factthat the law and order in theprovince had deteriorated, notdue to the provincial govern-ment, but owing to the policiesof the federal government.

He said Saudi Arabia andIran were using Pakistani landto take revenge from eachother, adding that the US andIndia were interfering in theprovince’s matter. Provincialminister Zamrak Khan said thefederal government’s policiesand foreign interference werebehind the deteriorating lawand order in the province.

Raisani ready to stepdown if someone elsecan improve situation

SC refuses to budgeThe chief secretary saidboundaries of certain policestations of Karachi had al-ready been reconstituted,while the district coordinationofficers/deputy commission-ers had informed him that ex-cept in district west, noreconstitution of revenue es-tate boundaries was required.

The court directed toplace all relevant material onrecord so that the stance of theSindh government could beexamined. In its interimorder, SC restrained the SindhBoard of Revenue from muta-tion, allotment, transfer orconversion of any state land,and keeping any transactionor entry in the record of rightsin revenue record of Sindhuntil the entire record in theprovince was reconstructed.

The court also ordered theSindh government to stop con-version of lease for 30 years orof any term up to 99 years.

The court ruled that anyconversion or mutation of stateland in the record of rightsafter the interim order wouldbe deemed nullity and wouldexpose the deputy commis-sioner/DCO of the relevantdistrict/dehs, besides others,to contempt proceedings.

The court observed ram-pant corruption and organisedcrime of land grabbing, partic-ularly prime state land, as wellas mismanagement/forgeriesin the revenue record.

It ordered the Sindh chiefsecretary to complete recon-struction of revenue recordburnt by arsonists after assas-sination of Benazir Bhuttowithin three months and sub-mit a compliance report.

The Sindh prosecutor gen-eral and Sindh High CourtMIT-II presented incompletereports regarding release ofconvicts/under trial prisonerson parole. The court directedproducing complete report ofprisoners who were released on

parole at the earliest. Sindh Ad-vocate General Abdul FatehMalik assured the apex courtthat all criminals who had beenillegally released on parolewould be arrested and put be-hind bars by revocation of theirprobation and a summary inthis regard had already beensubmitted to the chief minister.

The apex court directed thePakistan Rangers Sindh direc-tor general and other officials ofPakistan Rangers Sindh to sub-mit a comprehensive report interms of court orders passed onNovember 26, 2012.

Rangers Sindh DG MajGeneral Rizwan Akhtar in-formed the court about prob-lems faced by the paramilitaryforce due to communicationgap with other law enforce-ment agencies, particularly inconnection with lodging FIRsand investigation of crimeagainst the accused appre-hended by the force.

The Sindh home secretaryand advocate general assured

the bench that an urgent meet-ing would be held with PakistanRangers officials to find out aworkable course for the imple-mentation of apex court’s ordersissued on November 1, 2012.

The Sindh home secretarytold the apex court that a re-vised summary had been pre-pared by the departmentregarding streamlining theprocess of issuance, transfer,cancellation and renewal ofarms licences in Sindhprovince, which was sent to theSindh chief minister after ap-proval by the Sindh chief secre-tary and minister for law. Herequested the court for a week’stime to respond to the issue.

Responding to querieson Sukkur and Dadu jail-breaks, the provincial homesecretary said the Sukkurjailbreak report had beencompiled and would beplaced before the courtwithin two days. He soughtadditional time for filing areport in the Dadu jailbreak.

Lady luck also favoured thePML-N in PP-26 Jehlumwhere Chaudhry KhadamHussain won the seat with39,154 votes, defeatingMuhammad Afzal Khan with19,044 votes. Hussain later an-nounced joining the PML-N.

The only seat the PML-Nlost in Punjab by-polls wasthe PP-133 Narowal con-stituency where the PML-Q’sUmer Sharif won the polls.

In the by-polling con-ducted in PS-21 NausheroFeroz constituency, PPP’s

Sarfraz Shah returned victo-rious. A clash also occurredbetween members of the PPPand National People’s Partyin Naushero Feroz, afterwhich polling was suspendedfor a while. Also, voters boy-cotted the voting at one of thepolling stations in PP-26Jhelum constituency.

Meanwhile, PML-Q’sSenator Kamil Ali Agha ac-cused the PML-N of “worstkind of rigging” with thehelp of the administrationand police in the by-elec-tions in Punjab. Talking toreporters, he said that fear-

ing its sure defeat in the by-elections, the Punjab gov-ernment used officialmachinery and shattered thecode of ethics set by theElection Commission of Pak-istan in an unprecedentedmanner. However, ElectionCommissioner PunjabMehboob Anwar said thepolling was held in peacefulmanner and only a few com-plaints were received.

He said the commissionhad summoned a report overthe complaints and responsi-bility would be fixed after re-ceiving the reply.

P3C Orion aircraft is designedfor surface and underwater re-connaissance and anti-subma-rine and anti-surface vesseloperations. It is rated as thefastest turbo-prop long-rangemaritime patrol (LRMP) plat-form used worldwide and is alsocalled the airborne destroyer.

“The provision of three orfour more such aircraft wouldalso help increase the countert-errorism capacity of PakistaniNavy,” the source said.

He said another importantissue that was discussed dur-ing the talks was that of provi-

sion of a frigate from theUnited States for the navy.“This would be an old frigatelike the one already providedby the US,” he said.

He said Pakistan was ac-quiring new naval frigatesfrom China but since thatprocess would take some yearsto culminate, the frigates fromUS would cover that time pe-riod. A joint statement issuedby the Defence Ministry said,“Both delegations welcomedthe resumption of bilateral se-curity cooperation and agreedthat relations between the twocountries should be based onthe principles of strategic de-

sirability, political sustainabil-ity, trust and mutual respect.”

Both delegations acknowl-edged that bilateral counterter-rorism cooperation had beencritical to weakening violentextremists and underscoredthe importance of continuingcooperation to complete thedefeat of al Qaeda and its affil-iates in the region, it said.

The two sides affirmed theirmutual commitment to a strongdefence relationship, which theybelieved should focus on achiev-ing common objectives. Duringplenary session, the DCG partic-ipants shared their respectiveassessments of the bilateral re-

lationship and discussed eachcountry’s strategic priorities andagreed on areas for future de-fence cooperation. Both delega-tions concluded that thediscussions to reopen theNATO-led coalition’s groundsupply lines and the resumptionof bilateral consultations on re-gional security were significantachievements over the last sixmonths. The Pakistani delega-tion provided an update on itsmilitary campaign along itswestern border and the US sidedetailed the International Secu-rity Assistance Force’s (ISAF)activities in Afghanistan, in-cluding efforts to transition the

lead for security to Afghanforces. “In light of the tragic No-vember 2011 cross-border inci-dent, both sides expressedappreciation for the efforts bytheir respective militaries to im-prove operational coordina-tion,” the statement said. “Theyboth expressed their deep ap-preciation for the sacrifices ofall military personnel and civil-ians in the common fight,” itsaid. The United States andPakistan also discussed the im-portance of the Coalition Sup-port Fund and SecurityAssistance Programmes andagreed continued consultationson the way forward.

Continued fRoM page 01

Continued fRoM page 01

Pakistan, US cement defence cooperation

PML-N trounces PPP, ‘Q’ in Punjab by-polls

SEOULApp

President Asif Ali Zardari onTuesday offered South Koreaa Free Trade and a CurrencySwap Agreement and pro-posed increased import ofmanpower from Pakistan.

The president made thisoffer in his meeting with Re-public of Korea President LeeMyung-Bak at the latter’s of-fice in Seoul.

President Zardari saidthat Pakistan gives immenseimportance to its relationswith South Korea in the con-text of its Vision East AsiaPolicy, and added that thetwo countries also enjoy his-torical and cultural linkagesspanning centuries.

Expressing satisfaction

over the bilateral cooperationduring the past threedecades, the two leadersurged for further enhance-ment of bilateral trade and in-vestment ties for the mutualbenefit of the two countries.

The two leaders werepleased to note that the twocountries will be celebratingthe 30th anniversary of estab-lishment of ambassador levelrelations and expressed hopethat foreign ministries anddiplomatic missions of the twocountries would together workout a comprehensive plan ofactivities for year 2013; inorder to celebrate this joyousand momentous moment inPak-Korea relations.

President Zardari, whilehighlighting the immense in-vestment potential in Pak-

istan, said that the country’shuge coal reserves of about185 billion tons, its potentialHydel power, wind corridorsand year round sunlight couldbe harnessed with Korean as-sistance by the setting up ofcoal fired power plants, dams,wind farms and solar plants.

President Zardari, whois also accompanied with alarge business delegationcomprising chairmen andCEOs of leading companiesoperating in Pakistan, saidthat Pakistan was dedicatedto take Pak-Korea bilateraltrade ties to new heights andexpressed hope that mutualinteraction of businessmenand entrepreneurs of thetwo countries would helpexplore new avenues for in-vestment and trade. .

Govt, UneScO settingup global fund togenerate finances forgirls’ education

ISLAMABADStAff REpoRt

The Pakistan government andthe United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organi-sation (UNESCO) are going toset up the Malala Global Fund ata mega advocacy event, Standup for Malala – Stand up forGirls’ Right to Education, atUNESCO Headquarters in Parison December 10.

President Asif Ali Zardariand UNESCO Director GeneralIrina Bokova will co-host theevent while French Prime Minis-ter Jean Marc Ayrault, formerBritish prime minister and UNSpecial Envoy for Global Educa-tion Gordon Brown, QueenRania of Jordan and ChileanPresident Sebastian Pinera arelikely to participate along withother world leaders and repre-sentatives of various UN bodiesand NGOs. The event, which willcoincide with the United NationsHuman Rights Day, is designedto generate political will and ac-celerate action in favour of everygirl’s right to education. PresidentZardari and the UNESCO direc-tor general have jointly signed theinvitation being sent to all UNmember states. “The event beingheld in Paris is meant to empha-sise the need for girls’ educationand also to pay tribute to thebrave Pakistani girl Malala,”Presidential spokesman Farhat-ullah Babar told Pakistan Today.

naB summons Gilani in OGdclappointmentcase

ISLAMABADnnI

The National AccountabilityBureau (NAB) on Tuesdayissued summons for formerPrime Minister Yousuf RazaGilani in the case pertainingto the appointment ofAdnan Khawaja as themanaging director of the Oiland Gas DevelopmentCompany Limited(OGDCL).NAB officials said Gilanihad been issued a notice tosubmit his stance on thematter in two weeks’ time.

BalOchiStan law and ORdeR

g CM demands federal govt help provincial government in evolving comprehensive strategyfor restoration of peace in Balochistan

Zardari offers South Korea free trade

Continued fRoM page 19

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Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

KARACHInnI

Jamia Binoria Al Aalamia Karachi Mohtamim,Maulana Mufti Muhammad Naeem while ex-pressing concern about the rising cases of do-mestic violence in society, called upon thepeople to recall that the Holy Quran enjoinsgood treatment of women, and Muslims whoare abusive to women actually slander Islam.

According to a Human Rights Watch re-port, mistreatment of women and girls, in-cluding forced marriage, rape and domesticviolence remains a major problem in Pak-istan. Maulana Naeem said, “Allah has en-joined upon men to treat their wives fairly,to the extent that a man is allowed to leavehis wife or divorce her gracefully if their re-lationship becomes strained.”

Maulana Naeem narrated the followingevent from the annals of Islamic history: “Aman came to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and

asked him that who among the people wasthe best of men. The Prophet (PBUH) repliedthat the best among men is he who is the bestmannered and he who is good towards hisfamily and children.” Maulana Naeem wenton to state that, “Allah, as well as the sayingsof the Holy Prophet (PBUH) clearly forbidviolence against women.”

Maulana Naeem clarified a widely heldmisperception prevalent in a section of soci-ety by firmly stating that Islam did not allowdomestic violence and violence againstwomen. “The Holy Prophet (PBUH) clearlyforbids such acts,” he said. “He (PBUH) wentto the extent of telling abusive men that theyshould be ashamed of establishing maritalrelations and committing violence againsttheir women,” Maulana Mufti added.

It may be recalled that Pakistan had beencounted among those countries that oftenmade the headlines due to domestic and gen-der based violence and sexual harassment.

KARAcHI: children play with sand at sea view on tuesday. ONLINE

taliban collectfunds from Karachi,says Musharraf

KARACHI nnI

Former President General (r) PervezMusharraf has said that the Talibanexist in Karachi, adding that they alsocollect large amounts of funds fromthe metropolis. Talking during a pro-gramme on a private television chan-nel on Monday, he said that presentlysectarian violence had sharply risen inKarachi. On the issue of Kala BaghDam, he said that Kala Bagh Dam wasin favour of Sindh more than anyother province, adding that the damshould be constructed immediately tostore water during the monsoon sea-son as Tarbela Dam was fast losing itsstorage capacity. The former presidentalso claimed that all the cases regis-tered against him were political in na-ture. Musharraf further said thatformer Inter Services Intelligence(ISI) chief General Ahmed ShujaPasha suggested him against comingto Pakistan, adding that he would bein the country at the time of the gen-eral elections.

KARACHIStAff REpoRt

THE traffic police duringcity wide operationagainst second-rate Com-pressed Natural Gas(CNG) cylinders installed

in vehicles took into custody more than200 buses on Tuesday.

According to details, the traffic po-lice while following court directivesconducted operations in the areas ofSaddar, MA Jinnah Road and adjoin-ing areas to check the gas cylinders in-stalled in vehicles. During theoperation more than 200 buses havingsubstandard gas cylinders were takeninto custody by the police.

The officer in charge said that theoperation would continue till the en-tire city was cleared of vehicles havingshoddy gas cylinders.

Meanwhile, the citizens havelauded the traffic police action and de-manded the court and authorities con-cerned to widen the operation to other

districts of the province.It should be mentioned here that

CNG cylinders blasts have become a

routine occurrence which have oftenclaimed several lives besides criticallyinjuring many others.

PML-N not sincereto Sindh: chawla

KARACHIStAff REpoRt

Provincial Minister for Excise and TaxationMukesh Kumar Chawla said on Tuesdaythat as the general elections draw near, theconfusion of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is increasing further.The minister said this while talking to vari-ous delegations here at his camp office.The elections would be held on time andthey would be transparent and impartial aswell, he said. He further said that Sindhhad been a stronghold of the Pakistan Peo-ples Party (PPP) and it would remain assuch in the future as well. Those who thinkthey could conquer the party, would be liv-ing in a fool’s paradise, he added. Theprovincial minister also said, “The KalaBagh Dam issue is a dead issue. It shouldnot be touched any more. Three provincesare against the construction of Kala BaghDam.” Moreover, he said that in the nextelections the PPP would emerge victoriousin Punjab and the masses of Punjab wouldbe freed from the bad governance ofShabaz Sharif. Chawla also said that hecould not understand the logic behindNawaz Sharif trying to champion the causeof Sindh rights. He further said that nation-alists had never been sincere to the peopleof Sindh, while adding that the PPP wassincere in its efforts to give rights to thepeople of Sindh.

Abbas town bomb blast culprit identified

KARACHIStAff REpoRt

An eyewitness has identified the accusedinvolved in Abbas Town bomb blast be-fore the judicial magistrate, Malir.According to details, the accusednamed Attaullah was presented beforethe judicial magistrate on Tuesday,where eyewitness Zafar positively iden-tified the accused. Earlier, the CrimeInvestigation Department (CID) policehad arrested Attaullah from Manghopirand recovered explosive material fromhis possession. It is worth mentioninghere that two persons had lost theirlives in Abbas Town bomb blast on the3rd day of Muharram.

200 buses with substandardgas cylinders impounded

Mufti Naeem urges restraintagainst domestic violence

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06 Karachi

KARAcHI: Shops seen closed in the area of pIb following the killing of a political worker. ONLINE

KARACHInnI

pAKISTAN Tehreek-e-In-saaf (PTI) Deputy Secre-tary General ImranIsmail while speaking toa gathering of Youth

Wing and Insaf Student Federationhas said that the current ruling par-ties, along with the previous govern-ments, are responsible for the existingchaos in the country.

Imran said that national wealthwas being ransacked by ruling politicalparties in turns.

He further said that Asif AliZardari with his “Khappay” slogan, andNawaz League with their attention-grabbing false promises, were prepar-ing for the general elections. Butpeople were now well aware of theirreal faces, he added.

After incessant supremacy of thebiggest province of Pakistan for 25years, the Nawaz League was now

demanding another chance to bringin progress, said the PTI deputygeneral secretary.

He cautioned the main parties toget ready for a massive turnout for thePTI in the coming elections. He ex-plained that the patriotic youth wassupposed to play a vital role in knock-ing down the present setup of corruptruling parties. On one side the oppor-tunists were turning to the wealth-loot-ing champions for their benefits, whileon the other side the nation was beinggathered under the banner of PTI toelect a leadership which would strugglefor the benefits of the country.

There was no place for turncoats inPTI, he added.

He further said that Imran Khanwas in politics to fight against thosewho earned billions and snatched thebasic human rights from the citizens,adding that the PTI’s cause was to forma system of justice where everyonewould be penalized for their crimes.Imran Khan was the only hope whowould soon hold these big burglars ac-countable for their deeds and bringback the looted wealth, he concluded.

‘Past, present regimesresponsible for chaos’

Al-Shifa trust

observes int’l

Disabled DayKARACHI

nnI

Al-Shifa Trust (Special School and Centrefor Rehabilitation) observed the“International Disabled Day” with greatfervour. On the occasion, special childrenperformed colorful tableaus, songs andacts which were highly appreciated by theaudience. Children also participated inan “Awareness Walk” arranged aroundthe premises of Al-Shifa Trust which wasaimed at educating the audiences. Al-Shifa Trust President and PakistanInternational Airlines Director GhazalaRashid praised and appreciated theefforts of the special children to makethis event a success. Later, gifts weredistributed among the special children.“International Day of Persons withDisabilities” is an internationalobservance promoted by the UnitedNations since 1992. The aim of this dayhad been to promote an understanding ofdisability issues and mobilize support forthe dignity, rights and well-being ofpersons with disabilities. It was alsoaimed at increasing awareness about thebenefits associated with the integrationof persons with disabilities in everyaspect of political, social, economic andcultural life.

Khuro demands

fresh demarcation

of entire SindhKARACHIonLInE

Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar AhmedKhuro Tuesday said that the entire Sindhprovince, not just Karachi, should bedemarcated afresh. Talking to mediapersons after a meeting held in theassembly’s Committee Room, Khuro saidthe operation to seize illegal weapons hadnever ceased in Karachi as everydaypolice and rangers personnel wererecovering firearms through targetedoperations in the city. The presence of theassemblies and the completion of theirterm was an abundant proof that thePakistan People’s Party (PPP) wanted totake Pakistan ahead through democracyand reconciliation, he asserted. The SindhAssembly speaker said, “We welcomecriticism from our adversaries, however,we denounce the violent approach.”

20 passengers injured as busoverturns near thattaThaTTa: At least 20 passengersincluding women and childrensustained injuries when a busoverturned near an under-construction jail, located at a shortdistance from Makli, on its way fromGhulamullah town to Thatta onTuesday morning. According tomedia reports, the accident occurredwhen the tie-rod of the bus brokedown. The injured passengersincluded Shahnaz, Sakina, Rahima,Mithaan, Rozi, Shahina, Rehana,Husna, Hadi Bux, Ghulam Nabi,Hussain Jat, 8-year boy Allah BuxMallah, Muhammad Khan, NoorMuhammad, Saleh Muhammad andMuhammad Hashim. All the injuredpeople were later shifted to the CivilHospital, Makli for treatment. onLInE

turkish coast

guard delegation

visits PMSAkarachI: Turkish Coast Guarddelegation headed by Rear Admiral(UH) Hasan and comprising of 5officers arrived in Pakistan onTuesday for a visit of PakistanMaritime Security Agency (PMSA)from 4th to 7th December. Duringtheir stay in Pakistan, the delegationvisited the Headquarters ofMaritime Security Agency to discussmatters of mutual interests andenhancement of bilateral relationsbetween the two law enforcementagencies. The delegation was briefedabout the role, functions andimportance of PMSA. Both the LEAsdiscussed issues related with jointtraining, maritime security in theIndian Ocean and concept ofcollaborative security against piracy.Additionally, topics of anti drugtrafficking and human smugglingwere also discussed during theinteractive sessions. It was decidedthat joint workshops would beconducted on topics of maritimesecurity which were also agreedupon during the meeting. It may berecalled that the recent years havewitnessed enhanced cooperationbetween PMSA and Turkish CoastGuard. In this connection, a highlevel delegation of PMSA headed byCommodore Azir Mumtaz (SBt)visited the Turkish Coast Guardhead office in June this year. onLInE

Senate body to summon CEO, KESC by 7thKARACHI

StAff REpoRt

Senate standing committee on Waterand Power is likely to introduce some im-portant and strong decisions regardingthe Chief Executive Office Karachi Elec-tricity Supply Company (KESC) TabishGohar who refused to appear before thecommittee and sought stay order against

the committee through Sindh High Court(SHC), Pakistan Today has learntthrough reliable sources.

According to details the members ofthe Senate body on water and powerwould meet by December 07 (Friday)here at Parliament House to review thesituation after the continues disgracebeing posed by the CEO KESC towardsthe body.

Chairman Senate Standing Commit-tee, Senator Zahid Khan, while talking toPakistan Today said that he came toknow that CEO KESC, Tabish Gohar hascontacted the Sindh High Court against

the committee, who summoned him.Senator Zahid Khan said that he heard

that CEO, KESC Tabish Gohar has intro-duced a stance in hearing of the SHC thatSenate body is not eligible to summon anygovernment official and he would not ap-pear before the committee which waswrong approach. However, he added thathe respects the decision of the SHC. Elabo-rating further Khan added that Committee

has served the Tabish Gohar with manynotices which were not paid with the due

attention and CEO KESC did notappear before the committee.

To a question regarding fu-ture strategy, ChairmanSenate Standing Commit-tee told that committeewould chalk out a strategyto the coming sitting of thebody, and CEO KESC iscalled again in the coming

sitting of the committee.It is pertinent to mention here

that Senate body has issued number ofnotices to the CEO KESC which were notconsidered, latter on body also issued ar-

rest warrants, to which Tabish Gohar con-tacted the SHC that issued stay in the case.

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07Karachi

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Live improvisational comedy runs wild at the MAD School with

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ILyAS KHAN

THE demolition of a Hindu tem-ple by a Karachi property devel-oper is yet another reminder ofhow insecure religious minori-ties have become in Pakistan.

Witnesses say the developers moved in earlyon Saturday - when higher courts were closedand there was no hope of immediate legal re-dress for those affected.

The community has set up religious arti-cles, including pictures and statuettes of theirgods, in the midst of the rubble of the demol-ished temple.

But will they be able to fend off a construc-tion giant in a society which is increasingly un-sympathetic to its tiny Hindu minority?resIdenTs’ proTesT

“First, a few men came to the temple andsaid they just wanted to visit the site,” saysMukesh Kumar Jaidia, a resident of Doli Khatawhere the temple was located.

“Then some more men came, followed bythe police and bulldozers. They erected a can-vas fence around the temple and about fouradjacent houses, and before we knew it, theywere bulldozing the structures.”

The Rama Peer temple, which some saywas 80 years old, was one of many Hindu tem-ples in Karachi that have in recent years beenthe subject of property disputes involvingcommercial builders.

The compound where it was located, andthe land around it, is owned by the military.

In 2008, the military estates officer (MEO)of the area issued eviction notices to the tem-ple and more than a dozen Hindu families re-siding in houses built around it, to clear theway for its purchase by a major constructionfirm based in Karachi.

“The residents refused, saying they hadbeen living here for more than 50 years andhad a right to be offered ownership rights fora price instead of being thrown out,” says DrRamesh Vankwani, the head of the communityorganisation, the Pakistan Hindu Council.

A plea filed by one of the residents was dis-missed by a court in November, paving theway for the construction firm to forcibly evictthe residents last Saturday.

The community staged angry protests onSunday, saying the demolition squad had des-ecrated their articles of faith and deprived sev-eral poor people of a roof over their head.‘easY preY’

The Hindu-Muslim animosity dates backto 1947 when India was partitioned on com-

munal lines to create a Muslim-majority Pak-istan.

Most upper caste Hindus left Pakistan forIndia, leaving behind low caste Hindus whowere largely poor and uneducated and per-formed menial chores.

With the advent of Islamic militancy in the1980s, this vulnerable section of society hasgrown even more insecure.

In recent years, the community has faceda spate of kidnappings and forced conversionsof their women by Muslim men, often backedby organised vigilante groups.

The capacity of these groups to intimidatethe minorities and their supporters was in ev-idence in February this year when a 17-year-old Hindu girl, Rinkle Kumari, went missingfrom her home in Mirpur Mathelo town ofSindh province, and resurfaced at a shrine runby a locally influential Muslim family.

The armed followers of the shrine firedcelebratory shots over what they called herconversion to Islam and her marriage to a localMuslim youth. While she stated in a court thatshe had converted of her own accord, her par-ents said she had been intimidated, and thatshe had actually been kidnapped from herhouse by four armed men.

Human rights groups say there are dozensof cases of Hindu girls having been kidnappedand converted to Islam, mostly in Sindhprovince where the majority of Pakistani Hin-

dus live. The wealthier among them - especially

those in business - also make easy prey for ex-tortionists and criminal gangs involved in kid-napping for ransom.

Their places of worship are being treatedwith equal disrespect.sporadIc aTTacks

When Hindu extremists razed the Babrimosque in Ayodhya in northern India in 1992,Muslim mobs in Pakistan responded by de-stroying dozens of Hindu temples and Hindusettlements all over the country.

Sporadic attacks on Hindu places of wor-ship have continued ever since.

In May, unidentified men vandalised a19th Century temple situated inside an archae-ological compound in the north-western cityof Peshawar. They burned down the holyscriptures and images, and smashed the idols.

While the Pakistani statute books stillcarry laws from the colonial period that pre-scribe punishment for the desecration of reli-gious places and articles, their enforcementhas come to depend on how far a communityis willing to go to make those laws work.

In Karachi’s Doli Khata area, the sociallyweak Hindus will be up against influentialbuilders, a powerful office of the military es-tates and a public opinion largely influencedby hostile Islamist groups.

Courtest BBC News

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News

Greece unveils $13bbond buyback planaThens: Greece says it will spend $13bn in a bondbuyback programme that it hopes will help stabilise itshuge debt. The buyback, one of the steps Greece is takingto secure the disbursement of vital international rescueloans, is part of efforts to reform the country’s strickeneconomy and reduce its debt to sustainable levels. In aninterim report on monetary policy released on Monday,the central bank said the new measures, if implementedon time, “are positive developments, which createplausible expectations of a recovery of the Greekeconomy”. “This outcome, however, hinges upon aconsistent implementation of all the measures legislated,together with policies that will speed up the onset ofrecovery, including a broader program of structuralreforms,” warned the Bank of Greece. “Any delays willpush the recovery back, with consequences that will be farmore severe than anything that has so far happened.” Thebond buyback was agreed at a meeting of eurozonefinance ministers in Brussels last week, which alsoapproved the release of a critical $57bn installment ofrescue loans from the International Monetary Fund andthe other 16 European Union countries that use the euro.It is hoped the buyback will shave about $26bn off thecountry’s debt. It comes less than a year after privateholders of Greek debt agreed a big writedown in the valueof their Greek bonds. Under the buyback programme,private holders of Greek bonds, such as banks, pensionfunds and other investors, have until Friday to registertheir interest in participating. The sale will be conductedby what is known as a Dutch auction, in which prices starthigh and then decline. AGEncIES

thousands flee as typhoonhits PhilippinesManIla: Typhoon Bopha, the strongest tropical stormto hit the Philippines this year, has slammed into asouthern island, killing at least six people, destroyinghomes, cutting power and forcing the cancellation offlights and ferry services, officials said. The state weatherservice said Bopha made landfall on Mindanao island’seast coast at dawn on Tuesday, raking across the island of10 million people, packing gusts of up to 210km an hourand bringing heavy rain. At least four people wereconfirmed dead and dozens injured, officials told AlJazeera. Local media reported as many as 20 deaths in alandslide in the Compostela Valley, but there was noofficial verification at the time of writing. Aviation andshipping were suspended, with 80 flights grounded andthousands of ferry passengers stranded at ports as thecoastguard ordered vessels to stay in port, the civildefence office said. Power has been cut off in at least eightmunicipalities in southern Surigao del Sur and DavaoOriental while parts of Agusan del Sur province areflooded, Civil Defence chief Benito Ramos said. AGEncIES

ISTANBULAGEncIES

nATO foreign ministersare set to discussTurkey’s request for de-ployment of Patriot mis-siles to counter a threat

from Syria, despite a warning by theRussian president that deployment couldincrease tensions.

Ivo Daalder, the US ambassador toNATO, said on Monday the ministers’meeting, which begins on Tuesday inBrussels, was likely to clear the way forthe Patriots. The escalating conflict inSyria is expected to be a major talkingpoint for the alliance’s 28 members whoshare a vow of mutual defence.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian presi-dent, said on Monday that any deploy-ment of Patriot missiles would only addto tensions.

“Creating additional capabilities onthe border does not defuse the situationbut on the contrary exacerbates it,” Putin,whose country is not a NATO member,said after talks after talks in Istanbul withRecep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s primeminister. Both NATO and Turkey insistthat the deployment of the US-made sur-face-to-air Patriot missiles is a purely de-fensive move, a point alliance diplomatspressed on Monday.

The discussion on Turkey’s requestcomes amid a warning by the US presi-dent to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against using chemical weapons on

his own people, saying there would beconsequences if he were to do so.

“Today I want to make it absolutelyclear to Assad and those under his com-mand: The world is watching,” BarackObama said on Monday.

“The use of chemical weapons is andwould be totally unacceptable and if youmake the tragic mistake of using theseweapons there will be consequences andyou will be held accountable.”

Syrian state media responded byquoting its foreign ministry as saying thatit would “never under any circumstances”use such weapons, “if such weaponsexist”. Hillary Clinton, the secretary ofstate, who is in Prague, the capital ofCzech Republic, said she would not out-line any specifics. “But suffice it to say, we

are certainly planning to take action ifthat eventuality were to occur,” she said.

Earlier in the day, a senior WhiteHouse spokesman said that the US andits allied intelligence had monitored Syr-ian movement of chemical weapons com-ponents in recent days.

In another Syria-related develop-ment, the UN and European Union an-nounced on Monday that they werescaling back staff and activities from thecountry. Martin Nesirky, spokesman forUN chief Ban Ki-moon, said some con-voys had been caught in the crossfire be-tween Syrian government and rebelforces, including an incident near the air-port in which two staff were injured.

“We can confirm that the UN in Syriawill pull out non-essential international

personnel with immediate effect,” Ne-sirky said in New York on Monday. “TheUN will also suspend its missions withinthe country until further notice.”

The UN said that up to 25 of about100 foreign staff would leave this week,pointing out that more armoured vehicleswere needed after attacks in recent weekson humanitarian aid convoys and the hi-jacking of goods or vehicles.

In total, the world body has de-ployed more than 1,000 national and in-ternational staff in Syria, but movementand communications have become moredifficult due to intensified fighting nearthe capital and a 48-hour internet black-out last week, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA) said.

GAZA: A member of Hamas’ national security forces demonstrates his skills during a graduation ceremony. AgENCIES

TEL AvIvAGEncIES

A defiant Israel has rejected a wave ofAmerican and European condemnationsover plans to build thousands of newhomes in east Jerusalem and WestBank settlements, vowing to press for-ward with the construction in the faceof widespread international opposition.

The UK, France, Spain, Denmark andSweden on Monday summoned Israeliambassadors in their respective coun-tries to protest Israel’s plans to buildmore settler homes.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’soffice said Israel would continue to standup for its interests “even in the face of in-

ternational pressure, and there will be nochange in the decision taken”.

The announcement from Netanyahu’soffice was likely to deepen a rift that hasemerged between Israel and some of itsclosest allies following the UN’s recogni-tion of a Palestinian state last week.

Russia and Germany have also ex-pressed opposition to the building of ad-ditional settlements, and the WhiteHouse issued a statement urging the “Is-raeli leader to reconsider their unilateraldecisions”.

The official twitter-account of Rus-sia’s ministry of foreign affairs said that,“Israeli construction on Palestinian terri-tories occupied in 1967 is illegal, unrecog-nised and condemned by Russia and

internationally.”Media reports on Monday also said

France and Britain were considering re-calling their ambassadors to Israel overthe plans.

Al Jazeera’s Charlie Angela, reportingfrom London, said that the British gov-ernment was “frustrated not only by thescale of this expansion...but also by thetiming of the announcement.”

French President Francois Hollandesaid he was deeply concerned about theeffect it could have on the peace process.

“I said, as the French foreign ministerdid, that we are highly pre-occupied bywhat was announced by the Israeli gov-ernment - the installation of new coloniescomposed of 3000 settlements with all

the consequences it could have on thepeace process,” said Hollande on Mon-day. The decision to build in a key areaeast of Jerusalem, called E1, sparked astorm of diplomatic protest from Wash-ington and Brussels as well as from UNchief Ban Ki-moon, who on Sundaywarned it would deal an “almost fatalblow” to the prospects of resolving theconflict.

E1 is a highly contentious area of theWest Bank that runs between the eastern-most edge of annexed east Jerusalem andthe Maaleh Adumim settlement.

Palestinians bitterly oppose the proj-ect, as it would effectively cut the occu-pied West Bank in two, north to south,and sever it from Jerusalem, and make

the creation of a viable Palestinian stateeven more problematic.

Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister,told said that Sweden wants to “urge theIsraeli government to take a step back”.

“We had anticipated that they wouldbe ready now to enter into direct peacenegotiations with the Palestinians afterthe vote in the UN, and instead, we areextremely concerned over the announce-ment that we’ve heard from the Israeligovernment,” said Bildt.

Josh Lockman, a professor of inter-national law at the University of South-ern California, said Israel’s reaction toPalestine’s new UN status brings intodoubt its “genuine commitment to atwo-state solution”.

NATO to approve Turkey missile deployment

GOMAAGEncIES

DR Congo troops have entered the eastern miningcity of Goma, two days after rebel M23 fighterswithdrew in line with a regionally brokered deal.

But the rebels said they would retake the city,if the government failed to meet their demandswithin 48 hours. The rebels’ lightning capture ofGoma on November 20 eight months after theylaunched an uprising against Kinshasa hadsparked fears of a wider war and major humani-tarian crisis, and their withdrawal was widelywelcomed. Dozens of government army trucks,crammed with heavily armed soldiers, enteredthe regional capital in the afternoon, aftertrundling along the shores of Lake Kivu.

A battalion of around 600 men in total is ex-pected to move into Goma, while government of-ficials have also begun to arrive back to reasserttheir authority after 12-days of rebel rule.

While the M23 fighters have left the city,rebels remained camped just beyond the out-

skirts, appearing to break a deal to pull back 20kilometres from Goma, with residents fearing re-newed clashes as the two sides edge closer.

“Our people are still there because you canonly withdraw in stages, that is how it is done,”said rebel commander Antoine Manzi.

Ugandan army chief Aronda Nyakairima,speaking after a meeting in Goma with armychiefs of DR Congo and Rwanda, said he was“completely satisfied with the implementationof the accord so far” and that the rebels wouldfully pullback.

DR Congo’s interior minister, Richard MuyejMangez, said the government was ready to starttalks “in the next few days”, but that M23 shouldrespect the agreement to withdraw the full 20kilometres. Uganda will mediate the talks, whichwill begin once a full withdrawal has taken place.

The region, which borders Rwanda andUganda, has been the cradle of back-to-back warsthat embroiled other nations from 1996 to 2003and were fought largely over its vast wealth ofcopper, diamonds, gold and coltan.

Meanwhile, UN experts have accused Rwandaand Uganda, which played active roles in DRCongo’s previous wars, of supporting M23, acharge both countries deny. The group of expertsquotes local people as saying more than 1,000Rwandan troops crossed into DR Congo before theoffensive and that Rwandan generals helped M23commander Sultani Makenga lead the attack.

The day Goma was captured, some 500Rwandan soldiers crossed into the city from theRwandan town of Gisenyi, to back up the rebelforces, the report quotes various Congolese andRwandan sources as saying.

The report includes photos of several peopleit identifies as Rwandan troops on Congolese ter-ritory. M23 was founded by former fighters in aTutsi rebel group whose members were inte-grated into the regular army under a 2009 peacedeal that they claim was never fully implemented.

Aid agencies are struggling to cope with thenewly displaced, with some 285,000 people hav-ing fled their homes since the rebels began theiruprising in April.

dR CoNgo ARMy RetuRNS to goMA

Israel rejects outcry over settlement plan

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PESHAWARStAff REpoRt

PAKISTAN Tehreek-e-Insafmember Iftikhar KhanJhagra and the PakistanMuslim League-Quaid’sNighat Aurakzai on Tues-

day announced joining the PakistanPeople’s Party.

Both announced joining the PPPduring separate press conferences attheir respective houses.

PPP provincial president AnwarSaifullah Khan along with National As-sembly Deputy Speaker Faisal KarimKundi welcomed Nighat. The two,along with Religious Affairs MinisterKhurshid Shah, also welcomed Jhagra.

Jhagra had quit the PPP to join thePTI a year ago while Nighat had beenwith the PML-Q since 2002.

From 1988 until 1997, Jhagra wasseen hopping between the PPP and the

PML factions. He is close relative ofPML-N Central Secretary General ZafarIqbal Jhagra. A couple of weeks ago, hedeveloped differences with the PTI anddecided to change parties again.

He remained in contact with theleaders of both the PPP and the ANPand finally decided to return to his pre-vious party. Nighat is the daughter oflate Malik Essa Khan Aurakzai who wascounted amongst close and confidentialaides of the Saifullah family.

She decided to join the PPP whenAnwar Saifullah was made the party’sprovincial president.

Welcoming the two into the PPP’swings, Shah and Anwar were of theview that the two leaders could help theparty win the coming general elections.

After becoming the provincial pres-ident of the PPP, Anwar has beenpulling some strings and has made alarge number of dissidents return to thePPP In the past several weeks.

‘Party hopper’ Jhagra, nighat aurakzai announce joining PPP

ISLAMABADApp

Pakistan International Airline’s (PIA)counsel Raja Bashir informed theSupreme Court on Tuesday that the PIAhad suffered a loss of 7 million passengersfrom 2009-2012 due to the unilateralfreedom which has been granted to for-eign airlines.

A three-member bench comprisingChief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed andJustice Shiekh Azmat Saeed resumedhearing of PIA corruption case on the ap-plications moved by Transparency Inter-national, PML-N Secretary General IqbalZafar Jhagra and Marvi Memon.

Expressing its displeasure over therunning of PIA’s affairs, the court raisedquestions over the airline’s alleged non-transparent deals, weak management,over-employment, financial losses andflight delays.

“All future procurements should bemade under the Public Procurement Reg-ulatory Authority (PPRA) rules,” the chiefjustice said.

“The PIA, which has helped in the es-tablishment of many airlines, is nothingmore than a fleet of old aircrafts now.Moreover, there are allegations of corrup-tion in the purchasing of new ones,” he

said.“Even the former defence minister ad-

mitted on a private TV channel that theairline incurred a loss of Rs. 44 billion in2008, with a Rs. 70 million loss per day,”he added.

The counsel, however, maintainedthat the losses were incurred due to fluc-tuation in the fuel prices.

An official from the national flag car-rier explained to the court that a majorityof these passengers were not flying fromPakistan to the home bases of those air-lines, but were flying to other destina-tions where the PIA operates direct flightsfrom Pakistan; causing huge losses in therevenue.

He told the court that at present, PIAhas 17,227 employees and the totalmonthly salary of its staff amounts to Rs.1.16 billion, which is almost 12% of rev-enue earned in 2011.

He informed the court that the PIAhas a total number of 38 aircrafts in itsentire fleet and the employee to aircraftratio is 453.

He also complained that while Pak-istan was liberal in granting traffic rightsto other carriers, advanced nations werebeing protective about their markets anddenying PIA the opportunity to increaseits flights to their countries. The benchadjourned hearing till December 14.

Foreign airlinescaused PIA loss of 7mpassengers, SC told

BANNUonLInE

At least four police personnel were among eight injured when asuicide bomber rammed his explosives-packed vehicle into a po-lice station in Bannu district on Tuesday. Police said the power-ful blast destroyed the premises of Haveed police station andsmashed windowpanes and doors of nearby houses to pieces.The bombing was followed by intense gunfire. Law enforcementagencies, including police personnel, cordoned off the entirearea later and helped move the injured persons to nearby hos-

pitals. Bannu District Police Officer (DPO) Waqar told reportersthat four police personnel were wounded in the blast. TheTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the at-tack. “We carried out the suicide attack on the police station...we will not spare them and target them again,” Talibanspokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told a foreign news agency overtelephone. “We will continue to target police and security forcesbecause they are killing our mujahideen (fighters),” he added.The injured policemen included Station House Officer (SHO)Gul Nawaz, Constables Liaquat and Aurangzaib, while thenames of others victims could not be immediately ascertained.

LAHOREStAff REpoRt

PML-N President Nawaz Sharif hassaid the PPP and its allies are not sin-cere in restoring peace and tranquilityin Karachi.

Talking to a delegation, led by for-mer chief minister Liaqat Jatoi, fromSindh on Tuesday, Nawaz said thePML-N had joined the government in2008 in the interest of the country andits people but seeing a lack of intereston the part of the federal governmentin resolving the people’s problems, “wedecided to quit the government after afew weeks”.

He said in its recent decision, theSupreme Court had ordered actionagainst the militant wings of various

political parties but the governmenthad made no progress in this regard,adding that the killing of innocentpeople in Karachi was a matter ofgrave concern.

Nawaz said law and order could berestored in Karachi only through a neu-tral administration and a police forcewhich was free of political pressure.The PML-N chief said if given an op-portunity, his party would attach toppriority to the restoration of law andorder in Karachi and the elements de-stroying peace and harmony in the citywould be dealt with an iron hand.

Expressing complete confidence inthe leadership of Nawaz Sharif, formerPP provincial minister Abdul HakeemBaloch, former Sindh Assembly mem-ber and leader of Tehreek-e-Insaaf

Michael Javed, former PPP Jacobabadpresident Aslam Abru, prominent in-dustrialist from Karachi Asif Qureshi,former DIG Akbar Bhangwar, SaleemBaloch, Riaz Baloch and Abdul GhaniKaloti, joined the PML-N.

The delegation also included ShafiJamot, Badar Channa, Shafique AhmedKhosu, Zafar Ali Shah, Mushtaq Jatoiand Yaser Abru.

Nawaz welcomed them and saidtheir joining of the party was a proofthat the party’s popularity was growingin Sindh, adding that the PML-N wouldfield strong candidates in the provincein the next general elections. FormerSindh minister Abdul Hakeem Balochinvited Nawaz to visit Sindh, to whichNawaz said he would soon make a planto visit Sindh, including Karachi.

‘PPP, allies not sincere inrestoring peace in Karachi’

Four policemen among eight injured in Bannu suicide bombing

Govt to reshuffle ambassadorsIslaMaBad: The government on Tuesday decided to reshuffle ambassadorsworking in Pakistani embassies in foreign countries. In pursuance of thisdecision, the incumbent ambassador in Uzbekistan, Wahid Hassan has beenreplaced by Riaz Bukhari. Hassan has been appointed ambassador in Moroccoas the Pakistani embassy there was functioning without any ambassadorfollowing the resignation of Tasnim Aslam. It has also been decided thatPakistan’s Ambassador in Vietnam Shahid Kayani would be sent to Malaysia,Hassan Raza would be made ambassador in Qatar and Ibrar Hussain would besent to Kuwait as Pakistan’s ambassador. onLInE

SWAt: A police official inspects the scene of a bombing near the house of Kainat, a friend of teen education activist Malala

yousafzai, on tuesday. ONLINE

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After the day’s hectic work, I triedto sneak in a peaceful corner tohave a cup of coffee at one of the

posh areas of the federal capital. Nightwas getting darker and of course chill-ier. I took a sigh of relief and orderedthe waiter to bring a cup of cappuccino.

With the random plans in my head,I was thinking as to how to manage mytasks for tomorrow when the waiter in-tercepted my thoughts and said,“Madam, the coffee is getting cold.” Itook the maiden sip and tried to adjointhe breaking link with a quick glancearound me.

Coming my way from across thestreet was what society would considera ‘bum’. There are times when you feelgenerous but there are other timeswhen you just don’t want to be botheredto stretch your hand toward your pock-ets. This was one of those “don’t want tobe bothered times” for me. And I pre-sumed he would ask me for money. Tomy utter surprise he did not. He cameand sat on the chair besides me,dragged his hand, and sought my help

to text a message to a particular person.As I typed on his old-fashioned cell

phone, I tried to judge him with a fleet-ing look. From the looks, he had noth-ing to eat, no shelter, no clean clothesand no money.

“What should I text?” I asked him.“Please text him that I have been wait-ing all day today from dawn to duskoutside his office and made repeatedcalls on his cell phone but he did notbother to receive my calls nor called meback,” he said with extreme innocenceon his face. I smiled back to him. Put-ting that cell phone away after I hadtyped half the text and asked, “Wherehave you come from, who do you wantto meet and who’s this person?”

‘‘I belong to Muzaffargarh and cameto this ‘city of bureaucrats’ to get‘Watan Card’ as my house was de-stroyed in a deadly flood couple of yearsago. Someone from my hometown re-ferred me to meet this particular personwho, according to him, would help meobtain this card. This is my third dayhere in the federal capital. JamshedDasti and Qayum Jatoi are electedMNAs from my area. I have tried mylevel best to access these two parlia-mentarians but nothing has come my

way so far,” he stated without taking apause. “I can’t read or write. I went toBait-ul-Maal Office and this is one ofthe concerned person’s contact numberto whom I have begged you to type atext message, and who didn’t respond,”the man attired in shabby shalwarqameez said. “OK, I have texted thatman,” I said while giving back his cellphone. “I have written that you havebeen waiting whole day, but now youare going back home. If he does notshow mercy for a shelterless man and isunable to do a favour, he should simplyrefuse you by saying ‘no’. Now you arerunning out of money,” I informed thatman. He was happy to know this.

After a couple of minutes, he said,“I hope you didn’t write some harshwords to this man.” I smiled and saidno, not at all. Again a request from himcame my way, “Please, write God blessyou and your family.” I said OK, let mesend him another text message. Hesearched his pocket and found a coupleof letters and his National Identity Cardand put them before me. “This is my ap-plication, but I wonder how I should getthis financial aid. No one is sincere withthis country. No one wants to help thepoor. Though these parliamentarians

are elected by our votes, they are leastbothered when it’s a payback time,” hesaid in sheer frustration.

“Later, I went the residence of Pres-ident Zardari, but the guards deputedthere did not allow me to enter,” he said.

“Now I am running out of money, mywife called me just now and told meabout my ailing daughter. I have onlyenough money for bus fare to get backhome if I don’t eat any meal,” he kept ontalking in Seraiki.

He was ragged but he had an air ofdignity around him. The expected pleafor money never came. As the silence be-tween us widened, a voice inside mesaid, “Ask him if he needs any help?”“Do you need any help?” I asked. And heanswered in three simple but profoundwords that I shall never forget. We oftenlook for wisdom in great men andwomen. We expect it from those ofhighly learned and accomplished per-sons. I expected nothing but an out-stretched grimy hand. Instead, he spokethose three words that shook me. “Don’twe all?” he said. I was feeling high andmighty, successful and important, supe-rior to a bum in a street, until thosethree words hit me like a twelve gaugeshotgun. “Yes, I need help, may be not

for bus fare or to get food or a place tosleep, but I need help,” he finished.

I reached my wallet and gave himnot only enough for bus fare, but enoughto take a cab anywhere in the city and getfood and shelter for the very day. Butthose three little words meant a lot to meand still ring true to me. No matter howmuch you have, no matter how muchyou have accomplished, you need helptoo. No matter how little you have, nomatter how loaded you are with prob-lems, even without money or a place tosleep, you can help others. Even if it’sjust a compliment, that can help too.

You never know when you may seesomeone that appears to have it all. Theymay still be waiting for you to give themwhat they don’t have. A different per-spective on life, a glimpse at somethingbeautiful, a respite from daily chaos thatonly you through a torn world can see.

I thought for a time being that maybe that man was just a homeless strangerwandering the streets to get his right.Or, maybe he was more than that. Maybehe was sent by a power that is the Great-est and the Wisest. Maybe he was anangel and we named him a bum. Butwhat about our parliamentarians – theelected representatives?

Comment10

Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

poor or rich, everyone needs help

By Lalarukh Farooq

Here in Washington, negativereactions to the United Na-tions’ vote to admit Palestineas a non-member state haveranged from silly and infuri-

ating to downright dangerous. The hysteriasurrounding this UN vote may seem strange,even bizarre, to outsiders, but here in Wash-ington it was expected.

The rhetoric was harsh and the actionsproposed by lawmakers were extreme and,if passed, could prove dangerous. But whyall the panic? Instead of simply shruggingoff their responses as “business as usual”, itis useful to examine the unspoken assump-tions that underlie these reactions.

Here’s one example: the “news crawl”running on one of the networks during theUN debate read “US aid threatened by UNvote”, as if the statement were logical andcomplete in itself, requiring no further ex-planation. Unstated, but taken as a “given”,was the connection between the “aid” andthe “vote”, and that is the hold that pro-Is-raeli hardliners have over appropriations inthe US Congress.

As if to make this point, in the days andhours leading up to the vote, several US Sen-ators leapt into the fray. First on board werea group of Republicans who offered anamendment to the National Defense Autho-risation Act that would not only cut US aidto the Palestinian Authority (PA) by 50 per-cent should they seek to change their statusat the UN, the amendment would also cut by20 percent US assistance to any nation thatvoted for the Palestinian resolution. Thismeasure is dangerous and could threaten USrelations with many important allies aroundthe world. It is also silly and poorly drafted,since as our friends at Americans for PeaceNow point out — it is not the PA that is mov-ing to change their status at the UN. The PLOis the group that has brought the resolutionto the international body. And the PLO is nota recipient of any US aid. There is anotherRepublican amendment that proposes to cut

all US support to the UN should that bodyvote to change the status of the Palestinians.

Finally, there is a bipartisan amendmentthat would ban US aid to the Palestiniansshould they become involved in any actionbefore the International Criminal Court.This is an obvious and ham-fisted attempt toshield Israel from any action by the Court. Asecond provision in the same amendmentwould order the closure of Washington’sPLO mission unless the President, on a reg-ular basis, is able to certify to Congress thatthe Palestinians are engaged in “meaningfulnegotiations” with Israel, without everdefining what is meant by “meaningful”.

“Expert” commentators have also re-acted to the UN vote, largely indulging inbanal expressions of what has come to be ac-cepted “conventional wisdom”. On the onehand, they have pointed out the obvious —that the “vote will change nothing on theground” or that “peace will only comethrough negotiations”. They have also issuedwarnings against the Palestinians taking“unilateral actions”, cautioning that passageof the statehood measure would have “direconsequences”,”risk exacerbating tensions”with Israel, and “create an impediment to thepeace process”. I am tempted to digress andask “what about Israeli unilateral actions?”or “what peace process?” All these warningstake for granted the unstated but acceptedassumption that any Israeli reaction to thevote must be seen as a logical consequenceof any Palestinian assertion of their rights.

The most infuriating comment came fromthe Israelis in reaction to the announcementthat France and other European nationswould vote for Palestine. This they lamentedwould deny Israel the support of what theytermed “the moral majority” — by which theymeant “white”, “Western” nations. The racismsuggested in this formulation is so obviousand disturbing, and yet was reported withoutcomment in The New York Times.

As all of this was playing out this week,my mind hearkened back 24 years ago, whenworking with the Jesse Jackson for presiden-

tial campaign I had the opportunity to leadthe first ever debate on Palestinian rights ata political convention. In the lead up to thedebate, the party leadership did everythingthey could to block our effort. I was warned“if you persist, you will destroy the Demo-cratic Party” and “you will never have a placein this party again”. One prominent pro-Is-rael Democrat actually said “I’m scared.Nothing like this has ever happened before”.

Their hysteria and fear were real. Butwhat troubled me most was that my oppo-nents would never verbalise or admit thesource of their panic and fear. It was, in myway of thinking, irrational. To them it wasperfectly rational – but because it sounded soawful, they would never verbalise the reasonsfor their panic. Some were motivated by thecrass political calculation that anything thatdemonstrated their less than total support,not for Israel, but for whatever the mosthard-line pro-Israel voices wanted, wouldsomehow compromise them, causing them tosuffer unspoken harsh consequences. Forothers, it was an issue of power and control –as in, “how dare the Arabs assert themselvesand demand equal treatment and the right tospeak without first seeking our approval?”

This same “logic” played out at the UNthis week, to the same effect. The worldspoke, but the US proved itself incapable notonly of acting in concert with the world, butof admitting the reasons why it could not.All of this, sadly, makes clear the fact thatwhen it comes to Israeli-Palestinian peace,the US remains the critical player, but be-cause of the constraints our deformed poli-tics has imposed on this and pastAdministrations, Washington appears inca-pable of fulfilling that role.

And so the vote happened. The US andIsrael self-isolated. The Palestinians win,but nothing changes — because the US hasnot yet changed or been able to break thehold of its still unacknowledged bonds.

The writer is President of the Arab-American Institute.

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

not the ideal one

Plight of minorities

Pakistan has turned into a country altogether differentfrom the one visualised by the Quaid. Among otherthings, the founding father had promised that everycitizen, irrespective of his faith or creed, would have

the freedom to practice his religion, to live in peace and enjoyfull rights as a citizen. What one sees happening is a completenegation of Jinnah’s ideals. Three reports appearing on oneday pertaining to the persecution of minorities expose theclaims often made by the right wing media about freedom andsecurity Pakistan extends to its minorities. Early Mondaymorning, an Ahmadi graveyard in Lahore’s upscale ModelTown was raided by armed men wearing masks. They removedthe tombstones and desecrated over 100 graves. The same day,gunmen shot and severely wounded a 70-year-old SwedishChristian woman who was the director of the social wing of aChristian NGO. Ms Almby had been running a midwiferycourse and technical courses dealing with the rights of thepoor for about four decades. Both the incidents occurred in aneighbourhood where the chief minister’s family also resides.A news appearing in an English daily on Tuesday tells of aHindu temple having been demolished by a private builder,assisted by a sensitive organisation, in Karachi’s Soldier Bazar.

Early this year, there were reports of forced conversions ofHindu girls from Sindh which were followed by migration ofscores of members of the community to India. Then there wasthe case of a Christian girl suffering from Down’s Syndromewho was arrested on a charge of blasphemy whichsubsequently could not be established in the Islamabad HighCourt. Shia religious gatherings have been attacked, membersof the community travelling to Gilgit have been taken out ofbuses and killed on KKH or Kaghan. In Quetta, the attacks onthe Hazara community continue to be conducted with an eerieregularity. This has led to the tarnishing of the image ofPakistan as a country where the persecution of minorities isall too common.

The PPP and its allies failed to fulfil their duty to defendthe minorities during their nearly five-year long tenure. PPPChairman Bilawal Bhutto has now urged the political parties,religious bodies and civil society organisations “to rise up todefend Jinnah’s Pakistan”. Parties which are in power do notdeliver sermons. They are supposed to act. Had the appealbeen launched when the government took over, it might havemade some sense. As it comes at the fag end of his party’stenure and when an informal election campaign is alreadyafoot, it is likely to be interpreted by some as a cynicalattempt to seek the minorities’ votes.

the Un’s palestine vote

Why the panic?

Don’t we all?

Washington WatchBy Dr James J Zogby

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Comment 11

Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

It was in the month of Decemberthat Pakistan suffered humiliation in1971. It is time to reflect and perhapslearn some lessons from repeatedmistakes by our establishment andpolitical elite, who considerthemselves above law. Withoutaccountability there can neither bedemocracy, nor writ of state, becausestate is embodied not my individualsbut by laws and constitution. Anarchyprevails when individual whimsoverride national interest and lawsare selectively applied.

Our rapid economic and moraldecline will reduce us to yet anotherSomalia like situation, if immediateremedial measures are not taken.Quaid’s vision of a democraticwelfare state was one that was basedon rule of law, where all men were tohave access to equal opportunities,where merit prevailed and public

office holders were expected toadhere to ethics and morality and beheld accountable for any abuse ofpower. Imposition of Urdu as anational language on majorityBengali speaking population ofPakistan was a step which createdbitterness and ill-will and was againstall democratic norms. Thoseresponsible were unmindful of thefact that movement for creation of aseparate homeland for Muslims wasstarted in Bengal as early as 1905,much before anybody else eventhought of it.

The Quaid’s vision of a welfaredemocratic state was destroyed bynone other than its paid civil anduniformed bureaucracy, when theystarted meddling in politics andintrigues. Had this country adhered tothe vision of our founding fathers,Pakistan would not have to endure the

ignominy and shame of surrender anddismemberment in 1971. The choice ofAyub Khan with a tarnished past, whoas Col was accused of accepting cashand jewellery from fleeing Hindusduring the days he was in theBoundary Force for five months inlater half of 1947, was a bad decision.This file was closed when GOC LahoreGen Biggs picked up a weak MajorMusa to close the file and clear the wayfor Ayub’s promotion as a Brigadier.

Public morality suffered a blowwhen the self-assumed Field Martialwas so careless to be involved withChristine Keeler while on an officialtrip to UK. Ayub Khan repaid his debtto Musa when he made him C in Cbypassing others more senior anddeserving than him. It was none otherthan Ayub Khan, who knowinglyselected a debauch to head themilitary, a man under whose watch

Quaid’s Pakistan and his visionreceived a setback in 1971.

The indiscipline, both financial andethical, that infects our bureaucracyand ruling political elite started fromthe plunder of evacuee property in1947 and their greed for real estatewhich was initiated by allotment ofstate lands to its paid servants insteadof to deprived sections of our societyand continues till todate. Inspite ofconstitutional embargo on dualnationality holders to hold publicoffice, the fate of this country, itsinstitutions and its political parties isin the hands of men who owe theirallegiance and loyalties to othernations, and for whom this country isjust a safe financial stopover, wherethey can safely plunder its assets andflee to evade accountability.

T A MALIKIllinois, USA

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-ShaareyFatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected].

Letters should be addressed to PakistanToday exclusively.

how state machinery worksThe duties of the three organs of state are

unambiguously defined in the constitution. Theparliament is to make laws, executive to govern, andjudiciary is empowered to interpret the constitution.In spite of this, the relation between the three is farfrom being cordial.

The heads of these bodies, instead of performingtheir duties in accordance with the provisions of thebook appear to cross red lines and encroach uponeach other’s territory. For instance, the executive isfound wanting in providing good governance, shortin provision of amenities of life at reasonable prices,deficient in maintaining law and order to protect lifeand property of citizens and lag behind to facilitateequal opportunity in education, health and economicsectors. It also could not control fiscal managementand generate revenue for economic growth.

The lawmakers, whose prime job is to formulatelaws for welfare of people, crave for developmentfunds, seek quotas in services and arms licenses,and try keep grip over government functionaries.The apex court, the sole interpreter of constitutionand final arbiter of justice seem to assume duties ofexecutive by issuing directives to heads ofinstitutions and other bodies such as the electioncommission and fix prices in the name of justice.

The media has self-attained the status of thefourth pillar of state. The media men often claim toinform and educate people by presenting objectivefacts. However, the reality defies their claims. Theyat times seem to accelerate an event, throughmanipulation of public opinion, to happenaccording to their own agenda and will. Cracks havealso occurred in their ranks and some are in line offire and others are life line of judiciary.

Due to conflicting views of lawmakers, theestablishment and the judiciary – much inflated bythe media – a worst political polarization spread inthe society. There is a tussle not only between theparliament/executive and the judiciary forsupremacy, but also infighting among officers

belonging to a same department are brewing.As the saying goes, to err is human; no one is

immune against this human weakness. Yet, no onein-charge of any pillar of state ever bearsresponsibility, cost and consequences of hisdecisions. The result is total confusion in thecountry and I wonder where this struggle for powerand influence between the state pillars will take thisalready poor and battered country.

RAJA SHAFAATULLAHIslamabad

My father is innocentOn 28 November, 2012, after over 10 years of

service in the Higher Education Commission, myfather was unceremoniously, and illegally, asked tovacate his position. After failing to remove Dr SyedSohail Hussain Naqvi from the HEC for the last fewyears, the government decided to assign the additionalresponsibility of the Executive Director of the HEC tothe Secretary, Ministry of Education and Trainings.

In doing so, they have created a stalemate in theHEC since my father was appointed, as per law, bythe full board of governors of HEC and cannot berelieved of his duties in this arbitrary manner. Thisis illegal because my father was recently given afour-year extension by the commission consisting ofpeople appointed by the prime minister of Pakistan.Legally, the prime minister can appoint members ofthe commission, and that is where his powers end.Appointment of the executive director is theprerogative of the commission and not any otherperson or body, including the prime minister ofPakistan. Knowing this restriction, the PakistanPeoples Party first tried to declare the originalappointment of my father in 2004 as executivedirector illegal. This argument is, of course,ridiculous as confirmed by no less an authority thanthe best legal mind of the PPP, Aitzaz Ahsan, whostated that everything about that appointmentprocess was absolutely legal.

I might be beginning to sound a bit long winded,

but as the person in question is my father, people willautomatically assume that my bias will skew the facts.I am simply trying to prove beyond a shadow of adoubt that the government is 100 percent in the wrong.

My father graduated from Hasan Abdal andtopped his class, graduated Purdue University witha perfect GPA and got a PhD in refractive optics atthe age of 25, was a tenured professor at theUniversity of New Mexico before the age of 30,helped start up a company which made cutting edgemachines that measured dimensions of nanometresized structures, was the Dean of ElectricalEngineering at GIK Institute of Science andTechnology, VP of Operations at EnablingTechnologies, and of course, Executive Director ofthe HEC for the past eight years.

Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules,nothing can take away what my dad has done forPakistan. Arif Kiyani is definitely someone none ofyou have ever heard of. He has no relation toGeneral Kayani, far from that actually. He firststarted to work for the University GrantsCommission in 1989 as a driver, and was there whenit became the HEC in 2002. He has often told me ofhow much he admires the conduct of my dad, butthe best thing he said was “Sahab wo insaan hai jisne aaj tak mujhe ‘tu’ tak nahi kaha”. Looselytranslated, it means my dad is someone who hasnever once in all his years working with Arif Bhaiaddressed him by ‘tu’, a casual and sometimesdisrespectful way of addressing someone.

I think it is fair to say that the HEC has had atremendously positive impact on the country. Thisof course is not down to my father alone. Everyonefrom Dr Atta-ur-Rehman to the gardeners andsecurity guards at HEC have played their part. Thatis not to say that the HEC is perfect. There is a lot ofroom for improvement, and no one recognises thatmore than my father. He is constantly striving tolearn from his mistakes, take on the advice of othersand grow and move forward.

SHAZIL NAQVILahore

the ides of December

Karachi mob outfitKarachi, ruled by mobsters is even

worse than Chicago of Al-Capone interms of lawlessness, killings, extortion,land and drug mafia domination,because criminals have been allowed tohold at ransom the financial hub ofPakistan and its major port city foralmost three decades. Those who proudlyclaim to have the mandate of this city,forget that their mandate is confined todeliver good governance, amend lawsand take all measures to protect lives andproperty of citizens of Karachi anduphold rule of law. It is a failure of thestate and its civil and khaki dominatedestablishment, which have allowed thelaw to be hostage to whims of criminals.Political mandate does not give anybodythe right to kill, collect extortion, orspread terror in any part of the country.The people of Pakistan have a right toenjoy peace and security, which most ofour political and bureaucraticestablishment enjoy with their familiesand assets, both located in law abidingsocieties like UK, Canada etc.

Alphonse Gabriel Capone, anAmerican born of Italian descent movedto Chicago, became a visible publicfigure, donating to charitableendeavours with his illegitimate money,till he was involved in 1927 StValentines Massacre, when sevenmembers of a rival gang were butcheredin the battle for turf. Since nobody fromIllinois dared to come forward as awitness in the absence of a witnessprotection law, the federal governmentconvicted him on charges of tax evasionand he was sent to Alcatraz prison in1931 for eleven years to be released onparole in 1939. Al-Capone never daredcome back to Chicago and died inFlorida as a recluse in 1948. Chicago,which was the crime capital of America,was finally rid of mob rule and ChicagoOutfit, the gang led by Al-Capone. It istime for writ of law to be imposed inKarachi and no man should have theoption to be asked to obey laws, norshould the elected executive be seennegotiating with criminals to furthertheir political objectives.

MALIK TARIQLahore

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Pakistan bans advertisementsof ‘Khiladi 786’

PAKISTAnI censors have banned

advertisements for Bollywood star Akshay

Kumar’s latest film ‘Khiladi 786’ because the

number 786 is revered by some muslims and could

hurt their sentiments. The Censor Board has directed

cinema halls and distributors not to release the

movie’s trailers and to remove billboards for the film.

‘Khiladi 786’ is yet to be cleared by the censors for

screening in Pakistan. The censors barred the

advertisements as the number 786 is revered by

some muslims and they could find the name of the

film objectionable, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Censor Board Chairman Raja mustafa Haider told the

daily: “The appearance of banners for the film in

Rawalpindi and other areas was brought to my notice

and I asked the City District Government Rawalpindi

to remove all of them.” He did not disclose the final

decision about the fate of the movie. nEWS DESK

court upholds $319Mverdict in ‘Millionaire’ case

Afederal appeals court on monday upheld a

$319 million verdict over profits from the

game show “Who Wants to Be a millionaire”

and rejected Walt Disney Co.’s request for a new trial.

A jury decided in 2010 that Disney hid the show’s

profits from its creators, london-based Celador

International. The ruling monday by a three-judge

panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found

no issues with the verdict or with a judge’s rulings in

the case. “I am pleased that justice has been done,”

Celador Chairman Paul Smith said in a statement.

Disney did not immediately comment on the decision.

The ruling comes more than two years after the jury

ruled in Celador’s favor after a lengthy trial that

featured testimony from several top Disney

executives. The company sued in 2004, claiming

Disney was using creative accounting to hide profits

from the show, which first ran in the United States

from August 1999 to may 2002 and was a huge hit

for ABC. The jury found that Celador was owed

$269.2 million, and a judge later added $50 million in

interest to the judgment. nEWS DESK

Manisha Koirala discharged

FIlm actor manisha Koirala was discharged

from the city’s Jaslok Hospital on Friday

morning. She had been admitted there on

Tuesday. Hospital officials, however, refused to give

any information on the illness the actor is suffering

from. “She has requested the hospital to keep

details of her health confidential,” its marketing

head, Krishnakanth Dasyam, told The Hindu. The

actor underwent a battery of tests during her three-

day stay in the hospital. nEWS DESK

Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

NEWS DESK

Prince William visited his pregnant wife Kate inhospital on Tuesday where she was spending a sec-ond day being treated for acute morning sickness,as messages of congratulations poured in fromaround the world. The announcement on Mondaythat the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, both 30,are expecting their first child ended feverish specu-lation about a new royal heir that began immedi-ately after their lavish wedding in April 2011. Thechild will be third in line to the throne.It will also bedirectly in line to become the monarch regardless ofwhether it is a girl or a boy, after a historic agree-ment among the 16 Commonwealth realms lastyear to end the practice of male primogeniture. StJames’s Palace said Kate was still at the “very earlystages” of pregnancy — she is believed to be lessthan 12 weeks — but it is thought the news was re-leased because her admission to hospital wouldhave made her condition public. Kate has hyper-emesis gravidarum, a very acute form of morningsickness which affects 3.5 in every 1,000 pregnantwomen. Although it should not harm the baby iftreated correctly, it can be highly unpleasant for themother as it causes severe vomiting and carries adanger of dehydration and nutritional deficiencies.William, the second in line to the throne after hisfather Prince Charles, was at his wife’s bedside atthe private King Edward VII Hospital in centralLondon following her admission on Monday after-noon, before leaving at 8:20 pm. He returned againon Tuesday at about 11:30 am (1130 GMT) al-though, like the night before, he did not acknowl-edge the waiting media outside. Kate is expected tostay in hospital for several days and will then re-quire a period of rest, a palace spokeswoman said,adding that her public engagements have been can-celled for the next week. Officials said the coupleonly “recently” became aware that Kate was preg-nant although there has been speculation formonths, fuelled by images of the duchess sippingwater instead of wine at official dinners. Sheshowed no sign of being ill at her most recent pub-lic engagement on Friday, when she displayed herhockey skills at her old primary school, wearinghigh-heeled boots and an Alexander McQueen tar-tan coat. There was reportedly a rush to informmembers of the royal family of the news before thepublic announcement, which came just after 4:00

pm (1600 GMT) on Monday. Queen Elizabeth II,her husband Prince Philip, Charles — forwhom this is his first grandchild — and hiswife Camilla were said by the palace to be“delighted”, as were Kate’s parents, Ca-role and Michael Middleton. William’sbrother Prince Harry, 28, who will bebumped down to fourth in the line ofsuccession by the new arrival, was re-portedly informed by email inAfghanistan, where he is deployedas an Apache attack helicopterpilot. News of the pregnancysparked huge excitement in theBritish press as well as feverish In-ternet speculation about what thechild will be called and what it willlook like, with numerous bizarremock-up photographs being circu-lated. Prime Minister David Cameron,who had his fourth child in 2010, led thecongratulations by saying the royal couplewould make “wonderful parents”. US Pres-ident Barack Obama and his wife Michelle,who met William and Kate during a statevisit to Britain last year, also sent their con-gratulations on the “welcome news”, the WhiteHouse said. Australian Prime Minister JuliaGillard said the news “is going to bring joy to manyaround the world”, while her New Zealand counter-part John Key said it was “fabulous”. New Zealandhad led a push for Commonwealth realms to scrapcenturies-old laws barring first-born daughtersfrom inheriting the throne and the countries agreedto the reform last year at a meeting in the Aus-tralian city of Perth. British Deputy Prime MinisterNick Clegg confirmed the government was put-ting “the finishing touches” to legislationenshrining the new rules of succes-sion. The Sun tabloid celebratedthe news with the headline “KateExpectations” while the DailyMail ran the splash “A na-tion’s joy, a husband’snerves”. Many commentatorsspeculated on whether theremay be two babies, becausehyperemesis gravidarum isapparently more common inmothers carrying twins.

Prince William visits pregnant Kate in hospital

JK ROwlIng’S‘The Casual Vacancy’ tobe made into TV series

NEWS DESK

JK Rowling’s “The Casual Vacancy” — her first

“grown up” novel — is set to be adapted for

the small screen, in a dramatization that will

take the form of a TV series to be aired by

the BBC in 2014. According the BBC, Rowling

was “thrilled” to hear that her novel — which

focusses on the small fictional village of Pagford

following the death of a prominent

councilor — had been optioned, and is

set to “collaborate closely” on the

project. This is something that BBC

One controller Danny Cohen said

would be an asset: “(Her) story-

telling is of course peerless in its

popularity,” he said,“and I am looking

forward to collaborating with her.” What

may surprise some is the project’s choice

of television over film — something which

Rowling had strong feelings about, saying

“I always felt that, if it were to be

adapted, this novel was best suited to

television and I think the BBC is the

perfect home.” Indeed, those familiar

with BBC programming will see that the

novel’s story should fit comfortably; the

network likes to address contemporary

issues, such as the cyber-bullying and

drug-abuse that permeate Rowling’s

text, while a pastoral setting in the

South-West of England can’t hurt either

The novel had a hard time of it with the

critics, and while it didn’t match the

commercial avalanche of the Harry

Potter novels, it did sell well, moving

375,000 copies across all formats in its

first six days of publication. It’s this

sheer selling power that makes this

move an unsurprising one, and with the

subject’s dearth of flying cars and

whomping willows, the adaptation’s

producers probably don’t need the special

effects budget required by Harry & co.

Anne Hathaway talksquitting shopping fora year and how shelost 25lbs

NEWS DESK

The 30-year-old Les Miserables actresshas wowed this year in an array ofstriking cut out black dresses whichshowcase her newly trim figure, butdespite having a long list of red carpetevents to attend, has sworn of shopping.Anne’s priorities have seemingly changedafter marrying Adam Shulman earlierthis year, in a pink tinged Valentinocustom-made gown, might we add. Thestar came across her life-changing(and money-saving) epiphany on herhoneymoon, when she realisedhow content she was with thingsexactly how they are. “I lookedat my life when I was on myhoneymoon, which wasgorgeous, and I thought, Ineed nothing,” Anne toldGlamour magazine. “I’mnot buying myself a singlething for the rest of thisyear,’’ she quipped. Theactress, who has been hotly tipped foran Oscar nomination this year, hasbeen enjoying her newly slimmed downframe in an array of showstoppingdresses this year and she posed on thefront cover of the magazine in a Monrowtank top and Clover Canyon briefs,flaunting her toned physique which isthe result of 25lbs weight loss. Talkingabout her diet for her skinny actingrole, Anne discusses how she lostthe weight and what eatingregime she sticks to. “I don’tgo the soy-meat route; I havea really plant-based diet,”

she said. “So I wind upcooking at home a lot.

Kale is amazing.’’ ‘’Spelt[a kind of wheat] pasta isamazing. I can’t.

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NEWS DESK

Social media experts say thePope will be lucky to break intothe top 20 of the site’s most fol-lowed people. Matt Warmananalyses the numbers. Nearly

32m people follow Lady Gaga onTwitter; just behind her is fellow

popstar Justin Bieber. Of the top 10users, eight are celebrities, from Kim

Kardshian to Taylor Swift and Ri-hanna. Only Barack Obama, with 24mfollowers and YouTube (20m) breakthe mould. Where, therefore will the

Pope’s new account, @pontifex, get toin the rankings? His closest reli-

gious rival on Twitter is the DalaiLama. His 5million followers put

him below Ryan Seacrest, FCBarcelona, Tyra Banks, Paulo

Coelho, Russell Brand and arange of celebrities so fa-mous you’ve almost cer-

tainly never heard ofthem. Let’s hope it’squality, not quantity offollowers that count. Ifwe assume that thedistribution of Bud-dhist access to tech-

nology is, on average, similar to that ofCatholics’, then at the very most one ina hundred followers have chosen to fol-low the Dalai Lama. By some countsthere are 2bn Buddhists around theworld, taking the numbers to one in400. If we assume that the same pro-portion of the 1.25bn Catholics followthe Pope, he’ll come in at number 22with 12.5m. Just behind Eminem. Ofcourse, mapping number of Catholicsdirectly to number of followers is to-tally inexact, but it produces a far moreoptimistic estimate than bookmakersLadbroke’s suggestions that they’lloffer odds on the Pope getting over amillion Twitter faithful by the end ofthe year. Given that he already has over360,000 followers, it might be worthplacing a bet today. A stark reminder ofthe challenges facing the Pope, how-ever, comes from his current officialnews channel on twitter - @newsva_enhas just 1,225 followers, even thoughthis was the account used to sendBenedict’s first tweet. Ian Maude, ofEnders Analysis, says that “The Pope’sgoing to be enormous, but I’m not surehe’s quite going to get to Lady Gagalevels.” He points out that “The demo-graphics of the most faithful might be

older and therefore less likely to be onTwitter, so there’s quite a lot stackedagainst the Pope.” But he adds that, ofcourse, Twitter is now a force for

rather more than simply the trivial.As a major platform followed by themedia around the world, Benedict’stweets will carry more weight thanmost of Gaga’s. “I’m guessing PopeBenedict’s tweets won’t be as ca-sual as Lady Gaga, tweeting whereshe’s just landed,” he says. Thepontiff will tweet in eight lan-guages, starting on 12 December,initially responding live to ques-tions about faith during his weeklygeneral audience, the Vatican hassaid. The 85-year-old’sTwitter handle means bothPope in Latin and bridgebuilder, but it will be astruggle to reach mostCatholics, especially theburgeoning populations inthe developing world. Andas Maude puts it, whilemany Twitter users willfollow the Pontiff out ofcuriosity, for the majority“it will be a Christianthing”. “He’s got a biggeroverall fan base thanLady Gaga – but it’swhether that will trans-late to Twitter,” he says.

Kim Kardashianmost-searchedperson on Yahoo!

NEWS DESK

Socialite Kim Kardashian hasbecome the most-searchedperson on search engineYahoo! this year.Kardashian comes inthe third place afterterms “election” as thechampion and “iPhone 5” as therunner-up. Yahoo! webtrend analyst Vera Chansays Kardashian’s“notoriety has kept her atthe top”. She becomes aconstant hot topic due to herongoing divorce battle withher estranged husbandKris Humphries and herhigh-profile romancewith Kanye West.“The 2012electionsdominated theonline searches,which isamazingbecause ifsomething is inthe news, it’salreadyaccessible...people were reallysaturated by it, buteven so, that was akey word thatpeople typedthroughout theyear,” addedChan. Otherfamous femaleson the top 10 onthe overall listare KateMiddleton, whowas entangled ina topless photoscandal,WhitneyHouston, whosedeath in early2012 spawned anumber oftributes, andLindsay Lohan,who’s facingmultiple legalwoes.

NEWS DESK

Komal Rizvi has been present inthe Pakistani music scene for awhile now. After giving somegood Sufi music from Coke Stu-dio’s platform and pop hits witha diversity of style that broughther fame at a very young age,her new music album “Komal” isall set to release today at Palla-dium Mall, Mumbai in a colorfulceremony where her friendsfrom the industry will be pres-ent to encourage her.

Along with this album re-lease in India, her video song‘Jholay Laal’, which is a mix ofher trademark sufi-pop, will bereleased in Pakistan during thecoming days.

The song video which has

been directed by the talentedUmer Adil. The song has beenwritten by Komal herself, whowants to close the chapter oneverything negative and sad inher life. Praying to the Almightyand with Laal Shahbaz Qalandarby her side, Komal is makingthis heart felt request in thesong. She composed it with thesame genuine determination tobegin her new journey in lifewith her soul-food: Music. Withthe single’s video soon to takeover television screen, the vocalpowerhouse has is all set tomake her voice reign Pakistan’smusic industry

The album released by HMVtoday, includes three new songsincluding Jhoolay Laal andsome previous melodies.

Paris hilton visits Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai.

hMV ReleaSeS KOMal RiZVi’S alBUM in MUMBai

The Pope v Twitter: can heovertake Lady Gaga?

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14Infotainment

Zombie fears lead toincrease in gun sales

IT’S not just President Obama’s re-electionthat’s lead to a spike in gun sales. The livingdead are also providing a reason to stock up

on firearms and ammo.My Northwest.com reports that, according to FBIdata, background checks for guns rose 20percent on Black Friday from the same day lastyear. According to KIRO, one gun rights advocatesaid part of the reason for the increase is zombies.“A lot of people appear to be really enthralled bythis,” Dave Workman said. “I’ve seen lines ofzombie targets, I know one or two ammunitioncompanies have introduced boxes, lines ofcartridges they called zombie cartridges, shotgunshells and rifle shells.”The zombie-themed merchandise has ushered in anew generation of gun shooters, according toWorkman.Of course, the popularity of TV’s “Walking Dead,”heralds the coming of a zombie apocalypse forwhich we must prepare.Those sentiments were echoed earlier this year byTexas gun purveyor Cris Parsons in an interviewwith ABC News.He said products like Zombie Max ammunition(slogan: “just in case”) made by HornadyManufacturing fly off the shelves.“We can’t keep it in stock,” Parsons said. “It comesin a cool, colorful box with a Zombie on it.”Clearly zombies are hot with gun fans, but whatabout other weapons? Could they too become thebeneficiaries of a “zombie bump”? Absolutely,according to Detroit Free Press’ Eric Millikin.“Zombies are also sure to increase sales ofmachetes, nunchucks, and prosthetic chainsawhands,” he writes. nEWS DESK

Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

Flight attendant out of jobafter Facebook remark

ACathay Pacific flight attendant is out of a jobafter writing on her Facebook page that shewanted to throw coffee in a passenger’s face

because she happened to be the daughter ofsomeone she dislikes intensely: ousted Thai PrimeMinister Thaksin Shinawatra. The flightattendant caused a stir in the Thai onlinecommunities last week for posting hostile commentsabout Thaksin’s youngest daughter, PaetongtarnShinawatra. She also posted a picture ofPaetongtarn’s seating number on a Bangkok-to-Hong Kong flight she worked on Nov. 25.Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific said Monday onits Thailand Facebook page that the posting of apassenger’s personal information wasunauthorized and against the airline’s privacyrules. It said, without elaborating, that the flightattendant is “no longer an employee.”The flight attendant said in her post that she calledher personal adviser to ask “if it was all right tothrow something on (Paetongtarn) on this flight.”“Paetongtarn, I didn’t throw coffee in her facetoday but she had no clue that I will keep onfighting until your clan can no longer live like fleason the Thai soil,” she wrote. Cathay Pacific did notrelease the name of the flight attendant, whoseFacebook handle is Honey Lochanachai. The flightattendant said Monday on Facebook that sheresigned in order to take responsibility. A messageseeking comment from the Shinawatra family wasnot immediately returned Tuesday. Thaksin, adivisive figure in Thai politics, was ousted in a2006 coup and lives in self-imposed exile followinga 2008 corruption conviction. His sister Yingluckhas been prime minister since last year, and heropponents say she is Thaksin’s proxy. She recentlysurvived a no-confidence vote in parliament andprotests organized by Thaksin’s opponents. nEWS DESK

LIKE the factory worker andtravel agent before them,some Navy dolphins trainedto hunt down mines arescheduled to be replaced by

computers in five years. However,the Navy’s marine mammals aren’tgoing away. Military-trained dol-phins and sea lions will continue tobe used for port security and retriev-ing objects from the sea floor — jobsthey are still better at than machines.

The Navy’s $28 million marinemammal program, headquartered inSan Diego, uses 80 bottle-nosed dol-phins and 40 California sea lions.

Armed by Mother Nature withsuperb eyesight, sophisticated sonarand the ability to dive 500 feet with-out the bends, these creatures havebeen deployed to Iraq and Bahrainduring the post-Sept. 11 wars to keepports safe for American ships.

They patrol for enemy divers.They ping mines and mark the loca-tion for handlers. It’s a program thatgoes back to naval research startedin the late 1950s that once includedkiller whales and sharks. But nowNavy officials say that an unmannedunderwater vehicle — a 12-foot tor-pedo-shaped robot — can do thesome of the same mine-hunting jobs.And the machines can be manufac-tured quickly, unlike the seven yearsit takes to train a dolphin for duty.

Only 24 of the Navy’s 80 dol-phins are involved in mine-huntingwork that will go to robots starting in2017. Those dolphins will be reas-signed to other tasks, a Navy officialsaid. Sea lion jobs are safe.

“We are certain that there’sgoing to be fewer mine-hunting dol-phins,” said Mike Rothe, head of thebiosciences division at the Navy’sSpace and Naval Warfare SystemsCenter Pacific in San Diego. But headded that there’s potential to shiftthese dolphins into a slightly differ-ent kind of mine-hunting — the abil-ity to find bombs hidden on thebottom of a body of water. “About aquarter of (the Navy dolphins)would be affected. But it’s not likethey are going to go jobless. We haveother assignments,” he said.

Most of the Navy’s dolphins andsea lions are housed at Point LomaNaval Base, in pools sectioned offfrom the bay. Others guard Navy

submarine bases in Georgia andWashington state. Civilian trainersteach the sea lions two skills: To findswimmers underwater and to re-trieve objects from deep water.

During a recent demonstration inSan Diego, sea lions Vader and Jabbawaddled out of their cages and slippedinto the bay. One by one, they found awetsuit-clad swimmer nearby.

Their training dictates that theyswim back to the boat, notify thecrew by touching a disc, and grab aclaw-like apparatus in their mouths.

The sea lion returns to the swim-mer and attaches the apparatus to theperson’s thigh. It snaps onto the legand won’t come off — like a boot on acar with too many parking tickets.

Naval security guards then pull upthe invading swimmer — who mighthave been plotting to bomb a U.S. ship— using the line attached to the claw.The Navy sea lion’s other mission is tofind objects, such as inert missilesplaced during training exercises, on

the ocean floor. Using its spectacularunderwater hearing and eyesight,the mammal is trained to search outthe object. It carries a plate in itsmouth and hooks on a line attachedto the plate. Those jobs are safe be-cause, at present, robots aren’t goodat them or cost effective, Rothe said.

For example, “finding a swimmeris one thing, interdicting it is another,”he said. “Right now the sea lions arethe only nonlethal interdiction systemthat the Navy has in the inventory.”Dolphins also find invading swim-mers. But their special job is mines —a long-important task in the sea serv-ice, as enemy mines have been respon-sible for 14 of the 19 Navy shipsdestroyed or damaged since 1950.

But with Iran threatening tomine the Strait of Hormuz, the pinchpoint of Middle East oil shipping, thetopic of mines is again important.

Earlier this year, the Navy dou-bled the number of minesweeper shipsin that region by moving four from

San Diego. These wood-hulled minecountermeasure vessels do broadsweeps for obstructions in the sea. Thejob of Navy dolphins is to find andmark mines using their innate sonarlocation ability. They can mark minesin shallow water, in deep water whentethers are employed and on the bot-tom despite sediment cover and plantgrowth — three separate skills.

These dolphins are also trained,just like the Marines, to be “expedi-tionary” — or to take the fight on theroad. Dolphins are carried aboardNavy ships in large movable pools,about 20 feet in diameter. Dolphinstraveled on the amphibious shipGunston Hall in 2003 for the Iraqwar. They work for sardines. Andherring, smelt and squid.

And these marine mammals havea pretty good pension program. TheNavy is responsible for their carethroughout their lives, even after theystop performing missions. SometimesNavy dolphins are loaned to animalparks, such as Sea World, later in life.

The Navy breeds dolphins to re-plenish its own ranks, though theproject used wild ones until 1989.Breeding is not an option for sea lions.

The military only uses male sealions who are neutered — to curb ag-gression, improve health and keepweight at a manageable 300 pounds.New recruits are often strays whobecame stranded as youths. Whileyoung marine mammals train, thereplacement — at least for some —sits not far away at the naval base.

Space and Naval Warfare Sys-tems engineers in Point Loma havedeveloped a robot that can run for 24hours underwater. Called Kingfish,the unmanned vehicle is pro-grammed, then placed in the water.Its job is to collect information on theunderwater picture. Kingfish, thenewer larger version of a prototypecalled Swordfish, has been used in alimited way for more than two years.It was demonstrated publicly by theNavy during a mine countermea-sures exercise in the Persian Gulf inSeptember. The exercise, with 30U.S. allies, served as a muscle-flexingof the American anti-mine ability.

The total cost of the Kingfishprogram, compared to the marinemammals, is still not determined,Rothe said. nEWS DESK

Volcanoes may be eruptingon the planet Venus

VOLCANOES may be erupting on the planetVenus, scientists believe. Surges in levels ofsulphur dioxide high in the planet’s

atmosphere could be an indication of volcanicactivity. Venus is covered by hundreds of volcanoes,but whether any are still active today is a hotlydebated question. An earlier study of infraredradiation from the surface of Venus suggested thatone volcano may have erupted in the planet’s recentpast. For the new study, researchers analysed sixyears of sulphur dioxide observations by theEuropean Space Agency orbiter Venus Express. OnEarth, most of the pungent toxic gas found in theatmosphere is generated by volcanic activity.Sulphur dioxide is easily destroyed by sunlight.This means that any detected above the thick clouddeck that blankets Venus must have been recentlysupplied from below. The study found evidence ofbig increases in sulphur dioxide followed by sharpdecreases. Venus Express investigator Dr Jean-Loup Bertaux said: “A volcanic eruption could actlike a piston to blast sulphur dioxide up to theselevels, but peculiarities in the circulation of theplanet that we don’t yet fully understand could alsomix the gas to reproduce the same result.” Thefindings are published in the latest issue of thejournal Nature Geoscience. nEWS DESK

Navy dolphins losing out to robots

Priests in Europe may soonbe working overtime in theirageless struggle against thedark forces of evil.

The Catholic diocese ofMilan has created a specialexorcism hotline and hasdoubled the number of exor-cism-practicing priests.

The BBC reports thenumber of trained priestshas jumped from six to 12 totry and keep up with an ap-parent increase in calls overthe past 15 years from citi-zens claiming to need theservices of an exorcist.

“From the number ofcalls we receive, the need hasdoubled,” Monsignor AngeloMascheroni — the diocese’s

chief exorcist since 1995 —told the news website In-crocinews. “We get youngand old, men and women,people with different levelsof education, from school-leavers to graduates.”

A special switchboard hasbeen set up where people cancall Monday through Fridaybetween 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.for all their exorcism needs.Mascheroni said that onepriest was reportedly seeingas many as 120 people a day.

“People in need can calland will be able to find apriest in the same area whodoesn’t have to travel toofar,” Mascheroni said, ac-cording to The Independent.

While the diocese receivesup to four calls each day, whatexactly are people callingabout? Are demons runningrampant in and aroundMilan, necessitating interven-tions by priests trained in thetask of banishing evil fromunwilling victims?

Mascheroni suggeststhat the rise in exorcist callscould have something to dowith the number of parentshaving discipline problemswith their children.

“Usually the parents call,concerned about a child whowon’t go to school or who’staking drugs or rebelling,” hesaid. “In reality, it’s not ademon, but when they’re 18years old, young people don’twant to be told what to do.”

Maybe that’s where thephrase “you little devils”originated.

Even with the increasednumber of exorcism requestsand priests available to per-form them, Mascheroni cau-tions against believing thatthere’s any sort of “real dia-bolical phenomena” behindit all, preferring to blame“mental and psychiatric dis-orders” for the reported un-usual behaviors. nEWS DESK

Exorcist hotline created byCatholic church in Milan

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QuARteRfiNAlS MAtCh-upS Set foR ChAMpioNS tRophy

Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

Page 17

Nadal eyes clay seasonfor return to top form

Japanesewrestlers inPeshawar forPeace Wrestling

PESHAWARStAff REpoRt

The World fame Japanese wrestler,Antonio Inoki and his team mem-bers arrived in Peshawar on Tues-day for “Wrestling for PeaceFestival” to be held in Peshawartoday. The Khyber PakhtunkhwaMinister for Sports, Tourism andArchives, Syed Aqil Shah receivedthe honourable guests on this occa-sion. MPA Shagufta Malik, Direc-tor Sports, Altaf Umerzai, DCOPeshawar Javed Marwat, HonoraryConsul General for Japan, FazalKarim Afridi and others were alsopresent on this occasion. Express-ing gratitude for the warm wel-come given by the provincialgovernment and Minister Sports,Inoki said the purpose of holdingwrestling for peace festival in Khy-ber Pakhtunkhwa was to show thereal face of the people of KhyberPakhtunkhwa to the world, addingthat they were peaceful and hos-pitable. He said that we aim pro-motion and restoration of peacewith the scheduled festival,adding that if we all worked withunity for peace than the terroristswould face defeat. The ProvincialMinister, Syed Aqil Shah andMPA Shagufta Malik thanked theJapani wrestlers for his effortsfor restoration of peace. He saidthat the wrestling for peace festi-val which is going to start in Pe-shawar on 5th December wouldbe witnessed by 25000 audiencesand the entire world would alsowatch it through the media.

MELBOURNESpoRtS DESK

pool B: aUsTralIa – pakIsTan1-0 (0-0 halfTIMe)

Australia finished Pool B in secondplace after earning a 1-0 win against Pak-istan in today’s final preliminary roundgame at the Champions Trophy in Mel-bourne. The win means that four-time de-fending champion Australia will take onEngland in Thursday’s quarterfinal match-up. Meanwhile, Pakistan will face Ger-many in quarterfinals after finishing PoolB in third place.

The Australia vs. England quarterfinalis sure to be one of the top games onThursday as it will knock one of the two2012 Olympic semi-finalists out of themedal race. Pakistan is also sure to have itshands full against #1 Germany in the othertwo vs. three quarterfinal match-up.

The teams closed the first half in ascoreless draw despite some good chanceson both end of the field. For the Aus-tralians the half was a continuation of of-fensive frustration from their 0-0 meetingagainst the Dutch and left the Aussiesscoreless for more than 100 consecutiveminutes of this Champions Trophy.

It was Kieran Govers that at last brokethe scoring silence for the Australianswhen he fired in a top shelf penalty cornergoal with 20 minutes left in regulation. TheAustralians breathed a visible sigh of reliefafter finding the back of the goal andlooked more relaxed and confident in thelater stages of the game.

Today is a day off for all eight teamsbefore the all-important quarterfinals on

Thursday. The two top seeds from the pre-liminary round will take on the fourth-place finishers, while the second and thirdseeds will meet in the other two games. Itis a must-win game for all teams, and withthis year’s Champions Trophy having noclear dominant team, it is sure to be athrilling day of hockey.BelGIUM – neTherlands 4-5 (0-3 halfTIMe)

The Netherlands and Belgium are fa-miliar foes back home on European soil,but today they found themselves half aworld away in a wild west shootout as theDutch hung on for a 5-4 win against Cham-pions Trophy newcomer Belgium. Thegame was normal enough until a 15-minute span late in the first half and at thestart of the second half that saw sevencombined goals scored.

It was clear from the first whistle thatthe Dutch were on a mission to keep theirhopes to win Pool B alive as they dominatedthe action throughout the first half. But theyhad to be calm with their attack and wait outBelgium before getting on the scoreboard.

The patience finally paid off with 10minutes left in the half when the Dutchfired in three goals to completely changethe face of the game in the blink of an eye.Jeroen Herzberger easily flicked in apenalty corner in the 25th minute. QuirijnCaspers doubled the lead four minuteslater and Tim Jenniskins struck with an-other penalty corner after time expired forthe convincing 3-0 lead at the break.

Tom Boon woke up the Belgians in thesecond half, netting two goals in the firstfour minutes to cut into the Dutch lead.Boon’s first goal came on the first trip down

field just 30 seconds into action and fol-lowed up with a penalty corner goal threeminutes later to change the face of the game.

The Netherlands replied in kind whenGauthier Boccard scored the quick 4-2goal, but again Belgium had the answerwith yet another penalty corner goal, thisone coming from Alexander Hendrickx. Intotal, four goals were scored in the first sixminutes of the half. The teams exhcnagedgoals in the last two minutes of the game.The Dutch scored on a penatly stroke fromValentin Verga and Belgium replied with apenatly corner just as time expired to bringthe final to 5-4.

The win keeps the Netherlands in thehunt for first place in Pool B, while Bel-gium is still looking for its first-ever Cham-pions Trophy point with three losses inthree outings. The loss locks the Belgiansinto fourth place in Pool B. They will faceIndia Thursday's quarterfinal.pool a: GerManY – IndIa 3-2 (1-1 halfTIMe)

India lost todays's battle but won thePool A war after suffering its first loss atthis Champions Trophy in a 3-2 decisionagainst Germany. The Germans earned thecome-from-behind win, but India still wonPool A thanks to a better goal difference.As the top seed out of Group A, India willface Belgium in Thursday’s quarterfinal.Germany closes out the preliminary roundin second place and will take on the third-place team from Pool B in its quarterfinal.

Germany’s win came thanks to astrong five minutes in the second half thatsaw them come from a 2-1 deficit to earnthe 3-2 win on the strength of two goalsfrom Tobias Matania.

Gurwinder Singh Chandi kicked thingsoff quickly when he stormed downfield andput in the quick 1-0 goal just four minutesinto action. Germany calmly regroupedafter falling behind and was eventually re-warded when one of the few veterans onthe team, Oliver Korn scored on a strongsecond effort to bring the sides even at one.

India opened up the second half scor-ing when Nithin Thimmaiah deflected in asecond effort penalty corner shot five min-utes after the break. The Indian lead heldfor more than 15 minutes until Mataniafired in his first marker The Germans tooktheir first lead of the game two minuteslater when Matania scored on penalty cor-ner. The Indian pressured the German netthrough the last whistle, but couldn’t getthe equalizer. Germany must await theoutcome of today’s last game for its quar-terfinal opponent.

Today was the 600th game in Champi-ons Trophy historynew Zealand – enGland 1-1 (0-1 halfTIMe)

England finished the preliminaryround at the Champions Trophy with oneof everything after playing to a 1-1 drawagainst New Zealand today in the last dayof Pool B action. The English squad, nowwith a 1-1-1 record, finished the prelimi-nary round in a disappointing thrid placedespite playing some solid hockey all week.New Zealand is now locked into fourthplace in the group and will play the top-seeded team coming out of Pool A inThursday’s quarterfinal.

It was a tame game on both sides withneither team showing the fire from of theprevious days until late in the game afterPhillip Burrows pulled the Kiwis evenwith his goal in the last seven minutes.Before the equalizer, the game’s scoring

chances were few and far between.England took the 1-0 lead 11 minutes

into action when Mark Gleghorne put inhis first marker of the event on a streak-ing field goal effort. Beyond 1-0 goal, thescoring chances were few and far betweenin the first half as New Zealand missed itsthree penalty corner chances and Eng-land never really had a solid threat aftertaking the lead.

The pace picked up in the second halfas New Zealand came out after the breakreenergized and applied pressure on Eng-land. The English responded in kind andhad a handful of opportunities, but theycould not get the critical second goal.New Zealand jumped on the chance to geta point out of the game when Burrowsshowed his years of experience by calmlyscoring the equalizer in the last sevenminutes of action. New Zealand swarmedthe English net after Burrows’ goal, butultimately had to settle for the 1-1 tie andone point in Pool B action.

Fighting Pakistan go down to Australia

LAHORE StAff REpoRt

Tauqir Dar Hockey Academy will take onthe visiting Holland Veterans in their sec-ond match of the three-match series hereat the Johar Hockey Stadium on Wednes-day (today) at 2 pm and Mian HamzaShahbaz Sharif, MNA will be the chiefguest. The Sports Board Punjab is holdingthe remaining two matches of the series aspart of its Punjab International Sports Fes-tival activity in collaboration with the DarHockey Academy while the third match ofthe series would be played tomorrow(Thursday). Deputy Speaker Punjab andConvener Sports Rana Mashood AhmedKhan and Director General Sports PunjabUsman Anwar will be among the guests.

The Flying Dutch veteran hockeyteam that landed in the city on Decem-

ber 2 and played their first matchagainst Aitchison College team onTUesday but the result remained two-all. The visiting team comprises a num-ber of Dutch greats like Van Pelete whoplayed three Olympics for Holland andwon two Olympic gold medals. AnotherDuct great Waltering is also consideredone of the big name of world hockey, is

also part of the visiting team.Waltering scored the final goal in the

World Cup final of 1990 at Lahore whileVan Higfte, another international Dutchplayer, is also among the visiting greats.Dutch World Cup veteran Kalsrey is alsopart of the visiting veterans. Led by VanPelete, the Flying Dutch will meet the youngguns of Dar Academy and later on Decem-

ber 7 they will face the Pakistan Veterans atthe same venue. These former Dutch greatsare all members of the Flying Dutch Vet-eran Club team which is the oldest hockeyclub of Holland. The team is managed byRob Lathouwers, who has dispelled the im-pression of insecurity in Pakistan.

The SBP and Dar Academy invited theDutch veterans as part of the activity beingheld under the vision of Chief MinisterPunjab and the guidance of Rana Mas-hood. Only recently, Japanese wrestlers gotinvolved in freestyle wrestling to mark the60 years of Pakistan and Japan diplomaticrelations and the event was named asSports and Peace Festival.

The presdient of the Dar Academy,Tauqir Dar has praised the guesture of theSports Board Punjab for making the Dutchveterans series against home sides as partof the Punjab International Sports Festival.

dar academy face holland Veterans at Johar hockey Stadium today

Dutch, Indians top preliminary round groups

LAHOREStAff REpoRt

National chief cricket selector, Iqbal Qasim has said that theongoing T-20 tournament will help in selecting Pakistan teamfor the tour of India. “This event has its own significanceto serve as an effective medium to finalize our team forthe tour of India in which we will be playing two T-20and three one day international matches,” he said hereTuesday. He said those who will perform in the eventwill be considered for selection and national selectorsare minutely watching the performance of players tocome up with recommendations for selection.To a question, he said, veteran batmanMuhammad Yousaf who played only onematch of the tournament did not playthe coming games and those who arenot playing will not be considered for

selection . “Yousaf has earlier said that he is not interested toplay T-20 or one-day games and he wants to concentrate onplaying test matches “,he added. The chief selector said theselectors are keeping in mind the future of Pakistan and itscoming tour of South Africa early next year. “ We are in

process of building Pakistan and we will give amplechance to every deserving player and we are takinginto consideration the performance of players forevery format of the game “,said Iqbal Qasim. To aquestion, he said, all rounder Abdul Razzaq who isrepresenting Lahore Lions missed a match of the

tournament due to sour toe and it is hoped that hewould be available for Lahore’s next game on

tomorrow, Wednesday . He said the se-lection committee is considering the op-tion of sending one team to India toplay the T-20 and one day matches

but it has not yet been finalized.

Lions spinner Mustafaunfit for two months

LAHOREStAff REpoRt

Lahore Lions leg spinner Mustafa Iqbalwill miss remainder of the ongoing Na-tional T-20 tournament after twistinghis right knee during a match againstMultan Tigers . Mustafa has been ruledout of action for two months by doctorswho have advised him complete rest,said President, Lahore City Cricket As-sociation, Khawaja Nadim Ahmad saidhere on Tuesday. He termed Mustafa’sinjury a blow to Lahore Lions whichuder the captaincy of MouhammadHafeez has won its all the four matchesand qualified for the semi finals. “Wehave chosen pace bowler Imran Ali asMustafa’s replacement on the demandof captain and team management tostrengthen the team “,he said.

Yousuf not to be consideredfor T20, ODI selection: Qasim

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fAySAl BANK t-20 Cup

Sports 16

Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

LAHOREStAff REpoRt

aconcentrated batting per-formance from the PeshawarPanthers enabled them topost a sizeable total which

their bowlers went on to defend success-fully against the Hyderabad Hawks, re-sulting in a comfortable 44-run win forthe team in their Group B match duringthe ongoing Faysal Bank T-20 Cup,played at the Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahoretoday on December 4.

The Panthers chose to bat after win-ning the toss and proceeded to put fortha solid display. Opener Israrullah de-parted on duck in the very first over, runout by Azeem Ghumman, but IftikharAhmed (27) and Nawaz Ahmed (whotop-scored for the team with 53) joinedforces for a 74-run partnership for thesecond wicket.

The stand was cut short by IftikharAhmed’s dismissal in the 9th over,stumped by wicketkeeper ShahzadHaider off Rizwan Ahmed, followedthree over later by Nawaz Ahmed,trapped lbw by Rehan Nizamuddin. By

this point, the Panthers were at 104 for3. Skipper Akbar Badshah drove the re-mainder of the innings with his un-beaten 39, and teamed up with ShoaibKhan (30) for a 33-run partnership forthe fourth wicket. Shoaib Khan was ul-timately dismissed, run out by SharjeelKhan in the 17th over, but Badshah wenton to team up with Zohaib Khan (14) fora 39-run stand.

Their combined efforts saw the teamup to 176, after which Zohaib Khan wassent packing by Kashif Bhatti in thefinal over. Some quick contributions,from Badshah, and wicketkeeperGauhar Ali (5*), got the Peshawar Pan-thers up to a total of 185 by the end of20 overs, at the expense of 5 wickets.

The team’s bowling attack proved aseffective as their batting, with all 5bowlers claiming at least one wicket each,while Azizullah (4-0-29-3), Badshah (4-0-36-2), and Zohaib Khan (4-0-23-2) allregistered notable performances.

Coming in at number 8, Kashif Bhattitop-scored for the Hawks with a dismal 25,and Aqeel Anjum (22) was the only otherbatsman who managed to pass the 20-runmark. The rest registered forgettable per-

formances, and by the end of 20 overs, theHawks were all out, with the Panthersgoing on to secure a 44-run victory.scores: Peshawar Panthers won by44 runs. Peshawar Panthers 185/5(20/20 ov), Hyderabad Hawks 141(20.0/20 ov)lIons deMolIsh leopards BY6 wIckeTs: Three-wicket hauls fromWahab Riaz and Aizaz Cheema kept theIslamabad Leopards down to a low total,which the Lahore Lions then went on tochase down successfully, securing a 6-wicket victory in their Group A matchduring the ongoing Faysal Bank T-20Cup, played today on December 4 at theLahore City Cricket Association Ground.

The Leopards won the toss and de-cided to bat first, but the Lions did not letthem rest easy. Wahab Riaz (4-0-17-3)and Aizaz Cheema (4-0-16-3) led theirteam's attack, and were supported byAdnan Rasool (4-0-16-2).

The Leopards, in turn, fared poorly.A faltering 20 from Imad Wasim was theteam’s highest score, and the rest of thebatsmen failed to pass the 20-run mark.Opening for the team, wicketkeeper bats-man Naeem Anjum was bowled by

Cheema in the very first over after a mere2-run contribution, and Shan Masood (9)followed suit in the 5th over, dismissedby the same bowler.

Opener Sajid Ali stuck it out at thecrease long enough to reach double fig-ures, but was cut off at 11 - Wahab Riazdismissed both Sajid Ali, and MoedAhmed (0) in the 6th over, leaving theLeopards at 30 for 4.

Imad Wasim’s (20) own performancewas far from remarkable, and his team-mates proved equally mediocre. ZohaibAhmed (15) managed to join him for a 26-run 5th-wicket stand – the highest ontheir side – but Zohaib Ahmed was soondislodged by Adnan Rasool, followedswiftly by Imad Wasim’s dismissal by thesame bowler, 4 overs later. Faizan Riaz(18) and skipper Umar Gul (13) failed tooffer the team any respite, and both weresent packing swiftly, the former by AizazCheema, and the latter trapped lbw byWahab Riaz.

By the end of 20 overs, with SarmadBhatti (3*) and Hamza Nadeem (2*) atthe crease, the team managed to post atotal of 104 at the expense of 8 wickets.

The Lions’ innings hinged entirely on

the performance of Ahmed Shehzad (56),who single-handedly completed morethan half the chase. Imam-ul-Haq (14)and Sohail Ahmed (16*) were the onlyother batsmen who succeeded in reachingdouble figures, but their contributionsproved sufficient, and despite ZohaibAhmed's (2.5-1-8-2) efforts to defend histeam’s low total, the Lions managed toreach 105 comfortably, with 6 wicketsand 31 balls remaining.scores: Lahore Lions won by 6 wick-ets (with 31 balls remaining). IslamabadLeopards 104 8 wickets; 20 overs. La-hore Lions 105 4 wickets; 14.5 overs. In the other matches of the day, Abbot-tabad Falcons won by 7 runs. Abbot-tabad Falcons 106/8 (20/20 ov), MultanTigers 99/9 (20.0/20 ov), FaisalabadWolves won by 17 runs. FaisalabadWolves 148/8 (20/20 ov), RawalpindiRams 131 (18.5/20 ov), Karachi Zebraswon by 7 wickets (with 14 balls remain-ing). Quetts 125 9 wickets; 20 overs,Karachi Zebra 126 3 wickets; 17.4 overs.Karachi Dolphins won by 3 wickets(with 8 balls remaining). Lahore Eagles113/8 (20/20 ov), Karachi Dolphins115/7 (18.4/20 ov).

Panthers win over Hyderabad Hawks by 44 runs

KOLKATA AGEncIES

England captain Alastair Cook admits heand coach Andy Flower face a tough deci-sion as to whether to pick Steven Finn forthe third Test against India. The Middle-sex pace bowler is fit after a thigh injury,and could replace vice-captain StuartBroad for the Test in Kolkata, which startson Wednesday. "He increases the compe-tition for places," Cook told BBC Sport.

"It makes selection hard for a cap-tain and coach, but it's where you wantto be." The four-match series stands at1-1 with two to play. India won the firstTest in Ahmedabad by nine wickets, butEngland then triumphed the second inMumbai by 10 wickets. Cook waspleased with the way his players re-sponded to their first Test defeat, andhas called on them to carry that forminto the match at Eden Gardens.

"When we lost the toss, if you'd havesaid that three-and-a-half days later,we'd have won by 10 wickets, I think wewould have surprised ourselves," addedCook. "But as I said all along, we've got

some world-class players, and thoseguys really stood up and delivered. "Andwe'll need four or five people producingoutstanding performances. That'swhat it takes to win out here."Cook is looking for MontyPanesar and Graeme Swann tobuild on a performance inMumbai that saw them take 19of India's 20 wickets between.

"I think they out-bowled Indiain that game," Cook said. "I thinkthey were outstanding. "As a captain,you want more, don't you? I wouldlove them to back it up again indifferent circumstances, in dif-ferent conditions. We'regoing to have to adapt abit, but to back thatup again would beanother great ef-fort." There beencontroversy sur-rounding the prepa-ration of the pitch inthe build-up to the thirdTest. India captainMahendra Dhoni re-

portedly asked for the wicketat Eden Gardens to help the

spinners from the first day.Groundsman Prabir Mukherjee

described the request as "im-moral" - but has since resolvedhis concerns. Cook said: "It'sgoing to be tough. I think it's

more like Ahmedabad, thewicket. I think it's going to be aslow turner, rather than a Mum-

bai wicket, that turned andbounced a bit more. "We're going

to have to adapt our skills again.But that's the beauty of a tour, and a

touring game, when you play in allsorts of conditions. "Whichever sideadapts to those conditions well will

do well." The series in India is Cook'sfirst as England Test captain, havingsucceeded Andrew Strauss in August.

He said: "I feel as if I am coping. Iwas tired after Mumbai. It was

probably slightly foolish tobe at short leg in that

first innings. "Some-times you have togive a little bit more.

I was tired at the end of that game, but itwas all worth it. "I've really enjoyed thistour. It's a great start for me. As a cap-tain, you end up learning so much, fromthe beginning of the tour to where we arenow, and where I hope to be in a coupleof years' time. "You're just learning allthe time as a captain. The only place youcan learn is by doing it out there, sothat when it comes round again,you've experienced it and you trustyour decision-making.

SQUADSEnGLAnD: Alastair cook (capt), Nickcompton, Joe root, Jonathan trott,Kevin Pietersen, ian bell, eoin Mor-gan, Matt Prior (wk), Jonnybairstow, Samit Patel, GraemeSwann, Monty Panesar, James An-derson, tim bresnan, Stuartbroad, Steven finn, Grahamonions, James tredwell.InDIA: Mahendra Dhoni (capt,wk), virender Sehwag, GautamGambhir, cheteshwar Pujara,Sachin tendulkar, virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh,Ajinkya rahane, ravichandran Ashwin,Pragyan ojha, harbhajan Singh, zaheer Khan,ishant Sharma, Murali vijay, Ashok Dinda.

LAUSANNEAGEncIES

The IOCBSE 0.11 % suspended India'snational Olympic committee on Tues-day because of government interferencein its election process, two officials withknowledge of the decision told The As-sociated Press. After months ofwarnings, the IOC execu-tive board imposed thesanction when the In-dian Olympic Associ-ation failed tocomply with theworld body's de-mands for holding in-dependent elections,the officials said. The offi-cials spoke on condition ofanonymity because the officialannouncement hadn't been madeyet. An IOC news conference wasscheduled for later Tuesday at the endof the executive board's first day of atwo-day meeting. Suspension meansthe Indian body will stop receiving IOCfunding and its officials will be bannedfrom attending Olympic meetings andevents. India's athletes will be barredfrom competing in Olympic eventsunder their national flag, although theIOC could allow them to do so underthe Olympic International OlympicCommittee spokesman Mark Adams

said he could not comment. "I can'tdiscuss that because any decisions thatare taken have to be communicated toany countries involved," he said. InNew Delhi, acting IOA president VijayKumar Malhotra told the AP that theassociation "has not been intimatedabout any suspension so far." Indian

Sports Minister Jitendra Singh calledthe IOC decision "very unfortunate,more so for sports persons." "I'm onlyconcerned about the sports persons, amwaiting for details," he told the TimesNow news channel. Abhey Singh Chau-tala, who is unopposed for election asIOA president, told reporters in NewDelhi that a suspension would be a"one-sided decision." "We had writtento them, asking them to give some time

to our two-member committee to tellthem about our position," he said."They've not listened to our side. Wewill go to IOC again and explain tothem how elections were carried outhere." The IOC had also recentlythreatened to suspend Kuwait'sOlympic committee, but the Gulf nation

amended its sports law lastweek and was not hit

with an IOC sanctionon Tuesday. The IOChad repeatedly toldthe Indian body toadhere to its ownconstitution and the

Olympic Charter andnot follow the govern-

ment's sports code forthis week's elections. The IOC

will not recognize the results ifthe elections are held under gov-

ernment rules. The Indians havebeen mired in wrangling over theelections to replace Suresh Kalmadi,who was jailed for nine months oncorruption charges related to the2010 Commonwealth Games in NewDelhi. Kalmadi, who headed the IOAfor 16 years, decided not to seek re-election. The Indian vote, originallyscheduled for last month, has beenpostponed to Wednesday followingthe resignation of election commis-sion chairman S Y Quraishi.

Warne won’t rule outAustralia comeback

MUMBAIAGEncIES

Shane Warne believes he could still playTest cricket to a high standard andhinted he could be persuaded to repre-sent Australia once again. Warne endeda hugely successful international careerfollowing the infamous 5-0 Ashes white-wash of England in 2007. The leg-spin-ner is the second highest wicket-taker ofall time in Tests with 708 scalps - sec-ond only to his great rival Muttiah Mu-ralitharan. Yet despite his age and morethan five years away from Test cricket,43-year-old Warne thinks he could stillmake an impact. With a back-to-backAshes series around the corner and hisbest friend Michael Clarke skipper ofthe Australia side, Warne stated hewould not dismiss a return out of hand.

Australia ponderpost-Pontingnew order

PERTH AGEncIES

With a three-test se-ries against SriLanka starting nextweek, Australia haveno time to dwell onwhat might havebeen after gettingclose to beating thebest side in the worldbefore being blown away at the end of ahard-fought series. They will, of course, bewithout Ricky Ponting for the first time in17 years after the former captain bowed outfollowing his 168th test, which ended witha 309-run defeat and the loss of the seriesto South Africa in Perth. "I just hope I'veleft the team in a better place than it waswhen I started," Ponting, struggling to con-tain his emotions, said at the conclusion ofhis final news conference as an interna-tional cricketer on Monday. "I think everyplayer that comes into international sportwants to say that they can walk away withthe team being in a better place than it was,hopefully my impact and input on Aus-tralian cricket has left something behind."

Dhoni plays downwicket concerns

KOLKATA AGEncIES

India captain Mahendra Dhoni is predictinga good wicket that will not unduly favourspin when his team play England in the

third Test in Kolkata. Dhoniwas recently accused by thegroundsman at Eden Gardens

of asking for a dry pitch thatwill assist spin. But Dhoni saidahead of the start on Wednes-

day: "The wicket looksgood. We'll have to seewhether anything hap-pens. It depends on claycontent. "I don't think itwill be much help forthe spinners initially."The four-Test series islevel at 1-1 with twomatches left to play.India won the firstTest in Ahmedabad by

nine wickets, but Eng-land responded by win-

ning the second inMumbai by 10 wickets. Andthe 31-year-old insisted thatfast bowlers will play a cru-cial role in what could proveto be a decisive match.

Cook faces Steven Finn selection puzzle

IOC suspends Indian Olympicdue to govt interference

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big reception

awaits Asif in

federal capital: Dr

Shahzad WaseemISLAMABAD

StAff REpoRt

President Islamabad Billiards &Snooker Association (IBSA) and formerstate interior minister Dr. ShahzadWaseem termed the cueist MuhammadAsif’s great victory as the revamping ofPakistan Snooker. IBSA will host agrand reception in the honor of na-tional hero in the federal capitalshortly.Talking to the media on Tuesday, Pres-ident IBSA remarked that by clinchingthe World Amateur title, MuhammadAsif delighted the snooker player of thecountry in particular and the whole na-tion in general.”“It is high time for the departments to

hire the services of the top rankingcueists of the country who have beendeprived off a honorable job whatthey deserved for brining the twoworld, two Asian and two Asian gamestitle in just two decades,” said Dr.Shahzad Waseem adding that thissport needs more support of the gov-ernment.President IBSA was of the view thatPresident and Prime Minister shouldinvite Muhammad Asif to Presidentand Prime Minister house and honorhim with a cash reward besides a resi-dential plot in the Islamabad.“Young snooker players in the local

snooker clubs and parlors are celebrat-ing the Muhammad Asif’s triumph tillnow and a new spirit has been devel-oped amongst them,” Dr. ShahzadWaseem concluded.Meanwhile, Brig.(Retd) Arif MahmudSiddiqui, President, IslamabadOlympic Association (IOA) also hailedthe fine performance of MuhammadAsif who brought the prestigious titleto the country after 18 years.“ Despite the paucity of funds and

without having permanent jobs, attain-ing the World title is a big feat which isnot only commendable but also a boostfor the young snooker players of thecountry." he remarked while talking tothe media.Government and various departmentslike Armed Forces, Wapda, Railways, &Banks should immediately offer per-manent jobs to the top ranking snookerplayers who have brought laurels to thecountry, said President IOA.

eagles beat ch

Sports in veteran

cricket LeagueLAHORE

StAff REpoRt

Golden Eagles scored a fine 4-wicketwin over Chaudhary Sports in the 4thSPM veteran cricket league here onTuesday at Ali Garh Cricket GroundModel Town.Brief scores,, put into bat , ChaudharySports batted first 192/8 in 30 overs.Ch. Shafqat Hussain 53, Waris Ali 25,Shahid Ali 21, Muhammad Naeem 21 &Naseer Ali 29 runs not out. Golden Ea-gles bowling Naveed Sufi3/34, Ali Rafi2/41, Tanzeem Najam 1/39 & RomailBashir 1/17 wickets. Golden Eagles an-swered with 193/6 in 28.2 overs.Jamshaid Ali top scored with 60 andtheir other notable scorers , Ali Rafi29, Bakhtiyar 28, Asif Mehmood 15,Muhammad Hafeez 11 & Asif Iqbal 23runs not out.Chaudhary Sports bowling MuhammadSami 2/21, Malik Saleem 1/39, WarisAli 1/28 & Gulzar Ahmad 1/12 wickets.Ansar Mehmood, and Irfan Dilshadstood as umpires Umpire and WaqarAhmad was the scorer.End of the match Chief Guest FormerInternational Cricketer Zahoor Ilahigave away man of the match award toJamshaid Ali.

MADRID AGEncIES

Rafa Nadal is aiming to be back to hisbest after injury in time for the claycourtseason and the run-up to Roland Gar-ros, the Spaniard said on Monday. The26-year-old former world number onehas slipped down to fourth in the ATPrankings and has not played since hisshock second-round exit at Wimbledonin June. The Spaniard was diagnosedwith a partial tear of the patella tendonand inflammation of the left knee, onlyreturning to hitting balls on a practicecourt two weeks ago.

"My recovery is going well and thedoctors are pleased," Nadal told Spanishradio. "I have to look at my career witha five-year view. I considered havingsurgery, but the doctors have alwayspreferred not to take risks with my treat-ment." The 11-times grand slam singleschampion was pragmatic about his re-turn to competition.

"I would like to return in January,"he said. "I don't expect to return and winthe Australian Open, I have to be realis-

tic. The results will not worry me in thefirst tournaments back. "I have to takeinto account my form after so long out.It wouldn't bother me if I slipped down

to 15th in the world as long as inside Iknew was able to continue. "I want to be100 percent in time for Monte Carlo andthe run-up to Roland Garros."

Wheelchair tennisMasters to be stagedat olympic Park

LONDONAGEncIES

London's Olympic Park will host theNEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters forthree years starting in 2014. The compe-tition is the season finale to the wheel-chair tennis circuit and features theworld's top eight men, eight women andfour quad players. The site was the onlypurpose-built venue for the 2012 Para-lympics. International Tennis Federa-tion president Francesco Ricci Bittisaid: "British fans can look forward tothe return of some outstanding ath-letes." The Stratford venue is due to re-open in 2014 with four indoor and sixoutdoor courts as the Lee Valley hockeyand tennis centre at the newly-namedQueen Elizabeth Olympic Park. BritishParalympic Association chief executiveTim Hollingsworth said: "The venueswere packed in London 2012, whichshows that the British public has an ap-petite for world-class international Par-alympic sport. "Therefore it is fantasticnews that the first sporting event in theOlympic Park will be a Paralympic one,and I'm sure it will be a great success."

Nadal eyes clay season for return to top form

bANGKoK: Masters

champion bubba Watson on

the frist hole during the

prectice session for the

thailand Golf championship.

LAHOREStAff REpoRt

Army gave a big surprise to fanciedWapda by beating them 1-0 in NBP GoldCup hockey tournament to take a confi-dent start in the event here on Tuesdayat the outer ground of the nationalhockey stadium here on Tuesday. For-mer test cricketer Iqbal Qasim who is theSenior Executive Vice-President and In-charge Sports Department, NationalBank of Pakistan inaugurated the event.Organising Secretary former Olympian

Rana Mujahid Ali, Tournament DirectorAnjum Saeed, and former OlympiansKhawaja Muhammad Junaid, OlympianMuhammad Akhlaq and officials of DHALahore were also present.

The opening day of the event proveda nightmare for top notchers as NationalBank of Pakistan were held to a 2-2 drawby Sui Southern Gas Company beforeArmy shattered the confidence of Wapdawith an unexpected win. Army struck thematch winning goal as early as in the thirdminute of the first half through Fahad Alioff a short corner as there was no scoring

in the rest of the play. Wapda a much su-perior side failed to display their truecolour and rhythm and lost the match.

NBP and SSGC played a 1-1 draw atthe end of the first half . Bankers drew thelead in the 14th minute when Muham-mad Auyb scored a field goal and Adnanleveled from SSGC in the 25thminute.Two minutes into the second half NBP re-stored edge when Zubair shone in a fieldattack . SSGC kept their chase to score theequalizer and demonstrated a higherlevel of hockey in the last ten minutes ofplay. Their persistent attacking led them

to a field goal scored by Arslan Shirazi,four minutes before the end of the match.Matches for tomorrow, Wednesday, PIAvs Customs, Wapda vs SSGC.

Army beat Wapda in NBP Gold Hockey Cup opener

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watch it LiveESPNSports Center07:30PM

touchballfederation electsnew officebearers

LAHOREStAff REpoRt

DIG Motorway Police Punjab , Rai AltafHussain and Zahoor Ahmad were electedunopposed President and Secretary ofthe Pakistan Touch Ball Federation hereon Tuesday at the general council meet-ing. The outgoing President, RiazFatyana ,MNA presided over the meetingwhich elected its Senior Vice President,Altaf as the new President . Fatyana wasalso elected as Chairman of the body fora fresh term of four years. Following of-fice bearers were also elected, (Vice Pres-idents), Brig retd Farook Yaqub, MianSohail Nisar, Muhammad Younas andSaaed Iqbal Khan. (Treasurer) SaeedAhmad Khan. (Member of the executivecommittee), Nisar Ahmad Shenwari,Salma Masood, Rabia Kausar, Muham-mad Ramzan Kasuri and Wisal Muham-mad, Muhammad Hafeez, ShahMuhammad and one representative eachfrom member of referring association,coaching association . “The house took anumber of important decisions pertain-ing to the promotion of the game besidesfinalizing the activity programme for theyear 2013,” said Zahoor after his elec-tion,” he said. He said PTBF is taking allout measures for the overall develop-ment of the game and it is regularly or-ganizing events at senior and junior levelfor forming a strong base of touch ball inthe country . PTBF official said the interdepartment and national championshipswill be played from February 19- 22 nextyear at Islamabad . The inter provincialchampionship will take place at Lodhranin March. International coaching coursewill be held in May at Karachi. “The na-tional junior championship will beplayed in October and Pakistan seniorteam will participate in three interna-tional events to be organized in Dubai,Malaysia and Thailand,” he asserted.

FiFa should not run commercial side of the game: champagnePARIS

AGEncIES

FIFA's former director of internationalrelations Jerome Champagne has sug-gested that those at the head of theworld governing body should not also beinvolved in the commercial side of thesport. Frenchman Champagne, who leftFIFA two years ago, has been tipped torun for the presidency.

Asked by France Football magazinehow FIFA could become more demo-cratic, he said: "Those who rule FIFAshould not be in a position where theyare accused of conflict of interest.

"To get there, it would be appropri-ate to...create a subsidiary company thatwould look after the commercial deals."In January, Champagne circulated a20,000-word report to each of FIFA's208 member associations that examinedhow many of soccer current ills had de-

veloped. It suggested improvements tothe game and changes at the top.corInThIans fans seT offfIreworks: Some 15,000 Corinthi-ans supporters waved banners, set offfireworks and blocked access roads atSao Paulo's main airport as they gave

their team a rousing sendoff on theirway to Football's Club World Cup inJapan. Television pictures showed theteam bus edging its way through the ex-uberant crowd after arriving at the air-port late on Monday amid chaoticscenes. Photographs showed thousandsof Corinthians fans inside the departurehall where they chanted, waved bannersand set off fire extinguishers.

The total number of fans was esti-mated at between 15,000 and 20,000 bylocal media. Several hundred fans fol-lowed the team bus from the Corinthianstraining camp, turning the six-km jour-ney into a procession. South Americanchampions Corinthians go straight intothe semi-finals of the Club World Cup,playing their first game on December 12,and are heavily favoured to reach thefinal where European championsChelsea, who also have a bye to the lastfour, are expected to be their opponents.

YoUTh plaYers face charGesafTer lInesMan dIes: A Dutchprosecutor will announce on Tuesdaywhat charges will be brought againstthree teenaged players after the death ofa linesman during a youth soccer com-petition. Richard Nieuwenhuizen, 41,died on Monday after an incident follow-ing an Under-17 match in Almere onSunday. He was officiating for theBuitenboys team, in which his son wasplaying. Police arrested three membersof the Nieuw-Sloten Amsterdam youthteam after the incident, in which thelinesman fell to the ground.

Nieuwenhuizen collapsed hoursafter the match and was taken to hospi-tal where he fell into a coma. He died thefollowing day. The BBC quoted DutchSports Minister Edith Schippers as say-ing: "It is absolutely terrible that some-thing like this can happen on a Dutchsports field."

ioc tells rioorganisers ‘timeis ticking’

LAUSANNEAGEncIES

Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics organiserswere told on Tuesday they needed to pushahead with their preparations becausetime was an issue, the InternationalOlympic Committee said. Rio has not fi-nalised its budget for the Olympics as wellas the venues for several sports, includingrugby, hockey and golf. Rio organisers saidlast month the Sao Januario Stadium,home of soccer club Vasco da Gama, hadmissed the Oct. 31 deadline and theywould therefore revisit plans for the JoaoHavelange Stadium to host the rugby sev-ens tournament instead. "Our message re-mains there is time but time is ticking.They (Rio organisers) need to carry on at-tacking this one with all vigour," IOCspokesman Mark Adams told reporters.

LeMond willing to runfor cycling presidency

PARISAGEncIES

Former Tour de France winner GregLeMond is willing to run for the Interna-tional Cycling Union presidency with theaim of making the sport clean.The American, 51, has been critical of theUCI's failure to address the culture ofdoping and in October called for presi-dent Pat McQuaid to quit.The three-time Tour winner has alsojoined pressure group Change CyclingNow (CCN), which is demanding a radicalreform of the sport.leMond's VIcTorIes1983: Wins world road race title

1986: first non-european to win tour de france

1989: beats Laurent fignon by eight seconds in the clos-

est finish to a tour de france

1989: Wins world road race for second time

1990: becomes the sixth man to win at least three

tours de france

"It is now or never to act," he said.CCNhas criticised the UCI over the LanceArmstrong scandal, which resulted inthe American being banned for life andstripped of seven Tour de France titlesafter being accused of "systematic dop-ing". Lemond believes the earthquakecaused by the Armstrong case hasgiven cycling the perfect opportunity toclean up the sport.

BANGKOKAGEncIES

MASTERS Tournamentchampion Bubba Wat-son wants to end hisbanner season on a high

by winning the US$1 million ThailandGolf Championship which starts onThursday. The swashbuckling Ameri-can lefthander arrived for the AsianTour showpiece at Amata Spring Coun-try Club in confident mood, declaringthat he did not fly to Thailand to soakin the accolades after winning his firstcareer Major in April.

"I'm here to win. That's everybody'sgoal. I'm not here to wave at every-body," said the world number 12. Wat-son will line up in the second edition ofthe Thailand Golf Championship along-side many giants of the game includingtitle holder Lee Westwood, 2011 Mas-ters winner Charl Schwartzel, RyderCup stars Sergio Garcia and NicholasColsaerts, 2011 British Open championDarren Clarke, Ryo Ishikawa, PGATour winner Hunter Mahan and eightof the top-10 players from the AsianTour's Order of Merit led by numberone Thaworn Wiratchant.

After arriving in Bangkok on Tues-day morning, Watson found out thatthe mantle as the reigning Masterschampion did not bring him instantrecognition when he attempted to playthe Royal Sports Club course, which isa private course located next to the of-ficial hotel.

"I flew in here and felt tired. I justwanted to get some energy levels up. Ididn't know how private it (the club)was and it took some hard work to get

in there!" said Watson. "I played about10 holes. I just had a seven iron inhand." Watson will have with a bagful ofnew equipment which he will put in playat the magnificent Amata Spring andinto the 2013 PGA Tour season whichstarts in several weeks. "Pretty mucheverything is brand new since Chinaand I'm trying to get ready for next year.I worked on it last week (Chevron WorldChallenge) and finished ninth, and it'sfeeling better. I missed some putts andhit some bad shots last week but I'mlooking forward to the momentum ofthis week and trying to play some goodgolf," he said. Watson defeated South

African Louis Oosthuizen, who with-drew from the Thailand Golf Champi-onship due to a stomach ailment, in aplay-off to win the Masters Tourna-ment. He produced a remarkable recov-ery shot from deep in the woods to savepar and win the green jacket.

"If you look back, all golfers want towin. Their first goal is to win a golftournament that year. For me, I've wona tournament in the last three years andto win a Major is a bonus. It's a dreamcome true. You expect to win one but toactually do it, it's actually very emo-tional and after doing it, I obviouslycried a lot," he said.

LONDON AGEncIES

Manchester United will "do the right thing" and field a strongline-up in their final Champions League Group H clash againstCFR Cluj on Wednesday, with Serbian defender NemanjaVidic likely to make a timely return from injury, manager AlexFerguson said on Tuesday. Premier League leaders Unitedhave already secured first place in the group and the homeclash against the Romanians could offer a chance to rest keyplayers ahead of the weekend's derby at Manchester City.

Romanian club Cluj are still vying with Galatasaray for aplace in the last 16 so there will be a competitive edge to a gameFerguson views as the perfect comeback test for the influentialVidic whose qualities have been sorely missed this season asUnited leak goals. Vidic has been out since September after un-dergoing knee surgery. "I'm hopeful maybe Vidic will play,"Ferguson told the club's website (www.manutd.com). "I thinkthere's a good chance he will but it depends on how he feelshimself. "It allows me to give Phil Jones, Chris Smalling andVidic (a game) in a strong back four and Alexander Buttnerwould be left-back. There's a good foundation to start in thegame in terms of respecting the challenge between Galatasarayand Cluj (for second place).

"I think we're doing the right thing." United have con-ceded 21 goals in 15 Premier League matches this season -only Tottenham Hotspur in the top half have conceded more- and the return of Vidic would be a huge boost with the hec-tic Christmas schedule looming. "I knew Vida was doing re-

ally well with the physios," Ferguson said. "He was doing hisfootball training with them in terms of turning and strikingthe ball but he came into training last Monday with the firstteam and did okay.

"He's a battler, an absolute competitor. He's got that dour,uncompromising way of his. He likes defending - that's whathe does." United, who are three points clear of City in the titlerace, are past masters at reaping a large haul of points aroundthe turn of the year and Ferguson, while having one eye onCluj, is looking forward to more of the same.

Bubba in Thailand to winScott dumps broomstick putterMelBoUrne: Adam Scott already appears to be planning for life withouthis broomstick putter having seemingly discarded it ahead of this week'sAustralian Open in Sydney. Golf authorities announced last week a proposedrule to ban any form of 'anchored' putting stroke from 2016, although 'long-handled' and 'belly' putters themselves would not be outlawed. However, thenews looks to have prompted Scott into making a rapid change of equipmentwith the 32-year-old turning up for this week's tournament on home soilwithout the broomstick that he has been using for the past 18 months. Scottwas first spotted on the practice green using a traditional short putter with aslightly extended shaft and he then took that club out on to course and usedit during his practice round. The Queenslanderemployed a claw-style grip with his bottomhand (see photo), with his other hand sepa-rated towards the top of the grip in order toproduce a technique similar to the one heemployed with the broomstick. However,there was a clear gap between the endof the putter and his body,meaning the strokewould be lawfulunder the pro-posed guide-lines. AGEncIES

Vidic may face Cluj as Fergusondoes ‘the right thing’

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Page 19: e-paper pakistantoday 05th December, 2012

Wednesday, 5 December, 2012

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 79, Sector 24, Korangi Industrial Area Karachi. Editor: Arif Nizami

ISLAMABADSHAIQ HUSSAIn

IN a significant development, theUnited States has expressed will-ingness to provide Pakistan withanother three to four maritime

surveillance aircraft, P3C Orion, for theaviation fleet of Pakistani Navy, it hasbeen reliably learnt.

Pakistan has been seeking for more

Orion aircraft from US since the de-struction of two such aircraft in the ter-rorist attack on Mehran naval base inKarachi last year.

The US authorities expressed theirwillingness to oblige Pakistan on thiscount during the 21st meeting of the US-Pakistan Defence Consultative Group(DCG), which was held in Rawalpindi onDecember 3-4.

The DCG last met in May 2011 in

Washington but its meetings were sincenot held owing to serious hiccups in bilat-eral relations that included unilateral raidto kill former al Qaeda chief Osama binLaden and the NATO attack on Pakistaniborder post in Mohmand Agency.

The two nations’ delegations in DCGwere respectively led by Lt Gen (r) AsifYasin Malik, secretary for Defence, and DrJames N Miller, US under secretary of de-fence for policy.

The DCG is the primary Pakistan-USforum for exchanging views and coordinat-ing defence policy with the goal ofstrengthening cooperation to support eachcountry’s security interests.

“The talks between the senior defenceofficials were focused on provision of mil-itary hardware to Pakistan by the US, es-pecially the requirements in this regard ofPakistani Navy,” an official source privy tothe two-day talks said.

He said the US officials had beenpositive in their response to Pakistan’sdemand for the supply of three to fourP3C Orion aircraft in the next couple ofyears, which would boost the country’snaval defence.

Pakistan has currently four P3C Orionaircraft in its naval fleet that include twosuch planes given to it by the US after theattack on Mehran naval base.

Pakistan, US cement defence cooperation

Continued on page 04

clinton, Khar agree to jointlyachieve shared objectives

BRUSSELSAGEncIES

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and For-eign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar have ex-pressed their commitment to jointly act toachieve bilateral shared objectives.

As part of their regular consultations, thetwo foreign ministers met in Brussels late onMonday night where they discussed countert-errorism operations, support for the Afghan-ledand Afghan-owned peace process, the post2014 transition in Afghanistan and variousmeasures to further strengthen bilateral rela-tions, including the need to move the US-Pak-istan economic agenda from aid to trade thatemphasises market access and investment.

The two welcomed the recent meetings ofthe trilateral core groups and the law enforce-ment, economic and defence working groups.

They also looked forward to meetings of theenergy and strategic stability working groupsand underlined the importance to continuethese engagements in the weeks and monthsahead. A State Department official said after themeeting that the US and Pakistan had agreed toidentify and work on the areas of common in-terest. “As part of their regular series of consul-tations, Secretary Clinton and Pakistani ForeignMinister Khar and their delegations reviewedthe progress in US-Pakistani relations in 2012based on their commitment to identify sharedinterests and act on them jointly,” he said, re-questing anonymity. “They discussed countert-errorism cooperation, support for theAfghan-led peace process, the 2014 transition

in Afghanistan and the need to move the US-Pakistan economic agenda from aid to trade,emphasising market access and investment,” hesaid. The official said both dignitaries termedthe recent interactions between Pakistan andUS encouraging for the future of relationship.

“They welcomed the recent meetings of thetrilateral core group and the law enforcement,economic and defence working groups,” hepointed out. The foreign minister of Pakistanand the US secretary of state “looked forward tomeetings of the energy and strategic stabilityworking groups,” he said, adding that the USand Pakistan “will continue these engagementsin the weeks and months ahead”.

Responding to a question regarding thechances of reconciliation efforts with Talibanearlier, deputy spokesperson of the State Depart-ment, Mark Toner, welcomed reports regardingreconciliation talks underway with the Talibanand the core group that includes Pakistan andAfghanistan. “I think we saw last week that therewere meetings between Afghanistan and Pak-istan, obviously. We’ve welcomed that kind of co-operation. We want to see greater dialoguebetween them. Obviously our role, as well asPakistan’s role, is the same. We want to see anAfghan-led reconciliation process,” he clarified.

He also hailed the dialogue between Pak-istan and Afghanistan to further the peaceprocess in the war-torn country. “I think thatwe would view any kind of dialogue betweenAfghanistan and Pakistan that furthers that ul-timate goal to be very positive. And certainlythat’s our goal, is to play a facilitative role in thisprocess,” he maintained.

NEW DELHIAGEncIES

New Delhi on Tuesday accused Islamabad ofmaintaining more than 40 militant camps alongtheir border and said it has foiled attempts bythe militants to cross into its territory.

There are 42 militant camps functioning inthe border region, 25 in Pakistani-administeredAzad Kashmir and 17 in Pakistan containingaround 2,500 militants, junior Home AffairsMinister Mullappally Ramachandran told theIndian parliament. “The terrorist infrastructurein Pakistan or Kashmir remains intact and in-filtration attempts from across the border stillcontinue to pose a challenge to the securityforces,” he alleged. Ramachandran further al-leged that militants – with the support of the

Pakistani Army – have made 249 infiltration at-tempts to sneak into Indian territory so far thisyear – two more than last year but far below the489 in 2010. Intelligence inputs indicate “activesupport” of Pakistani intelligence and securityagencies to push terrorists into India, claimedthe minister. The border area – particularly theJammu region in Indian-administered Kash-mir – “is highly vulnerable to infiltration fromPakistan side”, he said. “However, due to inten-sive vigil and high degree of alertness, BSF(Border Security Force) personnel foil every at-tempt of infiltration by Pakistani terrorists.There has been no case of infiltration by terror-ists,” Ramachandran said. He said the lack ofsuccessful infiltration attempts was due to bet-ter border management, including border fenc-ing and better intelligence.

bRUSSELS: foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar shakes hands with US

Secretary of State Hillary clinton before a meeting on tuesday. INP

g US to give four more US P3C Orions to boost naval defence g Washington may also provide Islamabad a used frigate for Pakistan Navy

g US secretary of state, Pakistani FM take upterrorism, Afghan peace process, trade

Pakistan ‘maintaining’ militantcamps along border: indian minister

NEW yORKAGEncIES

Pakistan, Afghanistan and India were the worst-affected victims of terrorism during 2011, whileterrorist strikes increased four times since thestart of Iraq war in 2003, according to a newglobal study.

The inaugural Global Terrorism Index(GTI) said that Pakistan, India and Afghanistanaccounted for 12 percent, 11 percent and 10 per-cent of global terrorist incidents from 2002 to2009. In 2011, Middle East, India, Pakistan andRussia were the worst-impacted victims of ter-rorism, the report said, adding that overall, therewere 7,473 fatalities in 2011 due to terrorism,which were 25 percent less than those in 2007.The report said that the number of terrorist in-cidents had increased every year since the 9/11attacks in the US, with most terror strikes occur-ring in a wider conflict situation. The indexshowed that global terrorism had only started toincrease after the escalation of the Iraq war.

This was subsequently followed by furtherincreasing waves of terrorism in Afghanistanand then in Pakistan 18 months later. While ter-rorism fatalities fell by 25 percent since 2007,coinciding with the wind-down of the Iraq war,Iraq still remained the country that had sufferedthe most from terrorism in 2011. According to areport, US, Algeria and Colombia had seen thebiggest improvement over the last ten years.“Terrorism is one of the most emotive subjectsof our time. The impact of terrorism does seemto have plateaued over the last three years but is

still unacceptably high,” said Steve Killelea, ex-ecutive chairman of the Institute for Economicsand Peace, which produced the index. In thedecade since 9/11, fatalities from terrorist at-tacks have increased by 195 percent, incidentsby 460 percent and injuries by 224 percent.

PML-N MNAKumar quitsover dualnationality

LAHOREonLInE

Dual nationality issue hasclaimed another victim, the ca-sualty being Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz’s (PML-N) law-maker Arish Kumar. Accordingto sources, the resignation ofKumar was sent to NA SpeakerFehmida Mirza on Tuesday andhas been accepted. Kumar’sresignation has been forwardedto the Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP), reports added.The ECP had set November 30as the deadline for parliamen-tarians and members ofprovincial assemblies to submitaffidavits to deny holding dualnationalities.

Pakistan among nations worstaffected by terrorism: report

washInGTon: A Chinesegovernment-linked company haspleaded guilty to “illegally” exportinghigh-performance coatings from the USto a nuclear power plant in Pakistan. TheChina-based Huaxing Construction wasfined $3 million, according to a BBC reportciting a statement by the US Department ofJustice. The US has imposed a ban onnuclear-related exports to Pakistan sincethe country’s detonation of a nucleardevice in 1998. This is the first time aChinese company has admitted guilt in aUS criminal export case. The Nanjing-based Huaxing admitted to charges that itconspired to ship the epoxy coatingthrough China to Pakistan’s Chashma IINuclear Power Plant in 2006 and 2007.Huaxing was building the site as part of anuclear cooperation pact signed betweenPakistan and China. A Chinese subsidiaryof the company that made the coating, PPGIndustries, pleaded guilty in the sameinvestigation in 2010. AGEncIES

Chinese firm admits illegalnuclear exports to pakistan

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