e-paper pakistantoday 7th april, 2012

islamabad — peshawar edition Saturday, 7 april, 2012 Jamadi-ul-awal 14, 1433Rs15.00 Vol ii no 280 22 pages

PAGE | 03 PAGE | 18

Boy in China sells kidney to buy iPhone

Nawaz Sharif ‘still praysfor forgiveness of Zardari’s father’

Obama urges Iran to accept civiliannuclear program

PAGE |04

QUETTAShAhzAdA zUlFiQAR

CHIEF Justice of Pakistan IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry on Friday de-clared that the dead bodies lying onroads in Balochistan gave the impres-sion that there was no difference be-

tween human being and animals, as the policeproduced four missing Baloch tribesmen allegedlywhisked away by intelligence agencies in court.

The CJ, who is in Quetta with JusticeKhilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Pervez,made these remarks while hearing the consti-tutional petition filed by SCBA President HadiShakeel regarding deteriorating law and orderof Balochistan.

The CJ said police seemed under pressureand took no interest in recovering missing cit-izens rather they had joined the abductors. Healso gave a strict warning that if a citizen waswhisked away, the SHO of that area would beplaced under suspension.

After warning about the suspension of IG po-lice on the previous hearing, Quetta police even-tually produced four of the seven missing peoplebelonging to the Marri tribe before the SupremeCourt bench on Friday. These seven persons wereallegedly whisked away by intelligence agenciesfrom Sariab Mill area of Quetta on March 1.

The CJ passed strict remarks over the re-covery of two mutilated bodies on Friday fromMastung. He expressed his strong resentment

over the absence of Attorney General Pakistanand directed him to appear on the next hear-ing and said he had already directed the AG onpervious hearing to ensure his presence.

Chief Justice Chaudhry ordered the sus-pension and arrest of New Sariab SHO NurBaksh Mengal for his false statement beforethe court on previous hearing showing his ig-norance about the missing persons.

Inspector General of Frontier CorpsBalochistan Major General Obaidullah KhanKhattak also appeared before the court andcategorically denied the charges against hisforce of being involved in whisking away citi-zens and killing them.

He said that he had already contradicted theallegations. “The contradictions are not enoughand every next day we read news against FC ofits involvement in kidnappings and dumpingbodies,” the CJ said. The court said the FC waspresent to assist the police and BalochistanLevies and its involvement in such acts wouldcreate serious problems for the force. The courtdirected the FC IG to appear before the courtalong with complete report in this regard on thenext date of hearing. The sister of Ghaffar Lan-gov, who was whisked away and was later founddead, appeared before the Bench and submittedthat her brother Ghaffar was abducted by per-sonnel of intelligence agencies and later hisbody was dumped after execution.

Four Balochs rescued from ‘jaws of death’g Justice Chaudhry says men lying dead like animals across Balochistan g High crime figure in province indicates failure of govt, its functionaries

ISLAMABAD TAhiR NiAz

Holding former ambassador to the USHusain Haqqani “in disobedience ofthe tribunal’s order and his own affi-davit submitted before the SupremeCourt”, the memo commission on Fri-day directed the ministries of Interiorand Foreign Affairs to ensure his pres-ence on April 12 (Thursday) at the Is-lamabad High Court for recordingstatement in the memo scandal.

The commission still ‘expressed

great restraint’ and did not avail thefour options available with it that in-cluded issuance of his warrants for ar-rest, attachment of his property inPakistan, initiation of contempt ofcourt proceedings and criminal pro-ceedings for disobeying the commis-sion’s orders. The commission earlier,provided Haqqani a number of oppor-tunities to appear before the commis-sion but he declined to come toPakistan first due to security reasonsand then on medical grounds.

The commission ordered Haqqanito be present on the next date of hear-ing with his two Blackberry handsetsthat were in his use during his tenureas ambassador in the US and later wentmissing. A notice in this regard will beserved at his house in the USA throughPakistan’s embassy in Washington, thecommission ordered.

Earlier, when Attorney GeneralMaulvi Anwarul Haq did not take a clearstance on the procedure to bringHaqqani back to Pakistan, chairman ofthe commission, Justice Qazi Faez Isaremarked: “What impression would theworld get when the government of Pak-istan is unable to bring its former am-bassador to the country. Whatcredibility it would have when it cannotproduce its former ambassador forrecording the statement before the com-mission. It is a complete insult of the au-thority of the government of Pakistan”.Director General (Americas) of the For-eign Office (FO), Sohail Khan, told thecommission that the former ambassa-dor to the US, Husain Haqqani, visitedLondon in the first week of May last yearwithout getting formal permission

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

President Asif Ali Zardari continued hisonslaught against the Sharif brothersfor the second consecutive day in theirhometown and bastion of politicalpower. Speaking to Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) workers in Lahore onFriday, Zardari said he was aware ofthe Sharif brothers’ might, and that heknows how to deal with it. “I will visitall district headquarters prior to theelections; the political rulers of Punjabwill know when we will come to power(in Punjab),” said Zardari. Politicalanalysts say Zardari has set the tone forthe upcoming elections and gave a

message to PPP workers that theyshould get ready for the elections andshould not worry about the PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). “ThePeople’s Party is going to give a toughtime to the Sharif brothers in CentralPunjab,” Zardari said. “ForcingMusharraf out of the country was myfirst target. I had let the line loose onthe Sharifs only to be able to forceMusharraf out,” he said. “The country’scurrent political scenario requires thatpolitical parties stand united. But theSharifs will shake hands with no one,”he added. On Thursday, the PPP co-chairman had lashed out at NawazSharif and Shahbaz Sharif during aspeech at the Governor’s House.

no more chancesfor Husain Haqqani

g Memo commissionasks ministries to ensure former envoy’spresence on 12th

g Haqqani orderedto present himself athearing along with his two Blackberry handsets

I know how to deal wIth the SharIfS: ZardarI

Continued on page 04


QUETTA: Security personnel escort four Baloch youths out of the court after presenting them before a Supreme Court bench

on Friday. The four youths were among seven people allegedly whisked away by intelligence agencies on March 1. inp

PDF E-Paper LHR_Layout 1 4/7/2012 2:59 AM

02Saturday, 7 April, 2012

News

Today’s

LookQuick

iSlAMAbAd

Story on Page 10

newS

Story on Page 05

cArToon

Page 13

lok Mela kicks off at lok Virsa Complex pTi striving for change, not power: imran Khan

Masses to get maximum relief

in forthcoming budget: GilaniHYDERABAD: Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani on Friday saidthe government would providemaximum relief to the commonman in the next budget for thefiscal year 2012-13. Talking toreporters, Gilani said, “TheMinistry of Finance has beendirected to provide maximumrelief to the common man in theforthcoming budget.” To aquestion about the restoration ofNATO supply vis-à-vis new termsof engagement with theUS/NATO/ISAF, the primeminister said, parliament would

decide the matter, which was currently being discussed in theParliamentary Committee on National Security. To a questionabout the law and order in Balochistan, the prime ministersaid the Baloch were very patriotic and had renderednumerous sacrifices for Pakistan, adding that injustices weredone with the Baloch in the past and the government wantedto compensate them for it. About the summoning of HussainHaqqani by the Memo Commission, the prime minister saidthough the matter was sub-judice, he was of the opinion thatHaqqani should also be extended the same facility (videoconference), as given to Mansoor Ijaz, who was not even aPakistani citizen. Ijaz also refused to appear before theparliamentary committee, which was contempt of parliament,he said. To a question about the criticism of the PML-N, Gilanisaid the PML-N, which had its own manifesto and programme,besides having its government in Punjab was also playing therole of an opposition at the federal level. About US bounty onHafiz Saeed, the prime minister said besides a policy statementissued by the Foreign Office, he had also expressed hisviewpoint on the floor of the House during the joint sitting ofparliament on Thursday and stated that it was Pakistan’sinternal matter. App

Train kills four, including 2 Pakistanis,on crossing near AthensATHENS: An elderly Greek couple was killed by a trainoutside Athens on Friday when their car became stuck on thetracks, along with two Pakistani migrants who were also onthe scene, the semi-state Athens News Agency said. A thirdPakistani migrant was injured and taken to hospital, ANAsaid. Investigators believe the Pakistanis may have beentrying to rescue the stranded couple when the train runningfrom Thessaloniki to Athens crashed into them, the agencysaid. The accident occurred just after midday near the semi-rural town of Kryoneri, some 24 kilometres from the capital.The illegal forcing of train crossings is a regular source ofrail accidents in Greece. AFp

3 PPP activists killed in KarachiKARACHI: Three activists of the Pakistan People’s Partywere shot dead while one man was injured by unidentifiedassailants near Urdu Chowk in Orangi Town on Friday.Police said the four men were sitting in a shop when armedmotorcyclists opened fire on them and fled. All the fourinjured were rushed to hospitals, but three of them diedbefore reaching there. One injured, Rana Gulzar 40, is stillin critical condition. Ambulance sources said two men wererushed to Abbassi Shaheed Hospital while two other to CivilHospital. They have been identified as Farhan, Guddo andJano. Meanwhile, shops were closed in the area after thefiring incident. App

ISLAMABADREUTERS

An Islamist leader who had a $10 million Ameri-can bounty placed on his head this week has beenhelping Pakistan de-radicalise militants under ef-forts to stabilise the strategic US ally, a top Pak-istani counter-terrorism official said on Friday.

Hafiz Saeed, suspected of masterminding anattack by Pakistan-based gunmen on India’s fi-nancial capital Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166people, including six Americans, met governmentofficials from the Punjab province and pledged hissupport for the drive, the official said. “HafizSaeed has agreed with the Punjab governmentprogramme of de-radicalisation and rehabilitationof former jihadis and extended full cooperation,”the counter-terrorism official told Reuters. Thecounter-terrorism official said that Saeed had notbeen paid for his de-radicalisation activities.

A senior police official in Punjab province,who is closely involved with investigations intomilitant activity, confirmed that Saeed and hissupporters were helping efforts to transform mil-itants into law-abiding citizens. “Jamaat-ud-Dawa(JuD) were consulted, and they approved the de-radicalisation plan. They assured us of their intel-

lectual input and resource materials. They also of-fered teachers,” he told Reuters, referring to thecharity Saeed heads. Yahya Mujahid, the JuDspokesman, said the group had not participated inthe de-radicalisaton programme.

Hafiz Khalid Waleed, another senior JuDmember, declined to comment on whether the Is-lamist leader had been directly assisting the gov-ernment in de-radicalisation. But he said Saeedand his followers were promoting non-violence.

“Hafiz Saeed was one of the first religiousleaders to denounce militancy and suicide bomb-ings,” said Waleed. “Our schools and madrassas(religious seminaries) are urging peace.”SPOTTING IDLE MILITANTS: Under the

programme, former militants are urged to developtechnical skills that could give them long-lastingemployment to keep them from taking up armsagainst the state again. Experts also try to reversewhat Pakistani officials call brainwashing by mil-itants who preach holy war against the West.

To help the deradicalisation programme,Saeed identifies former militants who may still berecruited for jihad because they are jobless andidle and he helps steer them toward the pro-gramme, said the counter-terrorism official.Waleed mocked the decision to place a bounty onSaeed. “President Barack Obama’s election sym-bol was a donkey and his government is acting likeone. They have no evidence against Hafiz Saeedand are scrambling to make up stories,” he toldReuters. Saeed agreed to support de-radicalisationbecause he felt that former militants should findjobs and re-join mainstream society, said thecounter-terrorism official, who has been at theforefront of efforts to fight militancy in Punjab.

The counter-terrorism official, who engi-neered the project, said 200 former militants hadparticipated this year in Punjab, Pakistan’s mostpopulous province, including some from Saeed’smilitant group. Another 100 will be completingthe programme by June.

Militant chief with US bounty helping

de-radicalise jihadis: official

Karachi SSP

names colleague

as Malir blast

suspectKARACHI

STAFF REpoRT

Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) RaoAnwaar Ahmed Khan on Friday named afellow police officer as an alleged suspect inThursday’s targeted suicide attack at apolice convoy at Malir Halt. The SSPaccused four suspects, including a policeinspector Azam Mehsud and his brother,who he claims could be behind the targetedattack. The senior police officer told themedia representatives that he hadinformation about the attack beforehand.Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan said he hadunspecified ”evidence” showing that thethree officers were involved in the blastThursday that killed four people. He said hehad filed a criminal case against them. Themen he accused were not immediatelyreachable for comment. The PakistaniTaliban claimed responsibility forThursday’s attack against Khan, who haspledged to battle extremism in the city. Theattack on Thursday targeted the SSP, butAnwar remained safe while four other werekilled and 17 wounded.

QUETTA: Christians commemorate Good Friday

in the provincial capital. ONLINE



News

Articles on Page 12-13

foreiGn newS

Story on Page 17

ArTS & enTerTAinMenT

Story on Page 15

SPorTSMisbah, Whatmore meet to discuss future plans

Story on Page 18

Thousands rally for Salafist in Egypt vote Katy perry: 'i'm tired of being famous'

coMMenTFever pitch?: Too early for electioneering.

The general’s statement: Following orders, eh?

Arif Nizami says:

White lies:As politicians go, last week definitely belonged to Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the prettyas picture member of the Raiwind Sharif clan.

In election mode: The president not very presidential.

MUzAFFARABAd: Activists of the defence Council of pakistan set fire to a US flag

during a demonstration to condemn the $10 million bounty on the founder of

lashkar-e-Taiba militant group. AFp

PESHAWARShAMiM ShAhid

COMING hard on military dic-tators who derailed the dem-ocratic process from time totime, Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)

President Nawaz Sharif Friday held themilitary rulers responsible for the exist-ing problems of the country, particularlyeconomic disorder, terrorism, militancyand the deteriorating law and order.

“The military dictators did nothingexcept disintegrating the nation, par-ticularly the political forces and itsworkers,” Nawaz remarked while ad-dressing a well-attended PML-N gath-ering at Pearl Continental HotelPeshawar on Friday.

The gathering was hosted by formerfederal minister and ex-provincial pres-

ident of PML-Q Engineer Amir Muqam.At the outset of the PML-N gather-

ing, Engineer Amir Muqam announcedjoining the PML-N along with his sup-porters from all over the province. MPAsSardar Sana Ullah Miankhel, RishadKhan and Fazal Ullah were prominentamongst them.

After welcoming Muqam and hiscolleagues to the party, Nawaz focusedalmost all of his speech on the outcomesof dictatorial regimes, his previous PML-N government’s performance andachievements and a rejoinder to Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari.

However, he also expressed se-vere concern over US government’sdecision of announcing bounty onLashkar-e-Tayyaba founder HafizMohammad Saeed.

“Such act on the part of the USgovernment is an expression of no

confidence in your (PM Gilani’s) gov-ernment,” Nawaz remarked while di-verting attention of the audiencetowards his recent telephonic conver-sation with Gilani.

“I told Gilani that Hafiz Saeed wasa respectable citizen of the countryand the US must hand over details ofcases registered against him.” He be-lieved that such type of acts on thepart of the US government were ille-gitimate and unrealistic.

Advocating for the democraticprocess, Nawaz even termed the 1985party-less polls an act of “disintegratingthe nation and political forces”.

Strange when Nawaz had not onlybacked those elections but even becamethe Punjab chief minister after them.

Nawaz even held military dictatorsresponsible for disintegration of Pak-istan in 1971. “Only for power, they ig-

nored sacrifices rendered by people offormer East Pakistan in the independ-ence movement.” He alleged that top-pling of his party’s government in 1999not only led to halting of every sort of de-velopment, uplift of economic and in-vestment process but even led to existingterrorism and militancy which had costlife to thousands of innocent people.

In a rejoinder to President Asif AliZardari, Nawaz said nothing in reaction,but accused the PPP government ofbreaking all previous records of corrup-tion and malpractices.

“The present government did noth-ing in the last four years, except fu-elling tension and crises.” Heappreciated Punjab government fordistribution of laptops among studentsand questioned the performance ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Pun-jab governments in this respect.

Nawaz blames military intervention

for country’s problemsg PMl-n chief says military dictators did nothing except disintegrating nation, political parties

ISLAMABADoNliNE

An estimated 7.3 million primaryschool aged children in Pakistan do notattend school, depriving them of theirright to education, and preventingthem from reaching their full potential,the UN children fund said Friday.

Around 20 million children in Pak-istan, including those of primaryschool-age, are not in school, theUNICEF said.

“The realization of Pakistan’s visionfor social and economic developmentdepends on the success of its educationsystem,” said UNICEF Pakistan Repre-sentative Dan Rohrmann.

“Investing in children and their ed-ucation is both a right in principle andin practice due to the positive impactsit has on so many socio-economic di-mensions. It is therefore vital that allchildren in Pakistan, both boys andgirls, have the opportunity to attendand complete their schooling.”

With the start of the new schoolyear now underway, UNICEF is en-couraging parents and communitiesaround the country to ensure that allchildren of primary school-age are en-rolled in class.

UNICEF is supporting the nation-wide ‘Every Child in School’ campaign,which encourages parents and commu-nities to ensure that all primary schoolaged children are enrolled for the newschool year.

A special focus is being placed onenrolling girls, who represent 57 percent of primary school aged childrenwho are not attending school. Girlsfrom poor families in rural areas, forexample, receive just over one year ofeducation, on average, compared withboys from wealthy urban families whoreceive an average of more than nineyears of education.

The right of children to receive aneducation is enshrined in the UN Con-vention on the Rights of the Child. The18th Amendment of the Pakistan Con-

stitution is providing an added oppor-tunity to realize this right as Article 25arequires the State to provide free andcompulsory education to all childrenbetween the ages of five and 16, as de-termined by law.

“The disparities in education areinfluenced by multiple factors such aswealth, gender, ethnicity, geographiclocation, early learning opportunities,access and quality of learning and it istherefore critical that all those that canpositively influence children’s learningopportunities put their best foot for-ward to ensure that this year’s start ofschooling will be more successful thanever,” said Rohrmann.

“We must ensure that all childrenare in school. Free and quality educa-tion for all children, especially the mostvulnerable and disadvantaged – andwhich is utilized by all children – is es-sential to Pakistan’s economic and so-cial development. An investment inchildren is an investment in Pakistan’sfuture,” added Rohrmann.

nawaz Sharif ‘still prays for forgiveness of Zardari’s father’As Federal Minister for Information Firdous Ashiq Awan on Friday dispelled mediareports about President Asif Ali Zardari targeting Mian Sharif, father of Nawaz Sharif andShahbaz Sharif, Nawaz told a gathering in Peshawar he still prays for the forgiveness ofZardari’s father Hakim Ali Zardari. Speaking to media on Friday, Firdous said that thepresident didn’t speak about Mian Sharif and reports regarding it were completely falseand baseless. She said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Zardari had a lot ofrespect for Mian Sharif and the president offered fateha at his grave during his visit toRaiwind. Meanwhile, addressing a gathering in Peshawar, Nawaz said that he even wentto the hospital to see Zardari’s father when he was unwell. NEWS dESK

over 7 million children in Pakistandon’t attend school

2 bullet-riddled bodiesfound in MastungQUETTA: Two bullet-riddled dead bodies wererecovered from Mastung district, some 40 kilometressouth of Quetta, on Friday. According to details, theLevies received information that two decomposedbodies were lying near the highway in the Kanak areaof Mastung district. A team of Levies personnel reachedthe site and found the bodies, and shifted them to alocal hospital, where they were identified as BaighMohammad and Abdul Manan – residents of Kanak.Doctors confirmed that both the bodies weredecomposed and had bullet wounds, while their handsand feet were tied from behind. STAFF REpoRT

JUP leader shot dead

in Quetta QUETTA

STAFF REpoRT

Unidentified armed assailants shot dead a leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) in Quetta on Friday. Police officials said MaulanaMohammad Qasim, the head cleric of main Noorani mosque, washeading to the mosque on Sariab Road to lead the Friday prayerswhen armed persons opened indiscriminate fire on him. As aresult, he received critical wounds and was being shifted to CivilHospital Quetta when he succumbed to his injuries.Police said investigation into the killing was underway to ascertainthe motive behind the killing. However, no arrest has been made inthis connection so far. The deceased was said to be related to theleader of JUP Maulana Abdul Qadoos Sasoli.



News

NEWS DESK

US PresidentB a r a c kObama re-portedly senta secret mes-

sage to Iranian SupremeLeader Ali Khamenei ex-pressing a willingness to ac-cept an Iranian civiliannuclear program if Iran canprove it will not pursue nu-clear weapons, The Wash-ington Post reported Friday.

According to columnistDavid Ignatius, Obama sentKhamenei the message viaTurkish Prime MinisterRecap Erdogan, who was inIran last week. The message,sent ahead of next week’sscheduled nuclear negotia-tions, was meant to empha-size that “time is running out

for a peaceful settlement,”Ignatius wrote. A proposalallowing Iran a safeguarded,civilian nuclear program inexchange for stringent nu-clear safeguards would notbe new. According to theArms Control Association, inthe aftermath of the 2003Iraq war, the George W.

Bush administration rejecteda proposal from Iran thatwould limit its nuclear pro-gram to energy production.

Negotiations betweenIran and key Europeancountries in 2005 led to sev-eral proposals, ultimately re-jected over the subject ofIranian uranium enrich-

ment, to ensure Iran’s nu-clear program had no mili-tary aspect. Updatedproposals surfaced in 2006,2008 and 2009, includingvariations that would allowuranium “fuel swaps” to ridIran of its excess enricheduranium or set Russia as alow-level uranium supplier.

Obama urges Iran to acceptcivilian nuclear program

from the authorities con-cerned, as no record in thisregard was available withthe Pakistan’s embassy inWashington. He said the twohandsets that were in use ofthe former ambassador andlater went missing were theproperty of the governmentof Pakistan.

The commission askedthe DG Americas whetherHusain Haqqani reported tothe Foreign Office wheneverhe met or contacted onphone Mansoor Ijaz duringhis stay in Washington as

ambassador of Pakistan. Hetold the commission that hehad gone through the ‘freshreceipts’ adding there wasno mention of Haqqani ei-ther meeting Mansoor Ijazor talking to him on phone.

The commission askedthe Foreign Office officialwhether it was requiredunder the rules by the am-bassador to formally informthe FO about any importantand significant meeting,telephonic conversationwith some one else. Hereplied usually the ambassa-dors did so, however, he

added it was the discretionof the ambassador to informthe FO or not.

The commission alsoasked the Foreign Office toinform it whether Haqqanihad reported losing his twoBlackberry sets in question.

The FO officials pre-sented a copy of the contractagreement of HusainHaqqani as ambassador tothe commission under whichOfficial Secret Act, Civil Ser-vant Rules, Civil ServiceRegulations and other rulesand orders issued from timeto time shall apply on him.

Justice Qazi Faez Isasaid according to clause fourof the agreement, the am-bassador upon recalling ortransfer was supposed tohandover all the governmentproperty in his use to theHead of Chancery and ques-tioned whether Haqqanihanded over the two Black-berry sets. The FO DG saidhe would check from Wash-ington embassy in this re-gard.

Counsel of Mansoor Ijazalleged that Haqqani wasstill using secret fund avail-able at the discretion of the

ambassador for a ‘cover up’of the memo scandal uponwhich the commissionsought details of the utiliza-tion of the said fund duringApril 2011 to the end yearthat the commission wouldgo through in-camera due tosensitivity of the informa-tion.

The commission askedthe counsel of Haqqani toconvey his client to submitwaiver consent to RIM forobtaining data containingcommunication record ofmessages between Haqqaniand Mansoor Ijaz.

no moreContinued fRom page 1

She said her other brother, DrNaseer and his two friendsHafiz Rudini and AkhtarLango, were picked up fromKilli Ismail in Quetta on April3 by the same personnel.

The bench took notice ofthis incident and JusticeKhilji Arif Hussain directedSaddar SP Tariq Manzoor toensure the safe recovery ofthese missing persons byApril 10, otherwise a casewould be registered againsthim.

Balochistan Home Secre-tary Naseebullah Khan in-formed the court that asmany as 1,056 people, includ-

ing 227 personnel of FrontierCorps and 196 police person-nel, had been killed inBalochistan in different ter-rorism-related incidentssince 2009, while 250 werekilled in targeted sectarian at-tacks.

The CJ expressed hisanger by saying such a highfigure indicated the failure ofgovernment and its func-tionaries.

“The crimes are risingand there is no one to controlit and protect common citi-zens,” he remarked.

“Until crime prevails, noone will be scared of commit-ting crime and the govern-

ment should establish itswrit,” he said. He further saidthat police had become in-competent.

Meanwhile, a youngBaloch lady who introducedherself as the daughter of amissing person Balakh SherMarri, claimed that four per-sons who were produced be-fore the court during thehearing had been kept in adark room by intelligencepersonnel in illegal custody.

Talking to reportersoutside the court, shethanked the chief justice forhelping the missing per-sons’ families recover theirmissing relatives.

ASADABADAFp

A suicide bomber assassinatedan Afghan peace envoy andformer mujahedeen com-mander on Friday, in the latestblow to stuttering reconcilia-tion efforts in the violence-wracked country.

Maulavi MohammadHashem Munib, the head ofthe government’s High PeaceCouncil in Kunar province, waskilled along with his son and abodyguard, the presidency saidin a statement.

“He was on his way homefrom Friday prayers when hewas attacked by a suicide at-tacker,” provincial police chiefEwaz Mohammad Nazari toldAFP.

One witness said bothMunib and the attacker hadbeen torn to pieces, with bodyparts littering the scene.

Kunar, an eastern provincebordering Pakistan, is a strong-hold of the decade-long Tal-iban-led insurgency againstPresident Hamid Karzai’s gov-ernment and its Western allies.

Karzai condemned the at-tack, saying that “the enemiesof the people of Afghanistanhave martyred one of the mes-sengers of peace”.

“The terrorists are tryingto undermine the role of elderswho are working for the goodof Afghanistan, but they shouldrealise that they can neverachieve their evil goals by suchheinous acts,” he said.

The national head of the

High Peace Council, formerAfghan president Burhanud-din Rabbani, was assassinatedlast year by a purported Tal-iban envoy who hid a bomb inhis turban.

Rabbani’s murder —Afghanistan’s most high-pro-file political killing since a US-led invasion ousted the Talibanafter the September 11, 2001attacks — was a major setbackto Karzai’s hopes of securing adeal with the militants. As wellas trying to negotiate with in-surgents, the High PeaceCouncil tries to reconcile themwith offers of money and jobs.

But in a report last monththe International Crisis Groupquestioned the organisation’s“efficacy and legitimacy”, citing“the predominance of muja-hedeen and factional leaders”appointed to it. Munib – also amember of Afghanistan’sUlema Council, a government-funded Islamic authority – wasa former senior commander ofHezb-e-Islami, one of themajor Afghan mujahedeengroups that fought Soviettroops in the 1980s.

It is now sometimes re-garded as the second-biggestinsurgent organisation inAfghanistan after the Taliban,but Munib left it before Karzaitook power and he had nevertaken up arms against the cur-rent government.

Mohammad MasoomStanikzai, a senior official inthe Peace Council, describedMunib as an “influential fig-ure”, saying he had “drawn

many insurgents to lay downarms and join the peaceprocess” and blaming the Tal-iban for his death.

The Taliban could not im-mediately be reached for com-ment.

Progress towards peacenegotiations in Afghanistanhas been long, slow and com-plicated, with no sign that sub-stantive talks are underway.

Kabul has said severaltimes that it is in negotiationswith the Taliban, who insistedin turn that they were only pre-pared to talk to representativesof the United States. Washing-ton says the process should beAfghan-led.

NATO’s US-led Interna-tional Security AssistanceForce has 130,000 troops inAfghanistan helping fight theinsurgency and train Kabul’sforces, but the bulk of them aredue to be withdrawn by theend of 2014.

Analysts say there is a riskof the conflict deepening after-wards without a sustainablepeace deal.

In its report, the Brussels-based ICG said the govern-ment’s reconciliationprogramme “has taken on thelook and feel of a large intelli-gence and mercenary opera-tion aimed at establishingmilitias as a bulwark againstthe insurgency”.

It added that it was“foundering in the wake of in-creased violence and targetedassassinations of leading polit-ical personalities”.

Suicide bomber kills

Afghan peace envoyg Head of government’s High Peace council in Kunar, hisson and bodyguard killed

FAiSAlABAd: The All punjab Textile Associations Council has installed huge billboards across the city to protest against

electricity load shedding in the province. OnLine

Four BalochsContinued fRom page 1

PMl-n, JUi-f

He advised the Sharifs not torespond to Zardari’s taunts.Earlier in the day, ChaudhryNisar said he had made hisstance clear to his party andthe leadership of other partiesin the opposition about therestoration of NATO supplies.The PML-N leader claimedthat he had been informed byreliable sources that there werecertain federal ministers whowere actively lobbying for theresumption of the NATOsupplies through Pakistan. Heurged the opposition leaders totake all stakeholders on boardbefore taking any decision inthis regard.

PM okays retirement

of five generalsISLAMABAD: PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani,on the recommendation ofthe chief of army staff, hasapproved the retirement offive General Officers fromthe Pakistan Army oncompletion of their tenure.The army officers include LtGen Sardar Mahmood AliKhan, HI (M), Punjab, MajGen Noor Hussain, HI (M) SBt Baloch, Maj Gen SyedShakeel Hussain, HI (M),Sitara-e-Esar, Baloch, MajGen Jehangir Khan HI (M),FF and Maj Gen MuhammadShahid, HI (M), EME. oNliNE

ISLAMABADiNp

While the special parliamen-tary committee failed to clear“Domestic Violence Bill”, Fed-eral Minister for Religious Af-fairs Syed Khursheed Shahexpelled a number of womenfrom the meeting who tried togate crash the committee roomunder the leadership NGOchief Farzana Bari.

The NGOs tried to attendthe meeting without an invita-tion that annoyed KhursheedShah and he ordered the secu-rity guards to expel them.

He also admonished PML-N MNA Tahira Aurangzeb forbringing them to the meeting.

On being expelled from themeeting, Farzana Bari andother women representatives ofvarious NGOs stronglyprotested outside the Parlia-ment House and raised vocifer-ous slogans against members.

The atmosphere of themeeting became violent whenPML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq and JUI-F’s Attaur Rehman sought toknow the identity of somewomen in the meeting andquestioned at whose invitationthey were attending. Shah ex-pressed his ignorance butFarzana Bari said they hadcome with MNA Tahira Au-rangzeb. At this, the chairmantook a strong exception and saidno woman or man could attend

the meeting without an invita-tion or permission of the com-mittee and ordered them to getout of the Parliament House.The deputy secretary of the Na-tional Assembly summoned thesergeant at arms and directedhim to take the ladies out of thebuilding. This infuriated thewomen and they stronglyprotested the treatment. How-ever, they were forced out of thebuilding. Meanwhile, the dead-lock persisted on different sec-tions of the Domestic ViolenceBill. Fazlur Rehman stronglyopposed the bill while SyedKhursheed Shah said that theywould not allow western culturein Pakistan and would not getdictation from anyone.

Deadlock persists in domestic

violence bill debate

Continued fRom page 28



News

WASHINGTONoNliNE

THE United States has saidit sees Deputy Secretary ofState Thomas Nide’s visitto Islamabad constructivein terms of diplomatic en-

gagement with Pakistan and looks for-ward to moving the bilateral relationsforward upon conclusion of the parlia-mentary review.

Deputy Spokesman at the StateDepartment Mark Toner describedNides’ visit - coming at a time of biat-eral tensions and differences overdrone strikes in Pakistani Tribal Areas- as “productive and constructive” but

would not go into any specific detailsof his talks with Pakistani leaders.

“We’re obviously waiting for theend of the parliamentary reviewprocess so that we can engage withPakistan on a way forward,” thespokesman said at the daily briefing.

Pressed to explain how Nides’ visitwas perceived as productive, Toner re-ferred to the remarks both by Pakistanand American diplomats and saw apositive tone towards re-engagementbetween the two countries.

“They had real substantive discus-sions. And overall, the message wasthat – and of course I can refer you toDeputy Secretary Nides’ public re-marks – is that we value our relation-

ship with Pakistan, and we respecttheir parliamentary process, and we’relooking, once that’s completed, to en-gage with them.”

Toner was also questioned repeat-edly about timing of the annoucementof the $10 million bounty on JamaatudDawa chief Hafiz Saeed for his allegedrole in 2008 Mumbai attacks, but hedenied that the timing had anything todo with either Nides’ visit to Islam-abad or President Asif Ali Zardari’supcoming visit to India.

“We’ve talked about this upcomingvisit (by Presisdent Zardari to India).We’ve talked about the fact that we’vehad some high-level US officials inPakistan – Deputy Secretary Nides, for

example. And I was very clear thatnone of this is related to any of thosevisits, any of those interactions.”

He also sought to clarify that theUS Rewards for Justice programmewas a separate process and that it tookplace in our diplomatic security chan-nels over long time.

“It is indeed a long process to eval-uate these individuals. So there is norelation here. We certainly don’t wantit to impact on his (PresidentZardari’s) visit to India — we’re cer-tainly — we want to see — to us, it’s awin-win situation when Pakistan andIndia are engaging in dialogue, aretalking to each other and are buildingbetter cooperation.”

US terms Nides’ visit constructive

to future engagement

NEW DELHIAFp

President Asif Ali Zardari will on Sundaybecome the first head of state since 2005to visit India when he makes a trip thatincludes lunch with Indian Prime Minis-ter Manmohan Singh.

During what officials from both sidesdescribe as a “private” one-day visit,Zardari will be the guest of the Indianpremier in New Delhi before heading toan important Muslim shrine in Ajmer tooffer prayers.

The trip, which was confirmed thisweek after leaks in the press, has receiveda cautious welcome from analysts who

say it reflects some improvement in tiessince the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

But they warned little progress couldbe expected on sensitive topics such asKashmir and militant activity againstIndia that make the cross-border rela-tionship one of the most dangerous in theworld.

“Zardari expressed a desire to visitIndia primarily for a pilgrimage, and it isonly correct that we welcome him to thecapital,” G Parthasarathy, a retired In-dian diplomat and former high commis-sioner to Pakistan, told AFP.

“There will be talks and I expect theprime minister to raise issues such as ourconcerns over terrorism. Relations were

rock bottom in 2008 so they have im-proved.”

Zardari’s visit comes shortly after theUnited States issued a $10 million bountyfor Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founderof LT who lives in Pakistan.

A United States official praised theplanned rare talks between India andPakistan, describing them as a “win-winsituation” for the US and said it did notwant the bounty “to impact” on Zardari’svisit.

“We’re not playing some sort ofstrategic game here,” State DepartmentSpokesman Mark Toner said. “We’re justtrying to prosecute this individual.”

Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at New

Delhi’s Centre for Policy Research, said ofthe visit: “This is a largely symbolic occa-sion and contentious subjects will beavoided.”

Pakistan foreign policy is seen as pre-serve of the powerful military, and Chel-laney said Zardari wielded little realpower in the country.

“You can’t have substantive talks withsomeone who doesn’t run anything,” hetold AFP.

Trade is one area of discussion thatthe two leaders may find fruitful as Pak-istan moves to normalise trade ties byphasing out major restrictions on Indianimports by the end of the year.

In 1996, India granted Pakistan

“most preferred nation” trading status,while Pakistan last year agreed in princi-ple to match the move.

Sources in Islamabad said among the40 members of Zardari’s family and staffexpected to accompany him on the tripwill be Interior Minister Rehman Malik,potentially undermining its “private” sta-tus.

“Zardari could just go to Ajmer andback home, so meeting Manmohan Singhmakes it significant even though it’s notofficial,” Pakistani political analyst HasanAskari told AFP.

“This means that relations are in abetter state, otherwise the prime ministercould ignore the visit.”

Sensitive topics off table as Zardari visits india

PTi striving for

change, not power:

imran KhanISLAMABAD

iNp

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)Chairman Imran Khan on Friday said hisparty was striving to get rid fromcorruption, load shedding, price hike andunemployment and not for the sake ofpower. In an interview with a private TVchannel, Khan said both the PPP and thePML-N were safeguarding their owninterests and were doing nothing for thewelfare of the common man. He said thecountry’s sovereignty was at stake asboth the ruling and opposition partiescould not afford to disobey the UnitedStates. He said his party was notstruggling for the sake of power but toprovide relief to the deprived class of thesociety. Khan said he was optimistic thatthe PTI would win the next generalelections as people would reject allcorrupt leaders and their parties. He alsosaid his party would provide solution tomasses problem at their doorsteps. ThePTI chief said youth were the asset of hisparty and they would not be “trapped” bythe Punjab government’s “laptopscheme”. He said the PTI was beingstrengthened, adding that the PPP, PML-N, PML-Q would face defeat even if theyjointly contested in the general electionsagainst it. He said both the PPP and thePML-N were responsible of all problemslike load shedding, corruption,lawlessness and unemployment and bothparties would stand accountable after theelection.

Parliament to

decide terms of

US ties: firdousISLAMABAD

NNi

Information Minister Firdous AshiqAwan said Friday the parliament woulddecide the new terms of engagementswith the United States‚ NATO andISAF.Talking to reporters, Awan said it wasfor the first time in the history ofPakistan that the parliament wasdevising the country’s foreign policy.To a question‚ the minister said thatPakistan wanted to resolve alloutstanding issues with India,including Kashmir, through dialogue.

Girls school blown up

in Mohmand AgencyPESHAWAR

oNliNE

Suspected militants blew up GovernmentGirls Primary School in Mohmand Agencyon Friday. The school building in theZargar area was partly damaged. Sourcessaid militants have so far destroyed 92schools in the last three years.

LAHORENNi

PPP Co-chairman President Asif Ali Zardarihas said that time had come for mobilizingall divisional and district organizations ofthe party, particularly in Punjab, to gear upfor the elections which would be held ontime.

The president said he himself wouldundertake visits throughout the province tomobilize workers and his visit to Lahorewas part of that exercise. The president saidFaryal Talpur would also assist the party incompleting the organizational structures up

to the ward level. He said this during a se-ries of meetings held separately with vari-ous party wings, including women,information, labour and other office-bear-ers at the Governor’s House Lahore on Fri-day. Zardari asked district presidents andparty ticket-holders to point out problemsfaced by the masses as well as the workersin their respective districts and constituen-cies so that their grievances could be ad-dressed on priority basis.

Commenting on transparency in elec-tions, the president said the Election Com-mission of Pakistan in consultation with allpolitical parties had undertaken the task of

correcting voters’ lists, adding that a lawhad already been framed to make CNICmandatory for every voter.

He said with these reforms, no onewould be able to hijack elections in thecountry, adding that the bane of manipu-lated elections would be banished for ever.The president said the PPP was proceedingwith a well-thought-out and calculated po-litical course. It was part of this policy thathe transferred all his powers to the parlia-ment and embarked upon a policy of rec-onciliation shunning political vendetta andvictimization. Zardari said the PPP hadadopted a policy of reconciliation per the vi-

sion of the Benazir Bhutto. He said the rec-onciliation policy had helped strengthendemocracy. Zardari said the political oppo-nents in Punjab lacked patience and toler-ance, whereas the PPP had shown largeheartedness.

Commenting on the challenges facingthe government and the party, the presi-dent said “we should not fear anything ex-cept the act of being afraid”.

Addressing the workers, the presidentsaid the PPP was proud of the noblest tra-ditions of sacrifice and service set by greatPPP workers and leadership for democracyand emancipation of the people.

Zardari for mobilising all divisional, district organisations of PPP

lAhoRE: president Asif Ali zardari presides over a meeting of the ppp information Wing at punjab Governor’s house on Friday.



News

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

TH E PML-N has decidednot to enter into an al-liance with the PPP andPML-Q, nor will it makeany seat adjustment with

these two parties in the coming elec-tions, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif saidin a special interview on Friday.

The PML-N chief, however, clari-fied that his party would consider seatadjustment with the JUI-F and Ja-maat-e-Islami in KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

To a question, Nawaz said the PPPgovernment had not taken any step tosolve the problems of the commonman, instead, it had indulged in largescale corruption and destroyed the na-tional economy.

Nawaz said after coming to power,

the PML-N government would givespecial attention to resolving the en-ergy crisis that had brought life to astandstill in the country.

“For this purpose, the PML-N gov-ernment will build small dams and setup gas fired power plants to providecheap electricity to the people,” Nawazsaid.

“Technology and technical and vo-cational education will be provided atall levels to help fight unemploymentin the country. By promoting educa-tion, we will be able to export trainedmanpower to the Middle East andother countries,” he said. To a ques-tion, the PML-N chief said his partywould also introduce reforms in thetransport sector in order to providecheap transportation to the public.

He said the PPP government wasopenly defying Supreme Court orderswhich showed how serious it was

about establishing rule of law and con-stitution and democratic norms in thecountry. “People are hankering forchange and the PML-N government

will strive sincerely to improve thecondition of the common people as itdid in the past,” the former primeminister added.

PML-N not to enter into alliance

with PPP, PML-Q: Nawaz

ISLAMABAD: PML-N Secretary Information Senator Mushahidullah onFriday said President Asif Ali Zardari was ruining the PPP himself. In astatement issued on Friday, he said those who were looting the country withboth hands could not give concession to others. He said the people couldbetter judge the performance of the government. Senator Mushahidullah saidwhy was the PPP claiming it was trying to arrest the killers of Benazir Bhuttoas General Musharraf, who was allegedly involve in this heinous crime, wasgiven guard of honour and safe exit by the PPP government. He said thegovernment had failed to defend the country’s sovereignty as it was followingall dictations from the US. The PML-N leader said the Sharif brothers spentone year in prison and almost eight years in exile, adding that Zardari had adifferent standard of bravery. He came hard on Zardari for talking about thefuneral of Mian Muhammad Sharif. iNp

Zardari ruining PPP: PML-N

Shujaat, elahi

discuss political

situation with PMISLAMABAD

NNi

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q)President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain andSenior Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahicalled on Prime Minister Yousaf RazaGilani here on Friday, and discussed thepolitical situation of the country. Shujaatsaid his party would continue its supportfor the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)government. He assured Gilani that thePML-Q, along with other coalitionpartners, would formulate a strategy tocome out of the existing crisis facing thegovernment. The prime ministerappreciated the continuous support of thePML-Q, saying his government valued theircooperation, as it was in accordance withits policy of reconciliation.

china places six

Uighurs on ‘terror’ listBEIJING

AFp

China has placed six men from the Uighurethnic minority on a “terror” list, accusingthem of involvement in terrorist trainingcamps and of inciting attacks in the restivewestern Xinjiang region. China’s Ministryof Public Security said the men, whosenames identify them as Uighurs, weremembers of the outlawed East TurkistanIslamic Movement (ETIM), blaming onefor orchestrating violent attacks in the cityof Kashgar last July. Chinese authoritieshave accused the ETIM, which wants anindependent homeland for Xinjiang’sUighurs, of orchestrating attacks in theregion on many occasions. The UnitedStates and the United Nations have listedthe group as a “terrorist” organisation,and China has previously said it hasoperations in Pakistan as well asAfghanistan. The public security ministrysaid in a statement late Thursday it hadfrozen the funds and assets of the six men,whose whereabouts are not known.Xinjiang has been under heavy securitysince July 2009, when Uighurs launchedattacks on Han people — who make upmost of China’s population — in theregional capital Urumqi. The governmentsays nearly 200 people were killed and1,700 injured in the violence, whichshattered the authoritarian CommunistParty’s claims of harmony and unityamong the country’s dozens of ethnicgroups. Many Uighurs remain angry at theharsh crackdown that followed theviolence. Xinjiang, which borders Pakistanand Afghanistan, is home to around ninemillion Uighurs, but the number of Hanliving there has increased dramaticallyover the past decade. Government criticssay this results from a policy of migrationto dilute any Uighur nationalist tendenciesand has bred resentment in the region.

ISLAMABADiNp

The civil-military relations showed seriousdeterioration during the year 2011 and Pak-istan’s policies and its deteriorating relationsvis-à-vis the United States can be largely seenas the cause of a growing wedge between theelected government and the army.

A report carried in quarterly monitor ofPakistan Institute of Legislative and Trans-parency (PILDAT) says the issue of the al-leged memo, seen by some as the civilgovernment’s wish-list to contain the army,and by others who, albeit are in fewer num-bers, as a storm in a tea cup, came to be atthe heart of the estrangement in civil-mili-tary relations at the end of 2011.

“The same elected government, whichcontinually came to the public rescue of themilitary after the killing of Osama bin Laden,US targeting of the ISI and the NATO attack,resorted to an open confrontation with thearmy,” it adds.

The government appeared to be mostdisturbed at the position taken by the army

in the memo controversy as it is diametri-cally opposed to that of the civil government.

“Year 2011 also witnessed a relativelyweak civilian prime minister breaking thesound barrier on civil-military relations inPakistan by obliquely referring to intelli-gence apparatus or the military as a ‘statewithin the state” – an open public positionthat has never before been taken by even themost powerful Prime Ministers of Pakistan,”the report says.

While his words may continue tochange, the 13th National Assembly of Pak-istan recorded an elected prime ministerdeprecating the dominant role demanded bythe armed forces and the associated intelli-gence apparatus in national policy making.

On January 9, Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani, in an interview to a Chinesenews agency, said the chief of army staff andISI director general had submitted replies tothe Supreme Court without seeking approvalof the competent authority and their state-ments carried no legal import.

This statement was replied to by a pressrelease issued on January 11, by the military

which warned that such allegation can have“serious ramifications with potentially griev-ous consequences for the country”.

The PILDAT report says for some timefollowing the dismissal of the defence secre-tary, the exposed cleavages between theelected government and the military seemedreminiscent of the Kargil controversy in 1999in which either the elected government couldbe sent packing or the military commanders’tenures could be curtailed. “Eventually, how-ever, better sense prevailed and both sidespulled back from the brink.”

Developments in judicial investigation ofthe memo scandal indicate that proving thatthe memo has been written by HussainHaqqani on the behest of the president ofPakistan will be extremely difficult. The com-mission’s deadline to complete its inquiryhas been extended twice during this period.

Meanwhile, there have also been reportsin the media that an understanding has beenreached between the civil and military lead-ership on the memo controversy, the reportsays. About NATO attack and strained Pak-US relations, the report says that what has

been termed by the Pakistan Army as a “de-liberate” attack of NATO on Pakistan’s secu-rity posts on November 26, 2011 resulted inthe Prime Minister ordering an immediateclosure of the NATO/ISAF logistics supplylines, US vacating the Shamsi Airbase andParliamentary Committee on National Secu-rity to review Pak US relations.

The relationship between the US andPakistan had begun to sour following theRaymond Davis saga and worsened after theMay 2 US attack on Pakistan’s sovereign soiland the subsequent unfolding of eventswithin Pakistan, pronouncements in Con-gress and by the military top brass in the US.

In Pakistan’s peculiar civil-military rela-tions, it is a popular perception that majorforeign policy decisions, especially relevantto India and the US, are taken only after theagreement of the armed forces.

“It is also believed by a sizeable publicopinion that Pakistan’s elected representa-tives have had almost no role to play in influ-encing, guiding or even overseeing Pakistan’sforeign policy,” the report says.

“The review by the Parliamentary Com-

mittee on Pak-US relations and general for-eign policy, therefore, is the first of its kindreview and can not be considered a small featfor parliament that the prime minister de-sired parliament to guide him in developinga policy to be followed by Pakistan in relationto the US.” During the course of developingits recommendations, the ParliamentaryCommittee on National Security (PCNS)asked the government to submit the recordof all cooperation agreements with the US,whether written or otherwise.

Nine pacts signed by the Musharrafregime after 2002 with the US with regardsto the war on terror were presented to thecommittee by the Ministry of Defence. The16-point recommendations of the Commit-tee, called “Guidelines for Revised Terms ofEngagement with US/NATO/ISAF and gen-eral Foreign Policy” can be termed as a con-structive and comprehensive framework forimprovement of Pakistan’s foreign policy.

A number of recommendations by thecommittee arrogate various rights to parlia-ment such as use of Pakistani bases or air-space contingent on parliamentary approval.

civil-military relations on the wane: PildAT

pEShAWAR: pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz president Nawaz Sharif addresses a public gathering on the occasion of joining of former pMl-Q leader Amir Muqam and his sup-

porters in the pMl-N on Friday. inp


Saturday, 7 April, 2012

iSlAMABAd: Jamaat-ud-dawa and Jammat–e-islami activities shout anti-US slogans during a rally outside the National press Club. STAFF pHOTO

Paul wants steps for minorities’ uplift

ISLAMABADSTAFF REpoRT

National Harmony Minister Dr PaulBhatti has called for steps to endpoverty, illiteracy and overpopulation touplift minorities and bring them in themainstream.According to a press release issued onFriday, Bhatti was addressing a delega-tion of Vatican University, Italy, here onFriday. The delegation, headed by Pro-fessor Basti, called on him to exchangeviews on interfaith harmony, inter-cul-tural and inter-religious dialogue. TheItalian ambassador was also present atthe meeting.Dr Paul Bhatti also held Good Fridaylunch in the honour of the Italian dele-gation of professors who are teachingculture, religion and interfaith harmonyat the University of Vatican.The delegation, led by Professor Basti, isvisiting Pakistan to demonstrate soli-darity with the efforts of Dr Paul Bhattito promote interfaith relationship, dia-logue and harmony in a bid to bringpeace, prosperity and economic uplift ofthe Pakistani society.Dr Paul also nominated ProfessorMubeen as All Pakistan Minorities Al-liance (APMA) president in Italy.Mubeen is also accompanying the dele-gation. The APMA president is alreadyworking in Canada, America and Spain.The Good Friday lunch was attended bya large number of members of All Pak-istan Minorities Alliance, civil societymembers and journalists. Good Friday was observed by the Chris-tian community on Friday to commemo-rate crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which isan important part of the Christian faith.

Unicef’s projectprovides chance to learn

ISLAMABADApp

A Taleem-ul-Amal programme, beingrun by the United Nations InternationalChildren Fund (UNICEF) in differentareas of the country is receiving a goodresponse of the community.The programme, launched in variousareas of Pakistan, is aimed at helpingchild labourers to obtain an educationand become an educated citizen andlead a respectable life.UNICEF Pakistan Media CoordinatorSami Malik said centres have been es-tablished in Lahore, Sialkot, Narowal,Gujranwala and Faisalabad in collabora-tion with the business community andother implementing partners.Sami Malik, who recently visited somecentres in different areas of Punjab, toldAPP on Friday that there was sadness inthe eyes of 12-year-old Chand KhushiMuhammad when he recalled walkingthe streets, collecting garbage in Sialkot,a city known for sporting goods manu-facturing. “I used to collect garbage andpieces of metal from the streets to sellfor about Rs 100 to 200 at the end of theday. Most children of my age in this lo-cality did the same,” Chand said.“Watching children going to school inclean uniforms fascinated me. But Iknew that I could not go to school. Myfather was dead and mother could notafford sending me to one. But thanksto the intervention of a caring teacherthat I am now a student at theTaleem-ul-Amal Centre,” he said witha heavy voice.Malik while quoting theteacher said when she spotted himcollecting garbage one morning, shefollowed him home and convinced hismother to let him obtain a free educa-tion at the centre.

canada to constructcollege, school inHattian dopatta

ISLAMABADApp

Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan,Ross Hynes, visited the Union Council ofHattian Dopatta to break ground for theconstruction of a Government Girl’s DegreeCollege and a Government Boy’s HighSchool. This college and high school are partof a $ 20 million Canadian program to re-construct up to 42 schools destroyed in Hat-tian Doppotta following the earthquake of2005 says a press release issued here Friday.The project is being managed by CDM Con-structors Inc. funded by the Canadian Inter-national Development Agency (CIDA). “Thetragic earthquake of 2005 had a devastatingimpact on the lives of millions of people inPakistan, particularly among school chil-dren. Canada responded generously throughCIDA, and has been working closely withPakistan’s Earthquake Reconstruction & Re-habilitation Authority (ERRA) to ensure thatthese young girls and boys will have a safeplace to go to school,” said Hynes. The cere-mony commemorated the initiation of con-struction of the first four schools by BanuMukhtar Contracting (Pvt) Ltd (formerlyknown as Izhar(Pvt) Ltd).

Transporters fleecingpassengers in capital

ISLAMABADApp

The local transporters in twin cities of Is-lamabad and Rawalpindi have started over-charging without any official increase inthe fares following surge in the fuel prices.It is observed that the transporters havestarted violation of routes and fleecing thecommuters on their own.The commuters waiting on Faizabad busstop said that transporters ask for morefare that is unfair as they are bound to fol-low the current rate list until it is revised.They said most of the transporters operateon gas but they adjust fare according to thepetrol prices.

Underpass at Chaklalarailway track approved

RAWALPINDIApp

THE Punjab governmenthas approved constructionof an underpass on railwaytrack in Chaklala to linkresidential area of Shah

Khalid colony to commercial area.All the necessary proceedings have

been started to assess the cost of con-struction of underpass besides obtain-ing No Objection Certificate (NOC)from Pakistan Railway. Government ofPunjab will bear all the expenses per-taining to the completion of the project.Rawalpindi District management willmonitor the construction work.

The project was the demand of theresidents of Shah Khalid Colony asRailway track has divided the colonyinto two parts and they have to go tomarkets after crossing the railway trackand due to this several accidents havetaken place. The construction of the un-derpass will resolve problems of thearea, said Shoail Ahmed a residentwhile talking to this agency.DAwAH ACADEMY BOOKS APPROvED fOR PUNjAB LIBRARIES PROjECT: The PunjabSchools Libraries Project Lahore hasapproved 26 publications of DawahAcademy of the International IslamicUniversity Islamabad (IIUI).

According to a IIUI press release,up to 9800 copies of each of the titlewill be provided by the academy to thesaid project for onward provision to theSchools Libraries Project. An agree-ment in his regard was signed last weekaccording to which the books will beprovided to the Project by May 30.Hairan Khattak, former Deputy Direc-tor Publication, singed the agreementwith the authorities of the project in La-hore. It is worth mentioning that

Dawah Academy has already supplied atotal of 30 books to the project in theprevious two phases.IESCO POwER SUSPENSIONSCHEDULE : The Islamabad ElectricSupply Company (IESCO) on Friday is-sued a power shut-down programmefor various areas due to necessarymaintenance and routine developmentwork. According to an IESCOSpokesman, power supply of the areasfall under the following gridstations/feeders would remain sus-pended as under:- April 7 (Saturday):From 12am to 5pm, Fazal Ghee feeder,Pak Steel, Capital Steel, U-fone, ISI,Atomic energy, Khabrian Akbar, GaliNo.1,2,3,6, I-10/3, Main Road, I-10/3.

From 9am to 2pm Park view feeder,Mohra Nagial, Sawan camp, Morgah,from 9am to 4pm Industrial feeder, Pir-wadhai feeder, Mangtal feeder, HaliRoad feeder, Bagh Sardaran feeder, DMTextile Mill feeder, Quaid Abad feeder,From 10am to 2pm Shahdra feeder,Desto feeder, Angori feeder, ShahdraVillage, Shah Pur, Nai Abadi, KotHathial, Spring Valley, Sarl Chowk,PTV Colony, Babri, Malata, Sakreela,Behaki Gali, Desto Lab.DRINKING GOOD AMOUNT OfMILK KEEPS TEETH HEALTHY:Drinking milk regularly provides goodamount of calcium and keeps teethhealthy. Talking to Pakistan Television(PTV), Dr Shabeer Ahmed Dehraj saidthat there was no difference betweendairy and fresh milk as both were richin calcium. He said that brushing theteeth after breakfast and before sleepingfor a minimum duration of at least threeminutes daily prevents bacterial attacksagainst the teeth. He said that duringbrushing, the position of the toothbrush head should be at an angle of 45degrees towards gum line. He said thatmilky teeth remains six to eight years

and after that permenant teeth replacethem. Care for teeth should be adoptedfrom early age and parents can help thekids in that matter. He said a visit to adentist can provide sufficient informa-tion about dental care plan.

It is found that most people usetheir teeth for different kinds of activi-ties. These include using the teeth as atool and sometimes as a can opener.Using the teeth for activities like thesecan cause the enamel to erode, crackand loosen the teeth from its base, hesaid. Smoking cause stains on yourteeth that are un-removable. Gum dis-eases affect smokers more than non-smokers. Make it a habit to visit yourdentist once every six months, he canguide you and tell you about the statusof your teeth and can do some profes-sional cleaning once in a while, he said.NDMA PLANS TO SET UP RISKASSESSMENT NETwORK: TheNational Disaster Management Author-ity (NDMA) is planning to establish Na-tional Hazard and Risk AssessmentNetwork to provide a forum for infor-mation sharing, avoiding duplicationand synergizing all activities being un-dertaken for hazard and risk assess-ment in the country.

An NDMA official told APP Fridaythat the authority was working to de-vise a mechanism for establishing theDisaster Safety Net and introducinginsurance of the communities partic-ularly living in disaster prone areas.He said various options were beingexplored for risk financing. theNDMA was working on risk assess-ment model which had already beentested successfully in a number ofcountries. This risk assessmentwould contribute towards improvingresilience against disasters and im-prove the response by the governmentin time of calamities, he added.


08 Saturday, 7 April, 2012

Islamabad

low

High

SUndAy MondAy TUeSdAy32°c i 18°c 30°c i 18°c 26°c i 16°c

PrAyer TiMinGSfajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib isha

04:21 05:47 12:10 16:43 18:35 19:58

ciTy direcTory

Police eMerGency 15

AMbUlAnce 115

reScUe 1122

HilAl-e-AHMer 9250488

edHi foUndATion 2827844

boMb diSPoSAl 9270698

fire briGAde cenTre 16

ciVil defence 9262830

eMerGency HelP

HoSPiTAlS

blood bAnK

PiMS blood bAnK 9261272

Poly clinic blood bAnK 9209123

coMPlAinT

wAPdA 111-000-118

SUi GAS 1199

rAilwAyS

ciTy STATion (enQUiry) 117

reSerVATion 9273614

rAilwAy Police 1333

AirPorT

fliGHT enQUiry 114

PiA reSerVATion 111-786-786

colleGeS / UniVerSiTieS

inTernATionAl iSlAMic UniVerSiTy 9260765

bAHriA UniVerSiTy 9260002

nUMl 9257677

QUAid-e-AZAM UniVerSiTy 90642098

Arid AGricUlTUre UniVerSiTy 9290151

fJwU 9273235

riPHA inTernATionAl UniVerSiTy 111510510

ncA rAwAlPindi 5770423

PUnJAb lAw colleGe 4421347

MAHroof inT 2222920

PiMS 9261170

Poly clinic 9218300

cdA 9221334

SHifA inTernATionAl 4603666

Ali 4444435

diSTricT HQS 5556311-14

UlTrASonic clinic 2824862

Holy fAMily 9290319

MONstEr truCk IN IsLMabaD

Monster truck in islamabad.

DruMMING CIrCLE

dATe And TiMe: 05:00 PM, weeKly eVenTVenUe: THe cenTre for ArTS & cUlTUre

our drumming circle is a (free!) ongoing event andis held every friday from 5 to 6 p.m.we are having a great time, and want to share thegood time with you! our drumming circle haschildren ...

SUnny inTerVAlS

weATHer UPdATeS

31°c

dATe: MAr 20 - APr 21, 2012 VenUe: f-9 PArK, iSlAMAbAd

16°c

OMG! [OH MY GIG!]

And the performers for this edition of oMG! are: drumrollSpecial Performances by: 1. rap engineers 2. XX1 3. Taray.The band members are students of the prestigious lUMS,specially coming all the way from lahore to perform inKuch Khaas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fivr3iqgfcAentry fee: rs.100 (non-Members) free entry for Members

dATe And TiMe: APr 07, 2012, 6:30 PMVenUe: KUcH KHAAS (iSlAMAbAd)

iSlAMABAd: pTdC Md Mir Shahjahan Khetran with the members of pakistan Motorbike Travellers Association who reached islamabad after covering a dis-

tance of 2,600kms in 10 days from Karachi to islamabad. STAFF pHOTO

Residents demandcleanliness of Nullah Leh

RAWALPINDI / ISLAMABADApp

THE residents livingalong Nullah Leh onFriday demandedcleanliness of the nul-lah as it is full of filth,

silt and garbage.They said Nullah Lai is overflow-

ing due to the negligence of the con-cerned authorities as garbage andfilth gather there and no properarrangements have been made toclear silt and solid waste from it. Theresidents of low lying areas particu-larly Waris Khan, Glass Factory,Mokh Singh State, Dhoke Khaba,Umer Road, Nadeem Colony, DhokeElahi, City Sadar Road, Dhoke ChargDeen, Pirwadhi, New Katrian andDhoke Naju demanded city districtgovernment to take solid for redress-ing grievances of people.

Gawalmandi area should espe-cially be focused during the cleanli-ness drive, said a resident MalikNaseer, adding, due to surroundingpopulus locality, a large quantity ofgarbage and filth is thrown in thenullah and no one is paying heed to-wards this issue. The PML-N leaderand Incharge Monitoring Cell of De-velopment Works, Sardar Nasimstated that he would discuss the sit-uation with the Punjab Governmentand convince it to allocate funds forcleaning and dredging of the Nullah.CAMPAIGN TO PREvENTDIARRHEA AMONGCHILDREN CONCLUDES: In abid to address health problems of

disadvantaged mothers andchildren, lady health workers arevisiting door to door in 12 unioncouncils and 14 slums of the federalcapital to provide basic healthcarefacilities to them in a week-long'Mother and Child' campaign to beconcluded on Saturday.

According to details, the cam-paign is focusing on prevention of di-arrhea among the children,distribution of ORS and zinc syrup,immunization of children againstcommunicable diseases under twoyears, tetnus toxoid vaccination forpregnant women, providing counsel-ing services to pregnant women, pro-vision of iron and folic acid tablets tothe mother and children for over-coming anemia and mal nutritionamong children, providing familyplanning services, promotion of per-sonal hygiene, washing hands, pre-vention of pneumonia.

District Health Department, Is-lamabad, Capital Territory Adminis-tration (ICT), in co-ordination withUNICEF and Capital DevelopmentAuthority (CDA) is observing theMother and Child Week in the Fed-eral Capital from April 2 to April 7,with a view to address the healthproblems of disadvantaged mothersand children by raising the aware-ness and strengthening the healthsystem to become more responsive.The lady health workers are visitingdoor to door in the 12 union councilsand 14 slums of Islamabad andwould provide these basic healthcare facilities to the disadvantagedfamilies.

They are registering pregnantwomen for all the requisite healthcare services. Health education ofdisadvantaged families is also an im-portant part of week long activities.The lady health workers are observ-ing this week with full dedicationand devotion and addressing thehealth problems of disadvantagedmothers and children by visiting andspending their time with disadvan-taged mothers in slum settlementsand remote rural areas of 12 unioncouncils of Islamabad.PAL CHIEf CONDOLESSARfRAz MIRzA’S DEATH:Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL)Chairman Abdul Hameed on Fridayexpressed grief over the sad demiseof the prominent intellectual andresearcher Prof Dr Sarfraz HussainMirza.

In a condolence message, theChairman said the death of Prof. DrSarfraz Hussain Mirza has created agap in the literary circle which can-not be filled.

Abdul Hameed said Dr SarfrazHussain was the author of manybooks regarding History of Pakistan.These books are a precious asset forthe new generation and will remainthe part of history. Chairman PAL,Abdul Hameed prayed for the salva-tion of soul of the Prof Dr SarfrazHussain Mirza and patience for hissiblings.UNHYGIENIC OffICE DESKSSPREAD SICKNESS: STUDYEmployees who prefer to eat theirlunch at their desks instead of takinga lunch hour out of the office are ap-

parently putting their health, as wellas the health of their colleagues, atrisk.

A new study by office suppliesfirm Viking has revealed that hy-giene levels are shockingly poor inhundreds of offices across the UK;with germs reportedly found innearly two-thirds of computer key-boards, some of which also hadmould growing under them, Live Sci-ence reported.

The reason for the growth ofgerms and bacteria in the officedesks is that almost two-thirds of theoffice employees in the country eat attheir work station but do not cleanup afterwards; thereby implying thatthere are chances of some sicknessspreading throughout the office.

After having comprehensivelyanalyzed the swabs sent in by hun-dreds of office workers from acrossthe UK, Viking arrived at the conclu-sion that computer staff, account-ants, and lawyers were seemingly themost unhygienic office workers inthe country; with social workersbeing the most likely ones to havemoldy food on their desks.

Terming the `unhygienic desks'revelation as ‘very worrying’

Dr.Lisa Ackerley a chartered en-vironmental health practitioner -said since employees working inopen-plan offices generally startcoming down with illnesses this timeof year, "keeping equipment such askeyboards, phones and desks asgerm-free as possible is even moreimportant during the cold and fluseason".



Islamabad

RAWAlpiNdi: Shia Ulema Council activists protest against the Chilas incident outside the press club. STAFF pHOTO

ISLAMABADMAhTAB BAShiR

WELL-KNOWN scholarProfessor AhmadRafique Akhtarshowed a new path forunderstanding rela-

tion between culture practices and Islamin a lecture that he delivered at the Pak-istan National Council of Arts (PNCA).

The scholar’s interpretation of theholy Quran and our religion was quitedifferent from the forbidding edicts

against culture practice given out byquite a few religious personalities.

Delivering a lecture titled ‘Deen AorSaqafat Ka Rishta’ at a packed audito-rium of PNCA, Prof Akhtar said thatIslam is a very simple religious. All itasked its followers is to believe in theOneness of God Almighty and the lastprophet of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH),and five times daily prayers and keepingfast during the holy month of Ramadan.

“And one could do what he likes pro-vided he does not transgress the limitsset by Allah Almighty”.

In fact, Islam gives a better conceptof civlization while other religions speakof customs, habits, and mythology.“Islam admitted no mythology- its stresson the oneness of God cannot sanctionmyths about the creator, Prof Akhtarsaid. He denied that Islam is againstpainting because in the holy Quran Godhas been mentioned as the MostSupreme Artist, Allah-hu-Jamilun, WaYu Hibbul Jamaal (God is beautiful andhe loves beauty).

The scholar then flayed those whodecry poetry because the holy Prophet(PBUH) on several asked that poetry beread to him, although the holy Prophet -being Ummi who could not read and write- himself could not recite poetry well.

The lecturer cleared one more myth

about music and singing and games (notgames of fortune). He said the Prophet(PBUH) encouraged girls to sing and helistened to them with patience.

Once a lady came to him and said “OProphet of God - may peace be on you -Ihave taken a vow to please you with aperformance on daff (an instrument)and he gave attention to her. Hazrat AbuBakr, Hazrat Usman and Hazrat Alicame and also listened; she stopped per-forming upon the arrival of HazratUmar, because Hazrat Umar was verystrict in his behaviour,” said the scholar.

He added that Hazrat Umar was agood singer and he sang ballads whilegoing on a journey and while riding ahorse, and he would attract a crowd whowould flock to hear his ballads. “Why doyou come and hear a sing and do not comeso readily when I recite the Quran in thesame pleasing voice? he chastised hisfans. That took care of music and singingperformances. Some other religiousteachers show antipathy to this view.

However, in the view of Prof AhmadRafiq, the holy Prophet’s life did not dis-approve these branches of fine arts.

In spite of gruesome difficulties anddenials as an orphan, the holy Prophetwas a generous and was most accommo-dating of persons and he was not a killjoy, as he is made out to be.

When a person said he did not liketo offer his daily salat, his reply was thendon’t do it. “If one loved Allah and hisProphet then one would come readily toprayers, and without hesitation.”

We have to give priority to the com-mandments of Allah and his Prophet(PBUH)) and if we establish this prioritywe can solve all problems. The scholarsaid since the last two centuries the out-side world is trying its best to create awedge among Muslims and drive themaway from the love of Prophet (PBUH).

We need to avoid that traps thathave been set for the Muslim, hewarned.

Prof Ahmad Rafique Akhtar is a no-table Islamic scholar. He is from GujarKhan. A graduate of Government Col-lege, Lahore, he has been associatedwith teaching for years. Finally, in GujarKhan, near Islamabad,he started delivering lec-tures on different Islamicand philosophical topicsand this eventually grewto such an extent that hehad to travel all over thecountry and differentplaces in the world.Many of his lectures havebeen published in books.

better healthcareservices for elderlypeople stressed

ISLAMABADApp

Speakers at seminar on Friday urged theconcerned quarters to ensure provisionof better healthcare services to olderpeople of the country by utilizing allavailable resources.They were addressing a seminar on age-ing and health, jointly organized byWorld Health Organization (WHO) andHelp Age International in connectionwith World Health Day being observedon Saturday. They asked for inclusion ofageing and older people in plans, strate-gies and programmes to combat non-communicable and communicablediseases. They said it is vital that thehealth sector at all level addressed olderpeople’s health and care.Dr Summaiya from World Health Or-ganization (WHO) said it is a high timethat policy makers should revise thepolicies for proper taking care of olderpeople. She said the government, societyand communities as a whole, need to actnow and plan together responsibly forhealth services and supportive environ-ments favorable to graceful healthy age-ing. Acting Country Director, Help Age,Syed Moeez ud Din said there is an im-mediate need to recognize and take com-prehensive timely action to addresspopulation ageing through systematic in-tegrated health care and social servicescomplemented with continued familysupport and respect. He said quality oflife should remain a high priority and dueconsideration must also be given to ac-count for gender realities and specificneeds. Dr Amjad from Help Age saidolder people made important contribu-tions as family members, volunteers andare active participants in the workforcebesides a significant social and economicresource. He said the main health chal-lenges for older people everywhere arenon-communicable diseases, such asheart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetesand chronic lung disease. Other speakerssaid older people in low- and middle-in-come countries currently face up to fourtimes the risk of death and disabilityfrom non-communicable diseases thanpeople in high-income countries. Theystressed the need for urgent action to en-sure that at a time when the world’s pop-ulation is ageing rapidly, people reachold age in the best possible health.They said poor health is not the onlyconcern of people as they grew older.Stigmatizing attitudes and commonstereotypes often prevent older peo-ple from participating fully in society,they said.

Islam offers best concept of

culture, civilisation: Prof Ahmad



IslamabadLok Mela kicks off at Lok Virsa Complex

ISLAMABADMAhTAB BAShiR

A10-day folk festival of Pak-istan, popularly known asLok Mela, started here atShakarparian. This megacultural event has been or-

ganised by Lok Virsa - National Instituteof Folk and Traditional Heritage - from 6to 15 April. The inaugural ceremony wasperformed by Ministry of National Her-itage and Integration Federal SecretaryAsaf Ghafoor as chief guest. In his ad-dress, the secretary assured full coopera-tion to Lok Virsa and the festivalparticipants on behalf of his ministry forholding the event successfully.

Asaf Ghafoor said: “this event is atrue depiction of rural Pakistan. The di-rect beneficiaries are rural folk includingcraftspeople, folk artists, musicians andother performers participating from eachand every corner of the country. The fes-tival, therefore, serves to disseminate thedynamic creativity of our countryside andgives rural folk a pride in their identity”.

“Artisans and folk artists are our na-tional assets. While performing abroad,they act as our ambassadors to the visit-ing countries. No one else than these folkartists can effectively project our culturein the outer world. They have an impor-tant role to play in promoting our softimage at the international level throughtheir skills and performances. Our min-istry would certainly facilitate them incarrying out this national task”, he main-tained.

The secretary congratulated LokVirsa officers and staff for their dedicatedefforts to bring this mini-Pakistan at thefederal capital to enrich its attractionsand beauty and also highly lauded theircontribution towards projecting trueidentity of Pakistan.

In her message on the occasion, Fed-eral Minister for National Heritage andIntegration Samina Khalid Ghurki, whois also the minister incharge of Lok Virsa,said: “Traditions and cultural values arethe identity of a nation. Changes over thetime can diminish them but they cannotbe wiped away. Lok Virsa is doing a greatservice to the nation in this respect as it

is striving hard to preserve our indige-nous folk traditions, promote them andproject them at the international level.This is not only important but also an es-sential need of the hour”.

The minister further added: “We candefeat terrorism and extremism by pro-moting our cultural heritage. By project-ing it properly, we can highlight the softimage of Pakistan all over the world. It ispolicy of the government to give equalrepresentation to all provinces and re-gions in safeguarding their traditionalculture”. The minister said: “I am gladthat Lok Virsa, which was founded byQuaid-e-Awam, Shaheed Zulfiqar AliBhutto in 1974, has grown to such an ex-tent that it is now known the world overfor its landmark achievements in the fieldof culture”.

In his welcome address, Lok Virsa’sexecutive director Khalid Javaid gave abrief overview of the concept and objec-tives of the festival with special referenceto the mandate of Lok Virsa. He assuredthat artisans, folk artists and musicianscoming from all the provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and other re-mote areas will be given a very warmhospitality at Islamabad during the festi-val period.

He said: “The major thrust of the fes-tival is the focus on provincial harmonyand national integration highlighting thecontribution of our people in building fu-ture of Pakistan.”

Khalid Javaid apprised that festivalaims to reviving endangered traditionalarts of Pakistan. It will provide an oppor-tunity to craftspeople not only to displaytheir workmanship at a central place atthe federal capital but also to sell theirproducts to public without involvementof middleman, thus contributing a lot to-wards poverty alleviation among poorrural community. The folk artists andmusicians will also win recognition oftheir talent at this important forum. Thefestival also serves to afford an opportu-nity to the diplomatic community andresidents of Rawalpindi/Islamabad towitness authentic folk musical and cul-tural entertainment for 10 consecutivedays besides buying traditional items onreasonable prices.

More than 500 artisans and artistsfrom different parts including remotestregions are participating in the festival,bringing with them their creativity inarts, crafts and innovation, the Lok VirsaED maintained.

The festival includes a number of im-portant features such as artisans-at-workexhibition, provincial cultural pavilions,folkloric song and dance ensembles, ruralmusicians, cultural evenings, promo-tional stalls by public organizations andNGOs, general assembly of craftspeople,an exotic craft bazaar, traditional foodcuisine, food stalls and special attractionsfor children amusement.

During the inaugural ceremony, vi-brant cultural performances were alsopresented by each of the participatingprovinces/regions showing national soli-darity and proving that this unique festi-val is a symbol of federation’s recognitionand patronage to our rich cultural diver-sity and active participation of the peopleof Pakistan. The performers were RazaAlan from Sindh, Saleh Baloch from

Balochistan, Qurban Niazi and SainMushtaq from Punjab and Javed Khanfrom Gilgit Baltistan.

According to the tradition of in LokVirsa, the festival opened with a “ChadarPoshi” of an established femalecraftswoman from Sindh province in thefield of Hurmuch (Sindhi embroidery)namely Mst Naseem Sultan. The chiefguest performed her chadar poshi byplacing a chadar on her shoulder.

‘Dastarbandi’ is a symbol of LokVirsa’s sustained campaign to keep theheritage of Pakistan alive and continuing.A turban in folk mythology of Pakistan issynonymous to doing great honour.When you place a turban on some one’shead, you have placed your completetrust in that person’s wisdom and his/herstature in life. This is Lok Virsa’s way ofshowing that the craftspeople and folkartists have importance in national lifeand they have made a great contributionto our culture. After the turban is placedon the head, a poetic composition called“Sehra” is recited to honour the master

artisan/artist. Drums resound proclaim-ing his attainments, and coloured bal-loons go up in the air.

A large number of people from differ-ent walks of life including art and craftexperts, cultural personalities, diplomats,media persons, students and generalpublic attended the ceremony and en-joyed the thrilling performances of theartists.

Earlier on arrival, a warm welcomewas given to the secretary by Lok Virsa.Folk dance groups, attired in colourful re-gional costumes, escorted the guests frommain entrance to the venue of the cere-mony in a traditional way.

Later, the chief guest paid a visit tothe cultural pavilions, witnessed indige-nous folk entertainment and met partici-pants coming from every nook and cornerof the country bringing with them theircreativity in arts, crafts and innovation.

The festival will continue with all itscolours till 15th daily from 11:00 am to10:00 pm at Lok Virsa Complex, GardenAvenue, Shakarparian.

g Ghurki says traditions and cultural values are identity of a nation

PiMA suggests six-point health plan


April 7 is celebrated as the health dayworldwide. The World Health Day pro-vides an occasion for the countries tolook at their health care system and planaccordingly to meet the millennium de-velopment goals (MDG).Pakistan Islamic Medical Association(PIMA), on the eve of the World HealthDay suggested a six-point plan to im-prove health care of Pakistani people bygovernmental and non-governmentalinterventions.The points include: more expenses onhealth, focus on primary prevention, nu-trition is important than medications,strengthening basic health unit, improv-ing public awareness, providing freevaccines and cheaper drugs. The status of public health in Pakistan isat the lowest level in the world. Our in-fant mortality rate is 90/1,000 and ma-ternal mortality due to deliverycomplications is 45/10,000. One out ofthree babies is born with low birthweight. We are spending less than oneper cent of our GNP on health. The fed-eral budget allocated Rs 240 per personfor health in the previous budget. Theamount of the federal health budget isless than the amount of the revenue col-lected from tobacco companies. Hundreds of thousands of people die ofpreventable infectious diseases and gas-tric infections due to unclean water andpoor nutrition. According to a survey,one-thirds of population above 45 is suf-fering from high blood pressure, andabout 10 per cent population is carrierof hepatitis. These figures are alarmingand demand an urgent action. Death tolldue to smoking alone is twice more than2005 earthquake-related deaths.

ISLAMABADApp

Oxford University teachers have impartedtraining to 105 Pakistani teachers in latestEnglish language methodologies in ninesessions here.

Elna Coetzer and Patrick ManuelShortt from the University of Oxford, De-partment of Continuous Education arecurrently on their first ever, 6-day visit toPakistan, says a press release here Friday.They have transmitted knowledge andskills to teachers of PakTurk InternationalSchools and Colleges at Islamabad beforeproceeding to Lahore and Karachi.

After training sessions, the trainersinformed that Oxford University, one ofthe top ten universities in the world, hasdecided to send trainers to different coun-tries for professional development ofteaching staff. After being apprised of thelatest methods, the teachers would submitreports to Oxford University where deci-sion regarding certification would betaken after thorough evaluation.

At the occasion, Mr Kamil Ture, Di-rector Education, PakTurk emphasized onimportance of using advanced teachingtechniques. He underlined the greater roleof love and care in teaching profession.Motivation and enthusiasm are prerequi-sites to become an effective teacher, saidTure adding that teachers who havelearned techniques to make their teachinginteresting and effective should utilisetheir skills in best possible way.

He said that Turkey believes that ed-ucation is one of the best investments inthe future of any country. Turkey will con-

tinue to support Pakistan to become a de-veloped nation.fDE TO CONDUCT ADMISSIONTESTS ON 10TH: The admission testsfor session 2012-13 at all the IslamabadModel Colleges and Schools will be con-ducted on April 10 and the merit list willbe placed after one week.

The Federal Directorate of Education(FDE) announced the admission schedulefor Class I in mid March and the last datefor submission of forms was April 4.

After conducting tests, the merit listwill be placed on April 18 while the classeswould start from April 23. The admissiontests for class I will be commenced in Is-lamabad Model Colleges for Boys in thesectors including F-8/4, F-7/3, G-10/4, F-10/3, I-10/1, I-8/3, F-11/3, F-11/1, G-11/1and Islamabad College for Boys in G-6/3and Islamabad Model Colleges for Girls inthe sectors including F-6/2, G-7/4, F-10/2, F-8/1, G-10/2, I-8/4, I-10/4, KorangTown and Islamabad College for Girls(ICG) F-6/2. Evening shift is available inall model colleges except IMCB, F-11/3and IMCB, G-11/1. However, the direc-torate will issue the registration forms forClass Prep from April 11-20 and receivefrom April 12-23 while the written testswill be conducted on April 26. The meritlists will be placed on May 2 and theclasses would start from May 7. About theeligibility, the directorate said the parentsof children must be the residents of Islam-abad while those living in Rawalpindi butserving in government/semi-governmentorganizations in the capital are also eligi-ble to apply for the admission.

According to FDE, the age limit must

be at least four years but not more thanfive years as on March 31 according to `B’form issued by NADRA and the admissionforms must have attested copies of rele-vant certificates or documents.

The admission forms can be obtainedfrom Islamabad Model Colleges for Boys(IMCB) in the sectors G-6/3, F-8/4, G-10/4, F-10/3, F-11/3, G-11/1 and Islam-abad Model Colleges for Girls in thesectors including F-6/2, F-7/2, F-10/2, F-8/1, G-10/2, I-8/4 and also from Islam-abad College for Girls (ICG) F-6/2.

Evening shift is not available in all themodel colleges except ICB G-6/3 andIMCB F-8/4. Principal Islamabad Collegefor Boys G-6/3, Professor Anwar Ali Khanis the convener of admissions.BUILDING MUSCLE REDUCES DI-ABETES RISK: Increasing muscle massand working out can help lower the riskfor type 2 diabetes and other blood relateddeceases.

Researchers from Colombia Univer-sity, USA analyzed data from 13,644adults who took part in the U.S. NationalHealth and Nutrition Examination SurveyIII, BBC reported. They found that foreach 10 per cent increase in the SkeletalMuscle Index (SMI) the ratio of musclemass to total body weight, there was an 11per cent reduction in insulin resistance aprecursor to diabetes.

There was also a 12 per cent reductionin pre-diabetes, a condition characterizedby higher-than-normal blood sugar levels.The findings suggest that beyond focusingon losing weight to improve metabolichealth, there may be a role for maintain-ing fitness and building muscle mass.

deadly breast

cancer has genetic

diversity: studyISLAMABAD

App

A group of scientists have found thattriple negative breast cancer has geneticdiversity in its tumors, which maychange the way it is treated.The findings, published by Journal Na-ture, may also help explain why triplenegative breast cancer, which represents16 percent of all breast cancer, is so dif-ficult to treat.An international team of 59 scientists,including four from Vancouver-basedSimon Fraser University (SFU) had thisdiscovery after carrying out the largestgenetic analysis of what were thought tobe triple negative breast cancer tumors.They expected to see similar gene pro-files when mapping on computer thegenomes of 100 tumors, but eventuallyfound no two genomes were similar, letalone the same. ‘Seeing these tumors ata molecular level has taught us we’redealing with a continuum of differenttypes of breast cancer here, not justone,’ explains Steven Jones, an SFU mo-lecular biology and biochemistry profes-sor that is co-author of this study.These findings prove the importance ofpersonalizing cancer drug treatment so that it targets the geneticmake up of a particular tumor ratherthan presuming one therapy can treatmultiple, similar-looking tumors,”added the professor.Scientists consider triple negative breastcancer the most deadly form of breastcancer because it did not respond well tomodern drug therapies, which knock outreceptors found in most breast cancersbut not this one.

Oxford University trainspakistani teachers


Editor’s mail 11Saturday, 7 April, 2012

PTcl, new and improvedI have always opposed privatisation

on various grounds but my recent visit tothe PTCL Customer Facilitation Cell haschanged all my thoughts. The changesbrought about by the privatisation ofPTCL, once a white elephant, needs dueappreciation.

I happened to visit a PTCL CustomerFacilitation Cell located in Islamabadafter a lapse of around 3 years. I was as-tonished to see the dedicated, facilitatingand cordial environment. The firstthought that came to my mind “Is this re-ally the PTCL that I have known for solong?”

The shabby building, rude staffers,and manual tasks were replaced with ACequipped, clean office, a helpful and con-siderate staff with all modern gadgets attheir disposal. The complaint which Ithought could have taken my whole dayand probably weeks to resolve waslooked into considerately and resolvedwithin minutes.

The post-privatization PTCL is a newbreed indeed with changes so impressivethat it has rightfully earned all the appre-ciation for its services and a happy cus-tomer.

NASIR MAHMOODIslamabad

Sky high faresAfter rapid increase in fuel prices,

the high fares of transport is a seriousproblem our citizens are facing nowa-days.

Rising inflation has already inca-pacitated the poor and now the faresof transportation, both public and pri-vate, is touching the sky. For citizenswith no increase in salaries, mobilityhas become exceedingly difficult.

Students already pay high fees fortheir studies and now they are facingpublic transport problems as wellwhich is certainly not fair. The recentincrease in public transport fares hasforced the poor into adopting alterna-tive ways to reach their places of workand other destinations.

Many people have started using bi-cycles and motorbikes. A few days ago,I heard the news that now people pre-fer tongas to reach their destination.

By controlling the increase in fuelprice, this problem can be solved. Notonly should government try to controlthe price, it should educate the publicabout fuel conservation and moneysaving techniques like car-pooling etc.

The government should thinkabout this problem and must try tosolve it as it is causing a large sectionof the society much trouble.

TAZEEN FATIMAKarachi

The 10m dollar manThe announcement of bounty for the

capture of Hafiz Saeed gives the impres-sion that the United States is helpless orjust wants to badmouth Pakistan.

Hafiz Saeed participates in differentdemonstrations against United Statesand NATO. Since the US knows wherehe lives in Pakistan, one wonders ifthere is any need to announce thebounty? I can say with conviction thatthe United States is just using its oldpressure tactics.

MUHAMMAD WAQAS GUJJARLahore

American tacticsThe news about further restrictions

on PIA flights to USA deserves strongestresponse from Pakistani government, onthe grounds that such restrictions are notimposed by the USA on any other airline.

It seems America wants to punishPakistan for buying US made aircraftsagainst European models, that too at anexorbitant price.

Under the circumstances, Pakistanmust give a jaw crushing reply to Amer-ica by immediately stopping supplies toNATO forces allowed under the garb ofhumanitarian grounds and by shuttingdown Pakistani airspace for all flights toAfghanistan.

Pakistan must talk to America in thelanguage it understands best.

SYED NAYYAR UDDIN AHMADLahore

our education sectorThrough your paper, I would like to

draw attention to the dismal conditionof Pakistan’s education sector. In theHuman Development Report, Pakistanis placed at 136th position as only 49.9percent of its populace is educated.

The primary completion rate in Pak-istan, as given by the Data Center ofUNESCO, is 33.8 percent in females and47.18 percent in males, which showsthat people in the 6th largest country ofthe world are unable to get the basic ed-ucation.

The education sector faces countlessissues. Firstly, the educational system ofPakistan is not uniform. There are par-allel systems operating, dispensing verydifferent kinds and qualities of educa-tion.

Secondly, regional disparity is also amajor problem. The schools in Balochis-tan are much worse when compared tothe rest of the country. In tribal areas(FATA), the literacy rate is deplorablestanding at 29.5 percent in males and 3percent in females.

Thirdly, gender disparity is also abig issue.

Our education system can only beimproved if the government takes thisissue seriously and allocates more fundsto it. We cannot develop without im-proving our education sector.

HUMAIRA MOHSINKarachi

change attitudes, not the uniformI would like to highlight that some

senior police officials have come up withthe idea that the black uniform is the rootcause of all the ills prevalent in theirforce. They are of the opinion that if onlytheir uniform was changed all of a sud-den, then their force would be trans-formed into an efficient one.

Such thinking lacks the requisitesoul-searching and urge to carry out acritical analysis of dismal performance ofthe police. I will not compare our policewith the police of the US or the UK but

with those of the Kingdom of Saudi Ara-bia who are a truly professional force.They are maintaining admirable peaceand tranquillity throughout the lengthand breadth of the Kingdom. Their trafficpolice are equally efficient. One can no-tice how efficiently they regulate the traf-fic during the peak season of Hajj. Thecrime rate in the Kingdom is probablylowest in the world. This is because thepolice there are scrupulously clean.

They are led by men of integrity whoare God-fearing. They are neither greedy

nor have any lust for amassing wealth bymeans fare or foul. Culprits are taken tothe gallows, no matter how influentialthey may be. Just to give an example howsafe their highways are, you can criss-cross the Kingdom with your family inthe pitch dark nights fearlessly and noharm will come to you. This force is mod-estly paid.

They put on decent uniform and Iknow for sure that for the last 30 yearstheir uniform has not been changed.

What our police force needs is a

demonstration of leadership. Meritshould be the hallmark of induction intothe police force. Greed and avariceshould be shunned. This trait can be in-stilled through example from the top.The police should be made an independ-ent force totally insulated from the influ-ence of their political masters.

The image of the police can be en-hanced by formulating their attitude andnot by changing their uniform.

IQRA SOHAILKarachi

Railways going nowhere

Send your letters to:Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistanfax: +92-42-36298302E-mail: [email protected] Letters may be edited for length and clarity.It would be appreciated if letters were ad-dressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

bans-in-futilityPillion riding (double sawari) has

been banned in Hangu district in KhyberPakhtunkhwa to stop target killings. Mo-bile service was blocked in Tank Districtin Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It seems that law enforcement agen-cies instead of giving relief to people aremerely torturing common people in thename of security purpose.

There are thousands of ways to catchterrorists but, instead of doing somethingmeaningful, the government is imposingthis ban and blocking those things whichare directly related and useful to com-mon people.

While the banning of pillion ridingmay be acceptable on some grounds(even though it also causes inconven-ience to the common person) but theblocking of mobile service is not justifiedat all and it should be opened at the earli-est.

MUBASHIR MAHMOODKarachi

on Gilgit-baltistanThe situation in Gilgit-Baltistan is

very saddening and simultaneouslyfrightening indeed. We have neglectedthat area of our country (much like whatwe did to East Pakistan and Balochistan)and we have failed to curb the forces thatour wreaking havoc with the societal fab-ric over there.

This problem is a mix of much that iswrong with our society: centrist tenden-cies of the state, sectarian hatred, vio-lence, lack of social development, etc.There are many dimensions to this prob-lem and they have been long in the mak-ing. If the incumbents thought that theyhad done their job by merely declaringGilgit-Baltistan a province, they mustthink again. This will be only a decora-tion on paper if what this provincial sta-tus entails is not implemented on theground.

Many people living in what is consid-ered ‘mainland’ Pakistan or mainstreamurban centres mistakenly believe that

these forces of hatred only operate in(and originate from) the ‘backwaters’ ofthe country i.e. the tribal areas andGilgit-Baltistan.

Whereas actually, these extremist el-ements not only operate with such im-punity in areas where the government’swrit is visibly absent but they are alsoeroding the writ of the government in alarge swathe of the country including inSouth Punjab, urban Sindh etc.

Gilgit-Baltistan is an area that is in-strumental to many of our economic andpolitical concerns. It is our link withChina, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Italso houses the fountainhead of our life-line, the Indus. But this is not the reasonwhy we should pay attention to it. It is apart of our unfortunate republic and de-serves peace and stability like any otherarea of the country. The people overthere are Pakistanis too and their blood isno less dearer than those living in otherareas.

ALI RIZVIIslamabad

Another important part of the infrastructure of thecounty has collapsed due to mismanagement and corrup-tion. The Pakistan Railways has all but virtually folded.

Nobody is actually affected other than the lower middleclass, as the affluent can easily avail flights and buses them-selves. It seems nobody is bothered even to find out whatwent wrong with this important, money-generating state in-stitution. In the entire world, railways are used to makeprofits whereas in our country it is in perpetual loss. The

goods train are a prime means of earning revenue elsewherein the world, whereas in our country these trains are also inloss.

I think we need honest people to emerge and clean therot. Here’s to hoping that the Government of Pakistan wouldlook into this serious issue as developing the railways is anintegral part of developing the economy.

MUHAMMAD JALALKarachi

The real and tragic failure inAfghanistan would be a re-turn to the civil war that

erupted after the Soviet Unionwithdrew after its foolhardy inter-vention. The ensuing struggle be-tween the warlords led to theemergence of the Taliban and theirviolent conflict with the NorthernAlliance for the control of the coun-try that lasted till 911. Today thesituation is somewhat differentwith the US and NATO still inAfghanistan but under enormouspressure to withdraw.

There is very little doubt thatthe prospects for any sort of deci-sive military victory in Afghanistanhave all but disappeared. PresidentObama's 'surge' and the counter in-surgency strategy of General Pe-traeus may have helped but these

have not led to the conclusion thatwas sought. The transformation ofAfghanistan into a democracy hasalso not happened. The failings aretoo numerous to mention but thereis consensus on two key issues: thecapacity of the Afghan SecurityForces is inadequate and theAfghan state has very little capacityfor effective governance. This is theoutcome after billions of dollarshave been spent. The blame forthese shortcomings cannot beplaced on sanctuaries across theborders of Afghanistan.

So far there have been 96US/NATO fatalities this year andof these 17 have been due to attacksby soldiers of the Afghan SecurityForces on their trainers and allies.A string of unsavoury and despica-ble acts have inevitably led to this

'green on blue'confrontationand the overallenvironment ofhate against theforeign military forces inAfghanistan and their allies. Theseincidents are well known; the socalled 'kill teams' killing Afghansfor sport, the cutting off of fingersfor trophies, the urination by USMarines on Afghan corpses, thetorture of prisoners, the night raidson Afghan homes and the massacrein Panjwai by a US soldier actingalone or in connivance with others.The hate that these incidents havespawned has led the Afghan Presi-dent to demand an end to nightraids, withdrawal of all civilian se-curity contractors, Baghram prisonto be under Afghan control and a

speeding up of theexit fromAfghanistan. Heobviously couldnot remain silent

as that would have made him com-plicit in all US/NATO actions inAfghan eyes – not a situation hewould want to be in now or after2014.

According to a survey, in theUS almost 69 percent are not infavour of the US presence inAfghanistan. Obviously, the cost ofthe war in men and dollars has hadan impact on domestic public opin-ion. There are large numbers ofsoldiers suffering from PTSD (posttraumatic stress syndrome) andgrowing numbers of amputees be-cause of IED attacks. A survey inAfghanistan has established that

almost 82 percent want peace inspite of the fact that factions arearming themselves just in caseAfghanistan descends into thechaos of a civil war post 2014 –worst case contingency planning. Acivil war in Afghanistan after 2014would be disastrous for Pakistanand not even the Taliban wouldwant such an outcome.

With a reappraisal of its initialexpectations the US has focused ondeveloping Afghan capacity as rap-idly as possible and, in tandemwith that, a push for the peaceprocess through reconciliation.This strategy has Afghan and Pak-istani support – something thathas to be ensured and made sus-tainable by addressing their con-cerns. Right now the talks arestalled because of the Taliban but

there are indications that theprocess started in Qatar may pickup traction after the Taliban returnto talks. A strategy that has nightraids and drone attacks as its maincomponents would make many en-emies and deliver little. An acceler-ated exit without a successful peaceprocess would make civil war a cer-tainty. The endgame should be aplanned exit timed for executionwith the success of the peaceprocess, the enhanced capacity ofAfghan forces and government anda reset relationship with Pakistan.

Spearhead Research is a privatecentre for research and consultancyon security, headed by JehangirKaramat. Spearhead analyses arethe result of a collaborative effort andnot attributable to a single individual.

Brace yourself, 2014 is coming…


Comment12Saturday, 7 April, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

raises many questions

The general’s statement

The statement before the memo enquiry commission by theformer DG ISI raises a number of questions of publicimportance. The retired general has stated that he hadtaken every step with the approval of the military high

command “from the beginning of the investigation to his meetingwith Mansoor Ijaz and the decision not to probe the issue anyfurther.” Pasha briefed Kayani about his interview with Ijaz onOctober 24. The latter, however, brought the matter to Gilani’snotice three weeks later on November 13. Why did the COAS andDG ISI keep the PM in the dark while preparing a case that couldlead to the government’s removal?

In his statement before the Supreme Court the COASmaintained that “the memo episode has an impact on nationalsecurity as inter-alia (it) unsuccessfully attempts to lower themorale of Pakistan Army whose young officers and soldiers arelaying down their lives for the security and defence of territorialintegrity and political independence and sovereignty of Pakistan.”Broad sections of the media went haywire over the ‘revelations’.Mian Nawaz Sharif took the matter to the Supreme Court.Ambassador Haqqani was called home and made to resign. Ajudicial commission to probe the memo affair was set up and wastwice granted extensions to complete the probe. The waystatements by the COAS and DG ISI were filed led the PM todismiss the Defence Secretary. Gilani’s interview to a Chinese dailyled the ISPR to issue a threatening statement underlining that itwould have “very serious ramifications with potentially grievousconsequences for the country.” The level of tensions rose so highthat the army chief’s meeting with top commanders raisedspeculations about the future of the government. There wererumours of a coup being imminent and the COAS had to issue astatement denying any threat to democracy.

And now we learn from Pasha that the probe was suddenlycalled off. Did the army decide not to pursue the investigation anyfurther because it became convinced that a case could not be madeout of it? Or did it decide that the issue was not that much of athreat to national independence and sovereignty as it had beenconsidered earlier?

Too soon, too vacuous

fever pitch?

Though the decorum of Pakistani politics has never quitebeen the graduating ceremony of a ladies’ finishing school,the barbs are really flying all over the place at the moment.The salvo that started the current spat was the incendiary

speech of the president at the death anniversary of ZA Bhutto atGarhi Khuda Bakhsh. Never one for respecting the decorum thatcomes with being a non-political symbol of the federation, he let itrip at the Sharifs’ expense. Some crass remarks about the brothersbeing outsiders who migrated to Lahore (as if nativism and neo-nativism were too good a phenomenon to restrict to Karachi). Healso said that the League head honchos’ sheen was his to take back,as it was given to them at his discretion. The PPP co-chairpersonalso made his intention clear to team up with the other League inthe upcoming election and take a swing at the Punjab government.

The N-League isn’t a stickler for decorum either. It is only thepresident’s periodicity that might make his statements stand out incontrast to the Punjab premier’s more regular foamings at themouth every so often about the former, always using a dreadfullyinteresting choice of words: lynching, dragging through the streetsetc.

Members of the provincial government greeting the head ofstate wouldn’t really have been killing the foe with kindness: it isexpected of a dignitary of the provincial government to greet himregardless of what the federal-province relation is. This wasfollowed by leader of the opposition in the NA, Chaudhry Nisar’sdiatribe against the PPP, which placed a youngster, then underagedeven to cast a vote, to preside over the party.

The parties, it seems, are in election mode, with all themudslinging sloganeering that accompanies the exercise. Since theelection activity works itself into a feverish pitch, blocking all otherpublic discourse, one wonders whether the timing - a full one yearbefore the polls - is appropriate.

On the other side of the world, the Republican primaries are setto conclude in the US, with Mitt Romney in the lead. Now the levelof debate in the GoP is laughed at within the American mediaestablishment. But despite that, an observer from Pakistan wouldlook with wistful envy at the fact that, though the primaries weren’twithout their bit of character assassination and ad hominemattacks, the primary points of debate were actual, policy issues.Ones that were well-debated.

in election modeNo one’s pulling any punches

whiteliESby ess Aich

We hear that the Lahore Gov-ernor House is awash withjiyalas and this lot is known

not only for their political commitmentbut also their ‘enthusiasm’. Now we

hear that the guv mansion’s staff is get-ting some rough handling by theseconstant visitors. Complaints andgrumbling among the staff are com-mon occurrence. It is a “fish market”

they say. In fact, some are asking for atransfer and at least one staffer, thecaretaker himself, has left in a huff. Ap-parently, he cannot take the rough-and-tough jiyala ways any more.

Suddenly, President Zardarihas switched to electionmode. Preferring to remainabove the fray, he had beenignoring the not-too-infre-

quent vitriolic and personal attacks ofhis opponents. After making the ritual-istic political speech at Naudero on thedeath anniversary of the PPP’s FounderZulfikar Ali Bhutto, President Zardarihas gone after the Sharifs not soundingvery presidential anymore.

The younger Sharif who also hap-pens to be the chief minister of thelargest province has never held hispunches saying he does not even recog-nise Zardari as the president of Pak-istan. Calling him corrupt and inept,Shahbaz Sharif has even gone to the ex-tent of saying that Zardari would oneday be dragged in the streets of Lahoreand Larkana.

Even the elder Sharif has neverspared Zardari and his cohorts. But hehas always kept his criticism within thelimits of decency, pointedly desistingfrom using vitriolic language againstthe president. He recently counselledhis brother to desist from using harshlanguage against the president as suchscathing criticism did not sit well withtheir constituents.

And now sitting right in the citadelof the PML(N), President Zardari, mak-ing no distinction between the twobrothers, has boasted that he has giventhe Sharifs their shine and can take itback any time. It is apparent that every-one is now going into election modeand the gloves are off.

The jewel in the crown is Punjab.Whoever takes a majority of NationalAssembly seats in the province in theforthcoming general elections - with orwithout allies depending on the results- will form the next government.

Contesting the elections alongsidePPP’s erstwhile nemesis but now

favourite ally the PML(Q), Zardari hasclaimed that he will form the next gov-ernment in Punjab. Ground realities,however, militate against such opti-mistic projections.

Punjab was once the mainstay ofthe PPP. No longer so. The party hasconsistently ignored the province. Withits leadership antiquated and deci-mated, and organizational structureweakened, the PPP has ostensibly de-cided to hitch its wagon with thePML(Q).

A quisling party created by formerdictator Musharraf from defections en-gineered mainly from PML(N), thePML(Q) is presently in disarray. TheChaudhrys of Gujrat and a few othersare now its mainstay. After defectionsin the form of the so-called Likemindedgroup, the Unification bloc in Punjaband the recent high profile desertionsto the PTI and the PML(N), nothingmuch will remain of the erstwhileKing’s party, come election time.

Hence for the PPP to merely baseits future projections in the provinceon the basis of seat adjustments withthe PML(Q) will be a folly. DespiteShahbaz Sharif deluding himself thatImran’s tsunami is over, Punjab isgoing to be a three-way contest in thenext elections.

Imran Khan will be able to fieldcandidates, some of them winnablebets, in most constituencies of Punjab.On paper, it sounds good that thePML(N) and the PTI will cancel eachother in a hot contest in the provinceand the PPP will be the ultimate gainer.But, ground realities are different.

All is not well with the PML(N) inPunjab. Wasteful schemes like the sastiroti, yellow cab, Daanish schools andAshyana Housing have been a bigstrain on the provincial exchequer,pushing Punjab into a deficit. Indis-criminate distribution of laptop com-puters at heavy state expense alsobetrays a sense of insecurity on the partof the Sharifs and an anxiety to woo thepotential young voters of the PTI.

Having said that, it is still not easyto dislodge the Sharifs in Punjab wherethey have ruled five times in the past 25years. Lahore remains their bastion.Imran might make a few inroads in thecity but to imagine that the PPP is goingto sweep in the provincial metropolis isnothing more than wishful thinking.

President Zardari coming to Lahoreafter a long gap specifically to look afterthe affairs of the party is a welcomemove. Better late than never. But hewill have to pay a few more visits to the

provincial capital for the party to get itsact together.

Presently, the PPP is virtually lead-erless in the province. Its present highcommand is no match for the Sharifswell-oiled political machine. The partynot in power in the province has verylittle political patronage to dole out.Furthermore, it will have to defend itsnot-too-enviable governance recordagainst a two-pronged attack from thePML(N) and the PTI.

Relying merely on the PML(Q) forwinnable candidates in the provincewill be a folly. Come election time,there might not be many left in the Qfold. If one goes by some recent opinionpolls, they do not make good readingfor the PPP or for the PML(N). All ofthem show Imran Khan catching upwith the rest. But the major loser ofsupport in these polls is the PPP.

In order to eke out a workable ma-jority in the next elections, Zardari andGilani will have to work doubly hard.There is not much time left to squan-der. Both of them are politically savvyand know the ropes well.

The PPP’s record on political re-forms, building democratic institutionsand reaching out to their opponents issecond to none. It is no mean feat thata political government has survived tohold elections on its own watch. Thefirst to do since Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’sgovernment called elections itself in1977.

In this context, the remarks of theleader of the opposition in the NationalAssembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali about Bi-lawal Bhutto in the joint sitting of theparliament were in poor taste and un-called for. Why attack Bilawal whenprogenies of the Sharifs and otherpoliticians are actively taking part inpolitics?

PML(N)’s advice to the Parliamen-tary Committee on National Security(PCNS) linking the restoration ofNATO supplies with the release of Pak-istani scientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui is alsotantamount to a hardening of positions.Knowing well that this is not going tohappen, it is merely playing to the gal-leries.

Even though everyone has switchedto election mode, they must avoid thiskind of posturing. Vital national inter-ests should not be sacrificed at the altarof electioneering. This will amount tothrowing the baby out with the bathwater.

The writer is Editor, PakistanToday

By Arif Nizami

As politicians go, lastweek definitely be-longed to Maryam

Nawaz Sharif, the pretty aspicture member of the Rai-wind Sharif clan. She was fea-tured on the cover ofNewsweek (the Pakistani ver-sion) and answered evensome silly questions, ratherintelligently. Verdict: She hasthe looks, confidence andeverything else going for her.

It is obvious that her po-litical grooming is in processand the best that money canbuy are on this task. How-ever, the question being askedis who will tutor the Captainwho never makes a public ormedia appearance withoutletting out the secret. That hedesperately needs lessons inthe art of politics.

For feedback, comments, suggestions and, most importantly, tips, contact us at [email protected]


Comment 13Saturday, 7 April, 2012

Turkish politicians havesucceeded in an areawhere their Pakistani

counterparts have singularlyfailed: reining in the army. Forone, unlike Pakistani politi-cians, Recep Tayyip Erdoganhad no skeletons of financialscams rattling in the cup-boards. What is equally impor-tant is the fantasticimprovement of the nationaleconomy, domestic law andorder and the rise of Turkishprestige in the region and theworld at large under the rule ofthe Justice and DevelopmentParty.

Unlike Zardari, Erdoganhad inherited no political man-tle. Unlike the Sharifs, heowned no factories or lands.What is more, he did not enjoythe support of any of the main-stream political parties. It wasthrough a realistic vision sup-ported by sheer hard work thatthis graduate from MarmaraUniversity’s Faculty of Eco-nomic and Commercial Sci-ences got himself electedMayor of Istanbul, the eco-nomic and social capital ofTurkey, in 1994. He had a briefstint in jail towards the fag endof his tenure. Within threeyears of his release, he foundedthe Justice and DevelopmentParty in 2001. The party con-tested the elections next yearand assumed power withnearly two thirds majority inParliament in 2003.

Erdogan single-mindedlyset himself on two tracks: im-provement of the economy andturning Turkey into a genuinelydemocratic country. The firststep towards the goal posts wassetting up a clean government,which has never been a hall-mark of the successive govern-ments in Pakistan. He broughtno relatives or cronies into the

cabinet nor did he promote anyblue eyed boys in bureaucracy.His two successive tenureswere totally scam free. Thesame is true about the recentlybegun third tenure.

The generals had domi-nated politics since 1923 whenMustafa Kemal Ataturk, the fa-ther of modern Turkey, as-sumed power. Till 1946, thecountry had a single party sys-tem alien to democracy. Eventhe late introduction of themultiparty system was lookedat with distrust by the generalswho staged three militarycoups, executing one primeminister in the process. Duringthe last military coup in 1980alone, fifty people were exe-cuted and half a million ar-rested, hundreds died in jail,and many more disappeared inthree years of the military rule.The natural growth of the polit-ical system was thus stunted.The parties who came to poweroften ruled through unstablealliances. Both under the mili-tary rule and political govern-ments, the economy sufferedand jails were filled with dis-senters.

Erdogan had to work hardto prove that his policies andstyle of governance could de-liver where the generals andrival politicians had failed thenation. Only then could hechallenge the generals. By thetime Erdogan contested for thethird time he had emerged onthe scene as the most powerfulTurkish leader since MustafaKemal Atatürk.

Erodogan’s trump card isthe management of the econ-omy. Up till a decade ago, thecountry lurched from one crisisto another, with sky-high infla-tion and interest rates and afeeble currency. Under Erdo-gan, the Turkish economy hastripled in size since he tookover in 2002, the largest eco-nomic growth in Turkish his-tory. Today, Turkey enjoyseconomic growth rates close toChina's, its companies compet-ing successfully in the EU, theMiddle East and increasinglyfurther afield, in Africa andCentral Asia.

Turkey's independent for-eign policy now has provided ita higher profile on the interna-

tional stage. Turkey is creatinga place for itself in the MiddleEast through vigorous engage-ment with its immediate neigh-bours. It is also hosting thePak-Afghan dialogue. Its eco-nomic performance is the envyof the European Union whichhad rejected Turkey’s overturesof join it.

Erdogan did not, therefore,bat an eye when the chief ofTurkish armed forces alongwith heads of ground, navaland air force offered to resignlast year. On Wednesday, re-tired General Kenan Evren,along with a former airforcechief, the main surviving archi-tects of the last military coup in1980, have been put on trial. Adecade ago, the actions wouldhave been enough provocationfor the army to step in.

The Turkish army has en-joyed enormous prestige due toits leading part in the creationof modern Turkey. With the ex-ception of Musharraf, the Pak-istani generals who stagedcoups were on the other handthe products of the colonialBritish army. Keeping thesedictators in mind, the muchdecorated Pakistani GeneralTajammul Hussain reminisced,“We were all trained as realmercenaries who were onlyconcerned with their ownbread and butter. It was re-garded as none of our businessto think about what happenedto the rest of the country. Ourjob was solely to protect theBritish Empire and to stand toattention every evening whenretreat was sounded and theUnion Jack was brought downfrom the official buildings, orthe regimental band played tothe British Empire Anthem‘God Save the King’.”

It would have been easierto bring the army under controlif the Pakistani politicians hadacted honestly and wisely. TheTurkish Spring which has ar-rived after more than eightdecades of cold winter bringswith it the message that it isnever too late for the politiciansto set their house in order toable to rein in the army.

The writer is a formeracademic and a political an-alyst.

Understandably, the parliament is elected bythe people and it is their will it should serve.If, however, there is an issue that, in the par-

liament’s greater wisdom, requires a dispassionateand highly intrusive discourse and is constrained totake decisions that may not reflect the dominantwill of the people, it should present a broad ration-ale for following the course that it did and also high-light how it was likely to serve the larger stateinterest. Has that been the case in Pakistan?

If one reviews the number of crises that thecountry has endured and the manner in which theparliament has either been rendered irrelevant, orapparently coerced into taking positions contraryto the express will of the people, it would requirevolumes to be projected. However, it would not beincorrect to say that, on most occasions, the will ofthe people was either not taken into considerationat all, or simply rubbished at the altar of compro-mises for protecting and promoting the specific in-terests of individuals and the broaderconsiderations impacting the profit-related procliv-ities of the ruling mafias. It would, therefore, not beinappropriate to say that the parliament has, in fact,become an instrument in the hands of the rulingconglomerate to subvert the will of the people.

Take the manner in which the issue of Pakistan-US relations with particular reference to the re-opening of the NATO supply routes is beingconducted. Strictly speaking, the matter falls withinthe professional domain of the foreign office thatshould act in conformity with safeguarding thebroad national security paradigm as enunciated

from time to time. If, however, thegovernment is sincere in its pro-nouncements that the shape of thePakistan-US relations would be de-cided by the parliament, it shouldalso show the courage to put it be-fore the parliament. No effortshould be made to scuttle its au-thority or its relevance by constitut-ing committees or commissions ascover-ups to deliberating the matterelsewhere and then bringing it be-fore the house for cosmetic authen-tication. It is this lack of opennessthat has jeopardised the legitimacyof the parliament and, hence, thatof the government as well as thepolicies it formulates.

There is another even moredamaging fear. Because of its inces-sant and grave failings (rememberthe NRO?), the government mayfeel that it does not command thetrust of the people to present itscase in an open house and, there-fore, it may adopt means that arenot in keeping with the spirit of par-liamentary democracy. It may beforced to take recourse to authori-tarian practices by sidelining thede-jure organs of the state and re-placing them with smaller, selectgroups artificially created and in-vested with the authority to define

the course of national policies, thus limiting peo-ples’ participation and ownership. This may helpthe government survive in terms of time, but it doesnot help in legitimising a system that, with all itscountless inherent limitations, still remains thepreferred form of governance.

Unfortunately, decisions pioneered in such cir-cuitous manner are usually shorn of peoples’ sup-port resulting in pitting a key instrument of thedemocratic dispensation against an entire nation’swill. It is this expression that has the potential, par-ticularly in societies where a bulk of the people re-main heavily deprived, to gain in intensity,relevance and ultimate effectiveness, thus replacingthe more traditional and peaceful instruments ofchange in a democratic regimen.

Pakistan seems just about headed in that direc-tion. The manner in which the review of Pakistan-US relations has been undertaken may constitute aserious ingredient, but the countless underlyingdeprivations that the people have to suffer as a mat-ter of routine are the real reasons behind the fes-tering discontent that is boiling over onto thestreets of the country. This agitation is being furtherfuelled by the raging ethnic, sectarian and eco-nomic divide that has consistently worked to thedetriment of a vast majority of the liberal (a tradi-tion that is fast waning!), hard-working and peace-hungry people of the country who have beenhopelessly sidelined by the more violent and obscu-rantist voices representing nothing beyond theirself-interest, and the interests of the mafias they arealigned with. The government has abominablyfailed to reign in these ravaging demons simply be-cause it seeks their support in the parliament – afactor that has deprived the government of its dem-ocratic authority to control these vagrant elementsand has, instead, become a part of the deep-setmalaise that afflicts the national body-politic. Thishas sadly resulted in complete abdication of gover-nance. It is this surfeit of administrative, moral andintellectual bankruptcy that has further aggravatedpeoples’ woes.

Is there still room for administering antibioticsfor remedy? I am afraid not. It is a case of massivehaemorrhaging where the body has been com-pletely drained of even its feeble life signs. It has tobe literally carried to the operating table with fewoptions for revival: the first and foremost being achange of mindset and the elimination of all its ‘de-mocratic’ attenuations. Obviously, it is not possibleto forge a turn-around by employing the trick of co-existence among equally corrupt outfits sticking to-gether for safeguarding common stakes. The onlychance is through initiating a process, no matterhow painful, of urgently infusing a dose that attacksthe breeding grounds of the malaise – be it corrup-tion, violence, religious, ethnic and sectarian di-vides, extensive deprivations and gravehumiliations that the common people are routinelysubjected to. It is an unholy of alliance among allthese constituents that has rendered the system un-tenable.

The writer is a political analyst and a memberof the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can be reachedat [email protected]

humiliations galore, it is way past antibiotics timeA lesson in what to do

Looking to Turkey parliament against people

Candid CornerBy Raoof Hasan

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad


14 Saturday, 7 April, 2012

NEWS DESK

CITYBLIS.COM is pleased toannounce the launch of anew social fashion platform,backed by government bod-ies both in Europe and the

US. The Cityblis community has been de-veloped to enabledesigners aroundthe world to reachout to new marketswhile giving fashionsavvy consumers theopportunity to buyunique pieces frominternational de-signers. Cityblis curates designers andbrands including fashion for women, men,and children, with an emphasis on ‘BeUnique’. Cityblis differentiates itself bypersonalising each webstore so that everystore has an intimate feel. “We do not be-lieve in a one size fits all solution” saysChristopher Price, chief operating officer.

“Every store is unique - Every brand has apersonality – and every designer has astory to tell. Shopping is an experience…anevent to be enjoyed… and online shoppingshould not be any different.” Cityblis re-moves the middle men to give consumersbetter access to current season apparel andaccessories ‘direct from designers’ in the

US, Sweden, the UKand Australia. De-signers from newcountries will beadded in the comingmonths. Most City-blis designers createlimited amounts ofeach collection to

keep with the unique feeling of theirbrands. Cityblis is working with hundredsof designers such as Gordana Gehlhausenfrom Project Runway All Stars, Masih Zad- protégé to Bijan, Fore!! Axel & Hudson,Amelia Powers, Emerson and Sacha Lon-don. All designers are screened for unique-ness, professionalism and brand story.

Karisma’s marriage on the rocks

launches ‘direct from the designer’

fashion platform

NEWS DESK

Nida Ali, one of Karachi’s most promisingand upcoming designers, recently show-cased her Rang Barsay collection at BrandsJust Pret, the city’s newest and most excit-ing multi brand store at Dolmen Mall,Clifton. Rang Barsay is Nida Ali’sSpring/Summer line and is based on a riotof colours, patterns and graphics. The col-lection is based on a vibrant and distinctivecolour palette ranging from a bright red toa blush pink to a canary yellow. Thesecolours are based on international predic-tions of runway trends, which Nida Ali hastranslated into her Spring/Summer line.“This collection is one of my favourites be-cause it’s exciting and vibrant,” said Nida

Ali, the designer who has been designingsince 2007. “The idea was to create clothesbased on detailing and minimal but effec-tive embellishments.” The Rang Barsay col-lection has more than 20 designs, withvarying shirt lengths but overall the shirtlength has become shorter, explained thedesigner. Nida Ali’s collection is stocked atBrands Just Prêt and new designs areadded on every two weeks including on theweb store www.BrandsJustPret.com wherea purchase can be made using anycredit/debit card and the product shippedat your doorstep within 2-3 days. BrandsJust Pret is located at Dolmen Mall Clifton,and stocks around 35 designers including ajewelry designer, a shoe and bag designerbesides a wide range of clothes.

Rang Barsay exhibits collection at Brands Just Prêt

Iconic actor’s

troubleddaughterstalks Shahid

Afreen and Sofia Naveed Lari

Huma Ejaz and afreen Shiraz Afreen Shiraz and Sumeha Khalid

Najia and Nida Ali

Maria, Nida Ali and Uzma

LAHORE: Maria Khan recently showcased her Prêt Spring Flair Collection 2012 at Ellemint PRET. PR

SOCIETY

KARACHI: Rang Barsay exhibited its collection at Brands Just Prêt. PR

Maham, Nida Ali, Sabeen with firends

Nida Ali and Ghazanfar Ali

MUMBAi: while Karisma Kapoor’s professional life is gaininga lot of momentum given her return to bollywood with

‘dangerous ishq’, the actress seems to have fallen prey to anon-working marriage. while the actress is all set for her bigreturn on the silver screen, the grapevine is abuzz with stories of

a fragmented marriage. The svelte and charming KarismaKapoor, according to the buzz, is filing for divorce from herentrepreneur husband Sunjay Kapoor. while ‘dangerousishq’, which would mark Karisma’s comeback in bollywood,

is in its shooting stage, her home seems to bebearing the brunt of her profession. After

marriage Karisma had moved to delhi toconcentrate on her home and children,

and life seems to have come fullcircle for her now. while she left hercareer to take care of her domestic

life earlier, her marriage apparentlyis now at stake due to her return

to the industry. That Karisma’smarriage was not all good is a

known fact now, and the couplehad earlier tried reconciliation.Seems like some wounds run toodeep to be healed, and all wecan do is hope that the twomend their differences and getback to each other. AGENCiES

MUMBAi: Actress Sonam Kapoor,who is known for style statements,is a voracious reader and wouldlike to pen down her autobiographysome day. “you know i think i amtoo young and inexperienced and idon’t know if i have the talent towrite, but you know everybody isnarcissistic. i would like to writeabout my life one day or the other.i am an actor after all, but i don’tknow if right now i will be able to,”the 26-year-old said whilelaunching the book ‘Two MothersAnd other Stories’ by KhalidMohamed. Known as a fashionicon, Sonam would not touch thetopic she is most known for in herbook. “clothes and style is just mypersonal choice. it is not somethingi am obsessed with. May beromance,” said Sonam while talkingabout the issues she would wantto touch upon in her book. Talkingabout how she learnt reading, shesaid: “i was being read to at a veryyoung age by my mother. Shewould always read fables that hada meaning. She would always askme what was the point behind thestory,” said Sonam. She will soonbe seen in rakeysh omprakashMehra’s ‘bhaag Milkha bhaag’opposite farhan Akhtar. AGENCiES

MUMBAi: Shahid Kapoor has had his share of femaleadmirers, but there is a certain fan who has left himrather disturbed. She has been accosting him at oddhours, claiming to be his wife and even dodgingsecurity to ring his doorbell in the wee hours of themorning. Shahid, so far has been trying to deal with itcautiously, since the woman happens to be thedaughter of an iconic yesteryear actor. but her name iswithheld to protect her identity. The latest in thestring of incidents, was on wednesday, at around 3 am.According to eye-witnesses, the woman, who lives inthe adjacent high-rise, scaled the boundary wall,managed to dodge the security and ran up to Shahid’s

apartment and began pounding on his door. Assoon as the actor realised who she was, hecalled up the security, and four of them rushedupstairs and escorted the woman away. Thewoman, in her early 30s, has had a troubled life.According to some of distant relatives, shecould never quite recover from the twin blowsof her father’s death and professionaldisappointments. “in fact, a few years ago, shemade her debut in a b-grade flick, where herrole was drastically reduced. it was a huge blowfor her,” said the family member. Her obsessionwith Shahid is about six-months old, say herrelatives. A reason why she even shifted hometo be closer to her favourite star, who sheclaims is her spouse. “Shahid, who is aware ofher background, has been sensitive enough toignore these incidents so far, but wednesdaynight was a little serious and he has decided tohighlight this as a security breach with hissociety,” added the actor’s friend. AGENCiES


LOS ANGELES AGENCiES

SINGER Katy Perry is lookingedgy as she graces the cover ofTeen Vogue's May 2012 issue -rocking her newly-signatureblue bob and wearing a Zac

Posen gown. In the magazine, Perry isasked about how she feels about her careerand being famous, to which she responds:"I'm tired of being famous already. But I'mnot tired of creating. Fame is, I think, justa disgusting by-product of what I do. It'squite a delicate creature-it's a wild animal

of sorts. It can love you, andthen it can attack you. I stillwant to be as approachableand relatable as possible.When I meet fans and they'recrying, I'll say, 'Calm down,there's nothing to cry about. I'mnot going to bite you or attack youor grant you three wishes. Let's justhang out and have a good time.' But re-ally, I stopped focusing on what other peo-ple think a while ago. If you try to beeverything to everyone, you'll only end upcompletely confused." Wise words comingfrom the 27-year-old pop sensation.

Katy Perry: 'I'm tired ofbeing famous'

15

Cricketers likedKareena over Priyanka

Meera to launch new prêt line

NEWS DESK

Apparently, abroken engage-ment does notmean thatMeera is leftbroken hearted.She says she isan actress wholoves to playwith challengesand has provedit as well. Soon after Meera’s engage-ment was broken off by her fiancé’s fa-ther, she geared up to launch her‘Meera's Collection Brand’ next month.Meera was engaged to Pakistani-Amer-ican pilot Naveed Shahzad, but his fa-ther Raja Khalid called it off saying thatMeera’s marital status was not clear. Hehas also asked her to return the Rs800,000engagement ring that wasgiven to her by his son. In responseMeera tweeted, “Being single doesn’tmean you know nothing about love, IT’SWISER to be alone than with the wrongperson!”Later on she tweeted, “I will belaunching my Meera’s collection brandnext month. The collection is reallybeautiful and will be for females.”Here’s to hoping that Meera's outfit col-lection will not be called Outfoot.

Nicole Kidman in talks on Grace Kelly role

LOS ANGELESAFp

Australian ac-tress NicoleKidman is intalks to play thelate GraceKelly, thescreen legendwho marriedthe prince ofMonaco, in afilm by French director Olivier Dahan,Variety reported. The report said Kid-man, 44, is in negotiations to play Kellyin ‘Grace of Monaco’, which Pierre-Ange Le Pogam is producing with writerArash Amel. The entertainment dailysaid "nearly every top actress in Holly-wood" is seeking the role and that nodeal has been signed yet. The screen-play by Amel is not a biopic but centreson the period from December 1961 toNovember 1962. At the time Kelly, anOscar winner and mother of two, hadalready spent six years as a princess andwas called upon to save Monaco froman escalating crisis with France over thetiny monarchy's status as a tax haven.

I’d like to write an autobiography

some day: Sonam

Beyonce sharesfamily photoson new fan

website

Afreen and Maria with guests

Maria Khan with a friend

Nida Ali and Samar Mehdi

Somaya, Nida Ali and Sabeen

loS ANGElES: r&b superstar beyonce gave fanssome insight into her private life with the relaunchof her website, featuring intimate snapshots of herdaily routines the singer has carefully shielded fromthe public until now. “This is my life, today, over theyears - through my eyes. My family, my travels, mylove. This is where i share with you. This willcontinue to grow as i do,” the singer wrote on hernew website. beyonce.com features a montage ofcandid shots from the singer’s personal life includingpictures of her on holiday, with her husband, rapperJay-Z, and family and during her pregnancy. one 15-second video shows the singer posing by a blue ivytree during while pregnant, which perhapsprovided the inspiration for her newborndaughter’s name, blue ivy carter. “it’s been along time coming, but i finally have my ownplace on the web,” the singer posted on herfacebook page, where she has 34 million fans.beyonce also took the opportunity oflaunching her new site to tweet her 3.5million Twitter fans for first time. The ‘Singleladies’ singer has kept her private life underwraps in the past, including getting married toJay-Z in a shroud of secrecy in April 2008 andwaiting five months after the event to debuther wedding ring. but beyonce, 30 and Jay-Z,42, who were estimated to be worth $72million by forbes in 2011, have been slowlylifting the veil on their luxury life. The couplereleased intimate pictures of blue ivy throughsocial networking site Tumblr in february,shunning the popular celebrity choice of alucrative magazine deal. REUTERS

NEWS DESK

The Lahore-based Maria Khanrecently showcased her stunningluxury Pret Spring Flair Collection2012 at the swanky Ellemint PRET.The designer exhibited an exclusivecollection of laces, chiffons, silks andcottons, all beautifully crafted. Thebest part about the collection was theprice range. There was something foreveryone. The starting price was Rs4000 and upwards. The exhibition wasattended by friends and family of thedesigner. Afreen Shiraz, proprietorEllemint PRET, could be seenhobnobbing with the guests at theexhibition. PR for the event wasmanaged by IDEAS Events PR.Ellémint PRÊT stocks creations byTena Durrani, Saira Rizwan, Ayesha-Somaya, Marvi, Saim, Sana and Leena,Asima and Rushna, Ayesha Khurram,Pinx, Nida Khurram, SNL, Bailin, SRS,Madiha Ibrar, Hina Butt, Ash Nabil,Pharaohs Closet, Divulge by AishaMotiwala and Stance.

Maria Khanexhibits at

Mausummery Lawnlaunches new flagship

MUMBAi: everyone knows that Kareena Kapoor andPriyanka chopra have been bitter rivals foryears, and things took a turn for theworse at the iPl opening ceremony. notjust one, but two cricketers praised bebo'sperformance over Pc's. when emcee GauravKapoor asked chennai batsman Sureshraina whose performance he liked more,he said, "i think it was Kareena.whatever she did was just awesome!"even dinesh Karthik echoed the sameopinion. At a party after the event,Karthik was overheard saying, "Priyanka'sperformance was good, but Kareena issomething else!" A source said, "Thecricketers' comments left Priyankafuming and she walked out in a huff,not even bothering to meet Kareenabackstage after the performanceswere over." The source adds thatKareena too avoided Pc. Kareena,who flew back to bangkok afterthe iPl event, says, "yes, it wasvery sweet of Suresh and dineshto compliment me so nicely. Asfar as Priyanka is concerned, ididn't meet her at the iPl atall." AGENCiES

KARACHINEWS dESK

Mausummery Lawn recentlylaunched a flagship store atDolmen Mall, Clifton, mak-ing it the only lawn brand toown a flagship store in whatis quickly becomingKarachi’s most well knownshopping destination.Mausummery Lawn, whichhas been operating since

1997, is one of the pioneersin the lawn market, and isone of the first brands tolaunch designer lawn in themarket. Over a decade and ahalf, Mausummery Lawnhas developed a sound rep-utation for innovative de-signs and high qualityproducts. MausummeryLawn’s first store in Karachiis based on a simple andminimal design aesthetic.

The grey simple interior isthe perfect backdrop for thevibrant prints, with the onlyembellishments in the shopbeing huge green plants inplain red flower pots. Priorto their shop launch inKarachi, MausummeryLawn already has one func-tioning outlet in Lahore atRegency Plaza and operatesthrough numerous agentsall across the country.



16 Foreign News

DAMASCUSAFp

TENS of thousands of Syriansdemanding an end to theregime took to the streets onFriday under fire from govern-ment forces, who pressed their

campaign to pound rebel cities into sub-mission, activists said.

The violence raged a day after 77 peo-ple were killed and international envoyKofi Annan spoke of “alarming” casualtiesdespite the regime accepting an April 10deadline to withdraw forces from protesthubs. On its Facebook page, the SyrianRevolution 2011 activist group had urgedSyrians to demonstrate in favour of arminganti-regime rebels. The Local CoordinationCommittees group said security forces shotat demonstrators in Douma north of Dam-ascus, in the central city of Hama and in

Idlib in the northwest. Demonstrationswere also reported in southern Daraaprovince, cradle of the revolt, the LCC said.

Others were staged at Qamishli in thenorthern Kurdish region and at Deir Ezzorin the east, as well as in Idlib province, saidRami Abdel Rahman, head of the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights. TheBritain-baseed Observatory also reportedfierce battles in the villages of Al-Tiba, Al-Qabu and Shniyeh in central Homsprovince. It said the clashes erupted afterloyalist militias opened fire on sevenwomen, killing two and wounding four.

So far, activists have reported sevenpeople killed nationwide on Friday. TheObservatory said regime forces werepounding districts of Homs city and Rastanto the north, with searches under way inDamascus suburbs after a night of clasheswith deserters in which three soldiers werekilled. On Thursday, the UN Security Coun-

cil, including Russia and China, joinedAnnan in stepping up pressure on Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad to implement a six-point peace plan. It called on the “Syriangovernment to implement urgently and vis-ibly its commitments” made to Annan totake the steps toward a cessation of hostil-ities, a statement said. It called for Syria tostart a two-hour daily pause in hostilitiesand to allow immediate humanitarian ac-cess. The council also said that, dependingon Annan’s progress reports, it will “con-sider further steps as appropriate.”

Damascus has agreed to withdrawtroops and heavy weapons from cities bynext Tuesday. Annan said that if thishappens he will call for a complete haltto hostilities by “0600 hours Damascustime on Thursday April 12.” But Syriahas said the number of what it calls ter-rorist acts has risen since the deal withreached with Annan.

EVRYAFp

Fears grew Friday that aserial killer was stalkinghousing estates in thesuburbs of Paris, where thesame weapon has been usedto murder four apparentlyinnocent citizens sinceNovember.

The latest killing onThursday of a 47-year-oldmother, shot dead near herhome in the Essonne suburb,prompted Interior MinisterClaude Gueant to vow everyeffort was being made to findthe killer. All the victimswere shot with the samesmall-calibre 7.65 mmweapon by a gunman whofled on a motorbike, recallingthe methods of an Islamistextremist killed by police insouthern France in Marchafter murdering sevenpeople. While nothing

suggests any political orreligious motives in theshootings, police are probingany possible links withseveral other homicides in a10-kilometre (six-mile)radius of the southern outersuburbs. “That is a concern,but in any case, as in everycriminal inquiry, we areputting every effort intofinding out who is behindthis,” Gueant told Europe 1radio.

A source close to theinquiry told AFP thatballistics analysis had shownthat the same weapon hadbeen used in all four attacks.On Thursday, a woman ofAlgerian origin was shotdead in the foyer of herapartment block, part of aworking-class housing estatein the Grande-Borne districtof Grigny, south of thecapital. She was a widow whoworked at Orly Airport and

lived with her 18-year-oldson. “Everyone is in shock,”said one of her neighbours,who asked not to be named.“She didn’t feel threatened.She’s a normal person,simple, no history.” She diedin hospital after being shotwith the small-calibreweapon, which is not widelyused by the criminal milieuas it must be fired atrelatively close range to beeffective.

The first victim was a 35-year-old laboratory assistantwho was also shot dead inher building in Grigny onNovember 27. A man whosaid he was her ex-boyfriendturned himself in, wasarrested and charged, buthas since withdrawn hisconfession. On February 22,one of the first victim’sneighbours, a 52-year-oldman, was shot dead in theirbuilding’s car park.

Turkey urges Un to‘step in’ as Syrianspour across border

ANKARAAFp

Turkey urged Friday the United Nationsand international community to reinforceefforts to aid Syrian refugees after a recordnumber of them poured across the borderin less than two days. “We have spared noefforts to accommodate Syrians fleeing theviolence back home, but if they continue toarrive at this rate, we will need the UN andinternational community to step in,”Turkish Foreign Minister AhmetDavutoglu said in televised remarks.Davutoglu did not specify what type ofinvolvement his government is expectingfrom the UN. Some 2,800 Syrians crossedthe border into Turkey in a 36-hour periodto escape a helicopter-backed assault bySyrian troops, he told reporters.

Russian expedition‘goes missing’ inAntarctic

MOSCOWAFp

A Russian-Ukrainian crew that set sail inSeptember on an historic expedition aroundthe South and North Poles went missing inthe Antarctic on Friday after encounteringgale-force winds. A spokeswoman for theeight-person crew on board the 29-metre(97-foot) Scorpius sailboat said the teammade its last radio contact on Monday nightas it prepared for another treacherous leg ofits journey in the South Shetlands. Themission website’s last entry said theScorpius met gale-force winds on its way toDeception Island — a location popular withadventurers for its restless volcano.

Chinese studentdead after UKpolice car collision

LONDONAFp

An investigation was underway Fridayafter a Chinese student died having beenknocked down by an unmarked British po-lice car. The 24-year-old, who has not beennamed, died in hospital Thursday aftersustaining serious head and back injurieswhen he was struck in Birmingham,Britain’s second city. While crossing aroad, he was hit by a car responding to re-ports of a stolen vehicle, though the vehiclewas not in pursuit, West Midlands Policesaid. The car was being driven by a uni-formed officer who has since been sus-pended from driving police vehicles. Thevictim was studying for a masters sciencedegree in data networks and security atBirmingham City University.

SARAJEVo: An elderly woman leaves a flower on some of 11, 451 empty chairs on the main street of the city on Friday. More than 11,000 red chairs, symbolizing 11541 victim of

the siege, lined Sarajevo's main avenue as Bosnians marked the 20th anniversary of the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War ii with songs and remembrance. AFp

Thousands demonstrate in Syria as violence rages

France fears new serial killer

after four murders near paris

boy in China sellskidney to buy iPhoneBEIjING: A teenage high-school student in Chinasold his kidney for an illicit transplant operationand used the proceeds to buy an Apple iPhone andiPad, state press said on Friday. The 17-year-oldboy, who was paid 22,000 yuan ($3,500), wasrecruited from an online chatroom and is nowsuffering from kidney failure and in deterioratinghealth, the Xinhua news agency said. A surgeon andfour others have been arrested and are facingcharges of illegal organ trading and intentionalinjury. The kidney donor, only identified by hissurname Wang, agreed to the April 2011 operationin the central province of Hunan without hisparents consent, the report said. One of thosedetained was a hard-up gambler identified as HeWei, who acted as a middle-man between a hospitalworker and the teenager. He was paid 220,000yuan. Health ministry statistics show that about 1.5million people in China need transplants, but onlyaround 10,000 transplants are performedannually.The huge gap has led to a thriving illegalmarket for organs. Executed prisoners remain themain source of organs used in transplant operationsdue to the lack of voluntary donations, Vice HealthMinister Huang Jiefu was quoted by state media assaying last month. International human rightsgroups have long accused China of harvestingorgans from executed prisoners for transplantwithout the consent of the prisoner or their family— charges the government has denied. AFp


Foreign News 17Saturday, 7 April, 2012

CAIROAFp

Thousands of people rallied incentral Cairo on Friday in support ofa Salafist candidate who could beruled out of Egypt’s presidentialelection because his motherreportedly held US nationality.Under the country’s electoral law, allcandidates for the presidency, theirparents and their wives must haveonly Egyptian citizenship. “Thepeople want Hazem Abu Ismail! Noto manipulation!” the demonstratorsshouted after making their waythrough central Cairo to TahrirSquare, epicentre of last year’srevolt which toppled presidentHosni Mubarak. The protesters,including women in full Islamic veil,carried portraits of Abu Ismail andwaved their fists, angrilycondemning any attempt todisqualify their candidate.Abu Ismail launched his candidacyon March 30 with a large motorcadethat took him to electoralcommission headquarters in Cairo.Commission chief Hatem Begatosaid on Thursday that the agencyhad received information accordingto which Ismail’s mother had “usedan American passport for travel toand from Egypt” before her death.Files will be examined on April 12-13

and any candidate not meeting therequirements informed, thecommission said. Those rejectedwould then have 48 hours to appealbefore the final list of candidates isannounced on April 26. Abu Ismailadvocates a strict interpretation ofIslam similar to the one practised inSaudi Arabia and has become afamiliar sight in Cairo, with hisposters adorning many cars andmicro buses. The May election willmark the beginning of a handover ofpower by the ruling military to anelected civilian leader, following thepopular uprising against Mubarak.

Abu Ismail would compete withmore moderate Islamist candidatessuch as senior MuslimBrotherhood figure Khairat El-Shater as well as former regimefigures such as Amr Mussa, an ex-foreign minister. Islamists havemade big strides since Mubarak’souster, winning majorities inelections to both houses ofparliament. The MuslimBrotherhood’s Freedom andJustice Party won the most seats inparliamentary elections earlier thisyear, but the Salafists capturednearly a quarter themselves.

RAMAllAh: palestinian protesters run for cover from teargas fired by israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Friday during a protest against palestinian

land confiscation to expand the Jewish hallamish settlement. AFp

thousands rally for salafistin Egypt vote

turkey still readyto host Iran N-talks: tehran

TEHRANAFp

Turkey is still ready to host talks betweenIran and the P5+1 group on Tehran’scontroversial nuclear programme, Ankarahas told the Islamic republic’s nuclearchief, Al-Alam television reported Friday.The Arabic-language Iranian channel saidTurkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutogluhad spoken to Iran’s chief negotiatorSayeed Jalili about the talks slated for April13 and 14 but whose location has yet to beconfirmed. “Relations between Iran andTurkey are strategic and brotherly. Turkeyis ready to welcome the next negotiationsbetween Iran and the P5+1 group,” Al-Alam said Davutoglu told Jalili, citing aSupreme National Security Council source.At the same time, Davutoglu was quoted assaying that “Iran’s proposal to hold thesetalks in Baghdad is an intelligent one.”After originally proposing that thenegotiations be held in Istanbul, Tehranthen suggested either Baghdad or Beijingas the venue. On Thursday, Turkish PrimeMinister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called onIran to act honestly after its about-face onIstanbul as the location for the talks. “It isnecessary to act honestly. They continue tolose prestige in the world because of a lackof honesty,” Erdogan told a televised newsconference in the latest salvo in a war ofwords between the two countries.

pirates hijackChina freighterin Gulf of Oman

BEIJINGAFp

A Chinese cargo ship was hijacked by pirateson Friday in the Gulf of Oman, not far off thesouth of Iran, state media said, citing China’sembassy in Tehran. The vessel was attackedon Friday morning near the Iranian port ofChabahar, according to the Xinhua newsagency. The Chinese embassy in Iran hasinitiated an “emergency” operation aimed atrescuing the ship, it added. “The Chineseembassy... immediately established contactwith relevant Iranian authorities demanding(that) Iran adopt all necessary measures tofully rescue the ship and crew,” Xinhua said.It offered no other details including thenationality of the hijackers. According toChina Radio International, the vessel, theXianghuamen, is owned by Yuanyangshipping company in eastern China’sNanjing city and was sailing with a crew of28. The waters of the Arabian Sea, at thenorthern tip of the Indian Ocean, haveseen hundreds of pirate attacks in recentyears, with Chinese shipping vesselsroutinely targeted.

China shutspolitical websitesin crackdown

SHANGHAIAFp

Two Chinese political websites said Fridaythey had been ordered by authorities to shutfor a month for criticising state leaders, thelatest move in a broad governmentcrackdown on the Internet. Officials told theMao Flag website, named after late leaderMao Zedong, and the Utopia website, alsoknown for a leftist political stance, to closefor “rectification”, the sites said in separateannouncements. Authorities said theirpostings had “maliciously attacked stateleaders” and given “absurd views” aboutpolitics, according to statements posted onthe websites. Those statements, datedFriday, were later removed. The operatorscould not be reached for comment andcontent on the sites was unavailable. Thelatest crackdown comes after a surge inonline rumours in China, including oneabout a coup led by security chief ZhouYongkang, following the March dismissal ofrising political star Bo Xilai.

JERUSALEMAFp

CHRISTIANS and Jews inthe Holy Land were set tobegin marking their mostimportant festivals of theyear on Friday, with Good

Friday and the Jewish holiday ofPassover coinciding.

Jewish families were completinglast-minute preparations for Passover,which begins at sundown and com-memorates the Israelite’s exodus fromslavery in Egypt, receipt of the Torah atMount Sinai and eventual journey intothe Promised Land.

At a festive dinner called a Seder,unleavened bread is consumed duringthe seven-day holiday to re-live thehasty flight from Egypt, during which

there was no time to allow the bread torise.

Meanwhile, thousands of RomanCatholics and Protestants were packedinto the narrow alleys of Jerusalem’sOld City in processions marking thecrucifixion and burial of Jesus.

Orthodox Christians will celebrateEaster next Sunday after holding theHoly Fire ceremony in the Church ofthe Holy Sepulchre the previous day.

Many Christian pilgrims mark GoodFriday by walking from the FranciscanMonastery of the Flagellation along thepath where Jesus walked, now knownas the “Via Dolorosa” or the “Way ofSuffering.”

Sombre pilgrims, some carryingsmall crosses, others dragging or carry-ing full-sized ones, were largely silenton Friday as they walked in the proces-

sion known as the Stations of the Cross.At each of 13 stops along the way

that depict various incidents that oc-curred between the time Jesus was con-demned to death until his burial, theywould break into song, mostly in Ara-bic.

As the procession wound throughthe Old City’s main market, a group ofSri Lankan women wearing brightcolours stopped for a quick break in ashop selling gold jewellery.

“This is a very special day when myJesus died,” said Shamli Nonis, whoworks for an Israeli family as a caregiver. “It is a very sad day for us.”

Hundreds of Israeli police and bor-der police carefully watched over theprocessions under the blazing sun.

Police said they arrested three Jew-ish right-wing activists carrying a young

goat near the Old City walls, which theyapparently intended to sacrifice in thevicinity of the flashpoint Al-Aqsamosque compound, known to Jews asTemple Mount.

“They had a goat with them thatthey planned going with to the OldCity,” police spokesman Micky Rosen-feld told AFP. “Probably they wouldhave gone to the Temple Mount.”

He said the three, along with agroup of minors, were being questionedby police on Friday afternoon but wouldprobably be released later.

Israeli media named one of thegroup as Noam Federman, a well-known religious nationalist and WestBank settler, and said he intended to re-enact the Passover sacrifice as per-formed in biblical times.

He made a similar attempt last year.

Pilgrims fill Jerusalem for Good Friday, Passover

25 indonesianmaids on death row in Saudi: report

RIYADHAFp

Twenty-five Indonesian maids are on deathrow in Saudi Arabia and 22 others have beenpardoned and sent home, local mediareported on Friday, adding that Jakarta willsend a delegation for talks on the issue.“Twenty-two death row Indonesian inmatesin the Kingdom have been exonerated andrepatriated back to Indonesia, while 25 maidsare still facing death sentences in SaudiArabia for various offences,” the English-language daily Arab News reported. “Sixhousemaids are on death row in Riyadhprovince alone, whereas about 19 femaleworkers have been handed death sentences inthe Western region,” it quoted the Indonesianembassy’s spokesman, Hendrar Pramutyo, assaying. Jakarta will send “a 14-memberpresidential task force to the Kingdom onApril 7 to talk to Saudi officials and tointensify efforts in cooperation with itsembassy to rescue the maids,” the dailyquoted Pramutyo as saying. “We have alsoasked permission from the host governmentto allow our presidential task force delegationto visit Saudi jails” where a total of 1,700Indonesians are serving prison terms, headded. Indonesian anger over the treatmentof its manual labourers in the oil-rich Gulfmonarchy has grown since last year, after aspate of cases of abuse and killings. Last June,Indonesian President Susilo BambangYudhoyono denounced the beheading inSaudi Arabia of an Indonesian maid andaccused Riyadh of breaking the “norms andmanners” of international relations.



Page 21

westwood’s pursuersmake early Masters start

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

PAKISTAN cricket captainMisbah-ul-Haq has held adetailed meeting with the na-tional team's recently-ap-

pointed foreign coach Dav Whatmoreto plan for future training camps andintroduction of new players. Reportsattributing from the Pakistan CricketBoard said Misbah and Whatmore hadheld a meeting in which they discussedplans for a month long conditioningand training camp and the introduc-tion of new and upcoming players inthe camp.

"Basically Whatmore has prepareda short list of around 30 probables toattend the camp after watching the na-tional super eights Twenty20 champi-onship in Rawalpindi and he wanted todiscuss them with Misbah," the source

said."The two apparently have consen-

sus on most of the players shortlistedfor the proposed camp in Lahore," thesource added. The PCB has not ruledout the possibility of having specialistsquads in future for all three formats ofthe sport and the source said Misbahand Whatmore were also looking intothis possibility.

"Both Misbah and Whatmore are inagreement that the camp will give theman opportunity to look at the new play-ers and those discarded from the teamand prepare well in time for the comingassignments," the source said.

Chief selector Iqbal Qasim said thathe would also be travelling to Lahoretoday to meet Misbah, Whatmore andPCB officials to discuss the proposedcamp. "We need to sit down and dis-cuss different proposals. If they are in-terested in having a camp,we will try to

support them as much as we can,"Qasim said.

"Some of the younger players areexciting prospects and it will be good ifthe coaches can work with them ahead

of our next international assignmentagainst Sri Lanka," he added.

Pakistan had emerged winner inthe 2009 Twenty20 World Cup afterdefeating Sri Lanka by eight wickets.

Chief coach wants Malikto lead Pak t20 side?LAHORE: Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore has backedthe return of former captain Shoaib Malik to the nationalside for limited overs cricket and also feels he would bethe best candidate to lead the national T20 team. Reportsquoting source said that Whatmore was in favour ofbringing back Malik as the captain of the national T20side. "It is too early to predict things but one thing is cer-tain that before the team goes to Sri Lanka, the Pakistancricket Board will announce a new captain for the T20outfit and Malik is a frontrunner now after the backing ofWhatmore," the source said. The appointment of a newcaptain for the national T20 side has become a significantissue in Pakistan as the T20 World Cup is due in Septem-ber in Sri Lanka. Many critics and fans don't favour cur-rent skipper Misbah-ul-Haq to lead the team in the T20 format in particular due tohis age and different approach to the game and captaincy. "Malik impressed What-more who was present in Rawalpindi throughout the national super eights T20championship with the way he led the Sialkot Stallions side to their seventh nationalT20 championship title," the source said. Malik not only performed well in the cham-pionship but had also captained PIA to the national one-day title earlier. When con-tacted Malik said he was not in a position to comment on the captaincy issue at all."For me right now it is a long battle to win back my place in the team as a seniorplayer. My entire focus is on convincing the selectors and coach and captain I canplay for Pakistan again," Malik said. "The captaincy is a sensitive issue and some-thing only the board is best equipped to deal. I don't want to comment on this, for methe main thing is getting back into the team. Malik said he had worked hard on hisfitness and given his best in the national one-day and T20 events to show the selec-tors that he could contribute to the Pakistan team as a senior player and all-rounder.Malik is certain to be in a month long conditioning camp that has been suggested byWhatmore and captain Misbah starting later this month, especially to give a chanceto them to work with the new and upcoming players. STAFF REpoRT

Misbah, Whatmore meetto discuss future plans

KARACHIAFp

Former Pakistan cricketer Danish Kane-ria said Friday he was in the dark abouta disciplinary hearing in Britain over cor-ruption that led to the jailing of an Eng-lish county player.

The England and Wales CricketBoard (ECB) announced on Thursdaythat the leg-spinner and his former Essexteammate Mervyn Westfield would facea hearing next month.

Westfield was jailed for four monthsin February after admitting that he ac-cepted money to under-perform duringa Pro40 match between Essex andDurham in 2009.

The 23-year-old seamer namedKaneria -- arrested in 2010 but releasedwithout charge -- as the link between thebookmaker and the players.

Kaneria, who has not played for Pak-istan since the Nottingham Test against

England in August 2010, said he had notbeen informed about the hearing.

"I just got to know about a discipli-nary hearing from the media," Kaneriatold AFP.

"Once I get the official letter from theECB then only I will consult with mylawyer and decide how to go about it."

Kaneria faces a worldwide ban fromthe game if found guilty by the hearing,where a number of Essex players are ex-pected to give evidence.

The 31-year-old, who played 61 Testsand 18 one-day for Pakistan, is now in-volved in first-class cricket in Pakistan.He led Sindh in the Pentangular Cupfirst-class tournament and also played inthe Super Eight Twenty20 event earlierthis year.

In February this year, the Interna-tional Cricket Council, the ECB and Pak-istan Cricket Board dismissed Kaneria'sclaims that he had been cleared in thespot-fixing scandal.

BRIDGETOWNAFp

Australia aim to extend their 19-year gripon the Frank Worrell Trophy against theWest Indies from Saturday and pile on theTest match agony for the fallen Caribbeangiants. Since they last hosted Australiafour years ago, the West Indies have wononly three of the 30 Tests that they'veplayed while trying to rebuild their team.

Those three wins have been enoughto produce series wins over England and,more recently, in Bangladesh, their firstvictory away since 2003. Meanwhile,Australia are on a high having had a 4-0cleansweep over India in their last seriesin January.

They haven't lost a Test series sincethe Ashes defeat in January 2011 that ledto significant changes in their structureand approach to the game. It also saw achange to the playing organization withMichael Clarke taking over from RickyPonting as captain and South AfricanMickey Arthur installed as coach. "As aplaying group we can take a lot of confi-dence out of beating India 4-0 in Australiabut conditions are a lot different here,"said Clarke ahead of the first Test whichstarts at Kensington Oval on Saturday.

"The hardest part of playing interna-tional sport is beating teams away fromhome in conditions that you're not as usedto." Despite their woeful recent Testrecord, there are signs that the West In-dies may be closing the gap. They playedwell in both the recent Twenty20 and ODIseries with neither team getting the upper

hand as both series were tied."For me as captain getting the guys to

gel well and to execute the team plan, themore results we'll get," said West Indiescaptain Darren Sammy who believes thatattitude was important in the recent per-formances in the ODIs and Twenty20s.

"The fact that we could go out on thefield and look like a unit and play togetherand that 'never-say-die' attitude. Youcould see that the team is improving."

The changes for both teams in the lastfour years have been significant. Of theteam that won the final Test at the Kens-ington Oval to clinch the series 2-0 fouryears ago, only Clarke, Ponting andMichael Hussey remain in the Test set up.

It's one fewer for the West Indieswith Shivnarine Chanderpaul and FidelEdwards the only players from that sideto have been included in the latestsquad. Australia won their only warm-up match in the longer form of thegame beating the West Indies CricketBoard President's XI by eight wickets.Several changes to the side that playedin that fixture can be expected as DavidWarner and Michael Hussey wererested while wicket-keeper MatthewWade will almost certainly put on thebaggy green for the first time.

West Indies named a squad of 13 forthe first Test, with only opening batsmanKieran Powell and wicket-keeper CarltonBaugh having played for the President'sXI in the tour game. With MarlonSamuels playing in the IPL there havebeen returns to the squad for NarsinghDeonarine and Ravi Rampaul.

Pcb taskteam meetingtoday to finalisebowling coach

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

The Pakistan Cricket Board task teamheaded by Intikhab Alam will meet today(Saturday) to scan the applications andprepare their recommendations for theappointment of new bowling coach of thenational team.The four-member task team, includingformer Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja, Za-heer Abbas and Col (r) Naushad Ali willsee these applications to scrutinize the listof candidates who have applied for thebowling coach position.The vacancy was created after the PCBfailed to prevent former Pakistan bowlingcoach Aaqib Javed from moving on to be-come UAE head coach. The PCB’s plan,under former chairman Ijaz Butt, was tobring in only a head coach to replaceWaqar Younis, who resigned due to healthreasons. But the new chairman, ZakaAshraf, planned to form a team of special-ist coaching staff. Dav Whatmore andJulien Foutain were appointed head/bat-ting and fielding coach respectively.Till the March 23 deadline, PCB received10 to 12 applications from the candidatesfor the post of bowling coach as PCB wantsto pick new bowling coach will be madewell before the next series of the Pakistanteam which is in Sri Lanka in June-July.It will be a tough task for the PCB to short-list candidates as the major requirementfor the applicant is to have at least fiveyears of experience in a similar role withelite cricketers as most of the applicantsdon’t fulfill this requirement.The applicants including Ian Pont, the for-mer Bangladesh bowling coach, BazeeghZaka, the Maldives coach, and former Pak-istan players Jalal-ud-Din, Mohsin Kamal,Sabih Azhar and Mohammad Akram.Mohsin Kamal has recently ended a three-year head-coach contract with BahrainCricket Association and Sabih Azhar, whois currently working with the PakistanUnder-19 team, has ample experience inthe country’s domestic circuit are in goodbooks of the task committee. “We arehopeful of finalizing our recommendationsbefore the end of this month so that theteam can have a bowling coach before itstour of Sri Lanka,” PCB official said.

Pakistan junior teamthrash Malaysia

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

Pakistan junior hockey team started theirMalaysian tour o a positive note bythrashing the hosts 5-3 at NationalHockey Stadium Kuala Lumpur. Duringthe match player Aleem Bilal thumpedthe goalpost twice and Rana Umair, Dil-ber Hussain and Muhammad Irfanscored one goal each. In the first half, thescore was 3-2.The second match will beplayed between Pakistan and Malaysianjuniors on April 7 at 4.00 Pakistan time.

Windies dream ofbreaking two-decadeAussie grip

kaneria ‘unaware’of ECb corruptionhearing


Sports 19Saturday, 7 April, 2012

COLOMBOAFp

OFF-SPINNER GraemeSwann grabbed four wicketsto leave a rejuvenated Eng-land on the brink of a series-

levelling win in the second and final Testagainst Sri Lanka in Colombo on Friday.Sri Lanka, trailing by 185 runs on thefirst innings, ended the fourth day's playat 218-6 in their second knock, a lead of33 runs with only four wickets in handon a wearing P. Sara Oval pitch. SkipperMahela Jayawardene stood in England'sway with an unbeaten 55, showing theform that has already fetched him twocenturies in the series, including one inthe first innings.

England, who lost the first Test inGalle, will return for the final day's playon Saturday looking to polish off the restof the Sri Lankan batting quickly. An-drew Strauss' men need a win to drawthe series and retain their number oneTest ranking.

England wicket-keeper Matt Priorsaid: "Hopefully we'll be chasing lessthan 150, but we know we've got theability in the dressing room to chasedown anything. "But first and foremostwe have to take the four wickets." Priorsaid it was more important to make it 1-1 in the series than think about the rank-ings. "Every bloke wants to be part ofthe best team in the world and we wantto prove that we are the best," he said.

"We want to win this Test becausewe want to win every Test we play, notbecause it counts in our rankings." SriLanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan refused towrite off his team's chances. "If we batout the first session, there is a goodchance we may win it," said Dilshan. "Ifwe can set a target of around 150, we be-

lieve we can win."It's not an easy wicket to bat on. It

has turn and bounce and we have somevery good spinners in our side."

The tourists were hoping for a swiftclosure when Swann grabbed the keywickets of Dilshan and Kumar San-gakkara in the post-lunch session. ButThilan Samaraweera (47) and Jayawar-dene kept the England attack at bay --even for nine overs with the second newball -- during a 90-run partnership forthe fifth wicket.

Swann, coming on two overs beforestumps, bowled Samaraweera with hisfirst delivery and Suraj Randiv with thethird to pin Sri Lanka against the ropes.

If England fail to win, they will rue a

dropped catch off Jayawardene by TimBresnan at mid-on off Samit Patel whenthe batsman was on 20 and the hostswere still 46 runs behind. Dilshan wasunfortunate to be given out, caught inthe slips off Swann as TV replays provedinconclusive whether the ball had goneoff the bat.

Third umpire Rod Tucker reviewedDilshan's challenge for more than fiveminutes before upholding on-field offi-cial Bruce Oxenford's decision to givethe batsman out. Sri Lankan coach Gra-ham Ford immediately went up tomatch referee Javagal Srinath to askwhy the benefit of doubt had not beengiven to the batsman, as is the norm incricket.

The infra-red Hot Spot technology,which could have determined an edge, isnot being used for the series. Dilshan,who made 35, has now gone 21 inningswithout a Test century since plundering193 against England at Lord's in Junelast year. Later in the same over, Swannappealed for leg-before against San-gakkara, which Oxenford turned down.This time it was England's turn to losethe review even though the ball clippedthe off-bail. But Sangakkara did not lastlong as he edged Swann to Prior aftermaking 21, with Sri Lanka still 61 runsin arrears. The left-hander, who hadbeen dismissed first ball in two of thethree previous innings, finished the se-ries with a dismal average of 8.75.

Four-star Swannleads England charge

Sri lanka 1st innings: 275 (M. Jayawardene 105, T. Samaraweera

54, A. Mathews 57, G. Swann 4-75, J. Anderson 3-62)

England 1st innings: 460 (K. pietersen 151, A. Strauss 61, A.

Cook 94, J. Trott 64, R. herath 6-133)

Sri lanka 2nd innings (overnight 4-0):

d. prasad c Bresnan b Finn 34

l. Thirimanne c Strauss b Anderson 11

T. dilshan c Anderson b Swann 35

K. Sangakkara c prior b Swann 21

M. Jayawardene not out 55

T. Samaraweera b Swann 47

S. Randiv b Swann 0

A. Mathews not out 3

Extras: (b4, lb6, w2) 12

Total (for six wickets, 91 overs) 218

Fall of wickets: 1-23 (Thirimanne), 2-64 (prasad), 3-104

(dilshan), 4-125 (Sangakkara), 5-215 (Samaraweera), 6-215

(Randiv).

Bowling: Anderson 16-6-27-1, Finn 15-1-30-1 (w1), Swann 26-1-

82-4, Bresnan 11-5-14-0 (w1), patel 19-6-37-0, pietersen

4-0-18-0.

Sri lanka lead by 33 runs with four wickets in hand.

Toss: Sri lanka

Umpires: Asad Rauf (pAK) and Bruce oxenford (AUS)

TV umpire: Rod Tucker (AUS)

Match referee: Javagal Srinath (iNd)

SCoREBoARd

coloMbo: england cricketer Graeme Swann (2r) celebrates with teammates after dismissingSri lankan cricketer Suraj randiv (3l) during the fourth day of the second and final Test. AFp

COLOMBOAFp

Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan has been fined 10 percentof his match fee for over-the-top appealing during the sec-ond Test against England, the International Cricket Council(ICC) said on Friday. Bowling during England's first inningson Thursday, Dilshan charged towards the striker's end cel-ebrating a dismissal even before the decision had beengiven, the ICC said.

When he reached the other end, Dilshan turned aroundand appealed repeatedly, according to the charge laid by on-field umpires Bruce Oxenford and Asad Rauf, and TV um-pire Rod Tucker. Match referee Javagal Srinath said in astatement that Dilshan accepted that he had violated theICC's code of conduct.

Dilshan is expected to lose around $500 due to thepenalty. England, who lost the first Test, are hoping to se-cure a series-levelling win that will enable them to retaintheir number one ranking.

LAHOREAShER BUTT

Babar Azam steered Pakistan under-19to a comfortable win over the visitingBritish University cricket team here atthe Gaddafi Stadium on Friday.

British University Charity XI, inreply to Pakistan’s total, were bowledout for 102 runs in 19.3 overs, thus giv-ing the home side a 113-runs win.

Batting first, Pakistan juniors ham-mered 215 in 20 overs day and nightmatch converted to the shortest ver-sion from an ODI after the hot condi-tions took tool of the visitors in thefirst match.

Azam in his 121 innings smashed 15hits across the rope and two over itwhile facing just 65 balls. He was ablysupported by opener Sami Aslam, whoin the ODI match cracked a double cen-

tury, contributed 19-ball 32 and laterSaad Ali with his 16-ball 27 lifted thescore to authority.

From the visiting side, MumtazHabib, Umair Javed, Shahid Ilyas andJames Wallace shared one wicket each.

In their chase, the British studentsfell short of the target. They crumbledto Azizullah and only Shahid Ilyas with40 runs remained th highest scorerfrom the losing side while James Wal-

lace was the second best batsman ofthe visiting team with 18 runs.

Aziz did the main damage to theBritish batting line up with four wick-ets. He was supported by Usman Qadirwith two wickets while Ehsan Adil andBabar Azam shared one wicket each.Only four of their batsmen reacheddouble figures while there were fiveducks in British students battinglineup.

dinda, Pune spinnersupset Mumbai

SPORTS DESK

Pune Warriors caused a major upset of theIndian Premier league in front of a packedWankhede Stadium, where they defended amodest total against one of the tournamentfavourites, Mumbai Indians. The Warriors'spinners - of left-arm, offspin and legbreakvariety - masterminded by new Ganguly,thrived on a generous pitch, picking off theirvictims, while Ashok Dinda offered substan-tial pace support. The result was a surprisebecause Mumbai Indians had restricted War-riors to 129 for 9, especially after their bats-men chased successfully with ease onopening night in Chennai. However, MumbaiIndians were without Sachin, who was nurs-ing a bruised hand, and the instability at thetop of the order resulted in a flurry of wicketsthat damaged the chase irrevocably. Mumbaiculd make 100 for nine in the given oversleaving Pune won the match by 29 runs.

roach, Ponting readyfor bruising reunion

BRIDGETOWNAFp

West Indies seamer Kemar Roach renews hisbruising rivalry with Ricky Ponting on Satur-day as the home side seek to end twodecades of failure against Australia. WhenRoach and Ponting last came face to face in aTest at the pacy WACA in Perth in 2009, theformer Australian skipper was pepperedwith a series of short-pitched deliveries. One146kph delivery smacked into Ponting'selbow and, although the gritty Australian sol-diered on for over half an hour, he wasforced to retire to nurse his wounds. "I re-member Ponting making some commentssome time ago about helping to launchKemar's career," West Indies coach OttisGibson told the Nation newspaper on Friday,on the eve of the first Test at KensingtonOval. "I'm sure that Kemar, if he gets the op-portunity on Saturday morning first up withthe new ball in his hand, will be looking for-ward to it. Likewise, I'm sure Ricky will belooking to get back at Kemar." West Indieshave gone almost 20 years without a serieswin over Australia but Gibson insists the cur-rent generation have nothing to fear. "I thinkwe have at least three or four guys who willbe looking forward to this series," he added."Everybody is looking forward to gettingstuck in, and the exciting thing is that itmeans that there is competition for placesand that brings the kind of environmentwhich we are trying to create." West Indieshave so far held their nerve against thetourists, drawing both the one-day and T20series curtain-raisers to the three-Test series.

Model Town clubenter second phase

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

Model Town Club has qualified for thesecond phase of Sprite Lahore League bybeating Young P&T by 149 runs at IttefaqGround of LRCA. Model Town scored364/4 in 40 overs by batting first. AamirSajjad 146 off 67 balls, Sohail Ahmed 101runs. In reply Young P&T Gymkhana onlymanaged 215/8 in their limited overs.Mian Manan remained top scorer with un-beaten 93 runs. Mustafa Iqbal picked 3/33and Aamir Sajjad captured 2/48 for ModelTown Club. Aamir Sajjad named man ofthe match for his all round performance

condolenceLAHORE

STAFF REpoRT

The Sports Journalist Association of Lahoreand Railway Sports Board in an emergentmeeting held at Railway Stadium Lahorecondoled on the sad demise of Wife of Mr.Pervaiz Saeed Mir Director Operation Pak-istan Football Federation. General ManagerRailway President PRSB Shafique UllahKhan, Vice President Saeed Iqbal Khan, Sec-retary Rana Ibrar Anwar, Sports OfficerRashid Mehmood Butt, Accounts OfficerAkram Awan, Nayar Javeed Mufti, SyedNajam-us-saeed, Tahir Mehmood OfficialPRSB, Former Vice President MuhammadIrfan Gohar, Former Secretary Syed ArshadWasti, Chief Executive PVCA Nawab AshiqHussain Qureshi, President LRCA Kh.Nadeem Ahmed, SPM Chief Aizad HussainSyed, CEO Amar Cables Amer Ilyas Butt,Cricketer Promoter Syed Azhar Zaidi, Inter-national Cricket Umpire Aleem Dar, Presi-dent Sajjal, Syed Ali Hashmi, Secretary AsherButt & Electronics & Print Media Sports Gen-eralist, Secy General PSWA Manzoor Ali Arif,Secretary Abdul Rasheed Khan and largenumber of sports persons expressed theirgrief on this great loss. The all persons prayedto Allah Almighty, rest for the departed souland courage for the bereaved family.

Dilshan fined for excessive appealing

coloMbo: Sri lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene ducks abouncer during the fourth day of the second and final Testmatch at the P. Sara oval Stadium. AFp

Pak U-19 get easy win over British students

pAKiSTAN UNdER-19

Sami Aslam lbw Umair Javed 32

Babar Azam C Umair Javed B James Wallace 121

Faraz Ali C Aamer Khan B Shahid ilyas 18

Saad Ali C Spencer Crawley B Mumtaz habib 27

Ehsan Adil not out 2

Mohammad Nawaz not out 1

EXTRAS: (B : 0, lB : 2, NB : 3, WB : 4, p : 5) 14

ToTAl : (FoR 4 iN 20) 215

FoW: 1-55, 2-102, 3-200, 4-211

BoWlERS: Maxwell McAclister 4-0-46-0; Mumtaz habib 4-0-

31-1; Umair Javed 4-0-35-1; Shahid ilyas 4-0-32-1; Will Kostoris

2-0-26-0; James Wallace 2-0-38-1

BRiTiSh STUdENT Xi

Spencer Crawley run out Salman 12

Mumtaz habib b Azizullah 14

Aamer Khan c Faraz Ali b Ehsan Adil 5

Maxwell McAclister run out Azizullah 0

Shahid ilyas c zia-ul-haq b Azizullah 40

Samuel outram c Salman Afridi b Usman Qadir 0

James Wallace c Faraz Ali b Usman Qadir 18

paul Razzall not out 5

Shmail Khan lbw Azizullah 0

Will Kostoris b Azizullah 0

Umair Javed c & b Babar Azam 0

EXTRAS: 8

ToTAl: (19.3 oVERS) 102

FoW: 1-20, 2-25, 3-29, 4-54, 5-60, 6-92, 7-101, 8-101, 9-101, 10-102

BoWlERS: zia-ul-haq 4-1-14-0; Ehsan Adil 4-0-17-1; Azizullah

4-1-22-4; Usman Qadir 4-0-28-2; Mohammad Nawaz 3-0-20-

0; Babar Azam 0.3-0-1-1

Toss: pCB Under 19s Xi won the toss and elected to bat, Man of

the match: Babar Azam, Result: pakistan under-19 won by 113 runs,

Umpires: Ahsan Raza & zameer haider, Tv Umpires: Shozab Raza.

SCoREBoARd

MURTAzA Ali


Sports20Saturday, 7 April, 2012

AUGUSTA: TigerWoods hits out of thesand on the 17th holeduring the 1st roundof the 76th MastersGolf Tournament. aFP

Mathematics can be a beast. A beast thatcan change appearances and make thingsseem different than they are. Take the EPLtitle race for example; being five points be-hind leaders Manchester United, with agame between the two neighbours at theEtihad Stadium still to be played out,you’d think that City would very much bea part of this title race - a race that theyhad led for the most part of the season.However, the psychological games of apurple nosed Scott ensure that in therealm of English football, more often thannot Fergie’s mind games can beat bothmathematics and logic, more often thannot. Hence, the primary reason why City’slocomotive seems to be on the brink of de-railing is the presence of that cunning ge-nius at the opposite dugout.

Of the many other causes behind Citybottling their lead in the title race isMancini’s inaptitude in squad manage-ment. It’s no big surprise that David Silva’sseason seems to have tailed off, that hasseen him without a goal since Decemberand without an assist since January. He’sbeen the most overused City outfield playerwith 27 starts, and accordingly the afteref-fects of his debut season in the EPL are tak-ing their toll. Despite having a considerablybetter squad than United, it seems as ifMancini doesn’t trust many others goingforward except Sergio Aguero and Silva.This has meant that quite capable playerslike Adam Johnson (ten starts), James Mil-ner (16 starts) and Mario Balotelli (13

starts) have been sparingly used, much tothe detriment of their confidence. And thishas led to the overuse of the likes of Silva,Aguero and Yaya Toure – who despitemissing a month due to the African Cup ofNations has started 24 games.

City’s intimidating home form hasbeen let down by a pretty lacklustre show-ing away from him, which has seen themwin merely 2 away games since their winagainst QPR in November. And this hascoincided with Mancini reverting to themuch dreaded defensive style of play ofthe previous season. For a team that

spanked United and Spurs with six andfive goals away from home respectively,this is indeed perplexing to say the veryleast. In terms of attacking wherewithalCity would beat any side in the league,hence the defensive approach could onlymean that there has been a lack of belieffrom Mancini’s side or they began feelingthe heat of being the favourites for thetitle. The safe money is on a combinationof both those aspects.

On the contrary, United have been ona roll since their 0-3 defeat against New-castle in January. One can’t help but feel

that, it was that FA Cup turnaround at theEtihad that reinstated belief in Unitedthat led to both sides tracing oppositespirals. Had City not lost that game, oreven ensured that they rebounded in theleague, United might not have been as re-lentless. But City’s stutter gave Sir Alexthe smell of blood that he breeds on; andthere’d be a long queue of managerswho’d vow that you should never NEVERgive that man a sniff.

Now the equation is simple for City,they need to beat a resurgent Arsenal atthe Emirates to be realistically in the title

hunt – considering United’s easier run offixtures. City could be eight points behindUnited, when that game kicks off andhence, it would be a real test of their met-tle. Arsenal themselves could see them-selves overtaken at the third spot bySpurs; so they wouldn’t be short of incen-tives themselves. Either way, there is noone – not even Mancini himself if his lat-est press conference is anything to go by– who would doubt the fact that barringthree points for City at Arsenal, that ladythat has so long warded off diet controlwould sing in her awfully daunting voice.

How City bottled it

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

EPL CRYSTAL BALL

City need a win against Arsenal to keep the title race alive, even if Mathematics might suggest otherwise

MSSST’s role as awelfare organisation iscommendable: Sitara

PESHAWAR STAFF REpoRT

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Social-Welfare & Women Development Sitara Ayazappreciated the pivotal role played by MalikSaad Shaheed Sports Trust (MSSST), a so-cial welfare organization in the province inlarge and specially un-develop areas of theprovince by providing sports, education andhealth care facilities to youth. She wasspeaking during her visit to MSSST Centraloffice at Central Police office this morning.On arrival she was briefed by Amjad AzizMalik secretary of the Trust about MSSSTactivities and achievements so for. MSSSTMember Board of Tursts Syed Ali Nawaz Gi-lani, Syed Tasadaq Hussain Shah apart fromMSSST officials were also present on the oc-casion. Sitara Ayaz Provincial Minister forSocial Welfare and Women DevelopmentKhyber Pakhtunkhwa mentioned that toserve every-one is not possible for the Gov-ernment in present age so that vital roleplayed by various people friendly organiza-tion in healthy sports like a Social servicewhich is really commendable and we appre-ciate the MSSST’s activities and various ini-tiative to promote Sports, Education andHealth care in depraved peoples of the soci-ety. Minister Sitara Ayaz paid rich tributesto Shaheed Malik Saad and other ShaheedPolice Officers and Jawans of KhyberPakhtubkhwa Police and lauded their contri-bution in peace keeping of the Provice.Shealso lauded the rich contribution byMSSST’s during short period to time withspecial reference of establishment of Sportsacademies in far’ flung areas of theProvince and FATA. Minister Sitara Ayaz of-fered all possible support and patronagefrom her Social Welfare Department Gov-ernment of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Later onMSSST Member BOT Side Ali Nawaz Gilanipresented Trust Souvenir and Annual Re-port to the visiting Minister and she alsowrote her remarks in MSSST visitors’ Book.


Sports 21Saturday, 7 April, 2012

watCH it Live

GEO SUPERIPL-5: Royal Challengers v Delhi Dare Devils03:30PM

TEN SPORTS2ND TEST:Sri Lanka v England09:15AM

AUGUSTAAFp

SECOND-PLACE Louis Oosthuizen of SouthAfrica made an early morning start to hissecond-round charge at the Masters on Fri-day while leader Lee Westwood waited to

begin six groups later. World No. 3 Westwood, whoran off four birdies in a row in a front-nine stretch,fired a five-under par 67 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead over Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Openchampion, and Swede Peter Hanson.

Oosthuizen, who birdied four of the last five holeson Thursday to streak up the leaderboard, began hissecond round on Friday in cool and overcast condi-tions with a par 4 at the first hole.

"There's still a long way to go, but I feel good,"Oosthuizen said. "I'm hitting the ball really well."Westwood has finished in the top three in five ofhis past nine major starts but the 38-year-old Eng-lishman is still seeking that elusive first major titlein his 55th attempt. "I came close recently and Ihave had a good career and all there is to win is a

major championship and that is my primary focusnow," Westwood said.

Hanson is set to start about an hour after West-wood and alongside three-time Masters winner PhilMickelson, who opened on 74, and World No. 4Hunter Mahan of the United States, who fired a 72on Thursday. Rory McIlroy, the 22-year-old North-ern Irishman tabbed as a Masters favorite after lead-ing three rounds and onto the 10th tee on Sundaylast year at Augusta National, is one group in frontof Hanson after opening on 71.

"To come off under-par is pleasing," said McIl-roy, the reigning US Open champion. "My persever-ance and patience paid off." Tiger Woods, the14-time major champion chasing the record 18 ma-jors won by Jack Nicklaus, opened with a 72 and willplay in the day's penultimate group. He struggled offthe tee on Thursday in his first competitive roundsince snapping a 28-month win drought last monthat the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

"I hit some of the worst golf shots I have ever hitout there," Woods said. "I just grinded my wayaround the course, stayed patient, whatever it took."

AUGUSTA: lee westwood of england hits a tee shot on the 11th hole during the first round of the 2012Masters Tournament at Augusta national Golf club. AFp

Westwood’spursuers makeearly Masters start

Afc refereescourse begins

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

The predatory course for AFC Under-14Football Festival Referees started onFriday at the Media Centre of PakistanSports Complex Islamabad. SecretaryPakistan Football Federation Lt. Col(Retd) Ahmed Yar Lodhi was the chiefguest of the opening ceremony. MasoudEnayat from Iran and Jim Ouliaria fromAustralia are the instructors for thiscourse. President, Islamabad FootballAssociation (IFA) Dr. Fazalur Rehmanand secretary IFA Mohammad Zamanwere also present in the ceremony.Speaking on this occasion, secretary PFFAhmed Yar said that this course wouldbe benefited for holding the Under-14football festival as well as in holding thenational events in future. Course wouldcertainly enhance the Knowledge of theparticipants about the game and theywould do well in the upcoming soccerevents. “The PFF under the leadershipof president Faisal Salah Hayat is goingin the right direction to uplift the gameand make sure the participant in the in-ternational event,“ he viewed.The participants: Mansurov Naimjon,Pakhmonov Komilzn (Tajikistan), Ak-lometov Adylzhan, Ms. Indria Omorova(Kyrgyzstan),Noor ul Haq, MuzammilHussain (Pakistan), Esmail PourSabegh Hassan, Bahonar Saied (Iran),Ali Hussain Sakizada, AohammadNasim Salihzada(Afghanistan), ArslamSharif Arslan, Mujeeb ur RehmanMujeb, Said Mohammad, Shoaib Bilal,Adnan Anjum, Rauf Ahmed and YsairRehman (Pakistan).

5th women nationalJudo from 7th

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

The 5th Women National Judo Champi-onship-2012 will start from April 7. ThePakistan Judo Federation in collaborationwith Pakistan Army Sports Directorate willhold the event at Pakistan Army Sports Di-rectorate, Gymnasium No:03, Rawalpindi.In this event, besides the three provinces,Islamabad, FATA and 13 major depart-ments of Pakistan are participating includ-ing Army, Wapda, Navy, Police, andH.E.C. Navy and FATA are the first partici-pants. All the national & international fe-male players of Pakistan are participating.

Abl to faceMobilink in final

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

The final of the shapes Cricket League willbe played on 7th April (Saturday) at 10 AMin Bagh-e-Jinnah Lahore. Ahsan Raza andShozab Raza will supervise this Final,whereas Qaiser Waheed act as TV Umpireand Muhammad Kaleem Reserve Umpire.Zahoor Alam and Muhammad Rafique willbe the official Scorer. In the Final refer sys-tem will applied. ABL team will consist ofHumayun Fida Hussain (Captain), RizwanAslm, Ali Haider, Aleem Dar (ICC Umpire),Hafiz Muhammad Khawar, Bilal Rana,Wasi Shah, Muhammad Umar Ashfaq, Ju-naid Maqsood, Kareemullah, Aamer Nazir,Atif Zaheer, Shahid Mahmood, Ali Yar Baig,Umer Dar and Hafiz Farooq. MobilinkTeam is Ijad Rafiq Malik (Captain), Moaz-zam Siddiqui, Wajahat Ali Khan, SyedShams Uddin Ahmad, Bilal Saifi, JawadTayyab, Syed Haider Mehdi, TayyabWaseem, Fawad Saif, Ijaz Baloch, KaleemSindu, Zohaib Ali Rizvi, Abdul Samad,Ansab Javed, Imran Yousaf, JahanzaibMahmood. At the closing ceremony ChiefGuests Khawaja Nadeem (President LCCA)and Shafiq Ahmed (Group Chief HRM ABL)will distribute the prizes among the players.

Kinnaird win Uccwomen c’ship

LAHORESTAFF REpoRT

Kinnaird College Club won the UmmahCricket Lahore Women Championship 2012by 10 wickets. The UCC Lahore WomenChampionship 2012 - approved by PCBWomen's Wing and Lahore Region CricketAssociation and organized by UmmahCricket Club saw Ummah Girls score 80runs for 7 15 overs. Farzana 35. Sana Mirhad three wickets. Kinnaird Club chased thescore in eight overs. Bismah Maroof 36 andSidrah Amin 36 and remained not out. Thefinal match was played between UmmahClub and Kinnaird Club at Model Town Im-tiaz Academy Ground. A large number ofdignitaries were present on the occasionprominent being Ali Zia, Sr.General Man-ager Academics National Cricket Academy,Khizer Hayat (International Umpire & For-mer G.M P.C.B Umpires & Referree),Shahid Aslam (Head Coach NationalCricket Academy N.C.A), Mrs. NosheenHanif (Head Lahore Women Cricket), Mo-hammad Ijaz Gul (Advisor 4 Sports to ChiefMinister Punjab), Mohtasham Rasheed(Fielding Coach Pakistan), Syed AhmedAziz Bukhari (Chief Organizer & PresidentUCC), Ms. Ayesha Ashar (Manager PakistanWomen Cricket P.C.B), Mrs. Kausar Shah(Principal APWA College), Imran Bucha(Sr. Vice President L.C.C.A), Shoaib Dar(Secretary West Zone L.C.C.A), Tauqir AliShah (President West Zone L.C.C.A),Chacha Cricket, Mrs. Shehnaz Asif , Haji MBashir, Nadeem Ghauri (Test Umpire).

KARACHISTAFF REpoRT

Jalauddin Baber of Mirpurkhas cre-ated a major upset of the tournamentwhen he eliminated Marib Malik in athree set encounter of boys under 14singles of NBP Open Juniors NationalRanking Tennis Championship here atKarachi Club Karachi.

Baber won with a score of 3-6, 6-1, 10-8. The finals of all the three cat-egories and the closing ceremony willbe held on Saturday. Nousherwan, Ex-ecutive Senior Vice president NBP willbe the chief guest. RESULTS

Juniors under 18 Singles Semi Fi-nals: Adil Kohari (top seed) beat SaadNoor Sumar 6-4, 3-6, 7-6; TalhaZubair beat Nofil kalim ( Islamabad)6-2, 6-0

Ladies Singles remaining firstRound: Hania Naveed beat KinzaGhanchi 6-0, 6-1

Ladies Singles semi Finals: HaniaNaveed beat Wania Khan 6-1, 6-1; Ma-heen Dada beat Kainat Zulfiqar 6-0, 6-0

Boys under 16 Singles Quarters:Talha zubair beat Dawer rehan 6-4, 7-6; M. Raza Sawani beat ShabbirMuhammed 6-1, 6-1; Malik Hamzabeat Marib Malik 6-2, 6-2; Nofi kalimbeat Shahroze 6-2, 6-0

Under 16 Boys Semi final: TalhaZubair beat M. Raza Sawani 6-4, 6-3

Boys under 14 Singles Quarters:Nazif Ahmed beat Shabbir Muhammed6-0, 6-2; Marib Malik w/o Saad M. Ali

Under 14 Boys Semi finals: NofilKalim beat Nazif Ahmed 6-0, 6-0;Jalauddin baber ( Mirpurkhas) beatMarib Malik 3-6, 6-1, 10-8

Boys under 12 Quarters; Shahzilmalik beat Mustafa Admani 8-1;Muhammed Dada beat Umer Admani

8-3; Amin Shafi beat Hammad Gul 8-6; Bilal Imran Lohya beat AbdullahImran 8-6

Boys under 12 Semi Finals;Shahzil malik beat Muhammed Dada9-7; Bilal Imran Lohya beat AminShafi 8-3.

Baber records majorupset in Karachi Tennis

1st borjan Junior tennis innext stageLAHORE: Seeded players moved into next round of 1st Borjan Junior TalentHunt Tennis Tournament beingheld here at the PLTATennis Complex Courtsof Bagghe Jinnah THE RESULTS: Under 12 first round1st round Haris Ul Haqbeat Sameerahmad 6 2hashim javaid qureshibt malik hussain 6/1shazib karim beat mbilal 6/4 sahabzada m alibeat ahmar saeed 9/7 hamza bin rehan beat ahmad Ibrahim6/1 hafiz arbab ali 6/4Under 10 Quarter finalsMohd. Saeed beat Shimza Tahir 6/0 Ahmad saeed beat MustafaMazhar 6/2 hamza bin rehan beat sameer ahmad 6/1 nalain abbass beathaider jhanzeb 6/0U/14 quarter abdal haider beat hashim javeed 6/0 6/0Under 18 pre quarters Ahmad babar beat Aqeel sarfraz 6/0 Abdal haider beat Saeed khawaja 6/0Mian bilal beat hafizheraz ali 6/2 Imad amir beat nazir basher 6/0 Shoibakbar beat Maroze arif 6/3 Hasnain Manzoor saad Nawaz v 6/1 U18 quarter Finals beat mian bilal 6/1 6/1 mian bilal beat abdal haider 6/3 6/0imad amir beat shoib akbar 6/2 6/1 hasnain manzoor beat Saad. STAFF REpoRT



22

Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami, Executive Editor: Sarmad Bashir

LAHOREAFp

T HOUSANDS of religious ac-tivists hit the streets of thecountry on Friday, demand-

ing jihad and torching US flags tocondemn a $10 million bountyslapped on the founder of militantgroup, Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The Defence Council of Pakistan,an alliance of right-wing, religiousand extremist groups, organised therallies to denounce the US moveagainst Hafiz Saeed, who establishedthe LeT group blamed for the 2008Mumbai attacks. The day’s largestdemonstration came in Lahore, astronghold of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, thecharity seen as a front for LeT.

Up to 2,000 rallied in the city,shouting “America deserves onetreatment: Jihad! Jihad! (holy war).”Protests were also staged in Islam-abad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Multanand in Muzaffarabad. In Muzaf-farabad, around 500 activistsshouted “jihad! jihad!” as they

marched on the city and set fire to aUS flag in a main square.

Speakers urged President Asif AliZardari to cancel a visit to India onSunday — the first by a Pakistanihead of state since 2005 — and de-manded an American apology for thebounty. “Such steps are forcing Mus-lims towards guns,” said Abdul AzizAlvi, the local head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is blacklisted by theUnited Nations and United States,along with LeT. In Islamabad andRawalpindi, activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Jamaat-e-Islami shoutedanti-American and anti-Indian slo-gans. In Rawalpindi, around 150 ac-tivists set fire to an American flag,crying “death to America” after Fri-day prayers, while in the capital, thesame number gathered outside thenational press club and shouted “Al-Jihad and we stand by Hafiz Saeed”.

Hundreds of Jamaat-ud-Dawasupporters rallied in Karachi. Theywaved black-and-white flags andbanners inscribed with anti-US andanti-India slogans.


The Parliamentary Committee onNational Security (PCNS) suffered adouble-blow on Friday as the lead-ers of two major opposition partiesexpressed their distrust on the com-mittee’s proceedings, and claimedthat the government had already de-cided to reopen supply routes forNATO troops in Afghanistan.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman was the firstto distance himself from the PCNS,which is working to formulate recom-mendations on Pakistan’s terms of en-gagement with the United States.Pakistan angrily blocked NATO sup-ply routes after ISAF aircraft bombedtwo of its border check posts on No-vember 26, 2011, and killed 24 sol-diers. Pakistan also called for aparliamentary review of relations withthe US. Besides the JUI-F chief, Op-position Leader in the National As-sembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also

warned the government against therestoration of NATO supply routes,warning of quitting his office if sup-plies were resumed. Fazl, who boy-cotted the PCNS’ proceedings at theParliament House, told reporters thatthe government had already decidedto reopen supply routes for NATOforces through Pakistan. “Since thedecision has already been made to re-open NATO supplies, it is now impos-sible for me to attend the committeemeetings anymore,” he said.

Fazl had earlier announcedthat the restoration of NATO sup-ply routes, either conditionally orunconditionally, would be opposedat every forum. The JUI-F chieffurther said that he would not at-tend the parliament’s session overthe domestic violence bill. He alsocriticised President Asif Ali Zardarifor issuing remarks about the deadfather of PML-N leaders NawazSharif and Shahbaz Sharif.

Govt decides

to end CNG

load sheddingISLAMABAD

NNi

The government Friday decided to end CNGload shedding which is currently beingconducted for three days a week. Accordingto Minister for Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain,the decision was made to provide gas toCNG stations for a week; however, a quotawould be set in this regard. “It depends onowners of CNG stations to either use thisquota within a week or a day,” he said. Hemade it clear that the CNG stations wouldhave to pay additional tariff in case ofadditional usage of gas. “Provinces shouldalso play their role for cut in price ofpetroleum products,” he suggested. He saidthe quota system would also improvepressure of gas. “Other sources will also beused. I will request the chief ministers inthe energy conference to give subsidy onpetroleum products,” Asim said.

India didn’t providesolid evidenceagainst saeed: FOISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO)on Friday rejected the remarks of IndianExternal Affairs Minister SM Krishna thatIndia had provided adequate proof ofHafiz Saeed’s connection with the 2008Mumbai attacks, saying action could betaken against him only on the basis of“solid evidence”. Reacting to commentsmade by Krishna in Bangalore, FOSpokesman Abdul Basit said India had notgiven “any solid and significant evidence”against Saeed. He said “action can only betaken on the basis of solid evidence.” Kr-ishna said on Thursday that India had pro-vided adequate proof linking Hafiz Saeedto the Mumbai attacks. “There is nothingconcrete and maintainable. From its ownMumbai trial experience, India knows wellthat hearsay cannot substitute for hard ev-idence,” Basit said. “It is only the latterthat can withstand judicial scrutiny,” headded. Meanwhile, Krishna told the mediain Bangalore that the information providedby Home Minister P Chidambaram to thePakistan government contained “every de-tail of Hafiz Saeed’s involvement in theplanning and execution of the terrorist at-tack on Mumbai.” OnLine

Thousands protest US bounty on JD chief

PML-N, JuI-F expressdistrust on PCNs


KARAChi: An activist of Jamaat-ud-dawa beats a US flag with his shoes during a protest rally on Friday. AFp


e-paper pakistantoday 7th april, 2012

Documents

previous hearing

missing persons

quetta police

chief justice chaudhry

area of quetta

missing peoplebelonging

missing cit

thenext date of hearing