e-paper pakistantoday isb 25th december, 2011

ISLAMABADsTAff RePoRT

PML-N senior leader andOpposition leader in theNational Assembly NisarAli Khan on Saturdaysaid his party would re-

sist any of the government’s movesthat aimed at sending the army chiefor the Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) chief packing.

“I warn the government againsttaking any step against Army ChiefGeneral Ashfaq Kayani and ISI chief LtGeneral Ahmed Shuja Pasha prior toSupreme Court’s decision in memocase,” he said while addressing a pressconference. Asked whether he meantthat the PML-N would resist any moveto sack the army chief and DG ISI, hesaid, “Yes it is nearer to that…as the‘memogate’ is currently in the apexcourt, if the government takes any ac-tion in desperation, not only the oppo-sition but the entire nation will stronglystand up against it,” he said, adding thathis apprehension over the ISI’s politicalwing would, however, still remain.

Nisar demanded Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani retract his state-ment in the NA that questioned thesecurity establishment over the pres-ence of Osama bin Laden in the coun-try, calling the remarks extremely“irresponsible” by a responsible per-

son. He advised Gilani to retract thestatement and avoid pointing fingersat defence institutions instead of in-directly implementing the points thathad been written in the “memo”.

The opposition leader said theprime minister had repeatedly statedthat all institutions, including the armyand ISI, were in his control, but his re-marks of state within the state wereironic. He said the prime minister hadtried to divert attention from his gov-ernment’s incompetence and malprac-tices and the remarks were actually acharge sheet that the foreign mediaand their governments were present-ing time and again to malign Pakistan.

“If the opposition or the publicraise such questions, it can be justi-fied, but the prime minister takingsuch swipes for political mileage isshocking,” Nisar said. “What servicesdid the prime minister do to Pakistanby questioning the country’s defenceinstitutions over the presence ofOsama bin Laden in the country,” heasked. “Controlling the country’sarmed forces and our nuclear assetsare long shots … we will not even letany foreign power look at them [mil-itary and nuclear arsenal],” hewarned. Alleging that a particularagency was pushing politicians to-wards the PTI, Nisar said JavedHashmi joining Imran Khan’s partywas a sad development. “There can be

two opinions even within a family. Iam disappointed with the move,” headded. He said politics was not child’splay. “Imran’s revolution is like abubble … The PML-N is not afraid ofanybody quitting the party … thosewho are leaving the PML-N wouldhave to pay the price for their deci-sion,” he said, adding that he knewImran Khan from school days, “butsome things were unsuitable for rev-elation”. The opposition leaderadded that the PML-N wanted pollsas early as possible.

g opp leader says any decision before SC’s memo verdict to invitePMl-n, nation’s wrath g Slams Gilani for rant against military

Govt can’t penalizeKayani, Pasha: Nisar

pakistantoday.com.pk sunday, 25 december, 2011 muharram-ul-haram 29, 1433rs22.00 vol ii no 178 27 pages islamabad — peshawar edition

KARACHIQAzI AsIf/AgeNcIes

Former senior leader of PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)Makhdoom Javed Hashmi onSaturday formally announced to jointhe Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaaf (PTI).Hashmi announced his decision in apress conference that was alsoattended by PTI Chairman ImranKhan, Vice Chairman ShahMehmood Qureshi, Jahangir Tareen,Dr Arif Alvi and others. Imran Khanwarmly welcomed Hashmi’s move tojoin the PTI, saying with the

HasHmi joins PTi

Monthlong closureof Sindh CNGpumps on the cards

KARACHI: The govern-ment is contemplating amonthlong closure of CNGstations in Sindh during themonth of January, said Fed-eral Minister for Petroleumand Natural Resources DrAsim Hussain on Saturday.“The decision is not yet finaland the proposal is stillbeing deliberated upon,” hetold journalists following aconvention at the Universityof Karachi. The minister saidthe government was forcedto make tough decisions dueto unrealistic policiesadopted by the previous gov-ernment. “Acute shortage ofnatural gas and the energycrisis leave little options butto be pragmatic,” he said. inP

g imran saysno secretdeal behindHashmi’sentry

g PMl-n’sMehtab Abbasi,PPP’s KahlidKharal purportedlyin line tojoin PTi

MULTAN: PML-N activists trying to stop Javed Hashmi fromheading to Karachi to join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. online

‘pti-sindhi nationalist talKs broKe down | page 04Kayani Cautions government| page 02

Continued on page 04

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02Sunday, 25 December, 2011

News

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iSLAMABAD

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NewS

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foreiGN NewS

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shrines become centre of illegal activities Us neared Taliban deal, but Karzai vetoed it: WP Angry syrians protest against blasts

KARACHI: PTI Chairman Imran Khan speaks at a press

conference to announce the entry of former PML-N

leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi in his party. Online

ISLAMABADIRfAN bUKHARI

WITH Chief of Army Staff(COAS) General AshfaqKayani making it clearon Saturday that spec-ulations about a mili-

tary takeover were out of place and theprime minister subsequently welcomingthe statement, tensions between the twosides has seemingly started decreasing,with some intermediaries chipping in fora truce to avoid any confrontation be-tween Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The message the military leadershippassed on to the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) leadership through the mediators isto exercise restraint and not target thearmy if the government wants to diffusethe situation. Whether the message hasbeen well taken or not, would, however, beclear on December 27 when President AsifAli Zardari is expected to make a speech onthe death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto.

A well-placed source in the govern-ment told Pakistan Today that a numberof people, including PML-Q PresidentChaudhry Shujaat Hussain, real estatetycoon and a friend of the presidentMalik Riaz and others, who were tryingto diffuse tensions between the govern-

ment and the military, had been told bythe top army brass to ask PresidentZardari not to hit out at the army in hisscheduled speech at Naudero. Thesource said the ambassadors of friendlycountries, including Saudi Arabia, theUAE and others, were also active. Thesource said General Kayani in his meetingwith Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Per-vaiz Elahi told them that the prime min-ister’s rant against the army was uncalledfor and only fuelled the tension betweenthe state institutions. The Chaudhryscalled on the COAS in Rawalpindi aftermeeting President Zardari and PrimeMinister Gilani on Friday.

After meeting the COAS, Shujaatagain met President Zardari to convincehim not to take any step or say anyprovocative word against the army, asthe government’s emotional outburstcould take things to a point of no return.

However, the source said somehawks in the PPP were advising Presi-dent Zardari to adopt aggressive attitudeagainst the generals, against the PML-Qleadership’s advice that asked Zardari tocome out of the influence of his “idiotfriends”. The source said Awami Na-tional Party (ANP) President AsfandyarWali also advised Zardari not to useharsh words against the army. “Some

short-sighted PPP leaders are advisingthe president and the PM to continuepressurising the army, but the coalitionpartners are opposed to this approach,”the source said.

He said the COAS also complainedto the Chaudhrys that Gilani’s statementregarding presence of Osama bin Ladenin the country was highly irresponsibleand could excite enemies of the countryto slap serious charges against the Pak-istan Army and such a statement wouldnever be tolerated in the future.

Another source in the governmentsaid the prime minister might not takeany action against Defence Secretary LtGeneral (r) Naeem Khalid Lodhi now inorder to facilitate his coalition partners’efforts for reconciliation between thegovernment and military.

A source in the PML-Q told PakistanToday that in case the PPP did not exer-cise restrain, the party would quit thecoalition. “The Chaudhrys assured Gen-eral Kayani that if their efforts for recon-ciliation between the two sides failedand the PPP leadership continued tar-geting the army, they would disassociatethemselves from Zardari and Gilani andopt to sit on opposition benches to ex-press solidarity with the army,” thesource said.

ISLAMABADMIAN AbRAR

Recent positive messaging between thetop military and civilian leadershiphas helped normalise tensions be-tween the two sides but the fate of De-fence Secretary Lt General (r) NaeemKahlid Lodhi hangs in the balance asPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani de-cides to summon and hear the retiredgeneral before taking any decisionabout him.

A well-placed source told PakistanToday on Saturday that Gilani had decidednot to take any action without hearing thedefence secretary and it was likely that thesecretary would be summoned by theprime minister next week probably afterthe death anniversary of former PPP chair-woman Benazir Bhutto on December 27.

When approached for comments,Lodhi said he had not received a showcause notice from the prime minister.The source said after the recent mes-

saging, it was understood that thememo controversy would also be leftwith the Parliamentary Committee onNational Security which was fit to re-solve the mystery behind memo.“Since the memo case is a politicalissue and not a question of law, theapex court may leave the probe matterwith the parliamentary committee onnational security on the basis that thepoliticians should resolve politicalmatters,” the source said.

The source said the controversybetween military and civilian leader-ship of the country had triggered dueto a sequence of press releases issuedby the ISPR.

“In a three-hour meeting betweenthe prime minister and the army chief,future course of action had been de-cided. It was decided that the repliesof army chief and director general ofthe inter-services intelligence (ISI)would be routed through the DefenceMinistry. It was also decided that their

statements would be later sent toprime minister’s house and laterwould be submitted by the federation.However, this procedure was notadopted later,” said the source.

The source said after the meeting,Gilani had briefed the media on theagreement reached between the two.However, later a press release issuedby the ISPR said a telephonic conver-sation between the president and thearmy chief was only for one minute.This also played as a spoiler and theprime minister took it as offense.Later, the statement by the defencesecretary about the jurisdiction of theDefence Ministry further tested Gi-lani’s nerves as it challenged the civil-ian authority.

“Still, the last press release wasalso vague as the army chief reiteratedcommitment to democratic processbut it was yet to be stated that armywas under the prime minister,” as-serted the source.


The Transparency International (TI)has sought details from the FederalBoard of Revenue (FBR) aboutwhether Rs 225 billion internationallydeclared by Malik Riaz of Bahria Townwere included in tax returns of fiscalyear 2009–10 and what amount was ofdue taxes was collected.

A letter addressed to FBR Chair-man Salman Siddique by TI AdviserSyed Adil Gilani sent on December24, 2011 said Malik Riaz, in an inter-view with CNN on August 31, 2010,had admitted having assets of Rs 225billion or $3 billion.

The TI had earlier requested theFBR chairman through a letter onSeptember 4, 2010 to provide the in-formation with regard to payment ofgovernment revenue against Rs 225billion in assets admitted to beowned by Riaz.

The information requested wason the total value of assets of MalikRiaz, as assessed by FBR in accor-dance with Income Tax Ordinance2001, and tax collected. The letter

also asked that in case the assets ofRs 225 billion were not declared tothe FBR in tax returns of fiscal year2009-2010, had FBR taken action ac-cording to law to recover the revenueand charged penalty, if any, for eva-sion of taxes.

The FBR did not respond to TI re-quest for eight months, therefore, onApril 29, 2011, a complaint was sentto Federal Tax Ombudsman againstthe FBR, requesting FTO to take ac-tion under the FTO Law. Conse-quently a reply from FBR wasreceived on June 17, 2011 saying“This is to inform you that the infor-mation sought in respect of MalikRiaz Hussain of Bahria Town cannotbe provided in view of Section 216 ofthe Income Tax Ordinance, 2011.”

The TI letter said it did not under-stand why FBR was reluctant to per-form its mandatory duty and avoidingcollecting due taxes on the declaredassets of Malik Riaz.

The copies of the letter have beenforwarded to the public accounts com-mittee chairman, federal tax ombuds-man, NAB chairman, Supreme Courtregistrar and the auditor general.

Ti asks FBR to provide tax details of Malik Riaz’s Rs 225b

Kayani cautions govtagainst military’s mockery

Gilani to hear defence secretary before deciding his fate

g Message sent to Presidency in covert reconciliation efforts advises

president, PM exercise restraint in their speeches

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NewsCoMMeNtA desertion:

Articles on Page 12-13

PML(N) in a pickle

Know your enemyThe first essential in war on terrorism

Humayun gauhar says:

M J Akbar says:Different strokes: On the president’s dash to Dubai

sarmad bashir says:Don’t blame the PM: It’s not what he said, it’s why he did…

ArtS & eNtertAiNMeNt‘Don’ sequel rakes in millions on day one

Story on Page 17

SPortSPoA plans to hold Asian beach, Youth games

Story on Page 26

Digging their own grave?: The civilians at odds with the military.


THE Parliamentary Committee onNational Security (PCNS) on Sat-urday asked Finance Minister DrAbdul Hafeez Sheikh to brief the

committee members in the next meetingon financial repercussions of reviewing theterms of engagements and souring of tieswith the United States and NATO forces.

Defence Secretary Lt General (r)

Naeem Khalid Lodhi brief the committeeon Pakistan’s military-to-military agree-ments with the US, NATO and ISAFforces on the war against terror.

The committee members were alsoprovided copies of all the nine agree-ments signed between Pakistan and theUS on defence-related issues, said asource privy to the committee’s proceed-ings. “Now all the members of the com-mittee would put forth theirrecommendations about formulating

new terms of engagements with NATOand ISAF which would later be presentedto the joint sitting of the parliament forapproval,” the source added. The sourcesaid that on December 30 the committeewould hold two sessions, one each on thememo controversy and NATO attacks onPakistani border posts.

Later talking to the media, PCNSChairman Mian Raza Rabbani said thedefence secretary had presented his view-point on the nine agreements, which in-

cluded two agreements between the for-eign ministries of the two countries whileseven were military-related agreements.Rabbani added that the defence secretaryhad also briefed the committee on thepreliminary report of Pentagon on theNATO attack. He said that prior to thebriefing by the defence secretary, ForeignMinister Hina Rabbani Khar had briefedon diplomatic relations and impact of thereview of terms of engagements betweenboth the countries.

Minister to brief PCNS on financial impact of souring ties with US

New DeLHIoNLINe

Two years after his role in terror activitiessurfaced, India’s National InvestigationAgency (NIA) on Saturday filed a chargesheet against alleged culprit DavidHeadley, outlawed JuD founder HafizSaeed and two ISI officers for plotting ter-ror attacks in India, including the 26/11strikes, the Indian media reported.

The charge sheet was filed in a specialcourt in Patiala House in New Delhi, whichalso named 26/11 attacks alleged master-mind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Headley’s ac-complice and Pakistani-Canadian TahawwurRana and Ilyas Kashmiri for waging waragainst the country and other relevant sec-tions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,official sources said. Sajid Malik, handler ofHeadley and Abdul Rehman Hashmi, formerPakistani army officer were also named inthe charge sheet besides two officers, MajorIqbal and Major Samir Ali, believed to beworking for Pakistan’s snooping agency,sources said. The charge sheet was filed threedays after the Centre gave sanction to prose-cute all the nine after being convinced oftheir role in planning terror strikes in India.The NIA had registered a case against 50-year-old Pakistani-American Headley andRana on November 12, 2009 and later onadded other names after investigation bycentral security agencies showed some peo-ple’s involvement in terror activities againstthe country.

Both Headley and Rana are at presentin custody of US authorities and NIA hasonly got a limited access to Headley, whohad entered into plea bargain with US au-thorities to escape a harsh sentence. 50-year-old Rana was found guilty by the UScourt of terror activities in Denmark but

absolved of his role in the 26/11 strikes inMumbai. The NIA, while registering acase against Rana and Headley under Un-lawful Activities (Prevention) Act and forconspiring to wage war against the coun-try, had alleged that Headley had visitedIndia “several times before 26/11 andonce after” the Mumbai terror strikes,which left 166 people dead.

Barring Headley and Rana, NIA has se-cured an Interpol Red Corner Noticeagainst all the seven accused includingSaeed and Lakhvi, who is said to be in aPakistani jail facing trial for planning the26/11 attack. Headley helped NIA identifyvoices of handlers giving instructions tothe holed-up terrorists during the 60-hourcarnage in Mumbai in November 2008.The handlers included Abu Hamza, theman who carried out the attack on the In-dian Institute of Science in Bangalore, anda key planner, instructor and handler.

He also identified Sajid Majid, a top LeTterrorist, who asked the terrorists in ChabadHouse to ensure that none of the Israeliswere left alive. Abdur Rehman retired in2007 from the Pakistan Army as a Major.He worked closely with Lashkar-e-Taibaand coordinated the activities of Headley.He was arrested in 2009 in Pakistan on un-specified charges and later released.

Major Iqbal was Headley’s handlerwho arranged funds and training in intel-ligence gathering. Iqbal gave him $25,000in August 2006 to visit India. Another Pak-istani Major Sameer Ali was also named bythe Pakistani-American terrorist. The In-terpol had on August 25, 2010 issued RedCorner notices to Saeed, Lakhvi and AbuHamza. These were issued after a Mumbaicourt issued a non-bailable warrant againstthe two for their role in the Mumbai at-tacks.

niA presents charge-sheetagainst Headley, 8 others

federal cabinet meets

in Karachi today

KARACHI: Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani is scheduled tochair the first ever meeting of thefederal cabinet in the provincialcapital on Sunday. Although issuessuch as gas shortage in the countryand devolution of subjects fromthe federal list to the provinces willbe on the meeting’s agenda, burn-ing political issues like the memoscandal and the civilian govern-ment’s strained relationship withthe military are likely to dominatethe meeting’s proceedings. Themeeting will be held at the Gover-nor’s House. sTAff RePoRT

MuMbai attacks

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CHIEF JusticeIftikhar Muham-mad Chaudhry onSaturday expresseddissatisfaction over

slow disposal of cases in theanti-terrorism courts in Sindh.

According to a press re-lease issued by the SupremeCourt, the CJP chaired highlevel meeting at the SupremeCourt Branch Registry inKarachi, held in connectionwith the performance of anti-terrorism courts in the provinceand the role of prosecution andinvestigation agencies in quickdisposal of the cases.

He expressed dissatisfac-tion over the slow disposal ofcases in the anti-terrorismcourts, the delay in submissionof challans and the frequent ad-journments being sought andgranted to the prosecuting anddefense counsels.

The CJP observed that perthe judgement in the Shaikh Li-aqat Hussain case, the SupremeCourt set up a mechanism tomonitor the performance of theanti-terrorism courts to quicklydecide such cases. The mecha-nism was meant to removehandicaps or irritants in theway of expeditious disposal ofcases.

The chief justice said ter-rorism also came up for consid-

eration before the five membersbench in the suo motu case re-garding law and order inKarachi and the court issuedcategorical directions to theprovincial police as well as theDG, Rangers to apprehend theculprits and timely investigatethe cases.

He exhorted the securityagencies to follow the directionsgiven by the court in theKarachi violence case to the ef-fect that there must not be any“no go area”, adding that if anysuch area was found, the policeand Rangers shall take strongand decisive action to eliminateit, and if necessary, the RangersDG shall personally lead the op-eration in such areas.

The court order had furtherstated that the law enforcementoperations shall be carried outacross the board and withoutany pressure or influence fromany quarters.

The Sindh High Court chiefjustice, who is the in charge ofanti-terrorism courts, saidthere were 31,124 anti-terror-ism cases pending before the 11anti-terrorism courts in theprovince, of which some 323cases were pending in Karachialone.

The judge incharge of anti-terrorism courts assured themeeting that more ATC Judgeshad been appointed and thesecourts had become functional,the disposal figure would in-

crease. In his presentation to the

chief justice, the Sindh IG saidduring the five-month period, atotal of 240 cases had been reg-istered and 291 accused werearrested under the ATC law.

The challans in respect of130 cases had been submittedin the courts, he said. The meet-ing took notice of the reports tothe effect that some influentialaccused persons, arrested bythe Rangers and handed over topolice for investigation, weregiven the benefit of beingcharged under Section 13-D ofthe Arms Ordinance 1965 (car-rying arms without licence),carrying lesser sentence, eventhough the provisions of the

ATC law were attracted becauseof which, such accused personsgot released on bail by thecourts.

The chief justice of Pak-istan directed that such le-niency was unwarranted andagainst the law. The IGP re-ported that the allegation ofshowing partiality and favour toan accused namely Muham-mad Salim alias Choto, discipli-nary proceedings had beeninitiated by the governmentagainst SP Umar Khitab. TheIG assured the CJP that policeofficers responsible for showingany favour, partiality or le-niency due to political influenceor otherwise would be pro-ceeded against under the law.

CJP dissatisfied with slow disposal ofcases in anti-terrorism courts in Sindhg expresses dissatisfaction over delay in submission of challans, frequent adjournments being sought and granted to prosecuting and defence counsels

cooperation of Javed Hashmiand Shah Mehmood Qureshi,PTI’s journey had becomeeasy. “Javed Hashmi demandsnothing; he has joined the PTIonly after becoming inspiredby its stance. The movementwill benefit from Hashmi’s ex-perience,” he added.

Imran said he and JavedHashmi joined hands in par-liament against a military dic-tator. “Shah MehmoodQureshi gave a boost to theparty and after Hashmi’s join-ing, the tsunami of the partyhas become stronger. We haveto change the system.” Imransaid a revolution was in theoffing in Pakistan. “A sign ofthat revolution is that people

have started to join a politicalparty that does not even a havea single seat in parliament.Politics of self interest aregoing to end. These people cango and join any party but theyleft power for their stance. No-body came to join our partyover differences with their par-ties, but they came to join usbecause of their point of view.”To a query about any “secrethand” backing his party,Imran said that “secret hand”was of Allah’s.

Speaking on the occasion,Hashmi said Imran has takena stand about his politics for15 years. “Imran Khan wasmy favorite cricketer and nowhe has become a champion ofpolitics in this country. He

came to meet me when I wasin the jail. With the passage oftime our points of view re-garding politics became simi-lar. I spoke in the NationalAssembly for the first time in1993 regarding declaration ofassets of politicians,” he said.

Hashmi said when Imran“came to meet me, he said hehad not come for any per-sonal motive, but for Pak-istan. I promised to think andconsult. Since a year, I wasobserving the situation of thecountry. It was my desire t seea change. I was not annoyedwith the [former] party. I ac-companied Nawaz Sharif inLarkana. When we returnedto Lahore, he first offered meto sit in the car before him.

There is no issue between meand the PML-N. I am onlysaying that PTI’s momentumto bring a change in the coun-try in much stronger com-pared to other parties”.Hashmi said PTI workers hadbeen at the forefront of themovement for judiciary’srestoration. “I consulted myfriends, informed party work-ers about my decision. Mycolleagues touched my feetasking me not to leave theparty. I respect their senti-ments, but we have to take adecision for a bigger pur-pose.” “To achieve that targetI have decided to join the PTI.We will fight a war of princi-ples. We need to protect Pak-istan from the incompetentand looters. We have novested interest, nor a desire toexpand any business,”Hashmi added. To a question,

he said he had no differenceswith Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif.

Shah Mehmood Qureshialso welcomed Javed Hashmiin the party. He said thosejoining the PTI were notthinking about their personalinterests, but for a biggercause of a strong and prosper-ous Pakistan. Talking to re-porters at Karachi airportearlier, Hashmi said only timewould tell if the PTI was aparty of the establishment.

Hashmi said his daughterMemoona Hashmi would alsoresign from parliament, whilean MPA of his area, ShahidMehmood, would also resignfrom his assembly member-ship. In Multan, PML-Nworkers led by provincialminister for Auqaf held aprotest demonstration atHussain Aghahi Chowk

against Hashmi’s decisionand expressed strong resent-ment to the move.

Hamza Shahbaz Sharifsaid it was Hashmi’s personaldecision and the PML-N,being a popular party of themasses, would not be affectedby someone’s leaving.

Meanwhile, sources saidsenior PML-N leader and for-mer Khyber Pakhtunkhwachief minister Sardar MehtabKhan Abbasi was also in lineto join the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf in the next few days.

In a related development,PPP’s former informationminister Khalid Kharal, one ofthe founder members of theparty, is all set to join the Pak-istan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI),as he had had expressed in-ability to join the meeting ofthe PPP Federal Council inNaudero on December 27.

Hashmi joins PTiContinued from page 1

ISLAMABAD ARIf TAJ

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s di-alogue for a possible politicalcooperation with Sindhi na-tionalist parties was discontin-ued to seek rapprochementwith the Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) and evolvea future political understand-ing with it, following which thePML-N moved in to start dia-logue with Sindh’s nationalistleaders, leaders of various na-tionalist parties told PakistanToday on Saturday.

Imran Khan wanted tohave close cooperation withnationalist parties of Sindh to

divide the PPP’s vote bank inthe province and he engagedsome Sindhi nationalist partiesinto dialogue during the recentmonths. The Central ExecutiveCommittee of the PTI alsoplaced it in its agenda to be dis-cussed on November 13, afterholding meetings with SindhTarraqi Passand Party in whichboth sides had reportedlyagreed to work for the sover-eignty of the provinces,restoration of true democracyin the country, strict enforce-ment of rule of law and socialjustice and elimination of cor-ruption. The dialogue was dis-continued on purpose by thePTI to evolve a good relation-

ship with the MQM, said DrDodo Mehari, general secre-tary of the Sindh United Party.

“The dialogue has almostbeen terminated and the rea-son for that is the PTI does notwant to offend the MQM be-cause it is seeking to cultivatesome sort of understanding infuture with the party havingmajority in the urban parts ofthe province. Secondly, thePTI does not have any clearstance on the issue of provin-cial autonomy. All nationalistparties want to redefine thenature of relationship betweenthe federation and the federat-ing units which the PTI is re-luctant to discuss,” Mehari

said, adding that the PML-Nwas now trying to make an al-liance with the nationalist par-ties and Nawaz Sharif held anumber of meeting withSindhi nationalist leaders dur-ing the last few days in this re-gard. When Pakistan Todaytried to contact PTI SecretaryGeneral Dr Arif Alvi and pres-ident of its Sindh Chapter,Naeemul Haq a number oftimes for their version, theydid not attend the phone calls.

When PTI InformationSecretary Shafqat Mehmoodwas contacted, he said he didnot know when the dialogueha started and why had beenterminated.

wASHINGTONINP

Pakistani military had har-boured Al Qaeda chief Osamabin Laden with the knowledgeof former president General (r)Pervez Musharraf, formerGeneral Ziauddin Butt hassaid.

An article on theJamestown Foundation web-site, which cited Butt, said thatdespite denials, evidence isemerging that “elementswithin the Pakistani militaryharboured Osama with theknowledge of Musharraf andKayani”. Ziauddin Butt told a

conference on Pakistani-USties in October that accordingto his knowledge then directorgeneral of Intelligence Bureau,Brigadier (r) Ijaz Shah, had“kept Osama bin Laden in anIntelligence Bureau safe housein Abbottabad”.

The retired general said inthe same address that the InterServices Intelligence (ISI) hadhelped the CIA to track Osamadown and kill him. To a queryon whether the present armychief knew about it, Butt saidyes, but later added: “(GeneralAshfaq Parvez Kayani) mayhave known - I do not know -he might not have known.”

LOS ANGeLeSAfP

The US Central IntelligenceAgency has suspended dronemissile strikes on gatherings oflow-ranking militants in Pak-istan due to tensions with thecountry, The Los AngelesTimes reported.

Citing unnamed currentand former US officials, the

newspaper said late Friday theundeclared halt in CIA attacksis aimed at reversing a sharperosion of trust between thetwo countries.

The pause in the missilestrikes comes amid an intensi-fying debate in the administra-tion of US President BarackObama over the future of theCIA’s covert drone war in Pak-istan, the paper said.

The CIA has killed dozensof al Qaeda operatives andhundreds of low-ranking fight-ers there since the first Preda-tor strike in 2004, but theprogram has infuriated manyPakistanis, the report noted.

Some officials in the StateDepartment and the NationalSecurity Council say many ofthe airstrikes are counterpro-ductive, The Times said.

‘PTi-Sindhi nationalist talksbroke down over MQM’

CiA suspends drone missilestrikes in Pakistan: report

PML-N blames

establishment

for Hashmi’s

resignation

LAHOReoNLINe

Punjab Law Minister RanaSanaullah on Saturday blamedthe establishment’s “stooges”for PML-N leader JavedHashm’s resignation andjoining the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. Sanaullah accusedformer Senator TariqChaudhry of acting on behalfof the establishment. Tariqhad been staying at Hashmi’sresidence in Multan for a fewdays and convinced him toquit the PML-N. He saidHashmi was unhappy after theparty leadership did not makehim parliamentary leader inthe National Assembly. PML-N leader Senator PervezRashid said he was saddenedby Hashmi’s decision and itbroke many hearts.Opposition leader in theNational Assembly ChaudhryNisar Ali Khan said his partywas not afraid of anyone’sdeparture and was ready forsnap polls. He claimed that anagency was behind pushingthe people towards the PTI.Sources said fifteen moreMNAs and around 25 MPAsfrom the PML-N were alsoready to join the PTI duringthe next two weeks.

Christians celebrate

Christmas today

ISLAMABADAgeNcIes

Christians would celebrateChristmas on Sunday withreligious zeal. Felicitating thePakistani Christians onChristmas, President Asif AliZardari reiterated that thePakistan People’s Party (PPP)will continue to uphold theright of Christians and allminorities, to be treated asequal citizens of the state.Prime Minister Yousaf RazaGilani in his Christmasmessage reiterated thegovernment’s commitment toensure the rights ofminorities as enshrined in theconstitution.

Quaid’s 135th

birthday today

ISLAMABADAgeNcIes

The nation will celebrate the135th birth anniversary offounder of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnahwith national spirit andenthusiasm today (Sunday).President Asif Ali Zardari saidthe Quaid-e-Azam had rejectedany change by bullet andalways favoured that it be donethrough ballot. Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani urged thenation to follow the ideals ofQuaid-e-Azam and forge unityin their ranks to overcome thechallenges facing Pakistan.

Chinese envoy meetscivilian, military leaders


Chinese State Councilor DaiBingguo on Saturday met thecountry’s top civilian andmilitary leaderships, with bothsides vowing t strengthen theirall-weather friendship.President Asif Ali Zardari toldBingguo that Pakistan-Chinastrategic cooperativepartnership was thecornerstone of Pakistan’sforeign policy and termed itcritical for the development,peace and security of theregion and the world. Zardarialso conferred the country’shighest civil award on Bingguofor his efforts for global peace.COAS General Ashfaq Kayaniand Joint Chiefs of StaffCommittee Chairman GeneralKhalid Shamim Wyne alsoseparately met Bingguo atGeneral Headquarters anddiscussed matters of mutualinterest and the emerging geo-strategic situation.

Musharraf, Kayaniknew osama’swhereabouts: Ziauddin

Another petrol bomb loomsIslAmAbAd: The federal government is likely toincrease petroleum prices by Rs 5 per litre from January1, sources in the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority(OGRA) said on Saturday. They said that in view ofinternational prices, OGRA advised the government toincrease oil prices. Sources said that no change wasexpected in the prices of kerosene oil. OGRArecommended the government to increase the price ofhigh octane oil (HOBC) by Rs 5 per litre, high speeddiesel oil (HSDO) by Rs 1.5 per litre and light speeddiesel (LDO) by Rs 1.5 per litre. After the expectedincrease in prices, HOBC would be sold at Rs 111.72 perlitre, HSDO at Rs 100.33, LDO at Rs 87.28 and keroseneoil would be sold at Rs 89.24 per litre. Petroleum priceswould be determined on December 31. oNLINe

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g total cost estimated at around rs 6 billion and a failure can

prove a heavy burden on the national exchequer

bb MurDer caseexpensive energy

Sunday, 25 December, 2011

shrines become centre of illegal activities PAGe 08

ISLAMABADfAzAL sHeR

THE Central Develop-ment Working Party(CDWP) has askedthe Capital Develop-ment Authority

(CDA) to first launch a pilot proj-ect of street lights based uponLight Emitting Diode (LED)technology in the city to assesswhether the new expensive tech-nology will help achieve the ob-jectives.

An official source said the di-rectives were given to the CDA,as there were some concerns inthe official circles about the hugecost of the project. However, hesaid some of the influential peo-ple were interested to get theproject as technology was readilyavailable from China.

The source said the LEDlights consumed minimum

electricity, but it gave less lightcompared to conventionalsources, due to which theCDWP had asked CDA to installit on trial basis.

The official said the esti-mated cost of the project wasover Rs 6 billion and it wouldcause a huge lose to the na-tional exchequer, in case of afailure.

He also said some high-upsof CDA also showed concernabout the maintenance of LEDlight because the similar problemin other projects. “Currently, theCDA electrical maintenance winghas no technical staff to for thepurpose,” he said.

He said the CDA was payingan amount of around Rs 120million per month on electricitybills and unable to disburse theoverdue amount to the Islam-abad Electric Supply Company(IESCO). “The IESCO has sev-

eral time disconnected powersupply of the CDA due to hugeoverdue bill,” he said.

The official said the cost forrunning and maintaining thestreetlights had increased by 30to 40 per cent in the last coupleof years, and these figures didnot include the salary of the400 employees, who were partof the electrical maintenancewing. The non-development ex-penditure crossed Rs 6 billionwhile the authority earned onlyRs2 billion through taxes, dueto which the CDA is coping withsevere financial crises.

The official said the CDAplan not only included to re-place the conventional lightswith the LED lights but alsoplan to install the solar geezersin the government accommoda-tions, Parliament House, Presi-dent House and other majorbuildings of the city.

CDa asked to launchLED lights pilot project RAwALPINDI

sTAff RePoRT

The Federal Investiga-tion Agency (FIA) onSaturday presentedrecord of the mobilephones of former citypolice officer (CPO)Saud Aziz and ex-SPKhurram Shehzad be-fore the anti-terrorismcourt (ATC) in the Be-nazir Bhutto murdercase. The hearing of thecase was held in thecourt of ATC Judge Shahid Rafiq at Adiala Jail. FIAForensic Expert Assistant Director Noman AshrafBodla produced record of the mobile phones of for-mer CPO Saud Aziz to the court. The court ad-journed hearing of the case till January 7.

Similarly, four prosecution witnesses, includingFIA Assistant Director Noman Ashraf Bodla, Pak-istan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) DirectorInternet Feroz Alam, Warid Telecom’s UsmanMaftoon and Special Magistrate RawalpindiChaudhry Taufeeq recorded their statements beforethe court. FIA Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar, in hisstatement, said that he had taken complete data ofmobile phones of the former CPO and ex-SP, whichwere provided to the investigators at the time oftheir arrest.

PTCL Director Internet Feroz Alam, in his state-ment, told the court that on December 28, 2007, atelephonic conversation was held between one

Molvie Ameer and Baitullah Mehsood from thehouse of accused Rafaqat. During the conversationwhich continued for one minute and 13 secondsMalvie Ameer and Baitullah congratulated Rafaqatthat the job had been done.

Warid Telecom’s Usman Maftoon also con-firmed that two out of three mobile numbers wereregistered in the name of the fathers of the two ac-cused, Muhammad Rafaqat and Hassnain Gull.However, the third mobile number was registeredin the name of one Riaz. He also told the court thatthe accused were in touch with their parents.

Chaudhry Taufeeq, who was special magistrateRawalpindi, said in his statement that he had writ-ten in the confessional statements of MuhammadRafaqat, Hassnain Gull and Aitzaz Shah that the ac-cused brought Bilal Saeed alias Bilal a suicidebomber from Waziristan to Rawalpindi while Has-snain Gull accommodated Bilal at his residence.

Khurram Qureshi, counsel for accused SherZaman, raised objection when the prosecution pre-sented Chaudhry Taufeeq, the magistrate, forrecording his statement, saying that under the lawthe name of this witness was not mentioned in thelist provided by the prosecution to the defencecounsel, so the court should not record the state-ment of Chaudhry Taufeeq.

On this, the judge observed that the statementof the witness should be recorded, however, the de-fence lawyers could cross-examine him on the nextdate of hearing. Qureshi told the media outside Adi-ala Jail that despite the lapse of four years, the trialwas still at initial stages, adding only 11 out of 130-150 witnesses appeared before the court to givetheir statements.

FiA presents record of Saud Azizand Khurram Shehzad’s cell phones

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FrOM FilM tO selling Fish


g Khalid tanoli shares his experience, saying local industry fails to face the onslaught of western and indian productions

Islamabad


AS many as 793 graduatingstudents of Bahria Univer-sity were awarded degrees atthe varsity’s 8th convocationheld here on Saturday. At

least 17 gold medals and 15 silver medalswere also awarded to outstanding stu-dents as recognition of their remarkableachievement in their respective academicprogrammes.

Chief of the Naval staff AdmiralMuhammad Asif Sandila, s the chiefguest, conferred the degrees upon 793graduating students in various disci-plines, including BBA, BSE, BCE, BS, MS,MSC and BA.

Felicitating the graduating students,Admiral Asif Sandila expressed his deepadmiration for the strenuous hard workput in by them to stand successful todaywhich has not only brought laurels for theuniversity but also pride for their parents.

The chief of naval staff advised thegraduating students to refrain the fast-creeping charms of deceit and falsehood

and must follow the path of righteousnessand truth for success in life. He appreci-ated the university’s role and efforts inseeking links and collaboration with for-eign universities to bring about neededimprovements in teaching and learningstandards. He advised all concerned toemulate the best available to producequalified graduates, fit enough to com-pete confidently in the domestic and in-ternational job markets. He alsocommended the steps being taken by theuniversity management to provide finan-cial support to deserving students in the

form of need-based scholarships. Earlier, Bahria University Rector Vice

Admiral (retired) Muhammad Haroon, inhis speech, gave a brief account of variousmeasures the university had taken for itsexpansion to introduce law classes,MS/M.Phil and PhD programmes, estab-lish links with foreign universities of Peo-ple’s Republic of China, Turkey,Australia, up-gradation of computer labs,multi-media facilities for all classrooms,foreign study tours by students to allowthem international exposure and awardof merit and need-based scholarships.

Bahria University holds 8th convocation

ISLAMABADMAHTAb bAsHIR

Art and artist - both in visual and perform-ing genre - survives in Pakistan but at a veryheavy price. Musicians, painters, singers oractors live in most difficult times, while thestate institutions, meant to promote art andculture, ignore them. The art councils andother institutions remain indifferent to theissues of artists, many of them have passedaway in abject poverty while others live inconditions that are not fit for a person, whois protecting and promoting rich culturalheritage of the country.

The film industry in Pakistan has failedto be vibrant and some of the people at-tached to it are compelled to set up theirown businesses at a small scale to earn theirlivelihood in the federal capital.

Khalid Tanoli is one of such artists, whobrought laurels working for the films andtelevision over the last two decades, but withthe slump in the local industry, he is strug-gling to earn living, selling variety of friedfish at his small hut along the roadside at G-9/2, opposite to the Fatima Jinnah Park (F-9). Narrating his miserable story,45-year-old Khalid Tanoli told PakistanToday that he started his career in 1990 witha popular drama serial “Ajj Di Kahani” fromPakistan Television (PTV).

Born in Abbottabad, but settled in La-hore, Tanoli said his professional career infilm industry was over but he had beenworking with zeal on TV. “My ongoing tele-vision drama serials are “Amar Beil” and“Zindagi Aik Safar Hay” from ATV, while“Bus Aik Tera Intazar”, “Insaan” and NaiNasal” were the forthcoming drama serials

to be telecasted from PTV,” he said, addingthat he was also performing in underpro-duction “Jaago Magar Khamosh Raho” and“Bhaag Ali” and a feature film ‘Dil Da Jaani’,featuring Shan, Saima, and Sana.

“I have worked with all the leading filmand television stars. One of my current Pun-jabi drama serial is “Sohni Mahiwal” inwhich I am working along with ShafqatCheema for Apna Channel.” Tanoli said hehad played different roles from Peon to Po-lice Officers, from Driver to Villain, and as aJailer and Father in number of Urdu andPunjabi films- “Sher-e-Punjab”, “Dada Bad-mash”, “Mulla Muzaffar”, to name a few inwhich I appeared in these get-up.

Settled in the federal capital for the lastfour years, Tanoli said because of poorscriptwriting, acting, production and Indianand Western cultural onslaught, Pakistani

film Industry was pushed into aquagmire and almost finished.

“It (film Industry) could never berevive again, because every qualitymovie is easily available on cable net-works, and internet on different web-sites. Why should people bother towatch Pakistani movies that havenothing to impress audience,” Tanolisaid, while inserting sticks intowooden stove.

“Sangeeta Begum, Rao QurbanAli, Pervez Rana, Anjum Pervez, Ar-shad Dar, Babar Kashmiri, IrdeesBhatti, and Ajab Gul are few of notedproduced with whom I have worked,”Tanoli said.

“I have worked with YawarHayat, Ayub Khawar, Tariq Ahmed,Abdul Aziz, and Yasin Malik on TV.”

He blamed Indian soaps and films arealso responsible to down Pakistani film in-dustry. “But the flaws that caused industry’sdecline are our own. Producers is also reluc-tant to take chances on his investment, saidTanoli, who has three school going children.

“I have learnt fish frying techniquesfrom one of my colleague producer whileworking in Lahore, and it clicked. Now, bythe grace of Almighty, I am the only fry fishseller who has all range of fried fish in thefederal capital.” “Rahu, Trout, Baam,Masheer, Mushka, Simon, and Surmai arethe fish, I brought from Tarbela and ManglaDams, and also from Kaghan and Naranwhile few fish I imported from Karachi,”Tanoli said. Talking about the rate of mouthwatering fried fish served with sauce, Tanolisaid the prices varied. Tanoli said he waslooking for a better spot where he could setup his fish selling business to serve fried fishin a better ambience. “I have struggled andI am satisfied with my life.” he said. Tanolirequested the government that time was notover yet. “The government must do some-thing now for the revivalof film industry, for thesake of promotion of artand culture.” “I haveworked with commit-ment and devotion forthe promotion of art andculture and there arethousands of artists likeme, who are looking for-ward government insti-tutions to something forthe welfare of artists - asthey are the asset of thenation,” he said.

Bad times hit artists hardUrdu play enthralls

audienceIslAmAbAd: Urdu play ‘Insha KaIntizar’, directed and written by AnwerJaffari, was presented by Tehreek-e-Niswan, Karachi Production, before thepacked hall audience at the PNCAAuditorium. This play was the 14thsegment of the series of plays ofNational Drama Festival 2011,organized by Pakistan National Councilof the Arts, Ministry of NationalHeritage and Integration. All theartistes performed well, especiallyclassical dancer Sheema Kirmani whoenthralled the audience. She thinks thatInsha (Insha Allah) will solve all theproblems and everything get rightautomatically without any struggle. Inthe meantime, another character entersthe scene in the name of Manshwallahi.e. (martial law) who comes withoutany reason and starts ruling civilians,tortures innocent civilians and treatsthem like slaves. Basically, the story isbased on military dictatorship (martiallaw), the behavior of army dictatorswith civilians. The massage conveyed bythe play is that we should struggle tobring about a change because no changecan be brought simply by waiting andsaying Insha Allah. sTAff RePoRT

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2005 earthquake in aJk


IslamabadPNCA, Lok Virsa

celebrating Quaid’s

birthday todayISLAMABAD

sTAff RePoRT

Pakistan National Council of theArts and National Institute of Folkand Traditional Heritage (LokVirsa), Ministry of National Heritageand Integration, is all set tocelebrate 135th birth anniversary ofthe founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,(today) Sunday.To mark the day, the PNCA and LokVirsa are creating a colourful float topay homage to the father of thenation. The main theme of the floatis unity, faith and discipline. Thisfloat will represent culture of all theprovinces and federating units ofPakistan—Punjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan,Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.The float will also displayphotographic representation ofQuaid-e-Azam and his uniquebelongings. Folk dance groups likeDharees dance, Sammi dance andKhattak dance will perform all theway in front and back of the float.This unique cultural float will starton December 25 from ParadeAvenue in front of the Parliamentbuilding at 11am and move alongBlue Area up to Sector F-10 via ZeroPoint. The float, travelling along itsprescribed route at around 4pm, willreturn to the Parade Avenue wherespecial performances of folk artistswill be arranged.A documentary on Quaid-e-Azamwill be shown on a large screeninside the lobby of the PNCA. Alarge number of diplomats, high-ranking government officials,cultural personalities and generalpublic are expected to attend.Pakistan National Museum ofEthnology, (Heritage Museum) andPakistan Monument Museum atShakarparian will also remain openfor the general public from 10am to7pm. In order to encourage maximumparticipation, a special 50 percentrebate on the entry ticket for Pakistaniadults is being granted. SinceDecember 25 also marks Christmas, acake-cutting ceremony as well aserection of a beautiful Christmas treein front of the Heritage Museum,Shakarparian, is also an integral partof the daylong programmes.


THE Institute of StrategicStudies (ISSI) organised apublic talk under its distin-guished lecture series on ‘ASecurity Route to Coopera-

tion: A New Blueprint for Pakistan-IndiaRelations’ on its premises.

ISSI Director General Ambassador(retd) Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, while wel-coming the guests, highlighted the im-portance of the topic and said thatmaintaining good relations with Indiawas in the vital interest of Pakistan.Though Pakistan was going through dif-ficult times and facing multiple prob-lems, this particular problem neededspecial attention, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, renownedscholar, Dr Shireen Mazari said Pak-istan-India peace process continued tobe stalled despite a growing recognitionthat peace and regional cooperationwere in the long-term interest of the

people of the region. “Track-two dia-logues continued to focus on people-to-people contact as a means to moveforward but, unfortunately, real conflictsthat exist between Pakistan and Indiacannot be resolved simply through thismethodology. Media initiatives such as‘Aman Ki Asha’ reach out to peopleacross the borders, but do not offer sub-stantive solutions to the real conflicts,”she opined.

She said, “Many foreign analystscite EU model for Pakistan and India,but there is a need to understand theorigins of the EU to proceed in the sim-ilar fashion. The underlying messagefrom the EU model is that for effectiveand long-term peace and cooperation,Pakistan and India will have to moveforward first in the sensitive securityand contentious issues.”

She also spoke about the model ofthe Good Friday Agreement between theBritish and Irish governments and be-tween them and eight political parties.With the help of these two models, the

speaker put forward her recommenda-tions to the security route to cooperationbetween Pakistan and India.

Mazari said there had to be a break-ing of the logjam on Kashmir. The in-digenous nature of the struggle inKashmir could not be denied. In this re-gard, she also mentioned a conferenceheld in Delhi where some political par-ties along with some NGOs for the firsttime supported the Kashimiris’ right toself-determination.

She was of the view that in the con-text of Kashmir, the Good Friday Agree-ment became very relevant as itrecognised the right of the people tochoose their own future through a refer-endum and the binding clause for boththe states not only to accept the result ofsuch a referendum but also allow thepeople the choice of periodic referen-dums in case they changed their mind.

Dr Mazari further proposed confi-dence-building measures in the sensitivesecurity issue areas, especially in the nu-clear field. She viewed joint nuclear

power generation as one of the impor-tant routes to security cooperation asboth the countries were overt nuclearpowers and energy deficient.

She also made a strong pitch forsome kind of an agreement on nuclearrestraint for a number of reasons. In ad-dition to it, the list of nuclear facilitiesthat both countries exchange at the endof every year should also be expanded,she opined.

The presentation was followed by avibrant question-answer session duringwhich a number of guests raised certainissues that plagued the relationship be-tween these two neighbours.

At the end, the ISSI director gen-eral thanked Dr Mazari for presentingher views and recommendations whichprovided food for thought. He saidIndia-Pakistan relationship would al-ways be fragile. For Pakistan, it hadbecome imperative to make such anenvironment in which it could negoti-ate with India without compromisingon its principled stand.

MUZAFFARABADsTAff RePoRT

Six years on, around 300,000 studentsof Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) arestill forced to study under open sky dueto slow progress of reconstructionprocess following the devastating earth-quake that had wreaked havoc in north-ern Pakistan in year 2005.

During 2005 earthquake aroundthree thousands educational institutionswere damaged in the state, out of whichonly 1,000 are reconstructed so far. Thedelay is badly affecting the youth as theyare pursing their studies either in tentsor under sky even in harsh winter.

In his briefing to visiting group ofjournalists, State Earthquake Recon-

struction and Rehabilitation Agency(SERRA) Secretary Dr Asif Hussain onFriday said shortage of funds for recon-struction was badly affecting the educa-tion sector.

“Of total 3,000 damaged educa-tional institutions, we have recon-structed only 1000 schools, meaningthat only 33 percent work has been com-pleted,” he said.

In the 2005 devastating earthquakethat wrecked havoc in Pakistan andAJK, killing more than 50 thousandspeople in AJK and KhyberPakhtunkhwa and damaging thousandsof buildings, the education sector ofAJK suffered a lot as almost all of itsbuildings were damaged.

1,702 primary schools, 174 mosques-

cum schools, 570 middle school, 296high secondary schools, 23 inter and 14colleges besides six post graduate col-leges and two campuses of AJK Univer-sity were completely destroyed in thenatural calamity.

To a query, Dr Asif said donors con-tributed a lot for the reconstructionwork as under the Earthquake Emer-gency Assistant Project (EEAP), fundedby Asian Development Bank, 305schools were reconstructed to the earth-quake resistance standards; however, alot of work needed to be done.

It is relevant to note that the AsianDevelopment Bank has accomplishedvarious projects worth $I billion in thequake-hit areas.

The ADB reconstructed 309 state of

the art schools, 26 basic health units, 1Rural Health Centre and two tehsilheadquarter (THQ) and one districtheadquarter hospitals.

It also funded the reconstruction of872 kilometer road and eight RCCbridges, while it also contributed amajor share for the construction of 42steel bridges and damaged buildings ofAJK electricity departments. All ADBfunded projects have almost completedin AJK.

Talking to Pakistan Today, DeputyCountry Director PRM Asian Develop-ment Bank Nianshan Zhang said: “It’svery rewarding for me to see the fruit ofprojects. The ADB funded projects willplay a significant role to pull the peopleout of sufferings of the earthquake.”

0.3m students still study under open sky

Pak-India better ties in bothstates’ interest: ISSI talk

IslAmAbAd: The Capital Develop-ment Authority (CDA) Chairman Fark-hand Iqbal on Saturday said theChristian community was playing a piv-otal role in the development of the capi-tal city and deserved laurels for theirservices. He said this while addressing atwo-day colourful Christmas Gala“Colours of Islamabad Christmas Carni-val”, organised by the CDA at FatimaJinnah F-9 Park.

The Christmas Gala participated bythe families of the Christian as well asother communities living in differentareas of the city, according to a pressstatement. The first ever Christian fam-

ily gala organised in the history of Islam-abad comprised of different stalls, shops,food courts, game shows and play-ridesfor the children and other festivities de-signed specially for the Christmas. Thesite has also been decorated with theChristmas trees and Santa Claus. A largenumbers of families and children visitedthe spot and lauded the efforts of CDAfor organizing such a beautiful event.Farkhand Iqbal said the CDA had organ-ised a number of programmes for theChristian community to commemoratetheir efforts for the development of Is-lamabad.

“The Christian community around

the world, especially those living in Is-lamabad, on this happy occasion cele-brated the birth of Jesus Christ. Thepractice of lighting up Christmas Tree onbehalf of CDA began a couple of yearsago and is being expended with everypassing year to add more colours to theChristmas celebrations,” he said.

He said Christmas trees had been lit-up in different areas of the federal capi-tal in addition to a number of colourful

events, including this gala at F-9 Park.He reiterated the CDA had always

taken pride for having the peaceful andhardworking community along in thejourney of development and making Is-lamabad a model city. “The way the Chris-tian employees of CDA have kept the cityclean, especially during Eid-ul-Azha forthe last many years is a remarkableachievement, which has always been ap-preciated not only by the locals but also bythe foreign dignitaries living in the Fed-eral Capital.”

He said the salaries of the sanitationstaff had been increased at par with theother employees working in the author-

ity in addition to upgrading their BasicPay Scales. The CDA has allotted a plotfor church on which construction hascommenced. Under the government pol-icy of housing for the poor, the CDA hasallotted plots to the Christian commu-nity in different sectors opened fromtime to time and also given them propri-ety rights in the existing slums. Out ofthe 10 registered slums, four have al-ready been upgraded and development ofthe remaining is in progress. The CDA hasalso allotted 4000 plots to the dwellersand another 2,000 allotments are in theprocess under the Modern Urban ShelterProject Programme. sTAff RePoRT

Christmas gala at F/9 Park

a day of peace and loveISLAMABAD

sTAff RePoRT

Christmas, the biggest religious festival of the Christiancommunity, is being celebrated in the federal capital as wellas all over the world today with due religious fervour.The day rekindles the memories of Jesus Christ, who throughhis message of love and compassion, changed the world in avery perceptible manner, and established sanctimoniousvalues that still form the basis of civilised existence. Very few great men, before or after him, exerted such greatinfluence on the course of history as did the architect ofChristianity. In fact, the teachings of Christ had far reachingimpacts which are acknowledged by all — regardless ofreligion and community.The day is celebrated in a joyous mood and it has assumed analmost universal character, being no longer confined to theChristians only. The growth and spread of Christianity acrossthe world has elevated Christmas to a truly world festival. There is merry-making and celebration of almost every

conceivable kind. But the devotees have to bear in mind thatthe day marks the birth of the man whose mission, during hisshort but eventful life, was to promote peace, goodwill andcompassion. Christ’s love for mankind is a source of greatinspiration to not only his followers but to humanity ingeneral. His message of peace is particularly relevant in thepresent day world embroiled in violence and bloodletting inmany places. It is indeed time to pray for peace and stabilityto carry forward the mission initiated by the great man.The essential features of Christmas celebrations includeexchange of gifts and cards, decorated Christmas trees andthe arrival of the good old Santa Claus on the eve. However,local and regional traditions have enriched the day in variousways as Christianity has emerged as the major world religion.The day will be observed in Pakistan with the members of theChristian community enjoying every bit of it in their owncolourful ways.Pakistan Today wishes them a very happy Christmas toChristian Community. Let the day bring joy and happiness topeople all over the Pakistan!

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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

an illustratiOn OF pakistan

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DAte AND tiMe: eVery friDAy 6:30-7:30PMVeNUe: KHAAS Art GALLery iSLAMABAD

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art thatcombines elements of dancing, ritualcombat & music in a unique synthesis ofself defense and rhythm.

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DAte: tUeSDAy DeC 27, 2011 6:00 PMVeNUe: iSLAMABAD

DAte: NoV 29 - DeC 25, 2011 VeNUe: iSLAMABAD

08 Sunday, 25 December, 2011

Islamabad

ISLAMABADsALMAN AbbAs

IN a sheer contradiction of the teachingsand philosophy of Sufis, shrines are fastbecoming hub for unlawful activities dueto the negligence of authorities con-cerned, as illegal occupants have become

caretakers of some shrines, who are not evencognizant of the values and teachings of the re-spective saint whose tomb they are looking after.

It has been learnt that some people who havebecome caretakers of the shrines even do notknow the names of the saints on whom shrine theyare serving. The shrine of Baba Sahheed Kahu onthe Kashmir Highway is one of them, where offi-cials never try to inspect what is going on.

During a chat with Pakistan Today, the cus-todian, known as Baba, said he had been livingat the shrine for last three years. But when thisscribe asked him about the actual history andname of Baba Shaheed Kahu, he could just replythat it was a blessing of Allah and the Sufi saint,which made him able to serve at the shrine. “Noone can live here without their permission,” hesaid, adding that he had been selected to ensuresanctity of the shrine.

Baba has neither been appointed by any au-thority nor by the heirs of the Sufi saint. He hasinstalled three to four boxes to collect moneyfrom the faithful and also made a separate roomat the shrine to live.

Does any government official know about thesaid Baba and whether the construction of roomand fencing the area by grille is a legal action willremain a mystery until the concerned quartersget ready to fulfill their duty of keeping a checkon shrines. Ali Shah, the son of Sufi saint SyedAsghar Shah whose shrine is also located on theKashmir Highway, told Pakistan Today that spir-itualism did not meant for using it for vested in-terests. “I have not made any room nor do anyillegal construction on the shrine of my fatherbecause such practice will be against the teach-

ings of Sufi saints,” he said.He was of the view that the society could play

its role to stop practices not allowed by Islamand Shariah. Many other shrines are also presentin the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad,which has also become a safe haven for the drugaddicts. The drug peddlers roam freely at theshrines and attract the innocent people towardsdifferent drugs like hashish and heroin.

Talking to Pakistan Today, one of the faithfulsaid that he had been visiting the shrine of BariImam for last many years and he always foundmany drug addicts sitting there without any fearof law enforcement agencies. He said while thegovernment was taking steps against religiousfundamentalists, it should also crack down onsuch ‘saints’ and drug peddlers, who were using

these holy places as cover for their illegal busi-nesses. Another citizen said the drug peddlerswere destroying the future generations, addingthat these shrines were becoming breedinggrounds for criminals.

He urged the authorities to apprehend thefake saints, ‘pirs’ and ‘fakirs’ who used theshrines as covers for their crimes. He added thatonly pilgrims or visitors should be allowed tovisit, but not to stay at the shrines.

A CDA official, seeking anonymity, toldPakistan Today that most of the caretakers liv-ing at the shrines in the capital city had beenenjoying good relations with influential peo-ple due to which the authorities seemed help-less to take any action against illegalconstructions at the shrines.

shrines become centre of illegal activities

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News

wASHINGTONoNLINe

TH E US had reached atentative deal with theTaliban to allow,among other things,transfer of five

Afghans from the Guantanamo Bayprison in lieu of their public re-nunciation of terrorism, but theagreement failed to take off be-cause of Hamid Karzai’s objec-tions, US media reported onSaturday.

A report in the WashingtonPost has claimed that the deal wasthe closest the two parties came togenuine peace negotiations afternearly a year of talks, and was partof the Obama administration’s ac-celerated push towards bringingcurtains down to the war inAfghanistan. The tentative accord,reached last month between the

US and Taliban negotiators wouldhave called for the prisoners to besent to house arrest in Qatar,

where the Taliban planned to openan office, and additional actionsby both sides, the report said

quoting anonymous US and Euro-pean officials.

The deal was, however, de-railed after Karzai balked at itsterms, the paper said.

“Right now, things havestopped... Everybody is taking adeep breath,” a senior administra-tion official was quoted as saying.Contacts with the Taliban are ex-pected to be reestablished earlynext year. The paper said the ne-gotiations that came amid a riftwith Pakistan, and economic andpolitical pressures with war fa-tigue, reflect a marked change inthe administration’s attitude overthe past year. While US com-manders say the Taliban’s inter-est in talks stems from theiropponents’ gains on the battle-field, they also believe politicalaccommodation now will betterposition them for future strugglesafter the US troops withdraw.

US neared Taliban deal, but

Karzai vetoed it: WP

Complete blackout hits SwatswAt: For the last 63 years, ordinary people have beenand are still being coerced in the worst possible andimaginable manner by the elite and ruling class. Nodoubt, words are deficient in describing the helpless-ness, which has become the fate of millions of people ofSwat. WAPDA was showing no mercy for citizens, whohad to endure inhuman hours of load shedding, rubbingsalt on their wounds, which were not cured completelyfrom terrorism and floods. The ones who were sufferingthe most were those whose livelihood depended on elec-tricity-operated machines. Tailors were facing a night-marish scenario to meet the deadlines of customers.Their work was baldy hampered due to prolonged dura-tions of load shedding despite very cold winters, Pak-istan Today has learnt. Load shedding was also badlyaffecting the mental health of people of Swat. Health ex-perts said that frequent power outages make peopleangry and irksome. It affected their level of toleranceand made them touchy and flammable. It was a com-mon practice that people nowadays in KhyberPakhtunkhwa quarreled over petty issues. Strangely, thegovernment was not intervening to resolve problems ofthe masses and save them from social, economic andmental torture of load shedding and price hike of othercommodities. The provision of electricity was declaredas a right of life by many landmark decisions of the su-perior judiciary, but the government, as well as rulingand opposition parties and rights groups were tight-lipped over violation of this basic right of the poor andinnocent citizens of Swat. Residents of Mingora com-plained that despite facing load shedding of 10 to 12hours, they were suffering from gas load shedding ofthree to four hours after small intervals besides receiv-ing exaggerated bills, which made no sense. HARooN sIRAJ

LAHOReIMRAN ADNAN

Instead of repairing its grounded aircraft,the national flag carrier has once again ac-quired two aircraft on wet lease to avertflight cancellations and delays.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)obtained the aircraft along with cabin crewas members of various employees associa-tions have refused to perform duty onleased aircraft, Pakistan Today learnt onSaturday.

Sources in PIA said as many as 13 air-craft, out of the total 39, were grounded atvarious airports due to a shortage of spareparts. And instead of repairing its ownfleet, the PIA had obtained two AirbusA320 narrow body aircraft on wet lease forMiddle Eastern and domestic routes.

They revealed that the Joint ActionCommittee of PIA Employees (JACPIAE)has refused to offer their services for theleased aircraft and asked the governmentand judiciary to take strict notice of corrup-tion in the national flag carrier.

They pointed out that the airline was

already passing through difficult times butthe present management was busy in ink-ing dubious agreements.

They added that the airline was incur-ring heavy losses due to shortage of air-craft, but nobody was willing to bring backoverhauled engines from foreign vendors.

PIA had even made payments of mil-lions of dollars for engines repairs. Theysaid the PIA management was deliberatelydelaying flights to justify lease of aircraft asit did during Haj operations.

However, PIA spokesman Syed SultanHasan denied that the airline acquired anyaircraft on wet lease. He said PIA obtainedaircraft on lease during Haj operation, buttheir lease had expired on December 15 andthe aircraft had been returned.

To a query, he tried to dispel the im-pression that around 13 aircraft weregrounded. He said two or three aircraftswere on routine checkup and the mainte-nance schedule varied between seven and30 days. Hasan said the PIA flight schedulehad become normal after completion of theHaj operations and no more flights werebeing cancelled or delayed.

PiA obtains two moreaircraft on wet lease

only elected rulers can achieve

peace, stability: Asfandyar

PeSHAwARsTAff RePoRT

Reaffirming his party’s stance on democracy,peace and stability, Awami National PartyPresident Asfandyar Wali Khan on Saturdaysaid only democratically elected rulers couldachieve such objectives.

Addressing an ANP rally in Charsada, As-fandyar said, “The future of the country de-pends on democracy, peace and stability,which is also essential for reaching the goalsof progress and prosperity,” adding, “The ANPwill not tolerate any move to derail democ-racy.” He said, “Certain hidden hands are in-volved in hatching conspiracies against thegovernment since day one.” However, he washopeful that all such plots would fail. Heclaimed that the government would completeits tenure. Asfandyar said soon after cominginto power, his government initiated steps forthe return of peace. In this respect, despite op-position, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa govern-ment offered reconciliation to Taliban, withreleasing Maulana Soofi Mohammad. The

provincial government had inked agreementswith the banned TTP Swat regarding promul-gation of Nizam-e-Adal Regulations, however,the “Taliban have not only broken such agree-ments but have embarked on insurgency inSwat and its adjacent districts”.

Asfandyar made it clear that his party wasstill firm on their offer of negotiation and rec-onciliation with the Taliban. “We are not in-sisting on laying down arms but for enteringinto a dialogue process, Taliban need to dis-own armed resistance.”

He said dialogue could yield positive out-comes, adding that problems could not be re-solved through guns and bullets but could beeasily resolved with dialogues and arguments.

Enumerating the achievements of thegovernment, he said, “In particular we arejubilant over renaming of the province Khy-ber Pakhtunkhwa, resolving of NFC likepending issues and making successful thewar on terror.” Chief Minister Amir HaiderKhan Hoti announced allocation of funds forthe execution of a number developmentschemes in Charsada.

g Party chief says ANP will not tolerate any move toderail democracy

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News

IsLAMAbAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza gilani cutting a christmas cake alongwith state Minister for National Harmony Akram Masih gill and others at fatima church on saturday.

troops kill 15 militants

in clashes in orakzai,

Parachinar ORAKZAI/PARACHINAR

INP

Fighter jets attacked militant hideouts,killing 11 militants and injuring anothereight in Upper Orakzai Agency onSaturday. Sources said the operationagainst militants had been intensified andthat the jets attacked six militant hideoutsin the Mamuzai, Sami Bazar and MirKaleem Khel areas of the tribal agency. Thesecurity officials said all of the six targetedmilitant hideouts were destroyed, addingthat the areas attacked were onceconsidered to be militant hubs. Theofficials said the security forces wereproceeding to clear the remaining parts ofthe agency. Meanwhile, four insurgentsand a security forces’ personnel were killedin clashes between the security forces andthe insurgents in Kurram Agency onSaturday. Official sources said a securityforces’ personnel was killed in centralKurram where a military operation wasunderway. The security forces retaliated,killing four insurgents on the spot. In yetanother incident in Shahedi Saman area,one child and a woman fell prey to alandmine which exploded when the vehiclein which they were travelling hit the IED.

‘NtDC enhancestransmission systemper govt commitment’

LAHOReAPP

The National Transmission and DispatchCompany (NTDC) has established a new220KV grid station in WAPDA Town,Lahore besides achieving an overall 85percent work progress on another station ofthe same capacity on Ghazi Road that willhelp reduce load shedding duration inLESCO’s domain. Talking to APP on Friday,PEPCO/NTDC Managing Director RasulKhan Mahsud said the NTDC was extendingand improving the country’s powertransmission system following an increasein electricity generation through new andupgraded projects in line with thedemocratic government’s commitment ofensuring optimum utilisation of all availableresources to balance the power demand andsupply mechanism. Mahsud said the Rs1.862 billion project in Wapda Town gridstation entails installation of three 160MVA(Mega Volt Ampere) transformers withcontrolling switchgears on both sides, four220KV line bays and 220KV Lahore-KotLakhpat double circuit in and outtransmission line. The Asian DevelopmentBank (ADB)-funded project commenced onJuly 1, 2008 and now the grid station wasoperational and would soon be formallyinaugurated, he said. Detailing the salientfeatures of Ghazi Road grid station, Mahsudsaid for being closer to the Indian border, itwould be the foremost and nearest availablegrid station for pole-to-pole power import, ifPakistan reached into an agreement withIndia for import of electricity.

Militants blow up

another school in

Khyber AgencybARA: Militants blew up anotherstate-run primary school withexplosives late on Friday. Accordingto a Khasadar force official,unknown militants had plantedexplosives in a boys’ primary schoollocated in Sultankhel area ofLandikotal tehsil in Khyber Agencythat exploded late at night. The blastdestroyed the school’s two rooms,boundary wall and staff room.However, no causality or injury wasreported. According to officialsources, at least 63 educationalinstitutions, including a privateschool, have been blown up by anti-literacy militants in various parts ofKhyber Agency to date. INP

LAHOResTAff RePoRT

FE D E R A L Minister for In-formation and Broadcast-ing Dr Firdous Ashiq Awanon Saturday said generalelection would be held on

schedule and if any bloody game in thename of democracy was played, itwould cause an irreparable loss to thedemocratic system in the country.

Talking to reporters after inaugu-rating a new block of AnjumanHimyat-e-Islam Darul Shafqat, shesaid change should be brought only bythe public vote. The minister said allthe political parties would have toshow political maturity to strengthendemocracy.

She made it clear that no unconsti-tutional step could destabilise theelected government and the govern-

ment would complete its constitutionalperiod.

Firdous was of the view that all in-stitutions had certain limits per theconstitution and no problem wouldarise if all functioned within the limits.

The minister said the country’sprevailing circumstances did not per-mit any adventurism. To a question,she said a high-power commission wasconducting inquiry into the May 2 in-cident and it was better to wait for itsfinding rather making speculations.

She added that Pakistan was facingchallenges of literacy and poverty thatcould be addressed through quality ed-ucation for all.

The minister said non-governmen-tal organisations were taking marvel-lous steps for educating orphans andpoor children in the country.

“The government cannot meetchallenges of education alone and new

programmes to educate poor andneedy children will be started afterconsultation with NGOs,” Firdous said.

She announced Rs 500,000 for theestablishment of a library and a dis-pensary in Darul Shafqat.

Any adventure against govt todamage democracy: Firdous

KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senior leader and former lawminister Dr Babar Awan has said that ring and king’s parties would comeface to face in the next general election. Talking to reporters at Karachiairport on Saturday, Awan said political parties were flexing muscles tomake preparations for 2013 general election. He said the Senate electionwould be held in February 2012 and no one could prevent the polls. ThePPP leader said those who feared defeat in Senate election were puttingefforts to delay the election, but they would not succeed in their attemptsto stop the PPP from becoming the single largest party in the UpperHouse. Babar claimed that surprises for the PML-N and for the country’spolitics were expected in the days to come. Awan said there was no threatto democracy, as the people and parliament were united to defend it. INP

ring and king’s parties to come

face-to-face in 2013 polls: awan

ISLAMABAD TAHIR NIAz

Hectic lobbying is underway to grab theslot of member Council of Islamic Ide-ology (CII), as its 11 out of 20 sittingmembers are going to retire in May nextyear after completing their three-yearterm.

The post of the CII member is equiv-alent to that of a member of parliamentin terms of status, salary and otherperks and privileges. The parent min-istry of the CII, Ministry of Religious Af-fairs, sends nominations to the primeminister for the appointment of themembers of the CII, which is a constitu-tional body that advises the legislaturewhether or not a certain law is repug-nant to Islam. The president appoints

the CII members on the recommenda-tions of the prime minister.

According to CII sources, MuftiMuhammad Siddique Hazarvi, KhawajaSharif, Syed Ahmad Saeed Shah Gujrati,Dr Muhammad Idrees Soomro,Maulana Fazl Ali Haqqani, MaulanaAbu-Al-Fateh Muhammad Yusuf, DrAnwar Hussain Siddiqui, Prof DrSabeeha Qadri, Maulana Mufti GhulamMustafa Rizvi, Khawaja ShareefMuhammad Amir Koreja and MrsShahida Akhtar Ali were retiring on May5, 2012.

The sources said with politicians ofdifferent hues pushing their favouritesto be included in the nomination list,the lobbying at the top government of-fices is gaining momentum with eachpassing day. Lobbying, including per-

sonal contacts and reference letters, isunderway among various stakeholdersin the capital, they added.

They said the ministry would soonstart processing the applications frompotential candidates to be nominated asCII member. Meanwhile, the ministrywould receive applications from candi-dates comprising the bio-data, academicqualification and experience in relevantfield, the sources said.

Under the constitution, the councilcomprises eight to twenty members, in-cluding the chairman. The governmentgives representation to all schools ofthought in the council. Usually, it is en-sured that all sects of Islam, includingAhl-e-Hadith, Shia and Ahl-e-Sunnat,are represented in the CII.

An official in the CII, who did not

want to be named, underlined the needfor appointing a “full time member” inthe council who could oversee financial,administrative and research mattersand assist the council chairman. “Therehad been precedence in the CII historyof appointing a full time member, as inthe case of Abdul Malik Irfani, whoserved the council during 1984 to 1987.”He said the members just came to at-tend the council meetings, adding theyhad little knowledge about the adminis-trative and financial affairs.

The official also stressed the needfor the council having the mandate toinitiate nominations for the selection ofCII members, as its chairman was morein touch with religious scholars and inbetter position to judge the credentialsof potential candidates.

lobbying starts to grab slot of Cii memberg Post’s salary, perks and privileges equivalent to that of a parliamentarian’s

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Editor’s mail 11Sunday, 25 December, 2011

Punjab health departmentAs a result of the last general elec-

tions, when a party different from theone at the centre started ruling Punjab, itwas hoped that this province would begoverned somewhat differently than thecentre. But it has turned out to be a falsehope because there seems to be little dif-ference between the two rules in actualpractice. Most importantly, the problemof corruption has escalated as much atthe provincial level in Punjab as it has atthe federal level.

It is common knowledge that a lot ofthe district budget is clandestinely plun-dered by the local bureaucracy while siz-able amounts are extorted directly fromthe common man as bribes through thediscretionary powers bestowed onprovincial officials. The money collectedthus is divided into two portions: one iskept by the local officers for themselveswhile the other part is siphoned upwards.

The Punjab Health Department is es-pecially in a shambles because it has ahefty budget. The CM who is also thehealth minister has failed to take noticeof public complaints against erranthealth officials. The tax-payers’ money isspent on the salaries and perks of thehealth workers but the tax-payers onlyget frustration in return.

Let us hope and pray that some hon-est leaders appear as a result of the nextelections who really care for the peopleand honestly want to pull them out oftheir miseries.

GHULAM SARWAR Muzaffargarh

women rightsPakistan still is in a state where

women are not being treated as theyshould be because majority of the peopleliving in rural or urban areas still believethat a woman is amongst the prized pos-sessions bestowed upon them by God.Due to this illogical fact, they tend totreat women as mere trade entity forforced marriages. They kill them, providethem no education and so on and soforth. Apart from all the issues and prob-lems being faced by Pakistan, the equal-ity and freedom of women is the one thatneeds attention if Pakistan aims at be-coming a progressive and prosperouscountry.

AROOSA SHAUQATLahore

Cracking down on quacksI dearly appreciate the federal minis-

ter for health’s plan to crackdown onquackery and eliminate and hope that heis rewarded here and hereafter for hissincere efforts. I would humbly like topoint out a few things and make a fewsuggestions in this regard and hope thatthe minister will pay heed to them.

Many matriculation dropouts arepracticing as quacks these days and thepoor and downtrodden form a largechunk of their victims. If qualified doc-tors are available in every town, the prac-tice of quackery would automaticallysuffer and eventually die down.

I’ll give the example of just one area:Badaami Bagh. This area comprises ofDatanagar, Karamnagar, SiddiqiaColony, Hanif Park, Bengali Bagh andRavi Chowk and it has a population ofaround 5 lac people. There is only onedoctor, Muhammad Rafi, who opens hisclinic during the morning while the restof the qualified MBBS doctors operatefor a little while at night. All day, quackshave their way with people.

I would suggest that dispensers whoare qualified or have an experience fo 15-20 years be allowed to give allopathicfirst aid. These people are not a hugesum and they can provide infinitely bet-ter care than quacks. In backward areasthese dispensers should be registered sothat they can help people out.

The anti-quackery campaign that hasbeen started is appreciable but the minis-ter should look into making local com-mittees with the available doctors so theycan monitor the area and ensure thatquacks are not still at large. If doctors aretoo burdened, they can be aided by druginspectors. If lady health workers thathave the bare minimum qualificationscan be handed the responsibility of notone but two lives simultaneously, whynot give dispensers, homeopathic doc-tors, DMPS and other qualified medicalpersonnel the official permission to con-duct first aid. This might help in elimi-nating quackery.

DR ABDUL-KHALIQ CHAUDHRYLahore

Hope against hopeRecently, a news item appeared in an

English daily read: “Can IGP overhaulcorruption riddled police?” No, it’s im-possible, under the present circum-stances anyway. It will be like attemptingto change someone’s blood group or hisgenes; or making India shelve the ludi-crous myth that Kashmir is its attoot-ang. It will also be like hoping ratherabsurdly that our soulless rulers andtheir worthless cronies will ever severtheir flirtatious romance with corruptionand instead develop close relationshipwith honesty and justice.

FAROOQ ZAMANLahore

Many states within this stateNobody can disagree with what our

PM stated when he said that there can beno state within a state. In a democracy,people elect a government to strictly pro-vide good governance, act as custodiansof the national exchequer, enforce rule oflaw, make decisions strictly on merit,provide equal opportunities, and providesecurity of life, property and fundamen-tal rights. They do not elect a governmentto bring the state-owned rail, road andair transportation industries to an almostgrinding halt, protect the corrupt, de-prive the industry of energy, make ap-pointments in violation of merit,patronise a culture of tax evasion, en-courage creation of cartels and facilitate

large-scale illegal allotment or occupa-tion of private and state lands by a mafia,while billions are transferred to foreignbanks.

The PM has to understand that a gov-ernment functionary under oath muststate facts, even if they differ from thedistorted version authorised by the polit-ical government and its public officeholders. The image of an elected consti-tutional office holder, such as a PM, iseroded when his selected crony is in-volved in a fraud of Rs630 Million and hehimself is alleged to have sat in one suchmeeting at his official residence. Anelected government fails in its duty whenit appoints an ambassador who is prone

to fall prey to conflict of interests in an-other country.

The army and its intelligence agen-cies have no authority to interfere in in-ternal politics or indulge in real estate orother business, but this cannot stop oursensitive agencies to undertake surveil-lance to protect vital national interests inaccordance with their specified role asdefined in the constitution. If a govern-ment fails to protect the life of its citi-zens, as it has failed in Karachi andBalochistan, it loses its ethical and moralhigh ground to retain public office, be-cause they have violated the oath of of-fice, through which they occupied it inthe first place.

Similarly, the security agencies haveno unlimited powers to arrest citizenswithout judicial authorisation and dueprocess of law, as has been happening inBalochistan. No elected or paid public of-fice holder has the right to abuse hispowers in violation of laws depriving acitizen of his fundamental rights, withoutdue judicial process as defined in ourconstitution. A state within a state existswhen other than the authorised tax col-lectors, a group is being allowed to extortmoney from citizens as is happening infull know of the state in Karachi andother cities and towns.

MALIK TARIQ ALILahore

storm coming?No NATO strikes, no drone attacks, no bomb blasts, no

wicked statements by Clinton, no sudden visits by US hawks, noKarzai onslaught, no nothing – beware countrymen, its the lullbefore the storm that everyone has been warning us about.

We should be careful so as not to let our guard down be-come a victim of our own folly.

TARIQ RANAIslamabad

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.

The media was going ba-nanas with all kinds of the-ories and scenarios. There

was talk of some kind of moveafoot to oust the elected president- either by impeachment or byusing the incapacitation clause inthe constitution. For the first, youneed a two-thirds majority andfor the second you need to estab-lish that the president is incapac-itated. There is no way that eitherof these conditions can be met.The unconstitutional method of amilitary coup is out of the ques-tion in the present environment,as denied by the COAS himself.The president is the driving forcebehind the political coalition thatis the government in Pakistan andall are agreed that the change theywant can only come through theballot box.

There is the rumour about acivil-military confrontation overthe memo-gate affair. The mediais going to great lengths to point

out that the military and the gov-ernment are on a collision course.The reality is that the governmentasked the Pakistan ambassador tothe US to resign so that the mattercould be processed and a conclu-sion reached.

The opposition took the mat-ter to the Supreme Court whilethe government sent it to the Par-liamentary Committee for Secu-rity. The matter is proceeding onboth tracks. The army chief andthe DG ISI have given written re-sponses to the Supreme Court be-cause the Supreme Court haddirectly asked them for theirviews. If the Parliamentary Com-mittee asks them they will nodoubt respond positively. Boththe government and the militarywant the matter to reach conclu-sion because of the inherent im-plications. The Supreme Court ison record as having said in an ear-lier case that they will not act toderail the system.

There havebeen statementsfrom responsiblepeople asking forthe resignationof the ISI chief because of the al-legation made that he visited Arabcapitals to solicit support for oust-ing the government. The method-ology to do this has not been speltout nor has anyone considered ex-actly how such support could beextended and to whom. The rea-son being given for the demand isthat because the ambassador re-signed therefore the ISI chiefshould also resign. The difference,of course, is that the memo wasinvestigated and found to be a re-ality and that this was confirmedby a retired US general who alsoadmitted being the courier.

The investigations now beingmade may well exonerate the am-bassador. The ISI has denied theallegation, called it baseless andsent a legal notice to the British

tabloid thatmade the allega-tion. The govern-ment mayinvestigate the

matter if it has any reason todoubt what has been stated.

There has been the thoughtthat there are plans afoot to dis-rupt the Senate elections due inMarch 2012. Beyond voicing sus-picions, no one has spelt out ex-actly how this is to be achievedand by whom. If all are agreedthat the 2013 elections are theonly acceptable methodology forchange then disruption of any-thing that is constitutional will becounter-productive. Neither themilitary nor the judiciary wouldwant to interfere and the opposi-tion even if it wants to has nomeans of doing so. Spreading an-archy and chaos is in no one’s in-terest.

The military has often beenseen as being soft on the US-Pak-

istan relationship. The US throughseveral actions spaced over a pe-riod of time left no option for themilitary but to assert itself as thereis no way it could accept beingseen as weak domestically. The USmay want to ponder over this be-fore a point of no return isreached. Salala is an atrocity thathas cast a long shadow and couldwreck the process underway inAfghanistan. Pakistan's responsehas been calibrated to showstrength without creating a situa-tion that cannot be retrieved. TheUS-Pakistan relationship remainsimportant for many reasons and itcan be reviewed and rebuilt as-suming that the US wants andneeds this to happen. Waiting forPakistan to come calling may notbe the right course.

The real problems for Pak-istan are the state of the economyand its future, the situation inBalochistan and the dire and ur-gent need for governance that re-

sponds to the sufferings andgrievances of the people. All threehave implications for national se-curity and would be the concernof every institution charged withthe responsibility of securing thecountry against internal and ex-ternal threats.

The recent State Bank of Pak-istan Report and the statement ofa prominent Baloch nationalistleader have highlighted the dan-gers. The first requirement forsteps to be taken to address theseissues is political stability and itneeds to be figured out how thiscan be brought about if there is nodisagreement on fair and freeelections as the only option.

Spearhead Research is a pri-vate centre for research and con-sultancy on security, headed byJehangir Karamat. Spearheadanalyses are the result of a col-laborative effort and not attrib-utable to a single individual.

The civilians and the army

Advice for imran KhanWith each passing day, more and

more people who were ministers inMusharraf’s government and werePML(Q) members are joining the PTI.The others are those who were defeatedin the previous election and are hopingthat the that the Imran ‘tsunami’ willhelp them to win seats in the next elec-tion. Imran is welcoming everybody andtelling his young and long time associatesand dedicated workers that PTI is anocean having the capacity to accommo-date all and that PTI is not an exclusiveclub.

The question then is that how ischange possible with those who don’thave any political principles and are onlyinterested to be a part of government toenjoy the spoil of power. Going again his

own rhetoric, Imran Khan is forgettingthat politicians now joining him are op-portunist who have already been testedby the people.

With exception of a few, most ofthem are supporters and associates of theestablishment. They will not allow ImranKhan to change the status quo becausethey are born into families which assuresthem access to the corridors of power bybirthright. They have party tickets be-cause they have the requisite money tospend in the elections to buy a win.

Imran promised that he will ask forheavyweight politicians to declare theirassets. He should also ask them whatpublic service have they done in theirconstituency and how they have used thedevelopment funds which they receivedfrom the government to spend in theirconstituency. Imran should learn a les-

son from Zulfikar Ali Bhuto who was thebeloved leader of millions of people. Hepromised the people roti, kapra aurmakaan and the people trusted him. Butthen he allowed feudal lords and oppor-tunists to join the PPP.

S T HUSSAINLahore

A man of integrityAir Marshal Noor Khan was a true

warrior who always led the institutionshe headed from the front and took themto the heights of glory and success. Hewas a shinning example of leadership,competence, integrity and earned the re-spect of all and sundry. May Allah granthis soul eternal peace!

FASIHUL HAQUE KHANKarachi

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Comment12Sunday, 25 December, 2011

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

the first essential in war on terrorism

Know your enemy

Knowing your enemy in a war is winning the war.Sun Tzu said it centuries ago but anunderstanding of the enemy is precisely whatwe lack in our fight against terrorism. We don’t

know what it is capable of and what its strategy is. Whatwe do know is that it is an enemy we cannot make peacewith from a weaker position. Otherwise, it will keepcoming after us. As a matter of fact, we have witnessedthis behaviour more than once in our bid to negotiatepeace with them.

Two recent attacks have driven this point home. Asmany as 20 FC personnel were abducted while one losthis life during an attack in Tank while nine were killed ina suicide attack in Bannu. If the government was a bitshaky about controlling these terrorists during their mostactive (read violent) days, it has now lost its touch withreality totally. Instead of squeezing them out by limitingthe room the terrorists have, our security paradigmshifted its focus to matters more immediate in nature,particularly the equation with the US. It started goingdownhill with the Raymond Davis affair and wasworsened by the OBL raid that burst open the wideninggap between the US and Pakistan. It showed the chasmsin intelligence sharing and differences on how to huntdown Al-Qaeda leaders and whatever remnants are left ofits second tier leadership, along with its foot soldiers.Particularly, after the 26 November Nato attack, facingstiff resistance from the civil and military leadership ofPakistan, the US has suspended its drone attackscampaign in the Waziristans, allowing an opportunity tothe terrorists to regroup and launch offensives against FCpersonnel and other security apparatus present there.

Howsoever we look at the situation, the cooperationbetween the US and Pakistan on intelligence sharing andhunting down terrorists needs to reboot albeit withcertain checks so as to avoid any incident that causesfurther cracks in this thin ice of a relationship. If theseterrorists, who so often renegade on their promises of atruce – TTP spokesman Asmatullah Shaheen had onceannounced reconciliation with the government, are nottaken head on with a well-rounded long term policy, noone can predict when peace will visit these shores.

PML(N) in a pickle

A desertion

The decision by Makhdum Javed Hashmi to jointhe PTI along with daughter and MNA MaimunaHashmi is yet another reflection of the sad stateof affairs prevailing in the PML(N). Hashmi was

the most prominent PML(N) leader who stood by NawazSharif steadfastly and continued to criticise Musharraf,braving threats and incarceration. That Hashmi remainedtight-lipped regarding why he was leaving the partywould raise questions all the more so after his remarkthat he had no complaints against the leadership. In anycase, departure is a reflection of the party leadership’sfailure to keep internal differences within manageablelimits.

While the PML(N) has declared that it wants thegovernment to go, the party remains badly divided overthe question of tactics. Fearful of the army using anyagitation as an excuse to take over, Nawaz has stoppedshort of giving a call for the overthrow of the government.After taking the memo case to the SC which is seen by thePPP as an attempt to derail democracy, Nawaz is on thedefensive over the memo affair. He now says that theelections could be held after the Senate polls in March.He has also stressed the need to put what he calls thegenie of army and ISI back into the bottle. An altogetherdifferent stand is taken by the party hard liners. Shahbazhas condemned Gilani’s remarks about the armymaintaining that the prime minister had violated hisoath. Khwaja Saad Rafique has demanded that the party’slegislators resign from the NA to force the government tohold elections. Unless the PML(N) leadership is able toresolve the issues, Javed Hashmi might not be last partyleader to abandon it.

The departure of PML(N)’s stalwart from Multan hasfurther weakened the party in the Seraiki area. Anyfurther desertion from Punjab would make its electoralprospects grim. With PTI making advances, the PPP toois likely to find itself in a similar situation in Punjab. ThePPP-led government would not last long if the offstageplayers were to manage to affect desertions from thealliance. The only way the two parties can face thechallenge is by joining hands. This does not seem possiblein the presence of the differences within the PML(N).

Digging their own grave?

On the face of it, the armydoesn’t have to do a coup totopple this government. Allthat is needed is for its coali-tion partners to desert. So

what is Prime Minister Gilani going onabout? Did he feel a sudden need to pro-claim his impotence, admit his incompe-tence? Or is it the usual desire to commitpolitical suicide? Is he preparing theground for his own coup against the army,as another tried before him? Or is hepreparing the ground for life after poweras a political martyr? So angry has themilitary become at being made scapegoatsthat it is, figuratively for now, up in arms.Dread the day when they start saying itwith real arms.

To be sure, militaries and civilian ad-ministrations have often been at odds overperceptions and policy. The US administra-tion, the Pentagon and Congress are on dif-ferent pages about Afghanistan. With thepassing of the ‘National Defense Authoriza-tion Act’, the Pentagon has silently takenover without anyone realising it. No needfor military coups when constitutionalcoups can do the trick. Now do you under-stand what I have been saying for years,that it is the politicians that prepare theground for army intervention? You are see-ing that unfold before your eyes againtoday. Don’t forget this time. But would thearmy want to take over the mind-blowingmess that this incompetent government hastaken just four years to craft? Not if it canhelp it. Not if it has any sense. Not surpris-ingly, the army chief made a mature re-sponse to the mind-boggling speech of theprime minister last Thursday, saying thatthe army had no intention of intervening.So what is all the noise about?

For one thing, this “we have no inten-tion of intervening” jazz we have heard be-fore when the three service chiefs gave suchan assurance in writing during the riotsagainst Z A Bhutto in 1977. Not long afterBhutto’s handpicked army chief GeneralZia-ul-Haq took over. Two years later, theappointee hanged the appointer. That’show the cookie crumbles in this country.

For another, the problem with this ‘in-house change’ scenario is that the nextcoalition government would inevitably haveNawaz Sharif calling the shots and he is thelast person either our or the US establish-ment wants. They don’t trust him becausethey think, not totally incorrectly, that he isunpredictable. You never know with him.Worse, they more than suspect that he is acloset Taliban sympathiser and, thus, can-not be risked. So there may well not be an‘in-house change’, but Gilani had betterwatch it, unless he himself thinks its over

and he should make his place in history. Desperation makes people do desperate

things. When Gilani thundered in the Na-tional Assembly that the army is a “statewithin a state”, he didn’t realise that he wasmaking a spectacle of himself because hedidn’t see the contradiction in terms: thearmy is part of the government, under theprime minister and the ministry of defenceand answerable to parliament. If it hasgone out of control, whose fault is it? Whois required to keep it under control? Thechief executive and parliament, no? By say-ing what he did, Gilani admitted his failureto discharge his constitutional duties. Nowthe air is pregnant with possibilities.

Will the army and ISI chiefs be sacked?Will they act before they are? Will thepoliticians gang up together for the firsttime? Where does that traditional legit-imiser of constitutional deviations, theSupreme Court, stand today? How will al-lies react, how will our traditional masterAmerica? If functionaries are not under thegovernment’s constitutional command, it isnormal to replace them. Ah! But thereinlies the rub. It’s not easy to pass the buckfor the current mess exclusively on to oneof the government’s own organs thinkingthat it might mask its own horrible gover-nance and corruption. Sadly, the publicperception of the PM’s honesty and compe-tence is not an epitome of probity. So when,instead of discharging his constitutionalduty of removing the “state within a state”the prime minister decides to bleat onabout it in parliament, he only proclaimshis government’s impotence and makes asorry sight of himself. Has this just dawnedon him after four years? Why did he not actearlier? Or has the army only just becomea “state within a state”?

What conclusions is one to draw then?That Gilani is reacting to intelligence thatthe army is about to act? Many a govern-ment has bitten the dust because it placedtoo much trust in intelligence. Is he prepar-ing the public mind for action by the gov-ernment? Or is he preparing the ground forhis role after losing power and becoming apolitical martyr? One cannot be sure andno one knows what the future holds. Sodon’t blame Pakistanis for being on tenter-hooks. Any normal person would.

Gilani cannot be sure that the army will

not ‘react badly’ to its chief being humili-ated. Nawaz Sharif had once caused anarmy chief to resign, which the army neverforgot. Sharif tried it again and committedpolitical suicide. The point is: in any nor-mal country that is run constitutionally,sacking an army chief would be done ac-cording to laid down procedure. Follow theprocedure and woe to anyone who ‘reactsbadly’. It is none of their business. Sharifsacked his army chief by breaking proce-dure, as the Supreme Court later found.Take action, sure, but don’t be an imbecile.Follow the constitution.

Gilani’s problem is that the people havelittle love lost for him and his government,so bad has their performance been, is reek-ing not just of incompetence but mal-intentas well. So bad is our condition that virtu-ally everyone from any station in life ispraying for the government’s demise.Chances of people coming out on thestreets in this government’s support arelimited. And in all this talk about followingthe constitution, let’s not forget that thespirit of the constitution is already beingflouted by the president exercising powerbeyond the constitutional limits placed onhim and by his continuing to hold party of-fice when he is required to be politicallyneutral. So who is calling the kettle black?

I have been thinking and learning andhave come to the conclusion that the polit-ical process, such as it is, has to be allowedto run its course, that parliaments, presi-dents and governments must completetheir terms and only change constitution-ally. Else we the people will never learn. Myconclusion has nothing to do with ‘liberal-ism’, fake democracy or West aping. It hasto do with learning from history’s evolu-tionary processes and its political and so-cial forces. Abort or divert them and thepain lasts longer because you end up slow-ing evolution. The seeds of self-healing andself-destruction are inherent in every or-ganism and nations are political organismsat the very least. Allow the system to self-heal or self-destruct so that we can natu-rally arrive at a social contract that gives ussomething better.

The writer is a political analyst. He can be contacted at [email protected]

By Humayun Gauhar

The civilians at odds with the military

Pakistan, unfortunately, has undergone on four such oc-casions wherein dictatorship was imposed on it insteadof having a functional democracy. Nothing could match

the losses to the country and democracy sustained during thesetimes.

The result is obvious; the democracy in the country is with-out much maturity which is not as much helpful in solving theproblems of masses as was expected of it. Yet, the incumbentgovernment has the honour of moving ahead with this systemof democracy throughout the four years of it tenure and has notallowed any other system to find its way so far in the country.

It was acknowledged by General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani inhis talks the other day when he said that there was no danger

to democracy in the country, adding that there was no basis tothe rumours that the army might takeover the government.

It also reveals that there is no cold war between the armyand the government. It is a step in the right direction in thelarger interest of the country. That every institution of thecountry works within its allotted sphere with the goal of takingthe country towards progress and prosperity.

It goes without saying that it is only through democraticsystem that a country could move towards development, bethat economy or any other field, including an intellectualprogress and the prevalence of a tolerant society. Against thedemocratic system, there should not be any further movementor progress.

– Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur RaufKhattak

No danger to democracyDaily Khabroona

Regional Press

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Comment 13Sunday, 25 December, 2011

on the president’s dash to Dubai

Different strokesC

ritics blame Prime Minister Gilani foropening a new front unnecessarilyand subject him to scathing criticism

for adopting a ‘humiliating tone’ against themilitary establishment by referring to theconspiracies being hatched to pack up theelected government. The media hacks be-lieve that it was part of the well thought-outstrategy devised by the PPP leadership toresist an independent enquiry being con-ducted into Memogate.

There’s no doubt that tensions betweenthe civilian leadership and the generalsstarted rising over the memo that accusedthe army of plotting a coup after the killingof Osama bin Laden in the US Navy SEALs’raids. The situation forced Pakistan’s Am-bassador to the US Hussain Haqqani to re-turn home and resign on the charges ofdrafting an unsigned memo seeking Wash-ington’s support for preventing a possiblemilitary takeover in the country.

No matter Haqqani is known for hisaversion to the Inter Services IntelligenceAgency because of its covert backing of themilitants operating in the restive tribal re-gion. But the military establishment did notobject to his posting as ambassador to theUnited States because it understood the factthat his pro-American leanings would notonly strengthen ties between the two coun-tries but also ensure uninterrupted flow ofmilitary aid to Pakistan.

The situation changed dramaticallyshortly after Pakistani-American business-

man Mansoor Ijaz kicked upa controversy by writingabout the memo in The Fi-nancial Times on October 10,wherein he had detailed hisrole in President Zardari'spurported effort to reach outto the US administration toprevent the army from dis-mantling the democraticprocess. Even though theArmy Chief and the DG ISIhave lent credence to thememo’s veracity, the moredetails that emerge about thescandal, the more it exposesa deep-rooted malaise.

It was against this back-drop that Haqqani was re-called and asked to resign.Not just that, he was forbid-den to leave the countrywithout having been heard.And if this action was takenonly on the basis of MansoorIjaz’s write-up then onewould keep wondering whyanother report by the sameunsavoury character aboutLt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha’salleged trip to Arab countriesfor soliciting their support

for Zardari’s ouster went unnoticed? Andwhy Messrs Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khanare keeping mum on this issue?

The government’s anxiety over Mem-ogate was highlighted by the PM’s hard-hit-ting speech in the National Assembly. Theotherwise mild-mannered Gilani, who hasbeen advising the opposition hawks againstdriving a wedge between the state institu-tions or joining the move launched by somequarters to deliberately run down thearmed forces particularly the army, trainedhis guns at those conspiring to destabilisethe system. Asserting his authority as thechief executive, he sounded a warning:There can’t be state within the state. Thiswas a clear reference to army and ISI’s in-terference in government affairs.

The PM was well within his right toknow about those responsible for allowingOsama bin Laden to live in Pakistan for thelast six years, especially when the Abbot-tabad Commission set up by the govern-ment to probe the US Navy SEALs raidssuddenly shifted its focus to enquire aboutthe details of visas issued by the PakistanEmbassy in Washington. The question cer-tainly perturbs the security establishmentas it will be required to do a lot of explain-ing about its being caught off guard duringMay 2 air strikes at the OBL’s hideout andsubsequently in the event of MohmandAgency’s Salala checkpost.

There’s no doubt that Mr Gilani indi-rectly targeted the Inter Services Intelli-gence while making a strong assertion ofparliamentary sovereignty. But his politicalrivals described his address as a declarationof war against the army. Punjab Chief Min-ister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, who hardlyleaves an opportunity to appease the sacredsaviours, went to the extent of accusing thePM of violating oath of his office by malign-ing the military establishment.

Maybe Mian Shahbaz would not like tobe reminded of his abrupt dash to Washing-ton in 1999 to warn of what the then Mus-lim League government feared was abrewing military coup. Bruce Riedel, a for-mer CIA and White House official whochaired President Barack Obama’s 2009 re-view of US policy on the region, recalled inhis recent interview with Reuters: “It wasan entire day spent at the Willard Hotel lis-tening to Shahbaz talk about their fears thata military coup was coming and asking forAmerican help to prevent it,”

Now that General Kayani has ruled outthe possibility of a military takeover, thoseexpecting a showdown between the armyand the elected government must havebeen hugely disappointed. It is time themilitary apologists stopped fanning the so-called memo issue.

The writer is Executive Editor,Pakistan Today

It’s not what he said, it’s why he did…

Don’t blame the PM

Dear Doctor Dubai: You are avery busy man, Doc, as any-one who commands the sole

confidence of the President of Pak-istan must surely be, so I hesitate towaste your time over a niggle. Butthis niggle just won’t go away. OnDecember 6, President Asif AliZardari unexpectedly left his coun-try ostensibly in search of your carein Dubai. Zardari returned to Pak-istan on December 19 amid intensespeculation that he would disappearagain, this time for a more generousabsence. It seems, therefore, that thefate of a nation hangs on a niggle.

Doc, all you have told us is thatZardari had “stroke-like symptoms”.This carefully mysterious formula-tion has left us a trifle confused anda bit thirsty for more information.Every stroke may have stroke-likesymptoms, but every symptom doesnot, it seems, owe its origin to astroke. So, Doc, was it a stroke or nota stroke? If it was a stroke, wheredid it strike? If it was merely“stroke-like” then you could perhapslet us know what it was like.

Please don’t take this person-ally, Doc. But was there anythingspecific in those “symptoms” thatrequired treatment in Dubai andonly from your capable hands anddoubtless brilliant mind? Are thereno doctors in Islamabad, or Lahore,or Karachi, capable of dealing withdislikeable symptoms? One asksbecause nasty wags in Pakistan anddespicable rumour-mongers inIndia are thoughtlessly spreadingthe idea that the President of Pak-istan does not trust any hospital inPakistan, and is terrified of beingpoisoned or some such. This cannotbe true, of course, for if a presidentcannot trust his own people, thenhe has no right to continue in office.But loathsome western journalistshave even reported that Zardariwas “recuperating at his home in

Dubai” after, apparently, you sortedout those malicious symptoms. IfIslamabad isn’t safe even for somemuch-needed recuperation by itspresident, then you are up a creekwithout a paddle, isn’t it?

Your medical knowledge is vast,Doc, so perhaps you could enlightenus on this one, without, I hope, vio-lating the Hippocratic oath. Is it pos-sible for a president to get a strokefrom a memorandum? I am refer-ring of course to the memo passedon to the Pentagon by a Pakistani-American businessman MansoorIjaz, allegedly on behalf of PresidentZardari’s ambassador to Washing-ton Hussain Haqqani, beggingAmerican generals to avert a possi-ble coup in Islamabad.

Haqqani, predictably, deniedauthorship but the memo was sotoxic that Haqqani has disappearedinto a coma. His resignation on No-vember 22 did nothing to impedethe rampaging infection of the

memo. Haqqani is not a diplomat,by profession or temperament; hewas and is star yes-man in theZardari court. His appointment toWashington was a grace-and-favourgift from Zardari. Add two and twoand you get the contemporary Pak-istan crisis. Zardari ran but couldnot hide. His government fired shotsin the air, insisting that parliament,press, and its friends in Lahore andacross the world would never toler-ate another coup. General AshfaqParvez Kayani was not particularlyimpressed by bluster. Instead, thearmy chief showed that his grasp ofpolitics and the comparative powerof his country’s institutions wasmore astute than civilians had bar-gained for. The army petitioned theSupreme Court to investigate theorigins of memo which “unsuccess-fully attempted to lower the moraleof the Pakistan Army”.

Very smart: the memo was afailure, but its intentions were trea-sonable. If the Supreme Court afterdue process can find someonehigher up the civilian commandchain guilty, then Zardari is pin-cered. This would, in effect, becomethe most legitimate coup in Pak-istan’s history. Kayani could recoverhis own, and the army’s, prestige byrefusing to occupy the consequentvacant space, and letting a generalelection find the next president andprime minister.

Zardari recognises a crossroadsby instinct. On the night of Fridaythe 16th, Kayani had a three-hourmeeting with Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani, an unusually long chatfor peacetime palavers. Within 48hours, Zardari was back to his resi-dence in Pakistan from his home inDubai. Never imagine that a scape-goat cannot hear the sound ofsharpening knives; indeed, the feverof his imagination raises decibels.

When a military-political commen-tator like Lt Gen Talat Masood (re-tired) states deadpan that civilianand military leaderships are on acollision course, Zardari doesn’tneed any advice on who will be inthe middle of that collision.

At the age of 56, a hospital bedin Dubai, with recuperation facilitiesnearby, must be immensely prefer-able to years in a damp Attockprison, even if it is on the banks of abrisk Indus within breathtakingview of the Himalayas. So you see,Doc, how vital those “stroke-likesymptoms” are? Do reply when youfind a minute.

The columnist is editor of TheSunday Guardian, published fromDelhi, India on Sunday, publishedfrom London and EditorialDirector, India Today andHeadlines Today.

Third eyeBy M J Akbar

Politics bazaarBy Sarmad Bashir

zardari ran but could not hide. His government fired shots in the air, insisting that parliament, press, and itsfriends in Lahore and across the worldwould never tolerate another coup. general Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was notparticularly impressed by bluster.

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This week I met two migrantsfrom the eastern state of Jhark-hand; both have made Delhi

beautiful in their own ways. It was 5.25 am. The sky was still

black. It was freezing. Holding the mi-crophone close to his lips, he openedhis mouth to recite the azaan, and…time stopped.

I was in Jamat Khana, a mosquebuilt on one corner of the sufi shrineof Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah. I waswatching Muhammed Iftikhar, a 21-year-old Quran teacher, call the faith-ful to perform fajr.

Iftikhar’s head was shielded fromthe cold by a white cap and a black-and-white kifayah. His eyes wereclosed, as a soft, lyrical soundemerged from him.

Allahu Akbar [God is great]Lifting his palms to his

ears, the bearded youngman repeated the words.

Each morning, Muslimsacross the world wake up toa similar holy cry from theirneighbourhood mosques.Most muezzins simply pro-duce a perfunctory call; afew create magic throughsoulful lonely tunes.Iftikhar’s voice, as I laterdiscovered, was unremark-able in conversation, butthat moment it transcendedto an extraordinarily tender-ness.

Ash-hadu al La ilaha il-lallah [I bear witness thatthere is none worthy ofbeing worshipped exceptGod]

The sensations of theseword-sounds appeared tocrystallise in the cold air, thenext moment they vanished,constantly being replen-ished.

Ash-hadu annaMuhammadar rasoolullah[I bear witness that Muham-mad is the Apostle of God]

After concluding thecall, Iftikhar sat down on the

carpet. The mosque was commis-sioned by one of the sons of Sultan Al-laudin Khilji in the 14th century. Itsentrance opens to Hazrat Nizamud-din’s tomb.

“I live in this mosque and sleep inthe hujra there,” Iftikhar said, point-ing to a door adjacent to the wall thatfaces Mecca. “I teach the Holy Quranto children.”

Two elderly people entered forprayer. They were draped in thickquilts.

Iftikhar blushed as I congratu-lated him on the melodious style of hisazaan. “I learned it from MaulanaSiddiq, my ustad (master).”

Iftikhar’s father is a maulvi(priest) in Jamshedpur, an industrialtown in Jharkhand. Eight years ago,his parents sent him for studies to amadrassah in Hapur, a town 60kmfrom Delhi. After he memorised theQuran and became a hafiz, Iftikharcame to Delhi. “It is an honour to leadthe call to prayer.”

Another man entered the mosque;he was wearing flannel trousers and aleather jacket.

“I have to do other things in lifetoo,” Iftikhar said, “I want to marry.But first, I wish to return to Jamshed-pur. Although I frequently talk to myparents on the phone, I miss themdesperately, especially my threebrothers and my only sister.”

Perhaps because it is cold, only afew people have gathered to pray inthe mosque. Getting up to join them,Iftikhar said, “One day I will go backto my watan (country).”

I asked, “What will you do there?”He thought for a moment, and

then turning towards Mecca, his voicefading, as if he is talking to himself, hesaid, “I’ll start a karobaar (business).”

The same day I met another per-son from Jharkhand who left herwatan to make a living in Delhi. Athird generation Catholic Christian,Anima Dungdung lives in the ser-vants’ quarter of a formidable-lookingbungalow in Nizamuddin West. MsDungdung was making plans forChristmas. No, she was not baking a

cake on Christmas eve. No, don’tdoubt her skills. After working for 30years in expat households, her applepies are as light and buttery as the onethey make in New England, but shesaid, “Christmas cake is a angrezthing. Back in my village near Ranchi,no one knows how to make a cake.”

Instead, Ms Dungdung’s husband,employed as a cook in the same bun-galow, swears by her irsa roti, the tra-ditional Christmassy dish of deep frieddumplings made of rice-flour. Her twochildren have a weakness for dubniroti, the equivalent of Christmas cakein Jharkhand.

But Ms Dungdung, who cooks de-licious pasta and steaks, has nevermade dubni for her employers. “Theynever asked for it,” she said.

Delhi has a large population ofChristians from places like ChhotaNagpur, a plateau which covers a largeexpanse of states like Jharkhand,Bihar, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Manyof these people work as domestichelps in the city’s posh localities.Christmas for people from this belt isnot about carols, but bhajans (Hindu-style devotional songs); not cakes butirsa roti; not grape wines, but riceliquor; not midnight mass, but meesapuja.

In the meesa puja, the bhajansare sung in languages like Khariya,Sadhsi and Munda.

“Christmas is more exciting in thevillage,” Ms Dungdung said. “In Delhi,we return home after the midnightmass but there we dance till morning.”

The fervour reaches its climaxduring the Christmas day when thevillage’s young people gather together,collect food from each household andgo to the riverside to have a picnic.

“In the village, we make musicwith dholak, nagadas and manda,”said Gilbert, Ms Dungdung’s 18-year-old son who is learning a computerprogramming language and is also analtar boy in the church. “But here wedance to Christmas songs played bydecks and DJs.” Ms Dungdung added,“It’s not even half the fun.”

In Orissa, a state neighbouring

Jharkhand, there have been attacks onChristians by Hindu fundamentalistsin the past few years, but Ms Dung-dung’s village has remained safe. “Wenever faced discrimination any-where,” she said.

The exception being the servants’quarter in Nizamuddin West wherethe Dungdungs live. Her Hindu neigh-bour, a domestic in the same bunga-low, often objects, saying, “We eatanything and everything.” This haslead to squabbles that led Mr Kapur,the bungalow’s sahib, to scold themfor fighting like “jhuggi people.”

On Christmas eve, at the Churchof Our Lady of Help in Okhla, southDelhi, Ms Dungdung plans to “prayGod to give me strength to forgive myneighbour.”

This prayer should be made com-pulsory for Indians and Pakistanis.

Mayank Austen Soofi lives in a li-brary. He has one website and fourblogs. The website address: thedelhi-walla.com. The blogs: PakistanPaindabad, Ruined By Reading,Reading Arundhati Roy and MayankAusten Soofi Photos.

Delhi callingBy Mayank Austen Soofi

Comment14Sunday, 25 December, 2011

Mohmand, Memogate and the MullahIt’s all interconnected

Two migrants, two religions, one cityLearning to live and let live

While some see no link be-tween the Mohmand in-cident and the

Memogate affair, it would be un-wise to think so. This line of rea-soning would also suggest thatthere is no connection between USwithdrawal from Afghanistan andPakistan’s domestic politics. Whilesome Pakistani politicians may beoblivious to this fact, its establish-ment and Western powers are not.Public mood in Pakistan has beenshifting away from its partnershipwith the US in the war against ter-ror. Similarly, opinion in US ismoving towards political reconcil-iation and managing the role ofPakistan after it withdraws fromAfghanistan. Moreover, the warsin Afghanistan and Iraq havecaused many in Pakistan to moveto the right, and ultimately thissegment would have a role in the

emerging political dispensation.The position of the US on

Afghan Taliban has been evolvingsince the start of the conflict. AsMullah Omar refused to hand overOsama bin Laden after 9/11,America declared that the sup-porters of its enemies are also itsrivals. More recently, the US hasstated that for reconciliation tooccur, Taliban will have to dis-tance itself from Al-Qaeda. How-ever, this position also maintainedthat some of the Taliban groups,such as the Haqqani network, aretoo closely linked with Al-Qaeda,ideologically and operationally, tobe reconciled with.

As the Arab Spring got under-way at the beginning of the year,PoliTact had pointed out that USwould exert maximum stress inthe AfPak region, as this is whereAl-Qaeda (AQ) Central was be-lieved to be. And, NATO wanted toprevent AQ leadership to be ableto exploit the chaos that is devel-oping in Middle East. The elimi-nation of Osama and other topleaders of AQ is believed to haveweakened the organisation, Addi-tionally, due to pressure from thedrones, what is left of AQ has re-portedly moved to Yemen and theHorn of Africa. Thus, if Talibanwere finding it hard to disassoci-ate from Al-Qaeda, US pressurehas made the task of reconcilia-tion easier for the Taliban.

Meanwhile, the US alsopushed Pakistan to act against

the Haqqani network. Frustratedby the stalemate, US dronesstarted targeting the Good Tal-iban in FATA. However, this oc-curred at the expense ofUS-Pakistan relations.

Now that the original intentof decimating AQ has beenachieved, and with election yearapproaching fast in the US, VicePresident Joe Biden has declared,"Look, the Taliban per se are not

our enemy. That's critical," hetold Newsweek. Joe Biden’s com-ment would have come as a reliefto Pakistan that feels that the es-tablished Taliban leaders aremore amenable to compromiseafter years of war, and their elim-ination would mean the emer-gence of more obscure and

unpredictable younger leaders.Nonetheless, the hardliners in

the US would like to go after Tal-iban, now that Osama has beendealt with. Thus, the chances ofmore Mohmand style attacks arestill there, and this perhaps is oneof the reasons US has not apolo-gised for the incident. However,PoliTact believes that PresidentObama had strategically tended tothe hardliners earlier, when as a

result of the Afghan review in2009, he had decided on the surgein troop levels in Afghanistan.Now, he is more likely to follow thepolitical route.

The essential challenge for theUS at this point is if the AfghanTaliban cannot be defeated mili-tarily, and Pakistan’s Army would

not be any more forthcoming inthis regard, how would it managethe influence and role of Pakistanin Afghanistan? This is where thedomestic politics of Pakistan getsintroduced in the equation.

The first time in history, it’sthe military-to-military relationsbetween the US and Pakistan thatare not going well. As these rela-tions have diverged, US relianceon the PPP government has in-creased, as it relates to the war onterror and Afghanistan. At thesame time, as the civilian govern-ment became increasingly unpop-ular due to poor governance andcorruption, it has tried to identifytoo closely with the goals of US.And, it’s these dynamics that havegiven birth to the Memogate fi-asco. This is not much differentthan what President Musharrafdid previously; in order to prolonghis rule, he portrayed himself asthe best bet for the West againstthe extremists.

One would think that Pak-istan’s leaders would have learnedthe lesson by now, especially in thewake of the Arab Spring. The for-eign entities cannot save govern-ments that are hugely unpopularlocally and have scarce ability todeliver. Earlier this year, PoliTactconducted interviews with a sam-pling of Pakistani politicians andscholars, and asked them aboutthe connection between the eventsof the Middle East to that in Pak-istan. Most of them believed there

was no relationship, as Pakistanalready had a democratic set-up.However, the current situation in-dicates what matters most is not ifthere is an authoritarian or a dem-ocratic leader in power, but if theyenjoy popular support. Moreover,it’s not foreign but local sympathythat ultimately saves governments,and the lesson does not get any el-ementary than this.

In the emerging political sce-nario of Pakistan, those politicianswould perform well that harnessthe public sentiment resultingfrom the wars in Afghanistan andIraq, and focuses their efforts to-wards providing public relief. Therecent election results in Tunisiaand Egypt reveal that the Islamistsare resurgent. In this context, thegathering of 44 right wing entitiesand personalities last Sunday inLahore, under the banner of theDifaa-i-Pakistan Council (PakistanDefence Council), is an intriguingdevelopment. Managing this trendin Pakistan, and in other places,would mean tempering the reli-gious hardliners with the moder-ate Islamists. Short of going towar, this is perhaps the best out-come the US can expect in Pak-istan, and from its establishment,in Afghanistan.

The writer is the chief analystfor PoliTact (www.PoliTact.comand http:twitter.com/politact)and can be reached [email protected].

The essential challenge for the Us at

this point is if the Afghan Taliban

cannot be defeated militarily, and

Pakistan’s Army would not be any more

forthcoming in this regard, how would it

manage the influence and role of

Pakistan in Afghanistan? This is where

the domestic politics of Pakistan gets

introduced in the equation.

By Arif Ansar

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:46 AM

‘Britain won’tnegotiateFalklandssovereignty’

LONDONAfP

Britain would “never” negotiatethe sovereignty of the Falk-lands against its citizens’wishes, Prime Minister DavidCameron said in a Christmas mes-sage to the islands claimed by Ar-gentina. “We will always maintain ourcommitment to you on any questionof sovereignty. Your right to self-de-termination is the cornerstone of ourpolicy,” he said. “We will never nego-tiate on the sovereignty of the Falk-land Islands unless you, theFalkland Islanders, so wish. Nodemocracy could ever do other-wise.” The Falklands, internallyself-governing islands in thesouth Atlantic some 400 nauticalmiles from Argentina whichclaims them as part of its terri-tory, have been held by Britainsince 1833. On Friday, BritishForeign Secretary William Hagueasked Uruguay to let British shipsdock at Uruguayan ports. The re-quest comes days after the SouthAmerican trading bloc Mercosur- which includes Brazil, Ar-gentina and Uruguay - agreedTuesday to close its ports to shipsflying the Falkland flag. In hismessage published by the BBC,Cameron criticised Argentina’s“unjustified” attempts to disruptshipping. “We want to work withArgentina on those issues. But theArgentine government has contin-ued to make statements whichchallenge your right toself-determination,and we can never ac-cept that,” hewrote. Diplomaticfriction betweenArgentina andBritain has in-tensified since2010, when Lon-don authorisedoil prospectingaround the islands.


15 Foreign News

MOSCOwAfP

ROUND 120,000 people onSaturday attended a rally toprotest against the alleged rig-ging of parliamentary polls ina new challenge to Russian

strongman Vladimir Putin’s authority, or-ganisers said, as a protest leader vowed tobring one million out on the streets forthe next demonstration.

“120,000 people have come,” Russ-ian politician Vladimir Ryzhkov who or-ganised the protest, said. “Next time, wewill bring one million people onto thestreets of Moscow,” blogger AlexeiNavalny, who has emerged as a figure-head of the protest movement, said in aspeech. Clutching white balloons andbanners with the slogan “For Free Elec-tions”, the protestors thronged SakharovAvenue in Moscow, symbolically namedafter the Nobel-winning dissdent AndreiSakharov who for years defied the USSR.

Incensed by claims of wholesale viola-tions in the polls that handed a reduced ma-jority to Putin’s United Russia, tens ofthousands of people already took to thestreets across Russia on December 10. These

protests are the biggest show of public angerin Russia since the chaotic 1990s and thefirst sign of a growing challenge to Putin’s 12-year domination of the country. The protestshave put pressure on Putin to implementradical changes in Russia’s tightly-controlledpolitical system as he plans to return to thepresidency in March elections after his fouryear stint as prime minister.

Former Russian finance ministerAlexei Kudrin for the first time joined the

opposition protest in Moscow and calledfor new elections to replace this month’sdisputed polls. “We need to have earlyelections, adopt new laws about elections,and register those parties that were notregistered,” Kudrin, who held his post forover a decade before falling out with theKremlin this year, told the Interfax newsagency. In an unexpected boost to theprotestors, an advisory Kremlin rightspanel said in a statement that the new

parliament had been discredited by theaccusations of fraud and fresh electionsshould be called. “This discredits the elec-toral system and the lower house of par-liament and... creates a real threat to theRussian state,” it said in a statement, call-ing for the resignation of election commis-sion chief Vladimir Churov. It said thatnew election laws should be put in place“with the aim of then calling snap elec-tions” to replace the current parliament.

Tens of thousands protest against Putin egypt’s islamists

sweep second

round of electionsCAIRO

AfP

Egypt’s main Islamist parties won 65percent of votes for party lists in the secondround of a historic election for a newparliament after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster,the electoral committee said Saturday. Theleading Islamist Freedom and Justice Party(FJP) won 40 out of 60 seats in the runofffor the second round of the three-stageelections, according to both the party andthe official Al-Ahram newspaper. Theultra-conservative Salafi Al-Nur party won13 seats, Al-Ahram reported. In Egypt’scomplex electoral system, voters castballots for party lists, which will composetwo thirds of parliament, and direct votesfor individual candidates for the remainingthird. Most individual races go intorunoffs. Islamists have dominated theelections, which opened on November 28,the first since an uprising oustedpresident Mubarak in February. Thesecond round began on December 14, andthe third is due to start on January 3. TheFJP won 32 individual seats in the firstround of the vote, with four others goingto allies, and 36 percent of the party listvote, followed by Al-Nur’s 24 percent. Theremaining votes were split among variousliberal and secular parties.

Cuba to pardon nearly3,000 prisoners

HAVANAAfP

Cuban President Raul Castro has unveiledplans to pardon some 3,000 prisoners for“humanitarian reasons,” a group amnestyof unprecedented size, and “gradually”reform onerous laws restricting foreigntravel. The pardons include 86 foreignnationals from 25 countries, and will takeplace “in the coming days,” Castro said in aclosing address to the National AssemblyFriday. However US contractor Alan Gross,jailed in Cuba for espionage, will not beamong those released, top foreign ministryofficial Josefina Vidal said. Gross - a StateDepartment contractor arrested inDecember 2009 for delivering laptops andcommunications gear to Cuba’s smallJewish community - “will not be on thelist” of foreigners to be pardoned, theofficial said. Castro said factors that playedinto the pardon decision included requestsfrom the Catholic Church and variousProtestant churches, and the visit of PopeBenedict XVI in 2012. The pardon is thelargest ever under the communist regime,much larger that the 299 prisonersreleased ahead of the visit of the late popeJohn Paul II in January 1998.

South China town unrest

cools after dialogueBeIJING

AfP

Tenuous calm returned Saturday to a southChina town that was the scene of violentclashes between police and protestors thisweek, after local residents said officials hadagreed to a dialogue. Locals of Haimentownship who had blocked a highway for afourth day on Friday to protest a plannedpower plant expansion - throwing bricks andgetting hit by police tear gas - said the peacecould be temporary. “It is quiet today so far,but I don’t know if this will last thisafternoon,” a travel agent who gave only hissurname, Lin, said. A highway toll gate wherethe clashes had flared was reopened Saturdayand no protests were seen nearby, the officialXinhua news agency said. Haimen residentshad complained that the coal-fired powerplant was behind a rise in the number oflocal cancer patients, environmentalpollution and a drop in the local fishermen’scatch, Xinhua said. The crowd dispersedafter government officials promised torelease detained villagers. State-run localtelevision on Friday night broadcast amessage from Shantou Communist Partyofficials promising at least a temporary stopto plans to expand the plant, which is ownedby state-run Huaneng Power, Lin said.

MOSCOwAfP

The cataclysmic collapse 20 years ago of theSoviet Union, an empire which bound republicsfrom Europe to Asia for seven decades,unleashed conflict, instability and poverty thatare still felt today.After a year of protests and economic misery,Mikhail Gorbachev on December 25, 1991resigned as president of a state that had alreadyceased to exist as its republics broke away. Thatnight, the red flag was taken down from theKremlin. It was the end of one of the mostextraordinary empires in world history, which

had defeated Nazi Germany and put the first manin space but had also caused the deaths of millionsunder a succession of tyrannical leaders. Thedisintegration of the USSR left most of its 15

republics independent for the first time in theirhistory, facing the challenge of founding a

national identity and sustainable economythat many have yet to resolve. Russia,deprived of an empire for the first time inmodern times, struggled to adapt to its newstatus as an individual state and craved thesuperpower status it lost with the end of theCold War. Two decades after the collapse ofthe Soviet Union, the country has this

December seen its first wave ofsignificant popular protests inyears as tens of thousandstook to the streets to protestthe results of parliamentarypolls. Nostalgia for the SovietUnion has remained strong:a recent poll by theindependent Levada centreshowed 53 percent ofRussians regretted the fall of

the USSR, although this isdown from a figure of 75percent in 2000. Strongman

leader Vladimir Putin has madeclear his sorrow

over its end,saying thismonth the last

USSR leadersshould have“consistently,fearlessly andsteadfastly ...fought fortheterritorial

integrity ofour country.” No otHER

optIoN:The death knell

of the Soviet Union sounded on a frosty evening onDecember 8, 1991 when the president of the Russianpart of the federation, Boris Yeltsin, agreed with hisBelarussian and Ukrainian counterparts to replace theUSSR with a commonwealth that would not be a state.Gorbachev complained angrily, but within days hadno option, and resigned from his post on December25, 1991. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republicsceased to exist in international law on December 31,1991. Given the scale of the event, the end of theSoviet Union passed remarkably peacefully. But theyears after its demise saw conflicts erupt andhundreds of thousands killed as successor statesand separatist movements fought over the newborders. Civil war tore through Tajikistan, Armeniaand Azerbaijan waged a horrific conflict over theregion of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Kremlin foughttwo campaigns against separatists in Chechnya, andGeorgia sought to quell secessionists in Abkhazia.Every one of these conflicts is in many ways stillunresolved - Islamists pose a threat to Tajikistan’sstability, the status of Nagorno-Karabakh isunresolved amid fears of a new conflict and Russia’sCaucasus is beset by attacks from insurgents. In themost recent post-Soviet conflict, Russia repelled anattempt in August 2008 by Georgian forces toretake its rebel region of South Ossetia, leaving anuneasy truce in place. “Twenty years ofindependence became a very heavy burden for manyex-Soviet states,” said Andrei Ryabov of theCarnegie Centre in Moscow.‘A NEw UssR?’ For Russia, always the centre of theUSSR since its inception, the collapse of the empire washard to swallow. Attempts at liberal Western-stylereforms in the Yeltsin era were deeply unpopular andthe country looked back to the past when ex-KGB agentPutin came to power. Only now, after 12 years of rulethat resembled the authoritarian control of a Sovietleader, has Putin’s authority been challenged by anoutburst of protests accusing the authorities of riggingparliamentary elections. Twenty years after the fall ofthe USSR, Russia in 2011 made possibly the boldestattempt to re-forge the bonds broken by the fall, aPutin-backed “Eurasian Union” that resembles an EUfor ex-Soviet states.Ukraine, politically and linguistically divided betweenits west which scorns Russia and the east that fondlyremembers Soviet rule, faces a historic choice betweenEU membership and re-aligning itself with Moscow.Poverty still mires life in states like Moldova andTajikistan at the opposite ends of the former USSRwhere many have left for Moscow in search of work.Central Asia is ruled by strongmen leaders, some ofwhom have not budged from their posts since 1991 andare prepared to take the toughest measures against therisk of a surge in Islamism in their Muslim but secularstates, while Kazakhstan on December 16 endured itsworst bloodshed since the fall of the Soviet Unionwhen 15 people were killed in clashes between policeand striking oil workers, a stark sign of the dangers ofunsolved social tensions.

g Kremlin panelurges new polls,firing of election chief

ussr collapse: 20 years ong ‘20 years of independence became a very heavy burden for many ex-Soviet states’

MoscoW: Protesters, activists of nationalist groups, carry the Russian empire’s black-yellow-white flag as they clash on

saturday with security during a rally against the recent parliamentary elections. AFP

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:46 AM

Foreign News 16Sunday, 25 December, 2011

romney calls iranleaders ‘evil’wAsHINGtoN: Republican presidentialcandidate Mitt Romney, in an interviewpublished late Friday, called the Iranianleadership “evil” and said he wouldconsider decapitating the Tehran regime ifelected. “I see Iran’s leadership as evil,” theformer Massachusetts governor told TheWall Street Journal. “I see Iran as intent onbuilding, once again, an evil empire basedupon the resources of the Middle East.”Romney said he disagreed with PresidentBarack Obama when he says the UnitedStates has shared interests with all theworld’s people. “There are people who areevil,” he argued. “There are people whohave as their intent the subjugation andrepression of other people; they are evil.America is good.” Romney said he did nothave access to secret governmentintelligence and, therefore, could notmake a decision now about the course hewould pursue to stop Iran’s allegednuclear ambitions. But he said “the rangeincludes something of a blockade nature,to something of a surgical strike nature, tosomething of a decapitate-the-regimenature, to eliminate the military threat ofIran altogether.” AFP

Congolese oppleader takes‘presidential oath’KINsHAsA: Democratic Republic ofCongo opposition chief EtienneTshisekedi, who rejects Joseph Kabila’sre-election as president, had himself“sworn in” at his home Friday as policeclashed with his supporters.Tshisekedi, 79, who came second in theNovember 28 poll, defied a police banon his “inauguration”, which had beenplanned for a football stadium in thecapital where police fired teargas toprevent the planned ceremony. Theevent was moved to Tshisekedi’sKinshasa home, where police also usedtear gas on supporters and officials ofhis Union for Democracy and SocialProgress gathered outside. Kabila, whohas been in power since January 2001,was officially sworn-in at a ceremony inKinshasa on Tuesday. AFP

Afghan coal mine

explosion kills 11KABUL

AfP

An explosion at a coal mine in northernAfghanistan has killed 11 people, an officialsaid Saturday. The miners, who were allworking at the site without governmentpermission, died after an explosiontriggered a collapse at the mine in Baghlanprovince on Friday night, said theprovincial governor’s spokesmanMahmood Haqmal. “Late on Friday anumber of local people were digging at acoal mine in the Chenarak area of Nehrindistrict when an explosion killed 11workers,” he said. Police are at the sceneworking to recover the bodies. Afghanistanis believed to have mineral reserves worthas much as $3 trillion which couldtheoretically generate billions of dollars intax revenue for the troubled country. Butexploitation of these resources facesmassive hurdles due to ongoing instabilityafter 30 years of war in the country, woefulinfrastructure, and endemic corruption.

Kim Jong-Un hailed as‘supreme commander’sEoUl: North Korea’s ruling partySaturday hailed the son of late leader KimJong-Il as “supreme commander” of themilitary, in the latest sign that theuntested successor is tightening his gripon power. Experts said the moveindicated that Pyongyang would maintainits Songun (military-first) policy, blamedfor the deaths of thousands of people tostarvation as the isolated regime divertsresources to its armed forces. “We willuphold Comrade Kim Jong-Un as oursupreme commander and general and wewill bring the Songun revolution to acompletion,” the Rodong Sinmun, themouthpiece of the ruling communistparty, said in an editorial. The newspaperurged Jong-Un, Kim’s youngest son, tolead North Korea to “eternal victory”. It isthe first time that the North’s officialmedia has used the title supremecommander - a post previously held byhis father - for the new leader, already afour-star general despite only being in hislate 20s. AFP

g Monitors meet top Syrian diplomat after bombings g Muslim Brotherhood denies Syrian bombing claim g UN Council con-demns attacks, deadlocked on resolution g Bodies found with torture marks

NICOSIA/ OTTAwAAgeNcIes

THOUSANDS of peopleturned out on Saturday forprayers in memory of the44 people killed by suicidebombers in the capital as

charge and counter-charge swirled overwho was behind the attacks.

Mourners prayed before flag-draped coffins, while a crowd outsidewaved portraits of embattled Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad and banners ofthe ruling Baath party as police stoodwatch. Religious Affairs MinisterAbdel Sattar al-Sayyed read out astatement from Christian and Muslimreligious leaders “denouncing thecriminal attacks on Friday... and themurder, destruction and sabotage“that are part of a “dangerous plotagainst Syria.” Arab League monitorswere to meet Syria’s top diplomat onSaturday, a day after suicide bomberskilled 44 people in attacks Damascusblamed on Al-Qaeda but the opposi-tion said were the regime’s work.

The bombings, the first against thepowerful security services in the heartof the capital since an uprising againstPresident Bashar al-Assad began inMarch, came a day after the arrival ofan advance group of monitors. “On thefirst day after the arrival of the Arab ob-servers, this is the gift we get from theterrorists and Al-Qaeda, but we aregoing to do all we can to facilitate theArab League mission,” said DeputyForeign Minister Faisal Meqdad.The

delegates are in the country to pave theway for the arrival of a team of ArabLeague observers tasked with oversee-ing an end to the bloodshed, and willhold talks with Foreign Minister WalidMuallem. Muallem has said he expectsthe observers to vindicate his govern-ment’s contention the unrest is thework of “armed terrorists,” not over-whelmingly peaceful protesters asmaintained by Western powers andhuman rights watchdogs. Asked by re-porters to comment on suggestions thebombings had been engineered by theregime itself, Meqdad shot back: “Any-one who makes such allegations is acriminal.” But the opposition SyrianNational Council said in a statementthat: “The Syrian regime, alone, bearsall the direct responsibility for the twoterrorist explosions.”

The regime wanted to create theimpression “that it faces danger com-ing from abroad and not a popularrevolution demanding freedom anddignity,” it added. The UN SecurityCouncil condemned suicide attacks inthe Syrian capital but remained dead-locked on a full resolution on the cri-sis with the Russian and USambassadors trading personal barbs.

With world powers arguing aboutdetails of a UN resolution on Syria, UNSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon calledfor an immediate end to the bloodshedand urged the Syrian government to im-plement a peace plan proposed by theArab League. European and US officialswant the UN Security Council to imposean arms embargo and other sanctions

on Syria’s government because of itsnine-month-old crackdown on protest-ers Canada’s Foreign Affairs MinisterJohn Baird, meanwhile, announced thefreezing of assets of more Syrians loyalto President Bashar al-Assad’s regime,as well as a beefed-up trade ban. Thenew measures prohibit all imports, withthe exception of food, from Syria, as wellas all new investment in Syria, and theexport to Syria of equipment, includingsoftware, for the monitoring of tele-phone and Internet communications.Meanwhile, Syria’s Muslim Brother-hood Spokesman Zuhair Salem, deniedSaturday an Internet claim of responsi-bility by the group for suicide bombingsin Damascus, saying it was on a fakewebsite created by the regime.

Salem, speaking from London, saidthe claim was “completely fabricatedunder our name on the Internet.” It was“completely orchestrated by the regime,just as the attacks were,” he added. Ear-lier, a website purporting to be that ofthe Muslim Brotherhood, claimed thatfour suicide bombers had carried outthe Friday bombings, in which 44 diedand 166 were hurt, and threatened moreattacks. Moreover, the bodies of fourcivilians who had been arrested werefound Saturday with signs of torture inrestive Homs province, activists said,urging the visiting Arab League team todocument the cases. They demandedthat the Arab League “immediately headto the town of Hula to document this fla-grant violation of human rights which isjust the tip of the iceberg of what is goingon in Syria.”

SRINAGARAfP

Suspected militants Saturday shotdead an official of the ruling party inIndian-ruled Kashmir, police said,days after rebels made a failed bid onthe life of a senior government min-ister. Bashir Ahmed was killed themain city of Srinagar, a police officer

said, asking not to be named. “Hewas shot in the head and died beforehe could be taken to a hospital,” hesaid, blaming anti-India rebels forthe daylight killing.

No rebel group has claimed re-sponsibility so far. The killing camedays after suspected rebels killed apoliceman in an attack on December11 on senior minister Ali Mo-

hammed Sagar, who escaped unin-jured. Like Sagar, Ahmed was alsoassociated with the ruling NationalConference. Militants who opposeIndian rule in Kashmir have in thepast killed ministers and pro-Indiapoliticians. Kashmir has been hit byan insurgency since 1989 that hasleft more than 47,000 people deadby official count.

Ruling party official shotdead in indian Kashmir

DAMAscUs: syrian mourners saturday shout slogans during the mass funeral of 44 people killed in

twin suicide bombings which targeted intelligence agency compounds at the omayyad Mosque. AFP

sRINAgAR: Relatives of ruling National conference worker bashir Ahmed Dar, who was shot dead by suspected

militants, grieve as Kashmiris carry the coffin during a funeral procession on saturday. AFP

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:46 AM

‘Don’ sequel

rakes in millions on

17 Sunday, 25 December, 2011

in limElighT

day oneNeW DeLHI: Looks like it is going tobe a good year for Bollywood. Shahrukh Khan’s latest offering ‘Don 2’raked in 150 million indian rupeeson its opening day with tradepundits predicting the figures to goup as it is a Christmas weekend.the year has seen some astoundingbox office collection for severalfilms. while ‘Bodyguard’ is leadingthe pack by garnering approximately890 million in the first five days,SrK’s other film ‘ra.one’ is fourth inthe list with a collection of 803million in first five days. Althoughthe collection of ‘Don 2’ on its firstday is lower than these two hits,Sanjeev Lamba, chief executiveofficer at reliance entertainment,felt it was due to a working friday.even though critics have stated thatthe film borrows from severalHollywood classics, the film is beinglauded for its action sequences andSrK’s performance. zeeNeWs

toKyo: People take pictures

of ice statues of Nisse, a model

of Norwegian Santa Claus, at a

hotel on Chiristmas eve.

MUMbAI: Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka chopra and

sanjay Dutt pose during a press conference

to promote their upcoming film ‘Agneepath’.

KUALA LUMPUr: Miss tourism

international 2011 pageant from

Bolivia, fabiana Beatriz Barrero

Suarez, displays a creation by

a Malaysian designer during

the international Batik fashion.

Los

ANgeLes:

contestant

Drew

Ryniewicz

poses at fox

Television's

‘The X factor’

season

finale.

LONDONMAIL

WHAT could be moreappropriate? TheDuchess of Cambridgecauses a stir on Mondaynight by appearing in a

daring, strapless black dress at an awardsceremony with Prince William. In thesame week, it’s revealed another blackdress worn by another beautiful royalbride, which caused an even greatersensation, will go on display at KensingtonPalace for the first time next year. I’mtalking about the strapless floor-lengthblack gown which the late Princess ofWales wore on her first-ever publicengagement in March 1981 with her newfiancé, Prince Charles. It was daring. Itwas sexy. It showcased her slender figureand, in the flash of a hundred camera

bulbs, it catapulted the timid 19-year-oldnursery school teacher into the limelight.Within months, she was the mostphotographed woman in the world. Beforethen, she had only ever been seen in clothesthat were either girly or a little boring –definitely nothing sexy. I designed thatdress with my then husband, David. Andlooking at photos of Kate, the Duchess ofCambridge, this week, I couldn’t help butbe overwhelmed by memories of the youngwoman I knew all those years ago - thewoman who would have been Kate’smother-in-law. Did Kate - who happilywears Diana’s engagement ring - pick thatparticular dress to draw comparisons? I’mcertain not. But many of us who recallthat earlier dress can’t help but makethem. Two royal women, two unwittingfashion leaders, two daring black dresses.The parallels are uncanny. Yet, the twowomen have led two very different lives.

So alike yet so different

Kate and Diana share the same style, saysdesigner Elizabeth Emanuel, but the twoyoung royals are very contrasting women

short-changed forglamour in Bollywood

TalentMUMbAI: Actor-producer Aamir Khan feels hisdirector wife Kiran rao is a fantastic actress andsaid he would love to direct her in a film, afterhis plan to romance her onscreen in ‘Dhobi Ghat’,failed to materialise. “i would love to direct her.She is better actor than me. i hope we get tosee her on indian screen in a film or a theatre orplay. i have told her so many times she is verytalented and she must act,” Aamir told reporters.the remarks came in as Kiran’s way of narratinga character from her last film, ‘Dhobi Ghat’,caught Aamir’s attention so much that he wantedher to enact the role. “its true that i wantedKiran to play the role of yasmin in ‘Dhobi Ghat’. ithink Kirti has done a wonderful and amazingjob and i don’t want to take away that from her.But i wanted Kiran to play the role played byKirti,” Aamir said. “i would have loved to fall inlove with her again on screen, what Arun (Aamir’scharacter) did in the film. But my wife is notromantic,” he chuckled. Kiran, on her part, said, “iused to act in college and school days. But i havenot thought of acting. i am not particularlyinterested about acting in films, i want to makefilms. i would love to do theatre.” AgeNcIes

Aamir wants to

on screenromance wife Kiran

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:46 AM

18

Ricky gervais

caught up in Twitter spat with christians

LONDONMAIL

Ricky Gervais has provoked the rage offundamentalist Christians after gettinginto a row about God on Twitter. Thespat began when a user calledGodsWordIsLaw tweeted: “Thank Godfor Christopher Hitchens’ death.” Thewriter and committed atheist had died aday earlier. Gervais replied with asarcastic “Perfect”, adding: “This is inthe world at the moment people. Can wechange it a bit?” – suggesting thatintolerance was rife and that peopleshould adopt a less extreme stance. Theseemingly innocuous comment was metwith a barrage of abuse fromGodsWordIsLaw, who wrote: “Atheismis poison, may God have mercy on yoursoul before he dropkicks you intoHELL.” He added: “Ultimately it willlead to your eternal damnation. Enjoythis life because it goes fast. Next one isfor ever.” The fundamentalist’s attentionwas then drawn to the cover of theSeptember/October 2011 edition of NewHumanist magazine, which featuredGervais in a Christ-like pose with amicrophone stand and the word atheistacross his chest. The tweeter was soangry that he filmed himself burning acopy of the magazine – the kind oftreatment usually reserved for theAmerican flag by radical Muslims in theMiddle East. He uploaded the video toYouTube, where it has been viewed morethan 300 times. Others then joined inthe abuse. Over eight days, the writerand star of The Office was branded “asevil as they get” and accused of using hiscelebrity to “indoctrinate thousands oflost souls into a Godless life”.

Woman makes fake bomb threat to

stop husband flyingto mistress

wASHINGTONTIMe

WHEN a 17-term Re-p u b l i c a ncongressmanand former

chair of the House JudiciaryCommittee says the First Ladyhas a “big butt”, there’s onlyone way to respond. So withapologies to Seth Myers (andAmy Poehler). Really, JimSensenbrenner? Really?! Whilespeaking to a constituent – andone who has just expressed heradmiration for Michelle Obamato you, no less – you decide it’sappropriate to slag the FirstLady’s healthy eating initiativeby saying she has “a big butt”?And then when it becomes clearthat your impolitic remarkmight get you in some hotwater, you repeat it loudly onthe phone in an airport loungeand insist that you stand byyour characterisation?

I mean, really. Have youseen Michelle Obama’s arms?We should all be so lucky to behalf as fit and toned as she is.The relative size of some of herbody parts has nothing to dowith her health. One of thebiggest myths about health andbody size is that you have to berail-thin to be healthy. And,conversely, that all skinny peo-ple are healthy. Allow me toprovide a personal example. Iam slim, slightly underweight,in fact, with a rather small pos-terior. I also have atrocious eat-ing habits. I may or may not

have consumed two cookies,some marshmallows, and half abox of yogurt-covered raisinsfor breakfast. I eat far too muchbacon, red meat, and potatoproducts. And I have the highcholesterol to show for it. I amworking on reforming my eatinghabits, but if I do not, my healthwill surely suffer, no matter

what my weight or body shape.And, really? You have a

problem with the First Lady’semphasis on healthy eating? Areyou aware that the Centers forDisease Control estimate thatobesity in the United States re-sults in nearly $150 billion eachyear in direct medical costs?Even if you think that concern

about what we eat is liberalhealth nut nonsense, surely theeconomic consequences of un-healthy eating should alarm you.

But really? Your spokes-woman explained your remarksto FishbowlDC by saying that“He doesn’t think the govern-ment should be telling Ameri-cans what to eat.” There is, ofcourse, no law preventingAmericans from stuffing theirfaces with sour cream Pringles(they are tasty) every day if theyso choose. And Mrs Obamadoes not sneak into homes inthe middle of the night to policethe contents of refrigerators.Even so, the U.S. governmenthas a long history of trying totell Americans what to eat.

Really? Going after theFirst Lady of the United Statesfor her body shape? You knowthat’s Rush Limbaugh terri-tory, right? Have some dignity,congressman. And, really?Commenting on a woman’sweight? Did your wife slap youupside the head when you gothome? Did you miss that partof Being a Sentient Male 101?

And, really. The firstAfrican-American first lady andyou remark on the size of hertush? What, you decided herhair and skin-tone were off-lim-its? Michelle Obama is smartand accomplished and yet hasspent her three years in theWhite House being America’sMom in large part so criticslike you don’t go after her andher “radical” influence. I haveone word for you, congress-man: R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Really.

Sensenbrenner says Michelle Obama

has a ‘big butt’… really?

LOS ANGeLeSAgeNcIes

Actor Robert Pattinson went ona shopping spree to buy Christ-mas presents for girlfriend Kris-ten Stewart. The 25-year-oldvisited unique vintage furnitureand accessories store TINIWednesday, where he selectedfew items to gift to his lady love,reports contactmusic.com. “Robstayed for a little over an hourpicking out Christmas gifts for

his girlfriend Kristen Stewart.Rob’s been at TINI’s before, heseems to get a real kick out of allthe unique items,” said a source.“He kept asking his friend, ‘Doyou think Kristen would likethis?’ He ended up getting anoversized vintage letter R madeout of metal ($115), an antiquewooden radio ($395), a movieposter for the film ‘I A Woman’($75), and a vintage Hollywoodheadboard for a king-size bed($285),” the source added.

Pattinson on X-mas gift spree for Stewart

LoS ANGeLeS: Contestant

and winner Melanie Amaro

and Judge Simon Cowell

pose at fox television's ‘the

X factor’ Season finale.

BHUBANeSwAr: 560

indian odissi dancers

preform to try and get

into the Guinness

Book of world records.

MUMbAI: the indian film industryhas always had double standards.Acting or talent is not the criteria fordoling out an actor’s pay check. thatis why Naseeruddin Shah never gotthe crores that Jeetendra or VinodKhanna did; Shabana Azmi and SmitaPatil were always paid far lesser thanHema Malini and rekha. A tradeanalyst says, “Bollywood has falleninto the trap of labelling its actors -saleable and available. the glamourgirls or the superboys, who usuallyscore more in the looks department,have always overshadowed truetalent. Stars have always been paidmore, while actors have often had tofight to get what is rightfully due tothem.” take the latest case of VidyaBalan. A powerhouse performer,Vidya has repeatedly proven hermettle in ‘Parineeta’, ‘Paa’, ‘ishqiya’and, now, ‘the Dirty Picture’. what’smore, Vidya has done it all by herself.She has no Khan or Kapoor by herside. taran Adarsh says, “in abusiness where you are only as goodas the numbers you generate, Vidyahas proved that she is bigger than allthe existing girls. However, i think shehasn’t got her due because she isnot good with her Pr and doesn’tbrag about being in the 60 to 80million indian rupees bracket likeother girls do. Vidya lets her work dothe talking.” ToI

LoNDoN: A US woman reportedly called in abomb threat to stop her husband fromgetting on a plane, which she believed hewas taking to go meet his mistress.According to the fBi, in a last ditch attemptto save her marriage of 30 years, Johnnawoolfolk called Airtran Airways on Nov 27and said her husband was carrying a bomb.But her romantic gesture didn’t quite workout like the movies. woolfolk’s husband, whowas intercepted at the airport, explained that

he was having marital problems, the torranceDaily Breeze revealed. She has now beencharged with providing false and misleadinginformation. fBi Special Agent David Gatessaid that woolfolk broke down in tears afterauthorities replayed her conversation withthe Airtran operator. “She stated that shewas not thinking, she did not want to hurtanyone and did not want to cause harm,” theDaily Mail quoted Gates as writing in anaffidavit. AgeNcIes

LoNDoN: Mel Gibson and his wife robyn haveofficially split, after their divorce was finalised endingtheir three-decade marriage. the former Mrs Gibson,whose name is being restored to robyn Moore, hadbeen married to the ‘Braveheart’ star since hisacting heydays and his more recent publicdownfall, the Mirror reported. the judgmententered by Los Angeles Superior Court judgeMark Juhas keeps virtually all details of thepair’s split confidential. Neither Gibson nor hisex-wife attended the proceedings. it does notindicate an official date for the former couple’sseparation. Moore did not list a date in her April2009 divorce filing, but Gibson indicated theyhad been living apart since 2006. the couple hadseven children together, but only their 12-year-oldson is a minor and subject to a custodyagreement. Lawyers handling thedivorce have worked for monthsto reach a settlement in thecase and records showthat Moore signed thefinal judgment lastweek, while Gibsonsigned it onwednesday. AgeNcIes

mel gibson, wife Robyn officially

end marriage after 30 years

coLoMbo:

A sri Lankan

model displays

a creation

by local

designer Lulu.

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:47 AM


FAISALABADAfP

PAKISTAN on Sat-urday emergedvictorious in afour-match serieswith China, the

first international hockey inthe troubled country since2004. Pakistan notched up a3-1 victory after taking the firsttwo meetings in the port cityKarachi earlier this week by 3-0 and 5-3.

Their final match will beplayed in Lahore on Sunday,but Saturday's win gives Pak-istan the series' title.

Before a home crowd in thecity of Faisalabad, Pakistaniforward Ali Shan struck in thesecond minute of the match,scoring a field goal to give thehosts an early lead in the se-ries' third encounter.

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:47 AM


AS the sporting yeardraws to a close, weattempt to look backon the highlights ofyet another season ofglorious feats ofhuman endeavour,

both in team as well as in individual sport.In cricket, 2011 marked the ascen-

dancy of England as the best team in thesport. Their comprehensive 3-1 shellack-ing of Australia in the Ashes seriesmarked them as one of the best everteams that England has had. The firstTest was drawn with the two sides split-ting the next two before England drewcomfortably away in the fourth and fifthTests. England had also won the 2009Ashes in England by two Tests to one. pAKIstAN ENCoURAGING

There were some encouraging per-formances for Pakistan. They drew theTest series with the West Indies and de-feated Sri Lanka in the Tests played in theUAE. They then blitzed the haplessBangladesh team, winning all matchescomprehensively. Pakistan’s bowling at-tack, especially the spinners, are provingto be match winners. The batting, an-chored by skipper Misbah ul Haq andYounus Khan is looking increasingly sta-ble. In 2012, they should be challengingfor the top positions.

In another important series, the SriLankans are finding the South Africanpace attack more than a handful. In thefirst set, the pace trio of Vernon Philan-der, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel weresimply too good on a green wicket. Phi-lander is rapidly emerging as the find ofthe year, his bowling statistics borderingon the phenomenal. He already has fourfive wicket hauls in his first few Tests atan average of less than fifteen. Steynswung the ball both ways at express pacewhile Morkel banged the ball down froma height.

India are due to take on Australia inthe Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. In thesummer India had been whitewashed byEngland in the seaming English condi-tions. India are feeling the absence of starpacer Zaheer Khan and are likely tostruggle with the bat against the youngAustralian pacers.bACK IN tHE CHAmpIoNs,pAKIstAN CRAsHPakistan crashed out of the Champions’Trophy hockey event, losing all their groupmatches and finishing at the bottom. Eversince the artificial turfs squeezed theartistry out of the sport and turned into anathletic and power spectacle, the sub-con-tinental teams have struggled against thefaster and stronger Europeans and Aus-tralians. The sport has become more of aniche sport in Pakistan as compared tocricket which is richly sponsored.

tIGER stIll IN tHE woodsIn golf, Charl Schwartzel won the Au-gusta Masters on the 50th anniversary ofcompatriot Gary Player’s first Masterswin. Unheralded Irishman Darren Clarkewon the British Open while Rory McIlroyatoned for his stunning collapse at Au-gusta by taking the US Open for his firstmajor, surely the first of many. TigerWoods continued the struggle with hisgame and his internal demons and even-tually won a title late in the season al-though he was not a force in the Majors.It wAs bEtwEEN

djoKovIC & FEdERERNovak Djokovic fashioned one of thegreatest seasons in tennis by winning thethree of the four Grand Slam events. OnlyRoger Federer was there to spoil whatwas till then an unbeaten season, at theFrench Open. He then saved two matchpoints to beat Federer and Nadal in anervy final at the US Open. Federer fin-ished the year strongly by winning theSwiss Open, Bercy in Paris and the year-end Masters in London.

This was an improved version of Fed-erer and it seems that the challenges posedby Djokovic and Nadal are making himreach deeper down and play better than he

ever has. He will be looking with optimismat 2012. Although past thirty, his effortlessstyle is the reason for his longevity.

CzECH stARIn women’s tennis, Petra Kvitova be-came yet another star from a countrythat has among others given usNavratilova and Novotna. A strappingsix foot tall youngster, Kvitova has thetechnique, power and lack of fear thathas enabled her to overpower her chal-lengers, including the underperformingCaroline Wozniacki who continues to benumber one without having won amajor. Considering her lack of winningshots, she can only hope to win one if

the draw opens up for her.All blACKs tRIUmpH The 7th Rugby World Cup was won by hostsNew Zealand, who defeated France 8–7 in aclosely fought final. South Africa, the defend-ing champions, were eliminated by Australia11–9 in the quarter-finals. China continuedtheir domination of table tennis by winningeverything on offer at the World Table TennisChampionships. The Chinese were winnersand finalists in all events played and under-lined their supremacy over the Eu-ropeans.b o l t ’ ss H o C KA N dAwE In the1 3 t hIAAF World Champi-onships in Athletics Daegu, SouthKorea, the United States toppedthe medal positions. The shockof the event was the disqualifi-cation of the odds-onfavourite in the 100 meters,Jamaica’s Usain Bolt due tothe controversial change inthe starting rules in which an ath-lete is defaulted on his first false start. Boltthen won the 200 meters in an astonishing19.4 seconds and his relay team set theworld record in the 4x100 relay. In boxing,England’s Amir Khan suffered a shock defeat

to American Lamont Peterson who took theWBA and IBF light-welterweight titles fromthe Bolton fighter with a controversial, split-decision victory. Amir was docked two penaltypoints and these proved to be the differencein a bitterly contested decision. Amir’s subse-quent protest against the decision was turneddown. This was Amir’s second loss in profes-sional boxing and he is now considering mov-ing up to the welterweight division from nextyear. Amir’s family hails from a village on theoutskirts of Rawalpindi and because of this hehas a large following in Pakistan. In Major

League baseball, the St.Louis Cardi-nals won Major League Baseball'sbest-of-seven championship final

four games to three to take their sec-ond World Series in five years after trail-

ing the series 3-2 heading back to St.Louis for game six. The Rangerswere twice within an out of tak-

ing the Championships in thesixth game but some heroics

by David Freese for St.Louis in the epic game-six

victory, had a two-run double in

the first in-n i n gfor the Car-

dinals in the decider.

2011 Year-ender

ALI AKBAR

SportS thiS Week

Another season of gloriousfeats of human endeavour

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:47 AM


THE festive season has kickedoff and a couple of mouthwa-tering prospects are on thehorizon. The NBA season,after a continuum of procras-

tination, will start today and India’s tourDown Under is set to commence tomor-row. Here’s a look ahead to the action. EAstERN CoNFERENCE pREvIEw

The holy trinity of LeBron James,Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh gear up foranother tilt at the NBA ring, as MiamiHeat are the resounding favourites to topthe Eastern Conference. Heat have thestar power, title winning experience andthe apt mélange of defense and attack tobe the frontrunners in the East. ShaneBettier has also been added to the squad,to come off the bench and bring his reli-able shooting to the fore. A healthierMike Miller would also be beneficial forlast year’s NBA finalists.

Then there are Chicago Bulls, lead bythe MVP of a year ago Derrick Rose. Bullsreplaced Keith Bogans with RichardHamilton at shooting guard and have hadtime to blend in Carlos Boozer as well, tochallenge Miami as the top dogs. Thenthere is Superman Dwight Howard andhis Orland Magic as possibly the thirdbest team on paper in the East. But ofcourse Magic’s season hinges on their tal-isman staying or absconding. WithoutHoward, Magic would struggle to evenmake the playoffs.

Boston Celtics are another power-house in the East, but with an agingsquad they’d obviously be the ones mostaffected by a tight schedule, due to a

compressed season. Season ending in-jury to Jeff Green also connotes that theleviathan from Boston would be relyingon Jermaine O’Neal – who has beenjustly accused of being made of glass.New York Knicks have added a lot offront court dexterity owing to the addi-tion of Tyson Chandler, but the questionmarks over the backcourt still exist. Andhence, Baron Davis could prove to bethe decisive factor between New Yorkstanding toe to toe with the big boys inthe Conference and being rolled over bythem.

Milwaukee Bucks is one team thathas been earmarked as having the TNTto improve on their showings from lastyear. However, they need Andrew Bogutand Brandon Jennings to step up to theplate and also gel in nicely as an inside-out duo. Bucks could also make do withStephen Jackson dishing in his share inthe offense. Like Milwaukee, Philadel-phia 76ers is another team that is brim-ming with youth and hence is upbeatabout the prospects this season. AtlantaHawks have failed to make major sign-ings in the offseason and hence theywould continue to rely on Jeff Teaguefor impetus this season.

Indiana Pacers have a decent ensem-

ble of talent and with most of theirbrigade adding another season of experi-ence under their belt, they would be opti-mistic about playoff qualification as well.Also, with veteran forward David Westnow within their ranks, Pacers might dobetter than most expect. New Jersey Netsare historically one of the leading sides inthe East, but are on a downward spiral

off-late. They have lost center BrookLopez for a couple of months, but withDwight Howard being constantly linkedwith the Nets everything can change. Andagain, Nets’ entire campaign is centeredround the prospect of Howard joiningDeron Williams.

Detroit Pistons, one of the heavy-weights of the East not too long ago,Charlotte Bobcats and Toronto Raptorsare the underdogs this season and wouldbe vying to punch above their weight intheir quest for playoff qualification.Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cav-aliers meanwhile, are being forecasted toend up at the bottom of the pile, and witha gargantuan LeBron James shaped holein the Cavaliers lineup far from beingfilled – one does sense the raison d'êtrebehind the claim.wEstERN CoNFERENCE pREvIEw

Defending Champions Dallas Mav-ericks continue to be the benchmark forthe rest of the league. Dallas might havelost the ever dependable Tyson Chan-dler, but the acquisition of Lamar Odommore than shores up that void. VinceCarter and the returning RoddyBeaubois should solidify the backcourt.Following the Mavericks are two LosAngeles sides, and with Chris Paul being

traded around between the franchisesfrom Los Angeles – there is spice in thecity rivalry this year round. However,Lakers do have the edge by dint of theirexperience, but they do need to dealwith the injury to Kobe Bryant first.Oklahoma City Thunder have a rejuve-nated side this year and they are beingprognosticated to seize one of the play-off spots with the home advantage.

The old warhorses of Saint AntonioSpurs might just have enough legs forone final surge to the playoffs this year.And even though Tim Duncan isn’t get-ting any younger, Gregg Poppovich andhis support staff have it in them to rallytheir troops for another noteworthy runthis year. Denver Nuggets might bedealing with the loss of a trio of playersto China, but they have enough qualityand more importantly sufficient depthto rotate their players around for a lu-crative campaign this year. If J.R Smithand Tyson Chandler return early fromtheir injuries, Nuggets could exceedmost expectations.

Even though the Memphis Grizzliesnearly made it all the way to the Finals ayear ago, their run of the mill perform-ances in the regular season sees thembeing overlooked as being realistic topfour contenders. Even with Rudy Gay inthe squad Grizzlies don’t have enoughstrength and depth to counter injuries –especially in the frontcourt. PortlandTrail Blazers might just be the best of theremaining lot, but like the Grizzlies theydo have a small pool of options upfront.

The remaining sides, Golden StateWarriors, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, NewOrleans Hornets and Minnesota Tim-

berwolves are all being predicted tostruggle this year; and there is a widegamut of reasons, ranging from loss ofimpact players to downright incompe-tence in the starting five. SacramentoKings are being touted to finish at rockbottom, but if their prodigies TyrekeEvans and DeMarcus Cousins performin the clutch and with consistency as

well, the Kings might compete with theteams around them, even if they don’thave enough of an arsenal to pose athreat to the playoff positions. Min-nesota again, could do well with DerrickWilliams, Ricky Rubio and Kevin Lovedelivering regularly and in turn theycould upset the forecasts as well.AUstRAlIA-INdIA sERIEs pREvIEw

It is a unanimous consensus amongthe cricketing pundits that India’s tour

Down Under this year is their best chanceof righting their wrongs in Australia andfinally conjuring up a series triumph. Anappalling stat that divulges everything isthat since 1947 India has played 36 testsin Australia and have ended up on thewinning side in only five of them. Andnow with Australians bracing themselvesfor a plunge into mediocrity – or so itseems – Dhoni and his side have the idealopportunity to pounce. The media is reg-ularly castigating Ricky Ponting andMichael Hussey for their recent no-showsand with a clutch series on the horizon,this could be their last chance – especiallyfor Ponting – to step up or be ready forthe axe. It would be a criminal under-statement to say that the Australian bowl-ing attack lacks the firepower of theirhalcyon days and then there is BradHaddin’s incompetent wicket-keeping toround off an aura of gloom for Australia.

India, au contraire, are on a decentrun off late and even though their battinglineup customarily struggles in thebouncy conditions Down Under, the factthat most of their senior batsmen wouldbe touring Australia for the very last timeconnotes that they would be vying toleave an imprint before they bid adieu.Downing Australia in Australia has longbeen considered as one of the stiffesttasks in the sport, and even though thestrenuousness of the task is considerablyless this season, a win Down Under wouldcap off the a remarkable year for Indiaafter their World Cup triumph. Tendulkarand Dravid enter the series top of the pileon the All-time list of top run getters intests, and with Laxman habitually beingup for it against Australia and Sehwag,Gambhir and Kohli on song; the Indianbatting should have too much for theAustralian bowlers.

Australia, on the other hand, needtheir out of form seniors to step up andwould be relying on Test rookies like EdCowan, Dave Warner, Dan Christian andShaun Marsh to provide the runs. Butagain, the batting might well have its fairshare of inexperience; nonetheless it’s thebowling that has the question mark, ofbowling out a formidable Indian lineuptwice in five days, looming over theirheads. When Peter Siddle and James Pat-tinson are your vanguards in attack youknow that a massive struggle lies ahead.The rest of the bowling is pretty inexpe-rienced and might find the task of dealingwith the likes of Sehwag and Tendulkartoo menacing to deal with.

However, while Indians might beedging out the betting odds and the In-dian media might be going nuts over theirside, India have their own concerns in thebowling lineup to deal with. Indian paceattack isn’t exactly an assortment of perilitself, and India’s reliance on ZaheerKhan – who has made a second home onthe treatment table recently – could againprove costly. This tour is an intriguingmoment in the sport as the directions, ofa side contending for global supremacyand a side dealing with a looming decline,are destined to shape up.

Scrumptious prospects lie aheadForetasting the NBA Season and the Australia-India Test Series

KUNwAR KHULDUNe SHAHID

All BASeS Covered

Dallas Mavericks still the team to beat in the west

James and wade would be vying to go one step further this year

Kobe Bryant’s injury a concern for Lakers

ricky Ponting needs to silence his critics

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:47 AM


FAISALABADAfP

PAKISTAN on Saturdayemerged victorious in a four-match series with China, thefirst international hockey inthe troubled country since

2004. Pakistan notched up a 3-1 victoryafter taking the first two meetings in theport city Karachi earlier this week by 3-0 and 5-3.

Their final match will be played inLahore on Sunday, but Saturday's wingives Pakistan the series' title.

Before a home crowd in the city ofFaisalabad, Pakistani forward Ali Shanstruck in the second minute of thematch, scoring a field goal to give thehosts an early lead in the series' third en-counter.

Vice-captain Shakeel Abbasi doubledPakistan's lead with another field goal inthe 21st minute.

Chinese Liu Yixian converted apenalty corner in the 61st minute to givethe visitors their only goal of the match.

Pakistan's Waqas Sharif drew an-other field goal in the 64th minute tohelp his side cap their victory.

A campaign of Taliban and Al-Qaedalinked attacks across Pakistan, includingan attack on the Sri Lankan cricket teamin 2009, made Pakistan a virtual "no go"zone for international sport.

Pakistan, which last hosted an inter-national hockey game seven years ago,hopes the Chinese tour will help con-vince other foreign teams to visit.

The country is also working to re-sume a bilateral hockey series with arch-rivals India, after they were suspendedfollowing the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

Pakistan clinch China series

fAiSALABAD: Pakistani hockey goalkeeper imran Shah (C) stops an attempt by China during the third field hockey match between Pakistan and China. AFP

Younus Khan scored the highest numberof runs while Abdur Rehman claimedthe highest number of wickets in the justconcluded two Test match series be-tween Pakistan and Bangladesh inBangladesh which the former won 2-0.

The Pakistani batsman scored 265runs at an average of 265.00 and a strikerate of 62.50 with one double century inthree innings of two matches. He hit 22fours and four sixes in this series.

Shakib Al Hasan took the numberone position for Bangladesh. The left-hand middle order batsman scored 209runs at 52.25 and at a strike rate of60.23 with one century and one fifty infour innings of two matches. He hit 25fours in four innings.

Abdur Rehman, who recorded hisbest bowling on the final day of the sec-ond Test match, took the first sportamong the bowlers. The slow left-armorthodox bowler claimed 11 wickets atan average of 19.45 and an economy rateof 2.59 in four innings of two matches.

Shakib Al Hasan was the most suc-cessful bowler for the hosts. The slowleft-arm orthodox bowler claimed sevenwickets at an average of 35.71 and aneconomy rate of 2.69 in three innings oftwo matches. Five centuries were scoredin the series, four from Pakistan and onefrom Bangladesh.

Younus Khan (200 not out), Mo-hammed Hafeez (143), Taufeeq Umar(130) and Asad Shafiq (104) made hun-dreds for Pakistan while Shakib AlHasan (144) scored the lone century forthe hosts.

Just one bowler, Bangladesh'sShakib Al Hasan, claimed a five-wickethaul in this series. He did the same inPakistan's first innings in the secondTest match.

Pakistan have won the Test seriesagainst Bangladesh for the fourth time.They have won all eight matches againstBangladesh.

Pakistan-Bangladesh Test series averages

Younus, Rehman claim top honoursS. PeRVeZ QAISeR

StAtS Corner

Samir matchesacademicachievementswith tennis glory

LAHOResTAff RePoRT

Pakistan’s upcoming tennis star SamirIftikhar, who is currently at University ofNew Mexico USA on Tennis Scholarship,has achieved 3.75 GPR out of 4 (A average)in his first Semester at the University.According to reports received here, Univer-sity coach Alan Aldis through an e-mailmessage praised the Pakistani youngsterand congratulated his father and formerDavis Cup player Tayyab Iftikhar for hisbrilliant performance in the examinations.He informed him that Samir is trainingvery hard with the tennis team and hasshown a lot of improvement and the Uni-versity will encourage him to play for Pak-istan in the Davis Cup ties and othernational events in the future. Samir is currently in London on holidaysand will join the University in January2012 for highly competitive NCAA Division1 season. He said: ”The UNM has worldclass Tennis Facilities and am very im-pressed with the professionalism and ten-nis training of US coaches which is reallyhelping my game. I am proud to play forPakistan and will be available when ever Iam needed by PTF.” He further said that hewants to focus on his gameand education without fi-nancial worries and hopedthat Chief Minister MianShabaz Sharif and thehead of other provinceswill urgently look intohis appeal for financialhelp after his cur-

rent academicachievement.

ToP sIX bATsMeN IN THe seRIes

bAtsmAN m I No RUNs AvG Hs s/R 100 50Younus Khan (Pakistan) 2 3 2 265 265.00 200* 62.50 1 -Shakib Al Hasan (Bangaldesh) 2 4 - 209 52.25 144 60.23 1 1Mohammad Hafeez (Pakistan) 2 3 - 204 68.00 143 66.66 1 -Taufeeq Umar (Pakistan) 2 - - 194 64.66 130 44.39 1 1Asad Shafiq (Pakistan) 2 2 - 146 73.00 104 43.45 1 -Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh) 2 4 - 146 36.50 52 42.31 - 1

ToP sIX boWLeRs IN seRIes

bowlER m ovERs RUNs wKts AvG R/o 5wI bEstAbdur Rehman (Pakistan) 2 82.2 214 11 19.45 2.59 - 4-51Aizaz Cheema (Pakistan) 2 59.3 209 9 23.22 3.51 - 3-73Saeed Ajmal (Pakistan) 2 90.3 233 9 25.88 2.57 - 3-40Umar Gul (Pakistan) 2 67 214 7 30.57 3.19 - 3-102Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) 2 92.4 250 7 35.71 2.69 - 6-82Elias Sunny (Bangladesh) 2 74.5 225 5 45.00 3.00 - 3-123

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:48 AM

TENNIS enjoyed a year toremember as NovakDjokovic swept all beforehim en route to a record-

breaking year on the ATP Tour,while on the women's side, varietywas the spice of life as four differentplayers tasted Grand Slam glory.plAyER oF tHE yEAR- NovAK djoKovIC

The 2011 season will forever beremembered as the 'Year of theDjoker'. Boy spectacularly turnedman as Serbian sensation Djokovicset new standards and smashed allkinds of records to claim the worldnumber one ranking for the firsttime in his burgeoning career.Djokovic became only the sixth manin Open era history to win at leastthree majors in a single season, onlythe French Open title eluding himduring a remarkable campaign. TheSerb was simply untouchable at thestart of the year, winning 43 consec-utive matches before tasting defeatfor the first time in the semi-finals atRoland Garros.

He swept Britain's Andy Murrayaside to claim his second AustralianOpen title in Melbourne in January

and four successive Masters crownsswiftly followed to leave the rest ofthe world in a state of awe. Even the'King of Clay' Rafael Nadal wasschooled on his beloved surface, theSpaniard suffering defeats after tak-ing the opening sets at Indian Wellsand Miami, before being handedclaycourt lessons in Madrid andRome. Djokovic finished the seasonwith a staggering 70-6 record, withfatigue eventually telling in the latterstages of the campaign.most ImpRovEd plAyER- pEtRA KvItovA

Move aside Venus and Serena,there's a new girl in town. That girlis Petra Kvitova. Starting the 2011season as the world number 34, the

Czech left-hander finished it as No.2after a breakthrough year whichbrought six singles titles - Wimble-don and the WTA Championshipsincluded. The 21-year-old won herfirst tournament of the year in Bris-bane and clinched the season-end-ing event in Istanbul. In between,she took four more titles, peaking inJune with her first Grand Slam atWimbledon. At SW19, with herswinging left-handed serve andpowerful groundstokes perfectlysuited to the All England Club grass,Kvitova ousted five seeds - includingformer champion Maria Sharapovain the final - to lift the famous VenusRosewater Dish.RIsING stAR - mIlos RAoNIC

2011 was quite a year for 20-year-old Canadian Raonic, who shotup from 156 in the world rankings toa career-high 25 before ending asthe world No.31. Gathering a repu-tation as one of the biggest serverson tour, Raonic set a new tourna-ment record of 129 aces during hisrun to the final of the Regions Mor-gan Keegan Championships inMemphis. After qualifying for theAustralian Open at the start of theyear, Raonic became the first Cana-dian in 10 years to reach the thirdround of a Grand Slam and he theneliminated world No.10 Mikhail

Youzhny in four sets to become thefirst qualifier to make the fourthround since 1999. His run was even-tually stopped by David Ferrer, how-ever Raonic built on his strong startto the season by capturing his firstATP World Tour title in San Josewith victory over Fernando Ver-dasco. He made his Davis Cup debutin March and is certainly a player tokeep an eye on in 2012.momENt oF 2011 - djoKovICwINs wImblEdoN

Smarting from his first defeatof the season to Roger Federer atthe French Open, Djokovic ar-rived at Wimbledon looking toachieve what he had failed to doin six previous visits - lift the fa-

mous trophy. This looked his bestchance to do so and, after grass-court supremo Federer had fallento Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a quar-ter-final classic, the door openedfor the Serb, who in turn becamethe first world number one notnamed Federer or Nadal since2004. Former champion Nadal,who defeated Andy Murray in yetanother Grand Slam semi-final,stood in Djokovic's way in thefinal, however the Serb produceda stunning grass-court display toprevail 6-4 6-1 1-6 6-3. In doing sohe became the first Serbian manto win Wimbledon and the emo-tion in his celebrations showedjust how much it meant to him.bEst mAtCH - NovAKdjoKovIC v FEdERER(Us opEN sEmI-FINAl)

Plenty of candidates in thiscategory as always but Djokovic'scome-from-behind victory overFederer at Flushing Meadows wassomething very, very special. Hav-ing fallen two sets down to theSwiss star, few gave Djokovic aprayer of coming back, despite hisstunning start to the season. But,with a final date against Nadal upfor grabs, Djokovic drew upon allhis mental strength to record asensational 6-7 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-5 vic-tory. The fifth set had been of bril-liant quality until the eighth game,when Federer broke Djokovic totake a 5-3 advantage. With twomatch points on his racquet, Fed-erer seemed to fold when Djokovicripped a forehand return winnercross-court to save the first.Djokovic would go on to break andwin the next three games as well toclose out the comeback victory.Simply sensational viewing.low poINt -HEAltH CoNCERNs

The William sisters were con-spicuous by their absence in 2011and Serena, who returned to thetour in June after a serious foot in-jury and then a pulmonary em-bolism, quickly re-announcedherself with titles at Stanford andToronto and a final run at the USOpen. For Venus, 2011 was evenworse. The seven-time major win-ner was plagued by abdominal in-jury, featuring in only four eventsand losing early in all of them.Then came the announcementthat Venus was suffering from theautoimmune virus, Sjogren's Syn-drome. Venus ended the yearranked outside of the world top100 for the first time since 1997.On the men's side, Robin Soder-ling missed the second half of theseason with mononucleosis. TheSwede dropped from world num-ber five to 13 as a result of the ill-ness and he also confirmed hisabsence from the upcoming Aus-tralian Open due to the problem.

CoNtRovERsy -sERENA's stRop pARt II

There seems to be somethingabout playing in New York thatturns Serena Williams into a veryunpleasant human being. Afterthreatening a line-judge at FlushingMeadows in 2010, the American su-perstar turned her anger on the um-pire in 2011. Serena branded chairofficial Eva Asderaki a 'hater and aloser' after the three-time championwas penalised for "intentional hin-drance" during her final with SamStosur. Williams was so incensed atthe change of ends that she warnedAsderaki "don't even look at me"and her actions later landed her inhot water with the authorities as shewas fined $2,000. Australian Stosurput the distractions behind her towin her maiden Grand Slam title 6-2 6-3 on Arthur Ashe.yEAR to REmEmbER - spAIN

King of Clay Nadal reinforced hisstatus as the master of the red dirt yetagain in leading Spain to Davis Cupglory for a third time in four years.The world number two came from aset behind to record a 20th succes-sive singles win in the competitionand secure his country their fifthDavis Cup title, with a 1-6 6-4 6-1 7-6(7-0) win over Juan Martin del Potroin Seville sinking Argentina 3-1. Itwas the perfect remedy for a disap-pointing campaign for Nadal, wholost his world number one statusand six finals to Djokovic, ensuringit was his nation that knocked theSerb's off their perch at the top ofthe game. Spain's glory was instark contrast to Argentina'smisery as they endured afourth loss in as many DavisCup finals, with an incon-solable Del Potro showeredwith sympathy after losing outin an epic five-setter with DavidFerrer before failing to resistNadal's comeback.

yEAR to FoRGEt -Us opEN oRGANIsERs

When play did get under way atFlushing Meadows, it was truly un-forgettable. However it was the get-ting started, which was theproblem. Heavy rain for the thirdyear running wreaked havoc withthis year's event and organisers nowface increasing pressure from fansand players alike for a roof to beerected on Arthur Ashe court. Themen's final was yet again played ona Monday and officials made anumber of glaring calls throughoutthe tournament - deeming courtsdry enough to play when the playersthought otherwise. The US Open isthe only Grand Slam tournamentwithout a roof on the main showcourt but the climate suggests thatfact needs changing.tAlKING poINt -plAyER stRIKE

British number one Andy Mur-ray was among the leading players

who threatened strike action unlesschanges were made to the sport'sexhausting calendar. Strike talksgathered pace after the US Openfollowing a number of high-profileretirements from the Americanslam. A meeting was scheduled be-tween the players and ATP Tourorganisers later in the year inShanghai, however nothing materi-alised. Federer later describedplans to strike as "nonsense", how-ever it is clear that a number ofplayers are not happy with the cur-rent schedule and it will be interest-ing to see if any changes are madein 2012 and beyond.bEst CElEbRAtIoN - AN-dREA pEtKovIC

Andrea Petkovic wins the awardfor the best celebrator/dancer on thecircuit. Her 'Petko-Dance' ritual at

the end of every victoriousmatch certainly caught onwith fans across the globein 2011. The robot-like jigfirst came about after abet with her coach and,despite her best efforts toshake it off, the crowdpressure continues toprove too strong.FoNd FAREwEll -

jUstINE HENINFormer world No 1

Justine Henin was forced toadmit defeat in her attempt

to beat a chronic elbow prob-lem at the start of 2011. The Bel-gian seven-time Grand Slamchampion retired for the second

time after a disappointing third-round defeat to SvetlanaKuznetsova at the Australian Open.The former world number oneleaves the sport with four FrenchOpen titles, one Australian Openand two US Opens to her name andwill forever be remembered as hav-ing one of the most eye-catchingone-handed backhands in the game.


Tennis review2011: A YeAROF DJOKOvIC

JOe DRABBLe

Comment

Ricky Ponting is the most importantplayer. He is an experienced player and ifIndia can control him then we can controlAustralia. Remember experience alwayscomes in handy in the long run. He hasscored enough runs against us and is duefor a big score. This time India has a betterchance to win the Test series in Australia,there is no doubt about that. Australia wereon top of the world cricket for 15 years. Butnow it is not the same team without GlennMcGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchristand Matthew Hayden. We still haveSachin, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and

Virender Sehwag. Then there are youngtalented fast bowlers and spinners. We aregetting strong everyday. We, therefore,have a better chance than ever before. Ear-lier that was not the case because we wereno match for Australia. Australia domi-nated world cricket and always bouncedback. But this time we can go there think-ing of not drawing but with a view to winthe series. Sachin has served Indian cricketso enormously that at this stage this talk ofthis 100th hundred is not important. IfIndia can win the series, Sachin's 100thhundred will be taken care of.

Control Ponting if you want to control Australia eXPeRT coMMeNT

KAPiL DeV

this is india’s best chance Tendulkar always looks in good form.Using heavy bats on flatter wickets arefine but when the wickets have got a bitof a pace and bounce, then I don't thinkheavier bats are a wise thing. I thinklighter bats in Australia where you playmore horizontal shots are a better option.

You would think in four Tests, Tendulkar will get an opportunity (to score a century). Weproduce good wickets in Australia for the batsmen and I would have thought Tendulkar willcertainly get one hundred in one of those four Test matches. I think Sehwag is biggest dan-ger for Australia because he gets India off to such a good positive start and he likes play-ing well on our true wickets. Sehwag have always done well in Australia. India's battingis far superior to Australia's. Sachin Tendulkar is still playing marvelously well, RahulDravid is in fantastic form, and (VVS) Laxman and (Virender)," said the 57-year-old.

KIM HUGHeS

Comment

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FOR nearly half a decade, football fol-lowers have been accustomed to hear-ing the phrase “Ryan Giggs has rolled

back the years”. Giggs, however, has been soregular in taking us all down the memory lanethat it hardly comes as a surprise anymore –38 years young, and the Welshman still has ahuge part to play for Manchester United.

Although Giggs might be ‘rolling back theyears’ in terms of his influence in United’splay, his own game has been totally revampedfrom what it was in his heyday. Mind you, thisis not the first time Giggs has remodeled hisplay. He has regularly evolved from being theblazing winger in the early 90s, to the moreall-round left sided midfielder – occasionallythe second striker – in and around the turnof the millennium, modifying himself intoplaying in the hole and playing deeper anddeeper as mileage in the legs gave way to un-paralleled experience and know how.

Giggs’ performance sitting deep in mid-field in United’s 5-0 win over Fulham wasanother fine-tuning of his game as he or-chestrated the play from a deeper role in amasterful performance. ManchesterUnited’s most capped player also scored agoal that sustained his remarkable run ofscoring in every season since the inceptionof 'English Premier League' in 1992.

Meanwhile in the Chelsea camp – Man-chester United’s foremost rivals over thepast five years before Manchester City’s re-cent renaissance – there is discontent ofvarying proportions. During Chelsea’s 1-1draw against Tottenham Hotspur at White

Hart Lane, it was surprising to note thatAndre Villas-Boas didn’t ask Frank Lam-pard to come off the bench, especially sinceTottenham’s supremacy in midfield wasthere for all to see. When Chelsea toppledCity at Stamford Bridge recently, it wasLampard’s introduction into the game thattilted the balance in the home side’s favour.Although the fact that City were a man

down was obviously critical, however, be-fore Lampard came on Chelsea weren’t ableto capitalise on their numerical supremacy.

Even though the “courage” required inbeating the keeper in a dead ball situationfrom 12 yards out is something that thisscribe has never managed to comprehend,nonetheless it was Lampard’s telling passto Sturridge that set up the penalty – and

in turn, the winning goal.Following the City triumph Lampard has

been quite unequivocal in displaying his hardfeelings with regards to being a non-regularoff-late. In fact, if transfer rumours are any-thing to go by, Jose Mourinho is interestedin capitalising on the Englishman’s discon-tent by offering him a lifeline at Madrid.However, with everything said and done, the

question that one has to ask Lampard is thatat 33, would playing week-in week-out be aprudent idea for either the club or the player?

Lampard’s fitness in unquestionableand he has been known to be injury proofand has had record breaking consecutiveappearances. However, if Giggs had beenplayed by Sir Alex Ferguson every week fiveseasons or so ago, would that have resultedin a better outcome for United or indeed theman himself? 2006 onwards Sir Alex hasbeen very selective in deploying the Welsh-man and the trophy-laden years that havefollowed, coupled with Giggs playing a sig-nificant role, have meant that the Scots-man’s approach has been vindicated.

Villas-Boas might be half the age of SirAlex Ferguson, but he realises just as wellthat Lampard must be used selectively andthat would not only prolong the midfielder’scareer, he would continue to be an asset forthe London club for years to come. Lam-pard should appreciate this intent, and ac-knowledge the fact that the days of himmarauding into the opposition’s penaltyarea and poaching goals thrice a week arewell and truly past him. He could also pro-long his career by modifying his game andby looking to influence matters from deepin midfield, since he might not have the legsto showcase a box-to-box performanceevery now and then. Lampard is already ac-knowledged as a legend at Stamford Bridge,but if he can display adaptability and whole-heartedly contributes his experience to theChelsea cause as they navigate their transi-tory phase – something that Giggs did forUnited during 2005-2007 – he could enjoythe uppermost veneration at Chelsea, likeRyan Giggs does at Manchester United.

J.K wALI

Comment

NOWHERE in the tide of indignation and Liver-pudlian love for Luis Suárez has the most impor-tant point been conceded. As the wagons circle

ever tighter around Anfield there is still no acknowledge-ment that Suárez used terminology against ManchesterUnited’s Patrice Evra that deserves no place in a civil so-ciety. Liverpool and their extended family of fans havefought some stirring campaigns down the years. But thisis not one of them. The increasingly melodramatic de-fence of Suárez omits one crucial qualification.

“Negro” — assuming that was the insult — is noway to refer to a fellow citizen, even if you do comefrom Uruguay, and Liverpool ought to have told himso, while conceding that an offence did indeed takeplace. With that concession they could have wrappedtheir arms around him in the old Anfield spirit of sol-idarity, and forgiveness. The rest of the country might

not have applauded it, but at least they could saythey supported football’s basic principle of ex-cluding language that attempts to demeanpeople on the basis of the colour of their skin.As a middle-aged American, the club’s mainowner, John W Henry, lived through a timewhen pigmentation could be a matter of lifeand death in many southern states. So thereis no need here to recite the reasons why pe-jorative terms for black people arouseextra sensitivities. Suárez’s intent isnot the point. Nor is his character.The offence was the “insultingwords” he used, and confessedto, in a roundabout way, with hisplea of cultural mitigation. Tospend three years in Amster-dam with Ajax and not knowthat the term “negro” is unac-ceptable in Europe suggests atin ear at best. Again, though,

such ruminations are a sideshow. An offencewas committed but Liverpool have chosennot to face that fact, finding refuge insteadin team statements and T-shirts that are indanger of propelling Suárez towards somekind of sainthood. “A lovely guy,” is howPepe Reina, the goalkeeper, described his

beleaguered team-mate on Thursday.Here we see the confusion, for

perceived loveliness is nodefence when the laws of

the game have beentransgressed. If Reinahad said, “Luis should-n’t have called Patrice

that, but we don’t be-lieve he is a racistand we will standby him”, therewould at least be arecognition that a

black footballer is entitled to protection from skin-based humiliation. You can see how it develops. Aclub’s PR strategy starts out as support and ends upas unconditional empathy. The first sign of troublewas Liverpool’s post-verdict statement: “We find itextraordinary that Luis can be found guilty on theword of Patrice Evra alone.” So Suárez did not em-ploy a plea of cultural mitigation on the basis that“negro” is not an insult in Uruguay – no worse thancalling Dirk Kuyt "blondie”? This, we need to know,because there is no suggestion that Suárez deniesusing any kind of race-based language.

If he admits calling Evra “negro”, then he has notbeen found guilty solely on Evra’s testimony alone, asthe Liverpool statement claims. Nor are the attackson Evra’s “credibility” edifying. There are young Liv-erpool fans who will call you a “scumbag” on Twitterfor even trying to unravel this issue. Equally there willbe people on the Kop who feel uneasy about theirclub’s unqualified support for Suárez, especially asLiverpool fight so hard against discrimination.

Liverpool siege mentality misguided over Suarez’s abuse

PAUL HAywARD

Comment

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:48 AM


THERE was an element of sur-prise when the second andfinal Test between Pakistanand Bangladesh stretched tothe fifth day but just when the

Bangladeshi faithful were becoming confi-dent of snatching a deserving draw, Pak-istan inevitably struck through theirtrusted spinners and the rest became amere formality. No disrespect to theBangladeshis but the whole series itselfturned out to be a formality as Pakistanwhitewashed their opponents across allformats.

Younus Khan won the Man of the Se-ries award courtesy his double hundred inthe first test but it would be unfair to sin-gle out any one player for praise as every-one at one point or another put their handup and performed. In doing so, the play-ers ensured that the winning momentumcontinued ahead of our toughest challengewhich will come in the shape of the tour-ing England party. For Bangladesh, thepositives were few and far in between; theemergence of Nasir Hossain suggeststhere is light at the end of the tunnel butthey need a few more like him to becomecompetitive.

While on-field activity continued toborder on the lacklustre, the main talkingpoints emerged from the off-field inci-dents. The PCB coach hunt committee,during the course of the series stated that

they had decided on its choice for headcoach and specialised coaches but wouldmake the announcement after theBangladesh tour. Dav Whatmore wasbeing tipped as the man to get the headcoaching role but Zaka Ashraf, the PCBchairman, announced on December 19that the committee had not settled on thenew coaching staff therefore Mohsin Khanwould continue in his interim role ascoach. Ejaz Butt may have left the build-ing but confusion still reigns supreme; itwas only two weeks ago that Col. NaushadAli, a member of the said committee andassistant manager of the team had said,“The person we have picked as head coachis very well suited to Pakistan,". "He is theone who suits the temperament of Pak-istan cricket and [that] of its team."Mohsin Khan, the current interim coach,has also expressed his interest for the po-sition of head coach and this coupled withCol. Naushad’s glaring conflict of interest,one gets the feeling that there is some-thing fishy going on behind the scenes.Reports have emerged that there is both, apro and anti Mohsin lobby at work. Onecan only imagine what transpired in thosetwo weeks that forced to committee toback track on their word but given thehistory, chances are that Pakistan cricketwill once again suffer at the hands of peo-ple who continue to put their own inter-ests before that of the team.

On a brighter note, Bangladesh hasagreed to tour Pakistan in April 2012,subject to a security inspection. In a clas-sic case of ‘you scratch my back, I scratch

yours’ Bangladesh agreed to tour Pakistanand in turn, the PCB, amongst otherfringe benefits, gave their vote of confi-dence to Mustafa Kamal for the role ofICC President. Zaka Ashraf, who after tak-ing over had stated that bringing cricketback to Pakistan and reconciling with thecricketing boards-who had become disen-chanted during Ejaz Butts tenure-was atthe forefront of his plans seems to bemaking good on his promise. The SriLankan Cricket Board has always been a‘friend’ of PCB and after this strengthen-ing of ties with the Bangladesh CricketBoard, PCB has consolidated its positionamongst the Asian bloc. This is likely togive Pakistan much needed leverage whenit negotiates with the other cricketingboards and especially the BCCI who havein the recent past tried to marginalise andostracise Pakistan cricket.

The repercussions are not just re-stricted within the sub-continent; ifBangladesh’s tour goes ahead and accord-ing to plan, PCB can then look to inviteother teams and make sure that cricket iswell and truly back in Pakistan.

These are happy times for Pakistancricket but this is only the beginning anda lot of hard work needs to be put in, bothon and off the field to ensure that thissuccessful period continues. Zaka Ashrafhas rightfully stated that it is not his jobto identify the next coach of Pakistan andthat a committee has been formed for thisspecific matter but it might be best if hewere to look into the matter and find outwhat’s taking the committee so long?

MUHAMMAD BUTT

Comment

C r i C k e t, C o a C h i n gand camaraderie

Key to taming the

Big Fouri

f AUStrALiA wants to win this test series against india, it will have to keep the big

four indian batsmen quiet. it will be interesting to see what strategies and tactics

our young quicks employ against this strong batting line-up. the variety offered by

Mitchell Starc is vital against this quality batting. i think a left-hander who can swing

the ball back into the stumps is a wonderful asset and can add variety to this Australian

attack for Michael Clarke. Basically, indian batsmen love hitting boundaries. they don't like

running, as a rule, with 50 per cent of their score made in boundaries. So if the Australian

bowlers can dry up their boundaries, they will be more successful. Here are some of my

thoughts on how to dismiss the four great indian batsmen.

VIReNDeR seHWAg

TEST RECORDRuns: 7980. Ave: 52. 100s: 22At the MCG: Runs: 206. Ave: 103PAst 5 tests: Runs: 286. Ave: 32''VirU'' is my favourite player in the world to watch. He is so

strong from third man to mid-off. No one in the world has been

stronger through these areas. if you don't control him, the game is

gone. He gets his runs so quickly and changes the momentum of

the match. i will not forget his 195 at the MCG on his last outing.

the best way to bowl to him is to keep him quiet. He hates tak-

ing singles, loves hitting boundaries. Just keep him bored. Bowl

wide of the crease and at the stumps. Make him hit the ball

through the leg side. when the quicks bounce him, it must be

over middle stump and give him no room to free up his arms. i also believe he struggles a

little with left-handers swinging the ball back into him. Clarke could think about opening

with Starc. Having a third man is not a defensive tactic for Sehwag. He likes to ramp short

deliveries down to third man instead of hooking and pulling. trust me, if you bowl wide to

him, he will make a hundred before lunch. So i would instruct the bowlers to bowl wide of

the crease and get the ball to nip back into him. Best line is over the off and middle

stumps. the very first few balls delivered to him are so important because he will go hard

straight away and you can pick him up cheaply - he has made a pair recently. Also, he uses

the best bats i have seen. A forward point 15 metres from the bat is a good option.

sAcHIN TeNDULKAR

TEST RECORDRuns: 15,183. Ave: 56. 100s: 51At the MCG: Runs: 344. Ave: 43PAst 5 tests: Runs: 373. Ave: 41How do you bowl to a guy like Sachin? He possesses the greatest de-

fence since Bradman. even though Sachin has every shot in the book,

he bases his game around his wonderful defence. Does anyone play

the forward and back defence better than the Little Master? He is a

great watcher of the ball. He watches ''length'' better than anyone in

the game. How do you find a weakness in Sachin's game? it is like try-

ing to find a weakness in the Sistine Chapel or the Mona Lisa. But we

will try. History shows tendulkar struggles a little with bowlers who

get close to the stumps and who can swing the ball away from him.

Clarke needs to set a straight field and try to entice the great man to play square into point and

to square leg. Bowlers such as James Pattinson, who can swing the ball away, might worry him.

Do not sledge him! Don't even give him any ugly stares if you pass the edge of the bat. it will only

be bad news. Can you believe he needs one more hundred to make 100 centuries in international

cricket? He is an unbelievable player but he is human and he will give you a chance. this will be

the last time you will see him in a test match in Australia, so make an effort to watch him bat.

RAHUL DRAVID

TEST RECORDRuns: 13,094. Ave: 53. 100s: 36At the MCG: Runs: 185. Ave: 31PAst 5 tests: Runs: 518. Ave: 65LiKe Sachin, Dravid bases his game on defence. His nickname is the

wall and he is such a cricket traditionalist he will want to make a

hundred on this famous ground. Dravid has made five centuries in his

past 10 tests and is in imperious form. where do you bowl to him?

He is strong in every facet of the game. Dravid is such a wonderful

technician and a great watcher of the ball, it is hard to find a weak-

ness to knock him over but bowlers must remain patient. Australia

possesses quicks who can bowl faster than 145km/h. Go after him!

He is approaching 39 in January, so bowl fast and straight to him.

Again, bowling well to him early in his innings is so important. Historically, Dravid doesn't get his

runs fast, so keeping things quiet puts pressure on his batting partner. Like Sachin, this will be

the last time you see this great player, so make an effort to get your children to watch him play.

V.V.s LAXMAN

TEST RECORDRuns: 8626. Ave: 47. 100s: 17At the MCG: Runs: 111. Ave: 19PAst 5 tests: Runs: 356. Ave: 51A QUALity batsman who loves playing against the Australians. He is

such a different player to the other three. Laxman loves hitting the

ball square, so bowling the proper length is paramount. full and

straight to him with swinging deliveries is the way to go. He is a very

wristy type of player. He has a strong bottom hand and plays the ball

very late. i don't think he likes the bounce that much, so trying to get

him cutting with two gullies may be a good play for him. Laxman has

scored only one hundred in his past 27 tests, so there will be a bit of

pressure on him if the indian batting doesn't fire. i do not envy bowl-

ing to these great players. i haven't even mentioned Gautam Gambhir, M.S. Dhoni and Virat

Kohli, who have 14 test centuries between them. But as a past batsman, i love watching the

big four the most. All have wonderful records, all are different in their own way. However,

history tells me batsmen do not like facing three bowlers faster than 145km/h when they

are 34 or older. these great batsmen will offer chances to the Australians. it is just a matter

of whether the Australian fielding is up to it.

DeAN JoNeS

eXPeRT coMMeNT

ISB 25-12-2011_Layout 1 12/25/2011 1:48 AM


LAHOResTAff RePoRT

THE Pakistan Cricket BoardSaturday dispelled the im-pression that India wouldinfluence the halt of plannedBangladesh cricket team’s

tour to Pakistan next year. An official ofthe PCB dispelled fears expressed byformer captains Zaheer Abbas andRashid Latif that the BCCI could influ-ence the BCB to not tour Pakistan nextyear although the PCB had agreed to letBangladesh nominate a candidate forthe post of vice-president in the ICC.

"Let's not forget that both the Chair-men of the Pakistan and Bangladeshcricket boards signed and issued a jointpress release after talks in Dhaka inwhich it was outlined that Bangladeshwould send its team to Pakistan nextyear but before that it would also send asecurity delegation to Pakistan to assessthe security situation and arrangements

for their team," PCB’s Chief OperatingOfficer, Subhan Ahmad said.

He pointed out that the Bangladesh

board had shown great cooperation andsupport in realising the urgency of Pak-istan once again hosting internationalmatches at home.

"The discussions the PCB Chairmanhad with his Bangladesh board counter-part were productive and Bangladeshwants to support Pakistan by sending itsteam to Pakistan next year for the sched-uled series," he added.

Zaheer and Rashid both expressedfears that while the PCB has conceded itsright to nominate a joint candidate forthe ICC position with Bangladesh in thehope that they will tour Pakistan nextyear, one can't rule out the fact that theIndian board might try to influence andpressurise the Bangladesh board to nottour Pakistan.

Both the former captains pointed outthat the present Indian board set up hadnot been very supportive to Pakistancricket in the last two years and didnothing to indicate they wanted to seePakistan cricket flourish.

The PCB official said that as far asthe Indian board was concerned hecouldn't comment on their stance but in-sisted as far as Pakistan and Bangladeshrelations were concerned they were def-initely very positive.

"Both Zaka Ashraf and MostafaKamal addressed a joint press confer-ence and issued the statement about theBangladesh team wanting to tour Pak-istan and I don't think one can questionthe commitment of the Bangladeshboard in all this," Subhan said.

The official said that the tour wassubject to clearance from the securitydelegation that will visit Pakistan nextmonth.

He said the ICC would get involvedin the security assessment procedure forthe planned tour at a later stage.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh CricketBoard (BCB) President Mustafa Kamalhas stressed the need of support fromPakistan in developing their game asthey prepare to tour Pakistan next year.

India won’t influence Bangladesh’stour to Pakistan, says PCB

LAHOResTAff RePoRT

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) offi-cials will meet Dav Whatmore in Janu-ary to finalise a coaching contract. Theformer Australian player will reach Pak-istan in 2012 and is likely to take chargeof the team after the England series.“We are in discussions with [Dev] What-more," Subhan Ahmed, the PCB's chiefoperating officer was quoted by cricinfo."In fact, we have called him next monthto negotiate and hope to reach a finalagreement with him.”

Earlier, the PCB chairman ZakaAshraf had stated, “We have yet to takea decision on the appointment of thenew coaching staff. It is not my call toname a coach as I have appointed an ex-pert team of former Test cricketers todecide. I have told them to find the bestcandidate.” Pakistan have been withouta regular coach since Waqar Younis’ res-ignation this year following the Zimbab-wean tour. The legendary fast bowlerdid a terrific job for his side and held

everyone together despite a lot of con-troversies in 2010. He left the team on ahigh note, whitewashing Zimbabwe inall three formats of the game.

Since Waqar’s exit, Pakistan’s chiefselector Mohsin Hasan Khan has beengiven charge of the team as an interim

coach. He has shown interest in be-coming a regular, but the PCB wantsan experienced person to handle theresponsibility. This is why Whatmoreseems to be the most ideal candidate tobecome the head coach of Pakistan. Heis considered to be the mastermind be-hind Sri Lanka’s World Cup victory in1996 and also took the challenge ofworking for Bangladesh, team whichbeat India in the group stages of theICC World Cup in 2007.

However, the 57-year-old did notcoach any international side after thatand is currently associated with the In-dian Premier League (IPL) franchiseKolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

Other than Whatmore, the cricketauthorities in Pakistan are also lookingto hire a foreign fielding coach. JulianFountain is the likely candidate forthat role and has been involved withthe Men in Green in the past as well in2001 and 2007. If he comes to anagreement with the PCB, he will jointhe team during the Pak-Eng series inthe United Arab Emirates (UAE).

LAHOResTAff RePoRT

The Pakistan Olympics Association gen-eral council will constitute a sports com-mission on holding of the Asian Beach andYouth Games in Pakistan. Addressing apress conference here at a local hotel, LtGen (retd) Arif Hasan said that the com-mission will be headed by Aqil Shah.

Giving some details of the Saturday’smeeting, Arif said that after going throughthe details of the last meeting, the Pakistanteam’s participation in 4th Common-wealth Youth Games held at Isle in Sep-tember and the 1st South Asian Beachgames held at Sri Lanka in October andgenerally speaking the performance of theteam was okay. Arif, however, did not usethe word satisfactory so for everyone pres-ent in the general council meeting the Pak-istan team’s participation was just ‘ok’.

Then came the consideration and ap-proval of Pakistan’ participation in the3rd Asian Beach Games in China in June2012 and the 30th Olympics in London.“Hockey is the only sport that has quali-fied for the London Olympics while Pak-istan’s participation on wild card inathletics, swimming and shooting etc areyet to be finalised by the InternationalOlympics Committee,” he main-

tained. An interesting thing to note hereis that despite ardent efforts as claimed byseveral sports federations, Pakistan is stillfancying wild card entries. Even the POA,at least eight years old, has failed to getthe best out of stakeholders. Over theyears what the Pakistan sports hasseen is rapid decline in every fieldand sports are no exception. Arifalso mentioned the formation ofthe POA Code of Ethics in linewith the IOC principles.“Shaukat Javed had beenworking on to formulate thecodes but the final approval willbe given by the general body.We would first send the Ethics tothe IOC for their suggestionsand then put it be-fore the general

council for decision,” he maintained.“Then we have a marketing plan and thedevelopment of a new website is under-way to get sponsorship with a plan inwhich the federations and the POA willwork together to get the money required

for the uplift and bettermentof sports,” he added. He

also announced his planof shifting the POA of-fice from Temple RoadLahore while the web-site would have the

comprehensive sportscalendar including the

national, provincial andother games. He also an-

nounced a plan to hold games of differentsports at national level first and then atthe Asian level. “Aqil Shah as the head ofthe Sports Commission will coordinatewill all the stake holders and also tie upwith the federal and as well the Sindhgovernment to give the details of theholding the Beach Games at least at theAsia level and plan out the initiation ofthe Youth Indoor Games. We want to givemore emphasis on youth and first hold anevent at national level and then move onat the Asian level,” he maintained.

He further said that they also plan tohold the Women Games. “We have beenparticipating in 50 percent internationalevents as compared to other countriesand the Sports Commission will work oninfrastructure and other facilities takinglead from KPK which sanctioned Rs twobillion for sports in the province.

On a question on the POA elections,Arif said that he was one of the candi-dates and democratic process will be fol-lowed with the general council being thesole authority on decision making. Hefurther hinted at the holding of theInter-provincial Games’ cut off date bythe end of the year and added that de-cision would be finalsied with the con-sent of the host province while theNational Games will be held in time.

Whatmore due in January

POA plans to hold Asian Beach, Youth Games

Pakistan will testworld’s bestengland: manager

LAHOResTAff RePoRT

Pakistan series will not be easy for Englandin the UAE, said manager Pakistan cricketteam Naveed Akram Cheema. Pakistan willplay three Tests, three Twenty20s and fourOne-Day Internationals against England inthe UAE from January 17 onwards. “Surelyits going to be a tough series for Pakistanbut England should not feel that they wouldgo away with easily. In the current formPakistan will be a hard nut to crack,” saidCheema. “The team has gelled like a well-knit unit under Misbahul Haq and Englandshould see tough time in store in the UAE,”he added. He further stated that the teamwill assemble in the first week of January atLahore and after a brief conditioning campwill leave for UAE. “The team will start itsconditioning camp on January 4 and it willterminate on January 7. The following daywill be rest for the players and on January 9the team will set off to UAE, opening the se-ries with test matches,” he added.

Sialkot Hyderabadadvance in PepsiPCB Cricket

LAHOResTAff RePoRT

Another three matches were decided inpool B of the PCB-Pepsi Cricket Stars U-16 One Day Tournament at three differentvenues of the city. Sialkot, Hyderabad andQuetta sneaked past their rivals. Sialkotbeat Faisalabad by 91 runs, Hyderabadbeat Multab by 17 runs and Quetta movedpast Karachi by two wickets. scoRes: At LCCA cricket ground, Sialkot U-16 – 231 in 45overs: (Umer Javed 46, 86 balls, 4x4s, M zahid 35, 24 balls,2x4s, Abdul rehman 34, 39 balls, 4x4s, Akram Butt 28*, 21balls, 2x4s, 1x6, Muhammad Usman 4-45, Shabih-ul-Hasan 3-53) v– faisalabad U-16 – 140 in 37.5 overs: (Ashar Manzoor63, 69 balls, 7x4s, 1x6, Atiq-ur-rehman 21, 43 balls, 3x4s,Sharaiz Khan 19, 58 balls, irfan elahi 3-21, waqas ilyas 3-22,rehmat Ali 2-4), result: Sialkot U-16 won by 91 runs, toss:Sialkot U-16: Umpires: Sohail Manzoor & tasadduq Jamal;official Scorer: Syed Najam-us-Saeed. At ittefaq CricketGround, Hyderabad U-16 – 164 in 44 overs: (Hamesh Kumar40, 40 balls, 7x4s, raheel Meo 30, 38 balls, 3x4s, waliMuhammad 21, 31 balls, 1x4, Daniyal rajput 19, 39 balls, 1x4,Saqib-ul-Hasan 3-27, imran rafiq 2-22, Junaid zawar 2-42,Muhammad Awais 2-1) v Multan U-16 – 147 in 42.2 overs:(farhan Sarfraz 65, 98 balls, 5x4s, Ameer Hamza 26, 29balls, 2x4s, 1x6wali M 3-23, Ubaid Ullah Khan 2-35).

Aqeel Khanwin UBLtennis title

KARACHIsTAff RePoRT

Aqeel Khan won the men’s finals of theUBL International Hard Court TennisChampionship at the Karachi Gymkhanacourts beating Mohammad Abid Mush-taq. This added to his previous victories inthe Tournament as he has triple-crown:men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixeddoubles. Present on the occasion werePresident UBL Atif R. Bokhari besidesother senior management. The guest ofhonor was Aisam-Ul Haq Qureshi withhis newly wedded wife Faha Akmal.President UBL Atif Bokhari and AisamUl Haq gave trophies to the winners ofthe week long event and the highlight ofthe day was the exhibition match playedby Aisam UI Haq.Speaking on the occasion, PresidentUBL Atif Bokhari said: “UBL is proud topromote the game of tennis in Pakistanwhich has so far not seen the right pro-jection. We hope to make this an annualaffair.”The championship received a lot of at-tention with 250 entries coming for theevents played included men’s singles,men’s doubles, ladies single, mixed dou-bles, veterans above 45, junior under 18and boys under 14. The tournament wasalso played by players from Sri Lanka.The visiting Sri Lankan team comprisedof five players who participated in theevent. Co-sponsors of the event wereCandyland, Dairy Fresh and Q Mobile.

KArACHi: Aisam-Ul Haq Qureshi and hiswife faha Akmal watch the final. PR

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Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd. Printed by Ghulam Akbar, AA & NHT Group, Plot 24, Shalimar Road, Lilly Market, Soan Garden, Islamabad.

Sunday, 25 December, 2011 27


RUMOUR-mongering will end inMarch next year, Prime Minis-ter Yousaf Raza Gilani said onSaturday, as a source told Pak-istan Today that the PPP lead-

ership was expected to announce early pollsafter the Senate elections in March.

Meanwhile, tempers if not lowered, didnot further rise as Gilani reciprocated Chiefof Army Staff (COAS) General AshfaqKayani’s support to the democratic process,saying the statement was “extremely welltaken in the democratic circles”. The primeminister made these remarks while talkingto reporters after addressing a function heldin connection with Christmas celebrationsin Fatima Church. The COAS had on Fridaydismissed rumours of a military takeover asfalse. “The clarification [from the COAS onFriday] is extremely well taken in the dem-ocratic circles,” Gilani said, adding that itwould “definitely improve the situation”.Asked whether any action would be takenagainst the defence secretary, Gilani said,“No one would be replaced unheard.”

Responding to another question abouthis outburst on Thursday, Gilani said,“Golden words are never repeated.”

Asked to comment on PML-N leaderJaved Hashmi’s joining the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf, he said, “I wish JavedHashmi well.” However, Gilani tauntedImran Khan by saying that Khan should givesome tips to the government so it could usethem to change the destiny of the people.

Asked whether the rift between the civil-

ian and military leadership would have anegative impact on the country’s stance onthe NATO attack, Gilani said one statementshould not be taken as a standoff. “You arestuck on one statement while we have beenfighting shoulder-to-shoulder on all issues,including terrorism, Pakistan-US relationsand Kashmir. During this period, we tried toremain on the same page,” Gilani said.

He said following the NATO attack onPakistani posts, the Defence Committee ofthe Cabinet (DCC) had taken unanimous de-cisions on suspension of supplies to NATO,boycott of Bonn conference, evacuation ofShamsi airbase and new terms of engage-ment despite reservations on some issues.

“Including new terms of engagement, alldecisions will be made in parliament,” hesaid, adding that “we will not do anythingand would not keep things hidden from peo-ple and whatever is to be done will come inthe open”. The prime minister said the Par-liamentary Committee on National Securitywould give recommendations on the futurecourse of engagements with the NATO-ISAFand the US.

To queries on gas and power load shed-ding and public protests, Gilani said therewas no question of load management whenthere was a deficiency of gas in the country.

To another question, he said the 18thAmendment was passed through parlia-ment after thorough discussion and debate,adding that the PPP government was tak-ing care of the needs of the minorities andit was doing more than was being doneanywhere in the world. “The Ministry ofNational Harmony will take care of the is-sues of minorities,” he said.

LAHORe sTAff RePoRT

Pakistan Muslim League-NawazPresident Nawaz Sharif on Saturdaysaid he would not allow anyone todestroy the judiciary, the constitu-tion, law or parliament.

Addressing students at Univer-sity of Engineering and TechnologyLahore, Nawaz asked the govern-ment to give more attention to thedifficulties facing the common manand to the development of the coun-try. He said he had never surren-dered to anyone and had alwaystalked about what was in the interestof the country. He asked the studentsto pledge that they would live withhonour and respect.

He said despite strong opposi-tion, he had decided to carry out nu-clear tests because he wanted asovereign and independent Pakistan.

He said his government was workingfor Pakistan’s economic develop-ment when overthrown by a dictator.“The country was doing well duringthe PML-N’s time, we were betterthan many other countries… nowPakistan’s growth rate is 2 percentwhile India stands on mighty 7,” hesaid. GoodbyE: Talking about JavedHashmi after his decision to leavethe PML-N, Nawaz praised Hashmifor his services to Pakistan and theparty. He said Hashmi had run theparty very well in his absence, addinghowever that “it would have beengood if Hashmi had said goodbye be-fore leaving”. Nawaz wished him wellin the future. Later, Nawaz ap-plauded Punjab Chief Minister Shah-baz Sharif on his efforts in lookingafter the province. Nawaz said spe-cial loans would be given to studentsto start their own businesses.

Suicide bomber killssix fC men in Bannu

PeSHAwARsTAff RePoRT

At least six security personnel were killedand 17 others injured in a suicide attack ona Frontier Corps camp along the Kohat-Peshawar Road in Bannu district onSaturday. As a result, various portions ofthe camp and adjacent houses andbuildings were destroyed. Officials said thesuicide bomber drove an explosives-ladenvehicle into the rear wall of the TauchiScouts (FC) camp when the occupants werebusy in offering morning prayers.Soonafter the attack, heavy contingents ofFrontier Corps rushed to and cordoned offthe site. They shifted the bodies and theinjured to the Bannu Combined MilitaryHospital.The officials have so farconfirmed seven casualties, but locals saidrescue activities were in progress and thetoll could rise. Meanwhile, a soldier of thesecurity forces was killed and severalothers injured when militants attacked acheckpost in Kata Saray area of CentralKurram. Officials said four militants wereshot dead in retaliatory action. Two peoplewere killed and six others injured when apassenger van hit a land mine near Hangu.

Won’t allow parliament, judiciary to be ruined: nawazg PML-N president says it would have been nicehad Hashmi said goodbye before leaving party

Rumour-mongeringto end in March: PMg Prime minister reciprocates CoAS’s support to democratic

process g says Gen Kayani’s statement ‘extremely welltaken in the democratic circles’

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