President Zardari says he’s willing toface any challenge

No threat of judicial, militarycoup, says Gilani

PAGE 24 PAGE 21

pakistantoday.com.pk Friday, 2 december, 2011 muharram-ul-Haram 6, 1433rs15.00 vol ii no 156 32 pages lahore edition

PAGE 20

Afridi’s five leads rout of Bangladesh

ISLAMABADSHAIq HuSSAIN

Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayanihas directed the ranks and cadres of militaryto give befitting response to any foreign ag-gression and take a decision in this regard onthe spot as the “command of chain system”has been suspended owing to serious circum-stances in the wake of recent nAtO strikes onPakistani border posts in Mohmand Agency,which killed 24 soldiers.

the attack by nAtO on Saturday, whichis dubbed as “intentional and deliberate” bythe civilian and military leadership, has led togreat anguish and anger among the ranks ofthe armed forces and it has been decided notto tolerate such assault in future and give itbefitting response.

General Kayani held a crucial meetingwith his military commanders a day afterthe nAtO strike at the General headquar-ters (GhQ) but its details were not sharedwith the media. After the meeting, the armychief sent a letter to the armed forces inwhich important decisions taken at GhQwere conveyed to them.

in accordance with the decisions, therewould be no need to follow the army’s com-mand and chain system and any official orsoldier, at any particular place, would be al-lowed to take a decision on his own withoutwaiting for the orders from the top so that anyaggression from outside would be matched.

“the decision has been made owing to thebreaking down of the communication system asresult of the nAtO strike on the Pakistani bor-der post in Mohmand Agency,” an official said.

the nAtO strike, which was unexpected,led to a great loss of life as the army was notanticipating any such aggression from its al-lies and the Pakistani soldiers were takenaback. “the army chief in themeeting declared that no foreignaggression would be allowed in fu-ture and all possible measures arebeing taken to defend the coun-try,” the official said.

Apart from doing away withthe command and chain system,some other important steps arealso being taken such as reinforce-ment of troops on the Pakistaniside of the border and also to in-crease the surveillance flights of thePakistan Air Force (PAF) on thecountry’s border with Afghanistan.

Strike without permission, Kayani tells troopsg Army chief suspends chain of command system to allow officers to take timely action against aggression

ISLAMABADMASOOD REHMAN

In a dramatic development, the memogate case,which had seemingly been overshadowed by Sat-urday’s nAtO/iSAF attack in MohmandAgency, resurfaced with a bang on thursday asthe Supreme Court, admitting the petitions for a

regular hearing, observed that the memo seemed to bean attempt on the sovereignty of the country, soughtreplies from the president, the army chief and theinter-Services intelligence (iSi) chief within 15 daysand formed an enquiry commission with a direction tothe Parliamentary Committee on national Security toforward all details of the issue to the commission.

the apex court appointed former Federal investiga-tion Agency (FiA) director general tariq Khosa the headof the commission to collect evidence in the memo issueand told him to submit his report within three weeks.the court directed all the provincial governments andthe security agencies as well as Pakistan’s missionsabroad to cooperate with the commission in collectionof evidence. the court also empowered the commissionto seek assistance of any retired police officers to com-plete the task. the Cabinet Division was also told to pro-vide full logistical support to the commission.

the mood of the court with regard to the case wasclear from the very outset with the remarks and the ob-servations of the judges - who were apparently con-vinced that a conspiracy against the state and the armyhad been hatched - as Chief Justice iftikhar Muham-mad Chaudhry, who was heading the nine-memberbench hearing the case, noted that interior MinisterRehman Malik had reportedly stated that a communi-cation did take place between Pakistan’s former am-bassador to the US husain haqqani and

Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor ijaz.HAQQANI: the court told haqqani not to leave thecountry, observing that the interior and Foreign Min-istry would be responsible if he did. the court told thegovernment that a special prosecutor general should betasked with collecting pre-trial evidence from the per-sons involved in the matter as well as the other partiesconcerned to determine the legal status of the memoalong with the reasons that necessitated its writing.

Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul haq told thecourt that in response to a parliamentary resolution andon orders from the prime minister, the matter of thememo was sent to a 14-member Parliamentary Com-mittee on national Security, which would begin exam-ining the matter after Muharram, thus the matter maybe referred to it. the court held that although it did not

differ from the mandate of parliament, the committeehad no constitutional mandate to investigate the issue.to a court query, the attorney general stated that theissue could be investigated under the Army Act but thecourt said if the committee had any evidence, it shouldhand it over to the enquiry commission.

the chief justice observed that the court could notcompromise on the sovereignty and defence of thecountry. After hearing Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-n) President nawaz Sharif, who hadonce appeared in court as an accused in the 1990s, thecourt accepted the pleas for regular hearing under

ISLAMABADMIAN ABRAR

Within hours of the SupremeCourt’s orders on the memo con-troversy on thursday, defiant Pak-istan People’s Party (PPP) leadersquestioned the impartiality of the

superior judiciary, saying Pakistan MuslimLeague-nawaz (PML-n) President nawaz Sharifwas conspiring to get President Asif Ali Zardaritried for treason but the government wouldnever surrender its authority of forming commis-sions. “Memogate will be defended in court andthe government will continue the probe throughthe Parliamentary Committee on national Secu-rity and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani willbrief the committee today on the memo contro-versy,” former law minister Dr Babar Awan toldreporters at a crowded press conference alongwith information Minister Dr Firdous AshiqAwan, Religious Affairs Minister Syed KhurshidShah and PPP information Secretary QamarZaman Kaira. “there is a law under which formingany commission is a prerogative of the executive.Until we are in power, we will not surrender theauthority of the executive and parliament,” hesaid, clearly hinting that the government wouldnot implement the court orders to form a commis-sion to probe the controversy.ZARDARI HOLDS MEETING: Earlier, after thecourt orders, Awan briefed President Zardari on thecourt proceedings. Later, the prime minister alsojoined the meeting. During the meeting it was alsodecided that the leadership of the coalition govern-ment would be consulted.

Battle lines drawnMemo a bid against sovereignty: SC

Case is a conspiracy against Zardari: PPP

g Party says Nawaz conspiring to

get president tried for treason

g Babar Awan says govt will

not surrender its authority to

form commissions

g Zardari holds meeting with PPP

ministers to discuss court orders

g Seeks replies from president,

COAS, ISI chief within 15 days

g Forms enquiry commission

headed by former FIA chief, tells

Haqqani not to leave country

g Nawaz tells court he has lost

trust in parliament

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif leaves the Supreme Court on Thursday after

attending the hearing on his petition filed against the memo scandal. The Pakistan People’s Party alleged

that Nawaz was conspiring against President Asif Ali Zardari and wanted to get him tried for treason. afp

legal experts divided on presidential immunity | page 21

Continued on page 04

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Pakistan today 02Friday, 2 December, 2011

iam delighted to welcomeyou on board “Magnifi-cent 7” UAE Expo 2011,

from the 30th of november tothe 2nd of December 2011 atExpo Centre Karachi.

the economic and socialco-operation between Pak-istan & UAE has been exem-plary throughout the historyof these two relatively youngcountries. the strength of thisassociation lies in the under-standing of mutual interests,stemming from genuine con-cern for each other. Bothcountries have played a vitalrole in each other’s nationbuilding throughout and thisaffiliation of help and supportcontinues to this day.

UAE is the land of fusion,of old and new, present and

future, technology and her-itage, modern and traditional,opportunity and develop-ment, all blended within therich culture of the Magnificent7 States of the Emirates.

UAE Expo 2011 is derivedfrom the philosophy of eco-nomic openness to the worldand positive interaction withtrade partners. it is based on theprinciples of parity and mutualinterests. this exhibition is in-tended to deepen the economiccollaboration and bilateral tradebetween the brotherly states ofPakistan and UAE.

i am thankful to the Con-sulate of the United ArabEmirates in Karachi for theidea of Magnificent 7 – UAEEXPO 2011 intended to maxi-mize cooperation in commer-

cial and business opportuni-ties, devise a system of inter-national commercialrelations, as well ensure a re-markable commercial andeconomic standing for ourcountry.

H.H Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al QasimiMinister of foreign Trade

United arab Emirates - UaE

paK-UaE RELaTIONS:NEW HORIZONS

H.H Sheikha Lubna BintKhalid Al Qasimi

Minister of Foreign trade

United Arab Emirates - UAE

thE December 2nd 1971was a day awaited bythe People of the United

Arab Emirates for completetransformation of their politi-cal, socio-economic and edu-cational system into broadspectrum based on commonfaith and trust of our people intheir visionary leadership pin-nacled with ambitions for bet-ter future.

During the last 40 years,massive achievements havebeen made through the in-credible efforts of our peopleto make the dream that oncebedded sand dunes of thedesert come true, it was in-deed the strong determinationand will to meet the challengeof the future and create mirac-ulous turn-around that hastransformed the country’s tra-ditional economy to one of thebest knowledge-based econ-omy and hub of technologicaladvancement through the vi-sion of the Founder of themodern State late SheikhZayed bin Sultan Al nahyan(May Allah rest his soul inpeace). he is the one who saidthat the citizen is the realwealth of the nation.

Our foreign policy is artic-ulated on the principle ofstrengthening friendly rela-tions based on common inter-ests, mutual respect andpeaceful existence with allcountries of the world.

the UAE is following aneffective economic strategybased on openness and diver-sification of income sources,attraction of investment and

harness all resources toachieve high growth in devel-opment. the Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) amounted toDhs. 1093 billion in 2010 ofwhich Dhs.749,2 billion fromnon oil sectors and Dhs. 343.9from the oil sector. the Min-istry of Economy expects thegrowth of Gross DomesticProduct to record 3 to 3.5 per-cent this year.

the officials in the UnitedArab Emirates and the islamicRepublic of Pakistan signifi-cantly emphasize for furtherstrengthening of the bilateralrelations with greater economiccooperation based on commonreligion and heritage ties andgeographical proximity.

Encapsulated in a legalframework, the agreements andinitiatives have further strength-

H.E. Essa Abdulla Al Basha Al Noaimiambassador & Head Of UaE Mission In pakistan

UaE Embassy, Islamabad

His Excellency Eisa AbdullahAlbasha Al Nuaimi

Ambassador & head Of Uae Mission

in Pakistan Uae Embassy, islamabad

Pakistan and UAE havebeen allies since thefoundation for our

great nation was laid 40years ago on 2nd December,1971. the relationship hasgrown to become an exampleof co-operation and friend-ship, with mutual respectand unconditional concern.People of Pakistan haveplayed a vital role in the de-velopment of UAE and UAEhas always been at the fore-front in support of Pakistanthrough thick and thin.

in the field of trade andindustries, relationship be-tween both countries has been

strong as Pakistan and UAEhave strong bilateral commer-cial interaction since long andif present is of any beckoningall indication are that futurewill follow suit. Being one ofPakistan’s major trading part-ners and the second largestsource of home remittancesfor the country, bonding be-tween the two nations hasbeen a significant steppingstone towards the bettermentof the entire Muslim nation,while providing ample oppor-tunities to further strengthenmutual ties.

having witnessed UAErapidly striding towards

growth and prosperity, i cangraciously testify the immense

HE. Suhail Bin Matar Al- KetbiConsul General (Karachi) United arab Emirates

HE. Suhail Bin Matar Al- KetbiConsul General (Karachi)

United Arab Emirates

By Mahmoud Ansari

the bilateral relations betweenthe United ArabEmirates and Pakistan are ac-quiring new dimensions at allpolitical, economic and sociallevels emerging into trust-wor-thy strategic partnership.

it is hoped that the10th UAE-Pakistan Joint Minis-terial Commission (JMC) heldin Abu Dhabi during 14-15 no-vember and the Magnificent 7UAE Expo” in Karachi on30th november would furtherstrengthen their economic rela-tions in the immediate future.

Right from the beginning ,the UAE has been famousamong all comity of the worlddue to its generous humanitar-ian assistance, stability, toler-ance, innovation, vision forbetter health and education.now, it has become hub of in-vestments, re-exports, tech-nologies, tourism, and the lastnot the least, renewable ener-gies.

in Pakistan, it encouragesinvestment and calls for greatertrade and commerce activities.UAE is one of the largest in-vestors in the country but bilat-eral trade has been steadilygrowing over the years and peo-ple-to-people contacts are con-stantly on the increase.Infinite Bonds

the founder of UAE SheikhZayed bin Sultan Al nahyan waskeen to give an impetus to thebilateral relations between the

two countries from the very be-ginning. it was further strength-ened and patronized by h.h.Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Alnahyan, the President of theUAE and h.h. Sheikh Mo-hammed bin Rashid al Mak-toum, Vice-President, PrimeMinister and Ruler of Dubai.

Both countries reaffirmtheir strong commitment to fur-ther reinforce the bonds offriendship. they urge the needto expand the horizon of theirbilateral cooperation in diversefields reflecting deep-rootedand historic ties.

Around 1.4 million Pak-istani expatriates are working inUAE .they sent $ 2.45 billionbeing the highest remittances inthe current fiscal year whichcontributed significantly in themacro-economy of Pakistan.Investments

the UAE is the largest in-vestors in Pakistan among theGulf Cooperation Council(GCC). the report of the UAEMinistry of Foreign tradeshowed that public and privatesectors invested about $3.74 bnin Pakistan during 2004- 2010.

the report indicates thatmultinational companies havemade investments in differentsectors in Pakistan includingthe Emirates national Oil Com-pany, “Enoch”, the interna-tional Petroleum investmentCompany “iPiC” the Emiratestelecommunications Corpora-tion “Etisalat”, Dana gas, Al

8 continued on Page 04 8 continued on Page 05 8 continued on Page 05

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Pakistan today 03Friday, 2 December, 2011

‘New branches of DIBPL beating their own targets’

By Ali Athar

Junaid Ahmed joined Dubai is-lamic Bank Pakistan Limitedas President and Chief Execu-

tive Officer in August 2010. he is aseasoned banker with over thirtythree years of richly diversified ex-perience in the areas of GeneralBanking, Foreign Exchange, treas-ury, Corporate and investmentBanking with leading banks in Pak-istan and the Middle East.

he started his career as atrainee Officer with BCCi, Pakistanin October 1977. he worked in theUAE Banking industry for over 30years in different position. Amongthe notable achievements he hadbeen instrumental in steeringUnion national Bank which was es-tablished after the closure of Bankof Credit and Commerce in 1991, tobecome one of the largest Banks inthe UAE. he set up the CorporateBanking platform under centralizedstructure within Union nationalBank, UAE where he served ashead of Corporate & investmentBanking. he joined Dubai islamicBank, UAE as head of PrivateBanking in October 2003 where heestablished the Private Bankingbusiness within the Bank.

he served for four years ashead of Corporate & investment

Banking in Dubai islamic Bank,UAE. he developed strong footingof Corporate & investment Bankingin DiB within UAE and the Gulf re-gion as well as creating many crosssells initiatives. his last assignment,prior to joining Dubai islamic BankPakistan Limited (DiBPL) wasChief of international Business,Dubai islamic Bank, UAE.

As Chief of international Divi-sion, he managed to turn aroundthe business of DiB Pakistan Lim-ited into a profitable institution. hewas instrumental in converting andsetting up a full fledged islamicBank in Jordan, the Jordan Dubaiislamic Bank that opened its first

branch in January 2010. he also de-veloped a phased strategy for BosnaBank international, Bosnia and postimplementation, the Bank hasstarted showing positive results.

Along with serving as the CEOfor DiBPL, he has also served as Di-rector on the Board of MESC - Jor-dan Dubai islamic Bank, Bank ofKhartoum- Sudan and Bosna Bankinternational – Bosnia herzegov-ina.

DiBPL has just completed fiveyears in Pakistan. how would youdescribe the overall Bank’s journey?

Dubai islamic Bank PakistanLimited (DiBPL) commenced itsoperations in Pakistan in 2006. Bythe grace of Allah, we have com-pleted five successful years in Pak-istan. During this tenor, the Bankhas strived to offer state-of-the-artislamic Banking products and serv-ices to its customers and hopes tocontinue maintaining this traditionfurther.

DiBPL as a fresh new entrantin the Pakistani islamic banking in-dustry faced emerging competitionwith steadfast determination. theBank currently enjoys a short-termcredit rating of A-1 and long-termcredit rating of Single A. We areproud to be one of the fastest-grow-ing banking networks of Pakistancurrently standing at 73 branches in28 cities. We have plans for furtherexpansion of our network to 75 bythe end of year 2011.

We have strived to make is-lamic alternatives for all conven-tional products that serve genuineneeds of trade and business so thatour segment of population embrac-ing islamic Banking can be fullybenefited. Our diversified productportfolio includes Current & Sav-ings Accounts, term Deposits, For-eign Currency Accounts, Auto andhome Finance, takaful SavingsPlan and Priority Banking.

in addition, DiBPL has been apioneer in offering the most com-prehensive portfolio of state-of-the-art Alternate Delivery Channels(ADCs) giving 24/7 banking accessto customers comprising of inter-net Banking, SMS Banking, AtMsand Cash Deposit Machines.

DiBPL also offers world class

expertise in Corporate, SME and in-vestment Banking services. DiBPL’sinvestment Banking provides itsclients with a unique combinationof expertise, broad range of invest-ment banking/financial services

and access to top regional decisionmakers. Our exquisite Cash Man-agement services help businessesreduce turn-around times for nu-merous cash flow activities alongwith providing real-time reporting

services. Overall, DiBPL’s Corpo-rate Banking pays attention to theintricate details of business needs intoday’s world to give to them the

■ Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited President/CEO Junaid Ahmed says the bank plans to expand its network to 75 before year-end

8 continued on Page 05

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:19 AM Page 3

By Syed Turab Shah

On 2nd December2011, the United ArabEmirates celebratesits fortieth nationalDay, completing four

decades since the establishment ofthe state in 1971. not surprisingly,the occasion is being marked withcelebrations throughout the sevencomponent emirates of the federa-tion, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah,Ra's al-Khaimah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain and Fujairah.

Located in the south-east cor-ner of the Arabian peninsula, theseven emirates, formerly knownas the 'trucial States', were intreaty relations with Britain for150 years. With the announce-ment by the British that theywould be withdrawing from theregion in 1971, the rulers of theemirates, led by the UAE's found-ing father, the late Sheikh Zayedbin Sultan Ai nahyan, decided toform a federation, to work to-gether to bring prosperity and de-velopment to their people. Aidedby the vision of Sheikh Zayed, whobelieved that the revenues fromthe oil and gas resources of hisown emirate, Abu Dhabi, shouldbe put to use in the service of theinhabitants of the country as awhole, the UAE has subsequentlyemerged as one of the fastestgrowing and most stable countriesin the Middle East region.

Sheikh Zayed himself died in2004, after over thirty years asPresident. the process of growth,however, has continued under theleadership of his son and successoras President, his highness SheikhKhalifa bin Zayed Ai nahyan, theVice President and

Prime Minister and Ruler ofDubai, his highness Sheikh Mo-hammed bin Rashid Ai Maktoum,their fellow members of the UAE'sSupreme Council of Rulers and theCrown Prince of Abu Dhabi andDeputy Supreme Commander ofthe UAE Armed Forces, his high-ness Sheikh Mohammed bin ZayedAi nahyan. Despite the vicissitudesof the global economy in recentyears, the programme of develop-ment is still firmly under way.

the guiding principles thatunderlie the success of the state,originally laid down forty yearsago, remain fundamental elementsin the policies of the UAE's Gov-ernment. One was that the re-sources deriving from Abu Dhabi'soil and gas should be shared acrossthe country in the development ofits infrastructure. A second wasthat, as Sheikh Zayed put it, 'thecountry's real wealth is its people',and that, in consequence, particu-lar effort should be made to ensurethat they should benefit from thebest available access to education,health care and social services, toequip them, both men and women,to play their full part in the coun-try's growth.

today, women account foraround 70 per cent of all universitygraduates in the country and fillaround two thirds of governmentjobs, providing four members ofthe Cabinet, ambassadors and evenair force pilots, evidence of the

country's success in empoweringits women.

A third principle, in recogni-tion of the fact that the UAE wasa country that would attract peo-ple of many nationalities, was thatit should be a country where aspirit of tolerance between thoseof different communities andfaiths should prevail, yet onewhere its own national cultureand heritage should be both cher-ished and protected. Althoughfirmly committed to the islamicfaith of its citizens, the UAE isnow home to over 40 churchesand cathedrals as well as to placesof worship for other faiths.

And the fourth principle, look-ing outside the country, was thatthe UAE was to seek to promote di-alogue, co-operation and the reso-lution of conflicts, both within theArab world and the broader is-lamic community and within thewider international community.

Over the course of the pastyear, important steps have beentaken, both at home and abroad, inthe further implementation ofthose principles. in both areas, thecontinuity in policy is notable. in-deed, that continuity has been cru-cial in the UAE's progress over thelast forty years.

in 2011, a year when dramaticand often violent change hasrocked much of the Arab world, aspeoples seek Governments that aremore responsive to their eco-nomic, social and political needs,the United Arab Emirates has beenable to continue on a steady pathof evolutionary development.thus, for example, in September,an important step forward wastaken in the widening of popularparticipation in the process of gov-ernment, through an expansion ofthe electorate for the country'sparliament, the Federal nationalCouncil from under 7,000 to129,000, representing almost 30per cent of the potential electors.While participation in the elec-tions themselves was smaller thanhad been anticipated - an indica-tion of a broad degree of satisfac-tion with the current system -plans are now being drawn up foran extension of the powers of theFnC itself, while its members setabout the important task of serv-ing as elected representatives ofthe country's citizens at large.

Meanwhile, Government dis-played its continued commitmentto the upgrading of the social andeconomic infrastructure of thesmaller emirates which, unlikeAbu Dhabi and Dubai, lack re-sources derived from oil and gasrevenues and from thriving com-mercial and tourism sectors suffi-cient to be able to finance theirown growth. Following an exten-sive tour of these emirates early inthe year by the Crown Prince ofAbu Dhabi, hh Sheikh Mo-hammed bin Zayed, designed toidentify the most urgent needs forinvestment, President hh SheikhKhalifa bin Zayed ordered an im-mediate allocation of Dh 5.7 billion(around US $ 1.55 billion) for ex-pansion of the water and electricitynetwork and for upgrading of thelocal health care services and of

housing for UAE citizens. As theimplementation of these instruc-tions got under way, further areasfor investment were also identi-fied, funded both by the Govern-ment of Abu Dhabi and by thefederal UAE Government.

this is, of course, a processthat will take some time to com-plete. While the UAE's annualbudgets have always been heavilyfocused on the provision of serv-ices, the provisional federalbudget for the year 2012, issued inOctober, included increased allo-cations for development expendi-ture. Within the overall budget,amounting to Dh 41.4 billion (US$ 11.2 billion), the social services,including health care, educationand housing, accounted for 47 percent of the total. Of this education,including higher education, willreceive Dh 8.26 billion ( US $ 2.25billion) or 19.6 per cent, the bulkof which will be spent on plans tobuild new schools and other edu-cational institutions and to up-grade the educationalenvironment. A further Dh 5 bil-lion (US $ 1.36 billion) is allocatedto the Federal Water and Electric-ity Authority, to permit continuedexpansiol1 of tile Aatllority's net-works ill Ra's al-Kllairnall, Ajfllal1,Uiiiiii al- Qaiwain and Fujairah.Power and water projects in theother emirates continue to befunded by the local Governments.

the budget also offers evi-dence of the success of a long-standing policy that the federalGovernment should makeprogress towards being able tofund its own programmes, withrevenues from fees and servicesbeing expected to raise around Dh25.5 billion (US $ 6.9 billion) orjust over 61 per cent of the totalbudget. this has been achieveddespite the fact that the UAE re-mains, with a few exceptions, atax-free economy and one, more-over, where there are no controlson the inflow or outflow of capitalor profits, in line with keeping thecountry a free market economy.

naturally, the revenues fromoil and gas production continue toprovide an important contributionto the national economy. With thefourth largest oil reserves in theworld and with a production rateof around 2.5 million barrels a day,primarily from Abu Dhabi, as wellas the fifth largest gas reserves inthe world, the UAE remains one ofthe world's largest producers ofhydrocarbons. A large-scale in-vestment programme is under wayto increase sustainable productioncapacity of both onshore and off-shore oi/fields in Abu Dhabi whileduring the course of 2011 workproceeded according to schedulefor the bringing on stream of newoilfields both in Abu Dhabi and inDubai.

the success of a longstandingprogramme to diversify the sourcesof national income, however, hasmeant that oil and gas revenuesnow account for only about thirtyper cent of Gross national Product,despite relatively high oil prices.tourism, a rapidly growing sector,now accounts for well over 10 percent of GDP, with over twelve mil-

lion visitors a year making theirway to the country, stimulatingcontinued growth in the country'snational airlines, in particular AbuDhabi's Etihad, Dubai's Emiratesand FlyDubai and Sharjah's AirArabia. the country's seaports, too,are contributing to the growth ofthe tourism sector, attractingdozens of cruise liners a year, al-though the more conventionalseaborne trade and commerce con-tinue to account for most of theUAE's shipping business, alongwith marine bunkering, where theEast Coast port of Fujairah is nowthe second largest bunkering portin the world.

Another indication of thehealth of the local economy is pro-vided by its non-oil foreign trade,which rose by 14 per cent in 2010,to Dh 754.4 billion (US $ 205.3billion), compared to 2009. Ex-ports rose by 27 per cent and re-

exports by 26 percent, with non-oil imports rising only by 8 percent. Foreign trade has continuedto rise in 2011.

Another important sector,construction, which employs over

half of the total labour force, hasbegun to recover from the sharpdownturn in 2008 and 2009 thatoccurred as a result of the firstphase of the current global eco-nomic crisis.

Pakistan today 04Friday, 2 December, 2011

Ghurair, Emaar, DP World,Abraaj Capital, thani, Danata,Atharihra agricultural Com-pany, Gulf Pharmaceutical in-dustries “Julfar,” the Emiratesinvestment Group, the ArabCompany for Packaging, Alnasser holdings.

Pakistan offers vast oppor-tunities for foreign direct in-vestments and joint ventures ininfrastructure development;electricity generation, waterdesalination, agricultural basedindustries, insurance and realestate.

Prospects of initiating jointventures in aluminum prod-ucts, agriculture (horticulture,farming, dairy farming andlivestock, financial sector,housing prefabricated housesand affordable low incomehouses are bright. Small andMedium Enterprises (SMEs)can also be tapped.

8 continued from Page 02

PAK-uAE RELATIONSUAE celebrates its 40th National Day

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convenience they require.Our journey has been marked

with numerous achievements andvaluable experiences. As a Bank, wewish to take forward our learning’sof the past five years and transformthem for the better in the comingfuture.

how is DiBPL able to provide“World Class Banking-the islamicWay?”

DiBPL has always sought itsstrength in its slogan. Being theFirst islamic Bank of the world andhaving a global presence in theUAE, Jordan, turkey, Sudan andBosnia, we are in a position to offerthe best mix of banking services toour customers. having access to thebanking practices of innovativemodern markets, we have a pool ofknowledge to enable our customersto benefit from. Our Shari’a advisorsplay a crucial role in providing Shar-i’a-complaint solutions and alterna-tives for all those products thatserve genuine requirements of thefinancial sector.

Overall, our international pres-ence with highly experienced man-agement team enables us to provideWorld Class Banking- the islamicWay.

What to you are the greatestachievements of DiBPL so far?

DiBPL can proudly claim tohave achieved a lot in a short spanof time. Currently, we are one of thefastest-growing banking networksof Pakistan with 70 branches in 27cities. MashaAllah, our newbranches are showing outstandingperformance and beating their owntargets. We are planning to expandour network further to 75 before theend of year 2011.

Along with nation-wide net-work, we have one of the widest ar-rays of banking products andservices under one roof. the Bankhas made an attractive profit of PKR168 Million before tax in the firsthalf of 2011. We have established asustainable and growing marketshare in the banking sector with ourcorporate and consumer bankingpropositions that cater to theunique and halal financial needs ofbusiness entities and individualsalike.

Since inception, our focus hasbeen on providing unique servicesto our customers. in this respect, wehave first-mover advantages in a va-riety of banking services such asBancatakaful, Branchless Bankingand Cash Management Services.Also, we are the only islamic Bankin Pakistan to be offering PlatinumBanking, Mobile internet Bankingand SMS Banking.

in the area of Consumer Bank-ing, DiBPL has remained activelycognizant of the industry dynamicsand customer needs by offering anumber of world class products andservices. DiBPL’s Auto Finance reg-istered a volume of Rs 2.9 billionwithin 9 months of its launch. in amarket where cut throat competi-tion persists, this reflects a greatsuccess for the Bank.

Similarly, DiBPL’s home Fi-nance facility reached the fastest bil-lion mark in the entire bankingindustry within the first threemonths of launch only. Within thefirst year of its launch, DiBPL homeFinance registered a volume of Rs2.6 billion, which is the fastestgrowth rate in the entire industry.

DiBPL has also played a piv-otal role in various Sukuk transac-tions. From its structuringcapability to distribution and cov-erage strength, DiBPL has addedimmense value to the Sukuk is-sued in Pakistan so far. DiBPL hasbeen engaged in major Sukuktransactions such as Karachi Ship-yard and Engineering Works Lim-ited (KSEW), Power DevelopmentAuthority (WAPDA),Engro Chem-icals Pakistan Limited (ECPL), SuiSouthern Gas Company Ltd.(SSGC) and Sitara Chemical in-dustries Ltd. (SCiL). DiBPL’sSukuk transaction for EngroChemicals Pakistan Limited(ECPL) received the Best PakistanDeal award for 2007 from islamicFinance news, the industry’s lead-ing publication. in addition,DiBPL was the Shari’a and Struc-turing Advisor for the Rs 191 Bil-lion Government of PakistanSukuk.

What do you think are themajor misconceptions about is-lamic Banking that people have?how can these misconceptions beeradicated?

halal source of income is in-deed a sensitive and debatable topicbut it is not a subject to be avoided.it has been given immense impor-tance in islam and as a Muslimcountry; it is the responsibility ofthe learned to pass the knowledge tothe less educated.

the major misconception thatsome people may have in Pakistanis that islamic banking and conven-tional banking is the same giventhat usually the end commercial re-sults may also be the same. newcustomers often raise an array ofquestions such as how the profitrates are so similar between islamicand conventional banks and why is-lamic Banks never distribute losseseven though their financial state-ments maybe indicating a loss.

islamic banks may have a “lookand feel” similar to conventionalbanks, but this is primarily becausethe islamic Banks strive to offerhalal products at competitiveprices, while there are substantialstructural differences between is-lamic banking products and theirconventional counterparts. thebasic requirement of Shari’a is thatyou need to undertake asset-basedtransactions under the set islamicModes of Finance. in addition, allstandard operating procedure of theislamic Bank need to be 100% Shar-i’a compliant. it’s the same as halaland haram meat. A McDonaldsBurger in Karachi and new Yorkmay look alike, taste alike and feelalike. the processing however at thebackend backed up by a recognizedFAtWA (Shari’a pronouncement)which is certainly different, makesone halal and the other non-halal.

islamic Banks measure theirprofit rates using the KiBOR or Dis-count Rate as declared by SBP. thismeasurement is purely used as abenchmark and does not in any wayrender the Bank’s transactionsunislamic. the KiBOR and DicountRate benchmarks in the absence ofan islamic inter Bank rate is only setto enable wide acceptance andrecognition by our customers.

in addition, the financial state-ment may indicate a loss in terms ofa particular islamic Bank’s overallprofitability as the expenses of theBank may outpace its income/profitfrom the Mudaraba, just like an in-dividual whose home expendituremay be more than his income fromhis salary or business. however,based on the strong Shari’a ap-proved profit allocation modelunder Mudaraba, the investmentsof the deposit holders are appropri-ately diversified in case of losseswhich may result in lower profits tothe deposit holders in such cases.

the perception present in themarket is due to lack of awarenessregarding islamic Banking prod-ucts. however, by the grace of Allahmost of these misconceptions aregradually fading away.

Even though there are numer-ous steps being taken from dedi-cated courses in universities toseminars and various articles innewspapers on islamic Banking, thetelevision media can be an impor-tant way of removing the miscon-ceptions of the people. Reputed andtrusted ulemas can be given airtimeto explain the concepts of islamicBanking to the people and take theirlive queries.

how fruitful was your recentAd campaign? What was the majormessage that you wished to give toyour audience?

DiBPL’s recent AD campaignhad a two pronged approach whichincluded enhancing the corporateimage of the Bank and advertisingour unique products. the corporatecampaign was aimed at reflectingupon the achievements of DiBPLthat the Bank has enjoyed since in-ception and held the message thatbanking with us will offer our cus-tomers the best blend of traditionaland modern Banking practices inline with our islamic values. OurCorporate Ad showed upon ourDubai base as our strength and re-flected it as the modern side of is-lamic Banking.

Our product specific ads wereaimed at marketing our uniqueproduct range comprising of theCash Manager Account, Fixed De-

posits, Platinum Banking, JuniorAccount and E-Savings Account.Each product has its own uniquestanding, with most of these notbeing offered by any other islamicBank.

Alhamdulillah, our Ad Cam-paign efforts have paid off in raisingawareness of DiBPL amongst themasses and generating higher salesfor many of our products. this wecan say seeing the rising statistics ofour call centre calls rate and morecustomer flow-through rate inbranches. We look forward to thisAd Campaign to open up newer av-enues for us in the future as we in-tend to make AtL and BtLmarketing a regular feature of ourbanking activities.

how do you withstand thetough competition in islamic Bank-ing industry?

Competition has been tough inthe islamic Banking industry interms of capturing market sharefrom the existing conventionalbanking industry and from the newgrowing bankable population par-ticularly in the rural and unservedareas of Pakistan. however, DiBPLhas endeavoured to remain at parwith the competition by using a fo-cused approach whereby we havemade niche market products for asegmented group of customers. Forexample, our Platinum Banking,one of its kind in the Banking indus-try has successfully drawn depositsfrom the elite class of DiBPL.

We are proud to continuouslyinvest in infrastructure and technol-ogy which has enabled us to pro-duce state-of-the art products thatcan easily stand strong against evenconventional banks. Like we right-fully claim that our portfolio of Al-ternative Delivery Channels(ADCs), targeted towards the tech-savvy range of customers isamongst the best in the industry.

Likewise, other than the mass-market products, a targeted ap-proach is our strength which onlycomes from continuous investmentin technology and human re-sources.

What do you feel are the keyfactors in contributing to DiBPL’ssuccess?

Our valued human Resourcesare our key strength. Where on onehand we believe in capitalising onour experienced staff members whohave been our key counterpartssince inception, we continuouslybring in fresh blood to keep theBank at par with the changing mar-ket conditions. Our renownedSharia Board has been our greatsupport in aligning all our activitieswith the islamic principles to ensurethat our products and services arepurely halal.

Our association with UAE isalso a contributing factor to ourwellbeing as there is a continuoustransfer of knowledge here. We areable to combine the best of themodern developed world with a tra-ditional touch to our customers inPakistan.

Moreover, we feel that as aBank, we are in a constant mode oflearning and hence improving. Welearn from our own mistakes, inef-ficiencies and weaknesses and lookto them with an optimistic view.the reason for our business exis-tence draws its roots from an is-lamic path of guidance and an act ofvirtue, which is intrinsically a factorof success for us as we strive to doan act of righteousness in the nameof Allah.

What are DiBPL’s plans for thefuture?

Eyeing the future in a verycompetitive islamic Baking industryof Pakistan, we wish to provide notjust islamic products but offer ourcustomers a distinctively uniquerange of islamic Banking financialsolutions.

Our plans for next year includetaking our branch network to 100along with developing further newniche-market products. We intendto use the best mix of innovation,talent and technology to achieve thedual goal of spreading the wings ofislamic Banking far and wide. inthis effort, we will undertake moremarketing campaigns to reflectupon the virtues of Sharia-com-plaint banking and the launch ofShari’a compliant products and so-lutions for banking products thatserve genuine needs of the economyand finance.

ened the bilateral relationsbetween UAE and Pakistan.

Soon after my arrival toislamabad, two months ago,to start my new diplomatic as-signment, i took the initiativewith a zeal and determinationto scale up the level of bilat-eral relations between the twocountries in all political, eco-nomic and social spheres andinteraction between the peo-ple of the two countries.

i have a background ofour relationship with Pakistanof many years, during whichthe United Arab Emiratefirmly stood with Pakistan atall times.

the social welfare proj-ects of the United Arab Emi-rates in Pakistan are morethan 200. these include hos-

pitals, clinics and health carecenters. his highness SheikhKhalifa bin Zayed Al nahyan’stwo hospitals situated inMuzaffarabad and Rawalakot,costing about 50 million USdollars are the prime exam-ples of our generous humani-tarian assistance programs.

the projects also include auniversity, several colleges andschools, roads, power projectsand Wildlife reserves in thedifferent parts of the country.

Sheikh Khalifa city in Bal-akot has been completed andthe constructed houses willsoon be handed over to thevictims of the devastatingearthquake.

Most vital, is the “Emi-rates project to assist Pak-istan” which is underway torehabilitate the infrastructureservices by constructing

roads, bridges, schools, healthclinics, water purification andtreatment plants in KhyberPakhtoon Khwa Province andthe tribal belt of Pakistan.

the UAE is one of thefirst countries to provide eco-nomic aid with the help ofAbu Dhabi DevelopmentFund and humanitarian assis-tance though teams from theUAE Armed Forces, ZayedFoundation for Charitable &humanitarian works, Khalifabin Zayed Al nahyan human-itarian Foundation, the RedCrescent Authority, Mo-hammed bin Rashid al Mak-toum humanitarian andcharitable Foundation andSharjah Charity Associationand others.

Moreover, in recent yearsthe UAE has emerged a majorleading donor in the world.

Pakistan today 05Friday, 2 December, 2011

8 continued from Page 02

HE. SuHAIL BIN MATAR AL- KETBI

importance of supportand help from the people ofPakistan in Emirates in vari-ous fields. We would like to el-evate our collaboration withPakistan to even higher levelsin political, economic, and so-cial forums.

in order to cherish thiscordial and mutually reward-ing relationship and to ex-plore more avenues of jointcollaborations, the Consulateof the United Arab EmiratesKarachi is organizing “Mag-nificent 7” UAE Expo 2011from november 30 to Decem-ber 02, 2011 at Karachi. i in-vite all my distinguishedfriends of the corporate worldto actively participate in thissignificant event to make it agrand success.

8 continued from Page 02

H.E. ESSA ABDuLLA AL BASHA

8 continued from Page 03

JuNAID AHMED

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:19 AM Page 5

06Friday, 2 December, 2011

Lahore

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LAHORESTAff REPORT

LAhORE Bar Association(LBA) on thursday took out arally from Aiwan-e-Adl toPunjab Assembly, to con-demn the nAtO strikes on

Pakistan Army check posts in MohmandAgency and to express solidarity with thePakistan Army.

the rally, which started from Aiwan-e-Adl, was joined by Supreme Court Barassociation, Lahore high Court Bar Asso-ciation at GPO Chowk, by Punjab Unionof Journalists and Lahore Press Club infront of Diyal Singh Mansion and by AllPakistan Anjuman-e-tajran in front ofPanorama centre. the traders of MallRoad showered flower petals on the par-ticipants of the rally.

A good number of lawyers partici-pated in the rally and chanted slogansagainst America, nAtO and PresidentAsif Ali Zardari. they demanded of thegovernment to react strongly against theattack and raise the issue in the SecurityCouncil of United nations.

the participants of rally were carry-ing national flags, banners, play cards in-scribed with ‘America ka jo yar hai

ghdaar hai ghadaar hai’ and ‘nAtOaggression unacceptable’.

Addressing to the participantsat Faisal Chowk, the lawyers’ rep-resentatives Muhammad AslamZar (secretary SCBA), LehrabGondal vice chairman PBC, As-ghar Ali Gill president LhCBA,Shahzad hassan Sheikh presidentLBA demanded of the governmentto get all army bases vacated in-cluding “Shahbaz Air Base” fromAmericans by December 11. thelawyer representatives also an-nounced a complete strike on De-cember 11 throughout the country.

they said the army should re-spond to the attacks and the Amer-ican Consulate should be emptied. JOURNALISTS PROTEST: La-hore Press Club President SarmadBashir condemned the nAtO at-tacks and also the insensitive atti-tude of US government. he said theUS called for investigation into theattacks, but it had not bothered tohold any investigation before wag-ing war on Afghanistan and iraq.

he also criticised the non-participa-tion of political parties in the thursday’srally. he said PML-n chief nawaz Sharif

and Pti chief imran Khan should havejoined the rally.TRADERS PROTEST: the Mall and

hall Road traders’ Associationpresidents naeem Mir and BabarMehmood, and All Pakistan Anju-man-e-tajiran Khalid Pervez alsospoke on the occasion. the tradersalso installed a monument at Char-ring Cross to pay tribute to the mar-tyrs of Mohmand Agency attack.Strict security measurements hadbeen taken for the rally. ‘REMOVE KIYANI’SPOSTERS!’: Former SCBA Pres-ident Asma Jehangir bluntly re-fused to address the rally atFaisal Chowk because the partic-ipants were carrying pictures ofArmy Chief General Kiyani. Sheleft the rally without addressingthe participants. PTI PROTESTS: Pakistantehreek-e-insaf (Pti) held aprotest demonstration against thenAtO attack and Pakistani Govern-ment outside the US Consulateon thursday. Pti members burntthe statue of nAtO Chief and de-manded the Government to part itsways from US’ alliance. Punjab Pti

General Secretary Dr Yasmeen Rashid ledthe protest whereas Lahore PresidentMahmood-ur-Rasheed and other Pti of-

ficials were also there. Large number ofPti members raised slogans against thenAtO attack and Pakistani government.Protestors said the US was Pakistan’senemy, not an ally. they also said ifPakistani forces answer the nAtO ag-gression with might then the nAtO willnever dare to attack again. they saidcondemnation was not enough and thegovernment should kick the US out ofthe country. PU PROTESTS: Punjab UniversityVice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamransaid the RAW, CiA and Mossad had builta force to destroy our land whereas Pak-istan, Afghanistan, iran and turkey coulddefeat the US. he also said the US armywas the biggest terrorist in the worldwhich had murdered hundreds of thou-sands innocent people in Japan, iraq,Afghanistan and other countries but hadnot apologised. he was addressing aprotest gathering against the nAtO at-tack on Pakistani check posts inMohmand Agency here in the lawn ofCollege of Art and Design, Old Campus.ARTS COUNCIL PROTEST: A protestwill be held by the literary and artist com-munity under the banner of the LahoreArts council on December 3, at 2 pm. thevenue is Al hamra Arts Council.

Four new model bazaarsto be established

LAHORESTAff REPORT

Four new model bazaars will be established in the cityto provide best quality products at affordable rates.these bazaars would be established at China SchemeGujjarpura, thokar niaz Baig, harbanspura andRaiwind. Lahore Finance EDO Moazzam iqbal Siprainformed that DCO Ahad Cheema, during a meeting onthursday, decided that the auction date for thesebazaars had been fixed for December 3. Facilities atthe already established model bazaars of townshipand Sabzazar were also reviewed in the meeting. theofficers concerned were advised to remove allencroachments in surroundings of these model bazaarsand make foolproof security arrangements.

All up and against NATO’s aggression

Four bodies foundLAHORE

STAff REPORT

Four unidentified dead bodies were found invarious parts of the city on thursday. An oldwoman of 60 was found dead in ShafeeqabadPolice precincts, while an 80-year-old man’sbody was found in the tibi Siti Police juris-diction. two bodies of newborn babies werefound in the police precincts of nishterColony and Chohang.YOUTH SHOT DEAD OVER PETTYDISPUTE: A youth was murdered in Misri

Shah Police precincts on thursday in a clashwith his neighbour over standing in thestreet. Muhammad imran, 20, resident ofKocha Muhammadi Sultan Pura clashed twodays ago with his neighbour, Usman, overstanding outside Usman’s house. the dis-pute was resolved by elders, but Usman de-veloped a grudge against imran and openedfire on him yesterday, while he was standingin the street. imran was taken to the hospi-tal, where he succumbed to severe bullet in-juries. Police registered a case againstUsman, who managed to flee from scene.

LAHORE: With no clear instructions,the Lahore Electric Supply Company of-ficials and the general public are in a fixover Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA) issue.

Some LESCO officials at customercare centres are facilitating customers byexcluding FPA and issuing new bills whileothers are telling them that the amountcannot be deducted.

Some traders have moved thecourt against the FPA and pleaded thatit should be excluded from the currentbills. the monthly FPA for the monthof June was Rs 1.036 per unit and forJuly Rs 2.0429 per unit. Both the FPAswere added in October’s bill, doublingit for some.

LESCO sources said the company of-ficials were not clear about FPA. “thereis no clear instruction from the top man-agement regarding FPA and every officialis taking decision on his own,” thesources said adding this sort of thinkingwould create a lot of problems in thecoming days. they said if the decision ofFPA came against LESCO then there willbe problem for those who have depositedthe bills and if the decision were to be infavour of LESCO then the consumerswould be in hot waters. “if the order asksus to exclude FPA then the customerswho have deposited the bills would haveto wait for the amount to be returned,”said an official, adding “if it is levied, the

bills for the coming months would bevery high also”.

the sources claimed that there wasno mechanism of bifurcating FPA-paidbills from FPA-unpaid bills and the con-sumers would have to make the effort ontheir own. Consumers have expressedutter shock at the mayhem that has beencaused by a lack of clear policy guidelines.

“My cousin living in Samanabadcontacted LESCO office for excludingFPA from the current bill and his billwas corrected but when i contactedLESCO, i was told that there was nosuch facility,” said a domestic consumernabeel Khan at township customercare centre. NAuMAN TASLEEM

CS ordered to decide onIG prison’s appointmentLAHORE: the Lahore high Court on thursday or-dered Punjab chief secretary to give his decision on anapplication pending in his office against appointment ofPunjab inspector General of Prisons Kokab nadeemWarraich till December 14. Justice Umar Ata Bandialpassed the order on a petition filed by Mian Farooqnazeer, DiG prisons, challenging appointment of Punjabinspector General of Prisons Kokab nadeem Warraich.

On thursday, the petitioner’s counsel Asghar Ali Gillpointed out that the petitioner also moved a applicationto the chief secretary against the appointment ofnadeem but no decision was made on it till date. thecourt ordered a law officer to ask the chief secretary todecide the application before December 14 and ad-journed the matter. Mian Farooq nazeer, a DiG prisons,filed the petition, saying after the retirement of formerprisons iG Sarfraz Ahmad Mufti on April 23, 2008, he(the petitioner) was given additional charge of the va-cant post while he was posted as the DiG prisons, Mul-tan region. he said his case for promotion against thevacant post was also forwarded to the provincial selec-tion board by the home Department. however, in Feb-ruary 2009, the governor’s rule was imposed in theprovince and he was directed to relinquish the addi-tional charge of Punjab prisons iG, he said. STAff REPORT

LESCO, fpa and consumers equal mayhem

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:19 AM Page 6

g Five years and an alleged consensual incest later, a 60-year-old man is still looking to find his daughter

07Friday, 2 December, 2011

Lahore

LEARNT YOuR LESSON YET? Two wheelies gather themselves after falling off their bikes. NadEEM IjaZ

Zardari can’t resolveproblems: Shahbaz

LAHORESTAff REPORT

it is hard to expect solution ofall problems from PresidentAsif Ali Zardari, as he himselfis the root cause of allproblems, Punjab CM ShahbazSharif said on thursday.he was answering questions ofpeople on a social networkingwebsite. Shahbaz said that thewhole nation had risen up inprotest and taken to streets

against the president. he said that if needed, the call fora long march to islamabad will be given for resolvingpeoples’ problems. Shahbaz said that in order to get ridof stooges of foreign powers and plunderers of nationalresources, the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-n)will not hesitate from resigning from assemblies, asparliament had been made worthless and its resolutionswere not implemented. he said that the goal of progressand development could be achieved only throughequipping the nation with research and technology forimproving the economy and revolutionary measures willhave to be adopted for improvement of education sectorfor this purpose. Shahbaz said that the nAtO attack wasan open aggression and blatant terrorism in which 28soldiers were martyred.

LAHOREJAMALuDDIN JAMALI

PhYSiCALLY challengedMuhammad Yameen, 60, is aresident of District Layyah.he is also a football in thehands of the Lahore high

Court and two police stations that havedriven him to his wit’s end in his 5-year-long struggle to recover his daughter,Sana Gul, who is still missing.

his trial started when he sent Sana tostudy in the College of nursing of Allamaiqbal Medical College in Lahore and ap-pointed her aunt’s husband, the 40 yearold Ahsan, as her guardian. A father ofsix, Ahsan was married to Sana’s aunttasleem Akhtar and was trusted by thefamily. he thought it would be impossi-ble for him to leave his shop in Layyahand come to Lahore often and a guardianwould make his life easier. now he has to

come to the city nearly every otherday to look for his daughter.

While Sana was in Lahore,Ahsan used to visit her often in hercollege for one year. On January22, 2007, Yameen found out fromthe college’s principal that hisdaughter had gone away withAhsan 15 days ago and had not re-turned. the pretext, according tothe principal, was that Sana’sgrandmother had died and theyhad to go home for the funeral.

to Yameen’s utter astonish-ment, it was later found out thatAhsan had married Sana, eventhough it is strictly haram (prohib-ited) in islam to combine an auntand a niece in wedlock.

After being pushed around by variouspolice stations, Yameen approached theLhC, which ordered the Garhi Shahu po-lice on August 23, 2010,to register an FiR

against accused Ahsan, his brother Zee-shan, and father Usman residents ofLarex Colony Garhi Shahu on the appli-cation of the petitioner-father. two ShOshave come and gone but the FiR is still to

be registered. At first, Yameen had tried to get

an FiR registered in the Gardentown police station, that being thelocation from where the girl waskidnapped. Later, after hearing therumours that she had been killed,Yameen had tried his luck at theGarhi Shahu police station, but tono avail. he had then moved theLhC, whose orders had fallen ondeaf ears. First wife of Ahsan, theaunt of the young girl, is silent.

About three years ago, Ahsanwas arrested by Garden town po-lice and sent to jail. the family ofthe accused had brought Sana toa court mysteriously where shehad recorded her statement se-

cretly under Section 164 in which she, without

telling the whole story, claimed that shehad contracted a love marriage with

Ahsan with her free consent. On thatstatement Ahsan was granted bail fromthe court, after which the father filed apetition for the cancellation of bail, alleg-ing that the accused was an offender.Ahsan has been in hiding since then.

When contacted, Garhi Shahu PoliceStation Additional incharge Manzoorhussain told Pakistan today that he hadsummoned both parties on Friday for in-vestigation and patch-up as it was a mat-ter between two close relatives, a mantrathat his predecessor had repeated manytimes also. Every time this is done,Yameen comes all the way from Layyahwhile Ahsan’s father lives in the neigh-bourhood.

“Some relatives have informed thatthey have killed my daughter. All i wantis to look at her once, to make sure thatshe is well. i don’t care about the rest. isit too much to ask?” Sana Gul’s fatherasks Pakistan today, with tears in eyes.

lHC cancels railway scrap contracts worth rs 92m

LHC Justice Asad

munir retiring today

LAHORESTAff REPORT

Lahore high Court (LhC)Justice Asad Munir will retiretoday (Friday) after attainingthe age of superannuation.he was appointed asadditional judge of the LhCon September 15, 2009. Afterhis retirement, the strengthof LhC judges will be 35against the sanctionedstrength of 60. An adieu willbe held in his honour onSaturday.

Will he ever see his daughter again?

LAHORE: the Lahore high Courton thursday cancelled two contractsfor sale of scrap worth Rs 92 millionwhich were singed by Pakistan Railwaywith M/s Lasani Group in violation ofrules and regulations.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shahpassed the order on a petition filed byiqbal Majeed owner of Steel Re-rollingMills against Railway authorities. Be-sides canceling contract, the court or-dered railway authorities to negotiatewith the petitioner factory and awardthe said tenders/contracts to highestbidder an open bid.

the petitioner had named PakistanRailway (PR) federal secretary, chair-man, general manager, controller of

stores PR and M/S Lasani Group.through his counsel the petitioner

told the court that he had participatedin tender for sale of scrap invited by PRthrough sealed tender bids after de-positing earnest money of Rs 8.9 mil-lion on December 29, 2010. he said thesealed bids were opened on December30, 2010 and the petitioner was highestbidder in two tenders, worth Rs 92 mil-lion, against others. he said the re-spondents later decided to award thetender on basis of negotiations insteadof sealed bids which could be done afternegotiating with the highest bidderfirst, per tender conditions.

the petitioner contended that hewas entitled to be called for negotia-

tions and on his refusal the respon-dents could offer the tender to the per-son of their choice. he submitted thatthe respondent officials with ulterior mo-tives did not invite him for negotiationson the pretext that the money depositedby him was shorter than required.

he contended that the respondentspostponed the negotiation proceedingsscheduled on February 7, 2011, so that,the petitioner be kept away andawarded the tender to M/S LasaniGroup, second highest bidder. the peti-tioner prayed the court to cancel the ten-ders/contracts and directions be issuedto accept bids offered by him and nego-tiate and on his refusal, may award con-tract to any other person. STAff REPORT

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:20 AM Page 7

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wEAtHEr uPDAtES

25°C

ArABic cALLigrApHy

CALLIGrAPHy CLASSES are on-going, interestedstudents can enroll throughout the year. theduration of one module is three months. there arefour modules of learning calligraphyt: primary,secondary, advanced and higher. the course includestraditional pen and traditional paper making.

DAtE AND tImE: NOV 11 tO JuN 1, 2012, 4Pm tO 6PmVENuE: HASt-O-NEESt CENtEr

08Friday, 2 December, 2011

Lahore

LAHOREXARI JALIL

PUnJAB Archeology DepartmentDeputy Director Afzal Khan said onthursday that materials used in re-constructing and repairing the fourgates within the Walled City would

be the same as the original materials used. thefour gates, which are to be repaired as an-nounced by the department on Wednesday, in-clude the Sheranwala Gate, Kashmiri Gate,Bhaati Gate and Lohari Gate. these are probablyin the worst of conditions and need repairingvery badly. “We are going to be using a specialkind of limestone called ‘Kasuri Choona’, whichis found at the river banks of Sutlej-Beas andRavi, and they are found in pebble form,” saidKhan. “this is then used in various forms,” hesays. he said that the pebbles were then laterprepared depending on how they would be usedfor the repairing. it could vary from plastering,to filling in cracks and crevices and using it forfine line plastering. the by products would beprepared by either mixing jute, or crushingbricks or even to leave it out in the sun in a spe-cial method which left the lime in a pasty form.

“But this is not an easy process, and it re-quires technique and funds,” said Khan. “Wecould have used cement but we are not. We areusing the original materials used. And as for theaccusation of political motives, that is what peo-ple have said before when the Motorway wasbeing built. We only have a few gates out of 12and we must preserve them instead of thinkingof these things,” he says.

he said that just like work was being done onRohtas Fort, and Katas Raj temple, work wasbeing done on the gates and with a much lowerbudget. that work was far more important. “theidea came a year ago to work on these gates, soit wasn’t about elections,” said Khan.

Dr Farzand Masih, chairman of the PunjabArcheology Department, who was formerly onthe technical advisory board of various commit-tees in the Archeology Department, expressedhis concern about the project.

“there is a method to doing everything andi have finally distanced myself from these proj-ects because i do not agree with the way they aredone,” he said. “these are decaying and sick

buildings which need a proper doctor’s proce-dure and this procedure takes time,” he analo-gised. Dr Masih said that just like a diagnosisand preliminary tests take time, the conservationnote of an archeological site also takes time.

“We need some prerequisite work, some ex-cavation but the Archeology Department is care-less about these aspects. For example, they havedone construction work in the Katas Raj temple,but they probably didn’t even know what it

looked it originally because they changed itaround completely,” he exclaimed. “how can apatient be given direct medicine?”

At the same time, Afzal Khan has said thatthere are no official consultants on the gate re-pairing project announced by hamza Shahbaz.“We are all trained here at the Department. Butwe do sometimes consult experts unofficially in-cluding Yasmin Lari, Sajida Vandal, Mehmoodhussain, Saifur Rehman Dar etc.”

archeology dept sets sightson repairing four gates

Sheranwala Gate Lohaari Gate

Bhaati GateKashmiri Gate

PPP’s pot in Punjab is about to boil over Anjuman Himayat-e-Islam

holds reference for Iqbal

LAHORE: the himayat-e-islamCollege for Women held a specialreference meeting for Dr MuhammadAllama iqbal, where severaleminent speakers, especially thoseaffiliated with the Anjuman-e-himayat-e-islam (Ahi), an nGO,spoke about the poet andphilosopher. Justice (r) nasiraJaved iqbal presided over thesession. the basis of the Ahi was laidout by Allama iqbal himself, saidJustice nasira. She said iqbal had beena president of the foundation, as wellas her own father Dr Ameeruddin, andnow her husband, son of Allama iqbal,Dr Javaid iqbal, was the vice president,while she was the Ahi chairperson. “For this reason,” she said. “i feel thereis a strong connection between ourfamily, this college and the nGO sinceits formation.”She added that the college was tryingto live out iqbal’s aspirations toeducate, and thus empower young girlsand women. STAff REPORT

LAHORENASIR BuTT

the annoyed and disgruntled Pakistan People’sParty MPAs from Punjab are going to hold a con-sultative meting here on Friday to finalise futurestrategy of the group, Pakistan today has learnt.

this would be the first get together of sittinglegislators of PPP who have reservations withthe party leadership. it has also been learnt thatthe two MPAs from Multan who have boldly ex-pressed their loyalty to former foreign MinisterShah Mahmood Qureshi would not attend thePPP parliamentary meeting scheduled today(Friday) at Governor house, where they are ex-pected to explain why they were present atQureshi’s Ghutki public gathering where he an-nounced his joining Pti.

the sources privy to the whole developmenttold this scribe that this group of PPP disgruntlesunder the influence of Qureshi had decided to notto put up with the party’s incumbent leadership.they further said the rebels were very clear ontheir stance and even though they would not resignimmediately, they would also not conform to theparty’s rules either. these MPAs wanted to enjoy

the perks of being a member provincial assemblytill the constitutional tenure of present assemblies.however, on the occasion of any disruption in thepresent government’s tenure, they would join Pak-istan tehrik-e-insaf(Pti).

Sources added that the majority wanted to re-main under cover and only Malik Abbass Raan andDr Akhtar Malik had come out to show open sup-port for Qureshi.

they added that there are at least 9 MPAsthat were not happy with the party and whowould continue to recruit more rebels underQureshi’s secret auspice. “We are not happy withthe options the party has presented to us since wethreatened that we would form a forward bloc inPunjab Assembly,” one of the dissenters said.Raan while talking to Pakistan today said he wasbound to the PPP because of the constitution oth-erwise he would have joined Qureshi, adding thathe and his colleague would not attend the meet-ing at the Governor house. Another group of dis-senters have claimed to have at least 19 PPPMPAs under its wing. it should be mentionedhere that PPP has a total strength of 105 membersin the Punjab Assembly. Most of the dissentersare from southern Punjab.

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09Friday, 2 December, 2011

news‘withdraw fuel surcharge

in electricity bills or

we’ll burn GEPCO again’GUJRANWALA: the people of Gujran-wala held large protests on thursday in frontof the Gujranwala Electric Power Company(GEPCO) office at Alam Chowk against theimposition of a ‘fuel adjustment surcharge’,and threatened to torch the office if the gov-ernment did not reverse the move.the protesters blocked the road for almostan hour and raised slogans against theWater and Power Development Authority(WAPDA). On October 3, people in Gujran-wala burned GEPCO offices to protestagainst the prolonged blackouts. ilyas Ghu-man, a protestor talking to Pakistan today,said, “i am a salaried person and earn onlyRs 8,000 every month, while the electricitybill is Rs 3,500. Someone please tell me howi can manage bread for my children for thewhole month.” he said that governments inother countries worked to minimise theproblems of the masses, but in Pakistan cor-rupt governments keep the masses overbur-dened so that they could not see beyondtheir problems. Another protester MasoodButt said the national Electric Power Regu-latory Authority (nEPRA) and the LahoreElectric Supply Company (LESCO) were ille-gally receiving the fuel adjustment surchargefor last several months. STAff REPORT

LONDONMAJID KHATTAK

Pakistan tehrik-e-insaf (Pti) Chairmanimran Khan’s legal team in the UK has initi-ated action against The Sunday Times news-paper after it published an article entitled‘imran the inevitable’ on november 20, 2011.

the said article had claimed that imranKhan met US Ambassador to PakistanCameron Munter in the presence of inter-services intelligence (iSi) chief GeneralAhmed Shuja Pasha. the article had alsoclaimed that the Pti chief is enjoying thesupport of Pakistan’s military.

Pti UK Coordinator Rabia Zia told Pak-istan today that Khan’s solicitor in LondonMahtab Aziz has written to the Sundaytimes regarding the article, saying that thearticle has damaged the Pti chief’s “politicalstanding and reputation among the Pakistanipublic by implying that he is backed by thePakistan army, which directly goes againstKhan’s principles and political ideology thathe stands for and for which he has mademany sacrifices”. the letter stressed thatKhan will always be independent of “any in-fluence by the vested interests of Pakistan’spowerful military and establishment”.

Mahtab Aziz said that imran Khan hastaken this issue very seriously and felt veryaggrieved about the article’s main theme, ac-cusing the paper of going “against the grainof our client’s political vision”. he said,“there is neither any support for Khan’scampaign by Pakistan’s security establish-

ment, nor have you furnished any evidenceto support it,” adding that Pti believed thatchange in Pakistan can come by “severing theshackles of the establishment”.

the letter gives a reference to both Am-bassador Cameron Munter’s denial on thenews programme Capital talk and MilitarySpokesman Major General Ather Abbas’s de-nial that any such meeting had taken place.the defamation claim says that Khan metMunter on various occasions but the “factualinaccuracy” in reporting has “damaged ourclient’s standing among the Pakistani publicas it implies that there is tacit support forKhan’s campaign not only by the UnitedStates but also by Pakistan’s inter Servicesintelligence (iSi)”.

Pakistan observes International AIDS DayISLAMABAD: the international AiDSDay was observed in Pakistan on thursdaywith an aim to unite people in the fightagainst the disease, and to ask for theirsupport for people infected with hiV.the theme of the World AiDS Day 2011 is“Getting to Zero” by striving for zero newinfections, zero discrimination and zeroAiDS-related deaths. the World AiDSDay was the first ever global health day,and the first commemorated in 1988.today, many scientific advances havebeen made in the hiV treatment, andthere are laws to protect people livingwith hiV. Experts emphasised on moreprogress on education, prevention, test-ing, and treatment of hiV-AiDS toachieve the ambitious goal of completelyhalting the spread of the deadly disease.According to UnAiDS estimates, thenumber of people living with hiV-AiDSin Pakistan is 97,400, out of which abouthalf live in Sindh, with 80 percent ofthem in Karachi. in other words, Karachialone has a population of 40,000 peopleliving with hiV-AiDS. APP

Shahbaz airbase

already under

PAF controlRAWALPINDI

APP

Clarifying anews report re-garding Shah-baz airbase, aspokesman ofthe Ministry ofDefence onthursday saidShahbaz air-base was al-

ready under Pakistan Air Force’s(PAF) control. in a statement, thespokesman said the news report at-tributed to the Minister of DefenceChaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar regardingcontrol of the Shahbaz airbase was nottrue. “the defence minister had statedthat Shahbaz airbase was totally underPAF control and the US had no controlover it,” he said.

PESHAWARABDuR RAuf KHATTAK

in order to condemn recent nAtOair strikes on Pakistani posts inMohmand agency, people from dif-ferent walks of life, particularly

students and activists of various politicalparties, on thursday protested for thefifth consecutive day and demanded cut-ting ties with the United States. termingthe attacks an unprovoked aggression on thesovereignty of the state, they asked the gov-ernment to revise its foreign policy and quitthe US alliance against the war on terror.

Separate rallies taken out by PakistanMuslim League-nawaz (PML-n) leaderShazia Aurangzeb, activists of the MuslimStudents’ Federation (MSF) mainly fromthe Government College of technology andthe Agriculture University Peshawar, unitedat the Sher Shah Suri Road in front of thePeshawar Press Club. they were carrying

banners and placards inscribed with slogansagainst nAtO, and the US leadership. Be-sides, activists of the PML-Like Mindedgroup led by Malik Riaz and the All PakistanMuslim League (APML) were also seen inthe demonstration. the flow of traffic at themain Saddar Road was also badly affectedand long queues of vehicles were observedfor hours even after the protest ended.

the infuriated students chanted loudslogans against the US and nAtO com-manders for deliberate attacks on the Pak-istani border posts which killed 24 soldiers.

they warned that the Pakistani nationwould not tolerate such attacks any more inthe future, and that the Americans wouldhave to face serious consequences if theydared to commit any such adventurism.they demanded the government to boldlyresist the foreign aggression, instead ofmere condemnations. they also demandedthe authorities to permanently close nAtOsupply routes through Pakistan, exile the

US ambassador and declare the US an “un-favoured state”. Meanwhile, the KhyberPakhtunkhwa chapter of the All Pakistan

transporters’ Association also protestedagainst the attacks at the Gt Road and thenmarched towards Peshawar Press Club.

Imran for legal actionagainst Sunday Times

Protests against NATO, US gointo 5th consecutive dayg Student groups, political activists, transporters urge government to leave uS war on terror

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:20 AM Page 9

10Friday, 2 December, 2011

news

KARACHIAfP

Shunned by their families and society, Rubinaand iqbal are a couple who have struggled foryears to win their lives back and spread a mes-sage of respect for fellow victims of hiV/AiDS.

Rubina naz, 33, one of 12 children born toa labourer, was diagnosed with hiV four yearsago, a year after her drug-addicted husbandpassed away. “i didn’t know what it was until iwas tested positive. i was afflicted with thishorrible disease by my first husband, who wasan AiDS victim,” said Rubina.

they married when she was 16 years oldand had two daughters and two sons together,but Rubina was unaware of her husband’s ill-ness until she read his medical tests after hisdeath and friends advised her to take her own.

Finding out she was hiV positive ruinedher life. “My in-laws threw me out and took mykids. Even most of my own family treated melike a sinner and stayed away when i was des-perate to be helped. those days were horrible,”she said. Pakistan, the second-largest countryin South Asia, stands a few steps behind indiaand nepal in terms of the extent of the hiVepidemic.

the national AiDS Control Programmesays Pakistan is a “low prevalence, high risk”country, with low rates of the virus across thegeneral population but a high concentrationamong risk groups such as injecting drug users.

Un figures from 2009 show that there arean estimated 97,400 cases of hiV/AiDS inPakistan. Rubina’s meals were always servedseparately to the rest of her family, who werefearful of contracting the disease, but with hermother’s support she says she has overcomeprejudice. She now works as a kitchen assistantat charity Pakistan Society, dedicated to help-ing hiV positive people, which is where shemet her new husband Mohammad iqbal, 35,who is hiV positive and recovering from drugaddiction. iqbal was a tailor in his teens whenhe was introduced to heroin by friends. hecontracted the virus 10 years ago by sharingneedles to inject the drug.

“My addiction shocked my parents, whoboth died early, then my brothers threw me outof home and i was forced to live on the streets,”he said. A charity gave him the tests that led tohis diagnosis. But it was another three yearsbefore he decided to get well.“Continuous ha-tred towards me wore me out. i decided to livea meaningful life or end it. i opted to live andagreed to get rehabilitated,” he said. Rubinaand iqbal found each other in the kitchen,which serves food to patients and visitors at thecharity’s medical centre. “now i don’t hesitateto see myself in the mirror. i am regaining mylost respect in the world,” iqbal said.

Rubina’s in-laws have agreed to allow herchildren to see her regularly and iqbal’s broth-ers have permitted him to rejoin the family.

Anti-retroviral drugs that treat the illnessare provided free of charge at state-run hospi-tals, clinics and health centres across the coun-try, meaning that those diagnosed have thechance of a relatively normal life. So long asRubina and iqbal continue to take their dailymedication and maintain a healthy lifestyle,Pakistan Society head Saleem Azam said theirprognosis is good and their life expectancyshould not be affected. Azam said women arethe least documented victims.

the 2009 survey revealed that 15 percentof wives of injecting drug users in just one dis-trict, Larkana are hiV sufferers.

But Azam said the actual incidence may bemuch higher as many cases go undetected. Ru-bina and iqbal have taught their families to re-spect hiV-positive people but say they willcontinue their quest to educate the rest.

Shunned HIV victimsfight pariah status

Troops kill 9 militants in artillery firePESHAWAR

STAff REPORT

At least nine militants werekilled when security forcestargeted their hideouts withartillery in Upper tehsil of the

Mamozai area on thursday.Sources said that security forces also

destroyed three hideouts of militants inthe remote hilly areas of Mamozai. theareas targeted during the military raidinclude Satar Sum, Shaho Khail andShanaori.

As the military offensive is gain-ing momentum, numerous peoplehave started migrating to safer places.the people of Mir Qalam Khail, AdoKhail, torsimat, Akhunzadgan andArghanjo and others areas are migrat-ing to hango through intricate routes.

Security forces have also launched asearch operation in the area and ar-rested several suspects from the Argah-njo area of Orakzai Agency.

During the last 16 days of militaryoperation, security forces have claimedkilling 83 militants and injuring 72,while destroying dozens of militanthideouts.

tOrs of memo probe should

be made public: PILDAt

ISLAMABAD: PiLDAt – a dialoguegroup on civil-military relations – haswelcomed the government’s decision toinvestigate the issue of alleged memothrough the Parliamentary Committee onnational Security. however, the groupdemanded that the terms of reference ofthe investigation by the parliamentarycommittee should be made public. it alsoasked that the timeframe of investigationsand the key milestones of the probe beshared with the public. the groupbelieved this move would strengthen theparliament’s oversight on executive andsecurity issues.the group met in islamabad today and in-cluded the following members: formerBalochistan governor Lt General (r) AbdulQadir Baloch; Defence analyst Dr hasanAskari Rizvi; former Sindh governor LtGen (r) Moinuddin haider; Daily PakistanChief Editor Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami; DrParvez hassan; former federal secretaryRustam Shah Mahmond; former ministerShafqat Mahmood; former Punjab gover-nor Shahid hamid; former ambassadorAir Vice Marshal (r) Shahzad Chaudhry;Senator SM Zafar; Lt Gen (r) talat Ma-sood, former federal secretary tasneemnoorani; PiLDAt Executive DirectorAhmed Bilal Mehboob, and PiLDAt JointDirector Aasiya Riaz. PRESS RELEASE

my in-laws threw meout and took my kids.Even most of my own

family treated me like a sinnerand stayed away when I wasdesperate to be helped

RuBINA

Blast damages peshawar DcO office wallPESHAWAR: A low intensity blastpartially damaged the boundary wallof the Peshawar district coordinationofficer’s (DCO) office at the BachaKhan Chowk on thursday morning.no casualties were reported. Policesaid that unknown miscreants hadplanted 700 grams of explosive ma-terials near the boundary wall infront of the DCO office, which wentoff at 6:30am on thursday. the blastcaused fear and panic in the areawhile heavy contingents of policerushed the blast site to examine thenature of the explosion. Edhi am-bulances and Fire brigade squadalso reached, but no human casual-ties were reported. Police andbomb disposal squad cordoned offthe area and started investigation.Keeping in view the advent of theholy month of Muharram, policehave beefed up security across thecity and heavy contingents of policeand frontier constabulary havebeen deployed at all the entrypoints of Peshawar. STAff REPORT A photographer looks at the site of blast near DCO Bacha Khan Chowk. ONLINE

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:20 AM Page 10

Editor’s mail 11Friday, 2 December, 2011

the new buzz wordnearly after 64 years of independ-

ence, the country has come back to thestage it had started from. Before parti-tion, there were protests in every majorcity and department in which the indiansand the Muslims would not work but in-stead protest demanding for a separatehomeland.

today we see every department/sec-tor of the economy protesting for theirown separate demands making it diffi-cult for the government to tackle and sat-isfy the claims of those departments inone go. the people seem to be exercisingtheir 'democratic power a bit too much'.

i am no politician or a journalist tocomment on the acts of the people but asa layman what i see and hear is the startof something that may not well be suit-able for the country in its current posi-tion.

the inflation is increasing at an ex-ponential rate. in such a situationprotesting and not doing or not lettingother people work might well act as thelast nail in the coffin. From the list of top10 countries with the highest economicgrowth to the one with the highest infla-tion we should really think again beforedoing such unproductive acts.

i do agree protests are probably theonly way and option we are left with tomake the people with authority take anotice of our suffering but these protestsshould not be at the expense of losing outwhat little we gain. With the recent clo-sure of markets on the 5th of this month,the daily wage earners probably had tosleep hungry as they could not go towork.

the government in my view shouldpunish these protesters rather than ne-gotiate with them and give more air toother people to follow suit. the govern-ment should make a point that no onehas the authority to challenge the gov-ernment's writ.

AFFAN H KHANKarachi

tackling povertyPoverty is the parent of revolution

and crime. Poverty has many dimensionsin Pakistan. the poor in Pakistan havenot only low income but also lack accessto basic needs such as education, health,clean drinking water and proper sanita-tion. Poverty in Pakistan has historicallybeen higher in rural than urban areas. Atpresent, one third of the country’s popu-lation continues to live below povertyline.

“Society comprises of two classes,those who have more food than appetite,and those who have more appetite thanfood.” --nelson Mandela

A number of factors explain the exis-tence of and increase in poverty in thelast decade. however, poor governance isthe key underlying cause of poverty inPakistan. With regard to economic fac-tors, decline in the Gross Domestic Prod-uct (GDP) growth rate is the immediatecause of the increase in poverty over thelast decade. Lack of education, largescale imports and over-population areother causes of poverty.

Reforms in the educational sectorand syllabi in educational institutionsshould be made to teach the students notonly about their subject matters but to beproductive. the system should concen-trate on skill development and vocationaland technical training. Amendmentsshould be made to the governance policyof the resources to make it reach thosewho need it most.

Proper family planning and popula-tion control should be exercised sincepoverty is also a matter of fewer re-sources and more consumers. Allow pri-vatisation but in a restricted way,preventing the application of privatisa-tion to public services such as electricityand gas. Allow foreign direct investmentensuring that the investment and theirprofits are distributed rationally acrossthe country, thereby giving the povertystricken areas the opportunity to taketheir share of the products of these in-vestments.

Formulate long term strategies forpoverty reduction or eradication andperforming periodic evaluation ofprogress for effectiveness.

ZUHAIB ODHOKarachi

Appeal rejectedthe court in London’s rejection of

the appeal by our cricketers against theirjail sentence is a good decision as nexttime nobody will try to do this shamefulact of match-fixing, cheating and dis-gracing their country. i think this pun-ishment is totally justified.

MARYAM PERVEZ KHANRawalpindi

Imran khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Rolling in the deepSure, the nAtO attack has violated the sovereignty of our

country but the question is will the government really upset itsrelations with the US by closing nAtO supplies and risk losinga vital source of income? Will we be rolling our sovereignty in

the deep or our economy? the choice is a difficult one, sochoose wisely.

MUBASHIR MAHMOODKarachi

Send your letters to:Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, PakistanFax: +92-42-36298302E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters may be edited for length and clarity.It would be appreciated if letters were ad-dressed to Pakistan today exclusively.

Many columnists and commentatorshave compared the meteoric rise ofimran Khan with that of Zulifikar AliBhutto’s rise and emergence of PakistanPeoples Party in the 1970s. Both leadershave the same kind of appeal and Khan,like Bhutto, is riding on a wave forchange and their popularity is based onimmense public support.

however, Bhutto’s slogan of "rotikapra aur makan'' instantly appealed tothe masses as it promised them relief andbasic necessities of life. Bhutto under-stood the mob mentality and raised a slo-gan which made him a darling of themasses. As against this imran Khan’santi-corruption, bad governance, acrossthe board accountability and anti-droneattack rhetoric do not have an instant ap-peal for the poor masses of the country.

Ordinary people are more interestedin jobs, reduced cost of living and provi-sion of basic necessities of everyday liv-ing. imran Khan thus is a somewhat an

elitist leader and has mainly attracted theyouth and educated middle class. he hasnot yet developed appeal among masseswhich Bhutto had and which made him aleader of the masses. imran Khan, how-ever, has certain other advantages whichBhutto did not have. Khan’s main advan-tage is that people are sick and tired ofother major political parties and leaderswho have failed to deliver in governmentand opposition.

People want a change and want togive imran a chance who is a new option.imran has no major problem as other po-litical leaders are all discredited and dis-liked. there is no leader on the politicalhorizon who is even close to Khan inpopularity. he has shown tremendousperseverance and willpower and has notgiven up his mission despite being in thepolitical wilderness for over a decade anda half. A lesser mortal would have givenup but not him.

As against this, Bhutto struggled only

for about five years. Prior to that he wasan important cabinet minister in Ayubregime and parted ways with Ayub Khanas a matter of principle over the tashkentDeclaration.

Bhutto had other big advantages, likea political background and the gifts ofsheer brilliance and of being a great ora-tor. imran Khan is a well-educated, well-spoken and handsomecricketing-hero-turned-politician. Eventhough he does not have Bhutto’s bril-liance and intellect, he compensatesthem with his persistence, hard work,sincerity of purpose and self-confidence.

imran Khan’s catchword "change"has caught the fancy of the youth andmiddle class. however, he must be verycareful in selecting his party nomineesand candidates who are to contest theelections. if he puts up too many elec-table old faces who are now joining hisparty by dozens, as his candidates, hiswave for change will collapse under their

weight. it must be understood that thereis a wave for a complete change and thisis the driving force behind Khan’s im-mense popularity.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi is a good ad-dition to the party since he is clean, well-educated and eloquent. But Khan has tobe extremely cautious in future lest his“tsunami” subsides too quickly and thewave for a change runs out of steam. heshould stick to his principles and not ac-cept unscrupulous turncoats even if theyseem good candidates now.

he is a risk taker and should place allhis bets on the wave of complete change.the greater the risk, the greater thegains. hopefully, Khan will be more se-lective at the time of granting party tick-ets because right now he does not seemto be in a position in stopping peoplefrom joining his party as it is open toeverybody.

ZAHEER AHMEDIslamabad

‘the assumption that it (Pak-istan) has no choice but toobey America may turn out

to be a dire strategic error.’ –Simon tisdall in The Guardian,november 27, 2011

in the early hours of the firstday of the islamic new YearUS/nAtO forces struck a clearlydemarcated Pakistani Check Postin the Mohmand Agency of Pak-istan’s Federally Administeredtribal areas. two officers of thePakistan Army and 22 soldierswere killed with another 13 seri-ously injured.

the strikes, which Pakistani of-ficials said had involved both heli-copters and fighter jets, took placeat two military posts in Salala, a vil-lage in Pakistan's Mohmand tribalregion near the border with Kunarprovince in Afghanistan.

Commenting on the incident inThe Guardian of november 27Simon tisdall wrote – “but Wash-ington should treat it with deadlyseriousness all the same, for thislatest outrage is another fateful

signpost on the road to a potentialsecurity and geostrategic disasterthat may ultimately makeAfghanistan look like a sideshow –since 2001, Pakistan has struggledunder a plethora of imperiousAmerican demands, demarchesand impositions that are at oncepolitically indefensible and con-trary to the perceived national in-terest …the belief that weak,impoverished, divided Pakistan hasno alternative but to slavishly obeyits master's voice could turn out tobe one of the seminal strategic mis-calculations of the 21st century”.

Pakistan’s response to the at-tack on its troops came after theArmy Chief had consulted andbriefed senior commanders andthe nations’ highest decision mak-ing body – the Defence Committeeof the Cabinet (DCC) – had metand considered response options.the statement issued by the DCCon the nAtO/iSAF attack on bor-der posts, 26 november 2011 wasclear and unambiguous:

“the DCC noted that strong

protests hadbeen lodgedwith the UnitedStates and atnAtO head-quarters in Brussels conveying inthe strongest possible terms Pak-istan’s condemnation of these at-tacks which constituted breach ofsovereignty, were violative of inter-national law and had gravelydented the fundamental basis ofPakistan’s cooperation withnAtO/iSAF against militancy andterror. nAtO/iSAF attacks werealso violative of their mandatewhich was confined toAfghanistan. Pakistan had clearlyconveyed to US/nAtO its red lineswhich constituted an integral ele-ment of Pakistan’s cooperationthat was based on a partnershipapproach. the attack on PakistanArmy border posts is totally unac-ceptable and warrants an effectivenational response.

in accordance with the resolu-tion of the Joint Session of the Par-liament of 14 May 2011, the DCC

decided to closewith immediateeffect thenAtO/iSAF logis-tics supply lines

the DCC also decided to ask the USto vacate the Shamsi Airbasewithin 15 days.

the DCC decided that the gov-ernment will revisit and undertakea complete review of all pro-grammes, activities and coopera-tive arrangements with US/nAtO,including diplomatic, political, andmilitary and intelligence. thePrime Minister will take the Parlia-ment into confidence on the wholerange of measures regarding mat-ters relating to Pakistan’s futurecooperation with US/nAtO/iSAF,in the near future.”

Pakistanis cannot help but re-call earlier incidents – the attacksin September 2010, the RaymondDavis fiasco, the Osama raid, re-cent media articles targeting thePakistan military and iSi and ofcourse the most recent event nowbeing called ‘Memogate’. Wayne

Madsen, reported that “Pakistan isnext on the target list of nationsthat will soon be feeling the mili-tary muscle of the UnitedStates...unlike other Muslim na-tions that have been subjected tothe US military intervention, in-cluding Afghanistan, iraq, Somalia,Yemen, and Libya, Pakistan’s ulti-mate prize for the West is its nu-clear weapons arsenal…” Anothermedia piece dubbed Pakistan the‘ally from hell’.

Much will depend on how theUS and nAtO decide to proceed inthis matter. there is outrage andanger in Pakistan as Pakistaniswatch heart rending scenes of griefat the funerals of those killed. Pak-istanis are used to burying theirdead and the Pakistan military ispaying a heavy price but to bekilled by those you consider alliesand that too in your own territoryis not acceptable. Close air support,the supposed reason for the attack,is provided to extricate groundtroops from an undesirable situa-tion or to take out a high value tar-

get identified by ground troops orother means or to push forward anattack as part of a coordinatedplan. You do not call for air supportagainst small arms fire or flares as-suming that there was a fire fight atall. Ground operations in the vicin-ity of allied or friendly forces are al-ways coordinated in advance. Airattacks are always on clearly iden-tified targets. Friendly fire can killown troops in the fog of ongoingbattles but not in an isolated casewhere the rugged terrain actuallymakes check posts stand out andact as reference points – especiallycheck posts established to controlcross border movement. An inves-tigation may lead to the answersbut what has been done cannot beundone.

Spearhead Research is a pri-vate centre for research and con-sultancy on security, headed byJehangir Karamat. Spearheadanalyses are the result of a collab-orative effort and not attributableto a single individual.

ally vs ally

Deceptive tacticsthis in reference with a news report

that talks about the deception of Jamat-ud-Dawah. it is told that children fromdifferent schools were brought to LahorePress Club to hold a protest demonstra-tion on the pretext of a school trip.

Permission slips were signed by par-ents and children between 10-15 years ofage were brought to Lahore to participate

in a protest demonstration against the re-cent attack by nAtO forces on PakistanArmy posts on Afghan border.

in this protest demonstration, speak-ers vowed to convert Pakistan into a tal-iban state and assured army of their fullsupport. Such a deception extended by abanned religious outfit is highly con-demnable. it is also the duty of parents tokeep a close eye on the activities of theirchildren and their schools. tactics like

this are part of the larger conspiracy ofturning Pakistan into an extremist stateas children of this age group are mostvulnerable and can be easily brain-washed. Before anything, banned outfitsshouldn’t be allowed to operate freelyand to hold protest demos. Secondly,there should be legal action against thoseresponsible for such deception.

ZULFIQAR HAIDERIslamabad

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Comment12Friday, 2 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: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Autonomy for the commission

Before the polls

the mere occurrence of elections, we are tutored,does not imply the presence of democracy.there is more to democracy than elections. it is,in fact, a process, which, if left to itself,

constantly corrects itself far better than any attempt atbenevolent, intelligent design by non-representativeauthoritarians. Part of the eventual desired ideals are afree (and fair) media, an educated electorate, citizens’vigilance, the independence of the judiciary, robustpolitical parties etc.

Discussions of the above usually come about whenthird world republics carry out polls only to electautocrats; such democracies might even haveinternational polling observers who testify theimpartiality of the process but still yield majoritariandictators.

But such debates are the luxury of states that actuallydo have periodic polls. At the very basic, having free andfair elections are an achievement in their own right forstates that are beset with monarchic histories, ethnicconflicts, ideological upheavals or praetorian settings.the maintenance and strengthening of the pollingmachinery in a government cannot be overstated.

the Election Commission of Pakistan’s recentsummary to the PM secretariat demanding full financialautonomy should be considered seriously. From financialautonomy and the ability to make human resourcedecisions stem the independence of an organisation, be itthe election commission or a local municipalcorporation. the issue of the tenure of the commission’schief is also a recurring one. A suitably lengthy term is ameans to ensure much thought is put into electoralreform and then executed properly.

there is no task more noble, more humbling thanseeking out votes from one’s peers. the governmentowes it to the republic for this noble task not only to befree, fair and impartial but also to be seen to be free, fairand impartial. An independence of the electioncommission and its allied machinery would be a step inthat direction.

missed opportunity?

the boycott

Pakistan needs international support on itspresent dispute with the US. it also has toconvince the world that the solution it has aboutthe future of Afghanistan is the best way out of

the imbroglio. the Bonn conference offers anopportunity to achieve both the objectives. After rulingout a military solution to the latest dispute with the US,the only way left for Pakistan is to settle the materthrough diplomacy. the decision to boycott the Bonnmoot comes, therefore, as a surprise. here is a forumwhere Pakistan can forcefully present its case on thekilling of Pakistani troops in Mohmand, continuingdrone attacks and disregard for its territorial sovereignty.it can seek an in-house debate and hold talks on thesidelines of the conference to vindicate its position. Aprotest registered at the moot would be far more forcefulthan a decision to opt out of the talks.

the Bonn conference is scheduled to take importantdecisions regarding post-2014 Afghanistan which is ofvital interest to Pakistan. islamabad is considered a keyplayer in the efforts to bring peace to Afghanistanbecause of geographical proximity, historical ties withKabul and a close association with the events since the1980 Soviet military intervention. the appeals made toislamabad to attend the moot by Afghanistan, the USand a number of European countries indicate theyrecognise islamabad’s clout. Only by an activeparticipation in the talks can Pakistan ensure that nomeasures are endorsed which are likely to harm its longterm interests. By boycotting the moot islamabad wouldbe painting itself in the corner. it would provide anopportunity to its opponents to maintain that instead ofbeing a part of an international move to resolve theissues peacefully, islamabad prefers to use some of themilitant groups to further its interests in Afghanistan.

the destinies of Pakistan and Afghanistan areintertwined. Peace and stability in Pakistan is dependanton the end of militancy in Afghanistan. Realising the fact,Pakistan had joined hands with the US in the fightagainst terrorism. there is no other way out thancontinuing the fight together meanwhile keeping mutualdifferences within manageable limits.

Establish the baselineuse the legal to underpin other responses

Pakistan is out of the Bonn conference.Shamsi airbase is to be vacated. nAtOsupply lines have been blocked. Whatwill United States-Pakistan relationslook like beyond this point?

First, as i have noted elsewhere, the charadeof a strategic partnership needs to end. this wasalways a transactional relationship grounded incoercive diplomacy. the nAtO attack – even if‘accidental’ – has pulled the covers off it. the re-ported decision by the US President BarackObama to not offer formal condolences on thedeaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers, despite a requestto this end by the US ambassador to Pakistan, isa telling statement on this relationship. it wouldhelp to acknowledge publicly what the two sides,at the highest level, have known for some time.

Pakistan’s foreign minister, hina RabbaniKhar, has said Pakistan will review the entiregamut of relations. that’s a good start. however, itis important to note that a realistic review does notmean Pakistan has to necessarily embark on a col-lision course with the US. But expectations of whatthey can do for each other must be pared down.

Some of it is already on the table, for in-stance the need by both sides to take all meas-ures to curb non-state terrorism. Pakistan mustcontinue to do what it can, given its constraints,to put down such groups on its soil. the US-ledcoalition should be responsible for doing thesame in Afghanistan.

those who cross the border fromAfghanistan to attack Pakistani interests are tobe fought by Pakistan while those who go east towest should be iSAF’s. the border is porous, andif the US-led coalition cannot prevent west toeast movement, it is downright dishonest to ex-pect Pakistan to be able to do that for the reverse.there are ways in which Pakistan can counterthe accusations that go both ways: that it is notdoing enough to curb militant movement fromeast to west and that it is also harbouring the

Afghan taliban without any reference to how theelements Pakistan is supposedly harbouringenter Pakistan in the first place.

Pakistan must also agitate the issue of fenc-ing the border at certain places, a proposal thatcame up some years ago but was shot down byKabul. there is inherent contradiction in the po-sition which blames Pakistan for not doingenough to stop the east-west movement andthen turns around, when Pakistan proposesmeasures, and accuses Pakistan of hardening theborder and by doing that separating the tribes ei-ther side of the Durand Line.

When i raised this point at a recent confer-ence in Berlin on Afghanistan, many Afghanssaid to me that their country will never acceptthe Durand Line. Afghanistan wants to beat Pak-istan both ways because it does not want recog-nition of the Durand Line and accepting fencingis the path to state practice under internationallaw which can then be cited.

Americans know this and they have been lessthan honest about it.

We also know, now because of at least threeincidents (there have been more) – RaymondDavis, bin Laden, Mohmand – that the US willhappily and readily sacrifice any larger strategicpartnership with Pakistan to satisfy its opera-tional goals. this is just one flaw.

the other is in the US’ higher strategy. innov 2010, when Obama went to india on a 5-dayvisit, this is what i wrote in an op-ed for TheHindu:

“Behind all the nice talk about setting theworld right through a Lockean cooperativeframework lurks Mr. hobbes... Mr. Obama...(de-hyphenated) Pakistan and india by not in-cluding Pakistan on this visit even as Pakistan issupposed to be a vital strategic partner and astate that is, presumably, going to determine, byhis own admission, not only the future of this re-gion but of the entire world. this would beamusing if it did not indicate a deep policy flaw.”

So, steps have to be taken to review rela-tions. however, the many Pakistanis who wanta direct military response to the US need to un-derstand two things.

One, in an asymmetric relationship, theweaker side should not go for a direct response.it makes no sense to play on a pitch that favoursthe stronger side. the trick is to find the spacebetween inaction and direct action and to reducethe possibility of coercion by the stronger sidewithout compromising on one’s strategic con-cerns.

inter-state dealings are not about emotionsbut working out a sustainable course of action.Let me specify two such courses of action. One,

why should nAtO be conducting the inquiryinto an incident involving fire by its own troops?Pakistan should insist on an inquiry that in-volves nAtO, Pakistan and a third entity. Pak-istani officials have said the inquiry will gonowhere but have not suggested proactively theacceptable composition of any such inquiry.

two, the supply lines. the routes should re-main blocked until the results of an impartial in-quiry, a US apology, and – if it is proved that itstroops fired at and killed Pakistani soldiers with-out any reason and in violation of establishedSOPs – compensation.

But – this is important given the absence ofany strategic partnership – Pakistan is under noobligation, even under the Un Security Councillegal regime on terrorism, to allow suppliesthrough its land to Coalition troops to help intheir war effort in Afghanistan. the only thingPakistan can, and should, do is to let in onlythose goods and materials that are important tothe development of Afghanistan and for whichKabul provides islamabad a list. All such goodsmust clear customs at the port of entry andchecked.

the US should be informed that no materi-als, including fuel, that help its war effort canpass through Pakistan. Statements emanatingfrom the US show that America can do withoutthe Pakistani route. Pakistan should welcomeanother choice by the US.

the next step should be the use of airspace.the US may be told that it can use Pakistani air-space only for non-military purposes. As fordrones, islamabad needs to take the issue to theUnSC, whose legal regime is very clear on thefact that no state can operate in the airspace oron the territory of another state without the lat-ter’s permission. this means the US can operatethe drones only if it shares information on whattargets it wants to engage and why. if the US op-erates its drones without islamabad’s permis-sion, it will be in violation of Pakistan’ssovereignty and also of the UnSC legal regime.

none of this will make the US happy. noneof what has happened makes Pakistan veryhappy. there’s realpolitik in all this. But by tak-ing the legal route in consonance with its ownlaw as well as the UnSC regime, Pakistan wouldbe establishing a baseline. Anything that the USdoes after that would establish a clear violationfor which the onus will be on Washington. Pak-istan could make its choices more clearly beyondthat point.

The writer is Executive Director of JinnahInstitute. The views expressed are his own anddo not necessarily reflect JI’s policy

By Ejaz Haider

in recent years, the Pak-US rela-tionship has never been an easyone. the bonhomie that the

brass of both countries displayed inpublic only barely masked the mas-sive distrust on either side, with theUS definitely more vocal about it.But the skids were really put underit once OBL was taken out in abrazen attack deep in Pakistan onMay 2.

the assaults, albeit mostly ver-bal until now, from all quarters inthe US have since come thick andfast, with Pakistan’s military estab-lishment blamed for much of every-thing that has gone wrong inAfghanistan. in the Pakistani quar-ters concerned, the resentment al-ready ran deep. the nov 25 nAtOhelicopter gunship attack killing 24Pakistani soldiers on a bordercheckpost only made it erupt.

Our generals saw red, but givenour ‘technological backwardness’ amilitary retaliation was not an op-tion even to be contemplated. thenAtO supplies were blocked, an ir-

reversible deadline to vacate theShamsi Airbase (why this closurewas not extended to the ShahbazAirbase is perplexing though, forthere even the fig leaf of having letit to the UAE which sublet it to theUS does not exist) was set. therewas also talk of taking up the mat-ter to the UnSC which hasn’tripened into action yet, while theBonn conference was boycotted.

All this stands duly endorsed bythe federal cabinet, though the effi-cacy of the last measure is in ques-tion. With 90 countries attending,the avowed purpose of the confer-ence is to form policy on post-2014Afghanistan and its internal andexternal arrangements. though asimilar exercise at istanbul sometime ago was a futile endeavour,but by absenting itself Pakistan def-initely loses an opportunity to pres-ent its case on a policy forum,where it could also have put someegg on nAtO and the US face byraising the issue of the latestkillings.

Since our track record of blow-ing hot and cold with the US and itsso-called war on terror is not an en-viable one, and we have quite oftenchoked on our anger after someplacatory moves from Washington,one is not certain for how long thisaltercation will last.

this however is a decent oppor-tunity to stand back and have somemeasure of the extent of our fallfrom (the US) grace and how it hascome about that our military posts

were now coming under deliberate,murderous ‘friendly’ fire. trumpet-ing about violation of sovereigntyand inciting the public fury mostlythrough certain known entities orblaming the present civilian gov-ernment will just not do. theAfghan imbroglio, the chummy re-lations with the US in this regard inthe 1980s and in the decade justpast, with the creation of the tal-iban in the interregnum, the unre-quited love for depth inAfghanistan and the damage that ithas wreaked on us have been thesecurity establishment’s handi-work.

Again our major differencewith the US seems to stem from ourjustified anxiety in having a biggersay in the post-2014 Afghanistanthan our ‘friendly’ eastern neigh-bour. Encirclement or a two-frontwar is indeed a political and mili-tary nightmare. that and the US’failure in eliminating the talibandespite its much-touted ‘surge’ andlater failure in negotiating withthem, have turned Pakistan into aconvenient whipping boy for Amer-ican leaders’ own mistaken policies.Remember november 2012 is athand as far as the US presidentialelections are concerned.

And things are not likely to stophere. For the taliban are equallydetermined to wait it out until 2014before promptly reclaimingAfghanistan – at least its southernand eastern parts where even nowits writ runs more than the Karzai

government’s, which without itsAmerican props would have asmuch a chance of survival as asnowball in hell. Given that sce-nario, unless the settlement in-cludes the taliban, Pakistan isgoing to remain in the US crossfire.

not just Pakistan but none ofthe neighbouring nations want theUS here, but it is the elephant thathas forced its way into the room,and no one can take it out – unlessit vacates the place of its accord(which it says it would in 2014, butnot lock, stock and barrel, aimingto retain its military bases with siz-able presence).

Even so it is quite right that,though late by a decade in the pres-ent instance, Pakistan has startedseeing things in the proper perspec-tive, in what is being proclaimed asits requirements and national in-terest.

the US needs Pakistan, forthere is no solution to the Afghanimbroglio and no honourable exitwithout the latter. that is a situa-tion that should be used to our ad-vantage – with diplomacy taking anupper hand. hopefully, the matterwill be settled to the satisfaction ofall the regional countries before thenext US elections, as most of thepresidential candidates are alreadybreathing fire against Pakistan intheir primary debates. Better to livewith the devil you know…

The writer is Sports and Mag-azines Editor, Pakistan today.

The devil we know…

JottingsBy Agha Akbar

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Comment 13Friday, 2 December, 2011

Student of Matric? interme-diate? Bachelors? Fear nomore and rejoice, for your

Pakistan Studies-related trou-bles are finally over. the follow-ing is for the benefit of peoplelike you, who have gone throughsevere mental torture and phys-ical pain while preparing for thePak Studies exams. the trick isto focus not on what you knowbut what the examiner is look-ing for in the answers.

For some reason, PakistanStudies kick-starts withMuhammad Bin Qasim. Youdon’t have to read anythingabout the whole episode sinceyou now have enough informa-tion on Memogate to attemptthe question on Qasim’s inter-vention in Sindh, except the factthat the alleged woman whowrote him the letter was a victimwhile the alleged contrivers ofthe memo have committed hightreason. Let’s not get boggeddown in trivial details thoughand let’s focus on the big pic-ture.

nobody contributed more toislam in the subcontinent thanMehmood Ghaznavi (you canthank your lucky stars if ShahMehmood Qureshi turns out tobe the ‘Dhaaga Peer’ of your ex-aminer). By the way, usuallythere’s never a question raisedon either Ranjeet Singh or SirSyed. in case you get one, screwRanjeet but remember to goeasy on Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.Granted, he never was such agreat guy, but we have kind offorgiven him with time.

We then come to theMughal dynasty. the ‘GoldenEra’ of our history when all theemperors used to weave strawpray mats to make their endsmeet, except for Akbar who wasa drunkard, married hindu

women, and invented his ownreligion.

it doesn’t matter in the leastif you still can’t fathom why theKhilafat Movement was carriedout in the indian subcontinentwhile the indigenous ignorantmasses of turkey referred to thegodless Mustafa Kamal asAtaturk - their father. the point,folks, is not to inquire but toscore marks. thus, when thisquestion pops up in the paper –and it will in most examinations– skipping the unnecessary de-tails and expounding under oneheading “Gandhi ki syaasi qal-abazi” (Gandhi’s political sum-mersault) insures full marks.

no exam is complete with-out the Fourteen Points of theQuaid e Azam. it says fourteen,but you only have to jot downthirteen - exclude the one whichsays “Full religious liberty, i.e.liberty of belief, worship and ob-servance, propagation, associa-tion, and education, shall beguaranteed to all communities.”

Skim through the questionpaper and look for the two na-tion theory. Wherever you findit – trust me, you will find it – isa good place to copy paste thisline: “the two nation theorywas inevitable because the Hin-dus consider cow their god,while we eat it.” there! Congrat-ulations, you have the exam-iner’s heart right in your palmnow. in case you don’t want toattempt any further questions,just add another line to theabove statement and you arefree to leave the examinationhall with the mission accom-plished. this line: “the two na-tion theory was founded theday the first Muslim set foot inthe subcontinent.”

invaluable tips on wars: Re-member that never once in ourentire history did we either starta war or lose any, never mindwhat nazir naji says about 65 -he is not a even a graduate!india conspired in 71, manipu-lated our naïve Muslim brotherswith its evil machinations, re-sulting in the Fall of Dhaka.there is no need to mention thatyou watched that surrendervideo on Youtube. We madeRussia flee from Afghanistanwithout any foreign help (don’twatch Charlie Wilson’s War be-fore your exam) .We would’ve

had Kashmir as well if it hadn’tbeen for nawaz Sharif chicken-ing out on Kargil. Fortunatelythough, recent endeavours areyet to be a part of the syllabus;iSPR hasn’t approved the textyet.

Just remember the tenuresof all the Presidents and PrimeMinisters. Don’t try to be smartabout army coups. All the mar-tial laws were the need of thehour. On each occasion, the peo-ple begged the army to save Pak-istan. Each time, the general incharge succeeded in saving Pak-istan.

On our relations withneighbouring countries: thebest are with Saudi Arabia,though Saudi Arabia isn’t ourneighbour - nobody ever both-ered correcting this and neithershall you! China comes second,india still practices Chanakyapolitics and has refused to ac-cept us as a sovereign state;hence they never got a numberin our ‘Friends Forever’ list. Weshare our longest border withAfghanistan and we are alwaysthe first to help them when theyare in need. We would haveliked iran and Russia a littlemore than we do if they didn’tfall for the traps india sets forthem to go against us. As forBangladesh, it still repents get-ting played by india but overallrelations with them are friendlybecause we magnanimouslychose to forgive them. After all,what is a momin if not a forgiv-ing man.

We are an agrarian countryby all the longitudes and lati-tudes. We have all the four sea-sons, brag that this is a havenfor tourists. Again, no need to beclever with Swat being a canton-ment rather than a tourist spotanymore.

there you go, i believe ihave covered all the FAQs fromthe past papers and scavengedthe really useful material out ofthe textbooks as well. Writinglengthy answers to get passingmarks is a myth. the whole deallies in giving the required an-swers. Soaked almonds andSurah Yaseen do help!

The writer is a member ofthe band Beygairat Brigadethat has recently released thesingle Aaloo Anday.

By Ali Aftab Saeed

Hoodwinking history by being clever-and-a-half

pak Studies for dummies

the government has wiselyfollowed through with thedecisions taken at the no-

vember 26 Defence Committeeof the Cabinet (DCC) regardingaerial attacks on Pakistani bor-der posts in Mohmand Agencyby US-led nato-iSAF forces.

the question now is if thesedecisions are quick tempered re-sponses or a result of careful ex-amination of the problems andchallenges that have resurfacedafter the november 26th attack.What are these decisions aimedat achieving? Will these deci-sions be reversed under‘friendly’ pressures or will theybe followed through as part of acomprehensive strategy in pur-suit of well-defined strategicends?

the state of Pakistan and itspeople have high stakes in‘course correction’ and an even-tual renegotiation of honourableterms of cooperation with US. itappears that finally after the lossof tens of thousands of Pakistanilives at the hands of the US-ledtroops in Afghanistan, islam-abad is likely to review all as-pects of its strained relationshipwith the US, an important butnot the most trusted ally of Pak-istan.

there are promising signsthat this time around there shallbe no waffling and wavering onthe position Pakistan has takenafter the deadly nAtO strikes.the most significant decision isthe immediate suspension ofnato/iSAF logistics supply lines– a major setback to the US andits allied forces as reportedly 95per cent of the coalition suppliesgo to Afghanistan via Pakistan.Equally important is the 15-dayultimatum given to the US to va-

cate the Shamsi Airbase. Re-quests for a review of theShamsi Airbase decision havealready been turned down.While endorsing all the deci-sions of the DCC emergencymeeting, the cabinet meeting ontuesday also decided that Pak-istan would boycott next week’sBonn Conference. the speedyresponse by the civil and mili-tary leadership to has been im-pressive and measuresannounced so far have proveneffective.

On the diplomatic front tooPakistan moved swiftly. itlodged strong protests and con-demnation of these attacks withthe US, nato headquarters inBrussels and Un Security Coun-cil, underlining that these repre-sented breach of sovereignty,violation of the Un Charter, in-ternational law and the terms ofcooperation with nato/iSAF.Pakistan has clearly conveyed tothe international communitythat this time the US-led natoand coalition forces cannot getaway with cold-blooded murderon the pretext of self-defence.

turkey, a nAtO-member,was the first country to con-demn the strikes and expresssolidarity with Pakistan. China,Russia and the OiC have alsocondemned the attack andbacked Pakistan’s demand for ajoint probe.

All self-respecting Pakista-nis want the government to staythe course and send a clear,strong signal to the world thatwe mean business. An emphatic“no” from Pakistan at this criti-cal juncture to external pres-sures and intervention will in nomeasure weaken Pakistan’s po-sition but strengthen it. thereare times in history when coun-tries have to think beyond theeconomic, political, military anddiplomatic calculations. Sover-eignty and territorial integritymust come first and need to besafeguarded at all costs. Whenred lines drawn by Pakistan forcooperation with US nato-iSAFin the ongoing campaign againstterrorism are repeatedly, delib-erately and blatantly disre-garded and even as a key US allywe are made the target, apolo-gies become meaningless. thisis evident by the fact that in the

last three years 72 Pakistanitroops were killed and morethan 250 injured in eight cross-border nato attacks. And not tomention the countless innocentcivilians who have died in theUS drone strikes that continueunabated in the tribal areas.

this year alone has seenmore than 57 drone attacks sofar. in official briefings by civiland security establishments,there are always ready and de-tailed statistics on troop casual-ties and injuries in the fightagainst terrorism. however,there is hardly any mention ofthe civilian casualties in droneattacks. One wonders why theloss of a Pakistani civilian’s lifeis not counted; and what exactlyis the difference between thevalue of an innocent Pakistani’slife and that of a foreign soldierin Afghanistan?

this may well be a turningpoint for us as a country. As ourcivil-military leadership, oppo-sition parties and the publicsupport the ‘course correction’there are good chances of us re-deeming ourselves and con-fronting head-on the forceshell-bent on destabilising Pak-istan. time has come for us toassert ourselves, set our own na-tional agenda and not followblindly the donor or US-dictatedpolicies. When we learn to say‘no’ in the enlightened interestof Pakistan, the world will takeus more seriously and above allrespect us as a nation. One thatstands united and steadfastagainst all odds and adversities.We must have faith in ourselvesas a nation and Quaid-e-AzamMohammad Ali Jinnah’s Pak-istan. God-willing in good timeit shall emerge stronger despitemultiple problems as each chal-lenge presents a unique oppor-tunity that makes us moreresilient than before.

it is darkest before dawn.

The writer is a senior jour-nalist and has been a diplo-matic correspondent forleading dailies. She was an Al-fred Friendly Press Fellow atthe Chicago tribune in the USand a Press Fellow at WolfsonCollege, Cambridge, UK. Shecan be reached at qudssia@hot-mail.com

No more Mr Nice Guy

Course correction?

Cross CurrentsBy Qudssia Akhlaque

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Friday, 2 December, 2011

14 Foreign news

NAYPYIDAWAfP

US Secretary of Statehillary Clinton wonpromises of furtherreforms fromMyanmar’s rulers

in historic talks thursday, but saidit was too soon to end sanctionsafter decades of repression. Payingthe most senior US visit in morethan half a century to a nationlong distrustful of the West, Clin-ton offered only cautious incen-tives to encourage more action,despite a call by China for West-ern sanctions to be lifted.

Clinton said Myanmar’s lead-ers “assured me that progresswould continue and broaden” and

she welcomed the removal of re-strictions on democracy icon AungSan Suu Kyi, whom she will meetlater thursday in the commercialhub Yangon. “We’re not at thepoint yet that we can consider lift-ing sanctions that we have in placedue to our ongoing concerns overpolicies that have to be reversed,”she said after talks with Presidentthein Sein, a former general.

“But any steps that the gov-ernment takes will be carefullyconsidered and ... will be matchedbecause we want to see politicaland economic reform take hold,”she told reporters in Myanmar’sisolated showcase capital naypyi-daw. thein Sein, who took chargein March after Myanmar nomi-nally ended decades of military

rule, himself hailed a “new chap-ter in relations” as he met Clintonat his imposing palace decked outwith chandeliers and gold-leafchairs. Since last year, Myanmarhas freed Suu Kyi from years ofhouse arrest, held dialogue withthe nobel Peace Prize winner andreleased hundreds of politicalprisoners. Suu Kyi hopes to run inby-elections early next year.

Clinton’s delicate Myanmartrip is a test-case for PresidentBarack Obama’s policy of engag-ing US adversaries. Upon takingoffice, Obama promised to reachout to all who “unclench theirfists” but regimes such as iranand Syria have instead led deadlycrackdowns on the opposition.

Obama personally an-

nounced Clinton’s visit during atrip last month to indonesia,part of his administration’s re-newed focus on Asia amid con-cerns in much of the regionabout an assertive China.

She announced few immedi-ate steps by the United States,where laws set by Congress main-tain a sweeping ban on trade withMyanmar and require Washing-ton to block international assis-tance to one of the world’s poorestnations. Clinton said the UnitedStates would open talks withMyanmar to start joint searchesfor the remains of troops killed inWorld War ii, when the strategi-cally placed country was a majorbattleground. Clinton also invitedMyanmar to join as an observer

the Lower Mekong initiative, a USprogramme that offers coopera-tion on health and the environ-ment in Southeast Asian nations.

“these are incremental stepsand we are prepared to go furtherif reforms maintain momentum.in that spirit, we are discussingwhat it will take to upgrade diplo-matic relations and exchange am-bassadors,” Clinton said. “Overtime, this could become an impor-tant channel to air concerns,monitor and support progress andbuild trust on both sides,” she said.

Clinton will meet twice withSuu Kyi – first for dinner thurs-day and then for more formaltalks on Friday morning. Clintonalso welcomed what she said wereefforts by the regime to resolve

ethnic conflicts in the country for-merly known as Burma, which hasbeen torn by decades of in-tractable insurgencies. “But aslong as the terrible violence con-tinues in some of the world’slongest-running internal con-flicts, it will be difficult to begin anew chapter,” she said.

the top US diplomat alsocalled on Myanmar to cut “illicitties” with nuclear-armed northKorea and said the regime hadgiven assurances that it was notcooperating with Pyongyang.

“i was frank that better rela-tions with the United States willonly be possible if the entire gov-ernment respects the internationalconsensus against the spread ofnuclear weapons,” she said.

Clinton pushes reform in historic Myanmar talks

NAyPyIDAw: myanmar President thein Sein meets with uS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a meeting at the President’s Office on thursday. Clinton is travelling to the country

in the first visit by a uS Secretary of State in more than 50 years. afp

g uS urges severing of ‘illicit ties’ with North korea g China calls for end to myanmar sanctions

VICTORY BASE COMPLEXAfP

US Vice President Joe Biden thankedUS and iraqi forces on thursday fortheir shared sacrifices, saying theyhad made it possible to end the war.

“We’re gathered here to thankthe armed forces of iraq and Amer-ica, and to honour your sacrifice, tohonour your success, as well as yourcommitment,” Biden said at a cere-mony at Al-Faw palace in thesprawling Victory Base Complexnear the capital.

“Because of you ... and the workthose of you in uniform have done,we are now able to end this war,”Biden said at the ceremony attendedby iraqi Prime Minister nuri al-Ma-liki, President Jalal talabani and USambassador James Jeffrey.

“All of you sitting before metoday have laid the foundation for along-term strategic partnership be-tween our nations, and also for aniraq that, against all odds, can serveas a source of stability not only forits people, but here in the region,and for years to come.

“i think it’s fair to say, almost noone thought that was possible a few

years ago,” Biden said.US President Barack Obama an-

nounced on October 21 that UStroops would leave iraq by the endof 2011, bringing to a close an al-most nine-year war that has leftthousands of US soldiers and tens ofthousands of iraqis dead, and costhundreds of billions of dollars.

“President Obama and i came to

office absolutely determined tobring this war to a responsible end.

“At the end of this month, we willkeep our promise to remove our re-maining troops from iraq.”

About 13,800 US soldiers are stillin the country, and seven US basesremain to be handed over, accordingto US military spokesman MajorGeneral Jeffrey Buchanan.

Shared sacrifices allowedIraq war to end: Biden

‘No Israeliattack on Irananytime soon’

JERUSALEM REuTERS

Defense Minister Ehud Barak saidthursday an israeli attack on iran is notimminent but all options remain open tostop what israel sees as an iranian bid todevelop nuclear weapons.“We have no intention, at the moment, oftaking action, but the State of israel is farfrom being paralyzed by fear,” Barak toldisrael Radio. “it must act calmly andquietly – we don’t need big wars.”Barak was interviewed a day after the topU.S. military officer said he did not knowwhether israel would alert the UnitedStates ahead of time if it decided tostrike iran, the Jewish state’s arch-adversary in the Middle East.General Martin Dempsey, the chairman ofthe Joint Chiefs of Staff, alsoacknowledged differences in perspectivebetween the United States and israel overthe best way to handle iran and itsnuclear program.in the radio interview, Barak said “israelwould be very glad if sanctions anddiplomacy could bring the iranianleadership to a clear decision to abandonits nuclear military program.”But, “unfortunately, i think that is notgoing to happen.”Asked about Dempsey’s remarks, Baraksaid israel “greatly respects the UnitedStates” and maintained a continuousdialogue with its main ally on securityissues. “Certainly, a non-diplomatic optionis the last option, and i think everyoneagrees with the fact that all options are onthe table,” the israeli defense chief said.

uS protestersvow to shut downwest Coast ports

LOS ANGELESAfP

Occupy movements plan to shut downmajor ports along the US West Coast andCanada’s Pacific seaboard in a day ofaction next month, they said.in an announcement hours after a two-month old anti-Wall Street protest campwas evicted in Los Angeles, they said theyplan to strike back against the “nationallycoordinated attack on the Occupymovement.” Local Occupy movements inSan Diego, LA, Oakland, Portland, tacoma,Seattle will support the December 12 day ofaction, they said.“We are also striking back against thenationally coordinated attack on theOccupy movement. in response to thepolice violence and camp evictions againstthe Occupy movement, this is ourcoordinated response against the 1 percent. “On December 12th we will show arecollective power through pinpointedeconomic blockade of the 1%,” she added.

Amnesty accusesSaudi Arabia ofrepression

DUBAIAfP

Amnesty international has accusedSaudi Arabia of conducting acampaign of repression againstprotesters and reformists since theArab Spring erupted, in a newlypublished report. “the last ninemonths has seen a new wave ofrepression in Saudi Arabia asauthorities have cracked down onprotesters and reformists on securitygrounds,” the rights watchdog said ina statement issued late Wednesday.“While the arguments used to justifythis wide-ranging crackdown may bedifferent, the abusive practices beingemployed by the Saudi Arabiangovernment are worryingly similar tothose which they have long usedagainst people accused of terroristoffences,” he said. Saudi Arabia hasbeen spared much of the unrest thathas swept the Arab world this yearand toppled autocratic leaders in threecountries – tunisia, Egypt and Libya.And Amnesty accused the authoritiesin the conservative Sunni kingdom ofdetaining “thousands of people, manyof them without charge or trial, onterrorism-related grounds.”

BAQUBA: Attacks in iraq’s Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killed 18people on thursday, 10 of them in a market bombing in the town of Khalis,medical and security officials said.the bloodshed came as US Vice President Joe Biden was in iraq to usher ina new phase in relations between Washington and Baghdad nearly nineyears after the US-led invasion.in a separate attack, gunmen using silencers raided three homes in theDiyala village of Jil al-Said, south of Baquba, killing eight people, amongthem two commanders of an anti-Qaeda militia and members of theirfamilies, the army colonel said.the Sahwa militia are made up of Sunni Arab tribesmen and formerinsurgents who joined forces with the US military against Al-Qaeda fromlate 2006, helping turn the tide against the jihadists. AfP

18 dead in attacks in Diyala province

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:20 AM Page 14

Foreign news 15Friday, 2 December, 2011

kIwANJA: Amid fears of renewed violence in the wait for preliminary presidential election results, internally-displaced Congolese families live in squalid conditions in camps made of

igloo-shaped huts with mud walls, patched by wooden sticks, dried palm leaves and uNHCr sheets for shelter. these camps are home to more than 2,000 people who fled their homes

to escape fighting between rebel groups and the Congolese armed forces. afp

EU slaps further sanctions on Irang Eu ministers discuss fate of Iranian exiles in Iraq g rome summons Iran’s charge d’affaires over mission attack

Second wave ofAfghan transitionkicks off

CHARIKARAfP

A second wave of Afghanistan’stransition from nAtO to localcontrol officially started thursday asinternational forces handed overmost of a peaceful province.All but two districts of Parwanprovince, north of the capital Kabul,are being handed to Afghan control.the area is the first to transitionformally after President hamidKarzai announced Sunday a list of sixprovinces, seven cities and dozens ofdistricts which are expected to switchin the coming weeks. the transitionprocess should allow foreign combattroops to leave Afghanistan by theend of 2014. the handover wasconfirmed by interior ministryspokesman Sediq Sediqqi. two districts in the province –Shinwari and Siagerd, where armedinsurgents are believed to have moreinfluence than in other parts – willnot be included in the second waveof transition.the first stage of transition began inJuly, with seven areas handed over.Around 140,000 foreign troops arein Afghanistan, nearly two-thirds ofthem from the United States,battling a taliban-led insurgency.

Donors agree onnew ‘transparent’aid partnership

BUSANAfP

Donors from 160 countries includingChina agreed on thursday to form aworldwide partnership to ensuretens of billions of dollars in foreignaid goes to help the neediest.their declaration came at the end ofthe world’s premier aid forum, atwhich Western countries tried tobring emerging donors like China -which does not co-ordinate withother major aid-givers - into theinternational fold. But private groupsexpressed regret that the deal wasnot binding. the agreement “willonly live up to its historic potential ifnations follow through on theirpromises”, said BetterAid, a coalitionof private aid organisations.it said an initially reluctant Chinahad supported the declaration oncondition it was voluntary.About 3,500 government and privateofficials took part, debating ways tospend aid better and to co-ordinateefforts by traditional donors withemerging economic powerhouseslike China, Brazil and india.

tAIPEI: Dozens of volunteers join a human chain in the form of a red ribbon, the symbol of ‘love and care’ for HIV and AIDS

carriers worldwide, on world AIDS Day. the theme of the 2011 global campaign to fight AIDS is ‘Getting to Zero’. afp

BRUSSELSAfP

EUROPEAn Union foreignministers slapped sanc-tions on more than 180iranian companies and in-dividuals thursday over

tehran’s refusal to meet internationaldemands to halt sensitive nuclear work.

the ministers also agreed to con-tinue working on extra punitive meas-ures that could target iran’s vital energysector, a diplomat said. Britain and Ger-many called for sanctions to financiallyisolate iran as EU foreign ministersgathered to consider tough new meas-ures against tehran due to fresh con-cerns over its nuclear programme.

thanking European Union coun-tries for their “emphatic support” fol-lowing the storming of Britain’sembassy in iran, Foreign SecretaryWilliam hague said “i hope we willagree today additional measures thatwill be an intensification of the eco-nomic pressure on iran. “Peaceful legit-imate economic pressure particularly toincrease the isolation of the iranian fi-nancial sector,” he added.

German counterpart Guido Wester-welle said the aim of sanctions “is to dryup iran’s financial sources.”

the ministers slapped an assetsfreeze and travel ban on a further 143iranian companies and 37 people. Butthey remain divided over extending theblacklist to the country’s oil sector orfreezing the assets of it’s central bank.

Britain, France and Germany andSweden favour oil sanctions, but withSpain, Greece and italy significantlydependent on oil from iran “there willbe no oil sanctions” announced thurs-day, an EU diplomat said. “i’m surethere’ll be a discussion” on oil sanc-tions, hague said. “i think there will bea variety of views, i dont know what theoutcome of that is going to be.”

Sweden Foreign Minister Carl Bildtsaid he would argue in favour of an em-bargo on iranian crude, which in 2010amounted to 5.8 percent of total EU im-ports, making the country the fifth sup-plier at the time after Russia, norway,Libya and Saudi Arabaia. Of that total,Spain accounted for 14.6 percent,Greece for 14 and italy for 13.1 percent.

Meanwhile, European Union for-eign policy chief Catherine Ashton on

thursday called for a “satisfactory out-come” in the complex relocation of3,400 iranian dissidents due to be ex-pelled from a camp in iraq.

As EU foreign ministers prepared todiscuss controversial efforts to closeCamp Ashraf north of Baghdad, Ashtonsaid she had held talks on the issue bothwith US authorities and with Un officialsmonitoring iraq’s closure of the camp.Camp Ashraf has been home to membersof the People’s Mujahedeen Organisationof iran (PMOi) since the 1980s. But iraqis intent on closing it by year’s end inwhat PMOi leaders say is a plot designedby tehran to eliminate the dissidents.

PMOi exiles in Europe, who staged ademonstration outside EU offices thurs-day, have enlisted the support of around100 European parliamentarians whohave warned of the impending “slaugh-ter” of the dissidents failing the presenceof Un or US forces to protect them. iraqsays it is exercising its sovereignty inclosing the facility which has been hometo the exiles for 30 years. Ashton is to askministers how many refugees each coun-try can take, with others going to theUnited States, Canada and Australia.

Meanwhile, iran’s charge d’affaires

in Rome, Mehdi Akouchekian, wassummoned by italy’s foreign ministryfollowing the “intolerable” attack byprotesters on Britain’s embassy intehran. the italian government ex-pressed its “strong condemnation” ofthe “violent and intolerable” attack andstressed its “solidarity with the Britishgovernment,” the foreign ministry saidin a statement. “italy will evaluate,along with other European Union coun-tries, how to react to make sure such anepisode will not happen again,” it said.IRAN FREES 11 HELD FORSTORMING BRITISH COMPOUND:iran has released 11 protesters detainedfor storming the British diplomaticcompounds in tehran, a report said onthursday, after iran’s top lawmakerdescribed Britain’s response as“unjustifiable.” the protesters werereleased late Wednesday after beingarrested during the temporary seizureof the British diplomatic residence intehran on tuesday. the iranianforeign ministry expressed regret overthe incident, and a senior policecommander was quoted as saying thata number of protesters had beenarrested and others were being sought.

EU stiffens economicsanctions on Syriag Arab League rejects foreign intervention in Syria at Eu talks

BRUSSELS/ CAIROAfP

the European Union tightened sanctions againstSyria’s energy and financial sectors on thursdayin order to punish President Bashar al-Assad’sregime for its crackdown on dissidents, diplo-mats said. EU foreign ministers adopted bans onexporting gas and oil industry equipment toSyria, trading Syrian government bonds and sell-ing software that could be used to monitor inter-net and telephone communications.

Meanwhile , Arab League chief nabil al-Arabirejected any foreign intervention in Syria onthursday as he joined European Union talksaimed at ramping up pressure on the regime overits crackdown on dissidents. “We reject any accu-sation that the Arab League is inviting any inter-vention,” Arabi said on arrival for a lunch with EUforeign ministers. “Every decision taken by the

Arab League rejects an intervention,” he added,days after the pan-Arabic body imposed its ownunprecedented sanctions against President Basharal-Assad’s regime. Syrian Foreign Minister WalidMuallem accused “some League members” thisweek of “pushing to internationalise the conflict.”

Meanhile, the brother of Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad, several ministers and telecommagnate Rami Makhluf are on a list of 17 sen-ior figures to be targeted by Arab League sanc-tions, officials said thursday. Under theeconomic measures agreed this week by the 22-member organisation, they would be bannedfrom travelling in the region and have any as-sets in Arab countries frozen, if the list is con-firmed at a meeting on Saturday. Ministersfrom Qatar, Egypt, Algeria, Oman and Sudanare to meet in Doha on Saturday. Other coun-tries have been invited, but iraq has alreadysaid it will boycott the Arab League measures.

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:20 AM Page 15

MuMBAI: It’s been some time that Abhishekand Aishwarya’s little daughter is back home,and the name hunt is still on for their littleone, among other things. It has been heardthat many anewspaperagency iswaiting withbatedbreath foras much asa single

picture of Baby B, but have been solemnlydisappointed as the Bachchans claim this tobe too personal an affair and refuse to oblige.rumour also has it that even the foreignmedia is trying to get hold of this bigexclusive and have even offered the family asubstantial sum of money running into crores.well, insiders say that members of the

Bachchan family aren’t evenconsidering giving away or even

selling the pictures of thefamily’s new member! “Itcan be remembered thatthere were rumours of the

Bachchans even selling thephotographs of the very

private marriageceremony of Aishwaryaand Abhishek. But theBachchans didn’t doany of that and provedthem all wrong. thistime, too, people arespeculating, but it’shighly improbablethat the Bachchanswill sell the rightsof these,” a sourcesaid. AGENCIES

hairdo

16 Friday, 2 December, 2011

Bachchans

LOS ANGELES: katy Perry announces the

nominations for Album of the year during

the Grammy Nominations Concert.

mumBAI: kareena kapoor and Imran khan

pose at the promotion of ‘Ek main Aur Ekk tu’.

mumBAI:

Vidya Balan

poses

during the

promotional

event of

‘the Dirty

Picture’.

LOS ANGELESAGENCIES

ECCEntRiC ‘Bad Romance’songstress Lady Gaga saysshe has an “inability toknow what happiness feelslike with a man,” in typically

outspoken comments accompanying anude magazine photospread. Gaga posedfor a series of trademark Annie Leibovitzpictures on the cover and inside pages ofthe latest edition of Vanity Fair — includ-ing one shot of her naked, being paintedby veteran crooner tony Bennett. “i havenever felt truly cherished by a lover. i

have an inability to know what happinessfeels like with a man,” she told the mag-azine, suggesting she might be destinedto be a single Lady forever.

And she added: “i say this honestly, andthis is my new thing as of the past year:when i fight with someone i’m in a relation-ship with, i think, ‘What would my fansthink if they knew this was happening?’“how would they feel about my work andabout me as a female if they knew i was al-lowing this to go on?’ And then i get out,”she said. Gaga — who was due to appearWednesday night at the annual Grammysnomination show in Los Angeles — appearsin a lavish red two-piece and over-sized haton the front of the magazine. inside picturesinclude her washing furs in a laundromat,eating at a hot dog stand dressed in a vastgolden dress — and a shot of her naked,posing on a rug with her back arched forBennett, in an artist’s studio. She says herrelationships tend to follow a same de-structive pattern, especially if her partneris as creative as she is. “it starts out good,”she says. “then when i’m in these relation-ships with people who are also creative, orcreative in their own way, what happens isthe attraction is initially there and it’s allunicorns and rainbows. “And then theyhate me... if i go to the piano and write aquick song and play it back, they are angrywith how fast and effortless it is. that’swho i am, and i don’t apologize for it.

Nude Lady Gaga reveals all on

bad romance

MuMBAI: Emraan Hashmi, who has earnedthe tag of Bollywood’s ‘serial kisser’ for hisbold acts and Casanova roles, says he has“contaminated” the tinsel town with hisinfamous lip locks. “I have contaminated thefilm industry. If not I, then someone elsewould have done those bold acts. Cinema hasto evolve. I was the face of something thatwas bold, that raised eyebrows. Some of thecultural dictators of the film industry saidwhat he (Emraan) has done, this is notBollywood, what kind of films are these, thisis not our culture,” Emraan told reporters. “Asfar as audience wants to see it then how canit be wrong and as long as there is market forthis. Sexuality, boldness, vulgarity...it dependson every person, everyone has a differentperception,” he said. Ask him if the ‘serialkisser’ tag has helped him ordamaged his reputation,Emraan said, “I don’tknow if it is stillhelping me ordamagingmy careerrightnow.

Something is working...because my films areworking. Eventually no one gives a damnabout what someone writes or thinks aboutthe onscreen image. As long as your productslike ‘Dirty Picture’, ‘murder’ are good no onereally thinks of the image.” AGENCIES

MuMBAI: Hair designer Sapna Bhavnanicreates four new looks for ranveerSingh for his forthcoming films. whenyou are not really blessed with aGreek God face, then you need topay attention to what you wearand how you do up your hair;because a good combination oftalent and a well-groomedappearance can make you workin Bollywood. ranveer Singh, atalented actor has realised this,and worked hard on how helooks for his forthcoming film‘Ladies Vs ricky Bahl’. His new lookhas been designed by ace hairdesigner Sapna Bhavnani. Hisunkempt, casual t-shirt look hasbeen replaced with four distinctnew looks that flatter hispersonality - some withneatly combed oiled hair,moustache, gelled hair andmore. After the success of ‘BandBaaja Baaraat’, ranveer is once againteaming up with Anushka Sharma forthis romantic comedy. AGENCIES

to sell Beti B’s pics?I havecontaminated Bollywood:

Emraan Hashmirevamped

Ranveer Singh’s

MONITORING DESK

how often have you come across a Rs 0.4million ($100,000) silk saree?

Chennai Silks, a textile unit has comeup with one of its kind and it is seeking anunmistakable entry into the GuinnessBook of World Records for being the mostunique and expensive saree.

the exceptionally stunning saree ismeticulously woven with 12 preciousstones and metals to depict 11 of Raja RaviVerma’s popular paintings.

Explicitly projected is ‘Lady Musi-cians’, one of the painter’s very famousworks that displays women belonging todiverse cultural backgrounds.

Besides, the border of the saree pic-tures 10 other paintings of the artist thatpays tribute to 20th century artist.

the best part of the saree being thatthe women in the paintings are intricatelyhand-woven and beautified with jewels ofgold, diamond, platinum, silver, ruby,emerald, yellow sapphire, sapphire, cat’seye, topaz, pearl and corals. Already in theLimca Book of Records, this Rs 0.4 millionsaree will be the first silk saree that re-quired the use of 7,440 jacquard hooks and

66,794 cards during the weaving process.A group of consummate workers tooknearly 4,680 hours to complete it.

This saree is costlier than a Ferrari!

IN LIMELIGHT

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:20 AM Page 16

LOS ANGELES: Ashtonkutcher, whose six yearmarriage to Demi moorecrumbled last month, wasreportedly “swarmed” bygirls during a night out whenhe visited his hometown in Iowaduring thanksgiving. According tous magazine, the 33-year-old actor’snight out in Cedar rapids saw himvisiting local sports bars where heallegedly lapped up the attentionlavished upon him by the local women.“He was drinking beer, and girls keptcoming up to him,” the Daily mailquoted a source as telling thepublication. “He loved the attention.Girls were hugging him and shakinghis hand. After a three hour drinkingsession with old friends, kutcherturned down an invite from a groupof women to visit a strip club. Hewas swarmed by girls. A few tried toconvince him to go to a strip club...but he declined” the source added.AGENCIES

Ashton Kutcher

by girlsduringnight out

17

‘swarmed’

PArIS: British singer Paul

mcCartney performs at the

Bercy Palais-Omnisport.

LOS ANGELES:

michael

Jackson's sister

La toya Jackson

(C) arrives

outside the

courthouse for

the sentencing

of Doctor

Conrad murray.

LOS ANGELESAGENCIES

US rapperKanye Westwon the mostnominationsfor next year’s

Grammys announcedWednesday, followed closelyby British singer Adele, con-tinuing her awards successdespite recent health woes.West was nominated in sevencategories for the music in-dustry’s top awards, to begiven out February 12, whileAdele got six nods — includ-ing three of the key cate-gories, as did Foo Fightersand Bruno Mars. Lady Gagawas arguably the star of thenominations show at thenokia theatre in Los Ange-les, opening and closing thehour-long concert althoughshe is only nominated inthree categories this year.

Adele’s ‘Rolling in theDeep’ was tipped for Recordof the Year along with folk-sters Bon iver for ‘holocene,’hawaiian crooner BrunoMars’ ‘Grenade,’ ‘the Cave’by British folk rockers Mum-ford and Sons and KatyPerry’s ‘Firework.’the Lon-

don songstress’s album ‘21’also led the nods for Albumof the Year, and will fight itout with the Foo Fighters’‘Wasting Light,’ Lady Gaga’s‘Born this Way,’ Bruno Mars’‘Doo Wops and hooligans’and Rihanna’s ‘Loud.’

Kanye West’s seven nodsinclude ‘All of the Lights’ forSong of the Year, up againstMumford and Sons’ ‘theCave,’ Mars’ ‘Grenade,’Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’and Bon iver’s ‘holocene.’inthe running for Best newArtist — the category whichAdele won in 2009 — are theBand Perry, Bon iver, J. Cole,rapper nicki Minaj andSkrillex — the latter wasshortlisted for five awards, aswas Lil Wayne. Adele hascontinued to attract awardsnods and gongs despite beingdogged by throat problemswhich forced her to cancel allengagements for the rest ofthe year in October, and toundergo surgery. “She’s justcompletely rooted in themusic. She definitely poursher heart out in everythingshe does,” said Grammy-nominated Canadian R and Bsinger Melanie Fiona, afterthe star-studded LA show.

Kanye West, Adele amongtop nods for Grammys

MUMBAIZEENEWS

Bollywood bombshell Katrina Kaifrocked the nation with her moves in‘Sheila Ki Jawani’ last year and nowshe is all set to take on her fans with‘Chikni Chameli’ in ‘Agneepath’. Ap-parently, Kat is working really hardand rehearsing day in day out for theanticipated item number which co-stars Sanjay and hrithik can’t stopraving about her. At the same timeKat is also very excited to have finallyfound the opportunity to work withKaran Johar. She said, “Dharma,Karan and i were to work together on‘Dostana 2’, but that got deferred. ihave always wanted to do somethingwith Karan, so when he told meabout the concept of the ‘ChikniChameli’ item number, i loved it. Myreason for doing it is because Karan

is such a nice person and has beenreally good with me. After i heard thesong and dance director GaneshAcharya gave me a dry run, i took itup as a challenge and actually had alot of fun doing it.” Both Sanjay andhrithik are extremely impressedwith Katrina’s energy and Ganesh’schoreography in the song. they feelthat not only will Kat’s item girlavatar will escalate to a new levelafter this song but Ganesh is the onlychoreographer in the industry whounderstands the pulse of masses inindia. Sanju said, “he has inter-preted this song in a very desi way.Our jaws dropped when Kat did theentire song for us during the re-hearsal.” hrithik rounded it up byadding, “the audience will be spell-bound by Katrina as ‘ChikniChameli’. She is the most hard-working co-star and is unbelievable.”

LOS ANGELES: Charlize theronhas admitted that she has noidea how long she will remainan actress. According to LosAngeles Confidential magazine,the 36-year-old actress alsorevealed that it is theuncertainty of herprofession that makes itall the more interesting. “Idon’t know if I feel I’mhere to stay, but that’s agood thing. that keeps youon your toes,” Contactmusic quoted her assaying. “I think this is anindustry where you can’tget too comfortable. It’sconstantly churning withgreat talent, and you’ve gotto raise the bar and try topush yourself. I don’t everwant to kind of feel, ‘yeah,I’m here. I made it.’ I think thatwould probably be the time toretire,” she added. AGENCIES

MUMBAIAGENCIES

Asin thottumkal says that people inBollywood initially found her to be aloofbut that isn’t her true self. On the‘housefull 2’ sets people found acompletely different Asin. Says a sourceclose to her, “She is very friendly bynature and likes to mix with the unitand sit and eat with them while shootingrather than sit in a corner or stick to hervan. She has even made her own set offriends in Mumbai and is seen enjoyingtheir company especially over weekends.She feels when you are working withpeople you need to be friends, too.”

Asin sheds her

Charlize Theron

I might not be an actress

forever:

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:20 AM Page 17

DHAKAAfP

ShAhiD Afridi grabbed fivewickets for 23 runs and thenkept his cool in a batting crisisas Pakistan overcameBangladesh by five wickets in

the first one-dayer in Dhaka on thursday.the leg-spinner ripped through theBangladesh line-up as the hosts werebundled out for 91 after electing to bat atthe Sher-e-Bangla stadium -- with sevenbatsmen failing to reach double figures.

Pakistan lost five wickets chasing themodest target which was eventually over-hauled in the 26th over to give the touriststhe lead in the three-match series.

Seamer Rubel hossain and spinnerShakib Al hasan claimed two wicketsapiece to leave Pakistan struggling at 63-5, before Afridi took his team home withan unbeaten 24 off 23 balls. As the runsdried up on the turning wicket, Afridibroke free with three successive fours off

Shakib and then cut the same bowler foranother boundary to win the game.

Skipper Misbah-ul-haq made 16 notout, sharing a match-winning stand of30 with Afridi. it was Pakistan’s 26thwin in 27 one-dayers againstBangladesh, the lone defeat havingcome during the 1999 World Cup inEngland. Afridi, who was the obviouschoice for the man of the match, said hewanted to do well every time he took thefield. “i want to be consistent, that’s themost important thing,” the 31-year-oldsaid. “this time i tried to bring a lotmore variations in my bowling and thatworked. “When i went out to bat, thecoach told me to play my normal attack-ing game.” Misbah admitted he wasworried when five wickets went down.

“it really looked tough at one stage,but Afridi won us the game,” the relievedPakistan skipper said. “the spinners gota lot of help, the ball turned andbounced. “But i am disap-pointed the way some of ourbatsmen batted. they gotstarts, but did not carryon. it’s a problem wehave to work on.”Bangladesh, wholost half the sidefor 31 runs,were dis-missed in30.3 oversand barelymanagedto sur-p a s s

their lowest one-day total against Pak-istan of 87. Bangladesh’s batting never re-covered after losing aggressive openertamim iqbal with the fourth ball of theinnings, trapped leg-before by off-spinnerMohammad hafeez.

nasir hossain (21) and Shakib puton 36 for the sixth wicket to ensureBangladesh did not fall below their low-est total of 58 -- against the West indiesat the same venue during the World

Cup in March. Bangladesh captainMushfiqur Rahim said he was disap-pointed his team was bowled out forjust 91. “it looked a good track to bat on,but we lost a couple of early wickets,” hesaid. “Credit goes to the Pakistanbowlers, but we need to work on ourbatting at the top of the order. “hope-fully it will all come together in the nextmatch.” the second one-dayer will beplayed at the same venue on Saturday.

Page 23

Friday, 2 December, 2011

wozniacki to play inSydney International

Afridi’s five leads rout of BD

BANGLADESH:

Tamim Iqbal lbw b Hafeez 0

Shahriar Nafees c Malik b Afridi 7

Naeem Islam c Misbah b Gul 5

Mushfiqur Rahim c Sarfraz b Malik 11

Shakib Al Hasan c Akmal b Afridi 15

Mohammad Mahmudullah c Sarfraz b Afridi 1

Nasir Hossain c Sarfraz b Cheema 21

farhad Reza lbw b Afridi 1

Abdur Razzak c Younis b Ajmal 3

Shafiul Islam c Sarfraz b Afridi 0

Rubel Hossain not out 15

EXTRAS: (b2, lb2, w8) 12

TOTAL (all out, 30.3 overs) 91

fall of wickets: 1-0 (Tamim), 2-6 (Naeem), 3-29 (Mushfiqur),

4-29 (Nafees), 5-31 (Mahmudullah), 6-67 (Nasir), 7-71 (Shakib),

8-74 (Razzak), 9-74 (Reza), 10-91 (Shafiul)

BOWLING: Hafeez 5-2-7-1, Gul 5-1-19-1 (w6), Afridi 6.3-0-23-

5, Malik 5-0-13-1 (w2), Ajmal 6-2-13-1, Cheema 3-1-12-1.

PAKISTAN:

Mohammad Hafeez c Nafees b Rubel 22

Imran farhat b Nasir 12

Younis Khan c Rahim b Shakib 2

Sarfraz Ahmed c Shakib b Rubel 2

Misbah-ul-Haq not out 16

umar Akmal b Shakib 7

Shahid Afridi not out 24

EXTRAS: (lb4, w4) 8

TOTAL (for five wickets, 25.4 overs) 93

fall of wickets: 1-36 (farhat), 2-42 (Hafeez), 3-42 (Younis), 4-

44 (Sarfraz), 5-63 (Akmal).

BOWLING: Razzak 4-1-15-0 (w1), Shafiul 3-0-8-0 (w2), Shakib

9.4-3-42-2 (w1), Rubel 8-1-23-2, Nasir 1-0-1-1

Pakistan won by five wickets, leads 1-0 in three-match series.

TOSS: Bangladesh

uMPIRES: Johan Cloete (RSA) and Enamul Haque (BAN)

TV uMPIRE: Sharfuddoula Saikat (BAN)

MATCH REfEREE: Javagal Srinath (IND)

SCOREBOARD

BRISBANEAfP

Daniel Vettori and Dean Brownlie re-stored thursday new Zealand’s first in-nings after a clatter of wickets on therain-shortened opening day of the firsttest against Australia at the Gabba. Whenrain forced an early finish after tea, theeighth-ranked Black Caps, chasing theirfirst victory in Australia for 26 years, were176 for five after winning the toss.

Former skipper Vettori was on 45 off66 balls and Brownlie, dropped twice onthree, unbeaten on 32 off 89 deliveries.Australian captain Michael Clarke fum-bled Brownlie at first slip in a straight-forward chance off Peter Siddle and twoballs later David Warner got his finger-tips to a cut shot at point off MitchellStarc. Brownlie continued to live acharmed life and Starc found an insideedge only for the ball to just miss off-stump and roll down to the boundary.

the pair put on an unbeaten 80 runsfor the sixth wicket to rescue their teamfrom a shaky opening. the Kiwis werefaltering at 96 for five shortly afterlunch when Jesse Ryder on six lazilysliced Starc straight to Warner at pointfor the pace debutant’s second wicket.Only last weekend Ryder clubbed 16

sixes to equal a first-class record formost sixes in his explosive century in atest warm-up game against Australia A.“We wanted to be patient and stick toour plans and knew they would be play-ing their shots so if we could stay pa-tient then the rewards would come,”Starc said. Starc dismissed openingbatsman Brendon McCullum, withseven fours in his 34, during the morn-ing session, also caught by fellow debu-tant Warner. Starc, the most impressiveof Australia’s bowlers, finished the daywith 2-52 off 13 overs. “it’s somethingi’ll never forget and obviously i’m prettyproud just to get the baggy green capbut to take a couple of wickets was fan-tastic as well,” Starc said.

injuries to Ryan harris, MitchellJohnston, allrounder Shane Watson andexciting teenager Pat Cummins forcedselectors to go with Australia’s most in-experienced bowling attack in almostthree decades. Australia made their firstbreakthrough with the wicket of MartinGuptill for 13 in the 11th over. Siddle,leading the inexperienced Australianpace attack in his 26th test match, gotan edge to wicketkeeper Brad haddin,leaving the Black Caps at 44 for one in-side the first hour.

McCullum was out to a careless dis-

missal, bottom-edging a square cut toWarner to give Starc his first test wicketin his sixth over. “First hour good. Sec-ond hour a bit reckless,” McCullum said.“Our guys wanted to try to exert somedominance on the opposition and thegame and probably got a touch over ag-gressive and we probably paid for it.“We’ve got to keep making sure we putourselves in the strongest position wecan, 280-300 is the minimum for us.Anything over that is a bonus.”

Captain Ross taylor had a lucky es-cape on four runs when he was dropped

by Usman Khawaja off Pattinson beforeKane Williamson was out for 19.Williamson played across his pads to fin-ger spinner nathan Lyon and flicked ahead-high catch to Khawaja close in tothe bat leaving the Kiwis at 78 for three.Pattinson got the prized wicket of tay-

lor, who dragged a wide delivery on tohis stumps for 14 nearing lunch. But Vet-tori and Brownlie restored the inningsbefore the washout. Australia left pace-man Ben Cutting out of the startingeleven, which contained three debutants-- Pattinson, Starc and Warner.

Vettori, Brownlie lead New Zealand fight back

NEW ZEALAND 1st innings

B. McCullum c Warner b Starc 34

M. Guptill c Haddin b Siddle 13

K. Williamson c Khawaja b Lyon 19

R. Taylor b Pattinson 14

J. Ryder c Warner b Starc 6

D. Brownlie not out 32

D. Vettori not out 45

EXTRAS (9b, 3w, 1nb) 13

TOTAL (for 5 wickets; 51 overs) 176

fall of wickets: 1-44 (Guptill), 2-56 (McCullum), 3-78

(Williamson), 4-93 (Taylor), 5-96 (Ryder)

BOWLING: Pattinson 11-1-50-1 (2w, 1nb), Siddle 15-5-29-1 (1w),

Starc 13-0-52-2, Lyon 10-0-31-1, Hussey 2-0-5-0.

Rain ended play at 4:00 pm (06:00 GMT)

TOSS: New Zealand

uMPIRES: Aleem Dar (PAK) Asad Rauf (PAK)

TV uMPIRE: Nigel Llong (ENG)

MATCH REfEREE: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)

SCOREBOARD

BrISBANE: New Zealand batsman Brendon mcCullum drives a ball. afp

Pakistan formsanti-corruptiondivision

KARACHIAfP

Pakistan cricket authorities have ap-proved the setting-up of a “vigilance andsecurity division” to fight corruption inthe game, a month after three top play-ers were imprisoned for spot-fixing.Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has beencriticised for failing to combat graft,highlighted by the sentencing of formertest captain Salman Butt and pacemenMohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamerover their roles in fixing parts of a Lord’stest against England last year.the PCB’s governing board met in La-hore on tuesday and approved the newbranch, which it said would be headedby a senior retired police or army offi-cial.“the division will be responsible formonitoring and managing issues relatedto corruption and security,” a PCB state-ment released on thursday said.new PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf said inthe United Arab Emirates last monththat strict measures would be broughtinto place “so that our players, whereverthey are, don’t get in touch with peoplewho try to drag them into such negativeactivity.”Pakistan cricket has been blighted by al-legations of match-fixing since 1995when Australian trio Shane Warne, timMay and Mark Waugh alleged then cap-tain Salim Malik offered them bribes tounder perform during a tour to Pakistan.A judicial inquiry ended in life bans forMalik and paceman Ata-ur Rehman. italso fined Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis,Saeed Anwar, inzamam-ul haq, Mush-taq Ahmed and Akram Raza.After the spot-fixing scandal last year,the international Cricket Council camedown hard on Pakistan, forcing them toform an integrity committee to look intoplayers’ assets and behaviour.

DHAkA: teammates congratulate

Shahid Afridi (2L) after the

dismissal of the Bangladeshi

batsman mohammad

mahmudullah. afp

“The conditions were

perfect for the spinners.

But it’s not that difficult a

wicket. If the batsmen

want they can survive”

Shahid Afridi

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:20 AM Page 18

19Friday, 2 December, 2011

news

Later, the prime ministerand president contactedPML-Quaid PresidentChaudhry Shujaat hussain,Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) chief Altafhussain, Jamiat Ulema-e-islam (JUi-F) chief FazlurRehman and Balochistannational Party-Awami(BnP) chief israrullah Zehrion the telephone, whileAwami national Party(AnP) chief Asfandyar Walivisited the Presidency andgave his input. the presi-dent then held another con-sultation meeting with thegovernment’s leading minis-ters including Babar Awan,Syed Khurshid Shah, Fir-dous Ashiq Awan andRehman Malik. Finally itwas decided that the govern-ment would strongly re-spond to the court verdict.‘RELIEF BROTHERS’:Raising serious questions re-garding the impartiality of thejudiciary, Awan said it was his-toric fact that the PPP wasnever given relief while therulers of the Punjab were

never refused relief. he saidthe Sharif brothers had got somuch relief from the courtsthat they had been named“Relief brothers”. Accusingthe apex court of biasedtreatment of the government,Awan said the federation wasnot put on notice in thememogate case and despitethe fact that he himself waspresent in court, he was notheard. “the PPP always facesallegations in courts. theSharif brothers have beengiven so much relief by thecourts that under stay orders,no case of default or tax eva-sion can be opened againstthem. i can’t understand whythe Sharifs always talk aboutcommissions,” he said, refer-ring to the petition by nawazSharif seeking the formationof a commission to probe thememogate scandal.

he also alleged that theSharif brothers wanted a warbetween the state institutionsand after losing the battle inthe political field, they werelooking for strong backingfrom the courts. Awan alsopointed the finger at an apex

court judge, stating that one ofthe brothers of tariq Khosawas an apex court judge, whileanother one was the chief sec-retary of Punjab while his fa-ther-in-law was the one whowas involved in the judicialmurder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

“how could one thinkthat such a person would beimpartial? tariq Khosa is thesame person who was notgiven his choice posting bythe federal government. howwill he do justice when his en-tire family is biased?” he said.

holding nawaz Sharif re-sponsible for violating theCharter of Democracy, Awansaid the PML-n chief hadplayed a dirty game to get thepresident held responsiblefor treason. he said initiallysomeone had talked aboutthreats to Pakistan’s nucleararsenal (under PresidentZardari), and now the ‘trea-son card’ was being played.

“now you can solve thejigsaw puzzle yourself.Whether or not we havehope for justice, we will notstop our quest for justice.We have always imple-

mented Supreme Courtjudgements. We can only seejustice if all cases against theSharif brothers, includingthe Asghar Khan case, arereopened and all are held ac-countable,” he added.

“he is attacking thedemocratically elected gov-ernment from behind the in-stitutions… no politicalparty has ever died becauseit was labelled a traitor…Punjab has sent three bodiesof former prime ministers toSindh, now efforts are beingmade to prepare a fourthcoffin. But let me tell you,Asif Zardari will never runaway. he will either be aghazi or a shaheed,” he said,adding that in the holymonth of Muharram, a con-spiracy was being hatchedby the tigers of Punjab tolabel an elected president,one who had received themost votes from all provin-cial assemblies in history, atraitor. Warning againstbringing a “Bangladeshmodel” to Pakistan, Awansaid no one should eventhink for becoming a care-

taker. Caretakers, he said,were actually “chair-takers”.

“Only a person who hasbeen given a mandate by thepeople of Pakistan will gov-ern the country. We wouldnot allow anyone to super-sede the constitution. no-body should think that thedemocrats will run away inthe face of threats. Democ-racy is here forever,” he said.

he also questioned theadmission of nawaz Sharif’spetition in the memogatecase, saying the governmenthad decided to empowerparliament by referring thememo issue to a parliamen-tary body and Prime Minis-ter Gilani was going to briefthe committee on the issueon Friday (today).

Responding a question,Firdous Ashiq Awan said itwas true that nawaz wasgiven ViP treatment and thestaff of the apex court had re-ceived him outside the courtpremises on ConstitutionAvenue, and his entouragewas taken into the court withweapons without even show-ing security passes.

Case is a conspiracy against Zardari: pppContinued From page 1

memo is an attempt on sovereignty: SC

Article 184(3) of the constitu-tion. Upon his arrival, nawazwas received by the deputyregistrar of the SupremeCourt.the court noted that primafacie it seemed as if haqqani,who was guardian of thecountry’s interests as ambas-sador, sent the memo to for-mer US Joint Chiefs of Staffchairman Admiral MikeMullen through ijaz. it saidanyone involved in the mat-ter must have their own in-terests, thus must beprosecuted.the court noted that thememo issue involved ques-tions such as whether it wasa matter of civil nature inwhich negligence was com-mitted, and its results attractthe provisions of Article 6, orwhether it was a criminalmatter. What rang alarm bells in thePresidency were the remarksof Justice tassaduq hussainJilani that the presidentcould be punished for con-spiring against the state andthe army under Article 5 ofthe constitution.the court heard all nine peti-tioners, including nawazSharif, who demanded thememo issue be probed as itwas a conspiracy to break thecountry. he requested thecourt to summon the presi-dent, the army chief, the iSichief and other respondentsto ascertain the facts of thematter. he said he was notdirectly leveling allegationsagainst the president butquestioned how an ambassa-dor dared to write such amemo without the consent ofthe prime minister.When Justice Mian Saqibnisar asked nawaz why thecourt should interfere in thematter in the presence ofparliament, the PML-n chiefexpressed lack of confidencein parliament, saying an in-stitution whose resolutionshad not been respected couldnot be entrusted with an en-quiry of this magnitude. “had we put this issue beforeparliament, it would do noth-ing as the opposition was nottaken into confidence onmany issues,” he stated.

Continued From page 1

rs 100m of

Zardari family

withdrawn in fraud

KARACHIONLINE

About Rs 100 million be-longing to the Zardari fam-ily account werefraudulently withdrawn onWednesday and the Fed-eral investigation Agency(FiA) has arrested somepeople in this connection. FiA authorities were givendirectives by an importantSindhi personality affiliatedwith the Zardari family,who also supervises the po-litical affairs of Sindh, tolook into the embezzlement.three people, including twobank managers, were ar-rested by the FiA after theregistration of a case againstthem.

Al qaeda holding

wenstein

WASHINGTONAfP

Al Qaeda is holding a USaid worker captured lastAugust in Pakistan, thegroup’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a state-ment seen thursday by amonitoring group.Zawahiri said al Qaedahad abducted USAiDworker Warren Weinstein,“who is neck-deep inAmerican aid to Pakistan”,and that the White househad the ability to get himfreed if it halts USairstrikes.

mansoor Ijaz

ready to help SC

ZURICH: the US-Pak-istani businessman at thecentre of the Memogatecontroversy, Mansoorijaz, in a press release is-sued on thursday offeredto assist the Special in-vestigator appointed bythe Supreme Cout of Pak-istan with evidence in thememogate inquiry. PR

Imran’s power

cables stolen

LAHORE: Unidentifiedthieves on thursday stolemain electricity wiresfrom the house of PtiChairman imran Khan.Race Course police offi-cials said unidentifiedthieves disconnectedelectricity supply by cut-ting electricity wires con-nected to the electricitymetre and escaped.the servants of imran’shouse immediately in-formed LESCO officials.the officials arrived atthe house immediately,but refused to take anyaction, saying recoveringstolen wires was nottheir responsibility.STAff REPORT

4 cops killed

KHANEWAL: Four con-stables of Justice QasimKhan’s squad weregunned down by unidenti-fied assailants on Multan-Khanewal Road onthursday. KabeerwalaDSP Mian tanweer saidfour assailants appearedin a white car and openedfire at the squad near PulRangan. APP

ISLAMABADSTAff REPORT

Legal and constitutional ex-perts are divided on whetherthe president enjoys immu-nity against criminal pro-ceedings as the “memogate”landed in the Supreme Courtand the court asked Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari andothers to file replies on theissue within 15 days.

the question of immu-nity to the president hasarisen again as Zardari hasbeen made respondent in thecase, with the SupremeCourt observing that Article5 of the constitution bindsevery citizen to be faithful tothe country, and adding thatthe memo raises questionsover the country’s sover-eignty. Asked to comment onthe constitutional positionvis-à-vis immunity to thepresident, Justice (r) Waji-huddin Ahmad said inter-alia the act of the accused,whosoever he is, is borderingon high treason, adding thatthe president does not enjoyblanket immunity.

On the question of logi-

cal end of the exercise theSupreme Court is going toundertake, Ahmad said theSC can determine parame-ters and modalities of Article6. “the SC cannot try the ac-cused,” he said.

however, asked whetherhe sees any confrontationbetween the judiciary andparliament as the parliamen-tary body is also taking upthe matter today (Friday), hesaid there is nothing likethat.

Senior lawyer ikramChaudhry said the presidentdoes not enjoy absolute im-munity, adding, “Supposethe president, in connivancewith some other country,hatched a conspiracy againstthe country… he hands overAzad Kashmir to india, howcan he be given immunity?”

he said a person whoconspires against the coun-try’s sovereignty cannot begiven immunity.

Another senior lawyer,who did not want to benamed, said president doesnot enjoy immunity, addingthat the Supreme Court hasnot yet given its final order.

ISLAMABADONLINE

PRESiDEnt Asif AliZardari on thurs-day said all at-tempts against him

and the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) would bethwarted at all costs. he wasspeaking to various delega-tions of PPP and Awami na-tional Party that called onhim at the Presidency.

“i am the spiritual son ofZulfikar Ali Bhutto and i canface every kind of challenge.Benazir Bhutto had full con-fidence in me. now the na-tion has confidence in herclosest aide,” the presidentadded.

he said he was not afraidof the prevailing situation.“the PPP came into powerby getting peoples’ mandateand all political forcesshould respect it,” he said.

According to the sources,hearing in the SupremeCourt in the memo scam, re-cent statements of nawazSharif and other importantissues and future policies ofthe PPP were discussed dur-ing the meetings. Zardarisaid the country was passingthrough a difficult time andit could not afford confronta-tion, adding that he wouldcontinue the politics of rec-onciliation, as he did notwant conflict with any one.

Zardari vows to fail all Opp moves

Not fleeing pakistan,says Husain Haqqani

ISLAMABADONLINE

Former ambassador to theUnited States husainhaqqani on thursday saidhe had no plan to leave thecountry and would respondto all questions concerningthe memo scandal.

the Supreme Courtbarred haqqani from leavingthe country as a nine-mem-ber larger bench took up sev-eral petitions seekinginvestigation into the memoscandal.

haqqani said no ambas-sador could serve his coun-try amidst a swirl of mediaallegations initiated by areckless individual. “i re-signed to pave the way for atransparent investigationand intend to stay in thecountry for as long as neces-sary,” he said in response toa decision by the SupremeCourt barring him from trav-elling abroad.

Legal experts divided onpresidential immunity

Asma offers to

defend Haqqani

Asma Jahangir, former pres-ident of the Supreme CourtBar Association, on thurs-day announced her willing-ness to represent formerambassador to United Stateshusain haqqani in the on-going judicial investigationsinto the memogate scandal.Speaking in a Dunya newsprogramme, Asma claimedthat haqqani had requestedher earlier to defend him inthe court, but she had re-fused. however, she recon-sidered her decision andinformed haqqani’s wife ofher willingness to be theformer envoy’s lawyer foronly Rs 4,000. She believedthat haqqani was innocentin the case and that is whyshe had agreed to defendhim. MONITORING DESK

karzai offers to

protect taliban from

‘Pakistani spies’

MONITORING DESK

Afghan officials have re-vealed that AfghanistanPresident hamid Karzai of-fered resettlement packagesfor the families of talibanleaders living in Pakistan tofind peace partners freefrom the influence of “Pak-istani spies”.According to a report inthe Guardian, the officialssaid the Afghan president’seffort to find representa-tives to talk for the insur-gents were scuppered bytheir unwillingness tojeopardise families givensanctuary in Pakistan,:where they live under thesway of the inter-Servicesintelligence (iSi)”, whichis accused of supportingthe taliban.According to the report, the“initiative highlights the ex-traordinary grip Pakistanhas over the taliban leader-ship” and “it showed the de-sire of the Karzaigovernment to peel away afaction within the QuettaShura”.

Pakistan improves

in global

corruption index

MONITORING DESK

the opposition leaders’ accu-sation of corruption againstthe government clashed onthursday with transparencyinternational’s report onglobal corruption, whichranked Pakistan on the indexat 134, with 42 countriesranking worse, a marked im-provement from last yearwhen Pakistan had only 34countries ranking worse,media reports said.Pakistan scored 2.5 in theCorruption Perceptions index(CPi) compared to last year’sscore of 2.3, which meansPakistan is improving in theglobal list of countries that areperceived to be corrupt.transparency interna-tional’s annual survey,which looked at 183 coun-tries, ranges from zero (per-ceived to be highly corrupt)to 10 (thought to have littlecorruption). A country’srank can change becausenew countries enter theindex or others drop out.

LHR 02-12-2011_Layout 1 12/2/2011 2:20 AM Page 19

sports20Friday, 2 December, 2011

DHAKA: Pakistani cricketers congratulate teammate

Sarfraz Ahmed (2L) after the dismissal of the

Bangladeshi captain Mushfiqur Rahim (L). afp

AUCKLANDAfP

AUStRALiA is aiming tosecure a historic fourthstraight win at hockey’sChampions trophystarting in Auckland on

Saturday, the sport’s last major tour-nament before next year’s Olympics.the Kookaburras, the reigningOlympic and world champions, gointo the eight-nation tournament asfavourites, keen to assert their dom-inance ahead of the London Games.

Australia has held the Champi-ons trophy since 2008, a feat theyhave achieved once before -- in1983-85 -- and which has beenequalled only by West Germany

(1986-1988). While an unprece-dented fourth win at the December3-11 event in Auckland would be abonus for Australia, coach RicCharlesworth said his focus was oni m p r o v i n ghis squad’sdepth aheadof theO l y m p i c s .“Every stepfrom now onis a step to-wards ourfinal destination of the Olympics,”Charlesworth said. the tournamentvenue was switched from newDelhi to Auckland in Septemberafter a row between the interna-tional hockey Federation (Fih)

and indian officials over who runsthe game in the country. As a result,new Zealand took india’s spot atthe tournament. Pakistan andSouth Korea were both given wild

cards in thee x p a n d e devent, whichthis year fea-tures eightteams in-stead of six.Pakistan, thel o w e s t -

ranked team, performed well to se-cure a 1-1 draw in a warm-up matchagainst world no. 2 team Germanyand will hope world record-holdinggoal scorer Sohail Abbas can helpend a 17-year Champions trophy

drought. host nation new Zealandare full of self-belief after ending a12-year losing streak against Aus-tralia in hobart last month, but hadmixed fortunes in warm-up games,with a 3-1 win over Great Britainand a 4-3 loss to Spain.

Coach Shane McLeod said thehome advantage would provide amajor boost for his experiencedteam, which boasts 2,125 caps.

“having the support of a localcrowd and the benefit of playing onour home pitch will really help -- it’ssomething we’ve never had before atthis level,” he said. the tournamentbegins on Saturday with Australiafacing Spain, Great Britain v Pak-istan, Germany v new Zealand andthe netherlands v South Korea.

Aussies chase historyin Champions Trophy

wAPDA draw kPt in PPLLAHORE: WAPDA and KPt match in the eighth PakistanPremier Football League ended in a draw on thursday.WAPDA were held to one-all draw by fighting KPt here at theRailways Football Stadium. WAPDA’s captain and forwardArif Mahmood took the lead for his team in the 54th minutebut that lead did not last long and KPt’s forward ShahidSaleem leveled the score in the 65th minute. Meanwhile, in theeighth Pakistan Football Federation League second division,PtV gained full points with a one goal win over ZtBL at Jin-nah Football Stadium, islamabad. PtV got their share of winwhen Peer Salah-ud-Din scored the goal in the 58th minute.Meanwhile in the other match of the league, Railways andhEC played a goalless draw at the same venue. STAff REPORT

wAPDA clinch Gold Cup hockeyFAISALABAD: WAPDA clinched the title of the All Pak-istan nBP Gold Cup hockey tournament after defeatingnBP in extra time at the Faisalabad hockey Stadium onthursday. in a final full of activity and pace, WAPDA andnBP remained locked four-all in the given time and werethen given extra time in which WAPDA got the winninggolden goal to take the title 5-4. At the first half, WAPDAwere leading by 2-1 but the chain of attack and counterat-tack increased in the second session and WAPDA got twomore goals but nBP responded with three to go even tillthe final whistle was blown. the teams were given the extratime to decide the outcome of the match and WAPDAsomehow after great efforts got the wining goal. WAPDAscored through Aleem Bilal who got two goals and Muham-mad Mudassar stared with three. On the other hand nBPstars of fight were Muhammad Dilber, Akhtar Ali, M Atiqand Muhammad toufeeq, all of them shared one goal each.. Ex-test Cricketer/incharge Sports national Bank of Pak-istan iqbal Qasim was the chief guest on the final. Cashprize of Rs 20,000 went to nBP while the winning trophywith cash prize of Rs 40,000 was given to WAPDA. On theoccasion, Organising Secretary Olympian Rana MujahidAli, tournament Director Olympian Khalid Bashir, DhAFaisalabad President haji Rana Muhammad Mazhar Khan,Commissioner Faisalabad Saeed tahir hussain and DCOFaisalabad naseem Sadiq were also present. STAff REPORT

PIA takes leadin quaid trophy

LAHORESTAff REPORT

PiA took first innings lead over ZtBLon day two of the Division i ninthround Quaid-i-Azam trophy matchhere at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.ZtBL were bowled out for 178 runs andlater PiA got 252 runs for two after re-suming three innings at 38 for one.Kamran Sajif with an unbeaten 115 andFaisal iqbal 93 not out made the leadpossible for PiA.At LCCA ground, Lahore Ravi peggedback to lead after they scored 55 runsin their secnod innings against KRL’s224. Earlier Lahore got 180 runs intheir first innings.Scores:ZtBL 178 in 62 overs(imran nazir 36,Zulqarnain haider 43, Junaid Zia 65,Anwar Ali 3-35, Zia-ul-haq 3-31,Akhtar Waheed 2-69) v PiA 252-2 in 92overs (Kamran Sajid 115*, Faisal iqbal93*).Overnight Score: PiA 38-1 in 14 overstoss: PiA; Umpires: Saleem Badar urihtsham-ul-haq; Referee: Aziz urRehman; Scorer: najamus Saeed.At LCCA Ground, Lahore. Lahore Ravi180 in 64.2 overs (Mohammad irfan 41,Asif Ashfaq 41, Mohammad Zohaib 27,Yasir Ali 4-40, Azhar Ali 2-31) and 55-2in 13.2 overs v KRL 224 in 69.5 overs(Yasir Arafat 78, Zulfiqar Jan 23, YasirAli 34*, Asif Ashfaq 4-50, WaqarAhmed 3-63).Overnight Score: KRL 38-0 in 12.2overstoss: KRL; Umpires: Akbar Khan &Kamal Marchant; Referee: Khalidniazi; Scorer: Abdul hameed.

HONG KONGAfP

World number two Rory Mcilroy was the jointleader after the first round of the $2.75 millionUBS hong Kong Open thursday where the north-ern irishman shot an impressive six-under-par64. the US Open champion was joined by Alvaro

Quiros and David horsey after the SpaniardQuiros chipped in on the 18th and the Englishgolfer hit a stunning approach to leave himself atap-in as the light began to fade.

Mcilroy went out early in the morning andtamed the blustery conditions at the hong Kong GolfClub with a bogey-free round in what he describedas his best-ever over the course.

“it’s my best here for sure,” said the 22-year-old.“i handled the wind pretty well today and i think ihave shot a 63 here once but this was better than thatgiven the conditions.”

Mcilroy, who was a runner-up in hong Kong in2008 and 2009 was quick to keep his feet on theground however.

“there’s still a long way to go in this tourna-ment,” he said. “i’ve led a lot of tournaments fromthe first day, and i’ve won a couple of them, but i re-alize more than anyone, there is a long way to go - 54holes. i’ll have to play very, very well to pick up thistrophy.” two birdies on his first nine and four on theback did it for Mcilroy, who played in a group thatincluded reigning hong Kong champion ian Poulter,who struggled on the greens on his way to a plus-one71. the Englishman couldn’t buy a putt all round andleft vowing to put in the hours on the practice greenin the afternoon.

“i’m obviously disappointed, the wind was trickyand i played nicely but didn’t hole a putt out there,”said Poulter. “i’ve got work to do tomorrow and thisgolf course will play tougher as it goes.”

Quiros, known for his long drives, had his shortgame to thank for joining Mcilroy at the top of theleaderboard, while horsey’s nine-iron to within twofeet on the last left him with a simple birdie putt fora share of the lead. Quiros, 28, recovered from anerrant approach shot on the par four last with achip-in for birdie. it was the second chip-in of theday for Quiros - after he had performed the sametrick for an eagle on the par-five 12th.

MANCHESTERAfP

English champions Manchester United suf-fered a shock 2-1 defeat to Championshipside Crystal Palace thanks to an extra-timegoal from substitute Glenn Murray in theirLeague Cup quarter-final here on Wednes-day. Palace had not won, or even scored agoal, in five matches but took a surprise leadat Old trafford with Darren Ambrose’s finelong-range strike. Federico Macheda pulledone back from the penalty spot with his firstgoal at Old trafford in 18 months.

But after the game went to extra time,Murray headed in to send the south Londonside into the semi-finals. After the 6-1 defeatto City in October, it was just United’s seconddefeat at Old trafford since their 2-1 loss toChelsea in April 2010. Crystal Palace managerDougie Freedman said that it was a momentto treasure for a club that has had a hard fewyears. “it’s a wonderful night for the club, es-pecially given the position we’ve been in thelast few years,” said Freedman, who as aplayer scored 95 goals in 330 appearances forthe club. “to play at Old trafford tonight,we’re privileged, the lads learnt a lot from

tonight. “i think we deserved it. We playedsome good stuff, some good football,” addedthe former Scotland international.

Even though Sir Alex Ferguson made ahost of changes to his team, United were stillexpected to take a place alongside Manches-ter City, Liverpool and another Champi-onship side Cardiff in the last four.

HONG kONG: Northern Ireland’s rory mcIlroy watchesthe ball after he hit the ball. afp

McIlroy shares leadat Hong Kong Open

PFF traning course LAHORE: Over the next seven days, 45 of Pakistan’sfootball referees, instructors and assessors will be in-volved in intense training at the PFF Football house La-hore, with the association of the world governing body forfootball, hosts PFF, Member Association Elite RefereesCourse. Masoud Enayat, iranian FiFA technical instruc-tor and Ganesh Manium Singaporean FiFA Physical in-structor will train the trainees. the objective of the coursewhich started today is to enhance the local referees’knowledge of the game and to effect greater uniformityand higher standards of performance at the regional andinternational levels. in the welcome address Lt. Col. ®Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi, General Secretary, PFF has said“i hope the FiFA elite instructor will share their knowl-edge and experience with the locals during this course toenhance their skill and make our referees. STAff REPORT

mANCHEStEr: manchester united’s midfielderPark Ji-Sung (r) vies with Crystal Palace’smidfielder Darren Ambrose. afp

United suffer a palace coup

the participants of the member Association Elite refereesCourse with the officials of the PFF and instructors.

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pcB’S gOvErNiNg BOArD MEETiNg

sports 21Friday, 2 December, 2011

watCh it LiVe

TEN SPORTSFIH ChampionsChallenge 201105:20PM

STAR CRICKETAustralia v NewZealand Test 1 Day 205:00AM

TEN SPORTSSAFF Championship 2011:Bangladesh v Pakistan02:25PM

NEO CRICKETIndia v WestIndies 2nd ODI02:00PM

wozniacki to play inSydney International

SYDNEYAfP

World number one Caroline Wozniacki willplay in next month’s Sydney internationalfor a fourth consecutive year, organiserssaid on thursday. the 21-year-old Danishstar, who finished as the top-ranked playerfor the second straight season, joins USOpen champion Sam Stosur and FrenchOpen winner Li na at theJanuary 8-14 event.Wozniacki claimedsix WtA tour titlesthis year and hadsemi-final appear-ances at the Aus-tralian Open andUS Open.

Faisalabad winInter-regionu-19 Cricket title

ISLAMABADSTAff REPORT

Faisalabad region won the inter-Re-gion/Departments U-19 three DaysCricket tournament after their finalagainst Rawalpindi Region ended in adraw at the national Ground islamabad.After the team drew the match at the endof the four days play, Faisalabad wereawarded the winners trophy for talkingthe first innings lead.Faisalabad Region U-19 got Rs 400, 000while Rawalpindi were awarded Rs 200,000. Abu Bakar Khan of Faisalabad wasdeclared the man of the final while bestbatsman was Umer Waheed(Rawalpindi), best bowler Fawad Khan(State Bank), best fielder Yousaf iqbal(Rawalpindi) and best wicketkeeper wasshared by Adil Junaid (Sialkot Region)and Muhammad taimur Khan(Rawalpindi and all these players weregiven Rs 40,000 each.SCORES: Faisalabad region u-19 – 236 in 68.5 overs:

(Abu Bakar 73, Nauman Butt 50, munir Ahmed 48,

Abrar Hussain 34, Adil Shabbir 4-53, Zarar ali 3-68,

Zubair Javed 2-36) Faisalabad region u-19 (2nd in-

nings) 398 in 131.2 overs: (Abu Bakar khan 103, Fa-

heem Ashraf 78, rizwan Sharif 54, Arsalan khadim

46, Adil Shabbir 2-57, Zarar Ali 2-51) v rawalpindi re-

gion u-19 – 222 in 71 overs: (umer waheed 60,

taimur khan 42, yousaf Iqbal 35, Ehsan Adil 6-72,

muhammad Farman 2-62) rawalpindi region u-19

(2nd innings) 89-4 in 26 overs: (umer waheed 31, Fa-

heem Ashraf 3-28) result: match Drawn (Faisalabad

region u-19 won on first innings lead), Overnight

score: Faisalabad region u-19 (2nd innings) 262-6 in

93 overs, toss: rawalpindi region u-19, umpires:

Javeed Ashraf and muhammad rashid, match ref-

eree: Asif Aslam khan, Official Scorer: umer Iqbal.

LAHORESTAff REPORT

A marathon meeting of the governing bodyof the Pakistan Cricket Board discussed anumber of issues but without coming toany final decision on key issues.

the deliberations lasted for morethan nine hours at the national CricketAcademy but no decision on the appoint-ment of a new Chief Operating Officer orcoaches for the national team were madeand even there has been no fruitful moveof the proposed amendment in the con-stitution as recommended by the inter-national Cricket Council.

the 21st meeting of governing boardwas held on november 29 at the nationalCricket Academy under the Chairman-ship of Ch Zaka Ashraf. Wazir Khoja, Mirhaider talpur, Aamir nawab, Ch Mo-hammad Anwar, Maj Gilani, intikhabAlam, Javed Miandad, Subhan Ahmad(COO) and Badar Manzoor (CFO) at-tended the meeting.

however, the chairman took the gov-erning board members into confidence re-garding his visit to india later this monthand also apprised them of his meetingswith different heads of cricket boards dur-ing his stay in the UAE.

the board recorded its appreciation forthe contributions made by the outgoingChairman ijaz Butt to the PCB.

"there was no discussion on appoint-ment of a new Chief Operating Officer atthe meeting," a board official said.

"it was nothing but speculation that

Subhan Ahmad was going to be changed asCOO. the bottom line is he is a hardworker and minds his own business, so idon't think any of the board members haveany issues with him. the Chairman alsoappears satisfied with the COO," the mem-ber, who declined to be named, said.

the member also disclosed that therewere no deliberations on appointing newcoaches for the national team.

"What we have been told is that thePCB committee that was constituted toshortlist and recommend names forcoaching positions has yet to complete itsprocess," the member said.

the member said that only after thecommittee headed by intikhab Alam sub-mits a shortlist of names to PCB chief, theissue will be discussed and approval ofgeneral body will be sought.

Several names have been floatedaround for the coaching positions includ-ing Australians Dean Jones and DavWhatmore and South African JontyRhodes but nothing appears final.

the member said there was some dis-cussion on steps needed to completelyroot out corruption from all levels ofcricket in Pakistan and it was unani-mously agreed that the PCB should showno leniency towards any player who in-dulges in corrupt practices.

the member said that there was con-sensus that Pakistan should take initiativeto restore bilateral cricket ties with indiaand hopefully the visit of Ashraf to india inDecember will serve as a turning point forthe sport in the subcontinent.

the Chairman briefed the board thatduring his recent visit to UAE he metSharad Pawar, iCC President, Alan issac,iCC Vice President, Dr. Julian hunte,Chairman iCC Governance Committee.the meeting was in relation to the nomi-nation for the next iCC President. Also, dis-cussions were held on restarting Pakistanvs india series and about meeting withPresident Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB)Mustafa Kamal. Discussions were held onthe nomination for President of iCC andBangladesh team touring Pakistan nextyear. Also discussed was a tournament be-tween Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.President BCB invited PCB Chairman tovisit Bangladesh in December during Pak-istan team’s tour to Bangladesh.

in his meeting with iCC CEO haroonLorgat, they discussed matters like the con-stitutional amendment, revival of interna-tional cricket in Pakistan including cricketseries between india and Pakistan and im-provement in the working relationship be-tween the PCB and iCC.

President of Emirates Cricket Board(ECB) hE Shaikh Al nahayan assuredfull cooperation from his side for devel-opment and promotion of cricket in Pak-istan. the meeting was held in a verycordial atmosphere.

he said that the meetings were alsoheld with officials of ECB and DubaiSports City including Abdur rehmanBukhatir, Khalid Zarooni, AbdurehmanFalaknaz and Mohammad Redha Ab-dulla Abbas. the meetings were held todiscuss matters like Pakistan home se-ries being played at UAE and improve-ment in the facilities extended for

current and future series of Pakistan.the meetings were highly successful as

could be observed from the positive mediastatements issued by iCC, he added.

Creation of a new Coordination Divi-sion in the PCB was approved for bettercoordination with government depart-ments and within the PCB and to bringthe grievances and inputs of RegionalCricket Associations and other domesticcricketing bodies at the PCB Chairman’slevel. the Division would look after func-tions of PR, protocol and media.

A Benevolent Funds Policy was ap-proved through which financial assistancewill be available for people connected withcricket including players, umpires, scor-ers, sports journalists etc.

Detailed discussions were held onthe amendments required in PCB’s Con-stitution to bring it in line with iCC’sMemorandum & Articles. Views of theGoverning Board members regardingthis matter were noted.

A presentation was given on fourmega infrastructure projects currently un-derway i.e., Garhi Khuda Baksh stadium,Multan Cricket Academy, Karachi CricketAcademy and Pavilion Building at PindiStadium. the board expressed concerns atthe delay in these projects and increase incosts. A committee comprising Mr Mirhaider talpur and Mr Javed Miandadwas formed to visit these projects andpresent their report.

the Board appreciated the steps beingtaken by PCB to revive internationalcricket in the country and expressed con-fidence in the new Chairman on his visionto take PCB to newer heights.

Subhan likely to remain COO g PCB approves benevolent fund for former cricketers

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

Friday, 2 December, 2011

22

ISLAMABADAPP

PRiME Minister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani on thursday said there wasno threat of a “judicial” or “mili-tary” coup, as both institutionswere pro-democracy and did not

want to derail the system. the prime minis-ter was responding to queries of callers fromacross the country in a live PtV programme,“Prime Minister Online”.

to a question about the submission ofreply by the government, army and iSi to theSupreme Court in the memo case, the PMsaid there would be one reply from the exec-utive authority. he said Pakistan’s decisionto boycott the Bonn Conference in protestagainst the nAtO attack and violation of its

sovereignty was final and taken collectively.“how we can attend the conference when oursovereignty came under attack,” he re-marked.

he said in his opinion, the decision tonot attend the conference was in line withnational honour, self respect and dignity. hedenied considering sending Foreign Ministerhina Rabbani Khar to Bonn. Gilani said Pak-istan could work with the US, nAtO andiSAF under a new agreement and by devisingnew rules of engagement. “We have to for-mulate new rules of engagement and we canwork under a new agreement.” the PrimeMinister said it was up to the ParliamentaryCommittee on national Security to give rec-ommendations for a decision on ties with USand nAtO. the nAtO assault was “an attackon the integrity of Pakistan and it was de-cided in the resolutions of the joint sitting ofparliament and All-Parties Conference thatif US again takes a unilateral action, Pakistanwill respond”, he said.

to a question about memo issue, Gilanisaid he called former ambassador husainhaqqani to Pakistan, he submitted resigna-tion and his matter was referred to the Par-liamentary Committee on nationalSecurity. But “husain haqqani should notbe condemned unheard,” he remarked. Gi-lani rejected the view that a number of PPPleaders were deserting the party, sayingthat those PPP leaders who were commit-ted to the party and its ideology wouldnever leave the party in any circumstances.to a question on contender for the slot ofprime minister after next elections, Gilanisaid the PPP chairman should become theprime minister and the whole party wouldbe behind him. Replying to callers com-plaining about price hike and unemploy-ment, he said the issues were not confinedto Pakistan only, adding that the govern-ment was not oblivious to the problems andwas working hard to address the issues.

ISLAMABADSHAIq HuSSAIN

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani willbrief the Parliamentary Committee onnational Security on Friday (today) onlast week’s nAtO air strike, and at theend of the committee’s proceedings it islikely that a decision to boycott the BonnConference will be revised and Pakistanmay announce that it will attend themoot at the ambassador level.

the decision to not attend theBonn Conference, which is being heldon December 5 at the foreign minis-ter level, is irreversible but it is likelythat the parliamentary committee, in

light of the prime minister’s briefing,will allow participation at the ambas-sador level.

A diplomatic source said the primeminister would inform the committeeabout the requests coming in fromacross the globe, not only from nAtOmember states such as the US but alsofrom some Muslim countries, that Pak-istan review its decision and at leastsend its ambassador in Germany to theBonn Conference.

“All depends now on the Parlia-mentary Committee on national Secu-rity whether it decides in favour ofparticipation at the ambassador levelor not as it is told by the prime minis-

ter about the advantages of going tothe moot,” the source said.

Pakistan today has learnt from re-liable sources that the US and othernAtO member states have sought thehelp of Saudi Arabia and the UAE topersuade Pakistan to at least send itsambassador in Germany to attend theconference.

Some of Pakistan’s own foreign pol-icy managers are also of the view that byattending the moot at even a low level,islamabad would be able to present itscase to the world on the nAtO air strikeat the conference, which will be attendedby 90 representatives from various na-tions across the world.

WASHINGTONAGENCIES

the White house has decided that Presi-dent Obama will not offer formal condo-lences — at least for now — to Pakistanfor the deaths of two dozen soldiers innAtO airstrikes last week, overrulingState Department officials who argued forsuch a show of remorse to help salvageAmerica’s relationship with Pakistan, ad-ministration officials said.

On Monday, Cameron Munter, theUS ambassador to Pakistan, told a groupof White house officials that a formalvideo statement from Obama was neededto help prevent the rapidly deterioratingrelations between islamabad and Wash-ington from cratering, administration of-ficials said, the new York times reported.the ambassador, speaking by videocon-ference from islamabad, said that angerin Pakistan had reached a fever pitch and

that the United States needed to move todefuse it as quickly as possible, the offi-cials recounted.

Defense Department officials balked.While they did not deny some Americanculpability in the episode, they said ex-pressions of remorse offered by seniordepartment officials and Secretary ofState hillary Rodham Clinton wereenough, at least until the completion of aUnited States military investigation es-tablishing what went wrong. OnWednesday, White house officials saidObama was unlikely to say anything fur-ther on the matter in the coming days.“the US government has offered its deep-est condolences for the loss of life, fromthe White house and from SecretaryClinton and Secretary (of Defence LeonE) Panetta,” said tommy Vietor,spokesman for the national SecurityCouncil. “And we are conducting an in-vestigation into the incident. We cannot

offer additional comment on the circum-stances of the incident until we have theresults,” he added.

Some former Obama administrationofficials said the president should makepublic remarks on the border episode, in-cluding a formal apology. “Without someeffective measures of defusing this issue,Pakistan will cooperate less rather thanmore with us, and we won’t be able toachieve our goals in Afghanistan,” saidVali Reza nasr, a former State Depart-ment official who specialised in Pakistan. CLINTON: Clinton also expressed re-gret on behalf of the American people atthe loss of lives in the Mohmand tragedyand urged Pakistan to play its due role inthe Afghan peace process by participatingin the Bonn Conference. MUNTER: Meanwhile, in a video mes-sage released by the US embassy onthursday, US Ambassador to PakistanCameron Munter expressed condolences

on the nAtO attack last week that killed24 Pakistani soldiers in MohmandAgency. “i would like to extend my mostsincere condolences to the people andgovernment of Pakistan and especially toPakistan’s men and women in uniform,for the tragic incident that occurred onnovember 26 in Mohmand Agency. Mythoughts and prayers are with the fami-lies of the men who died. hamey bohatafsos hay.

“Pakistan and the United States havestood together for over 60 years. We haveweathered previous crises together. i amcertain we will weather this one, too, andemerge – together – as stronger partners.

“We take this matter very seriouslyand pledge to you a full, in-depth investi-gation. i want to emphasise to the peopleof Pakistan my personal commitment todo all i can to make sure that we emergefrom the tragic incident as stronger part-ners,” Munter said.

No threat of judicial, militarycoup, says PMg Gilani says SC will get only one reply from

executive authority in memo case

Pakistan may review Bonn decision

two Pakistanis

‘killed by NAtO’ in

AfghanistanMONITORING DESK

two Pakistani nationals fromBalochistan were allegedly shot deadby nAtO forces in Afghanistan onthursday, according to Dunya news. Meanwhile, AFP reported that sevenPakistanis – engineers and workers as-signed to a hospital construction projectin Afghanistan’s Logar province – werereturning to their accommodation afterwork when they were taken away atgunpoint on Wednesday. the tV reportsaid the two Pakistani men from Chagaidistrict of Balochistan were visitingtheir relatives in the Bibijan area ofAfghanistan when nAtO forces al-legedly opened fire at them, killing theminstantly. Officials of the Levies militiaconfirmed the incident to the Pakistanimedia, the channel said, adding that thedead men were identified as Abdullahand Mohammad Usman. SEVEN PAKISTANIS ABDUCTED:Meanwhile, Logar police chief GhulamSakhi Roghliwani said the seven Pak-istanis were going home from workwhen their minivan was stopped by un-known gunmen. he said that the gun-men forced the driver out of the carand took the passengers to an un-known location. there was no claim ofresponsibility for the abduction but po-lice said the kidnapping might havebeen carried out by “criminal gangs”seeking a ransom.

Obama won’t offer formal apology yet: NYTuS Senate ties strings

to Pakistan aidWASHINGTON: the US Senate votedon Wednesday to tie strings to military aidto Pakistan as they advanced a massive an-nual defense spending bill. Senators unan-imously approved an amendment byDemocratic Senator Bob Casey aimed atblocking counterinsurgency aid to Pak-istan until islamabad takes aggressivesteps to curb the use of roadside bombsblamed for the deaths of US soldiers inneighbouring Afghanistan. the Whitehouse has threatened to veto the $662 bil-lion measure over tough new rules requir-ing military detention of terrorismsuspects and affirming that US citizenswho join extremist groups may be detainedforever without trial. the Defense Autho-risation legislation is seen as a sure betfor passage because it affects US troops iniraq and Afghanistan, and lawmakershoped to make it the vehicle for toughnew economic sanctions on tehran. AfP

KARACHI: An activist of the Sunni Tehreek holds up a portrait of uS President

Barack Obama with shoes hung over it during a demonstration on Thursday

against the cross-border NATO air strike on Pakistani troops. afp

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