Continued on Page 6

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MOSCOW—Russia has de-ployed upwards of a dozenships to its naval base inSyria over the past threemonths, and recently sentadvanced anti-ship missilesto the embattled Syriangovernment, highlightingthe depth of Moscow’scommitment to the Assadregime and the challengesin finding an internationallypalatable solution to the cri-sis.

Some believe Russia’sincreased presence ismeant to deter Westernpowers from getting in-volved militarily with the

Russia boosts its naval presence inSyria, sends regime new missiles

Syrian conflict, which haskilled more than 70,000people and displaced millionsover the past three years. USofficials, however, told TheWall Street Journal they donot fear a direct conflict withRussia.

“It is a show of force. It’smuscle flexing,” a senior U.S.defense official said of theRussian deployments. “It isabout demonstrating theircommitment to their inter-ests.”

Russia supports Syria’sPresident Bashar al-Assad,whereas the US recentlystated that a political solu-

tion to the crisis would haveto exclude the president fromthe transitional government.

The US and Russia lastweek announced a peaceconference on Syria, but adate has not been set. Theidea of the conference wasmet with high hopes from theinternational community,which has been stymied overhow to help draw the Syriancivil war to a close. Today,UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the joint confer-ence must be held as soonas possible so that the inter-national community does“not lose momentum.”

But Russia’s recent ac-tions around Syria could po-tentially complicate that goal.Moscow insisted yesterdayon the attendance of Iran atany peace conference, an-other controversial player inthe Syrian conflict and on theinternational stage, reportsReuters.

Russian Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov said in an in-terview posted on a govern-ment website yesterday,“Among some of our West-ern colleagues, there is a de-sire to narrow the circle ofexternal participants and be-

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—In a significantdevlopment ahead of forma-tion of new democratic gov-ernment at centre, Chief ofArmy Staff General AshfaqParvez Kayani met the PrimeMinister-in-waiting NawazSharif here at Model Townresidence of PML-N leaderShahbaz Sharif on Saturdayand discussed matters per-taining to security and de-fence of the country.

Views were also ex-changed on foreign policyand Pakistan’s internal secu-rity issues, sources said.

General Kayani briefedthe PM-in-waiting about in-ternal and external threatsbesides the regional situa-tion, the sources claimed. Continued on Page 6

Gen Kayani, Nawaz discussinternal, external challenges

Army Chief felicitates Sharif for election victoryThe PML-N senior leader

Mian Shahbaz Sharif was

also present on the occasion.The security and other

issues of national interest

along with the situation in theregion were discussed dur-

ing the meeting between thePML-N head and the COAS.

The sources say that the

PML-N Chief appreciated therole of the army in strength-

ening democracy and provid-ing security during the May

All set for re-polling;PPP, MWM join boycottSecurity arrangements finalized

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan(ECP) has made all necessaryarrangements including se-curity measures for re-pollingin 43 polling stations ofKarachi’s NA-250, PS-112and PS-113 on Sunday asPPP and clamoured for boy-cott in a belated decision.

As per the security plan,3500 security personnel willdischarge their duties. Po-licemen, rangers and armypersonnel would be de-ployed at each polling sta-tion.

Inter-Services Public Re-lations in a press release saidthat the army troops would Continued on Page 6

be deployed at 43 polling sta-tions of NA-250 in compli-ance with the notification ofECP.

Some 40 polling stationsare located in South Zone ofthe metropolis while otherthree are in East Zone out oftotal 43 polling stationswhere the results were withheld by the election commis-sion on complaints of riggingand other irregularities in theMay 11 elections.

Even the voting in someof the polling stations couldnot be started due to unavail-ability of election material andstaff, mismanagement andinterference by theunauthorised people.

ISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan hasdirected all the independentcandidates to submit an af-fidavit stating that each oneof them is joining a particu-lar political party voluntar-ily and without any coer-cion.

According to a press re-lease issued here on Satur-day, the affidavit should beduly sworn before the OathCommissioner and shall bedeposited with the Provin-cial Election Commissioner

ECP directs independentcandidates to submit affidavit

Joining political party should be voluntarilyconcerned or with theDeputy Director (Cord.),Election Commission of Pa-kistan Secretariat,Islamabad. Keeping in viewthe convenience of the can-didates, they have been al-lowed to submit their decla-rations in the ECP Secretariatas well.

All the successful can-didates for General Electionshave been directed to filetheir Returns of Election Ex-penses latest by 20th Maywith the Returning Officers

concerned. The candidateswho shall be elected againstreserved seats for womenand minorities shall also filetheir Returns of Election Ex-penses with the ReturningOfficers concerned.

Any successful candi-date including the candi-dates for seats reserved forwomen and non-Muslimswill not be notified in theofficial gazette, unless he/she deposits the Returns ofElection Expenses as re-quired under the law.—INP

Continued on Page 6

Obama invitesManmohan toWashingtonWASHINGTON/NEW

DELHI—At a time whenIndo-US ties appeared to belosing steam, PresidentBarack Obama has invitedPrime Minister ManmohanSingh for a bilateral meetingthis year. Confirming thedevelopment, sources inWashington said that Singhhas accepted the invitationand the dates were beingworked.

India has proposed thatthe meeting happen whenSingh visits the US for theUNGA but sources saidthat both sides are lookingfor a mutually convenienttime between Septemberand December. Theinvitation to Singh comeswhen there has been astalemate over civil nuclearcooperation owing toIndia’s nuclear liability law.

According to Indian

Shirazis joinPML-NSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Reposing fullconfidence in the leader-ship of Pakistan MuslimLeague-N, Shirazi brothers,who hold strong force inthe political landscape ofThatta, Saturday an-nounced to join the PML-N.

They announced thisafter a meeting with thePML-N’s one of top leadersMian Shahbaz Sharif at hisRaiwind residence. Duringthe meeting, views wereexchanged over currentsituation in Sindh.

After the meeting, AyazShirazi accompanied byLiaquat Jatoi and RanaMushood said the countrywas facing manifoldchallenges and only NawazSharif had a team andvision which can tacklethese challenges.

They said that they,along with PML-N, will try

Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD—The first roundof talks between the JamiatUlema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F)and the PML-N vis-à-vis theformer’s joining in the centreremained inconclusive onSaturday.

The PML-N had offeredthe JUI-F to join the federalgovernment during an earliermeeting between ShahbazSharif and Maulana Fazl urRehman. Continued on Page 6

First round of JUI-F and PML-Ntalks remain inconclusive

It is learnt that the JUI-Fhas demanded chairmanshipof Kashmir Committee, threefederal and two provincialministries. However, RajaZafarul Haq a negotiator fromthe PML-N side had notgiven any assurance in thisregard.

Maulana Fazal urRehman was aspirant toclinch office of chairman ofthe Kashmir Committee as

this post is equivalent to thefederal ministry. MaulanaFazal had been appointed asChairman Kashmir Commit-tee during the era of BenazirBhutto, he undertook severalforeign visits, enjoyed perksand privileges and resided atthe Minister’s Enclave.

The source further saidthat nominated prime minis-ter Mian Nawaz Sharif and

Continued on Page 6

Video showsIsraeli special

forces in Syria’TEHRAN—Fox News haspublished a video allegedlyshowing Israeli special forceson a mission inside the Syr-ian soil.The American newsnetwork added that it “cap-tured, for the very first time,Israeli commandos comingback from inside Syria on amission.“The report does notspecify how or where the filmhas been captured. But it ap-pears to be near the occupiedGolan Heights. Israel has re-cently boosted military activi-ties in the area.

The video raised someconcerning aspects of Israelregime’s role in the 26-month-old conflict in Syria.There havebeen no comments from Israeliofficials on the report.The re-port came as the Israeli regimehas launched three unilateralstrikes inside Syria sinceJanuary.Syria along with a num-ber of regional countries hascondemned the attacks as vio-lation of sovereignty.

The Syria crisis began inMarch 2011, and manypeople, including large num-bers of soldiers and securitypersonnel, have been killed inthe violence.The Syrian gov-ernment says that the chaosis being orchestrated fromoutside the country, and thereare reports that a very largenumber of the militants areforeign nationals.—PressTV.

Nawaz-Zardariinformal meeting

likely on 22ndSALIM AHMAD

LAHORE—After havingconsultation within thePML-N ranks, Prime Minis-ter-in-waiting Nawaz Sharifhas accepted the invitationof President Asif Ali Zardarifor participation in a banquetbeing hosted in honour ofChinese Premier Li Keqiangat presidency on May 22.

Pakistan would be Chi-nese Premier Li’s second stopon May 22 & 23 in his week-long overseas trip starting onMay 19, in which he wouldalso be visiting India, Ger-many and Switzerland. Thisis Li’s first foreign tour sinceassuming office on March 15.

During his stay in Paki-stan, the Chinese premierwould also meet PML-N chief

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh seniorvice president of PakistanTehrik-i-Insaf, Zahra ShahidHussain, was gunned downhere on Saturday night.

According to reports,unidentified gunmen ridingon bikes shot her outside herresidence in Defence Hous-ing Authority Phase IV here.

Earlier the police said shewas ambushed by two bik-ers who were lying in waitaround the corner.

Karachi: PTI leaderZahra gunned down

“The assailants openedfire on Zahra, 60, as soon asreached the gate of her resi-dence. Apparently they werethere to target her only”, apolice official told media.

Later, SSP Nasir Aftab,claimed that according towhat police had learned fromZahra’s daughter and driver,the eyewitnesses, it was astreet crime related murder.

“The PTI leader gotkilled resisting a robbery”,said SSP Aftab.

PML-N meetingto discuss policymatters tomorrowLAHORE—The PML-N presi-dent Nawaz Sharif, has con-vened a meeting of parlia-mentarians and legislators ofhis party here tomorrow tobrainstorm a plan of actionto deal with pressing prob-lems including terrorism.

Nawaz Sharif will presideover the meeting, which willdecide on a plan of action totackle terrorism, power cutsand other issues.

The meeting will also dis-

Child marriage is illegalKARACHI—Caretaker Provincial Ministerfor Women Development and HumanRights, Ms. Anis Haroon, has said thatchild marriage is a violation of humanrights and compromises the developmentof girls and results in complications in bio-logical and physiological dimensions forthe girls. This she said while presidingover a meeting organised for the cause ofearly marriages issue by HANDS Paki-stan- a local NGO. The Minister said that

in Pakistan, marriage at an early age is a reality for many girls,and parents force their daughters to get married at an earlyage due to ‘cultural, social and financial reasons’. On theoccasion, the Chief Executive Officer of HANDS Dr. TanveerAhmed Shaikh, said that HANDS with partnership of RutgersWPF is engaged in an ‘Adolescent Girls Empowerment Project’that focuses on ending the practice of child marriages byadvocating widely and changing attitudes of families andsociety at large. Earlier, Bilquis Rehman briefed the Ministerthat HANDS has developed a bill and will make consultationwith all stakeholders including religious scholars, politicalparties and civil society. She informed that this bill aims toincrease the legal age at marriage which is among one of theefforts that have been made to create enabling environmentfor the girls to grow healthy and decrease maternal mortalityrate in Pakistan. She said that we are hoping that the bill willbe passed in the upcoming assembly. The HANDS also pre-sented awards to Minister for Women Development andHuman Rights Ms. Anis Haroon for the improvement ofwomen in her short and effective tenure.—APP

Peace top priorityISLAMABAD—PML-N Senator PervezRashid said on Saturday that the newgovernment has two top priorities, firstto resolve energy crisis and other issecurity. Talking to a private Radio chan-nel, he said that first of all we have tomake Pakistan a safe country for invest-ment. “We want to work on all prioritiesincluding energy crises and to makePakistan secure for foreign investmentin five years term and people see the

outcome from the very first day”, he added. Replying to aquestion, Pervez Rasheed said PML-N insisted that Na-tional agenda should be formed and for the completion ofthe National agenda, all the political parties should worktogether. Replying another question, he said that for apeaceful Pakistan we should have to respect other coun-tries as Pakistanis are determined to make Pakistan a peace-ful country. Earlier, leader of PML-N Sadiqul Farooq hassaid that due to free and fair elections 2013 PML-N has gotthe opportunity to lead the destiny of the country. Talkingto Radio Pakistan, he added that PML-N will focus on allpersisting problems in the country and it is a good omenthat leader of PML-N Main Nawaz Sharif is a mature andsupported by a good team. He said we delivered best inpast two times governance; although we were not givenchance to complete our tenure. He said that PML-N willfocus on the energy problem and will pay the circular debtat first and then will focus on the long term policy forenergy problem. He promised that PML-N will solve theenergy crises within two years. He said that PML-N be-lieves in dialogue with Taliban. He added that recent state-ments issued by Taliban shows that they are agreed toceasefire if dialogue becomes successful.—APP

Teachers must improve abilitiesFAISALABAD—Vice Chancellor (VC)Government College UniversityFaisalabad (GCUF) Professor Dr ZakirHussain said the teachers should con-centrate to sharpen their abilities. Ad-dressing a seminar on “ProfessionalCompetency Enhancement for YoungFaculty Members” arranged by Depart-ment of Electrical Engineering and De-partment of Chemistry, GCUF in collabo-ration with Higher Education Commis-

sion and British Council here. He said the higher educa-tion rate should be increased in the country to competewith the world. Faculty of Science and Technology DeanProf Dr Naureen Aziz Qureshi lauded the efforts of youngfaculty members for enhancing their research and academicactivities. Principal College of Pharmacy Dr. Khawaja ZafarAhmad, Dr Zubair Ahmad, Dr Farhat Abbas, DirectorAdmin Ch. Muhammad Mushtaq, Incharge of College ofLaw Madam Fozia and students were also present on theoccasion. **** Three persons including a police Sub In-spector (SI) and a official of revenue department were ar-rested on charge of abusing powers and taking bribe. Ac-cording to details, the Anti Corruption Establishment re-ceived complaints that SI Falak Sher of Balochni policestation and Gardawar of revenue department SakhiMuhammad and his agent Zahoor-ul-Hasan took bribe ofRs 300,000. Therefore, ACE teams arrested the three ac-cused and locked them behind the bars.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Amnesty In-ternational (AI) has urgedthe puppet Chief Minister ofIHK, Omar Abdullah, to issuean order directing the au-thorities to stop the practiceof ‘revolving door deten-tions’ and not use black law,Public Safety Act, to repeat-edly detain the same indi-vidual on similar grounds.

The Amnesty Interna-tional in a statement saidthat the PSA detentionrecords maintained by theHome Ministry of the occu-pied territory must be pub-licly accessible, especiallyto spouses and close fam-ily members and legal rep-resentatives assigned andagreed by detained per-sons, Kashmir media re-ported.

Citing case in March2013, when three boys un-der the age of 18 were de-tained under the PSA, thestatement said, “Two of theboys were immediatelytransferred to a jail in Jammu,where they remain in deten-tion. Their parents were notinformed. Family membershave a right to know where

their loved ones are beingheld, but the police in J&Kregularly transfer individu-als to jails far from theirhomes without informingthe families or lawyers.”

“Another boy, just 15years old, was first arrestedunder ordinary criminal lawin March 2013. But when acourt ordered his release onbail, the police detained himunder the PSA. The au-thorities use repeated de-tention, called “revolvingdoor detention”, in J&K tocircumvent the criminal jus-tice system and keep indi-viduals behind the bars,” itadded.

The statement said, thePSA directly allows arbitrarydetention, and indirectly fa-cilitates torture, ill-treatmentand other human rights vio-lations at the hands of po-lice, in breach of India’s hu-man rights obligations. Itadded that one of the waysto help end these violationswas to repeal the PSA onceand for all, and stop new leg-islation that would facilitatefurther human rights viola-tions by the police.—APP

Malakand bombingvictims laid to rest

M A L A K A N D — T w e n t ypeople, who were killed intwin bomb blasts at separatemosques during Fridayprayers in a remote area ofMalakand Agency, were laidto rest on Saturday. Their fu-neral prayers were large num-ber of people who had comefrom far off places. They con-demned the terrorists whocarried out the attack andvowed to avenge. Theyasked the people to helpidentify the elements behindthe blasts to bring them tojustice.

Many people on the oc-casion told INP that it wasthe handiwork of somepeople who were from thearea and ultimately theywould be nabbed. Some 50people are still under treat-ment at different hospitals.Out of those, 10 are report-edly in critical condition.

Meanwhile, securityforces clamped curfew in ter-ror-hit areas and launched asearch operation against mili-tants. More than 10 suspectshave been arrested, accord-ing to forces. On Friday, twoback-to-back bombs hitmosques at the time of Fri-day prayers in Bazdara areaof Malakand, leaving 20people dead.—INP

Students demandaccreditation of

SoftwareEngineering Faculty

RAO ATIQ

MIRPUR—Wearing blackbands and waving placardsand banners bearing slo-gans in support of their de-mands, over 300 students ofthe Software Engineeringfaculty of the public-sectorMirpur University of Sci-ence & Technology (MUST)staged ‘dharna’ (sit-in) at thevarsity campus here on Sat-urday to press the varsitymanagement for early accep-tance of their long-cher-ished demands.

Both male and femalestudents of the Software En-gineering department boy-cotted their classes as amark of protest against thenon-accreditation of theirdepartment by the PakistanEngineering Council (PEC)since the faculty waslaunched in 2006. PakistanEngineering Council is thepublic-sector regulatory au-thority, which allows func-tioning of different facultiesof engineering after accord-ing accreditation to the eli-gible engineering colleges,and the universities in thecountry including AJK whomeet the stipulated criteriaset by the PEC. “We havebeen forced by the hostile.

MUZAFFARGARH—Two per-sons were killed and threeothers sustained serious in-juries in two road accidentshere on Saturday. Accordingto police, a local traderMaqsood Ali resident ofChowk Sarwar Shaheed wasgoing to his home by a mo-torcycle when a speedingbus hit him. As a result, hedied on the spot. Police con-cerned took the bus into cus-tody while the driver man-aged to escape from thescene. In another accident,four persons were injured

when a mini truck hit a mo-torcycle near Sultan Colonyat Sanawan road. The injuredwere shifted to Nishtar Hos-pital where Hafiz Waris suc-cumbed to injuries.

Quetta: At least two per-sons have been injured in aremote control blast near thehouse of tribal elder in DeraAllahyar, the district head-quarters of Jaffarabad districton Saturday. Police sourcestold APP that unknown menhad planted Improvised ex-plosive device near the houseof a local tribal elder and deto-

nated it. “As a result of theexplosion, two personspresent in the house of thetribal elder received injurieswho were rushed to civil hos-pital,” police said.

The law enforcementrushed to the site and cor-doned off the entire area totrace the suspect. Accordingto bomb disposal squad,about 10 kg explosive wasused in the IED blast. DeraAllahyar police have regis-tered a case against unknownaccused. Further probe wasin process.—APP

PESHAWAR: Interim KP Minister for Information and Education, Mossarat Qadeem handing over laptop to a talentedstudents under ‘Naway Sahahr Programme.

HYDERABAD: Youngsters taking bath in water of theChannel Mori to beat the heat.

BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD—With the ad-vent of hot weatherloadshedding duration hasbeen further increased in thearea causing multiple prob-lems for the citizens. Thepetty shopkeepers and work-ers of powerloom factorieshave protested against ever-increasing duration ofloadshedding, which forcedhim to starvation.

Loadshedding duringthe nights has rendered thelives of old-aged, patientsand children absolutely mis-erable and they pass sleep-less nights partly due toloadshedding and partlydue to invasion of mosqui-toes due to indifferent atti-tude of the TMA and HealthDepartment Authorities whohave failed to spray or fumi-gate the local streets. TheHousewives Associationhas called upon the GEPCOand TMA to take pity on the

citizens and decrease theduration of loadsheddingand ensure fumigation of thelocal streets.

*****While addressing a gath-

ering at Nanoana Bunglow,Ch. Liaqat Abbas BhattiMNA-elect, who made hat-trick in the recent general elec-tion, assured that he wouldcome up to the expectation ofhis electorates. Dinner recep-tion was arranged by MalikEjaz Awan and Malik HassanEjaz to celebrate the victoryof Ch. Liaqat Abbas Bhatti forthe third time. Ch. Liaqat saidthat he was thankful to hissupporters who elected himfor third term, which, he felt,is great honour for him.

*****DCO Hafizabad Capt. (R)

Muhammad Zafar Iqbal haswarned that misuse of publicfunds and delay in thecompletion of ongoing devel-opment projects would not betolerated. He, however, said

that commission mafia wouldbe dealt with sternly whocause delay in the paymentof bills to the contractors.Addressing a meeting whichwas attended among otherEDO Finance Khawar Kamal,EDO Health Dr. Farooq AzamTarar, DO Finance Malik RiazGhani Basit, he directed themthat unnecessary delay in thepayment of bills of the com-pleted projects would not betolerated. He expressed hissatisfaction over the use ofstandard material while execu-tion of different projects.

*****EDO Health Dr. Farooq

Azam Tarar and MS DHQIrshad Ahmad Chatha whowere transferred and madeOSD few days before the re-cently-held general election onthe complaints that they hadarranged public meetings intheir respective villages tomuster support for PML-Nnominees, have been repostedhere on their political influence.

HYDERABAD—The vigilanceteams of Board of Intermedi-ate and Secondary Education(BISE) Hyderabad Saturdaycaught 154 male and femalestudents red handed whilecopying in the examinationsof Higher Secondary Certifi-cate Part-I and Part-II AnnualExaminations 2013.

According to a BISEspokesman, the 22 vigilanceteams paid surprise visits todifferent examinations cen-tres of Badin, Hyderabad,Jamshoro, Dadu, Thatta,Tando Allahyar, TandoMuhammad Khan and

Benazirabad districts andcaught 104 male and femalecandidates on charge ofcopying in the examinations.The teams also nabbedseven persons who were sit-ting in the examination cen-tres and solving the papersin place of actual candidates,the spokesman informed.

Chairman BISEHyderabad Abdul AleemKhanzada along with theDeputy CommissionerMatiari Fayyaz Abbasi alsopaid surprise visits to the ex-aminations centres of Matiari,Hala and Saeedabad and

caught 50 male and femalecandidates on charge ofcopying in the examinations.He also apprehended a per-son who was engaged insolving the paper in place ofa candidate in the examina-tion centre.

Earlier, talking to media,BISE Chairman Prof AbdulAleem Khanzada said: “Theexamination centres declaredsensitive consist of 10 inHyderabad, one in TandoMohammad Khan, two inDadu, four in Thatta, one inBadin and four in ShaheedBenazirabad.” The chairman

said he had informed the divi-sional commissioner ofHyderabad, deputy commis-sioners of districts and addi-tional DIG police about thesensitive centres and theyhad ensured foolproof secu-rity to all centres and moredeployment at sensitive ones.

Prof Khanzada said thegovernment had already im-posed Section 144 whichwould be effective within lim-its of examination centres tocurb illegal activities andmaintain the law and order bypolice. Photostat machineswill not be allowed to run

during examinations in thevicinity of the centres. Hesaid total 85,809 candidatesof Class-XI and XII, includ-ing boys and girls, wouldappear in the examinations.The examinations will beorganised in two shifts,morning and evening. Hesaid 260 internal and externalsuperintendents had beenappointed to conduct pa-pers. He said 22 vigilanceteams had been formed tomonitor, supervise and visitall centres during examina-tions and make them trans-parent.

Vigilance teams of BISE nab 154 students copying

Shopkeepers, powerloom factoryworkers protest against loadshedding

2 injured in Jaffarabad blast

2 dead, 3 injured in road accidents

BANNU: Policemen collecting evidence from the site after a motorcycle blast on BannuMiranshah Road.

AI demands end to repeateddetentions under PSA

Intellectuals callfor preserving

Sindhi literatureHYDERABAD—The Sindhiwriters and poets have de-manded preservation andpublication of all the litera-ture written by hundreds ofwriters about Sindhi folklore.The demand was made at aseminar and SugharKatchehri (discourse offolks) organised by SindhCulture Department at SindhMuseum’s Mumtaz MirzaAuditorium here on Saturday.While speaking on the occa-sion a former vice chancellorSindh University.—APP

ISLAMABAD—MetereologicalDepartment has predictedmainly hot and dry weather inmost parts of the country dur-ing next 12 hours. “Severeheat wave conditions will pre-vail in plain areas of Punjab,upper and central Sindh,Balochistan and southernKhyber Pakhtunkhawa”, itadded.

Temperature of some ma-jor cities recorded this morn-ing: Islamabad and Murree 20degree centigrade, Lahore 27,Karachi 28t, Peshawar 22,Quetta 16, Gilgit 11 andMuzaffarabad 21 degree cen-tigrade. The Multan met of-fice has forecast hot and dryweather with chances ofdustraising winds for the cityand its suburbs during thenext 24 hours.

On Saturday, maximumand minimum temperaturewas recorded as 44.5 degreescelsius and 26 degreescelsius, respectively. Thehumidity was recorded 48percent at 8 am and 15 per-cent at 5 pm. The present hotspell will continue to prevailas Met office has on Satur-day forecast hot and dryweather for the next 24 hourshere and in other parts of theregion including Sindh andBalochistan. Maximum tem-

Hot, dry spell to continueperature is predicted to rangebetween 38 - 40 degrees Cen-tigrade.

“When the temperatureincreases five or more degreefrom normal range it is con-sidered to be hit by heat waveand from next week it is ex-pected that the mercurywould cross the normallimit”, he informed. The wave,the official said, would affectplain areas of Punjab, Sindh

and Balochistan and peoplehave to face severe hotweather conditions in theseareas.

While during next 24hours hot and dry weather isexpected over most parts ofthe country. Seasonal low liesover Balochistan and adjoin-ing areas as a continental airis prevailing over most partsof the country. In KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Sindh andBalochistan mainly hot anddry weather is expected overmost parts of the provinceduring next 24 hours.—APP

Serious implicationsof drone threats

THE assertion by a senior Defence Department official in Washington on Thursday that the Pentagon sees no need to change the broadcongressional authorization under which the military conducts lethal

drone strikes and that the war with Al-Qaeda could continue for up to twodecades is nothing new given the track record of the United States that hasbeen relying more and more on strike through unmanned drones but itstiming and future intentions should be a matter of concern for the newGovernment in Pakistan. This is because the announcement seems to be a20-year plan to destabilise Pakistan and put the new Governments of PML-N and PTI under pressure from the very beginning.

In this backdrop, one can only deplore the US statement as it amountedto disrespecting the mandate of the people of Pakistan and speaks volumesabout its designs vis-à-vis Pakistan. Drone strikes have always been a boneof contention between Pakistan and the United States as people of Pakistanare convinced that these unilateral strikes undermine the country’s sover-eignty and compound the war on terror being fought by Pakistan as front-line state. Such is the level of resentment over American strikes that in thejust concluded general elections people have given mandate to those par-ties who have been vocal against these attacks and made pledges to bringthe war against terror to an end by entering into dialogue with Taliban. Ifthe objective of the United States is to eliminate terrorism then its ownexperience shows that this goal can only be achieved through dialogue andcertainly not through bullet. Interestingly, the United States and its coali-tion partners in Afghanistan are themselves engaged in hectic overt andcovert efforts to bring Afghan Taliban to negotiating table but regrettablythey are not allowing Pakistan to do so. This clearly shows double standardand a game plan to keep Pakistan boiling that has already paid heavy pricefor its more than required involvement in the American war on terror. Howcan you pre-judge that the menace of terrorism would remain there for thenext twenty years but given your plans to retain a sizeable number of troopsin Afghanistan beyond 2014 and also to continue occupation of the countryin the garb of military bases, the future scenario becomes evident as Af-ghans can never compromise on their independence and sovereignty. Sec-ondly, it is also condemnable that you should pressurize and terrorize newGovernment in Pakistan even before it assumes power and without givingit a fair opportunity to make efforts for restoration of peace. We hope theUnited States would respect mandate of the people of Pakistan and avoidtaking any measure that could harm its own interests and that of the region.

Work six days a weekPRESIDENT Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Muhammad

Haroon Agar has drawn attention to a very pertinent issue – the luxuryof two weekly holidays in a backward country like ours. In a statement, hedwelt at length on the matter and demanded that banks, customs and portsshould work for six day a week in view of the economic situation.

Though the KCCI chief spoke with reference to banks, customs andports as their closure for two day a week added to the difficulties of thebusiness community and damaged the national economy badly but we be-lieve it is true of other spheres of life as well as they two are sufferinghugely because of the wrong decision of the Government. PPP Govern-ment has left behind a host of challenges for the next Government to tackleand the decision to observe two weekly holidays is also one of its loath-some legacies. The decision was taken on the pretext of conserving energybut ground realities belie this claim and in fact the power crisis has com-pounded further since then. It was because of the hollowness of the claimabout conservation of energy that the then Punjab Government, led by MianShahbaz Sharif, did not oblige the Federal Government and continued towork for six days a week but regrettably the caretaker provincial Govern-ment towed PPP’s line and introduced two weekly holidays in the provinceas well. The points raised by KCCI President like delays in clearance ofimports and exports, safe handling of cash, timely clearance of cheques,and loss of production and services need serious consideration by the newGovernment, which should revert back to six-day week.

Karzai heavilytilting towards India

AFGHAN President will be visiting India tomorrow (Monday), hissecond in six months, to seek supply of lethal defence hardware as

part of the intensified bilateral cooperation. Reports leaked to the Indianmedia indicate that Hamid Karzai would welcome Indian troops deploy-ment on Afghan soil after the withdrawal of US led NATO forces in 2014.

Ahead of his visit, the tone and tenor of Karzai towards Pakistan hasbeen threatening which clearly reflects that he is heavily tilting towardsIndia rather than building relations with neighbours to help achieve peaceand stability in the war torn country. Several of Karzai’s earlier state-ments had also been very aggressive towards Pakistan in order to ap-pease India and in return get maximum personal benefits as he would notbe able to stay in Afghanistan, for security reasons, once he leaves thehigh office. Afghan Ambassador to India, a close confidant of Karzai,tried to induce the Indians asking them that New Delhi should invest inthe security of Afghanistan which would be in its interest in the longrun. In the light of the thinking of Afghan President and the Ambassa-dor, a more engaged defence cooperation is likely to be a major topic ofdiscussion during Karzai’s visit. It is also a known fact that Afghangovernment is extending necessary cooperation to RAW agents andanti-Pakistan elements from FATA and Balochistan to carry out sabo-tage activities and despite repeated demands, these elements have notbeen extradited. At this point of time when a new government is in theoffing, Karzai’s visit is meaningful and the theory of squeezing Paki-stan from the East and the West appears to be working. Therefore wewould impress upon the policy makers to register their serious concernwith Masters of Karzai over his Afghan sell out to India policy.

Wheat and its toxin effects

Bath twice a day tobe really clean,once a day to bepassably clean,once a week toavoid being apublic menace.

Spectreof humancloning

A breakthrough in stem cellresearch has again raisedthe spectre of human clon-

ing. The discovery by a team at Or-egon Health and Science Univer-sity (OHSU) moves the world in-crementally closer to that result, butits more immediate effect will beto spur efforts to regenerate healthytissue for the injured and the ail-ing. Although it’s reasonable toworry about where such a discov-ery may lead, those concernsshouldn’t stop researchers fromexploring the restorative propertiesof stem cells.

The promise of stem cells isthat they can develop into many dif-ferent kinds of tissues rather thanbeing locked into a specific cellu-lar fate. Researchers are using themto replicate and study diseasedcells, and a few therapies involv-ing stem cells are already in lim-ited use. The team at OHSU, whichdisclosed its work in a paper pub-lished online by Cell, created em-bryonic stem cells by replacing thenucleus in an unfertilised humanegg with the nucleus from a skincell, then harvesting the resultingstem cells. This long-sought tech-nique may eventually let doctorscreate replacement cells for a widevariety of tissues from bits of apatient’s own skin.

Some critics continue to arguethat it’s unethical to manipulate thegenetic makeup of human eggseven if they’re unfertilised, and oth-ers warn about potential harm toegg donors. The biggest ethical is-sue for the OHSU team, though, isthat it artificially created a humanembryo, albeit one that was miss-ing the components needed for im-plantation and development as afoetus. Much more research wouldhave to be done before a lab couldclone a viable, implantable humanembryo, scientists say, and suchstudies would face real barriers atthe Food and Drug Administra-tion, the federal agencies that fundscientific research and the journalsthat publish it. There are also lawsin several states, California amongthem, that bar human cloning.Still, the federal government needsto set rules that would stop re-searchers in this country fromcrossing the line between gener-ating stem cells and trying to bringa cloned embryo to life. Adding aclear prohibition would help as-sure the public that stem cell re-search should be embraced, notfeared. — Los Angeles Times

*****

IPL legitimacyin doubt

Once again, the highly popular Indian Premier League(IPL) has been rocked by

shock waves of spot-fixing. Thisthrows into doubt the legitimacy ofa tournament, which is on the vergeof concluding its sixth edition.Throughout each edition, the IPLhas never been short on contro-versy. Allegations that numerousgames have been fixed in the pastcontinue to abound. Matters havenow reached a peak with the sen-sational announcement by DelhiPolice that a former Indian crick-eter and his team mates have fallenprey to the machinations of book-ies. India is the commercial hub ofworld cricket. An enormous illegalslush fund of cash goes into bet-ting on each and every game that isplayed across the world.The IPL also provides the bits-and-pieces cricketers with opportunitiesto earn a decent living, as well asan avenue to make tidy incomes onthe side. This greed is exploitedruthlessly by the bookies. Theamounts spent on fixing games arestaggering. The authorities shouldfollow the money trail which could,in all probability, lead them to net-ting bigger fish internally and in-ternationally. The guilty must bebrought to book and the Board ofControl for Cricket in India musthand down the toughest sentencesalong with those deliberated by thelaw. It is also time for those whorun the IPL to take a closer look atthe bigger picture — the tourna-ment and its business model. Thecancer has set in, but the game mustbe saved at all costs. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

Anthony Burgess—British novelist

The west has done us in onceagain. It all started with AyubKhan and the PL 480 USA ef-

fort to thwart our effort at wheat pro-duction. The international wheat re-search center and the later to bedecorated Nobel Laureate NormanBorlaug was the center of the greenrevolution or maybe a significantpart of it. What was then considereda great achievement has of late beenchallenged by Leah Zerbe in an ar-ticle where and I quote writes ‘‘Takeeverything you have heard aboutwheat throw it out of the window.It’s not a health food, its making youfat, and the digestive tract hates youfor eating it.

This is contained in a NY bestselling book ‘Wheat belly: lose thewheat, lose the weight and findyour way back to health’. Why didPakistan give up its traditionalbreeding system? It had no breed-ing system of its own and it’s a fal-lacious argument as the wheat va-rieties that were sent fromCIMMYT were adapted and testedin the geographical areas under theuniform trail system for adaptationpurposes. We Pakistanis have notdone any breeding of new seedsexcept of late when hybrid seedswere developed in cotton and invegetables. The grain gene pool hasgenerally come from the west. Pa-kistan will learn to have its ownprogram and not let any hit mancome and try and do it for us. I havegrave doubts as to the ability of ourbreeders but then that is where wehave to start and believe in our ownworkers. When this did happen andhow was the main question that

The myth of sit-ins

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Sunday Magazine

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

This remarkable developmentstarted in Lahore,Faisalabad, Islamabad, and

Karachi for Pakistan and Londonand Canada for the overseas Paki-stanis simultaneously by PTI sup-porters. It left many baffled on whythese people were not ready to ac-cept defeat for the results thatemerged. One needs to understand;it is not about defeat, it is abouthonesty and truth being heard, itis about the integrity of an institu-tion that took responsibility of de-livering free and fair elections. Itis about people’s choice. MianNawaz Sharif and his party havewon the elections, many congratu-lations and sincere wishes to himthat he becomes a just ruler to thepeople of Pakistan and can tacklethe grave issues which the coun-try faces. But many of his partymembers feel Sit-in’s or Dharna’sare a waste of time, that PTI shouldaccept their defeat, that they areruining their celebrations and thatthey should let normal course ofGovernment making take place.One can’t blame them to think thisway, not their fault, in one way; itis their short sightedness and zeroexperience in dealing with a pub-lic like PTI supporters.

In the past elections, MuslimLeague Nawaz in Punjab andMQM in the Karachi have dealtwith populations who were boundto vote for them. In some case orthe other, these parties made surethat the turn-out of people comesonly in their favor by hook or bycrook. In May 2013 election, the

workers started do ask. Davisa cardiologist says it is whenbig agriculture stepped in de-cades ago [for Pakistan it was60’s to be precise] to developa higher yielding crop.‘Today’s wheat’ he says isn’t

wheat thanks to the most intensewheat cross breeding program. Thewheat products sold today are noth-ing like the times of our grandpar-ents. It is completely transformedfrom the times of the Bible.

Wheat breeders changed it dra-matically from four feet tall wheat thenew bred varieties are two feet talland grown on 99% of wheat fieldsaround the world. The heads are un-usually large seed head. Dr. Davissaid that this was accomplished bycross breeding non-wheat grasses togenerate altogether new genes usingtechniques like irradiation of wheatseeds and embryos with chemicals,gamma rays, and high dose x-rays tointroduce mutations.

The example given is of BASF achemical company that has grownthese on one million acres was cre-ated in a geneticist lab by exposingwheat seeds and embryos to the mu-tation inducing industrial toxin- so-dium azide, a substance poisonous tohumans and known for explodingwhen handled says Dr. Davis. Thishybridized wheat does not survive inthe wild and most farmers rely ontoxic chemical fertilizers and pesti-cides to keep it alive.

So has Pakistan been taken to thecleaners with what was supposed tobe humanitarian aid to supplement thepoor? Or was this a ploy to settlescores with Pakistanis. Pakistan is atthe moment doing just what BASFdid in the northwest pacific region ofthe USA. It has invested heavily onwheat in which wide crosses will becarried out from wild grasses. Thewheat breeding there has beentouched by a reliable and famous car-

diologist. CIMMYT has sincestopped this wild action and the twoprotagonists have been sent one toICARDA and another to Pakistan.

The wheat program was heavilyinvested by the Pakistan govern-ment and the wheat breeders weresent to Mexico to the internationalresearch station for technology

learning. At one point in time Pa-kistan was full of such breeders andFaisalabad had about 50 and doingnothing but fulfilling the desires oftheir masters in Mexico.

How much has Pakistan spent ontraditional and wide crosses is anyones guess but the research systemought to be able to tell us what thereal figures are and what has beenachieved. One sees time and again hitmen coming to Pakistan to do us in.

India’s research system led by Dr.Swaminathan is more robust andthey are not taken in by gimmickry.According to the USA medical pro-fession this wheat that has beentreated with the already listed chemi-cal can have serious affects and mayeven cause death. In any case theaffect is as bad as that of arsenic. Ihave always supported organic pro-duction of crops. Despite all thechemicals that we ingest in to ourlands for the sake of productivity wehave not been successful in achiev-ing food security. Take my word forit the use of organic material for pro-ductivity is well worth it and thereis no risk in it. In fact there will beles use of water for irrigation pur-poses. It was senior Minister LeaKwan Yew who on a visit to NARCasked me why we use water as wedo and waste so much of it. I ex-plained how this was a legacy fromcolonial times and we have still notbeen able to get rid of it. Our waterefficiency is lamentable.

The US has a hapless public andthey take extraordinary risks whenit comes to ingest this wheat flouralong with the toxin sodium azide.But now one of the organic researchorganizations called Rodale ahs ex-ploded this myth along with theworld renowned researcher alreadymentioned. Independent collabora-tive medical profession and otherlabs have clearly taken BASF totask. One is ware of the persons car-rying out this has been blowing hisbugle for a long time but has notachieved anything. The time hascome to refer the matter to theRodale farm for expert opinion onthis work where hit men from theUSA are pulling the rug from un-der the country. With elections af-termath the sycophants will get intoaction. There is lot more which willbe explained once the Rodale ref-erence comes through.

past history did not repeat. In factthis time, the turn-out of votersreached to a staggering 62% a fig-ure which was never witnessed inthe history of Pakistan. These werethose silent majorities who hadnever come out for the ballots.These were those people who werefirst time voters, women, newlyturned 18’s and old people who hadlost hope in any change to ever hap-pen. Most of them had taken daysoff from work, taken flights fromoverseas and specially come to Pa-kistan to cast their votes. Thesepeople had been motivated by aPhrase called “Naya Pakistan”which brought hordes of them outto get what they felt.

These sit-in are being done bymiddle, upper and elite class whoare the movers and shakers of Paki-stani society. They include Doctors,Engineers, Writers, Actors, Journal-ists, Social activists, teachers, thefashion industry etc. People whohave been part of massive cam-paigns in the country in terms ofenvironment pollution, marathonwalks, charity, hospital making,who are CEO’s of cooperate sector,or who have been related to oneawareness program or another. Theyhave been such since two to threegenerations. These people are edu-cated, highly professional, whoknow the importance of their IDcard and Passport. Just like theykeep both the documents up to date,and secure similar is the way theyfeel responsible, give importance tothe value of vote. Such section ofsociety, who stand up for their rightson daily basis, would never give upon the rigging issue that has sur-faced where they feel they havebeen blatantly cheated. The pollingday had several stories which were

told verbally by people to each, laterthat night of 11th May, video evi-dences recorded by female and malevoters started to emerge onFacebook, Twitter and other SocialMedia sites. Pakistani media alsoshowed several in their news bulle-tins. Amazingly; the first polling re-sult was announced on televisionfew minutes past 5pm whereas theclosing time for ballots was 6pm.Results were announced by privatechannels, at 8:30pm a contestantwho was taking a lead of 41000 +votes had lost by the next morning.Was it magic or was it tampered, thatis what brought the people out.

With many claims of ElectionCommission of Pakistan of holdingfree and fair elections, the public thatturned to these sit-ins refused to ac-cept the results that were being con-firmed by the given authority. Thesemassive crowds have house wives,female students, elderly, pensioners,male students, and professionalpeople. They are a segment of soci-ety; that has never done this beforein the country’s history. Their de-mands are: Either the counting ofvotes should be done again or a re-election of their constituencies isdone so that truth prevails. The ques-tionable constituencies with doc-tored results are:

NA-57, NA-81, NA-85, NA-86, NA-93, NA-118, NA-120, NA-122, NA-125, NA-127, NA-128,NA-135, NA-168, NA-170, NA-190and PP-7, PP-68, PP-160, PP-281.According to Ejaz Chaudhry PTIPunjab President, “rigging com-plaints were received from all the297 constituencies, where police andpolling station staff favored PML-N. “Our winning candidates have notonly defeated their opponents butalso the rigging practices,” he

claimed. According to media re-ports; Pakistan Tehreek-e-InsafChairman, Imran Khan demandedrecounting of votes with fingerprintverification on four constituenciesconducted by NADRA. In his re-corded message Khan said if theElection Commission of Pakistan(ECP) failed to accept their de-mands within three days, protestswould be held. “We are giving athree day deadline to the ECP toconduct fingerprint based recount-ing on four sample seats. If provencorrect we allege rigging on 25seats,” Khan said.

On one hand a new Govern-ment needs to take over, alliancesto be made on provincial levels, asmooth transition of power fromthe caretakers to the elected. Onthe other hand there is this issueof rigging and sit-ins which havebecome a burning issue on dailybasis. What needs to be seriouslythought is; prior to the electionsthe ECP said that the ballot paperswere being printed under the su-pervision of Army and were dis-tributed by the army as well. Sohow come they were printed inexcess of voting numbers? Wherewere bogus vote copies acquiredfrom? In excess of the numbers ofvote of a specific area how comeballot papers entered into the bal-lot boxes? These ballot boxes wereshifted under the supervision ofarmy to different areas, What hap-pened after that magic or what?People of Pakistan surely wonder;is this election result related toAfghan war/CIA/ Establishmentin Pakistan? How come the judi-ciary is so quiet? When previouslythey used to take suo mot on twowine bottles? Jayein tau JayeinKahan? On the roads, sit-ins!

Dr Zafar AltafEmail:dr_altaf@hotmail.com

Ayesha Zee KhanEmail: ayeshazeekhan@live.com

One sees timeand again hit mencoming to Pakistanto do us in. India’s

research system ledby Dr. Swaminathanis more robust andthey are not takenin by gimmickry.According to the

USA medicalprofession this

wheat that has beentreated with the

already listedchemical can have

serious affectsand may even

cause death. In anycase the affect is as

bad as that ofarsenic.

Voice of the People

Opinion: Anew Pakistan

S R H HASHMI

As much as I would have liked Pa-kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to win, thatwas not to be, well ,well, it is stillnot too bad. At least we are seeingthe back of the Peoples Party atthe centre, which is no meanachievement and I must offer mycongratulations, though admit-tedly not exactly from the bottomof my heart, as they say it, to MianMohammed Nawaz Sharif and histeam for making an achievementthat seemed unlikely.

On second thoughts, I see atleast one advantage in that. Well,having had experience of runningboth the federal and provincial gov-ernments, PML-N won’t wastemuch time, and resources, in trial-and-error and will get down to theserious business of forming and run-ning the government, hopefully forthe benefit of the people who, get-ting raw deal from the rulers all thistime, are now at the end of theirtether, and definitely desire and de-serve a lot better.

Having attained its objective, Ihope PML-N will act in a graciousmanner and will also accept and re-spect the mandate of other parties,and deal with them in a peaceful andreconciliatory manner, and not thatof revenge and score-settling. I amconfident of this because PML-Nhas shown fair degree of maturity,one reason for which is its havingthe same old leadership for a longspan, as against Peoples Party whichhad ‘accidental’ leaders who rose tofame over-night and yet others whohad to go through a name-changeprocess to establish their credentials.

For the fact that it participatedin the elections for the first time, Pa-kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf did not do toobadly either. In a decent move, it hasconceded its defeat at the nationallevel and has congratulated MianMohammed Nawaz Sharif on hisspectacular success. PTI has ex-pressed a desire to form governmentin Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where ithas secured majority votes. In away, it landed the most importantjob, and if it can establish law andorder in the most volatile province,it would be a great service to thewhole of Pakistan, and a big reliefto all of us. Being an optimist, I seea better Pakistan emerging. I hopeour leaders will spare the sufferingmasses the misery which had beentheir fate during the last five years,and even before.—Karachi

The motivationfactor

OSMAN ASHFAQ AHMAD

People need to have some intelli-gence, knowledge base, study skills,and time management skills to work,but if they don’t have motivation,they won’t get far. Motivation is aprocess that causes us to act towardsachieving a goal.

The common place where weneed to apply. Motivation is theworkplace. Employees are the build-ing blocks of an organization; if theblocks are strong the resulting struc-ture will be stronger which in otherwords means that employees in anorganization should be full of moti-vation to have productive results.Employee motivation is the level ofenergy, commitment, and creativitythat company workers bring to theirjobs. It is directly linked to businessprofits, motivated employees lookfor better ways to do a job. They careabout their customers and take pridein their work. Motivated workers arealso more productive and satisfied.On the other hand, unmotivatedemployees in the workplace haveopposite results. They are boredfrom their jobs and frequently failin their work because they really donot know their true capabilities.When employees don’t have the mo-tivation to do their work they willeither eventually get fired or will notlikely get promoted for a long time.The importance of employee moti-vation shouldn’t be taken lightly be-cause the organisation’s survival de-pends on it. Overall, Motivation isthe way of influencing and energiz-ing positive emotions in a person.

Truth behind load-sheddingM RAFIQUE ZAKARIA

Political parties are claiming to end load shedding from the country within a span of 2 to 3 years.Hearing these tall claims, I decided to get accurate information from KESC. So I sent a tweet to

KESC as follows: “Why is load shedding carried out? Is it production capacity issue or the circulardebt??” KESC promptly bounced back with a reply as follows: “KESC has full production capacity. Itsthe circular debt and shortage of gas supply.” If we keep the issue of gas supply aside, the main issue isof circular debt. Whose duty was it to recover payments of bills from consumers to control line lossesand remove illegal connections (kundas)?, to take electricity thieves to task? Had KESC and the gov-ernment performed its duty, Pakistan would have never faced the era of darkness. Even the courts didnot take any action against the giant defaulters of KESC, particularly government institutions andinfluential people (read politicians). This is the truth of load shedding in Pakistan. If government clearsthe dues of Pakistan State Oil enabling prompt and smooth supply of furnace oil for electricity produc-tion, load shedding can end in 2 to 3 days.—Via email

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

True motivation is focused on othersdesires and fruitful outcomes. Em-ployee needs, wants and desires aretheir driving force to act. These needsand wants should be understood bythe manager so he can frame motiva-tion plans accordingly. Since moti-vation process is based on needswhich are unlimited therefore it is acontinuous process—Islamabad

The deathof poetrySHOAIB AYUB

The consensus seems to be that po-etry is dead. It was great in its time,but its time is over. Who reads po-etry now, for God’s sake? No music,no video clips, no pin-up poets - ab-solutely nothing sexy about poetrywhatsoever. So what killed poetry?Undoubtedly one of the culprits waspop, although this was just one as-pect of an entertainment industrywhose influence went so deep that itmanaged to ensure that no one anylonger would have an ear for poetry.

In its days poetry was kept aliveby a certain sensibility that manypeople in the middle and upperclasses had. These were people whocould travel out into the countrysideand just sit and listen to the birds sing-ing and the wind gently whistlingthrough the leaves - or marvel at theever-changing shapes of the passingclouds. They were people who couldturn their backs on the chatter of ur-ban life for a time and contemplatesomething that seemed grander ormore profound or more uplifting -something poetic. The people whogrew up to be like this were peoplewho were familiar with silence.

Added to this was a culturecentred on books. Long before it waspossible to cheaply reproduce andwidely distribute either images orsounds, the printing press had made itpossible for a culture to spring upwhich revolved around the writtenword. Things have changed. Peoplegrow up with a constant supply ofmass-produced music and chat and TVimages and noise - a wall of When noone any longer was able to take plea-sure in silence there ceased to be anaudience for poetry and the artform wehad known for some 3,000 years died.Since it is dead why don’t we justleave it to rot in its grave? But someof us believe that we should try tokeep alive the memory, at least, ofwhat once was. We can still read theold poems there on the yellowingpaper even though the audience forwhom they were intended has largelydisappeared.—Islamabad

Fair voting ideaSYED QAMBER RAZA JAFFRI

Throughout the day it’s observed thatrigging and unfair voting was done.Just an opinion, but this could beavoided if voting is made computer-ized. Majority today have computersand internet. If everyone sits homeand logs on to ECP’s website and castvote then there would be no cheat-ing. Pakistanis outside country canalso vote this way. People who do nothave computers (like our drivers, ser-vants etc) do have mobile phones.They can cast vote through SMS.Remaining people i.e illiterate, ex-tremely poor or old people who donot use mobile phones can cast voteif ECP conducts voting on door todoor service.

This will avoid unfair rigging andcheating. Also, cost of printing bal-lot papers, stamps, ink, salaries ofpresiding officers, security expensesand above all time of whole nationwill not be wasted. Well, we just hopePakistan turns out to be better withnew government and new start. Hopefor a better and successful tomorrow.—Karachi

LG electionsalso imperative

MALIK M USMAN ALI

A country has much more to harnessfrom a well established local govern-ment system. Like in Turkey, the lo-cal government system is well orga-nized. It has returned the country in agood way. The situation of public &Social services is better there. Now

How Washington works

The hundred pages of Benghazie-mails released this week tellus almost nothing about how

four Americans came to die so tragi-cally in that Libyan city. But they area case study in why nothing works inWashington. Rather than readingthese messages for their substance onBenghazi (on which officials werestill basically clueless three days af-ter the attack), try perusing them asan illustration of how the bureaucracyresponds to crisis — especially whenofficials know they will be under themedia spotlight. What you find is a100-page novella of turf-battling andbackside-covering. By the end, theoriginal product is so shredded andpre-chewed that it has lost most ofits meaning. All the relevant agencieshave had their say, and there’s littleleft for the public.

No wonder that then-CIA Direc-tor David H. Petraeus, who began theexercise when he met with House in-telligence committee members forcoffee on the morning of Friday, Sept.14, was unhappy with the effort. Hecomplained that “this is certainly notwhat . . . [the committee] was hoping

to get for unclas. use” and growled:“Frankly, I’d just as soon not usethis.” But in a typical Petraeus happy-talk sign off, he ended his message:“Regardless, thx for the great work.”What he should have said was: “Thishas been sanitized to the point of in-coherence. Start over.” With hisattaboy, the document was sent outto the intelligence committee andthence to the world.

Perhaps it’s because I’m a spynovelist myself, but I couldn’t resistreading the thick stack of e-mails asan epistolary tale of life in the bu-reaucracy. No, it’s not SamuelRichardson’s model of storytelling byletters, as in his classic of the genre,“Clarissa.” But it does remind me abit of the first novel by CharlesMcCarry, America’s master espio-nage novelist, titled “The MiernikDossier,” which is written as a seriesof cables and other documents. TheBenghazi e-mails have all been un-classified, of course, but they revealone of the true secrets of US nationalsecurity policy — which is its lumpyinefficacy. If I were the Russian orChinese intelligence services tryingto understand how America reallyworks (or doesn’t), I’d start here. Takea stroll with me through these memo-rably inane pages. CIA officials take

turns patting each other on the backwith comments such as “Good ques-tion,” “Good point.”

And tellingly, from the very be-ginning, CIA officers are lookingover their shoulders for what the law-yers will say: “Make sure that noth-ing we are saying here is likely toimpact any future legal prosecution.”This at a time when the agency’s pri-ority, surely, should have been un-derstanding who did the attack, nottheir prospective legal rights. Thenthe cascade of bureaucratic logroll-ing and pettifoggery begins, as eachnew agency is called to the trough.The office of the director of nationalintelligence is copied, belatedly, andthen the White House. Then it’s overto State Department spokeswomanVictoria Nuland, who has all kindsof problems with the detail-richdraft, which she fears “will comeback to us at podium” — and fromthere, the neutering of the text be-gins in earnest.

By the time it’s over, the over-crowded editors’ desk will includethe FBI, the Justice Department andthe National Security Agency — inaddition to many, many officials atthe CIA, State Department andWhite House. At 8:40 p.m. Friday,when the scrubbing has been under-

David Ignatius

Views From Abroad

Chinese PM’s visit to Pakistan

Chinese PM is going to visit Pakistan as part of his first (four-nation) trip after taking office.

The visit is important because it willhelp develop a blueprint of Pak-Chinacooperation for next five to ten years.Economic issues will be the top pri-ority of Li Keqiang’s visit. He is ex-pected to meet our top leaders in-cluding Mian Nawaz Sharif, whohas already promised to make eco-nomic reforms main stay of his gov-ernment. Pakistan is beset with en-ergy crisis, unemployment and pooreconomy. Country’s major setupsincluding railways, Pak Steel, PIA,FBR, Oil and Gas sector have beendestroyed. There are numerous stra-tegic, national and local foreignpolicy challenges for Pakistan. Un-der the circumstances, the meetingof top Pak-China leadership couldprovide a head start for Pakistan incritical areas.

Beijing can help Islamabad over-come energy crisis. China is the lead-ing country in generating energy from

renewable resources (solar 9GW,Wind 40GW). China is using thisenergy in domestic, public and in-dustrial sectors. Due to pro-pub-lic energy policies of the Centralgovernment, the cost of per unitof electricity produced with re-

newable energy became equal to coalin June 2012. It has helped local gov-ernments and industry to become car-bon neutral cities and adopt renew-able energy. Next, Beijing can helpin construction of thousands of damsfor energy, agriculture and both agri-and energy purposes.

Both countries can have strongeconomic cooperation. Pakistan isproducing surplus dairy products,wheat and rice. China will need toimport wheat by 2020. Pakistan isalready exporting rice to China. Byhelping Pakistan improve per acreyield in staple crops, Beijing canhelp both Pakistan and improve itsfood security. Similarly, value ad-dition in dairy sector, cotton andgrains including wheat, rice and len-tils can boost Pakistan’s agri-sector,which constitutes 60 percent interms of direct and indirect GDP,jobs and overall economy. Pak-China cooperation in the dairy sec-tor along can save billions of litersof milk wasted daily. Since China

has already embarked on urbaniza-tion process, it could benefit bothcountries. Other areas of coopera-tion are pharmaceuticals, IT, textile,manufacturing and banking. It couldsave Pakistan from IMF and otherinternational agencies.

Beijing can help developPakistan’s infrastructure. China isself sufficient in steel production,which can be of immense use forPakistan. In immediate terms,Beijing can help Islamabad buildnecessary basic infrastructure suchas bridges, railways and industrywith special emphasis on northernareas, GB and KPK. China can helpPakistan to modernize and improveits railway network at metro level,national and regional level. A reli-able rail network will cut fuel im-ports, which constitute major shareof imports, and resultant inflation.The reduction in fuel imports andexpansion of railway networks canhelp reduce poverty through less in-flation, reduced travelling costs,lower rents, access to health andeducation services. It can developlocal industry, create jobs, and im-prove communication networks,which could help in restoring peaceand ending anti-state activities. Apolicy decision in these areas could

be of geo-economic and geo-stra-tegic importance for Islamabad,Beijing and the region.

The foreign policy direction ofthe region has changed after an-nouncement of US Asia PacificPolicy. Accordingly, there is a needto review the policy of so-calledwar against terror, which has beenused to gain geo-strategic and mili-tary footholds in the region. Thecontinuation of this policy will fur-ther undermine interests of sover-eign UN member states, region andthe international human rights. Thecases in point are media reports ofagreement of nine US militarybases in Afghanistan. The removalof occupiers’ accountability in Af-ghan deaths is crime against hu-manity under international laws.Iraq refused to sign similar treaty.The US military pacts with Japan,Philippines, Vietnam, Australia andCARS. The NATO forces from Af-ghanistan need to withdrawn andthere should be no US militarybases to end indigenous Afghan re-sistance against Afghan puppet re-gime, its allies and restore peacein the region. At the bilateral level,Islamabad and Beijing should fur-ther deepen cooperation in all fieldsof mutual interests.

Turkey has become a hub of eco-nomic and tourism activities. Thereis proper division of territories as wellas the administrative affairs. Localgovernment representative, likemayor, are elected for a term of fiveyears on the basis adult franchise.

The top leadership of Turkey isalso the product of local governmentsystem. They learned the art of ad-ministration there and than came upto serve at national level. The primeminister of Turkey Tayyip Erdoganremained the mayor of Istanbul cityfrom 1994 to 1998. Turkey is di-vided in 81 provinces with a furtherdivision of each province into eightdistricts. This is a unique systemwhich has a proper check and balancesystem by central government. Thesalient feature of this system is timelyelections and management of finance.So there are less chances of misman-agement. In Pakistan we have manythings to do for local governmentsystem .First of all local governmentsystem should be adopted accordingarea to area conditions. A uniformsystem will create problems forwhole of the country. Karachi is anurban city with a different scenario,so local government in Karachi cannot be as it will be in Lahore. KPK isa province with a different set up car-rying the long strip of tribal areas. Sothe involvement of tribal elders intheir local setup is necessary.

The influence and interferenceof Bureaucracy is also a hurdle inthe way of free and efficient localgovernment in Pakistan. Sometimethe projects of great importance aredelayed due to red tapsim. It hasbeen a common practice that Bu-reaucrats often used their influenceto keep the locally elected bodies onback footings.

Similarly if we had effective lo-cal government system we wouldhave solved many of our issues likethe availability of clean drinking wa-ter, health and education. In the pastlocal CCBs and other committeeshelped a lot to address the problemsat initial stages. All this is only pos-sible when the elections for local gov-ernments are arranged timely. It was2005 when last time local govern-ment elections were held in Pakistan.

Now, ECP should take heedfulsteps to hold local government’selections as early as possible. Localgovernment system can help us tosolve the crisis of leadership. We canachieve the goal of good governancethrough local government system.We can bring harmony in our socialsystem. There can be the best of de-mocracy. We can promote the humanrights in our country. We can teachour people about democracy. Localgovernment election should not bedelayed as this will also help democ-racy to flourish in our country.—Sargodha

Dress Code forenergy saving

ASMA SHABBIR

Caretaker Prime Minister Mir HazarKhan Khoso has decided to imposeban on in all govt departments andoffices for using

Air Conditionsers by civil ser-vants from 15,May till the improve-ment of energy situation in country.Caretaker Govt Also appealed to pri-vate sector to cooperate for energyconservation.For the last many yearsnation is facing energy crises and loadshedding has become the Nationalissue. To solve this national issue weneed national approach and long &short term strategy.To overcome Loadshedding the short term step by ban-ning ACs using in govt offices seemsto be a sincere effort / steps by Govtwhich will be help to some extent,Hopefully the superior bureaucracyand other powerfull civil servants willcooperate in implementing this orderand sacrifice their luxury cooling fa-cility in national interest and help pro-vide relief to masses.—Karachi

way for hours, Jacob Sullivan, thewunderkind adviser to then-Sec-retary of State Hillary Clinton,ventures (not unreasonably): “I donot understand the nature of theexercise.”

White House media wranglerssense trouble ahead, given that thetalking points will be parsed by newsmedia who are properly curiousabout what the heck happened inBenghazi. National Security Coun-cil spokesman Tommy Vietor warnsthat “there is massive disinformationout there, in particular with Con-gress.” Senior press guru BenRhodes weighs in at 9:34 p.m. andwarns of feeding “a ton of wronginformation” and creating “a hard-ened misimpression.” Sorry, Ben,but I don’t think the counter-the-spineffort worked too well. The finaleditor proves to be Michael Morell,the deputy director of the CIA, thenext morning. He takes what startedas six information-rich bullet pointsand whittles them down to an infor-mation-thin three points. At the bot-tom of the stack of message traffick-ers is the office of UN AmbassadorSusan Rice, who is appointed to de-liver the talking points on the Sun-day talk shows.Courtesy: The Washington Post

America and Pakistan bothstand at a critical juncture intime and history and are

searching for new policies for changeand new relations. America had theopportunity when President Obama– the first colored president to enterthe White House erected by his blackfolks predecessors over the centuriesand promised to enliven his moralconscience for a new beginning inAmerican history-making. But oncein inside the White powerhouse, helost touch with the prevalent reali-ties demanding navigational change.So the bogus War on Terror and itsworst impacts on so many nationscontinue to this day because thePresident of the United States turnedout to be the least powerful person indecision-making.

Pakistanis in their first-time everfree national elections to reject lead-ers of corruption, deceit and insanityand to use the ballot box for change,new beginning with new leaders.

Pak-US in search of new futureAmerica needs Pakistan for its futur-istic effective role as a superpowerand presence in South West Asia. Pa-kistanis hope that the Obama admin-istration will learn from its errors ofjudgments and major strategic blun-ders in Iraq and Afghanistan and stopthe terrorism of wars against innocentpeople and cultures in the Middle Eastand South West Asia.

Pakistan’s political landscape haschanged after the May 11, electionnew political leaders have emergedto realign major network of relation-ships with the US and other Westernnations allied to the war syndrome.With high strategic tempers and ex-pectations, it is a time to wait and seegame. From the infamousGunanatanmo camp, pictures ofAmerican insanity at Abu Ghraibprison, continuing drone killings ofthe innocents in tribal belts of Paki-stan and Afghanistan onward to in-definite bogus war on terrorism, allare burden on the human conscienceand more so on the policy makers,not aware of the future. Even mostpowerful nations of the world lackknowledge of the future. Pakistanisdo not deserve unethical and un-

friendly treatment from the US. His-tory tells us that they made sacrificesto facilitate the US to establish rela-tionship with the Peoples Republicof China. During the heights of theCold War, America used Pakistaniterritory to plan and fly its U2 spyingmissions on the former USSR. At onetime, the USSR threatened to bombPakistan if she would not change itsstrategic partnership. Pakistani suf-fered immensely because both thefriendly US and the former USSRsided with India on the issue of Kash-mir. The American led War on Terrorhas destroyed the capacity and infra-structures of social, economic, civicand moral and political governanceof the nation. American cannot re-build Pakistan except by Pakistanison their own. But American can stopits aggressive drone attacks andbackdoor intrigues to undermine theinterests of the people of Pakistan.

Mutually suspicious and para-noid, America and Pakistan contin-ued their collaboration. Pakistanipoliticians and military Generalswere readily available wheneverAmerican needed to use them for itsown policy aims and military goals.

History spells out that aggressionsand hegemonic control and exploi-tation of others do not bring triumphand success but degeneration and vi-ciousness for the succeeding genera-tions to live with. America usedPakistan Generals to invade Af-ghanistan and install a puppet re-gime ousting the Taliban rule. Gen-eral Pervez Musharaf is currently ontrial in Pakistan for treason and somany other charges of corruptionand killings of the innocents.America hired Asif Ali Zardari, ourman in Islamabad to replaceMusharaf, to do just that under thefalse shadows of democracy. Mostlikely, he will see the day in a courtof law soon for many crimes againstthe people of Pakistan.

At a critical juncture of time andopportunities in global affairs, it isrational to think what mankindneeds most - Peace, co-existence andNot more cruel wars. At a criticaljuncture of its global affairs,America needs more Pakistan, thanPakistanis want American aid or itssecurity shield against the unknown.—The writer specializes in globalsecurity, peace & conflict resolution.

I read this letter in a religiousmagazine from an indignant parishioner who was furious at the

length of sermons preached inchurches in the city. “In a church inBandra, the sermon lasted 23 min-utes!” shouted this very angrygentleman. A fleeing Taliban, des-perate for water was ploddingthrough the Afghanistan desertwhen he saw something far off inthe distance. Hoping to find water,he hurried toward the object, only

to find a little old Jewish man at asmall stand selling ties. The Talibanasked, “Do you have water?” TheJewish man replied, “I have no wa-ter. Would you like to buy a tie? Theyare only $5.” The Taliban shouted,“Idiot! I do not need an overpricedtie. I need water! I should kill you,but I must find water first.”

“Okay’, said the old Jewish man,“It does not matter that you do not wantto buy a tie and that you hate me. Iwill show you that I am bigger thanthat. If you continue over that hill tothe east for about two miles, you willfind a lovely restaurant. It has all theice- cold water you need. Shalom”.Muttering, the Taliban staggered awayover the hill. Several hours later hestaggered back. “I wish I’d listened to

you,” he whispered, “those fellowswon’t let me in without a tie..!” Truthcan be spoken through an idiot; youmay hear golden words from themouth of a child, from a drunkard,from an enemy as he yells at you.

You hear if you listen. A staunchRSS leader, who happens to be afriend of mine, once told me the storyof a temple where the priest ran intoa problem. Every time he went to of-fer pooja a rat ran in front of the altarand so he had to clean and purify thearea all over again. One day he hitupon a solution, “Get a cat,” he toldthe people, “and tie it near the altarjust before I start the pooja, it willkeep the mice away!” And for manyyears they followed this practice. Thepriest died and a new priest came to

Listen to everyone..!take his place, he was about to startthe ceremony when the peopleshouted, “You can’t start withouttying a cat, this is part of our wor-ship ritual!”

The ritual had taken over themeaning behind it! So it is with re-ligious places we visit; we forgetthat the idea behind going tomosque, temple or church is to lis-ten to the one above and not foranything else. When you don’t goto listen and attend because it’s aritual or for the sake of obligation,fear or superstition, then you’regoing to start counting the min-utes..! Are we lost in being happywith the tied up cat or do we listento the man selling ties?—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

Rizwan Ghani Email:sadcat44@hotmail.com

Mahboob A Khwaja Email: kmaboob@yahoo.com

LAHORE: PML-N President Muhammad Nawaz Sharif meeting with newly elected MPAs from Hazara, headed byMNA Sardar Yousaf, who joined PML-N.

Obama invites Manmohanto Washington

From Page 1media reports, US DeputySecretary of State WilliamBurns first spoke to Indianauthorities about Obama’sdesire for a meeting withSingh during his recentvisit to Delhi.

Then a formal invite wasextended.

Sources said that theleaders will review all key bi-lateral issues between thetwo countries including civil

nuclear initiative, counter ter-rorism, Afghanistan, defenceand space collaboration.

Afghanistan is an issuewhere India has certain res-ervations about US policiesahead of the pullout nextyear. New Delhi has beenwatching with reservationsthe US move to engage theAfghan Taliban in the recon-ciliation process.

This will be Obama’s first

bilateral meeting in his sec-ond term with Singh, whomhe looks upon as a friend.While the US president hasexpressed his fondness forSingh on several occasions,the fact that he chose not tomeet him on the sidelines ofUNGA in New York in 2011,and also did not invite himto Washington during thattrip, was seen as a letdown.—INP

Shirazis joinPML-NFrom Page 1

to resolve the problemsfaced by the people ofSindh.

The PML-N leaderLiaquat Jatoi alleged that thePPP was involved in unprec-edented rigging in Sindh. Headded that the PPP had sto-len the public mandate whichis unacceptable.

Russia boosts its naval presence inSyria, sends regime new missiles

From Page 1gin the process from a verysmall group of countries in aframework which, in es-sence, would predeterminethe negotiating teams,agenda, and maybe even theoutcome of talks.”

Russia’s recent deliveryof sophisticated anti-shipcruise missiles to Syria alsohas raised concerns, reportsThe New York Times. Theweapons enable “the regimeto deter foreign forces look-ing to supply the opposition

from the sea, or from under-taking a more active role if ano-fly zone or shipping em-bargo were to be declared atsome point,” Nick Brown,editor in chief of IHS Jane’sInternational Defense Re-view, told the Times. “It’s areal ship killer.”

The Wall Street Journalnoted that the missiles ap-pear to contradict earlier Rus-sian reassurances about thekinds of weapons it wouldsupply to Assad’s forces.

Yakhont missiles are anoffensive system. Moscowhas told Western diplomatsit will supply only defensiveweaponry to the Syrian re-gime. But U.S. and Israeli of-ficials have long been wor-ried about Syria’s existingstocks of the weapon. Iftransferred to Hezbollah orother militant groups, theycould provide a seriousthreat to both Israeli and U.S.warships in the region.—AFP

Nawaz-Zardariinformal meeting

likely on 22ndFrom Page 1

Gen Kayani, Nawaz discussinternal, external challenges

From Page 111, 2013 elections. Nawazhoped that the democraticprocess would continue inthe same manner which willhelp strengthen the institu-tions in the country,” thesources said while quotingthe PML-N chief as havingsaid.

The sources claimed thatmeeting between the COASand Nawaz Sharif was heldin a cordial atmospherewhich would show positiveimpact in days ahead.

Political analysts believethat this meeting is a signifi-cant devlopment whichwould leave positive impacton civil-military relationship.

The Chief of Army Staff,Ashfaq Parvez Kayani andNawaz Sharif also expressed

their determination to fightterrorism.

The PML-N presidentpresented the national char-ter to General Kayani, whichaccording to sources theChief of Army Staff assuredto implement it.

Nawaz and ShahbazSharif were the only PML-Nleaders present at the meet-ing.

Gen Kayani, who was inplain clothes, had lunch withthe Sharifs after the meeting,which took place for aroundthree hours.

The Army chief con-gratulated the Sharif broth-ers over their victory in therecent general elections.Matters of the state and fu-ture course of action were

also discussed in the meet-ing.

PML-N president NawazSharif and Shahbaz Sharifand Gen Kayani spoke aboutdemocracy’s success in thecountry after the first time agovernment completed itsfive-year tenure.

All the three hoped thatthe democratic processwould continue in the samemanner which will helpstrengthen the institutions inthe country. Sources saidthat PML-N’s foreign policyand internal security issuesalso came under discussion.

The Sharifs emphasisedtheir party’s top priorities,which included stability inthe country’s deterioratingsecurity conditions.

All set for re-polling; PPP,MWM join boycott

From Page 1

For re-polling the elec-t ion material has beenshifted from the office ofthe District Returning Of-ficer (South) to the pollingstat ions.

The polling will start at8 am and continue till 5 pmwithout break at poll ingstations Nos. 4, 7, 11 ,48,52, 56, 57, 58, 60, 62, 77, 78,97, 98, 100, 101, 104, 106,109, 110, 113, 114, 115, 117,121, 122, 131, 135, 136, 137,139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144,148, 157, 165, 168, 175, 177,179 and 180 where 166 poll-ing booths have been es-tablished.

The Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) and thePakistan People’s Party(PPP) have announced aboycott in protest while thePakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf

(PTI) is taking an act ivepart in the re-polls.

The MQM had an-nounced the boycott onFriday after the ECP re-jected i ts demand for re-polling in the entire con-sti tuency NA-250. Mean-while, PPP’s local leaderNajmi Alam in an about-face, told a news confer-ence on Saturday nightthat the party was boycott-ing the re-poll ing as the“ECP is not ready to listento us.”

The PPP’s decision toboycott the re-polling camehours after PPP Sindh Gen-eral Secretary Taj Haider, ina statement, urged theparty workers and support-ers to fully participate inthe election process.

Meanwhile, Majl is

Wahdatul Muslimeen(MWM) has also an-nounced to boycottrepolling in 43 polling sta-tions of NA-250 constitu-ency here on Saturday, GeoNews reported.“This selective reelectionin the said consti tuencywas a conspiracy to electundemocratic forces topower, which we will notbecome a part of”, saidMWM chief, Allama AminShahidi, in a statement is-s u e d .MWM decision comes aday after Muttahida QaumiM o v e m m e n t(MQM)rejected ElectionCommission’s (ECP) deci-sion for the partial repollingdemanding re-voting in theentire NA-250, PS-112, andPS-113.

KABUL— A f g h a n i s t a n ’ sparliament failed to pass a lawon Saturday banning vio-lence against women, a se-vere blow to progress madein women’s rights in the con-servative Muslim countrysince the Islamist Talibanwas toppled over a decadeago.

President Hamid Karzaiapproved the law by decreein 2009 and parliament’s en-dorsement was required. Buta rift between conservativeand more secular members ofthe assembly resulted in de-bate being deferred to a laterdate.

Religious members ob-jected to at least eight articlesin the legislation, includingkeeping the legal age forwomen to marry at 16, theexistence of shelters for do-mestic abuse victims and thehalving of the number ofwives permitted to two.

“Today, the parliamentar-ians who oppose women’sdevelopment, women’srights and the success ofwomen...made their voicesloud and clear,” FawziaKoofi, head of parliament’swomen’s commission, toldReuters.

Women have won backthe hard-fought right to edu-cation and work since the

Afghan lawmakers blocklaw on women’s rights

Taliban were toppled 12years ago, but there are fearsthese freedoms could shrinkonce NATO-led forces leaveAfghanistan by the end ofnext year.

Increasing insecurity isdeterring some women fromseeking work outside thehome, and rights workers ac-cuse the government of do-ing too little to protectwomen - allegations rejectedby Karzai’s administration.

“2014 is coming, changeis coming, and the future ofwomen in this country is un-certain. A new president willcome and if he doesn’t takewomen’s rights seriously hecan change the decree,”Koofi said of the Eliminationof Violence Against WomenLaw, which goes by the ac-ronym EVAL.

The election for a newpresident is expected to beheld in April 2014. The con-stitution bars Karzai fromrunning again.After almosttwo hours of clashes be-tween Koofi and the morereligious members of the 244-member parliament, speakerAbdul Rauf Ibrahimi said theassembly would consider thelaw again at a later date, butdeclined to say when.

Some members soughtamendments, such as longer

prison terms for crimes com-mitted against women, suchas beating and rape.

Many lawmakers, most ofthem male, cited violations ofIslamic, or Sharia law.“It is wrong that a womanand man cannot marry offtheir child until she is 16,”said Obaidullah Barekzai, amember from southeastUruzgan province, where fe-male literacy rates are amongthe lowest in the country.An Afghan man must be atleast 18 years old to marry.

Barekzai argued againstall age limits for women, cit-ing historical figure HazratAbu Bakr Siddiq, a closecompanion of the ProphetMohammad, who married offhis daughter at age seven.

At least eight other law-makers, mostly from theUlema Council, a govern-ment-appointed body of cler-ics, joined him in decrying theEVAL as un-Islamic.

Abdul Sattar Khawasi,member for Kapisa province,called women’s shelters“morally corrupt”.

Justice MinisterHabibullah Ghaleb last yeardismissed them as houses of“prostitution and immoral-ity”, provoking fierce con-demnation from women’sgroups.—AP

VATICAN CITY—GermanChancellor Angela Merkel,mindful of the importance ofChristian voters in Septem-ber elections, met with PopeFrancis on Saturday duringa quick trip to Rome that fo-cused on helping victims ofEurope’s economic crisis andemphasizing the continent’sChristian roots.

Merkel spoke privatelyfor 45 minutes with the popeat the Apostolic Palace, afterexchanging cordial greetingsin German.

Her Christian Democratparty depends heavily onsupport from Protestant andCatholic voters, and the chatand photo opportunitycould be a welcome campaignboost for a leader largelyidentified by Europe’s eco-nomically suffering citizensas a champion of debt reduc-tion, including painful aus-terity across much of thecontinent.

For its part, the Vatican iseager for allies in its cam-paign to win over moreCatholics. Francis was lead-

ing a sort of pep rally for thefaith in St. Peter’s Square Sat-urday evening, attended byabout 150,000 people.

Most were from Europebut many came from thepope’s native South America.They sang and prayed dur-ing an hours-long gatheringahead of the pope’s appear-ance.

On Thursday, Francisblasted what he called a “cultof money” in a global finan-cial system that ends up tyr-annizing, not helping, theworld’s poor.

Asked whether they hadalso talked about the pope’srecent criticism, Merkel saidthey spoke about the regu-lation of the financial mar-kets.

“The regulation of the fi-nancial markets is our centralproblem, our central task,”Merkel told reporters on theVatican grounds. “We aremoving ahead, but we are notyet where we want to be,where we could say that aderailment of the guard railsof social market won’t hap-

pen again.”Merkel added: “It ought

to be like this: the economyis there to serve the people.In the last few years, thishasn’t been the case at alleverywhere.”

Italy, Spain, Ireland, Por-tugal and especially Greecehave seen governments con-centrate on debt reductionwhile slashing state spend-ing. With growth stymied,unemployment, especiallyamong young people, hassoared. Businesses, many ofthem family-run in southernEurope, have failed as banklending dried up.

The chancellor said thepope had stressed the worldneeds a strong and just Eu-rope, and she described theoverall conversation has en-couraging.

Merkel is currently cam-paigning for re-election inSeptember’s general elec-tions. Half of Germany’spopulation is Catholic. InBavaria especially there is astrong conservative andCatholic tradition.—AP

Merkel and Pope talk abouta ‘strong’ Europe

MAIDUGURI—Soldiers inNigeria launched their firstraid against suspected Is-lamic extremists in a cam-paign to take back control ofthe nation’s northeast, killingat least 21 people, a securityofficial said Friday.

The fighting happenedThursday in the Sambisa For-est Reserve, just south ofMaiduguri, the capital of Bornostate, which soldiers previ-ously targeted hunting forfighters belonging to the ex-tremist network known asBoko Haram. Details of the raid,however, remained sketchy onFriday as a military spokesmanoffered contradictory detailsabout the assault.

Meanwhile, gunmenlaunched an assault on thehometown of one of Nigeria’sformer military rulers hun-dreds of miles (kilometers)away, attacking police sta-tions and banks.

Soldiers started the at-tack on Sambisa Forest Re-serve on Thursday, having

previously converged on thearea in advance of PresidentGoodluck Jonathan’s state ofemergency decree affectingthree states in the nation’snortheast, a security officialsaid. The shelling with can-nons killed at least 21 sus-pected Islamic extremists, theofficial said. There was no in-dependent confirmation ofthe assault or casualties.

“We are not going toleave the forest until it’sover,” the official said, refer-ring to the emergency rule.

The official spoke to TheAssociated Press on condi-tion of anonymity since hewas not authorized to speakpublicly about the ongoingmilitary operation.

Brig. Gen. ChrisOlukolade, a military spokes-man based in Abuja,Nigeria’s capital, told theBBC on Friday that the mili-tary conducted air strikes on“enclaves in the forest, thedeep forest,” where insur-gents were hiding. Olukolade

also said that insurgent firehit one of the military’s air-craft, causing it to abandonthe fight and return to anearby airfield.

However, whenOlukolade later spoke withThe Associated Press, hesaid he was “not certain” ifairstrikes had been carriedout. Read back portions ofhis comments to the BBC, thebrigadier general said: “Idon’t want to talk about that.”

“This is my position atthe moment,” he said. He de-clined to discuss casualtyfigures from the fighting.

A written statement attrib-uted to Olukolade issued Fri-day night said soldiers de-stroyed heavy weapons suchas anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank weapons, as well as ve-hicles, generators and otherequipment. “The DefenseHeadquarters is quite satis-fied with the progress of theoperation and the fightingspirit of participating troops,”the statement read.—AP

Official: Nigeria militaryattacks camps, kills 21

Nawaz Sharif and the militaryleadership. This would beNawaz Sharif’s first direct in-teraction with a foreignleader.

Sources claimed that dur-ing visit to the presidency,PM-in-waiting Nawaz Sharifis also set to hold an infor-mal meeting with the Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari. Al-though, no break through isexpected in this meeting, butis expected that there wouldbe some flexibility in the atti-tude of top leaders, thesources said.

It may be noted thatthere was no contact be-tween President AsifZardari and Nawaz Sharifsince May 11, 2013 generalelections, although, newswere circulated in media thatPresident Zardari through atelephonic contact felici-tated Nawaz Sharif oversuccess of his party in thepolls. However, the PML-Nspokesman denied thisnews.

First round ofJUI-F and PML-N

talks remaininconclusive

From Page 1

chief of the PML-N will beinformed about the condi-tions put forward by the JUI-F today (Sunday) in Lahore.Nawaz Shaif will make the fi-nal decision in this connec-tion after consultations withclose aides.

Earlier addressing themedia after a meeting, JUI-Fchief Fazlur Rehman said theparty leaders are still discuss-ing the options.

The meeting is still in theinitial stages, said PML-Nleader Raja Zafarul Haq, whojoined JUI-F meeting with adelegation.

“We are serious aboutthe country. We don’t havedesire for power. Coming topower is a responsibility,”said Rehman.

JUI-F Chief MaulanaFazlur Rehman had called ameeting with party leaders toreach a decision about join-ing PML-N or sitting in theopposition benches, earlieron Saturday.

On Wednesday, JUI-Fhad announced it wouldstage protests acrossKhyber Pakhtunkhwa onMay 17 against alleged rig-ging during elections.

However, ShahbazSharif met Rehman on Thurs-day and reportedly put for-ward a formal invitation forthe JUI-F to ally with thePML-N to form a coalitiongovernment in the centre andBalochistan.

On May 17, JUI-FBalochistan chief MaulanaMuhammad Khan Shiraniannounced that his party willjoin the PML-N to form thenext Balochistan govern-ment.—INP

Karachi: PTIleader Zahragunned down

From Page 1 The attackers fled away

leaving her seriouslywounded. She was rushed tohospital immediately, butZahra succumbed to her in-juries on her way to the hos-pital. According to hospitalsources she was shot in thehead twice.

After the killing of Zahra,Shirin Mazari said that PTIleaders and workers’ liveswere in danger in Karachi.

Meanwhile, condemningthe murder of Zahra, PTIchairman Imran Khan saidthat he holds MQM chairmanAltaf Hussain responsiblefor the killing of Zahra be-cause a few days ago AltafHussain had threatened PTIworkers, reports a private TVchannel.

PML-N meetingto discuss policymatters tomorrow

From Page 1cuss matters related to theformation of the govern-ments at the Centre and inPunjab and Balochistan.The candidates for the postof chief minister of Punjaband Balochistan will be final-ized during the meeting,PML-N officials said.

According to a PML-Nofficial, the names of mem-bers of the federal cabinet toowill be discussed and NawazSharif will take the lawmak-ers into confidence in thisregard.

The PML-N bagged 124of the 272 directly electedseats in the National Assem-bly.

Some 20 lawmakers, in-cluding independent candi-dates and members of smallerparties, have either joined thePML-N or said they will backparty, giving its simple ma-jority in the National Assem-bly.The meeting will also dis-cuss first 100-day plan, reliefin load shedding, budget pro-posals and making alliancewith Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fand Muslim League- Func-tional at the centre.

Moreover, the meetingwould also mull over the fu-ture strategy relating to thePakistan People’s Partyand Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Nearly 140 newly electedPML-N members of nationalAssembly are to attend themeeting to be chaired byParty President and would-be Prime Minister MianNawaz Sharif.—INP

First Saudiwoman scalesMount EverestKATMANDU—Mountaineer-ing officials say 64 climbers,including a Saudi Arabianwoman, have successfullyscaled Mount Everest fromNepal’s side of the moun-tain.

Tilak Padney of Nepal’sMountaineering Depart-ment says 35 foreigners ac-companied by 29 NepaleseSherpa guides reached the8,850-meter (29,035-foot)peak on Saturday morningafter climbing all night fromthe highest camp on SouthCol.

All were reported to besafe. Among them was RahaMoharrak, 25, who becamethe first Saudi Arabianwoman to scale the world’shighest peak.

According to a BBC re-port, Moharrak is now alsothe youngest Arab to makeit to the top of the Everest.The 25-year-old is part of afour-person expedition thatalso includes the first Qatariman and the first Palestin-ian to reach the summit.

Among Raha’s previousascents are Kilimanjaro,Mount Vinson, MountElbrus, Aconcagua, KalaPattar, Pico de Orizaba, andIztacchuatl.

A biography on the ex-pedition website said con-vincing Moharrak’s familyto agree to her climb “wasas great a challenge as themountain itself”, thoughthey fully support her now.

“I really don’t careabout being the first…solong as it inspires someoneelse to be second,” she wasquoted as saying.

Everest can be climbedfrom either Nepal or Tibet.May is the most popularmonth for Everest climbsbecause of more favorableweather.—Agencies

NEW DELHI—Bollywoodsuperstar Sanjay Dutt, whois in jail for arms possession,is being held in a cell built formilitants where he cannotsee daylight and wants to betransferred, a report said Sat-urday.

Dutt, 53, surrendered onThursday to serve out theremaining three-and-a-halfyears of a five-year term in acase linked to deadly 1993Mumbai bombings.

Dutt’s lawyer, RizwanMerchant, has demanded thetransfer of the actor whom hesaid was being kept in the cellonce occupied by Mumbaiattacks gunman MohammedAjmal Kasab, according to

Sanjay Dutt held in AjmalKasab’s jail cell

the Indian Express dailynewspaper.

“He (Dutt) is not a terror-ist” and should not be keptin such a cell, the lawyer wasquoted as saying.

The actor, whose parentswere two of India’s biggeststars, shot to fame in the1980s in a string of actionmovies in which he per-formed his own stunts, earn-ing him the nickname“Deadly Dutt”.

He was convicted in 2006of possessing guns suppliedby gangsters who staged the1993 bomb attacks that killed257 people but was freed onbail after serving 18 monthsin prison. In March, the Su-

preme Court upheld Dutt’sconviction.

He was cleared in 2007 ofmore serious conspiracycharges in the blasts, be-lieved staged by Muslim un-derworld leaders in revengefor religious riots in whichmainly Muslims died after therazing of an ancient mosqueby Hindu zealots.

Dutt, whose mother wasMuslim and father Hindu, wasfound guilty of possessionof an automatic rifle and apistol which he insisted wereonly meant to protect his fam-ily in Mumbai’s charged at-mosphere following themosque’s destruction.—Agencies

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Since WestIndies’ Marlon Samuels 2-year ban in 2008, the lastnon-Asian player caughtin fixing was onlyEngland’s MervynWestfield. Whereas thegame of cricket has seentwelve Asian players(Salman Butt, MohammadAmit, Mohammad Asif,Danesh Kaneria (all Paki-stanis), T.P.Sudhindra,Shalabh Srivastava,Mohnish Mishra, AmitYadav, Abhinav Bali,Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila

Illegal betting in Asia isroot cause of fixing, says

anti-corruption consultantand Ankeet Chavan (all Indi-ans) are caught in the net.Besides this, umpires fromPakistan, Bangaldesh havebeen banned and actionagainst three Sri Lankan um-pires is pending.

Why Asian people aremore greedy ? The questionwas asked to Bertrand deSpeville, the anti-corruptionexpert, who in his report tothe ICC had said that the ar-rival of international T20cricket and the Indian PremierLeague has considerably in-creased the risk of match-fix-ing.

Speaking exclusivelyover telephone from his Lon-don office, he said, “betting

in Asia (India and Pakistanin particular) is prohibitedand that is the root causeof spot-fixing in Asian na-tions”. “This leads thepeople to accept bribe”, hesaid. “There is no easy so-lution to curb fixers unlessthe system is changed at thehighest government level”,the anti-corruption consult-ant advised.

Sadly, the Indiancricket board didn’t mournthe recent controversy byputting off the IPLmatches for at least a day.The IPL commissioner(Rajeev Shukla) is hopingto add one more team toIPL next season. Bravo.

LORD’S: Joe Root flicks one to the leg side during England vs New Zealand 1st Investec Test on Saturday.

EDINBURGH—Pakistan be-gan their tour of England on agood note, registering a 96-run win over Scotland in thefirst ODI between the twosides. In Edinburgh on Friday,Pakistan successfully de-fended a total of 231 for 7, asScotland went down to thebowling of Saeed Ajmal andJunaid Khan. Chasing 232,Scotland had a nervy start,losing their first wicket for noscore when Neil Carter wasbowled by Junaid Khan in thesecond over. MohammadIrfan’s pace and bounce cre-ated problems for the hostsearly on, but Kyle Coetzerbrought his county experi-ence to the fore, playing shotsand hitting boundaries earlyin the innings. Josh Daveyalso hit a few fours before hewas smartly caught down theleg-side by Akmal. Thewicket-keeper was involvedagain when Irfan got Coetzercaught behind, leavingPreston Mommsen andMoneeb Iqbal to rebuild.

The pressure began toshow in the 28th over, when amix-up left Iqbal stranded andhe was run-out for 10 off 40balls. The long-awaited intro-

duction of Saeed Ajmal re-stricted the Scottish batsmenas they looked to push singlesand hit boundaries to copewith the rising run-rate.

Scotland had one card leftto play - Richie Berrington,who had scored a T20 cen-tury against Bangladesh lastyear, came to bat at No. 7.However, Berrington’s time atthe crease was short-lived ashe was caught on themidwicket boundary off Ajmalfor just 10. By the timeMurphy arrived at the crease,the game was all but done,and Scotland needed someT20-style hitting from theirlast three batsmen to have anyhopes of winning.

Pakistan, however, hadother ideas. Ajmal hadMommsen stumped with easeoff the last ball of the 36thover. Murphy was trappedleg-before by Junaid Khan offthe first ball of the 37th over,and he followed it up by dis-missing Majid Haq for a first-ball duck. Junaid narrowlymissed out on his own hat-trick bowling to numbereleven Wardlaw, who got abottom edge playing a drive.Taylor hit a few boundaries

before Ajmal finished the rout.Earlier, the visitors won the

toss and chose to bat on adecent pitch with Imran Farhatand Nasir Jamshed taking thecrease. Pakistan cruised earlyon, playing their way in andpunishing the bad balls withstraight drives and pulls forearly boundaries whilst look-ing very comfortable. Too easyin fact, as Jamshed pushed anothing drive into the coversoff a decent Rob Taylor deliv-ery to give Preston Mommsenan easy catch at cover.

Mohammd Hafeez tookhis time to play himself inwhile Farhat went swingingfrom the other end. Scotlandbrought spin on early withnew face Matt Machan, in anattempt to keep the runs downto singles rather than bound-aries. Pakistan, though, hadpatience and backed their abil-ity to score runs in the middleorder. But Hafeez was out toan errant cut shot after smash-ing a boundary, and UmarAmin fell slogging for 3.

Majid Haq was broughton with his experience andtook an early wicket to be-come Scotland’s leading ODIwicket-taker, while Machangot rid of Farhat, who draggedone on. Pakistan were re-duced to 117 for 5, and withruns ticking at under four anover it was left to captainMisbah-ul-Haq andwicketkeeper Kamran Akmalto rebuild the innings and seta competitive total.

During the battingPowerplay, Akmal nudged the

ball around gaps but playedone safe shot to many,trapped in front by seamerNeil Carter. At six wicketsdown, Misbah had work to dowith the bowlers, as Scotlandlooked to keep him off strike.With one wicket down and 22runs scored, the battingPowerplay had backfired onPakistan.

In the last 10 overs, therewere too many precious dotballs for Scotland. Pakistanknew that anything around220 would give their bowlersa good chance. There weresome interesting shot-selec-tions, as paddle scoops wereattempted with varying de-gree of success. Misbah con-trolled most of the strike andreached his half-century in the45th over. Scotland continuedto rotate the bowlers whichmeant Pakistan couldn’t es-tablish any rhythm with theirbatting stuttering toward the200 mark. Saeed Ajmal playedan entertaining run-a-ball in-nings of 28, full of big swingsand boundaries, before beingclean bowled playing onepaddle too many.

Misbah finished strong onan unbeaten 78, supported byEhsan Adil who hit the first sixof the match in the 47th over,dispatching Haq overmidwicket. Misbah attackedCarter in the penultimate overwhich went for 17, but IainWardlaw bowled an excellentfinal over with four dot balls, alucky four, and a single. Paki-stan accelerated well at the endto finish on 231 for 7.—AFP

Scotland vs Pakistan 1st ODI

Misbah, bowlers set up 96-run win

LONDON—James Andersonand Steven Finn did the bulk ofthe damage as England turnedthe first Test against NewZealand at Lord’s into a oneinnings shoot-out Saturday.England dismissed NewZealand for 207 before lunch onthe third day, a modest first in-nings lead of 25 runs.

At lunch, England were 12without loss in their second in-nings—a lead of 37—after cap-tain Alastair Cook, then onnought, had survived an ap-peal for caught behind off TrentBoult that third umpire MaraisErasmus studied for severalminutes following a NewZealand review.

Cook was five not out andNick Compton seven not out,with England looking to im-prove on their first innings 232in this opening match of a two-Test series. Earlier Anderson,who on Friday had becomeonly the fourth England bowlerto take 300 Test wickets, fin-ished with five wickets for 47runs in 24 overs.

It was the 30-year-old

Pakistan innings:Farhat b Machan ............ 46Jamshed c Mommsen .... 20Hafeez c Davey b Haq ... 18Asad Shafiq b Haq .......... 9Misbah not out .............. 83Umar Amin c Taylor b Haq3Kamran lbw b Carter ...... 12Saeed Ajmal b Wardlaw 28Ehsan Adil not out ........... 5Extras: (lb 4, w 3) .............. 7Total: (7 wickets) ........ 231Fall of wickets 1-50, 2-80, 3-95, 4-99, 5-115, 6-144, 7-195Bowling ............. O-M-R-WNM Carter ........... 10-0-56-1I Wardlaw ............ 10-0-47-1RML Taylor ......... 10-2-36-1MW Machan ...... 10-0-50-1RM Haq ............... 10-1-38-3Scotland innings:Coetzer c Kamran ........... 32

Carter b Junaid Khan ....... 0Davey c Kamran ............. 20Machan b Irfan ............... 11MM Iqbal run out .......... 10Mommsen st Kamran .... 15Berrington c Asad .......... 10Murphy lbw b Junaid ...... 7Taylor lbw b Saeed ........ 13Haq lbw b Junaid Khan ... 0I Wardlaw not out ............ 4Extras: (lb 8, w 4, nb 1) ... 13Total: (all out) ............... 135Fall of wickets 1-0, 2-52, 3-67, 4-71, 5-88, 6-103, 7-112,8-112, 9-112, 10-135Bowling ............. O-M-R-WMohammad Irfan .. 7-1-28-1Junaid Khan .......... 7-2-19-3Ehsan Adil ............. 7-0-32-1Mohammad Hafeez8-0-12-1Saeed Ajmal ....... 6.4-0-25-3Umar Amin ............. 4-0-110

EDINBURGH: Misbah hooks on his way to 83 not out dur-ing Scotland vs Pakistan 1st ODI.

Lancashire swing bowler’s 13thfive-wicket or better inningsreturn in an 81 Test-career thatstarted at Lord’s a decade ago.Having taken three wickets onFriday, including that of NewZealand top scorer Ross Tay-lor (66), Anderson returnedSaturday figures of two for 15in nine overs. He was well sup-ported by fast bowler StevenFinn, whose four for 63 on hisMiddlesex home ground, fea-tured Saturday figures of threefor 21 in four overs. However,it was the previously waywardStuart Broad who made theearly breakthrough Saturdayafter New Zealand resumed on153 for four.

New Zealand captainBrendon McCullum, a danger-ous batsman, fell for two whenhe edged Broad to wicket-keeper Matt Prior. KaneWilliamson, dropped on 23 byPrior off Anderson on Fridayand 44 not out overnight,marked his first Test in Englandwith a 158-ball fifty featuringfive fours.

However, there was no sec-

ond reprieve for Williamsonwhen he glanced a rare straydelivery from Anderson downthe legside to Prior for 60. TimSouthee, who on his Test de-but thrashed a rapid 77 againstEngland at Napier five yearsago, struck three fours off suc-cessive balls from Finn beforethe Middlesex quick had himhole out for 12. Andersonknocked back Bruce Martin’soff-stump for nought beforeFinn wrapped up the inningswith the wickets of BJ Watlingand Boult.—AFP

England 1st innings: 232New Zealand 1st innings:Fulton c Swann .............. 2Rutherford c Cook ......... 4Williamson c Prior ........ 60Taylor lbw b Anderson 66Brownlie lbw b Finn ..... 23McCullum c Prior ........... 2Watling c Prior b Finn . 17Southee c Root b Finn 12Martin b Anderson ....... 0N Wagner not out .......... 6Boult c Anderson b Finn 0Extras: (b 4, lb 8, nb 3) . 15Total: (all out) ............ 207Fall of wickets 1-5, 2-7, 3-100, 4-147, 5-155, 6-177, 7-194, 8-195, 9-207, 10-207Bowling ........... O-M-R-WJM Anderson .. 24-11-47-5SCJ Broad .......... 21-4-64-1ST Finn .............. 15-3-63-4GP Swann ............ 8-0-19-0IJL Trott ................. 1-0-2-0England 2nd innings:Cook c Brownlie ........... 21Compton b Wagner ..... 15IJL Trott not out ........... 26JE Root not out ............ 30Extras: (w 1, nb 1) ........... 2Total: (2 wickets) ......... 94Fall of wickets 1-36, 2-36Bowling ........... O-M-R-WTA Boult ........... 8.3-2-27-1TG Southee ......... 9-1-25-0N Wagner ............ 7-2-24-1BP Martin .............. 5-0-180

England peg back NewZealand in Lord’s Test

ISLAMABAD: Secretary FATA Olympics Association, Shahid Khan Shinwari giving the trophy to overall firstposition holder Army team on the final day of 9th Korean Ambassador National Teakwondo Championship 2013 formale and female Bantam and Feather weight categories at Liaquat Gymnasium.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Armywon the 9th Korean Ambassa-dor National TaekwondoChampionship by clinchingoverall 17 gold, three silver andtwo bronze medals here atLiaquat Gymnasium. Army se-cured a total of 507 points.WAPDA remained second with165 points, securing one gold,six silver and two bronze med-als. Higher Education Commis-sion (HEC) with 154 points gotthird positions, earning onegold, three silver and sevenbronze medals.

The Korean Embassy in

Pakistan had also invited Ko-rean International Demonstra-tion Team to celebrate 30thAnniversary of Pakistan-KoreaDiplomatic Relationship.

Teams from all provinces,departments and affiliated unitsof Pakistan Taekwondo Federa-tion (PTF) participated in thismega event.

The main sponsor of theevent was SAMSUNG and co-sponsors were Waves Enter-prises and Borjan.

While PTV Sports Channelwas media partner of this megaevent. It was for the first in

Pakistan’s history that elec-tronic sensors were used dur-ing this event which, were ac-quired by the support of Gov-ernment of Pakistan, Ministryof Sports IPC and PakistanSports Board. The said equip-ments were also distributedamong all affiliated units by thechief guest of the concludingceremony Lt Gen (Retd) SyedArif Hassan, President PakistanOlympic Association. A com-plete Taekwondo Mat was alsogiven to FATA. Syed ArifHassan, also gave away med-als to the winners.—APP

Army wins 9th Korean AmbassadorNational Taekwondo C’ship

Anderson joinsEngland 300 clubLONDON—James Andersonbecame only the fourth En-gland bowler to take 300 Testwickets when he dismissedNew Zealand’s Peter Fultonon the second day of the first

Test at Lord’s on Friday.Lancashire seamer Ander-

son joined Ian Botham (383),Bob Willis (325) and the lateFred Trueman (307), the firstman in history to take 300Test wickets, in a select quar-tet of England bowlers.

The 30-year-old Ander-son started the match need-ing two more wickets for his300th in Tests. And, afterEngland had been bowledout for 232 in their first in-nings on Friday, he reachedthe milestone with a new-ballburst of two wickets for noruns in 17 balls to reduce NewZealand to seven for two

Hamish Rutherford be-came his 299th Test wicket,with the aid of a fine first slipcatch by England captainAlastair Cook, before an-other full-length ball tookFulton’s outside edge andwas well-held by second slipGraeme Swann.—AFP

LHC suspends PCB’sinterim arrangement

on LCCALAHORE—Lahore High Courthas suspended the decision ofPakistan Cricket Board for put-ting Lahore City Cricket Asso-ciation under interim arrange-ment. Justice Ijaz ul Ahsanpassed the order on petitionsfiled by Muhammad Anwar,President regional cricket as-sociation, Faisalabad and oth-ers. The court also sought re-ply from PCB by May 20 onthe petitions.

Earlier, petitioners’ coun-sel arguing before the courtsubmitted that the regionalcommittees’ term expired onSeptember 12, 2011 but theelections were conducted.

However, Chairman PCBthrough a notification datedMay 9, 2013 appointedadhoc committees, he added.

The counsel contendedthat the step taken by the chair-man was illegal as he did nothave authority for it. Hepleaded the court to set asidethe notification being illegaland unlawful. He also pleadedthe court to suspend the noti-fication till the final decisionof the petition. The court afterhearing the arguments sus-pended the notification andalso sought reply from the PCBtill May 20.—APP

PARIS—Defending championand top seed Ding Ningmoved into the semi-finals ofthe World Table TennisChampionships in Paris onSaturday after dispatchingNorth Korea’s Ri Myong Sun.

Sun, ranked 44th in theworld, had dropped just onegame through the first fourrounds, a run that included astunning whitewash of Japa-nese seventh seed KasumiIshikawa, but she was unableto slow down Ding as the Chi-nese star prevailed 11-6, 9-11,11-8, 11-4, 11-6.

World number one Dingnext faces compatriot and thirdseed Li Xiaoxia later on Satur-day for a place in the final in arepeat of the Olympic titlematch after Li dismissed an-other Chinese Wu Yang 14-12, 11-4, 6-11, 11-4, 11-7 at theBercy Arena. Li defeated atearful Ding by four games toone in London last August totake the Olympic crown, butDing holds an 8-5 advantagein head-to-head clashes andhas won their two meetingssince their showdown at theExCel Arena.—AFP

Table tennis: All-Chinesepairings in women’s semisCycling: Snow

forces Giro courseto be trimmed

BARDONECCHIA, Italy—The14th stage of the Giro d’Italiahad to be trimmed by 12km onSaturday due to snow atSestriere, organisers said. Themountainous Alpine route wassupposed to climb up toSestriere but concerns oversafety on the descent downthe other side have causedorganisers to take it out.

Instead the new route willtake in the Susa valley beforefinishing aboveBardonecchia in Jafferau, asplanned, following a punish-ing final 7.3km climb.—AFP

SEOUL—North Korea firedthree short-range missilesfrom its east coast on Satur-day, South Korea’s DefenseMinistry said, but the pur-pose of the launches was un-known.

Launches by the North ofshort-term missiles are notuncommon, but the ministrywould not speculate whetherthese latest launches werepart of a test or training ex-ercise.

“North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twicein the morning and once inthe afternoon off its east

coast,” an official at the SouthKorean Defense Ministryspokesman’s office said bytelephone.

The official said hewould not speculate onwhether the missiles were firedas part of a drill or trainingexercise.

“In case of any provoca-tion, the ministry will keepmonitoring the situation andremain on alert,” he said.

A Japanese governmentsource, quoted by Kyodo newsagency, noted the threelaunches, but said none of themissiles landed in Japan’s ter-

ritorial waters.Tension on theKorean peninsula has sub-sided in the past month afterrunning high for severalweeks following the imposi-tion of tougher U.N. sanc-tions against Pyongyang fol-lowing its third nuclear testin February.

The North had for weeksissued nearly daily warningsof impending nuclear warwith the South and theUnited States.North Koreaconducts regular launches ofits Scud short-range missiles,which can hit targets in SouthKorea.—Reuters

N Korea fires 3 short-range missiles

Masses suffer6,200 MW shortfallStaff ReporterLAHORE—Increase in electric-ity loadshedding in cities acrossthe country has adversely af-fected the lives of citizens be-sides creating water shortageand halting commercial activi-ties as electricity shortfall hasincreased to 6,200 megawatts.According to PEPCO, electric-ity shortfall has increased to6,200 megawatts. Population ofthe urban areas has to witness14 hoursof loadshedding whileduration of loadshedding hasreached 18 hours in rural areas.Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala,Sialkot, Rawalpindi and adjoin-ing areas were also facing worstloadshedding.—INP

PPP’s Sassi losesdespite vote recountTHATTA—Pakistan PeoplesParty candidate Sassi Palejo lostPS 85 constituency despite therecount of votes. Before recountindependent candidate SyedAmeer Haider Shah Shirazi hadreceived 21,500 votes and SassiPalejo secured 20,674 votes.The Shirazi group-backed inde-pendent candidate HaiderShirazi secured 20,050 votes andSassi Palejo obtained 19,750votes after recounting. TheElection Commission orderedfor vote recount after SassiPalejo’s appeal.—INP

PML-F leader shotdead in KhairpurKHAIRPUR—Pakistan MuslimLeague Functional leaderGhulam Sarwar succumbed toinjuries after he was targeted ina firing incident here. Accord-ing to police, some unidentifiedgunmen opened fire on him nearPir Jo Goth. He was woundedand taken to Civil Hospital fortreatment but succumbed to in-juries. Further investigationsinto the incident have beenstarted.—NNI

18 hospitalizedKARACHI—At least 18 peoplewere admitted to a hospital aftereating decayed ‘Biryani from fac-tory canteen. According to details,condition of 18 workers of a pri-vate tile factory deteriorated aftereating decayed ‘Biryani’ from thefactory canteen. The affected per-sons were rushed to a nearby hos-pital where their condition isstated to be out of danger. —INP

PM grieved overdemise of BachaISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterJustice (R) Mir Hazar KhanKhoso has expressed his deepgrief and sorrow over the pass-ing away of prominent lawyerand political leader from KhyberPakhtunkhaw Mr. Bacha Khan inPeshawar. In his message of con-dolence to the grieved family, thePrime Minister praised the ser-vices of Bacha Khan for the pro-tection and promotion of rightsof people and rule and law. ThePrime Minister prayed for the de-parted soul and grant of courageto the bereaved family to bear thisloss with fortitude.—INP

BEIJING—Pakistan is set tobecome the fifth Asian countryto use China’s domestic satellitenavigation system which waslaunched as a rival to the USglobal positioning system, a re-port said Saturday.

The Beidou, or Compass,system started providing ser-vices to civilians in the regionin December and is expected toprovide global coverage by2020. It also has military appli-cations.

Thailand, China, Laos andBrunei already use the Chinesesystem, which currently consistsof 16 operational satellites, with

30 more due to join the system,according to English-languageChina Daily.

Huang Lei, internationalbusiness director of BDStarNavigation, which promotesBeidou, told the newspaper thecompany would build a networkof stations in Pakistan to en-hance the location accuracy ofBeidou.

He said building the net-work would cost tens of millionsof dollars.

American websiteDefensenews.com reportedearly May that Pakistani militaryexperts were in favour of using

the Chinese system, even thoughthe availability of the signalcould not be guaranteed in caseof conflict.

But according to one ofthem, Pakistan cannot place itstrust in the United States.

“Pakistan’s armed forcescannot rely on US GPS becauseof its questionable availabilityduring a conflict that has over-tones of nuclear escalation,”former Pakistan Air Force pi-lot Kaiser Tufail told the site.

Chinese Premier LiKeqiang travels next week toPakistan, a long time ally, aftera visit to India.—AP

Pak adopts ChineseGPS satellite system

Up to 12000 UStroops may stayin Afghanistan

WASHINGTON—The UnitedStates may keep a force of 6,000to 12,000 troops in Afghanistanafter 2014, when Afghan forceswill be responsible for securityacross the country, a top Ameri-can Senator has said.

“We are planning to keep aforce of perhaps 6,000 to 12,000after 2014 when all combatforces are to be out of Afghani-stan,” Senator Carl Levin, chair-man of the Senate Armed Ser-vices Committee, said during aCongressional hearing.

A final decision in this re-gard is to be taken by PresidentBarack Obama. He has not takenany decision so far.

“Almost 12 years later now,the war in Afghanistan is wind-ing down as we prepare to handover security responsibility to Af-ghan forces, and it appears thatthat country no longer serves as asafe haven for al-Qaida attacksagainst the US,” Levin said.“Osama bin Laden is dead, KhalidSheikh Mohammed is in captiv-ity, the ranks of al-Qaida leaderswho planned and carried out theSeptember 11 attacks have beenseverely degraded,” he added.Levin said the US continues tohold detainees at GuantanamoBay and the Bagram base in Af-ghanistan. America’s fightagainst al-Qaida continued notonly in Afghanistan, but also inPakistan, Yemen and Somalia, heconcluded.—NNI

Afghan Policechief shot deadoutside home

KABUL—An official says mo-torcycle-riding gunmen haveshot dead a police chief who ledan anti-Taliban campaign inwestern Afghanistan in front ofhis house. Abdul Ghani wasleaving his driveway in his carwhen the two raced up andopened fire in Farah province.

Provincial spokesmanAbdul Rahman Zhawandai saidSaturday that Ghani was rushedto hospital after the attack Fri-day night but died of hiswounds.

Ghani had recently launcheda crackdown against insurgentsthat resulted in the killing andcapture of several Taliban lead-ers. Zhawandai said the Talibanretaliated to stop him..—AP

SRINAGAR—Chairman ofHurriyat (G) Syed Ali ShahGeelani wrote a letter to PML-Nhead and would be Prime Minis-ter of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif urg-ing him not to ‘bargain’ aspira-tions of people of Jammu andKashmir during negotiationswith India.

In the letter, Geelani has re-jected Musharraf’s four-pointformula, self-rule and autonomy.“All these options are vague andcosmetic in nature aimed to di-lute the Kashmir issue. The al-ternatives in no way would provepermanent, lasting and final so-lution to vexed Kashmir prob-lem. They in no way satisfy andfulfill the aspirations and the sac-rifices laid by the people ofJammu and Kashmir,” Geelani

writes in the letter.“Your recent statement while

announcing that your regime willpick the threads where it were leftin past but do consider that Indiawon’t miss any opportunity andwould harp its tune that Kashmiris their integral part. It won’t evenhesitate or feel shy to say that ne-gotiations are initiated for thatKashmir which with its politicalvision had decided its future,” theletter reads. “While in chair asPrime Minister of Sovereign Pa-kistan, your good self has author-ity to come to terms with the par-ties. But while dealing with Indiait is to mention that the negotia-tions should be result orientedand not at the cost of aspira-tions of people of Jammu andKashmir.”—NNI

Geelani urges Nawaz‘no bargain’ on Kashmir

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Former Punjab chiefminister Shahbaz Sharif said Sat-urday that the PML-N govern-ment would heal the wounds ofpeople which were inflicted bydictator Gen (r) Pervez Musharrafand President Zardari during thelast 13 years. “We have deviseda comprehensive plan to steer na-tional institutions such as PIA,Pakistan Railways and SteelMills out of crisis,” he said in ameeting with several delegations.

He said that PML-N leader-ship and its committees are work-ing day and night to chalk outstrategies to help the country inthe current testing times.

The former CM said thatpeople had rejected the slogansof so-called change and insteadvoted for a real change on May

Country will be steeredout of crises: Shahbaz

Ex-CM invites Jamali to join PML-N11. The nation needed a leaderlike Nawaz Sharif and peoplehave now given their mandate inhis favour,” he said.

He added that had the previ-ous federal government not em-bezzled public money and in-stead given these funds to prov-inces, there would have beenDanish Schools in every districtand metro buses plying inRawalpindi, Faisalabad andMultan.

Shahbaz expressed his con-cerns over reported cases of den-gue virus in Karachi and said thecaretaker Punjab governmentshould send those health expertsto the city who had successfullyfought the disease in Punjab.

Separately, talking to PML-N leaders from southern Punjab,Shahbaz said that PML-N gov-ernment would further expedite

the process of development in theregion.INP adds: Meanwhile, MianShahbaz Sharif Saturday tele-phone former prime minister ofPakistan Mir Zafarullah KhanJamali and invited him to join theparty. According to sources, MirZafarullah Khan Jamali con-gratulated the former chief min-ister Punjab on the success in therecent general elections and saidthat masses have given the man-date to the PML-N.

He expressed the hope thatMian Nawaz Sharif will take ef-fective steps to steer the countryout of the prevailing crisis andmake important decisions to con-trol inflation and end the electric-ity and gas shortage.

Mian Shahbaz Sharif invitedthe former prime for a meeting inLahore and to join PML-N.

BEIRUT — Gunmen on Saturdayabducted the elderly father ofSyria’s deputy foreign minister,the official’s office said, in the lat-est kidnapping targeting familymembers of figures in PresidentBashar Assad’s regime.

The father of Deputy ForeignMinister Faisal Mekdad wasseized Saturday in the village ofGhossom in the southern provinceof Daraa, Mekdad’s office said.An official in the office said theman is in his 80s, but he did notknow his name. The abductionwas also reported by Beirut-basedAl-Mayadeen TV, which has sev-eral reporters in Syria and is seenas sympathetic to the regime.

There was no immediateclaim of responsibility, but armedopposition groups in Syria havetargeted senior regime officials ormembers of their families in thepast for kidnapping or assassina-tion in the past. Last year, rebelscarried out one of the highest-pro-file attacks against regime officialsto date, detonating a bomb insidea high-level crisis meeting thatkilled four advisers of Assad, in-cluding the defense minister andthe president’s brother-in-law.

The uprising against Assaderupted in March 2011 and esca-lated into a civil war that has lefttens of thousands dead and sev-eral million displaced.—AP

Gunmen seize elderly fatherof Syria’s deputy FMEssa conveys

felicitations ofhis leadership to

Sharif, ImranLIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—The ambassadorof the United Arab Emirates(UAE) Essa Abdullah Al-BashaAl-Noaimi met with PML (N)leader Nawaz Sharif and PTIChairman Imran Khan sepa-rately in Lahore and conveyedto them messages of felicitationfrom his leadership on their vic-tories in May 11 elections.

In his meeting with NawazSharif, PML (N) leaders Sena-tor Muhammad Ishaq Dar andTariq Fatmi, advisor on foreignaffairs were also present. TheUAE envoy stayed with Shariffor some times and discussedimportant matters with him. Hecongratulated him on his party’sdecisive victory in the elections.

Later, Essa Abdullah Al-Basha Al-Noaimi went to theShaukat Khanum Hospital andpresented a bouquet’s to PTIleader Imran Khan.

He congratulated him onhis victory in KPK. Both theleaders thanked the ambassa-dor and his leadership for thisgesture.

They hoped Pak-UAE re-lations will further improve inthe days to come.

LAHORE: PML-N President Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif receiving Ambassador of UAE Essa Abdulla Albasha Alnoaimi.

LAHORE—The British HighCommissioner, Adam Thomsonmet with Pakistan MuslimLeague-N chief Nawaz Sharifon Saturday.

In the meeting, mutual in-terest and bilateral relationswere discussed.

Thomson said that the Brit-ish government is an advocateof democracy and he added thattheir government wants betterrelations with the future demo-cratic government of Pakistan.

Moreover, PML-N chiefsaid that Pakistan’s new govern-ment would focus more on trade

Thomson meets Nawaz,discusses bilateral relations

than aid so that the economiccrisis can be extracted from thecountry. Adam Thomas con-gratulated Nawaz Sharif on hissuccess in the general electionsand expressed good wishes onbehalf of United Kingdom.

During the meeting, theydiscussed political and regionalmatters and also talked aboutMuttahida Qaumi Movementchief Altaf Hussain’s controver-sial statements. PML-N leaderand former Punjab chief minis-ter Shahbaz Sharif and SenatorIshaq Dar were also present dur-ing the meeting.

RESEARCHERS in Japan have for thefirst time shown it is possible to makecancer-specific immune system cells

from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).Their work brings closer the day when thera-pies use cloned versions of patients’ own cellsto boost their immunesystem’s natural ability to killcancer cells.

The researchers, from theRIKEN Research Centre forAllergy and Immunology inYokohama, describe how theycreated cancer-specific killerT lymphocytes from iPSCs, ina paper published online on 3January in the journal CellStem Cell.

Hiroshi Kawamoto andcolleagues started with matureT lymphocytes specific for acertain type of skin cancer andreprogrammed them intoIPSCs with the help of“Yamanaka factors”. TheiPSCs cells then generatedfully active, cancer-specific Tlymphocytes.

Yamanaka factors are named after ShinyaYamanaka, who with British scientist John B.Gurdon, won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiol-ogy or Medicine for discovering that mature cellscan be reprogrammed to become pluripotentstem cells. Yamanaka discovered that treatingadult skin cells with four pieces of DNA (theYamanaka factors) makes them revert back totheir pluripotent state, where they have the po-tential, almost like embryonic stem cells, to be-come virtually any cell in the body.

Scientists have created cancer-specific im-mune system cells that could be capable of kill-ing cancer cells. Speaking about their break-

through in making cancer-specific T cells,Kawamoto says in a statement: “We have suc-ceeded in the expansion of antigen-specific Tcells by making iPS cells and differentiatingthem back into functional T cells.”

Previous attempts using conventionalmethods to make cancer-killingT lymphocytes in the lab havenot been very successful. Thecells failed to kill the cancercells, mainly because they didnot live long enough.

So Kawamoto and col-leagues thought they wouldhave more success if they wentdown the iPSC route. Aftermaking a batch of iPSCs byexposing melanoma-specificmature T lymphocytes to theYamanaka factors, they grewthem in the lab and coaxed themto differentiate into killer T lym-phocytes again. “In this study,we established iPSCs from ma-ture cytotoxic T cells specificfor the melanoma epitopeMART-1,” they write. Theyshowed that the new batch of T

lymphocytes was specific for the same type ofmelanoma as the original lymphocytes.

The new cells kept the same genetic struc-ture that enabled them to express the cancer-specific receptor on their surfaces: “more than90% of the resulting cells were specific forthe original MART-1 epitope,” note the re-searchers. Kawamoto and colleagues are nowplanning to test whether the new T cells canselectively kill tumor cells without harminghealthy cells. “If they do, these cells mightbe directly injected to patients for therapy.This could be realized in the not-so-distantfuture,” says Kawamoto.

Cancer-killing stem cellscould be used to treat cancer

ISLAMABAD: An old woman selling colourful bangles as she blows a hand fan to ward of heat alongside a road at Bari Imam.—PO photo Sultan Bashir

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science & Technology Dr Sania Nishtar along withChairperson HEC Dr Javaid R Leghari visiting an exhibition at HEC.

May 24

OXFORD University Pressand Foundation Open So-ciety Institute Pakistan, aredelighted to host the 6thChildren’s Literature Fes-tival in Pakistan. The firstCLF Islamabad will be heldon 24, 25 May, 2013 at Pak-China Friendship Centre.

Tremendous improvements in educational institutionsCITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Higher Educa-tion Commission (HEC) is asuccess story and we should beproud of the capable leadershipand tremendous contribution ofthis role model autonomous or-ganization.

It was stated by Dr. SaniaNishtar Federal Minister forScience & Technology andEducation & Training while ad-dressing inauguration cer-emony of National Seminar onFuture of Research in Pakistanwhich concluded here atHigher Education CommissionHEC Islamabad.

Due to collective and con-certed efforts of HEC in coor-

dination with universities andS&T organizations, the qualityand research output in HigherEducation Institutions (HEIs) ofthe country have shown tremen-dous improvements and Paki-stan has been acknowledged asrising star by the internationalhigher education community ina number of research disci-plines, she said.

She also emphasized overparadigm shift to innovation &entrepreneurship, market basedresearch and close university-community and industry link-ages.

Speaking on the occasion,Dr. Javaid R. Laghari Chairper-son HEC said that since incep-tion of HEC, universities in Pa-

kistan have responded vocifer-ously to the initiatives taken byHEC towards the promotion ofR&D. As a result of these ef-forts, academic employmentand retention of doctoral scien-tists and engineers grew overthe last decade and has reachedto a record high of 5,826 in2012 in universities & degreeawarding institutions. 80% ofthese research publicationsfrom Pakistan are coming fromuniversities.

“Due to this, the researchactivities have enhanced in thepublic sector institutions result-ing in more than 6 folds increasein research articles published inimpact factor journals and reg-istration of 5 patents”, he said.

He informed that TechnologyIncubators are being establishedin universities across Pakistan topromote university-industry col-laboration. Universities haveinitiated different researchprojects related to agriculture,business, industrial needs,which are being shared with therelated stakeholders and othersections of the society, he said.

Prof. Dr. Mukhtar AhmedExecutive Director HEC saidthat HEC is committed to de-velop sustainable, dynamic andinternationally competitive re-search sector in Pakistan thatmakes a major contribution toeconomic prosperity, nationalwellbeing and the expansion anddissemination of knowledge.

While informing about newHEC initiatives to promote re-search culture at the higher edu-cation institutions of Pakistan,he said that six business & tech-nology incubators, 26 Offices ofOutreach, Research, Innovation& Commercialization and threeCentres of Advanced Study andResearch in the areas of Energy,Food security and water havebeen established and nationalinnovation policy is beingworked out.

Mr. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet appreci-ated the efforts of HEC and ac-knowledged the contribution ofPakistani scientists. He alsoemphasized over translation ofknowledge into action and its

application for the develop-ment of country. Mr. QamarZaman Ch. Federal secretaryministry of education & train-ing highlighted the importanceof promoting research in col-leges and technical institutions.

The experts were of theview that he research activitiesat Pakistani universities shouldhave direct impact on commu-nity well-being and socio-eco-nomic development of thecountry and adequate fundingmay be ensured to promote re-search in Pakistan.

The chief guest also appre-ciated the exhibition wherevarious research projects weredisplayed by the leading Paki-stani universities.

RAWALPINDI—Prolonged elec-tricity loadshedding inRawalpindi is affecting the rou-tine life of residents making itmiserable.

The residents of many lo-calities of Rawalpindi, includingAl-Mumtaz Colony, AdialaRoad, Bakramandi, DhokeSyedan, Tahli Morri, ChaklalaScheme-III, Waris Khan, DhokeKhaba, Arya Mohallah, NadeemColony, Umer road, Mok SingState, Javed Colony, Mohanpura,Dhoke Ratta, Chur, DhokeMangtal, Pirwadhai, DhokeMunshi, Mohallah Chah Sultan,Asghar Mall, Bagh Sardaran,

Kurri Road, Sadiqabad andMuslim Town are facing acuteelectricity shortage.

The residents of most can-tonment and city areas spent asleepless night due to long hourloadshedding. while talking toAPP, Khursheed said that theunscheduled loadshedding hasdisrupted their routine life, theweather is hot and humid but theauthorities concerned keepmum over the issue.

It was very difficult forthem to handle the situationwithout electricity, as they couldnot continue their daily activi-ties smoothly. We pay electric-

ity bills regularly, but we are notgetting electricity even in thewinter season, said Nadia, a resi-dent of Dheri Hassanabad. Shesaid that the life has becomequite difficult as there was noelectricity, particularly, childrenare most effected.

Suleman Hakeem, a traderof Mohanpura, said that his busi-ness was suffering due to theunscheduled loadshedding.

A young boy from DhokeElahi Bukush Waris Shah said:We hope that the new govern-ment will resolve the energyissue in the country on prior-ity.—APP

Prolonged load sheddingcripples routine life

RAWALPINDI—Water and Sani-tation Agency (WASA) has de-vised a plan for preventing floodin Nullah Lai and other nullahsof the town.

The cleanliness and dredg-ing work of Nullah Lai whichhas been started would be com-pleted till mid of June.

The citizens particularly liv-ing in low-lying areas of the cityand near nullahs have been urgednot to throw garbage and solidwaste in nullahs and drains asthey create blockage in the wayof flood water.

Managing Director (MD)WASA Muhammad Akram saidthat dredging work of Nullah Laihas been started which will becompleted at an estimated costof six million rupees.

11 Nullahs and 454 drains,which flow into Nullah Lai,would also be cleared till June15. He appealed to the citizensto cooperate with sanitation de-partment and refrain from litter-

ing garbage. He said the citizensshould come forward and playtheir role to make the efforts ofthe sanitation department re-garding cleanliness of nullahs asuccess. Filth and solid wasteshould only be deposited at spe-cific points from where it couldeasily be removed, he added.

The peoples role is essen-tial especially in protecting lowlying areas of the city fromflood devastations, he said add-ing, solid waste, garbage, shop-ping bags should not be thrownin Nullahs as they create block-age in the way of flood water.Resultantly the flood waterplays havoc with the propertiesand lives of the people, headded.

He said Nullah Lai mainlyin low lying areas would becleared of silt and solid wasteadding the nullah would furtherbe widened and deepened tosave the city from the flood dev-astations. Gawalmandi area will

especially be focused during thecleanliness drive as due toheavily populated locality, alarge amount of garbage andfilth is thrown in the nullahwhich creates obstacle in thesmooth flow of flood water, hesaid adding, the section of thenullah will be cleared.

City Sadar Road, DhokeCharg Deen, Pirwadhi, NewKatrian and Dhoke Naju are alsocritical sections of Nullah Laiwhich will be cleared of silt andsolid waste, he informed.

The filth and all type of gar-bage will be removed to makesure the smooth flood waterflow particularly during heavyrains in upcoming monsoonseason. He said that Nullah Laiat Katrian Pull, Pirwadhai, CitySaddar area, Moti Mahal, AamarChowk, High Court areas willespecially be cleared and thework would be completed be-fore the start of monsoonrains.—APP

Plan for preventingflood in Nullah Lai

Intermediateexams start

RAWALPINDI—Intermediate an-nual exams 2013 underRawalpindi Board of Intermedi-ate and Secondary Education(RBISE) started today (Satur-day).

As many as 176 examinationcentres were set up acrossRawalpindi division for 60,604candidates.

RBISE spokesman ArsalanCheema talking to APP said thatfoolproof arrangements were fi-nalized for transparent andsmooth holding of intermediateexams.

Controller of ExaminationRBISE Dr. Arshad Ahmed Chattatold the board has set up 176 ex-amination centres in the four dis-tricts, Rawalpindi, Attock,Jhelum and Chakwal for 60,604students including 25,837 maleand 34,866 female.

He said special teams havebeen formed to conduct surprisevisit to the examination centresand strict action would be takenagainst mafia.

Mobile phones, textbooks,test papers, calculators and otheritems which can be helpful forthe exams would not be allowedin the examination halls, headded. Arsalan Cheema informedthat section 144 has also beenimposed around examinationcentres.

The Administration has im-posed section 144 around theexamination centres and any un-authorized person would not beallowed to enter into the premisesof the examination centres.

He further informed that thestudents who have any complaintcan contact controller of exami-nation on 051-5450918 and 051-5450917. Complaints regardingexamination centres can also belodged through fax on 051-5450912.—APP

National stampsexhibition

ISLAMABAD—Ministry ofPostal Services has decided toorganize a National Stamps ex-hibition at Pakistan NationalCouncil of the Art (PNCA) onJune 24-26. This was stated byFazli Sattar Khan, AdditionalDirector General (Operations),Pakistan Post while chairing ameeting of the Philatelic Advi-sory Committee at the Director-ate General, Pakistan Post, saida press release.

A number of agenda itemswere also discussed in the meet-ing to popularize and promotestamps collection (philately) inthe country and abroad. It wasalso decided in the meeting toreview the philately policy. Phi-latelists from all over the coun-try will be requested to come upwith viable recommendationsand send their proposals. —APP

Feedback onsanitation

RAWALPINDI—The districtgovernment has decided to makethe online system for citizens’feedback regarding the sanita-tion in the garrison city and reg-ister volunteers from the citizensfor the monitoring of cleanlinessarrangements.

According to the officials,the district government wouldgive android mobile phones tothe volunteers so that they couldeasily complain to the authoritiesabout poor sanitation in any ar-eas of the garrison city. The an-droid mobile phones that weregiven to the election staff duringthe recent polls would now begiven to the volunteers.—INP

ISLAMABAD—Federal Ministerfor Overseas Pakistanis and Hu-man Resource Development,Barrister Feroze Jamal ShahKakakhel inaugurated the newoffice of Bureau of Emigrationand Overseas Employment hereat “Emigration Tower”.

Secretary Ministry of Hu-man Resource Development,Habib-ur-Rehman Khan, Direc-tor General, Bureau of Emigra-tion and Overseas Employmentand other senior officers of Min-istry and Bureau of Emigrationwere also present on the occa-sion, says a press release.

After inaugural ceremony,Minister said Bureau of Emigra-tion and Overseas Employmentis one of very important organi-

zation of Federal Governmentand it is really a matter of greatpleasure to know that the Bureauhas sent 6.6 million Pakistanis forpurpose of employment to differ-ent countries of world. Duringyear 2012 alone, ever highestnumber of Pakistanis (638,587)proceeded abroad.

An amount of 63,415 mil-lion dollars was remitted by Pa-kistanis working abroad fromJuly, 2007 to March, 2013.

It is worth mentioning thatrecord amount of 13,186 milliondollars was remitted during thefinancial year 2011-12 and theamount remitted by OverseasPakistanis during last ten (10)months of current financial yearis 11,570 million dollars.—APP

New office of Bureau ofEmigration inaugurated

Politicalbanners, posters

removedCITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Tehsil Munici-pal Administration of RawalTown under its grand operationlaunched to remove political ban-ners, posters and wall chalkingfrom city areas, has removed asmany as 31,000 banners andposters during last week aftercompletion of general elections2013.

According to TMA, RawalTown Spokesman, AdministratorRawal Town Saif Anwar Jappaissued special instructions to re-move all the political banners,posters, party flags and wallchalking from city roads andstreets.

The enforcement staff andanti-encroachment staff startedwork on Monday and within lastfive days over 31000 politicalbanners and posters have beenremoved from Murree Road,Said Pur road, Commercial Mar-ket, Liaquat Road, Iqbal Road,Khiaban-e-Sir-Syed, Sadiqabad,Raja Bazaar, Jamia Masjid Road,Gunj Mandi and other areas.

Schools to installfire extinguishers

RAWALPINDI—Following theCivil Defence department’s di-rectives, administrations of pri-vate educational institutions ofthe district have been issued no-tices to install modern fire extin-guishing instrument in theirbuildings.

The Director Civil Defencehas directed all the private edu-cational institutions of the prov-ince to install modern fire-extin-guishing instruments in the in-structions till May 31.

The directed the district of-ficers of the department to ensurethe installation of fire extinguish-ing instruments in all privateschools and academies of theirrespective districts. —INP

“The great secret ofsuccess in life is for aman to be ready when

his opportunitycomes.”

— Benjamin Disraeli

STAFF REPORTER

MULTAN—Peerzada AbdulAli Zakir Usmani President ofAnjuman Kashtkaran Punjab(AKP) has said that since Pa-kistan is an agriculturaleconomy, but Pakistan’s agri-culture sector remained theworst hit and most neglectedarea of the economy in the lastfive years.

Talking to journalists,Peerzada hoped that presentgovernment would revive theagriculture sector of the coun-try to ensure farmers wellbeing

AKP: PML-N govt to revive agri sectorand food security of 190 millioncountrymen.

Peerzada said, PML-N lead-ership fully understands the im-portance of agriculture sector forthe quick revival of the economyand fertiliser sector being an in-tegral part of agriculture sectorwould be given due importancewhile allocating the precious gasresources.

He hoped that the PML-Ngovernment would ensure earlyrevival of the agriculture sectorthrough better and long-termpolicies. Due to worst-ever gascurtailment to fertiliser sector in

last three years, the countryspent foreign exchange of $1.5billion and also paid a subsidyof around Rs 80billion on theimports of 3.4million tonnesduring 2010-12.

He saidfertiliser sectorwas the onlysector bringingin direct invest-ment and now this investmentwas at the verge of risk as se-vere gas curtailment of the in-dustry has resulted in closure of

these plants risking billions ofdollars of investment in the sec-tor.

Presidentof AKP said thatfertiliser plantsinvested $2.3billion in lastfour years mak-ing Pakistanself-sufficientin urea produc-tion and with

consistent gas supply to theseplants, the government can en-sure timely availability of thiskey farm input to farmers at the

cost effective rates and wouldalso help government reduce itsfiscal deficits as well as subsidyspent.

Pakistan cannot afford tospend hundreds of millions ofdollars on urea import and weare hopeful that PML-N govern-ment would ensure judiciousdistribution of gas among all thesectors of economy.

He said all other industrieshave alternative fuel optionsexcept fertiliser sector that usesgas as raw material to producethe key farm input urea for thefarmers that ensures food secu-

rity of the masses as well asprovides raw material to im-portant industries like textileand food processing.

Sui Northern Gas Pipe-lines Limited-based four plantsfaced more than 300 days ofgas curtailment in 2012. If gasis discontinued to fertiliserplants in 2013, Pakistan has toimport 1.0 million tonnes ofurea which can cost the na-tional exchequer $450 millionand a subsidy of Rs 21 billionto match the imported ureaprice with domestic ureaprices.

Concern over load sheddingin industrial areas

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—SITE Association ofIndustry has expressed serious con-cerns over the announcement of 12hours load shedding by KESC, intwo spells from 12:30 pm to 6:00pm and 11:00 pm to 5:00 am, inthe industrial areas of the city.

It says that previouslyKESC started unannounced loadshedding from April 13, 2013from 9.00 am to 1:00 pm and7:00 pm to 11:00 pm, accord-ingly production schedule waschanged and adjusted.

From 17.04.2013 the sched-ule was changed from 11:00 amto 3:00 pm and 6.00 pm to 10:00pm and then from 10:00 pm to2:00 pm. Unannounced frequentchange of load shedding sched-ule further affected production

causing production and financiallosses, it added.

The industrial sector hassuffered millions of rupees pro-duction losses due to 12 hoursunannounced load shedding car-

ried out by Karachi ElectricSupply Company (KESC) inindustrial areas of the city. Fewdays ago KESC agreed to reduceload shedding and later on theintervention of Governor SindhDr Ishratul Ebad and Caretaker

Minister for Industries KhalidTawab, started uninterruptedpower supply to the industrialsector but it could not continue.

The association says KESCstarts load shedding in industrialareas on one pretext or the otherwhich hampers industrial pro-duction activities adversely.

It urged the government tocome up with a clear cut energypolicy as the unscheduled andhours long power outages werecausing unprecedented losses toboth the trade and industry.

It urged Governor of Sindhand the Caretaker Chief Ministerof Sindh to take serious note ofthis illegitimate action of KESCand instruct KESC to immediatelyresume the normal power supplyto the industries in Karachi toavoid total collapse of industries.

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

LAHORE—Central ChairmanAll Pakistan Textile Mills Asso-ciation (APTMA) Ahsan Bashirhas apprehended industry’ssustainability under threat due tounprecedented energy supplydisruptions to textile industry inPunjab.

At present, he said, threedays a week gas supply wasbeing made to the textile millsin Punjab against five days aweek during the correspond-ing period last year. Similarly,the textile industry is beingsubjected to 14-16 hours perday loadshedding of electric-ity now against total exemp-tion from load shedding ofelectricity on independentfeeders during the same pe-riod last year.

The textile industry is amajor contributor to the ex-ports and GDP besides creat-ing jobs for the manufacturing

Textile sector hurt by gas woessector work force. The textileindustry operations were beingcompromised time and againdue to energy supply con-straints. This situation was hit-ting the viability of the Punjab-based textile industry, he

added.He said over 75 percent of

the textile industry was locatedin the province of Punjab, whichwas being subjected to unprec-edented disruptions in energysupplies.

According to him, this situ-ation is creating disparities andaffecting exports besides aggra-vating unemployment in thecountry. Already, some 40 per-

cent of production capacity inPunjab is badly affected due toenergy supply constraints. Noone is ready to understand thatthe textile industry runs on thefeasibility of 365 days a yearwithout interruption. This in-dustry is energy-dependent andany hurdle at any step of thetextile chain affects the perfor-mance of whole industry, headded.

APTMA Central Chairmanhas urged caretaker Prime Min-ister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso,Minister for Petroleum & Natu-ral Resources Wajahat Sohailand Minister for Water & PowerDr Musaddaq Malik to immedi-ately restore gas supply for fivedays a week to ensure uninter-rupted electricity supply to thetextile mills on independentfeeders in Punjab and enable thetextile industry to undertake pro-duction, meet export orders andretain employment, he con-cluded.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—SRO culture indi-cates instability of the tax re-gime which instead of facilitat-ing, perturbs the smooth flow ofbusiness both on domestic andexport fronts which calls for re-forms in revenue board.

Karachi Chamber of Com-merce & Industry’s PresidentMuhammad Haroon Agar hasstated that the role of Govern-ment and departments should befacilitate and incentivize thebusiness and industrial commu-nity and not to penalize.

The Federal Board of Rev-enue should be restructuredwhile bringing reforms to bringinto tax net the tax erodes and

Business does not believe in SRO culture

Tax administrationneeds reforms

evaders. Corruption in FBR isalso a matter of great concernwhich need immediate attentionby the Government.

Exchanging views withMuhammad Saleem Butt, Direc-tor General, Withholding FBRduring his visit to KCCI, heemphasized that the KCCI don’tbelieve in SRO culture.

The policy and decisionmakers should make longterm and business friendlytaxation policies to facilitatethe tax-payers in consultationwith all stakeholders acrossPakistan. Decisions taken inisolation and without consul-tation are not acceptable at all.KCCI’s has submitted i tsBudget Proposals 2013-14 to

the Government which seek toredress the issues throughboth administrat ive andpolicy measures aimed at pro-viding relief and facilitationto the tax payers.

KCCI has identified the seg-ments which have so far beenleft out of the tax net despitegenerating substantial income,leakages in the system, exemp-tions and evasions. Concretemeasures have been proposed tobroaden the tax base and docu-mentation of economy, headded.

Senior Vice President KCCIShamim Firpo, Vice PresidentNasir Mehmood and ManagingCommittee Members also ex-changed views on this occasion.

KARACHI: Muhammad Haroon Agar, President of the Chamber presenting crest to Sadia Khan. Shamim Ahmed Firpo,Nasir Mehmood, Mian Abrar Ahmed, Asif Sheikh Javaid, Muhammad Saqib, Mansoor Suleman, Rizwan Abdul Razzak,Zafar Saeed Baghpatee, Akhtar Jamil Rehmani, Shahid Jahangir, . Muffasar Atta Malik, Ateeq ur Rehman and UzmaTasleem, Director, R & I, are also seen in the picture.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Pakistan Industrialand Traders Associations Front(PIAF) expressed optimism thenew government would be ableto overcome the energy crisisthrough implementation oftransparent policy framework.

The PIAF Chairman MalikTahir Javed in a statement saidthat corruption in different tiersof the society is one of the rea-sons of energy crisis and if thismenace is weeded out success-fully the things would take apositive turn. He said that theNational Accountability Bu-reau had revealed that corrup-tion eats up Rs.8-12 billionsdaily.

He said that the new gov-

New govt will be ableto curb energy crisis

ernment would be able to cre-ate a business atmosphere con-ducive provided it spends allits energies to control the men-ace of corruption, ensure cutin circular debt through recov-ery mechanism and a consid-erable curtailment of unneces-sary expenditures. He said thatthe load shedding would diedown automatically if the In-dependent Power Producersare made payments as per theirschedule.

He said that the electricityshortage is one of the major rea-sons of the economic down turnbut the business community isquite hopeful that Mian NawazSharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharifwould be able to surmount theenergy challenge.

The PIAF Chairman saidsince the neighbouring India isproducing one-third of its to-tal electricity productionthrough coal, the new govern-ment would also have to givesome attention to this aspect asPakistan has one of the largestcoal reserves in the world. Hesaid that the business commu-nity is also quite confident thatthe new government would beable to win consensus onKalabagh Dam as PML(N) hasemerged as majority party inthe country.

Javed said that once theeconomy is back on its feet,there would be no dearth of fi-nancial resources in the coun-try and Foreign Investmentwould also get a boost.

PQ shipping activityKARACHI—Two ships arrivedat Port to load/offloadcontainers at Qict, palm oil atLCT on Friday. Berthoccupancy was maintained at50% at the Port on Fridaywhere a total of four shipsnamely M.V KPS-I AlicanBey - Powership, M.VSargasso Sea, M.T SCXiamen, M.V Bella-l arecurrently occupying berths toload/offload container, palmoil, rice. Cargo handlingoperations were carried outsmoothly at the Port where acargo volume 61825 tonnescomprising 34600 tonnesimport, 27225 tonnes export,2930 (Tues) was handled at thePort during last 24 hours. M.TSC Xiamen sailed on SaturdayMorning. M.T Akaki at Fotcoarrive on Saturday as perschedule.—APP

Property taxhike criticised

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—At a time when thebusiness community is strivingto accelerate economic activityin the country, the bureaucracyis all out to decelerate it and aPunjab Local Government noti-fication dated April 5, 2013 is aclassic example to this regard.

The LCCI President FarooqIftikhar stated this and added

that an upward revision in ratesof Property Tax and introductionor repositioning of categoriesunder Punjab Urban ImmovableProperty Tax Act 1958 by thecaretaker Cabinet has perturbedthe businessmen.

It seems, the LCCI Presidentsaid, while issuing the notifica-tion, the Authorities concernedhad ignored the ground realitiesas except machinery halls allother area of a factory or an in-dustrial unit has been subjectedto higher tax tariff.

WASHINGTON—Pakistan’soutgoing ambassador to theUnited States Sherry Rehmanhas said the Pakistan and theUnited States have improvedtheir ties considerably from alow-point in 2011 but askedWashington to end dronestrikes in the tribal areas in or-der to help put the relationshipon sustained upward trajec-tory.

In a farewell speech to agathering of senior Americanofficials and Pakistani-Ameri-cans, Ms. Rehman who re-signed from her post this weekafter May 11 election, alsocalled for using trade as theengine for enhanced bilateralpartnership.

Sherry Rehman urges trade,end to drone strikes

The ambassador said dur-ing her assignment she wasguided by the belief that Paki-stan and the U.S. should havesustained relations on the ba-sis of mutual respect.

Commenting on the con-tentious issue of drone strikesthe U.S. carries out in pursuitof militant targets on the Pa-kistani soil, she noted that thiskind of footprint roils anti-American discontent and fuelsthe “cognitive disconnect” be-tween the two nations. “Thisis one thing that has to changeif we are ever to be sanguinethat we are on the path to anupward bilateral trajectory.”

She said terrorism is verymuch Pakistan’s problem too

and the people of her countryhave been bravely fighting itas proved by the May 11 elec-tion.

The farewell reception wasattended by top U.S. officialsincluding White house advisorLt. Gen. Douglas Lute,USAID Administrator RajevShah and former U.S. ambas-sador to Pakistan CameronMunter, American think tankexperts and journalists.

Ms. Rehman, who ledPakistan’s diplomatic effortsin Washington in a tension-filled phase following a spateof unsavory incidents in 2011,also highlighted the need forthe two countries to acknowl

Continued on Page 11

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Government wantsto work as a team with businesscommunity of Pakistan with re-gards to normalization of tradewith India.

This was stated by Com-merce Minister Maqbool H H

Govt wants to work withIndia as biz team

Rahimtoola while chairing ameeting with the representativesof Pakistani chapter of PakistanIndia Joint Business Council(PIJBC) at Trade DevelopmentAuthority of Pakistan (TDAP)office.

According to a press state-ment issued by Trade Devel-

opment Authority of Pakistan(TDAP) it was decided in themeeting that six committeeswould be formed on sectorsthat have shown their reserva-tion vis-a-vis liberalization oftrade with India. The commit-tees will also see trade facili-tation and infrastructure is-sues.

The committees wereformed to listen to the reserva-tions auto sector, pharmaceuti-cal, textile, agriculture, tradeinfrastructure and financial sec-tor. In the meeting Syed YawarAli was selected as Chairman ofcommittee.

Secretary Commerce MunirQureshi emphasized the com-mittee should differentiate be-tween perception and realitieswhile working on issues relat-ing to Pak-India trade.

He said that pacts signedwith India are in process ofoperationalisation and in futurethings will be better.

The issues of capacity con-strained, lack of research andcoordination, hidden NTBs byIndia were also discussed in themeeting.

STAFF REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The Saudi Fundfor Development (SFD) of theKingdom of Saudi Arabia hasextended additional financialsupport to United Nations De-velopment Programme (UNDP)in Pakistan for $1.3 millionbringing its total contribution to$6.7 million for community in-frastructure restoration and re-habilitation in the crisis-affected

SFD assures assistance for KP’scrisis-affected areas

areas of district Swat, KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

The Malakand region wasadversely affected by massivedisplacement in 2009. In re-sponse and to encourage returns,UNDP with the financial sup-port from SFD among others,has continued its efforts to re-build basic community infra-structure improving communityaccess to services and facilities.

To date a total of 207 infra-

structure schemes have beensuccessfully rehabilitated by thecontribution of Saudi Arabia,benefiting approximately180,000 people includingwomen, people with specialneeds and children. The linkroads rehabilitated through theproject improved access to lo-cal markets for the farmers andthe timely transportation ofproducts also increased their in

Continued on Page 11

PSO to set uprefinery to help

meet energy needsSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Pakistan StateOil’s (PSO) efforts to set up state-of-the-art oil refinery in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, having capacity toprocess 40,000 barrel per daywould go a long way in meetingthe growing energy needs.

The facility, expected to befully commissioned by 2016-17will be set-up through a publicprivate partnership and willutilise crude oil from nearby in-digenous supply sources for pro-duction of POL products con-forming to Euro IV standards.

‘Establishment of this re-finery will help improve theoverall availability of POL prod-ucts across the country as wellas result in sizeable foreign ex-change savings for the nationand it shall also increase PSO’soperational base through diver-sification in the midstream seg-ment and lower distribution costin the related supply envelopes,’the sources added.

Yahoo nearing $1.1bacquisition of TumblrNEW YORK—Yahoo may beon the verge of closing itsbiggest acquisition during the10-month reign of CEOMarissa Mayer as she tries toattract more traffic andadvertisers to the Internetcompany’s website andmobile applications. TheSunnyvale, California,company’s board of directorswill meet Sunday evening toconsider approving a $1.1billion (Dh4.04 billion)acquisition of online content-sharing site Tumblr in a dealMayer negotiated, accordingto the technology news siteAll Things D. The storyposted late Friday citedanonymous sources. If YahooInc’s board signs off, the dealcould be announced Monday.In an invitation sent Friday,Yahoo promised to unveil“something special” Mondayevening in New York. Theevent is being held in a TimesSquare lounge located aboutthree kilometres fromTumblr’s headquarters.—Agencies

‘Huge power tariffhike conspiracyagainst PML-N’Staff CorrespondentLAHORE—The trade andindustry on Friday severelycriticised the caretakergovernment for making a hugeincrease of Rs5.82 in per unitprice of electricity and termedit an anti-business decisionaimed at sabotaging thepopularity of PML-N govern-ment. They said that at a timewhen the business communitywas already paying high cost ofdoing business because ofunavailability of gas andelectricity, the decision isdevastating. They said that thehefty increase in power priceswould also adversely affectcompetitiveness of Pakistanimerchandise that had alreadylost their due place in a numberof global markets due to theirhigh prices. They said that inthe international market theprofit margin fluctuatesbetween 0.5 per cent to 0.8 percent, therefore after the recentincrease there would hardly beany buyer for Pakistani goods.

Housing, utilityinflation fallDUBAI—The UAE NationalBureau of Statistics releasedApril’s consumer prices dataon Saturday. Housing andutility costs, which accountfor over 39 per cent ofconsumer expenses, fell 0.1per cent year-on-year andwere unchanged month-on-month in April. Food prices,which make up nearly 14 percent of the basket, increased2.5 per cent on an annualbasis but dipped 0.2 per centfrom the previous month, thedata also showed.—Agencies

Gold Tezab 45000.00Silver Tezabi 754.28

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 44900.00Gold 22 Ct 44300.00SilverTezabi 750.28Silver Thobi 730.00

USA 98.40 98.20

UK 150.02 149.71

EURO 126.54 126.28

Canada 96.28 96.09

Switzerland 101.79 101.59

Australia 95.97 95.78

Sweden 14.74 14.71

Japan 0.9617 0.9598

Norway 16.84 16.80

Singapore 78.43 78.27

Denmark 16.98 16.94

Omani Riyal 255.00 245.00

Saudi Arabia 26.24 26.18

Hong Kong 12.67 12.65

Kuwait 343.88 343.18

Malaysia 32.58 32.51

Newzeland 79.72 79.56

Qatar 27.03 26.97

UAE 26.79 26.74

KR WON 0.0881 0.0879

Thailand 3.304 3.297

FDI surgesby 30pc

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Net foreigndirect investment (FDI)into Pakistan rose 29.71percent in the 10 months ofthe current fiscal year FYthat ended in April to reach$853.5 million, as againstof $658 million in the cor-responding period of lastFY 2011-12, according tofigures released by theState Bank of Pakistan(SBP).

The country receivedforeign private investmentof $1.07 billion in July toApril 2012-13, which wasup by 79.92 percent asagainst $594.7 million inthe corresponding period oflast year. The country’sbourses fetched foreign in-vestment of $219 million,registering 445 percent in-crease in 10 months of cur-rent FY 13, the SBP datasaid. The better returns oninvestment in the Karachistock market and the mar-ket making a record-highlevel of 20,566 points forthe first time in the historywere the main reasons be-hind increase in foreign in-vestment.

Between last July andApril, there was an inflowof $1.9 billion and outflowwas $1.04 billion, accord-ing to the SBP data. Dur-ing April , net FDI in-creased to $231.6 millionfrom $57.2 million a yearearlier in the same month.In the year earlier, therewas an inflow of $1.8 bil-lion and outflow of $1.06billion.

During April 2013, in-flow reached $301 millionas against $154 million inthe same month of last year.On the other hand foreignpublic investment (FPI)rose massively 705 percentin the 10 months of currentFY to $1.9 billion. More-over, Pakistan has an-nounced a new, ‘Easy-to-Invest’ policy to encourageFDI and provide severalnew incentives. InvestmentPolicy-2013 and FDI Strat-egy 2013-17 focus on cur-tailing the cost of doingbusiness, and cutting downthe red tape, procedures andprocesses.

The key objective is toreduce the time constraintsand cost of starting busi-ness and industrial opera-tions in Pakistan. The twoalso focus on further en-hancing Pakistan’s interna-tional competitiveness inattracting, starting andlong-term continuation ofbusinesses, industrial, andfinancial operations.

The competitiveness isalready fairly good, but theInvestment Policy and FDIStrategy will improve themstill more.

The new policystresses liberalisation of theeconomy through more fa-cilitation to investors, full-est protection to invest-ment, removal of regulatoryimpediments, promotingpublic-private partnership,and better coordinationmong stakeholders.

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

KARACHI:

MULTAN: STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Striving to provideever greater value to its custom-ers, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) hasreached yet another technologi-cal milestone by introducingchip-based Smart Cards. Thesefuel cards are the first of theirkind to be launched by anyOMC in Pakistan.

The formal launch cer-emony was organized under thetheme of “Your World Just GotSmarter!” at DHA Golf Club,Karachi. The launch event fea-tured high-profile guests anddecision makers from across thecorporate sector. The event high-lights included performance bythe country’s leading musicalband as well as a laser show bya foreign artist.

Introduced with the objec-tive of providing increased con-venience for PSO card custom-

Pakistan State Oillaunches fuel smart cards

ers, these fuel cards incorporateadded security features in theform of chip-based encryptiontechnology which secures all

customer information residingin the chip from unauthorizedaccess. Usage of these cards willbenefit corporate customers byfacilitating administrative super-vision, economizing fuel ex-penses and selection of custom-ized cards options.

Speaking at the occasion,CEO & MD PSO, Mr. NaeemYahya said, “Through the launchof this Smart Card, PSO has fur-ther underlined its standing as acustomer-centric company

which is continually introducingnew products and services toprovide ever greater benefits tothe consumers at large.” Duringhis speech the MD also reiter-ated PSO’s vision of transform-ing itself into an integrated En-ergy Company. He stated that inits efforts to achieve this goal,the nation’s leading public com-pany has been introducing newinnovative ideas to offer in-creased value for its customers.

Being the perfect fuel man-agement solution for corporateentities as well as individualcustomers, PSO’s new chip-based fuel cards will undoubt-edly set new standards forOMCs across Pakistan. With awell-established trend of inno-vation and continual improve-ment in customer service provi-sion, PSO is committed to re-sponsibly providing for the fuelneeds of the nation.

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — I o n u tBudisteanu, 19, of Romania wasawarded first place for using ar-tificial intelligence to create aviable model for a low-cost,self-driving car at this year’sIntel International Science andEngineering Fair, a program ofSociety for Science & the Pub-lic. Eesha Khare, 18, ofSaratoga, Calif. and Henry Lin,17, of Shreveport, La. receivedthe Intel Foundation Young Sci-entist Award of $50,000.

“We support the Intel Inter-national Science and Engineer-ing Fair because we believe thatscience and math are the foun-dation of innovation, which isimperative for global economicgrowth and advancing society,”

Science engineering fairwinners announced

said Naveed Siraj, CountryManager Intel Pakistan. “Thiscompetition encourages millionsof students worldwide every

year to explore their passion formath and science while devel-oping solutions for global chal-lenges.”

This year, approximately1,600 young scientists were cho-sen to compete in the Intel In-

ternational Science and Engi-neering Fair. They were selectedfrom 433 affiliate fairs in morethan 70 countries, regions andterritories. In addition to thewinners mentioned above, morethan 500 finalists receivedawards and prizes for their in-novative research. Awards in-cluded 17 “Best of Category”winners who each received a$5,000 prize. The Intel Founda-tion also awarded a $1,000 grantto each winner’s school and tothe affiliated fair they represent.

“We congratulate Ionut,Eesha and Henry on their suc-cess at the Intel InternationalScience and Engineering Fairthis week in Phoenix,” saidElizabeth Marincola, presidentof Society for Science & thePublic.

China servicesgrowth slows

BEIJING—Growth in China’sservices sector slowed sharplyin April to its lowest pointsince August 2011, a privatesector survey showed - freshevidence of rising risks to arevival in the world’s No.2economy.

The HSBC services Pur-chasing Managers’ Index (PMI)fell to 51.1 in April from 54.3 inMarch, with new order expan-sion the slowest in 20 monthsand staffing levels in the servicesector decreasing for the firsttime since January 2009.

Two separate PMIs lastweek had already shown thatChina’s manufacturing sectorgrowth slowed, With the weak-ness spreading to services,which make up almost half ofgross domestic product, the riskto the recovery may be increas-ing.

“The weak HSBC servicePMI figure provides further evi-dence of a slowdown not onlyin the factory sector but also inthe service sector,” said ZhangZhiwei, chief China economistat Nomura Securities in HongKong.—Newswire

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Former ChairmanKorangi Association of Tradeand Industry (KATI), ShaikhManzar Alam, has suggestedthat the upcoming governmentto prepare an economic revivalplan on priority basis.

In a massage to PML-NPresident Nawaz Sharif, he saidthat it was necessary to take thebusiness community into confi-dence in order to bring politicaland economic stability in thecountry.

He said that PML-N’s teamof economic experts should ear-nestly call a meeting with thebusiness leaders headed by VicePresident of Confederation ofAsia-Pacific Chambers of Com-merce and Industry (CACCI)

Govt urged to give priorityto economic revival

Tarique Sayeed, President Fed-eration of Pakistan Chambers ofCommerce and Industry(FPCCI) Zubair Ahmed Malikand other major stakeholders todevise an effective and long-

term economic policy to rescuethe sinking economy of thecountry and find avenues ofbuilding foreign exchange re-serves which have gone to dan-gerously low level.

He further advised thePML-N leader to appoint astrong team of negotiators to talk

with IMF for deferring the pay-ment of its loans installment thatis due in coming month consid-ering the unstable political situ-ation and Pakistan’s long battleagainst terrorism.

He said that there should be arescue package for the export sec-tor by the new government andall grievances of foreign exchangeearners should be removed so thatthey could be able to restore theirlost markets due to bad law andorder situation and severe energycrisis during previousgovernment’s five-year term.

He appealed to PML-N’sleader to call a round table con-ference with the business lead-ers well before the finalizationof budget 2013-14 which wouldbe a crucial task for the PML-N’s government.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore Cham-ber of Commerce and Industryhas severely criticized the care-taker government for making ahuge increase of Rs.5.82 in perunit price of electricity andtermed it an anti-business deci-sion aimed at sabotaging thepopularity of PML-N govern-ment.

The LCCI President FarooqIftikhar in a statement said thatat a time when the business com-munity was already paying highcost of doing business becauseof unavailability of gas and elec-tricity, the decision is devastat-ing.

He said that the hefty in-crease in power prices wouldalso adversely affect competi-tiveness of Pakistani merchan-dise that had already lost its dueplace in a number of global mar-

Biz community rapsrevised power tariff

kets due to high prices. He saidthat in the international marketthe profit margin fluctuates be-tween 0.5 percent and 0.8 per-cent; therefore, after the recentincrease there would hardly beany buyer for Pakistani goods.

The LCCI President said ifthe increase, under the fuel ad-just surcharge, was necessary,then it should have been imple-mented in phases instead ofmaking the huge increase in onego. He opined that government’smove is bound to increase theincidence of electricity pilferagethat is already 25 percent of the22 percent line losses and eat-ing up Rs.50-75 billion.

He said that how the indus-

try would remain competitive atsuch a high price of electricitywhich is one of the basic indus-trial raw materials. We alreadyhave the highest tariff in our re-gion as in India, the electricitytariff for industry is 10.5 cents,in Bangladesh 10.75 cents andin Sri Lanka it is again 10.75cent whereas in Pakistan tariffis already 15 cents meaning that45 percent higher as comparedto the region. With this massiveand unprecedented increase, wewill have double the tariff ofelectricity what the regionalcountries are offering to theirtrade and industries leaving Pa-kistan totally uncompetitive andunviable in the internationalmarket place. The country hadalready lost a number of inter-national markets to China,Bangladesh and India due tohigh cost of doing business, headded.

STAFF REPORTER

FAISALABAD—Roads will bestormed by people if unsched-uled and forced electricity load-shedding is not stopped, saidPresident Faisalabad Chamberof Commerce & Industry(FCCI) Mian Zahid Aslam.

Talking to newsmen, he saidthat 18 to 20 hours of unsched-uled and forced load-shedding isanti-industry, anti-businessesand anti-workers whereas it hasalready retarded the GDPgrowth of the country to 2-3percent per annum, huge unem-ployment and rendering the ex-port targets unachievable in theprevious year.

He said that reliable and rea-sonably priced electricity is vitalfor the industrial and economicgrowth of the country. Pakistanis already high in electricity tar-

FCCI warns of protestover loadshedding

iff if compared to the othereconomies in the region and stillthe whole economic activities aretrapped in sever and forced load-shedding jeopardizing the ex-ports and country’s commerce toa dangerous level.

He said that Faisalabad’seconomy has its origin fromhuge number of small and me-dium size units where about 1.5million workforce is engaged fordaily earnings. He pointed outthat Faisalabad is being supplied600MW electricity against de-mand of 2000MW.

The long-hours load-shed-ding would make these workersto suffer unemployment, whoseearnings have already reducedand might result into riots andprotests by angry crowds storm-ing the roads in the city.

He said that neither previousgovernment nor caretaker gov-

ernment has been able to over-come the looming power andenergy crisis. The basic problemis not of the generation capacitybut the mismanagement in thepower sector, he added.

He said that owing to cur-rent shortfall of 6000MW, 2000-3000MW shortfall is due to cir-cular debt, which has been in-creased to Rs537 billion in 2012from Rs144 billion in 2008, re-flecting an increase of 272 percent during the last five yearsdue to previous Government’sinability to tackle the problem.

He said that the severe,forced and unscheduled load-shedding to the industries hashalted their production resultinginto delay in export shipment aswell as to meet the domesticdemand for textile, which usu-ally increased high with the be-ginning of summer season.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Pakistan chapter ofPakistan-India Joint BusinessCouncil (PIJBC) has decided to setup six committees on sectors thathave shown reservation vis-a-visliberalisation of trade with India.

Caretaker Commerce Min-ister Maqbool H H Rahimtoolahad a meeting with the represen-tatives of PIJBC Pakistan Chap-ter at the Trade DevelopmentAuthority of Pakistan and as-sured businessmen that the gov-ernment wanted to work as ateam with business communityof Pakistan with regards to nor-malization of trade with India.

It was decided that the com-mittees would also see trade fa-

Bodies on tradeliberalisation with India

cilitation and infrastructure is-sues. The committees are set upfor auto sector, pharmaceutical,textile, agriculture, trade, infra-structure and financial sector.Syed Yawar Ali was selected asChairman of committees.

Secretary Commerce MunirQureshi emphasised the com-mittee to also differentiate be-tween perception and realitieswhen working on issues relat-ing to India. He also describedthe fact that pacts signed withIndia were in process ofoperationalisation and in futurethings would be better. The is-sues of capacity constrained,lack of research and coordina-tion, hidden NTBs by India werealso discussed in the meeting.

The members also agreed toshow prudence and conscious-ness while liberalising tradewith India. The recommenda-tions of committee will be con-sidered in future negotiations ofPakistan=India trade.

The meeting was attended byleading businessmen of Pakistanincluding Bashir Ali Muhammad,Chairman Gul Ahmad TextileKarachi, Sikander Mustafa Khan,Chairman Millat Tractors, Lahore;Abdul Razak Dawood, ChairmanDescon Engineering Lahore;Nauman Dar, President and CEOHabib Bank Ltd; Iftikhar AliMalik, owner Guard Groups ofCompanies, Lahore; DrMuhammad Tariq Bucha, Presi-dent Farmers Associates Pakistan.

edge each other’s roles in thegood work they do.

“I take this opportunity tosay to the people of the UnitedStates, stand by our side as youhave done so many times inhistory. But stand by us as longterm friends, for the right rea-sons, and we can achieve manybreakthroughs together.”

The ambassador praisedthe team of Pakistani diplo-mats for their dedicated workin helping the two countriesnavigate some very turbulentwaters and onerous challengesin the relationship. Ambassa-dor Rehman said as she leavesher post, she has the satisfac-tion of knowing that Paki-stan.—APP

SherryFrom Page 10

Balance of payments falls by 58pcSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The country’sbalance of payments wentdown by 57.72 percent to$1.418 billion in first 10months of the current fiscalyear 2012-13 as compared to$3.354 billion in the same pe-riod last year.

However, it’s slightly upby 13 percent as compared to$1.251 billion in July-March2012-13, data released by StateBank of Pakistan (SBP).

The trade balance re-mained negative in this periodand touched $12.541 billion.The country’s exports stood at$20.501 billion against its to-tal 10 months import of$33.042 billion, the SBP datasaid. “The country’s tradedeficit is declining slowly andthe inflow is thin,” an analystof a brokerage house said.

Except for machinery and petro-leum groups, imports of all othermajor groups recorded a fall, headded.

The exports in July to Aprilincreased by $31 million, whilethe imports declined by $295 mil-lion in the said period. Accordingto the data, the country has re-ceived workers’ remittances of$11.570 billion in the said period.

The election period is overand now it is clear that NawazSharif of Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz will make thenew government in the capital,Punjab and Balochistan. It’s be-ing hoped that the new govern-ment of Nawaz would approachthe International MonetaryFund (IMF) to overcome thecritical balance of paymentssituation.

The SBP foreign exchangereserves have declined to $6.525billion as against $8.7 billion at

the end of January 2013, mainlydue to debt payments. The SBPhad highlighted two main chal-lenges for monetary policy - tomanage the balance of paymentsposition and to contain the pos-sible increase in inflation. How-ever, the analyst said the SBPdid not mention in its report howit will manage the balance ofpayments.

“The country has total im-port payments of two to threemonths and if the incoming gov-ernment does not make a properdecision, the country might facebig global trade challenges,” theanalyst said.

Pakistan will have to repayaround $530 million before June30, 2013. It will repay $390 mil-lion to IMF under Stand-by Ar-rangement (SBA) loan facilityby May 28, 2013. Another re-payment of $140 million to IMFunder SBA has to be made by

June 28, 2013.Because of these pay-

ments, the forex reserves of thecountry are under pressure anddollar is not available in theopen currency market. It’s the14th instalment in a row as Pa-kistan has already paid around$3.43 billion against the totalfund of $7.80 billion.

Pakistan got a loan of$7.80 billion in March 2008when the dollar-rupee valuewas around Rs 64 in open mar-ket. The government shouldbring under control the con-tinuous borrowing from SBP,and make efforts to raise for-eign direct investment in thenext six months besides con-trolling poor law and ordersituation, the analyst said.

The new government wouldhave to take tougher steps tobring the economic conditions ofthe country in shape.

come. The additional assistancefrom the SFD will enable morecommunities to benefit from in-terventions improving access tosocial services including educa-tion and health, resulting in en-hanced socioeconomic condi-tion of the area.

SFD Vice Chairman andManaging Director Eng YousefI Al-Bassam said, “It is greatpleasure to increase the Saudicontribution to the humanitarianresponse for the crisis affectedpopulation in Pakistan. We arehappy to see that people are ben-efiting from our efforts as a re-sult of our partnership withUNDP. We hope to see this workcontinue as the contribution is a

token of our Government to sup-port the people of Swat and Pa-kistan.”

UNDP Country Director inPakistan Marc-André Franchethanked the Kingdom of SaudiArabia for its generous supportand said, “We are grateful tothe SFD for their timely sup-port to the crisis affected com-munities of Swat. The crisis inSwat greatly damaged thecommunity infrastructure andcaused distress to the people.Together with the SFD, we areable to reinforce our commit-ment and efforts towards re-building and empowering thelives of the displaced commu-nities.”

SFDFrom Page 10

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The budget deficitfor the fiscal year (FY) 2012-13is expected to touch 6.8 percentof gross domestic product(GDP) considering higher cur-rent expenditures and lower-than-targeted revenue collec-tions during the nine months ofcurrent FY 2012-13, analystssaid.

As per the figures releasedby the Ministry of Finance,Pakistan’s fiscal deficit stood at4.4 percent to Rs 1.05 trillion innine months of FY 2012-13,which is 17 percent higher as

Budget deficit to touch6.8pc of GDP in FY13

against Rs 895 billion in thesame period of last FY.

Arif Habib Limited analystSana Taufiq said that since thecaretaker government has put afreeze on the electricity pass-onwith no retrospective impact, itis expected to have an additionalsubsidy impact of about Rs 200billion. Ms Taufiq further saidthat the tax revenue at the sameis expected to miss target of Rs2.0 trillion and reach up to Rs1,985 billion.

Invest Capital Securitiesanalyst Abdul Azeem said thatas the new government is ex-pected to take oath during May

2013 it is therefore unlikely thatthe government will be able tobring any abrupt improvementgiven the prevailing situation onthe revenue front for FY 2012-13.

However, some constraintsare yet to be seen on the expen-diture front during the last quar-ter as the caretaker governmenthas stopped the funds for dif-ferent ongoing projects. Incor-porating all developments, thedeficit figure is still expectedto touch 6.8 percent of GDP,higher than the target of 4.7percent for FY 2012-13, saidAzeem.

S&P warnsIndia could face

junk statusNEW DELHI—India faces atleast “a one-in-three” chance oflosing its prized sovereign graderating, global ratings agencyStandard and Poor’s has warned,amid new threats to economicgrowth and reforms.

The announcement sur-prised the finance ministrywhich had been pitching for aratings upgrade, saying the gov-ernment has taken strong stepsto improve India’s public fi-nances, promote investment andrevive growth.

India’s BBB-minus invest-ment rating is already the low-est among its BRICS peers Bra-zil, Russia, China and SouthAfrica, and cutting it to “junkstatus” would push up thecountry’s hefty borrowing costsas it would signal higher risk.

“There is at least a one-in-three chance that we will lowerthe ratings in the next 12months,” S&P said late Friday,adding “risks to India’s growthfrom stalled reforms in parlia-ment still tilt the credit risks tothe downside.”

The warning from S&P,which cut the outlook on India’sBBB-minus rating to negativefrom stable last year, came afterparliament adjourned early amidopposition uproar over corrup-tion scandals.

The shutdown stalled theeconomic reform drive by PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh’sminority government, hobbledby a string of graft controversieswith two cabinet ministers en-tangled in scandals quitting latelast week.

The government has openedup the retail and aviation sectorsto wider foreign investment andpartly freed fuel prices. But ithas been striving to pass otherbills to open the the insuranceand pension sectors to moreoverseas investment and stream-line industrial land acquisitionto spur economic growth.

Leading business group, theConfederation of Indian Indus-try, called S&P’s economic out-look “harsh” and said the gov-ernment was making efforts torein in the ballooning currentaccount deficit—the broadestmeasure of trade.

Meanwhile, the chief eco-nomic advisor to the financeministry, Raghuram Rajan, de-scribed S&P’s comments as“disappointing”.

But with the 2014 electionslooming, analysts say Singh isfast running out of time to com-plete his legislative reformagenda.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The SensitivePrice Indicator (SPI) for theweek ended on May 16 for thelowest income group up to Rs8,000 registered increase of 0.35percent as compared to the pre-vious week.

The SPI for the week underreview in the above mentionedgroup was recorded at 186.78points against 186.13 points reg-istered in the previous week.

According the provisionalfigures of Pakistan Bureau ofStatistics (PBS) weekly SPI hasbeen computed with base 20072008=100, covering 17 urbancenters and 53 essential itemsfor all income groups and com-

Weekly inflation up by 0.35pcbined.

The SPI for the combinedgroup also increased by 0.22 percent as it went up from 191.58points in the previous week to192.01 points in the week underreview.

As compared to the corre-sponding week of last year, theSPI for the combined group inthe week under review wit-nessed increase of 4.57 percent.

As compared to the lastweek, the SPI for the incomegroups from Rs 8001 12,000,12,001 18,000, 18001 35,000 andabove Rs 35,000 increased by0.29 percent, 0.26 percent, 0.23and 0.07 percent respectively.

During the week under re-view average prices of 8 items

registered decrease, while that of18 items increase with the re-maining 27 items’ prices un-changed.

The items which registereddecrease in their prices duringthe week under review includedtomatoes, LPG cylinder (11kg),chicken live (farm), red chilliespowder, banana, lawn and sugar.

The items which recorded in-crease in their average prices in-cluded potatoes, egg hen (farm),onions, gur, masoor pulse(washed), bath soap, cooked dal(plate), wheat flour (bag), grampulse (washed), mash pulse(washed), moong pulse (washed),cooking oil (tin), shirting,georgette, curd, vegetable gheeloose, wheat and mustard oil.

RESEARCHERS in Japan have for thefirst time shown it is possible to makecancer-specific immune system cells

from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).Their work brings closer the day when thera-pies use cloned versions of patients’ owncells to boost their immunesystem’s natural ability tokill cancer cells.

The researchers, fromthe RIKEN Research Cen-tre for Allergy and Immu-nology in Yokohama, de-scribe how they createdcancer-specific killer T lym-phocytes from iPSCs, in apaper published online on3 January in the journal CellStem Cell. HiroshiKawamoto and colleaguesstarted with mature T lym-phocytes specific for a cer-tain type of skin cancer andreprogrammed them intoIPSCs with the help of“Yamanaka factors”. TheiPSCs cells then generatedfully active, cancer-specificT lymphocytes.

Yamanaka factors are named afterShinya Yamanaka, who with British scien-tist John B. Gurdon, won the 2012 NobelPrize for Physiology or Medicine for dis-covering that mature cells can be repro-grammed to become pluripotent stem cells.Yamanaka discovered that treating adult skincells with four pieces of DNA (the Yamanakafactors) makes them revert back to theirpluripotent state, where they have the po-tential, almost like embryonic stem cells, tobecome virtually any cell in the body.

Scientists have created cancer-specific im-

Cancer-killing stem cells couldbe used to treat cancer

mune system cells that could be capable ofkilling cancer cells. Speaking about their break-through in making cancer-specific T cells,Kawamoto says in a statement: “We havesucceeded in the expansion of antigen-spe-cific T cells by making iPS cells and differen-tiating them back into functional T cells.”

Previous attempts us-ing conventional methods tomake cancer-killing T lym-phocytes in the lab have notbeen very successful. Thecells failed to kill the cancercells, mainly because theydid not live long enough.

So Kawamoto and col-leagues thought they wouldhave more success if theywent down the iPSC route.After making a batch of iPSCsby exposing melanoma-spe-cific mature T lymphocytes tothe Yamanaka factors, theygrew them in the lab andcoaxed them to differentiateinto killer T lymphocytesagain. “In this study, we es-tablished iPSCs from mature

cytotoxic T cells specific for the melanomaepitope MART-1,” they write. Theyshowed that the new batch of T lympho-cytes was specific for the same type ofmelanoma as the original lymphocytes.

The new cells kept the same geneticstructure that enabled them to express thecancer-specific receptor on their surfaces:“more than 90% of the resulting cells werespecific for the original MART-1 epitope,”note the researchers. Kawamoto and col-leagues are now planning to test whetherthe new T cells can selectively kill tumorcells without harming healthy cells.

KARACHI: Former Chief Minister Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah addressing PPP electedmembers at a local hotel.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI: Residents hold a demonstration against excessive electricity load shedding and water shortage.

KARACHI: Chairperson Pak-China Foundation Zeba Bakhtiyar addressing a pressconference.— PO photo

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan Medi-cal and Dental Council(PMDC) and Medical Educa-tion and Training were fac-ing a serious crisis in Paki-stan. This was happeningbecause of failure of PMDCto perform its duty like anhonest professional body. Itwas very important that thenew government should takethis issue very seriously anddeclare emergency in dealingwith issues related to PMDC,

Dr Shershah lambasts PMDC for poor performanceMedical Education and Healthissues in the country.

This was stated by DrSher Shah Syed, ex-PMDCmember in a press conferenceheld Saturday at the Pakistanmedical association (PMA)House in Karachi.

According to the ordi-nance of PMDC, said Dr Syed,the six members Caretaker Ex-ecutive Committee, compris-ing of Dr Sibtul Hasnain, DrAsim Hussain, Dr MasoodHameed, Dr Zubair Khalid, Dr.Manzoor Hussain and Dr.

Naveed Arshad was autho-rized to conduct election andform a new PMDC as per newordinance, but six member Ex-ecutive Committee got in-volved in inspection and rec-ognition of new medical col-leges and had increased num-ber of seats in existing medi-cal colleges in violation oftheir mandate. In last fewmonths more than 30 Medi-cal and Dental Colleges wererecognized violating rules andregulations of PMDC.

The Executive Committee

appointed Dr Raja AmjadMahmood as the administra-tor against the rules and regu-lations and he had appointed2 advisors on heavy salarieswithout following the rulesand regulations, alleged DrSyed.

He was of the opinion thatthe present Caretaker Execu-tive Committee had violatedits mandate by appointing anew Election Commissioner,instead of Justice GhulamRabbani and conducted amock election all over the

country and selected thepeople of their choice with-out going to electoral pro-cess. The Executive Com-mittee Members partici-pated in the election and gotthemselves elected in totalviolation of rules and regu-lations. The present Execu-tive Members do not qualifyto participate in the elec-tions, he said adding thatwith this kind of PMDC, itwill not be possible to regu-larize the Medical Educationin Pakistan.

Road, trainaccidents

claim 6 livesKARACHI—Six persons diedand five others injured in dif-ferent road and train acci-dents in Karachi on Satur-day. According to police of-ficials, an unknown persondied as Lahore bound NightCoach (Karachi Express)train from Karachi crushedhim at Star Gate in the juris-diction of Drig Road policepost. His body was shiftedto Jinnah Road.

Police recovered nothingfrom his pockets and belong-ings that could reveal hisidentity, therefore the bodywas handed over to Edhimortuary.—INP

Use of secondhand canistersfor edible oilbe discarded

KARACHI—Sindh Chief Sec-retary has directed all Com-missioners to take appropri-ate measures against the useof second hand canisters forpacking cooking oil and gheeby some factories in Sindhprovince.

The Chief Secretary is-sued the directive on the let-ter of a a concerned citizenMuhammad Imran Shehzad,who highlighted the issue inpublic interest for seeking aban on re-use of tin packingmaterial for edible oil andghee as it is injurious tohealth.

The petitioner hasclaimed that Ministry of In-dustries and Production andPakistan Standard and Qual-ity Control Authority(PSQCA) had confirmed intheir reports that the re-useof tin packing material foredible oil and ghee is injuri-ous to health.—APP

Seminar onCorporate

Reporting onMay 22

KA R A C H I—The SouthernRegional Committee of theInstitute of Chartered Ac-countants of Pakistan(ICAP) is organizing a semi-nar on Corporate Reporting- New Challenges here atICAP House, Clifton onWednesday May 22.

Mr. Abdul Rahim Suriyawill be the speaker and Mr.Khaliq-ur-Rahman the chiefguest.Abdul Rahim Suriyais a Fellow Member of theInstitute of Chartered Ac-countants of Pakistan andFellow Member of the Insti-tute of Cost and Manage-ment Accountants of Paki-s tan.

He is also a Past Presi-dent of ICAP. Presently, heis Principal of A. R. Suriya& Co, Chartered Accoun-tants.—APP

KARACHI—The Speaker ofSindh Assembly, Nisar AhmedKhuhro, hosted a lunch for theMPAs and MNAs-elect ofPakistan Peoples Party (PPP)from the province at a hotelhere.

On the occasion, he alsofelicitated the MPAs andMNAs-elect on their successin the May 11 general elec-tions. He also thanked the

Khuhro hosts lunch forMPAs & MNAs-elect

people of the province for re-posing their confidence in therepresentatives of the PPP.

Nisar Khuhro said that theelected representatives wouldcontinue their efforts in accor-dance with the vision ofShaheed Mohtarma BenazirBhutto for the betterment andprogress of the people of thecountry as well as those of theprovince of Sindh.

He said that the PPP wouldcontinue its efforts in accor-dance with the vision ofShaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhuttoand Shaheed MohtarmaBenazir Bhutto as well as un-der the guidance of Asif AliZardari for the cause of thepeople and that of the countryand the province. Qaim Ali Shahsaid that the PPP would alsomeet all the challenges.—PP

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Speakers at aconsultation on minoritiesrights underlined the need forformulation of laws to enddiscrimination against op-pressed sections includingnon-Muslims, who are oth-erwise alienated in the Paki-stani society.

Discrimination and actslike forced conversion ofHindu girls should be de-clared as crimes against hu-manity and legal actionshould be taken,” saidKaramat Ali, Executive Direc-tor of Pakistani Institute of

Legislation to ensureminorities rights demanded

Labour Education and Re-search (PILER), while givingconcluding remarks at a con-sultation meeting on ‘Reli-gious Minority and HumanRights: Democratic Processand New Opportunities,’organised by PILER.

inority candidates, whocontested in the elections2013 from general constitu-encies in Sindh, civil societyactivists, rights groups’ rep-resentatives, media personsand members of minoritiesgroups participated in thediscussions.

hey also shared their ex-periences during the recent

elections and gave inputsabout the electoral process,problems faced by the minor-ity voters and experiments ofcandidates themselves andmanipulation of results byinfluential persons.

li asked the civil societyto strive for legislationagainst discrimination. Be-cause of civil society’s effortslaws like violence againstwomen, sexual harassment atworkplace and domestic vio-lence have been passed, sothe civil society should nowdo advocacy for provision ofequal rights to all citizens in-cluding minorities.

STAFF REPORTER

K A R A C H I — P a k i s t a nPeople’s Party Parliamen-tarian (PPPP) Election CellSindh in-charge Taj Haidersaid that alarming reportsof unchecked rigging, useof violence and open abet-ment of polling and admin-istrat ive staffs with suchcrimes against the PPPPcandidates continued topour in from all corners ofSindh.

Haider said that in thelatest complaint made tothe election commission ofPakistan (ECP) Saturday,the PPPP Election Cellpointed out that in NA-230and the two provincial as-sembly constituencies PS-

Haider unveilsrigged elections

62 and PS-63 under it morethan 40 polling stations inPPP strongholds had beenattacked and burnt down.

Ballot boxes had beensnatched away right infront of the poll ing staffand presiding officers.The complaint also gives alist of 8 polling stations inremote areas where 100percent votes had beencast. The Pakistan People’sParty Parliamentarian Elec-tion Cell had demanded re-polling in polling stationsthat were subjected to at-tacks and arson. The Cellhad also demanded thatthumb impressions of “vot-ers” on poll ing stat ionsshould be checked and bo-gus votes rejected.

KARACHI: Consul General of Indonesia Rossel R Adman, former test cricketerMoin Khan and others inaugurating a two-day exhibition organized by Thai TravelArt at Pak Tower.

Presidentcondoles

Bacha Khan’sdeath

KARACHI—President AsifAli Zardari has expressedprofound grief and sorrowover the demise of eminentlawyer Barrister Bacha Khanwho passed away inPeshawar on Saturday.

In his condolence mes-sage the President while laud-ing services of BarristerBacha Khan for the peopleprayed to Almighty for eter-nal peace of the departed souland for the courage of thebereaved family to bear thisloss with fortitude.—NNI

Wing Award ofAnti-Terrorist

CourseKARACHI—The WingAward Ceremony of Anti Ter-rorist Course-16 was held atAirport Security Force (ASF)Academy here on Friday.

The Director GeneralRangers Sindh, Major Gen-eral Rizwan Akhtar, was thechief guest.He witnessed thefiring demonstration of theAnti Terrorist Course partici-pants and appreciated theskills and techniques demon-strated by them and alsolauded the professional com-petence of their instructors.

Major General RizwanAkhtar also advised thetroops to maintain this highstandard of proficiency, evenafter the training, as it is theneed of prevailing securityenvironment.—APP

THE latest perpetrator of Escherichia coli (STEC), a significantcause of bacterial gastrointestinal

illness, is ready-to-bake commercial pre-packaged cookie dough.

The discovery was made followingthe 2009 investigation of a nationwide(USA) outbreak of Shiga toxin-produc-ing Escherichia coli. A new study, pub-lished online and in theClinical Infectious Dis-eases describes the out-break and provides sug-gestions to prevent thebacteria in a strong mes-sage for consumers: Thepre-packaged cookingdough must not be eatenbefore baking.

Researchers of thenew study, led by KarenNeil, MD, MSPH, and herteam at the CDC (Centersfor Disease Control andPrevention) and at thehealth departments ofseveral s tates came totwo major conclusions:

Cookie dough manu-facturers should con-sider reformulating their product toreach the same safety standard asready-to-eat products Consumers bemore effect ively educated about therisks of consuming unbakedgoods.During the 2009 E.coli outbreak,77 people in 30 states became infectedwith the bacteria whilst 35 infectedpeople needed hospitalization.

E. coli food-related illnesses havepreviously been linked to various foods,including leafy green vegetables,sprouts, unpasteurized apple cider, mel-ons, salami, and ground beef. Environ-mental analysis, extensive back-tracing

Cookie dough E Coli Riskand laboratory tests of the investiga-tion into the 2009 outbreak, resultedin a recall of 3.6 million cookie doughpackages.

Investigators were unable to tracethe bacteria back to any single source.Given that neither vehicles nor the pro-duction process linked to the doughcould be clearly identified as having

contributed to the con-tamination, ??Dr. Neil andhis team suspected thatthe source of contamina-tion may have been one ofthe ingredients used toproduce the dough, andalthough their investiga-tion did not conclusivelyimplicate flour, it remainsthe prime suspect.

By referring to use-bydates on the tainted prod-ucts over specific weeksand months, the investi-gators say the culpri tmight have been just onepurchase of E. coli-con-taining flour that was usedin producing several lotsand varieties of dough.

In contrast to other in-gredients in the cookie dough, suchas pasteurized eggs, molasses, sugar,baking soda, and margarine, flour istypically not subject to a “kill step”that el iminates potential ly presentpathogens. According to Dr. Neil ,chocolate was also not implicatedgiven that the l ink of consumingchocolate chip cookie dough to i l l-nesses was lower in comparison toother flavors of cookie dough.“Foodscontaining raw flour should be con-sidered as possible vehicles of infec-tion of future outbreaks of STEC.”

LAHORE: Federal Information Minister Arif Nizami presenting a cheque of 0.5 millionto famous singer Reshman, at her residence.

LAHORE: PML-N President Muhammad Nawaz Sharif meeting with newly elected MPAs from Hazara, headed by MNA Sardar Yousaf, who joinedPML-N.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Pakistan Indus-trial and Traders AssociationFront (PIAF) has stronglycriticized the caretaker gov-ernment for massive increaseRs.5.82 per unit in electricityprices and termed it an anti-industry and anti-massesmove. In a press statementissued here Saturday, Chair-man PIAF Malik Tahir Javedsaid that electricity prices inPakistan were already higherthan the other countries ofthe region and the new hikewould push the crisis-hit in-dustrial sector to the wall.

He said that how Paki-

stani merchandise would beable win buyers in the inter-national market when theirprices would be higher thanthe same quality goods ofother countries. He said thataccording to the reportsmore than 40% electricitywas being stolen but insteadcontrolling the theft & theline losses, the authoritieswere busy in making furtherincrease in electricity priceswhile it is a proven fact thatthe raise in the tariff alwaysleads to increase in the inci-dence of power theft.

He said that the flight ofcapital had intensified in therecent years only because of

flawed government policiesespecially relating to energyand infrastructure. Had alitten been given to these ar-eas, there could have beenno relocation of industrialunits to the other countries.He said that energy was amain source of developmentand electricity prices werehighly correlated to the eco-nomic growth and increase inelectricity tariff would scuffletrade & industry.

He said that country wasfacing a huge energy deficitsince last few years. Massiveloadshedding had crippledthe industrial activities, thou-sands industrial units had

Electricity price hikes slammedclosed down or relocatedwhile million industrial work-ers have lost their jobs butinstead of initiating any megapower projects, governmentremained busy to increasepower tariff. He said that theprice increase would badlyaffect the agriculture sectorof Pakistan, which was back-bone of our economy andfeeding to more than 70% ofthe population.

Malik Tahir Javed de-manded of the caretaker gov-ernment to withdraw recentincrease in electricity pricesimmediately and avoide tomake such a destructive de-cision.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A short course on“Biostat and Data AnalysisMethodologies” arranged bythe University of Veterinaryand Animal Sciences (UVAS)Lahore attracted faculty mem-bers and researchers from overa dozen of universities andother institutes from Lahore,Islamabad, Faisalabad andGujrat.

The short course orga-nized by the BiostatisticalConsulting Centre of theUVAS under the Pakistan-USScience and Technology Co-operation Program concludedhere Saturday. Vice-Chancel-

lor Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pa-sha chaired the concludingceremony and distributed cer-tificates among the partici-pants.

Thirty-three faculty mem-bers and researchers fromQuaid-e-Azam UniversityIslamabad, Gujrat UniversityGujrat, Lahore College forWomen University Lahore,Punjab University Lahore,UVAS Lahore, University ofLahore, King Edward Medi-cal University Lahore, Uni-versity of Health Sciences(UHS) Lahore, Fatima Memo-rial College Lahore, ServicesHospital Lahore, Ace Insti-tute Lahore, National Agricul-

tural Research CentreIslamabad, Punjab Institute ofCardiology Lahore success-fully completed the trainingcourse. Dr Anwar Ahmaedfrom the United States con-ducted the training program.Speaking on behalf of the par-ticipants, Dr Shagufta Nazfrom the LCWU said that theyhad learnt many new tech-niques of data analysis, newsoftware and statistical testsused in scientific research.

The Vice-Chancellor urgedthe graduating trainees toshare with your colleagues andresearch students the knowl-edge and data analysis skillsthey learnt during the training.

UVAS short course attractsfaculty members, researchers

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Saturdaytook notice of the news pub-lished in a section of pressthat acid was thrown on awoman and her daughtersfor resisting a rape attemptin Multan. District & Ses-sions Judge, Multan hasbeen directed to probe intothe matter and submit a de-tailed report regarding stepstaken by the local policealong with his own com-ments.

According to details,Ghulam Muhammad, resi-dent of Naurangabad toldpolice that his wife AzizanBibi and two daughters, weresleeping when accused per-sons Altaf Baloch and Nazeerallegedly barged into thehouse and tried to commitrape with the girls.

Azizan Bibi and herdaughters raised alarmwhich made both the culpritsangry. They threw acid onvictims and ran away. Thevictims were shifted toNishtar Hospital where

Azizan and her one daughterwere admitted as they werein critical condition becausethey had suffered 50 per centburn injuries. The other girl,who suffered minor burns,was sent home after first aid.However, police registeredthe case and arrested oneaccused but other managedto flee.

LHC Complaint Cell tookserious notice of the newsand directed the concernedD&SJ to look into the matterand submit report within aweek positively.

LHC notices acid attack on woman

LAHORE: Children taking interest in the items displayed in Lahore Museum on WorldMuseum Day.

LAHORE—Caretaker Min-ister for Information andBroadcasting Arif Nizamion Saturday visi ted theresidence of renowned folksinger Reshma and gaveher a cheque of Rs 500,000.The minister said “Reshmais our national asset andhas earned great fame forPakistan through her tal-ent .”

On this occasion, Reshmarequested the minister thatshe wanted to perform two

shows which might be ar-ranged for her at Alhamra.The minister assured her thatit would be done.

Reshma congratulatedthe PML-N chief MianNawaz Sharif on his victoryin 2013 elections and addedthat PTI chairman ImranKhan should not get disap-pointed.

Reshma’s sonMuhammad Latif and herdaughter were alsopresent.—APP

Nizami gives Rs 500,000cheque to Reshman

LHC suspendsPCB’s interimarrangement

on LCCALAHORE—Lahore HighCourt has suspended thedecision of Pakistan CricketBoard for putting Lahore CityCricket Association underinterim arrangement.

President LCCA, KhawajaNadim Ahmed through hiscounsel Aftab Gul prayed thatthere is no provision for an in-terim committee in terms of thePCB constitution. He pointedout that the only interim ar-rangement is visualized in Ar-ticle 41 of the constitution andsuch exercise can only be un-dertaken by the patron inspecified circumstances.

Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan af-ter hearing the petition sus-pended the decision of thePCB taken on May 9 andfixed May 20 for the nexthearing.—APP

Student winssilver medal

LAHORE—A software devel-oped by a 9th class studentfrom Lahore has won silvermedal in the e-biko Interna-tional Project Olympiad heldrecently in Ankara, Turkey.Muhammad Abdullah Abidson of Muhammad IsmailAbid, a student of PakTurkSchool Lahore developed asoftware ‘Rush Hour Control-ler’ which can change trafficsignals according to the num-ber of vehicles on the roadafter collecting data througha normal webcam, said a pressrelease issued here on Friday.

Subsequently, he was sentto participate in the global in-formation and communicationstechnology competition where176 projects from 48 countriesincluding USA, Thailand, India,Afghanistan, Turkey, Nigeria,Albania, Brazil etc. were pre-sented. Abid stood second inthe category of software devel-opment to bag second prizeand additional reward of US 300dollars from the organisers ofthe contest. —APP

Int’l MuseumDay observed

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore Mu-seum, Lahore celebrated In-ternational Museum Day onSaturday by presenting rep-licas of the artifacts fromIndus Valley Civilization thatdates back 2500-1500 B.C. asprizes on the basis of a planthat selected the visitors forthis prize on a numeral andobjective manner.

This activity of LahoreMuseum aimed at strengthen-ing relations of society, com-munities and general visitorswith the Museums which havebeen playing a vital role in edu-cating them about their historyand creating awarenessamong them about their in-valuable cultural heritage.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt summoned medical su-perintendents of Jinnah Hos-pital, Services Hospital andMayo Hospital for May 21 onplea against measles outbreak.Justice Muhammad KhalidMehmood Khan passed theorders a plea filed by JudicialActivism Panel, a public inter-est litigation firm besides seek-ing a reply from Punjab gov-ernment.

Earlier, the petitioner’scounsel contended that thegovernment had failed asmeasles related deaths contin-ued. The counsel alleged thatcorrupt health officials were re-sponsible for deaths and de-manded action against them.The court after hearing argu-ments summoned three saidmedical superintendents in per-

son for May 21 to know aboutsteps taken to control measles.

Meanwhile, With 146 newcases reported during the last24 hours, the number ofmeasles cases reported in thePunjab in last five months hasreached to 12,490. Accordingto health department officials,at least 87 deaths have beenreported so far while mostlydeaths occured in Lahore,Gujranwala, Rajanpur, RahimYar Khan and Kasur. Duringthe last 24 hours, around 146cases of measles were reportedfrom Punjab, including 56 fromcity hospitals. Meanwhile, Di-rector General Health ServicesPunjab Dr Tanveer Ahmed talk-ing to media persons said thaton investigation it was foundout the majority of deaths inLahore were caused by severepneumonia and delay in reach-ing hospitals.

LHC summons 3 MSon measles outbreak146 new cases reported

Thumbimpression

verification of 25pcvoters urged

L A H O R E — P a k i s t a nPeoples Party Punjab hasdemanded the electioncommission of Pakistan toverify thumb impressions ofvoters of 25 percent of allpolling stations in Punjabfrom NADRA.

Briefing the media afterpresiding over a meeting ofprovincial party executivesat party office here on Sat-urday, Mian ManzoorAhmad Wattoo alleged anorganised rigging had beencarried out to defeat the PPPin elections.

He said number of votesfor the PML-N showed that‘angels’ had cast their votesin favour of the PML-N,however, he added the PPPwould play its role as op-position in the centre and itwould form government inSindh.

He said the suggestionsby the party leaders in themeeting would be pre-sented to the main leader-ship of the party.

A resolution waspassed in the meeting forreversal of resignation ofPPP president MianManzoor Wattoo. PPPPunjab leaders includingGeneral Secretary TanveerAshraf Kaira, Muneer AKhan, Raja Riaz Ahmad,Mehr Ghulam Freed, AurangZeb Barki and others partici-pated in the meeting.—APP

Double murderaccused flees

LAHORE—An under treat-ment accused involved in thekilling of two persons, fledMayo Hospital on early Sat-urday.

Police said that accusedAthar Mehmood had killedKashif and Faizan ofSamanabad last month but hewas also injured in the inci-dent and admitted to hospi-tal. Two police officials weredeputed at the hospital forhis security. His accomplicescame to the hospital and tookhim away at gunpoint.

Pak Millat police havetaken the officials into cus-tody and started investiga-tion.—APP

‘Karachi, Hyderabadre-polling need unity’LAHORE—Secretary Gen-eral, Jamaat e Islami, LiaqatBaloch, has urged politicalforces to forge unity for hold-ing free and transparent re-election in Karachi andHyderabad.

Addressing JI workersin his constituency, he saidthe democratic forceswould have to play a deci-sive role and demonstratesolidarity with the peopleof Karachi and Hyderabad.

Baloch said re-polling inKarachi and Hyderabad un-der army’s supervision wasa perquisite for the comple-tion of the electoral process.He said the JI leadership hadalready discussed the issuewith other parties includingPTI, PML(N), JUP, JUI(F) andPML( Functional). He saidthe public mandate in theKPK must be accepted byall.—APP