E-paper PakistanToday 14th April 2012

PAGE | 03 PAGE | 06

Karzai in intensifiedefforts for reconciliationwith resistance leaders

Call me a liar againand I’ll sue you, Aitzaz

Ahsan warns media

The danger offlying whileKhan

PAGE |14

Lahore edition Saturday, 14 april, 2012 Jamadi-ul-awal 21, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol ii no 287 22 pages

Pakistan to

import electricity

from IndiaISLAMABAD

online

Federal Minister forWater and Power Syednaveed Qamar has saidthat Pakistan had decidedin principle to importelectricity from India tomeet its energy require-ments. He said this whiletalking to a four-memberIndian delegation ofGlobal Energy, who calledon him led by HarryDhaul at his office. Thedelegation is visiting Pak-istan to discuss the possi-bilities of exportingpower from India to Pak-istan in continuation withthe meeting of PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani and the Indian primeminister held in China.The minister said Pak-istan was facing difficul-ties due to a shortage ofelectricity and early im-port of power from Indiawould help bridge the de-mand-supply gap. He saidthe electricity trade be-tween the two countries

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

In an apparent bid to win back thesupport of estranged Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) parliamentarians,PPP Co-chairman President Asif AliZardari on Friday administered

oath to eleven new ministers, including

five federal ministers and six ministers ofstate to the already beefy federal cabinet.

This was another important develop-ment in the wake of rising temperaturesbetween the government and the judiciary,as the government changed its legal teamonly a day before. The two main charactersof the PCO saga were given representationby the government, as Irfan Qadir and Yas-

min Abbasi were appointed attorney gen-eral and law secretary, respectively.

The new inductions will bring thenumber of federal ministers to 37, whilethe number of state ministers has nowreached 14. With five advisers and as manyspecial assistants, the cabinet’s size hasgone up to 61, in violation of the 18th con-stitutional amendment.

However, the move triggered a newcontroversy as the PPP leadership did notconsult its two coalition partners — theMuttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) andthe Awami national Party (AnP) - prior toinducting new ministers, sources said.

Only one state minister, RaheelaBaloch, who was elected from Balochistan,was picked from a coalition partner, the

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q)after the resignation by Amir Muqam, whojoined the PML-nawaz.

The oath-taking was held at the presi-dency and was attended by Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani, cabinet members, par-liamentarians and senior officials.

In politics, charity begins at home

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Just a day after Pakistan’s parliament unan-imously approved new guidelines for thecountry’s reengagement with the UnitedStates, a top US aid official said on Fridaythat Washington was drastically reducing thenumber of aid projects in Pakistan as part ofreforms aimed at “improving the distributionof billions of dollars in funding”.

According to media reports, Rajiv Shah,the head of the US Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID), said the total amountof civilian aid will remain the same, but theUS hoped the reorganization will producebetter, higher profile outcomes that can winhearts and minds in a country where anti-American sentiment is rampant.

The move comes over two years after theUS launched a five-year, $7.5 billion civilianaid program in Pakistan that supporters

hoped would improve the perception ofAmerica, elicit greater support from the gov-ernment in the fight against the Taliban andal-Qaida and reduce the allure of thosegroups to average Pakistanis. The vast major-ity of aid before that went to the military.

Despite spending $2.6 billion in civilianaid, popular support for the US has actuallyfallen as relations between the two countrieshave deteriorated, and elements of the Pak-istani government are widely believed to havecontinued backing Islamist militants killingAmerican troops in Afghanistan.

Experts have criticized the aid missionfor lacking clear goals and for not providingenough information about how the moneyis spent. The dominant narrative in Pak-istan is that the funds have done little tohelp average citizens — a message the UShas tried to counter.

US cuts aid projectsin Pakistan

g Cabinet size swells to 61 with 5 new federal and 6 state ministers, all but one from PPP g MQM and ANP not consulted on new ministers

Continued on page 04



PDF E-Paper LHR_Layout 1 4/14/2012 2:20 AM Page 1

02Saturday, 14 April, 2012

News

Today’s

LookQuick

lAhore

Story on Page 09

NewS

Story on Page 06

CArtooN

Page 13

Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry passes away Karzai in intensified efforts for reconciliation with resistance leaders

Fire kills five in Gujranwala

GUJRAnWALA: Fire broke out in a three-storey store situated inSatellite Town of Gujranwala district on Friday, killing five peopleand injuring 12 others. Reportedly, the newly constructed roof ofthe plaza caved in on Friday, causing short circuiting that led to afire. It took the firefighting squad two hours to put the fire out. Oneof the injured, Mohsin, who works as an accountant in the plaza,said they were working in the store when the roof of the secondfloor collapsed and fell on the roof of the first floor. Resultantly,the other roof also collapsed and suddenly a fire broke out. AbuSufiyan, another worker, said he heard a huge noise and in sheerpanic, ran out of the building. “But the roof collapsed and we gotstuck,” he said, adding that 22 people worked in a store in theplaza. The rescue squad confirmed five causalities, identified asImran, Wahab, Ghaffar, nadir and Aslam, while 12 peoplesustained severe injuries and were transferred to Civil HospitalGujranwala. Rana Umer, the owner of the store, told PakistanToday that huge damage was incurred due to the incident, butmain loss remained that of five lives. DCO Ch Amin said inquiriesof TMA would be conducted and whosoever was found guiltywould be brought to justice. Staff RepoRt

Zardari appeals Indian PM toallow Chishti’s repatriationISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to IndianPrime Minister Manmohan Singh to allow the repatriation of DrChishti to Pakistan on humanitarian grounds. SpokespersonSenator Farhatullah Babar said that the president made thisappeal in a personal letter addressed to the Indian Prime Minister.The letter was sent on Friday to Pakistan’s High Commissioner inIndia for onward delivery to the Indian Prime Minister, he said.Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the President had taken upthis matter with the Indian Prime Minister during his meetingwith Manmohan Singh in new Delhi last Sunday while on way toAjmer Sharif. The President letter also said that this gesture wouldadd momentum to the goodwill generated after resumption of thecomposite dialogue between the two countries. nni

CJ asks Punjab govt to provide

security to woman declared ‘vani’ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry has directed the authorities concerned to providesecurity to Tahira, a resident of Bhakkar declared “vani” by herfamily members. A three-member bench of CJ IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and JusticeTariq Pervez on Friday heard the case regarding the antiquatedtraditions to convict women. During the hearing, details of casesregarding convicting women in Sindh, Punjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Islamabad were presented in the court. The CJdirected the Punjab government to constitute a committee toprobe into issue of Tahira, who had been declared vani by herfamily, and present a report on the next hearing.

Planning Commission

refuses to accept

decisions of Cabinet

CommitteeISLAMABAD

inp

The Planning Commission has rejected therecommendations of Special Cabinet Committeeheaded by Minister for Religious Affairs SyedKhursheed Shah regularizing the services of 2,000employees working on seventeen projects ofMinistry of Food Security and Research. Sourcesin the Ministry of Food Security said the secretary,Shafqat naghmi, had issued necessary orders forthe regularization of the services of theseemployees and with the refusal of the PlanningCommission the orders have become ineffective.According to details, 2,000 employees working onvarious projects were removed from services afterthe passage of the 18th Amendment in theconstitution and devolution of the Food Ministryto provinces. The affected employees approachedthe special cabinet committee which afterconsidering all the record ordered their immediaterestoration and payment of eight months salary.After their restoration, the secretary for FoodSecurity and Research approached the FinanceMinistry and Planning Commission and also metwith the concerned officials on Friday. During themeeting, Planning Commission Secretary AsifBajwa refused to release salary of the employeesand said he did not accept the decisions of theCabinet Committee.


The judiciary must be characterised by equality,fairness and integrity in its objective of dispensingjustice, as its work is a critical element in the goodgovernance of a state, Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry said on Friday.

Addressing the inaugural session of a three-day international judicial conference at theSupreme Court, he said expeditious and inexpen-sive dispensation of justice was the mandate of theconstitution. He said it was the first priority of thejudiciary and that was why efforts were beingmade to improve the performance of justice sectorinstitutions.

He said nevertheless, every system had poten-tial for reforms and improvement to keep pacewith the changing times and emerging realities.“This is done partly through the process of ex-changing views, sharing ideas and learning fromeach other’s experiences. We are mindful of thisprocess and for this reason all the stakeholders ofjustice sector are regularly taken on board eitherthrough Judicial Conferences or by taking up their

suggestions in the meetings of national Judicial(Policymaking) Committee to further improve theprocess of administration of justice.”

He said last year’s judicial conference provedhighly productive and useful due to the active par-ticipation of all stakeholders of the justice sectorincluding academia, scholars, jurists, lawyers, andothers. It was unique in the sense that media per-sons, litigants and prisoners were also invited toattend the conference and share their experiencesto develop a workable mechanism to further im-prove the performance of administration of jus-tice, he said.

He said the judicial policy largely incorporatedthe letter and substance of recommendations ofthe working groups in the conference and im-provements were made in the trial procedure in-cluding non-submission of challan, defectiveinvestigations, non-production of under-trial pris-oners and other issues having direct bearing onthe administration of criminal justice system andstringent steps were adopted to curb the menaceof corruption.

The CJP also drew the attention of the partic-ipants to a recent Siachen tragedy, where last week

about 139 Pakistani troops, were trapped under anavalanche.

He said the world had changed and turnedinto a global village and most of the countries hadjoined hands in various fields to their mutual ad-vantage. “There is room for the stakeholders of thejustice sector as well, to sit together and explorethe possibilities of benefiting from the knowledgeand experiences of each other. I am confident thatthis conference will provide a platform to all stake-holders of the justice sector to review, debate andresolve issues being faced in the administration ofjustice in the light of their rich knowledge and ex-periences,” the CJP said.

He said it was for the first time in the historyof the country that the chosen representative ofpeople, who took their offices as a result of electiontaken place on February 18, 2008 had, commend-ably, stayed away from unconstitutional acts.

He said the Supreme Court had not only im-posed restrictions on dictators but the membersof the judiciary had also been restrained from pro-viding protection to the unconstitutional acts. Hesaid free, fair and impartial dispensation of justiceis a key principle of Islamic system of governance.

International Judicial Conference opensg CJP says judiciary must be characterised by equality in its objective of dispensing justice

SIACHEN: A photograph issued by the ISPR shows rescue personnel undertaking

the search operation for their missing colleagues in Gayari sector on Friday. INP



NewsCoMMeNtSuccess and challenges

Articles on Page 12-13

MoUs would bring the important area under civilian oversight.

local bodiesThe courts are right, of course.

arif nizami says:

White lies

ForeIGN NewS

Story on Page 17

ArtS & eNtertAINMeNt

Story on Page 15

SPortS

Story on Page 18

north Korea supreme leader leads mass rally Coldplay takes inspiration from ‘Kung fu panda 2’

Consensus, at last: Islamabad cannot expect to have the cake and eat it too.

Last week, when President Zardari spent a few days in Lahore boosting jiyalamorale with Sultan Rahi type one-liners, many aimed against his PML(N) rivals,people did note a certain development in his entourage.

pakistan probes domestic t20 match

ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

The joint session of parliamentheld from March 20 to April 12saw only one-fourth of the ses-sion time spent on debating therecommendations of the Parlia-mentary Committee on nationalSecurity (PCnS) formed to re-view relations with the UnitedStates and general foreign policywith 94 percent of the parlia-mentarians staying away fromthe crucial debate and only 28(six percent) of the 445 legisla-tors in the national Assemblyand Senate debating the PCnSreport for a total of 338 minutes.

Only four percent of the

MnAs in the House of 341 andonly 13 percent of senators in theHouse of 104 spoke on the rela-tions with the US, said a FAFEnreport.

Spread over nine sittings, thelongest joint session in Pak-istan’s parliamentary historyunanimously approved new rec-ommendations on relations withthe US and general foreign pol-icy. However, the debate showedthat the parliamentarians werereluctant to share their thoughtson re-setting ties, which in-cluded issues of opening landsupply lines for nATO troops inAfghanistan and the dronestrikes inside Pakistan.

Only one-fourth of the ses-

sion time was consumed on actu-ally discussing the PCnS reportand the rest of the time wastaken up by discussions on tar-geted killings in Karachi andBalochistan, sectarian violencein Gilgit-Baltistan, increase inprices of petroleum products andpower outages.

The PCnS report was com-pletely ignored in three sittings.In the eighth sitting, it was dis-cussed for only 15 minutes by aPPP legislator. Though the oppo-sition parties – PML-n and JUI-F rejected the first draft of PCnSrecommendations, their legisla-tors were conspicuous by way oftheir absence during the debate.

Three PML-n senators and

two MnAs took part in the de-bate. The party has 104 legisla-tors in the two Houses ofparliament.

One parliamentarian eachfrom the AnP, JUI-F, MMAP andthe PML-F took part in the de-bate. Thirty-two MQM legisla-tors in the two houses and 12independents in the Senatestayed away from the debate onthe report.

Though 11 legislators of thePPP shared their thoughts on thereport, they only make up sevenpercent of the treasury benchesin parliament.

Of 55 PML-Q legislators inparliament, only three took partin the debate, said the report.

g only 28 of 445 legislators took part, senators showed more interest than MNAs

ISLAMABADMaSood RehMan

The Supreme Court on Friday set April19 to hear a petition filed by Pakistan’sformer ambassador to the US HusainHaqqani seeking equal opportunity forrecording his statement through a videolink from London as it was done in thecase of Mansoor Ijaz, the central char-acter in the memogate.

A 10-member special bench headedby Chief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry will hear the petition. Thispetition was filed before the judicialcommission probing the memo contro-versy by Haqqani’s counsel Zahid Hus-sain Bukhari.

It was also filed before the SupremeCourt on March 24 by Haqqani throughhis counsel Asma Jahangir. The judicialcommission had rejected the applica-tion and directed Haqqani to personallyappear before it. The same applicationwas pending before the Supreme Courtas well for adjudication, for which thechief justice constituted a 10-memberspecial bench on Friday to hear the pe-tition on April 19.

Haqqani had also submitted his 82-page written statement before the

three-member commission formed toprobe the memo controversy statingthat he contacted Mansoor Ijaz on May9, 2011, not to draft and forward amemo but to ask him to tone down hiscriticism of the Inter-Services Intelli-gence (ISI), Pakistan Army, and theGovernment of Pakistan. Haqqani saidin his statement that he was very activein his endeavour of damage controlafter the May 2 Abbottabad operationand he has been in contact with severalmedia persons, and has also been pro-moting Pakistan’s point of view throughthe western media.

Haqqani’s counsel told the commis-sion that his client had not declined toappear before it in person but filed a re-quest before the commission as well asthe Supreme Court for providing equaltreatment to him. Bukhari said hisclient had been facing threats in Pak-istan which is why he had applied be-fore the Supreme Court to ask thecommission to record his statement inthe UK through video link. He said hecould not disclose the nature of threatsto Haqqani at this juncture. However,he said that Haqqani had been facing“numerous threats”.

Bukhari has pleaded before the

apex court to advance a similar kind offacility to his client that the commissionawarded to Mansoor Ijaz in recordinghis statement from London through avideo link.

In his application before theSupreme Court, Haqqani said that hehad “grave security concerns” because ofmany “frivolous” and “sensational” alle-gations levelled by Mansoor Ijaz, andmany intelligence agencies were in con-tact with Ijaz as he himself had admittedit during the proceedings of the commis-sion, and that his family feared for hislife in case he travelled to Pakistan.

Haqqani stated in his statement be-fore the commission that he had no rolein creating/drafting or delivering the al-leged memorandum to the US JointChief of Staff Admiral Michael Mullenwhich was first reported in the FinancialTimes by Ijaz. Haqqani said that he waswaiting to submit his detailed statementonce Ijaz submits his entire evidence insupport of his claims. He said there wasno human witness to support Ijaz’sclaim that he had drafted and delivereda disputed memo to Gen James Jonesfor onward transmission to Mullenunder his (Haqqani’s) instructions be-cause Ijaz’s assertions were false.

SC to hear haqqani’s plea for video link on 19th

ISLAMABADinp

Former president of the Supreme CourtBar Association (SCBA) and Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) leader Senator AitzazAhsan on Friday warned a section of themedia against legal action for “false re-porting”.

Talking to journalists outside theSupreme Court, Aitzaz said that a newspa-per termed him as “a liar” for his argu-ment in the court while the court was yetto decide whether he had “lied” or not.

He said that he had put the news item

before the SC bench. Aitzaz said that hecould sue the reporters for billions of ru-pees for false reporting – an action thatmight cost them their jobs – but that hedid not want to bully the media.

Aitzaz said that he was not against themedia’s freedom, as it had supported thelawyers’ movement in restoring deposedjudges of the Supreme Court.

He said that he was being targeted be-cause he had taken the case of Prime Min-ister Yousaf Raza Gilani. He claimed thatthe case had nothing to do with corruptionwhile the media had depicted it as a cor-ruption case.

Call me a liar again and I’ll sue you, Aitzaz Ahsan warns media

Pakistan committed to

constructive talks with India: FMISLAMABAD: Underlining the importance of environment oftrust between Islamabad and new Delhi, Foreign Minister HinaRabbani Khar on Friday said that Pakistan was committed to aconstructive, sustained and result-oriented dialogue with India. AnIndian media delegation called on the Foreign Minister Khar at theForeign Ministry, according to foreign office statement. The ForeignMinister briefed the delegation on the recent developments inPakistan-India relations. She said that the government of Pakistanwas committed to a constructive, sustained and result-orientedprocess of engagement with India. Staff RepoRt

94% legislators did not debateon PCNS recommendations



News

Shah said the US has donemuch more in recent yearsthan it receives credit, in-cluding providing medicaltraining that saved the livesof an estimated 30,000children and working to en-sure that 900,000 kidswere able to attend school.

But he said the US hadalso tried to do too manythings at once in the coun-try, which hindered re-sults and made it moredifficult for Pakistanis tosee the benefits.

He did not name spe-cific programs likely to becut. But he said the US isworking to cut the numberof projects from a high ofover 140 to around 35 bythe end of September infive key areas: energy, eco-nomic growth, health, edu-cation and stabilization ofAfghan border areas.

“If we are trying to do140 different things, weare unlikely to do things atscale in a way that an en-tire country of 185 millionpeople can see and valueand appreciate,” Rajiv toldThe Associated Press in aninterview in Islamabad.“We are just far more ef-fective and we delivermuch more value to Amer-ican taxpayers when weconcentrate and focus anddeliver results.”

Shah said another po-tential benefit of concen-trating the focus of the aidmission is that it could givethe US greater leverage inpressing the Pakistani gov-ernment to undertake nec-essary reforms, especiallyin the energy sector, whichWashington has made itstop priority.

“You can only be ef-fective at direct engage-ment with Pakistani

leaders if you say, ‘Lookwe are big enough andimportant enough to yourenergy sector that weshould have a real policydialogue and make sureyou are continuing tomake these very tough re-forms,’” said Shah.

Some American law-makers have called for aidto be halted unless Pak-istan improves its coopera-tion fighting Islamistmilitants. These calls wereespecially loud after Osamabin Laden was discoveredhiding in a Pakistani garri-son town last May.

The US has suspendedhundreds of millions ofdollars in military aid buthas kept civilian assistanceflowing.

Shah said it was in USinterests to continue pro-viding civilian aid becauseit would help foster a morestable and prosperous Pak-

istan, making it a less fer-tile breeding ground for Is-lamist militants whothreaten America.

“Our logo and ourtagline says ‘From theAmerican People,’ but inreality this work is verymuch for the Americanpeople,” said Shah. “Weare safer and more secure... when countries areprosperous and whencountries trade with us in-stead of represent a mili-tant threat.”

Earlier in the day, StateDepartment SpokespersonVictoria nuland said,“Washington seeks a rela-tionship with Pakistan thatis enduring, strategic, andmore clearly defined. Welook forward to discussingthese policy recommenda-tions with the Governmentof Pakistan and continuingto engage with it on ourshared interests.”

US cuts aid projects in PakistanContinued fRom page 01

ISLAMABADMaSood RehMan

The Supreme Court on Fri-day allowed the newly ap-pointed Attorney General(AG) Irfan Qadir to prose-cute Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani in the contemptof court case initiated fordisobeying court orders onwriting a letter to the Swissauthorities for reopeningcorruption cases againstPresident Asif Ali Zardari.

A seven-member specialbench comprising Justicenasirul Mulk, Justice AsifSaeed Khan Khosa, JusticeSarmad Jalal Osmany, Jus-tice Ejaz Afzal Khan, JusticeIjaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Jus-tice Gulzar Ahmed and Jus-tice Muhammad AtherSaeed, heard the case. Thegovernment appointed IrfanQadir as Attorney Generalon Thursday, replacingMaulvi Anwarul Haq.

At the start of the hear-ing, Qadir told the court thathe had recently been ap-pointed as AG, and if thecourt would allow him, hewould act as a prosecutor inthe contempt case.

Justice nasirul Mulk,however, observed that thecourt had appointed MaulviAnwarul Haq as the prosecu-tor in the contempt case;however, he said it wasstrange that the prime min-ister, despite being accusedin the contempt case, had re-placed his prosecutor with aperson of his choice.

Aitzaz Ahsen, counselfor Gilani, told the courtthat Irfan Qadir was not anindividual, but an ‘attorneygeneral’, who would act asprosecutor according to therules.

Justice nasirul Mulkenquired Aitzaz if it couldbe said that the prime min-ister had himself appointedhis own prosecutor, andwhether such assertion wasnot in violation of Article10-A, which pertains to“fair trial”.

Justice Ijaz AhmadChaudhry noted that the at-torney general had been re-placed by a person againstwhom a contempt of court

case was in progress.“Should such an accused bepermitted to appoint aprosecutor of his liking?”Justice Ijaz Ahmad en-quired. Justice Ejaz AfzalKhan remarked that if thecontempt of court case wasagainst the attorney generalhimself, should he be madea prosecutor?

Meanwhile, the courtcalled Maulvi Anwarul Haqand asked him if the courthad appointed him by nameor with his post to prosecutethe premier in the contemptcase. The court asked Haq ifhe wanted to continue to as-sist the court.

The former AG repliedthat according to the rules,the attorney general wassupposed to be the prosecu-tor. He requested the courtto relieve him from the con-tempt case, which the courtaccepted and allowed IrfanQadir to act as prosecutor inthe contempt case. IrfanQadir sought time to gothrough the details of thecontempt case, which thecourt allowed.

Justice Asif Saeed Khosatold Qadir that being a pros-ecutor he would have tobring all the evidence per-taining to the contempt case,as the prime minister couldbe sentenced in this case.Qadir assured that he wouldassist the court as per law.

During the hearing,Aitzaz Ahsen presented anews item published againsthim in the court. He said hehad been accused of “tellinga lie” before the court. Hesaid one newspaper had al-ready reported that he wastelling a lie.

“It is very difficult forme to assist the court insuch pressure,” Aitzaz sub-mitted. Justice Asif Saeedtold Aitzaz that the issuewas between him and themedia, and the court wouldnot take notice into it.Aitzaz hinted that he wasthinking to file a defamationsuit against a section of themedia, which was defaminghim, so that its staff couldlose its jobs. Later the courtadjourned further hearinguntil April 16.

SC allows newly appointed

AG to prosecute PM

in contempt case

ISLAMABADShaiq huSSain

PAKISTAn andUnited States areabout to engage incrucial diplomaticconsultations on

the finalization of “newagreement on counter terror-ism cooperation” for whichthe special envoy of theObama administration, MarcGrossman, is expected toreach Pakistan in the next fewdays and his trip would befollowed by the Pak-US for-eign ministers’ meeting toseal the pact.

Pakistani parliament onThursday approved “newguidelines for the rules of en-gagement with US” in whichit gave a green signal to open-ing non-lethal nATO suppliesmeant for nATO troops inAfghanistan by barring onlythe supply of weapons to theneighboring country.

now, Islamabad andWashington would work outthe amount involving the taxa-tion of nATO trucks and con-tainers and also finalizemeasures to ensure smoothsupply of Coalition SupportFunds (CSF) to Islamabad andfor that ambassador Grossman

is coming to Islamabad.“Grossman’s visit will be fol-lowed by the two foreign min-isters’ meeting for which eitherForeign Minister Hina Rab-bani Khar will go to Washing-ton or US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton will arrive herein the next couple of weeks. Itis being finalized which foreignminister will be the host andwhich one will be the guest,”said a diplomatic source onFriday, seeking anonymity.

Pakistan and the UnitedStates also need to work out tomutual satisfaction on anothercontentious issue of dronestrikes in the Tribal Areas.

Pakistani parliament onThursday once again called forcessation of these attacks butthe diplomatic sources saidWashington was unlikely tohalt them and instead could gofor reduction in their number,something which is alreadybeing practiced by the CIA.

“Grossman will also dis-cuss the drone issue with Pak-istani officials and so wouldSecretary of State Clinton withForeign Minister Khar andmost likely CIA Chief GeneralDavid Petraeus will also takeup this issue with new ISI headLt General Zaheerul Islam,”the source said. Another diplo-

mat when contacted also con-firmed the exchange of impor-tant visits between Islamabadand Washington in the nextfew days. He said the tripswere aimed at working out apact on future cooperation inwar on terror between Islam-abad and Washington. To aquestion on announcement ofthe reopening of nATO supplyroutes by Pakistan for food andother non-lethal goods in thewake of parliament’s joint ses-sion, he said first the US wouldcome up with an apology for at-tacking Salala checkpost andafter that we could see that an-nouncement being made.

PYONGYANGafp

north Korea’s heralded long-range rocket test ended infailure Friday, disintegratingin mid-air soon after blastoffand plunging into the sea in amajor embarrassment for thereclusive state.

The defiant launch drewcondemnation from worldleaders who described it as a“provocative” act threateningregional security, despite Py-ongyang insisting it was in-tended to put a satellite intoorbit for peaceful purposes.

Some four hours after therocket exploded over the Yel-low Sea, the north admittedthe satellite had failed toenter orbit, and that “scien-tists, technicians and expertsare now looking into thecause of the failure”.

The United States and itsallies slammed the exerciseas a disguised ballistic mis-sile test that contravenedUnited nations resolutionstriggered by Pyongyang’s twonuclear tests.

“north Korea is only fur-ther isolating itself by engag-ing in provocative acts, and iswasting its money onweapons and propagandadisplays while the north Ko-rean people go hungry,”White House spokesman JayCarney said.

He said the launch “vio-lates international law andcontravenes its own recentcommitments”, underwhich Pyongyang hadagreed to suspend its nu-clear and missile tests inreturn for US food aid.

South Korea’s defenceministry said the rocket lifted

off at 07:39 am (2239 GMTThursday) and flew for justover two minutes before it“splintered into two parts,probably due to a blast” andthen broke into smaller pieces.

The debris fell into theYellow Sea off South Koreaand its navy launched a sal-vage operation to retrieve thedebris, despite warnings fromPyongyang last week not toattempt such an operation.

“We are keeping a closewatch over the north for fur-ther provocative acts such asmissile tests and a nucleartest,” the ministry said, refer-ring to fears the launch couldbe followed by north Korea’sthird atomic test.

The South’s Defence Min-ister Kim Kwan-Jin also saidthat the north’s troops hadbeen placed on heightenedvigilance.

North Korean rocket launch fails,draws condemnation

Pakistan to

import electricity

from India

would enhance the economicties and bilateral relations. Qamar said it was Pak-istan’s desire that themodalities, tariff andterms and conditions forimport of power may be fi-nalized at the earliest sothat the project may bestarted soon. He said initially, Pakistanmight import up to500MW which may be sup-plied with the constructionof small transmission linesfrom both sides.The minister also directedthe ministry, nTDC andCentral Power PurchasingAgency to finalize theterms and conditions andsubmit the initial report inthe next week for furtherprocessing.Harry Dhaul said they wereinterested in long-term re-lations and would exportreliable electricity to Pak-istan. He said the electric-ity trade was beneficial forboth countries and wouldopen new avenues of eco-nomic ties.During the meeting, it wasagreed that Pakistan andIndia would construct 45Kilometer 220 KV trans-mission lines within sixmonths after formal agree-ment in this respect. Theagreement would be forfive years and would be ne-gotiable for extension foranother five years or more.

Grossman arriving in a few days to begin crucial round of talks

WASHINGTON: A Pak-istani man living in theUnited States was sentencedFriday to 12 years in prisonand five years of supervisedrelease for providing materialsupport for the militant groupLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), US of-ficial said. Jubair Ahmad, 24,who lived in Woodbridge,Virginia, received the sen-tence after being found guiltyof promoting and urging re-cruitment for the Pakistanigroup, designated by Wash-ington as foreign terrorist or-ganization, the JusticeDepartment said. afp

KARACHInni

At least four people were killedin several shooting incidents inLyari and other areas of theport city on Friday morning,police said. The victims in-cluded a private school’s prin-cipal and a woman.

On Friday morning, Lyariplunged into tension againwith sustained intense firingin various areas, includingChakiwara and Lee Market.Some people also hurledhand grenades at the police.

In other incidents, a man,Hayat Gul, was gunned downovernight in Miran naka. Hisbody was brought to the CivilHospital. Meanwhile, Aqeel,son of Samad, was killed in a fir-ing incident in Korangi’s Sector-51C and another man MajidurRehman was injured. Both thedeceased and the injured wererushed to Jinnah Hospital.

Separately, some uniden-tified armed miscreantsstormed into a private schoollocated in Baldia Town in thelimits of Saeedabad PoliceStation, and shot dead the

school principal, IftikharAhmed. The assassins fledfrom the scene immediately.

In another incident,unidentified miscreants es-caped after leaving behindthe body of a 35-year womanat Usman Memorial Hospitalin Azizabad. The hospitalmanagement informed policeabout the body. The deceasedwoman had received twogunshots. The victim couldnot be identified until the fil-ing of this story. Police said ithad started investigating theincidents.

Four killed as violence rules in Karachi

Those who were adminis-tered oath as federal minis-ters included Qamar ZamanKaira, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf,nazar Mohammad Gondal,Rana Farooq Saeed Khanand Farzana Raja.The ministers of state in-clude nawabzada MalikAmad Khan, Raheela Baloch,Abbas Khan Afridi, TasneemQureshi, Malik Azmat Khanand Syed Sumsam AliBokhari.The re-induction of Raja Per-vaiz Ashraf as federal minis-ter might further ignitetensions between the supe-rior judiciary and the govern-ment, as he had beendeprived of his ministerialberth in the wake of rentalpower projects (RPPs) scam.He was also declared respon-sible for “corrupt practices”in the RPPs case by the apexcourt, as the allegations werefully backed by PML-Q Par-liamentary Leader FaisalSaleh Hayat.The heat between Ashraf andHayat is likely to rise whenboth will attend the cabinetmeeting. The newly-inductedcabinet members are mainlythose ministers who hadbeen sent home in the previ-ous cabinet reshuffle in thename of “austerity”, a ma-noeuvre done by PM Gilanito claim that his governmenthad cut the size of the cabi-net “strictly in line with the18th Amendment”. Although there was no offi-cial word about the portfoliosof the newly-inducted minis-ters, Qamar Zaman Kaira islikely to replace FirdousAshiq Awan as InformationMinister, while Defence Min-ister Ahmed Mukhtar mightbe given the portfolio of Min-ister for Water and Power.Moreover, Maula BakhshChandio is likely to be ap-pointed as the minister forhuman rights, while RajaPervaiz Ashraf is expected toget an important ministry.

In politics, charitybegins at home

Pakistani given 12

years jail for militant

group support

Continued fRom page 01

Continued fRom page 01

LONDONinp

Britain has decided to make ittough for Pakistani studentsto step on the English soil,following a pilot scheme find-ing as many as four in ten ap-plicants may be bogus.

British Home Office fig-ures have revealed that thou-sands of student visaapplicants cannot speak Eng-lish, despite claiming theywant to study here, the DailyMail reported.

Home Secretary TheresaMay has now decreed thatanyone wanting to come tostudy in Britain fromPakistanmust be interviewed by bor-der agency officials before avisa is granted. An estimated10,000 Pakistani studentsapply to come to the countryevery year. Presently, if paperapplications raise suspicions,

applicants may be inter-viewed in their home country.Of these, around 20 percentare rejected. But a recent pilotscheme in which every appli-cant was required to have aface-to-face interview foundthat up to 43 percent shouldbe rejected.

A senior Whitehall sourcesaid that by far the biggestreason for them being turneddown was poor English lan-guage skills.

“Britain is open for busi-ness to the best and brightest.But the message to bogus stu-dents is clear - you will befound out and you will bestopped from coming,” saidthe source.

Last month, a report bythe national Audit Officefound that a flawed immigra-tion crackdown may have al-lowed up to 50,000 bogusstudents into Britain.

Britain makes it toughfor Pakistani students



News

ISLAMABADinp

PT I Chairman Imran Khanon Friday strongly con-demned the unanimous pas-sage by parliament of thePCnS resolution seeking to

redefine Pakistan-US relations.“What benefit will this resolution be

to the people of Pakistan who have seenover 40,000 of their fellow citizens diein the US-led war on terror, a loss of$50 billion in the last four years andhave seen the FDI dry up?” Khan said.

Citing the development as yet an-other example of the “muk muka” poli-tics practiced by JUI-F chief FazlurRehman and the PML n, Khan de-manded to know what had happened to

the principle of “give peace a chance”,which was the central to the APC reso-lution passed unanimously by all themainstream political parties of thecountry.

He reiterated that the new resolu-tion was merely a continuation of mak-ing the Pakistani state play a mercenaryrole for the US and only the price forthis had been jacked up. However, hesaid the money that would come wouldgo into the hands of a few and would beof no benefit to the country.

The PTI chief said it would causemore harm as it would increase terror-ism, militancy, greater polarisationwithin the country and more economicdestabilisation.

He said the farce of reviving thenATO supply route for non-lethal

goods would sustain the US war inAfghanistan as all nATO supplies werefor their military’s sustenance and wareffort against Afghanistan.

“The PTI will not accept anyrestoration of nATO supply routesthrough the country as any supply goingto nATO forces will prolong the war asit supports the war effort,” Khan de-clared.

“It is not simply a matter of money.It is a matter of extricating Pakistanfrom this war which is not Pakistan’swar at all and which has aggravated ter-rorism in Pakistan,” he said.

Khan said it was pathetic to see Fa-zlur Rehman playing his usual game ofsimply upping his purchase price by de-claring that his party would never allowany nATO supply route to be opened

and then whimpering out and acceptingthe PCnS draft resolution. The samewas true for the PML-n which madestrong statements against nATO supplyroute and the US footprint in Pakistanincluding drones through Chaudhrynisar Ali Khan and then submitting tothe government’s will.

Khan felt it was ironic that all thesedubious compromises were made in thename of “national interest” when in factthey actually undermined it.

The PTI head also pointed out theshameful manner in which the resolu-tion sought to plead to the US to reviewits policies such as drone attacks whenin fact it should simply have stated thatPakistan would not accept any drone at-tack on its territory and would use allmeans to counter it.

Imran condemns PCNS resolution passageg PtI chief says Fazl, PMl-N undermined national interest by submitting to govt’s willg Says PtI won’t accept restoration of NAto supply routes as it will prolong the warg Says resolution will cause more harm as it will increase terrorism, economic destability

wPIl seeks$10 millionfrom tIP

LAHOREpReSS ReleaSe

Walters Power International Limited(WPIL) served a defamation notice onAdil Gilani of TransparencyInternational Pakistan (TIP) for $100million on Friday. The notice, issued byEbrahim Hosain Advocates & CorporateCounsel, has been copied to the U.S.Department of Justice and toTransparency International’sheadquarters in Brussels. Thedefamation notice is in response toTIP’s letter of April 9, which waspublished in local newspapers thefollowing day and levels allegations ofwrongdoing against the powercompany. U.S.-owned WPIL has takenstrong exception to TIP’smischaracterization of the SupremeCourt of Pakistan’s judgment of March30, 2012, regarding rental power plants(RPPs), one of which WPIL set up atnaudero, Sindh. “Your latesttransgression is in keeping with yourremorseless, habitual, willful, andchronic misrepresentation of facts thathave brought disrepute in Pakistan toyou as an individual as well as toTransparency International, whosePakistan chapter you seeminglyrepresent,” reads the notice to Gilani.“Your intellectual and financial integrityhas been called into question repeatedlyand you have also been the subject offederal investigations.” WPIL’s lawyershave called Gilani’s defamatoryallegations unfounded, incorrect, andmala fide. “In your unholy haste toobtain newspaper space and personalmileage from the judgment, you haveoverlooked several key aspects of thesame,” reads the strongly-wordednotice. “For purposes of youredification, it is emphasized that thecourt’s observations are prima facie, i.e.of a tentative nature. The court has, infact, ordered an inquiry to determinethe facts. Your contention, therefore,that WPIL has been ‘convicted oncorruption charges’ is patently false.”WPIL adds that all RPP contracts,including its own, were approved byPakistan’s federal cabinet and that thecontracts came with representationsfrom public sector companies that thesehad been duly authorized by allrequisite corporate and governmentalaction and did not violate the provisionsof any law, rule or regulation. WPIL alsoinforms Gilani that the court order is“final subject to the Constitutional rightof review as per Article 188 of theConstitution of Pakistan read withOrder XXVI of the Supreme CourtRules, 1980.” The notice concludes bydemanding an unreserved publicapology from Gilani for his slandercampaign against WPIL and itsassociated companies failing whichWPIL has threatened to file suit againsthim, his organization and his parentorganization for damages in theapplicable jurisdictions to the extent of$10 million.

three of a familykilled in Swatroof collapse

SWATinp

A woman and two of her childrenwere killed while another wasinjured when roof of a housecollapsed in Swat on Friday.According to details, dilapidatedroof of a house owned by AbdulKhaliq located in Tarogai area ofKhawazakhela tehsil of Swatsuddenly came down burying theresidents.Khaliq’s wife, his two sonsIkramullah, 7, and Inamullah, 5,were killed while his daughterSadaqat sustained injuries.Locals and relatives themselvesdug out the bodies and injuredfrom the rubble and took them tohospital.

ISLAMABADinp

JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman hasclaimed that the parliamentary reso-lution has prohibited all types of sup-plies including arms shipmentsthrough Pakistan to nATO forces inAfghanistan and now the governmentcannot open the supplies through anadministrative order.

Addressing a press conference onFriday, the JUI-F chief said the gov-ernment would have to follow the rec-ommendations in Section 8 of theresolution and if it resumed the sup-plies, it would be violating the parlia-mentary recommendations which theJUI-F would strongly resist.

He said the JUI-F got its view-point included in the recommenda-tions and controversial sections weredeleted. He claimed that adoption of

the parliamentary recommendationshad laid the foundation of a new andindependent foreign policy, addingthat in the past, a foreign policy im-ported from the United States wasbeing implemented.

Fazl said the prime minister hadassured them that implementation ofthe recommendations would be car-ried out and in the light of the resolu-tion, Pakistan was no more an ally ofthe US.

He said a recommendation to endverbal agreements with the US hadbeen included on the JUI-F’s insis-tence.

The JUI-F chief said the headlinesin the newspapers were contrary tothe actual recommendations. He saidhis party forced the government toagree to the amendments in the pre-vious recommendations and the PML-n was informed about after the

agreement with the government wastaken place.

Fazl said the PML-n and thePML-Q had proposed linking of droneattacks with supply line and the JUI-F took the stand of complete closureof the supply line. He said the droneattacks could be stopped with the useof force and it was the responsibilityof the government to stop them.

Asked about change in the stanceof the JUI-F after his meeting withthe president, Fazl said he had neveraccepted the demands of the Presi-dent but it was on the other wayround.

Asked about the Pakistan DefenceCouncil’s criticism of the recommen-dations, Fazl said he had telephonedHafiz Saeed and briefed him in detailabout the new recommendations,adding that Hafiz Saeed had ex-pressed his satisfaction over them.

resolution bans all types of suppliesto NAto forces, claims Fazl

osama’s familyto be deportednext weekISLAMABAD: Pakistan will deport thewidows and children of former al Qaedaleader Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabianext week after their jail sentence forillegal residency ends, their lawyer said onFriday. The three women and twochildren were detained by security forcesafter a secret US special forces raid killedbin Laden in Abbottabad in May last year.Earlier this month a court sentenced thewomen to 45 days in prison for illegallystaying in the country. It ordered theirdeportation after the prison term whichbegan on March 3 when they wereformally arrested. “They are likely to bedeported to Saudi Arabia on April 18, astheir sentence ends on April 17,” thefamily’s lawyer, Aamir Khalil, said. Thethree widows and the children wereamong the 16 people detained after theU.S. raid. Two of the wives are Saudinationals, and one is from Yemen. inp

peShaWaR: Markets in most areas remained closed in protest against electricity load shedding on friday. INP



News

PESHAWARShaMiM Shahid

AMIDST growing internalpressure from within polit-ical rivals and increasingrifts with the US led alliesover its troop’s involve-

ment in civilian casualties, AfghanPresident Hamid Karzai has intensifiedefforts for reconciliation with the resist-ance forces.

In this respect, he sent envoys toQatar for joining or monitoring the di-alogue between the US and the Taliban,as the Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan ac-cepted his offer for resumed talks inKabul.

Pakistan Today came to knowthrough sources that HIA chief Engi-neer Gulbadin Hekmatyar had give agreen signal to his party stalwarts forassembling in Kabul in connection withnegotiation with President HamidKarzai’s government.

The Afghan opposition, recently di-vided into two main groups, is opposing

dialogue with the rivals, especially withthe Taliban and pullout of US led alliedtroops as well.

The sources said the visible changein President Karzai’s policies towardsthe US led foreign troops had forced no

other than Taliban supreme leader Mul-lah Mohammad Omar and HIA chiefEngineer Gulbadin Hekmatyar considerdialogue.

Karzai and his associates are nowdesirous of an early pullout of foreigntroops and favouring intra-Afghan dia-logue for a durable end to decades-oldhostilities and conflict.

A highly responsible representativeof HIA in Peshawar when contactedconfirmed that dialogue between thedelegates and Afghan governmentwould be resumed in Kabul on Satur-day.

So far a number of delegates havelanded in Kabul.

Amongst them are Dr Ghairat Ba-heer, Adil, Haji Abdul Malik and Has-san niaz who proceeded from Pakistan,whereas they would be joined by nor-way-based Ustad Qareebur RehmanSaeed.

The HIA representative said theywere firm on their conditions, includingan early pullout of US and allied foreigntroops from Afghanistan and intra-

Afghan dialogues for a suitable and ac-ceptable setup in the war devastatedcountry.

The HIA has since long opposedevery sort of foreign intervention in af-fairs of Afghanistan and on suchgrounds, its leadership requested allforeign militants, including al Qaedafugitives, to leave Afghanistan.

The Afghan opposition headed byformer speaker Younas Qanooni andEngineer Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai is di-vided over the dialogue. Qanooni op-poses a patch up with the Taliban andHizb-e-Islami, whereas Ahmad ShahAhmadzai is suspicious about Karzai’sstance on pullout of US-led alliedtroops.

Both of them allege that PresidentKarzai is making attempts to remain inpower on the pretext of reconciliation.However, Karzai succeeded in creatingrifts amongst the opposition by namingSalahuddin Rabbani as the head of theReconciliation Commission.

Rabbani is the son of late ProfBurhanud Din Rabbani.

Karzai in intensified efforts for

reconciliation with resistance leaders

DR FIRDOuS ASHIq AWAN

Today, we are living in the age of infor-mation. With the advent of moderntechnologies and social media, it is im-possible to ignore the rapid growingneed for information in every walk oflife. nowadays everyone is dependenton quick, easy and reliable source of in-formation for their effective and effi-cient working. now, the world hasbecome a global village and informationis not less than lifeblood to all govern-ment officials, politicians, agricultur-ists, businessmen, industrialists, stockmarket professionals, academicians,teachers and even layman citizens. Theinformation is directly linked with theinevitable media growth across theworld. Today the media is altogether adifferent entity as it used to be in thepast. The vibrant, independent and re-sponsible media is inevitable to nurturedemocratic societies.

Last dictatorial regime ended upwith dreadful draconian media laws in

2007, which proved to be the direct vio-lation of the Article 19 of the constitu-tion of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. TheMusharraf regime in the garb of emer-gency took action against TV channelsand FM radios by raiding their offices,issuing show cause notices, and confis-cating equipment on several occasions.Pakistan’s television industry came to agrinding halt after the governmentblocked all transmission as PresidentGen. Pervez Musharraf imposed emer-gency rule on this South Asian country.Curbs were imposed on the mediathrough amendments in two ordinances.

Pakistan Peoples Party believes inthe freedom of expression and we con-sider it as an equivalent to the greaterfreedom for the country itself. We are notafraid of fair criticism from the Mediawhich ensures that the government re-mains on track to develop the countryand its people. We consider media as awatchdog of the interests of the people.Following the footsteps of its philosophy,envisioned by its shaheed leaders, the

government repealed draconian mediarelated laws and ensured free access ofpeople to information through amendinglaws and implementing those which al-ready existed in the law books. no jour-nalist, poet or writer was put behind barsfor opposing the government nor wereany restrictions imposed on TV channelsor censorship on newspapers.

Pakistan, like all other democraticcountries believe in access to Informa-tion and freedom of speech as envisagedin its constitution. Keeping in view theunquestionable importance of informa-tion in the modern world, Ministry ofInformation and Broadcasting (M/oI&B) in Pakistan is fully committed todeliver its best at national and interna-tional front. With the emergence ofmushroom growth of private TV andradio channels, newspapers and socialmedia the responsibility of the Ministryhas also increased manifolds. The min-istry with its scanty resources hasachieved much within last four years ofthis democratically elected government.

The Ministry of Information &Broadcasting is the principal arm of theFederal Government, whose function isnot only to project and promotestrengths & positives of the governmentbut also to build image of the countryand highlight its policies and achieve-ments through print and electronicmedia both within the country andabroad. Dissemination of informationfor the public awareness, provision offeedback to the government on dailybasis and facilitation of the media rep-resentatives for good Government-Pressrelationship is the primary responsibil-ity of the Ministry.

The biggest achievement of the Min-istry is to introduce the policy of Self-regulation for the private media inPakistan. It encourages vibrant, respon-sible and dynamic role of private mediain Pakistan, which was discouraged inthe last dictatorial regime.

Another achievement of the demo-cratic government is that the Press Coun-cil of Pakistan (PCP), established under

a law in 2002, is now complete and hasbecome a functional body. I hope that thePress Council will play a role of bridgebetween common masses and media in-stitutions and it will be a non-partisan,independent and autonomous bodywhich will be compatible with the re-gional and global institutions.

It is top priority of the present gov-ernment to resolve the problems of theworking journalists as if their problemsare not resolved; they will not be able toable to properly highlight the problemsof the masses. The government desiresthat journalists should express theirthoughts and opinion with full inde-pendence and confidence. The govern-ment would continue to improveworking conditions of media personsand hope that the journalist communitywould act in a responsible and carefulmanner in matters of national interestand security of the country.

The writer is the Federal Minister forInformation and Broadcasting

Growth of free, independent media in Pakistan

haSSanaBdal: Sikh pilgrims perform religious rituals during the Besakhi festival at Gurdwara panja Sahab on friday. ONLINE

Misappropriation of

$4m in schools

rehabilitation project

in KP: UNICeF NEW YORK

inp

UnISEF on Friday said in 2010 itsinternal financial oversight systemuncovered irregularities in a schoolrehabilitation project in KhyberPakhtunkhwa.It immediately froze funds to the projectand launched a series of investigations.The investigations revealed that anestimated $4 million was lost whenfunds were misappropriated throughover-billing for substandard repairs.The investigation did not establish thatUnICEF staff knowingly contributed toor benefited from the losses neither didit conclude that UnICEF was defraudedby others involved in overall projectimplementation but was not able toestablish definitely who those otherparties were.Following the detection of theirregularities, additional safeguardswere put in place to strengthen financialcontrols and oversight there.The project of rehabilitating schools inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa was undertaken in2009 and 2010. UnICEF has informed the relevantgovernment authorities and donorgovernments of the irregularities andwas looking into any possible recoveryof the misappropriated funds.

over 181,000 havefled recent FAtAfighting: UNhCr

GENEVAafp

More than 181,000 people have fledfighting between government troops andTaliban or al Qaeda-linked militants inthe Tribal Areas, the Un refugee agencysaid on Friday. “The number of peopledisplaced by an ongoing governmentsecurity operation in northwest Pakistanhas now surpassed 181,000,” said astatement from the office of the HighCommissioner for Refugees (UnHCR).The agency said about 10,000 newarrivals were being registered daily byofficials at the Jalozai camp nearPeshawar. “The vast majority of thoseregistered – 85 percent – choose not livein the Jalozai camp, opting instead tostay with friends, relatives or in rentedaccommodation,” said the UnHCR. Thebody said it had distributed more than37,000 humanitarian kits and other Unagencies, including UnICEF and theWorld Health Organisation (WHO),were also providing aid. The fightingstarted on January 20 when governmenttroops attacked militant groups in theKhyber region.


Saturday, 14 April, 2012

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

PUnJAB Chief Minister Shah-baz Sharif said on Fridaythat the approval of the par-liamentary resolution onnATO supplies and the for-

eign policy is welcome; however, there isa need for its complete implementation.

He stated this while addressing the46th joint convocation of the College ofPhysicians and Surgeons, Pakistan and

the College of Physicians and Surgeons,Bangladesh.

College of Physicians and SurgeonsPakistan President Zafarullah Chaudhryhighlighted the performance of the insti-tution, saying that it is providing moderneducational facilities to doctors in vari-ous disciplines of medicine.

422 fellows were awarded degreesand 53 fellows were given membershipsin the convocation. Prof Rakhshanda andDr Abrar Ashraf Ali were given honourswhile gold medals were given to the po-

sition-holders.Chief Minister’s Advisor on Health

Khawaja Salman Rafique, delegates fromPakistan, Bangladesh and India associ-ated with the medical sector, medical su-perintendents, vice-chancellors,professors and a large number of doctorswere present on the occasion.

The chief minister, in his address,praised the doctors, paramedical staffand nurses for bravely countering lastyear’s Dengue outbreak, saying that itwas the worst in human history, but thatcountless lives were saves due to theirtireless efforts.

He praised the healthcare systems ofCuba and Iran, but said despite havingthe best talent andhuman resourceattention had notbeen paid to the develop-ment of Pakistan’s health sector in thelast 64 years. He added that medical ex-perts should evolve comprehensive rec-ommendations for the uplift ofhealthcare system.

Sharif appreciated the role thatthe College of Physicians and Sur-geons has played in the promo-tion of quality medicaleducation and ensuredthe college of the Pun-jab government’s co-operation.

The CM said the power crisis, hadcaused irreparable damage to the na-

tional economy, besides negative impact-ing the performance of hospitals and ed-ucational institutions. He added thatpractical measures needed to be taken tocope with the problem.

Later, speaking to the media at alocal hotel, the chief minister also said

that democracy is aimed at

public service butthe rulers have

pushed the nation intodespondency in thename of democracy.

He stated thatPakistan neededtrade, technology and modern knowl-edge and skills instead of foreign aid.

He said that Pakistan is rich in min-

eral resources and can achieve a digni-fied status internationally by developingthe sector, but that national resourcesmust be spent on the welfare of the peo-ple. He said Pakistan and India shouldresolve all bilateral issues and utilisetheir resources for the betterment of themasses. Citing the example of China andTaiwan, he said war is not the solution toany problem and that both the countriesneeded to solve their issues through ne-gotiations to make progress on thehealth, education and economic fronts.

Expressing hisviews on the ap-proval of a unan-imous resolution

in the joint session ofthe parliament,

the chief ministersaid the resolution

should be implementedin letter and spirit.

He said pressurewill be put on the government if theresolution was flouted like it was in

the past and that bilateral relationswith America and other developedcountries should be established in

such a manner that national interests areupheld.

In reply to a question about thestrike of doctors, he said there is nojustification for holding a strike on thebasis of departmental postings andtransfers.

Yep, we’ve got the mosquitoes under control

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Punjab University Examination De-partment has nabbed superintendentof an examination centre and a BSccandidate red-handed who was takingher paper in her house illegally. Thiscan be termed a success of Punjab Uni-versity’s examination system under thedynamic leadership of Controller Ex-aminations, Prof Dr Liaqat Ali. Shan-zay Sadiq, resident of DHA Lahore, aprivate candidate with roll number of75213 and was allocated Centre num-ber 54 of Punjab University’s Examina-tion Centre at Wahdat Road, was doingall this with the help of Alia Anwar, su-perintendent of Centre no 56 and As-sistant Professor of GovernmentCollege Wapda Town. The modusoperandi of the two was that the candi-date was being given the answer bookone day before the examination andshe was receiving the question paperon the day of the paper from the super-intendent at 8:15 am outside the bank.The candidate used to write on the al-ready given answer book at her homeand used to submit the solved answerbook at 12 noon and the superinten-dent used to mark her attendance onblank boxes which she was alreadymaintaining. According to details, DrLiaqat formed a committee when hefound some misappropriation in theattendance sheet of English Paper A ofExamination Centre no 56. The com-mittee strictly watched and carried outa hardcore investigation of the candi-date and the superintendent for 8 daysto dig out all the facts. Today at8:15am, the superintendent, after get-ting a packet of sealed question papersfrom a branch of a bank, got into a carbearing registration number LEB-09-9338 while others were a male driver

and the candidate inside. The superin-tendent was later dropped at the exam-ination centre while the candidate wasseen reading the question paper whenthe car turned. The driver and the can-didate then reached R Block of PunjabCo-operative Society, near JoharTown, and entered into a house. Later,the driver took the car to a house situ-ated at U block of Defense Housing Au-thority. On the other side, thesuspected examination staff of the cen-tre was also being watched by a specialteam. Team A, posing as people doinga routine check, entered into the exam-ination centre and found two linesblank in the attendance sheet. Afterthat, the team waited for the closingtime and packing of answer books. Andat that time, the team entered and

checked the bundle of the answerbooks and found that there was an at-tendance of 12 candidates but therewere 13 answer books in the sealedbundle which included the answerbook of Shanzay Sadiq which reachedthe centre at 12 noon. The superinten-dent confessed to her crime and sub-mitted in writing that she wasmanaging the whole episode. Dr Li-aqat said that the superintendent hadbeen blacklisted while an UnfairMeans Case had been registeredagainst the candidate. He said that aletter would also be written to Educa-tion Department to take departmentalaction against the assistant professor.He congratulated the investigationteam which unearthed the whole inci-dent after great hard work.

Emissaries from Vatican City visit PULAHORE: Archbishop, Enrico dal Covolo Mons, Prof Gianfranco Basti, DeanFaculty of Philosophy, Pontifical Lateran University, Vatican City with three fac-ulty members and Federal Minister of State for national Harmony, Akram MasihGill, on Friday, visited Punjab University and called on PU VC, Dr Mujahid Kam-ran, at the Committee Room of Undergraduate Study Centre. Director ExternalLinkages, Maria Maldonado, deans and heads of various faculties and depart-ments attended the meeting. The meeting discussed to promote inter-religiousand inter-cultural dialogue between the two societies. Addressing the meeting,Dr Mujahid Kamran said that the threat had come from two things including in-vention of weapons of mass destruction and excessive concentration of wealth ina few hands. He said that a cabal of international bankers had introduced andimplemented the system of usury which was forbidden both in Islam and Christi-anity and had divided mankind. He said that love was common in all the reli-gions and mutual interaction promoted peace and better understanding of eachother. Prof Basti said that they were working on inter-cultural and interfaith har-mony and he was visiting Pakistan to promote it at an academic level. He saidthat there was a need of exchanging scholars to face universal challenges. Gillsaid the government was committed to protect the rights of minorities and it wasits top priority. Principal Oriental College Prof Dr Mazhar Moeen said that thepicture of Pakistan was much better than the image being portrayed by mediaoutside. He said that under the dynamic leader of Vice Chancellor, an Institute ofLanguages had been setup which was serving the same cause. Staff RepoRt

PU nabs superintendent,BSc candidate red-handed

g CM praises doctors, nurses for countering dengue outbreak g welcomes resolution on NAto supplies, stresses complete implementation


low

high

190CSUNDAy MoNDAy tUeSDAy31°C I 20°C 32°C I 20°C 33°C I 21°C

PrAyer tIMINGSFajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

04:12 05:36 12:12 15:40 18:31 19:56

CIty DIreCtory

reSCUe 1122

eDhI CoNtrol 115

MotorwAy PolICe 130

PolICe 15

GoVerNor’S hoUSe 99200081-7

ChIeF MINISter’S hoUSe 99203226

FIre BrIGADe 16

BoMB DISPoSAl 99212111

MCl CoMPlAINtS 99211022-29

lAhore wASte DISPoSAl 1139

eMerGeNCy helP

hoSPItAlS

BlooD BANK

FAtMID 35210834-8

ISlAMIC AllIANCe 37588649/37535435

CoMPlAINt

wAPDA 111-000-118

SUI GAS 1199

rAIlwAyS

CIty StAtIoN (eNQUIry) 117

reSerVAtIoN 99201772

rAIlwAy PolICe 1333

AIrPort

FlIGht eNQUIry 114

PIA reSerVAtIoN 111-786-786

ColleGeS / UNIVerSItIeS

PUNJAB UNIVerSIty 99231257KINNAIrD ColleGe 99203781-4QUeeN MAry ColleGe 36362942GoVt. ColleGe UNIVerSIty 111-000-010UMt 35212801-10lUMS 35608000Uet 36288666lCwU 99203072SUPerIor ColleGe 111-000-078

MID CIty 37573382-3

SerVICeS 99203402-11

MAyo 99211100-9

GeNerAl 35810892-8

SheIKh ZAID 35865731

SIr GANGA rAM 99200572

UCh 35763573-5

ItteFAQ 35881981-85

CMh 366996168-72

ShoUKAt KhANUM 35945100

JINNAh 111-809-809

ADIl (DeFeNCe) 36667275

ChIlDreN’S 99230901-3

DeFeNCe NAtIoNAl hoSPItAl 111-17-18-19

YOGA AND MEDITATION CLASSES

DAte: APrIl 01 to DeCeMBer 30, 2012VeNUe: FAIZ GhAr, lAhore

A unique blend of yoga, Meditation, Neuro-linguisticProgramming, Sufism & more.Achieve self-insight, mind-body harmony & betterhealth.

yoga Master Shamshad haider

DANCE FACTORY - LADIES

DAte: MArCh 19 to AUGUSt 29, 2012VeNUe: the KNowleDGe FACtory (tKF)

PArtly CloUDy

weAther UPDAteS

27°C


Lahore

100 GHAZALS OF MAULANA RUMI

hast-o-Neest Centre for traditional Art & CultureInvites you to its Monthly Saturday Sitting withJanab Ahmed Javed Sahib(Director, Iqbal Academy Pakistan)on 100 Ghazals of Maulana rumi3:30 to 5:00 pm, last Saturday of every month

DAte: MArCh 31 to DeCeMBer 29, 2012 VeNUe: hASt-o-NeeSt CeNtre, lAhore

Bored of usual dance routines? Fitness workouts comewith a 'yawn'?! whether you know how to shake ornot, this's the place to bring your groove! learn tofollow the rhythm, let loose, how to catch new stepsand master old ones. Mondays and wednesdays: 7-8pm, Per Session: 500 only!, Monthly: PKr 2,500/-

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

THE recent initiative of the Punjab governmentof distributing laptops amongst thousands ofbrilliant students of public colleges and uni-versities across the province has met withgreat success. This initiative helps bridge the

digital divide between the haves and have-nots, in termsof providing access to tools of modern education.

The distribution of laptops to deserving young peo-ple is important in that it helps foster the growth oftechnology and uses IT as a means for social and eco-nomic development. In connection to this, the decisionof the government to use open source software is a boldchoice that encourages a fresh learning processamongst our students, promotes innovation and showsa new way forward where dependence on proprietarysoftware is no longer necessary.

Transparency and merit has been ensured in thepurchase and distribution of laptops in accordancewith the policy of Punjab government, laptops arebeing given to the students in recognition of their tal-ent so that they could play their due role in the de-velopment of the country after acquiring latestknowledge. Education department orgovernment has no concern withthe distribution of lap-tops, heads ofe d u c a -

t i o n a linstitutionsprepare lists onmerit basis and theselists are on display at thewebsite. The list of those stu-dents who have been given laptopswill also be placed on the website alongwith the serial number of the laptop. If anycomplaint is received anywhere, it is addressed im-mediately. The complaint about two candidates in Ba-hawalpur is mentioned here, the matter was investigated, onewas an official of 1122 and the other was employee of police depart-ment and they had been dismissed from service due to submitting wrong

affidavit and their laptops were confiscated.A scheme titled “Advancement of Information Technology amongst

students through provision of laptop computers” is included in the ADP of

SchoolEduca-t i o n

Depart-ment for

the fi-n a n c i a lyear 2011-

12 at Gr Srno 12 with

an alloca-tion of Rs2 0 0 0 . 0 0 0

million. Themajor targetsof the project

are provisionof laptop com-

puters and ITenvironment tothe students.Funds of thisproject are beingutilized for the

same purpose asreflected in the An-

nual DevelopmentProgramme 2011-12

and no change has beenmade in the scope of the proj-

ect. As many as 25 lakh boy andgirl students are getting computer

education every year in the provincethrough IT promotion programme of Chief

Minister Punjab. The amount of Punjab Educa-tional Endowment Fund which was started initially

with an amount of Rs.2 billion has now increased toeight billion rupees, financial assistance is being provided

to 35 thousand deserving male and female students for highereducation under this fund.

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Young doctors from south Punjab on Fridayjoined the strike being observed at public sectorhospitals after the Punjab Young Doctors Asso-ciation gave the call for the strike, starting fromthe provincial metropolis’ hospitals.

The outpatient departments of all publichospitals remained closed causing inconven-ience to thousands of poor patients.

In a statement issued on Friday, the YDAPakistan condemned the victimisation of theyoung doctors by the Punjab Health Departmentand said accused the health department officialsof plotting against the political government bypitting the doctors and politicians against eachother

They said the health department did nothave a computerised record of the number ofdoctors working at the hospitals, their dates ofappointments and work experience.

The YDA stated that four sections of healthdepartment dealt with young doctors and had astaff of 16 people who refused to solve the doc-tors’ issues until they were paid bribes.

They added that the doctors were transfered

and posted favouritism and not on merit.They said senior doctors were kept waiting

outside the health department offices and thatthese seniors were also a part of the protest.

However, Chief Minister’s Special Assistanton Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said the YDAstrike was unethical and unjustified.

He stated that the doctors had misbehavedwith senior doctors and that their step of haltingwork cannot be permitted in a civilised society.

He said this while briefing the media aboutthe strike at the King Edward Medical Universitycommittee room.

KEMU Acting Vice-Chancellor Prof AsadAslam Khan, Special Health Secretary DawoodBareach and Mayo Hospital MS Dr Zahid Pervaizwere also present on the occasion.

Rafique slammed the allegation that doctorswere not transferred on merit.

He said the doctors who had been trans-ferred have been replaced by 436 new trainees.

He stated that doctors have been transferredto the PIC, Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital, MianMunshi Hospital and Government Said MithaHospital and that no one has been posted out ofLahore.

Replying to a question, Rafique said instead

of taking strict action, the government is tryingto convince the doctors to call off their strike.

He stated that the Supreme Court has issuedinstructions that prohibit the doctors from strik-ing.

Bareach said the health department has notdismissed any doctor and that they have beenprovided jobs in hospitals nearest to Lahore.

He stated that the transfers were made inconsultation with the law and after obtaining theapproval of a summary by the Punjab chief min-ister.

He added that like other government em-ployees, the doctors are also transferred everythree years.

He invited the YDA to resolve their problemsthrough dialogues with the health department.

He disclosed that three Lahore hospitals,namely Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital, Govern-ment nawaz Sharif Hospital and GovernmentSaid Mitha Hospital are being given the status ofteaching hospitals by affiliating them with theKing Edward Medical University.

He said better treatment facilities will beavailable to the underprivileged people living inthe southern parts of Lahore as specialist doctorswill be posted in these hospitals.

Doctors from southern Punjab join YDA’s strikeg Strike unethical and unjustified: Khawaja rafique

Laptop distribution a success


LAHOREStaff RepoRt/aGenCieS

The national Accountability Bureau(nAB) on Friday recovered 400 tonnesof iron scrap stolen from the PakistanRailways. The scrap was recoveredfrom four people after the police actedon information provided by Zahid Butt,who was arrested earlier for his in-volvement in the theft.

The Railway Police recovered 230tonnes of iron scrap during a raid on awarehouse owned by Zahid Butt.

The accused then disclosed the lo-cation of another warehouse where 400tonnes of the metal had been stashed.

The police then arrested four morepeople, who were said to be relatives ofa well-known political personality.

The nAB has already arrested Rail-ways General Manager Saeed Akhtarfor embezzling the funds obtained fol-lowing a sale of railway scrap. PAS TO HOLD ALI GOHAR MyS-TIc SHOW: The Pakistan Associationof Sufism (PAS) will hold the Ali GoharMystic Show on Saturday 14 April at theAl-Hamra Hall.

The show is a part of a series ofevents planned by the PAS to promoteSufism.

The show will introduce the publicrelations expert, poet and seasonedwriter, Liaqat Ali Gohar as a Sufi per-former. He will sing his own Sufi poetryon the occasion, followed by an exclu-sive chapter from ‘Kalaam-e- HazratSultan Bahu’ as well as the ‘ArefanaKalam’ of Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah andMadho Lal Hussain Shah. A group of

likeminded profes-sionals have formed

the Pakistan Association of Sufism tointerpret and apply Islam in the waythe Sufis of the subcontinent did.

The association believes that theSufi approach towards religion can helpcurb extremism, corruption and anxietyin the society.

The participants of Ali Gohar Showwill also pay homage to the later Sufisinger Iabal Bahu.LHc MOvED AGAINST yOuNGDOcTORS’ STRIkE : A petition,seeking action against the young doc-tors for observing a strike, was filed inthe Lahore High Court (LHC) on Fri-day. The petitioner submitted that theyoung doctors wanted to create a statewithin a state and were defying thecourt’s orders. The petition added thatthe strike had left the patients in a stateof perpetual mental stress.

The petitioner requested the courtto issue orders for the initiation of ac-tion against the young doctors for vio-lating its orders. PR DENIES INcREASE IN PAS-SENGER fARE: The Pakistan Rail-ways has denied news regarding a 25percent increase in passenger fares ap-plicable from April 2012.

According to a press release issuedon Friday, passenger fares were in-creased on March 15th and freight andparcel rates were increased on January21st of this year.

Railway authorities explained inthe press release that despite the in-crease in fuel prices from April 5th, thepassenger, parcel or freight rates willnot be increased to absorb the rise in fi-nancial expenditure.

It said that the department was try-ing to improve its existing facilities to

attract more customers and to reduceits deficits.Pu STuDENTS SHINE IN ALLPAkISTAN JINNAH BILINGuALDEcLAMATION cONTEST: PunjabUniversity students have won the teamtrophy in All Pakistan Jinnah BilingualDeclamation Contest 2012, organizedby Government College University,Faisalabad.

Hamza Tarrar, a student from In-stitute of Business Administration got1st position in Urdu Debate whileMisha Batool from Institute of Commu-nication Studies got 3rd position inEnglish Debate contests.

PU Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dr Mu-jahid Kamran, has congratulated stu-dents to earn fame for the varsity andhoped that their performance wouldcontinue in future. The other partici-pating teams were GC University La-hore, University of Sargodha, KingEdward Medical University Lahore,Punjab College of Commerce Lahore,Gomal University DI Khan, PunjabMedical College Faisalabad, nationalTextile University Faisalabad, nFC Col-lege of Engineering Faisalabad, Univer-sity of Lahore, University of AgricultureFaisalabad and Government CollegeFaisalabad.

Meanwhile PU VC will participatein a ceremony “An Evening with ZahidMalik”, which will be held on SaturdayApril 14 at 03:00 pm at Alhamra Hallno 3. Mohsin-e-Pakistan, Dr AbdulQadeer Khan, will preside over thefunction which will be addressed by,SM Zafar, Prof Sajid Mir, Dr ShafiqueJalandhri, Dr Mujahid Mansoori, Atta-Ul-Haq Qasmi and others will alsospeak on the occasion.


Lahore

CINeMA FIlM tIMeCINe StAr hoUSeFUll2 02:00 PMPh: 35157462 tItANIC 05:00 PM

hoUSeFUll2 08:30 PMhoUSeFUll2 11:30 PM

CINe GolD hoUSeFUll2 12:00 PMPh: 35340000 hoUSeFUll2 3:00 PM

hoUSeFUll2 6:00 PMhoUSeFUll2 9:00 AMhoUSeFUll2 12:00 AM

SoZo worlD hoUSeFUll2 12:30 PMPh: 36674271 hoUSeFUll2 4:00 PM

hoUSeFUll2 7:00 PMhoUSeFUll2 10:00 PM

SoZo GolD the hUNGer GAMeS 12:00 PMPh: 36674271 hoUSeFUll2 02:30 PM

hoUSeFUll2 05: 30 PMhoUSeFUll2 08: 30 PMhoUSeFUll2 11: 30 PM

Stray bullet kills teenLAHORE

Staff RepoRt

A stray bullet claimed the lifeof a 16-year-old girl whileshe was sleeping on the roofof her house in the Shahdrapolice precincts on Friday.

The police shifted thebody to the morgue and reg-istered a case against un-known people. The victimwas identified as Ayesha, aresident of Abbas nagar.

She was sleeping on herrooftop when a stray bullethit her in her head.

Her parents, alerted byher screams, rushed her to alocal hospital where she suc-cumbed to her injuries a fewhours after her admittance.

The local police, afterbeing informed of the inci-dent, reached the scene, col-

lected forensic evidence andshifted the body to themorgue for autopsy.

Woman burnt to death:A 28-year-old woman, whohad been burnt in the in thenawankot police precincts,succumbed to her injuries ata hospital on Friday. The po-lice shifted the body to themorgue for an autopsy aftersuspecting the involvementof her family members.

The victim identified asAasia, a resident of ShahFarid Darbar, had beenburnt while cooking food onWednesday. She was rushedto the Mayo Hospital whereshe died on Friday. She issurvived by a widower and ababy girl.

Further investigationsinto the incident are under-way.

EPD and WASA will clean River Ravi

Group Captain Cecil

Chaudhry passes awayLAHORE: CecilChaudhry (retired),a veteran of Pak-istan Air Force,died at Lahore,today. Air ChiefMarshal, TahirRafique Butt, Chiefof the Air Staff,Pakistan Air Forceexpressed his ex-

treme grief on the demise of a PAF legend.The CAS has extended their deepest sym-pathies and profound condolences to hisfamily over the sad demise of the greatfighter pilot and true patriot. He was takenas the beacon of inspiration for all ranksand files of Pakistan Air Force.Cecil Chaudhry was a legendary of Pak-istan Air force who participated in a num-ber of aerial battles during the . He wascredited with several air-to-air kills andwas one of the distinguished Pakistanistrike and fighter pilots of the period. Cecilshowed his true colours in the Indo-Pakwars of 1965 and 1971, by displaying out-standing professionalism, unflinching de-votion and exemplary courage. Theservices rendered by the legend were be-yond the call of normal duty and con-tributed a significant share towards PAFachieving air superiority during the Indo-Pak war of 1965. He was part of the fa-mous attack formation which wasresponsible for the destruction of Halwaraairfield and the Amritsar radar in 1965war. In recognition of his meritoriousservices, he was awarded with and Sitara-i-Basalat. Cecil was born on 27 August1941 in a Roman Catholic family of the vil-lage , located in the . He joined the PAF onMarch 12, 1958 and got commissioned inthe GD (P) branch on 26 June 1960. Dur-ing his career in Pakistan Air Force, hecommanded two Mirage squadrons andCombat Commanders School (CCS).

Inter-faith harmonynecessary for globalpeace: MinisterLAHORE : Federal national HarmonyMinister Akram Masih Gill said on Fridaythat his ministry was created to strengtheninter-faith harmony as well as for the pro-tection of the rights of minorities.He was speaking as the chief guest at aninter-faith dialogue attended by PontificalLateran University Faculty of PhilosophyDean Prof Gianfranco Basti and PontificalLateran University Director Prof MobeenShahid among others, at the Punjab Uni-versity Vice-Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kam-ran’s office. Gill said his ministry couldarrange scholarships for students andteachers to visit the Pontifical Lateran Uni-versity. Prof Gianfranco said his depart-ment was committed to deepening theunderstanding of scientific and philosophi-cal concepts. He stressed that sustainedinter-faith dialogue is vital for harmonyacross the world. Dr Kamran said differentmethods, like research, student exchangeprogrammes, seminars and lectures couldbe used for promoting inter-cultural andreligious harmony. He stated that the Pun-jab University would like to be an activemember of such initiatives. PU facultymembers, including Prof Dr Rafiq Ahmad,Khawaja Amjad Seed, Dr Shahid Kamal,Prof Abid, Shumaila Akhater, Rahatnaveed and Prof Abdul Hafiz also attendedthe function. Later, the vice-chancellor pre-sented souvenirs to the members of thevisiting delegation. app

ChelUMChelum of Somana Agha, wife of ColonelMehmood, daughter of Shireen Khan for-mer Director Labour Balochistan, daugh-ter-in-law of Agha Muhammad Ali formerDIG Prisons Punjab will be held at 11am onSunday, April 15 at 53-B Askari 5 HousingComplex Gulberg III, Lahore.

g Inspections reveal high pollution levels from wastewater discharge g wASA yet to install water treatment plant

LAHOREYaSiR haBiB

PUnJAB Environment Protec-tion Department (EPD) Sec-retary Saeed Iqbal Wahlahsaid in a meeting on Fridaywith EPD officials, that he

will coordinate with the Water and Sani-tation Agency to clean all the wastewaterdrainage outlets in the city.

The plan came into action after theEnvironment Protection Agency (EPA)conducted an inspection of the waste-water drainage outlets managed byWASA. A special squad comprising ofEPA Director General Maqsood AhmedLak, EPA Director nasim-ur-Rehmanand other EPA officials conducted the in-spection.

The squad visited all the wastewaterdrainage points at various locations of

Lahore and observed that untreated mu-nicipal and industrial wastewater is beingdischarged into River Ravi through nineoutlets, namely Sukh nehar, MehmoodBooti, Shad Bagh drain, Forest Colonydrain, Buddha Ravi Drain Shafiqabad,Outfall Drain Saggian Bridge, Gulshan-e-Ravi drain, Babu-Sabu drain,Farukhabad Shahdra drain and ShahdraPind drain.

Secretary Wahlah took serious noticeof the issue in the meeting and directedthe EPD officials to conduct a field visitand submit a report that would help theEPD to reach a conclusion on the state ofpollution in the River Ravi.

On the basis of the findings of thefield visits, the EPA has issued a notice toWASA MD to appear before the EPA Di-rector General.

Wahlah also directed that actions beinitiated under Section 16 of Pakistan En-

vironmental Protection Act, 1997, accord-ing to which, a case will be referred to theLahore Environmental Tribunal.

Wahlah nominated a special squadunder the chairmanship of Ahmed Lakfor the regular monitoring of the state ofpollution in the Ravi.

After its physical inspections of thedrainage channels, the EPA has identifiedthat agglomerated, self developed settle-ments, unplanned industrial establish-ment, irregular sewage discharge,improper solid waste dumping in andaround the River Ravi from the narangRavi Syphon down to village Maraka, hasbadly damaged the environment and eco-logical balance of the river. Wastewatertests conducted at various occasions haveconfirmed that the water entering fromIndia is relatively less polluted and re-ceives its first chunk of pollution at Sukhnehar in Lahore.

The pollution reaches its peak oncethe river crosses the Hudiara Drain.

The River Ravi originates from Indiaand enters Pakistan near a village calledTadyal/Kot nainan, District narowal andflows for about 560 km before merginginto River Chenab at Tehsil Kabir Wala.

There is a wide variation in the riverwater flow with peak periods during Julyand August.

River Ravi is among the rivers whichfall under the Indus Water Treaty, 1960,jointly signed by Pakistan and Indiaunder the guidance of the World Bank.

The Ravi is also one of the most pol-luted rivers of the Punjab owing to the in-discriminate disposal of untreatedmunicipal sewage from Lahore as well asindustrial effluent from the industrialunits of Kala Shah Kaku, SheikhupuraRoad, Kasur, Township and the GulbergIndustrial Estate located in metropolitan

Lahore. 32 industries as well as the Lahore

University of Management Sciences haveinstalled wastewater treatment plants sofar.

Keeping in view the dire conse-quences of environmental pollution, theEPD has emphasised the need for the in-stallation of wastewater treatment plantson the River Ravi drainage points. WASALahore is being persuaded to control thepollution in the River Ravi, caused by thewastewater generated in Lahore, throughthe installation of municipal waste watertreatment plants at different locations.

However, WASA has plans to con-struct only one treatment plant at SatuKatla and has managed to acquire 7300kanals for this purpose. Although the en-vironmental impact assessment of theproject has been conducted, the treat-ment plant has yet to be installed.

400 tonnes of stolen railway scrap recovered



Lahore

activists of Jamiat talba-e-islam hold a protest in support of their demands outside lahore press Club. ONLINE

AtC convicts 6 accused in Arshadkidnapping case

LAHOREapp

An Anti Terrorism Court on Fridayawarded death sentences on two countsto six accused involved in Dr Arshad’skidnapping case.Dr Muhammad Arshad, owner of High-Tech Feed, had been kidnapped at gun-point along with his BMW-car and driverfrom Township area here on July 8.The businessman was released by thekidnappers after they got Rs 50 millionas ransom. Later, Shadman police hadregistered a case and arrested Shahidand others on the charge of kidnappingDr Arshad besides recovering ransommoney.On Friday, ATC Judge, MuhammadAzam, after hearing the arguments con-victed the accused including Shahid,nazeer, Bilal and others and awardeddeath sentences to them on two counts.The court also fined them Rs 150,000each and ordered to confiscate theirproperties.

DCo for allotmentof shops on merit

LAHOREapp

Lahore District Coordination Officer(DCO) noor-ul-Amin Mengal said theallotment of shops at the Kacha fruitand vegetable market will be made onmerit. He expressed these views whilepresiding over a meeting regarding theKacha fruit and vegetable market, at hisoffice on Friday. The DCO said the construction of themarket will be completed as early aspossible and that all the departmentsconcerned should cooperate to ensurethe completion of the state-of-the-artmarket. Mengal stated that the roadsconnected to the market will be com-pleted by May 30th. He stressed theneed for the utilisation of all the re-sources available to facilitate the shop-keepers. The DCO was informed that131 acres of land has been obtained forthe market. Mengal also directed that acriterion be devised for allotment ofshops and that advertisements be placedin newspapers in this regard. He alsocalled a meeting of the auction and al-lotment committee on next Tuesday.

New trade gate opened at Wagah borderLAHORE

inp

Deriving encouragement from the im-provement in bilateral ties and to give aspur to people-to-people contact andtrade, India and Pakistan, on Friday,opened a modern trade gate, equippedwith a dedicated passenger terminal andsprawling cargo facility.

Punjab Chief Minister, ShahbazSharif, accompanied by Commerce Min-ister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, and otherdignitaries from Pakistan, inauguratedthe new trade gate.

From the Indian side, Home Minis-ter, P Chidambaram, along with Com-merce and Industry Minister, AnandSharma, and Indian Punjab Chief Minis-ter, Prakash Singh Badal, opened theirIntegrated Check Post (ICP).

Talking to media, Shahbaz Sharif,welcomed the initiative taken by boththe neighbouring countries to boost bi-

lateral trade.Experts were of the view that it

would prove beneficial for bilateraltrade, which was expected to grow afterPakistan removed restrictions on im-ports from India last month, shiftingtrade from negative to positive listregime. According to Indian media, itwas the first of its kind Integrated CheckPost (ICP).

ICP comprising 118-acre passengerterminal, manned by immigration staffis equipped with 16 baggage X-ray scan-ners.

It also had a 4,700 square metrecargo handling facility and 55,000square metre parking space. With thehelp of 230 close-circuit TVs, the areawould be guarded by Indian Border Se-curity Force, officials said.

Excepting about 1200 items, Pak-istan now allowed import of all other In-dian goods even as only about 135 itemswere allowed through land route.

thunder causesmalfunctioning ofon-trial unit of Jinnah Project

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Pakistan Water and Power DevelopmentAuthority (WAPDA) spokesperson statedthat malfunctioning occurred in Unit no2 of the under-construction Jinnah Hy-dropower Project yesterday afternoonreportedly due to thunder and lightning.The unit was on a test run for the lastweek and was yet to be formally commis-sioned. The spokesperson said that theJinnah Hydropower project is being con-structed by a Chinese company. He saidthat malfunctioning of the unit would in-flict no monetary loss to WAPDA or theGovernment, as the project was still withthe contractor, and as such, responsibil-ity of any rectification or replacementwhatsoever lies with the contractor asper contractual obligations.

Kinnaird College to hold annualdrama festival

LAHOREapp

The Kinnaird College for Women naja-muddin Dramatics Society is organisingits annual Drama Festival from April19th. According to organisers, the uni-versities participating this year includeUET, LUMS, BnU, nCA, USA andFAST. The festival provides an opportu-nity to students from various universi-ties to present their skills for dramaticson the platform provided by the naja-muddin Dramatics Society.The event will continue till April 21st.

DCo for maintenance of water filtration plants

LAHOREapp

DCO, noor-ul-Amin Mengal, has orderedthe district administration to ensure themaintenance of water filtration plants inthe city to provide clean drinking waterto the people. Chairing a meeting to re-view the provision of drinking water tocitizens at his office on Friday, he saidplants had been installed to provideclean water to citizens and their mainte-nance was the responsibility of the dis-trict administration. The DCO said thatfilters of the plants should be changedjust before the due date. He ordered FIRsagainst firms which did not change filtersafter due date. He expressed his displeas-ure at the complaints of. Water tapsbeing stolen from the plants and directedthe concerned officers that taps shouldbe welded with water plants.

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

PML-n has triggered analert on becoming unsafeimportant seaports andtrade routes passingthrough Gilgit-Baltistan,

Balochistan and Karachi with bad lawand order situation in these regionsdue to inefficiency and incompetenceof Zardari government.

PML-n newly-appointed media co-ordinator, Muhammad Mehdi, saidthat Gilgit, Balochistan and Karachiwere up in flames with mounting inci-dents of target-killing but it was a mat-ter of great concern that PPP-ledcoalition government was not address-ing the issue.

“Gilgit-Baltistan is a highly sensi-tive region as it is located in closeproximity with China, India and Cen-tral Asia where Frontier Constabu-lary, Gilgit Scouts and intelligenceagencies have their presence besidespolice and occasional watch by Pak-istan Army. It is also a very important

trade route. The same adverse situa-tion is spreading in Karachi andBalochistan. 40 percent of the world’soil makes its way through Gawadarport,” he added. He feared foreignpowers hands in spreading instabilityand bashed the government for notexposing them and restoring peace inthe conflicting areas.

Mehdi said that federal govern-ment had made its habit to flout SC or-ders, deny transparent accountabilityand blow the lid of corruption with im-punity.

Regarding Laptop scheme, he dis-pelled the corruption in the laptopscheme, saying each laptop costing Rs37,000 with a lot of incentives was thecheapest in the world

On query, he said that educationwas the top priority of the Punjab gov-ernment and it was expected thataround 7.3 million dropout childrenwould be re-enrolled to improve liter-acy rate in the province.

When the point was raised on Pun-jab government’s competence to gener-ate power, he said that Punjab got

operational eligibility to do so in July2011 and since then it had started a lotof power generation projects—govern-ment-funded and private-based inprovinces. These included 10 hydelprojects, 3 coal projects, a solar project,bio gas project and 250 sites at canal.“We also planned to start power gener-ation projects with sugarcane waste butthe federal government denied sover-eign guarantee,” he added.

He made it clear that no one shouldlive in illusions and if the apex courtgave any decision on the on-going dif-ferent cases against the government inthe near future, PML-n’s full supportwould be with the court.

Mehdi said that Pakistan was thecountry of 170 millions people and theruling class could not be a sole ownerof this country. “It is an unfortunatecondition since the present regime issteering the country towards chaoswithout an ounce of realization of thedire consequences,” he said adding thatthe allies of the ruling party were alsoequally responsible for this deteriorat-ing situation.

PML-N media coordinatorlashes out at government


Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected]. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

Editor’s mail 11Saturday, 14 April, 2012

local governmentAfter hearing a case about local gov-

ernment election, the Supreme Courtasked the provincial government ad-ministration to submit the schedule oflocal bodies’ election.

It is not clear if the Supreme Courtwill take any action against provincialsgovernments for not honouring the con-stitution, and avoiding holding the localbody’s election on clumsy excuses andunfounded reasons during the last fouryears.

It is ironic that a democraticallyelected political government is alwaysreluctant to hold local bodies’ electionin time.

Why does the civilian governmentnot want to empower the ordinary peo-ple at the grassroot level? Democracywill not be complete without local gov-ernments functioning.

Democracy with all it s weakness isstill considered the best system of gov-ernment, as it ensures the basic rightsof people to elect their representative torule them for a specific period of time.If the government fails to meet people’saspirations and expectations, people re-move the government with their voteafter the tenure of the government endswhich is five year in Pakistan.

Without local government, democ-racy is a sham, as it is not empoweringthe people at grassroots to from theirgovernment, to solve their problems re-lated to civic services, roads, schools,health, sports activities, social welfareactivities, matters related to lands own-ership etc at district or town level.

During the last four years, theprovincial government is depending oncivil bureaucracy to manage the localgovernment, instead of elected repre-sentatives.

The mindset of the bureaucracy isstill shackled by pre-independencemethodologies and hasn’t changedmuch. Its interest and loyalties are withthe ruling elite class, and they considerthe masses as commoners deserved tobe ruled by a more sophisticated classof people of the people.

S T HUSSAINLahore

Narcotics use on the riseAccording to statistics, hundreds of

thousands of people are joining theclub of drug users every year in Pak-istan. By this year, total drug users inthe country have reached up to abouteight million, out of which 1.5 millionuse opium, 750,000 are heroin addictsand 200,000 are drug-injecting userswhile 75,000 addicts are suffering fromHIV/AIDS.

One out of every 10 college/univer-sity students is a drug addict. In oneprominent private university inKarachi, many students were recordedas using ‘charas’. Over 50,000 streetchildren are involved in solvent sub-stance abuse in four major cities of thecountry.

About 40 percent of Pakistan’sprison population uses drugs. Morethan 200 women are addicted to harddrugs like heroin. Drug production forPakistan’s domestic market is esti-mated at $1.5 billion.

However, our law enforcementagencies have failed completely to putan end to this curse, which is fast be-coming a culture in our society. Whereis the end to this menace?

KHUSHNOODA TAHIRAKarachi

on organ donationI appreciate Sindh Institute of Urol-

ogy and Transplant (SIUT) and theTransplant Society of Pakistan (TSP).7th April was observed as 'Organ Dona-tion Day' by SIUT and TCP.

Transplant surgeons are of view thatour country is facing acute shortage ofcadaver organ donations and because ofthat around 50,000 lives are lost everyyear.

In countries like ours, it is very diffi-cult to start such positive activities.There are a lot of myths, superstitionsand misconceptions. In this modern eraof communication, dominant majorityof our intellectuals and the intelli-gentsia uses social media.

We can launch campaign to giveawareness and to encourage people fornational cause of cadaver organ dona-tion. Social media can prove to be an ef-fective tool for this national cause.Moreover, democratically elected headof state President of Pakistan Asif AliZardari pledged to donate his organs in2010.

It was a boost to this national cause.He is role model for all Pakistanis. He isco-chairperson of Pakistan's largest po-litical party. Hats off to President ofPakistan, who undermined all supersti-tions and myths attatched with cadaverorgan donation. President of Pakistancame forward and became a donor andset great example for others. He is anexemplar.

Leaders of all political and religiousparties need to follow him in order toboost our national cause. The head ofstate has become an organ donor, thenwhy not we common men?

Country's sports and media stars,community and religious leaders,judges, politicians, campaigners andcivil society activists must be inspiredby Zardari's exemplary act to furtherthis national cause. In my view, we allshould follow Zardari's footsteps and weshould pledge to donate our organs. Bydoing so we can save 50,000 lives ayear.

DR SAIFUR REHMANIslamabad

hooligans on campusI am the student of Federal Urdu

University Karachi. My education is atthe mercy of brainless party workers.not a single day passes when we don’thear about clashes between workers ofpolitical parties on campus. They notonly impede our education, they beat upinnocent students as well.

All the party workers are studentsbut they don’t even know how to protest.Whenever they protest, they damage theenvironment of the university. I hopethat ministers, politicians and high-upssee the issues here and I am sure theyare going to do something about it. Ifnot, it’s a pity they don’t realize the im-portance of education.

It’s impossible for students to studyin this environment where politicalworkers act like this. All the walls of uni-versity are filled with the chalking of po-litical parties which looks really bad. Weare the next generation of this countryand the concerned authorities shouldtake some action for the better future ofPakistan.

Political activities if carried withinthe democratic norms are admirable butif they veer into hooliganism, they mustbe stopped.

M MOHSIN SHAHBAZKarachi

the Siachen tragedy The Siachen tragedy that struck our

128 gallant soldiers and 11 civilians onApril 7, 2012 has no parallel in the his-tory of Siachen. The avalanche that tookin its fold hundreds of innocent souls hasleft innumerable women widowed, andmade hundreds of children orphans.

Our valiant soldiers have beencourageously guarding the frontiers oftheir beloved country, at a 17,000 feethigh peak close to four of the worlds 14peaks over 8,000 meters – K2, BroadPeak, Gasherbrum 1 and 2, since theearly 80’s.

Totally oblivious of the dangers theirlives are exposed to, 24 hours a day and365 days a year, they stand steadfast intheir mission to guard the frontiers oftheir country at Siachen. On the fateful

night of Saturday, April 7, 2012, whenthe treacherous 80 feet high and a kilo-metre long avalanche (snow slide) thatmercilessly came down on their camp-site, without any prior warning, most ofthem were in deep slumber. Even thosewho may have been on the vigil may nothave been spared.

What a catastrophe this whole tragicincident is. It has brought a wave ofshock and grief not only to the immediatefamilies and the kith and kin of thosewho have lost their lives in the tragedy,but also to the Pakistani nation and theentire world community.

A question that, however, arises is:Has the incident made any impact on thetwo parties involved in the Siachen con-flict? Are they now convinced that their

obstinacy, vis-à-vis the Siachen situation,has cost and is costing them heavily: bothin terms of valuable human lives as wellas monetarily?

According to figures quoted in a crosssection of the Pakistan media, Pakistan isspending approximately Rs 15 millionper day to maintain its forces at Siachen.At Rs 50 million per day, India is spend-ing approximately three and half timesmore than what Pakistan is spending. Isthis all justifiable? no, it is not. Particu-larly, when seen in the background of ab-ject poverty that persistently haunts alarge segment of its populace, neitherPakistan nor India could ever justify suchwasteful expenditure.

More importantly, the human livesthat are being lost and massive disabili-

ties that are being caused to the forces ofboth countries by unsafe weather condi-tions should be a matter of immense con-cern for both. Whatever has happened atSiachen during the past almost threedecades and the recent tragedy that oc-curred on the fateful night of April 7should be an eye opener for both coun-tries.

For the sake of humanity and in thelarger interest of the people of the twocountries, it is sincerely desired that rea-sonable elements at the helm in Indiaand Pakistan should immediately cometo the negotiating table and amicably re-solve the Siachen conflict, once and forall.

M FAZAL ELAHIIslamabad

Robberies galoreThrough your esteemed newspaper, I wish to draw atten-

tion towards the increasing robbery cases in Karachi. Where thecitizens of Karachi face many problems such as inflation, unem-ployment, load shedding and unmerciful environment, theyalso have to face the additional fear of robbers and thieves.

The snatching of mobile phones and money is increasingday by day. now, it is has become such a part of our daily life

that many people defeatistly accept it. For this purpose, neitherthe government nor the police authorities have taken any actionto control the increasing rate of street crimes. It seems likethese robbers and thieves are regulating this country. The con-cerned authorities must pay attention to this issue.

AREEBA HUSSAINKarachi

of political pygmiesEven the staunchest of ZAB’s critics

will agree that his weakness was notgreed for money but political power andhis likeness to surround himself withmen who dare not question his policies.

We all know fate of men of intellectand integrity such as J A Rahim, DrMubashir Hassan, Rasool Bux Talpur etc,whom he could not tolerate for long,when he was in power, in spite of theircontributions and political struggle tomake the PPP a party that could get intopower.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto preferred likes ofMasood Mahmood and Saeed AhmedKhan who roughed up J A Rahim. Per-haps this was the remnant of feudal up-bringing, which education and politicalexposure failed to overcome. It was hischoice of pygmies like Ch Fazal Elahi forrole of president and men like Kausarniazi, on whom he had files full to check-mate, if they dared to challenge his au-thority. At the end of day, when heneeded few men to stand up when the

going got tough, there was nobody thereto put up a fight and save him fromclutches of a dictator bent upon sendinghim to gallows, totally unmindful of thefact that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was after all,a legitimately elected Prime Minister ofPakistan.

Had Ch Fazal Elahi dared to stand upand not resign from his post of president,he could have saved Zulfikar Ali Bhuttofrom being hanged, using his powers of apresident, which were not revoked evenafter imposition of martial law.

What people in power forget is thatyou can only pump a limited amount ofair into a small balloon, before it burstsunder pressure, which is what happenedin the case of Ch Fazal Elahi, who Bhuttoappointed as president, never realisingthat when push comes to shove, he willfail to come up to his expectations.

This is a lesson from history, that no-body learns from it and those in powerthink that they are beyond approach andcan get away with their crimes, whichhistory tells us is never true.

The graveyards of this world are full

of such men, who amassed their ill-got-ten wealth, earned for themselves notori-ety and ill-feelings of their population,but never had opportunity to spend allthat they looted and plundered. AsifZardari and Gilani need to learn fromhistory, but will they?

GULL ZAMANPeshawar

heads examinedAmar Guriro wrote on 22-03-2012,

“The then defence secretary Bob Gateswrote in 2011, any future defence secre-tary who advises the president to sendbig American land army into Asia, or intoMiddle East or Africa, should have hishead examined.”

Hopefully, while writing, the replace-ment of Pentagon’s army with its con-tractors and available mercenaries andhanding over their duties and responsi-bilities to them was not in the mind ofGates.

Z A KAZMIKarachi

The 1973 constitution advocates civilsupremacy over military establishment.Unfortunately, Pakistan has been undermilitary rule for more than half its dura-tion and existence. Military takeover ofgovernment is based purely on intimida-tion and show of brute force, becausethere is no law which legitimises it, ex-cept law of necessity, which is what vali-dates a military occupation of anothercountry that it has defeated.

Martial law is always devoid of anymoral high ground or constitutional au-thority. Military dictators are not an-swerable for their excesses, nor is thereany system of checks and balances eitherthrough judicial intervention or throughforce of public opinion. This explains

why nepotism and rampant corruption isassociated with majority of militarytakeovers in the world. In the case ofPakistan, this country has either been in-volved in military adventures with ourneighbours, or obsessed with their con-cocted and outdated concept of strategicdepth and subjective view of national se-curity, which has always been in conflictwith majority public opinion and onlymade this country more insecure.

From the dismemberment of Pak-istan in 1971 to Zia-ul-Haq’s legacy of re-ligious fanaticism, coupled with sectarianand ethnic violence to Musharraf’s capit-ulation to a phone call by a Bush subordi-nate staffer, it is proof if any is requiredthat military rule has always harmed and

weakened a nation.We are witness to the economic

havoc wrecked on Turkey by a powerfulmilitary which had ruled it with an ironhand for decades and even managed toacquire this role by amending constitu-tion. Yet we have seen that in the pastfew years, an elected government led byhighly qualified men of integrity, estab-lish civilian supremacy with the power ofmassive public support. Had the Erdogangovernment been involved in financialscams, they could never have managed toassert civilian supremacy.

Unfortunately in Pakistan, ourelected civilian governments who havebriefly ruled this country, including thepresent elected civil government, have

failed to assert their civil supremacy be-cause of moral bankruptcy, being taintedwith corruption, abuse of power, poorgovernance record, financial mismanage-ment, and loss of public support. Anelected government derives power fromthe constitution and other than theirmoral and legal authority through rule oflaw, delivering justice etc, they will al-ways be culpable to blackmail, if they areinvolved in every scam such as recentshameful drug scam involvingEphedrine, fleecing poor Hajis, patronis-ing target killers and responsible for de-struction of Railways, PIA, Steel Mills,OGDC etc.

MALIK T ALILahore

on civil supremacy


Comment12Saturday, 14 April, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

When are the polls?

local bodies

In the backdrop of the tussle between the Supreme Courtand the federal government, comes a direction from thejudiciary challenging the provincial governments. Adirective to all the provincial chief secretaries to present a

schedule for holding local government elections afterdiscussing the issue with their respective governments.

And, as opposed to the tussle with the federal government,which is not against the institution of the federal governmentbut merely the party that runs it, this directive of the court’s isadversarial to the provincial tier institutionally. We just mightsee a rare show of unity by the governments, if not the people,of all four provinces.

The courts are right, of course. The local body electionsembody the spirit of democracy and there should be anadequate explanation by the provincial governments as to whythese are not being held. But the fact of the matter is that localgovernment is a provincial subject. It is up to the provincialgovernments to decide how to go about the whole process.

There is much leeway that the provincial governmentshave. not only can they decide the level of empowerment of thelocal governments, they can probably tweak around how to goabout electing them. They could, theoretically, even come upwith different frameworks to begin with if they really wanted.

To be fair, the courts would probably be fine with it if theprovinces were to present a case, any case, instead of not takingup the issue at all. KP could plead worsening law and order. Socould Balochistan. And, weakly, Sindh, with regards to SindhUrban, much to the dismay of the party that would probably“sweep” the area. The Punjab would find it difficult to present asimilar case.

With the monumental 18th Amendment, the provinceswere empowered enough to satisfy the decentralists. now thelatter have to show a similar grace themselves. If they want toconduct elections, they, probably could find a way around allthe hazardous factors impeding them.

It is in the interest of pro-people, pro-democracy politicaloutfits to conduct local body polls. This gives the electorate anownership of the political process, one that would, eventually,not take subsequent takeovers by, say, the military, lying down.

the recommendations come through

Success and challenges

Despite all the wrangling that has gone on, bothPML(n) and JUI(F) finally attended the joint sessionand agreed to vote for the amendedrecommendations of the PCnS. The revised policy

terms do not explicitly address the issue of nato supplies. Theprovision regarding Pakistan territory or its airspace not to beallowed for the transportation of arms and ammunition,however, implicitly allows the resumption of non-lethalsupplies to nato troops. What remains now is for thegovernment to take an executive decision in this regard.

The PCnS report has a long list of demands, the topmostbeing an end to drone strikes. Other demands include anunconditional apology for the attack, bringing thoseresponsible for the Salala killings to justice, assurances thatacts impinging on Pakistan’s sovereignty will not recur nor willthere be any overt or covert operations inside Pakistan. Thereport also foresees the end of foreign bases inside the country.The international community is required to provide greatermarket access to Pakistan’s exports in recognition of thesacrifices rendered by the country in the war against extremistmilitancy.

To encourage Gilani to take an early decision on theresumption of nato traffic, Washington will have to yield onsome of the demands to provide Islamabad some sort of facesaving. It remains to be seen what is acceptable to the US. TheObama administration considers the CIA-led drone campaign avital tool to dismantle the ability of Al-Qaeda and its affiliatesto target US interests. Washington maintains that the Salalaattack was the result of a series of mistakes and botchedcommunications on both sides. Action against the US soldierstherefore remains a difficult proposition. An apology from theUS, however, might not pose any problem. While Gilani hascalled the decision by the parliament a milestone, it is yet to beseen how many of its suggestions can be finally implemented.The recommendations requiring parliamentary endorsementof military to military agreements and MoUs would bring theimportant area under civilian oversight. The recommendationsregarding regional peace too would allow diplomacy a centralrole. Both are likely to be regarded historic if they areimplemented in letter and spirit.

Consensus, at laston the implications of the recommendations

whitelieSBy ess Aich

We hear that someone really high upwas very concerned that his son

should not participate in the parliamen-tary discussion on nato supply lineswhich was in progress. Insiders tell usthat the young MnA from Multan hadbeen told not to contribute this way or

the other on the topic. Apparently, some-one up there feared that it would earn thewrath of militant groups or it wouldannoy the US lobby.

It was a lose-lose situation which theyoung man was asked to avoid. Howeverwhat the VVIP forgot to instruct the son

some time ago was to also steer clear ofpharmaceutical companies from Multanand that landed him in real trouble. Thatis in a holiday resort in Cape Town wherethere is a friendly ambassador to playhost and no extradition treaty to houndhim.

After a period of almost fivemonths of tensions, finally aconsensus has been reached onrelations with the US and aconditional resumption of

nato supply routes through Pakistan. Aunanimous agreement by all political par-ties in the Parliamentary Committee on na-tional Security (PCnS) is no mean feat. Fullmarks to the chairperson of the committeeSenator Raza Rabbani and his politicalbosses to achieve unanimity in a dividedhouse.

Credit is also due to nawaz Sharif foronce again rising above narrow party inter-ests for the sake of national consensus. Inan overheated atmosphere of personal re-criminations and attacks being hurled ateach other between the PPP and thePML(n) during the past week, this is noth-ing short of a miracle.

The JUI(F) chief Maulana FazlurRehman also came around after a lengthymeeting with the president. Interestinglyenough, the US ambassador to PakistanCameron Munter became so desperate foran agreement that he had to meet nawazand the Maulana rather than continuing toengage them in behind-the-scenes diplo-macy.

The unanimous resolution adopted bythe joint sitting of the parliament albeit fullof platitudes is the most comprehensivedocument on foreign policy ever producedby a parliament of the country. Previously,it was only Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who as primeminister of a humiliated and dismemberedPakistan had the unanimous endorsementof the parliament to go to Simla in 1972fora peace deal with Indira Gandhi and engi-neer the return of 90,000 Pakistani prison-ers of war (POWs).

Prime Minister Gilani, the quintessen-tial consensus builder, addressing the jointsession has proudly proclaimed that thesovereignty of Pakistan will not be violatedby the US from now on. He disclosed that

President Obama had assured him - whenPM Gilani met him on the sidelines of thenuclear summit in Seoul last month - thatthe sovereignty and independence of Pak-istan will be respected.

Whether the US President will be ableto walk the talk and Pakistan will be in a po-sition to implement the resolution in ‘letterand spirit’ is a conundrum facing most an-alysts. For instance, the resolution statesthat there will be no more drone attacks onour soil and this is good to placate the op-position but might be difficult to achieve inpractical terms.

Drone attacks since the Salala incidenthave become fewer and far in between. Butdespite flawed rules of engagement result-ing in scores of innocent civilian casualties,they still remain the most potent weapon inthe hands of the US to kill high profileAfghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets in ourbadlands.

Given the Pakistani military’s under-standable reluctance to launch a putsch innorth Waziristan and a strict no-boots-on-the-ground policy, Washington entirely rul-ing out drone attacks sounds too good to betrue. On the basis of credible human andelectronic intel, the trigger-happy boys be-longing to CIA’s Special Activities Divisionbased in Orlando are bound to press the firebutton.

According to secret diplomatic cablesleaked by WikiLeaks last year, the COASGeneral Ashfaq Pervez Kayani not only tac-itly agreed to drone flights but also re-quested the Americans to increase them in2008. That was then. With the new rules ofengagement and the Shamsi airbase va-cated by the US after the Salala incident, itwill be interesting to observe how the chipswill fall now. With the stakes so high for theUS in Afghanistan it is difficult too imaginethat it will refrain from using this potentweapon in light of credible intel and the Pakmilitary’s inaction.

A watershed in Islamabad’s relationswith Washington was the killing of Osamabin Laden in his Abbottabad abode on May2nd last year. This was the ultimate humil-iation of the military and its premier intel-ligence agency the ISI as well as a seriousbreach of sovereignty by an ally.

It demonstrated the state of completedistrust between the US and its so-calledmajor ally in the war on terror. Has any-thing changed in the past year? Probablyrelations have deteriorated on all counts.Merely resumption of humanitarian natosupplies will not be able to repair the frac-tured relationship.

The PCnS has urged that Pakistanshould actively pursue gas pipeline projectswith Iran and Turkmenistan. Unfortu-

nately, these projects will remain apipedreams without Washington’s bless-ings. With Iran increasingly coming undermore stringent sanctions, where is themoney to build the pipeline going to comefrom? Under the threat of sanctions beingapplied, no foreign donor or even a consor-tium of Pakistani banks would touch theIran-Pakistan gas project.

In the committee’s view, the US-IndiaCivilian nuclear Agreement, reached dur-ing George W Bush’s Republican adminis-tration, has significantly altered thestrategic balance in the region. Therefore,it has urged that Pakistan should seek sim-ilar treatment from the US.

Judging by the budding strategic rela-tionship between new Delhi and Washing-ton, this is likely to remain a forlorn wish.India is fast acquiring the status of a mini-superpower being increasingly viewed as acounterweight to China’s growing militarymuscle in the region, both by Moscow andWashington. Recent acquisition of a nu-clear powered submarine appropriatelynamed Chakra from Moscow and America’sincreased presence in Australia are meantto keep China at bay in the Indian Ocean.

Islamabad cannot expect to have thecake and eat it too. Frayed relations withWashington will require a lot of time to re-pair. Without changing our strategic para-digm, it might not be possible at all.

Expressing its anger at the US incur-sion in Bajaur earlier this year, Pakistanboycotted the Bonn conference. In thechanged circumstances, Islamabad wouldexpect to be invited to the Chicago summiton Afghanistan due next month. Hencecoming weeks will determine whether Is-lamabad gets a place on the table determin-ing the future of post-withdrawal.

The domestic fallout of the resolutionof intent on foreign policy is not difficult topredict. The self styled Difa-e-PakistanCouncil and its cohorts in the media arebound to cry ‘sellout’.

However, the hardliners in the PML(n)and JUI(F) will have a tough time criticis-ing an agreement to which their partyheads are signatories. The militants un-happy over a deal with Washington canstep up their terrorist activities

Even the government might have bittenoff more than it can chew. The military hasgot what it had wanted in order to do busi-ness with the US. However, it will be diffi-cult to conduct day-to-day foreign policyand also keep the parliament completely onboard. In order for such a regime to work,some kind of multi-party parliamentaryoverseeing system will have to be evolved.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today

By Arif Nizami

Last week, when President Zardarispent a few days in Lahore boost-ing jiyala morale with Sultan Rahi

type one-liners, many aimed against hisPML(n) rivals, people did note a certaindevelopment in his entourage.

For instance, it was obvious that hispolitical secretary Rukhsana Bangashwas more than just a political advisor. Infact, she was doubling as a bodyguard aswell. Well-built and never one to spare ashout and a shriek, she was seen physi-cally managing his meetings telling sen-ior provincial PPP leaders how closethey could get to the president, whowould sit where and who was to get thestatus symbol seating. But it was herphysical activity that made a lasting im-pression.

She was seen flanking the presidentlike a bodyguard, clearing his path like abodyguard and even physically removing unwanted political en-thusiasts from his path just like a bodyguard. At one point evenRaja Riaz was made to realise where he stood in the equation.

That is not as important as Rukhsana Bangash and certainly notnext to President Zardari. Raja quietly obeyed instructions andleft the coveted seat.

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


Comment 13Saturday, 14 April, 2012

HRCP’s yearly reportskeep the public in-formed on the state

of the human rights in Pak-istan. The conclusions arebased on field research andare supported by facts, fig-ures and visuals. The presentreport which was published afew weeks back records theprogress made and goalsmissed during 2011. Studiedalong with the earlier reportscovering the years 2008,2009 and 2010 importantconclusions can be madeabout the record of theelected government.

First, the successesachieved. The last four yearswere marked by greater free-dom of assembly, expression,and movement. A new law onindustrial relations freed thetrade unions from some ofthe curbs imposed on indus-trial labour. The 18thAmendment passed in 2010acknowledged three morerights to the citizens: right toeducation, information andto fair trial.

The same year the Com-mission of Enquiry on Miss-ing Persons cited theintelligence agencies’ role inenforced disappearances. Forthe first time, the SC issuednotices to the agencies’heads. In 2011, with the rati-fication of a key child rightsinstrument, all core interna-tional treaties related tohuman rights stood endorsedby Islamabad. The progressrecorded over the last fouryears strengthens the viewthat even the worst democ-racy is better than a militaryrule, be it direct or indirect.

There still remains, how-ever, a formidable list of con-sistent failures. Both in thecase of the international in-

struments and domestic leg-islation regarding crucialrights, no attempt was madeto evolve an implementationmechanism. The 18thAmendment recognises freeand compulsory education asa right of the children be-tween age 5 to 16. What onesees happening on theground is the opposite. In thefiscal year 2010-11, the gov-ernment reduced the educa-tion development budget toRs 9.2 billion compared to Rs11.3 billion in 2009-10. OnFriday UnICEF PakistanRepresentative DanRohrmann told media thataround 20 million children inPakistan, including an esti-mated 7.3 million of primaryschool age, are not in school.

Involuntary disappear-ances continue to take place.Earlier those taken awaywere kept in illegal confine-ment, sometime for years.now there are complaints ofextrajudicial killings of thosekidnapped by the agencies.Another consistent failure isKarachi where incidents oftarget killings have peakedyear after year since 1988and lawlessness took a toll of1,715 victims in sudden flareups of violence in 2011 alone.

Given that criminalmafias enjoy increasing po-litical patronage, the reportgrimly states, “Weapons, andreliance on criminal ele-ments has become such afeature of the political scenethat only those having thesetools would be able to contestthe next elections inKarachi.” The Election Com-mission and the governmentshould pay heed to the obser-vation.

Despite considering itselfan enlightened party, the PPPlooked the other way in 2008elections when women werenot allowed to vote in certainconstituencies through anunderstanding between thelocal elders and the politicalparties. The complaints havecontinued during the subse-quent by-elections.

There is a persistent fail-ure in ensuring people’s rep-resentation at the grass rootslevel. It is ironic that while

local bodies elections are reg-ularly held under militaryrulers, elected governmentsusually shun them.

Suppression and oppres-sion of minorities and of allthose whose beliefs differedfrom those of the extremistscontinues as before. Promi-nent among the incidents isthe attack on the Christiancommunity in Gojra in 2009,the Ahmadi killings in Lahorein 2010, the killing ofSalmaan Taseer and ShahbazBhatti in 2011, and attacks onShia religious processionsand forced conversions ofChristian girls throughoutthis period. Despite claims ofproviding protection to theminorities, the governmenthas failed to stop the abduc-tion of Hindus for ransom inBalochistan and Sindh.

The HRCP report raisesvital questions that need tobe debated. Foremost is thequestion about the expand-ing role of the Supreme Courtand its possible impact on thejudiciary’s relations with theexecutive and parliament.Hasn’t the SC put more on itsplate than it can chew? Canthe SC simultaneously func-tion as an ombudsman’s of-fice, an administrative court,an anti-corruption tribunal,as a supreme investigationagency, as the sole defenderof not only the constitutionbut also of public moralitybesides doing its normal du-ties?

The report criticises asection of the media for pro-moting extremist agendas.The media suggested throughinsinuations that Taseer hadcommitted blasphemy bycriticising the blasphemy lawand deserved to be dealt withas a blasphemer. The mediaalso suffers from self-censor-ship as instead of reporting inan unbiased and responsiblemanner on major issues con-fronting Pakistan, the mediaoften prefers to stay quiet.Has this not happened in thecase of Balochistan and at-tacks on minorities?

The writer is a formeracademic and a politicalanalyst.

The manner in which the parliament has beenreduced to becoming a shield for advancingthe Machiavellian cause of the ruling mafia is

indeed reprehensible. The whole thing coming byway of a unanimous resolution at the joint sessioncasts serious aspersions on both the level of under-standing of the issue by those associated with thetask and their intentions.

Claiming that taking the onerous task of defin-ing the contours of the US-Pakistan relations to theparliament is, in any manner, a democratic under-taking reflects a continuation of the policy of usingan artificial apparel to promote a self-serving agendathat is rooted in accepting foreign patronage to de-fine Pakistan’s policies. Instead of wasting preciousmonths in debating the way the nATO supply routescould be re-opened, the question that should havebeen placed before the Parliamentary Committee fornational Security (PCnS) was Pakistan’s continuedparticipation in the so-called war-on-terror –whether it was to Pakistan’s advantage or detri-ment? The parliament should have debated the mat-ter in the overall context of the massive human lossand the grave economic cost that Pakistan has in-curred in the last ten years as a consequence of itbeing a frontline state in promoting the US agendain this region. Of course neither the government norits allies have the gall to stand up for Pakistan’scause. Instead, they are conspiring to exploit Pak-istan’s so-called democratic institutions to blur itsinterests.

Over the last few months, innumerable in-stances of the US citizens showing scantrespect to the law of the land have beendisplayed on the print on the electronicmedia. When stopped to prove theiridentity, these haughty individuals re-fuse even to talk to the law-enforcementofficials and keep sitting in their SUVsinsisting that they be allowed to moveon. And, on practically all such occa-sions, that is exactly the way it has endedup. So, how can a government that hasabjectly failed in forcing the ordinary UScitizens, most of whom may have enteredthe country illegally, masquerading asdiplomats, to submit before the rule oflaw ensure that it could force the US toabide by the stringent conditions con-tained in the resolution that may pavethe way for the re-opening of the nATOsupply route through Pakistan? Andwhat is the mechanism that would be fol-lowed in ensuring that all the conditionsare being met as prescribed? Also, giventhe government’s woeful credentials,who would be willing to repose trustthat, this time around, it would do thingsin any different manner? Obviously, theinitial euphoria will soon drown in thejuices of its grandiose pronouncementsbut, by then, much damage would havebeen inflicted on Pakistan’s totteringstature and the credibility of its so-called‘democratic’ institutions.

The incumbent rulers, at the centre

and in all the provinces, never tire of blaming thedespotic interludes for all that ails Pakistan includ-ing General Musharraf’s capitulation before a tele-phone call and plunging the country into the US-ledwar-on-terror. Well, they have been there for overfour years now. What have they done to undo thisgrievous wrong? What steps have been initiated topull the country out of a mess that has brought noth-ing but destruction to the national infrastructureand intense pain to its people who have not only losttheir dear ones, but whose futures and those of theircoming generations have been shattered? The econ-omy lies in tatters, the state institutions demonisedand its industry and homes plunged into darkness.Conditions or no conditions, the key question thatPakistan needs to address today is whether it shouldremain part of the continuing US-led drama in theregion. But the nRO-tainted government and its al-lies do not have the courage to re-define nationalpolicy in line with national interests. Using thecrutches of the parliament, they are only trying to‘legitimise’ Pakistan’s continued subjugation.

This, in no way, should be construed that Pak-istan does not need to fight extremism and addressall its root causes. But, this is a fight that Pakistanneeds to launch in earnest for its own survival andadvancement in the comity of nations, and not tofurther any external agenda.

What is feared is that now that the cocktail ofconditions is on the table which, understandably,would constitute the agenda for initiating a compre-hensive dialogue with the US, the government wouldproceed, ever so stealthily, to re-open the nATOsupply routes using the parliament as a leverage andstating that negotiations are continuing for imple-menting the entire repertoire of recommendations.This process would prolong to perpetuity while thecardinal purpose for which the drama was so elabo-rately enacted by the government would be effec-tively served. Don’t forget that it has less than twelvemonths left to complete its constitutional tenure.

national leaderships measure their words be-fore they speak. But once spoken, they don’t renege.Understandably, the nATO supply route was closedin the wake of the dastardly attack on the Salalacheck-post that resulted in the death of 24 soldiers.Thereafter, Pakistan has been insisting on an uncon-ditional US apology for the unprovoked massacrewhich has still not come. Instead, the US, after con-ducting two internal enquiries into the incident, hasrefused to pin blame on its side. Add to this the mas-sive damage that the transportation of heavy equip-ment has caused to the national infrastructure andthe billions that may be required to make it opera-tional again. What then was the need for enactingsuch high-profile drama to circumvent the originaldemand and create a new set of conditions for allow-ing the supply route to the US and its allies inAfghanistan to continue fighting a war that is onlyfeeding the extremist germs of hatred leading to fur-ther destabilisation of the country? Will the charadeever end?

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

time to address the larger problemSuccesses few; failures many

On the HRCP report The charade

Candid CornerBy Raoof Hasan

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad


14 Saturday, 14 April, 2012

NEWS DESK

Rock star Farhan Saeed finally released hismost awaited ‘Pi Jaon’ music video, whichalso features Pakistan’s emerging singerMomina Mustehsan. The music video hasgained popularity in Pakistani, India andworldwide for its magical underwatertheme. Famous Indian dancer and actress

Isha Sharvani stars in the ‘Pi Jaon’ videofor the underwater spell with FarhanSaeed. The video was filmed in new Delhi.Prahlad Kakar of Genisus Films produc-tions and director Kenneth Dawson has di-rected Farhan’s video and the underwatershots were taken by Sumair Verma. The‘Pi Jaon’ video was arranged and producedby Saad Sultan at the Sidereal Studios.

Lady Gaga comes

under fire for ‘glorifying’ anorexia

Farhan Saeed releases‘Pi Jaon’ music video

Imtiaz rootsfor ShahidMuMBai: It's true. Firstimpressions are almost always themost lasting. Director Imtiaz Aliand wife Preeti have decided tocast their blue-eyed boy ShahidKapoor as leading man in a filmPreeti is producing, which is aremake of the 2009 South Koreanflick ‘My Girlfriend Is An Agent’.Interestingly, Bosco of BoscoCaesar will make his directorialdebut with this film. A sourceclose to the project said, "Imtiazwas very happy with Shahid'swork in ‘Jab we Met’. Bebo and hegot a lot of taalis in the film.Shahid's role won many accolades.It wasn't an easy role but he did itwith so much conviction. eversince, Imtiaz has wanted to workwith Shahid. Preeti too loved hisacting in the film." As for Shahid,he has simply loved the offer, thesource revealed, adding, "themodalities are being worked out.he may not the remake of ‘Vettai’but he might just do this film forthem now.” aGenCieS

MuMBai: essaying the role of anathlete is not easy. After undertakinga rigorous regime to get into thecharacter of Milkha Singh, FarhanAkhtar will now have to work hard tolook like the 17-year-old sprinter inthe film ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’. this isthe time, during the 1950s, whenMilkha Singh was a 17-year-old armyrecruit. Said a source close to theproject: "Farhan worked really hard tolook at least 10 years less than hisactual age to look like Milkha in the1960s. Farhan would now have toknock off another 10 years from hisreal age to look like the 17-year-oldMilkha, the army-boy in the 1950s."Farhan, who spent a lot of timeresearching the army for his war film‘lakshya’, would undertake at least afortnight of on-the-spot training in anarmy cantonment to get the hang ofthat particular phase of Milkha'scareer. taking a breather fromshooting, director rakeyshomprakash Mehra said: "we're notlooking anywhere except at gettingthe on- screen Milkha as correctlyon screen as possible. It's not aboutjust looking like Milkha Singh orrunning like him. Farhan got thatright once when he trained for theathlete's phase in Milkha's life. I'msure Farhan would get it right againwhen we shoot another phase inMilkha's life." aGenCieS

SRK detained at New York airport

neW YoRK: Actor Shah rukhKhan has said he was detainedat New york's white Plainsairport by immigrationauthorities. Khan, 46, who was inthe US to deliver a speech atyale University, received a ChubbFellowship, the university'shighest honour on thursdayevening. the actor joked aboutthe incident in his speech. "It wasa long flight, we were detainedat the airport for an hour and ahalf, as always happens," Khansaid. "whenever I feel arrogant, Ialways visit America," he said tomuch laughter in the auditorium.Khan has faced immigrationtrouble before, being questionedat Newark airport in 2009. At thetime, the actor said he felt "angryand humiliated". on Friday,television channels quotedexternal Affairs Minister SMKrishna as saying India wouldtake up the issue with USauthorities. ReuteRS

FASHIONISLAMABAD: Models present creations on the third and last day of the Islamabad Fashion Week 2012. afp

LOS ANGELESaGenCieS

HA R -R U M P H -InG fanswant LadyGaga to eat

her words. The pop star isbeing ripped by twitterazziafter she tweeted a hashtagsaying that pop stars don'teat, quickly promptingfired-up critics to accuseher of glorifying anorexia.But what exactly did shewrite to incite such an ap-petite for anger? "Justkilled back to back spinclasses," Gaga tweeted."Eating a salad dreamingof a cheeseburger# P o p S i n g e r s D o n t E a t#IWasBornThisWay." The

post immediately rackedup a barrage of livid re-sponses. One user wrote,"dear @ladygaga, you justblatantly endorsedanorexia to over 22 millionfollowers. how do yousleep at night?" while an-other wondered, "@lady-gaga pick a side... Do youwant to promote beautifuland healthy kids, oranorexia?" One ex-fan

added, "unfollow @lady-gaga 4 her ignorant andstupid message to her fans#popsingersdonteat wowur a role model act like 1dont praise anorexia?"Even the American na-tional Eating Disorders As-sociation weighed in,tweeting, "Huh? This is thesame person who recentlyimplored girls to stop diet-ing?" Gaga herself 'fessedup to suffering from aneating disorder early in hercareer, but has since beenan outspoken advocate ofhealthy eating and youthempowerment. Guess thatvow of media silence shesaid she'd take didn't domuch to stop Gaga fromcooking up hearty servingsof headline-grabbers.

More painful timesahead for Farhan


15‘Believe’ it: Bieber, Swift team up for new song

L OS ANGELES: canadian pop star Justin Bieber hasteamed with country sensation Taylor Swift on a newsong for his upcoming third album ‘Believe’, thoughdetails were scant as the ‘Boyfriend’ singer keeps fans

guessing. Shrieking at this point is totally okay. Bieber told aBritish radio station in a recent interview that Swift was one ofseveral people he had worked with on ‘Believe’. "We workedwith Mike Posner for 'Boyfriend,' so that turned out well," hetold a radio station. "It's crazy. I mean, I even wrote a song withTaylor Swift, so the whole album ranges differently. With mymusic it doesn't only stay in a box. Everything is so differentand that's why I'm so happy with this album," he added.Bieber, 18, did not give the title of the song he wrote with Swift,22, nor did he say if the pair would sing it together. JB hasalso hinted at wanting to do something with Adam Levine."I think we need to do something on @NBcThevoice," hetweeted to the show coach. And continued with someupcoming news, "Next Tues @nbcthevoice Im gonna WORLDPREMIERE the first clip of the #BOyfRIENDvideo. Might alsoannounce some major #BELIEvE news too." ‘Believe’ isexpected to drop this summer and will also include the musicalsounds of Drake, kanye West, Timbaland, usher and Diplo. ReuteRS

LOS ANGELES aGenCieS

Hollywood’s A-list couple An-gelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arebuilding a huge eco-friendlytheme park for their six-strongbrood. The pair decided to goahead with the project in thegrounds of their chateau in theSouth of France after last Sep-tember's visit to Legoland inWindsor, Berks, was cut shortdue to security concerns in thecamp. "Brad and Angie felt re-ally bad having to drag the kidshome early when they were atLegoland last year. But iftheir bodyguards saidthere were too many peo-ple then they had nochoice," the Sun quoted asource as saying. "Theireldest son Maddox asked ifthey could build somethingsimilar at the house inFrance. They were alreadygetting a new pool so theydecided it was a greatidea," the source said.However, unlike MichaelJackson's neverland, mostof the park will be under-ground, with turf on topand will be powered by

sunlight, using panels in theroof and the water will be recy-cled. "Plans include a hugepartly underground eco-friendly theme park in the gar-den with the kids' favouriterides. "There's a massive pool,slides, tunnels, boat rides, a pi-rate island with a castle, a go-kart track and even anold-fashioned carousel. "Bradhas designed a mini train thatgoes around the wholegrounds and it's going to gothrough a door at the side ofthe new structure and intothe park," the source added.

JK Rowling announcestitle of first adult novelLONDON: Author JK Rowling has an-nounced her first adult novel will becalled ‘The Casual Vacancy’. The HarryPotter writer revealed in February thatshe was working on the book, and said itwould be "very different" from her pre-vious material. The book will be pub-lished worldwide on 27 September. "Thefreedom to explore new territory is a giftthat Harry's success has brought me,"Rowling said. The story is centred on thedeath of Barry Fairweather, whose unex-pected passing shocks the local villagersof Pagford. Publishers describe the taleas being "blackly comic, thought-provok-ing and constantly surprising". BBC

MuMBai: Aamir Khan is known for hisperfection as he believes in doingeverything from his heart. when all bigBollywood stars made their televisiondebut with game and dance reality shows,Aamir chose a different route. the actorwho loves to connect with the commonpeople thought of something unique thatwill involve everybody. "the show is foreveryone. It's an effort to understandourselves, to make our lives better. theshow gave me a chance to connect withcommon people from different states andcities," he said. Aamir unveiled the themesong ‘tera rang aisa’. Speaking about thesong he said, "I wanted a romantic songbecause I have love in my heart for mycountry, like every Indian. the song is sobeautiful; the lyrics will make you fall inlove." he further informed that eachepisode will have a song. he revealed thathe has been working on this show sincepast few years and shot just 13 episodesof ‘Satyameva Jayate’ as of now. Aamirdelayed his forthcoming films like ‘talaash’and ‘Dhoom 3’ for the show. he alsoinformed that the same channel earlierhad offered him to host a game show buthe chose something closer to his heart:"television is a powerful medium and Iwanted to use it properly. I have taken aroute which I understand. I am anentertainer. I am doing things which areclose to my heart, things I enjoy the mostwithout compromising with people'semotions," said Aamir. aGenCieS

Brangelina buildingtheme park for kids

Katrina Kaif follows Kajol

Johnny Depp performs with Marilyn Manson

at rock concert LOS ANGELES: Johnny Depp let outthe rockstar in him recently by display-ing his musical skills alongside MarilynManson on stage at a concert recently.The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star, 48,grabbed his guitar and joined Mansonon stage for a rollicking performance atthe Golden Gods Awards concert at Clubnokia. In true Depp style, he played itcool keeping his head low, almost to thepoint of being incognito. After runningthrough the song ‘Sweet Dreams’, Man-son, 43, shouted to the crowd, "If youdon’t recognise my personal friend, mypersonal saviour, my personal guitarhero, Johnny Depp,” The crowd roaredits approval. next they moved on toManson’s ‘The Beautiful People’. All thewhile Depp was straight faced, focusingon his playing, though he broke into anoccasional smile absolutely in control,but obviously enjoying himself. Theactor has been hanging out with rockstars lately. Back in February he chilledout with Paul McCartney and BruceSpringsteen at the Foo Fighters’ after-Grammys party. aGenCieS

Coldplay takes inspiration from

‘Kung Fu Panda 2’

LONDONaGenCieS

Coldplay frontman Chris Mar-tin says he and the rest of theband-mates are inspired bymovie ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’. The‘Fix You’ hit-maker, who haschildren Apple, seven, andMoses, six, with wife GwynethPaltrow, said his band Coldplayhas learned some importantlife lessons from the film. "Thebaddie sends an evil force rightinto Po’s head, but the lessonhe learns is how to turn thatforce around and send it backtwice as strong. It is a great way

to deal with negativity. We areinterested in turning negativesinto positives. In life it’s goodto learn how to take negativesand turn them into positives.Every time something like thathappens to us, we just flip itaround. It is a very good film,"he said. The band’s world tourkicks off in Canada later thismonth, and Marin said he isthankful Coldplay is still goingstrong 16 years after forming atuniversity. "We are so happy tohave our job at this point. Ifsomeone doesn’t like us wedon’t care. We care about thepeople who do like us."

MuMBai: Most men would want to someday fit intotheir father's shoes. But Aditya Chopra has not juststepped in but also gone steps ahead. Sources fromthe sets of yash Chopra's directorial comebackstarring Shah rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and AnushkaSharma reveal that the younger Chopra has notonly been keeping a tab on the production but alsohelping his father direct the romantic scenes in thefilm. According to the source, Adi was almost likehis father's chief assistant on the sets. "when lovescenes were being shot, Adi took over the direction.when yashji created the love scenes betweenrajesh Khanna and Sharmila tagore in ‘Daag’ orAmitabh Bachchan and Parveen Babi in ‘Deewar’, hewas closer to the actors' age. By the time, ‘Dil toPagal hai’ came around, yashji was morecomfortable with Adi directing the romanticsequences. And thus, even in this film, he has letAdi take over the mush part. So, while the dramaticscenes bear yashji's style the romantic scenesbetween Shah rukh and Katrina are heavilyreminiscent of Adi's ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge’,"said the source. when contacted, Katrina tooseemed happy with the way the love scenes havethus shaped up. "I'd like to think Shah rukh and Ishare the same on-screen chemistry as he did withKajol and Madhuri. I've learnt a lot by simplyobserving him especially in the romanticsequences." Shah rukh asked Katrina to ease upfor the romantic scenes by being the way Kajol wasin DDlJ. well, we sure hope that the DDlJ magicworks wonders for this film as well. aGenCieS

Won't compromise with people's emotions:

Aamir Khan


Saturday, 14 April, 2012

16 Foreign News

BEIRuTafp

SYRIAn forces shot dead threedemonstrators on Friday, astens of thousands marchedacross the country heedingcalls by the opposition to take

advantage of a hard-won Un-backedceasefire. Security forces opened fire at agroup of men as they joined a demonstra-tion in Assi square, killing one, the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights said.

Another demonstrator was shotdead in the village of nawa, in thesouthern province of Daraa, as hewalked out of a mosque to join a demon-stration, the Observatory said.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad also shot dead a man in the townof Salqin, in the northwestern provinceof Idlib, the centre added.

The head of the Britain-basedwatchdog, Rami Abdel Rahman, saidtens of thousands demonstrated in sev-eral provinces, a day after a Un-backedceasefire entered into force.

Protesters held rallies in the Qadamand Assali districts of Damascus, whileother demonstrations took place in the

towns of Irbin, and Bibla, outside thecapital, according to videos posted byactivists on the Internet.

The Syrian Observatory for HumanRights said demonstrations were organ-ised in towns and villages in the north-ern province of Aleppo, while protesterstook to the streets after the the mainweekly Muslim prayers in several neigh-bourhoods of Deir Ezzor, in the east.

The Britain-based watchdog saiddemonstrators hurled stones at securityforces in the Tariq al-Sadd district ofDaraa, south of Damascus, cradle of theprotest movement that erupted inMarch last year.

Sporadic clashes broke out betweentroops and rebel fighters at Khirbet al-Joz, on the northern border withTurkey, the Observatory said.

Violence on Thursday killed at least10 people, including seven civilians, andwounded dozens more. Among the deadwere two soldiers killed by rebels afterforces loyal to Assad attempted to breakup a demonstration in the centralprovince of Hama.

Even so, the toll is markedly lowerthan it has been in recent weeks, whenthere have often been scores of people

killed. After the ceasefire came intoforce at dawn Thursday, Annan declaredhe was “encouraged by reports that thesituation in Syria is relatively calm andthat the cessation of hostilities appearsto be holding.”

But as Assad’s government and therebels traded accusations of trying towreck the ceasefire, Annan insisted “allparties have obligations to implementfully the six-point plan.”

The Un mediator’s plan calls for thewithdrawal of forces from urban areas,the release of arbitrarily detained peo-ple, freedom of movement for journal-ists and the right to demonstrate.

Despite the regime’s commitment topull back, the spokeswoman for the op-position Syrian national Council, BasmaQoudmani, said “we have concrete proofthat heavy weapons are still in popula-tion centres.” The SnC, the most widelyrecognised opposition group in exile,and Internet-based activists called forpeaceful demonstrations across Syria totest the government’s readiness to ac-cept public shows of dissent.

“We call on the people to demon-strate and express themselves... Theright to demonstrate is a principal point

of the plan,” Burhan Ghalioun, head ofthe Syrian national Council, told AFP.

Qoudmani said: “The real test (ofthe ceasefire) will be if there is shootingor not when people demonstrate.”

The Syrian Revolution 2011 activistgroup also called on its Facebook pagefor protests on Friday — the Muslim dayof rest when the demonstrations havebeen the largest after noon prayers —under the rallying cry: “A revolution forall Syrians.” But Syria’s interior ministryinsisted people wanting to demonstratemust have permits.

“The right to demonstrate peace-fully is guaranteed by law. We call oncitizens to apply the law by requestinga permit before demonstrating,” said astatement carried by the official SAnAnews agency.

On Friday, the Un Security Councilcould vote on a resolution authorisingthe deployment of observers to monitorboth sides in a conflict, which the Ob-servatory says has cost more than10,000 lives since March last year.

An advanced mission of 20-30 ob-servers could be in place early nextweek, diplomats said. The full missionwould be at least 200 monitors.

OSLOafp

nine months after Anders BehringBreivik’s traumatic attacks, observerssay norway’s wounds have healed andits response has been in keeping withits long-held values of openness andtolerance.

The trial opens Monday of therightwing extremist who confessed tokilling 77 people on July 22, when hegunned down young people attending aLabour party camp after setting off abomb outside government offices in Oslo.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenbergsaid afterwards that “nobody will stopnorway from being itself”, and com-

mentators say the nation has respondedto the crisis without the sort of reactivelegislation adopted following attacks inother nations, such as the enhanced do-mestic wiretapping capabilities ap-proved by the United States in the wakeof September 11, 2001.

“We’ve returned to normality re-markably fast. And that’s good: it’s avery healthy sign,” said HaraldStanghelle, chief political editor fordaily newspaper Aftenposten.

“The only difference, perhaps, isthat we’ve lost our innocence, thatnow we know that this can happenhere too. It raised our consciousness,but without changing our behaviour,”he told AFP.

In what was either a sign of the pub-lic’s proximity to power in this oil-richnation with a generous welfare system, orelse just plain naivete, Breivik was able topark a truck loaded with explosives at thefoot of a building housing the prime min-ister’s offices.

Stoltenberg was absent at the time,but the explosion killed eight passers-byand employees.

Breivik then made his way to the is-land of Utoeya near Oslo, where hespent more than an hour methodicallygunning down 69 people, most of themteenagers, attending a Labour Partysummer youth camp.

Since then, there have been fewsigns of tighter security, apart from the

addition of bodyguards for a handful ofgovernment ministers and the place-ment of car barricades around govern-ment buildings.

Under norwegian law, Breivikcould face up to 21 years in prison if heis convicted and found sane, though aprovision makes it possible for him tobe held longer if he is considered athreat to society.

He could be committed to care in apsychiatric unit if he is found insane.

While some of norway’s five millionor so residents were astonished by thepenal code’s apparent leniency and calledfor tougher sentences, many in the Scan-dinavian nation remain committed tolaws remaining as they are.

Some survivors of the attacks haveeven told AFP they don’t want to seelaws changed.

“It’s more important to preserve thesystem that (Breivik) wanted to destroythan to change that system to keep him inprison,” survivor Bjoern Ihler said.

Regardless of whether Breivik will befound criminally sane, “everybody agreesthat this was the act of a crazy persondriven by his political radicalism,” JanneHaaland Matlary, a political scientist atOslo University said.

“It was an isolated crime and nobodyfeels the need for a major change in secu-rity. It would certainly have been differ-ent if it had been the act of an Islamist,”she told AFP.

Gulf states tomeet on Iran-UAe island spat

DuBAIafp

Foreign ministers of the six Gulf monar-chies are to hold a special meeting inRiyadh after Iran’s president visited an is-land in the Gulf claimed by the United ArabEmirates, a UAE official said on Friday.Wednesday’s Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) meeting in the Saudi capital comesat the request of the UAE, which recalledits envoy to Tehran on Thursday after Mah-moud Ahmadinejad went to the disputedisland of Abu Musa, the official said.Abu Dhabi pulled out envoy Saif Mo-hammed Abid al-Zaabi “for consultations”a day after denouncing Ahmadinejad’s tripas a “flagrant violation of UAE sovereigntyover its territories.” Iran called the visit apurely “domestic issue,” media reported.Both Iran and the Emirates claim territorialsovereignty over Abu Musa and two otherislands in the southern Gulf.During his visit on Wednesday, Ahmadine-jad insisted historical documents proved“the Persian Gulf is Persian,” Iran’s officialIRnA news agency said. He said the name“Persian Gulf” derived from the “culture,civilisation and the dominant opinion” ofthe area. Iran, then under the rule of theWestern-backed shah, gained control of theislands of Abu Musa, Lesser Tunb andGreater Tunb in 1971, as Britain granted in-dependence to its Gulf protectorates andwithdrew its forces. Abu Musa, the only in-habited island of the three, was placedunder joint administration in a deal withSharjah, now part of the UAE. Abu Dhabisays the Iranians have since taken controlof the entire island which controls access tothe oil-rich Gulf and has installed an air-port and military base there.

Amnesty urgesBahrain to probebrutal crackdown

DuBAIafp

Amnesty International on Friday urgedBahrain to free prisoners of conscience,probe alleged abuses and hold to accountthose responsible for a brutal crackdown onprotesters. In a briefing issued ahead of theBahrain Grand Prix Formula One race nextweek, Amnesty said there was a continuinghuman rights crisis in the Sunni-ruled Gulfstate which has a Shiite majority. It calledon the Bahraini government “to show realpolitical will for reforms in the country,” inan emailed statement received by AFP. TheLondon-based watchdog urged Bahrain to“immediately and unconditionally releaseall prisoners of conscience” sentenced“solely for peacefully exercising their rightsto freedom of expression.” Among themwere 14 opposition leaders, it said withoutnaming them. Amnesty called on the gov-ernment to “set up prompt, thorough andindependent investigations into all allega-tions of torture, deaths in custody and un-lawful killings... committed since thebeginning of the February 2011 protests.”

naRathiWat: a thai child splashes water on soldiers on a motorcycle during celebrations of Songkran, the water festival marking the country’s new year in thailand’s

southern province of narathiwat on friday. AFP

Nine months after attacks, Norway’s wounds are healing

Syria troops kill three as thousands march


Foreign News 17Saturday, 14 April, 2012

4 plead not guilty to

Danish newspaper

‘massacre plot’COPENHAGEN

afp

Four men pled not guilty Friday as theywent on trial in Denmark over a sus-pected plot to massacre the staff of anewspaper that first published contro-versial cartoons of the Prophet Mo-hammed (PBUH). Sahbi Ben MohamedZalouti, Munir Awad and Omar AbdallaAboelazm, all Swedish citizens ofTunisian, Lebanese and Moroccan ori-gin respectively, along with a Tunisiannational living in Sweden, Mounir BenMohamed Dhahri, face charges of “at-tempted terrorism.” Prosecutors say thefour were plotting to “kill a large num-ber of people” at the Jyllands-Postendaily’s offices in Copenhagen when theywere arrested on December 29, 2010.A machine gun with a silencer, a re-volver, 108 bullets, reams of duct tape,and $20,000 were among the itemsfound in the men’s possession whenthey were arrested. Danish police, whohad been collaborating with theirSwedish counterparts and had beenwiretapping the men, swooped in justafter hearing them say they were “goingto” the newspaper office. One of thetwo prosecutors, Henrik Plaehn, toldthe Glostrup district court that a cere-mony celebrating the Sporting new-comer of the Year at the newspaper waslikely the target of the suspected plot.In addition to a number of sportscelebrities, Danish Crown Prince Fred-erik was present at the ceremony. “Itappears this event was the target,” hesaid, according to Jyllands-Posten,stressing though that the prosecutiondid not know if the four accused hadknown the prince was there and did notthink they had been after him. Plaehnalso argued that there was evidence theplot had links to Pakistan, but said hewould provide more details later in thetrial, which is set to last until June.

YANGONafp

BRITISH Prime MinisterDavid Cameron and Myan-mar opposition leader AungSan Suu Kyi issued a jointcall Friday for the suspension

of sanctions against the former pariahstate after landmark talks.

Cameron also met Myanmar’s re-formist President Thein Sein as he be-came the first Western leader in decadesto visit the country, which languished fordecades under a repressive junta untilmilitary rule ended last year.

The British premier announced adramatic shift in stance on sanctions fol-lowing Suu Kyi’s recent election to par-liament, calling for all measures exceptthe arms embargo to be suspended.

“I think there are prospects forchange in Burma and I think it is rightfor the rest of the world to respond tothose changes,” Cameron said.

“Of course we must respond withcaution, with care. We must always besceptical and questioning because wewant to know those changes are irre-

versible. But as we discussed I think it isright to suspend the sanctions that thereare against Burma.”

Britain — Myanmar’s former colo-nial ruler — has traditionally taken ahardline stance on sanctions because ofhuman rights concerns. The 27-nationEuropean Union already lifted some re-strictions against the regime this yearand foreign ministers will decide thenext steps when they meet on April 23.

Suu Kyi, who spent much of the past22 years locked up at the hands of theformer junta, for the first time alsocalled for the suspension of sanctionsagainst her country.

“We still have a long way to go butwe believe that we can get there. I be-lieve that Thein Sein is genuine aboutdemocratic reforms,” she said.

A steady stream of foreign digni-taries, including US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton and British Foreign Sec-retary William Hague, have visitedMyanmar since a new quasi-civilian gov-ernment took power last year.

But Cameron is the first Westernhead of government to go there since themilitary seized power in 1962, ushering

in almost half a century of repressivejunta rule and isolation from the West.He is believed to be the first servingBritish prime minister to visit Myanmar,which won independence in 1948.

In February, the European Unionlifted a travel ban on 87 Myanmar offi-cials, including Thein Sein, but kept anassets freeze against them. Other sanc-tions include an arms embargo, a ban ongems and an assets freeze on nearly 500people and 900 entities.

Foreign ministers from the Group ofEight world powers — Britain, Canada,France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russiaand the United States — on Thursdaywelcomed “significant steps” by Myan-mar toward democratic reform.

“The ministers will consider the eas-ing of sanctions to help this countryembed reform and fully integrate intointernational and regional political andeconomic processes,” they said in a finalstatement after talks in Washington.

Cameron was accompanied by agroup of British corporate executives,but because of the sanctions they wereexpected to refrain from any business-related activities.

PYONGYANGafp

north Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-Un on Friday led a mass rally for hislate father and grandfather followingthe country’s failed rocket launch.

The defiant launch drew con-demnation from world leaders whodescribed it as a “provocative” actthat threatened regional security, de-spite Pyongyang insisting it was in-tended to put a satellite into orbit forpeaceful purposes.

But Jong-Un proudly appearedfor a ceremony attended by tens ofthousands of people crowding a cen-tral area in Pyongyang to honour newlarge statues of the nation’s foundingpresident Kim Il-Sung and his son andlongtime ruler Kim Jong-Il.

The ceremony, televised live,

coincided with the announcementthat Jong-Un was elected “firstchairman” of the powerful nationalDefence Commission, apparently anew title.

His late father was named“eternal” chairman of the commis-sion, the country’s top decision-making body, at an annual sessionof the north’s rubber-stamp parlia-ment, state media said.

The new titles complete the trans-fer of state, military and party powerfrom Kim Jong-Il to his son.

“now you can say Jong-Un’s newleadership is fully in place officially,”Jeung Young-Tae, an analyst ofSeoul’s Korea Institute for nationalUnification, told AFP.

“He has all top party, military andstate jobs under his belt. now he’s un-doubtedly the top leader of the state

of north Korea.”north Korea is celebrating the

April 15 centenary of the birth of KimIl-Sung with major events includingthe long-range rocket launch whichended in failure.

“We are holding our late greatleaders in high esteem with thesestatues on the Mansudae hill” tomark the April 15 anniversary, KimYong-nam, the north’s ceremonialhead of state, told cheering crowds.

Jong-Un, clad in navy Mao suit,smiled, clapped and looked up to thegiant bronze statues along with topparty and military cadres.

The young leader has practicallyassumed all top posts previouslyheld by his father since he took overlast December and was appointed assupreme commander of the country’s1.2-million army.

North Korea supreme leader leads mass rally

Suspend Myanmar sanctions,say Cameron and Suu Kyi

egypt Islamists

denounce Mubarak-

era ‘leftovers’CAIRO

afp

Thousands of Islamists demonstratedin Egypt on Friday to demand thatmembers of ousted president HosniMubarak’s regime be barred fromstanding in next month’s presidentialelection. They gathered in an upbeatmood in the capital’s iconic TahrirSquare, symbol of the popular protestmovement that led to last year’s down-fall of Mubarak, amid chants of “no toleftovers from the old regime!”“We don’t want Omar Suleiman!” theycried, referring to Mubaak’s former in-telligence chief who was also brieflyvice president, and who had sought tomake a return to political life as a can-didate in the May 23-24 election.Friday’s demonstration came a day afterthe Islamist-dominated parliament ap-proved a law that would ban formerregime members from standing for pub-lic office. The law, which still has to beapproved by the ruling Supreme Coun-cil of the Armed Forces (SCAF), couldsee former officials such as Suleimandisqualified. The SCAF, which took overwhen Mubarak stood down on February11, 2011, is widely seen as backingSuleiman’s candidacy for president.

Nigeria rescues

pregnant girls

from ‘baby factory’LAGOS

afp

nigerian police have raided an al-leged illegal orphanage where theyrescued young women thought tohave been forced to bear childrenwith the aim of selling them, aspokesman said Friday.“We discovered the baby factory inUruah local government area of thestate during a raid following a tip-off,” assistant police superintendentOyekachi Orji told AFP of the opera-tion in southern Akwa Ibom state.He said seven women between theages of 18 and 20, including threewho were pregnant, were freed fromthe home during the April 4 opera-tion. no babies were discovered.

YanGon: British prime Minister david Cameron talks with Myanmar opposition leader aung San Suu Kyi during a joint press conference following their meeting at Suu Kyi’s

residence on friday. AFP

pYonGYanG: north Korean leader Kim Jong-un claps as he attends the unveiling ceremony oftwo statues of former leaders Kim il-Sung and Kim Jong-il on friday. AFP


Saturday, 14 april, 2012

Page 21

wozniacki makesit perfect twelve

KARACHIafp

Amatch in Pakistan's domestic Twenty20competition last month is underscrutiny over allegations of foul play andunder-performance by some players, an

official said. Karachi Zebras lost the Super Eighttournament game by 31 runs against a weakenedPeshawar Panthers side missing injured star Pak-istan paceman Umar Gul.

The win lifted Peshawar to the semi-final andrelegated Karachi. "I myself felt some foul-play and

several players under-performed so themanager of the team has submitted areport in which he has advised in-vestigation," Siraj Bukhari, presi-dent of the Karachi City CricketAssociation (KCCA), told AFP onThursday.

Bukhari did not say whetherplayers under-performed formoney but said a committee willinvestigate and submit a report tothe Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Former Pakistan leg-spinner Dan-

ish Kaneria, named by jailed Eng-lish player Mervyn Westfiled in a

spot-fixing scandal involving a2009 county match, was part ofthe Karachi team but had topull out after bowling onlyfour balls due to a fitnessproblem.

Kaneria, arrested in 2010but not charged, faces an Eng-

land and Wales Cricket Boarddisciplinary hearing next month.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

"We are looking into the matter and await de-tails from the KCCA," PCB spokesman nadeemSarwar told AFP. "Pakistan Cricket Board has zerotolerance on fixing."

Pakistan has been in the centre of match-fixingcontroversy since Australian players Shane Warne,Tim May and Mark Waugh alleged they were of-fered a bribe by then home captain Salim Malik tounder-perform during Australia's 1995 tour.

Last year three top Pakistan players -- SalmanButt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer --were banned and later jailed over a spot-fixingscandal on the tour of England in 2010.

Pak players occupyslots in ICC Rankings

Pakistan probes domestic T20 match

MOHALICRiCinfo

Dimitri Mascarenhas and Shaun Marsh were the ar-chitects of a comfortable win for Kings XI Punjab,their first this IPL after a poor start to the season.Mascarenhas picked up his second five-for inTwenty20 cricket, in conditions perfectly suited tohis accuracy and medium pace. His performancehelped bowl out Pune Warriors for just 115 on aslow track, and Shaun Marsh ensured the chase wason track with a composed half-century that markedhis own return to form.

On a Mohali track that had some grass and onethat was livened up with some rain last night, theKings XI seamers justified their captain's decision tofield, deriving swing and movement with some accu-rate bowling and picking up wickets at a steady pacein the process. After the early loss of Jesse Ryder, whowas run out thanks to a late decision against a singleby his partner Sourav Ganguly, Praveen Kumar,Parvinder Awana and Mascarenhas went about slow-ing down the innings considerably. Praveen got signif-icant away movement and surprised the batsmen withones that nipped back in.

The top order hasn't really fired for the Warriorsand the trend continued. After promising much witha couple of delightful shots, Ganguly was dismissedthanks to the introduction of Mascarenhas. He got ridof Ganguly with some away movement that produceda leading edge, and saw off an edgy Marlon Samuelswith a lovely delivery that moved just at the right timeto clip the off stump.

At the other end, with the Warriors soon reducedto 29 for 3, Uthappa was forced to curb his natural in-

stincts but found an able partner in Mithun Manhas,whose swift running and busy approach didn't allowhis side to buckle down significantly. Interspersed be-tween a spate of singles and twos were a couple of use-ful boundaries from Manhas, a wristy smack overPiyush Chawla's head standing out.

The 26-run stand for the fifth wicket ended whenUthappa holed out against Mascarenhas in his secondspell and Steven Smith followed not long after, bowledoff an inside edge. Smith and Uthappa had played acritical role in the Warriors' previous two wins, chip-

ping in with cameos that proved crucial in the out-come, but weren't able to push on today.

Mascarenhas returned to trouble the Warriorsmore in his final spell, and wasn't perturbed whenstruck for a huge six over extra cover by Manhas. Hestuck to a straight line, bowling Manhas the very nextball as he tried the scoop, and picked his fifth as RahulSharma skied one to deep midwicket; the innings waswrapped up shortly after.

Barring a first-ball setback when Paul Valthatywas cleaned up by Ashok Dinda, Kings XI never reallystrayed off the track in the chase. Marsh, whose lastseven Test innings have yielded just 17 runs, began hisinnings in style, pulling Dinda through midwicket. Itdidn't help the Warriors that their fielding was poor,with misfields, overthrows, a missed run-out and acouple of dropped catches preventing them from put-ting up a fight.

Together with Adam Gilchrist, Marsh saw off theearly pressure with two crunching boundaries offSamuels through the off side and Gilchrist matchedhim, smacking Angelo Mathews for successive fours inthe last over of the field restrictions. Marsh, who wasreprieved when on 31 and 41, was ruthless when of-fered width and his adeptness at playing the pull al-lowed the Warriors bowlers little margin for error.Both timing and power were on display, a classy flickover midwicket off nehra and a towering six over long-on off Rahul Sharma typifying both those features.

Chawla, promoted above David Hussey, gave Marshgood company and sealed the win, the Warriors doingtheir bit to hasten it through some sloppy fielding.ScORES: Kings XI Punjab 116 for 3 (Marsh 64*,Chawla 24*) beat Pune Warriors 115 (Manhas 31,Mascarenhas 5-25) by seven wickets.

PCB using cricketersto convince foreignplayers to play in PPl

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is seeing a rayof hope in its bid to launch the Pakistan PremierLeague (PPL), with several national and interna-tional cricketers having evinced interest in featur-ing in the tournament. The PCB has expressedconfidence that the PPL, featuring renowned in-ternational cricketers, will help revive interna-tional cricket in Pakistan. According to an official,the PCB is taking help of the country's leadingcricketers to convince foreign players to play inPakistan. "A senior member of the team is play-ing a vital role in this regard. The cricketer's rep-resentative is also in close touch with the PCB aswell as foreign players on the issue. He's alreadygiven a presentation which was impressive and isset to give an important one later this month,"the official. The official added that former SriLanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya and retired Aus-tralian all-rounder Andrew Symonds have agreedto play in the tournament. "These players havepromised to feature whenever they are invited.This is just the beginning and we are expectingmore confirmations. Although these cricketershave passed their prime, their participation willconvince other players to come forward. The PCBwill also take help from other players who fea-ture on foreign tournaments regularly," headded The name of West Indian legend BrianLara has already been linked with PPL. The ideaof hosting the PPL was first floated by formerchairman nasim Ashraf in 2007 but, under IjazButt, the plan was initially abandoned. ThePCB, however, revived its efforts to launch thePPL following the success of similar leagues inBangladesh, Australia and South Africa.

Asif to bereleased on May 4

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Disgraced cricketer Mohammad Asif is to be re-leased on May 4 from the Canterbury Jail after serv-ing 6 months sentence for spot-fixing. MohammadAmir, one of the three disgraced Pakistani crick-eters convicted by a UK court for spot fixing, was re-leased after serving sentence in the same spot fixingcase in February. Salman Butt, a former captain ofPakistan cricket squad and the third member of thedisgraced trio convicted in the spot-fixing case, isstill serving sentence at the Canterbury jail.

Shillingford called intowindies test squad

PORT OF SPAINafp

Off-spinner Shane Shillingford was called into theWest Indies squad for the second Test against Aus-tralia on Thursday, 18 months after his last appear-ance. Shillingford, 29, played the last of his fiveTests in november 2010 after his bowling actionwas deemed illegal on the tour of Sri Lanka. But hehas since undergone remedial work and took 38wickets in five matches during the recent domesticCaribbean season. Australia won the first Test bythree wickets in Barbados on Wednesday. The sec-ond Test starts on Sunday at Queen's Park Ovalwith the third and final Test in Dominica fromApril 23. West Indies 2nd Test squad Darren Sammy (capt), Kirk Edwards, AdrianBarath, Carlton Baugh (wkt), Devendra Bishoo,Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo,Shivnarine Chanderpaul, nars-ingh Deonarine, FidelEdwards, KieranPowell, Ravi Ram-paul, KemarRoach,ShaneShilling-ford.

MohAlI: Kings XI Punjab batsman Shaun Marshplays a shot during the IPl twenty20 match againstPune warriors at PCA Stadium. AFP

Mascarenhas five-for gives Punjab first win

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Three Pakistani cricketers oc-cupy top slots in the top ten lat-est Reliance InternationalCricket Council (ICC) TestRankings released on Friday. Inthe Reliance ICC Test Rankingsfor batsmen (top 30), YounusKhan of Pakistan stands firm atfourth position with an averageof 52.44 and 797 points.

AB de Villiers and JacquesKallis of South Africa hold thefirst and second spots with 821and 819 points, respectively.Michael Clarke 3rd (Australia,809 points) while S. Chander-paul of West Indies stands fifthat 785 points.

For the Reliance ICC TestRankings for bowlers (top 20),Saeed Ajmal retains his secondspot with an average of 26.70and 835 points. Another prom-ising Pakistani bowler AbdurRehman holds the tenth slotwith an average of 27.37and739 points.

Dale Steyn of South Africais at first place with 886 pointsfollowed by James Anderson3rd and Graeme Swann 4th ofEngland with 798 and 779points, respectively.


AMATEUR NATIONAL GOLF

Sports 19Saturday, 14 April, 2012

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

In this four rounds Royal Palmnational Golf Championshipin progress at the exquisiteRoyal Palm Golf Course, the

contender in command of the situa-tion is n. Thangaraja of Sri Lankawho occupies the top slot on theleader board, taking over from AliHai, with a stunning second round offour under par 68.

Add to this his first round scoreof 74 and his aggregate of two roundsis 142, two under par which certainlymakes him look like a dominant con-tender in the race for individual hon-ors. And by virtue of his superbperformance Thangaraja with a fairlydecent support from his playing part-ner n. Ranga managed to capture theInternational Team Title which con-cluded after two rounds.

Over the two rounds Sri Lankateam accumulated an aggregate teamscore of 286, which was good enough

to leave the other teams far behind. In the end Sri Lanka emerged as

the winner, while Bangla Desh teamcomprising Dulal Hossain and SajibAli ended up as the runners up withan aggregate score of 286. Pakistan Bteam consisting of GhazanfarMehmood and Wasim Rana camethird, their team score being 291.

During the second round on Fri-day at the par 72, Royal Palm GolfCourse, some of the individual per-formances reflected quality golf.Right on top was Thangaraja of SriLanka who started the day with abirdie on the opening hole and there-after continued to play flawlesslywith another birdie on the 8th holeand three consecutive ones on the10th, 11th and 12th.

In between the birdies, the twelveregulation pars were a treat andmade him look like a champion, andhe looks confident indeed althoughthe competition from participantslike M. Dulal Hossain(Bangla Desh),n. Ranga(Sri Lanka), Waseem

Rana(Pakistan) and Ashiq Hus-sain(Multan)is close indeed. Interest-ingly Dulal of Bangla Desh isbracketed with Thangaraja at a tworounds score of 142, two under parfollowed by n. Ranga, Waseem Ranaand Ashiq Hussain at 144. AlthoughDulal has been steady in both therounds with 71 on the first day andagain a 71 on the second day, the startouch was missing and he will have tostruggle to match wits withThangaraja over the next two days.And as Thanga said: "I feel better asthe game is progressing and myswing is responding more and moreto my command and certainly theputting feel is no longer a problem".As for Dulal, he said, "I am so happywith my performance here and sim-ply love this excellent Royal PalmGolf Course".

As for Ali Hai and M. Rehman,they hope to hit back in the thirdround and not be taken aback withmodest performance of the secondround.

Sri Lanka winInt’l Team Trophy

lAhore: one of the ladies’ participants hits the ball out of the bunker during the 51st Amateur Golf Championship of Pakistan. NADEEM IjAz

KuALA LuMPuRafp

Former world number one MartinKaymer kept a diplomatic silence Fridayon whether Tiger Woods could regainthe top ranking -- but backed the "bestplayer ever" to return to regular wins.

The German, who shot five-under-par 67 to stay in touch with the leadersin the Maybank Malaysian Open's roundtwo, said it was just a matter of time be-fore Woods was clocking up the victo-ries again.

But he refused to be drawn onwhether Woods, in the top 10 again aftera scandal-tainted career nosedive, couldfight his way back to the peak of theheavily congested rankings.

"We will see," Kaymer said, praisingWoods' victory at last month's ArnoldPalmer Invitational at Bay Hill, which

broke a two-and-a-half-year windrought following revelations about hislove life.

"The way he played in Florida whenhe won was amazing, fantastic. I thinkfor him it's just a matter of time whenhe will compete well every week.

"Obviously he's the best player thatever played the game so it's just a matterof time that he will win plenty of tour-naments again." Fourteen-time major-winner Woods, 36, tumbled out of thetop 50 last year but has returned to ashigh as sixth. After a disappointing USMasters he now sits in eighth, one placebehind Kaymer.

The top three of Luke Donald, RoryMcIlroy and Lee Westwood now consti-tute a formidable roadblock to bothWoods and Kaymer, 27, who said itwould take patience to return to the spothe held for eight weeks last year.

"I'm playing really well, it's just amatter of time when I'll win again,"Kaymer said. "It's just a matter of get-ting the results on the scorecard. I'mplaying fine -- it's just patience is some-times the most difficult thing.

"If you see Luke Donald, Lee West-wood, Rory McIlroy, and you haveHunter Mahan (fifth) who's playing verywell at the moment. I think the top 10,top 15, everyone is so close together. It'sgreat competition each week."

Kaymer carded six birdies againstone bogey, on the par-four 13th, andmissed an eagle chance on the par-fivethird as the 10-time European Tour win-ner seeks his first victory since novem-ber's WGC-HSBC Champions.

He said he was glad to tee-off in themorning as sweltering heat descendedon par-72 Kuala Lumpur Golf and Coun-try Club by lunchtime for the second day

running."I prefer to play in the morning, es-

pecially when you have weather likethis," he said.

"Yesterday when I played in the af-ternoon, it was brutal at times especiallyif you're standing on one of those teeboxes and there's not a lot of wind goingthrough. It can make a difference, butwe know what we're getting into." The2010 PGA Championship winner wasseven-under for the tournament, two offprovisional round two leaders HennieOtto and Jbe Kruger, both of SouthAfrica, who carded 64 and 65 respec-tively for nine-under-par totals.

Overnight leader Charl Schwartzel,the 2011 Masters champion, and playingpartner Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010British Open winner who lost a dramaticplay-off at Augusta on Sunday, wereamong the later starters.

Tiger back at No.1? We’ll see, says Kaymer

rizwan steersSayid Papersto big win

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Sayid Papers won by an innings and 100runs in the Patrons Trophy Grade-IImatch here at the Jinnah Stadium Gu-jranwala. Sayid Papers won by an in-nings and 100 runs. ETPB batting firstinning 192 all out after 64.3 overs.Tasleem Arif 69 runs not out, SalmanAhmad 37, Muhammad Faraz 18 & Babarnajam 18 runs. Sayid Papers bowlingEhsan Adil 5/52, Faheem Ashraf 2/22 &Emad Ali 2/45 wickets. Sayid Papers bat-ting first inning 366/5 after 48 overs de-clared. Rizwan Ahmad batting well 104runs not out, 6 sixes & 12 Fours, noumanAnwar 71, Muhammad Waqas 49,Muhammad Ayoob 36, Umar Waheed 33& nadeem Iqbal 32 runs. Salman Ahmad2/86 & Tasleem Arif 2/72 wickets. ETPBSecond Inning batting 74 runs all outafter 24.1 overs. Sohail Iqbal 24 &Qadeer Hussain 14 runs. Sayid Paperbowling Faheem Ashraf bowling well6/29, Ehsan Adil 3/21 & Emad Ali 1/14wickets. Akmal Hayyat, Khalid YounasUmpire, Ashraf Ali Match Referee & So-hail Zaidi was the scorer.

Nadal confirmsreturn to training

MADRIDafp

Spanish world number two Rafael nadalannounced on Thursday that he has re-turned to training for the first time sincesuffering an injury to his left knee at lastmonth's Miami Masters."Yesterday (Wednesday), I started totrain on clay at the Manacor tennis club(in Mallorca), to prepare myself for theMonte-Carlo and Barcelona tourna-ments," nadal posted on his Facebookpage.The Spaniard had to pull out of theMiami Masters before his scheduledsemi-final against Andy Murray onMarch 30.He will be looking to win the Monte-Carlo Masters for an eighth successiveyear when the event starts on Sunday.nadal has also won the Barcelona eventin six of the last seven years.

Misbah feels fitto play all formatsof the game

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq feels thathe is fit for all the formats of the game. “Ibelieve I am more fit than a 17-year oldplayer to compete in the fastest version ofcricket T-20, besides I am in good form todeliver.” “The best way to judge the formand fitness of a player is a match and inthe so far matches I have played I tried toput my best to fit in the role of captain”, hesaid. Misbah said that national cricketersare awaiting resumption of internationalcricket in Pakistan. “We (members of thenational team) are badly awaiting the startof international cricket in Pakistan ant itsis imperative to have international cricketin Pakistan “ he told reporters here at na-tional cricket academy. Misbah said Fri-day he was impressed with new coach DavWhatmore's professionalism as he seeks tolift the talented but unpredictable team.Whatmore, who took over last month on atwo-year-contract, guided Pakistan totheir second Asia Cup title in Bangladeshand is now training the squad for the tourof Sri Lanka in June-July. "The experiencewith Whatmore is very good," Misbah toldmedia at Pakistan team's fitness camp inLahore. "He is dealing professionally andevery player is being assessed and the co-ordination is good." Pakistan plays twoTwenty20, five one-day and three Tests inSri Lanka before taking on Australia in alimited over series -- also in Sri Lanka.Misbah said Whatmore -- who rose tofame after guiding Sri Lanka to the WorldCup title in 1996 -- is taking care of techni-cal matters. "Like a good coach whose jobis to take care of the practice, how to pre-pare the team and what are the strengthsand weaknesses of the rival team, he istaking care of all such things so it's nice towork with him," said Misbah.

PARISafp

France's Gael Monfils has joined com-patriot Richard Gasquet in pulling outof the Masters 1000 event in MonteCarlo, French RMC radio reported onThursday.

Monfils, the world number 14,played no part in last weekend's Davis

Cup quarter-final defeat to the UnitedStates at the same venue because of aside strain, from which he has yet to re-cover.

Earlier, Gasquet's coach RiccardoPiatti said on his Twitter account thathe would also be sidelined for the eventbecause of a right shoulder injury.

"Unfortunately that's how it is.Richard has pulled out of the tourna-

ment. He tried to recover, but it stillhurts," Piatti said.

Gasquet, ranked 17th, had alsopulled out of the Davis Cup clashagainst the United States because of theproblem.

Gasquet was due to celebrate thetenth anniversary of becoming theyoungest player to win a Masters 1000match in Monte-Carlo aged 15 in 2002.

Monfils, Gasquet out of Monte Carlo Masters


Sports20Saturday, 14 April, 2012

LAHORE: A view

of the Royal Palm

Golf Course where

the 51st Amateur

Golf Championship

of Pakistan is in

progress. STAFF PHOTO

TAKE a bow Wigan Athletic! Youcan’t help but appreciate thesheer romanticism attached to

Wigan’s win over Manchester United –unless you’re one of the Red Devilbrigade – on Wednesday. If one were totravel down the memory lane, the 1-0win has come as a massive anomalousmoment especially if one considers howthe EPL era has panned out historically.

not only 19th beating top was anodd ball on its own; being eight pointsahead with six games to go, and havingwitnessed City losing out to Arsenal youwould’ve bet everything you own – andmaybe borrowed some more– on a ‘clin-ical’ performance by Manchester Unitedthat would’ve had ensured that theyhave one hand on the trophy that theyare vying to defend. Manchester Uniteddon’t let go when they have a lead at thistime of the year; let alone to a side thatis fighting for survival. Also with Wiganhaving the fewest home wins (2) andpoints (13) of any team in the top divi-sion, the result was jarring at the veryleast. now with Wigan outplaying thedefending champions a very eager cathas been thrown among quite a fewfragile pigeons, and a spanner into theworks at both ends of the table.

Wigan might’ve been the principalprotagonist on Wednesday, but Man-chester City duly followed the scriptwith a ‘clinical’ 4-0 beating ofWestBrom at the Etihad, which included agoal for Carlos Tevez to boot. now withfive points the difference with fivegames to go, City smell the blood thatUnited customarily sniff at this time of

the year. Technically it’s two points thatCity should hope that United lose else-where somehow – despite their consid-erably easier run – for, City have thegame between the two archenemy at theEtihad in their own hands. City alsohave a better goal difference, andwould’ve dug out more than their fairshare of optimism from United’s strug-gles on Wednesday. There’s definitelyhope for City even if it’s United’s title tolose by a country mile.

Wigan meanwhile, have catapultedthemselves out of the relegation zonewith that win and have in turn enlargedtheir odds of going down this year.

While the three points were invaluable,it is actually the overall performance ofthe side – something that they havereplicated recently, including during thegame against Chelsea – that oozes buoy-ancy. Hence, it’s Bolton and Blackburn– who were victims of a rare Andy Car-roll goal – that are now being peddled asrelegation favourites with Wolves hav-ing all but bit the dust already.

While there was a convulsion at thetop and bottom on Wednesday, the racefor fourth spot is also getting morescorching after every Gameweek. I thinkit’s save to say that with their north Lon-don rivals locating a precipitous down-

ward spiral, Arsenal are now a shoo-infor third – although the Gunners are nostranger to nosedives themselves.

Spurs and newcastle are now levelon points with 59 points each, withChelsea a couple of points behind. Whatmakes Spurs’ task really tough on paperis that despite currently occupying thefourth spot as things stand, they stillhave to play QPR, Blackburn and Bolton– three of the relegation contenders,who’d be fighting for their lives. Chelseahave no cakewalk either, and still haveto play Arsenal and Liverpool away; andwhile Liverpool might be out of sorts –quite an understatement – they still

would want to end the season well. PlusChelsea have a game against newcastleas well, which on current form could bethe fourth spot decider.

Of those challenging for fourth it’snewcastle who have the form on theirside with a spree of consecutive wins.But newcastle too have a tough run-in,with a game against City to add to theone at Chelsea as well. In any case, withthat potential ‘title decider’ at the Eti-had, and games between Arsenal,Chelsea and newcastle to go, there aresome absolute humdingers in store thatwould be pivotal in the final shapeup ofthe league table.

Everything’s going down to the wire

CoAS InternationalSquash begins withqualifying round

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The 10th Chief of the Army Staff Pak-istan International Squash Champi-onship 2012 began here at the PunjabSquash Complex Old Club Road on Fri-day. On the opening day pre-qualificationmatches of the were played with 16first round and eight second roundmatches while the third round will beplayed on Saturday at the same venue.

ReSultS

M. Bilal beat Tayyab Ashraf 11-1, 11-0(2-0) 9 Min; naqash Shahid beatQadeer 11-2, 11-1 (2-0) 11 Min; Mu-jahid Hussain beat Ahmed Amin 11-7,11-7 (2-0) 25 Min; Asim Khan beatArbab Dilawar 11-2, 11-2 (2-0) 12 Min;Zahir Shah beat Moin Rauf 11-4, 11-7(2-0) 17 Min; Faisal Sarwar beat Ab-dullah Bashir 11-9, 11-7 (2-0) 17 Min;Shahid Hussain beat Omer Alauddin 9-11, 11-5, 11-3 (2-1) 35 Min; M. Farhanbeat Sarosh naqvi 11-9, 11-9 (2-0) 20Min; Farman Ahmed beat DanishRashid 11-9, 8-11, 14-12 (2-1) 40 Min;noor Ali Khan beat Yasir Khan 11-2,11-9 (2-0) 16 Min; Haroon Rashid beatM. Waseem 11-6, 11-9 (2-0) 20 Min;Imam Sher Khan beat Zain Khan 13-11,11-6, 11-8 (2-1) 33 Min; Israr Ahmedbeat Tariq Khan 4-11, 16-14, 11-8 (2-1)29 Min; Hamza Ahmed beat AsgharAbbas 11-4, 8-11, 11-5 (2-1) 24 Min;Yasir Sarwar beat Athar Ali 12-10, 11-8(2-0) 19 Min; Alam Zaib beat HasnainAli 11-7, 11-1 (2-0) 10 Min;Second round: M. Bilal beat naqashShahid 11-5, 11-5 (2-0) 21 Min; AlamZaib beat Yasir Sarwar 11-5, 11-8 (2-0)20 Min Israr Ahmed beat Faisal Sar-war 11-6, 11-4 (2-0) 19 Min MujahidHussain beat Shahid Hussain 11-8, 8-11, 11-8 (2-1) 30 MinImam Sher Khanbeat Farman Ahmed 11-4, 11-7 (2-0) 15Min; Asim Khan beat noor Ali Khan11-9, 11-5 (2-0) 26 Min; Haroon Rashidbeat M. Farhan 14-12, 11-7 (2-0) 20Min; Zahir Shah beat Hamza Ahmed11-6, 11-9 (2-0) 20 Min.

KuNWAR KHuLDuNE SHAHID

EPL CRYSTAL BALL

“Discussing the races for 1st, 4th and 17th”


Sports 21Saturday, 14 April, 2012

WATch iT LivE

GEO SUPERIPL-5: Pune Warriorsv Chennai Super Kings07:30PM

COPENHAGENafp

TOP seed Caroline Woz-niacki won her 12thmatch in 12 career out-ings at the Copen-

hagen Open on Thursday as shemoved closer to a third title witha 6-2, 6-1 second round rout ofFrance's Pauline Parmentier.

The home star's win was incontrast to her opening roundstruggle past Poland's UrszulaRadwanska. "I got more used tothe surface compared to the lastmatch and that was definitely adifference," said Wozniacki, whoplays another Frenchwoman,Alize Cornet, in Friday's quarter-finals. "It was a very differentmatch compared to the last one."

Wozniacki is now 12-0 at thisevent and has won 17 straightsets, the second set of her 2010semi-final triumph over AnnaChakvetadze being the last oneshe lost.

Second seed Angelique Ker-ber of Germany had a muchtougher path to the quarters,beating Britain's AnnaKeothavong, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, andwill face compatriot MonaBarthel in the last eight.

FArUM: Caroline wozniacki of Denmark returns the ball to PaulineParmentier of France during their wtA Danish open. AFP

Wozniacki makesit perfect twelve

AFC C-Certificate CoachingCourse concludes


The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Vision 2020 Plan,which PFF unveiled on June 21, 2008 PFF Congress, willtake Pakistan to new height. This ambitious plan will createpavement to PFF in earning berth in top 15 Asian teams aswell earning tickets of World Cup, Olympics and FIFA age-limit competitions in coming decade. But all the coaches hadto work harder along with coming coaches to make it reality”This is stated by Lt. Col ® Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi TI (M),General Secretary Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) in hismessage for closing ceremony of AFC C- Certificate FootballCoaching Course at Islamabad’s Jinnah Sports Complex onFriday. Meanwhile, in his message, PFF's PresidentMakhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has urged the coaches toacquire technical know-how and work harder for the promo-tion of football in the country. Makhdoom added thereshould be free and frank discussion so that the coaches wouldbe able to share each other’s ideas. He lamented that thecoaches should be impartial and implements their knowledgepractically on the ground. It is unfeasible to make progresswithout coaching. Therefore, the coaches must have the abil-ity to watch and scrutinize the strong and weak points of theplayers while selecting national/regional teams. “I hope thiscourse will hone the skill of the coaches,” he added. "It's noweasier than ever to become a qualified football coach by get-ting on the coaching ladder, individuals have the opportunityto progress through the various AFC Coaching qualificationswhile constantly enhancing their skills and knowledge”stated by AFC Instructor Morteza Mohases. The partici-pants were; Mohammad nadir (Afghanistan), Ahsan Ali,Ghulam Fareed, Jaffer Khan, Khan Yasir Sabir, MuhammadTariq Yunus, Qasim Bilal, Shahid Mahmood Khan, VaqasAhmed, Misbah-ul-Hassan, Muhammad idrees, SyedAhmed Rehmat, Muhammad Riaz, Yasser Arfat and BurhanAli. The AFC ‘C’ Certificate Coaching course aims at trainingcoaches and developing their basic techniques and skills infootball. It is designed to teach the coaches to organise, di-rect and conduct basic coaching practices targeting espe-cially young players. The course lasts 13 days and requiresa minimum of 85 hours of study time for both the practicaland theoretical sessions. In the final examination, stu-dents will be assessed on their practical coaching abilities,knowledge of the laws of the game, in addition to learningand understanding of the theory contents of football.

HOuSTONafp

Qualifier Michael Russell stunnedtop seed Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-1 onThursday, thrilling his hometownfans as he booked a quarter-finalberth at the ATP Tour US Men'sClay Court Championship.

Russell, a 33-year-old wholives in Houston, converted five ofhis break point chances againstthe world number nine to tri-

umph in 74 minutes. It was Rus-sell's first victory over a top-10 op-ponent in 13 attempts.

Russell booked his first tour-level quarter-final of 2012. He'llface 19-year-old fellow AmericanRyan Harrison, a 6-2, 6-4 winnerover Russian Igor Kunitsyn.

Second-seeded John Isner,playing his opening match aftera first-round bye, rallied to beatHoracio Zeballos of Argentina 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2. Isner arrived in

Houston from Monte Carlo,where he led America to a DavisCup triumph in France lastweekend. He won both of his sin-gles matches in the UnitedStates' 3-2 victory in the quarter-finals of the nations tournament.On Thursday the 26-year-olddidn't drop his serve and fired 16aces in the match lasting twohours and 13 minutes.

Isner, ranked 10th in theworld, is seeking a first career claycourt title. He next faces defend-ing champion Ryan Sweeting, A6-3, 6-2 winner over fellow Amer-ican Bobby Reynolds. Fifth seedKevin Anderson of South Africadefeated American Sam Querrey7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-6 (7/2) to reachthe quarter-finals. Anderson,seeking to add a second title of2012 to the one he captured atDelray Beach last month, nextfaces fourth-seeded Juan Monacoof Argentina. Monaco defeatedJapan's Tatsuma Ito 6-3, 6-3.Monaco, who claimed his fourthcareer title at Vina del Mar thisyear and was a semi-finalist at theMiami Masters, is through to histhird quarter-final of the year.

Qualifier Russellshocks top seed Fish

U-21 women’s Nationalhockey from 26th

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The second edition of the U-21 Women’snational Hockey Championship will beplayed at national Hockey Stadium, La-hore from April 26 to May 6. For the smooth conduct of the event, thePHF Women’s Wing has appointed fol-lowing Panel of Technical Officials:-TOuRNAMENT DIREcTOR:Miss Parveen Sikandar GillTOuRNAMENT OffIcERS:Ms. Uzma Rizvi & Ms. Ghazala Tariq JUDGES: Ms. Gulshan nasreen, SamanRasheed, Humaira Mughal, RubinaRaza, Farhat Malik, Misbah Arshad,Aleena Afroze, Anjum Sajjad, nabeelaAyaz, Aasia Rasheed & Talat Lubna.cOORDINATOR: M Shafique Bhatti.uMPIRES MANAGER: RashadMehmood Butt.uMPIRES: Syeda Saima Afzal, ShaziaYousaf, Saman Islam, Aqeela nasim,Shaheena Yaqoob, Beenish Hayat,Haider Rasool, Rana Muhammad Li-aqat, Atif Malik & Chand Parveen.TEcHNIcAL BRIEfING MEETING:The Tournament Briefing meetings bythe Tournament Director will be held on25th April 2012 according to followingschedule:- Managers/Captains of theteams: 2000 hours. Technical Officials2100 hoursORGANISING SEcRETARy:Ms. Parveen Sikandar Gill while ASSIS-TANT ORGANISING SEcRETARy:Mrs. Shagufta Liaqat Randhawa.

lUMS Super 10’s rugbyLAHORE

Staff RepoRt

LUMS Super 10’s Rugby Championshipstarts today (Saturday) at LUMS groundunder the auspices of the PakistanRugby Union. In al 12 teams are partici-pating in this two-day event from allover Pakistan. Participating teams La-hore Rugby Football Club, Govt CollegeUniversity Lahore, Fast University Is-lamabad, national United Rugby Club,Rising Sun Club, University of Veteri-nary and Animal Sciences, DHA WildBears, University of Management andTechnology, Garrison University, La-hore University of Management and Sci-ences, DHA Dragon and SInDH RugbyClub. Sindh Rugby club team reached inthe city today. The tournament will beplayed on 10’s A-Side a format. Sec GenPakistan Rugby union Arif saeed chiefguest on opening cermoney. The event isjoint venture of the Pakistan RugbyUnion and Lahore University of Man-agement and Sciences. The PakistanRugby Union will officiate the tourna-ment and will be played in Cup, Plateand Bowl categories. PRU officials Pres-ident Fawzi Kawaja, secretary ArifSaeed, head coach Rizwan Malik werepleased with the quality of rugby im-proved in Pakistan in recent times.

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Matches were played on Friday at K-21 Club in connection with AtlasHonda Tennis Championship. In themorning session two quarter-finalmatches were part of the schedule.

In first quarter-final top seedAqeel Khan treated un-merciful to hisopponent Shehzad Khan of Faisal-Abad . Shehzad Khan who wasamongst the best 4 players in recentpast, looked through out in trouble infront of well in farm Aqeel Khan.

Shehzad Khan won the toss andelected to serve . Inaugurating servicegame of the match was broken byAqeel Khan which built certain pres-sure on his opponent.

With powerful ground strokes

and pin point return of serve throughout the first set was fabulous demon-stration of tennis skills by experiencedAqeel.

Aqeel won the first set 6-3. In thesecond set Shehzad looked compara-tively stable and started serve and vol-ley game for which he is famous for.This helped till the eighth game . Atthis stage once again Aqeel showed hismastery and broke his opponent’sserve followed by holding his own.

Aqeel won the match with scoreline 6-3,6-4 and reached in semi-final.In the second quarter-final match,Mohammad Abid who was part of theDavis Cup squad against Philippineshad no difficulty in defeating his op-ponent Imran Shoukat 6-4, 6-1. Thethird quarter-final match was playedbetween Jalil and Rashid Malik.

In first set Malik could not holdhis service game which was the inau-gurating game of the match. He triedto break Jalil’s service game through-out the 1st set but damage which wasdone at the start resulted in loosing set4-6. In second set both the playerswent with the serve and managed tohold however when score reached twogames all Jalil took risks and hit forehand shots with extra force .Thisturned the situation and service gameof Malik was broken. Jalil from thisstage was on driving seat with firmgrip at crucial situations of the 2nd set. Jalil won the match 6-4,6-4.An inter-esting encounter held between yasirKhan seed no 2 and Heeera Ashiqseed 6 which took over two hours toreach finish line . In the first set HeeraAshiq put his opponent in real diffi-

culty with wining it in tie break 7-6(4). In 2nd set Heera was broken in 7thgame and eventually lost 4-6 with fur-ther declining in the 3rd set andwashed out at 3-6. Yasir Khan won thematch with score line 7-6 (4) ,6-4,6-3. ReSultS: Men’s doubles: Aqeel Khan and Jalil Khan

(Seed 1) beat Saif Ali and Saad Mubarik 6-4, 6-3, M.

Abid and Usman rafiq beat Faizan Khuram Sada-ul

haq (5-7, 6-4, 0-6), heera Ashiq and Khuram Nazir

beat Jibran-Ul haq and Ahmed Choudhry, 6-4, 6-3,

Shehzad Khan and yasir Khan beat Sana Ullah and

Usman Ijaz 6-7, 6-4, (11-9). Boy’s singles U-18 semis:

M. Mudasi beat raja Shahid 6-1, 7-6. Ahmed Babar

beat hasnain Manzoor 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. Boys singles U-

14: Syed Nofil kaleem beat M.hassan 6-0,6-0 and

Shoib Khan beat Sahibzada M.Ali 6-3,6-1. Boys Sin-

gles U-12: Uzaifa beat hambal 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, hafiz

Arbaz beat Aqib 6-0, 6-2, Shoaib Khan beat Ali Bhin-

dari6-2, 6-0, haris Irfan beat Ali raza 6-0, 6-1 Mo-

hammad Said beat hashim Javaid 6-1, 6-3, hamza

Bin rehan beat Nausher Ali 6-2, 6-2.

Aqeel, Jalil have no mercy in MT Tennis


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



Documents

E-paper PakistanToday 14th April 2012