e-paper pakistantoday 14th December, 2012

Friday, 14 december, 2012 Muharram 29, 1434Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 167 19 pages Lahore edition

Page |03Page |19

Senators furious overmedia allegations oftax evasion by MPs

NAB chief scrambles to

mitigate damage

Ali Zafar the secondsexiest Asian manin the world

Page |14

Towards end of term, govt,SC stare at another standoff

ISLAMABADANwer AbbAS

Another standoff between the government and

judiciary is set to take ground as the Supreme Court

on Thursday barred its registrar from appearing

before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of

parliament, despite the body issuing multiple notices

to the SC registrar for the purpose.

The PAC is now likely to review the option of sending

a reference to parliament against the Supreme

Court in its meeting today (Friday).

The SC office on Thursday answered

questions arising over the appearance

of the SC

registrar before the PAC body by issuing an official

statement that the registrar would do no such thing.

The SC statement said the issue of appearance of

registrar before PAC had been discussed in many full

court meetings wherein it was decided that under the

constitution as well as the law, the PAC was not

competent to scrutinise the accounts of the apex

court, hence the registrar was not required to appear

before it. “Reference in this regard be made to the

mandatory requirement of the Constitution. In its

very Preamble, the Constitution states, ‘… it is the

will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order;

wherein the independence of the judiciary

shall be fully secured’,” it said. The

SC statement said although the

apex court saw the

parliamentary body

with respect,

it was not

authorised to scrutinise the judiciary’s accounts. It

added that Article 175-3 of the constitution separated

the judiciary from the executive and PAC was only

authorised to scrutinise national accounts, whereas in

accordance with the Article 68 of the constitution,

conduct of the judges could not be debated in

parliament. “Indeed, under the financial procedure of

the Supreme Court, apart from the Registrar, the

Chief Justice and senior judges of the Supreme Court

do accord sanction of money for procurement and

payments e.g. purchase of books, equipment,

transport, stationary and payment of medical bills in

keeping with functions assigned to them.

Pakistan releasesTaliban justiceminister Turabi

ISLAMABADSHAIQ HUSSAIN

In a significant development, Pakistan hasreleased senior Taliban leader MullahNooruddin Turabi, a move aimed atimpressing upon the top Taliban leadershipto join the peace and reconciliation processin Afghanistan. Mullah Turabi, who is ill andof old age, was the justice minister in theTaliban government, and had been inPakistani custody for the last 10 years.Turabi, a close aide of Taliban supremecommander Mullah Omar, enjoys respect inthe ranks of the Taliban. He had lost his legwhile fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan inthe 1980s. “Mullah Turabi has been freed asa positive gesture towards the peace

Continued on page 04


SC saysregistrarwon’t appearbefore PAC

PAC to reviewsending referenceagainst SC toparliament

LHR 14-12-2012_Layout 1 12/14/2012 2:39 AM Page 1

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India holds back rehman Malik’s request to meet Sonia evidence of world’s ‘oldest’ cheese-making found

Friday, 14 December, 2012

HEC employees stop Naqvi from rejoining as EDISLAMABAD: Higher Education Commission (HEC)employees did not let Dr Sohail Naqvi enter the office ofExecutive Director (ED) on Thursday. All the regularstaff of HEC including people from grade 1 to 21protested against the chairman’s reversal of his own or-ders, in which he had allowed Qamar Zaman Chaudhryto perform his functions as ED. “HEC employees willalways support the rule of law and not allow anyone toviolate the HEC Ordinance 2002, which clearly men-tions that HEC Executive Director cannot hold his postfor more than two 4-year terms”, they said The employ-ees reiterated this resolve when Naqvi tried to occupythe office of ED yesterday and did not allow him to sitin the office. Witnessing the strong protest, Naqvi hadno option but to leave the HEC building in a private car.The employees demanded HEC Chairman Dr JavaidLaghari to stop ridiculing the law and let the new EDwork till the post is filled according to the prescribedprocedure. Later, a delegation of HEC employees metLaghari who assured them that Dr Naqvi will not comeback and that proper procedure will be adopted for re-cruitment of the new ED. oNlINe

Doctors end strike as Balochistangovt decides to withdraw cases QUETTA: Balochistan doctors announced endingtheir strike on Thursday after the provincial govern-ment agreed to withdraw cases against them. PakistanMedical Association (PMA) Balochistan President DrSultan Tareen, flanked by Balochistan Health Secre-tary Asmatullah Kakar and Quetta CommissionerQambar Dashti made the announcement. “The dead-lock between the striking doctors and the governmenthas ended after conclusive sessions and we are readyto return to duty now,” he said, adding the OPDs ofgovernment hospitals would be opened on Friday(today). The doctors had gone on the strike on October16, on a call given by the PMA, in protest against thekidnapping of Dr Saeed Khan. Subsequently, the gov-ernment had suspended the striking doctors besideslodging FIRs against them after they did not join dutydespite the recovery of Dr Khan who walked free onNovember 28 after remaining in the abductors’ cus-tody for 42 days. App

Fear instigated students to protest naming their college after Malala: IftikharPESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Ministerfor Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Thursdaysaid it was fear of a militant attack that had forcedstudents of Government Girls Degree College SaiduSharif to protest against renaming of the institutionafter Malala. Hussain said the protest was not againstthe teenage activist Malala Yousufzai but was an ex-pression of fear of an attack on their college if it wasnamed after Malala. The minister said he had talkedto Malala’s father Ziauddin, on telephone, and he hadno objection to his daughter’s name being removedfrom the college if it posed a threat to lives of the stu-dents. Zia did not want to see any other acts of ag-gression against students of Swat seeking education,said Hussain. App

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) chief Imran Khan on Thursday metChief Election Commisioner (CEC) Justice(r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim and said that hisparty supports deployment of army at sen-sitive polling stations across the country.

Speaking to reporters after holding ameeting with the CEC, Khan said he dis-cussed with him various administrative is-sues pertaining to the much awaited generalelections. “The CEC has assured me thatArmy would be deployed at sensitive pollingstations,” the PTI chief said. “We have fullconfidence in the CEC. I have given sugges-tions to him for free and fair polls in the coun-try and handed over to him proofs aboutattempts of pre-poll rigging,” Khan said.

He alleged that excessive money wasbeing spent by PPP and PML-N, adding thatthe two parties had kicked off developmentprojects as elections drew nearer to garnersupport. Khan claimed that cases were beingregistered against PTI leaders in Punjab tovictimise them. He suggested that voters’ listbe posted on the election commission’s web-site after final corrections.

Earlier, the CEC presided over a meet-ing of the Election Commission of Pakistan(ECP) to discuss the recent by-elections inPunjab and Sindh, the issue of dual nation-ality for lawmakers, electoral rolls and de-limitation of Karachi in light of the judgmentof Supreme Court, besides other importantadministrative matters. STAff reporT

PTI seeks army dePloymenT aT sensITIve PollIng sTaTIons

ISLAMABADKASHIf AbbASI

IN the light of the SupremeCourt’s orders, the ElectionCommission of Pakistan onThursday announced de-limiting constituencies and

starting door-to-door verification ofvoters’ lists in Karachi, with the helpof the army.

The ECP also decided to deploythe army personnel inside and out-side polling stations in Karachi. Ad-dressing a press conference after ameeting of the commission, ECP Sec-retary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan said, “Thearmy will be deployed inside and out-side polling stations during the nextgeneral elections. The ECP has made

a decision to deploy the army at allpolling stations in Karachi and FATA,while it will also be deployed atpolling stations in sensitive areas ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochis-tan.” “The ECP has already writtenletters to the defence secretary andCorps Headquarters (Karachi) for se-curity at 80,000 polling stations inthe city on the election day and theprovincial election commission willremain in constant contact with themon the subject,” Khan said.

He said door-to-door verificationof voters in Karachi would start fromDecember 17 which will take about amonth. Then NADRA would verifythe lists and the entire process wouldbe completed within 65 days, headded. He said there were 8.6 million

voters in Karachi.Talking about complaints of rig-

ging during by-elections in Punjab andSindh, the ECP secretary said thecommission received general com-plaints but none under Section 103-AA of the Peoples Representatives Act.

He said the impression that theECP had done nothing to bring tobook persons involved in display ofarms and firing in the by-electionswas wrong. “We have written to theprovincial governments and FIRshave been registered against the cul-prits and most of them have been ar-rested”, he added.

Khan said the prime ministervisited the ECP’s head office to con-sult matters related to possible timeof next elections but no specific date

was discussed. “The present assem-blies will get dissolved on March 16,2013 but if the government dissolvesthe National Assembly before thattime, ECP will have 90 days for thenext general elections,” he said.

Earlier, in the ECP meeting,chaired by Chief Election Commis-sioner (CEC) Fakhruddin GEbrahim, and attended by ECPmembers and all four provincial elec-tion commissioners, the commissiondirected Sindh Election Commis-sioner Sono Khan Baloch to submit aproposal of delimitation of Karachi’sconstituencies. He was given 15 daysto carry out the job. A source in theECP said after receiving the SindhCEC’s proposal, the commissionwould hold detail deliberations on it.

Progress in negotiations between OGRA,CNG Association

ISLAMABADAGeNCIeS

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority(OGRA) and All Pakistan CNG Association(APCNGA) have held partially successfulnegotiations in which OGRA has preparedan initial working paper on CNG prices.According to the working paper, in Region1 the price of CNG will be increased byRs.12.50 per kg and in Region 2 the pricewill be increased by Rs 11.80 per kg.The compression cost for CNG will beRs7.20, while the operating cost will beRs7.90. The CNG owners profit will beRs3.42 per kg.At the same time, APCNGA chairmanGhayas Paracha has said that there havebeen positive developments during talkswith OGRA.He said that in accordance with OGRA de-mand, the audit reports of 1000 stationshave been submitted.Paracha also said that electricity bills havealso been submitted as per OGRA’s re-quirements.He also said that OGRA and the APCNGAhave disagreements on the monthly salesof CNG.

g Commission decides to deploy army inside, outside polling stations in Karachi

PPP wants Punjab’s polling stations manned by troops

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) asked the elec-tion commission to deploy army at polling stations in Punjabto avoid rigging ahead of the forthcoming general elections.The issue was discussed during a meeting between PPP Pun-jab President Mian Manzoor Watoo and Chief Election Com-missioner (CEC) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim. PPP informed theCEC regarding their insecurities and complaints of riggingduring the recent by-election in Punjab. The party demandedthe commission to deploy army to ensure fair polls and toavoid any untoward incident. The CEC said the forthcominggeneral elections are of vital importance for the future of thecountry and must be conducted with impartiality. STAff reporT

QUeTTA: Children look at snow covered mountains

after rain and snowfall on Thursday. INP

ECP to begin delimiting Karachi’sconstituencies, voters’ verification


03NewsEDItORIAlNAb and our Mps:

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The lady doth protest too much.

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad says;Navigating a minefield: How the EC can make the elections rally credible.

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid says;Another turning point: Will Pakistan hockey forget to turn… again?

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priyanka ‘rocks the world’ for GQ US satisfied with pakistan’s economic reforms


Inzi to be batting consultant before India tour

Four, including Hinduspiritual leader,killed in Balochistan

QUETTA/MASTUNGSTAff reporT

Four persons were killed and six othersinjured in Quetta and other parts of theprovince in acts of target killings onThursday.In Mastung, miscreants shot dead a Hinduspiritual leader Dr Lakhvi Chand in themain market of the city and fled the scene.Dr Chand was kidnapped a few months agoafter which Hindus had started migratingfrom the area. Later he was released by thekidnappers and now became target of un-known gunmen.Balochistan governor and chief ministerhave expressed deep grief over the murderof Dr Chand and directed the law enforce-ment agencies to arrest the culprits.According to reports, at least two personswere killed and another two injured inthree different incidents of firing in thecity.Police said unknown armed men riding amotorcycle opened indiscriminate fire attwo persons in Qandhari bazaar, injuringthem severely. The injured men wereidentified as Ali Khan and MohammadTaj. The assailants managed to escapefrom the scene.Another firing incident took place nearSalim Complex on Jinnah Road where oneperson was killed. The victim was identi-fied as Shabbir Hussain, a naib qasid in thesecretariat. A third similar incident tookplace at Sarki Road where unidentifiedmiscreants gunned down a tailor, identi-fied as Gul Sherin. Rescue teams rushed tothe site and shifted the dead and injured toa hospital.Another person on a motorcycle was killedwhen a speedy vehicle collided with hisbike. Levies forces arrested the driver,Abdul Samad. In addition, four persons in-cluding two women were injured at GothGhulam Mohammad Jamali in a road acci-dent. They were shifted to nearby hospitalfor medical assistance.

talks with Haqqaninetwork possible: US

MONITORING DESK

US Ambassador toPakistan RichardOlson has said thatit is possible to initi-ate talks with alQaeda-linked terroroutfit Haqqani net-work. Olson, during an in-terview with theBBC, also expressedthe strong possibil-ity that the US’ lat-

est reconciliation policy could be applied to allextremist groups, and as such the Haqqaninetwork also stood a chance to benefit. However, regarding the Pakistani chapter ofthe Haqqani network, he said that taking anyfurther action against the ‘’most bothersome’’Haqqani network was the responsibility ofPakistan’s government. Olson also acknowl-edged the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan inits 10-year war against terrorism. He ex-pressed deep gratitude and appreciation ofPakistan’s sacrifices, which had also sufferedquite a blow to country’s internal infrastruc-ture and developmental progress. “We understand that Pakistan faces chal-lenges similar to America in fight against ter-rorism, besides the challenge of terrorism.Tackling it was the foremost duty of govern-ment and masses of Pakistan,” he said.

Senators furious over media allegations of tax evasion by MPs

ISLAMABADTAyyAb HUSSAIN

SENATORS from both sidesof the political divide wentup in arms against themedia on Thursday for alle-gations of tax evasion by

members of the parliament, saying thejournalists concerned, Federal Bureau ofRevenue (FBR) chairman and other rel-evant staff should either be summonedby the Senate Committee on Finance orthey should be taken to court to fix re-sponsibility for defaming the “hon-ourable politicians”.

Amid strong worded speeches byOpposition Leader Senator Ishaq Dar,Kamil Ali Agha, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsenand others, Senate Deputy ChairmanSabir Ali Baloch ruled that the SenateCommittee on Finance take suo motunotice of media allegations against hon-ourable MPs, summon the concerned in-dividuals and take the matter to itsconclusion. Speaking on a point of order,President’s spokesman FarhatullahBabar said the media had levelled falseallegations against the president withoutproper verification of facts. He said hehad consulted with the tax adviser toPresident Asif Ali Zardari who had con-firmed that the president’s tax returnshad been submitted accordingly.

On a point of order, PML-Q Presi-dent Chaudhry Shujaat Husssain pre-sented copies of tax returns of his familyand said he himself, Deputy Prime Min-ister Pervez Elahi and Chaudhry Waja-hat Hussain had also submitted theirrespective tax returns. He said he wasready to share the relevant documentswith the media. Sabir Baloch said it was

unfortunate that irresponsible state-ments had been made regarding the ho-nourable president without anyevidence. He asked the media to per-suade their colleagues to avoid such irre-sponsible journalism. Senator Kamil AliAgha also expressed shock over themedia’s allegations and said journalistsshould have verified their informationwith the relevant politicians.

He said the journalists should alsobe asked to share their tax returns. Hesaid it was unfortunate that irresponsibleactions had been carried out.

Saeed Ghani demanded an apology,while Ishaq Dar said using words like“tax evaders” was harsh and unfortu-nate.

He said the senators had paid theirtaxes and the media did not adhere totaxation laws. Dar said if anyone wanted

to do investigative journalism, he shouldinvestigate the entire matter in totality.He said no one could malign politiciansand it looked like a well-conceived plan.He said he had paid over Rs 200,000 intax and stating that he was paying Rs32,000 in tax was false.

Dar said maligning politicians wasunacceptable and such journalists wereon the payroll of someone.

“Tax return is secret information.How dare the FBR chairman share mysecret information? It is my private mat-ter. Under what authority this journalistsought information from politicians. Heis nobody,” he asserted.

He said the PML-N would overhaulthe tax-to-GDP ratio if it came to power.

Kalsoom Perveen said the FBRchairman should be summoned andquestioned why such private informa-

tion had been shared with the media.She said honourable members hadbeen termed tax evaders for no reason.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsen said mediaowners and journalists should be ques-tioned how much money they had to payto the government in terms of taxation.

Afrasiab Khattak said the mattershould be taken to court and those re-sponsible should be brought to book.He said working journalists were alsotargeted by the media owners and werenot paid their wages. He said the mat-ter should be taken to the Senate com-mittee. Humayun Mandokhel said themedia should not be allowed to playwith the respect of political leaders andthe matter should be dealt in accor-dance with the law. Leader of theHouse Jahangir Badar demanded thechair give a ruling in this regard.

LAHORErANA HAIDer

Swedish Christian aid worker BargeetaAlmby, who was critically wounded ina targeted attack in Lahore on Decem-ber 3, passed away at a Stockholm hos-pital on Wednesday night. Almby, a70-year-old missionary who spent 38years of her life in Pakistan serving theChristian community, was associatedwith the Full Gospel Assemblies as di-rector of their Technical Training Insti-tute and also taught at the FGA BibleSchool. She was also in-charge of theministry’s orphanages in Lahore.

Almby was shot in the chest by twoarmed men outside her house in ModelTown when she was returning from heroffice. The bullet severely damaged herleft lung and she was moved to JinnahHospital in critical condition. Doctorshad then said that she was in acute dan-ger because of excessive bleeding. Shewas put on life support and doctors triedtheir best to save her but she had to beairlifted to Sweden on an air ambulancefor specialist treatment four days ago asher condition was deteriorating.

Her colleagues at FGA TechnicalTraining and Bible School told Pak-istan Today that Almby passed away at

Karolinska hospital in Stockholm at10pm (PST).

FGA Bible School Principal LiaqatQaiser, who remained associated withAlmby for the last several years, saidthe police were still trying to uncoverthe facts related to the incident. “Webelieve that the attack was carried outby Islamist militants as they frequentlytarget minorities and foreigners. ButAlmby had never shared any threat toher life with us,” he said.

There is no immediate confirma-tion of involvement of Taliban or anyother extremist group in the incidentas no outfit has come forward to claim

responsibility for the attack.“Sister Almby was loved and re-

spected in Lahore. She was a Godlywoman who had dedicated her life toserve Christians here,” he said.

Model Town Superintendent ofPolice (Investigation) Ijaz Shafi Dogartold Pakistan Today the police werelooking into various aspects of the case.“There are no witnesses other than thevictim herself so we haven’t been ableto make a breakthrough as yet,” hesaid. Shafi said there was no credibleinformation to pin the blame on Tal-iban but the police hasn’t ruled outtheir involvement completely.

g treasury, Opp unite to castigate media g Demand trial of journalists, FBR officials for leaking tax returns

ISLAMABADSTAff reporT

The National Assembly was informedon Thursday that the government hadconstituted a committee to probeinto the alleged corruption of Rs 7billion a day in the country, asclaimed in a report of the Trans-parency International. Respondingto a point of order raised byKhawaja Asif of the Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pak-istan People’s Party (PPP) ChiefWhip Syed Khurshid Shah said theissue had been discussed thread-bare in the cabinet meeting on

Wednesday and a committeeheaded by Law Minister Farooq HNaik had been formed to examinethe matter. He said the committeewould invite all stakeholders toknow the sources of corruption andits methods, adding that the volumeof corruption reported even sur-passed the country’s annual budget.Shah also invited the oppositionmember to be part of the meeting,adding that the report was based onperceptions as it lacked exactsources of corruption. He said thecommittee would on Monday inviteall stakeholders, including anti-cor-ruption departments, Supreme

Court registrar, Competition Com-mission of Pakistan and NationalAccountability Bureau chairman toascertain the sources of corruptionand devise a strategy in this regard.Rana Tanveer, another oppositionmember, said such steps shouldhave been taken in 2009 as the gov-ernment was now short of time toaccomplish this gigantic task in thelast four months of its tenure. Hesaid corruption was also done be-tween two officials or organisationsfor providing jobs or even awardingcontracts. Shah said the committeewould examine the issue from allaspects.

Committee formed to probe Rs 7b-a-day corruption

Swedish Christian aid workerdies from Lahore shooting


ISLAMABADAGeNCIeS

THE opposition se-verely criticised thegovernment in theNational Assembly

on Thursday over a country-wide 12-day strike by trans-porters, saying that it hadcaused a loss of billions of ru-pees to the economy.

On a point of order, AbdulRashid Godal said the govern-ment had failed to take noticeof the transporters’ strike foralmost two weeks. He said thecountry had been madehostage by the trawlers mafia.

Minister for Religious Af-

fairs Khursheed Shah repliedthat the prime minister hadtaken due notice of the strikeand it had been called off.

Speaking on a point of order,PML-N Chief Whip Sheikh Aftabapprised the House that in sev-eral areas, the SNGPL had leftgas supply projects incompleteand if they were further delayed,a large amount of money spenton the completed portion wouldgo waste. He said a sub-commit-tee had been formed on the sub-ject that had raised the issue withthe SNGPL authorities time andagain in the last eight monthsbut they were somehow prolong-ing it due to unknown reasons.

Responding to the point of

order, Shah said 70,000 newgas connections had been givenin the tenure of the currentgovernment. He said Punjabhad been given priority in thisregard, keeping in view itsgrowing requirements. Theminister said Rs 5 billion hadbeen given to the Sui NorthernGas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL)for procurement of gas metres,adding that 400,000 metreshad already been purchased.

Jamshed Dasti said gassupply was prioritised in accor-dance with political influenceand criticised the ministry con-cerned for not taking any ac-tion against corrupt officers inthe departments. To a calling

attention notice by KhawajaAsif, Shah said a committeeheaded by Law Minister Fa-rooq Naik had been formed toprobe into the revelationsmade by the National Account-ability Bureau about the dailycorruption of Rs 6 to 8 billion.He said the committee wouldhold its first meeting on Mon-day and all stakeholders, in-cluding the NAB chairman andanti-corruption officers hadbeen invited to attend thismeeting. He called upon politi-cal parties to wage jihadagainst corruption. The oppo-sition members also allegedthat around 300 illegal ap-pointments had been made in

the Pakistan Tourism Develop-ment Corporation, demandingaction against the managementfor violating the rules.

Speaking on a point oforder, PML-N MNA JavedMurtaza Abbasi said the PTDCauthorities had sacked the rep-resentatives of the electedunion when they raised voiceagainst the recruitments.

Abbasi said around 70 peo-ple have been appointed in thetwo-room PTDC InformationCentres in Thatha and Mohen-jodaro. He alleged that all suchrecruitments had been made atthe time when the ministry wasbeing devolved to provincesunder 18th amendment.

And since the Constitutionplaces a complete ban on anydiscussion in parliament as re-gards ‘the conduct of any judge…in the discharge of duties’, there-fore, the PAC, being a committeeof parliament, is not authorisedto do so,” the statement added.

“It has also been clarified tothe PAC that accounts of theapex court of the country havebeen continuously audited bythe Federal Audit. The SupremeCourt administration has neverdeclined the auditing of its ac-counts. The last annual externalaudit of accounts of this courtfor the financial year 2009-10

was conducted in September2010, whereas, the externalaudit for the years 2010-11 and2011-12 is awaited. In this re-gard, the Supreme Court ad-ministration has alreadyreceived letter No Coord/Audit-I n t i m a t i o n / 2 0 1 2 - 1 3 / F -690/260 dated 29.6.2012 fromthe Director General Audit, Is-lamabad that their audit partieswill be visiting the SupremeCourt for conducting the audit,”the apex court said while excus-ing to allow the registrar to ap-pear before PAC.

A source privy to develop-ments in the PAC informedPakistan Today that the com-mittee would review the situa-

tion set off by the SC statement.He said PAC would review

the option of sending a detailedreference against the SupremeCourt, to parliament for notpresenting the details of theiraccounts before the PAC.

Legal experts are of the viewthat PAC enjoyed the option offiling a petition in the apex courtover the issue and that optionmight be considered by mem-bers of the body in their sittingtoday. During the PAC meetingon Thursday, audit officialspointed out that the office of Au-ditor General of Pakistan didnot enjoy any legal cover in formof proper legislation like act ofconstitution and was being

maintained through ordinances.Audit officials said a draft to

provide a legislative cover to theAuditor General of Pakistan wasbeing floated in various min-istries from the last one year andinterlinking the Ministry of Fi-nance with AGP was like givingthe SC under the supervision ofMinistry for Law and Justice. Tothis, PAC Chairman NadeemAfzal Gondal said the office ofAuditor General of Pakistan wasrecognised everywhere otherthan with those who claimedcorruption of Rs 7 billion a day.

The finance secretary clari-fied that the AGP office was asovereign entity and no one in-terfered in its affairs.


04

Continued FRoM page 01

Towards end of term, govt, SC stare at another standoff

and stability in Afghanistanand it is to facilitate the peacedialogue between the Afghanauthorities and the Taliban,”said a diplomatic source,requesting anonymity. BeforeMullah Turabi, Pakistan hadfreed three former Talibangovernors including MullahAbdul Salam, Mir Ahmad Guland Daud Jalali. Besides,another important Talibancommander Anwarul Haq

Mujahid, the eldest son of thelate mujahideen leaderMaulvi Yunis Khalis, wasreleased by the Pakistaniauthorities along with theformer Taliban governors.These releases were madeduring the visit of Afghan HighPeace Council to Islamabad, amove that was welcomed by theAfghan authorities.However, Peace Council’sChairman Salahuddin Rabbanialso demanded the release ofsenior Taliban leaders like Mullah

Abdul Ghani Baradar in his talkswith the Pakistani officials.A senior security official expressedignorance about the release ofMullah Turabi, saying according tohis information no suchdevelopment had taken place.Nonetheless, he said Pakistan wasall for peace and stability inAfghanistan and it would dowhatever it could for that purpose.The diplomatic source,meanwhile, said nothing could besaid about the fate of other Talibanleaders like Mullah Baradar, who

were still in Pakistani custody.He said Pakistani authoritieswanted to see the impact ofrelease of Taliban leaders andany decision about the otherTaliban prisoners would be takenafter that. Another diplomaticsource told Pakistan Today thatPresident Hamid Karzai, whoheld talks with his Pakistanicounterpart Asif Ali Zardari andTurkish President Abdullah Gulon Wednesday in Turkey, alsodemanded the release of moreTaliban leaders from the custody

of Pakistani authorities. “Karzaiwas told that Pakistan waswilling to facilitate the Afghanpeace dialogue and it would takeall possible steps for its success,”the source said. He said theAfghan president also raised theissue of failed suicide bombingon his intelligence chiefAsadullah Khalid in his talks withZardari and was told thatPakistani authorities were readyto extend cooperation to theAfghan government for probinginto the terrorist attack.


Pakistan releases Taliban justice minister Turabi

Moderate Hurriyat factionaims to bring Kashmirback on Pakistan’s agenda

SRINAGAR: The main aim of the Hurriyat

(M) delegation’s visit to Pakistan is to bring

Kashmir back on the agenda of Islamabad,

Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on

Thursday. Mirwaiz said their visit would

initiate a “process-oriented effort” to bring

Kashmir issue on forefront. The delegation

(executive body of the conglomerate) would

leave for Delhi on Thursday before arriving in

Pakistan on Saturday. It is after a gap of five

years that a delegation of Hurriyat (M) is

visiting Pakistan. “An impression is being

given in Pakistan and through the ongoing

peace process between the two countries

that Kashmir does not hold significance as it

used to have and that it is not in the picture,”

Mirwaiz said.“So the purpose of the visit

would be to bring Kashmir to the fore. We

would stress on Islamabad to bring Kashmir

back on its agenda.” He said the Kashmir

issue seemed to have faded amid the range

of CBMs and increased bonhomie between

India and Pakistan. “We want to clear the

impression that the CBMs on small issues like

trade are not going to help Kashmir. You have

to address Kashmir issue to bring permanent

stability in South Asia.” Mirwaiz said it was

high time the Kashmiri leadership gave

impetus to the core issue “since the Kashmiri

discourse is losing it relevance in Pakistan”.

He said Kashmir seemed to be slipping from

the Pakistani media agenda as well.“There

are some people in Pakistan who want to give

an impression that Kashmir should be kept

on the backburner. But their constituency is

very small,” Mirwaiz said, claiming that

majority of the Pakistanis were with the

Kashmir cause. The Hurriyat (M) chairman

said people should not pin high hopes on the

visit. “We are visiting Pakistan to bring

Kashmir back on the agenda. We want to stir

a debate in Pakistani civil society. We want to

tell them that less killings does not mean end

of Kashmir movement.” NNI

Grossman confirms Pakistan-Afghanistanworking on peace roadmap

WASHINGTON: As the United States strives

for smooth 2014 drawdown from Afghanistan,

Washington’s outgoing special representative

Marc Grossman has confirmed that both

Islamabad and Kabul are working on a roadmap

for Afghan-led peace, after a decade of internal

strife and war in that country. “Over time as

Pakistan and Afghanistan have talked about how

Pakistan can best support an Afghan-led peace

process that they have been moving toward

working on some type of roadmap together,

and all I understand from my friends in

Pakistan and my friends in Afghanistan is when

(Afghan) Foreign Minister Rassoul visited

Pakistan some weeks ago they did start to talk

about some specific roadmap and the Afghans

had one,” Grossman said. The U.S. diplomat,

however, said he has not personally seen any

roadmap document. “But I’m sure that this

roadmap and this conversation about how we

can all support an Afghan-led peace process is

extremely important,” he told VOA Urdu

Service. SpeCIAl CorreSpoNDeNT

Govt criticised in NA over transporters strike

NAB chiefscrambles tomitigate damage

Bokhari said the Trans-parency International’s CPIindex had been rating Pak-istan between 23-27 percentfor the last 10-15 years.

“Decrease in rating mustbe seen in the perspective ofincreasing number of coun-tries in the index.” The NABchief pointed out that interna-tional corruption evaluationstructures were based on di-rect leakage parameters, notindirect losses. He said indi-rect losses that had not beenquantified by the bureau in-cluded agriculture sector GDPuntaxed‚ revenue department‚land grabbing and encroach-ments‚ loans defaults‚ overstaffing‚ ghost schools, ghostemployments‚ wealth taxlosses, custom duties and dutydrawbacks. He said only in theenergy sector, losses due toload shedding were approxi-mately Rs 960 billion a year, ortwo percent of the country’sGDP. The NAB chairman saidcorruption needed to be ad-dressed jointly, we have tojointly fight this problem withdedication. He said Rs 80 bil-lion had been recovered byNAB in the current year alone.Bokhari advocated that ac-countability of corruptionsince 1980s was treated with“benign neglect”. “Erstwhile,anti-corruption institutionswere based on political victim-isation and post corruptionprosecution, neglecting proac-tive approach of preventionand awareness regime.” “NABis committed to an anti-cor-ruption strategy that isachieving success on pillarsof awareness, prevention andprosecution in the sameorder of priority. The bureauis determined to eradicatecorruption from the societyand will not spare anyonewho is doing this heinouscrime,” he concluded.


ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/KARACHI/QUETTAoNlINe

Lawyers across the country went on a strikeagainst the Judicial Policy Making Committee’s(JPMC) decision regarding the clearing of thebacklog until December 31.

The strike call was given by the Pakistan BarCouncil (PBC). The council said the committeehad directed all subordinate courts across thecountry to dispose of pending cases until De-cember 31, adding that the deadline was not ac-ceptable to them as millions of cases could notcleared within a month. It said all the judges ofsubordinate courts were clearing the backlog inhaste which ran contrary to norms of justice.

The PBC appealed to chief justice of Pak-istan to take notice of the JMPC’s decision ashaste could lead to flawed decisions.

The Sindh High Court Bar Association andthe Malir Bar Association announced going ona strike with lawyers boycotting court proceed-ings in Faisalabad as well. Clients hailing fromremote areas had to face a lot of trouble interms of loss of time and money with the courtsbeing shut. The lawyers through their boycottof the courts gave the judges a message that theJMPC’s decision was not acceptable to them.

However, Lahore High Court Chief Jus-tice Omar Atta Bandial and other judges kept

performing their duties despite a request bythe deputy attorney generals asking them tostop working. At the inception of the hearingof dual office case, the deputy attorney gener-als requested the court to not perform itsfunction as lawyers were on strike. The chiefjustice said this was the lawyers’ strike andnot that of the judges.

Dual office case: Courtto be approached for presidential immunityLAHORE: The Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Thursday ad-journed the hearing of the con-tempt of court petition overPresident Asif Ali Zardari’s dualoffice until December 14 while in-structing the petitioner to com-plete his argument. According to aprivate TV channel, a five-memberbench led by LHC Chief JusticeUmar Ata Bandial resumed thehearing into the case pertaining tothe dual offices held by PresidentZardari. Petitioner Advocate AKDogar, while giving his argu-ments, said he had approachedthe court for the implementationof the constitution and not to getanyone rewarded with punish-ment. Barrister Dogar said thepresident was powerless and hadno immunity over contempt ofcourt proceedings under the par-liamentary system of the govern-ment. Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikhsaid approaching the court overthe issue of presidential immunitywas mandatory. Governmentlawyers earlier requested the courtto postpone the hearing due to thestrike observed by lawyers. NNI

g SNGPL comes under fire over projects delays g MNAs allege 300 illegal appointments made in PTDC

Lawyers go on countrywidestrike against JPMC decision

LHC CJ to distributelaptops among bestperforming judgesLahore High Court (LHC) Chief JusticeUmar Atta Bandial will distribute laptopsamong 20 judges of the subordinatejudiciary for their good performance indisposing of old cases, a private TV channelreported on Thursday. According to the LHCregistrar, the judges disposed of 88,993cases till July this year while 52,218 and83,305 cases were disposed of in the monthsof August and September, respectively. Thesubordinate judiciary disposed off 79,963and 91,194 cases in October and November,respectively. MoNITorING DeSK



LAHORESTAff reporT

The employees of the Prosecutor

General Office on Thursday an-nounced a strike demanding bettersalaries which is fair to the “tough”work that is demanded of them.

The office-bearers of the Employ-ees’ Union in a meeting decided togo on a strike over the alleged indif-ference shown by the department’ssenior officials to fulfill their de-mands.The workers stopped work, lefttheir offices and held a sit-in infront of the Prosecution Depart-ment. They were carrying bannersand placards and raised slogansagainst their department seniors.Addressing the crowd, the office-bearers said the seniors have beeninformed about the longstandingdemands but in vain. They said theworkers observe strict and long of-fice hours but were not being com-pensated like their colleagues inother departments.“The employees are living a hand-

to-mouth life and will continue thestrike until their demands are met,”APCA president Malik Sadaqatsaid.

Prosecutor General Office employees go on strike

LAHOREwAleeD MAlHI

THE Punjab government has en-listed the services of a Turkishcompany in a move against tradeunions operating illegal parkingsites in commercial areas of the

city, Pakistan Today has learnt. According todetails, there are many illegal parking lots inthe different areas of the provincial capital, forexample Gulberg, Samnabad and Data GanjBakhsh. In Gulberg such illegal parking spacesare maintained along Ijaz Centre, CenterPoint, Gulberg Centre, Al-Hafeez ShoppingMall, Lahore Centre, Hafeez Centre, AurigaCentre, City Tower, Latif Centre, CenturyTower, Empire Centre, Liberty Heights, PaceShopping Centre, JeffHeights, New AurigaCentre, Siddique TradeCentre, Askari Bank,Faisal Bank, StandardCharted Bank, AlFalah Bank, Tri ConPlaza, Silk Bank, InDesign Plaza andKingston IPLPlaza.

O f f i c i a l sof Le Park-

ing Company told Pakistan Today that 15 to20 percent parking spacesbeing operated in the cityare illegal. Officials alsorevealed that City DistrictGovernment Lahore(CDGL) had failed tocurb activities ofunions maintainingsuch sites and hadnow enlisted thehelp of a Turkishcompany to help le-galise these sites.

Per official records,CDGL had been collecting Rs15,000-20,000 weekly and Rs25,000-30,000 on weekends fromLiberty Market Parking site. How-ever, once a private company tookover, it generated revenue around Rs50,000-60,000 on weekdays and over

Rs 100,000 over theweekends.

Sources revealed that it was difficult to main-tain legal parking sites across the city becauseof a strong trade union system that was oper-ating several major sites illegally.

Le Park is now hiring a Turkish companyUCS which also participated in constructingthe Liberty parking space. The company

would be responsible for maintainingsafe sites for parking and sus-

taining a smooth flow oftraffic during peakhours.

However, tradeunions from Barkat Market in-

sisted that their business waslegal as their stands were

on the premises of pri-vate plazas. They

added that CDGLhad no right totake over pri-v a t e l y - o w n e dparking spaces.Legally, com-mercial proper-ties arerequired to en-

sure proper parkingspaces for free parking.The owners of suchproperties auction con-tracts for parkingstands in violation ofrules and regulations.

Calling on Turks to maintain law and ordernPunjab govt hires Turkish company for maintaining parking spaces

LAHORE: A man on Friday was accused of giving spu-rious milk to 11 co-workers. According to details, theman, identified as Riaz, robbed mobile phones and cashafter his co-workers fell unconscious upon consumingthe milk. The victims were shifted to the nearest hospi-tal for first aid. In another report, the police arrestedfour suspected members of robbery gang namedAkram, Naeem, Imran and Majid from the area ofMisri-Shah. According to police sources, the accusedwere involved in stealing batteries installed in the mo-bile companies’ towers. The police seized dozens of bat-teries worth millions from their possession.

In another raid, police arrested 5 suspected criminalsfrom the area of Sabzazar, and recovered cars, motorbikesand weapons from their possession. STAff reporT

man milks friends byadding drugs to milk!

LAHORESTAff reporT

The Lahore High Court on Thursday issued notice to Oiland Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for December 18 onan application against change in the prices of LPG.

The single bench comprising Justice Ijaz ul Ahsanpassed the orders on a civil miscellaneous application filedby Petroleum Gas Company and three others in a pendingmatter against LPG Policy 2012.

Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that the re-spondent’s council had told the court on November 26 duringthe hearing of the case against LPG Policy 2012 that OGRAdid not intend to make any changes in the prices of LPG How-ever, OGRA had violated its commitment and had issued a no-tification on December 8 for reduction of LPG prices, thecounsel added. He said the step was taken without consultingthe marketing companies and it amounted to civil contempt,also praying to the court to set the said notification aside. Thecourt then issued a notice to OGRA for December 18.

OGRA summoned for altering LPG prices



CINE StAR lIFE OF PI 10:45AMPH: 35157462 wREAK It RAlPH 01:00PM

JAB tAK HAI JAAN 02:45PMBREAKING DAwN PARt 2 06:00PMtAlAASH 08:00PMKHIAlDI 10:30PM

SOzO wORlD tAlAASH 12:15, 11:30 PMPH: 36674271 KHIAlDI 12:00, 05:30, 11:00PM

SOzO GOlD tAlAASH 12:15, 11:30 PMPH: 36674271 KHIAlDI 06:00 PM

JAB tAK HAI JAAN 03:00, 08:03PM

SUPER CINEMA tAlAASH 06:00 PMAt ROYAl PAlM KHIlADI 08:30 PMPH: 111-602-602 JAB tAK HAI JAN 10:45PM 36118679 lIFE OF PIE(3D) 05:45 PM

KHIlADI 01:30, 11:00 PMBREAKING DAwN P2 06:1O PMtAlAASH 08:15 PMSKYFAll 10:45 PM

06 Lahore

LAHORE: An international conference on calligra-phy titled Sarir-e-Khama: the Art of the Pen organ-ised by the College of Art and Design of theUniversity of the Punjab entered its second phase onThursday. At least 50 students, teachers and callig-raphers of this genre attended a workshop themedQalam styles where Pakistani calligrapher IrfanQureshi presented his paper. Later, the Iraqi callig-rapher Salahuddin Shezad demonstrated his skills inArabic styles of writing. A number of professionalcalligraphers from Pakistan also attended this work-shop for their international experience regardingthis genre. Many research scholars and students ofthe college and from other institutions were alsopresent at the workshop, which will continue till De-cember 15. STAff reporT

Sahrir-e-Kharma enters second phase

lesCo conducts crackdownagainst electricity theft LAHORE: Lahore Electricity Supply Company(LESCO) Chief Executive Officer MuhammadSaleem on Thursday ordered a crackdown on elec-tricity theft. The operation was conducted underthe supervision of Superintendent EngineerMehboob Alaam Bhatti. Dozens of people werecaught stealing electricity across the city. LESCOofficials said they seized meters and recovered Rs2,700,000. STAff reporT

‘Punjab govt has broken allrecords of bad governance’LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaderArshad Ali Bhatti on Thursday said that the Pun-jab government had broken all records of poorgovernance in the province, adding that he wassure Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N)would face defeat in the upcoming general elec-tions. Addressing a party meeting at Shahdara, hesaid that there were no hurdles facing PPP for thegeneral elections and that it would soon create agovernment in Punjab as well as the federation.The PPP leader added that people would reject thePML-N in the elections due to its anti-people poli-cies in the province. He said the PPP was the onlyparty that had deep roots in the people of thecountry, adding that the people trusted PPP andwould show faith in PPP’s governance in the nextelection as well. STAff reporT

restaurantcatches fire onmm alam roadLAHORE: A workerwas injured while valu-ables worth thousandsof rupees were reducedto ashes when a firebroke out in a kitchenof a local restaurant onMM Alam Road onThursday. Rescue 1122fire service reached thespot and controlled thefire. A worker, WarisAli (25), received seri-ous burns and wasshifted to the MayoHospital. The cause ofthe fire could not beascertained, Rescue1122 spokesman said.STAff reporT


low

High

120CSAtURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY20°C I 12°C 22°C I 11°C 11°C I 21°C

PRAYER tIMINGSFajr Sunrise zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

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CItY DIRECtORY

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FAtMID 35210834-8

ISlAMIC AllIANCE 37588649/37535435

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PUNJAB UNIvERSItY 99231257KINNAIRD COllEGE 99203781-4qUEEN MARY COllEGE 36362942GOvt. COllEGE UNIvERSItY 111-000-010UMt 35212801-10lUMS 35608000UEt 36288666lCwU 99203072SUPERIOR COllEGE 111-000-078

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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

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

An Exhibition honouring the College of Artand Design, University of the Punjab, andcovering landscapes, cityscapes and otherrelated conceptual paintings.

DAtE: NOv 22 - DEC 10, 2012 vENUE: lAHORE MUSEUM

CONCEPTUAL PAINTINGS

RESCUE 1122

EDHI CONtROl 115

MOtORwAY POlICE 130

POlICE 15

GOvERNOR’S HOUSE 99200081-7

CHIEF MINIStER’S HOUSE 99203226

FIRE BRIGADE 16

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07Lahore

NEWS DESK

THERE are more than 1.6 mil-lion Afghan refugees registeredin Pakistan and a recent UnitedNations survey found thatroughly 80 percent have no in-

tention of returning to Afghanistan, ac-cording to a report

According to the survey, most Afghanfamilies living in Pakistan feel Afghanistanis just not safe enough to go back home.Others cited the inability to earn a livingand the lack of anywhere to live in theirnative country.

Pakistani Minister for States and Fron-tier Regions Shaukat Ullah acknowledgesthe challenges involved in convincingrefugees to return to their country afterdecades of living in Pakistan.

“After 32 years if a person is returningfrom a country where he has been born andhe is going to a country like Afghanistanthey will think 100 times,” Ullah says.

Since the Taliban takeover ofAfghanistan in the 1990s, Pakistan hashosted one of the largest refugee popula-tions in the world. Some 3.8 millionrefugees have crossed back over the borderinto Afghanistan.

The UNHCR has offered plastic buck-

ets, soap, blankets, cash, and a one-wayticket for those still living in Pakistan, andsucceeded in encouraging another 72,000people to return to Afghanistan this year.

But there are still 1.6 million officialAfghan refugees in Pakistan.

UNHCR representative Neill Wrightsays that organization is waiting to hearwhat Pakistan has planned for theserefugees after the December 31 deadline.

“I know that the government is very ac-tively engaged in considering what its pol-icy will be in terms of the management ofAfghan refugees in 2013, and in terms ofsupporting this continued partnership thatwe have with Afghanistan over voluntaryrepatriation, and I look forward to hearingwhat that strategy will be,” Wright says.

Responding to concerns that therewill be another wave of refugees fromAfghanistan after international combatforces leave the country in 2014, Wrightsays contingency plans are under consid-eration.

“This is clearly an issue that I am in-volved in discussions with many people,senior politicians, people in Afghanistan,members of the international commu-nity,” Wright says. “Of course, when youdo contingency planning, you look at aworst case scenario and you look at a

best case scenario, and if you are sensi-ble you will probably look at somethingin the middle.”

He declines to give any further details. Many Afghan refugees live in very poor

conditions in Pakistan. According to theUNHCR, less than one-quarter of themwork, and almost three-quarters of Afghanchildren are not going to school.

“Some people think that the securitysituation has improved in Afghanistan, butthey’re wrong,” said Malak Nader, whorepresents 500 families in the Jalalarefugee camp on the outskirts of Mardan, afarming town in northwestern Pakistan.

“If we support the government, theTaliban will come the next day and slit ourthroats and if we support the Taliban, thecoalition forces will come and bomb us,”the truck driver said.

More than five million Afghans fledtheir homeland for Pakistan in the early1980s, soon after Soviet troops invadedAfghanistan.Since the 2001 US-led inva-sion brought down the Taliban regime, 3.8million have returned, leaving 1.6 millionbehind, most born and brought up in Pak-istan.But as the 2014 deadline nears forNATO combat troops to leave Afghanistan,they are under increasing pressure fromPakistan to leave.


08


NewsKate royal hoax: Australianwatchdog launches enquirySyDnEy: The Australian media watchdog has launcheda formal enquiry into the hoax call to the London hospitalwhere the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated.Nurse Jacintha Saldanha was found dead on Friday, threedays after taking the call from an Australian radiostation. The Australian Communications and MediaAuthority (ACMA) will focus on the 2DayFM licenceholder and not directly on the presenters who made thecall. It will be examining if “broadcasting obligations”were breached. On Wednesday, speaking in theCommons, UK Prime Minister David Cameron called MrsSaldanha’s death a “complete tragedy” and said lessonsneeded to be learnt. She had taken a call from twopresenters, who were pretending to be the Queen andPrince Charles, at the King Edward VII’s Hospital, wherethe duchess was being treated for severe morningsickness. ACMA said its investigation would look at thecompliance of 2DayFM’s licensee, Today FM Sydney PtyLtd, with its licence conditions and the CommercialRadio Codes of Practice. ACMA chairman Chris Chapmansaid: “The ACMA’s formal regulatory relationship isalways with the relevant licensee, and not the presentersof any broadcast in question. The ACMA will beexamining whether the licensee has complied with itsbroadcasting obligations.” AGeNCIeS

China aircraft ‘intrudes intoJapanese airspace’BEIjIng: A Chinese state-owned aircraft has flown overislands at the centre of a dispute between Japan andChina, the Japanese defence ministry says. Aspokesperson for the ministry confirmed media reportsthat a fixed wing plane from the Chinese MaritimeSurveillance agency was the first that the Japanesemilitary had ever recorded as intruding into its airspacewithout prior permission. China’s foreign ministrytermed Wednesday’s surveillance flight “completelynormal”. The Japanese airforce scrambled eight F-15fighter jets and an E-2C early warning aircraft to respondto the perceived threat, the defence ministry said. TheChinese plane intruded into Japanese airspace at11:06am local time (02:06 GMT) over the Japaneseadministered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea,Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said. Tokyoimmediately lodged a protest with Beijing over thematter, Fujimura said. The Chinese plane had left thearea before the F-15s arrived, he added. The islands arealso claimed by China and Taiwan, where they are knownas the Diaoyutai and Tiaoyutai, respectively. Earlier inthe day, four Chinese surveillance ships also entered whatJapan called its territorial waters around the islands, theJapan Coast Guard said.Japan’s purchase of four of theislands in September from a private owner set off anti-Japan protests in dozens of Chinese cities and prompteda boycott of Japanese products. AGeNCIeS

UN inspectors in Iran for N-talksTEHRAn: Inspectors from the UN’s nuclear agencyhave arrived in Tehran in an attempt to seal a deal to easeinternational concerns regarding the country’s disputednuclear programme, state media reports. Thursday’s talksin Tehran are the first between the International AtomicEnergy Agency (IAEA) and Iran since August this year.The ISNA news agency said the seven-member IAEAdelegation, headed by Deputy Director General HermanNackaerts, would meet Iranian nuclear officials behindclosed doors during the one-day stop in the capital. TheIAEA says it is seeking to reach agreement with Iran on a“structured approach” to resolve outstanding concerns,and to obtain its inspectors broader access to Iran’snuclear sites and people working in the programme. Theinspectors also want to inspect Parchin, a restrictedmilitary complex near Tehran, where the IAEA suspectsexperiments with explosives capable of triggering anuclear weapon may have been carried out. “We alsohope that Iran will allow us to go the site of Parchin, andif Iran would grant us access we would welcome thatchance and we are ready to go,” Nackaerts told reportersat Vienna airport on Wednesday. ISNA, however,reported that “no inspection or visit” would take place“for now”. It did not source the information. One Viennadiplomat said that the team in Tehran is larger than inpast visits in February and in May, and now included two“technical experts” who could conduct verification workat Parchin - if invited to do so. AGeNCIeS

belfAST, NorTHerN IrelAND: protesters hold the union flag as they block Donegall road amid renewed tensions after city councillors voted to stop flying

the british flag all year. AGeNCIeS

DHAKAAGeNCIeS

Explosions and clashes have marked anopposition protest in the Bangladeshicapital Dhaka, where demonstrators arecalling for an election-time caretaker ad-ministration to be restored.

Schools and businesses were closedin Dhaka and other major cities onThursday, during an eight-hour generalstrike. Nationwide transportation waslargely disrupted during the second op-position strike this week.

Witnesses and local media reportedthat riot police had fought pitched bat-tles with opposition activists in parts ofDhaka. It was not immediately clear ifthere were any injuries in the violence.

Those enforcing the strike torched orsmashed several vehicles belonging tothose who were not observing the shut-down, police said. Local media also re-ported that dozens had been detained inmajor cities. A coalition of 18 oppositionparties was enforcing the strike to de-mand that the caretaker government berestored before the next national elec-

tions due in 2014.The government of Sheikh Hasina,

the prime minister, last year scrapped the15-year-old caretaker government systemduring elections following a SupremeCourt ruling that the constitution allowsonly popularly elected governments. Op-position parties fear the election will berigged if the current party remains inpower. The protest is led by the main op-position Bangladesh Nationalist Partyof former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’slargest Islamic party and the main part-

ner of Zia’s party, has been demandingthe release of nine of its leaders facingcharges of crimes against humanity. Twoother leaders from Zia’s party face simi-lar charges and are now jailed.

Zia has criticised the trial, calling itpolitically motivated. Her party has alsodemanded the release of a senior leaderwho was arrested on charges of instigat-ing violence earlier this week. Jamaat-e-Islami leaders are accused of abettingthe Pakistani army in killing and rapingduring the war. The party says thecharges are aimed at weakening it.

DAMASCUSAGeNCIeS

AT least 16 people have been killedand more than 25 wounded, in-cluding women and children, aftera car bomb exploded in Qatana, atown 25km southwest of Damas-

cus, Syrian state media reports.The SANA news agency reported that seven

children were among the dead after Thursday’sexplosion. The UK-based Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights, an anti-government rights group,earlier reported that a large explosion had oc-curred outside an army housing complex in thetown. It confirmed that the dead were civilians,and said that at least seven children and twowomen were among those killed.

Fighting was also taking place in various sub-urbs of Damascus between government troopsand rebels seeking the overthrow of PresidentBashar al-Assad, anti-government activists said.

Fighting was also taking place in various sub-urbs of Damascus between government troopsand rebels seeking the overthrow of PresidentBashar al-Assad, anti-government activists said.

“The battles are raging in the suburban areasof Daraya, Arbeen, Harasta,” said Haytham al-Abdullah, a Syrian activist based in Damascus.

“Jets are using TNT barrel bombs to strikethe opposition rebel bases in these areas,” he toldthe DPA news agency.

US officials said on Wednesday that al-Assad’s government had begun using Scud mis-

siles and barrel bombs against rebels.An upsurge in attacks by rebels on state in-

stitutions in Damascus has prompted authori-ties to tighten security around vital facilities,say activists.

The measure comes a day after three blaststargeted the interior ministry, killing at least ninepeople, activists said.

Former thai PMcharged with murder

BANGKOKAGeNCIeS

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the former primeminister of Thailand, has been chargedwith murder over the death of a civilianduring a crackdown on anti-governmentrallies two years ago, his party says.Abhisit, along with then-deputy SuthepThaugsuban, was formally charged atBangkok’s Department of SpecialInvestigation (DSI) on Thursday. Theyare the first officials to face a court overThailand’s worst political violence indecades. “The DSI has charged Abhisitand Suthep on section 288, which ismurder. They both denied the charge,”Thavorn Senniem, a senior DemocratParty lawmaker, told AFP. Hundreds ofriot police were deployed to guard thebuilding, as about 20 supporters carryingroses and dozens of protesters holdingpictures of those killed during the crisiswatched the former leader arrive. At least90 people were killed and nearly 1,900wounded in a series of street clashesbetween “Red Shirt” protesters andsecurity forces. The crisis culminated in adeadly army operation in 2010 to breakup the demonstrations. The chargeagainst Abhisit, who was prime ministerat the time, relates to the fatal shooting oftaxi driver Phan Kamkong. TaritPengdith, the chief of the DSI, announcedthe move last Thursday, saying that it wasprompted by a court ruling in Septemberthat Phan was shot by troops.

Several killed in Syria bomb attack

Bangladesh opposition protests turn violent

TEL AvIvAGeNCIeS

Five people have been injured in clashes betweenPalestinian youths and Israeli soldiers in the WestBank city of Hebron, after a Palestinian teenagerwas shot by Israeli soldiers on Wednesday.

Dozens of Palestinian youths were reported tohave thrown stones and bottles at the soldiers earlyon Thursday morning, while Associated Press newsagency reported that the Israeli soldiers had re-sponded by firing tear gas on the youths.

Five Palestinians were hospitalised after theclashes, reported Ma’an News Agency.

Thursday’s clashes came ahead of the funeral

for 17-year-old Palestinian, Muhammad Ziad AwadSalaymah, who was shot dead by an Israeli police-woman at a checkpoint in the city on Wednesday,for allegedly carrying a gun which later turned outto be “fake”.

Some news agencies reported that Salaymahhad been shot up to six times.

Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Israeli po-lice, said on Wednesday that an initial investigationindicated “[Salaymah] pulled a fake pistol. They[troops at the scene] thought it was real.”

Palestinians, however, said Salaymah was un-armed, and had failed to heed orders to halt at amilitary checkpoint because he was hard of hearing.

Protests against the shooting broke out in theOld City on Wednesday night, with Israeli forcesusing tear gas and live ammunition to quell thedemonstrations. “They have orders to shoot withlive bullets now,” a resident of Hebron told AlJazeera on Wednesday.

Tensions were still high on Thursday in thesouthern West Bank city.

Clashes in Hebronover palestinian killing

MOScOW: Russia’s deputy foreign minister, meanwhile, said on Thursday that the Syrianpresident’s hold on power was loosening, and that the opposition may succeed in its aim oftoppling his government. The remarks by Mikhail Bogdanov to the ITAR-TASS news agency arethe first acknowledgement by a Russian official that the Syrian president could lose what hasturned into a civil war. “As for preparing for victory by the opposition, this, of course, cannot beexcluded,” Bogdanov said. “You need to look the facts in the eyes - the government regime islosing more and more control over a large part of the country’s territory.” Russia has stronglyopposed any foreign intervention in the Syrian crisis, saying that the conflict is an internal issue.Bogdanov repeated Russia’s call for a compromise, saying it would take the opposition a longtime to defeat the regime and the country would suffer heavy casualties. “The fighting willbecome even more intense, and you will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds ofthousands of people,” he said. “If such a price for the ouster of the president seems acceptable toyou, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable.” AGeNCIeS

Russia says opposition may win


09


NewsIndia holds backRehman Malik’srequest to meet Sonia

nEW DELHI: India has set asidePakistani Interior Minister RehmanMalik’s request for an appointment withCongress President Sonia Gandhi, withthe Indian Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) officials viewing it as “out of line”with protocol, Indian media reported onThursday. However, a confirmation isstill awaited on his requests for ameeting with Indian PM ManmohanSingh and Leader of Opposition in theLok Sabha Sushma Swaraj. Officials inthe Indian government said the MEAdecided against even forwarding Malik’srequest to the Congress president’soffice. Though a meeting with the PMwas yet to be scheduled, sourcesindicated that it may be a mere courtesycall. Incidentally, Malik has not sought avisit to either Ajmer Sharief or Agraduring his visit from December 14 to 16.Malik had, during his talks with UnionHome Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde inRome, expressed his desire to visit theAjmer shrine and Taj Mahal. Sourcesindicated that the Pakistani side may bewary of negative publicity over Malik’strip to tourist destinations in India,when no credible action had been takenagainst 26/11 perpetrators based inPakistan. Sources, however, said, a visitto Agra, if sought later, could bearranged at a short notice. Per Malik’sitinerary, he will arrive at around 2pmon December 14 with a 15-memberdelegation. Bilateral talks with Shindeare tentatively scheduled for 5pm, afterwhich they are likely to release a jointstatement, possibly at a joint pressconference around 7pm. The presser willbe followed by an official dinner inMalik’s honour. An MHA official,however, indicated that there was apossibility of bilateral talks spilling overto December 15 as well. The new Indo-Pakistan visa regime will beoperationalised during Malik’s visit. Thebilateral talks will cover a host of issueslike action in the 26/11 case byIslamabad, proposal for an MHA visit toPakistan and pending red-cornernotices. Malik may meet the PM andSwaraj on December 15. oNlINe

peSHAwAr: people buy rain coats and umbrellas from a vendor during the first winter in the provincial capital on Thursday. INP

PESHAWAR SAJJAD AlI

WITH the generalelection onlymonths away, hold-ing political cam-paigns has become

difficult for almost all political forces inthe militancy-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The leaderships and workers of al-most every political party, including theAwami National Party (ANP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal(JUI-F), Aftab Sherpao’s Qaumi WatanParty and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaidhave been targeted by suicide bombers.The ANP has remained on top of the mil-itants’ target list, as it was the only partythat not only adopted a clear stance onmilitancy, but took military action inMalakand Division, FR Peshawar and ad-jacent areas of the Peshawar district.

The ANP always demanded militaryaction against militants in the TribalAreas, resulting in frequent terrorist at-tacks on its members.

ANP lost two MPAs, Alamzeb fromPeshawar and Dr Shamsher from Swat in2009. In October 2008, party chief Asfan-dayr Wali Khan escaped a suicide attackon eid. Similarly, Chief Minister AmirHaider Khan Hoti, Senior Minister BashirAhmad Bilour, Afzal Khan Lala, Ministerfor Information Main Ifitkhar Hussain,Afrasiab Khattak, Sardar Hussain Babak,Deputy Speaker Khushdil Khan, MPA Au-rangzaib Khan and Alamgir Khalil havebeen caught in militant attacks.

Besides, the party has lost dozens of itslocal leaders, including nazims, and morethan five hundred workers. Other partieshave also been on the hit list of militants,especially QWP’s Aftab Ahmed KhanSherpao. He and his son escaped a suicideattack on March 3 this year in Kangra vil-lage in his native Charsadda district. Sher-pao was twice targeted earlier as well.

Although leaders and workers ofother parties have been also targeted bymilitants, political and security expertsbelieve it will be more difficult for theANP to go to the public as long as theTTP existed and ANP stood alone

against the militants.Only on Tuesday, militants targeted an

ANP public meeting in Charsadda, injuringtwo police personnel and eight activists.But despite the attack, ANP chief Asfand-yar Wali Khan and Chief Minister Hoti at-tend the gathering and addressed workers.

A day after the blast, TTP spokesmanEhsanullah Ehsan said the attack wasjust the beginning and they would carryout more attacks on secular political par-ties like the ANP and MQM.

He warned the people not to attendrallies and public gathering organised bythese parties, as attacks would be inten-sified on political gatherings of the twoparties. In Karachi, the MQM has a clearstance on the presence of Taliban inKarachi and wants their elimination.

But still, militants have also attackedreligious-political forces in the province.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman was at-tacked twice, once in Swabi and then inMardan in March 2011. Similarly in Feb-ruary, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf alsofell victim when its public rally was at-tacked in Swabi.

A police van on duty was targeted atShewa after PTI chief Imran Khan leftthe venue of the public meeting. AmirMuqam, then the provincial president ofPML-Q, also escaped suicide attackstwice. Former JI chief Qazi HussainAhmed also escaped an attempt on hislife on November 19, when a female sui-cide bomber blew herself near his convoyin Haleemzai tehsil of Mohmand Agency.

But despite continued attacks on itsleaders, the ANP has been among thepublic and organising various meetings.Its leadership is committed to hold publicrallies and carry out public political cam-paigning for next election. Responding toTTP warnings, Mian Iftiakhar Hussainsaid the attacks were an attempt to de-moralise the party, but they terroristscould not stop them from campaigning tomobilise people for the general election.

“Everyone knows well that the ANPhas always raised voice against the mili-tants and its leaders and workers neverbow their heads to them, nor will be bowdown in the future,” said Bashir AhamdBilour, ANP’s Senior Minister in KP.

Political rallies becomingdance of death for KP parties g Almost all major political parties have been victims of terror attacks g taliban upon the heels of campaigning political leaders


Comment10


The EC faces challenges fromthree important stakeholdersin the system who have powerto manipulate the elections toget the results of their choice.

The first is the military which hasruled for nearly half of the country’s his-tory directly, and the rest of the time asan offstage actor. The SC has this timebanned all election cells and has declaredthat the agencies have no role in politics.One hopes the order is carried out in let-ter and spirit. Whether it will be will be-come clear in days to come.

To rule from behind, those who mat-ter have ceased to put all eggs in one bas-ket. This after they found that the partiescreated, nourished and launched by theminvariably started raising dissentingvoices getting the people’s mandate. Nowthey rely more on split mandates, hungparliaments and week governments. Theassociation of the army with election re-lated activity has been necessitated be-cause of the weakness of the civilianinstitutions, which is, in turn, the outcomeof long military rule. The EC relies thatwhile the association may be necessary, itcould turn out to be a double-edged swordand has to be kept under watch.

The second powerful stakeholdersare parties in power. Every ruling partyor coalition wants to have a secondtenure. Even military rulers who hadbeen in power for ten years or more in-variably considered it too short a period.The PPP thinks it had taken bitter deci-sions at the expense of its political repu-tation. Why should the opponents reapthe benefits that it thinks are about to fol-low? The PML-N too has the same mind-set. It would not like to leave before thepeople see the wonders of the new rapidtransport system, Danish Schools andwhile the laptops are still functional.

The PPP faces challenge in Sindh, itstraditional stronghold from a motley offorces that include a group of influentiallandlords and nationalist parties. Therewere already complaints of the use offorce by the party in power during thelatest by-elections.

The PML-N has to contend in Punjabwhich it considers its fief against thePPP-PML-Q alliance on one hand andImran Khan’s PTI on the other.

The parties in power have the means toinfluence the elections. The can use thecivil bureaucracy, particularly the police.Important government departments fromwhere the manpower needed to conductthe elections is recruited are manned bytheir blue eyed boys, be it Punjab, Sindh,KP or Balochistan. Even if the top officialsare shifted for the election period, the staffbelow is likely to act as directed by the offi-cers who have finally to write their reports.

The ruling parties have enough moneyat their disposal. Enough spending is al-ready taking place with an eye on the elec-tions. One cannot object to developmentprojects which benefit the people. Whatgives these parties an undue advantage isalso the diversion of funds to the parlia-mentarians loyal to them. The moneygiven as development grants is likely to beused by their candidates for setting up of-fices, hiring polling agents, whole timeworkers and providing transport to voters.

The third force to be dealt with arethe rural elite and urban money bags. Ir-respective of whether they are with theruling party or the opposition, they haveenough money and muscle power at theircommand. They have developed over thedecades an effective machinery to win theelections. They can also influence thelower sections of bureaucracy helping inthe conduct of elections control.

Unless the EC devises ways to keepthose trying to influence the outcome ofthe elections under control, the electionmay not be considered altogether freeand fair. People have high expectationsfrom the EC, the first ever independentand powerful commission in the coun-try’s history. Also from the CEC who iswidely seen to be a man of integrity.

The elections in Balochistan have notonly to be fair and free but also seen by alland sundry as such. If this fails to happen,the nationalist parties may abandon parlia-mentary politics for good. Any attempt tosubvert the elections under a ‘grandscheme’ would exacerbate the secessionist

movement. By joining hands with the pow-erful sardars, the establishment could eas-ily bring back the docile but incompetentand corrupt government to power. But forthe country this would be catastrophic.Whatever little hope people in the provincestill have from democracy would evaporate.

And what about Karachi, the eco-nomic and trade hub and the city with thesole functioning port of the country?

The EC had claimed that it had pre-pared foolproof voters’ lists. It appearsnow that a sizeable number of voters fromKarachi were allocated polling stations notin the city where they had been living for10-15 years but in the interior of Sindh orKP and Punjab, against their wishes. Theissue had first been raised by Jamaat-i-Is-lami (JI) when the door-to-door verifica-tion was in progress. It complained thatthe process had been hijacked by MQMwhich had taken all forms from the enu-merators to fill them as it wanted. But theobjection was ignored. This has broughtthe credibility of the Election Commis-sioner Sindh to question. A number of po-litical parties have called for his removal.This is by no means an auspicious start.

The Supreme Court had ordered theEC on December 5 to conduct verificationof voters’ lists with the help and assis-tance of Pakistan Army and the FC. Asthings stand, the army has yet to agree totake part in the exercise while 10,000enumerators needed to conduct the exer-cise are yet to be recruited. Sindh provin-cial election commissioner has also yet topresent a plan for the verification of vot-ers in 13,000 census blocks in the city.

The outcome of the elections inKarachi will remain suspect till the issueof the gerrymandering of the constituen-cies under Musharraf with an aim to ben-efit the MQM is resolved. This can onlybe done through a fresh delimitation ofthe constituencies.

While the EC has promised to look intothe demand for delimitation, the MQM isdeadly set against any attempt of the sortfor obvious reasons. Among other things,the MQM argues that unless a new censushas taken place, it would be a violation ofthe constitution to redesign the constituen-cies. There are signs that delimitation maynot be undertaken before the elections. Itremains to be seen how the EC resolves theissue to make the elections rally credible.

The writer is a former academic anda political analyst.

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

The lady doth protest too much

NAB and our MPs

Issues of governance continue to haunt Pakistan. The PIA planesfail to take off. The railways are no more functional. The steelmills continue to financially bleed the country. Law and orderremains beyond control in Karachi. Terrorists can enter the GHQ

and Mehran base. The construction plans of the Lahore rapid transportsystem continue to change with the resulting delay becoming a sourceof harassment to the commuters in the city. Last month, the PAC wastold that billions of rupees of funds of the ministry of defenceproduction were kept in private accounts instead of state accounts.There is endemic corruption in government departments, be they civilor military, federal or provincial.

It surprised few, therefore, when a NAB spokesman claimed thatcorruption and embezzlement of the public exchequer was resulting intheft of Rs 6 billion to Rs 7 billion on a daily basis. He also revealed thatsince March this year, 173 projects at federal and provincial levels, witha financial impact of Rs 1.475 trillion, were put to scrutiny by NAB. Hehas promised that NAB would share details with the media today. Theover-reaction to the statement on the part of some of the ministers wasthus uncalled for. They should have waited for the details to come.

On the other hand, the cabinet members should have done well toponder over a report by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiativesand the Centre for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan, which was madepublic on Wednesday. The well-researched report maintains that only126 of the country’s 446 members of the National Assembly filed annualincome tax returns in 2011. The ratio in the case of the members of theSenate was no better. There are quite a few parliamentarians who are stillnot registered as taxpayers. Those who didn’t pay taxes includeimportant federal ministers, while out of 20 cabinet ministers who didpay, most made only negligible contributions. The fact that contestingNA elections requires Rs 20-30 million has led the NA to be dubbed as amillionaires’ club. The luxurious lifestyle maintained by mostparliamentarians is not at all in consonance with the finding of thereport. The report raises questions about the dedication of top lawmakersto enforcing the tax laws they are supposed to oversee. Pakistan’s 10.2tax-to-GDP ratio is one of the world’s lowest. After the 2010 NFC Awardwhich has raised the share of the provinces in the divisible pool, it wouldnot remain possible to run the federation unless all taxable incomes arebrought under the tax net. Unless the parliamentarians pay taxes in full,it would be difficult to persuade the business community, big landlordsand civil and military bureaucrats to respect the tax laws. As Chaucer putit, if gold rusts, what can poor iron do?

How the eC can make the elections rally credible

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Navigating a minefield

Pakistan’s third-place finish at theChampions Trophy (CT) in Aus-tralia isn’t exactly something that

would inspire the screenplay of a bigbudget sports film. It isn’t likely to fea-ture in the year ending top 10 sportingachievements either or any magazine’stop moments list for 2012. And for a teamthat has such an inflated trophy cabinet– featuring a record four World Cups andthree Olympic gold medals – a seventhbronze medal in a tournament that hasseen the side vanquish three gold and sixsilver medals, is hardly the most glitter-ing of accolades. However, if one puts thenational hockey team’s podium finish inMelbourne into context, this is quite pos-sibly Pakistan hockey’s brightest momentfor nearly a decade and a half.

The team has won three other CTbronze medals since 1998’s silver in La-

hore, in 2002, 2003 and 2004; all threeafter beating India in the bronze medalmatch by a single goal, just like on Sun-day. And then there was that AsianGames gold medal in Guangzhou in 2010as well. However, none of those triumphswere as significant as this one in Mel-bourne can turn out to be.

Following 1994, the last time Pak-istan won a gold medal at a global event– the World Cup in Sydney and the CT inLahore –, Pakistan hockey has been tra-versing constant decline. And every timethe freefall seems like decelerating, yousense there’s a turning point around thecorner. Reaching the semifinals in Syd-ney Olympics 2000 was touted as a turn-ing point; each of the three CT bronzemedals between 2002 and 2004 werepeddled as a turning point; the goldmedal in Guangzhou was supposed to bea turning point and beating Australia forthe first time in seven years last year wasalso flaunted as a turning point. Pakistanhockey hasn’t been devoid of turningpoints ever since their graph took a nose-dive, but every time they tend to locateone, they simply forget to turn.

There are a number of reasons why thepodium finish in Melbourne looks morepromising than the aforementioned cross-roads. For starters, the team of 2002-04had a backbone of players at their peak.The likes of Sohail Abbas, Waseem Ahmed,Rehan Butt, Zeeshan Ashraf, Dilawar Hus-sain and Muhammad Saqlain were at their

prime – there or thereabouts – and this isquite possibly the best that they could’veaccomplished. While the gold medalGuangzhou was a bit of a false dawn aswell, owing to the fall of Asian hockey andthe resulting lack of competition.

The current squad has a youthfulspine who can build on their success inMelbourne and finally turn the protractedcorner. One can only imagine the impactof winning the bronze medal on the likesof Mohammed Rizwan Sr – who pulledPakistan’s strings in the attacking thirdand was recognised as one of the bestyoung players of the tournament – and ofbeating the world’s top ranked side andOlympic champions Germany in the quar-terfinals. Granted, the German side resteda lot of their key players for the Champi-ons Trophy but such has been the dearthof notable scalps for Pakistan hockey overthe past decade or so, that their quarter-final victory arguably is the biggest tri-umph since their 2-0 must-win triumphover Netherlands in their Olympic poolmatch in 2000, which helped them qual-ify for the semis – the last time the na-tional side made the final four in eitherthe Olympics or the World Cup.

Another positive has been ShakeelAbbasi’s resurgence towards being one ofthe best players in the world today. Hisefforts were duly recognised as the talis-manic forward who turned the game onits head with his brace in the quarterfi-nals and ran the show against India, and

was named the Player of the Tournamentin Melbourne– the first time a Pakistanihas won the award at a major hockeytournament since Shahbaz Ahmed Srwon it in 1994, following the World Cuptriumph in Sydney.

Owing to Sohail Abbas’ absence, an-other notable difference in Pakistan’s playin Melbourne has been shunning theirnearly decade-and-a-half old strategy ofopting to win a penalty corner in the op-position D every time they penetrate theattacking third, and actually looking tocreate goal scoring opportunities. Onecould argue that in terms of creation ofchances Pakistan was right up there withthe likes of Australia and Netherlands, buttheir rather lacklustre finishing – possiblythe biggest chink in the armour – let themdown in crucial moments. Notable exam-ples of missing gilt-edged opportunitieswere found in their resilient, but profli-gate, performance in the second halfagainst Australia, and more crucially intheir 5-2 defeat at the hands of Nether-lands in the semifinal where the only dif-ference between the sides – at least in theattacking play – was the finishing, despitethe convincing margin of defeat. And sothere is a lot of promise in the current lotthat can be groomed to hopefully beingworld-beaters in the future.

The shadow of the glorious past andthe ensuing inflated expectationshaunted the previous generation of play-ers, as Pakistan hockey regularly becamethe victim of its own successes. It’ll takean Olympic or World Cup gold for thatshadow to be cleared, but the pressureand scrutiny seems to be gradually easingas the current crop look like being givena chance to steadily climb up the peckingorder in world hockey – a luxury, the pre-

vious generation did not have.Being a more global sport than

cricket, hockey needs a lot more coveragein Pakistan, something that cricket beinga more commercialised sport seems tohog somewhat unfairly – more people fol-lowed the domestic T20 event in Lahorethan the Champions Trophy. And if onewere to factor in international sports,Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Man-chester City on Sunday had more viewersin Pakistan than the hockey side’s 3-2 winover India the same day. More sports fansin the country know about Lionel Messi’srecord-breaking brace against Real Betisthan Shakeel Abbasi’s historic braceagainst Germany, and I’m pretty suremore sports lovers in Pakistan couldname the four tennis major winners from2012 or the F1 world champion thanthose who’d be able to tell who the cap-tain of Pakistan hockey side is.

The significance of the ChampionsTrophy bronze medal can be gauged byPakistan’s jump in FIH rankings fromninth to fifth. What this young side nowneeds is the attention and approbationthat it deserves, and the patience of thesupporters, who tend to open up historybooks to juxtapose the current perform-ances with those that were conjured inthe distant past. Pakistan hockey needsour support and acclaim, if we want it tofinally turn the extended corner. Maybethen for every ten kids who want to bethe next Shahid Afridi or the next LionelMessi, you’d have one who’d want to bethe next Shakeel Abbasi.

The writer is Editor, Business/City(Karachi), Pakistan Today. Email:[email protected], Twitter:@khuldune

Another turning point

By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

will pakistan hockey forget to turn… again?


Comment 11


the end of Arab SpringWhat’s happening in Egypt is not unex-

pected; going beyond mandate always resultsin such turmoil and polarisation of society.Someone has very rightly commented on thiscrisis that Muslim Brotherhood came topower due to Arab Spring, not Islamic Spring;therefore, they have to take all the segmentsof society along just those who serve the inter-ests of religious parties. Apparently, Morsi haslearned a lot from Pakistan’s hardliner armydictator Zia-ul-Haq who amended the consti-tution to fool the general public that after Is-lamisation of constitution, all of theirday-to-day issues and problems would besolved. Zia also used the referendum tech-nique to perpetuate his stay in power.

It shall be noted that the Brotherhood wonthe election due to better discipline and a loyalpolitical workforce; they got an upper edge inelection due to indiscipline and divisionsamong liberal forcers. But that shall not meanthat Brotherhood shall force their views on thewhole population in the form of a controver-sial constitution. Has the draft constitutionbeen debated by civil society and legislators indetail and a general agreement/consensusreached on this fundamental document? An-swer to this question is a big No. Now Morsiwants to take a shortcut and push Brother-hood’s agenda through streets. It’s no goodthat people are chanting ‘erhal’ (leave) inTahrir Square for a democratically electedpresident but at the same time he also needs torealise that he is not a dictator to enforce hiswill at gunpoint. It will be very unfortunate ifthis crisis gives an opportunity to army tomake a comeback. One can only presume thatbetter sense will prevail and the Brotherhoodwill not provide the golden chance to in-wait-ing generals to assert their authority – thatwould be the end of Arab Spring.

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arabia

Malala Yousufzai?I am at a loss to understand the worldwide

recognition and treatment given to Malala.And now her name has been nominated forNobel Peace Prize and she will get that too.The President of Pakistan takes a special tripto Birmingham and then to Paris for MalalaSeminar. She gets now ‘Daughter of Pakistan’title. George Brown, apparently has no occu-pation after his retirement, is leaving no av-enue to Malala-ise it. But somehow, I do notcomprehend the achievements of Malala. Shehas been allegedly hit by a bullet by some un-

known characters. Those characters have notbeen apprehended and it remains a mysterywhether she did get the bullet or not? Thisepisode is so quick and so fast that a commonman in the street asks what good Malala hasdone for him to also follow her path to fameand recognition by the government.

Is Malala related to someone we do notknow of? Did Malala write a piece of superbliterature? Is Malala a hoax created for someother ulterior motive? I am sure she has notdone anything extra-ordinary. Or at least, thearchitect of Malala saga has failed to highlightthose marvelous things that Malala seemed tohave done? Elections are near. This shaheedtheory worked very effectively in 2008. Nowin 2012, we do not have anyone to shaheed.Aseffa and Bakhtawar are too naïve and Bi-lawal is the only one left over half-Bhutto. IsMalala, a ‘nearly shaheed’, theory concoctedto earn the a few more votes?

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

Our breed of politiciansThe present lot of politicians is incorrigible

to learn any lesson from their past mistakesand continue to tread the path of confrontationinstead of reconciliation. Probably, this is dueto the fact that with a few exceptions, most ofthem are products of martial law, as was boldlyconfessed by a former MNA in the previousNational Assembly. He boldly declared on thefloor of the House that they all were protégés ofdictators. They supported one or the othermartial law and as such no one was better thanthe other. He appealed to the lawmakers to for-get each other’s mistakes and move forward tomake Pakistan a truly democratic and progres-sive state. Recently, an MNA and a federalminister repeated the words of his predecessor.Alas, their words fell on deaf ears and politi-cians continue the practice of mudslinging andhate-mongering against each other.

The truth is that after judicial execution ofan elected prime minister, the dictator neededlegitimacy and public moral support to con-tinue his rule. He induced different politicalleaders in his regime. A new generation ofpoliticians, mostly from the PML, was inductedinto the mainstream politics by the generals.They were nurtured and groomed by the mili-tary and ruled the country from 1980 to 1988in different capacities and guises. However,they could not introduce any structured politi-cal, economic, social, or legal reform except forsowing seeds of hatred, animosity, ethnic andreligious divide in the country.

Surprisingly, now they give sermons ofdemocracy with authoritarian mindset and ut-terly autocratic behaviours. They take unilateraldecisions without consulting their own party ortheir opponents. The culture of favouritism,entitlements, perks and privileges to friendsand cronies is thriving. However, there is onenoticeable change: they sing Jalib and whilevehemently opposing army’s role in politics,they tend to seek similar help from the judiciaryby filing frivolous petitions in the apex court.

RAJA SHAFAATULLAHIslamabad

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Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah,Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected]

Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

Is Transparency Int’l transparent?

Targeting Pakistan

Does the use of suffix ‘interna-tional’ confer the right on anorganisation of Pakistani

origin, like The Transparency Inter-national (TI), to launch a self-de-struction campaign which, even ifnot proved right, possesses consid-erable potential of damaging thecountry’s image in an interdepen-dent world?

Obviously, every conscientiousPakistani will condemn TI’s self-ig-nominy campaign that is even oth-erwise based on perceptions and noton actual acts of corruption. Cer-tainly, this doesn’t divest TI of itsright to expose the wrongdoing indifferent sectors but it does makethe people think and rethink aboutthe excitement with which the TIprojects the false image of Pakistan,as if taking pride in telling the worldto rejoice Pakistan’s ‘rise’ to rank 33,from the previous 42 in the list ofcorrupt countries.

This is what has been stated inthe TI’s annual report over corrup-tion in the year 2012 although thisreport in itself lacks authenticity.TI’s excitement is really disgustingand more embarrassing is the TI’smechanised churning out of figuresthat just can’t be adjudged on exist-ing, reasonable benchmarks. Someanalysts rather believe that TI hasdeveloped the skill of creating imag-inary figures since it knows well thatprecise, mathematical rebuttal ofsuch figures is more difficult a taskthan even grudgingly swallowingsuch horrible allegations. This istragic indeed. The entire country iseclipsed by such props and pretextsthat are being used with a juggler’sfinesse to tarnish the image of thetargeted people, whether they arethe government of the day or the po-litical party in power or any otherspecific institution.

TI reports are good examples ofuse of such props and pretexts. Theyknow that by publicising huge fig-ures of corruption, the people willbelieve the TI and the governmentwill be technically unable to rebut itwith exactly the same ‘confidence’with which the TI fields or unleashesits data. And that makes the TI an-other legend of the century for thishero-hungry nation that has nowdeveloped the craze for creating he-

roes, ‘if there is none’, courtesy thepersistent efforts of TI and somemisled – and also misleading – seg-ments of media.

As a matter of fact, the TI re-port is in essence a perceptionindex. It prepares reports, not oncorruption but on perception ofcorruption whereas the PPP-ledgovernment is taking concretesteps to combat corruption. One ex-ample is that of Public AccountsCommittee that comprises of vocalmembers of leading parties of theparliament and that does not spareanyone involved in corruptionwhatever his stature or privileges.If TI was seriously desirous of re-forming the society or our official-dom, it would have collectedconcrete figures instead of generat-ing junk studies and then handedthem over to PAC since this Com-mittee is not the government but abroad-based parliamentary body.

Now coming to TI report, at onepoint it says that the rampant cor-ruption in Pakistan has intensifiedas the country has entered into theelection year, with both federal andprovincial governments doling outtens of billions of rupees to theirmembers of parliament (MPs) inthe name of development projectsto attract a large number of votersin the next elections.

This allegation, though vague, isnot far from reality but it can’t bedescribed corruption. It may becalled favouritism to some extentbut the ultimate beneficiaries ofsuch funding are the people of Pak-istan who, in turn, get new roads,better infrastructure and otheramenities and utilities like gas, elec-tricity, water supply etc.

Let us now ponder over the TImethodology vis-à-vis the so-calledreport on corruption.

It was based on a survey byGallup Pakistan (not related toGallup Inc, headquartered inWashington DC, USA) that sur-veyed 2,500 Pakistani men andwomen adults.

The questions asked were: “Inthe recent 12 months, did you oryour family get a chance to contactany of the following institutions ornot?” and second, “Did you feelcompelled to pay a bribe?” The insti-tutions’ number was 10 and in-cluded police, revenue, military,excise and taxation and education.

But nobody asked why the sur-

veyed people felt compelled to pay abribe and whether the bribe was ac-tually accepted. And nobody seemsto have considered that those peoplewho had contact with institutionslike the military might not want totell a complete stranger who phonedthem that they ‘felt compelled to paya bribe’ and thought an institutionlike military was corrupt. With re-gard to the education department,does ‘tuition’ count as a bribe? Howwas this explained to the survey par-ticipants? It appears from thismethodology that TI didn’t find2,500 people who had contact witheach institution among the ten insti-tutions marked for the purpose.

Furthermore, you can’t rankthese institutions because the sam-ples are completely different and theanswers are ambiguous. You wouldbe comparing apples to oranges.

The government has rejected theTransparency International’s an-nual report in which facts have beentwisted. According to the govern-ment officials concerned, millions ofrupees have been recovered fromthe plunderers and state institutionsare working hard to recover themoney from the fraudulent people.

Moreover, the PPP-led demo-cratic government has volunteeredto present itself for accountability bystarting audits from its own tenure.

As for TI’ stress on AuditorGeneral’s report revealing corrup-tion cases of about Rs 350 billion,the people who have carried in-depth study of the audit depart-ment know well that the auditsystem has gradually degeneratedinto tracking of compliance of ac-counting and administrative proce-dures, some of which date back tothe British period.

In fact, there is no guaranteethat the audit will unearth corrup-tion because as a routine it targetsprocedural lapses like who ap-proved the expenditure and whoshould have.

Last but not the least, surveysconducted by other entities (otherthan TI) can be biased or based onmisperceptions. TI has itself men-tioned on its website that surveysare not conducted by TI and that it(TI) bases its reports on othersources.

This ‘disclaimer’ is more thansufficient to expose the inherentflaws in the TI’s system and in itsown transparency.

By S Rahman


12

No January 2013shaadi for Rani andAditya Chopra

ACTReSS Rani Mukerji is not getting married

to Aditya Chopra in January 2013. Her

spokesperson maintained, “There is

absolutely no truth to any of these wedding date

stories at all. Rani has repeatedly stated that when

she does get married, it will be a time for much

happiness for herself and her family. Till then, she

would like all conjecture to be put to rest.’’ Rani and

Aditya came out in the open about their relationship

at the chautha of Yash Chopra. But, the marriage

reports lack credence. CoUrTeSy ToI

Sarah Palin’s son divorcingwife Britta after 18 months of marriage

IT’S splitsville for Sarah Palin’s son Track and

his wife Britta Hanson. Tying the knot in May

2011, commercial fisherman Track, 23, and his

high school sweetheart filed joint divorce documents

in an Alaska court, TMZ reports. In accordance with

state law, their joint filing confirms they agree to

property and custody terms as well as child support

for their 1-year-old daughter, Kyla. The Palin family’s

oldest son married nursing student Hanson in

Hatcher Pass, Alaska, with both sets of parents

present at their ceremony. “Our families couldn’t be

happier!” the Palin and Hanson families said in a

joint statement at the time. “These are two hard

working, humble, active, studious young adults who

grew up together. We’re tickled that after two

decades of friendship we proudly witnessed their

marriage, knowing their new life together will be

blessed.” NewS DeSK

Seth Rogen to star in‘Ghostbusters’

THeRe’S no replacing Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd,

and Harold Ramis as the original

Ghostbusters, but if you were staging a one-

night-only live version of the classic comedy, well,

who might one contact? Seth Rogen, Jack Black, and

Rainn Wilson are going to cross the streams. The

event is one of the monthly live-reads of a famous

movie script organized by Juno and Up in the Air

filmmaker Jason Reitman, who, of course, has a

family connection to this story. His father, Ivan

Reitman, directed Ghostbusters and he remembers

hanging around on the set as a little kid. NewS DeSK


NEWS DESK

NEARLY 20 yearsafter Nirvanaended with the

suicide of singer KurtCobain, the band will beback together for onenight … but not with thehelp of a hologram.None other than SirPaul McCartney willreportedly fill in for

the late grunge godand be backed upby Dave Grohl ondrums, KristNovoselic on bass,and unofficialmember Pat Smearon guitar for aperformance at theHurricane Sandy

benefit in New York City onWednesday night. Althoughthe news began as speculation,McCartney’s publicist wouldneither “confirm nor deny.”But before fans startcomplaining that a 70-year-oldgrandfather shouldn’t besinging songs like “Smells LikeTeen Spirit,” the song the newquartet is set to perform willbe an original that was createdduring a recent studio session.McCartney told The Sun thatduring a phone conversationwith Grohl, the Foo Fightersfrontman asked him to joinhim and “jam with somemates.” And when he arrived,those pals ended up being hisformer Nirvana co-members.“I didn’t really know who theywere,” McCartney said of

Smear and Novoselic. “Theyare saying how good it is to beback together. I said ‘Whoa?You guys haven’t playedtogether for all that time?’ Andsomebody whispered to me‘That’s Nirvana. You’re Kurt.’ Icouldn’t believe it.”Neither can a lot of Nirvanafans. But although it may seemcrazy to have someone likeMcCartney fill the Conversesneakers of Cobain, who shothimself in April 1994 at the ageof 27, it’s likely not somethingthat would make him roll overin his grave. According toNirvana biography Come asYou Are: The Story of Nirvana,Cobain wrote the 1989 song“About a Girl” after spendingan afternoon listening to ‘Meetthe Beatles!’ on repeat.

T HE Golden Globes 2013 nomina-tions are here. The Golden Globesceremony, the 70th in the history ofthe awards show, will be held on

Sunday January. 13, 2013. Tina Fey andAmy Poehler will co-host the GoldenGlobes awards. The Golden Globes arevoted on by the Hollywood Foreign PressAssociation. Per the Globes website, thegroup was found during World War II.Last year, “The Artist” and “The Descen-dants” won Best Picture in, respectively,the Musical or Comedy and Drama cate-gories. “Modern Family” and “Homeland”won those awards on the television side.This year, “Les Miserables,” “Argo,” “Lin-coln,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “ZeroDark Thirty” are expected to compete forbig awards. “Mad Men,” “Homeland,”“Game of Thrones,” “Breaking Bad” and“Modern Family” are among the potentialtelevision nominees. NewS DeSK

INVESTIGATORS havethwarted a convictedmurderer’s plot to kill and

castrate teen idol Justin Bieber,Albuquerque’s KRQE news re-ports. According to the site,Dana Martin- currently servingtwo life sentences in New Mex-ico for raping and killing a 15-year-old girl in Vermont 12years ago- recruited a fellow in-mate at the state prison nearLas Cruces to help him carryout a series of murders, one ofwhich was planned for the“Beauty and the Beat” singer.Law enforcement officials sayrecently released inmate MarkStaake and his nephew TannerRuane were supposed to takedown the pop sensation at hissold-out Madison Square Gar-den concert in New York City inNovember. The plan was tostrangle the young star and hisbodyguard with paisley ties,Martin’s calling card, and thencastrate both victims. Ruane

was subsequently apprehendedby New York police, who foundmurder tools and pruning shearson him at the time of his arrest.Bieber’s manager, ScooterBraun, said that the singer’swell-being was his team’s toppriority. “We take every precau-tion to protect and insure thesafety of Justin and his fans,”Braun told said. NewS DeSK

NEWS DESK

A fter a relatively laid-back 2012, DeepikaPadukone is heading towards a packedyear, as her films release in 2013, startingwith race 2 in January and then Yeh

Jawaani Hai Deewani, Chennai express andKochadaiyaan (in which she is oppositerajinikanth) lined up. Now, the actor is all set tomake a record with her next, Sanjay LeelaBhansali’s tentatively titled ram Leela, oppositeranvir Singh. a source said, “Deepika has

spared about 140 days (that’s over fourmonths) for the shoot of ram Leela. that’sthe highest number of dates any femaleactor has ever given for a film. She’s putting

in a lot of effort for this project, and has beenworking round the clock (the shoot started in

November).” Usually, actors work on a film for 60 to90 days, wrapping up 4-5 films a year. asked why she

has slotted so many days and the source said, “Shehasn’t spared 140 days at a stretch. She will shoot it in

parts, because she’s shooting for rohit Shetty’s Chennaiexpress as well. She is doing that since it’s a massive

production.” the source also added, “from workshops andpreparations to dance rehearsals and the final shoot, it will

require Deepika to put in a lot of effort. and Sanjayalways pays attention to the minutest of details,

which is why Deepika also wants to give ither best. It’s a big film for her, and the role

she’s playing will be an image makeoverfor her.” Meanwhile, Deepika is juggling

dates between her shoots with Shahrukh Khan and ranvir. the sourcesaid, “She has been shooting back-to-back. She has around fivereleases coming up.”

Golden Globes 2013 nominations: film &TV hounored by Hollywood foreign press

Justin Bieber’s managerspeaks out on allegedmurder, castration plot

Paul McCartney to front Nirvanaat Hurricane Sandy relief concert

Jamie Foxx, from left, Samuel Jackson,Christoph waltz and Don Johnson attendthe premiere of quentin tarantino’s “DjangoUnchained” this week in New York.


13


WHO TOPPED THE LIST THISyEAR? Tonight, Barbara Walterscrowned General David Petraeus asher Most Fascinating person of 2012.“David Petraeus was not chosen thisyear for his war record or hisexemplary service to his country,”said Walters. “This is about militaryhonor, colliding with sex and lies inthe digital age.”The former head of the CIA steppeddown in November after anextramarital affair was discoveredwith his biographer Paula Broadwell.Petraeus, 60, was also given thenumber one spot in 2010.

Additionally, the legendary journalistsat down with Argo actor/directorBen Affleck, British-Irish boy bandOne Direction, Olympic gymnastGabrielle Douglas, Family Guycreator Seth MacFarlane, 50 Shadesof Grey author E.L. James, Secretaryof State Hillary Rodham Clinton andNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.Prince Harry and Honey Boo Boowere also featured on the list, butwere not interviewed. This is Walters’ 20th seasonhighlighting some of the year’sbiggest names in entertainment,sports and popular culture. NewS DeSK

I F there’s one personwho has no com-plaints with the year2012, it has to be the

gorgeous Priyanka Chopra.While on one hand, her filmBarfi! has been selected asthe Indian entry at the Os-cars, on the other, the actorhas been nominated for theWorld Music Awards(WMA) 2013 for her smashhit single In My City (shehas been nominated underthree categories - BestDebut, Best Song and Best

Video). It is this PriyankaChopra who is also on thecover of the latest edition ofGQ. If you are one of thosewho have got their earstreated to her soothing vo-cals, then, you will secondus when we say that hervoice truly has got an inter-national feel and appeal.And it is this internationalfeel that comes across evenon the cover of the mag.There could not be a betterway for Priyanka to end theyear. NewS DeSK

NEWS DESK

T HE singer-turned-actor, Ali Zafar,clinched the second spotwhile for the second year in a

row, Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan hasemerged as the “sexiest Asian man in theworld” in an online survey conducted by aLondon-based weekly. The 38-year-old actor beatthe likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan,Akshay Kumar, John Abraham and RanbirKapoor to clinch the top spot. “The star of 2012hit ‘Agneepath’ beat off tough competition fromaround the world and won by an even biggermargin than last year as he received votes fromall over the world from continents thatincluded Asia, Europe, Africa and SouthAmerica from fans of all ages and differentcultures,” the Eastern Eye Newspaper said ina release. Even though he was the hotfavourite and led right from the beginning,the win came as a major surprise to Indiancinema’s hottest pin up. “I am extremelyhumbled at the decision of the public, also alittle embarrassed as I just can’t imaginemyself as sexy! I’m actually someonewho’s just trying to get by with hisbattered, bruised and broken tools. So abig thanks to all for this dose ofencouragement! Thank you EasternEye readers for this very sweetrecognition,” said Hrithik. He beatPakistani singer-turned-actor AliZafar who was the surprise runnerup. ‘Dabangg’ hero Salman Khanfinished third and last year’srunner up Shahid Kapoorcame fourth. Bollywood

newcomerSidharth

Malhotra wasthe highest new

entry at fifth placeand narrowly beat

off popular TV starKushal Tandon who was

sixth. Shah Rukh joinedthe list at seventh place andwas followed by JohnAbraham at eight and Ranbirat nine. Eastern Eye showbiz editorAsjad Nazir, who putstogether the very popular list

and is chairman of the judgingpanel, said despite having thebest physique, those voting forHrithik were impressed by a lot of

his other qualities.

Ali Zafar the second sexiest

Asian man in the worldPriyanka ‘rocks the world’ for GQ

Despite years of brushes with the law, troubled starletLindsay Lohan has managed to avoid any real jailtime. Finally, it seems, her luck may have run out andshe might actually be sentenced to some time in theslammer. On Wednesday morning, a Los Angeles

judge revoked the 26-year-old’s probation and scheduled ahearing for next month, when the actress could be sentencedto up to 245 days in jail, according to TMZ. Lohan wasn’tpresent at the Wednesday hearing, where she was arraignedon charges that she was driving recklessly when she crashed arented Porsche in Santa Monica, California, in June and liedto police, claiming that her assistant had been driving. Thepotential eight months in prison would only come into playif the judge decides the “Liz and Dick” star violated herprobation, which stems from a misdemeanor grand theftcharge after she allegedly stole a necklace from a high-end

jewelry store in Venice, California, last year. Her mostrecent legal entanglement, however, occurred just last

month when she was arrested in New York City andcharged with assault for allegedly punching a woman

in the face at a nightclub. In the last few monthsshe’s also been involved in a hit and run (charges

were later dropped), a fight with a man in herhotel room (charges against him were later

dropped), and a domestic dispute with hermother, Dina Lohan, in which Lindsay allegedthat the 50-year-old was high on cocaine (nocharges were filed). Lindsay later said she

lied about her mother’s drug use. There’sstill a good chance the actress will get off

next month without having to go behindbars. A source familiar with the judge on

Lohan’s case, Commissioner JaneGodfrey, told TMZ that “Godfrey isnot a big jail person.” NewS DeSK

Barbara Walters names‘Most Fascinating’ of 2012


There are certain things that middle-agedmen should probably steer clear of: buying aflashy sports car, dating a barely-legal hottie, suc-cumbing to the allure of hair-in-a-can.

However, this week, after the death of aBritish dad, experts now warn that dancing“Gangnam Style” may be yet another middle ageno-no. As the Sun notes, 46-year-old Eamonn Kil-bride was performing the energetic dance — made

wildly famous by Korean pop star Psy — at his of-fice Christmas party over the weekend when hesuddenly collapsed and died.

It is believed that the father of three sufferedfrom a heart attack. “We were having a fantastictime at the Christmas party and Eamonn hadjust finished dancing to Gangnam Style. He wasup on stage and entertaining everybody. He saidhe had a bit of a pain and just collapsed,” his

wife, Julie, said, according to the Telegraph.In the wake of Kilbride’s death, Professor

Bernard Keavney, a consultant cardiologist atNewcastle University, has warned men to be“measured at Christmas parties and...[to not]stray outside your comfort zone.”

“The chance that you’ll come to grief is verysmall. But as with any form of untypical exercise…be somewhat measured. Let the lady dancearound you,” he told the Telegraph. “Icertainly wouldn’t say that people need to avoidGangnam Style over the holidays. [But] if you’reunused to taking vigorous physical exercise, youshouldn’t throw yourself into violent exertionwithout due preparation.”

This isn’t the first time that a man has diedfrom dancing. According to a 2007 AssociatedPress report, 48-year-old Robert Stitt died duringa dance-off in a parking lot.

Over the last few months, a great number ofpublic figures, includingU.N. Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon, boxer Manny Pacquiao and GoogleChairman Eric Schmidt, have all jumped on the“Gangnam Style” bandwagon. The viral pop sen-sation, which has racked up more than 900 mil-lion views on YouTube, took the world bystorm after its release earlier this year.

While the trigger of Kilbride’s death may beconsidered bizarre by some, cardiovascular dis-ease is not a light-hearted matter. According to2009 statistics on the website of the Centers ofDisease Control and Prevention, heart disease isthe leading cause of death in the United States.Moreover, in 2010, more than 27 million “uninsti-tutionalized adults” had reportedly been diag-nosed with heart disease. NewS DeSK

14Infotainment

Leaked BlackBerry imagesshow iPhone influence

LEAKED images purporting to show the nextBlackBerry handset show a full touchscreendevice more in line with flagship handsets

from RIM’s competitors Apple and Google. Theimages, published on Vietnamese technology newssite Tinhte.vn, appear to show the handsetcodenamed BlackBerry London, which is due forrelease early next year. The handset will be the firstto run BlackBerry 10, the next version of theBlackBerry operating system. From the pictures, theBlackBerry London looks to have a minimalistindustrial design similar to that of Apple’s iPhone 5.The back is textured and it appears to have mini-HDMI and microUSB ports, as well as a microSDslot and removable battery. The BlackBerry Londonis expected to be unveiled along with anotherBlackBerry model at a launch event on January 30,2013. The new images are consistent with earlierleaked pictures showing both devices, which wereoriginally scheduled for launch this year. This isn’tthe first time RIM has ditched the famousBlackBerry keyboard. The first touchscreenBlackBerry with no physical keyboard was theStorm, released in November 2008. NewS DeSK


Giant asteroid flies close by Earth

SOME people may interpret it as another signof the approaching end of the world, butreally it’s just an astronomical event. NASA

reports a giant asteroid did pass by close to EarthTuesday. The space rock — named 4-1-7-9 Toutatis— came within a few million miles of our planet, or18 times the distance to the moon. Astronomers saidToutatis comes close to Earth every several years,but there is no risk of a collision anytime soon.According to the Wired.com, the asteroid is almosthalf the size of the one that caused the extinction ofdinosaurs 65 million years ago. But Wired added thechances of the object smashing into the planet areeffectively zero for the next 600 years. A separateand much smaller asteroid discovered just a few daysago also came close to Earth Tuesday. NewS DeSK

Man dies ‘Gangnam style’

Two charged after toddlerdies from heroin overdose

DANIEL Jones, aged 23 months, died at ahouse in Penn, Wolverhampton in May.Daniel’s death was initially treated as

unexplained but following an investigation, forensictests showed he died from a heroin overdose.A 29-year-old man and 33-year-old woman are dueto appear at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Courtthis morning charged with manslaughter andcausing or allowing the death of a child. Both weredetained by police yesterday and charged todayafter the death of Daniel, who was pronounceddead by paramedics who responded to a call to ahouse in Penn at 6.15am on May 29. NewS DeSK

SCIENTISTS may be one step closer touncovering the origins of cheese-mak-ing, as evidence thousands of yearsold has been uncovered. What woulda Neolithic cheese have tasted like?

Truly an ancient art, no-one really knowsexactly when humans began making cheese.

But now milk extracts have been identi-fied on 34 perforated pottery vessels or“cheese-strainers”, which date back 7,500years that have been excavated in Poland.

It is unambiguous evidence for cheese-making in northern Europe during Neolithictimes, scientists believe, and the findingshave been published in the scientific journalNature. “We analysed some fragments of pot-tery from the region of Kuyavia [Poland]pierced with small holes that looked likemodern cheese-strainers,” says MelanieSalque, a postgraduate student at the Univer-sity of Bristol’s Department of Chemistry.

“They had been thought to be cheese-strainers because of the peculiar presence ofholes on the surface.

“However, they could well have beenflame covers, chafing dishes, honey strainersor used for beer-making, to strain out chaff.

Ms Salque and her team then analysedlipid residues on the vessels and detectedmilk residues, which they say provides a linkto cheese-making.

“The evidence was stunning,” explainsProfessor Richard Evershed, of Bristol Uni-versity. “If you then put together the factthat there are milk fats in with the holes inthe vessels, along with the size of the vesselsand knowing what we know about how milkproducts are processed, what other milkproduct could it be?”

Although scientists have not identified acompound of cheese they have put together aconvincing case. Is it possible that prehistoricpeople were making cheese much earlier than7,500 years ago?

“The most important ingredient for

cheese-making is milk and only domesticatescan be milked. Thus, it is unlikely that the ori-gins of cheese-making predates the Ne-olithic,” says Ms Salque.

Earlier examples of milk residues havebeen detected on pottery vessels from theNear East, dating back 8,000 years, althoughthe evidence did not suggest that they wereused for milk processing activities, explainsMs Salque. The only other written evidencefor cheese-making activity occurs much laterin the archaeological record, around 5,000years ago. “The question is how long did ittake for people to figure out the technology oftransforming that milk into fermented prod-ucts and eventually into cheese, and that’s re-ally hard to say,” says Dr Peter Bogucki ofPrinceton University.

“I think we can say that it’s a key Ne-olithic innovation to be able to produce astorable product from something perishableand hard to handle like milk, and to do it rou-tinely and repetitively, with continual refine-ment and that within a few millennia after thedomestication of cattle, sheep, and goats wecan talk about cheese production.”

What would have prompted Neolithicpeople to start making cheese? Neolithicfarming communities were lactose intolerant,so transforming raw milk into cheese madethe milk easier to digest, and also easier topreserve and transport, scientists believe.

“Processing milk into cheese allows thelactose content of milk to be reduced. And ge-netic and computer simulations have shownthat at that time, people were largely lactoseintolerant,” explains Ms Salque. “So makingcheese allowed them to consume dairy prod-ucts without the undesirable health effects.”

“It also shows that humans were not onlykilling animals for their meat, but also usingwhat animals could produce and go on pro-ducing,” says Andrew Dalby, author of“Cheese: A Global History.”

Creating cheese from milk was also

thought to be a much more economical wayof farming in Neolithic times, following thedomestication of cattle in the Near East.

“You can get milk but you can’t storemilk, so the really important invention is howto store the food value of milk and that reallymeans making cheese,” says Mr Dalby.

The discovery of cheese could also havebeen accidental, as humans began storingmilk in animal stomachs for transportation.

“The introduction of salt into cheesemight have started right from the beginning...perhaps without any conscious thought be-cause you need rennet [a complex of en-zymes] to curdle your cheese,” says Mr Dalby.

“If you’re in the Near East and you’vemilked your cow and you put it in a pottery ves-sel, leave it at 40C in the hot summer heat ofTurkey, after two or three hours you’ve got yo-ghurt. You can imagine serendipity playing ahuge role in this,” says Prof Evershed. So whatmight a prehistoric cheese have tasted like?

“The study of animal bones... shows thatcattle were the most common domesticates atthe sites. So - cow’s milk cheese,” says MsSalque. “I guess it would have been like thetraditional cheese you can get, maybe madesimply by curdling milk with rennet.

“In France we have the Picodon, tradi-tionally made in farms with cow or goatsmilk, that you curdle and then strain in acheese strainer... I would imagine that thePrehistoric cheese would have been like this.

“It’s likely to have been a softer cheese.”Andrew Dalby says the taste of the cheese

may have changed according to the season.“Similar to those they make in the region

of France where I live, the result can be quitedifferent depending on the season.

“Sometimes they harden and would infact keep and still give good value monthslater. “It would have been a very long series -hundreds, thousands of years of experimentand that’s what resulted in the vast range ofcheeses that we have now.” NewS DeSK

Evidence ofworld’s‘oldest’ cheese-

making found


friday, 14 December, 2012

Page 18

Roddick enjoyinglife after retirement

LAHORESTAff reporT

PAKISTAN starts a week-longtraining camp Friday for itslandmark limited overs seriesagainst India with former cap-

tain Inzamam-ul Haq and a psychologistdrafted in, an official said.

India and Pakistan play twoTwenty20s and three one-day interna-tionals in their first series for five years,which starts later this month and comes

after India resumed ties stalled in thewake of the 2008 attacks on Mumbai.

The training camp begins in Lahoreand the team fly to India on December 22and open the tour with a Twenty20 inBangalore three days later.

The second Twenty20 will be playedin Ahmedabad on December 27 followedby three one-day matches in Chennai onDecember 30, Kolkata on January 3 andNew Delhi on January 6.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chair-man Zaka Ashraf said Inzamam had

agreed to help as a batting consultant be-fore the tour. "Inzamam will help thebatsmen in the camp but since he is busyhe will not go on the tour," Ashraf told re-porters. Pakistan has been on the lookoutfor a coach to overcome batting weak-nesses that have proved troublesome atan international level.

Inzamam, who played 120 Tests and378 one-day internationals for Pakistan,was regarded as one of the finest batsmenof his time. Ashraf said sports psycholo-gist Maqbool Babri has also been selected

to help motivate the players for the chal-lenging tour.

"We hope that the team will performwell on the tour and for this balancedsquads have been selected," said Ashraf,hoping star allrounder Shahid Afridi willwin back his place on the one-day squad.

"For me every player is equal and wehave a strict policy of merit. Afridi hasbeen going through a bad patch and Ihope he removes his flaws," said Ashraf ofAfridi being dropped from the one-dayersbut selected for the T20s.

Inzi to be batting consultant before India tour

HOBART AGeNCIeS

Opener David Warner is a rare talentand the X-factor he brings to the Aus-tralian team more than makes up forthe odd ugly dismissal, captain MichaelClarke said on Thursday.

Warner's last test innings endedwith a wild slash at the ball in the defeatto South Africa in Perth which sent himback to the dressing room with 29 runsto his name and Australia anotherwicket down as they chased a huge vic-tory target.

The 26-year-old, a brilliant limitedovers player who graduated to the testteam last year, will play his 13th testagainst Sri Lanka in Hobart this week.

"The one thing we have to under-stand about Davey, is that the same ballthat got him out in Perth, we were allapplauding in Adelaide when it wentover slips for four," said Clarke.

"That's the way he plays."Warner had scored a superb 119

against South Africa in the second testin Adelaide, an echo of his magnificent180 against India in Perth last yearwhich he kicked off with a 69-ball cen-tury.

"The only thing I continue to say toDavey is to make sure his intent isthere," Clarke added.

"When the intent is there, his de-fence is better, his shot selection is bet-ter. He plays his best when he's lookingto score runs, there's no doubt aboutthat.

"Like all of us, we would like to bemore consistent and score runs everytime we walk out to bat.

"Sometimes it's not going to lookgreat when he gets out, but on the otherhand he has the X-factor. He can takethe game away from the opposition inthe first session of a test match.

"There's not many players in the

world that have that talent. I'm reallyhappy with the way he's going."

Warner scored his maiden test cen-tury (123) at the Bellerive Oval last yearand although it was in a shock defeat toNew Zealand, Clarke said it was a greatillustration of his skill.

"I think one of Davey's greatest in-nings was the hundred he scored hereagainst New Zealand in really toughbatting conditions," said Clarke.

"He still had that intent, eventhough the wicket was doing a lot. Hisshot selection was perfect.

"In a perfect world, you'd love tobottle that, but you have to have a bit ofgive and take with Davey."

Warner’s X-factor makes up for ugly dismissals: Clarke

BANGALOREAGeNCIeS

Hosts India on Thursday triumphedin the inaugural Blind CricketTwenty20 World Cup after defeatingPakistan by 29 runs in the title clashin Bangalore. After Ketan Bhai Patelguided India to 258 with a hurricaneknock of 98, the hosts restricted thevisitors to 229 for nine in the allotted20 overs. Batting first, Prakash Ja-yaramaiah made useful 42 while vice-captain Ajay Kumar Reddycontributed 25, helping India to posta competitive total.

For Pakistan, Mohammed Jameelscored a quickfire 47, Ali Murthazastruck 38 while Mohammed Akramhelped himself to 32 runs. Having woneight matches on the trot in the groupstage, Pakistan could not maintain thewinning streak when it mattered most.India had only lost to Pakistan in the

group stage and thrashed Sri Lanka inthe semifinal. Pakistan had spankedEngland by nine wickets in the semifi-

nals. The victory is India’s first in aWorld Cup final after they lost to Pak-istan in 2006.

Iran to hostAsian KabaddiChampionship

CHANDIGARHAGeNCIeS

Iran will host the Asian Kabaddi Champi-onship at Tehran next year. An announce-ment to this effect was made byMohammad Abassi, Sports and Youth Af-fairs Minister of Iran, at Bathinda duringthe semifinal between India and Iran, anofficial release said here today. Abassipraised the conduct of the 2nd WorldKabaddi Championship by the Punjab Gov-ernment and urged Deputy Chief MinisterSukhbir Singh Badal to lead the AsianKabaddi Federation for the betterment ofthis game. He expressed hope that in theyears to come the Circle Style Kabaddiwould be part of Asian Games. "The ties be-tween India and Iran are getting strongerwith the organisation of such sports events.We have accepted the offer of Punjab Gov-ernment to participate in the three- nationIndigenous Wrestling Competition going tobe organised next year," he said. Mean-while the Punjab Government announcedto set up a wrestling academy in collabora-tion with the Iranian government to pro-mote the traditional sport as Iran is knownfor its expertise, infrastructure and agilewrestlers across the world. A decision tothis was effect was taken by Chief MinisterParkash Singh Badal during a meeting withAbbasi who called on him here today.

Jayawardene to stepdown as Sl skipper

HOBART AGeNCIeS

Mahela Jayawardene will step down as cap-tain of the Sri Lanka test and one-day teamsafter the current tour of Australia and hasbacked Angelo Mathews to replace him. The35-year-old Jayawardene told a new confer-ence on the eve of the first test against Aus-tralia that he thought next year would be agood year to make the transition to ayounger leader as there were few high-pro-file series scheduled. Jayawardene, who ledSri Lanka to the 50-overs World Cup final in2007, agreed to take over the captaincy for asecond spell in place of opener TillakaratneDilshan earlier this year. "I don't want tocontinue to captain after this tour so this willbe my last. I hope I don't get any more SOS

calls from them," Jayawar-dene told reporters in Ho-bart. "It's been great, I've

enjoyed the last yearand what I've achievedbut we need to move onto a younger leader. It'sbest that we get a new

player in whilethe senior guysare still aroundso we can helphim out inbuilding ateam."

India lifts World T20 for blind

HOBART: Sri Lanka are resignedto life without paceman Lasith Ma-linga in test matches and do not ex-pect him to make a dramatic returnin the series against Australia, cap-tain Mahela Jayawardene said onThursday. Malinga, who retiredfrom test cricket earlier this year,gave a reminder of what a devastat-ing bowler he can be by taking sixwickets for seven runs in Aus-tralia's domestic Twenty20 tourna-ment on Wednesday. Jayawardeneon Thursday named a largely un-heralded trio of seamers in histeam for the first test and said itwas unrealistic to ask the 29-year-old to return to the test arena. "Ithink Lasith has made up hismind," he said. "With the injurieshe has had over the last couple ofyears, I think it's unfair to ask himto come and play test cricket. "He'sin our one-day team and Twenty20team and he's contributing a lot.Do we risk all that? Test cricket isabout bowling 20-25 overs, (Aus-tralia's) Peter Siddle the other daybowled 60. "Can Malinga do that? Idon't think so. I don't think we canmake that decision and risk his ca-reer." In Malinga's absence, NuwanKulasekara, Chanaka Welegederaand Shaminda Eranga were the trionamed to try to make the most ofwhat is expected to be a lively Ho-bart track. Jayawardene defendedhis bowlers against the charge thatthey were the worst pace attackever to tour Australia. AGeNCIeS

Sri Lanka makedo withoutMalinga threat

Rain washesDeaf matches

LAHORESTAff reporT

All the four teams of the Thursday’s twomatches of the Asia Deaf Cricket Cup wereawarded one point each after rain whichstarted at the passage of around an hour’ssession, played for the entire day. At thegymkhana cricket ground, Pakistan wonthe toss and chose to bowl first. Sri Lankastarted its batting and scored 70 runs in22 overs and lost their four wicket. Butdue to rain the match was abounded andboth the teams got 1 point each. Similarly,at the LCCA ground, Afghanistan won thetoss and chose to bowl first. India scored166 in 15.2 over and lost their 4 wicketsand they too were awarded one pointeach for rain interruption. Today Pak-istan will take on Nepal at Lahoregymkhana cricket ground and Sri Lankaface Afghanistan at the LCCA ground.

Psychologist to help India-bound Pakistan cricket team

HOBART: Australia have dropped Mitchell Johnson for the first test againstSri Lanka and selected just three seamers for the match on what is expectedto be a lively wicket at the Bellerive Oval this week. Spinner Nathan Lyon wasretained in the side announced by skipper Michael Clarke on Thursday, withPeter Siddle, Mitchell Starc and Ben Hilfenhaus making up the pace bowlingunit for the match. Left-armer Johnson, the 2009 ICC Cricketer of the Year,played his first test in a year in the 309-run defeat to South Africa in Perthlast week but was named 12th man for the Hobart test, which begins on Fri-day. "Obviously a tough selection getting 12 down to 11, especially with theway that Mitchell bowled in Perth, but this is the team we've selected for thistest match," Clarke to a news conference. "At the end of the day you've got todo what's best for the Australian team, you have to pick the best 11 players tohelp you win the test match. "It's a nice problem to have when you've got 12players that really want to play and have performed well, but unfortunatelysomeone has to miss. "Mitchell will be fine, he'll have to work hard and waitfor another opportunity and try to grab it with both hands." Tasmanian Hil-fenhaus and Siddle were recalled after being rested for the third test againstthe Proteas, while Starc gets his reward for his performance in Perth, wherehe took 6-154. Clarke said the inclusion of 22-year-old Starc was based on therequirements of the Hobart test alone, not an attempt to give him a good runbefore back-to-back Ashes series against England next year. "For me, I'm notlooking at the Ashes at all. The reason that Starc is there is because he's beennext in line in the queue for a while," Clarke said. "He's performed really wellin the shorter form of the game for Australia. He got one test in Perth and gotsix-for and 70-odd with the bat so that's not a bad start as well." Clarke alsoconfirmed that Australia had re-jigged their batting order after the retire-ment of Ricky Ponting following the Perth test against South Africa. AGeNCIeS

Australia drop Johnson for Sri Lanka test


Sports 16


JAMTHAAGeNCIeS

RUN-MAKING was a laboriousexercise; but watching that ex-ercise was no less irksome forthose who turned up at the Vi-

darbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadiumin Jamtha here on Thursday. England wonthe toss, started shakily, recovered, lost theplot again and finished at 199 for five in 97overs on the opening day of the final Test.Cricket was not at all an enjoyable theme inan insipid creation by the curator here asEngland achieved the lowest first day scoreof the series with 486 dot balls.

When a Test is heralded by a spinnerit only underlines the priorities. A silly-point and a silly mid-off to the seventh ballof the match, the batsmen craving forruns, yawns in the galleries. Oh, this wasa painful introduction to Test cricket forthe new-born fans of the Indian team.Kevin Pietersen produced a classy show,absolutely dedicated to the team’s interest,eschewing his natural flair, studying theopponent and instinctively taking the easyrecourse to smother the spin. He was trou-bled by medium-fast Ishant Sharma, whobagged the first two wickets, one to a du-bious decision, but Pietersen demon-strated awesome skills to excel on thispoor pitch for Test cricket. It was a strangestart to the Test. There were actually spec-tators at the Jamtha. And the Indians inattacking positions. But it was a weird ini-tial phase too with M.S. Dhoni collectingthe ball at his ankle, some deliveriesreaching him in one bounce or two.

The bounce was disappointingly lowfor an international match and the batsmenaccepted the challenge. Their stance had apronounced stoop and the approach cau-tion. And then one ball hit the seam androse past the bat only to die at the wicket-keeper’s feet. This was poor advertisementfor Test cricket. India, expectedly, opted fora spin-dominated attack. Just one fastbowler suited the script that Dhoni had inmind. He wanted the batsmen to work for

their runs and the slow and low pitch pre-sented the Englishmen with a tough task.They had to adapt and innovate. This wasgoing to be difficult, indeed. The dismissalof Nick Compton invited unrestrained re-action from the fielders. He was surprisedby the extra height the ball gained as it tooka faint edge. But Dhoni took the catch at his

feet. Ishant had a wicket to inspire him. Heis a different bowler when he tastes earlysuccess. It was evident soon when AlastairCook, the scourge of the Indian attack thepast three Tests, lunged and missed theball. The ball had nipped in a bit and mayhave kissed the off-stump. The riotous cel-ebrations showed the esteem in which

Cook is held by the Indian team. Cook wasfalling to Ishant for the seventh time in hiscareer. Pietersen arrived at the crease in hisinimitable style, his brisk gait symbolisinghis confidence. Not that he prospered flaw-lessly but there was a distinct degree of re-sistance that marked his batting today. Hewas willing to use his reach, step out tomeet the threat but importantly he wasquick to read the Indian spinners. Theywere hardly extracting any turn though.

The stylish Pietersen played some ex-quisite cricket, the drives so fluent and theflicks so precise that the youngsters in thegalleries would have picked up lessons inclinical strokeplay. Jonathan Trott andPietersen gave the England innings thethrust and the recovery was marshalledthrough some premeditated aggression.Their third-wicket stand of 86 runs endedto an innocuous ball from debutant Ravin-dra Jadeja, who was presented his Test capby Sachin Tendulkar. It was motivatingenough for the Saurashtra cricketer, whobowled a straight ball and Trott offered noshot. The ball never turned and hit the off-stump. It was a tame end to a fine inningsand Jadeja had a debut Test wicket.

Pietersen, Trott do the recovery act Kerry urges ‘newdirection’ for GBwomen’s team

LONODNAGeNCIeS

Danny Kerry believes the Great Britainwomen's team needs a "new direction"after winning bronze at London 2012.He has stepped down after eight yearsas head coach to become the new per-formance director of England Hockey."I had probably the dream job and it'sbeen a tough decision to leave that."But the team needs a new direction.There was a real opportunity to becomethe performance director and I havestrong views about where the sport cango," the 42-year-old said.Kerry told BBC Radio Norfolk he hadplanned to continue coaching for theforeseeable future and had not previ-ously considered a move into an ad-ministrative role."I thought long and hard about whetherI should apply or not and then decided'nothing ventured, nothing gained'," heexplained."Through the process I made it clearwhat my views were about where wecould go as a sport and they [EnglandHockey] seemed to like what I said."It wasn't ever my ambition or aspira-tion, but I'm excited now by the newchallenge."Great Britain's women defeated NewZealand 3-1 to clinch third place at theOlympics, just two days after the disap-pointment of their gold-medal dreamsbeing ended by Argentina.And Kerry, who believes it was theright move to "appoint from within"and ensure a continuity of approach,said his London 2012 experience wouldbe invaluable in his new role."Obviously, I do come with twoOlympic cycles under my belt, and alsohaving achieved medal success," hesaid."So I have some idea of what's involvedwith the senior teams, where the oppo-sition are going, and what we need todo to ensure we stay one step ahead.

Sick Norman pullsout of AustralianPGA Championship

MELBOURNEAGeNCIeS

Greg Norman withdrew from his homeAustralian PGA Championship afteronly two holes on Thursday due to about of food poisoning.The 57-year-old former world numberone bogeyed the first two of his open-ing round at the Palmer Coolum resortin southern Queensland state beforedeciding he could not continue."He's had a bad night," Australian PGAchief Brian Thorburn told reporters."He tried to soldier on through thetournament but after a couple of holesit just wasn't possible for him. "He'sunder medical attention at the mo-ment."

CAPE TOWN AGeNCIeS

Faf du Plessis will lead South Africain the three-match Twenty20 seriesagainst New Zealand later this monthto free regular limited overs skipperAB de Villiers from the burden of cap-taincy, the cricket board said onThursday.

De Villiers remained part of the15-member squad, which includesfour uncapped players, for theTwenty20 matches in Durban (Dec.21), East London (Dec. 23) and PortElizabeth (Dec. 26).

"AB de Villiers remains our first-choice captain in this format," selec-tion convener Andrew Hudson said ina statement.

"But AB is one of the players we

need to rotate in the interest of hisworkload across all three formats andwe want to have one captain for theentire series," he added.

For the two-test series against theKiwis starting on Jan. 2, South Africastuck with the same squad which beatAustralia earlier this month to retainthe number one ranking.

Opener Henry Davids of the Ti-tans and the Lions duo of stumper-batsman Quinton de Kock andleft-arm spinner Aaron Phangisowere among the new faces in theTwenty20 side.

Lions all-rounder Chris Morrisplayed for the Proteas in a Twenty20series in Zimbabwe in July but thegames were unofficial so he too wouldfancy winning his first official cap.

"We could not consider JP Du-

miny, Colin Ingram and Albie Morkelbecause of injury while we decided torest Jacques Kallis and HashimAmla," Hudson said.

Johan Botha was not considereddue to his commitments in Australia.

Twenty20 squad: Faf du Plessis(capt), Farhaan Berhadien, HenryDavids, Quinton de Kock, AB de Vil-liers, Rory Kleinveldt, Richard Levi,David Miller, Morne Morkel, ChrisMorris, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peter-son, Aaron Phangiso, Dale Steyn,Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Test squad: Graeme Smith (capt),Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf duPlessis, Dean Elgar, Jacques Kallis,Rory Kleinveldt, Morne Morkel,Alviro Peterson, Robin Peterson, Ver-non Philander, Jacques Rudolph,Dale Steyn.

Du Plessis named S AfricaT20 captain against NZ

JOHANNESBERGAGeNCIeS

After an amazing 11-shot win in Thailandon Sunday, South African CharlSchwartzel has returned to one of hisfavourite courses in search of more suc-cess this week. The Alfred Dunhill Cham-pionship takes place at Leopard Creekagain on the border of the Kruger Na-tional Park in his home country.

"If it was any other tournament Iwould have pulled out," Schwartzel toldthe European Tour website following hisfirst victory since the US Masters in Aprillast year.

"You don't get much better than thesetting at Leopard Creek and I figured Icould get myself going on that.

"I'm not hitting it that well, but that'sjust my body being tired. I love being outin the bush and you don't get much morein the bush than this. "It's such a relaxing

atmosphere and of top of that the courseis in such great shape."

The 28-year-old had his first Euro-pean Tour win at the venue eight yearsago and has been a runner-up no fewerthan four times since then, to Ernie Elsand Alvaro Quiros the following two sea-sons and then behind Pablo Martin inboth 2009 and 2010.

Last weekend's win had certainlybeen coming. Schwartzel was fifth in theSouth African Open, third behind RoryMcIlroy and Justin Rose at the DP WorldTour Championship in Dubai and thensecond to Martin Kaymer in the NedbankChallenge at Sun City. Having overcomea rib injury during the summer he added:"It's a great feeling winning again.

"It has been a tough year and veryfrustrating at times, but the last six weeksthings have started feeling a lot better.

"I was able to start getting my swingback to where it should be and the results

started showing." World number fiveLouis Oosthuizen is also in this week'sfield and it would be no surprise to seehim win either. The 2010 Open cham-pion's last six finishes have been fourth,sixth, sixth (all in China), second to Mat-teo Manassero at the Singapore Open,fifth in Dubai and fourth at the Nedbank.

Also to be settled this week is the end-of-year world top 50, which brings with itan invitation to the US Masters nextspring. Dane Thorbjorn Olesen is cur-rently in 50th spot, but is not playing inSouth Africa, Asia or Australia and there-fore under threat.

So is South Africa's 49th-rankedGeorge Coetzee, who will drop below Ole-sen if he does not collect any points atLeopard Creek.

Among those who could overtake himis Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal and the pairgo head-to-head in the opening tworounds alongside Schwartzel.

Tired Schwartzel makes special effort

wenger promisesto stick to Arsenaltransfer policy

LONDONAGeNCIeS

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger haspledged to stick to his policy of developingplayers within the Premier League clubrather than splashing out large sums ofmoney on transfer fees. Wenger, whoseteam were dumped out of the League Cupon Tuesday by fourth tier Bradford City,faces the possibility of losing Englandwinger Theo Walcott after Cesc Fabregas,Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri left toearn more money elsewhere. In an interviewwith FourFourTwo magazine, the French-man agreed it was difficult when top playerswalked away, especially when they werereaching their prime but said he would notmake drastic changes to the transfer policy."I think we'll stop that happening (playerswalking away) because we have a goodyoung generation of English players comingthrough and we'll try to build the teamaround them," he said. "I'm confident theywill stay and commit to the club. My regretis that we already had great teams in placethat could compete at the top. You could feelthat the potential was there, but now it feelslike we're starting again and it's frustrating.

Chelsea power intoClub world Cup final

YOKOHAMAAGeNCIeS

Fernando Torres continued his recentresurgence as Chelsea confidently brushedaside Mexico's Monterrey 3-1 to reach thefinal of the Club World Cup in Japan onThursday. The English side and their in-terim manager Rafael Benitez will beunder pressure to beat Brazil's Corinthi-ans in Sunday's final after becoming thefirst holders to exit the Champions Leagueat the group stage last week.

eNGlAND 1ST INNINGSAN Cook lbw b Sharma 1NrD Compton c Dhoni b Sharma 3IJl Trott b Jadeja 44Kp pietersen c ojha b Jadeja 73Ir bell c Kohli b Chawla 1Je root not out 31MJ prior not out 34extras (b 5, lb 7) 12Total (5 wickets; 97 overs) 199To bat TT bresnan, Gp Swann, JM Anderson, MS panesarfall of wickets 1-3 (Compton, 4.2 ov), 2-16 (Cook, 10.3 ov), 3-102 (Trott, 49.4 ov), 4-119 (bell, 60.5 ov), 5-139 (pietersen,67.3 ov)bowling: I Sharma 19-7-32-2, pp ojha 27-9-50-0, rA Jadeja25-13-34-2, pp Chawla 13-1-39-1, r Ashwin 13-2-32-0India team: G Gambhir, V Sehwag, CA pujara, Sr Tendulkar,V Kohli, rA Jadeja, MS Dhoni, r Ashwin, pp Chawla, I Sharma,pp ojhaToss england, who chose to batUmpires HDpK Dharmasena (Sri lanka) and rJ Tucker(Australia)TV umpire S raviMatch referee JJ Crowe (New Zealand)reserve umpire CK Nandan.

SCoreboArD


Sports17


Mercedeschief preparesto step down

BRAWNAGeNCIeS

Norbert Haug's 22-year reign as head ofMercedes-Benz Motorsport is to draw toa close at the end of this year.During his time in charge Haug oversawMercedes' return to Formula One in1994, primarily as an engine supplier.In 2010 Mercedes made a comeback as amanufacturer in their own right afterbuying out 2009 world championsBrawn GP, playing a part in temptingMichael Schumacher out of retirement.Haug was also a key figure in tying up adeal for Lewis Hamilton as the 27-year-old will replace Schumacher at Mer-cedes from next season on a three-yearcontract after a 14-year association withMcLaren.Aside from F1, Haug oversaw projects inDTM (German touring cars), ChampCar, GT, Group C and Formula Three,with Mercedes winning 439 of the 986races in which they competed with Haugat the helm.With Haug's contract coming to an end,the decision for his departure has beenmade by mutual agreement with Mer-cedes' board of management.Dieter Zetsche, head of Mercedes-BenzCars and CEO of Daimler AG, in payingtribute to Haug said: "Norbert was theface of the Mercedes-Benz Motorsportprogramme for more than 20 years."For me, he put his stamp on a wholeera and, as a highlight, he was responsi-ble for the successful comeback of theSilver Arrows to Formula One."In the name of the board of manage-ment and the whole motorsport family, Iwould like to thank him for his extraor-dinary commitment to the three-pointedstar." Under Haug, Mercedes-Benz wonsix F1 world titles and 87 grands prix,whilst in DTM they claimed 32 champi-onships. However, it is perhaps due toMercedes' lack of success in F1 as afully-fledged team - with just one victoryin three years - that has played a part inhis departure.Haug said: "Since 1991 we had tremen-dous achievements and wins, for which Iwant to thank all of my colleagues."Unfortunately, with one victory in 2012since founding our own F1 works teamin 2010, we couldn't fulfil our own ex-pectations. "However, we have taken the right stepsto be successful in the future."Our team and our drivers will do every-thing to achieve these goals."

lOS ANGElES: Amir Khan and Carlos Molina

show their fists before announcing their fight.

LOS ANGELES AGeNCIeS

AMIR Khan says his bout withCarlos Molina is a "make orbreak fight". The light-welter-

weight lost his last two fights and willstruggle to maintain his status as one ofboxing's big draws if he loses in Califor-nia on Saturday. It will be the first timehe has fought since he started workingwith trainer Virgil Hunter.

He said: "I know it is a make orbreak fight for me, that's why I'm tak-ing it so seriously." Khan's career is ata critical point as he prepares for thebout at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.He was knocked down three times indefeat by Danny Garcia in July andnow has a 26-3 record. The Bolton-born boxer, 26, said: "We will be morethan ready for this fight and we will bein the best condition ever. "Hopefullyeverything will come together on Sat-urday and we are going to win thisfight and finish the year off strong.That will put us in a good positioncome next year." Khan is determined

to beat the California-based Molina bya convincing margin having controver-sially lost a points decision to LamontPeterson in Washington a year ago -one of two successive defeats.

The British fighter did have his WBAtitle handed back to him after the loss toPeterson, however, after the Americanfailed a drugs test. Khan, a 2004 Olympiclightweight silver medallist, intends tochange to a more defensive style afterbeing caught by punches when attackingopponents in his last two fights.

He added: "It is always tough to fightsomeone in their back yard and maybethat is why we are training even harder."It has been a tough road. We havefought some big names. "It is going to beanother tough fight. We are going to goin there and do what we do best. "A winis a win and I will be sticking to the planand sticking to the instructions from thecorner instead of getting too wild.

"People will still see an exciting AmirKhan, but now I'm a more maturefighter." Orthodox fighter Molina, 27, isunbeaten in 18 fights but has boxedmainly in his home state of California.

Amir admits Molina fightis a ‘make or break’ bout

NEW YORKAGeNCIeS

Tom Watson was named on Thursday asthe United States captain for the 2014Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in Scotland, amove the Americans hope will end theirrun of losses in the biennial match againstEurope. Watson succeeded Davis LoveIII as the American captain for the nextedition of the biennial golf match betweenthe U.S. and Europe and received an in-stant stamp of approval from TigerWoods. A winner of eight majors, includ-ing five British Opens, the 63-year-oldWatson joined a select group to lead theU.S. team more than once and will be-come the oldest American captain in theevent's history. "I was waiting 20 years toget the call again. I loved it the first time,"said Watson, who led the U.S. to victoryin 1993, the last time the Americans wonthe Ryder Cup away from home.

"I've been a great fan of the Ryder

Cup, always been watching, I get the samegut feeling just watching it at home on TV.It's a great honour to do it again and thistime it is going to be 14 and a half points."

In a break from tradition, the PGA ofAmerica made Thursday's announcementon national breakfast television, theNBC's Today show. Watson appeared liveon the show and was scheduled to hold a

news conference near the top of the Em-pire State Building later on Thursday.WATSOn TO BE OLDEST cAPTAInIn cUP HISTORy: Golfing great TomWatson - at 63 old enough to be RoryMcIlroy's grandfather - was named as theoldest Ryder Cup captain in history onThursday. In the boldest of moves possi-ble, the PGA of America confirmed Wat-son had been given back the job he did atThe Belfry in 1993 - the last time Europelost at home - and entrusted with the taskof ending a run of five American defeatsin the last six matches.

By the time he leads the United Statesout at Gleneagles in September 2014, thefive-time Open champion - so close towinning the Claret Jug again just threeyears ago - will be 65.

That will make him eight years olderthan America's previous record-holderSam Snead and three years older than JHTaylor was when he led Britain, as it wasthen, back in 1933.

wiggins wants

to defend his

tour de France titlePARIS

AGeNCIeS

Bradley Wiggins wants to defend his Tourde France title despite Team Sky's initialplans to make Chris Froome their teamleader in the 2013 race.But Olympic time-trial winner Wiggins,32, also said he would support whateverteam strategy was ultimately agreed.In July, Wiggins, supported by Froome,became the race's first British winner."I'm probably going to try and win a sec-ond Tour de France, so I don't know,maybe we'll have two leaders," Wigginstold BBC Radio 5 live. Team Sky bossDave Brailsford said in November that"the Tour of Italy would be a very goodtarget for Bradley and leave Froomy thento focus on the Tour de France". Howeverhe admitted that the plans were not "com-pletely signed off" at that point."My goal is to win the Tour next year.Whether that is realised or not, I don'tknow really," Wiggins added."How that's going to work with the teamI don't know - it's more Dave's problem,really, to worry about. Just when youthought Team Sky's plans for 2013 weresorted - Wiggins for the Giro, Froomefor France - the main man chooses aninterview on national radio to say 'erm…hold on a mo, are we sure?' This mustmean Wiggins is training well, his com-petitive juices are flowing, and doubtslinger over Froome's ability to captain aTour challenge. The "co-leaders" ap-proach calls to mind Hinault v LeMondin 1986, and Armstrong v Contador in2009 - it will not be boring. "It's justhow we service both mouths - that'smore the problem to figure out." The2013 Tour de France course would ap-pear to favour Froome because the timetrials in which Wiggins thrives havebeen reduced from 100km to 65km, withseveral tough ascents.General classification standings at 2012Tour de France1. Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) 87 hours,34 minutes, 41 seconds2. Chris Froome (Team Sky) +3 mins 41 secs3. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) +6:194. Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto) +10:155. Tejay van Garderen (BMC) +11:04The Manxman has since decided to leaveTeam Sky, and Brailsford may have tojuggle competing demands once again.If Wiggins's unorthodox suggestion ofhaving two team leaders was not adoptedby Team Sky however, he is adamant thathe would work to support Froome."Whatever the team strategy is, I'll sup-port that, otherwise you don't take thestart line because there will be someoneelse who is willing to fulfil that job," headded "It's a case of doing what's asked ofyou on the day, whatever that decision is."

Watson named US RyderCup captain for 2014

LONDON JoHN MeHAffey

Any comfortable assumptions that worldcricket has largely eradicated corruptionafter the shock of the Hansie Cronjematch-fixing scandal are challenged in adisturbing new book investigating India'sillegal bookmaking underworld.

In "Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy; AJourney to the Heart of Cricket's Under-world", English author and cricket bettingtipster Ed Hawkins says his confidence inthe sport has been eroded "on the longtrip to cricket's corrupt core".

Early in the book, Hawkins describesa bookmaker's message sent to him dur-ing last year's World Cup semi-final be-tween India and Pakistan, accuratelypredicting the course of the match. Hewatches, with a friend, "in a daze" as thematch won by India, unfolds as outlinedin the script.

Hawkins says during the course of hisinvestigations he was given the names of45 former and current internationals anddomestic cricketers alleged to have beeninvolved in corrupt activities. None ofthem are named for legal reasons.

Finally, he says, English county one-day matches, broadcast live on televisionin India, are now being targeted by book-makers and fixers.

Hawkins's three-year journey startedat the site of a London shop owned by thebookmaker recorded by Delhi police fix-ing matches with former South Africacaptain Cronje in 1999.

It continued in India where he metbookmakers, punters and fixers and in-cluded lengthy interviews with Paul Con-don, the first director of the InternationalCricket Council's Anti-Corruption and Se-curity Unit (ACSU), and Lalit Modi, theman behind the Indian Premier Leaguewho said his life had been threatenedthree times by mobsters.

Cronje, who died in a plane crash 10years ago, and two other internationalcaptains Mohammad Azharuddin (India)and Salim Malik (Pakistan) were bannedfor life for fixing the results of matches.

Spot-fixing, the manipulation of indi-vidual incidents within a match whichmay not affect the result, is a more insid-ious crime and one which can be impos-sible to detect.

It hit the international headlineswhen Pakistan players Salman Butt, Mo-hammad Asif and Mohammad Amir werejailed after arranging for deliberate no-balls to be delivered in the 2010 Lord'stest against England.

Hawkins learned that Indian book-makers had four markets in all forms ofcricket: the innings' scores, the matchoutcome, the favourites at an interval andthe bracket scores - for example the num-ber of runs scored in a 10-over segment ina 50-overs match or a six-over segment ina Twenty20 match.

Brackets are alarmingly easy to ma-nipulate by the illegal syndicates who setthe odds, if they can bribe a corruptplayer. "Spot-fixing is not what peoplethink it is. So, for example, a corrupter

might say to a captain 'move your gullyfielder five yards to the left or the rightand instruct your bowler to bowl just out-side off-stump'," Hawkins told Reuters inan interview.

"So the batsman cuts and up goes therun tally. And people think wrongly themarket is for there to be no gully fielder,or for a fielder to be positioned in a par-ticular place. But what is actually happen-ing is that they are manipulating thesession's runs or the bracket because theywant runs to be scored.

"If you a corrupter and you know thatyou've got your captain on side and he isgoing to make sure runs are scored thenthey are able to manipulate the odds intheir favour. So the syndicate can send outfake odds tempting gamblers, and as youknow there are thousands in India, to beta certain way, to bet on not many runsbeing scored when they know lots of runsare going to be scored because the captainis in their pocket.

"It is just like insider trading and thealarming thing about it is that it is such asubtle art so you have the potential for al-most every game to be manipulated. Justfor one ball you've got fixing."

Whereas match-fixing requires theconnivance of at least one of the captains,spot-fixing needs only one corrupt playerwho agrees to under-perform with eitherbat or ball at a certain stage of the matchto influence the number of runs scored.For that reason, Hawkins said, the em-phasis had shifted from match-fixing tospot-fixing.

Hawkins said the 45 players whosenames he had been given came from eachof the test-playing nations apart fromBangladesh.

"Included in that are players whohave retired and players who have notplayed international cricket," he said.

He said there was "huge potential" forcorruption in county cricket.

"County cricket is so vulnerable be-cause it's a little bit of a treadmill, thereare a lot of games and players don't getpaid a lot of money," he said.

"For someone earning 40 grand(pounds) a year, if he could earn a fairchunk of that by just batting out a maidenover...he's not affecting the result, he's notreally getting found out, why wouldn'tthat player do it?

"It's an enticing option for a cricketer.So county cricket has to face up to it, thereare going to be lots of approaches to play-ers, lots of attempts to corrupt them, totry out spot-fixing, maybe less so match-fixing because obviously that's a lotharder." Hawkins, who has shared his in-formation with the cricketing authorities,said he not included a lot of the informa-tion he had received in the book for legalreasons.

"I didn't expect to find all this stuffand I certainly didn't seek it out. I didn'texpect to get all the information like I didfor the semi-final," he said.

"I can't watch a game again in thesame way, when you've got as close to theillegal market as I have, heard all thethings that I have."

Spot fixing threatens integrity of modern game


Sports 18


watch it LiveSTAR SPORTSEngland V India09:00AM

CorpsCommanderPolo Cup begins

LAHORESTAff reporT

Corps Commander Polo Cup 2012which is the Pakistan Polo Associationfirst tournament of this polo season isbeing played at Lahore’s Garrison Sad-dle and Polo Club, Fortress StadiumPolo Ground and Sarwar Road PoloGround Lahore Cantt.This tournament consists of nine PoloTeams having 4 to 8 goals handicap.In the first match played yesterday, La-hore Garrison beat GuardGroup/Colony Sugar by Nine and Halfto one while in the second match Mas-ter Paints faced a slender margin de-feat at the hands of Newage four and ahalf goals to five.

Pioneer Club beat

Model town Eaglets LAHORE

STAff reporT

Pioneer Cricket Club beat Model TownEaglets by 32 runs at R Block ModelTown Ground in friendly fixture. Pio-neer club 202 for 6 wkts in 25 overs.Mohammad Ajmal 80,Nadeem JavedButt 40,Kh Abid 30.Shahbaz Ahmed 2-30, Ameen Ahmed3-40. Model Town Eaglets 170 all out.Shahbaz Ahmed 30, Kashif Ali 32.Hasan Azam 3-30, Kh Abdullah 3-30,Ashfaq Ahmed 3-40. MohammadAjmal man of the match.

Lipsky soars ahead at Iskandar OpenJOHOR BAHRU

AGeNCIeS

Asian Tour rookie David Lipsky set thescorching pace at the US$2 million IskandarJohor Open.

Heavy thunderstorms and lightningthreats forced play to be suspended at1.34pm and with heavy rains showing nosign of letting up throughout the afternoon,84 players will have to return at 7.15am onFriday to resume their round.

Australia's Unho Park posted a flawless65 to take second place while Korean-Amer-ican Kevin Na signed for a 66 to take thirdplace at the Horizon Hills Golf and CountryClub.

South Africa's Peter Karmis kept hishopes of securing his Tour card for next sea-son alive when he returned with a 67 to take

a share of fourth place with India's S.S.P.Chowrasia, Philippines' Angelo Que andAustralia's Darren Beck who is at five-underthrough 17 holes at the Asian Tour season-ending event.

Lipsky, who won his maiden Asian Tourtitle in Cambodia earlier this year, stood onthe brink of extending his advantage to twowhen his tee shot on the par-three eightlanded within two-feet of the pin.

The 24-year-old did not have the oppor-tunity to tap in his birdie putt as the airhorns began to blow, signalling the start ofa play suspension which eventually led to itbeing abandoned.

"I had a two-footer for birdie and I waslooking to make that and finish the roundstrong. I just made like three pars in a rowbefore the delay so it didn't stop any mo-mentum. I would have preferred to sleep in

but you can't do anything about theseweather conditions," said Lipsky.

Despite putting himself into a good po-sition on the leaderboard after the openinground, Park insisted he is solely focused onsecuring his Tour card for next season.

"I'm still trying to keep my card, that'sthe focus. If I'm up there on the last day thenit will be fantastic but right now, it will be abonus if I can be inside the top-60," saidPark, who is currently lying in 66th place onthe rankings.

Having finished tied-36th in Thailandlast week, Na is now hoping to shake off theeffects of his long-distance travel from theUnited States and end his year on a winningnote.

A graduate of the Asian Tour, the 29-year-old enjoyed his career breakthrough inMalaysia in 2002 before going on to achieve

more success on the US PGA Tour where hewon once last year.

"I was very pleased with how I played. Iplayed very solid with seven birdies and onlyone bogey. I putted great and hit the ballgood," said Na.

"I got a good practice in Thailand. It wasa long commute for me and got a little sick.I've got over that and I'm feeling better andbetter. Hopefully I can get it low and seewhere I am," added Na.

Asian Tour Order of Merit contendersThaworn Wiratchant of Thailand and Aus-tralia's Marcus Fraser are at one-under after17 holes.

The Iskandar Johor Open is presentedby Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd,which is a government-linked companyspecifically incorporated to take on the roleof master developer of prime waterfront

properties in Johor Bahru.Completed scores after round 1 of the Iskandar Johor

Open Presented by Iskandar waterfro being played at

the par 72, 6941 Yards Horizon Hills GCC course (a- de-

notes amateur):

65 - Unho PARK (AUS).

66 - Kevin NA (USA).

67 - Peter KARMIS (RSA), Angelo qUE (PHI), S.S.P.

CHOwRASIA (IND).

68 - Daniel CHOPRA (SwE).

70 - Michael tRAN (vNM), Sukree OtHMAN (MAS),

zHANG lian-wei (CHN), Sam CYR (USA), Arnond vONG-

vANIJ (tHA), Ron HARvEY JR. (CAN).

71 - wade ORMSBY (AUS), Peter GUStAFSSON (SwE),

Michael CAMPBEll (Nzl).

Selected scores

David lIPSKY (USA) -8 through 16 holes

Marcus FRASER (AUS) -1 through 17 holes

thaworn wIRAtCHANt (tHA) -1 through 17 holes

Jbe KRUGER (RSA) Even-par through 17 holes

Baltacha targetstwo more yearsafter injury return

LONDONAGeNCIeS

Elena Baltacha hopes to return from injuryin March and believes she can play for atleast two more years. The Scot, 29, underwent foot surgery in October and, havingnot played since the Olympic Games inJuly, admitted she had doubts over com-ing back. She has slipped to 173 in theworld but has a protected ranking of 103,so will qualify for Grand Slams on her re-turn. "My motivation to come back is thatI think I've still got two or three moreyears," Baltacha told BBC Sport. "I don'tthink having that last match at theOlympics against Ana [Ivanovic] was theright time to pack it in. To be honest, I re-ally needed that break. I didn't realise howexhausted I was, mentally and emotion-ally, and I hit a wall. "Having the sixmonths off, doing a bit of coaching withthe EBAT (Elena Baltacha Academy ofTennis) girls, really made me realisewhere I fell short as a player. Not seeing itas a player but as a coach, it made me re-alise where I struggled as a player andwhat I needed to do." Asked if she believedshe could overhaul the likes of Laura Rob-son and Heather Watson to regain theBritish number one spot, Baltacha said: "Ithink anything is possible." Watson andRobson have excelled in her absence, withthe former becoming the first Britishwoman to win a WTA title since 1988 andending the year ranked 49, and the latterrising to 53 in the world and being namedWTA newcomer of the year. "I'm not rul-ing anything out but I'm not going into itthinking, 'I have to be number one,'" Bal-tacha added. "If I come back and I'm not,I'm still going to be very happy with whatI've achieved - being top 50 two years onthe trot, all my top-10 wins - I will alwaysbe very, very proud of what I achieved. "Ifit doesn't happen then that's just the way itis, but if I do, absolutely fantastic."GB players' WTA rankings49 - Heather Watson53 - Laura Robson143 - Anne Keothavong156 - Johanna Konta173 - Elena BaltachaBaltacha's last match was a second-round loss to Ana Ivanovic at theOlympics, and the Briton admitted thatat the time she had not expected to re-turn, saying: "I went in knowing that wasgoing to be my last tournament. I was sotired, mentally and emotionally." How-ever, Baltacha is now eight weeks intoher rehabilitation and several weeksahead of schedule, with hopes of return-ing to the practice court in the new year,The plan is to compete again in IndianWells, which would prove a tough testafter an eight-month lay-off as one of themost prestigious events on the circuit. "Iknow it's probably going to be quite a fewlevels above what I'll be capable of, butthe reason I picked it is it's one of myfavourite tournaments," she said.

Clijsters bows outon a winning note

ANTWERPAGeNCIeS

KIM Clijsters wavedgoodbye to her Bel-gian fans on a win-ning note on

Wednesday night. The four-time Grand Slam singles cham-pion beat Venus Williams 6-36-3 in an exhibition match inAntwerp.

The action - labelled 'Kim'sThank You Games' - waswatched by a capacity crowd ofmore than 13,000.

The former world numberone retired from competitivetennis during the US Openback in the summer butwanted to play one more timeon home soil. However, speak-ing after the match, Clijsterssaid enough was enough.

"I had no regrets at stop-ping my career on August 29 atthe US Open, and I still don'thave any."

Clijsters, now 29, won theUS Open three times, in 2005,2009 and 2010, while her finalGrand Slam success came atthe 2011 Australian Open.

One of the most popularWTA players, she initially re-tired back in 2007 but, aftergiving birth to a daughter, waslured back to the tour in 2009,winning the US Open withinweeks of her return to thecourt.

NEW YORKAGeNCIeS

Andy Roddick has no regrets about his retirement from ten-nis but admits that could change when the 2013 season be-gins. Roddick said farewell to the sport after the US Open,amid emotional scenes at Flushing Meadows and has since

been spending time working on his golf handicap. The pop-ular American has not taken himself away from tennis com-pletely, though, beating Andy Murray in an exhibition matchin Miami earlier this month and spending time helping outJames Blake in practice.

"To be honest, I don't know that it will really affect meuntil January comes around," Roddick told ESPN. "The last13 Januarys I've been in Australia. I haven't experienced theeighth of January in the United States for 15 years.

"You start to identify certain months with certain places,that's where you are. I wasn't jealous of the guys going on a15-hour flight to Shanghai or wherever else. Once I see theguys over (in Australia), obviously I'll miss it a little bit.

"I've played 50-60 rounds since the US Open. My game'sokay, but I look at things in the grand scheme of sports.Someone who's okay at golf. "I imagine the guy playing nextto me in some tennis centre that I was judging and I thinkI'm that guy in golf now. I can hit the ball a little bit, but Idefinitely don't want to say I'm any good at it at all." "Tennisis still fun. That's the thing. Some people leave because theyresent the game or they just can't play anymore.

"I don't know that was the case for me in either scenario.I always said I wanted to go out on my terms when I couldstill play a little bit. I still enjoy hitting balls. "Tennis is afull-time job and not just the two hours that people see whenwe're on the court. The recovery became hard. "I'm notgraceful like Roger Federer. I have to use a lot more effortand a lot more of my physical tools. And what you see whenI play is what I did in every practice. My body kept askingfor more and I'm not sure I had more to give."

Roddick enjoying life after retirement



Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami

KArACHI: police personnel look at a briefcase bomb which was

found under a bridge in baloch Colony on Thursday. ONLINe


JUSTICE Gulzar Ahmed of theSupreme Court on Thursday saidthe decision of the Judicial Com-mission (JC) and Parliamentary

Committee (PC) on judges’ appointmentwas final and the president could not usehis discretionary powers in this regard.

A five-member special bench of theapex court headed by Justice Khilji Arif

Hussain heard the president’s reference re-garding appointment of judges to higherjudiciary. In his arguments, Attorney Gen-eral Irfan Qadir said the president couldstop appointment of any judge having afake degree, adding that the court couldnot give order on the president’s decision.

He said the constitution granted per-mission to the president to use discre-tionary powers that were explained underArticle 48-1. Earlier, Wasim Sajjad, coun-sel for the president, continued with his ar-

guments and said the Judicial Commissionhad no authority to ascertain seniority ofjudges. He said the role of president wasnot merely symbolic and he had authorityto nominate judges.

Appearing before the bench on the partof the federal government, Sajjad said thecriterion for the appointment of judgesshould be same as had been enshrined inthe code of conduct, adding that the par-liamentary committee rejected names ofsome judges, but the court brushed asidethe committee’s decision.

The federal government’s counsel as-serted, “How can the president act if he be-lieves the decision by the JudicialCommission (JC) and the ParliamentaryCommittee was wrong, as he was the finalauthority to appoint judges.” Sajjad said itwas misquoted in the Munir Bhatti case

that the president was just to sign the no-tification, instead the president appointedthe chief justice of Pakistan (CJP).

While giving his remarks, Justice TariqPervaiz said parliament could authorisethe president to nominate the judges.

Justice Khilji Arif Hussain wonderedhow could the court grant powers to thepresident that were not given to him by theconstitution. He observed the judiciarycould not amend any letter in the constitu-tion, so how could it amend Article-175.

Meanwhile, Justice Ijaz Afzal said theParliamentary Committee reserved theright to return recommendations to the Ju-dicial Commission for review.

He said the decision by the JC or theParliamentary Committee could not beconsidered an advice from the cabinet orthe prime minister, adding the prime min-

ister was not authorised to even give hisopinion on the matter.

Justice Tariq Pervez said if parliamenthad deemed it imperative, it would haveentitled the president with the role in theappointment of judges.

However, AG Irfan Qadir said thepresident could hold back the appointmenton the charges of corruption or dishonestyor if the constitution was being violatedand no court was empowered to give rulingon any initiative by the president. “Thepresident’s decision on seniority of thejudges is final,” the AG said, adding thatthe meeting dated October 22, 2012 wasnot of Judicial Commission. Justice Tariqsaid, “You personally attended that meet-ing.” On this the AGP remarked, “I at-tended a session which was anything butnot a JC meeting.”

ISLAMABADTAyyAb HUSSAIN

In wake of the federal cabinet’s strict noticeof the statement by the National Accounta-bility Bureau (NAB) regarding rampant cor-ruption in the country, NAB ChairmanAdmiral (r) Fasih Bokhari hurriedly called apre-emptive press conference on Thursdayto clear his position on corruption data.

The cabinet had rejected the NAB reporton Wednesday. In a sombre tone, Bokharimade an effort to clear the air between himand the government, but stood his groundand defended his statement.

He said NAB was a part of the govern-ment and wanted to assist it in plugging theleakages. “Corruption is no longer a party-centric‚ incident-centric phenomenon, but isnow an attitude across the board. Daily cor-ruption of about Rs 5-7 billion mentioned byNAB is a terrible figure for Pakistan, but it isan international perception based on variousfactors of negligence. The figure is based onannual direct losses as evident from variousindicators. For example internationally aver-age acceptable tax to GDP ratio is 17-20 per-cent while the figure in Pakistan is ninepercent, making a total loss of Rs 2,500-3,000 billion,” he added.

He said the actual quantum of leakage ofresources was around Rs 10-12 billion a day,which included tax evasion of Rs 7 billionand around Rs 5-6 billion leakages beingcommitted in state institutions across thecountry, including the Centre and theprovinces. “The history of corruption in Pak-istan is long. Even Quaid-e-Azam Moham-mad Ali Jinnah had talked of itselimination... Moreover, the phenomenon ofcorruption is not limited to Pakistan only,rather it is a global phenomenon,” he added.

Bokhari reiterated his claim that corrup-tion was taking place at a large scale in thecountry. The NAB chairman said it was im-perative to amend the system in order tostamp out corruption. Bokhari praised therole played by media in eradicating corrup-tion and declared the Pakistani media NAB’spartner. He also said 59 laws were passed totackle corruption since Pakistan came intobeing. Moreover, he said only two of the

three pillars of the state remained standing,as corruption had weakened Pakistan’s roots.“There are two state institutions left in thecountry. One is legislator and executive andthe other is judiciary”.

Bokhari clarified that he was not the onlyone who had raised the issue of the highamount of corruption, as the Public AccountsCommittee (PAC) had also identified corrup-tion of Rs 300-350 billion. The level of cor-ruption in the country had also beenidentified by the FBR and other local and for-eign organisations, he added.

The NAB chairman added that taxes con-tributed 17-20 percent to the economy glob-ally, while in Pakistan that number was ninepercent. He said the legislature wanted to ap-point regulators of its choice without keepingin view merit. He said records of mismanage-ment in matters such as forests and tree-cut-ting had been collected, adding that it was dutyof the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) tostop tax evasion. To a question, Bokhari saidit would be wrong to talk of revolutions or mil-itary intervention, as times had changed. Toanother question, Bokhari said it was wrong toperceive that the purpose of presenting statis-tical data on corruption meant setting anagenda for the caretaker government.

He said the NAB and government wereon the same page to eradicate corruptionfrom the country. “The fact that I’m conduct-ing my fourth press conference in twomonths shows that the NAB is serious inrooting out corruption.” He said NAB’s as-sessment of direct losses in mega projects(mis-procurements) stood at Rs 350 billion.


Amnesty International (AI) has claimed itfound Pakistan military guilty of rightsabuses along the Afghan border, using newsecurity laws and a colonial-era penal sys-tem to act with impunity.

The Pakistan military authorities haverejected the allegations.

In a report issued on Thursday, AIclaimed that lack of justice was fuelling arights crisis in the northwestern, semi-au-tonomous region where Taliban and alQaeda-linked violence was concentrated.

The AI blames Pakistan’s armed forcesfor arbitrarily detaining thousands for longperiods with little or no access to dueprocess. The report has been prepared on thebasis of interviews with victims, witnesses,relatives, lawyers, officials and militants. TheUK-based human rights group said cases of

death and torture had been documentedwhere detainees were not brought beforecourt and relatives had no idea of their fate,sometimes for extended periods of time.

“Almost every week the bodies ofthose arrested by the armed forces arebeing returned to their families or report-edly found dumped across the TribalAreas,” said Polly Truscott, Amnesty’sdeputy Asia-Pacific director.

“The government must immediatelyreform the deeply flawed legal system inthe Tribal Areas that perpetuates the cycleof violence,” she added.

Although judges have sought to inves-tigate the fate of people who go missing,Amnesty said no military personnel hadbeen prosecuted for alleged torture, en-forced disappearance or deaths in custody.

It demanded the repeal of sweepingpowers of arrest and detention given to thearmed forces in 2011, and called on the ju-

risdiction of the courts and parliament tobe extended to the Tribal Areas.

Amnesty also singled out the Talibanand other militant groups for targetinghuman rights activists, aid workers, jour-nalists and alleged spies.

The report stated that the Taliban bru-tally killed personnel of security forcesafter capturing them and hence violatingthe law of international human rights.

According to the Amnesty, peoplewere killed in the areas where Taliban andmilitants had strongholds, posing greatthreats to the Pakistani community.ARMy REjEcTS ALLEgATIOn:However, the Pakistan Army rejected theallegations, calling the report baseless.

While refuting the allegations, aspokesman of the ISPR termed the AI re-port a “pack of lies and part of sinisterpropaganda campaign against Pakistanand its armed forces”.

It is a biased report based on fabri-cated stories twisted to serve an agenda,the spokesman added.

NAB chief scramblesto mitigate damage g Bokhari calls press conference to clear his positionon corruption report g Says actual quantum ofleakage of resources around Rs 10-12 billion a day

g Court says JC, PC decision final in judges’appointment g Wasim Sajjad says president’srole not symbolic g AG says president’sdecision on seniority is final


President has no authority on judges’ appointment: SC

AI finds Pakistani militaryguilty of HR abusesg Pakistan Army rejects report as pack of lies

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e-paper pakistantoday 14th December, 2012