e-paper pakistantoday 25th september, 2012

tuesday, 25 September, 2012 dhual-Qi’da 7, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 89 19 pages islamabad — peshawar edition

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Ghulam Bilourrefuses to withdraw head money offer

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no un group shouldbe allowed to visit:raza rabbani

ex-israel PM olmert gets fine but no jail

time for graft

ISLAMABADTayyab hussain

LAW Minister Farooq HNaik will appear beforethe five-judge bench of theSupreme Court today(Tuesday) with the draft of

the Swiss letter and with a willingnessto amend the draft as and if needed, ithas been learnt.“The draft of the letter, created by lawminister in consultation with seniorlawyer and PML-Q leader Wasim Sajjadand Attorney General Irfan Qadir, willnot be up to the expectations of thecourt,” a government source informedPakistan Today.The source said under the new strategy,the law minister would use delayingtactics vis-à-vis the Swiss letter whilekeeping the court engaged.“The government expects that the courtwould disagree with the draft and itwould direct the law minister to redraftthe letter per the directions of the courtin the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)case. In such a case, the law minister would seekadjournment of around four weeks to holddetailed talks and seek permission from thepresident, who has left for New York to attendUNGA session,” said the source. The five-member bench headed by Justice Asif SaeedKhosa and comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal,Justice Ejaz Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmedand Justice Athar Saeed, would hear argumentsof the law minister today (Tuesday).Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira alsoconfirmed the news and said the government hadprepared a draft of the letter to be written to Swissauthorities and the same would be presented incourt by the law minister. However, he insisted thatthere was no change in the government’s stanceover the Swiss letter.“Neither the government has taken a U-turn overthe letter to Swiss authorities nor has it changed

its stance in this regard … the government hasprepared a draft while keeping in view a middleway on the direction of the court. Thereservations of the federation have also been keptin view in the draft,” the minister said, addingthat the court, not the government, had called foradopting a middle way to resolve the matter.

Kaira hinted at the possibility of a change in thecontents of the letter, saying the contents might bechanged if the apex court expressed itsreservations over the draft proposed by the LawMinistry. He said the letter would help withdrawthe previous letter that was written to the Swissauthorities by former AG Malik Qayyum.In the previous hearing on September 18, theSupreme Court of Pakistan exempted PrimeMinster Raja Pervez Ashraf from appearing beforethe court in the NRO implementation case.

ISLAMABADTayyab hussain

While the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) wasrejoicing the prospects of forming local-level governmentswith the Sindh People’s Local Government Ordinance(SPLGO) 2012, insiders in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)say the MQM leadership had been duped by the top PPPleadership over the issue. Pakistan Today has learnt that thePPP leadership had promulgated the SPLGO 2012 as a timebuying tactic, as it had asked smaller nationalist andpolitical parties to keep opposing the ordinance publicly toapparently force the government to call in a review,subsequently leading to amendments in the ordinanceper the “aspirations of the people of Sindh” andaccommodating views of all party leaders who wantedamendments of their own to the ordinance. This way,the PPP would have appeased the MQM bypromulgating an ordinance per their desire, but itwould have eventually amended the ordinance inface of strict public opposition and pleased otherplayers as well – a win-win situation for theruling party.After hectic consultation between the PPP and

the MQM, a breakthrough on the local governmentsystem was achieved on September 13 with issuance of the

SPLGO. According to reports, the notification had said that of23 districts in Sindh, five –Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas,Sukkur and Larkana – were to be given the status ofmetropolitan corporations where mayors and deputy mayorswould be appointed, while magistracy was to be implementedin the remaining 18 districts. The MQM has a strong presencein all five districts planned to be put under LGs.A well-placed source in the PPP said resignations byministers of PML-Q, ANP, PML-F and NPP were tenderedunder an understanding with the Presidency to “show” theMQM leadership the ground realities.“Since the MQM leadership was asking for the moon vis-à-

vis the local government system, it was decided to buildpolitical pressure with resignations from other coalitionpartners who are as important as the MQM for the PPP,” thePPP leader said, requesting anonymity.The source added that this was the reason that despiteresignations by the ministers of ANP, PML-F, PML-Q andother parties, no split had occurred in the coalitiongovernments in any other province or at the Center.However, MQM leader Raza Haroon seemed quite upbeatabout the future of the SPLGO 2012. “We will go by theofficial statements of the PPP leadership. We are sure that thePPP would stand by its commitment and the Sindh chiefminister has also made a public statement in this regard,” headded. On the other hand, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim AliShah and PPP’s Women Wing President Faryal Talpur onSunday took the local leadership into confidence over theSPLGO 2012, directing the party’s district chapters to holdseminars and meetings to muster support for the new law.However, their claims were challenged by PPP’s formerdeputy speaker and MNA Syed Zafar Ali Shah and MNANawab Yousaf Talpur. “Not a single party MNA has beentaken into confidence nor their reservations over the localgovernment ordinance been removed. This ordinance hasalready been rejected by the party’s leaders as well as thepeople of Sindh,” Shah told Pakistan Today. He said theMQM, with its strength in the Sindh and NationalAssemblies, was trying to bully the PPP over the LG systemand it had been making efforts to do so since 2008. “They(MQM) have been making efforts to revive Musharraf’s localbodies system since 2008. Last year, they had also gotreleased an ordinance but the people of Sindh had reactedand refused to make compromise on their rights,” he said.Shah added that initially, no draft of the SPLGO had beenmade public and later various drafts were released to muddlethe matter. He said until now, there was no official draft ofthe ordinance to debate the matter, let alone removingreservations of the PPP leaders over the ordinance.

ISLAMABADKashif abbasi

In a major development, the ElectionCommission of Pakistan has decidedto initiate legal proceedings againstInterior Minister Rehman Malik and11 other lawmakers for making falsedeclarations while submitting nomi-nation papers.

According to the ECP, Malik com-mitted corrupt practice as he did not de-clare his foreign nationality whilesubmitting his nomination papers in2008. The commission directed districtmagistrates concerned to initiate legalproceedings against Malik and 11 otherlawmakers, who have already been de-notified for hiding their dual nationality.

The decision to this effect wastaken in an ECP meeting under thechairmanship of the chief electioncommissioner (CEC).

The commission decided to takefresh declarations from all membersof National Assembly, provincial as-semblies and the Senate about for-eign nationalities.

After the meeting, ECP SecretaryIshtiak Ahmed told reporters that theECP was taking action against RehmanMalik and 11 other disqualified mem-bers per Supreme Court’s order.

To a query, Ahmed said the SC inits short order had directed SenateChairman Nayyar Bukhari and theECP to take required action againstthe interior minister and 11 other law-makers for holding dual nationality.

The secretary made it clear thatthe Senate chairman was bound totake action against Malik within 30days and if he failed to do so, the ECPwould take the required action.

The secretary said Malik and otherswho submitted false statements with the

ECP in their nomination papers in 2008,if convicted by magistrates, would eitherface three years imprisonment or fine upto Rs 5,000 or both. “A convicted personcannot contest election for five years,”the secretary added.

Ahmed said the commission after

perusing the aforesaid order of theapex court, directed the issuance ofschedule for holding by-elections tofill the vacancies occurred due to dis-qualification of 11-members of thenational and provincial assemblies ofthe Punjab and Sindh.

The commission also decidedthat in next general elections, theECP would use amended forms inwhich lawmakers would be askedabout their nationality and assets.

During the meeting, the commis-sion also considered the issue ofbringing on the electoral rolls 2012 allthe new CNIC holders and directedthat the exercise of enrolling newCNIC holders in the electoral rollsshould be initiated immediately andsimultaneously an appeal be made tothe general public as well as the polit-ical parties to avail this opportunityand help the ECP in the process.

PPP duPed MQMon LG ordinAnce?g PPP promulgated LG ordinance as

a time-buying tactic to keep MQM along g Asked smaller parties to oppose ordinance to

force review and subsequent amendments g MQM gives three-day ultimatum to PPP

g Govt lawyer likely to seek adjournment of around four weeks to hold detailed talks and

seek permission from President Zardari, who is currently on a foreign trip

Govt looks to buy moretime with Swiss letter draft

ECP makes a move on Malik, 11 othersg Commission decides to send cases of interior minister, 11 other lawmakers with dual nationalities to magistratesconcerned g Commission decides to take fresh declarations on nationalities from all parliamentarians

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02News

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floods affect 700,000 in balochistan new 'sars-like' corona virus identified by uK officials

Tuesday, 25 September, 2012

Mukhtar’s brother AhmedSaeed joins Sharifs’ camp

LAHorE: Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed, brother of Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) leader and Minister for Water and Power ChaudhryAhmed Mukhtar, has joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N). According to a statement issued by the party spokesperson,Saeed met PML-N President Nawaz Shairf and decided to join theparty. During the meeting that continued for an hour, Saeed discussedpolitical situation in the country with Nawaz. Saeed would reportedlyrun for a national assembly seat against his brother in Gujrat. ThePML-N has been strengthening its position in Gujrat where at leastthree elect-ables joined the party in the last couple of days. inp

PIA’s Boeing 777 enginedamaged after bird hitkArAcHI: PIA Boeing 777 aircraft engine was damaged as a bird hitit while landing at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport on Monday.According to details, a PIA flight from Islamabad was landing atKarachi airport when a bird hit its engine causing damage to engineNo 1. The pilot however managed to land the aircraft safely. Sourcessaid several PIA aircraft have been hit by birds in the past few weekscausing huge losses to the airline. They said it had become routine thatbirds hit the aircraft in Karachi and Islamabad but no attention waspaid towards this danger. They warned that some serious mishapcould take place any time if this situation continued. sTaff RepoRT

Former FIA additional DG found deadISLAMABAD: Former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)additional director general Shoukat Ali Khan was found dead in hishouse on Monday with a bullet wound to his head. The family iscalling the incident suicide. Police quoted Nadir Ali, son of Khan,as saying that the former FIA officer committed suicide byshooting himself with an SMG (submachine gun) in the washroom.He was 62 years old and had retired from FIA in 2010. Nadir toldthe police that his father was patient of depression and used toquarrel with other family members over minor issues. He saidKhan went to the washroom at around at 1pm on Monday where heshot himself with an SMG. Upon hearing the gun shot and seeingKhan in a pool of blood, the family made a telephone call to policeinforming them of the incident and took the injured to hospital,but he succumbed to his injuries on way. He was received dead byPakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. When a police team rushedto the hospital to get a postmortem conducted, the family refusedto oblige, as they had got exemption from a district magistrate.Sources said police would investigate the matter to ascertain theclaim of Khan’s family. Police officer Tanveer Kiani of Golra policestation said there was one bullet wound at the temporal point ofthe deceased. “Apparently, Shoukat Ali Khan fired one bullet at theright side of his temporal point which went out from the otherside... keeping statement of the son of deceased in mind, one cansay it was a suicide,” he said. Kashif abbasi

Rimsha Masih’s casesent to juvenile court

ISLAMABAD: A judge on Mondayordered police to refer the case of aChristian girl accused of blasphemy toa juvenile court, following a medicalreport that said she was 14. RimshaMasih spent three weeks on remand inan adult jail after she was arrested onAugust 16 for allegedly burning pagesfrom the Holy Quran in a case thatprompted worldwide condemnation.Police on Saturday told the court thegirl was not guilty and a cleric whoallegedly framed her should face trialinstead. “We have received themedical report which says she is aged14. The investigation report of her casemust be submitted in a juvenile court,”Judge Raja Jawad Abbas said onMonday. Rao Abdur Rahim, thelawyer for Rimsha’s neighbour

Hammad Malik, who originally accused her, objected to the medicalreport, but Abbas told him he should apply to the juvenile court when ittakes up the case. The judge later adjourned the case till October 1,summoning local imam Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, who wasarrested for allegedly adding pages from the Holy Quran to a bag ofburnt papers, to the next hearing. Rimsha, who is currently free on bail,was also asked to appear following an accusation from Rahim that shehad absconded to Norway. An official medical report has classified heras “uneducated” and aged 14, but with a mental age younger than heryears. Others have said she is as young as 11 and suffers from Down’sSyndrome. Rimsha and her family, who have been in fear for their livessince the blasphemy allegations, were moved to an undisclosed locationafter her release on bail on September 8. sTaff RepoRT

WASHINGTONspecial coRRespondenT

THE United States Monday de-plored Railways Minister Ghu-lam Ahmad Bilour’sannouncement of a bounty foran anti-Islam filmmaker, while

also making note of the Pakistani govern-ment’s disowning the cabinet member’sstatement.

The film, made and posted on the In-ternet in the United States, contains sacri-legious content and has caused widespreadprotests and violent demonstrationsagainst American diplomatic missionsaround the world.

A State Department official, whenasked to comment on Bilour’s weekendoffer of $ 100,000 as bounty for the film-maker’s head, drew attention to the ObamaAdministration’s condemnation of thevideo.

“The President (Barack Obama) andSecretary of State (Hillary Clinton) haveboth said the video at the core of this is of-fensive, disgusting, and reprehensible butthat is no justification for violence and it isimportant for responsible leaders to standup and speak out against violence,” the of-ficial reminded.

“Therefore, we find Mr. Bilour’s an-

nouncement is inflammatory and inappro-priate. We note that the Prime Minister’soffice has dissociated itself from his com-ments,” the official said in a statement.

In Islamabad, the Foreign Ministrytermed Bilour’s statement as his personalview and not reflecting the policy of theGovernment of Pakistan.EU ‘DEpLorES’ pAkIStAn BoUntycALL for AntI-ISLAM fILM” TheEuropean Union deplored Monday the callby a Pakistani minister for a $100,000

bounty to be put on the head of the makerof an anti-Islam film which has sparkeddeadly protests around the world.

“We deplore the call for a bounty,”Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreignaffairs head Catherine Ashton, told a pressbriefing.

“We are particularly concerned thatthis call should come from a member of thegovernment even if the prime minister...has dissociated himself” from the remarks,Mann added.

Bilour refuses to withdraw offerISLAMABAD: Federal Railways Minister Haji GhulamAhmad Bilour on Monday refused to withdraw hisannouncement of a $100,000 head money for the USproducer of the blasphemous film despite strong US reactionand pressure by the government and the Awami NationalParty. Sources said Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf spoketo Awami National Party President Asfandyar Wali Khanover the issue. The ANP also took Bashir Bilour and SenatorIlyas Bilour into confidence and asked them to persuadeGhulam Bilour to withdraw the statement. However, thesources said the railways minister said he was bound byreligion and as a Pakistani Muslim and Pashtun, there wasno question of his taking back the announcement. He said hewould remain committed to his stance and it did not matterto him if someone was annoyed by his decision. sTaff RepoRT

US terms Bilour’s bounty offer inflammatory

QUETTA: Supporter of a

religious party hits a picture

of American self-proclaimed

pastor Terry Jones with a

shoe during a protest

against an anti-Islam film

on Monday. online


03NewsediTorialanother dispute:

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India’s objection on Diamir Bhasha dam.

M J akbar says;Thunder from the east: Not just the ministers but the government it-self is in danger.

dr Khadija irfan Khawaja says;

The scream: Let us put our self-destruct mode aside.

arTS & enTerTainmenT

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SPorTS

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Robert pattinson keen to marry Kristen stewart Tapi on the table pakistan aim to seal super eight berth


ISLAMABADanweR abbas

THE Pakistan Tehreek-e-In-saaf (PTI) on Monday an-nounced its health vision forthe upcoming general elec-tions, pledging to raise the

health budget from 0.8 percent to 2.8 per-cent, establish a health equity fund for thepoor, and to enhance health coverage by100 percent in five years.

PTI leaders Dr Yasmin Rashid and DrHamayoun Mohmand presented thehealth policy at a press conference.Speaking on the occasion, they said thatthe PTI was the first political party to in-troduce a proper health vision, which fo-cused on improving the healthcare systemacross the country and to make it cost ef-fective for those living below the line ofpoverty.

They also announced to shift theHealth Ministry from provincial to districtlevels, and to extend the financial supportand resources for improving healthcare atdistrict level. They said the basic healthunits (BHUs) would be given under thesupervision of local governments insteadof the provincial government, besidesvowing to introduce measures to bring atleast 50 percent decrease in pregnancy-related deaths.

Giving statistical figures, Mohmandsaid that every year 3.6 million infantsadd to the country’s population, while in-fant mortality rate stands at 61.27 deathsper 1,000 live births. He said that new-born deaths account for 57 percent deathsin children under the age of five. He saidthat around 100 million Pakistanis weredeprived of sewerage or drainage system,and as many others were facing food in-security.

Dr Yasmin Rashid said that underPTI’s five-point health policy, her partywould take emergency measures to meetthe 40 percent shortage of doctors and 80percent shortage of nursing staff.

Addressing the participants, PTIChairman Imran Khan reiterated hiscommitment to implement health re-forms after coming into power. He saidthat despite continuous increase in theprices of drugs, the cost of tranquilizersand others identical medicines to curewinter-related illnesses had gone downbecause of the issuance of illegalephedrine quota. Imran said the ShaukatKhanam Hospital was spending Rs 2 bil-lion annually on public health care facili-ties, providing 70 percent of treatment“free of cost”.

Speaking about the violence on “Lovefor Prophet (PBUH) Day”, the PTI chiefsaid that the anti-US sentiment among

the general public, and the frustration inthe lower classes of the society were themain reasons for the protests turning vi-olence. Criticizing President Asif AliZardari, Imran asked how rule of lawcould be imagined in a country where the“biggest criminal and robber” becomesthe president of the country, adding thathis party would not let the criminals claimpublic office.

Hitting hard on the Sharif brothers,Imran said that despite having fundsworth Rs 500 million, the Punjab govern-ment had failed to construct a hospital,whereas the PTI had introduced a projectfor constructing Shaukat Khanam Hospi-tal worth Rs 700 million with only Rs 10million in hand. Khan also made a com-mitment that after introduction of health,economic and energy policies of hisparty, policies in other sectors wouldsoon be announced.

PTI announces its healthvision for upcoming pollsg Health budget to be raised from 0.8% to 2.8%g Health departments to be shifted from provinces to districts

ISLAMABADafp

The government’s handling of protestsagainst an anti-Islam film was a risky at-tempt to cash in on religious sentiment, an-alysts say, and could fan the flames ofextremism in the troubled nation.

As anger raged across the Muslim worldat the US-made “Innocence of Muslims”, thecoalition government led by the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) declared Friday a pub-lic holiday and encouraged people to protestpeacefully.

But what was officially a “day of love forthe prophet” ended in bloodshed and loot-ing, with 21 people killed and more than 200injured as angry demonstrators clashed withpolice, smashing up shops, cinemas and fastfood outlets in major cities.

Compounding the problems for the gov-ernment, on Saturday Railways MinisterGhulam Ahmed Bilour offered $100,000 ofhis own money to anyone who killed thefilm-maker, urging the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to join the hunt to accomplish whathe called the “noble deed”.

More than 50 people have died aroundthe world in violence linked to the low-bud-

get movie, which mocks Islam, since the firstdemonstrations erupted on September 11.

But if the government’s intention in call-ing a public holiday was to take the sting outof the demonstrations on its own doorstep,the policy failed. There had been dozens ofrallies against the film, some of which hadled to clashes, but nothing on the scale of Fri-day’s violence.

While the number of protesters was rel-atively small — around 45,000 out of a pop-ulation of 180 million — many carried thebanners of extremist groups, and as oftenhappens in Pakistan, their voices drownedout the forces of moderation.

Pakistan is locked in a struggle againstmilitant Islamism on its own soil but its “waron terror” alliance with Washington is un-popular and the government is keen to avoidaccusations from opposition parties andhardliners that it is too cozy with Westernpowers. Political analyst Najam Sethi saidthe day of protest was a calculated move thatbackfired. “It was a gamble. They hoped andthought that the demonstrations would bepeaceful,” he told AFP.

“And even when they saw this could turnviolent, they did not do anything, or much,because they’re afraid, as they are already ac-

cused of being soft on the West.”Author and analyst Hasan Askari said

the events showed the elected governmenthad allowed a small but vocal minority fromthe religious right to dictate the agenda.

“As usual the government played on thewicket of religious elements and lost tothem,” he told AFP. “By declaring Friday asa holiday it did not keep the initiative with it.The initiative went in the hands of the reli-gious elements.” Pakistan’s government onSunday distanced itself from Bilour’s bountyoffer but political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Raissaid it was further evidence of politicians’willingness to try to capitalise on religioussentiment.

“The statement shows the so-called sec-ular and moderate politicians are usingIslam for domestic politics,” Rais said of thereward offer. Bilour’s Awami National Party(ANP) is under pressure from hardline reli-gious groups in the deeply conservativenorthwestern province of KhyberPakhtunkhwa, where it holds power andwhere anti-Western feeling runs deep. Thebounty was in part an attempt to outflankthe religious right, Askari said — to showthat the nominally secular ANP can be ashardline as anyone. But efforts by main-

stream parties to win support from religiousconservatives — to ride the tiger of extrem-ism — are both unlikely to succeed andfraught with risk, warned Rais. “It is typicalof the mindset of the leaders to play to thegallery,” he said. “It will encourage religiousfanaticism and in the long term it may harmpeace and stability at home. Such elements

need to be condemned.”Askari said that while Bilour’s offer of a

bounty was embarrassing to the governmentinternationally, particularly with PresidentAsif Ali Zardari due to address the UN Gen-eral Assembly on Tuesday, it was also indica-tive of a stratum of opinion within thecoalition.

Hardliners dictated Pakistan protests agenda: analysts

3 new polio cases confirmed in KP, SindhpESHAWAr/SUkkUr: Three new polio cases have been confirmed indifferent areas of Pakistan, according to a report released by the World HealthOrganization (WHO) on Monday. Of the confirmed cases, two are from KhyberPakhtunkhwa, while one is from Sindh. In the Sultan Khel area of Karak inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, a two-year-old child Muhammad Asad was confirmedwith polio virus. The other polio case was found in the Maliano village ofMamond tehsil in Bajaur Agency, where an eight-month old minor girl wasfound infected with the virus. In Sindh, the case was reported from the Lakhanarea in Sukkur, where a three-year-old girl Iqra was confirmed with polio virus.She was shifted to Nowsheroferoz hospital for treatment. The number of poliocases from across the country in the current year has surged to 35 after theconfirmation of three new cases. inp


04 News

ISLAMABADanweR abbas

PA R L I A M E N -TARY Commit-tee on NationalSecurity (PCNS)Chairman Raza

Rabbani on Monday sug-gested the government avoidfuture visits by United Na-tion’s Working Group on En-f o r c e d / I n v o l u n t a r yDisappearances or any othersuch group, as it reportedlyrejected the briefing by theMinistry of Foreign Affairsand the Ministry of Interioron the recent UNWG visit.

Members of PCNS metRabbani during an in-cam-era session during whichthe first reading of the rec-ommendations, finalizedby the various members ofthe committee on issue ofmissing persons, was held.State Minister for ForeignAffairs Malik Amad Khan,Ministry of Foreign AffairsActing Secretary AlamgirBabar and Ministry of In-

terior Additional SecretaryNasar Hayat were alsopresent.

A source told PakistanToday that the representa-tives of both ministries gavedetailed briefings on the re-cent visit of the United Na-tion’s working group andtheir engagements to thecommittee. The membersasked various questions andexpressed serious reserva-tions on various issues inconnection with the visit andthe concluding news confer-ence by Olivier de Frouville,Chair-Rapporteur of the par-ticular UN working group,source said.

Talking to reporters afterthe meeting, Rabbani ex-pressed dissatisfaction overthe briefing by the officialsfrom on behalf of the com-mittee members.

Rabbani said there weretwo main agendas of themeeting including MOFAand MOI briefing on the re-cent visit by the UN workinggroup as well as first reading

on the unanimous recom-mendations by the commit-tee, in connection withmissing persons.

He said the United Na-tions working group or anyother such group should notbe allowed visit Pakistan infuture.

To a question regardingthe concluding news confer-ence by the UN workinggroup, Rabbani rejected theimpression that it was a con-spiracy against the PakistanArmy. He said there were nodifferences between politicaland military leaderships inthe country, as the two lead-erships were on the samepage on all issues.

The PCNS chairman saidthe committee had reviewedthe recommendations andthe missing persons issueshould be resolved soon.

Rabbani said the com-mittee would finalize its pro-posals for recovery of themissing persons in its nextmeeting to be held in thirdweek of October.

PPP duPed MQMover SPLGo?“It’s not only me who is

opposed to two differentsystems in the province.Approximately all legislatorsare opposed to the idea ofrestoring Musharraf’s localgovernment system,” headded. He said parallelsystems would be the worstinjustice to the people ofSindh and would onlystrengthen corruption in thelocal bodies. “This istantamount to the division ofSindh and that isunacceptable. If this had tobe done, why were theCharter of Democracy andother agreements signed toremove Musharraf’ssystems,” he remarked. Nawab Yousaf Talpur,another critic of the SPLGO,confirmed that no contacthad yet been made withparty lawmakers to removetheir reservations over theordinance.MqM ULtIMAtUM:Meanwhile in a late nightdevelopment, the MQMCoordination Committeeissued a statement, saying itwas giving a three-dayultimatum to thegovernment over inordinatedelays in theimplementation of SPLGOand to implement therightful demands of theparty. It said the PPP hadnot fulfilled various justdemands of the MQM forthe betterment of thepeople despite repeatedpromises. It said the PPPconsidered MQM’stolerance its weakness andit seemed difficult to stickwith the PPP coalition inthe near future. The partysaid in case its demandswere not met within threedays, the MQM would sit inthe opposition and wouldkeep supporting justdemands and moves of thegovernment from the other side.

ali musa’s arrestnot illegal: anf

ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) onMonday submitted its replyin the Supreme Court inconnection with Ali MusaGilani’s arrest, stressing thatit had not committedanything illegal by arrestingthe accused with theintention to probe hisinvolvement in the Rs 7billion Ephedrine scam. APP

No UN group should beallowed to visit: Rabbani

TanK: an internally displaced family returns to its home district in the sixth phase of rehabilitation of displaced persons from

south waziristan agency. inP


TEHRANafp

The son of Iran’s former pres-ident Akbar Hashemi Rafsan-jani was arrested after hereturned from abroad onMonday, two days after au-thorities jailed Rafsanjani’sdaughter, the official IRNAnews agency reported.

Mehdi Hashemi was ap-prehended after an hours-long interrogation byprosecutors after his arrivalin Tehran from Dubai after aflight from Britain, where hehad lived for the past threeyears. Iran had issued an ar-rest warrant for him in 2010.

On Saturday, Hashemi’ssister Faezeh Hashemi wasarrested and imprisoned toserve a six-month jail term for“propaganda against theregime”. The sentence hadbeen delivered early this yearbut not imposed until now.Both Mehdi and FaezehHashemi were accused by au-thorities of involvement in2009 street protests thaterupted after President Mah-

moud Ahmadinejad wasgiven a second term in elec-tions that the opposition saidwere marked by vote fraud.

Faezeh Hashemi wasbriefly arrested with thou-sands of others after thosedemonstrations, whileMehdi Hashemi fled thecountry. Their father is aninfluential cleric who servedas president from 1989 to1997 and who is seen as amoderate voice isolated byhardliners in Iran’s regime.Rafsanjani, who still headsthe country’s top politicalarbitration body, has faceddemands from conservativesthat he publicly condemnopposition leaders Mir Hos-sein Mousavi and MehdiKarroubi, both of whom lan-guish under house arrest.

Ahmadinejad, who beatRafsanjani to secure thepresidency in 2005, is tostep down next year, havingserved his maximum twoterms. Iran’s presidentialelection to choose a succes-sor is due to be held on June14, 2013.

Bomb attack on police vaninjures 5 in Nowshera

PESHAWARapp

A remote-controlled bombattack on a police van left atleast five people includingthree policemen and twoothers injured in Nowsheraon Monday.The police vehicle wasdestroyed after the blast. Itwas reported that twodetainees were being takento the court for hearingwhen the vehicle was

targeted near Rashakaimotorway interchange.All the five occupants of thevan were injured. Thecriminals, however, wereswiftly transported toRisalpur Jail while theinjured police officers wereadmitted to Sheikh MaltoonComplex Hospital. Policehas registered a case andinvestigations are underway.BDS SqUAD DEfUSES30kg BoMB InBADABAIr: Bomb

Disposal Squad on Mondaydefused a bomb weighing 30kilograms planted in a cartnear a police checkpost inBadabair area of Peshawar.Superintendent of PoliceKhursheed Khan saidterrorists wanted to target thesecurity forces, adding that ahandcart to which the bombwas attached was placed nearSheikhan checkpost. Policehave initiated a searchoperation in the area to trackdown the terrorists.

Continued fRom page 01

Pakistani-originwoman appointedminister in norway

ISLAMABAD: NorwegianPrime Minister JensStoltenberg chose aPakistani Muslim woman tobe a part of his governmentduring a Cabinet reshufflethis week. Hadia Tajik, 29,of Pakistani descent, wasappointed Norway’sminister of culture onFriday, reported privatenews channel. Hadia hasbecome the first Muslimcabinet member ever andyoungest ever governmentminister in theScandinavian country. Thenewly-appointed minister ofculture has alreadypublicized her program forthe upcoming months andhighlighted that culturaldiversity should become anundisputable part ofNorway’s everyday life. In2009, she was elected MPfor the Norwegian LabourParty that represented Oslo.Tajik worked as a journalistbefore she was madeadvisor to Minister ofJustice Knut Storbergetbetween 2008 and 2009. APP

After daughter, iran arrests son of ex-president


05


News

LAHOREonline

The Human Rights Commission of Pak-istan (HRCP) has expressed serious alarmover the recent spike in incidents of vio-lence and intolerance against vulnerablegroups across the country and said the fail-ure to address intolerance was contributingto aggravation.

In a statement issued on Monday, thecommission said, “The HRCP is extremelyconcerned because of a perceptible increasein instances of violence and intolerance to-wards vulnerable groups in recent days. AShia advertising professional and his youngson have been killed in Karachi; the ever-peaceful Bohris have been targeted in theport city; Shias coming back from a pilgrim-age in Iran have been killed in Balochistan;and a young Ahmadi shopkeeper has beenmurdered in Karachi. A church has alsobeen burned and homes of Christians at-tacked and looted in Mardan. It is a matterof unmitigated concern that effective meas-ures to check unbridled streaks of violenceand intolerance remain absent.”

It said incidents “such as these have noplace in a civilized and pluralistic society.The HRCP reiterates that past policies and

patronage given to cold-blooded killers andmischief makers have landed us in thisquagmire and nothing short of a similarsingle-mindedness of purpose is requiredif we want to undo the damage”.

“At the risk of sounding repetitive,HRCP urges the government to stop pan-dering to the extremists and trying to ap-pease them, as was seen during theprotests last Friday,” it said.

“It must realise and respond to the im-mediate need to deal with the extremists.Unless the government moves to addressthe mushrooming intolerance and violenceon priority in consultation with and sup-port of the intelligentsia, moderate reli-gious leaders, NGOs, the media, and theyouth, Pakistan will become an intolerablecountry to live in for most citizens. At stakeis nothing less than the very survival of thestate,” the HRCP added.

ISLAMABADonline

IN the backdrop ofPPP-PML-Q elec-toral strategy, adecision has beenmade to hand over

political trench of Punjabto Deputy Prime Minis-

ter Pervez Elahi to givea tough time to the

PML-N in theprovince.

Well-placedsources said con-

sultations wereheld at lengthduring a seriesof recent meet-

ings betweenPresident Asif Ali

Zardari, ChaudhryShujaat Hussain andChaudhry PervezElahi over politicalstrategy for con-

testing upcoming general elections in Punjab.It was agreed during these meetings that Chaudhry

Ahmad Mukhtar and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain would beawarded tickets for NA seats in Gujarat.

There was convergence of views among the leaders ofboth parties that the PPP and PML-Q would jointly partici-pate in the next election.

Elahi would be tasked with leading the electoral cam-paign against the PML-N and a mechanism had been evolvedin this regard.

On the other hand, the PPP would lend full-fledged sup-port to PML-Q to muster masses’ support from Punjab andin this regard, the ongoing development projects in all dis-tricts where the PML-Q had better chances of winning wouldbe completed soon.

The sources said Zardari had directed party leaders tolaunch political activities with full force in connection withpreparations for elections. The PPP manifesto committeehad also been directed to give a final shape to the manifestowith reference to general elections.

Sources said President Zardari had convinced theChaudhry brothers that Minister for Water and PowerChaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar would be fielded as joint can-didate from NA-105 and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussainfrom NA-104. The decision to award tickets on seats ofimportant districts, including Gujarat, would be takenafter consultations.

QUETTAafp

Flash floods triggered by record rains insouthwestern Pakistan have affectedaround 700,000 people and destroyedhundreds of thousands of acres of crops,officials said Monday.

At least 51 people have died across theimpoverished province of Balochistan andPrime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf on Sun-day declared three districts as calamity-hitareas. He announced assistance worth2,600 million rupees ($27.5 million) for re-lief and rehabilitation work in the provincewhere a torrential monsoon spell thismonth smashed a 30-year record, they said.

Heavy rains lashed the province for 32hours on September 11 and the meteoro-logical department recorded 432 millime-tres (17 inches) of rain, head of theprovincial disaster management authorityAkbar Durrani told AFP.

Officials released the figures almost twoweeks after the rains hit the sparsely popu-lated province, which is struggling with aseparatist insurgency and Islamist militants.Flash floods damaged crops over 380,000acres (155,000 hectares) of land in 13 dis-tricts, he said adding that the worst hit wereJaffarabad, Naseerabad and Jhal Magsi,

where a large area remains submerged.At least 22 people have died in Naseer-

abad alone and eight in Jaffarabad, Dur-rani said. The remaining casualties werereported elsewhere in the province.

Another 115 people were injured in therains which also killed 1,778 cattle.

Around 700,000 people have been af-fected, many people suffered crop andproperty losses, Durrani said.

“We have already distributed 6,670tents and 2,378 metric tons of food items,while the prime minister promised to im-mediately rush 20,000 more tents,” hesaid. The government has set up severalmedical camps where treatment has beenoffered to nearly 3,000 people sufferinggastrointestinal diseases and more than2,500 cases of malaria.

“We have not launched any appeal forforeign assistance. We are so far relying onown resources and we hope we can handlethe situation,” Durrani said.

He stressed the rescue work is over andrehabilitation work including repair ofroads and infrastructure has started.

He said the level of disaster was muchless than 2010, when unprecedented mon-soon rains triggered catastrophic floodingacross the country, killing almost 1,800people and affecting 21 million.

BHALWALinp

Two robbers, including the alleged murdererof eight persons of a family, were killed in anexchange of fire with police on Monday.

According to details, the police stoppeda suspected vehicle carrying four personsat a police picket located in Chak 6 Northin Bhalwal early on Monday morning.However, the driver did not stop the vehi-cle, and tried to escape. The police chasedthem and approached the vehicle at Chak 2Bangla, where the robbers started firing atthe police. In retaliatory fire, two robberswere killed on the spot while the remainingtwo managed to escape.

The dead robbers were identified asQaiser and Munawar, a proclaimed of-fender who had killed eight members of asingle family on Eidul Fitr day.

Elsewhere in Vehari, two robbers werekilled in crossfire with police, while theirfour accomplices managed to flee. Accord-ing to details, the police approached sixrobbers who were busy looting citizens inthe Garrha More area in Mailsi tehsil. Uponseeing the approaching policemen, the rob-bers opened fire and tried to escape. In anexchange of fire, two robbers were killed onthe spot, while their four accomplices man-aged to flee. The police recovered arms andlooted valuables from the possession of thedacoits killed in the encounter.

Elahi to have driver’s seat inPunjab electoral encounters

Intolerance, violence rising unchallenged: HRCP

Four robbers killed in Bhalwal, Vehari encounters

Floods affect 700,000

in Balochistan

File Photo

File Photo



ISLAMABADsTaff RepoRT

tHE Senate Stand-ing Committee onRailways showed astrong reservationon Monday regard-

ing the deterioration of the rail-ways service and the ministry’sdismal performance to copewith the situation.

The committee met underthe Chair of Senator AbdulGhafoor Haideri in the Parlia-ment House. Railways Secre-tary Arif Azim informed theCommittee that their were5662.67 acres of Railwaysland encroached upon in Pe-shawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore,Mughalpura (Lahore), Mul-tan, Sukkur, Karachi andQuetta, in which 2403.36acres of land was recovereduntil July, 2012 .

He further informed theCommittee that the land allo-cated to the Defense forceswas regularized for the firsttime in the history of Pakistan.He said that safety measureswere taken so that nobodycould re-encroach on the Rail-ways road in the future. Hesaid during the photographiccoverage of land survey, theyhad obtained a record of thedepartments land in differentareas of the country. He addedthat the Railways departmentwanted to vacate lands but dueto the deteriorating law andorder situation the work hadto be stopped. Despite theSupreme Court (SC) orders,people got stay orders fromthe courts, he said.

He also said that local pres-sure and the nature of thethickly populated areas wherethe railways land was en-croached upon was also a mainhurdle in vacating of land andit slowed down the process.

The chairman raised aquestion that during the en-croachment process, railways

officials were sleeping. TheCommittee showed concernregarding the late arrival oftrains and also received infor-mation on the number of ex-isting engines. The secretarysaid that 90 locomotives were

contaminated and its partswhich weres usable were usedwhile the others were sold asscrap. He added that only 126locomotives were in a work-able condition. He said thatthe department faced a debt

of Rs. 52 billion. He also said that the gov-

ernment allowed the import of75 locomotives and repairing of27, while adding that presentlythey did not had any money topay the salaries and pensions of

railways staff. The secretary said that

they had coaches and wagons,but a shortage of locomotiveswas a great concern for the de-partment.

The Committee was in-formed that in the 80s the gov-ernment trends changed andfocus was shifted to highwaysand this year Rs. 35 billion wasallocated for developmentalprojects, while the rehabilita-tion process was continued.He added that almost 82coaches were imported fromChina through internationalcompetitive bids. He said thatthey had the capability in car-riage factories to makecoaches and were also tryingto built locomotives, the ten-der for which would be re-leased soon. According to him,the department had bannedthe recruitment of staff.

On a query from AijazDhamrah regarding the lawand order situation, the secre-tary informed that they weredemanding money from the fi-nance division for hiring of po-lice and training of staff forsecurity purpose. “We have1,100 kilometers tracks and 34cameras were installed at allthe big stations.

Railways Inspector General(IG) Ibne Hussain informedthe committee that the securitysituation on the railways tracksand stations were over all satis-factory, adding that the Rail-ways Police staff was gettingfewer salaries than the provin-cial police.

He said that the depart-ment had 122 police stations.Senator Aijaz demanded therestoration of the Shalimartrain stop in Shahid Be-nazirabad (Nawabshab), onwhich the secretary informedhim that the Shalimar train wasrun by privately owned compa-nies and they would talk to themanagement of that train inthis regard.

Get your land back, SenateCommittee tells Railways

n Railway has only been able to recover 2403.36 acres of land from thetotal 5662.67 acres that have been encroached upon in different provincesn There is also a severe shortage of bogies, engines and other locomotives


The Kohsar police claims tohave busted a gang of thievesinvolved in committing a bur-glary at the residence of theAmbassador of Tunisia in sec-tor F-6.

Police said that the arrestedaccused were allegedly involvedin taking away Rs 9,00,000, agold watch, two laptops andgold ornaments from the houseof the ambassador.

The Kohsar police said thaton August 10, 2012, the Tunisiaambassador lodged a com-plaint regarding the theft andsubsequently they registered aFirst Information Report (FIR)under section 380/457 PPCagainst unknown burglars.

Moreover, Dr. Habib-ur-Rehman, who had been resid-ing adjacent to the house of theambassador also lodged a theft

complaint with the Kohsar Po-lice Station on September 18and reported that some uniden-tified burglars took away pre-cious valuables from his house.

According to police, thesetwo back to back robberiesprompted SSP Yaseen Farooqto take serious notice of thetheft cases in the posh sector ofthe federal capital. He assignedthe task to SP (City) Muham-mad Ilyas to trace out thethieves and recover the stolenitems from them. Afterwards,the SP brought together a spe-cial team to trace the robbers.

The team succeeded inbusting a gang of four thievesbesides recovering stolen valu-ables including Rs. 9, 00,000,a gold watch worth Rs. 7,00,000, two lap tops and goldornaments from their posses-sion. The nabbed accused hadbeen taken in for further inves-tigation.

Gang involved in robbing Tunisian ambassador bustedConvicted e&T

officials still working

on lucrative postsRAWALPINDI

agencies

Convicted officers and lower staff ofmotor branch of Excise and Taxation(E&T) Department Rawalpindi are stillworking on lucrative posts in the depart-ment. According to sources in the E&Tdepartment, an enquiry was startedagainst Excise and Taxation Officers(ETOs) along with motor registration au-thorities, a clerk working on own-payscale and other employees on the surfac-ing of some fake registrations due theirnegligence. One ETO was freed on thebasis of insufficient evidence against himwhile five years service of two ETOs wasdeducted under the PEDA Act. But theseETOs were still working in two districts ofthe Punjab. Moreover, a clerk of the de-partment was also convicted and his five-year service was also deducted, but he wasgiven a post in a factory in Rawalpindi onown-pay scale, the source said.

SC asked to reviewCh Nisar’s status


TheSupreme

Court (SC)was askedon Mondayto reviewits judg-mentabout the

legal sta-tus of the

Leader of Opposition inthe National Assembly

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.Last month a divisionbench of the court com-

prising of Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk and Jus-tice Tariq Pervez had turned down anapplication seeking to discuss the status ofhis family members who had, as per hispublic admission, taken citizenship of theUnited States (U.S) much against his will.The review petition was filed by a freelancejournalist Shahid Orakzai after the courton Thursday disqualified a number ofMNAs and MPAs for holding dual nation-alities. Justice Pervez in his judgment hadruled that the petitioner could not “pin-point any provision of the Constitutionwhere a person holding membership ofMajlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) disqualifieson the ground that his spouse or depend-ents are citizens of another State”. In re-buttal, the courts attention was drawntoday to Article 224 wherein the “imme-diate family members” of the care-takerPrime Minister (PM) and the Chief Min-ister (CM) were barred from taking partin the immediate elections to assemblies.The new clause was inserted through the18th Constitutional Amendment with an“Explanation” that “immediate familymembers” means spouse and children.The petitioner today reminded the courtthat the fact about the status of Ch.Nisar’s family members was attested bythe High Court and the SC needed notquestion the same.

Child injured in toy

bomb explosion RAWALPINDI

app

A child was injured when a ‘toy bomb’ ex-ploded in the Shah Alam village locatedsix kilometers east of Tank Sunday, said amilitary official here on Monday.


07Islamabad



tHE Islamabad HighCourt (IHC) on Mon-day dismissed a pleaagainst the extensionin service of the Chief

of Army Staff (COAS) General AshfaqPervez Kayani by declaring it non-maintainable, while observing that noorder can be passed by the High Courtagainst a serving member of theArmed Forces of Pakistan under Arti-

cle 199(3) of the Constitution.A single member bench com-

prising of Chief Justice (CJ)Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman, in

its order quoted Article 199(3) of theConstitution: “An order shall not bemade under clause (1) on applicationmade by or in relation to a person whois member of the Armed Forces of Pak-istan, in respect of his terms and con-ditions of service, in respect of anymatter arising out of his service, or inrespect of any action taken in relationto him as a member of the Armedforces or as a person subject to suchlaw”.

The IHC CJ also cited a judgmentof the Supreme Court related to an in-stant matter in the case of Ex-Lt ColAnwar Aziz versus the Federation ofPakistan.

The verdict said, “This court can

interfere only in extraordinary casesinvolving question of jurisdictional de-fect when proceedings before thatforum become non-judicial or malafide. The matters relating to the mem-bers of the Armed Forces or who forthe time being are subject to any lawrelating to any of these Forces in re-spect of terms and conditions of serv-ice or in respect of any action taken inrelation to him as member of ArmedForces or as a person subject to suchlaw, is barred by Article 199(3) of theConstitution.”

The CJ resumed the hearing of theplea filed by Inam-ul-Raheem whichtermed the extension of GeneralKayani as unconstitutional and illegal.

Earlier during the course of pro-ceedings, petitioner Raheem arguedthat the extension granted to theCOAS was illegal because under thePakistan Army Act 1952, there was noprovision of extension in service; thatrespondent had crossed the age of 60years, as such, he was not a member ofthe Pakistan Army.

He contended that under Article-243 of the Constitution, the Presidentof Pakistan could not change thetenure of service of the COAS and asper the Army Act. The COAS retired onattaining the age of superannuation.He had prayed to the court to declarethe extension of the COAS as illegaland unconstitutional.

IHC dismisses plea against extension to General Kayani

ISLAMABADapp

The Islamabad Police have tightened the securityin the federal capital and extra deployment ofpolice personnel has been ordered at worshipplaces and important buildings, an officialsource said on Monday. The source said that theIslamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP) BinYamin had directed the officials concerned to beefup security in the federal capital, especially inmosques, worship places and other important loca-tions as well as public places. Police presence hadbeen enhanced at all the places of worship and mar-kets while extra contingents of police had also beendeployed in other sensitive areas.Furthermore, parking of vehicles close to worshipplaces would be banned during prayer time. Policepersonnel in plain clothes were assigned the task tokeep an eye on suspicious elements. Police comman-does deputed outside sensitive locations had beenalerted to the existing threats and special policeteams had been constituted by each police stationfor effective patrolling in its respective jurisdiction. Area (beat) offices were also directed to remain onhigh alert, while the “Falcon” and “Eagle” Squadswere also assigned the task for effective policing andpatrolling in the city. Complete coordination amongall wings of the Islamabad Police, including the traf-fic police, Special Branch, City Police, Security Po-lice, Crime Investigating Department (CID) andHeadquarters of Police had been also been orderedto remain active during duty hours. Officials of thesecurity apparatus had been ordered to start check-ing hotels and guest houses in the federal capital inorder to ensure the protection of lives and proper-ties of the citizens. Checking at exit and entry points of the city hadbeen further strengthened and police patrolling hadbeen enhanced in order to avert any untoward situa-tion, the sources maintained.

ISLAMABADapp

The Capital Development Au-thority (CDA) which is plan-ning to establish an exclusive100 megawatts (MW) powerplant for the city has not yetbeen able to restore the powersupply to its offices that wasdisconnected by the Islam-abad Electric Supply Company(IESCO) on September 4.

Mandated to run the de-velopmental affairs of thefederal capital, the CDAseems to be overpowered bythe IESCO that had discon-nected the power supply to itsoffices for non-payment ofRs. 1.75 billion dues.

Both the CDA and theIESCO had been at odds sincelong over reconciliation of ac-counts, but every time the au-thority had to suffer powerdisconnection as it had nofunds to clear the dues.

In the recent past, the

IESCO also disconnectedpower supply to the Pak Sec-retariat and the Foreign Of-fice as the electricity bills ofthese buildings were not paidby the CDA. However, it wasrestored after partial pay-ment of dues but the basicissue lingered on.

On the contrary, the CDAChairman Farkhand Iqbalhad claimed before the mediaand the parliamentary com-mittees to have resolved thepower issue of the CDA, but agigantic and noisy power gen-erator installed close to hisoffice refutes all his claims.This facility had been costingaround Rs. 200,000 a day tothe cash-strapped civic body.

The CDA chairman, whohad constantly propagated anambitious project of a multibil-lion rupee exclusive powerplant for Islamabad, is yet toaddress the question as to howit would be executed amidstthe severe financial crunch

being faced by the department.However, he recently ad-

mitted his failure to recoveraround Rs. one billion fromthe IESCO on account ofproperty tax, water tax andrent of the power installationsincluding electricity poles.

He said that the CDA hadrepeatedly asked the IESCOto reconcile its accounts withthe authority but they nevercame up with any solution. Ina press conference, also at-tended by the Punjab Gover-nor Sardar Latif Khosa at theCDA headquarters, the chair-man hinted at disconnectingwater supply of WAPDA of-fices and colonies if the pay-ment was delayed anymore.

Each time the two depart-ments clashed, the com-plainants had to face the bruntof this dispute between theCDA and the IESCO as theyhad to wait for weeks to geteven a fraction of work carriedout by the civic agency.

Strong bar is a sine

qua non for independent

judiciary, says CJPISLAMABAD: A 13-member delegation of theKhanewal District Bar Association headed by itsPresident Rana Jaffar Ali Khan and comprising ofother office bearers called on the Chief Justice ofPakistan (CJP Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaud-hary on Monday in the Supreme Court Building, Is-lamabad. Talking to the delegation, the CJ said,“Strong bar is a sine qua non for independent judici-ary and where there is a strong bar, the institutionflourishes”. He further added that a lawyer being aprofessional, always remained in the pursuit of thelegal knowledge and he should work hard to assistthe courts so as to provide expeditious and inexpen-sive justice to the litigants at their doorsteps. Admir-ing the role of the legal fraternity in the Lawyers’Movement, he added that the movement was thestruggle for principles. The legal fraternity, duringthe days of the movement, struggled constantly forconstitutionalism and independence of judiciary andtheir dream was materialized due to the constantstruggle. The members of the Khanewal Bar also ap-preciated the struggle and efforts of the CJP duringthe days of the lawyers’ movement which was aunique movement in the global history. agencies

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Cli-mate Change on Monday recommended numerousmeasures to the government for coping with disastersas it said that Pakistan is among the most vulnerable toclimate threats and recurrence of disasters is morelikely in the coming years. Chaired by Senator SaeedaIqbal, the Committee endorsed the proposals of the Na-tional Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chair-man Dr. zafar Iqbal Qadir regarding the preparation ofa comprehensive strategy and plans to avert and miti-gate natural disasters. The Committee recommended tothe government to launch massive awareness cam-paigns and update the curricula by including in it thesubjects of disaster management, health and hygiene.Discussing the massive damage caused to schools dur-ing the 2005 earthquake, disasters due to rains and in-ferno at Karachi and Lahore factories, the Committeestrongly recommended to making the EnvironmentalImpact Assessment (EIA) of every project as manda-tory. Furthermore, the Committee supported to raise aDisaster Response Force, Schools Safety Program as90,000 students were affected in the 2005 earthquake,introduction of disaster insurance and the establish-ment of a National Institute of Disaster Management.The members extended full support to the measuresproposed by the NDMA and assured the Minister forClimate Change Rana Farooq Saeed Khan to supportany legislation to this effect. app

Senate body recommendsmeasures to cope with disasters

Blackout continuesat CDA officesg Electricity supply had been cut off at the authority’s office over nonpayment of funds

Securitytightened inface of threat

DESTRUCTION: Policemen perform their duties

under the open sky after protesters pulled down

their checkpost on Jinnah Avenue. ONLINE


08Islamabad

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Prayer TiminGSfajr Sunrise Zuhr asr maghrib isha

04:36 05:57 11:59 15:25 18:00 19:23

CiTy direCTory

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reSCue 1122

Hilal-e-aHmer 9250488

edHi foundaTion 2827844

bomb diSPoSal 9270698

fire briGade CenTre 16

CiVil defenCe 9262830

emerGenCy HelP

HoSPiTalS

blood bank

PimS blood bank 9261272

Poly CliniC blood bank 9209123

ComPlainT

waPda 111-000-118

Sui GaS 1199

railwayS

CiTy STaTion (enquiry) 117

reSerVaTion 9273614

railway PoliCe 1333

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Pia reSerVaTion 111-786-786

ColleGeS / uniVerSiTieS

inTernaTional iSlamiC uniVerSiTy 9260765

baHria uniVerSiTy 9260002

numl 9257677

quaid-e-aZam uniVerSiTy 90642098

arid aGriCulTure uniVerSiTy 9290151

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riPHa inTernaTional uniVerSiTy 111510510

nCa rawalPindi 5770423

PunJab law ColleGe 4421347

maHroof inT 2222920

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Poly CliniC 9218300

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diSTriCT HqS 5556311-14

ulTraSoniC CliniC 2824862

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30 YEArS OF rOHTAS gAllErY

Sixty five artists will exhibit more than165 works in what will be a testimony toPakistan’s contemporary artists and anamazing journey through their growth andcontribution to art over three decades.

daTe and Time: 05:00 Pm, weekly eVenTVenue: THe CenTre for arTS & CulTure

our drumming circle is a (free!) ongoingevent and is held every friday from 5pmto 6pm. we are having a great time, andwant to share the good time with you!our drumming circle has children ...

SePT 24 - oCT 24, 5PmVenue: naTional arT Gallery

ANWAr MAQSOOD’S PAWNAY 14 Aug

‘Pawnay 14 august’ has broken all theatrical recordsin Pakistan with 28 performances and 15000viewers in karachi and lahore is now ready tosweep islamabad off its feet. for more details call 0333 3377909, 0300 9558701

SePT 1 - 25 PakiSTan naTional CounCil of arTS

DruMMiNg CirClE

NEWS DESK

HAROON Khan knows how totake the heat and stay in thekitchen. The Pakistani chef andhis wife, Humaira, have openedTandoori Grill in Lake George,

preparing classic Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi dishes in a traditional tandoor, orclay oven, where temperatures soar to 900 de-grees, Post star reported.

Area residents may already be familiar withthe restaurant’s name, as the Khans ran Tan-doori Grill on Wolf Road in Colonie for threeyears before closing July 1. Within four days,they found a location on Canada Street andopened for business, serving their specialties,including chicken tandoori, naan made fromscratch and chapale kebabs.

“I don’t think any other Indian restaurant(in the area) has this. This is from Peshawar,”Humaira said.

The Khans, who live in Clifton Park, cameto the United States on a vacation in 2002 andmoved here permanently two years later.

Neither expected to be in the restaurantbusiness. When they settled in Latham in2004, Haroon worked with his brother, man-aging a kosher grocery store, but the hourswere long. He knew about food, though, havinggrown up around Food Street in Lahore, a cen-ter of traditional Pakistani cuisine, and havingobserved what other chefs were doing. He alsoworked in a few restaurants “as a hobby.”

Humaira, who was a physician in Pakistan,planned to practice medicine here. She hadhoped to study for the licensing exam to prac-tice in the US, but felt she needed to be avail-able for her young children at the time herhusband was managing the store.

Now that her husband has become achef/business owner, Humaira said her prior-

ity is to help establish a foothold with therestaurant, a family effort that also involves thethree kids, ages 17, 16 and 9.

“I decided it was time to sacrifice and forthe time being, I let (Haroon) be stable andthen I will do my work,” she said. “We need toget a team, because he is alone. If you don’thave anybody from your family (to help), youlose the business,” she said.

The Khans pride themselves on having rea-sonably priced, fresh, authentic halal (kosher)food prepared in the traditional tandoor. En-trees range from $6.99 for the two-piecechicken seekh kebab to $14.99 for the lambboti fry. The spice level can be adjusted to suitAmerican tastes.

“We have a scale of 1 to 10. They can giveus a number and then chef will make the food

accordingly,” Humaira said.Humaira said she has made pakoras for a

past World Awareness Children’s Museumfundraiser. The appetizers are deep-fried frit-ters made with chickpea flour, spices andmixed vegetables with mint and tamarindsauces on the side.

In keeping with the tenets of their Muslimreligion, no alcohol is served at the restaurant.Instead, there are a variety of juices; soda; andthe house favorites, lassi — a smoothie madewith mango, yogurt and cream — and Kashmirichai, a pink tea.

“We have found a very good response, es-pecially from locals, plus all the customersfrom Albany who are Indian, Pakistani andBangladeshi — they love our food,” Humairasaid.

PAkiSTAni TAndoor findSA hoMe in uniTed STATeS

n A husband and wife, originally from Pakistan, set up a tandoori restaurant inLake George to cater to Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and even Western food lovers


09


Foreign News

Shebab threaten to kill Somalilawmakers ‘one-by-one’

NAIROBIafp

Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked Shebab threatened Monday tokill all the country’s new lawmakers, saying that an MPkilled at the weekend in Mogadishu was just the first tobe targeted. “The successful elimination of Mustafa HajiMohamed was the action of the mujahedeen who arecommitted to killing all MPs,” a Shebab official whoasked not to be named told AFP, saying the group would“kill one-by-one” all other lawmakers. “The remaining274 MPs are on the waiting list to die if they don’tabandon the criminal organisation that was set upcontrary to Islamic law,” the official said, referring to thenew parliament selected in August. Parliament’s electionthis month of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as president andthe end of Somalia’s transitional institutions in Augusthad sparked hopes of a new beginning for the countryafter two decades of war. Some analysts had hoped thatHassan might succeed in bringing the hardline IslamistShebab rebel group, which considered his predecessorSharif Sheikh Ahmed a traitor, to the negotiating table.But the new president survived an assassination bid onSeptember 12, just two days after he was elected, whenapparent suicide bomb attacks claimed by the Shebabrebels rocked a Mogadishu hotel, killing three soldiers.

Million displaced by floods in india

GUWAHATIafp

Floods have forced more than one million people to fleetheir homes in northeastern India, where authoritieshave called a health alert, officials said on Monday. “Sofar 18 of 27 districts of Assam have been hit by floodswith more than one million displaced and 11 peopledrowned in separate incidents in the past week,” theDisaster Management agency said in a statement. Rescueofficials said about 2,000 villages had been hit byoverflowing waters from the rain-swollen BrahmaputraRiver. Himanta Biswa Sarmah, the health minister ofAssam state, told AFP that a “maximum health alert” hasbeen sounded in the devastated zone. Other officials saidthe affected people had been evacuated to temporaryshelters on higher embankments and to schools andcolleges unaffected by the second round of floods sinceJuly in Assam, which borders Bangladesh. Nearly 130people were killed and six million displaced by thefloodwaters in Assam two months ago, which cameduring India’s June-September monsoon. “We havedispatched doctors and paramedics to ensure that thereis no outbreak of disease,” Sarmah said in Guwahati,Assam’s largest city.

four iraqi schoolchildrenkilled in blast

FALLUJAHafp

A car bomb targeting security forces killed four Iraqiprimary school pupils and wounded two others onMonday, security and medical officials said. The vehiclewas parked near a school in the town of Heet, 160kilometres (100 miles) west of Baghdad. It exploded ataround 8:00 am (0500 GMT) as the children werearriving for classes and as a security forces anti-terrorismunit passed by, the officials said. Colonel Ayada al-Nimrawi, deputy police chief in Heet, said the blast killedfour children and wounded another two. Dr Subhi Abedal-Alwani confirmed the toll. They said members of thesecurity patrol were unscathed. Violence in Iraq hasdecreased since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but deadlyattacks still occur almost every day. With the latestviolence, at least 179 people have been killed and 676wounded in attacks in Iraq so far this month, accordingto an AFP tally based on security and medical sources.

DAMASCUSafp

rEGIME warplanes struckrebel positions in AleppoMonday, killing three chil-dren, as insurgentsclaimed to control most of

Syria ahead of a UN Security Council ad-dress by peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

Before the annual UN General As-sembly beginning on Tuesday, the UNand Arab League envoy is set to brief theUN Security Council behind closed doorson his contacts in Damascus, including

with President Bashar al-Assad.Brahimi discussed Syria with UN

chief Ban Ki-moon on Saturday and bothagreed that the 18-month crisis was “asteadily increasing threat to regionalpeace and stability,” a statement said.

Monday’s briefing comes a day afterat least 82 people were killed in violencenationwide in Syria — among them 40civilians — according to figures suppliedby Britain-based watchdog the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights.

It said three children from one familywere among five people killed in a strikeby regime warplanes on Monday on the

northern city of Aleppo, the country’scommercial hub that has been a focus forfighting since mid-July.

“Three children from the same familywere killed when their building collapsedin Maadi district, which is located in theOld City of Aleppo, 600 metres (yards)from the citadel,” the Observatory’s RamiAbdel Rahman told AFP.

“There are still people buried underthe rubble.”

Videos posted to YouTube by ac-tivists, which AFP was unable to authen-ticate immediately, showed a mountainof rubble and men trying to clear away

slabs of debris to free trapped residents.A fourth child, a girl, was killed in

heavy shelling of Aleppo’s northernneighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsud whereseveral homes were destroyed, the Obser-vatory said.

Battles raged overnight in the west-ern districts of Jamiliyeh, Bustan al-Qasr,Furqan and in Zabdiyeh, while the armyshelled rebel positions in Marjeh, Tariqal-Bab and Zabdiyeh, the Observatorysaid. In Damascus, pre-dawn clasheserupted in the eastern neighbourhood ofQaboon, said the watchdog, while north-west of the city, a large explosion rocked

Qudsaya suburb after midnight.The northeast suburb of Douma and

farmland between Douma and nearbyHarasta were also shelled overnight.

Outside Damascus the army clashedwith rebels in Ghuta, while Zabadani nearthe Lebanese border and the easternDamascus suburb of Zamalka wereshelled.

The army also bombarded towns andvillages across the northwest province ofIdlib, while fierce clashes broke out be-tween the army and rebels in the easterncity of Deir Ezzor and near an airport inthe northern province of Raqa.

heRaT: afghan police cadets run drills during a training exercise at a police academy on Monday. AFP

TEHRANafp

Iran blocked access to Google’s popular andrelatively secure Gmail service Monday amidfirst steps by the Islamic republic to establish awalled-off national intranet separate from theworldwide Internet. Access to Google’s searchpage (www.google.com) was also restricted to itsunsecured version, web users in Iran found.Attempts to access it using a secure protocol(https://www.google.com) were also blocked.The curbs were announced in a mobile phonetext message quoting Abdolsamad Khoramabadi,an adviser to Iran’s public prosecutor’s officeand the secretary of an official group tasked withdetecting Internet content deemed illegal. “Dueto the repeated demands of the people, Googleand Gmail will be filtered nationwide. They will remain filtered until further notice,” the message read. Google’s own websitetracking country-by-country access to itsservices did not immediately reflect the blocks(www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/?r=IR&l=GMAIL&csd=1230796800000&ced=1348461000000). But several residents in Tehran toldAFP they were unable to get into their Gmailaccounts unless they used VPN (virtual privatenetwork) software. VPNs are commonly used bytech-savvy Iranians to get around extensive onlinecensorship, though bandwidth of connections

through the software is routinely strangled andoccasionally even cut entirely. Gmail is used bymany Iranian businessmen to communicate andexchange documents with foreign companies.Iran’s economy is suffering under Westernsanctions that have cut oil exports and made trademore difficult. Iranian authorities previously andtemporarily cut access to Google and Gmail inFebruary, ahead of March parliamentary elections.Google’s popular YouTube video-sharing site hasbeen continually censored since mid-2009,following protests and opposition claims of votefraud in the wake of elections that returnedPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. Othersocial networking sites, such as Facebook andTwitter, are also routinely blocked. Iran is workingon rolling out its national intranet that it says willbe clean of un-Islamic content. Officials claim itwill be faster and more secure, even though users’data will be more easily subject to monitoring.Despite fears by Iranians that the new intranetwould supplant the Internet, MohammadSoleimani, a lawmaker heading a parliamentarycommunication committee, was quoted last weekby the ISNA news agency as saying that “theestablishment of the ‘National Internet’ will notcut access to the Internet.” He added: “Cuttingaccess to the Internet is not possible at all, becauseit would amount to imposing sanctions onourselves, which would not be logical. However,the filtering will remain in place.”

israel must do more

to halt abuse of

Palestinian rights: unGENEVA

afp

Israel must do more to halt a string ofserious violations of Palestinian humanrights documented by a 2009 fact-findingmission, according to a UN reportpublished Monday. There is a “need tomore earnestly pursue accountability forthe serious violations of human rights andinternational humanitarian law that weredocumented by the fact-finding mission,”Deputy High Commissioner for HumanRights Kyung-wha Kang told the UNHuman Rights Council in Geneva.Speaking on behalf of UN rights chiefNavi Pillay, she presented a report onprogress made in implementingrecommendations in the UN Goldstonereport, which detailed violations ofinternational rights and humanitarianlaws in the Palestinian territories inconnection with the 2008/09 Gazaconflict. “It has been nearly three yearssince this council endorsed the fact-finding mission’s recommendations. Yet,not one person has been indicted for anyof the incidents documented,” she said.

Syrian children killed ahead of UN briefing

Iran blocks access to Gmail

KATHMANDUafp

Rescuers have all but given up on finding threeclimbers missing in a Nepal avalanche which killedat least nine people attempting to scale one of theworld’s highest peaks, officials said Monday.

An air rescue mission was halted as hopes fadedfor two French mountaineers and a Canadian whodisappeared as a wall of snow hit their tents near thepeak of the 8,156-metre (26,759-foot) Manaslu in theearly hours of Sunday.

“I feel sad to say that the possibility of survivors

of those missing from avalanche has almost ended,”tourism ministry spokesman Balkrishna Ghimiretold AFP, adding that a ground search would con-tinue. “The avalanche occurred at the height of 7,300meters, a very high altitude. Even if the missingmountaineers were only wounded, it will be hard forthem to remain alive. “There is no human settlementand no other fellow people at such height who cantake care of them and treat them.” If the deaths areconfirmed, the toll of 12 victims would make it thedeadliest avalanche on the Himalayas since 2005when a powder-snow avalanche ploughed into aFrench expedition’s base camp on Kang Guru, killing

18 people. Survivors said that they were woken bythe sound of the wall of snow tearing down themountain as they described a scene reminiscent of a“war zone”. “I woke up to a huge roar... Then the av-alanche came down and crushed our tents. We wereswept 100 metres down with our tents — others werecarried 300 metres,” Andreas Reiter said from hishospital bed in Kathmandu where he is being treatedfor spinal injuries. “I was not buried under the ava-lanche, I was carried with it. It was very high and somany tents were falling down. But I couldn’t moveand couldn’t help people who were screaming forhelp and dying,” the 26-year-old German told AFP.

‘Almost no hope’ for missing climbers in nepal avalanche


Arif NizamiEditor

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

india’s objection on diamir bhasha dam

another dispute

At a time when moves are afoot to resolve theoutstanding disputes between India andPakistan, New Delhi’s objection to theconstruction of Diamir Bhasha dam comes as

an unexpected shock. Pakistan badly needs to buildDiamir Bhasha dam. What is at stake is the country’seconomy and the livelihood of its masses. The dampartly inside Galgit-Baltistan and partly inside KhyberPakhtunkhwa is to serve four vital functions: produce4,500 megawatts of electricity, store an extra8,500,000 acre feet of water for irrigation anddrinking, extend the life of Tarbela dam locateddownstream by 35 years and control flood damage bythe River Indus downstream during high floods.Pakistan had already spent millions of dollars onfeasibility reports, detailed drawings and initial workbefore laying its foundation stone last year. It won’tpromote friendly feelings in Pakistan if the project isstalled on account of objections from India.

A report tells of the World Bank being hesitant toprovide funds for the project on an objection fromIndia regarding the area being under dispute betweenthe countries. This was unexpected as Pakistan hadnever raised the objection as India constructed damsin the areas of Kashmir under its control. India wasable to finance the projects with its own funds partlybecause they were smaller. The estimated cost ofDiamir Bhasha dam in 2011 being US $11.19 billion,Pakistan is forced to seek loans from the World Bankand the ADB. The policies of the two banks requirethat any project in a disputed territory should have noobjection from the concerned parties.

The objection by New Delhi negates the claims bythe Indian leadership regarding its keenness toimprove ties with Pakistan. Both countries arecurrently holding talks because they want to put anend to the animosity that has characterized theirrelations in the past. A number of positivedevelopments have meanwhile taken place. AfterPakistan agreed to give MFN status to India, NewDelhi allowed Indian individual and entities to investin Pakistan. An agreement has been reached to set upbranches of the banks of each country in the other.During a meeting between the foreign ministers of thetwo countries visa restrictions were relaxed to allowmore people to people contacts and facilitate visits bybusinessmen. The developments have been widelywelcomed in both countries where people want moremeasures of the type. There is a need on the part ofIndia to stop its opposition to the construction of thedam which is vital for Pakistan’s economy. Unless itdoes so it would add another dispute to the alreadyformidable list of irritants.

Thunder from the eastnot just the ministers but the government itself is in danger

On the afternoon of Tuesday, Sep-tember 18, when a deceptive calmover Delhi had begun to sink intotorpor, TV channels floated astory that the men in charge of

the Congress machine had yet again deflated aMamata Banerjee insurrection, this time overthe diesel price hike and FDI in retail. Politi-cians will plant a few weeds in the informationjungle when they can; it is less understandablewhen media begins to fertilise weeds. But thereal problem is not a mistake, which can hap-pen in any vocation. Our capital’s elite gets itwrong because it is in the grip of those wholook at Calcutta from Delhi, while real powerhas shifted to the grasp of those who look atDelhi from Calcutta.

Pranab Mukherjee was ubiquitous to UPAbecause he was that rare politician who couldabsorb the view from both directions. In UPA1 the prime minister and Mrs Sonia Gandhioutsourced political management to Mukher-jee; he brought the ship of state through somehistoric storms because he never forgot hiscompass.

Neither Dr Manmohan Singh nor MrsGandhi seems to fully comprehend the extentto which they have alienated allies as well aspotential partners. Where an ego needed somemassage, it was rubbed the wrong way. Wherea financial commitment could have been madewith grace, it was made with a growl. It takesunique ability to manoeuvre Mamata Banerjeeand Marxists into an alliance, albeit unac-knowledged, against the Center; or forceKarunanidhi to join a protest against his owngovernment; or turn CPI(M) and BJP intopartners in parliamentary inquiry committeesover the 2G scam. Gurudas Dasgupta, the vet-eran Communist leader, actually thanked Ma-mata Banerjee on primetime television.

The Congress’ weakness is due not to therancour of parties but the alienation of voters,fed up with unprecedented corruption and sus-tained inflation. Congress politics now revolvesprimarily around the 750-odd men and womenwho are Members of Parliament. Other partiesare more worried about the 700 million whoare voters. When Mamata Banerjee soundedout her base, she heard the overwhelming viewthat the price of associating with Congress nowfar outweighs the cost of leaving UPA.

If the Congress had been more observant,it would not have been shocked when the Ben-

gal ultimatum was delivered through a pressconference. Till then, the mood in the primeminister’s office was actually one of self-con-gratulation, with much talk of Mamata as apackage of disposable bombast. The flip side ofoverestimating your worth is that you in-evitably underestimate others.

No one is a patsy. Life has changed. Con-gress hasn’t.

At the moment of writing, Dr Singh andMrs Gandhi have a choice: They can eithersave their government with genuflectionthrough a partial rollback, or protect the gov-ernment’s credibility. This might be the ulti-mate Hobson’s choice, since governance is amirage without credibility. Mamata has leftopen a technical window through which shecan return to government, but rhetoric on theairwaves indicates that the relationship willnever be fully repaired.

Marriages do survive their crisis moments,but too much spouse-battering is taking placein this one. Even if UPA manages to scramblethe necessary numbers during a problem in thenext session of parliament, it will be a fluctu-ating advantage, purchased on daily barter. Itcould be a demand-a-week story. Taunts arealready in the air. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar usedan eloquent term, jugaad, or the ability to“manage” through suitable compensation, todescribe this aspect of Congress core compe-

tence. An opposition leader can joke; it doesn’tseem quite as funny when you are in office.

No decision made by an uncertain govern-ment carries credibility; even a popular gestureinvites the sneer that it is being done for parti-san benefit. Congress General Secretary Digvi-jaya Singh was frank enough to admit that theonly realistic option now was a general elec-tion. One wonders if he is also optimistic. Con-gress is facing not only the opposition fromtraditional foes but also isolation from tradi-tional friends. Mamata Banerjee, Karunanidhiand Sharad Pawar have announced a firstround of talks through their trusted nominees.You can be confident that they will not meet todiscuss T20 cricket.

It is always one stone that sets off an ava-lanche. We do not yet know if FDI in retail willchange the face of India’s economy. What iscertain is that it has changed the face of India’spolitics. My sympathies go out to the manyMPs who had been promised a place in govern-ment in the next reshuffle. It is not the errantminister who is in danger, but the governmentitself. To appoint new ministers today wouldbe an invitation to a Barmecide’s feast.

The columnist is editor of The SundayGuardian, published from Delhi, India onSunday, published from London and EditorialDirector, India Today and Headlines Today.

Third eyeBy M J Akbar

Comment10


Iremember once reading a storyabout a utopian world where, to en-sure that everyone was dealt a fair

hand in life, those who were born withabove average intelligence had to weara set of headphones, which delivered ahigh pitched scream at regular intervals,to ensure that no meaningful thoughtcould stay in their mind for more than afew seconds. Thus handicapped, theywere unable to achieve any excellence,which would otherwise be unfair to the“average” person, whose mediocrity pre-cluded any great achievements. I was re-minded of this story because every oncein a while, when my country begins tofind its feet and tries to move in a con-structive direction, an invisible being

delivers a deafening scream, whichshakes it to its very core and destroyswhatever progress it has made since thelast scream. Distraught, agitated, con-fused, we forget the way forward, andinstead start to self destruct in a hyster-ical fury, and are reduced to rubble onceagain, much to the satisfaction of the in-visible hand.

This shock jars us out of all thoughtfor a considerable time, and then we tryto overcome the disaster and try to reor-ganize our life. Just when we seem to bemanaging to rise from the dead, our livesare shaken once again, by yet anotherone of a series of inflammatory stimuli,which are impossible for any individualto ignore, and for the collective con-sciousness, do not fall short of a clashingof enormous celestial cymbals announc-ing Armageddon. Here a cartoon, therean incredibly offensive film, a raciallycharged statement from a prominent US

politician, or the pope. It is astonishinghow the source of this provocation cantake such diverse forms. What can becommon between a convicted racistfelon, clearly out to threaten peace andharmony with a scurrilous attack on areligion, and the leaders of the firstworld, or the world’s largest faith?

I want to believe that there is noth-ing behind this odd congruity, but if it isso, why then, the results of their actionsare the same? I am forced to question ifthey are all motivated by the same cause,striking a blow for a common end, eachin their unique way? It is a scarythought, and makes me look for an ex-planation for this common purpose.Why us? Why can’t we be left alone? Wewould like to get on with our life, please.Unlike the hero of the story, we are notreally in a position to threaten anyonewith the output of our extraordinary fac-ulties. Here the object seems to be mere

vandalism, a will to destroy the hapless,like a bully stepping on an anthill just tosee the ants scurry in all directions. Icannot fathom the why and where forthof this wonton destruction. I cannot un-derstand the threat we pose to so manypeople, which needs to be thus extermi-nated. I just know that we need to learnto survive despite this.

I want to ask my fellow countrymenand women, let us stop listening to thisscream. If the barking of a mad dogmeans nothing, it should not even be no-ticed. It definitely should not send usinto a mad rage, venting our fury byhurting ourselves. It is a tale told by anidiot, full of sound and fury, signifyingnothing. Let us put this self-destructmode aside, let us just let it be. In thestory, when the hero pulls off the head-phones, and dares to think freely, hedoes so with dazzling clarity, shiningbright like a supernova. If we too can

dare to stop listening to this engineeredscream, and instead just move forward,uninterrupted by the ploys of the dis-tracters, we can too can realize our po-tential, and attain amazing heights ofbrilliance. The alternative is to be for-ever a tool in the hands of those who donot want to see us rise from the abysmaldepths we have fallen into. They justneed to launch a petty attack on our faithto see us come crumbling down. What avictory for our enemies! It is up to us todecide if we want to continue to beplayed as fools, or if we can show themthat their obnoxious tactics can nolonger rile us, and that we are going tomove forward on our path with steadfastdrive. Let us make the correct decision,based on wisdom not emotion.

The writer is a faculty member atServices Institute of Medical Sciences,Lahore

The screamlet us put our self-destruct mode aside

By Dr Khadija Irfan Khawaja


Comment 11


Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-ShaareyFatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

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

Letters should be addressed to PakistanToday exclusively.

Apropos the article by Amir Rana“A militant stereotype” published onSeptember 23, 2012. Usually, aresearch work presents a credible databut such a short sample as collectedfor this research may not produceaccurate results. What could be thesource of collecting this sample alsoraises questions about the researchwhich might have been carried out ina fixed environment, thus affectingvariables. It is hard to believe thatrecruiters of these militants did notexploit the socioeconomicdeprivations but only played onreligious sentiments. Thephenomenon of militancy has morediverse reasons than explained in thearticle. According to Maslow’s theoryof self actualization, the most basicand the most essential necessity in thehierarchy of needs is “the need forfood”, followed by “the need for

shelter”, proceeded by “the need forbelongingness and affection”, followedby “self esteem needs”, and, finally,“the need for self actualization”.

A recent survey done by a think-tank associated with deradaclizationcentre reveals that in insurgency hitareas more that 70% of the peoplebelong to a very low SES i.e. US$ 94 –176 (US $3/day). And, when the mostbasic needs are not met with, itbecomes very easy to get manipulatedand exploited. The militants takeadvantage of this, and the basicincentive/ reinforcement that theygive to the people is food and money.And, this phenomenon is not justexclusive to Pakistan only, but,universal in all other parts of theworld where there is militancy andterrorism, be it Africa or Asia.

Secondly, again due to financialcrisis, lack of job opportunities in

backward areas, the breadwinnershave to go beyond their dwellings; andoften abroad too, in search of wellpaying jobs which are mostly justadequate to sustain food and shelterfor their families back home. 65% ofthe times, fathers are not present tolook after and supervise their children,especially the males. Consequently,almost 54% of the children areabducted by militants. Social Researchliterature highlights that childrenreared without fathers are about seventimes more likely to drop out of school(65% children are school drop outs),to become runaways, and commitviolent crimes, consequently father-absent homes produce the most severeantisocial children.

When there is no food, inadequateshelter, no education, absence ofhygiene and health awarenessprograms and facilities (48% children

have brain dysfunction due to variousreasons), it’s easy to manipulate andexploit such children. Think tanksbehind this entire militant andterrorist regime take advantage ofexploiting people on the basis ofsurvival needs rather than theseinnocent people pulling off suicidebombings because they hate all non-believers. The insurgency feeds onpoverty and is about Politics andPower. It has little to do with religion.It also looks unnatural that most ofthe sample used for research wereeducated, normal people having lovefor sports and music and havingpolitical affiliation (The writer hasshown affiliation with some politicalparties and excluded few). Thusassertions made by sample are alsoquestionable.

DR SHAFIQUR REHMANRawalpindi

beggars are no choosersPakistan has asked India not to resist the

building of Bhasha dam as it would not beconducive to confidence building measures betweenIndia and Pakistan. Our country is dependent onIndia to getting an NOC for the dam but what is thehitch on building Kalabagh dam located squarely inPakistan territory other than unwillingness ofKhyber Pakhtunkhawa and Sindh to give an NOCfor it. When Pakistan has been unable to obtainfrom these provinces their agreement for the simplereason of being located in Punjab, how can Pakistanhope against hope that India would give NOC forBhasha dam in Northern Areas which Indiaassumes, albeit wrongly, as a disputed area. Theeternal opposition of KP and Sindh to build a damon Indus in Punjab is the root cause of destructionof our economy and breeding of mass poverty due towater and power shortage. The twin menaces hittingour agriculture and industry badly are no body’sconcern and yet we expect India to be sympatheticto our woes.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

Saving PiaPIA is the national airline of Pakistan, a country

with a population of over 180 million, out of whichalmost 15 million are Pakistani nationality holdingexpatriates, is incurring losses not because of lack ofwilling clients, but deliberate pilferage, corruptionand the mafia of kickbacks and corruption thatdominates its executive corridors. The nationalairline can be saved only if highly qualified men ofintegrity are appointed to run it, instead of thesecronies who have destroyed it by design and sheerincompetence.

Half the fleet of PIA is grounded because ofcontroversial appointment of select vendors with nocredibility, instead of a choice of multiplemanufacture recommended vendors located alongits international hubs. The routes developed overyears of hard work were surrendered by marketingexecutives, who were paid a premium by regional

airlines in the Gulf and Mid-East. Most of themafter retirement were accommodated by these veryairlines or travel agencies, for cushy jobs withintheir subsidiaries.

Religious tourism such as Hajj or Umra, whichwere once considered to be a service to facilitatepilgrims is now a cut throat business to fleece themby the nexus of marketing and travel agents cumtour operators. PIA’s US operation is the favouritechoice of expatriates, because of service andreliability, was polluted by politically nominatedcontroversial PIA executives posted here. Whilethese travel agents, tour operators and fewexecutives became billionaires, PIA losses startedescalating. In Lahore PIA’s revenue generating salesoffice located in Gulberg was closed to facilitate thetravel agency owned by a relative of a high official inPIA. Travel agents formed cartels for Umrapassengers.

It is an airline, where individuals, who duringregular service were involved in massive corruptionscams, are now being rehired on contract, as if toput the last nail in the coffin, of what was once aprofitable airline, till it was destroyed by politicalappointees of various civil and military governmentsfrom Zia-ul-Haq onwards. Instead of resurrectingand constructive restructuring of this national asset,both Musharraf and present PPP-led coalition havehanded this airline to semi literate cronies, whohave driven it to state of technical insolvency, withdaily losses running to over Rs 8 crore and mounting.

TAHIR G HASSANTexas, USA

action neededWhile visiting various affected districts of Sindh

province last weekend I logically concluded that theresponse of the related government agencies, bothfederal and provincial, to the victims of heavymonsoon rains caused-disaster and destruction isruthlessly slow. This is why the victims are dying ofstarvation, contaminated water and diseases.

Regrettably, the proverbial chatter boxes, theparliamentarians, from the said areas also do notappear to be doing anything to alleviate the miseries

of their ill-fated voters in disaster. So far, more than260 people have been killed in this devastatingmonsoon rains triggered widespread heavy moonrains triggered flooding in Sindh.

In this dismal performance of concernedgovernmental organizations, it is proposed that thegovernment must apologize to the people massivelyaffected by its slow response to the torrential rainsand flooding.

Secondly, we must analyze what does repeatedlycause such tragedies and how all the services work,what should be done, what was not done, what westill need to do, both there and in other placeswhere such things could occur? We must learn fromour brotherly countries such as Iran and Turkey andothers which are prone to disasters. Above all, acriminal inquiry may be launched against thegovernment departments such as revenue,irrigation, public health engineering, and health andrelief departments in the disaster-hit districts fornot doing enough. Until and unless we takestringent action against the corruptors, suchtragedies which will keep on claiming thousands ofinnocent lives due to lethargy and lousiness of therelevant organizations, in the pre-disaster and post-disaster scenarios.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

our leaders?We have witnessed many a time that political

leaders, including prime minister and president, saythat they represent Pakistan’s population of 180million.

Surely, they, and others who make such claims,ignore the fact that many people didn’t vote at all inthe last election, and that many who did, did notvote for the PPP. So how can the PPP-ledgovernment claim to be the sole representative ofthe entire Pakistani population of 180 million?

Yes, the masses can and will support them — butonly if they don’t plunder our national resourcesand obey the law.

MAIMUNA RAZAKarachi

Plight of doctors inPrSP & PPHi

I, being a doctor, wish to let youknow the bitter realities being faced bythe doctors who are working in PRSP inPunjab and PPHI in rest of theprovinces. They have to work in condi-tions that are unbearable. Doctors arenot given due respect by staff of DSUsbecause most of the appointees in DSUsare locals of that area whereas the doctoris usually not a local. Moreover, the resi-dency of a doctor is an important factor.In almost all Basic Health Units (BHU),the doctor’s house is in worse conditions.It usually has not been renovated forvery long and is devoid of all facilities. Insuch gruesome conditions, a doctor hasto offer his services for the betterment ofthe people of the area. Moreover, the dis-penser, LHV, nutritionist, watchmen andeven peon do not pay heed to the doctor’sorders. Being locals, they think that theyhave to follow the orders of the bureau-cratic setup and not the doctor.

Following are some suggestions toameliorate the general conditions ofPRSP and PPHI:

1. Interview of a doctor must beconducted on the day when he visitsDSU for appointment by any doctor, notby DSM (District Support Manager).

2. If possible, DSM must be a doctorand not a bureaucrat.

3. Doctor should be given at least ahouse with functioning facilities, nomatter how old it is.

4. The Monitoring Executive shouldbe a doctor.

5. DSM should be instructed to behavewith doctors in an amicable manner.

6. There should be no involvementin the matters of BHU.

7. All the staff of BHU ought to beordered to treat doctor nicely as most ofthe doctors are not locals.

8. The salary of doctor must begiven on the first of every month.

Many doctors work in far flungareas and are providing a great service tothe people of the country. The least thatcan be done is that they be provided witha helpful administrative setup, amicablestaff, a reasonably well-maintainedresidency and the necessary resourcesneeded to do their job properly.

DR IRFAN ALMANILahore

a militant stereotype



12

LOS ANGELESafp

TERRORISM-THEMED spy thriller “Homeland”ended cult retro show “Mad Men”‘s four-year runas best drama at the annual Emmy awards lateSunday, while “Modern Family” retained the bestcomedy crown.

Also bringing current concerns and politics to the fore,“Game Change,” about Republican running mate SarahPalin’s implosion in the 2008 White House race, won bestmini-series or movie at US television’s annual awards show.

“Homeland,” about a CIA agent probing a US Marinewho went missing in Iraq and is suspected of planning a ter-rorist attack, is only in its first season but has earned rave re-views and nine Emmy nominations for pay channelShowtime. As well as the 64th Annual Primetime Emmys’ topprize for best drama, the show also won best drama writingand best drama actor and actress for Briton Damian Lewisand Claire Danes. “I’m one of those pesky Brits,” Lewis saidas he accepted his prize in Los Angeles, referring to the suc-cess of British shows such as period drama Downton Abbey— which won best supporting actress for veteran MaggieSmith this year. “I don’t really believe in judging art, but Ithought I’d show up just in case. Turned out all right,” he said— adding that his children thought he had been nominatedfor an “Emma.” “Well, daddy just won an Emma,” he joked.

“Mad Men,” about life and love in a 1960s New York ad-vertising agency, has won best drama every year since its2007 premier, and was hoping to break the Emmys recordwith a fifth win this year. But the show, which was nominatedin 17 categories, went home empty-handed at the end of thethree-hour ceremony at the Nokia Theatre in downtown LA.

The other big drama winner of the evening was HBO’s“Game Change,” which along with best TV movie also wonbest director and best writer of a miniseries or movie.

The movie strikes a particular chord at the moment, asthe United States is in the home straight before the November6 election between President Barack Obama and Republicanrival Mitt Romney. Actress Julianne Moore, who won bestTV movie actress for her role as John McCain’s disintegratingrunning mate four years ago, jokingly thanked the formerAlaska governor. “I feel so validated, because Sarah Palingave me a big thumbs down,” she said. On the lighter side,mockumentary-style “Modern Family” won its third straightBest Comedy series Emmy with a cast of gay, step-sibling andgenerally non-orthodox nuclear family characters.

It also collected prizes for best supporting actor for EricStonestreet and best supporting actress for Julie Bowen anda best-directing Emmy for series co-creator Steven Levitan.Best comedy actor was Jon Cryer in long-running hit series“Two And A Half Men,” while Julia Louis-Dreyfus won bestcomedy actress as US vice-president in “Veep,” by Britishwriter Armando Ianucci, only in its first season. EdgyBritish comic Ricky Gervais, known for his near-the-knuckle jokes as Golden Globes host, was relatively re-strained in his turn presenting a relatively minor award. “Somuch better than the Golden Globes,” he said, joking thatorganizers had chosen to give him the “big one” category ofdirecting on a variety special, won by Glenn Weiss forBroadway’s 65th annual Tony Awards. Daily Show comedynews frontman Jon Stewart, accepting the best variety showaward, was among the few to test the live broadcast 5-sec-ond delay for bad language, after pretend-fighting with ri-vals Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon. The award for bestcomedy supporting actress went to Julie Bowen also of“Modern Family,” while Louis C.K. won best comedy writerfor his series “Louis,” as well as best writer for his live show.Veteran actress Kathy Bates — who only this month re-vealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had adouble mastectomy — won best guest actress in a comedyseries for her appearance on “Two and a Half Men.”

Thriller ‘homeland’ oustsretro ‘Mad Men’ at emmys

List of 2012PrimetimeEmmy awardwinnersLoS AngELES: Here is a listof winners in the maincategories at the 64th AnnualPrimetime Emmys, UStelevision’s annual awardsshow held Sunday in LosAngeles.Best drama: “Homeland.”Best comedy: “Modern Family.”Best miniseries or movie:“Game Change.”Best drama actress: ClaireDanes, “Homeland.”Best drama actor DamianLewis, “Homeland.”Best drama supporting actress:Maggie Smith, “DowntonAbbey.”Best supporting actor: AaronPaul, “Breaking Bad.”Best drama director:Tim VanPatten, “Boardwalk Empire.”Best drama writer: Alex Gansa,Howard Gordon, Gideon Raff,

“Homeland.”Best comedy actress: JuliaLouis-Dreyfus, “Veep.”Best comedy actor: Jon Cryer,“Two And A Half Men.”Best comedy supportingactress: Julie Bowen, “ModernFamily.”Best comedy supporting actor:Eric Stonestreet, “ModernFamily.”Best comedy director: StevenLevitan, “Modern Family.”Best comedy series writer:Louis C.K.Best miniseries or movieactress: Julianne Moore,“Game Change.”Best miniseries or movie actor:Kevin Costner, “Hatfields &McCoys.”Best miniseries or moviesupporting actress: JessicaLange, “American HorrorStory.”Best miniseries or moviesupporting actor Tom Berenger,“Hatfields & McCoys.”Best miniseries or moviedirector: Jay Roach, “GameChange.”Best miniseries or movie writer:Danny Strong, “Game Change.”Best variety series: “The DailyShow With Jon Stewart.” afp

Pamela Anderson ‘won’t remarryex Tommy Lee when 50’

AGENCIES

Pamela Anderson, who had once agreed to remarryformer husband Tommy Lee if they are both singleat 50, has ruled out chances of reconciliation withthe rocker. The ‘Motley Crue’ star who will turn 50next month, had earlier made Anderson swear thatthey would be together if they found themselveswithout relationships in their 50s. However, the‘Baywatch’ beauty, who divorced Lee in 1998 and issingle now, asserted that she has no plan to marryher former husband despite being friends with him.“I don’t even remember making that pact. It was awild night,” Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

AGENCIES

Actor Imran Khan seems to be following in thefootsteps of his uncle Aamir Khan as he insistedon growing a moustache for his role in under-world drama “ Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai2”. Bollywood’s chocolate boy has turned into a“tapori” for the film, a sequel to 2010 hit “OnceUpon A Time In Mumbaai”. According tosources, the actor was given an option to use aduplicate to avoid hassles of growing a mous-tache, but Imran decided todo it himself to look closer tohis character. Directed byMilan Luthria and producedby Ekta Kapoor, “Once UponA Time in Mumbaai 2” alsostars Akshay Kumar, Sonali

Bendre and SonakshiSinha. The actor willalso be seen in VishalBhardwaj’s “ MatruKi Bijlee Ka Man-dola”, where he willplay a Haryanvi guy.It also starsAnushka Sharma,Pankaj Kapoorand ShabanaAzmi.

imran follows uncle aamir,

grows moustache for role

Eva Longoriagoes bareback forcoffee table book

AGENCIES

Actress Eva Longoria posed with herbare back, and covered only her legs,in a photo for a coffee table book titled“Asleep at the Chateau”.The “ Desperate Housewives” actresswent completely nude in the photoshoot, not facing the camera while shetook the sleeping pose. Covered partlyin a white bed sheet, Longoria showedoff her perfect rear complete with thetattoo on her back, reportsaceshowbiz.com.The photo was displayed at LosAngeles’ The Chateau Marmont. Otherstars involved as models in variousstates of undress and sleeping areUsher, Kirsty Hume, Orlando Bloom,Sally Singer and Justin Theroux.The book by beauty photographer JorkWeismann will be released in October,but is already available for pre-order.

LOS ANGELES: AlecBaldwin accompanied byhis wife Hilaria Baldwinputs his glasses in hismouth to greet EllenDeGeneres as they arrivefor the 64th annual PrimeTime Emmy Awards. AFP

LOS ANGELES:Actress JulianneMoore arrives forthe 64th annualPrime Time EmmyAwards. AFP

LOS ANGELES: Actor Damian Lewis andwife Helen McCrory arrive for the 64thannual Prime Time Emmy Awards. AFP



13

AGENCIES

CATHOLICShavethreatenedto stop thescreening

of a forthcomingHindi moviedirected byPriyadarshan, “Kamaal DhamaalMalamaal” if certain scenesmaking a “disrespectful portrayal” ofthe community and its priests are notdeleted, an official said. A delegationof representatives of Catholicgroups and a priest representing theArchdiocese of Bombay met andsubmitted a memorandum to CentralBoard of Film Certificationchairperson Leela Samson Saturday.Copies of the memorandumhighlighting the community’sgrievances have also been sent toInformation & Broadcasting MinisterAmbika Soni and censor board CEOPankaja Thakur, according to JudithMonteiro, secretary of Association ofConcerned Catholics (AOCC). “Wehave registered our protest againstthe movie. We have demanded aspecial screening of the movieurgently and deletion ofobjectionable scenes based on areview by the Catholic

communityrepresentatives,”Monteiro said.Catholic SecularForum chief JosephDias pointed out thatstereotyping ofChristians has

existed in films.“This time with the priest

shown in such bad light,Bollywood has hit a new low.We call for the resignation ofLeela Samson and transfer of(Pankaja) Thakur,” an angryDias said. Father Rueben Tellis,representative of the Archdioceseof Bombay, also referred to anearlier movie, “Kya Superkool Hai

Hum” which had offensive scenes ofa Catholic priest and reiterated thecommunity’s demand for apermanent representative on thecensor board to prevent suchrecurrences in the guise of“cinematic liberty”. The delegationincluded members of AoCC, CSF,Maharashtra Christian YouthForum, Catholic ResidentsOrganisation for Social Services(CROSS) and Father Tellis.Demanding a special screening by

Monday, Monteiro listed out someof the objectionable scenes whichhave hurt the community’ssentiments.

‘KAMAAL DHAMAAL MALAMAAL’makes Catholics angry

AGENCIES

Robert Pattinson is desperate to make thingswork with Kristen Stewart and has decided totake her back only if she agrees to marry him.Pattinson who was left devastated after Stew-art cheated on him with director RupertSanders took the decision because hewants her to be truly committedto him. “Rob told Kristen theonly way he can forgive heraffair is if she truly commits tohim. Rob has been keen tomarry Kristen for quite a whileand he doesn’t want to get backwith her unless he knows shemeans it for life too,” Contactmusicquoted a source as saying. “AlthoughKristen broke Rob’s heart he has realisedhe can’t live without her. He never stoppedloving her and he believes she still loves him.“He is desperate to make it work and wants to

give her another chance but not unless sheproves she really wants it too,” the sourceadded. It is also said that the 26-year-old hadplans to pop up the question about marriageto Stewart just before the cheating scandalcame out in public. Meanwhile the 22-year-old, who didn’t want to rush into marriage

earlier, now is ready to do anything thatcan get her love back. “They have both

talked openly about marriage be-fore and she’s been telling him

for years

that she doesn’t want to rush into anything,”an insider added to the Daily Star Sundaynewspaper. “But Kristen will do anything toget back with Rob now and one of theconditions is to discussgetting married andthe future. Rob isvery romanticand tradi-tional,” theins idersaid.

RobeRt Pattinsonkeen to marry Kristen stewart

AGENCIES

Tom Hanks is related to one of Amer-ica’s most famous presidents, AbrahamLincoln, it has been revealed.

The Oscar-winning actor is the thirdcousin, four generations removed, of theassassinated leader through the presi-dent’s mother, Nancy Hanks.

Lincoln’s great-great-grand-fatherwas John Hanks, who was also Tom’sgreat-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.

Details of the genealogical link wererevealed by Hanks, 56, as it was an-nounced he will narrate a film calledKilling Lincoln. “It’s odd to say thekilling of Abraham Lincoln is an un-known story but it may as well be,” theDaily Express quoted him as saying.

“The depth of the intrigue, the

breadth of the conspiracy andthe bare-naked exposure ofhuman nature is so timeless,it’s a wonder how that seminaltragedy in our history couldever be explained in a few sen-tences: ‘Ford’s Theater...JohnWilkes Booth, etc’.”

Hanks has known since he wasa child that he was related to Lin-coln. He does not boast about his lin-eage but did once say: “I’m related toAbraham Lincoln and the members ofmy branch of the family are eithercousins or in-laws or poor re-lations.

“So when I was atschool, guess whichpresident I was al-ways doing essayson,” he added.

Tom Hanks related toPresident Abraham Lincoln

Societies hesitant to rent out aplace to adult star SunnyHeard Sunny Leone, who has definite plans to pursue a career as anactor in Bollywood, has yet to find her dream home in Mumbai. Sourcesay that Sunny and her husband DanielWeber (who also helps her in writingand creating their own brand ofadult movies) are seriouslyhunting for an apartment in thesuburbs. Daniel has alsoreceived a few offers fromBollywood and now, thecouple is ready to cough up ahefty amount for a rentedapartment in maximum city.However, they have beenunsuccessful in finding a place.Said the source, “Sunny wantsto move out of the hotel whereshe is staying. The adult-filmstar couple who is currentlyquite hot in Bollywood has gota couple of top estate agentstrying to help them find a place.And though the hunt has beengoing on for weeks, Sunny stillhasn’t found an apartmentbecause many suburban housingsocieties are reportedly hesitantto rent out a place to an adult-film actor.” agencies

Holmes reconnects withex-boyfriend Joshua JacksonActress Katie Holmes has rekindled her friendship with ex-boyfriend Joshua Jackson aftersplitting from Tom Cruise. Jackson, who is in a long-term relationship with German actressDiane Kruger, says he is thrilled to have reconnected with Holmes after she called himfollowing her recent divorce from Cruise. “Like any old friend, it was like, ‘Oh, hi how are ya?What’s going on?’ ‘I had a kid’; ‘Yeah, that’s crazy, I heard!’ ... It was nice, it was very nice,actually,” contactmusic.com quoted Jackson, who is happily dating Diane since 2006, assaying. Holmes and Jackson dated during the first season of the popular 1998 television series“Dawson’s Creek”. Jackson, 34, recently revealed that although it’s unlikely, he might be willingto reunite with Holmes on screen for a “Dawson’s Creek” reunion. agencies

LOS ANGELES: Actor Tom Hanks and actress Rita Wilsonarrive for the 64th annual Prime Time Emmy Awards. AFP

LOS ANGELES: Racing driverDario Franchitti and wifeactress Ashley Judd arrivefor the 64th annual PrimeTime Emmy Awards. AFP

LOS ANGELES:Actress Sofía Vergaraarrives for the 64thannual Prime TimeEmmy Awards. AFP


14Infotainment


Why is emma so dangerous?

WHO would have thought adorable littleHermione would become the “mostdangerous” celebrity to search for

online? The 22-year-old British actress, who starsin the upcoming film, “The Perks of Being aWallflower,” is not a great person to try to look upon the Internet, according to security companyMcAfee, which claims lots of different sites usephotos and information on the celebrity to leadusers to download harmful software or providepersonal information. One in eight people arrive ata malicious site when searching for the young lady,so the next time you want to know her birth date orwhat other projects she has in the pipe, be cautiousof the Watson-related links you click. IMDB is probablyyour best bet, if I do say so myself. couRTesy The sun

The 49-year-old man, who was trans-ferred to a London hospital by airambulance from Qatar, is the secondperson confirmed with the coronavirus. The first case was a patient inSaudi Arabia who has since died.

Officials are still determiningwhat threat the new virus may pose.

The World Health Organizationhas not recommended any travel re-strictions. Prof John Watson, head ofthe respiratory diseases departmentat the UK's Health ProtectionAgency, said: "In the light of theseverity of the illness that has beenidentified in the two confirmed cases,immediate steps have been taken toensure that people who have been incontact with the UK case have notbeen infected, and there is no evi-dence to suggest that they have.

"Further information aboutthese cases is being developed forhealthcare workers in the UK, aswell as advice to help maintain in-creased vigilance for this virus." Hesaid there was no specific evidenceof the virus spreading from person to

person and he had no advice for thepublic or returning travellers. PeterOpenshaw, director of the Centre forRespiratory Infection at ImperialCollege London, told Reuters that at

this stage the novel virus looked un-likely to prove a concern, and maywell only have been identified due tosophisticated testing techniques.

Corona viruses are a large family

of viruses which includes ones thatcause the common cold and Sars (se-vere acute respiratory syndrome).

This new virus is different fromany corona viruses that have previ-ously been identified in humans.

There have been a small numberof other cases of serious respiratoryillness in the Middle East in the pastthree months, one of whom wastreated in the UK but has since died.

This person's illness is also beinginvestigated, although there is no ev-idence as yet to suggest that it iscaused by the same virus or linked tothe current case. No other confirmedcases have been identified to date inthe UK. Sars is a serious respiratoryinfection that caused a global out-break in 2002, spreading from HongKong to more than 30 different coun-tries around the world and killingaround 800 people. Although it hasnot been eradicated its spread wasfully contained in 2003. Like othercorona viruses, it is spread throughdroplets of body fluids - producedby sneezing and coughing. bbc news

1, 2 & 3. The most expensive burgersWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Serendipity

3, New YorkprIcE: $295WHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: Le

Burger Extravagant is made with white truffle but-ter-infused Japanese Wagyu beef, topped withJames Montgomery cheddar cheese, black trufflesand a fried quail egg. It’s served on a gold-dustedroll spread with white truffle butter and toppedwith a blini, crème fraiche and caviar. If thatweren’t enough to excuse the price, it also comeswith a solid-gold, diamond-encrusted toothpick.

tHErE’S coMpEtItIon tHoUgH:While they may not be recognized by Guinness, NewYork food truck 666 Burger offers the $666 DoucheBurger that features a Kobe beef patty stuffed withfoie gras and gold-leaf, covered in caviar, lobster,truffles, Gruyere cheese melted with champagnesteam and BBQ sauce made with Kopi Luwak coffee.While the burger was a satire of La Burger Extrava-gant, it is actually available for sale, but as of yet, onlyone person has actually ordered it. There’s also theFleurBurger 5000, from Vegas restaurant Fleur thatfeatures a Wagyu beef and foie gras patty with trufflesauce and shaved black truffles. Your order for this$5,000 burger also includes a bottle of $2,500 wine,Chateau Petrus, so really, you’re not just paying forthe burger — but still, the $2,500 burger might bethe world’s most expensive, even if it’s not official yet.

4. The most expensive dessertWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Serendipity 3

(Yes, the same place as the most expensive burger)prIcE: $25,000WHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: The

Frozen Haute Chocolate ice cream sundae con-tains a blend of 28 cocoas, including 14 of themost expensive in the world. It is decorated withedible gold and served in a goblet lined with ediblegold. As if all that weren’t enough, there is an 18karat gold bracelet with 1 carat of diamonds in thebottom of the sundae, and the treat is served witha golden spoon decorated in white and chocolatediamonds, both of which go home with the diner.

5. The most expensive curryWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Bombay

Brasserie, LondonprIcE: $3,200

WHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: TheSamundari Khazana (meaning “seafood treasure”)contains Devon crab, white truffle, Beluga caviar,gold leaf, a Scottish lobster coated in gold, fourabalones and four quail eggs.

6. The most expensive pieWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: The Fence

Gate Inn, LancashireprIcE: $14,260, or $1,781 per sliceWHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: This

meat pie contains $870 worth of Wagyu beef fillet,Chinese matsutake mushrooms (that cost around$400 a pound), winter black truffles, and Frenchbluefoot mushrooms (they go for around $160 apound). Two bottles of vintage 1982 Chateau MoutonRothschild wine are used in the gravy (another $1,740per bottle) and the crust is covered in edible gold leaf.

7. The most expensive frittataWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Norma’s,

New YorkprIcE: $1,000WHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: The

Zillion Dollar Lobster Frittata contains 10 ouncesof sevruga caviar, one pound of lobster, six eggs,cream and chives. While that might not sound thatimpressive, consider the fact that the restauranthas to pay $65 per ounce for that particular caviar.

8. The most expensive bagelWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Westin

Hotel, New YorkprIcE: $1,000WHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: Exec-

utive Chef Frank Tujague topped the most expen-sive bagel with white truffle cream cheese and gojiberry-infused Riesling jelly and gold leaf. At leasta portion of the proceeds are donated to the LesAmis d’Escoffier Scholarship, which benefits cur-rent and future culinary students.

9. The most expensive pizzaWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Margo’s

Pizzeria, MaltaprIcE: $2,400WHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: Up

to 100 grams of white truffles and gold leaf. Or-ders must be placed one week in advance and, onthe bright side, the chain gives all the money

from this particular pie away to charity.

11. The most expensive hot dogWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Capitol

Dawg, SacramentoprIcE: $145.49WHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: The

California Capitol City Dawg is a ¾ pound, 18” all-beef frank with French mustard, garlic and herbmayo, sautéed shallots, mixed baby greens, apple-wood smoked uncured bacon, Swedish moose cheese(which costs $200 a pound), tomato, dried cranber-ries, pepper and a basil olive oil/cranberry-pear-co-conut balsamic vinaigrette. It is then served in anherb focaccia roll toasted in white truffle butter.

12. The most expensive ramenWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Fujimaki

Gekijyo, TokyoprIcE: $110 per bowlWHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: This isn’t

the ramen you snacked on during your college days.Owner/chef Shoichi Fujimaki opens the doors to hismenu-less, reservation-only restaurant to those whohave already dined at one of his other restaurants. Onceyou get access to the restaurant, you will be served theFive-Taste Blend Imperial Noodles made with overtwenty ingredients and two different soup stocks.

13. The most expensive soupWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Kai Mayfair,

LondonprIcE: $190 per bowlWHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: The

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall contains shark’s fin,abalone, Japanese flower mushroom, sea cucum-ber, dried scallops, chicken, huan ham, pork andginseng. Orders must be placed five days in ad-vance so the chef can source all the ingredients.

14. The most expensive sushiWHErE yoU cAn fInD It: Request it

From Filipino Chef Angelito Araneta Jr.prIcE: $1,978.15 for five piecesWHAt MAkES It So ExpEnSIvE: Well,

each piece of sushi is wrapped in gold leaf andtopped with caviar, three Mikimoto pearls andserved with a diamond. No word on what fish wasactually used on the inside of the sushi rolls, butI’m kind of hoping its imitation crab. news desK

New 'Sars-like' corona virus identified by UK officials

Birmingham to kashmir by busPlans have been announced to launch a busservice between Birmingham and Mirpur inPakistan, known as "Little Birmingham".

IT promises to be Britain’s longest bus route –all the way from Birmingham to Kashmiralmost 4,000 miles away. Plans have been

drawn up for a bus service between the WestMidlands and Mirpur, nicknamed “LittleBirmingham” because of close historical and familyties between the two cities. The Mirpur region’stransport chief Tahir Khokher says the route willspan seven countries including Iran and Pakistan –and include stopovers in Quetta, near the Afghanborder, and the Iranian capital Tehran. Tickets forthe 12-day trip are expected to cost £130, a saving ofaround £450 on the average air fare. Birminghamis home to the world’s largest population ofKashmiri expatriates, many having emigrated fromMirpur in the 1960s after being displaced by thebuilding of a dam. couRTesy The TelegRaph

14 of the world’s most expensive foods

World’s oldest papergirl waycooler than you’ll ever be

EVER feel too sleepy to wake up and go towork? Quit your whining. 81-year-oldgreat-grandmother Joyce Pugh, who has

maintained her paper route for 41 years, is the world’soldest paper delivery girl and has never taken a sickday off. The British woman drops off copies of theShropshire Star every day to residents of White Grit,England. She has just been named by the GuinnessBook of World Records as the oldest papergirlaround, and the widow has ridden more than 10,000miles during her time on the job. The grandmother ofeight and great-grandma of four started picking uppaper delivery shifts in 1971. Her responsibilities takeunder an hour to complete: “I do it every afternoonwhen the papers come out. It takes me about 3-quartersof an hour. I’ll keep going as long as I can. It all dependshow bad the winters get.” couRTesy The MiRRoR

A new respiratory illness similar to the Sars virus thatspread globally in 2003 and killed hundreds of people hasbeen identified in a man who is being treated in Britain.


Tuesday, 25 september, 2012

Page 17

bartoli into Pan Pacificopen second round

PALLEKELEagencies

tITLE aspirants Pakistanwould look to ensure aSuper Eight berth by top-ping their pool when theytake on minnows

Bangladesh in their final Group D clashof the ICC World Twenty20 cricket tour-nament on Tuesday.

Pakistan and Bangladesh haveclashed five times since the inception ofthe format and the former has alwaysemerged victorious in the slam-bang bat-tles.

Pakistan, the 2009 World T20 cham-pions, are among the favourites to clincha second title and led inspiringly byopener Mohammad Hafeez, the teamlooked every bit a genuine contender inits 14-run triumph over New Zealand inthe opening group clash on Sunday.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, wereblown away by the Kiwis in their lung-opener and it would be tough for them toregroup easily against another tough op-ponent.

It was a rare clinical performance bythe infamously temperamental Pakistanwith the entire top half of batting makingdecent contributions.

The bowlers were also disciplinedwith their miserly spells, stifling the Kiwi

line-up -- Saeed Ajmal being the star witha four-wicket haul.

Led by Hafeez, all the top order bats-men, be it Nasir Jamshed or Imran Nazir,made good contributions. Umar Akmaltoo was in his element during his cameobut all-rounder Shoaib Malik remains aworry.

Sending him ahead of the aggressiveShahid Afridi against New Zealand didn'twork as Pakistan's scoring rate sufferedand it would be interesting to see how theline-up shapes up on Tuesday.

The bowling attack looks just perfectfor the conditions with Ajmal, againstwhom most of international batsmenhave so far struggled to get going, beingPakistan's trump card.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, areout of Super Eight contention but wouldtry to ensure that they go out with headsheld high after a disappointing loss toNew Zealand. Most of their batsmen, in-cluding the reliable ones like TamimIqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, failed to firein the opening game. The bowlers werealso taken to the cleaners by the sameKiwis who just could not take off againstPakistan.

But if Bangladesh manage to producethe surprise act that has disturbed setequations in the past, it would turn out tobe an interesting battle between the twosub-continental rivals.

Pakistan aim to seal Super Eight berth

PALLEKELEafp

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim saidfeedback from former Pakistan spinnerSaqlain Mushtaq will help counter SaeedAjmal in their do-or-die clash against Pak-istan on Tuesday.

Bangladesh need a big win over the2009 champions in their final group Dmatch to advance to the Super Eights roundbut Ajmal's danger looms large after the off-spinner took 4-30 in Pakistan's 13-run winover New Zealand on Sunday. New Zealand,who have already qualified for Super Eights,beat Bangladesh by 59 runs in the openinggroup match. The top two teams from thegroup qualify for the Super Eights.

Saqlain regarded as the inventor of"doosra" -- off-spinner's stock deliverywhich turns the other way and is masteredby Ajmal -- is currently serving asBangladesh's bowling coach.

"Ajmal is a world class bowler but wehave taken help from Saqlain who is very ex-perienced but we have to execute our planson the field and it's a do-or-die match for usbut Pakistan is not unbeatable if we playwell," said Rahim.

Ajmal is the leading wicket taker inTwenty20 internationals with 64 and hiswicket taking ability poses a real challengefor Bangladesh, who have lost all their five

matches in this shortest format against Pak-istan. "Playing Pakistan is a big challengebecause their bowling is good but we wantto put up our best to qualify for the nextround," said Rahim, whose team onlyreached the second round in the inauguralWorld Twenty20 held in South Africa in2007.

Since then Bangladesh have lost nineconsecutive matches in World Twenty20editions. Pakistan captain MohammadHafeez said he feels blessed with a variedbowling attack, led by Ajmal.

"What else can you want when you havesuch a variety in your bowling attack," saidHafeez, who along with Ajmal and ShahidAfridi holds spin responsibilities, withrookie left-armer Raza Hasan in reserves.

"As a captain it is a blessing for me. Thisis something I am very pleased to have thatI have so many options in bowling andwhenever I throw the ball to any of mybowlers he is ready to bowl," said Hafeez.

Bangladesh seek Saqlain help to tackle Ajmal

S.PERVEz QAISER

After beating New Zealand in thefirst match by 13 runs, Pakistan willplay their second match in thefourth Twenty-20 World Cupagainst Bangladesh at Pallekele In-ternational Cricket Stadium onTuesday (September 25). This groupD match will start at 19.30 hours(IST).

It will be the sixth Twenty-20match between the two teams andthird in Twenty-20 World Cup. Pak-istan have a perfect record againstBangladesh in Twenty-20 cricket aswell as in Twenty-20 World Cup.They have won all five Twenty-20matches against Bangladesh.

Pakistan defeated Bangladeshby four wickets when two teams metfirst time in Twenty-20 World Cupat Cape Town on September20,2007. They recorded a 21-runvictory in the second match againstBangladesh at Gros Islet on May 1,2010.

Bangladesh, ranked ninth inTwenty-20 cricket, have won eight ,lost 17 in 25 Twenty-20 matchesplayed sofar. Pakistan have won 35,lost 22 and tied two in 59 matchesplayed sofar. They are ranked fifthin lastest ICC rankings.HIgHESt InnIngS totALS:Bangladesh scoerd 161 for seven in20 overs at Nairobi on September2,2007 which is their highest totalagainst Pakistan in Twenty-20

cricket. Pakistan's highest againstBangladesh is 203 for five in 20overs at Karachi on April 20,2008.LoWESt InnIngS totALS:Bangladesh scored 85 for nine in 20overs at Dhaka on November29,2011 which is their lowest evertotal against Pakistan. In the samematch, Pakistan scored 135 forseven in 20 overs which is their low-est against Bangladesh.HIgHESt InDIvIDUALScorES: Misbah-ul-Haq whomade an unbeaten 87 off 53 ballswith three fours and five sixes atKarachi on April 20,2008 holds therecord of highest individual score oneither side. The record of highest in-dividual score for Bangladesh isheld by Nazimuddin who made 81off 50 balls with eight fours and fivesixes at Nairobi on September 2,2007.BESt BoWLIng In An In-nIngS: Mansoor Amjad's three forthree at Karachi on April 20,2008.is the best bowling performance forPakistan against Bangladesh. Mo-hammed Ashraful's three for 42 atat Nairobi on September 2,2007 isthe best bowling for Bangladeshagainst Pakistan.

peRfoRMance in TwenTy-20 cRicKeT:

Type P w l T S u c -

cess%

Pakistan 59 35 22 2 61.01

bangladesh 25 8 17 - 32.00

Pak v bang 5 5 - - 100.00

Pakistan have a perfectrecord against Bangladesh

world T20 getsnew water to stopstomach bugcoLoMBo: World Twenty20 organis-ers have changed the bottled water sup-plier and called in food inspectors tocheck the spread of suspected gastrovirus at the tournament, officials said onMonday.Several players from New Zealand, Ire-land, South Africa and Australia have re-portedly been treated for stomach bugssince their arrival in Sri Lanka, with KiwiTim Southee even requiring hospitaltreatment for dehydration.An International Cricket Council (ICC)spokesman said the brand of bottledwater used by players and officials so farin the tournament had been replaced."Although there is no evidence to suggestthat water was the cause of any illness,the product supplied for use in the tour-nament has been replaced," thespokesman told AFP.A Sri Lankan source connected with thetournament said public health inspectorshad checked the food given to the playersand found nothing untoward."If an entire team, or at least a majority,go down, we can understand that there issomething wrong with the food and bev-erages department," the source told AFP."Just a few players have been affected."No official complaints had been lodgedby any of the teams, he added.Among players who went down with gas-tro trouble over the past two weeks in-cluded New Zealand's Daniel Vettori,Mitchell Starc and Brad Hogg of Aus-tralia, and Paul Stirling and GeorgeDockrell of Ireland. afp

COLOMBOafp

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni headsinto the Super Eights stage of the WorldTwenty20 this week delighted to have the en-viable problem of which player to leave out.

A revamped India condemned England totheir heaviest T20 defeat -- by 90 runs -- inColombo on Sunday after bowling the defend-ing champions out for their lowest T20 totalof 80. India rested three regulars -- seamerZaheer Khan, spinner Ravichandran Ashwinand opener Virender Sehwag -- for the groupA match because both teams had already qual-ified for the Super Eights.

Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singhmarked his return to the Indian team after ayear with 4-12, including a wicket maiden inhis first over, and leg-spinner Piyush Chawlatook 2-13.

With Ashwin, Harbhajan and Chawlafighting for the spinners' spots in theSuper Eights and a settled battingorder to choose from, Dhoni said histeam was well prepared for the nextbattle. "We do have a problem ofplenty," Dhoni said. "But I can as-sure you, a problem of plenty isbetter than not having that oneextra guy. "But bigger teams awaitus and we need to be consistent. Inevery match, we have to be at ourbest. Hopefully, we will dothat in the next threematches." Indiaface Australia,South Africaand either

Pakistan or Bangladesh in what is beingtouted as the "group of death", from which thetop two will advance to the semi-finals.

India, who recorded successive winsagainst Afghanistan and England in the firstround, will remain in Colombo for the nextstage and play in the familiar surroundings ofthe Premadasa Stadium.

Dhoni praised the 32-year-old Harbhajan,who was recalled for the World Twenty20after being sidelined due to injury and poorform since August last year.

"Harbhajan bowled well," Dhoni said afterthe off-spinner recorded the best T20 figuresby an Indian bowler and was named the manof the match.

"He did not bowl short. He invited thebatsmen to drive by pitching the ball up. Hemade good use of variations, plus his mindsetwas very aggressive.

"He was very focused and he reallywanted to do well. It's a very big positive for

us because if we are playing one bats-man short, he is someone who canslog down the order. He is a verygood option for us."

The Indian skipper refusedto speculate which spinners hewill pick in future.

"Frankly, I don't know whowill play," Dhoni said. "But I am

quite happy with the problem ofplenty. The selection will depend

on the wicket. If it's afresh and hard-

rolled wicket,spinners may

not be thateffective.

india's Dhoni happy with'problem of plenty'


PuNjAB YOuTH FESTivAl 2012

Sports 16


LAHOREsTaff RepoRT

The Tehsil level of the Punjab Youth Fes-tival, which is the third level of the three-month long activity has got uniformity inits competitions and on Monday around60, 000 entered into different eventsthroughout the province and 16662 wontheir games.

In Lahore, the number of participantsdoubled in just two day and reachednearly 3000 and the winners were 1216.All the nine Towns of Lahore showedgreat enthusiasm in different events of theTehsil level as in the Samanabad town’sbadminton, union council 92 beat unioncouncil 104, 2-0. Umer Mushtaq of unioncouncil 106 beat Shakeel of union council89, 2-0. Union council 93’s Umer Rafiqdefeated Bilal Rasheed of union council90, 2-0. Union council 93’s Qasim Abbasbeat union council 106’s Imtiaz 2-0. Indoubles, union council 106’s Zaheer andImtiaz beat union council 92’s Usman andZuber by 2-0. In Tug of War, union coun-cil 88 defeated union council 89.

In Samanabad, Union council 91’sAbdul Wakeel beat union council 102’sZikraya 15-12 in badminton event. Indoubles, union council 91’s Sarfraz Aliand Zikriya defeated union council 102’sBasharat and Abdul Wakeel. In TableTennis events, Ehsan bin Kosar of unioncouncil 24 won the competition .Thescore was 21-7, 21-9. In Badminton,union council 24 beat union council 22,2-0. In Football, union council 18 de-feated union council 23, 4-2.In ArmWrestling, union council 23 beat union

council 24, 2-0. In athletics, Iftikhar ofunion council 23 bagged first position in200 M race. In Billiard, union council23’s Abdullah beat union council 24’sH.M Shahzad 2-0.

In Data Ganj Bax town, Badminton,union council 85’s Shakeel beat unioncouncil 86’s Haider 2-0.In doubles, unioncouncil 86’s Umair and Haider beatunion council 85’s Farhan and Ijaz.InAziz Bhatti Town, Badminton matcheswere held. Ahmed Zafar of union council67 beat Mian Shakeel of union council 2,2-0.In the Doubles, Ahmed and Intikhabdefeated Shakeel and Iftikhar 2-0.In theCricket Tapeball matches, union council44 thrashed union council 57 by 4 runs.Union council 48’s Khokhar XI destruc-ted union council 45’s Ishrat XI by 15runs.Lahore Badshah XI of union council54 vanquished union council 55’s ChanXI by 20 runs.Ghaziabad XI of union

council 56 beat Faysal XI of union council69 by 15 runs.In the Table Tennis compe-titions, union council 43’s Adeel XI wasunsuccessful against union council 44’sSalman Baig XI.

In Gulberg, Cricket Tapeball matches,union council 97 beat union council 99 by10 wickets. Union council 96 defeatedunion council 128 by 5 wickets. Unioncouncil 32 beat union council 130 by 10wickets. Union council 126 thrashedunion council 31 by 1 wicket. In Basket-ball, union council 97 beat union council130 by 14 points.Union council 129 de-feated union council 127 by 2 points. InFootball, union council 96 beat unioncouncil 128 by 2-1. In Chess, union coun-cil 32’s Mudassir Akram won over unioncouncil 129’s Farukh Pervez. In theTOwn, healthy baby competition washeld in which Fatima Khan took the firstposition, Zulqarnain was second and Mo-

hammad Moiz got the third position. In Iqbal Town, union council 110’s

Aziz was declared winner in 70 KG cate-gory.In 72-85 KG, Usman of union council110 bagged first place. In 70-85 KG, unioncouncil 117’s Abdul Waheed won the com-petition. In 85 KG, union council 118’sNabeel won while in 70 KG, union council119’s Shehriar won the competitions.

In the other districts of Punjab, activ-ities gathered pace with participation ofpeople of all walks of life are seem in allthe 10 sectors of the Tehsil level.

In Rawalpindi division, 3089 peopletook part in events including billiard, vol-leyball, tug of war, badminton, crickettape ball and hard ball, football and bad-minton. Besides, competitions of paint-ing, speech (English and Urdu), NaatKhani, Qirat, Dog Race, healthy Baby,family dressing and pigeon flying werealso held. In this division, the district of

Attock was the most active where 1919youngsters and students took part in theevents and 1127 won their matches. AtChakwal 404 took part in 13 sports eventsand 129 won their matches while atJehlum, 766 displayed their skills in fourteam events and also there were compe-titions of naat khani and qirat and 364were the winners. At Bhakkar, 533 puttheir talent to display but most talentedturned out to be 136.

In Gujranwala, it was the divisionwhere most of the events were contestedand active activity was witnessed. In thisdivision a total of 7774 took part inaround 50 events of both sports and gen-eral category. At Sahiwal 1120 took partand 375 were the winners, Multan had4388’s participation while 1452 were thewinners here and at Dera Ghazi Khan 35won their events when 551 got involved inthe activities of the festival.

FESTIVAL ACTIVITY GAINING UNIFORMITY

back in nets forbamboozledengland

COLOMBOafp

A chastened England will resume theirfaltering defence of the World Twenty20later this week desperate to find a way totackle spin after crashing to their biggestloss in T20 cricket.India's spinners sent Stuart Broad's menpacking for just 80 in Sunday's group Amatch in Colombo, a defeat of 90 runs. Itwas England's lowest total in the shortestformat and their heaviest defeat.Luckily for England, the capitulationcame in a match of no consequence interms of the tournament since bothteams had qualified for the Super Eightsstage after knocking minnowsAfghanistan out.But the holders' failure to deal with spinwill be of great concern to Broad, who at-tempted to play down the embarrassingloss."Any international defeat is really frus-trating, especially when you put in a per-formance like that," Broad said."But it does not change our destiny ahuge amount. Knowing that it does notchange anything really -- apart from ushaving to maybe face a few more spin-ners in the nets -- is nice."Broad also brushed aside suggestionsthat the team missed their best player ofspin bowling -- axed batsman KevinPietersen, who is in Colombo but only asa studio expert for the host broadcaster."We've got these 15 guys here, and we'veknown that all along," the England cap-tain said. "We did not perform well withthe bat, but we did in the last three orfour games."It's important we focus on what we didwell in those games and learn from whatwe did wrong against India."England will travel to Pallekele for theSuper Eights round starting on Thurs-day, where they are grouped with hostsSri Lanka, New Zealand and either Ire-land or the West Indies.The collapse against spin also does notbode well for England beyond Sri Lanka -- they begin a four-Test series in Indianext month.For India, veteran off-spinner HarbhajanSingh marked his return to the teamafter a year with 4-12 and leg-spinnerPiyush Chawla took 2-13.

COLOMBOafp

tHE West Indies qualifiedfor the Super Eights stageof the World Twenty20after their Group B matchagainst Ireland was aban-

doned due to rain on Monday.Ireland made 129-6 in their 19 overs

before heavy rain at the Premadasa sta-dium prevented the West Indies fromstarting their innings.

Both teams gained one point each,but the West Indies joined Group B win-ners Australia in the next round due toa superior net run-rate over the Irish.

The West Indies will be placedalongside defending champions Eng-land, New Zealand and hosts Sri Lankain group one of the Super Eights whichstarts on Thursday.

The other half has Australia, SouthAfrica, India and either Pakistan orBangladesh, with the top two teamsfrom each group advancing to the semi-finals.

The match, watched by barely 1,000fans, was reduced to 19 overs per sideafter an hour's interruption midwaythrough Ireland's innings due to rain.

Chris Gayle turned star performerwith the ball with two wickets as the Ire-land innings failed to gain any momen-tum after the West Indies won the tossand elected to field.

Niall O'Brien made 25 and Gary Wil-son scored 21, before both batsmen fellto Gayle's off-spin.

Irish captain William Porterfieldwas dismissed off the first ball of thematch for the second time in a row,bowled by Fidel Edwards.

He had also fallen to AustralianShane Watson's first delivery in Ire-land's previous match last week.

The West Indies, who had lost toAustralia in a rain-affected match, en-dured another wet outing as rain lashedthe ground during the innings break.

Earlier, Chris Gayle turned out to bethe star performer with the ball with twowickets as the West Indies kept Irelandin their loop.

The match, which sent the winnersinto the Super Eights round, was re-duced to 19 overs per side after an hour'sinterruption due to rain.

Niall O'Brien made 25 and Gary Wil-son scored 21, before both batsmen fellto Gayle's off-spin as Ireland lost wickets

at regular intervals.Irish captain William Porterfield

was dismissed off the first ball of thematch for the second time in a row,bowled by Fidel Edwards.

He had also fallen to AustralianShane Watson's first delivery in Ire-land's previous match last week.

Paul Stirling and Ed Joyce carriedthe total to 33-1 when two wickets fell inthe space of four runs.

Australia have already qualifiedfor the next round from the group,having beaten both Ireland and theWest Indies.

WEST INdIES movE UP in World Twenty20

iReland:

w. porterfield b edwards 0

p. stirling c gayle b sammy 19

e. Joyce b narine 17

n. o'brien b gayle 25

g. wilson c Ramdin b gayle 21

K. o'brien b Rampaul 13

T. Johnston not out 15

n. Jones not out 14

extras: (lb2, w2, nb1) 5

Total (for six wickets, 19 overs) 129

fall of wickets: 1-0 (porterfield), 2-33 (Joyce), 3-37 (stirling),

4-70 (wilson), 5-96 (n. o'brien), 6-107 (K. o'brien).

bowling: edwards 3-0-23-1, Rampaul 4-0-20-1, sammy 3-0-

23-1, narine 4-0-21-1 (nb1), Russell 2-0-19-0 (w1), gayle

3-0-21-2 (w1)

Match abandoned due to rain

Toss: west indies

umpires: Kumar dharmasena (sRi) and asad Rauf (paK)

TV umpire: simon Taufel (aus)

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (sRi)

scoReboaRd Colombo: west indies cricketer fidel edwards (C) celebrates with his captain darren Sammy (l) after he dismissed ireland cricket captain

william Porterfield during the iCC Twenty20 Cricket world Cup match between west indies and ireland at the r. Premadasa Stadium. AFP


Sports17


TOKYOafp

MARION Bartoli ofFrance defeatedlocal hope KimikoDate-Krumm 6-1, 6-4 to reach the sec-

ond round of the Pan Pacific Opentennis tournament in Japan on Mon-day.

The 27-year-old, seeded ninth,dominated the match from the startwith a series of powerful strokes, tak-ing a 5-0 lead in the first before beat-ing the veteran Japanese in straightsets.

Date-Krumm made a go of it in thesecond set, fighting back from 0-2down to make it 3-3, but a fifth doublefault in the seventh game and two fur-ther unforced errors later in the setgave victory to Bartoli.

"I knew she would be able to fightuntil the end. She's staying in herhome country, and she's very much afighter, said Bartoli, ranked 10th inthe world.

"I was able to catch up with herrhythm and take the game away fromher. Even if I won the second set, itwas extremely tough," added theFrench star.

Tenth seed and 2010 winner Caro-line Wozniacki of Denmark, who en-joyed her first title of the season at theKorea Open on Sunday, joined Bartoliin the next round by beating BojanaJovanovski of Serbia 6-0, 3-6, 6-4.

Eleventh seed Ana Ivanovic of Ser-bia reached the second round whenAndrea Hlavackova of the Czech Re-public was forced to retire and con-cede the match at 6-3, 2-0 in thesecond set.

In other action, Nadia Petrova ofRussia outclassed China's Peng Shuai6-1, 6-4, while 2010 French Openchampion Francesca Schiavone of

Italy edged past Yaroslava Shvedova ofKazakhstan 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.

American Jamie Hampton, PaulineParmentier of France, Sweden's Jo-hanna Larsson, Simona Halep of Ro-mania, Poland's Urszula Radwanska,Tamira Paszek of Austria and Anasta-sia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia also ad-vanced.

World number one VictoriaAzarenka of Belarus and RussianMaria Sharapova were among the topseeds to receive byes into the secondround.

Bartoli into Pan Pacific Open second round

roma awarded win after Cagliarigame postponedroME: Roma were on Mondayawarded a 3-0 victory over Cagliari bythe Italian football authorities after theirmatch at the Sardinian club on Sundaywas controversially postponed hours be-fore kick-off. The match was set to beplayed in an empty stadium becauseCagliari's Is Arena stadium is undergo-ing renovation work.However, club president MassimoCellino invited supporters to attend thematch regardless, forcing the local au-thorities in Cagliari to call a halt to theleague fixture over security fears. Roma'sgeneral manager Franco Baldini hit outat the alleged manipulation of the situa-tion by Cagliari and indicated that theclub would be appealing to be awardedthe match under article 17 of the ItalianFootball Federation's charter. Judge Gi-anpaolo Tosel found in favour of Romaand awarded the club a 3-0 victory. afp

PTCl brings livecommentary onT20 matches ISLAMABAD: Country’s leading Infor-mation Communications Technologyprovider, Pakistan TelecommunicationCompany Limited (PTCL) brings livecricket commentary of T20 World Cup2012 for its customers, which is beingplayed in Sri Lanka from September 18 toOctober 7.Executive Vice President (EVP)Wire-line, Aasif Inam said: “The service al-lows PTCL customers to listen to the excit-ing T20 cricket anywhere any time.Customers can access live commentary ontheir landline or Vfone by simply dialing1216. Each call will be charged at Re 1 perminute exclusive of tax.” He added. PTCL’srich Value Added Services (VAS) portfoliobrings something for everyone. The servicehas been specially designed in view of themassive power load shedding prevalent inthe country and the huge fan following ofcricket. sTaff RepoRT

PHf officials getindian visasLAHorE: The Pakistan Hockey Federa-tions two-member delegation has obtainedvisas to visit India early next month to fi-nalise the dates of Pak-India hockey seriesto be played on bilateral basis year inMarch next year. PHF President Qasim Ziaand Secretary Mohammad Asi Bajwa willbe leaving for India on October 5 to final-izes the dates and venues of the serieswhich was last played between the twocountries way back in 2007.“We are all set to leave to India to holdtalks with our Indian counterparts afterwhich we will be announcing the finalschedule of the series,” said Bajwa here onMonday. He said efforts would be made todraw a programme under which the Indianteam may visit Pakistan first after whichPak team would be flying to India.“It is a good sign that both the countrieswill resume playing bilateral hockey seriesafter a gap of four years and we firmly be-lieve this event will greatly serve the causeof hockey in sub-continent besides raisingits overall standards,” he asserted.Bajwa said it is imperative for Pak-Indiahockey that both the countries keep play-ing on regular basis to expose their playersto competitive hockey. sTaff RepoRT

fC College inter-Schoolbasketball begins LAHorE: Under the supervision of theSports Association of Forman ChristianCollege, the 3rd FCC Inter-School Basket-ball Tournament 2012 was declared openon Monday by the former Chief Advance-ment Officer of the college Dr. Manzur Gill.On the opening day following matches wereplayed. The First match played between St.Anthony School VS Sacred Heart School,won by Sacred Heart by 12-42 scores. Thesecond match was played between St.Marry School VS LACAS School, won by St.Marry School by 17-43 scores. sTaff RepoRT

SinGaPore: ferrari driver felipe massa of brazil races his car with a

blown out rear tire during the formula one's Singapore Grand Prix. AFP


watch it LiveTEN SPORTSWORLD T20: PAKISTANV BANGLADESH03:00PM

Sports 18


Vettel eyes repeatof 2010 cliff-hanger

SINGAPOREafp

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel said thisyear's unpredictable Formula One titlerace could be shaping up to be a repeatof 2010, when he memorably sealed vic-tory on the last day of the season.The defending world champion leapt tosecond in the standings behind Fer-nando Alonso with victory in Sunday'sdramatic Singapore Grand Prix, whichwas only his second win of the season.Last year, Vettel cruised to his secondsuccessive title with 11 victories. But hesaid the "incredible" current season,with seven different winners in 14 races,may be headed for a cliff-hanger."I don't think Fernando would be toohappy if it happened again in the lastrace," said the 25-year-old. "But it's anincredible season for all of us."We have a lot of races left, the carseems to be competitive and we justhave to use the momentum and keeppushing for these last races and see whathappens." In 2010, Alonso led the seriesand Vettel lay third going into the finalrace in Abu Dhabi, with four drivers ca-pable of clinching it on the last day. Butthe German, then 23, drove peerlessly tobecome Formula One's youngest cham-pion. Vettel showed similar steel in Sun-day's race when he weathered a welter ofincidents on Singapore's tight street cir-cuit -- including a dramatic crash in-volving Michael Schumacher, and twosafety cars -- to clinch victory.He is now breathing down Alonso's neckwith 165 points, 29 points off the leader.Kimi Raikkonen is on 149 and LewisHamilton, the early leader in Singaporebefore he was forced to retire, has 142.Red Bull team principal ChristianHorner pointed out that Vettel "was 25points down with two races to go in2010, which indicates anything is possi-ble for all the drivers". "We need to keeptaking points off Fernando, which ide-ally means getting a few more cars be-tween us and him," Horner said.

ATLANTAafp

American Brandt Snedeker won the USPGA Tour Championship and claimed a$10 million bonus for capturing the tourseason playoff title after firing a two-underpar 68 in Sunday's final round.

Snedeker was among five players, in-cluding 14-time major winner Tiger Woodsand World No. 1 Rory McIlroy, who led inplayoff points and could have claimed theplayoff crown and bonus money simplywith a victory in the 30-man showdown.

"I had complete confidence in what Iwas doing out there," Snedeker said. "Iputted great all week and made big puttswhen I needed to."

In addition to the richest prize in golf,Snedeker won the $1.44 million top prizefor winning the Tour Championship, thefinal event of the season for most of thetour's top stars. The total payoff was morethan Snedeker had earned in his career be-fore this year. "He played fantastic," McIl-roy said. "He kept the lead and played wellout there." Snedeker finished 72 holes on10-under par 270 to defeat Britain's JustinRose by three strokes with Britain's LukeDonald and American Ryan Moore sharingthird on 274 and American Webb Simpsonfifth on 275.

"He's mentally tough, Brandt," Rose

said. "It's kind of a different pressure, play-ing for $10 million. It gets in your headmore than other golf tournaments.

"Other golf tournaments, it's more rou-tine. But this week, it's not routine. We talkabout it all year long, and suddenly youhave to walk the walk. And he did a greatjob of that." World No. 2 Woods, the 2007and 2009 playoff champion who began theday four strokes back, fired a 72 to finish ina share of eighth on 278. He began with a

bogrey, found water at the sixth and wasnot a factor from there.

"I just didn't have it this weekend,"Woods said. Northern Ireland's McIlroy,who won two prior playoff series events,shot 74 to finish in a share of 10th on 279,ending a run of 11 rounds in a row in the60s. He found water at the sixth for a dou-ble bogey and had bogeys at the fourth andseventh to fade early. That left Snedekeratop the season playoff points race with

McIlroy, the points leader entering theweek, settling for second and Woods finish-ing third. "I've got to stay positive. It hasbeen a good year," said McIlroy, whosethree titles in his prior four starts includedhis second major crown at last month'sPGA Championship.

"The golf I have played has been great.I knew what I needed to do this week. Ineeded to win. Brandt needed to do thesame. He did what he needed to do."

An emotional Snedeker said as he ac-cepted the trophy that golf was not thebiggest thing on his mind this week.

Snedeker visited the hospitalized son ofhis swing coach before his round, taking aboost of encouragement from a friend whosuffered severe injuries in an automobilecrash. "He really uplifted me," Snedekersaid. "I asked him if he thought I was goingto beat Rory McIlroy and he gave me a littlewink. I give him a lot of credit."

Snedeker, who began the day sharingthe lead with Rose, birdied the par-4 thirdfrom eight feet and stayed ahead of theEnglishman even after a double bogey atthe par-3 sixth when Rose made bogeys atthe fifth and sixth. Snedeker, 31, birdied thepar-4 eighth but Rose, 32, answered with abirdie at the par-3 11th to keep the pressureon the American, who stretched his leadwith a birdie at the par-4 13th and afterboth men birdied the par-5 15th.

Snedeker wins Tour Championship for $11.4m payday

lewis captures

lPGa title, jumps to

second in rankings

PRATTVILLEafp

Stacy Lewis fired a three-under par 69 onSunday to win the $1.3 million NavistarLPGA Classic for her third title of the yearand a jump from third to second in theworld rankings. Lewis, whose only priorcareer title came at a major in last year'sLPGA Kraft Nabisco, finished on 18-under270 for 72 holes to beat defending cham-pion Lexi Thompson by two strokes. TheUS teen star fired a closing 66."You have to hit it good here and hit sometricky putts," Lewis said. "It's stressful thiscourse. Somebody can get on a good runand make a lot of birdies. And 16, 17 and 18are tough finishing holes."South Koreans Haeji Kang and M.J. Hureach fired 68 to share third with AmericanAngela Stanford on 273.Lewis also took the Shoprite LPGA Classicin June and the Mobile Bay LPGA Classicin April, where she also held off a finalround charge by 17-year-old Thompson fora one-stroke triumph. "She's a greatplayer," Thompson said of Lewis. "Veryconsistent. Amazing putter." Lewisstretched her lead in the LPGA Player ofthe Year race over World No. 1 Yani Tsengof Taiwan as the tour prepares for an Asianstretch ahead of November's season-end-ing Titleholders event in Naples, Florida."Same goals, go out there and try to winevery week," Lewis said. "Player of the Yearis the ultimate goal. This helps a lot."Lewis stumbled early with a bogey at thesecond hole, answered with a six-footbirdie at the par-5 fifth, then followed withback-to-back birdies at nine and 10, from18 and 10 feet respectively.

LAHOREsTaff RepoRT

National champion Asim Qureshi, putanother splendid performance by win-ning the Chroma Open league title hereon Monday beating Umer Zaka 3-0 atChroma TT hall. Asim maintained un-beaten run in the event on his way totitle exhibiting precision and skillslaced with brilliance and exhibition ofvariety of shots. Yasir Bhatti got secondposition whereas Faryal Minhas andMehboob Elahi got third and fourthpositions respectively.

results of the final matches, asim qureshi bt

umer Zaka 3-0, mehboob elahi bt Salman Virk 3-2,

asim qureshi bt yasir bhatti 3-0, asim qureshi bt

mehboob elahi 3-0, faryal minhas bt umer Zaka 3-0,

umer Zaka bt Salman Virk 3-0, yasir bhatti bt faryal

minhas 3-1, faryal minhas bt mehboob elahi 3-0, yasir

bhatti bt Salman Virk 3-1. ia former national champion,

irfanullah khan was the chief guest on the occasion

and and gave away the prizes to the winners also pres-

ent was organizing Secretary, abdul qayyum khan

.The winner received a cash award of rs10000, while

the runners up and third and fourth place holders got

rs 000 and rs 2000 respectively. Speaking on the oc-

casion he praised the efforts of Chroma Chemicals for

arranging the league on monthly basis and said this

league will unearth fresh table tennis talent.

MADRIDafp

rEAL Madrid's La Ligamatch at Rayo Valle-cano was postponed onSunday after the flood-lights failed amid reports

of electrical cables being sabotaged.Rayo's president Raul Martin Presa

indicated he had reason to believepower cables had been cut.

"Vandals have cut cables, we havetried to solve the problem as quickly aspossible but told the stewards not toopen the doors of the stadium. We willleave it to the police to find out who isresponsible," said Presa. The club con-firmed as much in a statement. "Thematch has been postponed for sabotagein the electrical system," the statementread.

There promptly followed a debateon when the match would eventuallytake place with Real wanting a late af-ternoon start on Monday but theirhosts preferring an evening start. "Thedate and kickoff time are to be con-firmed," said Rayo. Real Madrid's di-rector of football, Miguel Pardeza, said:"We would prefer to have the match at5pm as there is no guarantee that it willbe repaired by 8pm and we have an al-ready tight calendar. This is what ourcoach (Jose Mourinho) wants and al-though this isn't an ideal situation foranyone we prefer to play at 5pm."

But Rayo said they wanted an

evening start out of "respect" for theirfans -- many of whom would still be atwork in the event of an afternoon start.

Spanish television reported thematch was likely to be rescheduled for1800 GMT on Monday evening.

Fans were not allowed into the Es-tadio de Vallecas ground for securityreasons Sunday for a match which hadbeen due to start at 9.30pm local time(1930 GMT). Real were desperate for awin in the match having made a dismalstart to the season to languish eightpoints behind leaders Barcelona afterjust one win in four games.

Local politician Cristina Cifuentessaid an investigation will be opened todiscover the full reason why the flood-

lights failed at the Vallecano ground inthe south-eastern suburbs of Madrid.

"We cannot jump to conclusionsbut we need to find the culprits if in-deed this was a case of sabotage. Hope-fully, we can now find a solution to havethe match on Monday," she said.

The president of the Madrid foot-ball federation Vicente Temprado wasworried about the damage the incidentwill have on the image of the Spanishgame.

"This is very negative for footballin our country that a game which wasto be beamed around the world hasnot gone ahead -- whether it is due tosabotage and a lack of security ornot," he said.

Floodlight 'sabotage'postpones Real match

Asim clinches Chroma open Table Tennis title

madrid: real madrid's Portuguese forward Cristiano ronaldo (l) and Pepe warm up during

a training session before the Spanish league match at the Vallecas stadium. AFP



Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami

19

NEW YORKagencies

PRESIDENT Asif Ali Zardari andUS Secretary of State HilaryClinton on Monday discussed bi-lateral ties and Afghan peaceprocess in New York.

The two leaders took the opportunity to re-view recent positive developments in the re-lationship, including the opening of theGLOCs, high-level contacts between the twosides, the signing of MOU on the up-grada-tion of the Peshawar-Torkham Road and therelease of the CSF reimbursements.

“We should build on the positive mo-mentum,” the president informed Secre-tary Clinton. The president and Clintonhad an in-depth conversation on the wayforward. The two also discussed the situa-tion in Afghanistan and how Pakistan andthe US could cooperate in helping bringpeace and stability in that country.

The president assured Secretary Clin-ton that Pakistan was prepared to doeverything in its power to help an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliationprocess in Afghanistan.

He also conveyed that peace and sta-bility in Pakistan were tied to peace andstability in Afghanistan. “No country haspaid a higher price for the conflict inAfghanistan than Pakistan,” he said.

The president also took the opportu-nity to express the deep dismay of the peo-ple of Pakistan over the blasphemousvideo. “One or two insane persons shouldnot be allowed to endanger world peace inthe garb of freedom of expression,” he said.

The president thanked Secretary Clin-ton for US assistance to Pakistan andstressed the need that rather spreading toothin, the US should focus on large signa-ture projects. On cooperation in trade andeconomy, the president appreciated the re-cent announcement of multi-year Pakistan

Private Initiative based on public privatepartnership with up to $80 million of USfunding, saying such steps would encourageentrepreneurship for promising Pakistanicompanies. He expressed the hope thatsubstantial progress would be witnessed inthe coming days in the bilateral investmenttreaty between the two countries.

The president also called for greatermarket access for Pakistani products in theUS markets.

He said Pakistan looked forward toproductive deliberations at the PakistanInvestment Conference next month inLondon for attracting investment in thecountry. He also welcomed creation of US-Pakistan Women Business Council.

The secretary of state reiterated the de-sire of the US government to continue work-ing with the government and people ofPakistan for further strengthening the bilat-eral relations and for the peace, stability andsocio-economic development of the region.

Zardari‚ Clinton discuss Afghan peaceg President says both countries should build on positive momentum

UNITED NATIONSafp

Fears that the Syrian civil war and theIranian nuclear stand-off could provokewider international conflict dominated thedebate on Monday as world leaders gatheredfor the UN General Assembly.The annual summit of the nations of theworld was to begin on Tuesday, but thepreliminary exchanges in New York quicklyunderlined the stark dangers facing theworld community as several conflicts cometo a head. Iran’s President MahmoudAhmadinejad struck a defiant note, accusingWestern powers of abusing international lawand dismissing the threat of a pre-emptiveIsraeli strike against Tehran’s allegednuclear weapons program.

And UN and Arab League peace envoyLakhdar Brahimi told the UN SecurityCouncil that Syria is sinking deeper intobloodshed, with the regime blaming its woeson foreign infiltrators and civilians facinggrowing food shortages.Speaking to Iranian expatriates in New York,the Iranian leader dubbed his Israeliopponents “uncultured Zionists” and said thatthe Iranian people “had never paid anyattention” to their threats, according to hiswebsite. The United States and its allies believeIran is trying to build a nuclear bomb and hopeeconomic sanctions will force Tehran to scaleback its nuclear ambitions and open them tointernational scrutiny. Absent a climb-down byTehran, Israel has warned it might launch pre-emptive strikes against Iranian targets,plunging the Middle East into a whole new

round of uncertainty with global economic andpolitical consequences.But Ahmadinejad arrived for his annualshow-down on enemy territory in New Yorkin a belligerent mood, declaring that theUnited States, Britain and France “violatethe basic rights and freedoms of othernations.” He said that it was wrong for thefive major powers to have a veto on theSecurity Council, which was why the body“has failed to establish justice and ensuresustainable peace and security in the world.”And he sought to link his charge ofillegitimacy to the West’s failure to preventfilmmakers and cartoonists from, in his view,committing “sacrilege against people’sbeliefs and sanctities.”There has been widespread outrage in theMuslim world this month following the release

of a movie trailer made by a Christianextremist group in California and new Frenchcartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed.Syria’s civil war has also cast a pall over thebiggest event in the United Nations calendar.Brahimi’s briefing underlined the scale andcomplexity of the Syrian crisis, with veto-wielding permanent Security Councilmembers Russia and China still blockingWestern efforts to build support for robustinternational action. “There is no prospect fortoday or tomorrow to move forward,” Brahimitold reporters after briefing the UN SecurityCouncil on his recent talks with Syria’sPresident Bashar al-Assad. “There is nodisagreement anywhere that the situation inSyria is extremely bad and getting worse, thatit is a threat to the region and a threat to peaceand security in the world,” Brahimi said.

uS drone killsfive militantsin nwa

MIRANSHAHafp

A US drone strike onMonday killed at least fiveIslamic militants inPakistan’s restive tribalregion near the Afghanborder, security officials said.The strike targeted acompound in the Mir Ali areaof North Waziristan, knownas a bastion for the Talibanand Al-Qaeda. The dronefired two missiles, they said.A security official inMiranshah told AFP that fivemilitants had been killed.“The compound was locatedin Khaderkhail village, some40 kilometres (25 miles) eastof Miranshah, which is theheadquarters of the NorthWaziristan tribal district,”the official added. “This areahas sanctuaries for all groupsof Taliban and foreignmilitants,” he said. Anothersecurity official in Peshawarconfirmed the death toll.

ex-israel Pm olmertgets fine but no jailtime for graft

JERUSALEMafp

A Jerusalem court on Mondayhanded former Israeli primeminister Ehud Olmert a$19,000 fine and a suspendedjail sentence for graft,meaning he will serve no jailtime, Israeli media reported.The Jerusalem District Courtsentenced the former premierto a one year jail sentencesuspended for three years andfined him 75,300 shekels($19,200), the reports said.Reading the 27-page ruling,Judge Mussiya Arad saidOlmert was guilty of a “graveand absolute conflict ofinterest” and that the gravityof the case required “apractical response,” Israelipublic radio reported. On July10, the court found Olmertguilty of breach of trust in aclosely watched corruptioncase, but cleared him on twoother charges, in a verdict hehimself declared was just.Prosecutor Eli Abarbanel toldreporters that his office wasconsidering an appeal. “Thisaffair is not over,” he said.

Syria and iran hang heavy as world gathers at Un

new yoRK: us secretary of state hillary clinton introduces the new us ambassador

to pakistan Rick olson to president asif ali Zardari on Monday. AFP


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e-paper pakistantoday 25th september, 2012