E-paper PakistanToday 3rd January, 2012

The coming collapse of ChinaPAGE 15

Awan asked to citeprecedent where verdictlike ZAB’s was revisitedPAGE 02

Syria’s Assad hasonly ‘few weeks’ left in control: IsraelPAGE 14

pakistantoday.com.pk tuesday, 3 January, 2012 Safar 8, 1433rs15.00 vol ii no 187 22 Pages Karachi edition

ISLAMABADAMER SIAL

Chambers of commerce threatening to launch civildisobedience movements against the gas shortage andthousands of furious people protesting against theunavailability of gas and the increase in the prices ofwhatever little gas is available, also rejecting a ban on refillingCompressed Natural Gas (CNG) in public service vehicles,forced the government on Monday to withdraw the ban for 15days and form a committee for proposals on the price issuewithin four days. In Rawalpindi and Islamabad, protesterscarrying sticks burned tyres and chanted “Down with thegovernment, stop suffocating the poor”. They blocked GTRoad at Rawat and Tarnol, and the road linking Murree andAzad Kashmir at Barakahu. All road links betweenRawalpindi and Islamabad also remained blocked throughoutthe day, disrupting all kinds of supplies to the cities. Policeused teargas and baton charged the protesters but the roadsremained closed late into the evening. The protesters chantedslogans against the federal government, the petroleumminister, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and SuiNorthern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL). Similardemonstrations were also held in the big cities of Balochistanand Sindh. More than a dozen small protests were also heldacross Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Multan, up to 1,500 people,mostly transporters and CNG dealers, held a demonstrationand blocked roads in protest. In Lahore, the presidents of allchambers of commerce and industry of the provincethreatened to start a civil disobedience movement in case thefederal government continued to discriminate against Punjabin the supply of natural gas. They decided to stage a protest infront of Governor’s House and a sit-in at the Lahoreresidence of the prime minister on January 7. People in thetwin cities suffered the most as public transport also observeda complete strike. Minimum attendance was witnessed inoffices as most government servants and private sectoremployees could not reach their offices in the absence ofpublic transport. Taxi and rickshaw drivers took fulladvantage of the situation and jacked up their fares.

g punjab chambers of commercethreaten civil disobedience

g apCNGa, Transport associationannounce indefinite strike

g Govt lifts ban on refilling CNGin commercial vehicles

ISLAMABAD StAff REPoRt

As the main character in the“memogate”, Husain Haqqanidid not turn up before the com-mission on Monday, the bodyasked Attorney General MaulviAnwarul Haq to contact Re-search In Motion (RIM), theBlackBerry company in Canada,for authenticity of the communi-cation between Haqqani andMansoor Ijaz and directed theforeign secretary to obtain offi-cial record from Pakistan’s em-bassy in Washington regardingmeetings between them in orderto establish links, if any.

On the very first day of itsmeeting, the commission ex-pressed annoyance overHaqqani’s absence. To a questionby the commission chairman, theAG said Haqqani was in Islam-abad and had not conveyed tohim (AG) any concern regardinghis security. “Has he chosen notto come or were the notices notserved on him (Haqqani)? Wewant to ascertain it,” CommissionChairman Justice Qazi Faez Isasaid. The AG said Haqqani hadbeen served a notice. The ISI DGalso did not appear before thecommission; however, ForeignSecretary Salman Bashir andCabinet Division Secretary NargisSethi were present. To a question,Salman Bashir said “as of now, nodepartmental inquiry has beeninitiated on the memo issue”. Hesaid there was a normal proce-dure to be adopted by the ambas-sador for his engagements.

Justice Isa asked whether the en-tries in the register maintained bythe Pakistan’s embassy in Wash-ington pertaining to the meetingsof the ambassador confirmed anymeetings between Haqqani andMansoor Ijaz. The foreign secre-tary said he would have to checkthe same and was duly directed toreport to the commission if somerecord was available on the meet-ings between the two.

When further pressed, Bashirsaid Haqqani was the right man toanswer such queries. The commis-sion directed the attorney generalto contact RIM for getting confir-mation about the authenticity ofthe communications exchangedbetween Haqqani and Ijaz. TheAG assured the commission thatRIM would be contacted to get theconfirmation. The commissionalso asked the AG to issue sum-mons to Haqqani to appear at thenext hearing. It directed the gov-ernment to provide him requisitesecurity and enable him an oppor-tunity to arrange counsel. The AGsuggested mobile phones ofHaqqani and Ijaz be producedalong with any other documentand device they relied upon. Thecommission also decided to servenotices on General James Jonesand others in the case.

The foreign secretary told thecommission that Haqqani hadsubmitted a note to the ministryon November 25 after he re-signed as ambassador. Readingout the note, he quoted Haqqanias having submitted that he wasready to face an inquiry. He saidaccording to the note, Haqqani

had rejected Ijaz’s claims. At onepoint, the AG asked the commis-sion to first summon Ijaz andstart with him, upon which Jus-tice Isa said, “In the meantime,we can cover some of the neutralground as during cross examina-tion, presence of both the sides isa must.” In its order, the commis-sion said notices were issued tothe AG, Cabinet Division secre-tary, Ministry of Foreign Affairssecretary, Haqqani, Ijaz, JamesJones and the ISI DG. Noticeswere also issued to PID for pub-lication in newspapers, however,such publication was not made.The order said the AG expressedhis regret over the non-publica-tion of the advertisement and as-sumed that such a lapse wouldnot take place in the future.

To a question, the AG said hehad been informed that noticeswere dispatched to the Pakistaniembassy in Washington for on-ward transmission to Ijaz andJames Jones, however, he fur-ther informed that he had not re-ceived any confirmation whetherthe notices were served to them.The commission sought assis-tance of IT experts of FIA and theMinistry of Information Tech-nology, to which the AG in-formed the commission that hewould check with the organisa-tions. The head of the commis-sion said there was ISI’s role inthe probe as well. The commis-sion, while issuing notices to allparties, adjourned the hearing ofthe case until next Monday.

Rs 90b neededto generateextra powerduring January

ISLAMABADAMER SIAL

The government, which is grappling in thedark for the last few months because of itsfailure to find a solution to the current energycrisis, was shocked on Monday when theWater and Power Ministry said that a heftysum of Rs 90 billion was required to generate10,000 megawatts of power for uninterruptedsupply during the month-long canal closureperiod. An official source said the informationwas provided to a meeting of the energycommittee chaired by the prime minister toreview the contingency plan for powergeneration during the canal closure period.The required sum also included receivablesfrom the government’s departments andsubsidy for the month to be paid in advanceto keep thermal power generation at optimallevels. The canal closure period has cost3,700MW to the system, which requires anestimated 11,000MW of supply. The ministrysaid that because of the failure to pass FPAand increase in power tariff, Rs 700 millionper day were piling up in governmentliabilities, the source said. The meetingdirected the ministry to speed up recoveries,but estimated that Rs 45 billion was stillrequired even if dues and subsidy werecleared. However, the Finance Ministrycontested the figure and finally it was decidedthat officials of both ministries would meet tofinalise the final sum required. The sourcesaid the estimated subsidy amount of Rs 50billion set for the current fiscal year wasconsumed during the first half of the year.The Finance Ministry has paid Rs 48 billionin power subsidy during the first half of thecurrent fiscal year. The meeting was told thatthe power sector receivables had swelled toRs 370 billion, with the inclusion of Rs 70billion in dues from not being able to pass onfuel price adjustment to the consumers.

Haqqani, ISI DG fail to turn upbefore judicial commissiong Commission seeks embassy’s record to establish Haqqani-Ijaz link

continued on Page 04

continued on Page 04

PESHAWAR: Protesters gather during a demonstration against the shortages and hike in gas prices on Monday. afp

govt yet to contact rim | Page 03

PDF E-Paper_Layout 1 1/3/2012 2:20 AM Page 1

02 Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

News

Today’s

LookQuick

lAHORe

Story on Page 08

NewS

Story on Page 10

wORld vIew

Story on Page 14

Your playground is our parking lot Imran to attend WEf meeting this month Present at the Asian creation

MQM tables 20thAmendment BillISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) on Monday submitted the “20th ConstitutionalAmendment Bill” in the National Assembly for makingHazara a separate province and carving outprovince/provinces out of Punjab. According to the textof the bill, six districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Mansehra, Abbotabad, Kohistan, Haripur, Batagramand Toor, should be merged to form Hazara province,while 22 districts of southern Punjab have beenidentified for new provinces. The bill suggestedamendments in sub-clause of Article 239 of theConstitution and Article 1. The bill pertaining toprovince/provinces in south Punjab stated thatprovince/provinces should be made on the basis ofdistricts or divisions, adding that their names should beselected as per the opinion of the people throughreferendum. Addressing a news conference later, MQMParliamentary Leader in the National Assembly DrFarooq Sattar said the people should be given theirrights. He said the situation in Punjab was demandingthe creation of new provinces. “National consensus isrequired on the issue … therefore the MQM isapproaching other parties,” he said, adding that theformation of new provinces was imperative. To aquestion, he warned against a Balochistan-likesituation if the provinces of Hazara and southernPunjab were not created immediately. StAff REPoRt

Govt to arrest Jamaat AliShah through Interpol: MalikKARACHI: Interior Minister Rahman Malik onMonday said the government would seek Interpol’shelp to arrest Jamaat Ali Shah, former commissionerof the Pakistan Indus Water Commission, adding thatthey were also investigating who helped Shah toescape from Pakistan. Taking to journalists, Maliksaid the security situation had improved in Karachidue to the government’s efforts. He said the securityforces had arrested several terrorists trying to enterthe city and seized a huge quantity of ammunition,including suicide vests from their possession. Theinterior minister said that security had improved inthe city, and praised the Criminal InvestigationDepartment (CID) police for restoring peace inKarachi. onLInE

23 insurgents killed in UpperOrakzai, Khyber AgenciesHANGU: Security forces killed 20 militants in UpperOrakzai Agency in two separate operations on Sundaynight and Monday morning. Official sources said themilitary pounded militants’ hideouts with heavyweaponry, killing 10 militants in Upper Orakzai onMonday. “Security forces had earlier killed at least 10other extremists during overnight operation againstthe militants in Upper Orakzai,” official sourcesadded.Meanwhile, three more terrorists were killed ina clash with the Qaumi (National) Lashkar inLandikotal, Khyber Agency. According to details,militants using automatic weapons clashed with theQaumi Lashkar, and as a result three terrorists and avolunteer were killed. Sources said the security forceshad stepped up the offensive in Orakzai Agencyagainst militants linked to the Tehrik-e-TalibanPakistan (TTP) and Al Qaeda. InP

ISLAMABAd: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani talking to Haider Abbas Rizvi, Asfandyar Wali and Pervaiz Elahi during the national Assembly session on Monday.

ISLAMABADMASood REHMAn

THe Supreme Court on Monday askedfederation’s counsel Babar Awan to citeany case from around the world wherea verdict was revisited in such a case

that was decided through due process of law, likethe case of former prime minister and PPPfounder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

An 11-member larger bench headed by ChiefJustice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hear-ing a reference filed by President Asif Ali Zardariunder Article 186 (advisory jurisdiction ofSupreme Court) seeking review of the death sen-tence awarded to Bhutto in 1979.

At the onset of hearing, one of the amicus cu-riae, Justice (r) Tariq Mehmood, submitted a re-quest before the court, stating, “In view of theapprehensions expressed by Ahmed Raza Kasuriover the amicus curiae, I express my inability to as-sist the court in the reference - thus it is accord-ingly, prayed that I may be relieved from theassignment”.

He informed the court that he was unable toassist the court in the reference as he had been af-

filiated with the PPP in the past. The court ac-cepted his request and relieved him.

In his reply to the court’s notice, Kasuri ques-tioned the impartiality of seven of the 10 amicuscuriae appointed by the SC to assist it in the refer-ence, saying they could be friends of the court, butcertainly not friends of the complainant (Kasuri).

According to him, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada,Fakhruddin G ebrahim, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan,Abdul Latif Afridi, Barrister Zahoorul Haq, AliAhmad Kurd and Tariq Mehmood had a strongleaning and unstinted loyalty towards Bhutto.

Another amicus curiae, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan,told the court that although his name had alsobeen objected to by Kasuri, he would continue toassist the court by setting aside his political affili-ations with the PPP, only if the court allowed.

To a court query, he said he was a PPP workerand his sympathies would remain with the party,however, he would try his best to assist the courtneutrally, keeping in mind the law and the consti-tution and keeping his party affiliations aside. Thecourt then asked him to continue assisting thecourt. Meanwhile, the chief justice noted that Az-izullah, son of Justice (r) Anwarul Haq, had filedan application before the court to become party in

the ZAB reference. Azizullah is the son of formerchief justice of Pakistan Anwarul Haq, who hadheaded a four-member bench and upheld the La-hore High Court verdict of capital punishment toZulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The court directed that copies of Azizullah’sapplication be provided to all parties concerned.

The chief justice observed that only concernedparties of the case were competent to approach thecourt in the matter.

The court asked Babar Awan to present anyprecedent in the world of reopening an already de-cided case, to which Awan contended that the apexcourt might set such a precedent.

The chief justice observed that there was no ex-ample in law where an already decided case wasreopened. In the Bhutto case, all stages of trial hadbeen completed, the CJ said.

The court noted that although president en-joyed the constitutional authority to send any suchreference to the court, the federation’s counselshould give a reference from the judicial history ofthe world where a constitutional head of the coun-try had sent such a reference and the court had re-opened the case. The proceedings were adjourneduntil today (Tuesday).

SC asks Awan to cite case whereverdict like ZAB’s was revisited


03Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

NewsCOMMeNTCommission:

Articles on Page 12-13

Justice should not only to be done but seen to be done.

Pak-US relations:

dr faisal Bari says:Overburdened students: There is just too much pressure on students.

fOReIGN NewS

Story on Page 14

ARTS & eNTeRTAINMeNT‘Harry Potter’ movies push for oscar glory

Story on Page 17

SPORTSEngland series Pakistan’s toughest: Misbah

Story on Page 18

Prosecutors to take stage today in Mubarak trial

Ending the impasse benefits the both.

Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi says:For your own good: I will miss Hussain Haqqani

Rabia Ahmed says:Can democracy work? De we have a competent electorate?

Govt yet to contactRIM to verifyMansoor’s emails


Despite assurance given to the commissionprobing the “memogate”, the authoritiesconcerned did not write a letter on Mondayto the Canada-based company Research inMotion (RIM) for confirmation about theauthenticity of the electronic communica-tion exchanged between Mansoor Ijaz andHussain Haqqani, sources told PakistanToday. earlier in the day, the attorney gen-eral had assured the three-member com-mission that the government would complywith Supreme Court orders and contact thecompany for obtaining confirmation at theearliest in order to protect the forensic evi-dence in the memo scandal. The sourcessaid after the commission’s proceedings,Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and At-torney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq held ameeting to discuss the issue but could nottake a decision in this regard. They said thegovernment would take more time to reacha decision on how and when the companywould be contacted. The report of RIM,which is the sole and exclusive custodian ofsuch information, would be scrutinised andproduced before the commission, whichwould help establish, if any, links betweenthe two main characters of the “mem-ogate”. On December 30, the SupremeCourt had directed the AG to contact RIMthrough authorities concerned for confir-mation about the alleged electronic com-munications exchanged between MansoorIjaz and Hussain Haqqani.

New York mosquefirebombed in‘hate crime’ spree

NeW YorKAfP

New York’s mayor expressed outrage onMonday after a mosque was hit by afirebomb in an arson spree that police saidwas being investigated as a hate crime. TheImam Al-Khoei Foundation building in theborough of Queens suffered damage to thefront door from a Molotov cocktail thrownlate on Sunday, police said. Two similarattacks occurred in the sameneighborhood, including one in aconvenience store run by Muslims. Thefoundation, which describes itself as thebiggest international Shia Muslimorganisation, said on its website that twofirebombs were “hurled at the mainentrance” but that thankfully “no majordamage no injury was caused by the blast”.The statement said the foundation“reiterates its resolve to continue to servethe community and to strive to bring lovewhere there is hatred, light where there isdarkness and enlightenment where there isignorance”. In a statement on Monday,Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the threeMolotov cocktail attacks “stand in starkcontrast to the New York City of today thatwe’ve built together”. “Personnel from theNYPD’s Hate Crimes Unit and the 103rdPrecinct’s Detective Squad are moving atfull steam to investigate and alsodetermine if there are any connections toincidents outside New York City,”Bloomberg said. Shortly before the mosqueincident and in the same part of New York,a general store known here as a bodegawas struck with a similar device, consistingof a still-undetermined inflammable liquidin a glass Starbucks cafe bottle, a policespokesman said.

Gas outages force PML-N, MQM MNAs to walk out of NA


Lawmakers from two political parties, onefrom the opposition and one from thetreasury, on Monday staged a walkoutfrom a session of the National Assemblyagainst what they called “non-serious” at-titude of the government on gas shortagedue to which the people had suffered alot.

After a heated debate on gas loadshedding and a strike by CNG stations,the PML-N members staged a walkoutagainst the “non-serious attitude of thetreasury benches” which was followed bymembers of the Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM), who were angry because nogovernment minister or parliamentarysecretary was present in the assembly hallto respond a calling-attention notice sub-mitted by the MQM.

However, PML-N lawmakers raisedthe issue on a point of order and grilledthe government for its policies regardinggas outages. They also urged the govern-ment to announce by-polls if it had failedto deal with matters of public interest.

MNA Barjees Tahir raised the matteron a point of order, asking if the govern-ment could not deliver the goods, whywas it not announcing fresh elections?

PML-N MNA Malik Abrar slammedthe government for having no policy to re-dress the problems facing the people andsought resignation by the minister con-cerned. Tehmina Daultana said the PPPgovernment was incapable of deliveringthe goods on any subject.

Mehtab Abbasi supported his partycolleagues, stating that if the governmentcould not deliver the goods properly, theyshould hold fresh elections. He said coun-trywide protests were proof of the fact

that people had lost their patience. Healso criticised the government for issuingNoCs to 500 CNG stations.

The PML-N members’ walkout wasswiftly followed by MQM members asneither the minister concerned nor therelevant parliamentary secretary wasavailable to respond to the calling atten-tion notice raised by MQM members AsifHassnain, Abdul Waseem, and AbdulQadir Khanzada. Harsh words also wereused by Asif Hasnain against not takingup calling attention notice by YusufTalpur, who was chairing the session.

earlier, Minister for Water and PowerNaveed Qamar made an attempt to calmthe opposition members down, and onbehalf of the petroleum minister he saidthere was a shortage of gas due to a gap inthe demand and supply. “Against the sixmillion cubic feet demand, the supply isfour million cubic feet,” he said, adding

that the closure of CNG stations was de-cided unanimously in the standing com-mittee meeting.

Qamar also spoke against protestsover gas shortage, saying it was not theproper way to resolve the issue.

Responding to the calling-attentionnotice by the MQM, Minister for Reli-gious Affairs Khurshid Shah tried to playdown the staggering 14 percent gas tariffhike as ‘not too much’.

Shah defended the 14 percent in-crease in gas price by calling it a step to-wards striking an equilibrium betweenpetrol and gas. He said there was a 45percent difference between gas and petrolprices which needed to be bridged per theinternational norms and the governmenthad raised prices by 14 percent to do that.He said the MQM members should havewaited for a response rather than staginga walkout.

PPP lawmakers blastcoalition for corruption

ISLAMABADStAff REPoRt

WHILe the opposition partiesinside and outside parliamentare already up in arms againstthe government, the National

Assembly on Monday witnessed an implo-sion from within the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) as two of its prominent law-makers blasted the coalition for rampantcorruption and called for immediate meas-ures to get rid of corrupt practices other-wise the people of the country would holdthe regime accountable.

Former state minister SumsamBukhari pointed fingers at Minister forHousing and Works Faisal Saleh Hayat forcorruption in his ministry and its attacheddepartments, warning the coalition govern-ment to take action against corruption orget ready to face the public wrath. Speakingon a point of order, former state ministerfor information and broadcasting Bukharisaid the officials in Pak-Public Works De-partment (PWD) had indulged in an “un-precedented corruption” in developmentworks in the country.

“Commissions are being demandedpublicly in the name of the minister and the

secretary. Since this is public money, not asingle penny should go in pockets of eitherthe minister or the secretary. If immediatecorrective measures are not taken, I amafraid that the people would hold us ac-countable,” he warned. Adding fuel to thefire, Justice (r) Fakharun Nisa Khokharsaid due to uncontrolled corruption, devel-opment works had come to a standstillwhile the government had been keeping itseyes closed from bitter reality. “Why we arekeeping our eyes closed? Why we don’tbring in a whistle blower bill against cor-ruption like Anna Hazare (of India),” sheasked. Pointing her fingers towards the lawminister for being a hurdle in the account-ability bill, Fakharun Nisa Khokhar said themembers of National Assembly StandingCommittee on Law and Justice had fian-lised the accountability bill thrice and eachtime the bill was sent to the Law Ministrywhere it was reversed to initial form.

“Per parliamentary traditions, everybill after passage from the relevant stand-ing committee has to be presented in par-liament. However, here this bill afterpassage by the committee is sent to theministry. Unless and until we don’t bringin a stern monitoring policy, the sufferingsof the people will continue,” asserted the

PPP MNA, charge sheeting her own gov-ernment for resisting passage of account-ability law. She blamed the governmentofficials, stating that the policymakers seekmoney on pretext of arranging dowry fortheir daughters. Nasir Ali Shah of the PPPraised his voice in the House against a vil-ification campaign launched by theBalochistan government against the slainpolice surgeon Dr Baqir Shah who hadbeen killed in Quetta last week.

“Instead of capturing the perpetra-tors of the murder of Baqir Shah, theBalochistan government is accusing thedeceased. The late police surgeon hasbeen blamed for being a drunkard andwomanizing which are baseless allega-tions to avoid probe into the heinouscrime of his murder,” he asserted. PPPlawmaker Zafar Ali Shah called for an endto hiring of government lawyers on polit-ical basis which he claimed was a majorreason of the failure of state agencies toprosecute the law violators. Meanwhile, abill to further amend the provincialMotor Vehicle Ordinance 1965 was laid inthe National Assembly. ParliamentarySecretary for Ministry of Interior GhulamMujtaba Kharal moved for laying the billon behalf of the interior minister.

NAB recovered Rs 9.52b in last 3years, NA told


Minister for Law, Justice and Parlia-mentary Affairs Moula BakhshChandio told the National Assem-bly on Monday that the NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB) hadrecovered Rs 9.52 billion in thelast three years (2009 to 2011),while avoiding a question by Pak-istan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) legislator Tasneem Siddiqueabout the names of incumbent fed-eral ministers, state ministers, ad-visors, special assistants, senatorsand parliamentarians facing cor-ruption cases in accountabilitycourts, high courts and theSupreme Court.In a written reply, Chandio saidthe anti-corruption body had au-thorised 871 enquiries, while com-pleting 587 enquiries from 2009 to2011. “Out of the completed en-quiries, 278 investigations wereauthorised and 335 investigations,including the backlog from theprevious years, were completed.From the completed investiga-tions, 253 references have beenfiled in the courts,” he told theHouse. He added that during thelast three years, 164 references hadresulted in convictions of the ac-cused persons, while in 125 refer-ences the accused had beenacquitted. In a separate writtenreply, the law minister told theHouse that 25 cases of politicians,334 cases of government servants,174 cases of businessmen, and 151other cases were presently pendingwith NAB. Separately, Minister forPostal Services Sardar MuhammadUmar Gorgaij told the National As-sembly that a summary had beensent to the prime minister for set-ting up 730 new post offices acrossthe country. Replying to varioussupplementary questions, he saidthe cabinet had already approvedthe new post offices. “Recruit-ments will be made in a transpar-ent manner soon after thesummary’s approval. Currently noone has been recruited to PakistanPost on regular or contract basis,”he said.

g Sumsam Bukhari points fingers at housing and works minister for corruption in

his ministry, attached departments g Nasir Ali Shah raises voice against vilification

campaign launched by Balochistan government against slain police surgeon

g Treasury, Opp lawmakers blast govt’s ‘non-serious’ attitude g Shah says 14% gas tariff hike not too much

LAhoreAdnAn LodHI

Treasury benches in the Punjab Assembly(PA), instead of achieving the target of pass-ing eight bills from the House, forced thechair to adjourn the session until today(Tuesday) and also asked it extend the ses-sion until January 9 instead of today (Tues-day). The session started an hour late at3pm with PA Speaker Rana Iqbal in thechair. The Punjab zakat and ushr minister

answered questions in the question hour.During call attention notices, Pakistan Mus-lim League-Quaid (PML-Q) MPA KhadijaUmer pointed out the quorum but treasurybenches succeeded in showing their re-quired strength. After call attention noticesand privilege motions, the governmentwanted the opposition to point out the quo-rum but the opposition tried to counter gov-ernment bills by debate and discussion.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MPAMajor (r) Abdul Rehman criticised PML-Q

MPAs for pointing out the quorum onwhich Samina Khawar Hayat, Seemal Kam-ran and Majida Zaidi protested but Rehmancontinued to criticised their non-serious be-haviour. Punjab Law Minister RanaSanaullah said that it was the House’s tra-dition that the opposition did not point outthe quorum during call attention noticesand privilege motions. He said that MPAswere sitting in a “glass house” where thepress gallery conveyed all activities to 90million people of the province.

Treasury forces pa session adjournment



News

To chalk out a strategy inview of the gas crisis, PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilanidirected the Petroleum Min-istry to take immediate stepsto control the situation andthe petroleum secretary hur-riedly convened a meeting toengage the CNG and trans-port associations, with therepresentatives of the dis-trict administration also inattendance.

However, the meetingended without any agree-ment as the CNG and trans-

port associations were askedto take back their strike callbut they refused to do sountil the government ad-dressed all their issues.

Talking to reporters afterthe meeting, Petroleum Sec-retary ejaz Chaudhary saidthe government had liftedthe ban on refilling publicservice vehicles for a fort-night and during this timeOGRA would notify rules forthe placing of CNG cylindersin such vehicles, as placingthem under the seats or onthe roof was dangerous.

He said he had clarified

to both associations thatthere was no plan to shutdown gas supply to the CNGstations outright. He said thenews about indefinite closureof the CNG sector was incor-rect and the CNG stationswould remain closed as perthe mutually-agreed gas loadmanagement plan. He saidthere was no proposal for clo-sure of the CNG stations dur-ing the months of Januaryand February. He informedthe participants that afterFebruary, the situation ofsupply would stabilise andgas supply to the CNG sector

would improve. The secretary said it was

decided during the meetingthat a high-powered com-mittee comprising seniorrepresentatives of the Fi-nance and Petroleum Min-istries and OGRA would lookinto the issue of the gas pric-ing and submit its reportwithin four days. He said thegovernment would look intothe possibility of imposinggas cess in phases on theCNG sector.

The CNG and transportassociations had demandedone day load-shedding forthe CNG sector, allowingnew cylinders in public serv-ice vehicles to replace the

substandard cylinders andcomplete abolition of gascess which had increased theCNG prices from Rs 66.42 toRs 74.34 per kg. The Petro-leum Ministry is stressing onbringing the CNG prices atpar with petrol prices to re-duce the demand for gas.

All Pakistan CNG Associ-ation (APCNGA) ChairmanGhiyas Paracha and Trans-port Association ChairmanSultan Awan later an-nounced that their protestwould continue until all theirdemands - including gas loadshedding for one day untilFebruary 15 instead of threedays a week - were accepted.They also demanded com-

plete abolition of gas infra-structure development cessas well as an end to the banon refilling public service ve-hicles.

The gap between thelocal demand and supply hasincreased to over 1 billioncubic feet per day. To bridgethe deficit, the governmenthas increased gas prices by14 percent from January 1.Prices of Liquefied Petro-leum Gas (LPG) were also in-creased by Rs 10 to Rs 15 perkg on Monday, with cylin-ders for domestic use nowavailable for Rs 170 each andthose for commercial pur-poses now costing Rs 680each.

Gas-sparked protests rage oncontinued from Page 1

Rs 90b needed

The non-clearance of Rs 150billion outstanding dues ofIndependent PowerProducers (IPP) was alsoslowing down powergeneration as they werefacing problems in gettingcredit lines from banks fordaily fuel purchases. TheFinance Ministry said it wasworking on debt swap to pickup liabilities of the IPPs frombanks to make possibleprovision of new credit linesto them. According to apress release, Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani told theenergy committeecomprising the financeminister, water and powerminister, petroleumminister, the State Bankgovernor and the PlanningCommission deputychairman to formulate aprogramme to minimise loadshedding and maximiseproduction of electricityduring the canal closureperiod. It was decided thatsteps would be taken toutilise existing thermalgeneration capacity withfocus on more efficientplants to reduce the cost ofproduction and consequentlyreduce the burden onconsumers. It was alsodecided to adopt efficientload management to ensureload shedding, which wasnecessary, and manage itsschedule in a way that theconsumers had predictabilityand were not impactedadversely by unannouncedload shedding. It was alsodecided that steps would betaken to ensure timely fuelsupply to the power plants sothat electricity productionremained operationalaccording to this plan forJanuary. The financeminister briefed the meetingon the debt swap beingundertaken for the powersector entities to deal withthe circular debt issue, andthe prime ministerdirected government powersector companies to makeadditional efforts torecover the receivables tohelp address the circulardebt issue.

continued from Page 1

ISLAMABADAMER SIAL

PRIMe MinisterYousaf Raza Gi-lani has directedthe Ministry ofWater and

Power (MOWP) to approachthe Court of Arbitration(CoA) against India for con-structing a 45 megawatts hy-dropower plant at NimooBazgo, and receiving carboncredits from the United Na-tions.

An official privy to thedevelopment said Advisor tothe PM on Agriculture andWater Kamal Majidullah

was finalising the names ofthe legal team to file the casein the CoA. The official, whorequested anonymity, saidMajidullah would be handlethe matter instead of theministry, as he was alreadydealing with the Kis-hanganga hydropower proj-ect in the Indian-heldKashmir (IHK). The officialsaid the Pakistan IndusWater Commission wouldassist Majidullah. India hadconstructed the NimooBazgo hydropower project inthe Leh district of the IHK.It even managed to get car-bon credits from the UN de-spite constructing the

project in the disputed terri-tory. The official said that anenquiry report against theformer Indus Water com-missioner Jamaat Ali Shahrecommended stopping hispension, as he was alreadyretired from the governmentservice. The enquiry reportholds Shah responsible fornot timely informing thePakistani government on theconstruction of the NimooBazgo hydropower projecton the Indus River. Accord-ing to the official source, thedelay in informing the gov-ernment allowed India tocomplete the project and toget carbon credits from the

UN.A spokesman of the

MOWP denied that the min-istry had sought restrictionson Shah’s movement orasked to place his name onthe exit Control List. Hesaid the enquiry report wasforwarded to the establish-ment Division to seek someclarifications. The govern-ment had ordered an en-quiry following mediareports criticising the au-thorities for their failure instopping India from con-structing a water storageproject on the disputed ter-ritory and getting carboncredits from the UN.

PM wants Nimoo dam caseagainst India in int’l court

ISLAMABADSHAIQ HUSSAIn

Pakistan has rejected an In-dian proposal seeking Is-lamabad’s inclusion in talkson the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) at thenext session of the Confer-ence on Disarmament (CD),which is likely to commencein the third week of Janu-ary.

At present Pakistan isthe only hold-out at the CDamong 65 countries in talkson the FMCT, a proposedglobal pact that will ban theproduction of nuclear bombmaking material. Indiaasked Pakistan to join thetalks at the recently con-cluded two-day Pakistan-India talks on conventionaland nuclear confidence-building measures (CBMs)and said the proposed treatycould be an important steptowards effective nucleardisarmament.

Apart from India com-

ing up with this proposal,Pakistan had also been fac-ing immense pressure fromthe United States for the lastcouple of years to sign theFMCT. It was in 2009 thatIslamabad decided to blockthe start of negotiations onthe vital treaty in the CD asit was not only advocating aban on future production ofthe material used in makingnuclear bombs, but alsofavoured a pact covering theexisting stocks of fissile ma-terial in the possession ofvarious nuclear states.

“Yes, this proposal cameup for discussions from theIndian side during the re-cently concluded talks onCBMs but Islamabad re-fused to oblige owing to itsstated position on the vitalissue that the treaty mustcover the existing stocks offissile material possessed byIndia and other nuclearstates,” said a Pakistani offi-cial here on Monday, askingnot to be named.

ISLAMABAD: An application challenging the formation ofjudicial commission by the Supreme Court to probe into thememo issue was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday. Theapplicant, Shahid Orakzai, contended that every judge of thehigh court had to seek leave of absence under the rules men-tioned in Fifth Schedule and the chief justices of Balochistanand Sindh high courts did not do so and therefore, could notsit in Islamabad without such a leave. He said that in absenceof a chief justice, the president was duty bound under Article196 to “appoint one of the other judges of the high court, or mayrequest one of the judges of the Supreme Court, to act as thechief justice”, which also did not occur in this case. StAff REPoRt

ISLAMABADInP

Husain Haqqani, the man atthe centre of the memogatescandal, had tried to involveBenazir Bhutto in a similarconspiracy during the firsttenure of her government atthe instance of Nawaz Sharif,when he was the media headof Nawaz’s government, for-mer Intelligence Bureau (IB)chief Brig (r) Imtiaz Ahmadhas alleged.

In an interview to a pri-vate TV channel, Ahmad saidthat Haqqani had preparedand sent a fake letter pur-ported to be written by Be-nazir Bhutto as primeminister of Pakistan againstthe country’s nuclear pro-gramme and the army.

“Hussain Haqqani wasthe central character in aMemogate-like scandalagainst former prime minis-ter Benazir Bhutto in 1989,”Ahmad said, adding that atthat time Nawaz Sharif wasthe chief minister in Punjaband Haqqani was the head ofhis media team with vast re-sources at his disposal.

The former IB chief al-leged that Haqqani had ma-nipulated Benazir’s

signature on a fake letter andafter photocopying it,launched a campaign to de-clare Benazir “anti-Pakistan”and a security risk.

Ahmad said that at thattime he was holding an im-portant position in Punjaband had expressed strongreservations over it.

About the ongoingmemo scandal, he said there“is no doubt that WikiLeaksand Mansoor Leaks (Man-soor Ijaz) are the twins of theCIA”, adding that for thepast one year these two werebeing effectively usedagainst Pakistan’s defenceinstitutions with the purposeto weaken and destabilisePakistan.

Haqqani was involved inmemo-like conspiracyagainst BB: Imtiaz

pakistan rejects Indian

proposal to join fMCT talks

GUJrATAGEnCIES

Seven people, including abank officer, police con-stable and passer-by werekilled when armed motor-cyclists fired at their caron Monday.

According to police,two armed motorcyclistsfired at a double cabin ve-hicle of bank officerMuhammad Sharif intehsil Kharian of Gujrat inthe Guliana Policeprecincts. As a result, six

people traveling in the carand an 11-year-old passer-by were killed on the spotwhile the assailants fled.

Those killed includedSharif, Police ConstableShafique, Raja Mubeen,Raja Usman, RajaMehboob and Raja Youniswhile identity of thepasser-by could not beconfirmed. Police saidthat the firing was the re-sult of an old property dis-pute. Raja Asghar, brotherof the bank officer, waskilled around six months

ago in a firing incidentover the same propertydispute.

A case was registeredagainst unidentified as-sailants and police startedsearching for them. Thekilling spread fear andpanic in the area and peo-ple demanded the murder-ers be arrested. Familiesof the deceased placed thebodies on the main high-way to protest against theincident. The enraged pro-testers also pelted stones,injuring three policemen.

During the year 2011, Pakistantopped the list of countrieswhich searched for the wordsMuhammad (pbuh), Quran,education and english onGoogle, a recent report byProPakistani, a website,showed. According to the list,Pakistan topped the list ofcountries that searched for theword ‘Muhammad (pbuh)’ andthe word ‘Quran’ on Google in2011 – with Karachi, Islam-

abad and Lahore topping thefirst three spots respectively.The report said Pakistanranked number three in theworld to search for the word‘Islam’ on Google last year. Lit-eracy rate still might not bethat high in Pakistan, but ittopped the list of countriessearching for the word ‘educa-tion’ on Google. At number fivewas the word ‘english’. WithIslamabad and Lahore on the

fourth and fifth spot, Pakistanranked on number five tosearch for the word ‘scholar-ships’ during the year 2011.Apart from the above men-tioned results, Pakistan alsoranked number one in terms ofsearching for the words ‘jobs’and ‘peace’, seventh for search-ing ‘information technology’and second for searching‘physics’ and ‘thesis’, the reportsaid. nEWS dESk

MoNITorING DeSK

Pakistani authorities have yetto decide what to do with threeIranian border guards whothey say crossed into south-western Pakistan while chasingafter smugglers and killed oneof them, a private TV channelreported on Monday, as Iranclosed its border with Pakistanover the incident.

The incident occurred onSunday in the Mazah Sar areaof Balochistan, where the bor-der is often not clearly marked.Aalam Farez, a senior govern-ment official in Washuk dis-

trict, where Mazah Sar is lo-cated, told the TV channel thatthe Iranians admitted to inad-vertently crossing into Pak-istan. But, he said, theyclaimed the two people theyshot, one of whom died, werebystanders and that the peoplethey were chasing escaped.

After the shooting, Pak-istani border personnel chasedthe Iranians back across theborder and detained them,Pakistani officials said. Theyalso seized the surviving gun-shot victim and determinedboth of those who had beenshot were petty smugglers.

‘Sarkozy knewabout arms’PARIS: French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy knew about ashell company used to channelarms sales commissions in the1990s, French media said onMonday, amid a probe intoalleged illegal party funding inFrance. The Liberation dailyquoted testimony to a judgefrom a former senior civilservant that in 1994 then-budgetminister Sarkozy authorised thecreation of Luxembourg-basedcompany Heine to payintermediaries in arms deals,notably with Pakistan. AfP

PIA reducesnight coach fareto Rs 5,000LAHORE: PakistanInternational Airline (PIA)Deputy Managing DirectorCaptain Junaid Younus onMonday said the airline haddecided to further reducethe fare of night coach fromRs 6,666 to Rs 5,000 as aNew Year’s gift and keepingin view the public’sresponse to the service. Hesaid PIA was operatingnight coach flights with fullload in order to facilitatedomestic travellers by air, asrail and road services werenot adequate to meet thetraveller’s demand withinthe country. Junaid assuredthat the PIA managementwas adopting proactivepolicies for turning theairline around and makingan affordable travellingoption for the public. Suchplans were in the pipelineand would soon be disclosedon becoming operational, headded. StAff REPoRt

Hairbiar, Javaidnamed in attack onformer CM’s houseQUETTA: Police onMonday registered a caseagainst former provincialminister NawabzadaHairbiar Marri and formersenator Mir Javaid Mengal inconnection with a car bombattack on former chiefminister Mir Naseer Mengal.The case was registered atthe Sariab Police Station onthe written compliant ofMohammad Yousaf Mengal.Last Friday, an explosives-laden vehicle went off with ahuge blast that killed 16persons, mostly armedguards of the former CM’sson, Mir Shafiqur Rahman.Both Hairbiar Marri andJavaid Mengal are living inLondon for past severalyears. StAff REPoRt

Banker, guard among seven killed

over property dispute in Gujrat

Pakistan tops Google search for

‘Muhammad (PBUH)’, ‘Quran’

Judicial commission challenged

Iran closes border


KArAChIQAZI ASIf

What has a womangot to do with cen-sorship?” was the re-sponse of SindhKatchi Abadis and

Spatial Development MinisterRafiq engineer, when anotherlawmaker suggested that womenshould also be given representa-tion in a film censorship board.

As the provincial lawmakersdiscussed the pros and cons of the‘Sindh Motion Pictures Bill 2012’– passed by the Sindh Assemblyon Monday – the issue of womenrepresentation in a censor boardcaught many of them off guard.

In its first session of 2012,the House passed the motion pic-tures bill that will allow theprovincial government to autho-rise censorship, permission offilm exhibition and quality of thefilms produced.

After the adoption of 18thConstitutional Amendment, thedepartment was shifted from thecentre to the provinces, but therewas no legislation in this regardin Sindh.

Speaking on the occasion,Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Pal-ijo and Law Minister Ayaz Soomrosaid that after the 18th amend-ment, the provinces were empow-

ered for censorship and exhibitionof films.

“It is obvious that the Pak-istani film industry has been theworst-affected due to extremismin the country,” Palijo said. “It isour desire that rules of procedureabout censorship should be of in-ternational standards.”

Affirming that internationalcensorship standards must be fol-lowed, Moin Prizada said thatthese rules must not be against so-cial and cultural values of Pak-istan. “A policy must be maderegarding Indian movies being ex-hibited in Sindh,” he added.

Nusrat Saher Abbasi said thatpriority in the cinemas should begiven to Pakistani films to give aboost to the local film industry.

Regarding the formation of aprovincial film censorship board,MPA Bilqees Mukhtar suggestedthat women should be given rep-resentation and a role in theboard also.

Objecting to the sugges-tion however, engineer wasof the view that womenhave nothing to do withfilm censorship.

Palijo opposed the PPPleader’s views, saying theprovincial minister mustnot express his personalviews.

In the session, the ombuds-

man office bill was introducedwhile the Sindh Sales Tax on Serv-ice (Amendment) Bill 2011 waspostponed until January 6.

Speaking during the question-answer session, Soomro toldthe House that duringthe PPP governmentnot a single personwas hanged norwill it happen inthe future. “Thereis not a single polit-ical prisoner in thejails of Sindh.”

“Till today, ourparty and the peopleof Pakistan cannotforget the hanging ofZulfikar AliBhutto,” headded.

“There are 79 female prisonersin women jails, including one in-volved in the PNS Mehran attack,and only seven female wardens,which is not sufficient,” the law

minister said, admitting thatcrime rate has increased

due to use of mobilephones within prisons.

“To control thesituation, the govern-ment has establishedpublic calling officeswithin jails and allprisoners can speak

with their relatives andfriends for 15 minutes aweek,” Soomro said.

Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

2012 starts with a bad

omen for Karachi… tremors

Mild jolts felt in some parts of city

07

KArAChIAftAB CHAnnA

Four people were injured on Monday when unidentified assailants ona motorcycle lobbed a hand grenade at the outlet of a cellular phonecompany in North Nazimabad.

Police said that two masked men riding a 125-CC motorcyclethrew a locally-made hand grenade outside the franchise of a cellularcompany at the Hyderi Market in the morning and escaped.

The blast wounded two security guards deputed outside the fran-chise, identified as Younis and Zafar, and two others. They wererushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Following the attack, the Bomb Disposal Squad and law enforce-ment agencies personnel cordoned off the area. The explosion alsopartially damaged the franchise and some nearby shops.

The investigators collected evidence from the site of the blast andalso took the CCTV footage into custody.ANP ACTIVIST MURDERED: An activist of the Awami NationalParty (ANP) was gunned down on Monday in Pak Colony.

The Pak Colony police said two men on a motorcycle intercepted ANPactivist Sultan Khan near Bara Board and shot him, killing him on the spot.

Tension prevailed in the Pak Colony area following the murderand the roads became deserted. In the same area, four people wereshot and wounded. They included Hasnain, Ishaq, Akhtar and Zul-fikar. They were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Separately, the body of a boy with severe torture marks was foundin a nullah in Zaman Town. The identity of the victim could not be as-certained till the filing of this report.

KArAChIWAQAR HAMZA

The Pakistan International Air-lines (PIA)’s initiative of nightcoach service received such a luke-warm response on its first day thatthe jumbo jets planned for theservice had to be replaced bysmaller planes, Pakistan Todayhas learnt.

Reliable sources informedPakistan Today that due to thelimited number of passengersavailing the service, the nationalflag carrier had to run thesmaller planes.

The PIA management’s claimof earning high profits fell flat ontheir faces, as initially claiming torun 468-seater jumbo planes onthe routes, a 48-seater ATR planeand a 118-seater plane (type 737-300) were flown on the Karachi-Lahore-Karachi route and theKarachi-Islamabad-Karachi route,respectively.

Interestingly, to attract pas-sengers the fares of night coachwere cut down to Rs 5,000 exclud-ing taxes but this too would provefutile exercise as nobody is inter-ested in travelling at the nighttime, especially to Karachi due tothe law and order situation. “Onewould never want to land inKarachi at night while the city isplagued with violence and tar-

geted killings a norm,” they added.“The airline’s claim of gener-

ating Rs 4 million on two days ofoperation is extremely exagger-ated, as the fare of the first flightservice for each passenger was Rs6,666 and even if planes on bothroutes were fully reserved – ahighly unlikely event – it couldonly generate a little over Rs 1.1million,” the sources said.

They added that the PIA man-agement also claims that it willcarry 20 tonnes high-yield cargodaily, but it is not likely to happenas the market share of PIA’s cargois very limited while there is nocargo volume from Islamabad toKarachi.

“even if all shipment stake-holders are included, the volumeof high-yield cargo for Lahore isnot more than eight tonnes,while only two or three tonnesare sent to Islamabad. FromKarachi to Lahore, the total vol-ume of high-yield cargo isaround six tonnes, so the freightvolume left over in the market isvery low for the national carrier,”the sources said. “The TCS fliesits freight plane 737-200 onKarachi-Lahore-Karachi routedaily for 15 tonnes cargo includ-ing couriers. The Shaheen Airalso carries three tonnes of cargodaily on the same route.”

“For what left over volume of

cargo and passengers the na-tional airline is to run 28 flightsa week, especially in the winterseason when you have belowfreezing temperatures in manycities and you cannot expectpeople to fly at night,” thesources questioned.

“Therefore, the night coachplan would surely result in heavylosses and the PIA administra-tion doesn’t have plausible justi-fication regarding the economicsof such operation. Who will beheld accountable for the antici-pated failure is a huge question,”they said.

On Monday, PIA Deputy Man-

aging Director Captain Junaidclaimed that the night coaches areoperating with full loads, and theflights to Lahore and Islamabadare likely to fetch the airline Rs 3to 4 million daily, as well as pro-vide affordable air travel withinthe country. “Soon the PIA will an-nounce night coaches for Multan,”he said.

When contacted, PIAspokesman Sultan Ahmed said thetype of planes flown on the routedepends on the passenger loadand the planes available. “Includ-ing cargo, the night coaches haveso far generated Rs 4 million forthe airlines,” he added.

KArAChIAftAB CHAnnA

Bowing down to the protesters’demands over the brutal murderof Pasban-e-Jafria chief AskariRaza, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratulebad on Monday suspendedCrime Investigation Department(CID) Senior Superintendent ofPolice (SSP) Chaudhry Aslam andordered a judicial investigationinto the Shia leader’s murder.

The decision was made at ameeting chaired by the Sindhgovernor with a delegation led byPakistan People’s Party (PPP)senator Faisal Raza Abidi andSindh Assembly Deputy SpeakerShehla Raza held at the Governor’s House.

On Sunday evening, after the assassination of Raza, hundreds ofprotesters carrying the coffin of their deceased leader had besiegedthe Governor’s House.

The protesters demanded that CID SSP Aslam be removed andcases registered against the senior police official and Ahle Sunnat WalJamaat (ASWJ) leader Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi. Later, a case waslodged against the religious leader, but the decision to dismiss the SSPcould not be reached.

On Monday, the decision to the remove Aslam was taken by ebad,who also ordered a judicial probe against the CID SSP.

However, insiders told Pakistan Today that the decision was takenafter strong pressure from the PPP senator and the provincial assem-bly deputy speaker. “The inquiry report would be completed withinthree days and Aslam can be arrested if found guilty,” they added.

for pIa passengers, nighttime isn’t flight time ■ with limited number of passengers choosing to avail the night coach service, airline

replaces jumbo jets it had planned with smaller planes

Censorship not a woman’s

job in Rafiq Engineer’s book■ Sindh Motion Pictures Bill 2012 passed

City’s ‘tough’ copsuspended over Shialeader’s murder

Another attack oncell phone firm outlet; 4 wounded

The Bomb disposal Squad inspects the site of the hand grenade

attack at the Hyderi Market in North Nazimabad. oNLINe

SINdH aSSeMBLy SeSSIoN


karachi06PakistaN today


KArAChIStAff REPoRt

PReSIDeNT Asif Ali Zardarihas reiterated his call forchalking out a workable com-prehensive master plan fordealing with the issue of

draining water from the flood-hit areasof Sindh.

He also directed that the dischargecapacity of the existing drainage systembe restored, remodelled and enhancedfor 20 years and abandoned old naturalpaths for floodwater including NaroDhoro and Hakro Dhoro identified, acti-

vated and utilised.The president also advised the dis-

trict and Provincial Disaster Manage-ment Authority (PDMA) officials to helpvarious banks start their operations fordistributing Watan Cards in areas thathave remained unattended so far due tovarious constraints.

During two separate briefings held atthe Bilawal House in Karachi on Mon-day, the president reviewed situation offloodwater still inundating many areasof the province and the progress made inthe distribution of Watan Cards amongthe flood survivors.

Briefing the media, the president

spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said theparticipants of the meeting on drainageof floodwater were informed that 97 per-cent areas have been drained. However,there are still some areas in Sanghar,Mirpurkhas, Badin and Umerkot thatare still submerged.

The president was informed that incompliance with his earlier directives,the Irrigation Department has prepareda conceptual master plan in two monthsand a foreign consultant - M/s LouisBerger - would submit a detailed masterplanning report by February 2012.

The president, after being briefedabout the salient features of the 20-yearirrigation revamping plan, directed thatthe project should be rationalised rev-enue should be generated for it bystrengthening the tax collection system.

The president said he would person-ally visit the rain-affected areas to in-spect the dewatering work. He alsotasked Nadir Magsi to visit these areasand submit a report to him within 48hours.

The president expressed satisfaction

that despite the heavy downpour, thecountry had sufficient wheat stock avail-able. He also asked for exploring themarket in the neighbourhood for export-ing the commodity.

The president’s spokesperson saidduring the meeting on Watan Cards, theNADRA chairman told the presidentthat out of approximately 1.3 million el-igible beneficiaries identified by the dis-trict administrations and the PDMA,around 1.1 million have been providedwith the cards so far. NADRA has set up91 Watan Card sites out of the planned96 outlets in various flood-affected dis-tricts of the province and out of them, 53have been closed after completing oper-ations and 38 are still operational.

So far, Rs 9 billion has been distrib-uted among the eligible beneficiaries ofthe Watan Cards.

The NADRA chairman also informedthe president that the second phase ofhouse construction under the Watan Cards,pertaining to the flood survivors of 2009,would begin in April this year with donors’assistance to the tune of Rs 14 billion.

The agreement with the World Bankin this regard has already been reached.About 350,000 houses will be rebuilt inthe province.

The President advised NADRA andother concerned authorities that the dis-tribution of Watan Cards should be com-pleted in all 16 affected districts andvarious banks should be facilitated instarting their operations in areas thathave remained unattended so far.

He also advised that the governmentshould ensure release of the necessaryfunding so that the process of providingdirect relief to the beneficiaries remainsunhindered.

Those present during the briefingsincluded Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari,Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah,Interior Minister Rehman Malik,oprovincial ministers Murad Ali Shah,Agha Siraj Durrani, Nadir Magsi,Shazia Marri, Muzaffar Ali Shujra, JamSaifullah Dharejo, Sharmila Farooqui,SAPM on Water and Agriculture KamalMajidullah and NADRA Chairman AliArshad Hakeem.

President for a good plan to reduce floodingin future■ wants discharge capacity of the existing drainage

system restored, remodelled and enhanced for

20 years, and abandoned old natural paths for

floodwater identified, activated and utilised

■ Advises district and Provincial disaster Management

Authority officials to help various banks start

their operations for distributing watan Cards in

areas that have remained unattended so far due

to various constraints

KArAChIIMdAd SooMRo

The Sindh government has decided thatthe development works undertaken bythe defunct City District GovernmentKarachi (CDGK) would now be carriedout by the Karachi Metropolitan Corpo-ration (KMC), Pakistan Today has learnt.

The notification in this regard wasissued by Sindh Chief Secretary SindhRaja Muhammad Abbas.

According to the existent law SLGO79, Act 2011, any municipal corporationincluding the KMC can only provide mu-nicipal services.

Constitutional and legal experts havetermed the decision as unconstitutionaland in violation of the Sindh Local Gov-ernment Ordinance 1979 Act, 2011,which was passed by the Sindh Assemblyon July 9, 2011.

According to sources, the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP)-led provincial gov-ernment made the move under pressurefrom its coalition partner, the MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM).

After the nazim system was dis-carded, the MQM wanted the PPP totransfer the authority to carry out devel-opment works in Karachi to the KMC.

The sources said MQM leader Raza

Haroon is unofficially the head of theKMC and runs the routine business ofthe corporation.

Constitutional expert Barrister Za-meer Ghumro told Pakistan Today thatafter the SLGO 2001 was discarded, de-velopment works are supposed to be car-ried out under the supervision of deputycommissioners. However, the provincialgovernment’s move violates constitutionand is an illegal act.

Legal expert and head of the ‘Jus-tice for All’, advocate Haq Nawaz Talpursaid the government has practically di-vided Sindh into two parts by issuingthe notification.

Govt’s unfair distributionof fertiliser and seedsworsening matters

fLood-HIT farMerSKMC to carry on where CdGK left off

KArAChIAMAR GURIRo

Last year’s monsoon rainsdeprived many in Sindh oftheir lives, houses andlivelihoods, but now thegovernment’s unfair distri-bution of agriculture inputsamong farmers in variousdistricts is making mattersworse, revealed a report is-sued on Monday.

The Civil Society FloodSituation Report (CSFSR)was prepared and releasedby the People’s Accounta-bility Commission onFloods (PACF), a networkof volunteers working forthe flood survivors.

According to the report,the package for Rabi assis-tance to the flood survivorsincludes 50-kg of wheatseeds, 50-kg fertiliser peracre and 600 metric tonnesof sunflower seeds.

“The Agriculture De-

partment has distributed55,000 metric tonnes ofwheat seeds in 17 districtsin accordance with the gov-ernment’s criterion that abeneficiary must be a land-holder of 25 acres or less,”the PACF stated in the re-port quoting the data of theAgriculture Department:

However, the distribu-tion of fertiliser has par-tially taken place in 15affected districts only andsunflower seeds would bedistributed in January, cre-ating problems for thefarmers.

The flood affected com-munities say that they havebeen denied of their dueright because they have noacquaintance with the in-fluential lots in the area.“The gravity of injustice inthe distribution can begauged from the fact thateven landlords’ animalshave been seen eating the

seeds while we [the poorfarmers] remain in direneed of them,” says one ofthem.

The wheat seeds werenot distributed on equalitybasis as they are being soldin markets; the reportquoted a farmer as saying.

According to details,over 30 percent land is stillnot cultivable as most of itis largely inundated bysaline water, where as theother 30 percent of land,which is ready to minglewith seeds, is lying barrenfor want of them.

Quoting some inde-pendent experts as saying,it is stated in the report,“The imaginary assessmentof inundation situation isnot reliable due to techno-logical constraints, reces-sion trends, submergedirrigation system and artifi-cial resistance by influen-tial to natural drainages.”

President Asif Ali Zardari chairinga meeting at the Bilawal Houseon watan Cards and irrigationprojects in Sindh. oNLINe


karachi 07PakistaN today


Patients requiring immediate assistance are being wheeled by their perturbed attendants at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Monday, as a strike called

by doctors to protest the murder of dr Saleem Kharal on friday caused many difficulties for people arriving at the hospital. oNLINe

KArAChIAMAR GURIRo

THe year 2012 started with abad omen for the residents ofKarachi as mild tremorsshook a large number ofsouth-eastern areas of the

city in the wee hours of Monday.The intensity of the tremors was

very low, but jolts were felts in severalareas including the Jinnah Interna-tional Airport, Ibrahim Hyderi,Quaidabad, Gulshan-e-Hadeed,Sachal Goth, Rehri Goth, Malir, Ko-rangi Industrial Area, Korangi, ShahFaisal Town, Gulistan-e-Jauhar,Ghaghar Phattak and fisherfolk settle-ments along the coastal belt.

The jolts were felt after midnightwhen the majority of the people weresleeping. People woke up in manyareas and rushed out-side in panic.

The Pakistan Me-teorological Depart-ment (PMD) Sindh wasclueless about the in-tensity of the earth-quake on the Richterscale, as the NationalSeismic Monitoringand early TsunamiWarning Centre of thePMD Sindh set by theeducational, Scientificand Cultural Organisa-tion (UNeSCO) are notoperational.

“I felt the jolts too,but as the monitoringcentre is not function-ing, we were unable torecord the location and

intensity of the earthquake,” PMDSindh chief meteorologist Naeem Shahtold Pakistan Today.

“We have informed the PMD Islam-abad and PMD director general manytimes about this,” he added.

A recent research study conductedby joint teams of different internationalorganisations and the PMD revealedthat Karachi faces a high earthquakerisk as the city lies on one major andfour minor fault lines, about 150-kmeast of the triple junction between theArabian, Indian, and Asian plates.

But despite that, the federal orprovincial governments have taken noprecautionary measures so far. Manyareas of the city are not covered by thePMD and minor seismic activities arenot recorded properly due to the ab-sence of short-period seismometers.

Minor jolts in the south-eastern

parts of the city are normal and theylargely go unnoticed. But sometimes,many people feel low intensity jolts asthese areas lie either on the river bed orland reclaimed from sea land. Thebuilding control rules in the city are alsoentirely neglected. Therefore, mild joltsare felt very strongly in these areas.

Recorded history reveals that theresidents of Karachi felt the 1945Makran (Balochistan) and 2001 Bhuj(India) earthquakes, and also irregularjolts of 4-5 Richter scale earthquakes onfaults north and northwest of the city.But no earthquake has ever produceddocumented damage in Karachi.

But despite that, experts say that thegovernment should set up a proper sys-tem and bound the PMD to record everyseismic activity in the city.

In the past, earthquake-monitor-ing stations were working in Khuzdar,

Quetta, Peshawar, Is-lamabad and Karachi,but they were follow-ing an old style man-ual operation patternand were unable to in-form about an earth-quake 30 minutesbefore it occurs.

But after 2004when a tsunami hit theIndonesian islandSumatra and later in2005 when an earth-quake devastated thenorthern parts of Pak-istan, the PMD set upan early tsunamiwarning centre inKarachi in 2008. How-ever, it is not function-ing at the moment.

2012 starts with a bad omen forKarachi… tremors■ Mild jolts felt in south-eastern areas of city

KArAChIBAkHAt ALI

The administrative judge of the Anti-TerrorismCourts (ATCs) Justice Faisal Arab remanded onMonday five suspected Taliban terrorists to CIDpolice custody till January 17.The Crime Investigation Department (CID) ar-rested the five men, allegedly belonging ot the‘Punjabi Taliban’ group, on December 31.They seized two suicide jackets, 145 kilo-grammes of explosives, six detonators, 23 rock-ets grenades, three Kalashnikovs, a 9mm pistol,10 kilogrammes of fertiliser and detonatingwires from their possession.The CID produced the five men before the ATCjudge and identified the suspects as Alauddin aliasShakirullah, Farhan Khan alias Ali, Amir Shahzadalias Mufti Asadullah, Irfan alias Mavia and ShahJahan alias Adnan Munna.The CID told the judge that Alauddin was the chiefof the Punjabi Taliban group in Sindh. The CID po-lice conducted a raid near a thermal factory inShah Latif Town along the National Highway andarrested these men.The suspects were planning to target judges, policeofficers and government officials and have con-fessed to killing seven people including a policeconstable in Hyderabad, the CID told the judge.earlier, the ATC judge remanded two alleged Tal-iban terrorists to CID police custody for 15 days.The police arrested Abdul Waheed and Muham-mad Shakil, allegedly belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Punjabi group.Investigation officer Suhail Khan produced thembefore the judge and requested their remand forfurther investigation.

KArAChIfIZZA HASSAn

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is notignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge”.

Daniel Boorstin

Believing that introspection is the key step to-wards “change”, 49 alumni artistsof the Indus ValleySchool of

Arts and Architecture(IVSAA) recently dis-played their art workat the IVS Gallery, re-flecting their per-ceived predicament.

The exhibitedpieces included ar-chitectural draw-ings, photography, mixed media, screenprint, leather bags and ceramics. Whilesome artist decided to pay an ode to the

urban designs of old Karachi (‘Labour ofLove’), others celebrated the vibrant huesthe colour gold can lend to leather (bags) intheir installations (‘Gold Love’).

Some at exhibits stood out for beingunique and exceptional in their appeal in-cluding Alizeh Hasan’s untitled mixed media

piece and Sana Ansari’s ‘Karachi Circa77’. Other art pieces showed the skillstheir creators enjoy in a style that hasbecome their trade mark (Bilal Maq-sood’s untitled painting).

Out of the total 105 art pieces thatwere on display, most of the work wasmediocre, lacking depth the audi-ence expects from the IVS alumni.

However, the collective mustbe applauded as an effort for pro-viding a window of

opportunity toyoung talent to show-case their work andalongside gellingwith fellow artists.

According tothe IVS alumni’sstatement, the showhighlighted the per-sonal revolutionswe undertake, asartists and peoplewanting to be a partof the bigger pic-ture, and this pretty

much summarises the exhibition.

Photos courtesy IVSAA.

49 artists, 105 artpieces and perceivedpredicament

7 suspectedterrorists remanded


karachiPakistaN today

weATHeR UPdATeS

low

26°CClear skiesHigh

17°C 29%Humidity

wedNeSdAY THURSdAY fRIdAY26°C I 19°C 25°C I 13°C 24°C I 9°C

PRAYeR TIMINGS

Starting time in Karachi

fajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

5:56 7:16 12:36 3:36 5:56 7:17

CITY dIReCTORY

POlICe 15

BOMB dISPOSAl 15, 99212667

fIRe BRIGAde 16, 99215007, 99215008

edHI 115, 32310066-2310077

KHIdMAT-e-KHAlQ fOUNdATION 36333811

Red CReSCeNT 35833973

GOveRNOR’S HOUSe 136

CHIef MINISTeR’S HOUSe 99202051

MOTORwAY POlICe 130

eMeRGeNCY HelP

HOSPITAlS

ABBASI SHAHeed 99260400-09

CIvIl 99215749, 99215960

JINNAH 99201300-39

NICvd 99201271-6

AGA KHAN 34930051

TABBA 36811841-50

BlOOd BANK

HUSSAINI 32238405-8

fATIMId 32225284, 32258656

PwA 99215740, 32735214

COMPlAINT

KeSC 118

PTCl 1218

KwSB 1339

CdGK 134

SUI GAS 1199, 99231603

RAIlwAYS

INQUIRY 117, 99213565-6

CITY STATION 99213538

CANTT STATION 99201118

AIRPORT

flIGHT INQUIRY 114

PIA ReSeRvATION 111786786

COlleGeS / UNIveRSITIeS

KARACHI UNIveRSITY 99261300-06

Ned UNIveRSITY 99261261-8

fUUAST 99244141-9

dUHS 99215754-7

SMIC 99217501-3

fAST-NU 111128128, 34100541-7

SZABIST 111922478

IOBM 35090961-7

IBA 111422422

IvS 35861039-40

OVeR the last six decadeshistorians and analystshave discussed the mys-tery of Muhammad AliJinnah’s political ‘con-

version’ from Indian nationalism toPakistani separatism. It seems ironicthat he was the supreme advocate ofthe Two-Nation Theory, the ideathat Hindus and Muslims were twoseparate nations and could not livepeacefully together. After all, at onetime he was the ‘ambassador ofHindu-Muslim unity’, who wantedIndians to set aside their communaldifferences and stand united as onenation in the fight for Indian inde-pendence from the British. Yet thissame man later demanded partition,and from the moment he made thedemand he always maintained thatPakistan would be a state based on‘Islamic ideals’. The focus, therefore,has always been on Jinnah’s so-called ideological persuasion: was hea secularist or was he a communal-ist? Was his outward ‘conversion’ tothe Two-Nation Theory matched bya genuine internal, psychologicalchange? If it was genuine, then whatkind of Islam did he follow? If it wasnot genuine, then did he really aimfor partition at all?

I shall attempt to show that itwas Jinnah’s innate sense of human-ity, coupled with his experiences inthe turbulent history of BritishIndia, which helped him discover hislater faith in Islamic idealism. Infact, the question is less about Jin-nah himself, and more about Islamand the Two-Nation Theory, both ofwhich need to be examined fromJinnah’s particular point of view ver-sus that of his contemporaries.

We shall examine Jinnah’s polit-ical career from the very beginningto the point of his abandonment ofIndian nationalism. Two majorevents together altered Jinnah’s ide-ological perspective. The first wasthe Round Table Conferences of1930-31; the second was the Indianprovincial elections of 1936-7. Inshort, his failure to secure freedomfor India as a ‘secular Muslim’ is thechief cause of his ‘conversion’.INTER-COMMUNAL TENSION:The communal tension betweenMuslims and Hindus in British Indiahas a long history dating back to theperiod of Muslim rule in India,which lasted almost a millenniumand had come to a formal close lessthan 20 years before Jinnah’s birth.(Bahadur Shah Zafar, the lastMughal emperor, lost his throne tothe British in the Mutiny of 1857 –the last ditch attempt of Muslims,aided by Hindus unwilling to submitto British rule or tolerate Christianmissionaries, to hang onto theirpower). Many Pakistani historianshave analysed the growth of theHindu-Muslim divide starting fromthis period, from the beginning ofBritish Raj, which introduced secu-lar education, bureaucracy and par-liamentarianism, and then, ofcourse, the mutual distrust betweenthe Hindus and Muslims, as it isconsidered the historical basis of theTwo-Nation Theory, which led to thecreation of Pakistan. Here, however,it should suffice to say that someMuslim rulers were better than oth-

ers. It is hardly surprising that ordi-nary Hindus in British India had anoverall negative perception of theMuslim period. From their point ofview, Muslims from Persia,Afghanistan and Central Asia hadinvaded and forced India to becomepart of the Muslim world. Somerulers had destroyed Hindu idolsand temples, and had forced peopleto convert to Islam. Of course, otherrulers treated their citizens amica-bly, regardless of their religion, at atime when civil equality was practi-cally unheard of in other parts of theworld. It has even been suggestedthat the Mughal empire was theworld’s ‘first secular state’, giventhat Hindus frequently had promi-nent positions in governance, in fi-nance and in the military. TheMuslims also brought with themphilosophy, art, architecture and lit-erature that enriched India, ac-counting for countless willingconversions to Islam. But thisdoesn’t detract from the fact ofHindu resentment towards Muslimimperialism, a feeling that was per-haps made stronger by the fact thatwhen it finally ended, it was onlysucceeded by British imperial rule.

Following the 1857 Mutiny andthe end of Muslim rule, Muslims iso-lated themselves and shunned allthings that were British, includingeducation, at the cost of their ownsocio-economical advancement.Muslim religious leaders issued afatwa, or Islamic decree, to declarelearning the english language asharaam (prohibited). Subsequently,very few Muslims were educated andeven fewer worked in offices or hadjobs in civil service. The Hindus,meanwhile, began attending univer-sities, getting respectable jobs in of-fices and courts and becomingsocio-economically advanced.

Nevertheless, all Indians wantedself-rule, or swaraj, whether sooner orlater. This was the reason for the for-mation of the All India National Con-gress in 1885. Although manyMuslims joined the Congress in theearly years, the question that was tofrequently haunt them was what ‘self-rule’ meant, especially later when

Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) move-ments began to rise and assert them-selves. The All India Muslim Leaguewas, thus, set up in 1906 to defendMuslim interests, and also, in view ofthe fact that Muslims were them-selves partly to blame for their ownproblems, to ‘promote among theMusalmans of India feelings of loyaltyto the British Government’. The Con-gress, meanwhile, was more openlycommitted to self-government, albeitwithin the British empire.SEEKING NATIONAL UNITY:Jinnah, born in 1876 in Karachi, wasa staunch Indian nationalist and anadvocate of a united India for manyyears. At the very beginning of hiscareer, even when he was practisinglaw full time, he strongly associatedhimself with the All India NationalCongress party and quickly becameone of its brightest young stars. Hismentors were non-Muslim liberalpoliticians such as Hindu Gopal Kr-ishna Gokhale and Parsi DadabhaiNaoroji, and this no doubt affectedhis attitude towards communal rela-tions and separate electorates, whichhe opposed in principle, against ma-jority Muslim opinion of the time.Living, though, he was in BritishIndia, in which the social and intel-lectual divisions between Hindu andMuslim were manifest, he believedthat India’s freedom would only bepossible if the two communitiesworked together as equals.MUSLIMS AS EQUAL: At thesame time, he actively demonstratedhis concern for safeguarding the in-terests of his own community. In hisvery first speech in Congress in De-cember 1906, in which a resolutionwas moved on the issue of Waqf-i-ala-aulad (Muslim law dealing withinheritance and trust), he expressedhis appreciation that a question af-fecting solely the Muslim commu-nity was being raised by theCongress. It showed, he said, thatMuslims could stand ‘equally’ on theCongress platform. Jinnah voicedthis sentiment again the next day atthe same session: “The Mahomedancommunity should be treated in thesame way as the Hindu community.The foundation upon which the In-

dian National Congress is based isthat we are all equal.” Later, he alsotook on the Waqf issue himself,sponsoring the Musalman Waqf Val-idating Bill through the Viceroy’sLegislature in 1913.

It was Jinnah’s anti-imperialstance rather than an indifference toMuslim interests that explains whyhe refrained from joining the essen-tially pro-British Muslim Leagueuntil 1913, some seven years after itwas founded. When he did, it was be-cause the League had brought its of-ficial rules more in line with anationalistic programme, and thattoo under his personal guidance.Thereafter, it was through his mem-bership of both parties that heworked for a political union of Hin-dus and Muslims.

Jinnah cemented his reputationas the ‘ambassador of Hindu-Muslimunity’ in 1916, when, as president ofthe Muslim League, he was the chiefactor in rallying the two major com-munities in a cooperative agreementwhich became known as the Luc-know Pact. Through the pact, theCongress formally recognised theright of Muslims to have ‘special’electorates, and implicitly recognisedthem as being on an equal footingwith Hindus. In return, the Leaguewas to support the national aims ofthe Congress. Jinnah thus demon-strated his respect for Muslim opin-ion even if he did not fully agree withit personally. From the very begin-ning, Jinnah made it clear that hedid not think of his community as a‘minority’, but an ‘equal’ part of theIndian body politic. This was the rea-son that he was not keen on separateelectorates for Muslims. He did nothave any particular alternative wordto describe his view of the Muslimposition, but in later years, he wouldstate that his Lucknow Pact wasbased on the principle that the Mus-lims were a separate ‘entity’, whilstCongress had insisted on treatingthem as a ‘minority’ to be ‘governedand ruled by the Hindu majority’.

Extract from Saleena Karim’s ‘Secular Jinnah & Pakistan: WhatThe Nation Doesn’t Know’.


HAdIA/kIRAn/SoBIA

Hadia Moiz, Kiran Saeed and Sobia

Ahmed’s art exhibition from January

10 to 18 at the Chawkandi Art gallery.

Call 35373582 for more information.

ArT eXhIBITIoNSTArTS JANUArY 10 AT 05:30 PMVeNUe: ChAWKANDI ArT

SAEEd AkHtAR

Saeed Akhtar’s exhibition of char-

coal drawings from January 7 to

14 at the ArtScene Gallery. Call

35843961 for more information.

ArT eXhIBITIoNSTArTS JANUArY 7 AT 05:30 PMVeNUe: ArTSCeNe GALLerY

InfLEXIon

Simeen Farhat’s ‘Inflexion’ until

January 3 at ArtChowk-the

Gallery. Call 35300481 for more

information.

ArT eXhIBITIoNUNTIL JANUArY 3VeNUe: ArTChoWK

How Jinnah discovered hisfaith in Islamic idealism



ISLAMABADIRfAn BUkHARI

With the new provinces controversy fi-nally entering parliament, the commit-ment of political elites is all set to face atough test as most of the mainstream po-litical parties have been claiming supportto the popular demand made by peoplefrom across the country to create newprovinces on administrative or lingualbasis.

The question of creating newprovinces has hit parliament, as the Mut-tahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) aftersubmitting two separate resolutions inboth Houses of parliament for the cre-ation of new provinces in KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Punjab has also sub-mitted the “20th Constitution Amend-ment Bill’ in parliament for the samepurpose.

A resolution has also been submittedin the National Assembly by FATA parlia-mentarians for declaring Federally Ad-

ministrated Tribal Areas (FATA) aprovince. The MQM on Thursday submit-ted two separate resolutions in the Na-tional Assembly’s Secretariat for thecreation of two new provinces — Hazaraprovince consisting of six districts of Khy-ber Pakhtunkhwa and South Punjab.

On January 2 (Monday), the MQMsubmitted the same resolutions in theSenate.

Haider Abbas Rizvi said the issue ofcreation of Hazara province was quiteclear, pointing out that it was time tomake six districts, Mansehra, Abbot-tabad, Kohistan, Haripur, Battagram andTorgor a separate province. About hisparty’s resolution on southern Punjab, hesaid the MQM would push for conductinga referendum to ascertain whether thelocal people wanted southern Punjab as aprovince or two provinces, the otherbeing Bahawalpur.

The MQM also submitted the “20thConstitution Amendment Bill” in parlia-ment on Monday for the creation of Haz-ara and South Punjab provinces. Thedraft bill seeks amendments in Article 1,101 and 151 of the constitution.

The MQM’s move may land the Pak-

istan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) introuble as the latter can neither opposenor support the bill. “If we oppose Seriakiprovince, we will loose vote bank insouthern Punjab … and if we support it,it would divide our party’s stronghold(Punjab), which is against our politicalinterests,” a PML-N leader wishing not tobe attributed said.

Rasool Bukhsh Rais, a well-knownpolitical analyst, said the MQM was notinterested in creating Hazara, Seraiki orother provinces and the primary motiveof its submitting resolutions and bill inthe National Assembly was that ultimatedebate on the issue of provinces wouldgradually be reduced to a package deal inwhich Sindh would not remain immuneto further division.

He said the MQM could not directlypropose division of Sindh, as it would re-sult into violent ethnic clashes, therefore,the MQM wanted to create hype aboutcreating new provinces, including Sindh,and avoid clashes simultaneously.

Separately, while submitting resolu-tion for declaring FATA a province,Hameedullah Jan Afridi said last Fridaythat “we have submitted the resolution on

behalf of the FATA Parliamentary Groupthat FATA should be given the status of aprovince”.

Talking to Pakistan Today MunirOrakzai said, “FATA has suffered a lotand in the prevalent situation, FATA de-serves to be declared a separateprovince.” On the other hand, PPP’strusted ally – the Awami National Party(ANP) - is vehemently opposing FATAcreation as a separate province unless po-litical activity is generated to influencethe opinion in favour or against the issueby political parties.

The demands of people and their rep-resentatives for the creation of newprovinces in various parts of the countryget justification due to the failure of suc-cessive governments in giving equalrights and opportunities to all citizens ofthe country.

This disparity can be gauged from thefact that despite the passage of aroundfour months since President Asif AliZardari approved amendments to theFrontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), thegovernment has failed to establish insti-tutional mechanism for implementingthe amended FCR in FATA and the delay

has become a source of anguish for peo-ple of FATA and parliamentarians.

Zafar Beg Bhittani, MNA from FATA,said the courts (Appellate Authority &FATA Tribunal) had not been establishedyet. “The delay in implementation ofeverything has become a hallmark of thegovernment … even powers have not beendevolved to the provinces as passedunder 18th Amendment,” he said.

The government’s sincerity in bring-ing peace and development to the restiveareas of FATA could also be gauged fromthe fact that during the fist two quartersof the current fiscal year (2011-12), onlyRs 1 billion were released of the Rs 15 bil-lion allocation.

Talking to Pakistan Today, Akhun-zada Chattan, MNA from FATA, said inthe last financial year (2010-11), only 30percent of total allocated funds were re-leased.

“The delay in release of funds badlyhampers development in the regionwhich is already lagging behind otherparts of the country … from December toMarch, you cannot execute developmentworks in FATA due to harsh weather con-ditions,” he said.

JI to challenge

gas price hikePeShAWAr

StAff REPoRt

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has decided tochallenge the recent increase in gas pricesin the Peshawar High Court (PHC) onWednesday. Holding a press conference onMonday, former provincial minister KashifAzam said that the JI would submit anapplication against the federal andprovincial governments in the PHC againstthe increase in gas rates. Flanked byformer MPA Javed Mohmand and KhalidGul Mohmand, he said that 44MB gas wasproduced from Gargari area while KhyberPakhtunkhwa needed 22 MB and despitegas load shedding and increasing rates, thecommodity was far from the reach of thepeople. Azam said that the provinceproduced enough electricity to meet itsneeds but electricity load shedding hadcreated many problems for the businesscommunity while companies andindustries were closed due to loadshedding. He said that the JI would holdprotests and strikes across the country onJanuary 6. The JI leader appealed to thePHC to take immediate action on the issue.

Gas price hike

challenged in SHCKArAChIonLInE

The recent hike in the price of gas waschallenged in Sindh High Court (SHC) onMonday. The petition pleaded that thecourt make the federal government, theOil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA)chairman, the federal petroleum ministerand the Sui Southern Gas Company(SSGC) MD respondents. The petitionersaid the raise in gas prices was anadditional burden on the people and itwould unleash a new wave of price hike,therefore it should be withdrawn.

Oxford to launch

book on Bd womenLAHORE: The Oxford University Presswill launch its latest publication, Women,War and the Making of Bangladesh:Remembering 1971, written by YasminSaikia. Based on several oral accounts,the book traces the multiple experiencesof Bangladeshi women in the 1971 warthat led to the creation of Bangladesh.Professor Imtiaz Bokhari, ProfessorTariq Rahman, Mahfuzur Rahman, DrYaqoob Khan Bangash, Dr James Tebbeand Yasmin Saikia will be the speakersat the launch being held on today(January 3) at the Forman ChristianCollege, Lahore at 4 pm. PR

four killed inmilitants-peacecommitteeclashes in Khyber

KhYBer AGeNCYStAff REPoRt

At least four people, includingthree militants were killed andanother two injured in clashesbetween militants and volunteersof peace committee in Soorghararea near Landikotal town ofKhyber Agency on Monday. Officials said the clashes eruptedwhen the militants attacked thevolunteers of peace committee.The clashes continued for aroundhalf an hour wherein both sidesused modern and heavy weapons.According to the officials, threemilitants and a volunteer werekilled and two were injured. Thesecurity forces were also put onhigh alert.

News

New-provinces bill to test commitment of political elite

PeShAWArStAff REPoRt

TH e assassination of no-torious terrorist QariKamran and his accom-plices has forced the lawenforcement agencies to

declare high alert across Nowshehradistrict on Monday.

The administration has even re-fused to let Khyber PakhtunkhwaInformation Minister Iftikhar Hus-sain attend scheduled meetings inhis constituency.

Kamran, chief of bannedTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Now-shehra was killed with his 11 accom-plices during a military offensive inKramna area of Khyber Agency onSunday.

Kamran and his other accom-plices had offered resistance when

the security forces raided a com-pound in his use. After four hours ofcross firing, the security forces suc-ceeded in killing 12 of the militants.

Kamran was consideredamongst hardcore militants and hadrecently shifted to Tirrah valley ofKhyber Agency where he was as-signed the task of attacking NATOconvoys passing through the KhyberPass.

He was considered amongst topranking Taliban commanders andwas charged for deadly terroristacts in Shabqadar, Charsada,Risalpur and Akbarpura area ofNowshehra district.

The news of his assassinationspread like jungle fire across his na-tive town, Nowshehra, forcing theauthorities to announce high alertacross the district.

Keeping in view possible reac-

tion in Nowshehra, the administra-tion did not give a green signal toKhyber Pakhtunkhwa InformationMinister Mian Iftikhar Hussain toattend schedule gatherings in thedistrict. Hussain has confirmed thereports and quoted intelligencesources and police officials as say-ing that the “accomplices of QariKamran have made a plan for re-venge”.

Hussain told reporters that theassassination of Qari Kamran was a“success of the security forces en-gaged in the war on terror”.

He said other militants mustkeep in mind that the governmentwas firm in its decision of endingmilitancy and terrorism. He, how-ever, reiterated that the governmentwas ready for talks with those whoabandoned violence and recognisedthe government’s writ.

Nowshera on high alert

after Qari Kamran’s killing

PESHAWAR: People protest against gas and power load shedding on Gt Road on Monday. STaff pHoTo



News

ISLAMABADAMER SIAL

THe government is losingsteam to resolve the energycrisis due to a lack of expert-ise in the concerned min-istries, failure to reduce the

price difference of various fuels, delay inbacking energy imports, absence of rulesfor regulating the sector after devolutionand above all, the failure to address thecircular debt.

According to officials, whatever stepsthe government had taken during the lastfour years were short-term and no long-term plan had been envisioned for imple-mentation due to a lack of expertise andplanning at the central level.

It is evident from the fact that no newinvestment in the power sector has beenmade during the government’s four-yeartenure. The Finance Ministry has alsofailed to decide on deduction at source ofpower dues of over Rs 150 billion dues ofgovernment departments, taking the pleathat it was not possible after devolution.

Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussainhas complained that the Finance Ministry

was non committal on the proposal thatsought reducing Rs 10 per litre levy onpetrol to bring its prices closer to CNG.

He was of the opinion that the reduc-tion in levy would not affect the govern-ment’s revenue, as petrol sales volumewould increase with price parity. It wouldat least allow additional gas supply to thefertilizer, power and industrial sectors.

Lack of professionals in the min-istries of water and power and petroleumis another major handicap. The ministryof water and power had to temporarilybring in a professional from NeSPAK forbetter manage its power wing. The petro-leum minister has ordered the hiring ofan executive director general for hydro-carbons from the market to head thetechnical wing of the ministry in order toput the existing staff on the right track.He also ordered hiring of at least 25 per-cent new staff instead of promoting anddeputing incumbent officials. Still, the es-tablishment of technical wings in bothministries was delayed due to the redtapes.

The competence of the existing staffhas degraded to such an extent that,sources said, the Petroleum Ministry was

unable to devise a standard petroleumconcessions agreement for the last manymonths, which was to be an integral partof the Petroleum Policy 2011. The imple-mentation of new petroleum policy hasalready hit snags, as KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Balochistan want toregulate the sector and own the royalty,without giving any control and share tothe federal government. An officialsource said the situation could have beenaverted if the officials concerned hadbothered to address the concerns of theprovince before and during policy mak-ing. The matter has now been referred tothe Council of Common Interests (CCI)for resolution, though earlier, the LawMinistry had interpreted that the Centrewould continue to regulate the sector andwould have a share in royalty.

The delay in drafting petroleum pol-icy means that no new blocks can beawarded for oil and gas exploration – thelast auctioning of blocks was held in 2010before the approval of the 18th Amend-ment. But there were other constraints inpromoting indigenous exploration, assummarised before the National Assem-bly Standing Committee on Petroleum by

Petroleum Secretary ejaz Chaudhary,who said the Ministry of Defence had re-fused permission for an aerial survey ofKharaan block in Balochistan.

The source said changing the expen-sive fuel mix was a major issue for thegovernment, which could not be resolvedby expediting indigenous oil and gas ex-ploration. This requires a national con-sensus to be implemented on war footing.The government has opted for the safestway to address the power crisis, by en-hancing the power tariff, which despitebeing increased by a massive 75 percentduring the last two fiscal years, has failedto resolve the issue. The people are bur-dened to pay massive power bills, but stillhave to fret for hours due to blackouts.

Government agencies are focusing onthe expensive, mega hydel power proj-ects, not on easy-to-build run of the riverprojects that could yield more hydelpower in the short run.

Lack of public sector investment isanother major cause for slow progress inhydel and coal sectors. Private sector in-vestment has been on the hold, as localbanks are reluctant to finance any newproject until the resolution of the circular

debt. Independent power producers’ re-ceivables have soared to Rs 266 billion byDecember 31, 2011. They have to repay Rs150 billion in debts to banks by the yearend.

The circular debt is also affecting theprospects of private sector LNG importsin the country, as some of the investorshave started seeking sovereign guaran-tees if their dues were not timely clearedby private sector entities. LNG importswill be used for power generation, but ifthe circular debt is not rooted out, no-body would be making $2 billion invest-ment for the imports.

The government has an offer to im-port 1,000MW of electricity from India.But the move could have serious conse-quences for Pakistan, as it could be usedby New Delhi to expedite water storageon three western rivers given to Pakistanunder the Indus Water Treaty, as it couldclaim that the country was not interestedto tap the hydel water resources.

Sources said the most viable projectfor hydel power generation remained theKalabagh Dam, but the failure to have anational consensus was delaying its exe-cution.

ISLAMABADJALALUddIn RUMI

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)has collected Rs 201.7 billion during themonth of December, making the totaltax revenue collected in the first sixmonths of the current fiscal to Rs 840.7billion, compared to Rs 661.7 billioncollected during the same period lastyear, an increase of 27.05 percent.

According to the provisional figuresof its cash reporting system, the FBRhad achieved its target for the first sixmonths, Rs 840.1 billion.

FBR Chairman Salman Siddiquetold Pakistan Today that achieving thetarget for the first six month was a pos-

itive indication towards meeting the an-nual target of Rs 1,952 billion for 2011-12. He said through the broadening oftax base (BTB) campaign, all large tax-payer units (LTUs) and regional tax of-fices (RTOs) had intensified efforts toensure maximum collection.

He said through the FBR’s Tax Rev-enue Reporting Mechanism, the break-up of the tax collection in income tax,sales tax, federal excise and customwould be available soon, while the con-solidated figures by Auditor General ofPakistan Revenue (AGPR) and the StateBank of Pakistan (SBP) would be avail-able in 10 days.

When contacted, an expert said rev-enue collection targets for the first half

were traditionally kept on the lowerside and higher targets were fixed forthe second half. In the past, the FBRhad used the technique of “end-load-ing”, meaning the targets for secondhalf (January-June) were higher ascompared to the first half of current fis-cal year, he said.

In a letter sent to all field offices,the FBR has pointed out various causesof BTB campaign not getting its due im-portance due to factors including poorlogistic support to BTB units, lack ofownership of the initiative, incompleteregional databases, human resourceweaknesses and inadequate IT infra-structure.

The chief commissioners were

asked to own the BTB initiative and toshoulder the responsibility of this keyobjective. It recommends evaluationand subsequent strengthening of exist-ing physical and human resources, allo-cating the best resources andestablishing new structure of BTBZones and Ranges to achieve the 2011-12 BTB targets.

Keeping in view on-the-ground sit-uation, new BTB targets (over 700,000new taxpayers) have also been assigned,along with the recommended steps toachieve these targets. The FBR is goingto contact 300,000 non tax filers byJanuary 12, 2012 and would have to col-lect Rs 1,111.3 billion more to achievethe target.

Muslims clash withChinese police fordestroying mosque

BeIJINGAfP

Hundreds of Muslims fought with armedpolice who demolished a mosque innorth China, local police and a humanrights group said on Monday, withseveral people injured in the “riot”.The violence between local Muslims androughly 1,000 armed police began afterpolice declared illegal a newly-renovatedmosque in the Ningxia Hui AutonomousRegion and moved to destroy it, theInformation Center for Human Rightsand Democracy, in Hong Kong, said. TheHui are one of several Muslim minoritygroups in China. Two people were killedand 50 injured after police fired tear gasand used knives and batons to beat backethnic Hui Muslim protesters in Taoshanvillage, Hexi township, the rights groupsaid, citing villagers.Hexi township police denied any deathswhen reached by telephone. A policemansurnamed Ma confirmed that themosque was torn down. He told AFP a“riot” occurred in Hexi on Saturdayafternoon. “Two police officers and twovillagers got injured and several villagerswere taken away by the police, but Idon’t know how many,” Ma said. OneTaoshan local who was away when theviolence occurred, said his relatives hadtold him over the telephone that onDecember 30 an official had shouted“(the mosque) is illegal” and ordered thearmed police to tear it down.“Clashes happened and more than 100people went missing,” Jin Haitao toldAFP. He said many villagers’ injurieswere caused by police using high-pressure water cannon to disperse thosetrying to stop destruction of the mosque.“Now, I can’t reach anyone there,” Jinsaid, speaking from north China’s Hebeiprovince near Beijing. The Hong Kong-based rights group said in a fax thatMuslims from Ningxia and theneighbouring province of Gansu haddonated money to build the mosque. Jinsaid it was first built in 1987 andrefurbished last year.China’s communist governmentmonitors religious activity closely andmust approve the building of allmosques, churches and other places ofworship as a way to prevent theirbecoming centres for anti-governmentorganising. China in recent years hasseen several outbreaks of ethnic violenceinvolving Muslims, mostly as the mainlyMuslim Uighurs of the northwestXinjiang region bridle under what theyregard as government oppression andthe unwanted immigration of majorityethnic Han Chinese.

AttoCk: Students demonstrate against Rawalpindi Board on Monday. STaff pHoTo

Govt losing steam to resolve energy crisisg Circular debt, failure to reduce price difference of fuels, delayed energy imports washing away government’s dream of resolving issueg Remedies provided by incumbent government only proved short term solutions

fBr meets collection target for firsthalf, rs 1.111 trillion still to go

ISLAMABAD: Having made his mark on thedomestic political scene, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf(PTI) Chairman Imran Khan will speak to aninternational audience at the annual meeting of theWorld economic Forum (WeF) in Davos-Klosters,Switzerland this month and share his vision with topworld leaders to steer the country out of the economiccrisis. Former federal minister Jahangir Tareen, whowas developing the PTI’s reforms strategy, willaccompany Imran to Davos for participation in theWeF annual meeting from January 25 to 29.According to sources, columnist Ikram Sehgal wouldhost a lunch for the PTI leader, which foreign leaders

were also expected to attend. Prime Minister SyedYousaf Raza Gilani will represent Pakistan as the headof government. The Annual WeF Meeting 2012 will beheld under the theme–The Great Transformation:Shaping New Models, whereby leaders return to theircore purpose of defining what the future should looklike, aligning stakeholders around that vision andinspiring their institutions to realise that vision.Imran, criticising the PPP and PML-N for their failureto give the country a new narrative at a time when itwas beset with internal and external pressures, hadpresented the PTI as an alternative to the two majorpolitical forces. StAff REPoRt

Court to alwayswork for welfareof people: CJP


Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJ) IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry on Monday said theSupreme Court would, without fear orfavour, always work for the betterment andwelfare of the people and never allow anytransgression on the dignity of the citizens.Speaking during a full court reference overthe death of former CJ Muhammad AfzalZullah, the CJ said, “We have sworn topreserve, protect and defend theconstitution. This court will always decidecases according to the dictates of law,without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.Being the torch-bearer, this court will neverlet down the dignity inherited from such alegend.” Paying homage to Justice Zullah,who, he said, was a true depiction of themaxim “Let justice be done, though theheavens should fall”, the CJ said thedecisions of the Supreme Court stood only onthe affirmation of rule of law andconstitutionalism. “The court is fully aware ofits constitutional role that is to administerjustice freely, fairly and impartially, cases areadjudicated on its own facts and disregard ofconsequences which may follow andirrespective of the status of the parties thatappear before it.” He said Justice Zullah’slandmark judgments would always provideintellectual guidance to both members of thebench and the bar alike. “He (Justice Zullah)has been considered to be amongst thepioneers of public interest litigation in thecountry,” the CJ said.

Imran to attend wef meeting this month


Editor’s mail 11Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

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

Gender inequalityThe word is quite in vogue nowadays

even in Pakistan where it is yet to berecognised as an issue officially. Pakistanis no exception to the generally abysmalstate of gender equality the world over.About 50 percent of Pakistani girls dropout of school and our literacy rate forwomen is amongst the lowest in theworld. Although women’s inferior statusto men exists in all strata of Pakistani so-ciety, the reasons and manifestations ofthe inequality differ quite substantiallyas we move from one socio-economicclass and region to another.

Looking at countries that have exhib-ited progress in eliminating gender in-equality, the one thing that they all havein common is an expansion in the set oflabour-market opportunities for women.Once women’s earning capacities im-prove, not only is the economic impera-tive driving parents to spend resources infavour of boys removed but women alsohave substantially more freedom with re-gard to decision-making.

SABEEN IMANLahore

women in police forceIn a society like ours, women have

never enjoyed an equal status to that ofmen. This wide-ranging issue also in-cludes policing and law enforcement,particularly in matters related to women.

Women police is considered as animportant part of the society in the de-veloped nations. However, the situationin our country is not so appreciable. Amere four or five percent of women po-lice force in the whole country can’t cur-tail the rising crime rate in women. Theirimportance is also increased by the factthat the cultural, traditional and some-times religious sentiments don’t allowwomen to go to police stations domi-nated by men.

In this connection, there is a strongneed to increase not only the percentageof women police force, but also the num-ber of police stations headed by women.Although, efforts were made to makewomen and men police to work together,the male chauvinism didn’t allow this tosucceed. If women are allowed to workseparately and with authority, an im-provement in policing can be expectedand issues related to women will be dealtwith in a much better manner.

ZULFIQAR HAIDERIslamabad

Kasuri’s futureFormer Foreign Minister Khurshid

Mahmood Kasuri announced his joiningthe Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) onDecember 20, 2011 at a public rally inKasur. Unfortunately, the announcementwas overshadowed by the fact that rallyparticipants made off with all the chairsplaced in the jalsa. For its part, the mediafocused more on the chairs episoderather than reporting on the former for-eign minister’s decision to join PTI. Themedia was more concerned with whathad transpired after the rally and howsurprising it was that no one had stoppedthe people who took off with a reported25000 chairs. It was even alleged thatsome in the rally had actually been hiredto do this.

PTI’s Karachi jalsa on December 25was orchestrated to display PTI’sstrength by showcasing all the heavy-weights who have joined the party. Sur-prisingly when Khurshid MahmoodKasuri came up to speak, the comperegot up twice and asked him to hurry upand end the speech.

This was not the way to treat a manof Khurshid Kasuri’s standing, when an-other former foreign minister, ShahMahmood Qureshi, was given muchmore importance and allowed to make along and boring speech. If one were tocompare the two as foreign ministers, itwas during Kasuri’s time that great head-way was made in India-Pakistan rela-tions and Pakistan’s foreign policy wasquite well respected.

Perhaps, Kasuri has made the wrongchoice. He would be better suited to arole in APML under Musharraf, his for-mer boss. Both of them had worked to-gether for five years to run a successfulforeign policy, and had come so near toresolving the Kashmir dispute.

APML itself needs weighty partymembers and Kasuri would be a goodaddition. It looks like he would be wast-ing his time in PTI where he will alwaysbe overshadowed. His meeting withMusharraf in Dubai has already won hima show cause notice from the PTI highcommand. This is the time when heshould break the rope and join APML.

MASOOMA IMRANKarachi

Biased behaviourIt was disgusting to see how low a

senior lawyer can stoop to. After not get-ting her way in the initial appeal, MsAsma Jehangir is willing to blame all theinstitutions of the state except the politi-cal party that she represents. Such a nar-row, biased and partisan behaviour wasleast expected from the "human rightschampion".

DR SOHAIL KIRMANIOntario, Canada

Appearance in realityCultural diversity, an offshoot of

globalisation is evident in the media con-tent especially in the hypnotic power ofthe TV morning shows and telefilms thatimpair our ability to detect our own senseof individuality and find our distinctiveculture amidst the chaos. Such shrewdacceptance of diverse cultures is Christ-mas day when the morning shows hostcontested with their opponents to cele-brate Christmas morning to their utmost,coupled with many one-act telefimswhich showed no reluctance to introduce

the superficial glamour of Christmas cel-ebration.

An acting Santa Claus was present onevery morning show, distributing gifts inbeautifully wrapped colourful glaze pa-pers and streamers decorated all aroundthe set add a great deal to the magnifi-cence to the occasion. Many of the spec-tators, especially the young ones fall forthis carrot and stick tactic; gift giving fi-esta magnetises people of all age groups.

In the midst of being mesmerised bythis superficial revelry, we tend to forget

the humble nature of our own two festi-vals as we see nothing supposedly attrac-tive in them. Rather, one might thinkthat celebrating Christmas along with ourown festivals blurs the distinction be-tween them and as liberal individual ofthis globalised world we pay equal hom-age to every occasion without question-ing their moral and spiritual worth.

Celebrating Christmas whether beinginspired by its outward show or playingan active role as a liberal individual em-bracing diverse possibilities with astute

acceptance, is blasphemous because peo-ple celebrate their particular festivals toshow their piety and devotion to their re-spective religion. As a Muslim we shouldbe proud with our two festivals and cele-brate them according to the confines andfestivity authorised upon us by our reli-gion; we should respect the festivals ofother religions but not go a step aheadand celebrate them with equal revelryand joy.

HADIA MUKHTAR SINGAPURIKarachi

Camel or rat“Al-Qaeda, not Taliban, is the US enemy,” a news item.

This reminds me of a joke. The grandfather of some youngrats rushed back to their hole to warn them, “Don’t go outas the policemen have arrived to arrest the camel.” “But weare rats and not camels,” came the reply. The grandpa re-

marked, “But the policemen will arrest all of you as well asthey cannot differentiate between camels and rats foryears.”

Z A KAZMIKarachi

“Is there any light at the endof the tunnel,” a curiousfriend asked referring to

continuous irritating power andgas loadshedding in the country.“Are we living in the Stone Age orAge of Darkness?” he again in-quired. I just smile and walkedaway without making any com-ment. This actually is the state ofmind of every individual in ourbeloved land.

A housewife, who cannot cookfood for the family because of sus-pension of gas supply, will cursethe gas authorities. Same is the

case with the business communitythat has shelved future businessplans because of power and gassupply suspension to their busi-ness outlets and factories.

every morning one can watchon TV screens footage of protestersblocking the main highways andstreets across the country. In mostof the cases, the angry youth turnviolent and ruthlessly damage anddestroy public and private propri-eties. This is the natural reactionone could expect from the frus-trated masses.

Their anger is multiplied whenthe government increases theprices of electricity, gas and oil andresorts to loadshedding. The pub-lic is justified to ask why the gov-ernment has increased 14 percentgas prices for all categories of con-sumers including domestic, com-mercial, industrial and fertilisermakers.

Motorists using CNG in theircars are also in big trouble becauseof increase in the CNG prices and

four days suspension of gas supplyto stations.

According to reports there are3500 gas stations throughout thecountry involving over 300 billionrupees investment. Over 3.5 mil-lion vehicles using CNG ply onroads. The government has raisedCNG rates to Rs 74.30 per kg andrevised the gas loadsheddingschedule. These decisions indicatethat our policymakers want toforce CNG consumers toswitchover again from gas topetrol and diesel. Motorists pre-ferred CNG over petrol and dieselas it was comparatively cheaperbut now the CNG has beenbrought almost equal to the priceof petrol.

The present government ac-cuses the Musharraf regime for thefaulty CNG policy which allowedestablishment of hundreds of gasstations despite the fact that thecountry was facing acute gas short-age. But the question is why thepublic is always being punished for

the wrongs committed by therulers?

The government may have dif-ficulties to generate revenues;however, the recent increase in gasand petroleum products’ priceshas been termed a New Year gift ofthe government to the people whoare already overburdened by highinflation in the country. Naturallythe price-hike in gas and petro-leum products is going to hit badlythe low-income class.

The energy experts have ques-tioned as to why the consumershave to pay for the gas infrastruc-ture development surcharge. Sim-ilarly, there is no justification forcharging the consumers billions ofrupees annually under the unac-counted for gas (UFG) losses of 12percent both in SSGPL andSNGPL. There is no valid reason torob masses instead of improvingthose companies’ inefficiency.

Similarly, the power sectoralso suffers losses amounting tohundreds of billions due to theft,

land and transmission losses andunpaid bills. The worse part is thatall these losses are being recoveredfrom those consumers who regu-larly pay their utility bills in time.The people are being made to payfor the crimes committed by oth-ers. These are the policy and man-agement related issues that havebeen ignored by successive gov-ernments.

The Federal Minister for Pe-troleum and Natural Resources DrAsim Hussain, recently talking ina TV talk show said the govern-ment has formulated a compre-hensive policy to restructure oiland gas sector but at the same timehe disclosed that there was hugegap between demand and supplyof gas in the country, saying thepeople should be ready for gas out-age during the winter.

The story of energy crisis doesnot end here. Another problemhaunting the people is of powerloadshedding that has startedagain. There are reports that

presently the country is facingaround 5500 megawatt powershortfall. The shortfall is causeddue to reduction in the hydelpower generation as well as non-availability of furnace oil to theIPPs and public sector generationplants.

According to analysts the elec-tricity shortfall could be made upby settling the 350 billion rupeescircular debt. If the IPPs andWapda-managed generationplants are regularly supplied suffi-cient furnace oil, the existing gapbetween demand and supplywould be reduced and public willget some relief.

We have entered into 2012with severe energy crisis which hasboth political and economic impli-cations. No economic growth isguaranteed without provision ofadequate energy and no politicalparty can win elections when itsvoters are without electricity andgas. So, please be serious and actpositively before it is too late.

No gas, no electricity but pay more

what else can happen?The devaluation of rupee has reached

90.00 per dollar. It weakened 4.82 per-cent in 2011, mainly because of importpayments and a bleak outlook for thecountry’s economy; it lost 1.53 percent in2010 and the pressure is likely to con-tinue in 2012. A similar or even worse isthe situation of economy in other sectors.I think amidst a host of quagmires, likememogate, conflict with Nato, suspen-sion of US aid of $700m, failure of Rail-ways and PIA and extreme shortage ofpower and gas, as well as spiralling cor-ruption and inflation, this kind of devalu-ation is no surprise.

The worst can be expected in comingmonths and year with imminent collapseof the government. Who will determineas to who is responsible for all this? Why

everyone is mum? Why nobody speaks?FAUAD F ASHRAF

Islamabad

Coalition between giantsThere are news of coalition between

Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari. They areuniting against Imran Khan as they claimthat Imran Khan is supported by estab-lishment. As establishment doesn’t wantto see democracy in this country, weshould unite and defeat this evil.

I want to ask some questions fromthese people. First, where is the proof ofestablishment’s support to Imran Khan?If there is any, it should be taken to courtlike the Memogate case and should beprosecuted.

Second, democracy is not threatenedby the establishment but you yourself do

not want it. If you want democracy, whydon’t you implement it in your parties?Moreover, the establishment wantsstrong democracy because if the politi-cians are good enough o govern the coun-try, then it could focus on the defence ofthe country.

Lastly, I want to ask Mr Sharif that afew weeks before he was at the "GoZardari Go" rallies and now he is for-warding a hand of friendship towards thesame person. What is this?

The people of Pakistan will not be de-ceived by these tactics. They supportImran Khan who is the only hope forPakistan to put this country on a pros-perous road. Mr Sharif and Mr Zardarishould also become sincere to their coun-try.

MUHAMMAD IRFANLahore

By Waheed hussain


comment12 Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

ending the impasse benefits the both

Pak-US relations

It is in the best interest of both the US and Pakistan torestore their relations which hit the nadir in the wakeof the killing of 24 Pakistani troops in a Nato attack.What stands in the way is reluctance on the part of

the US to accept complete responsibility for the Natostrikes. Despite blaming the incident on poor coordinationbetween the two sides, the Pentagon report suggested thatPakistani troops fired first. Pakistan military rejected thereport for not reflecting the reality on the ground and as itwas not prepared by an independent body. The continuingstandoff is creating hurdles in the fight to root outextremist militancy both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

With a ban on the Nato supplies by Pakistan the US isfinding it difficult to ensure timely supply of vital goodsand equipment for its troops in Afghanistan. Thediversion of the material through other routes has addedto the war expenses at a time when the US lawmakers aredemanding cuts in spendings. Islamabad has declined tocooperate in bringing the Afghan Taliban to thenegotiating table to ensure early peace in Afghanistan.Absence of coordination with the US is also prolongingPakistan military’s fight in the tribal areas to establish thewrit of the state. Suicide bombers meanwhile continue totarget the troops, elders cooperating with the governmentare killed and there is no respite to hostage taking. Anotorious wing of the TTP specialising in sectarian attacksis still on the rampage. On Sunday, serious incidents ofthe sort took place in Bajaur, Khyber and Orakzai agencieswhile a Shia leader was killed in Karachi.

The US needs to revise its stand on responsibility forthe incident. The ongoing standoff between thegovernment and the military establishment has to bebrought to an end. In view of the unprecedented hype inanti-US sentiments, the army will need the support of thecivilian government as it brokers an agreement with theUS on revised terms of engagement on counterterrorismoperation and on the identification of the drone boxes.Whatever its other shortcomings are, the PPP governmenthas been the most steadfast of military operations againstthe terrorists. There is a need, therefore, to end theimpasse between the civil government and the militaryestablishment at the earliest.

Asma speaks her mind

Commission

She was never known for mincing any words and itappears Asma Jehangir is not about to start anytime soon. Her latest bit of candour, however, hasgreater repercussions than usual. Here is one of

the country’s most prominent lawyers, and a former headof the country’s principal liaison body between bar andbench, saying that the commission set up to investigatethe memo affair is not going to be neutral. And she backsit up by declining to represent her client anymore after theSupreme Court ruled that the case was, indeed,maintainable.

If nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court can pass acompromised decision, she said in Islamabad whileannouncing her decision to quit as Hussain Haqqani’scounsel, she does not personally have any faith in acommission comprising of high court judges. As a partingshot, she also told the petitioners (the PML(N) lot) thatthis case would someday come back to bite them.

What to make of Ms Jehangir’s allegations? Is shecontemptuous of court? Not really, because she wasequivocal about her belief that the decision should berespected. The bigger question is whether she was right.The problem here is that the court itself is the only bodythat can decide that. Decisions like whether or not thecase in question is something the Supreme Court shouldinvolve itself in don’t hinge on the text of the constitution;possible errors in judgment cannot be pointed out to thehonourable lordships by the lawyers. Decisions like thesehinge on the interpretation of grey areas in theconstitution. What makes a court’s decision on thesematters right or wrong depends on the level ofacceptability accorded to these decisions by the legalfraternity, the political class and the polity as a whole.Where does history place, for instance, the judges thatpassed, say all the PCOs justifying military rule in thecountry’s history?

On that theme, it is important for justice not only to bedone but seen to be done. The Supreme Court and now,the newly appointed commission, is expected to dispelimpressions about its neutrality by its words and actions.

Whenever I visit a friend’shouse, who has fourschool-going children, I al-ways find, apart from thesummer holidays period,

inevitably, that all of his children have eitherjust finished giving tests or examinations,are preparing for them, or are in the middleof them. And given there are four children,one of them is always in the middle of tests,and so the household is always ensuring thatat least that child, and in general all the chil-dren, are always preparing for these testsand keep up with their studies.

I asked the children how many tests/ex-aminations they got. They reported that theyhad term finals and midterms, and in addi-tion monthly assessments as well as weeklyones. And then sometimes they would getsurprise tests as well. So with 6-8 subjects tocontend with for every student, it meansevery week they had some exam or test toworry about. And a lot of teachers took testsat the start of the week giving students theweekend for preparation. Which means theweekends are usually spent studying formore than one test coming up. I checkedwith some other children in other ‘good’ pri-vate schools too, and the pattern was simi-lar.

The story of homework assignments isin addition to the test/examination issue.But it does add to the time children have tospend studying every evening. Again with 6-8 subjects, and no coordination betweenteachers on homework assignments, stu-dents get homework for every subject almostevery day.

Parents and schools want good resultsfrom students, and clearly quality of educa-tion is linked to effort as well, but what is anappropriate level of effort that we want our

students to make? Should they be spendingall or almost all of their time away fromschool studying, and should this continue allthe time? One can understand more work inkey years and at key times, like closer to fi-nals and so on, but such an effort cannot andshould not be expected all the time. This willnot lead to better quality.

Children, like adults, need time to inter-nalise what they read. They need to play,mentally and physically, with what theylearn so that they can make it a part of theirconceptual framework. If children are al-ways cramming for exams and working ontheir homework, when do they get time toreflect on and play with what they are learn-ing and internalise the material? And if theydo not do this, they will develop a tendencyto cram and will make rather poor students,and more importantly, will end up goingthrough the education system and even get-ting all the certificates and degrees, butwithout having the ability to use what theyhave learnt.

I was surprised to find that many stu-dents use ‘study guides’ even at O-Level orA-Level stages. How can this be good? Thestudents feel they have to cram as quickly aspossible, but if they are not taking the timeto read their textbooks and original sourcesthat have been put in their syllabi, they areshortchanging their learning process.

I have seen this in many students al-ready. If you ask them to define or explainsomething they will rattle off the definitionsand explanations immediately. But, at leastin the case of economics, I can tell whichbooks have they usually studied from be-cause they use the same words that are intheir books. If you ask them to explain, intheir own words, what they have said, manyof them are stumped and confused. Further-more, if you ask them to give an example,from their life or from around them, to illus-trate the principle they are talking of, manyof them cannot do that. This is tragic. If chil-dren are not able to connect what they arelearning with their lives while in schools,what are we teaching them and how are weteaching them?

Are private schools, and almost all of thetop private ones seem to be quite similar intheir approach to education, pushing stu-dents too much to cram and reproducerather than study, understand, and reflecton what they have studied? And are theyalso over-testing the students and giving

them too much homework? The world iscompetitive and we have to prepare ouryouth well, but we should not take things tothe point where the preparation we givethem kills their creativity and hampers theirdevelopment and competitiveness. Thiswould be counterproductive at so many lev-els.

A connected issue, but one that I havebeen asked to raise by a number of parents,is about the physical load we put our chil-dren under. One of my friends tells me thathis child, in grade one, weighs less than howmuch his school bag weighs. The school baghas six text books and six notebooks apartfrom stationary, lunch box and so on. Thechild drags this bag to school everyday anddrags it back in the afternoon. In highergrades the bags might not outweigh the chil-dren but they do remain very heavy. This isanother indicator of the load on children,quite literally. Why can’t schools, who canafford it, have lockers for children, or desksthat have a drawer in them where childrencan leave some of the books/notebooks theydo not need to bring home on any particularday? But if they have class periods for eachsubject everyday and get homework for allsubjects too, and have tests happening toofrequently as well, it will not be possible toleave the books home or at school overnight.The connection with workload is clear.

educational quality should be a concernfor everyone: the parents, the school, andthe society. There is an ‘optimal’ way ofdoing things and we should know that timespent on a task and developing understand-ing of the task is not linearly related: qualityof education does not keep improving as weput more and more pressure on children. Atsome point additional effort can lead to re-duced understanding. In some schools, as apedagogic tool, it seems there is just toomuch pressure on students. The parents,feeling that this is good, are going along withit. But it is counterproductive. It is forcingchildren to take sub-optimal routes such ascramming and/or resorting to study guidesand so on. Parents and school administra-tions need to look into the issue in more de-tail.

The writer is an Associate Professor ofEconomics at LUMS (currently on leave)and a Senior Advisor at Open SocietyFoundation (OSF). He can be reached [email protected]

By Dr Faisal Bari

overburdened studentstests, tests, exams, and more tests

Non-political president

2012: the year when bigthings are supposed to hap-pen in the political land-

scape of Pakistan. All parties barthe Pakistan Peoples Party havemade some reference to elec-tions; the Tehreek-e-Insaaf andJamaat-e-Islami are the oneswith the loudest clamour for mid-term polls. But with a politicalpresident at the helm, mid-termpolls are a definite no-no for thePPP. But should President AsifAli Zardari ask Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani to seek a voteof confidence?

Back in college, a respectedprofessor and now also an emi-nent columnist, had argued inclass that the Thirteenth Amend-ment, the one brought about byNawaz Sharif in 1997 and whichtook away the president’s powersto dissolve the National Assem-bly, had taken Pakistan’s democ-racy back a few years. Hisargument, at the time, was thatdemocracy in Pakistan needed a

system of checks and balancesbetween the troika. Were thesesystems removed, the probabilityof a military takeover was higher.In theory, Article 58(2)(b) of theConstitution would serve as morethan a deterrent against bad gov-ernance; even in its employment,there was a mechanism in placefor judicial recourse as well as theultimate measure of public sup-port: elections.

Purely from an academicstandpoint, the argument was in-teresting: not only had successivegovernments been dismissed, oncorruption charges, but we werethen living in times when GeneralPervez Musharraf had swattedSharif away and made promisesof better democracy. Article58(2)(b) had been removed bythe democrats, and democracyhad fallen. By 2003, the presi-dent’s powers to dismiss a parlia-ment returned through theSeventeenth Amendment, withGeneral Musharraf also receivingdirect or tacit support from par-ties seemingly opposed to him.

Of course, times havechanged. The eighteenth Amend-ment came, and sought to washaway the ills of the SeventeenthAmendment. The president couldnow only remove the governmentif advised by the prime ministerto do so, or if he was “satisfiedthat the Prime Minister does notcommand the confidence of themajority of the members of theNational Assembly”.

There was consensus on al-most everything from all politicalstakeholders inside the Assem-bly; the only contentious part wasthe person of the President, thatnotorious Asif Ali Zardari, whohad somehow swapped jail forthe Presidency. This despite Jus-tice Wajeehuddin Ahmed, a starwithin the judicial fraternity, alsobeing a nominee for President.Most of the opposition to Zardarihas been and remains from out-side the assemblies, from thosewho had decided that the govern-ment had gone corrupt the mo-ment Zardari became President.

This opposition’s desire for a“non-political” president wasseemingly an extension of theprinciple applied to Musharraf:that the president must not holdany “office of profit.” In Mushar-raf’s case, his desire for dual of-fice was the issue; in Zardari’s,the issue was his desire to be si-multaneously party chairmanand hence, a partisan president.Only that Article 43 (1), which de-fines the president’s person, doesnot depoliticise the post.

The principle at stake is notmid-term elections or a vote ofconfidence. It is over whether the“office of profit” should include aparty chairperson or any otherpolitical office for that matter.Critics will point to Zardari, andclaim that the PPP could rule aslong as it did despite not enjoyingmass support because their partychairman is the head of state.

This relationship, it could be ar-gued, makes presidential inactiona logical outcome and gives a gov-ernment license for incompe-tence and corruption.

For the PPP, though, neithermid-term elections nor a vote ofconfidence seems to be necessity.Had Justice WajeehuddinAhmed, very much a politicalperson now, been elected presi-dent, he would have heeded tothe calls of the massive publicgatherings and street protests toask the prime minister to take avote of confidence. But were thePTI in government, would JusticeSaheb have done the same thing?Surely not, this would have speltpolitical suicide for the party anddefinitely converted him into aGhulam Ishaq or Farooq Leghari.

For any party that comes topower, Zardari has shown that apolitical president is of criticalimportance in perpetuating therule of his party’s government,and warding off real and manu-factured attacks against them. Asthings stand, the president hasthe only means to change govern-ment, and that too, if he sowishes to. If this is considered awrong by the elected members ofa parliament, a two-thirds major-ity is needed to change the law.But the dissenters must wait theirturn.

The writer is a Karachi-based journalist. Connect withhim on Twitter @ASYusuf

By Ahmed Yusuf


comment 13Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

on the competence of the electorate

Can democracy work?

If an elected person or group of personsproves disappointing one can onlyblame oneself, as with marriage to a

person of one’s own choosing. In the caseof marriage, both arranged marriages andmarriages of choice appear to possess asimilar profile of success (or failure), whichmakes it difficult to prefer one above theother. In fact, the best option is probably ablend of the two.

So why are people so much in favour ofdemocracy to the exclusion of other op-tions, at least here in Pakistan, where wehave neither seen much of democracy andhave only been disappointed when it (sup-posedly) existed? In fact the questionshould be whether what we so fondly call‘democracy’ in Pakistan is democracy at all.

Democracy appears to have become acornerstone of civilisation. Suggesting al-ternatives (‘the ideal form of governmentis democracy tempered with assassination,’Voltaire) results in shock and recoil, as ifyou’d owned up to having lice. I postulatethat this affection for democracy in Pak-istan is related to the mysterious rolling of‘Rs’ which has afflicted us all of a sudden.

Much of Pakistan’s short life was spentunder military dictatorship; years of un-mitigated disaster – think Zia and Mushar-raf more than Ayub. However, none of thecivilian governments interspersed throughthese martial episodes of history can claimto have delivered better, their only differ-

ence a mandate of sorts to forma government. Given that manyof those elected assumed officeunder dubious credentials, itbegs the question how strongthis mandate actually was. Infact, their performance basedon self interest and toeing theparty line rather than represen-tation of their electorate onlyadds to the doubts surroundingthis system of government.

Of course the inevitable in-tellectual argument is that non-democratic forms ofgovernment such as militarycoups are unacceptable ‘becausethey do not allow institutions todevelop’. Ah, these institutions.Are any of them really alivemuch less well in Pakistantoday?

One institution, of course, isthe parliament including, asmentioned above, several mem-bers possessing dubious, evenfake credentials. In 2010, theelection Commission issuedsummons against twenty parlia-mentarians in this connection,seven from the National Assem-bly, eleven from the Punjab andone each from the Sindh and

Balochistan Assemblies.We also possess a judiciary suffused

with bias against the civilian governmentof the day. expressing her disagreementwith the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s deci-sion to take on the case and conduct an en-quiry into the memo scandal, AsmaJahangir, counsel for Pakistan’s formerambassador to the US Husain Haqqani,questioned whether the court was there toserve and protect the rights of the public orthe establishment.

Pakistan’s over-endowed and scandal-ridden military establishment, addicted tobeing in government, is unwilling to relin-quish foreign policy and security relateddecision-making into civilian hands wherethey belong. Hierarchically, it considers it-self above the civilian government and thepresident of the country, both of whom arein fact charged with the command and up-keep of the armed forces under the consti-tution of Pakistan.

A top heavy Steel Mill, PIA and Pak-istan Railways, riddled with corruption,nepotism and cronyism, a similarly af-flicted bureaucracy, power providers onthe rocks, and the tale of the aforemen-tioned institutions not allowed to developis told.

Democracy, as Plato found, ‘presup-poses a competent citizenry.’ It is also per-tinent what Albert einstein said, that ‘anempty stomach is not a good political advi-sor.’ The question is therefore: do we havea competent citizenry in Pakistan or/andone with a full stomach? And if not, candemocracy work here?

We know literacy, education and eco-nomic figures for Pakistan. There is more-over no civic or political education in theschools of this country which would enablewhat educated individuals there are tomake informed decisions about the leadersthey elect. Neither Mr Zardari’s emotionalreferences to martyred family members adnauseam, or Mr Nawaz Sharif’s carping onimproper removal from office, nor indeedImran Khan’s hunky good looks – none ofthese are valid grounds for election.

True we have only ourselves to blameif our choices turn out to be poor, and inPakistan democracy’s other raison d'êtreedoes not work either where we can replaceour choices, or force our elected represen-tatives to do their job by threatening themwith loss of office. Once secure in officethese elected individuals appear to developan uncanny ability to remain there, as wellas the thickest of skins, preventing the pen-etration and efficacy of any external pres-sures whatsoever.

So once again: why are people so muchin favour of democracy, at least here inPakistan? Is it because there are no alter-natives? But wait now, are we speakinghere of democracy, or of Imran Khan?

You are advised to refrain from reading between the lines, asunderstanding the contents of this article may be harmful tonational security

for your own good

By rabia Ahmed

Important people are oftentold that they are being keptin isolation “for their own

safety”. Such people usually in-clude apostates, blasphemers,rapists, murderers, politiciansand pop stars. Of these, the onlyself-respecting category is, ofcourse, that of rapists and mur-derers, because the right-wingmullahs (with and withoutbeards) will come down hard onapostates, blasphemers and popstars while politicians (in cahootswith the mullahs) will denounceall those save the aforemen-tioned criminals. Mostly because99 percent of all rapists and mur-derers have, at one point, them-selves been or been associatedwith politicians. And there is def-initely more honour amongrapists and murderers than thereever was among thieves. But thatisn’t a real statistic.

Like I was saying, importantpeople aren’t usually allowed towander freely in our fair backwa-ter. This is primarily becausethe-powers-that-be do not wantimportant people to associatewith other important people sono important ideas can be trans-mitted. Take the May 12, 2007arrival of the-then deposed ChiefJustice in Karachi. It was obviousfrom the MQM’s posturing andMusharraf’s bravado that thiswas a well thought-out move onpart of the-powers-that-be. Re-call also the premise and circum-stances of the exile of the SuperSharif Bros following Abu Hamzabin Musharraf’s declaration ofdemocracy.

Also keep in mind the housearrest of all deposed judges effec-tively until after the February2008 elections. While extenuat-ing circumstances were at play inall of these cases, the commondenominator was that all of thesepeople, at that time, posed agrave threat to national security.Remember that the definition ofnational security is as fluid asmercury at room temperatureand has been tempered to suitthe purposes of rulers of our fairestate since 1947.

Keeping important peopleaway from other important peo-ple is also important becausesome unimportant people maywish to cause harm to the saidimportant people. This was thejustification used to confine Be-nazir Bhutto to Latif Khosa’shouse in swanky DHA, days be-fore her assassination at thehands of (Cough! Sneeze!Wheeze!) Baitullah Mehsud’shandymen. This was also the ex-cuse used to keep Dr Atom Bombaway from the public eye. Mostrecently, such treatment is beingmeted out to the right hon-ourable Hussain Haqqani, ourerstwhile envoy to the UnitedStates of Great Shaitan. Accord-ing to highly informed sources(read Twitter junkies), the mostcontroversial man in Pakistan iscurrently in hiding in the PrimeMinister’s house, for fear that ifhe steps out into the public eye,he may be mobbed by gratefuljiyalas, ungrateful establishmen-tarianists and unscrupulouspress vultures, all of whom wanttheir pound of flesh. And rightlyso.

But it was not always likethis. There was a time when MrHaqqani was a well respecteduniversity professor in Boston,writing books and ticking off ruf-fians such as the ISI and the mil-itary high command from thecomfort of his subzero facultyroom, somewhere in Massachu-setts. At that time, Haqqani’sopinions were no different fromthe ones voiced in the infamousmemo, which to this dayHaqqani maintains he never gotor wrote. Why then, pray tell, has

he been assumed guilty? Is it be-cause he has a lot of money andis incorrigible in his attitude to-wards the holiest of holy, theirexcellencies, the top brass of thearmed forces of Pakistan? Is itbecause he knows too much andhas now himself become a threatto national security?

God knows. But what is clear,to borrow from comedian RussellPeters, is that “somebody gonnaget a-hurt real bad,” and it isn’tgoing to be el Jefe himself.Therefore, the next logical patsywould be dear friend HussainHaqqani. Sound like a cunningplan? Well, what did you expect?

Many have been busy thispast weekend, wishing Asma Ja-hangir all the best in her endeav-ours to “stand up for democracy”in Pessimistan. However, it isclear from her withdrawal thatthe former ambassador is, infact, a goner. It is painfully obvi-ous that the courts will neverbow to the findings of the parlia-mentary commission on the mat-ter, firstly because no suchcommission has ever come upwith any worthwhile findings,and secondly because even ifthey did, they would never bemade public.

Therefore, it is safe to as-sume that Asma has expertlyejected herself from a lost battle,ostensibly at the advice of some-one who knows more about whatis to come than she, or I, or evenyou. Then, pray tell, what is soheroic about her ‘bold move’? Tome, it reeks of yellow-belliedcowardice in a land where prin-cipled stands are the last refugeof the scoundrels who is trying toclaim the moral high ground be-cause they don’t really havemuch else to go on. I guess whatI’m trying to say is that I willmiss Hussain Haqqani. Not be-cause he was a great professor ora better diplomat or an excep-tional statesman. I will miss himbecause he is a goat. A poorscapegoat. Just like you and me.How’s that for empathy?

Follow @mightyobvious onTwitter for more incoherence in140 characters or less.

Mighty obviousBy Syed hassan Belal Zaidi


Tuesday, 3 January, 201214 Foreign News

CAIroAfP

ARAB League chief Nabil al-Arabi said on Monday thatsnipers and gunfire remainin Syrian cities and calledfor an immediate halt to

the shootings, in his first remarks sinceArab monitors were deployed.“There are still snipers and gunfire.There must be a total halt to the gun-fire,” the League chief said, in the faceof mounting criticism of the hard-wonobserver mission’s failure to stem thepersistent bloodshed. Arabi chargedthat snipers were still deployed onrooftops in protest centres threateningthe lives of civilians, even as monitorstry to end the Syrian government’sdeadly crackdown that has claimedthousands of lives since March.

“We must raise this with the Syriangovernment because the aim (of send-ing monitors) is to stop the shootingand protect civilians,” Arabi told anews conference at Arab League head-quarters in Cairo. But “it is difficult tosay who is firing on whom,” he said.The head of the observer mission, Su-danese General Mohammed AhmedMustafa al-Dabi, is due to send his“first report in the next two days” onthe situation in Syria, Arabi said. “AnArab foreign minister has asked that a

ministerial meeting be convened todiscuss the report,” he added. Accord-ing to the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights, at least three civilianswere killed by gunfire in Syria on Mon-day, two of them in separate shootingincidents in the flashpoint central cityof Homs. The third victim was a farmerwho was hit by a stray bullet as security

forces opened fire during a raid on avillage near Damascus to hunt downsuspects wanted by the authorities.Arabi said the Arab League may call fora meeting next week of foreign minis-ters to evaluate the work of the ob-servers, who arrived in Syria onDecember 26 and began touringprotest hubs the following day.

CAIroREUtERS

The trial of egypt’s ousted President HosniMubarak will resume in earnest Tuesdaywhen judges begin hearing arguments fromprosecutors, who say Mubarak and his co-defendants are to blame for the deaths ofhundreds of protesters. Lawyers demandedMonday that the head of egypt’s ruling mil-itary council, Field Marshal MohamedHussein Tantawi, be summoned back tothe court to give fresh testimony. They alsoasked for Tantawi’s deputy General SamiAnan to give evidence.

Mubarak, his two sons, the former in-terior minister and senior police officersface charges ranging from corruption to in-volvement in the deaths of around 850 pro-testers during the uprising that unseatedhim last February. Mubarak is the firstleader toppled in a wave of Arab uprisingslast year to stand trial in person and thecase has drawn worldwide attention. In acountry still grappling with political chaosand an economic crisis almost a near sincethe uprising began, many people believe

national renewal will be impossible unlessjustice is achieved for those killed and theirfamilies. No official has been convicted overthe killing of protesters during the 18-dayrevolt. Mubarak and the other defendantsdeny any responsibility for the deaths. Thetrial was suspended for almost 60 daysuntil last week because some lawyers haddemanded the replacement of the panel ofjudges overseeing the case. They said theywere not given a fair chance to questionTantawi when he stood as a witness in Sep-tember. Presiding judge Ahmed Refaat saidhe would decide on possible new witnessesduring the next few sessions.

Mubarak, who is being held under guardat a military hospital near Cairo because doc-tors say he has a heart condition, was broughtinto the court on a hospital trolley coveringhis eyes with sunglasses, which his son Gamaltook off once he entered the court. Lawyersfor the dead demanded that Mubarak betransferred to a prison in south Cairo wherethe other defendants are held because hisjourney from the military hospital in a heli-copter cost the state 500,000 egyptianpounds (52,896.40 pounds) each time.

Iran tests missilesnear key oil-transit strait

TehrANAfP

Iran Monday tested missiles near theStrait of Hormuz, underlining its threatsto close the vital oil-transit waterway asthe West prepares to impose moreeconomic sanctions over Tehran’s nucleardrive. The launch of two missiles tookplace on the final day of war games inwaters east of the strait at the entrance tothe Gulf, a navy spokesman, CommodoreMahmoud Mousavi, was quoted as sayingby official media. Another missile wasalso to be tested Monday, he said. Francesaid the tests were regrettable andstressed to Tehran the Strait of Hormuzmust remain open. “We regret the verybad signal sent to the internationalcommunity by the latest missile testsannounced by Iran,” foreign ministryspokesman Bernard Valero said in Paris,reminding Tehran of the “freedom ofnavigation in straits and the need tomaintain a favourable climate in respectto this freedom.” The United States,which keeps its Fifth Fleet based in theGulf, has warned it will not tolerate aclosure of the strategic channel. Thelongest range of the missiles testedMonday was some 200 kilometres (120miles). On Sunday, a medium-rangesurface-to-air missile was also test-firedduring the exercises, according toMousavi. The show of military musclewas designed to show Iran’s ability toclose the Strait of Hormuz — throughwhich 20 percent of the world’s oil flows— if it chooses. Iranian political andmilitary officials insist they could takethat drastic step if the West imposes moresanctions, on top of others that havealready taken their toll on Iran’s oil-dependent economy.

India summons Chineseenvoy over diplomat assault

NeW DeLhIAfP

India on Monday summoned Beijing’sdeputy chief of mission in New Delhi tocomplain about a courtroom assault on anIndian diplomat in the Chinese city ofYiwu, officials and reports said. Zhang Yuewas called to the Indian foreign ministryafter the incident on Saturday in which S.Balachandran was injured in a disputebetween Chinese and Indian traders, saida government official who declined to benamed. Balachandran taken to hospitalafter Chinese businessmen attacked himduring a court case in which he was tryingto secure the release of two Indians heldover allegedly unpaid bills, the Press Trustof India news agency said. In Beijing,Indian embassy spokesman VinayakChavan told AFP that Shanghai-basedBalachandran was not badly hurt.

Snipers, gunfire remainin Syrian cities: AL chief

Syria’s assad has only ‘fewweeks’ left in control: IsraelJERUSALEM: The family of SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad has only “afew weeks” left in control of the strife-torn country, Israeli Defence Ministerehud Barak told MPs on Monday.“The Assad family has no more than afew weeks to remain in control inSyria,” Barak told the parliament’sprestigious foreign affairs and de-fence committee in remarks quotedby the committee spokesman. “Thereis no possibility in the current situa-tion of evaluating what will happenthe day after Bashar’s fall,” he said.Barak also warned that the fall of theAssad family could have implications

for the Israeli-occupied GolanHeights. “In the north, there may bepossible implications from Syria onthe Golan Heights and a broader areaas the result of the loss of control,” hesaid on Monday in a separate state-ment released by his office. Accordingto Barak, the Assad regime was dete-riorating as a result of the combina-tion of internal and externalpressures. “even if it is hard to clearlysee the exact date when the regimewill fall, the trend is clear, and withevery day that passes, the regime isgetting closer to the end of its rule,and its grip is loosening,” he said. afp

Prosecutors to take stage today in Mubarak trial

first presidentof independentMacedonia dies

SKoPJeAfP

Kiro Gligorov, the architect of Macedonia’sindependence and its first president after thebreak-up of Yugoslavia, has died at the ageof 94, his office said Monday. “Gligorov diedlate on Sunday at home in Skopje, in hissleep, surrounded by his family,” the head ofthe office, Zivko Kondev, told AFP. Once atop official of the communist Yugoslavfederation, of which Macedonia was a part,Gligorov led the then Yugoslav republic toindependence in September 1991. Hemanaged to avoid for Macedonia the warsthat tore apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s, andpeacefully deal with various disputes Skopjehad with neighbouring Greece, Albania andBulgaria. Under Gligorov, it became aUnited Nations member, though under thename Former Yugoslav Republic ofMacedonia (FYRM) because Athens opposedits use of the name Macedonia, the name of aGreek northern province. As the firstdemocratically elected president ofMacedonia, Gligorov served two terms, from1991 to 1999. In October 1995 Gligorov wasthe target of a car bomb assassinationattempt in Skopje. Despite serious injuries,he continued his presidency until the end ofhis term. Neither the motive nor theperpetrators have ever been found, while itwas speculated that a motive could havebeen his refusal at the time to join a unionwith Serbia and Montenegro. Born in 1917 inthe eastern Macedonian town of Stip,Gligorov was a member of Yugoslavia’s anti-fascist movement during World War II.

nEW dELHI: An Indian man feeds flocks of migratory birds in the Yamuna river on Monday. Hundreds of migratory birds from Siberia, southeast Asia and other parts of India congregate in Indian capital during winters. afp

CAIRo: former president Hosni Mubarak lies on a stretcher as he leaves courtfollowing his trial at police academy on Monday. afp


Foreign News 15Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

NAIroBIAfP

THOUSANDS of villagers inSouth Sudan hid in the bushMonday, waiting for UN andgovernment troops to stop acattle vendetta which officials

feared may have left scores of peopledead over the weekend. A column ofsome 6,000 armed youths from the LouNuer tribe marched on the remote townof Pibor in troubled Jonglei state, hometo the rival Murle people, who they blamefor cattle raiding and have vowed to ex-terminate. They burned thatched hutsand looted a hospital run by DoctorsWithout Borders, the worst flare-up in a

dispute that has left more than 1,000dead in recent months and threatened todestabilise the world’s newest country.

“The situation is tense as the LouNuer are still around Pibor,” said Jongleistate information minister Isaac Ajiba,adding that army reinforcements werestill on their way to the remote settle-ment. “They (the army) are yet to arrivebut we hope to have the reinforcementsthere soon... We have reports of severalcasualties, but at present the exact num-bers are not verified,” Ajiba added. Newlyindependent South Sudan was left inruins by decades of war with northern Su-danese forces, who fuelled conflict bybacking proxy militia forces across thesouth, often exacerbating historical enmi-

ties between rival groups.A group calling itself the Nuer Youth

White Army issued a statement on De-cember 26 vowing to “wipe out the entireMurle tribe... as the only solution to guar-antee long-term security of Nuer cattle.”The government and the United Nations— which has warned the violence couldlead to a “major tragedy” — were beefingup their forces in the area. “We are mov-ing in a big number of forces from thearmy and from the police to the area...tostop what is happening,” South SudanPresident Salva Kiir said in a New Year’sDay address. Despite disarmament ef-forts, guns remain common in Jonglei, anisolated and swampy state about the sizeof Austria and Switzerland combined but

with limited mud roads often impassablefor months during heavy rains.

Reverend Mark Akec Cien, generalsecretary of the Sudan Council ofChurches, an umbrella organisation withmembers across the area, said they hadreports of many killed and wounded inthe clashes. “The situation is very bad,there have been heavy casualties, andthe Murle have fled out of the town,”Cien said from South Sudan’s capitalJuba. “The Lou Nuer are there in thetown, but others have left chasing afterthe Murle.” Over 30 people were killedin Lukangol, some 30 kilometres northof Pibor where Lou Nuer fighters at-tacked last week, burning the settlementto the ground, Cien said.

MAIDUGUrIAfP

A purported spokesman for NigerianIslamist group Boko Haram has issuedan ultimatum to Christians in the coun-try’s north and threatened troops afterthe president declared a state of emer-gency in hard hit areas.

Meanwhile, Nigeria began sealingoff part of its border in the country’snortheast as part of the emergency dec-laration, while security agencies plottedtheir next moves in dealing with the Is-lamists. Abul Qaqa, who has spoken onbehalf of the group blamed for scoresof attacks in Africa’s most populous na-tion numerous times in the past, saidhe was giving southerners living in thenorth a three-day ultimatum to leave.

“We find it pertinent to state thatsoldiers will only kill innocent Muslimsin the local government areas wherethe state of emergency was declared,”he told journalists in a phone confer-ence late Sunday. “We would confrontthem squarely to protect our brothers.”Speaking in the Hausa language com-mon throughout the north, Qaqa said“we also wish to call on our fellow Mus-lims to come back to the north because

we have evidence that they would be at-tacked. “We are also giving a three-dayultimatum to the southerners living inthe northern part of Nigeria to moveaway.” Boko Haram is believed to in-clude different factions with varyingaims, its structure remains unclear andother people have claimed to speak onits behalf. Nigeria’s 160 million popu-lation is roughly divided between amainly Muslim north and predomi-nantly Christian south.

Muslims have been victims of BokoHaram attacks, but a wave of Christ-mas day bombings particularly target-ing churches set off fears of retaliationfrom Christians. President GoodluckJonathan declared a state of emergencyon Saturday in parts of four states hardhit by violence blamed on Boko Haram.The declaration came in response toscores of attacks attributed to BokoHaram, particularly the bombings onChristmas that killed 49 people, mostof them in a gruesome blast at aCatholic church as services were end-ing. While Boko Haram has been car-rying out increasingly deadly attacksfor months, including an August sui-cide bombing of UN headquarters inAbuja that left 25 dead, the Christmas

violence sparked intense fear and out-rage. It also led to warnings from Chris-tian leaders that they would defendthemselves if such attacks continued,raising deep concern. While declaringthe state of emergency in Africa’slargest oil producer, Jonathan ac-knowledged that the attacks “havethreatened our collective security andshaken the foundations of our corpo-rate existence as a nation.”

It was declared in parts of thestates of Borno state, where BokoHaram has traditionally had its base, aswell as Niger, Plateau and Yobe states.Borders are also to be closed in hard-hit areas, and residents in the northeastreported Monday that the frontier withCameroon in that area was being shut.One resident who crosses into neigh-bouring Cameroonian villages to hawkpetrol said he was not allowed to crossat the Banki frontier. Military person-nel had taken over the border post, hesaid. “They are heavily armed and havetaken control of the border,” he said.“They have stopped all cross-bordermovements. I tried crossing the borderthrough the other two border posts, butthe situation is the same. All the bor-ders are sealed.”

Bahrain Opp saysdozens injured in police clashes

DUBAIAfP

Bahrain’s security forces fired tear gas atanti-government protesters and beat themwith iron bars leaving dozens injured,human rights activists and the oppositionsaid on Monday. The violence eruptedSunday night in the town of Sitra after thefuneral of 15-year-old Sayyed HashemSaeed, who the opposition says was killedwhen he was struck on the head by a tear gascanister fired by security forces the previousday. Another teenager, Hani al-Qanish, wasalso seriously wounded Sunday by a directhit to the head by a tear gas canister, formeropposition MP Matar Matar told AFP.Opposition human rights activist NabilRajab said riot police used tear gas and ironbars to disperse the crowds that hadgathered in Sitra after Said’s funeralprocession. “Dozens of people were injuredand treated for tear gas inhalation but theyall sought treatment in homes by volunteerdoctors, because they feared being arrestedif they went to the hospital”, Rajab told AFPadding that the police beat some of theprotesters with “iron bars.” The Bahrainnews agency, quoting police officials, saidthat “a group of saboteurs took to the streetsin an illegal march and committed acts ofsabotage, blocking public roads with garbagebins and hurling stones, iron bars andMolotov cocktails at the security forces.”

‘Psycho’ in British

court accused of

Indian student murderLoNDoN

AfP

A man describing himself as “PsychoStapleton” appeared in a British court onMonday accused of shooting dead an Indianstudent in northwest england. KiaranStapleton, 20, was remanded in custody for24 hours at an initial court appearance inManchester, where he was formally chargedwith the murder of Anuj Bidve in theSalford area of the city. Stapleton was ledinto the courtroom in handcuffs wearing agrey T-shirt and grey tracksuit trousers,with four armed officers standing guard inthe room. When asked for his name, hereplied: “Psycho. Psycho Stapleton.”Prosecutor Ben Southam said the casewould be sent to a higher court. A scrum ofjournalists surrounded the prison vancarrying Stapleton when it arrived at thecourt, which was packed with reporters. Alone gunman shot Bidve, 23, in the headafter approaching him at around 1:30 am(0130 GMT) on December 26 as he walkedwith a group of friends towards Manchestercity centre. The student, from the westernIndian city of Pune, died a short time laterin hospital. The friends were in Stapleton’shome neighbourhood of Ordsall when theshooting occurred. Police have described themurder of Bidve, who arrived in england inSeptember to study micro-electronics atLancaster University, as “extremely,unusual, savage and motiveless.”

New York police arrest

dozens of anti-wall

Street protestersNeW YorK

REUtERS

New York police arrested 68 peopleovernight after anti-Wall Street protestersstreamed back into Manhattan’s ZuccottiPark and toppled security barricades onNew Year’s eve, police said on Sunday.One protester was accused of assaulting apolice officer by stabbing the officer in thehand with scissors and of throwing anobject at a police van, a departmentspokesman said. The officer was treatedand released from a local hospital. Otherprotesters face charges of disorderlyconduct, trespassing and obstruction,police said. The scuffle ensued afterhundreds of protesters marked the newyear by returning to Zuccotti Park, theSeptember birthplace of the nationalOccupy movement against economicinequality. The movement’S momentumwas halted as cities around the countryhave evicted demonstrators from tentcamps. Police cleared Zuccotti Park ofcampers in November.

Iraq war death tollat 162,000: NGO

BAGhDADAfP

Around 162,000 people, almost 80percent of them civilians, were killed inIraq from the start of the 2003 US-ledinvasion up to last year’s withdrawal ofAmerican forces, a British NGO said onMonday. Iraq Body Count (IBC) warnedthat, contrary to apparent trends infigures released by the Iraqi government,the level of violence has changed littlefrom mid-2009, though attacks aremarkedly down from when the countrywas in the throes of sectarian war in2006 and 2007. In all, the non-governmental organisation said anestimated 162,000 people were killed inIraq in the nearly nine years of conflict.It said around 79 percent of the fatalitieswere civilians, while the remainderincluded US soldiers, Iraqi securityforces, and insurgents. “The violencepeaked in late 2006 but was sustained athigh levels until the second half of 2008— nearly 90 percent of the deathsoccurred by 2009,” IBC said in astatement. But it warned that “there hasnow been no noticeable downward trend(in civilian deaths) since mid-2009.”

Scores feared dead in South Sudan tribal clashes

Boko Haram threatensNigeria Christians, troops

BEIJInG: People ride sledges on a frozen lake onMonday. Skaters are a familiar sight on Beijing’s lakesand rivers during the december to february periodwhen temperatures usually fall well below freezing. afp


MUMBAI: Bollywood actress Bipasha Basuchose to step into the New Year byexpressing gratitude to her friends, family,staff and fans for standing by her always."want to begin the Year 2012 by thankingall of you for the love and support overthe years! You all are the reason I am'Bipasha Basu'. Can't thank you allenough!" Bipasha posted on her Twitterpage. "Gratitude is the biggest virtue! Amalso grateful to have the most amazingfamily and solid friends who make mewho I am. love them the most ever," sheadded. In 2011, the actress parted wayswith John Abraham, whom she wasdating since eight years. She also baggedher first international project ‘Singularity’,and is now looking forward to her multi-starrer project ‘Players’, releasing friday.Bipasha also thanked her team whowork with her "day and night". "Ithank Pasha, myassistant, and Madhu,my hairstylist, theyare my extendedfamily! Can't functionwithout them! Amvery blessed tobe me! It's ahappy newyear alreadyfor me!" shewrote.AGeNCIeS


IN LIMELIGHT

'Players' Sonakshi sheds inhibitions,

fUZHoU: Agroup ofyoungChineseacrobatsperform asthousandsgather fornew yearfestivities insoutheastChina.

Brand could get

Katy Perry divorce£20m from

LoNDoNAGEnCIES

RUSSeLL Brand couldmake up to 20 millionpounds from his divorcefrom pop star wife KatyPerry. The 36-year-old

comedian is in line for the huge lumpsum in a 50/50 split of the couple’searnings even after just 14 months ofmarriage. Brand and Perry hadn’tsigned a pre-nuptial agreement whenthey married in October, so under Cal-ifornian law, he could be entitled to halfof her fortune, the Daily Mail reported.Brand had announced on Friday thatthe couple’s marriage was over afterthey spent Christmas apart and hislawyers filed divorce papers at Los An-geles Superior Court citing “irreconcil-able differences”. The Star reportedthat according to Forbes Magazine, the27-year-old is worth 28 million pounds,a fortune that industry insiders said hasrocked recently to at least 45 millionpounds due to her non-stop touring andcommercial ventures. Brand, in con-trast, has a net worth of about 11 mil-lion pounds from his stand-up toursand a string of hit movies including‘Get Him To The Greek’ and the remakeof the Dudley Moore film ‘Arthur’.

LOS ANGELES: elton John is working on a biopicabout himself and would like Justin Timberlake totake on the lead role, he said in an interview pub-lished Sunday. The British veteran star also spokeabout his and partner David Furnish’s love for theirson Zachary - whose first birthday was on ChristmasDay - saying the child was the “light of our lives”. Anannouncement about the biopic is due very soon, the64-year-old told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.“That’s very much in the works. We’re making an an-nouncement about that very, very soon. We have adirector on board, and then it’s just going to be amatter of getting the script exactly the way we wantit,” he said. Lee Hall, who wrote megahit ‘Billy elliot’,has written the screenplay, he said, adding they willsoon start trying to cast and plan production. Onwho will play him, he said: “I don’t know. I’ve got awish list of people. No 1 on my wish list is Justin Tim-berlake, because he played me before in a DavidLaChapelle video of (elton classic) ‘Rocket Man’ andwas superb.” The film will be a “jukebox musical”with possibly a couple of new songs, he said. AGEnCIES

elton John wants Timberlake

to play him in biopic

MUMBAI: ‘Players’ may have big names likeBipasha Basu, Bobby deol and Neil NitinMukesh but Sonam Kapoor says the multi-starrer film belongs to her and co-starAbhishek Bachchan. The 26-year-old actress,who will be seen opposite Abhishek afterRakeysh Omprakash Mehra's 'dilli 6', said sheplays the lead in every multi-starrer. "I havealways been the lead in my multi-starrerfilms. Abhishek and I were the lead in 'dilli 6','Thank You' was about me and Akshay, 'Aisha'was all me and even now 'Players' is aboutAbhishek and I. The onus is on me as a lead.But at the same time there are so many

supporting people in the film who help youmake it a better product," Sonam said."My character Naina resembles what Iam in my real life. She is rebellious

but at the same time she is nice,"she said. She had to lose weight

to look more edgy for thecharacter and soon Sonam willbe seen donning a bikini foran upcoming project. "Thisyear my audience will see

me in a sexy body. I hadto undergo particularweight training for'Players'. I am alsotaking classes forpower and vikram

yoga because Iwant to have thebest body," sheadded. AGEnCIES

is Abhishek andmy film: Sonam

gets intimate with RanveerMUMBAI: After being typecast as thevillage belle in ‘dabangg’, Sonakshi Sinhahas finally dared to shed her inhibitions. Inher upcoming film ‘lootera’, thevoluptuous beauty found an opportunityto give herself a makeover. Sonakshiwould be seen doing a very intimatescene with co-star Ranveer Singh invikramaditya Motwane’s film ‘lootera’. Acrew member revealed, “Ranveer andSonakshi have a very intimate scene inthe film, which was shot last week in filmCity. A special set recreating dalhousiewas constructed. Ranveer and Sonakshiwere quite comfortable while filming thescene. Of course, there were a fewretakes.” while many in the industry wereshocked in the backdrop of her reluctanceto do such scenes, Sonakshi maintained,“As an actor, change is important.” Asource from the unit confirmed the newsand said, “The scene is suggestive andnot vulgar. It has been shot veryaesthetically. It appears in one of thesongs. In the film, Sonakshi and Ranveerare madly in love. Both of them were verycomfortable shooting the scene.” ZEEnEWS


17

MUMBAI: The ‘love Aaj Kal’ girl,Giselli Monteiro will be seen in adifferent avatar in Sanjay Mishra'sdirectorial debut ‘Pranaamwalekum’. After playing thecoy girl in her debut film,Giselli will now be playing anautanki wali. Talking abouther look, Sanjay says, "wewere looking for a fresh faceand Giselli seemed to be the bestchoice. She is very confident and itwas very comfortable working withher. Iss movie ke liye aisa koi chahiyetha jo beti aur mashooka, dono ke role kojustify kare. Giselli is that girl. Usko dekh kelog kahenge, baap re baap, kabhi aisa nahidekha." The movie will also have a nautankidance performance by Giselli, though her lookis more classical than sensual. "In a span of 2-3months Giselli was all trained and set to doBollywood style latka jhatkas. You will see Gisellias never before in this film," says Mishra, whosemovie is based on communal harmony. AGEnCIES

Vivek Oberoi's best 2011

MUMBAI: Actor vivek Oberoi, who was away from thearc-lights last year, says that being offered a role in ‘Krrish2’ was one of the most memorable moments of 2011 forhim. "A very special memory for me of 2011 was that Igot a chance to be a part of such a big film, 'Krrish'.The first time I went to meet Rakesh (Roshan) unclein his office and he gave me the script. I read thescript there in his office only. After reading the script,I went up to him, hugged him and received hisblessings. Then I signed the film," the 35-year-oldactor said. Meanwhile, vivek has startedshooting for his latest film ‘Kismat lovePaisa dilli’ with Mallika Sherawat. The filmrequires vivek to spend a lot of time in thecapital and the actor has called over hisfamily to stay with him till the shootschedule ends. "I am very family-centric. So, I like living with myfamily. when I live in hotels, I missthat a lot. So, I prefer that whereever I go, I get an apartment orrent a place. So, I can call myentire family and it feels likehome," said vivek. AGEnCIES

momenta role in ‘Krrish 2’

Chitral-inspiredkrizmah bagsnow at Ensemble

KArAChIStAff REPoRt

Krizmah, one of the most excitingnames to emerge in the field ofhandmade bags, recently launched atensemble, a high-end multi designerboutique located in both Lahore andKarachi. Both boutiques will now bestocking Krizmah bags permanently.The word Krizmah describes the plantwild iris in the “khowar” language ofChitral. Chitral is a magical valley inthe foothills of the HindukushMountains, inhabited by a generousand tolerant people who embracetheir simple existence with aninnocent happiness expressed intime-honoured traditions of creativeart, music and dance. The Krizmahbag label is owned by two Lahore-based graphic designers ZainabUlmulk (a member of the ancientKatur dynasty of Chitral) and NadiaMalik, as well as by women artisans inChitral. The purpose behind Krizmahis to produce haute couture hand bagsfor global followers of fashion.

Isma Meer’strousseau collectionan instant hit

KArAChIStAff REPoRt

Isma Meer is easily Pakistan’s premiershoe designer, whose products are nowbeing sought after by women all overPakistan. Her trousseau collection hasnow hit stores in both Lahore andKarachi, and is getting rave reviews.Crafted from genuine leather, theIsma Meer trousseau shoe collectionis painstakingly and beautifully madeand adorned with only the finest ofembellishments and stones. With thewedding season in full swing, thenew collection Isma Meer has sent isperfect to add that extra bling andshine to a full outfit. Isma Meershoes can be purchased from herdisplay at Labels, Karachi and Labels,Lahore along with a permanentdisplay at Sania Maskatiya’s flagshipoutlet on Khyaban-e-Bukhari. IsmaMeer Khalpey's designs areaesthetically evocative of her exposureto both western and easterninfluences. Her shoe collectioncomprises of rich, vibrant coloursand textures, some of which aredecorated with jeweled rhinestonesto create "the dream shoe".

ASUnCIón:Paraguayan

artists performduring the

closing event ofthe celebrations

for Paraguay'sBicentenary.

ABU dHABI:British band

Coldplayperforms in

concert in theEmirati capital.

London: Cheerleaderstake part in the

new Year's day Parade.

LoNDoNAGEnCIES

WARNeRB r o s ,the stu-dio be-hind the

‘Harry Potter’ movies, haslaunched a campaign tohave the ‘Deathly HallowsPart 2’ recognised at theAcademy Awards. In thedecade since they were firstlaunched, the ‘Potter’movies have made around5 billion pounds and woncritical acclaim, but anOscar has always eludedthem. Warner Bros is nowmaking one last push tobreak the spell by lobbyingAcademy voters to nomi-nate ‘Harry Potter and theDeathly Hallows Part 2’ ina dozen categories includ-ing best picture and bestdirector.

It is also trying to getDaniel Radcliffe andemma Watson nominatedin the best actor and ac-tress categories respec-tively. The most likelychance of success comes inthe best supporting actor

category with Alan Rick-man’s performance as Pro-fessor Severus Snape. “Idon’t think there is goingto be another performancefrom an actor in a support-ing role that is so power-ful,” the Telegraph quotedDaniel Radcliffe as saying.

To date, the ‘Harry Pot-ter’ films have been nomi-nated for nine Oscars buthave failed to win any. Thecategories for which thefilms have been nominatedinclude best art direction,best score and best cine-matography. While these

are all hard-fought cate-gories, they are outside the‘big five’ - best picture, bestdirector, best actor, best ac-tress and best screenplay.

Warner Bros has set upa ‘For Your Consideration’website for the final ‘HarryPotter’ film, which chartsthe wizard’s final victoryover the forces of evil. Thestudio is running specialtrailers and advertisingcampaigns in the film’s ho-nour. The ballot closes onJanuary 13 and the nomi-nations will be announcedon January 24.

‘Harry Potter’ movies push for Oscar glory

LoS ANGeLeSAGEnCIES

Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible - Ghost Pro-tocol’ topped the North American box office fora second straight weekend, ringing in the NewYear with $30 million in ticket sales, industryestimates showed Sunday. The action film, thefourth in the series, thus far has taken in $133million, according to exhibitor Relations. Insecond place was ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game ofShadows’, a sequel to the 2009 film about thedetective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ittook in $22.1 million in the third week since itsrelease. In third place with $18.3 million was‘Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked’, thethird animated film about the adorable singingcritters. Fourth place went to Steven Spielberg’s‘War Horse’, about the bond between a boy andhis horse during World War I, which was ex-pected to reap in $16.9 million. ‘The Girl withthe Dragon Tattoo’ — the Hollywood adaptationof the wildly popular Stieg Larsson novel, star-ring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara - took in$16.3 million for fifth place. Family film ‘WeBought A Zoo’ starring Matt Damon finished insixth place, taking in $14.3 million. AnotherSpielberg film, ‘The Adventures of Tintin,’about an intrepid Belgian boy reporter, wasseventh with $12 million. Star-studded holidayromance ‘New Year’s eve’ earned $6.7 millionfor eighth place, while thriller ‘The DarkestHour’ took ninth place with $4.3 million.Rounding out the top 10 was ‘The Descendants’starring George Clooney, which grossed $3.7million. Final figures were due out Tuesday,after the four-day New Year’s holiday weekend.

Cruise rings in New year

at top of box office

Bipasha Basu is on a thanking

Giselli Monteiro to play


CAPe ToWNAfP

Alviro Petersen will open the batting forSouth Africa with captain Graeme Smithin the third and final Test against SriLanka starting at Newlands Tuesday.Smith also announced Monday that fit-again Vernon Philander would replace fastbowler Marchant de Lange despite DeLange taking seven for 81 in the first in-nings on debut during the second Test inDurban. Jacques Rudolph, who opened inthe first four Tests of the summer, againstAustralia and Sri Lanka, will move to num-

ber six to replace Ashwell Prince,who has been dropped. Smith

said South Africa needed tobounce back after Sri Lankawon the second Test by 208runs to level the series. "It's

been a pretty tough time," he said. "Youknow you've let yourself and a lot of peopledown through not performing to the stan-dards you are capable of. "As a team it'sabout bouncing back and getting it rightover the next five days." Sri Lanka captainTillekeratne Dilshan had a look at a green-tinged pitch when his team arrived afterrain kept the South African indoors duringthe morning but said his fast bowlers wereas well equipped to take advantage of con-ditions as the South Africans.

"Our fast bowlers have done a greatjob throughout the series," said Dilshan. "Iam looking forward to their performanceon this wicket." Dilshan said Sri Lanka hadwon the second Test because they adheredto a game plan. "We will stick to basics andtry to finish strongly," he said.

Dilshan said he was confident wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal, who hit two

half-centuries on debut in Durban, wouldbe fully recovered after being hit on theelbow in the nets Sunday. There was aslight doubt about fast bowler Dilhara Fer-nando, who was suffering knee pain. Hesaid Dhammika Prasad would be consid-ered for a fast bowling berth. The SouthAfrican captain said he could not fault thepreparation of the players. "Mentally,maybe we can be a bit stronger. We've hadsome good chats about areas where wethink we have been poor.

"We can play a lot tougher cricketthan we played in Durban. We can makeSri Lanka earn a few more things thanwhat they did in Durban." Rain pre-vented the players from practising out-doors Monday and the pitch was undercover when Smith was at the ground. "Ihad a look yesterday (Sunday) and itlooked ready to play on." He said it

seemed to be drier than the surface onwhich Australia were bowled out for 47earlier in the season in a Test whichSouth Africa won inside three days.

Smith said South Africa were lookingforward to a good 2012 after dropping tothird in the official Test rankings. It will bea testing year for the Proteas, who haveaway series against New Zealand, englandand Australia. "I really believe we deserveto be at the top with the quality we haveand the results we have had around theworld in the last few years," said Smith.

"We need to step it up but we know wehave the capability to do that. In the nextyear we've got those big challenges and Ibelieve we can compete, starting tomor-row." Smith said the return of Philanderwould bring "more structure" to the SouthAfrican attack. He said De Lange had re-sponded well to being left out.

Page 21


Kvitova off to perfect start

LAhoreStAff REPoRt

PAKISTAN skipper Misbah-ulHaq has said his side will focuson playing good cricket ratherthan just entertaining thecrowd, ahead of the upcoming

series against england in the United Arabemirates. “The most important thing is towin cricket matches and we are just focus-ing on winning at the moment. At the mo-ment winning cricket matches is moreimportant than entertaining in Testcricket. Our first aim is to win matches, wewant to continue to win matches, build theconfidence of the players and the team,then we can look at working on the enter-tainment aspect in Test cricket,” PakPas-sion quoted Misbah, as saying.

His statement comes after critics hadalleged that Pakistan cricket has becomerather dull and boring under Misbah-ulHaq’s captaincy.Misbah said the past yearhas been satisfying for Pakistan taking intoaccount four series wins against NewZealand, West Indies, Zimbabwe, SriLanka and Bangladesh. “It was a good yearfor the Pakistan cricket team, the perform-ances have been good. Starting from thetour of New Zealand at the beginning ofthe year right through to the recent tour ofBangladesh, it’s been a very good showfrom every player,” he added. He, how-ever, described the World Cup semi-finaldefeat to India and a Test series draw atthe West Indies as low points of 2011.

Misbah, however, feels his side needsto work on fielding and catching, andstressed on the need to develop slip field-ers. We need to continue to develop spe-cialists in key fielding positionsparticularly in Test cricket. Fielders at sillypoint, short leg and in the slip cordon haveto be specialists as these fielding positionsare key to your chances in the field in Testcricket. I feel that it’s very important thatwe develop fielders who can field in thesepositions, particularly developing young-sters who can do a good job fielding inthese key positions,” he added.

England series Pakistan’s toughest: Misbah

LONDON: england Test captain An-drew Strauss has insisted his side areprepared to play against Pakistan play-ers named in the spot-fixing trial thatled to three cricketers being jailed. Butthe opening batsman warned that, de-spite the impact of the case, it was toosoon to say that corruption had beeneradicated from world cricket. WahabRiaz, Umar Akmal and Imran Farhat -all named in the trial in London in Octo-ber as having links with agent MazharMajeed, who was himself sent to prison-- have been included in Pakistan'ssquad for the forthcoming three-Test se-ries against england in the United Arabemirates, which starts on January 17.Majeed was jailed along with formerPakistan Test captain Salman Butt andbowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mo-hammad Asif for their roles in a plan todeliberately bowl no-balls as part of aspot-fixing scam during the 2010 Lord'sTest against england. However, left-armquick Riaz and batsmen Akmal andFarhat had no charges brought againstthem and Strauss did not regard theirselection for the series as a provocativegesture by the Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB). "It's there obligation and duty topick the best side they think is availableto them," Strauss, speaking at england'sHeathrow Airport hotel ahead of theirdeparture for the UAe, said Monday. "I

think the spot-fixing stuff is somethingwe are desperately keen to move onfrom. I don't think there's any good thatcan come from churning it all up againand it's time to just concentrate on thecricket. "We will play whichever XI isselected." But Strauss urged everyoneinvolved in world cricket to remain "vig-ilant" in the fight against corruption,adding he was unable to say the wholegame was entirely "clean". "I don't thinkit's possible to say that. I think there'smore awareness about it, which I thinkis a good thing. There have been someconsequences to what went on at Lord's."But it's a hard thing to eradicate com-pletely, policing it is very, very toughand I think there's a huge responsibilityon the administrators but also upon the

players to make sure that any inkling,anything we see that might be untowardis reported and acted upon. "We all needto be vigilant," added Strauss, who lastyear led england to the top of the worldTest rankings. "You've got to have a de-gree of wariness when anyone ap-proaches you who you don't know.That's just the way the world is andwe've got to deal with it accordingly."england-Pakistan series have producedseveral flashpoints down the years, bethey rows about umpires or allegationsof ball-tampering, which led to Pak-istan's unprecedented forfeit of a Testmatch at The Oval in 2006. But Straussinsisted there was no reason why eng-land-Pakistan matches should inevitablygenerate controversy. "This perceptionthat there's always issues between Pak-istan and england, we should see this asan opportunity to eradicate that," hesaid. "There's no reason why that shouldbe the case. "If we approach it in theright spirit then that should be good forrelations between the two teams andworld cricket in general. "Pakistan areplaying a lot of good cricket and that'sgoing to be the challenge for us to over-come them, on the field. "What's hap-pened before is water under the bridgeand I hope both sides can play in theright spirit and produce an entertainingand exciting Test match series." AfP

Strauss warns team of a resurgent Pakistan

Injured Junaid

doubtful for

england seriesLAhore

StAff REPoRt

Pakistan cricketer Junaid Khan will only playin the Test series against england if he isfound fully fit at the National Cricket Acad-emy in Lahore on January 6. Junaid is recov-ering from a partial tear in his abdominalmuscle, which he sustained while playing forLancashire in 2010. Junaid had initiallyplanned to feature in at least one match ofthe Under-23 Cup but has now dropped theidea. “Initially Junaid was going to play in atleast one of the ongoing Under 23 domesticmatches, but now he has been asked to joinup with the rest of the squad at the trainingcamp in Lahore that starts on January 4,without featuring in any of the domesticmatches,” Pak Passion quoted a source, assaying. “A fitness test for Junaid is scheduledfor January 6 at the NCA and that test willultimately determine whether he will travelwith the rest of the squad to the UAe to faceengland. Junaid has been working very hardwith the coaching staff, has recently startedbowling at full speed and is very confidentthat he will pass the fitness test and be on theplane to theUAe,” headded. Junaidhas so far fea-tured in 16 in-ternationalmatches sincemaking hisdebut lastyear.

SYDNeYAfP

Spinner Nathan Lyon has received thebacking of the Australian team ahead ofhis showdown with India's big-namebatsmen in the second Test at the Syd-ney Cricket Ground starting Tuesday.Lyon, 24, faces a daunting task againstIndia's spin-savvy batsmen, headed bySachin Tendulkar, searching for his100th international century after beingdismissed for 73 in the first innings oflast week's Melbourne Test.

Lyon was preferred to fit-againpaceman Ryan Harris on Monday in anunchanged Australian team for the Syd-ney Test and is expected to get moreovers than the 22.5 he bowled in Aus-tralia's 122-run win in Melbourne. Skip-per Michael Clarke has put his trust inthe South Australian off-spinner to copewith the anticipated Indian assault."This series is a tough challenge for Lyonbecause India are such good players ofspin bowling," Clarke said Monday.

"I thought he did a pretty good jobwithout getting as many wickets as hewould have liked in the last Test in Mel-bourne. "So I'm confident that Lyoncan certainly take a few wickets in thismatch and continue to do a good job for

us." Australia coach Mickey Arthur saidLyon would face a tough challengeagainst the experienced Indian bats-men, looking to level the four-Test se-ries. "There's absolutely no doubt that

they will try and go after him," Arthursaid at the weekend. "Nathan is a prettyskilful off-spinner so I reckon that willdevelop into the very interesting con-test. "We're going to get a lot of oversout of Nathan if it's a typical SCGwicket and I've got full confidence inhis ability to tie India down and, in thesecond innings, strike for us. "I think itcould be (a pivotal contest) providingwe get enough runs on the board. If wehave runs on the board Nathan be-comes a very interesting prospect forus." Significantly, Lyon, gearing up forhis ninth Test, has yet to play a first-class match at the usually spin-con-ducive Sydney Cricket Ground.

Senior Australian batsman MikeHussey has said the SCG pitch lookslikely to take spin. That will be wel-come news for Lyon, who was largelya peripheral figure in Melbourne butcould come more into his own in Syd-ney where he confronts the biggestchallenge of his fledgling Test career.Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Se-hwag and V.V.S. Laxman arerenowned experts of playing spin andwill be keen to belt Lyon out of the at-tack and place added pressure on thehome pace trio of James Pattinson,Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus.

flintoff revealsmental strain ofleading england

LoNDoNAfP

Andrew Flintoff has spoken of the emo-tional anguish he experienced leadingengland during their Ashes thrashing inAustralia five years ago and how hewanted to retire at the subsequentWorld Cup.The former all-rounder talks about hispersonal struggles and those of otherleading sportsmen, including some ofhis team-mates, in a BBC programmeentitled 'Freddie Flintoff: Hidden SideOf Sport,' due to be broadcast a week onWednesday (January 11).Flintoff was england's captain whenthey were whitewashed 5-0 by hostsAustralia in the 2006/07 Ashes, a serieswhere they surrendered their grip onthe urn before Christmas."I was having a quiet drink with my dadColin on Christmas eve 2006 and as wemade our way home I started crying myeyes out," said Flintoff, in an extractfrom the programme quoted on theDaily Mail website on Sunday.

australia put faith in spinner Lyon

Petersen to open with Smith


sports 19Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

SYDNeY AGEnCIES

Former Australian great Glenn Mc-Grath foresees Australia whitewashingIndia 4-0 in the Test series as he feelsthe hosts' pace attack gives them a de-cisive edge over the visitors. "On Sun-day, I said 3-0 but I stuffed up becauseI thought there were only three Tests.But definitely 4-0 now," said Mc-Grath at the SCG where he waspromoting McGrath Foundationfor breast cancer. "The way theguys have played, I've been veryimpressed. I think a teambuilds itself around a bowlingattack and you look at thebowling attack the team has atthe moment. "It will give therest of the guys a lot of confi-dence so I'm very confident, asconfident as I've been in years thatthis team is something special andexpecting big things from them too,"he added. McGrath had words of praisefor pace bowling sensation James Pat-tinson. "He has a good action, hebowls in great areas and [has]got good pace and a greatattitude. I've really en-

joyed watching him bowl and gettingstuck into the Indian batsmen," hesaid. Pattinson was man of the matchat the MCG for his six wickets and un-beaten knocks of 18 and 37 in two in-nings. Above all, he breathed fire andbowled with aggression at the Indians."Definitely, it's all about attitude andwe're fast bowlers at the end of the day.

You don't bowl half volleys and skiparound the park smiling at batsmen,do you?" said McGrath. "I wish I couldbowl that quick and it's been a greatstart for his career to have a couple offive-wicket hauls under the belt. Theconfidence has got to be up. "I thinkhe's got a huge future. I wish I startedmy career as well as James has so I'mexpecting huge things from him, defi-nitely." The great fast bowler, who took563 wickets during his career of 124Tests, said Australia would do no harmif they opted to play four fast bowlersin this Test. "It has spun in the past inSydney. I like a spinner in the team togive it a balance but with Ryan Harris,with the form he was in before he gotinjured, to bring him back into theteam would offer so much, especiallyplaying India in Australian conditions."I think with the extra bounce, we getextra bit of seam movement which ac-tually works in our favour. I've beenvery impressed with our bowling at-

tack, the way we bowled in Mel-bourne was great soI'm expecting bigthings from the boysin this Test matchalso," he said.

McGrath predictsIndia’s whitewash

SYDNeYREUtERS

The green shoots of Australian recovery willbe exposed to the full glare of India's deter-mination to level the series in the 100th testmatch to be played at the Sydney CricketGround starting on Tuesday. Fired by a dis-play of aggressive fast bowling, Australia re-bounded from a first home defeat to NewZealand in 26 years to take a 1-0 lead in thefour-match series with an ultimately con-vincing 122-run victory at the MelbourneCricket Ground last week. While the hostswill be looking for more of the same on awicket with a tinge of green to it, India willbe out to stop a the rot of a run of five suc-cessive overseas test defeats going back to

their 4-0 drubbing in england last year.Crucial to their success will be an improvedperformance from their much-vaunted bat-ting line-up - particularly the openers - anda century from Sachin Tendulkar would bewelcome in more ways than one.

The 38-year-old has been stuck on 99international hundreds for 10 months andwill fancy his chances of finally reaching themilestone at a ground where he has plun-dered runs at an average of more than 221per innings in the past. Pace bowling greatGlenn McGrath will once again be hoping

for the ground to be turned into a sea of pinkon the third day of the test for his McGrathFoundation charity, which raises money forbreast cancer nurses in Australia. The 41-year-old, who took 563 test wickets, is noto-rious for his predictions of serieswhitewashes for Australia and the form ofquicks James Pattinson, Peter Siddle andBen Hilfenhaus had him at it again on Mon-day. "I think a team really builds itselfaround a bowling attack and you look at thebowling attack the team has at the momentand that will give the rest of the guys a lot ofconfidence," he said. "I'm very confident, asconfident as I've been in years, that thisteam is something special and expecting bigthings from them too." Australia go into thematch unchanged from Melbourne, with

spinner Nathan Lyon preferred to a fourthpace option in Ryan Harris. India, who looklikely to drop number six batsman ViratKohli and hand Rohit Sharma his test debut,have always enjoyed playing on the tradi-tionally spin-friendly SCG wickets but haveonly won once in nine previous matches atthe ground. Four of the other contests havebeen drawn and, despite the 40 wickets thattumbled over four dramatic days in Mel-bourne, another stalemate to leave the seriesnicely poised going into the third test inPerth would be no great surprise. All con-cerned are convinced that it will be playedin a better spirit than the spiteful 2008 en-counter at the ground, when Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was accused ofracially abusing Andrew Symonds.

ex-defenderGary Ablettdead at 46

LoNDoNAfP

Gary Ablett, who made history by be-coming the only player to win the FACup with both Liverpool and everton,has died at the age of 46 after a longbattle against cancer. Ablett, who had aseason as Stockport manager in 2009-10, lost his 16-month fight against non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on Sunday. "Onbehalf of Gary Ablett's family the LMA(League Managers Association) hastoday confirmed that Gary passed awaypeacefully last night following a hardfought 16-month battle against non-Hodgkin's lymphoma," said an LMAstatement. "Respected throughout thegame by players, coaches and managersalike Gary will be sadly missed. "TheLMA's thoughts and condolences arewith Gary's wife Jacqueline and chil-dren." Liverpool manager KennyDalglish, who handed Ablett his debutduring his first stint as boss at Anfield,offered his condolences.

Rooney finedover night out

MANCheSTerAfP

Manchester United striker WayneRooney has been fined a week's wagesby the Premier League club for a nightout over the Christmas weekend, ac-cording to press reports here on Mon-day. Rooney was dropped by Unitedahead of their shock 3-2 home loss toBlackburn last Saturday, officially be-cause of fitness concerns.But several British newspapers reportedthat the star was punished for a belowpar training session on December 27after a Boxing Day evening out with wifeColeen and team-mates Jonny evansand Darron Gibson against team orders.Rooney was fined approximately200,000 pounds (310,000 dollars) withdefender evans and midfielder Gibsonalso fined, the reports said.

Australians havenot forgiven Sachin

SYDNeY AGEnCIES

Australian playershave not forgivenSachin Tendulkar forhis role in the '2008monkeygate scandal',says a section of theAussie media. In avirulent verbal attackon Indian cricketicon Sachin Ten-dulkar, an Australian

newspaper today slammed the battingmaestro for backing his teammate Harbha-jan Singh during the '2008 monkeygatescandal' here, saying some Aussie playerslost respect for him after that. "While thecricket world is abuzz with anticipation thatthe Little Master will score his 100th inter-national century during the second Test inSydney, beginning tomorrow, some recentAustralian players have not forgiven his rolein the Andrew Symonds 'Monkeygate' scan-dal," The 'Herald Sun's' Malcom Conn wrotein a column titled 'Sachin's Sin City'. Thewriter goes on to state that the 'Monkeygate'scandal will forever haunt Tendulkar. "...de-spite the unparalleled greatness of hisachievements, some Australians lost re-spect for him when he gave completely dif-ferent accounts of what took place as a keywitness in the Harbhajan Singh-AndrewSymonds racism meltdown," he claimed.

BLACKBUrNAfP

Peter Crouch brought up his centuryof league goals here on Monday ashis double saw Stoke beat BlackburnRovers 2-1 and bring the hosts backdown to earth after their fine winover Manchester United at the

weekend. Crouch - who has fallenout of favour with england coachFabio Capello - struck in the 17thand 45th minutes to take his tally to101 league goals and kept Stokeeighth in the table. Scottish strikerDavid Goodwillie did reduce thedeficit but Rovers could not grab ashare of the points and remain sec-

ond from bottom three points adriftof safety. They could go bottom ifBolton beat everton on Wednesday.

Rovers had started the brightestof the two sides - boosted by a drawat Liverpool and then the 3-2 winover United at Old Trafford on Sat-urday - with wantaway Congoleseinternational defender Chris Samba

hitting the bar and then having agoal ruled out. Stoke made them payfor that as Crouch did well to tuckaway Dean Whitehead's perceptivepass over the Rovers defence andthe former Portsmouth and Spursstriker added a second when he con-verted Matt etherington's cross onthe stroke of half-time.

Rovers fought back in the sec-ond-half with former DundeeUnited star Goodwillie halving thedeficit and then the hosts went closeto levelling but Jonathan Woodgatedid well to block leading scorerAyegbeni Yakubu's goalbound shot.RANGERS BOUNCE BACK BUTHOOPS STAY OUT IN FRONT:Rangers got over their Old Firmderby defeat disappointment with a3-0 win over Motherwell at Ibrox toremain two points behind Celtic atthe top of the Scottish PremierLeague. In a rare start David Healyfired Rangers into a first half leadbefore Sone Aluko netted his firstgoal for the club ten minutes afterthe break. Stephen Craigan thenturned Lee Wallace's shot into hisown net in the 73rd minute to roundoff a comprehensive victory againstthird-placed Well.

"I must admit it's been a greatstart to 2012," Rangers manager AllyMcCoist said, though his men stilltrail Celtic by three points. "Ithought the application, skill andfootball we played was very goodand I was really pleased," theRangers manager said. His Mother-well counterpart Stuart McCall washugely disappointed with his side'sperformance.

Crouch brings up century as Stoke down Rovers

australia recovery faces India, Tendulkar TestAustrAliA vs indiA

The maTch begins aT

4:30am on sTar crickeT

BlACKBURN: Blackburn Rovers’ french defender Gael Givet (R) vies with Stoke City’s danish goalkeeper ThomasSorensen (2nd R) during the english Premier league football match. afp

Mancini urges City to tighten upSUNDerLAND

AfP

Roberto Mancini has warned histitle-chasing Manchester City sidethey need to understand there ismore to football than attack afterbeing caught out in a 1-0 defeat atSunderland. Premier League lead-ers City remained on top but ongoal difference alone after SouthKorea's Ji Dong-Won struck deepinto injury time here on Sunday.Their defeat was compounded bythe knowledge a win at the Sta-dium of Light would have put Citythree points clear of ManchesterUnited after the second-placedchampions' shock 3-2 loss athome to Blackburn on Saturday.City face sixth-placed Liverpool,fresh from a 3-1 win over Newcas-tle, at eastlands on Tuesday andmanager Mancini doesn't wantthem to make the same mistaketwice in a row. "The (Sunderland)goal was offside but I've not beento see the referee about it," saidMancini. "I know football, andfor this reason, in the last 15 min-utes I almost lost my voice shout-ing at the defence to hold theirline and concentrate because ofthe danger Sunderland posed onthe break," the Italian added. "Weseemed to want to attack with 10players and to do that is impossi-ble. "I don't know how manychances we had, but I'm not wor-ried about not scoring in the lastcouple of games (City were held toa goalless draw by West Brom on Boxing Day), but what I'm wor-ried about is having players on the pitch who understand the sit-uation when we're vulnerable to a counter-attack.


sports20Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

DOHA: Tennis star Roger Federer takes

part in a show case event ahead of the

Qatar Exxon Mobil Open and the ATP

World Tour season at an amphitheater in

the cultural village of Katara in Doha. afp

DohAAfP

Rafa Nadal admits he is having to take risksin order to achieve the level required to winback the world number one ranking. TheFrench Open champion is gambling with aheavier headed racket here in the first tour-nament of the 2012 tour, even though he hashad little more than a week to get used to thechange. Nadal is also taking a chance in com-ing to the Qatar Open while wrestling withdoubts about his mental and physical stateafter an all-too-short break between seasons.

"I had to make the change even if I amnot better in the beginning," he said of anequipment change he first consideredmaking after losing the US Open final toNovak Djokovic in September. "We had tomake the decision so that it will be betterin the future," Nadal explained. "Probablythat hurts my game a little bit to begin

with. Is that a risk at the beginning of theseason - yes." Nadal hopes that the changewill lend some extra weight to his serve,which at times has been the least potentof the world's top four. His twin problemsare that Djokovic last year took his gameto a new level of intensity, and that he hasbeen struggling with discomfort in hisshoulder for several weeks.

Nadal also admitted that a combina-tion of this injury and continuing twingesin a knee, plus the shortness of the breakbetween seasons, made him consider miss-ing this week and going straight to Mel-bourne for the Australian Open. He decidedto delay the racket change till now becauseof his commitments to the Tokyo andShanghai tournaments, which were quicklyfollowed by the ATP World Tour finals andthe Davis Cup final at the start of Decem-ber. That left Nadal, after a short rest, withlittle more than a week to prepare for the

2012 season, increasing the risks in what hecalls an "investment" in the weightierracket. "But it was still the right moment,to change," said the 25-year-old Spaniard."If not now, then when?"

Nadal is a conspicuously resilient char-acter, but still acknowledges that this weekwill be "difficult" as he seeks a good prepa-ration for the first Grand Slam of 2012. Al-though he is a winner of 10 Grand Slamtitles, Nadal has not won a tournamentsince the French at the start of June, andhas lost his last six finals against Djokovic."I don't know if it's going to be enough tobeat him now or to lose him 100 moretimes - I cannot predict that," Nadal con-cluded. "What I can predict is I am goingto work hard to try to be enough competi-tive to play with good chances againsteverybody, not only against him, becausefirst thing, you have to be in the finals.That's a very difficult thing to do."

dOHA: Rafael Nadal of Spain speaks during apress conference ahead of the ATP QatarOpen Tennis tournament at Khalifa Tennisand Squash Complex. afp

Nadal gambles to regain former status

Army thrash

Punjab in National

Baseball LAhore

StAff REPoRt

Army entered the final of the 19th Na-tional Baseball Championship aftercrushing Punjab14-0 in the first semi-final at the Iqbal Park Sports Complexhere on Monday. The second pre-finalbetween defending champions WAPDAand Police will be played on Tuesday. Army were aggressive right from thestart as they plundered four runs in thefirst innings through Imtiaz, Farooq,Zahid and Iftikhar. They added twomore in the second innings when Imtiazand Farooq contributed one more run toincrease the lead to 6-0. In the third in-nings Zafar and Umair produced one runeach as the soldiers remained on thefront seat, without any big opposition.In the fourth and last innings Army hitsix runs as their Imtiaz, Farooq, Arshad,Iftikhar, Rashid and Arslan added oneeach to win the match comfortably. ear-lier, in the last group match, Police de-feated Khyber PK 10-1 to confirm a placein the last four. For Police, Dure Hus-sain (2) Nasir Butt (2), Ahsan Beg (2),Maqsood (2) Muzaffar Hussain (1), andNawazih (1) were the scorers.

Pepsi-PCB CricketStar Programmefrom 16th

LAhore StAff REPoRt

The second phase of the Pepsi–PCBCricket Star Programme will start atthe National Cricket Academy fromJanuary 16 under the supervision ofNCA elite coaches. This will be a four-week advancedcoaching program and players will re-port at the NCA on January 15. The national selection committee hasselected 28 players to attend this pro-gram based on their performance dur-ing the recently concluded Pepsi-PCBCricket Star U-16 Tournament. The names of the selected players areas under: Mohammad Ahmad (Lahore),Danish Aziz, Widwan Ullah, ArsalanBashir (Karachi), Raheel Mayo, AbdulSamad (Hyderabad), Irfan elahi(Sialkot), Farhan Sarfraz, Imran Rafiq,Junaid Zawar, Usman Ali, HassanMushtaq (Multan), Muhammad Hanif,Khalid Kail, Muhammad Tariq, FaizanAli, Sultan Mehmood (Abbottabad),Muhammad Fahad, Dilawar Shah (Is-lamabad), Jamal Khan, GhulamHaider, Mukhtar Ahmad (Quetta), MirWais, Muhammad Farhan, Aqib Shah(Rawalpindi), Zawan Hikmat (Pe-shawar), Bilal Ahmad(FATA), Muham-mad Asim (Faisalabad).

LoNDoNAfP

Chelsea bounced back from their homedefeat against Aston Villa with a battling2-1 win at Wolves on Monday to relievethe pressure on under-fire managerAndre Villas-Boas. A last-gasp strike fromFrank Lampard secured a vital threepoints for the Londoners, the veteranChelsea midfielder pouncing in the 89thminute just moments after Stephen Wardhad equalised for Wolves. The Blues --who were jeered off the pitch after Satur-day's 3-1 reverse to Villa -- climbed intofourth spot following the victory althoughArsenal can overtake them if they defeatFulham in Monday's late game.

A fiery encounter saw Chelsea take thelead through Ramires on 54 minutes, andChelsea's players celebrated by racing overto embrace Villas-Boas in a show of supportfor the Portuguese manager. HoweverWolves looked to have grabbed a share ofthe points when Ward struck six minutesfrom time only for Lampard to rescue

Chelsea at the death. "It's a massive win.everyone knows we are having a toughtime but the determination shone throughand I think we deserved it," Lampard toldthe BBC. "The character showed as we bat-tled through to the end and that is what theplayers are all about." Villas-Boas mean-

while refused to single out Lampard forpraise. "The players were magnificenttoday, no matter who scores," Villas-Boassaid. "It's a good solid team win." else-where, Blackburn were brought down toearth following their away win over Man-chester United at the weekend after suffer-ing a 2-1 defeat to Stoke at ewood Park,Peter Crouch scoring twice for the visitors.

Blackburn looked to have got off to adream start only for Christopher Samba'searly effort to be ruled offside. Stoke thenwent ahead with Crouch netting his 100thleague goal from close range after Black-burn failed to deal with Dean Whitehead'schip forward. Crouch then doubled Stoke'slead with his second of the match on 45minutes to leave Rovers staring at theireighth home defeat of the season.

David Goodwillie scrambled one backin the 69th minute to give Rovers hope butthe home side were unable to find anequaliser. Aston Villa's feelgood factorfrom their win at Chelsea was also shat-tered, with newly promoted Swansea scor-ing a 2-0 win at Villa Park.

Lampard to the rescue as Chelsea down Wolves

wOlveRHAMPTON: wolverhampton wanderers’ english defender Roger Johnson (l) vies withChelsea’s midfielder frank lampard (R) during the english Premier league football match. afp

tEAM P W d L Gf GA PtSMAn CItY 19 14 3 2 53 16 45MAn Utd 19 14 3 2 49 17 45tottEnHAM 18 12 3 3 35 20 39CHELSEA 20 11 4 5 39 25 37ARSEnAL 19 11 3 5 35 26 36LIvERPooL 19 9 7 3 24 15 34nEWCAStLE 19 8 6 5 26 25 30StokE 20 8 5 7 22 31 29noRWICH 20 6 7 7 30 35 25EvERton 18 7 3 8 19 20 24SWAnSEA 20 5 8 7 20 23 23ASton vILLA 20 5 8 7 22 26 23WESt BRoM 19 6 4 9 19 27 22SUndERLAnd 19 5 6 8 23 22 21fULHAM 19 4 8 7 20 25 20W’HAMPton 20 4 5 11 22 36 17QPR 20 4 5 11 19 35 17WIGAn 19 3 6 10 17 37 15BLACkBURn 20 3 5 12 29 43 14BoLton 19 4 1 14 23 42 13

EnGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE


sports 21Tuesday, 3 January, 2012

WatCh it Live

TEN SPORTS South Africa v SriLanka 3rd Test Day 1 1:30 PM

STAR SPORTS HopmanCup Tennis7:00 AM

BrISBANeAfP

SeReNA Williams says she hasfallen out of love with tennisdespite recording an impres-sive comeback win overChanelle Scheepers in the first

round of the Brisbane International onMonday. Playing her first match since los-ing the US Open final to Samantha Stosurin August, Williams showed why she isthe most feared player in the draw as sheoutgunned Scheepers 6-2, 6-3.

Williams, who missed the last fourmonths of 2011, struggled at times withher first serve but still had too much fire-power for the South African, sendingdown seven aces in the 68-minute victory.The 30-year-old revealed later she wascutting her schedule back in 2012 as sheprepares for life after tennis. "I just wantto be able to do other things that I'mdoing and expand on that. I think thathelps keep my motivation up," she said.

Williams, who has won 13 Grand Slamsingles titles, admitted she took the latterpart of 2011 off because she was tired andsaid she did not love the sport any more --if she ever had. "I don't love tennis todaybut I'm here," she said. "I can't live withoutit -- there's a difference between not lovingsomething and not being able to live with-out it. "It's not that I've fallen out of lovewith it. I've actually never liked sports andI never understood how I became an ath-lete. "I don't like working out, I don't likeanything physical. If it involves sittingdown or shopping, I'm excellent at it." Aus-tralia's Stosur, the tournament top seed, de-molished a gallant Anastasiya Yakimova ofBelarus 6-2, 6-3 and remains on track for apossible semi-final clash against Williams.Playing her first match in Australia sincewinning the US Open, Stosur wasted notime reaching the second round to the de-light of her home fans in a packed PatRafter Arena. Second seed Andrea Petkovicof Germany overcame a second set collapseto defeat Israeli Shahar Peer 7-6 (7/2), 1-6,6-3. Petkovic, the runner-up in 2011, hadproblems with her serve throughout thefirst two sets but recovered in the third tooutlast Peer in two and a quarter hours.

Former world No.1 Ana Ivanovicbreezed into the second round with a 6-3,6-3 win over Austrian Tamira Paszek.Ivanovic raced through the first set then

recovered from a slight wobble in the sec-ond to wrap up the match in 79 minutes."I really felt I played well and applied a lotof things that I have worked on," the 24-year-old Serb said. "Still, there is room forimprovement but it is the first match (ofthe year) and I'm very, very happy to bethrough." Ivanovic next plays Belgium'sKim Clijsters in a mouthwatering secondround clash. Fellow countrywoman Je-lena Jankovic joined Ivanovic in the sec-ond round with a 6-4, 6-2 win over

Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro. Russia'seighth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkovaalso progressed when Slovenia's PolonaHercog withdrew with Pavlyuchenkovaleading 6-1, 4-1. In other matches, Kaza-khstan's Galina Voskoboeva thrashedRussian qualifier Vera Dushevina 6-0, 6-0, the Czech Republic's BarboraZahlavova Strycova saw off Australianwildcard Olivia Rogowska 6-2, 4-6, 6-4and American qualifier Vania King upsetHungary's Melinda Czink 6-3, 6-4.

BRISBANe: Serena williams of the US reacts during her first round match againstChanelle Scheepers of South Africa at the Brisbane International tennis tournament. afp

Top-form Serena outof love with tennis

PerThAfP

World number two Petra Kvitova made aperfect start to 2012 as the top-seeded CzechRepublic saw off Bulgaria at the mixedteams Hopman Cup in Australia on Monday.

Kvitova opened her new campaign witha straight-sets win over Tsvetana Pironkovaas the Czechs took the Group A tie 2-1.

Although the 46th-ranked Pironkovawas highly competitive, Kvitova had toomuch power, winning 6-4, 6-2 in 75 minutes.

Wimbledon champion Kvitova admittedthere was added pressure on her headinginto 2012 compared to 12 months earlier,when she was ranked 34th in the world.

"every season is different," she said."One year ago I was 34, now I am two at thestart of the season and everyone is seeing meon the court for the first time, and it's not al-ways easy to play on the court.

"The first match for the year is alwaystough, but I played well."

Kvitova, who is hot on the heels of Hop-man Cup rival Caroline Wozniacki, could se-cure the top world ranking within weeks.

Her team-mate, the world number sevenTomas Berdych, secured the overall tie witha hard-fought three-sets win over talentedyoungster Grigor Dimitrov, 6-4, 6-7 (9/11),6-3.

The Bulgarians earned a consolation bystaving off three match points to win amarathon dead mixed-doubles rubber 2-6,6-3, 11-9.

Berdych had lost his only previous en-counter to the gifted Dimitrov, but prevailedin what was a high-standard singles clash tostart the year.

"He's going to be really dangerous this

year," Berdych said. "It gives you even moreconfidence to have the first win of the yearand even to play a really solid game like itwas today, so I'm happy for that."

PeRTH: Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republiccelebrates defeating Tsvetana Pironkova. afp

Kvitova off to perfect start

Gojra, Karachinotch wins in InterAcademy Hockey

SIALKoTStAff REPoRt

Gojra, Karachi and Bahawalpur won theirmatches in the second PHF Inter Acad-emy Hockey Tournament here at theSialkot Hockey Stadium on Monday. Gojra beat Lahore 1-0 and the winning hitwas made by Gojra’s Mohammad Qasim inthe 21st minute. Karachi had an easy sail-ing against Quetta when they got 4-1 win. Karachi took lead in the first half throughSohail Abbas in the 13th minute and the re-maining goals came in the second session. After Quetta leveled the score in the36th minute through their forwardQasim, Karachi responded with anotherthree goals in the 42nd minute with goalscored by Mohammad Ibrar (PC),Hamza Ali 46th minute (PC) andSalman Khursheed 52nd minute (FG). In the final match of the day, Ba-hawalpur beat Bannu 6-1. The first halfwas in Bahawalpur’s control but onlyone goal was scored. Bahawalpur got their goals through So-hail Yousuf (three goals 24th, 41st & 57thminutes, FG), Zohaib Khan 39th minute(FG), Moadid Ali 49th minute (FG) andUmar Hamdi 53rd minute (FG) whileBannu scored their only goal when JamilBabar scored in the 42nd minute (PC). Meanwhile, Tournament DirectorAamir Shafique has imposed one matchban on Mujahid Afzal, coach LahoreHockey Academy, and Irfan Mahmood,Manager Gojra Hockey Academy, fortheir misconduct during the match be-tween Lahore and Gojra academies.

PERTH: Worldnumber one CarolineWozniacki arrived inAustralia just hoursbefore her match butdefied jet lag and fa-tigue to make a win-ning start at themixed teams Hop-man Cup on Monday.She scored an im-pressive 7-6, 6-2 winover AmericanBethanie Mattek-Sands after flying infrom Thailand, whereshe was playing in acharity event. Wozni-acki and unheraldedteam-mate FrederikNielsen upset thepair of Mattek-Sandsand Mardy Fish 7-5,6-3 in the mixed dou-bles encounter, giv-ing Denmark a 2-1win over the UnitedStates in Group A.Wozniacki said it wasan unusual experi-ence to play so soonafter her arrival. "It isthe first time I havedone that and I wasbit nervous abouthow my body wouldfeel," she said. AfP

Wozniacki winsdespite late show

Caroline wozniacki of denmark acknowledges the crowdafter defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US. afp

Pff launchesexcellence Award

LAhoreStAff REPoRt

The Pakistan Football Federation onMonday launched the PFF excellenceAward for the top performing teams indomestic events. According to an officialof the PFF, the award will be presentedon annual basis and the winner associa-tion will get Rs one million. “On the di-rectives of PFF President MakhdoomSyed Faisal Saleh Hayat, the concept ofPFF excellence Award was devised andits modalities were presented before thePFF Congress, which unanimously gaveapproval for it,” a PFF spokesman said.If a provincial football association isgiven one million rupees, half of it wouldbe awarded to regional, departmentaland club teams for excellent perform-ances respectively. Secretary PFF Col(retd) Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi said: “Inorder to activate the infrastructure offootball throughout Pakistan with a mis-sion to take football to new heights, acomprehensive presentation on PFF ex-cellence Award was presented to PFFCongress Members on September 17,2011 at Football House here.” He furtherstated that awards will be given annuallyand the evaluation period would be fromJanuary to December every year. Thefirst award will be given in January 2013.


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

Tuesday, 3 January, 2012 22

MoNITorING DeSK

Former Supreme Court Bar Association pres-ident and lawyer for former ambassador to theUS Husain Haqqani, Asma Jehangir has saidthat she did not feel the need to appear beforethe commission probing the “memogate” be-cause if Supreme Court judges could not seethrough the grey area in the case, she doubtedthat high court judges in the commissioncould do the same.

Speaking in Geo News Capital Talk, Asmasaid high court judges were not supposed toinvestigate cases and collect evidence. Askedwhy had she expressed lack of trust in thecommission when her client had not, she saidshe had been forced to think that way afterseeing all nine SC judges thinking alike andputting national security over and above basichuman rights. She said lawyers had notworked to restore the incumbent judiciary tosee it cut the very roots of the people and denythem basic human rights in the name of na-tional security. She said the petition wouldhave been maintainable in the first place if thepiece of paper [memo] had actually sabotagedsomebody’s basic right, but it did not. She saidif basic human rights were compromised inthe name of national security today, then a daywould come that the freedom of press, free-dom of association and existence of political

parties could also be sacrificed for the samecause. She said her client would have no whereto go and no forum to plead his case if the highcourt judges made mistake in their investiga-tion. “If courts do not follow due process thanthere is no difference between a panchayatand a court,” she said.

MoNITorING DeSK

PROMINeNT al Qaeda andAfghan Taliban fightersasked Pakistani militants in apair of rare meetings to setaside their differences and

step up support for the battle against US-led forces in Afghanistan, militant com-manders were quoted as saying by aprivate TV channel on Monday.

The meetings were held in Pakistan’stribal region in November and December atthe request of the Afghan Taliban’s leader-ship council. They could indicate the mili-tants are struggling in Afghanistan, orconversely, that they want to make surethey hit US forces hard as the Americans ac-celerate their withdrawal this year, said thechannel. That could give the Taliban addi-tional leverage in any peace negotiations.“For God’s sake, forget all your differencesand give us fighters to boost the battleagainst America in Afghanistan,” senior alQaeda commander Abu Yahya al-Libi toldPakistani fighters at a meeting on December

11, according to a militant who attended.Pakistani militants have long been split

over where they should focus their fighting.The Pakistani Taliban have concentrated ontoppling their own government, althoughthey have sent some fighters to Afghanistan.Other Pakistani groups based in the tribal re-gion have almost exclusively directed theirattacks against foreign forces in Afghanistan,said the report. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud attendedthe two meetings on November 27 in Wana,the headquarters of South Waziristanagency, and December 11 in the Datta Khelarea of North Waziristan, TTP spokesmanehsanullah ehsan told channel. Otherprominent Pakistani militant leaders who at-tended included Mehsud’s deputy, WaliurRehman, and two commanders who have fo-cused on fighting in Afghanistan, MaulviNazir and Gul Bahadur, ehsan said. Alsothere was Sirajuddin Haqqani, an Afghanmilitant based in North Waziristan wholeads one of the most feared groups fightingin Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban fightersat the meetings included Zabiullah Mujahid,

a well-known spokesman, and Maulvi San-gin, who claims to have custody of US ArmyPrivate Bowe R Bergdahl, captured inAfghanistan in 2009. The four Pakistanicommanders and Haqqani agreed to forma council to resolve differences, two Pak-istani Taliban commanders who attendedthe meetings told the channel. They spokeon condition of anonymity because of thesensitivity of the issue. A pamphlet handedout in North Waziristan over the past twodays announced the formation of the five-member committee, saying it was estab-lished in consultation with the Islamicemirate of Afghanistan, the name given tothe country by the Taliban. It called on Pak-istani militants to coordinate with eachother and “avoid unwarranted killings andkidnappings for ransom”.

“If any holy warrior is found involved inan unjustified murder or crime, he will beanswerable to the committee and could faceIslamic punishment,” said the pamphlet.Hakimullah Mehsud has given the name ofMaulvi Noor Saeed, the TTP leader inOrakzai Agency, to represent him in the

council while Maulvi Azmatullah will repre-sent Waliur Rehman in the forum. TheHaqqani network has chosen MaulviSaeedullah, Hafiz Gul Bahadur has selectedMaulvi Sadar Hayat and Maulvi Nazeernominated Hafiz Ameer Hamza to representthem in the council, which would be called“Shura-e-Murakeba”. Some sources, how-ever, argued that Mehsud’s nominee wouldrepresent the TTP while Rehman’s repre-sentative would be sitting in the council onbehalf of the Taliban of South Waziristan.Al-Libi, the al Qaeda commander, asked thePakistani militants to provide additionalfighters to the Afghan Taliban in March,when the snow melts from the passes con-necting Pakistan and Afghanistan and thespring fighting season begins. The TTPspokesman said the militants agreed, butthat did not mean the group would end itsfight against the Pakistani government. “Wewill continue our jihad against Pakistani se-curity forces,” ehsan pledged.

The five-member council was formedon the orders of the Taliban’s supremeleader Mullah Omar, INP reported. After

weeks of hectic efforts, a high-level dele-gation of the Afghan Taliban, sent byOmar, finally succeeded in bringing to-gether various Pakistan militant groups ona single platform and make a promise thatthey would stop fighting the Pakistani se-curity forces and end suicide attacks, kid-nappings for ransom and killing ofinnocent people in the country, particu-larly in the militancy-hit tribal areas. Tal-iban sources said Mullah Omar was nothappy with the TTP carrying out suicideattacks, kidnapping people for ransomand killing innocent people. Also, thesources said, Mullah Omar was worried bythe increasing number of Pakistani Tal-iban diverting their attention fromAfghanistan to Pakistan and making it dif-ficult for the Afghan Taliban to continuetheir resistance against the powerfulNATO and ISAF forces. “Convey my mes-sage to the Pakistani Taliban that you haveforgotten the real purpose, which is tofight the invading forces in Afghanistanand liberate it from their occupation,” saida Taliban leader quoting Omar.

Taliban to focus on US forces instead of Pakistanis g discourage ‘unwarranted killings’, kidnappings for ransom g Pakistani commanders, Haqqani agree to form five-member council to resolve differences

NaTo wantsrelations withpakistan backon trackKABUL: NATO wants to get relations withPakistan back on track “as quickly aspossible” to reopen its key supply route forforeign troops fighting in Afghanistan, acoalition spokesman said on Monday.“We... have an interest for the internationalcommunity and for Afghanistan thatrelations with Pakistan are normalising asquickly as possible,” said Brigadier GeneralCarsten Jacobsen. “We are aware that thereare things that are not travelling toAfghanistan because they are stuck atborder control points. “It mainly affects theeconomy, wages, work for people who arein the transport business in Pakistan andAfghanistan.” The spokesman for NATO’sInternational Security Assistance Force,however sought to allay concerns amongAfghans that the route blockage wouldforce the coalition to buy locally and forcea hike in the price of fuel and food. “Thepeople of Afghanistan will not bechallenged by NATO buying their fuel andtheir food. NATO’s stockpiles are morethan sufficient,” he said. An official inKarachi earlier said NATO militaryvehicles and supplies were piling up at thedocks, with truck drivers unable to drivethem to the northwestern border to crossinto Afghanistan. “At present, a total of3,676 military vehicles and 1,732containers belonging to NATO forces areat the port,” a port official told AFP oncondition of anonymity. afp

KArAChIQAZI ASIf

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) President Nawaz Sharifsaid on Monday that he did notknow who was arranging his meet-ing with President Asif Ali Zardariand for what purpose, and newsregarding any such meeting wasnot correct. He told workers and re-porters at Quaid-e-Azam Interna-tional Airport after arriving inKarachi that he did not come to thecity to meet the president but to holda meeting with the party’s Karachizonal council. He said he would sup-port democracy and strengthen itbecause if democracy had seen con-tinuity in Pakistan, the situationwould be very different. He saidIndia developed because of democ-racy and Pakistan lagged behind.

Nawaz said the governmentmust take bold decisions to comeout of crises. “I told Zardari theCharter of Democracy was signedby Benazir Bhutto and it must behonoured. We presented a completeframework but it was not imple-mented,” he said. Later, whenNawaz was speaking to party work-ers at the meeting of the council,slogans of ‘Go Zardari Go’ wereraised, which he stopped. Nawazsaid during his tenure, the countrywas on the path of development.After the motorway, his government

wanted to build a bullet train railfrom Karachi to Peshawar, but itwas toppled. Criticising PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief ImranKhan, Nawaz said PTI was wherethe cantonment team of formerpresident Pervez Musharraf hadmanage to gather.

He said load shedding must beeliminated from the country andpoverty should also be eliminated.“every institution including thearmy should be used with theguideline of the government,” hesaid. He promised that his govern-ment would eliminate load shed-ding and he was in favour of newprovinces on an administrativebasis, not linguistic. He said hisparty was also supporting a Hazaraprovince but opposed any newprovince within Sindh on the basisof language. During the councilsession, Syed Ghous Ali Shah waselected president of PML-N Sindhwhile Saleem Zia was elected gen-eral secretary of the party. How-ever, the party structure of theSindh chapter could not be com-pleted as the president and generalsecretary were announced butother posts of the party could notbe filled. Leaders from various dis-tricts of the province became angrybecause of this and walked outfrom meeting in protest, declaringthat they did not accept Shah asthe president of the Sindh chapter.

Nawaz denies plansto meet Zardari

HC judges are not supposedto collect evidence: asma

kARACHI: PML-n President nawaz Sharif waves to party workers as he arrives for a meeting on Monday. INp


Documents

E-paper PakistanToday 3rd January, 2012