ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf talking to Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna who called onhim at PM House. —APP photo

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W A S H I N G T O N —UnitedStates decided on Friday to des-ignate the Haqqani network asa terrorist group.

After intense pressure fromUS lawmakers, Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton filed areport required by Congress tosay that the Haqqani network— known for bloody attacks inAfghanistan — was a terroristgroup, an official said.

Clinton “signed a report toCongress this morning statingthat the Haqqani Networkmeets the statutory criteria fordesignation as a Foreign Ter-rorist Organization”, the offi-cial told reporters travellingwith her, on a tour that saw herleave Brunei on Friday to hernext stop in Vladivostok, Rus-

US blacklists Haqqani networksia. Congress had given Clintona deadline of Sunday to deter-mine if the group met the char-acteristics to fall into the cat-egory, which would make it acrime in the United States to pro-vide the Haqqanis with any ma-terial support.

While technically Congressdid not force Clinton to make anactual decision on designation,the official said that she wouldsoon formally list the Haqqaninetwork as a terrorist group.

President Barack Obama sadministration, while pressuringthe Haqqani network, had previ-ously stopped short of declaringit to be a terrorist group due toworries over relations with Pa-kistan. Admiral Mike Mullen, theformer head of the US military,

said before stepping down lastyear that the Haqqani networkhad become a “veritable arm” ofPakistan s Inter-Services Intelli-gence, leading to suggestions thata designation would indirectly bebranding Pakistan a terroriststate.

The Haqqani network hastriggered growing outrage inWashington through a series ofattacks in Afghanistan, includinga June assault on a hotel nearKabul that killed 18 people anda siege last year of the US em-bassy.

Clinton, asked last week inthe Cook Islands about her deci-sion-making on the Haqqani net-work, said that the United Stateswas “putting steady pressure” onthe group.

“We are drying up their re-sources, we are targeting theirmilitary and intelligence person-nel, we are pressing the Paki-stanis to step up their own ef-forts,” she said.

As part of the US efforts toincrease pressure on the groupLuke Bronin, a deputy assistantUS Treasury secretary, held talksin Pakistan on “disruptingsources of terrorist financing toterrorist organisations”, accord-ing to the US embassy inIslamabad.

The United States has re-cently started to resume coopera-tion with Pakistan after relationsnosedived over incidents includ-ing the secret raid that killedOsama bin Laden and an air raidthat accidentally killed 24 Paki-

stani troops. Officials onClinton s plane declined tocomment further, but theObama administration is likelyto seek to reassure Pakistan sgovernment on overall rela-tions after the designation.

It is unclear whether thedesignation would lead tomany prosecutions in theUnited States as the Haqqaninetwork receives supportlargely through unofficial chan-nels.

But advocates of the black-listing believe that the movecan be used as pressure to per-suade funders of the group inPakistan and Arab Gulf statesto sever ties.

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WASHINGTO N—Pakistanpresident, the army chief and theforeign minister, will be visit-ing the United States this monthamidst efforts to revive an im-portant partnership in the waragainst terrorists, according tomedia report.

Foreign Minister HinaRabbani Khbe will be on three-day visit to Washington begin-ning Sept. 18.

She is expected to meet USSecretary of State HillaryClinton and other senior offi-cials of the Obama administra-

tion. Relations between the twocountries derailed after the May2 US raid in Abbottabad. Rela-tions further deteriorated whenanother US air raid killed 24 Pa-kistani soldiers in November lastyear. In response, Pakistan closedNato supply routes to Afghani-stan.

But relations began to im-prove in July when SecretaryClinton apologised over theSalala air raid and Pakistan re-opened the routes.

The foreign minister is alsoexpected to push for a meeting

between President Asif AliZardari and US PresidentBarack Obama on the sidelinesof the UN General Assemblyin New York later this month.

Pakistan would like to an-nounce the revival of the stra-tegic dialogue process during orafter the meeting. PresidentZardari is expected to arrive inNew York on Sept. 24 to attendthe UN General Assembly.

Dates for Army Chief Gen.Ashfaq Pervez Kayani’s visitshave not yet been finalised but

Continued on Page 7

President, FM, COAS to visit US

Pak, India agreeon 8 visa categories

Two are in right direction: KrishnaASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan and In-dia on Friday agreed on eight visacategories during the foreign sec-retary level talks here at the For-eign Office.

The types include diplo-matic, non-diplomatic, 36-hourtransit visit, tourist visas, civilsociety, media and business vi-sas. The tourist visa will be lim-ited to five destinations and willbe valid for a period of sixmonths, while the diplomaticvisa category will offer visas tothe consular, the consular missionand their family members.

Sources said the agreementof the new Pakistan-India visa is-suance policy is expected to besigned today (Saturday). Mean-while, other issues discussed dur-ing the talks were terrorism, wa-ter dispute and Kashmir.

The foreign secretaries ofIndia and Pakistan also agreed

that the issue of terrorism is onethat plagues both countries andmust be solved collectively.

While speaking to the media,Jilani said the agenda of talks be-tween the foreign ministers of Pa-kistan and India has also beendecided in the secretary levelmeeting. A report of the talks be-tween the foreign secretaries willbe submitted to the foreign min-isters of both the countries.

Foreign Secretaries of thetwo countries met in Islamabadon Friday for over two hours totake an overview of bilateral is-sues and fix the agenda for talksbetween their Foreign Ministers.“Talks were positive and verygood. We had an overview of is-sues before foreign minister-leveltalks and now we will brief ourministers,” Pakistan foreign sec-retary Jalil Abbas Jilani said.The foreign secretaries reviewedthe resumed dialogue betweenthe two countries. Both ministers

will also co-chair the joint com-mission meeting on Saturday.This is Krishna’s second visit toPakistan in over two years.

Indian officials say that ter-rorism will form the core of NewDelhi’s discussions, particularlythe slow pace of the Mumbai at-tacks case.

Other issues likely to figurein the talks include those con-cerning prisoners as well as tradeand border issues.

The Indian Minister calledon Prime Minister Raja PervezAshraf at Prime Minister House.During the meeting Raja ex-pressed the hope that relationsbetween Pakistan and Indiawould improve.

The Prime Minister said thevisit of the Minister of ExternalAffairs of India is of great im-portance as the people of both thecountries desire good relations.“We must learn from the past. We

ANP minister resignsfrom Sindh Cabinet

Party boycotts Senate, NA sessionsAMANULLAH KHAN/SHARAFAT KAZMI

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD—ANPlawmaker Amir Nawab, who isalso a provincial minister, ten-dered his resignation from theSindh government on Friday.Provincial Labour MinisterNawab submitted his resignationto Sindh Chief Minister SyedQaim Ali Shah.

Nawab said he did not wantto function as a “puppet minis-ter” and that he had tendered theresignation on directives from theparty’s central leadership. Nawabfurther said ,“the Pakistan

People’s Party could keep suchministries to itself”. The resigna-tion came in the wake of theANP’s announcement that itwould boycott all sessions of theSenate and the national and pro-vincial assembles.

Earlier Friday, the party an-nounced the boycott over the newlaw on local government institu-tions which, had been signed bythe Sindh Governor and the chiefminister.

The ANP stated that it wasnot taken into confidence over thelaw. Speaking to media represen-tatives, ANP’s Sindh chief, ShahiSyed called the new local gov-

ernment law “a black law”. Headded that the ANP was not takenin the loop over the deliberationspertaining to the new law andcalled the MQM “a terroristorganisation”.

Syed said the new law wasan injustice to the people of Sindhand that the PPP did not take theANP into confidence before itsapproval.

Moreover, ANP’s BushraGohar stated that the new law hadbeen passed secretively and inorder to appease a certain politi-cal group.

Two Nato oiltankers gutted

in MastungMASTUNG—Some unidentifiedarmed men opened fire at twoNato oil tankers that were setablaze here on Friday.

According to Leviessources, some armed personsattacked two oil tankers whichwere supplying fuel to Natoforces in Afghanistan andopened fire at them on Quetta-Sibi Highway in Dashat area ofMastung.

The oil tankers caught fireafter firing and the attackersmanaged to flee from the scene.After incident Levies personneland other law enforcement agen-cies cordoned off the area andstarted search operation forhunting the culprits.—INP

No sense ofresponsibility inBalochistan: SC

QUETTA—The Supreme Courtof Pakistan has said that there

was no sense of responsibilityprevailing among the respon-

sible authorities to control thelawlessness in Balochistan.

A three-member bench re-sumed hearing on law and or-der and missing persons’ case ofBalochistan headed by ChiefJustice Ifthikar MuhammadChaudhary,Justice Kilji ArifHussain and Justice Jawwad SKhawaja.

Defence Secretary Lt. Gen(Retd) Asif Yasin and FrontierCorps Inspector GeneralUbaidullah Khan Khattak ap-peared before the court. Reply-ing to the bench with regard totheir concern over the missingpersons and law and order situ-ation the Advocate General

Continued on Page 7

Pak win T-20 seriesagainst AustraliaOBSERVER REPORT

DUBAI—Pakistan beatAustralia in super overs in thesecond T-20 cricket match hereon Friday to win the three-

match series.Australia played first

super over scoring 11runs for one.In reply, Pakistan

achieved the targetwithout loss of any

wicket.Earlier, in the allotted 20

overs each, the match wasequalised.

Pakistan playing firstscored 151 runs for 4, whileAustralia also scored 151 for 8.

For Pakistan, NasirJamshed with 45, whileKamran Akmal made 43 runswere the main scorers.

For Australia, GeorgeBailey was the highest scorerwith 42 runs. Pakistan’s SaeedAjmal and Abdul Razzaq tooktwo wickets each.

Bomb scaredisturbs 8 PIAflightsKARACHI—False bomb scaredisturbed at least eight PIAflights, a spokesman of theairline said here on Friday.

He said that PIA aircraftBoeing 747 to perform flightPK 304 Karachi-Lahore had tobe parked at an isolated bay tobe checked for reasons ofsafety.

Hence, departure of threeinternational flights, fourdomestic were rescheduledwhile one flight from Lahore toDubai PK 203 was cancelledand the passengers werebrought to Karachi and wereshifted to the connectingKarachi-Dubai flight PK 213which left Karachi at Midnight.The expected time of departureof the flight initially was 10:10PM. Flight PK 304 was merged

US urges Pakto allow Savethe Children

to workWASHINGTON—The UnitedStates has conveyed its deepconcern to Pakistan over theexpulsion of international staffof “Save the Children”.

Replying to questions dur-ing briefing here on Thursday,State Department Acting deputyspokesman Patrick Ventrell saidthe United States strongly sup-ports the work of Save the Chil-dren in Pakistan.

Ventrell said the UShave raised this issue with theGovernment of Pakistan andurged it to allow Save the Chil-dren to continue its importantwork. He said nindependentNGOs are among the essentialbuilding blocks of any healthydemocracy.—INP

Continued on Page 7

EC declares KP SportsMinister’s degree fake STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan onTuesday declared the bachelor’s

degree of Khyber PakhtunkhwaSports Minister Syed Aqil Shahas fake, sending the case to thedistrict and sessions judge forhis trial.

A two-member bench com-prising of EC members Justice(retd) Riaz Kayani and Justice(Retd) Fazlur Rehman heard acase regarding Federal Ministerfor Postal Services Sardar OmarGorgaij and the Awami NationalParty’s (ANP) provincial law-maker Syed Aqil Shah’s de-grees. Syed Aqil Shah, who isalso the vice-president of the Pa-kistan Olympic Association(POA), headed the Pakistanicontingent for the 2012 LondonOlympics as its chef de mission.Aqil Shah holds degrees from

GHULAM TAHIR

QUETTA—Superintendent Po-lice Investigation Jamil Kakarwas shot dead by unknown as-sailants. Airport Road Fridaywhile he was on his way to ap-pear before the Supreme Court.

He was promoted to the rankof Superintendent Police on hisbrilliant performance when hetook action against some mem-bers of the banned religiousgroup as Deputy Superinten-dent. He was promoted out ofturn for his brave action. JamilKakar was receiving threatsform a militant group whowarned him of revenge.

The deceased Police Super-intendent was driving officialvehicle himself and his daugh-ter student of Girls College wassitting beside him who was to

be dropped Government DegreeCollege for girls. She escapedunhurt. There was great resent-ment and the roads leading toairport were blocked by burningtyres and putting obstacles. Thecity plunged in deep gloom andthe citizens expressed graveconcern over the incident andpointed out that when the Super-intendent Police was not safewho would be.

This is the second gruesomeincident after the killing of Ad-ditional Session Judge who waskilled in same way while he wason his way to perform his dutyas judge.

Chief Secretary Mr. BabarYaqoob Feteh, the InspectorGeneral Frontier Corps MajorGeneral Obaidullah Khattak andthe senior police officials par-ticipated in funeral prayers of

the deceased SP. Situation in thecity is grave and wave of uncer-tainty has gripped the citizens onthe deteriorating law and ordersituation.

Chief Minister NawabAslam Raisani announced grantof Rs. two million for the fam-ily of deceased.

Talking to media on themishap site, CCPO Quetta MirZubair said Jameel Kakar is the17th police officer killed withinthree months, adding, “How-ever, we are functioning withhigh morale and will continuegiving more sacrifices for thenation.”He was the leader ofan active contingent of policeand had no fear at all, MirZubair said adding he is quiteproud of his courageous policeofficer who laid down his lifefor the country.

SP short dead in Quetta

Aqil Shah Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

Haqqanis say USlisting will hurtAfghan peaceISLAMABAD—The UnitedStates’ decision to designate theHaqqani network as a terroristorganization shows it is notsincere about peace efforts inAfghanistan, senior command-ers of the group said on Friday.

The move will also bringhardship for US Sergeant BoweBergdahl, who is being held bythe militants, the commanderstold Reuters by telephone froman undisclosed location.

The United States isdesignating the Pakistan-basedHaqqani network, accused ofhigh-profile attacks inAfghanistan, as a terroristorganization, Secretary of StateHillary Clinton said on Friday,

Continued on Page 7

Pak, India shouldnot allow non-

political elements tocreate tension: MalikISLAMABAD—Interior MinisterRehman Malik on Friday saidIndia and Pakistan should notprovide any chance to the non-political elements to create ten-sion between the two neighbor-ing countries.

Talking to reporters in frontof the Parliament House,Rehman Malik said that Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari’s recent visitto India and meeting with theIndian leadership in Iran contrib-uted to the normalcy of situationin the region, adding that think-ing on both the sides has beenchanged after the recent develop-ments.

He said that both the neigh-boring countries are facing thethreat of terrorism, adding thatboth countries require to sit to-gether in order to search solution

ISLAMABAD—Federal FloodCommission (FFC) on Fridaysaid that strong monsooncurrents are likely to pen-etrate into the country caus-ing widespread rains withscattered heavy falls fromFriday to Sunday. Heavyrains can generate urbanand flash floods in the vul-nerable areas during the pe-riod.

According to PakistanMeteorological Department,yesterday’s well marked lowpressure areas today liesover Western MadhyaPradesh (India) and adjoin-ing areas. This well markedlow is likely to move furthernorthwestward during thenext 24 hours. Widespreadrain and thundershowerswith scattered heavy falls attimes very heavy are ex-pected in Islamabad andPunjab from Friday to Sun-day.

Heavy rains would causeflash floods in D.G, Khan Di-vision and its adjoining ar-eas during Friday to Sunday.Widespread rain and thun-dershowers with scatteredheavy falls are expected fromFriday to Sunday. Heavyrains would cause flashfloods in central and lower

parts of KhyberPakhtunkhwa includingKohat, Peshawar, D.I Khanand Bannu Divisions fromFriday to Sunday.

Scattered rains andthundershowers with iso-lated heavy falls are ex-pected on Friday and Satur-day in Sindh. Scattered rainand thundershowers withisolated heavy falls are ex-

pected in eastern parts ofBalochistan on Friday andSaturday.

Heavy rains would causeflash floods in areas includ-ing Zhob, Sibbi andNasirabad Divisions on Fri-day and Saturday. Similarly,in Kashmir widespread rainand thundershowers withisolated heavy falls are ex-pected from Friday to Sun-day. Rains may trigger land-slides in the vulnerable areas.Scattered rain is also ex-pected from Friday to Sun-day in Gilgit Baltistan.—APP

I S L A M A B A D — P r e s i d e n tAsif Ali Zardari on Fridaysaid that literacy was an ef-fective weapon to fight ex-tremism and intolerance,and for winning the battleof minds. The President, inhis message on the Interna-tional Literacy Day, saidthat low literacy and pov-erty multiplied extremisttendencies resulting in agrave threat to national in-tegrity and endangering re-gional peace. He said thatPakistanis would be joiningthe international commu-nity in observing the dayand to highlight the signifi-

cance and correlation of lit-

eracy to peace.President Zardari said

that the day each year is animportant occasion for allthe people, no matter wherethey live or whatever theydo, to drive home the needfor increasing literacy in or-der to promote better un-derstanding among thepeople and to inculcate asense of tolerance and mu-tual co-existence. He said ata time when peace is atstake due to intolerance, itis important to promote lit-eracy globally to promotepeace.

President Zardari saidthe theme for the year 2012‘Literacy and Peace’ is of

special significance in thisregion which is one of themost volatile regions of theworld. “Being the followersof a religion of peace, weare also the inheritors ofmoderate, tolerant and pro-gressive tradit ions,” hesaid. He said militants andextremists were nurtured bythe international commu-nity to fight a rival ideol-ogy in the region in 80s andeven earlier.

The President said thegovernment had taken sig-nificant steps to promote lit-eracy and to educate younggeneration to not only wean

them away from the mili-tants’ trap but also to makethem valuable human re-source capital. He said allpolitical parties had joinedhands to amend the Consti-tution so as to give everychild the right to education.Zardari, however, stressedfull participation of the en-tire nation and all stakehold-ers to increase literacy inthe country.

He expressed the confi-dence that the National Com-mission for Human Develop-ment, the provincial educa-tion departments and all otherconcerned with education

sector had planned suitableactivities to highlight theneed for increasing literacyand to promote the values ofpeace, tolerance and mutualco-existence. He urged theeducation planners to adopta comprehensive andmultipronged strategy for theprovision of education toyouth, both through formaland non-formal methods. Hecalled upon the internationalcommunity to support thegovernment in creating anenabling environment forevery child to receive educa-tion and join the national pro-ductive effort.

International Day

Literacy effective weapon to fight extremism: Zardari

STAFF REPORTER

KA R A C H I—Narrating hislife & career legendary acefighter pilot Air CommodoreMM Alam said that his par-ents who hailed from BiharSharif got settled in Calcuttawhere he was born &brought up: “In 1946 I wasin class ninth when Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad AliJinnah called for the directaction day. I was a patriotand one of those who hadbeen on the roads alongwith hundreds of thou-sands of people shoutingthe slogan lay kayraheengay Pakistan . Atthat time I believed thatCalcutta would become partof Pakistan. As a child Idreamt of Pakistan & grew

up as a man seeing thatdream falling apart. Mr.Jinnah was not an Islamistbut was definitely a man ofcharacter & dignity, afterhim no ‘man’ everemerged”.

On 14th August whenhe was traveling fromCalcutta to Dhaka M. M.Alam observed that Urduenjoyed an elevated place:“When the train stopped atmajor stations, people lis-tening to us speaking inUrdu, asked us to write Pa-kistan Zindabad in Urdu forthem. That I did numeroustimes during my journey”.He got admitted in Dhaka’sfirst Urdu Government HighSchool from where hepassed his Matric. “I re-member once Rana Liaquat

Ali Khan came to ourschool. From childhood wewere brought up in an envi-ronment where Muslim na-tion was awakened. Evensmall children had zeal thatPakistan would be a greatcountry for Muslims. Butthat dream remains unful-filled”.

Reckoning disintegra-tion of Pakistan as the big-gest loss, M.M. Alam main-tains that if Pakistan wasnot dismembered: “Ourpopulat ion would havebeen 350 mill ion & GNPwould have been 2/3rd of atrillion dollars. But the en-tire dream is lost”. Believ-ing that India had heavilyentered in Bangladesh, M.M. Alam advocates:“Whatever happened in 71

is irrelevant. What is perti-nent today for the greaterinterest of Muslim Bengal& Muslim Pakistan is toform a security alliance”.Holding that i f Pakistangovernment was strong itcould have worked on thistrack he observed that noone talked about that :“Have you ever heard anyPrime Minister or Presidenttalk about the conse-quences of the ‘71 War?”He observed that on 6thSeptember only a few edi-torials were written in thenewspapers & then it wasforgotten.

M.M. Alam stated that heentered PAF as an averagebut very dedicated person: “Ihad read a lot of books onwars, books of all the great

aces. I had in mind that air-craft was a weapon of war to

kill for a purpose, to defendyour country. At that time I

was not very much inclinedtowards deen but we were all

very loyal Pa-kistanis: “Iwould not sayI was veryconcent ra tedas flying of-ficer but whenI became aflight com-mander I be-came very in-tense. I hadprepared my-self for war.When you areready forsomething &the opportu-nity arrivesyou don’t

miss it. Not that I wanted tobecome great; I just wanted

KARACHI: ‘MM Alam Present’ is an ex-clusive photo for Pakistan Observer by:—PO photo Javed Iqbal

Indians knew if they fought they would lose: MM Alamto serve my nation the wayone should. I think I haveplayed a good role in the War.Allah had given me a greatposition, wherever I gopeople recognize me, even inthe remote villages of Sindh”.

Commenting on the ’65War M. M. Alam stated thatPakistan Air Force came ontop of Indians: “PAF usedto patrol inside the IndianBorder but they did not al-ways intercept. They knewthat if they fought theywould lose at least one pi-lot. You know there was agreat impact of shootingdown those five aircraft. Ear-lier there was a little fright ofthe India’s three times big-ger military might. But afterthat the fear disappeared &every pilot became a tiger”.

Stating that the war onthe ground was not deci-sive because Ayub Khanwas caught unaware, M. M.Alam pointed out: “Consid-ering that we were one thirdof India, Pakistan Armyfought well but did notachieve any goal. One ob-jective was that Kashmirwould become part of Paki-stan. However, PAF Com-manders Nur Khan &Asghar Khan were far su-perior & they knew the warwas inevitable”. M.M.Alam informed that sensingimpending war they werepatrolling the border from1st September. “We used topatrol at the altitudes ofupto 30,000 feet. I think theAir Force had fought agood battle”.

Heavy rains maycause flash floods

DERA ALLAH YAR: Sindh Balochistan National Highway looks like a pond after rains.

SWAT: Provincial Health Minister Zahir Ali Shah talking to the media at Saidu MedicalCollege.HYDERABAD: Resident of Hali road Azam Unner hold a protest against torture of

influential people at outside Press Club.

B K TAHIR

BAHAWALPUR—The Gover-nor Punjab & the ChancellorIslamia University ofBahawalpur, SardarMuhammad Latif KhanKhosa presided over the13th session of the IUB Sen-ate here at the Abbasia Cam-pus, Islamia University,Bahawalpur and underlinedthe need to improve the qual-ity of education at all levelsand efforts should be madeto impart professional/tech-nical education to makeyoung generation earninghand rather to increase the

ratio of unemployment as thecurrent education system inour country can not accom-modate so much educatedpeople and the increasingrate of unemployment iscausing frustration amongthe youth especially edu-cated class so we have tobring changes in our educa-tional system for safe andsecure future of the younggeneration and peaceful so-ciety for stable country.

The Governor, Punjab/the Chancellor, IUB furthersaid that education was thebase of progress and onlythose nations gain progresswhich had been giving spe-

cial attention to the qualityof education so we had tofocus on it and had to pro-vide best available educationto our young generation fornational progress and it wasthe duty of the teachers toconcentrate on the characterbuilding of the students tokeep social and moral valuesalive which were necessaryfor a civilized society.

He expressed completeconfidence in the potential ofthe young generation andsaid that efforts should bemade to explore their talentand they should be guidedin the right direction forhealthy society and strong

country and they should beprovided practical trainingfor effective results and wehad to promote such wayswhich could direct theyoungsters in the right direc-tion according to their choiceand interest which wouldsurely lead towards success-ful life of youth.

He appreciated the recentimprovement in the academicand research standards ofthe IUB and congratulatedthe Vice-Chancellor, IUB,Prof Dr Muhammad Mukhtarand faculty members over itand achieving better posi-tion in the HEC ranking from17th to 13th within a year.

Khosa stresses promotionof quality education

USAID, Tameer-e-Millat Foundationcompletes girls’school buildingSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—”School build-ing completed with the finan-cial assistance of USAID willhelp eradicate illiteracy fromthis remote village of TehsilFateh Jang and aid for eco-nomic development of theregion. Shifa Tameer-e-MillatUniversity envisions provid-ing students a platform forresearch aiming nation’sprogress and prosperity”.

Such projects offer betterfacilities to people and enhancethe quality of education, HafizProf. Dr. Muhammad Ata,Chancellor Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University said. He high-lighted the great reward forthose who establish such in-stitutions for the welfare of themasses of the nation. Spannedover 450+ acres of land, TMCEis a mega project of Tameer-e-Millat Foundation where foureducational and self-relianceprojects have been initiated byTameer-e-Millat Foundation.

The construction Tameer-e-Millat Model School for Girls(TMMSG) has been com-pleted with the assistance ofUnited States Agency for In-ternational Development’s(USAID) Small Grants andAmbassador’s Fund Program(SGAFP). General Secretary,Mirza Habibullah briefly intro-duced that Tameer-e-MillatFoundation is sister organiza-tion of Shifa International Hos-pitals Limited (SIH) working foreducation promotion since1987. TMF has established anetwork of around 400 schoolsin 25 districts of Pakistan edu-cating over 35,000 students.

In closing remarks,Faqeer Muhammad Rashid,Chairman TMF shared thattoday TMF has achieved thedream of Founder ChairmanLate Dr.Zaheer Ahmad ofModel School for Girls forquality education.

Kamra airbase attack

Three out ofnine attackers

identifiedSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Air Force au-thorities have told the Parlia-mentary Committee on Na-tional Security (PCNS) thatthree militants involved in theKamra airbase attack hadbeen identified and that theywere residents of the Punjabprovince. The committee’ssession was held at the Par-liament House here on Fridayand was presided over byMian Raza Rabbani.

Briefing the committeemembers, Air Force authoritiessaid that three out of the ninemilitants who had attacked theMinhas airbase in Kamra hadbeen identified and that theywere residents of Punjab. Oneof the three hailed from Sialkot.In August, militants armed withrocket-propelled grenadesand automatic weapons hadcarried out a brazen attack un-der cover of darkness on theMinhas base of the PakistanAir Force at Kamra.

Floodwater washesaway 3 persons

HUB—Three persons werewashed away when their jeepfell into floodwater here Fri-day. According to policesources, a jeep was carryingfive pilgrims to Shah NooraniShrine located in Karachi fromHub when flash flood waterwashed away it near MahubatFaqir area. Rescue team withthe help of local persons res-cued two persons from thewater and three persons weremissing. The rescue operationfor their recovery was under-way.—INP

ISLAMABAD—The last of 37new schools and 49 new steelbridges funded by the UnitedKingdom have been rebuiltand are serving thousands inthe areas devastated by the2005 earthquake. The projectshave been completed under apartnership between the UKGovernment’s Department forInternational Development(DFID) and the Governmentof Pakistan. The schools andbridges replaced those de-stroyed by the earthquake,which marks its seven yearanniversary next month. Thetotal funding for people af-fected by the 2005 Earthquakefrom the UK comes to someœ139 million (approx. 20 bil-lion rupees).

Over 73,000 people werekilled, including 850 teachersand 18,000 students. Another128,000 people were injuredand 3.5 million left homeless.The Head of DFID in Paki-stan George Turkington in-augurated Ali Akbar Awanboys high school inMuzaffarabad, which houses1650 students and has beencompleted in time for the new

school year. Turkington alsoinaugurated Majohi SteelBridge and met with studentsfrom the Government GirlsHigh School Madina Market,both built with funding fromthe UK Government.

All the new schools aredesigned to withstand futureearthquakes up to 8 on theRichter scale. Speaking atMuzaffarabad, Turkingtonsaid “with up to two- thirdsof infrastructure destroyed,the damage and disruptioncaused by the 2005 earth-quake was immense.” Hesaid the UK worked closelyin partnership with the gov-ernment of Pakistan initiallyto provide vital lifesaving aidand then to rebuild schoolsand bridges, to help bringback stability and normalcyto the region.“Our long termsupport over the last sevenyears has helped peoplewho survived the disaster tobuild a better future for them-selves and their families,” hesaid. He termed the partner-ship a testament to the deepand long ties between thetwo countries.—APP

UK aid helpsrebuild 37 new

schools, 49 bridges

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—World SuicidePrevention Day is observedon September 10 every yearaccross the globe includingPakistan to promote world-wide commitment and actionto prevent suicides. Everyday 3,000 people end theirown lives, and for every per-son who dies, there are 20more people who unsuccess-fully attempt a suicide, ac-cording to the World HealthOrganization (WHO).

World Suicide PreventionDay, which first started in2003.The sponsoring Interna-tional Association for SuicidePrevention, the co-sponsorWHO and other partners ad-

vocate for the prevention ofsuicidal behaviour, provisionof adequate treatment and fol-low-up care for people whoattempted suicide, as well asresponsible reporting of sui-cides in the media. Variousevents and activities are heldduring this occasion to raiseawareness that suicide is a ma-jor preventable cause of pre-mature death. World SuicidePrevention Day gives organi-zations, government agenciesand individuals a chance topromote awareness about sui-cide, mental illnesses associ-ated with suicide, as well assuicide prevention. Organiza-tions such as the Interna-tional Association for Sui-cide Prevention (IASP).

World Suicide PreventionDay on Monday

HITEC edu role laudedOur Correspondent

WAH CANTT—Federal Minister forDefence Production Sardar BahadurKhan Sihar has said that Heavy Indus-tries Taxila Education City (HITEC) pro-tecting nation at educational knowledgein front like its parent organization. Hesaid this during a visit to Heavy Indus-tries Taxila Education City (HITEC).Federal Secretary for Defense Produc-tion Lt General (retd) Shahid Iqbal,Chairman heavy Industries Taxila Lt

General Ayyaz Saleem Rana, administrator Heavy Indus-tries Taxila Education City (HITEC) Brig (retd) Taj Iqbaland other officials were also present on this occasion. Hesaid that earlier he took round of various sections of HeavyIndustries Taxila Education City (HITEC) and took keeninterest in the Islamic research and study centre impartingstudents with modern Islamic education. The Minister alsomet with a group of over 180 boys and girls selected fromFATA and Balochistan who are getting free education atHITEC. Meanwhile, Secretary General Jamaat-e-IslamiPakistan, Liaqat Baloch has demanded the Punjab govern-ment to appoint science subject teachers at GovernmentNajaf High School Gulburg. Talking to a public delegationhere at his residence, he said students were facing im-mense problem due to absence of science subject teach-ers in the school. “If such a high reputation school inLahore lacks science subject teachers what will be the con-dition in village schools,” he wondered. The JI leader de-plored the Punjab government, on the one hand, was dis-tributing laptops among students and opening Danishschools for spreading education but, on the other hand,lack of science subject teachers tells another story.

Community education soonOur Correspondent

HYDERABAD—The Vice ChancellorUniversity of Sindh Dr.Nazir A.Mughalhas said that the university managementhas planned to involve community inorder to ensure quality education inhigher learning institution. At present,the role of higher education is limitedas usually, the students get admissions,study, acquire degrees and go away butthe objectives of quality education arenot being achieved therefore the in-

volvement of community in this process is essential, hesaid while speaking as chief guest at the ceremony of acricket match on Thursday evening. Among others, SindhMinister for Minority Affairs Dr Mohan Lal Kohistani, Pro-fessor Mehmood Soomro, Chairman Sindh UniversityColony Syed Raza Hussain Shah, Professor Dr Ghulam AliJareko and Professor Ghulam Ali Buriro were also presenton the occasion. The Vice Chancellor said that universitymanagement fully committed to serve the people of Sindhby producing men of caliber who could play their vital rolenot only for the development of the province, but also forprogress and prosperity of the country. He said sportskeep the youngsters out of the reach of diseases and theystay healthy and powerful. “For annihilating the hospitalsin the societies, we have to prepare sports grounds andlibraries and for this, the management of University ofSindh fully determined and striving. He informed that inorder to make university employees, teachers and officershale and healty, the management has introduced healthinsurance for them so that they may live long life by foilingany attempt of any diseases. He announced that the young-sters could use sports grounds free of cost in a conditionthat they will not smash up them.

Reconciliation end enmityStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—The reconciliatory effortsof Provincial Minister for Agriculture,Arbab Mohammad Ayub Jan, Haji YusufKhan (Charbagh), Nasir Khurshid(Akbarpura), Master Khadim Shah,Shaukat Khan, Hameed Shah, AdalatKhan and Mohammad Rehan helpedabolished 20-year long enmity betweenthe families of Dr. Said Khan and JalilKhan. All representatives of both par-ties in presence of thousands of people

took oath on Holy Quran for ending their enmity. Address-ing the participants of the reconciliatory jirga, ProvincialMinister for Agriculture, Arbab Ayub Jan said that terror-ism and lawlessness has economically paralyzed the prov-ince that has multiplied poverty, backwardness and unem-ployment in the province. He said that the province iswithout arresting terrorism and lawlessness could neitherachieve development nor it could control poverty and un-employment. Therefore, he urged on the ulema and peopleto accelerate efforts for the eradication of terrorism andlawlessness in the province. The provincial minister saidthat the restoration of peace is the top priority of ANP andhas sacrificed hundreds of its activists and workers in thisregard. He said that when ANP formed government,Malakand Division was under the writ of terrorists andwere running parallel government while the whole prov-ince was under the grip of bomb blasts and terrorism. How-ever, he said with the efforts of the government of ANP,besides, elimination of terrorists from Malakand Division,peace was also restored in 90 percent areas of the prov-ince. He said that on the basis of its performance ANP willwin next general elections and constitute future govern-ment in the province.

Inaugurates BHUOur Correspondent

HYDERABAD—The CommissionerHyderabad Ahmed Bux Narejo has saidthat all Basic Health Units (BHU), RuralHealth Centres (RHC) and Mother andChild Health Centres (MCHC) in Sindhare being re-strengthened and wellequipped with all facilities including x-ray, labor rooms, diagnosing labs andambulances to provide better health fa-cilities to the people of rural areas un-der the directives of President of Paki-

stan. Addressing the inaugural ceremony of BHU at JiendoHalepoto and Village Mir Allah Bux Talpur here on otherday, he said that not only these Health Centres are beingwell equipped but same would be now run by PeoplesPrimary Health Care Initiative (PPHCI) with new zeal andspirit. He said that Sindh Government has planned to de-pute efficient and experienced doctors, para-medics at theseHealth Centres in rural areas with giving incentives to themso that they can deliver the people efficiently. He said thatgovernment also intended to run these centres with thecommunity participation and supervision as land for mostlyhealth centres has been provided by local landlords. ORSshould be used in dehyderation:Excessive loss of fluidthrough the intestinal tract can happen when the intestineis “inflamed” or damaged and when bacteria or virusescause the lining of the intestine to produce more fluid thancan be absorbed said Chairperson Pediatric Unit LiaquatUniversity of Medical Health Sciences LUMHS, SalmaShaikh here Friday while talking to media. She said that inthis rainy season dehydration can be defined as “the ex-cessive loss of water from the body.

Old drivinglicences to be

cancelledMULTAN—Old driving li-cences will stand cancelled inJune 2013 and drivers willhave to get new computerisedlicenses. This was stated byDSP traffic (Headquarters)Malik Jamil while addressingan awareness seminar on citytraffic at the Multan Chamberof Commerce and Industry(MCCI) here Thursday night.Those who have obtainedtheir old licences in Multanwould get new computerisedlicenses from Multan trafficauthorities.

However, those whohave identity cards or driv-ing licences of other districts,they would have to contacttraffic authorities of their dis-tricts for new driving li-cences, he added.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The govern-ment has so far disbursedRs. 34.819 billion to 944,180flood victims in the countryin second phase of Watancard project. The secondphase is regarded asCitizen’s Damage Compen-sation Programme (CDCP)under which second trancheof compensation is beingprovided through NationalDatabase and RegistrationAuthority (NADRA) toabout 1.1 million affectees.

A latest data providedby NADRA revealed on Fri-day that phase II of CDCPwas inaugurated last year asRs. 40,000 (in two install-

ments) has to be provided toeach of the households iden-tified by the provinces. TheAuthority said as many as339,999 Watan cards were is-sued in Punjab in secondphase with disbursement ofRs.13.338 billion, in Sindh thenumber of Watan Cards sofar issued is 301,924 with adisbursed amount of Rs.9.734 billion, in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, the number ofWatan Cards issued stood at276,178 with disbursedamount of Rs. 10.915 billionand in Balochistan total pro-cessed so far is 12,964 cardswith disbursement of Rs. 366million cash to affectees.

In Azad Kashmir 9,169Watan cards were issued dis-

bursing Rs. 332 million whileNADRA sites were set up inHattian, Haveli, Mirpur,Neelum and Rawalakot I. InGilgit-Baltistan 3,946 cardswere issued disbursing Rs.143 million and three siteswere established in Gilgit,Hunza and Skardu. The Au-thority has covered more than90 % caseload of CDCP PhaseII beneficiaries pertaining toHaveli, Hattian, Neelum,Mirpur, Rawalakot of AJK,Gilgit, Hunza, Skardu of Gilgit-Baltistan, Charsada, Mardan,Noshera, D.I. Khan, Haripur,Lower Dir, Lakki Marwat,Kohat, and Hangu of KhyberPakhtukhwa, Mianwali,Jhang, Khushab, Bhakar andDera Ghazi Khan of Punjab.

NADRA also appreciatedrole of donor agencies andinformed that second phaseof the CDCP is supported byfour donors, includingUSAID, DFID, the Govern-ment of Italy and the WorldBank with a total allocationof US$ 580 million of whichthe Government of Pakistanis contributing US$ 100 mil-lion. The World Bank hasbeen assigned the lead do-nor agency for this effort. Asmuch as Rs. 34 billion inPhase-I was already dis-bursed across the country inall the provinces includingGilgit-Baltistan and AJK withcontributions from the Fed-eral Government as well asthe provinces.

However, the initial pay-ment of Rs. 20,000 underPhase-1 is unlikely to be suf-ficient for recapitalization ofassets given the extent ofdamage and loss, necessitat-ing the graduation of CDCPinto Phase-II which aims toassist the flood-affectedhouseholds in rebuildingtheir lives beyond immediaterelief. July 2010 floods in Pa-kistan were a disaster of un-precedented scale, which af-fected 80 districts and nearly10% of Pakistan’s populationof about 18 million peopleover a vast geographical area,the tragedy destroyed ap-proximately 1.6 million homesand damaged 2.4 million hect-ares of crops.

First phase of WatanCard was launched in Sep-tember 2010, whereby theGovernment has already dis-tributed an initial tranche ofRs. 20,000 among 1.75 mil-lion affected families in or-der to provide immediate re-lief. Disbursements to ben-eficiaries were done throughthe Watan Card mechanismwith the support of partnerCommercial Banks. In mak-ing the programme success-ful NADRA played a keyrole by developing a trans-parent programme designusing modern biometrictechnology and establishedWatan Card FacilitationCenters (WCFCs) through-out the affected districts.

Rs 34.819b via Watan Cards disbursed to 944,180 flood victims

HYDERABAD: Activists of Hindu Kohli tribe hold a demonstration in support of their demands outside Press Club.

LOWER DIR: DCO Mahmood Aslam gives polio drop to a child.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HY D E R A B A D—ProfessorDepartment of MedicinesDr. Muhammad KhalidShaikh expressed graveconcerns over the increasepollution of different kindsin Pakistan and emphasizedthe need of implementingthe relevant laws in letterand spirit in order to makehealthy environment in thecountry. Talking to thisscribe here on Friday Dr.Muhammad Khalid Shaikhinformed that preparation ofbuilding materials, smokedand unfit vehicles, industrialeffluents and smokes, im-

proper sewage disposal anduprooting of forestry areasare the main cases of creationpollutions of different kindsand if no attention was paidin this direction, the peoplecan suffer different kinds ofdiseases.

He said that there is direneed of strict vigilance andeffective implementation ofenvironmental rules andregulations so that the haz-ards of air, noise and waterpollutions could be ad-dressed and a healthy envi-ronment could be providedto the people. He said thatthe life of the common peoplebecome miserable due to pol-

luted atmosphere and thereis the dire need that effectivemeasures should be adoptedto make the country pollutedfree.

He emphasized the needof launching of a massivemass awareness campaign toinform the causes that madetheir surroundings polluted.Proper disposal of waste withcontrol of sanitary landfillsites as well as treatment andrecycling plants can help thepeople to live in polluted freeatmosphere, he added. Dr.Muhammad Khalid said thathazards of contaminated wa-ter, air and noise pollutions,solid and liquid wastes.

Concern expressed overincreased pollution

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The JamiatUleam-e-Islam-Fazl parlia-mentarian Maulana AtaurRehman Friday stressedthe government to restrainthe activities of Ahemdicommunity who have beenconstructing their worshipplaces on the design simi-lar to the mosques.

Speaking on a point oforder, he said on Septem-ber 7, 1974, the Parliamenthad declared Qadianis asnon-Muslim and today,they have been striving towiden their network in vio-lation of the rules.

He said the Ahmedishave been raising minaretson their worship placesmaking it look alike themosques what he said isprohibited under law. Hesaid the government needsto pay attention to their ac-

JUI wants curb onAhmedis’ activities

t ivities else any fanaticMuslim may take action onits own to hinder their mis-sion.

Ataur Rehman said itwas the PPP governmentthat had the credit of declar-ing the community as non-Muslim so they are sup-posed to counter their fu-ture designs as well.

Speaking on a point oforder, Shireen Arashadsought action against theofficials of l ivestock de-partment who had allowedimport of sheep carryingfatal disease that may besold out in domestic mrket.

Just ice (retd) Fakhar-un-Nisa urged the Parlia-ment to make legislation forpopulation control as wellas obligatory screening forThalessemia prior to wed-ding and called for a com-prehensive media cam-paign on both the issues.

NAZIR SIYAL

LARKANA—A large numberof civil society membersstaged protest demonstrationagainst the firing over theNGO activists and continuethreats of dire consequenceshere on Friday. On the occa-sion, large number of activistsof civil society and memberof social and political activ-ists carrying banners,marched on the roads at vari-ous thorough fares of the cityand shouted slogans to pro-tect the citizens and civil so-ciety members.

They condemned the at-tack on the members ofSahkar social welfare by thecriminals, the civil societyrepresentatives protesting

Firing over NGOactivists flayed

against the growing robber-ies, threats and firing overthe NGO activists, they de-manded authorities to con-trol the law and order situa-tion and arrest of culprits im-mediately. They also de-manded of the immediate ar-rest of culprits’ firing overactivists of Sahkar NGO, pro-tection of minority commu-nity and occupation on valu-able properties in the differ-ent cities by a land mafia.

They have appealed thehigher authorities that thepolice helping criminals butnever supporting law abid-ing citizens to arrest thecriminals they said. NGO andcivil society workers amongShazia Jabbar, Rahim Bux,Abdul Wadood, Riaz Ahmed.

SALIM AHMED

L A H O R E / K A R A C H I —Punjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Shariftoday returned to Pakistanafter four-day private visit toBritain. Replying to a ques-tion of media representativesat Allama Iqbal InternationalAirport about local bodieselections, the Chief Ministersaid that the federal govern-ment did not care about lo-cal bodies system at all norheld local bodies electionsduring the last four and a halfyears, now it has suddenlyhad this idea.

The Chief Minister saidthat the decision of holdinglocal bodies elections in

Punjab would be taken in con-sultation with the party. More-over, Punjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharifhas taken notice of the newsregarding the death of alabourer who was crushed bya bulldozer and ordered aninquiry into the incident. Healso sympathized with thebereaved family and prayedfor the departed soul.

Meanwhile Sindh Gover-nor Dr Ishrat ul Ebad hassigned the Sindh People’sLocal Government Ordinance,2012 which would come intoeffect immediately. Earlier,Sindh Chief Minister SyedQaim Ali Shah signed the sum-mary of new Local Govern-ment Ordinance and sent it to

‘LB polls decision in Punjab to be taken with consultation’Sindh Governor signs new LG Ordinance

the governor. PPP and MQMhad held a meeting at ChiefMinister House on Fridaynight where both the rulingcoalition partners reached aconsensus over the provi-sions of Sindh LG Ordinance.

After the promulgation ofordinance MQM and PPPleaders present at the Gover-nor House congratulatedeach other and distributedsweets. MQM leader AltafHussain congratulated Gov-ernor and Chief MinisterSindh over the phone. Talk-ing to media at GovernorHouse, Information MinisterSindh Sharjeel Memon saidthe LG system will be func-tional in five districts of theprovince which included

Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur,Larkana and Mirpur Khasand they have been given thestatus of Metropolitan Cor-poration while remainingparts of the province willhave District Councils whoseheads would be Chairmanand Vice Chairman.

Under each of these Met-ropolitan Corporations therewould be a MetropolitanCouncil, Town Council andUnion Council while therewould be Districts Councilsin 18 Districts of Sindh.These District Councilswould be headed by Chair-man District Council. SindhInformation Minister saidthat police and revenue de-partments would remain with

provincial government whileUnder each of these Metro-politan Corporations therewould be a MetropolitanCouncil, Town Council andUnion Council while therewould be Districts Councilsin 18 Districts of Sindh.These District Councilswould be headed by Chair-man District Council.

In urban areas therewould Town Councils underthe District Council while inrural areas there would TaluqaCouncils under them. Underthe new Ordinance Mayorwould not have police pow-ers but it would remain withthe provincial government.There would be Chief Offic-ers in Metropolitan Corpora-

tions and District Councilswho would be under the Lo-cal government. However,they would be attached toCommissioner and Board ofRevenue as required. Underthe new Ordinance, LocalGovernment would have theright to impose tax.

Property Tax is accordedto local governments whileCorporation would receive thefees that it would fix. Aftersigning of the ordinanceMQM leader Raza Haroonsaid that implementation ofthe LG ordinance is a majorachievement of the demo-cratic government. In theSindh LG system the bestqualities of world systemshave been incorporated.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD—The DeputyCommissioner TandoMuhammad Khan SyedBarkat Ahmed Rizvi Fridaydeclared rain emergency inthe entire district and calledall officials of concerned de-partment on duty with imme-diate effect. Talking to mediapersons during his surprisevisit at different pumping sta-tions, he said that a total of 55pumping machines have beeninstalled in the district and allare in working condition.

Keeping in view the pre-vious experiences, he in-formed that District DisasterManagement Authority(DDMA) has been consti-tuted and activated in thedistrict. All required and nec-essary equipment eitherhave been provided or beingprovided to DDMA enablingit to meet any eventuality ofnatural or man-made disaster.In order to meet current mon-soon season, he said thatshift-wise duties of con-cerned staff has been as-signed to ensure round the

clock to help the citizens.In addition to DDMA, the

Deputy Commissioner in-formed that District DisasterCell has also been estab-lished in his office and othertaluks including TandoMuhammad Khan, Bulri ShahKarim and Tando GhulamHyder to supliment the ef-forts for protecting citizensfrom any kind of disaster.Rain lashed parts of Sindh forthe second consecutive dayon Thursday withHyderabad, ShaheedBenazirabad.

Rain emergencydeclared in Hyderabad

Expulsion of humanitarianstaff for espionage

PAKISTAN has ordered all Save the Children’s foreign staff to leavethe country within four weeks, in the wake of accusations linkingthe aid agency to a fake vaccination programme used in the hunt for

Osama bin Laden. According to media reports, a former director of theSave the Children NGO introduced Shakil Afridi to CIA and Afridi be-came a tool in identifying the Al-Qaeda chief in Abbottabad.

Denying the allegations, a spokesman of the NGO has claimed that itwas serving more than seven million children with two thousand dedicatednational staff and that they are committed to work for the needs and rightsof the children. But it is noteworthy that the Government has not asked theNGO to stop its operations or activities in Pakistan and has just orderedexpulsion of only six expatriate staff of the agency to leave the country. Itis understood that the agencies concerned might be in possession of con-crete evidence to justify their decision. No one can question the humanitar-ian work being carried out by the NGO but it is really pathetic that most ofthe foreign and local NGOs are allowing themselves to be misused bysome vested interests and as a consequence they lose their credibility. It isknown to all that fake polio vaccination campaigns were launched by ShakilAfridi in Abbottabad and the purpose was to get to the Al-Qaeda chief andthe episode has dented the image and credibility of genuine campaigns aswell. There are also reports that scores of foreign intelligence agencies areworking in the garb of different NGOs. In the first place, it is rightly pointedout that how an entity can be called “Non-Governmental Organization”when it gets funds or financial assistance from some foreign Government,as is the case with those operating in Pakistan. In fact, the United States hasa stated policy of spending assistance even under Kerry-Lugar Bill, whichshould have been routed through normal official channels. The objective isto the NGO’s to use them for other purposes. It has also been observed thatmost of the NGOs are not directing their activities to areas of concern tothe people of Pakistan like abysmal poverty, illiteracy, disease and lack ofopportunities and instead focus on peripheral issues and on those issuesthat could portray Pakistan in the dark. There is genuine concern that someof the NGOs and contractors are being used to gather information aboutsecurity, defence and strategic issues. This being so, it is quite imperativethat Pakistani agencies should thoroughly probe individuals and entitiesbefore they are allowed to enter or operate in Pakistan.

To change nation’sdestiny through ballot

FORMER President Pervez Musharraf has urged youth of the countryto come forward and cast their votes in next general elections in order

to change the fate of Pakistan. Addressing a function in Dubai throughvideo. He said in the backdrop of threats posed by war on terror andforeign elements, it is duty of the youth to play their role to save thecountry and put it on the path of progress and prosperity.

There is no denying the fact that Pakistan is passing through one of theworst phases of its existence and a change is a must to salvage the country.This is because people have seen no real change during the last four yearswhen security and law and order situation has seen nose dive and theeconomy is on the verge of virtual collapse. No doubt, the country faceddaunting challenges restricting ability of the regime to do anything revolu-tionary but much could have been done with commitment and vision. Itwould also be not realistic to expect Ajam (non-Arab) Spring like the ArabSpring only because in the Arab world people were not allowed the kind ofliberties they wanted whereas in Pakistan a democratic system is in vogueand progressing ahead. Despite numerous challenges and odds, the systemhas remained on track during the last four years and there are expectationsof smooth transition to next democratic government after general electionson completion of the constitutionally mandated term of the incumbent coa-lition Government. Therefore, the only hope for a change for better is throughballot and that is why all concerned are focusing their attention on theyouth who constitute fifty percent of the population and especially thoseeligible to cast vote. It is necessary to mobilize youth to actively take partin the electoral process and in the presence of a significant portion of thepolitically less conscious older generation, the educated youth can make areal difference by exercising their right to vote on the basis of performanceand potential of different candidates and parties. The parties too shouldformulate comprehensive manifestos to give an idea to the electorate abouthow they intend to change the destiny of the nation through their eco-nomic, social, defence and foreign policies.

Scrapping cultureof tax exemptions

DATA released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) itself revealsthat owing to exemptions given to certain sectors in taxes, Rs. 27

billion revenue loss was witnessed in 2011-12. And what is worst is thatthe bane has been portrayed as a boon by the FBR claiming that suchexemptions reflected Government’s resolve to provide relief to taxpay-ing people.

Tax exemptions are given worldwide by the Governments to promotevulnerable industries, boost economic activities or provide relief to thelayman. However, in our context, these exemptions have generally beengiven on considerations other than merit, playing havoc with the tax sys-tem and sending wrong message to honest tax-payers. There are numerousinstances when relief in customs duty was given on a particular item for aspecific term and when those who were intended to be benefitted tookadvantage of the opportunity, the exemption or relief was withdrawn. Simi-larly, there are some sectors that continue to enjoy exemptions right sinceinception of Pakistan at the cost of other genuinely deserving sectors. Thentax exemptions have also been given to certain classes despite the fact thatthose are considered to be privileged ones and can definitely pay more. Ina country like Pakistan where tax culture is hardly encouraging, there is allthe more need to broaden the net and increase revenue collection to under-take measures for welfare of the poor and the needy.

Terrorism is stalking the entire land — Balochistan,Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

and Punjab. However, unrest inBalochistan is posing a seriousthreat to the state of Pakistan, whichneeds a political solution. It is in-deed the responsibility of the pro-vincial government to come for-ward and negotiate with the dissi-dents. And at the same time takemeasures for alleviating abject pov-erty and to ensure better life to thepeople. For this purpose,Balochistan strategy must beevolved taking all the stake-hold-ers into confidence and focusing onthe core issues disregarding partyor personal interests if any.

Nevertheless, all-out effortshave to be made to fight the men-ace of terrorism including targetkilling of settlers in Balochistan.There have been targeted killingsof Punjabi settlers in Balochistanand scores of teachers and profes-sors have been targeted. Ethnic andShia-Sunni fracas has shaken theerstwhile ethnic and sectarian har-mony, as criminal gangs backed bythe foreign powers are stoking eth-nic and sectarian divisions. TheGreat Game of the US strategicmap-makers has been in full playin Balochistan province for quitesome time, influential loyalties of

Get out of stupor!

Strategic communication & WOT

One of the unpardonablesins, in the eyes of mostpeople, is for a man togo about unlabelled. Theworld regards such apersons as the police doan unmuzzled dog, notunder proper control.

The application of StrategicCommunication (SC) enables militaries to coordinate

their psychological and informationoperations and thereby project pro-fessional capabilities and reputationin the fields of military operationsand impact analysis. This formulais the most crucial tool to strategizedefence policies that support appro-priate distribution of information,while maintaining coherence andstability in war zones. Part of thecomplexity of correct solicitation ofthis method is attributed to well-timed, well placed and extremelyeffective use of strategic commu-nication in current scenario, that isan on-going war on terror.

The system of disseminating in-formation about the operational ca-pabilities of US/NATO forces isproducing a non-stop and ultimatecoverage of enemy destruction onthe battlefield. Taliban, on the otherhand inclined to combine messagesof violence and tactical advantageof home-field and thus generate de-ception about the loyalty of “infant”Afghan army. By design such com-munication missions can also bechallenging because uncertaintyabout “real” operational issues re-main a constant matter of concern,and thus receiving less attention interms of cultural decoding of thoseparticipating in training/field opera-

Willjustice winthe day?

Former Libyan spy bossAbdullah Al Senussi, whofled from Libya to

Mauritania in March, was extra-dited to Libya. He was arrestedupon his arrival at the airport ofthe West African nation and sincethen Libyan authorities have beenurging for his extradition. Reportssurfaced on Tuesday that he hadbeen sent back home to Libya.

Al Senussi is no ordinary of-fender. He is not only accused ofbrutally killing and torturingpeople in Benghazi— the mainepicentre of the Libyan revolution— and ordering the massacre ofnearly 1,000 inmates at the AbuSalim prison in Tripoli in 1996,he is also notorious for his in-volvement in global conspiracies.Senussi has already been declareda criminal by France and sen-tenced to life imprisonment forhis involvement in bombing ofthe French airliner in Niger in1989 that killed 170 people. Andthe US and UK also suspect himof being involved in the 1988bombing of an airliner overLockerbie in Scotland in which270 people died.

But now that he is back inLibya, the international commu-nity is concerned whether the ex-intelligence chief will be treatedhumanely in prison. And this con-cern is warranted. The currentregime has been born out of a longand gory strife against Gaddafiand his loyalists, so resentmentagainst the latter is still intense.In June, reports that Gaddafi’sformer prime minister AlBaghdadi Al Mahmoudi, whowas extradited to Libya from Tu-nisia, was beaten on his arrival atthe Tripoli airport raised concernsworldwide. The ICC considers AlSenussi’s extradition as defeat ofinternational justice.

The court’s insistence thatthe members of the formerLibyan regime be tried at TheHague has gone in vain. More-over, the requests for a trial atThe Hague by Gaddafi’s son SaifAl Islam, who is being held by amilitia in the city of Zaitan, havealso been denied. It is of utmostimportance that the members ofthe former regime be treated hu-manely and given a proper trial,so that the foundation of a demo-cratic and fair Libya can belaid.—Khaleej Times

*****

Canada canill-affordpolitics of

polarisation

Political violence and Canadaare two words that do notnormally sit together in the

same sentence. But after a lonegunman opened fire at an electionvictory rally in Quebec on Tues-day night, the spectre of violenceover the possible separation of theFrench-speaking province fromthe Canadian federation is on theminds of many. Quebec separat-ists have long flirted with an in-dependent country sharing NorthAmerica with the rest of English-speaking Canada and the US.Twice in the past, the Parti Que-becois has held referendums onseparation, and twice they havebeen rejected, roundly in 1980and then only by the narrowest ofmargins in 1995. The election ofa minority Parti Quebecois gov-ernment on Tuesday night raisesthe possibility of a third vote.

Whatever the mindset of theshooter as the new Premier-electPauline Marois addressed hersupporters, Ottawa can ill afforda nation polarised along linguis-tic and geographical lines. Butthere should be no pandering tothe separatist government in Que-bec either. Let’s hope thegunman’s actions were the act ofa lunatic. —Gulf News

some politicians,media men andso-called intel-lectuals are beingbought.

They are try-ing to whittleaway the nation-state by stirringturmoil and vio-lence to achievetheir evil designs.The ‘Baloch So-ciety of NorthAmerica’ is em-

blematic of the US meddling inPakistan’s Balochistan province. Fo-menting separatist movements alongPakistan’s western border has beenon US geopolitical drawing board foryears. Some palmed-off members ofmedia, commentriat and politicospresent highly exaggerated figures inregard to missing persons’ case, andour media and intelligentsia join thechorus orchestrated by internationalmedia. The Supreme Court has theprerogative to hear the complaintsfrom the families of missing personsbut remarks such as Frontier Con-stabulary is named for every thirdmissing person and the media point-ing its fingers towards the ISI and MIemboldens the terrorists and theirbackers. It is in this backdrop that theUnited Nations Working Group onEnforced or Involuntary Disappear-ances will visit Pakistan from Septem-ber 10 to 20. It is hoped that it is not afollow up of the Resolution onBalochistan tabled by RepublicanCongressman Dana Rohrabacher inUS Congress after a controversial de-bate in the sub-committee of Ameri-can Congress.

They will assess the progress andalso study the measures adopted byPakistan to prevent and eradicate en-forced disappearances, including is-sues related to truth, justice and repa-ration for the victims of enforced dis-

appearances, said a press release is-sued on Wednesday. For some timethere has been some paradigm shiftin Balochistan politics and youth isnot showing traditional loyalties tosardars. Sardar Ataullah Mengal is onrecord having said that the youth donot listen to them anymore. Theyneed to be approached, guided andsupported to enable them to becomethe new generation of politicians. Itis unfortunate that Baloch MPAs havebeen misusing the funds provided tothem for development purposes. Po-litical leaders/MPAs were givenhuge development funds (Rs. 25Crores per year each) but failed tospend these funds on the people ofBalochistan. If the Balochistan pack-age and other development fundswere spent on the people ofBalochistan, it would have helped ineliminating the sense of deprivationamong the Baloch youth. Anyhow,nobody in his right sense would al-low the miscreants or dissidents tochallenge the writ of the state.

Unfortunately, many terroriststhat were arrested for heinous actswere acquitted by the courts due tolacunae in the law, as either the wit-nesses backed out as they were tooscared to risk the wrath of the mili-tant organizations. The judges of anti-terrorist courts were threatened of direconsequences if they gave verdictagainst the terrorists. Our media ingeneral and some analysts in particu-lar blame the military and intelligencefor not decimating the militantsthroughout Pakistan. It should beborne in mind that the military andintelligence agencies cannot fight ter-rorists everywhere especially con-gested localities in the urban areas.Their primary function is to safeguardthe frontiers of the country, and takeon the militants in an open or a diffi-cult terrain like Waziristan where for-eign terrorists are also active. On theother hand, urban terrorism is fought

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tions. This assess-ment appears to beverified in the case ofUS/NATO missionin Afghanistan where“insider” (green onblue) attacks on theNATO soldiers havenot only caused atemporary suspen-sion of military train-

ing program of Afghan National Se-curity Forces (AFNS), but also ex-posed the structural weakness inNATO’s war-planning. This reflec-tion springs from the idea that “Stra-tegic Communication considerationsshould [have been] integrated into theearliest planning phases in [war onterror], but that did not happen. Thecharacter of current military leader-ship of NATO reflects that essentiallylack of “cultural knowledge” under-mines communication, and thus cre-ates a formidable mechanism of anuntrained and non-professional Af-ghan force. It is this close nexus be-tween strategic communication andconstituencies of unilateralism thatcontinue to threaten long-term peaceand stability in South Asia.

Arguably, such a scenario opensup another debate whether it wouldbe sustainable to use information op-eration as a political strategy becauseit would be remarkably difficult togovern a complex and highly tribaland differentiated Afghan society onthe basis of just strategic communi-cation and public diplomacy. TheNATO Secretary General, AndersFogh Rasmussen shown this concernand requested to Afghan PresidentKarzai “to join in” preventing suchattacks. However, the real issueseems to be related to failure of cul-tural and subject matter specialists inmilitary intelligence in NATO, who

knowingly have ignored the level ofliteracy within among young Afghanrecruits. According to an AFP report,an Afghan Army officer complainedthat “most of our soldiers come fromdifferent provinces, they are illiter-ate, and US mentors sometimes be-have badly with them. That is whythey turn their weapons at them”.

By all accounts, the consistencyin such incidents reinforce the factsabout emerging consequences of waron terror, that is, modern psychologi-cal and information operations havenot integrated considerations on reli-gion, culture and civilization in theiroperational requirements and therebycondemned by the natives and clientstates. At minimum, failure to addressthe ground realities is just spreadingimpression about the non-profes-sional approach of US/NATO’s spin-doctors across all media platform andbrands the militaries as insensitive tohuman dignity and lack of respect forother cultures.

The key contradiction in currentapproach of the US/NATO is that ithas remarkably failed to clearly andtruthfully communicate their respec-tive nations about goals and long-term effects of war on terror on theirpragmatic youth. This assessment canbest be explained by specific ex-amples of changing civil-military re-lations in developed countries, espe-cially in Europe and in the US. Theanti-war campaigners have constantlyhooted out the participants of majorsecurity and defence related confer-ences/workshops and exhibitions. Ina broader sense, the substantial useof strategic communication too cre-ates misinformation, the famousphrase, “why do they hate us” re-markably sums up the dilemma of notsharing true information about the dy-namics of war on terror. As a result,

the US and NATO have almost lostthe public relations war in the Mus-lim world.

Taking full advantage of nega-tive world opinion about the US, themilitant outfits use their own strate-gic communication and therebycomplicate the public opinion atlarge. With globalization, it is notjust a matter of bombing a mediaoutlet off the air to cultivate a favor-able opinion about the communica-tion strategy of the US and NATO.The ensuing analysis of misinforma-tion about Weapons of Mass De-struction (WMD) and invasion ofIraq demonstrates a genuine andexclusive mistrust toward the USand its Western allies.

This articulation of public diplo-macy cannot forever guarantee do-mestic support for the war on terrorbecause focusing on Taliban leader-ship to serve American cause ofpeace cannot be served through stra-tegic communication. The entirescript of strategic communicationabout war on terror needs a carefulexamination, as it is not only Af-ghans who are suffering; Pakistantoo has been fighting both war onterror and psychological warfare onits military and security services. ForPakistan’s “new generation”, theloss of more than 42000 innocentpeople (including more than 5000military/security personnel) and lossof billions of dollars in foreign in-vestment are the result of incredu-lous foreign policy and communi-cation strategy of the US and NATOcountries. The conclusion is that themost idealistic way to win hearts andminds is not to breach the trust ofworld population.— The author is a Denmark-basedNational Security Expert andDefence Analyst.

—T H HuxleyBritish biologist

out primarily by the civilian admin-istrations and their security appara-tuses everywhere the world over.And so it has to be done here in thisland, too. Why police, CID and IBare not being questions, as the ter-rorists move along in vehicles withexplosives and other weapons on theroads where police has establishedcheck posts and barricades, and stillremain undetected.

Through these pages we havebeen reminding that missing per-sons’ case is very complicated one.It has in fact many dimensions, as‘players’ from the regional countriesand beyond are active inBalochistan. Major GeneralObaidullah Khattak, the FC chief,said the issue of law and order andmissing persons should be seen in abroad prospective because restoringpeace and order was a joint respon-sibility of all institutions, adding thatthe force was rendering sacrificesfor restoring peace and making ef-forts to recover the missing persons.“Fifty per cent of the attacks weredirected against my force and it isnot possible for any other institutionto face the danger we are facing.”There is a perception that anti-ter-ror courts out of fear have been look-ing for a point whereby they couldacquit the terrorists. Having thatsaid, the ruling parties, oppositionparties, judiciary and all organs ofthe state should get out of stupor andmust reach consensus on elimina-tion of terrorism. The federal cabi-net on Wednesday passed the “In-vestigation for Fair Trial Bill, 2012”.If passed by the parliament in itspresent shape, it will allow investi-gation by modern techniques anddevices and authorise the state to tappeople’s phone calls and interceptall other private communications inorder to catch terrorists.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Rana Athar Javed Email: ma_javed@hotmail.com

Voice of the People

The heirs of inequality

It has long been known that spurtsof rapid economic growth can increase inequality: China and In-

dia are the latest examples. But mightslow growth and rising inequality —the two most salient characteristicsof developed economies nowadays— also be connected? That is the in-triguing hypothesis of a recent studyby the French economist ThomasPiketty of the Paris School of Eco-nomics. Piketty has done some of themost important work on inequality inrecent years. Taking advantage of theFrench bureaucracy’s precision,Piketty was able to reconstruct theFrench national accounts over nearlytwo centuries. The economy from1820 until World War I — a kind ofsecond ancient regime — had twostriking features: slow growth —about 1% a year — and an outsizeshare of inherited wealth, which ac-counted for roughly 20-25% of GDP.

The link between low growth andthe importance of inheritance, Piketty

argues, was not coincidental: withinherited wealth yielding 2-3% a yearand new investment only 1%, socialmobility was extremely limited andstratification was encouraged. Thatbegan to change with WWI, whengrowth picked up — a trend that ac-celerated sharply after World War II.With annual economic growth run-ning as high as 5% during the post-1945 boom, inherited wealth shrankto only 5% of French GDP, usheringin a period of relative mobility andequality. Ominously, however, dur-ing the past two decades of slowgrowth, the share of inherited wealthhas rebounded to about 12% ofFrance’s economy.

This pattern should be a cause forconcern, because annual GDP growthin the eurozone during the past de-cade has averaged about 1%. Simi-larly, average annual growth in theUnited States has slowed from around4% between 1870 and 1973 toroughly 2% since then. JosephStiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winningeconomist, also believes that lowgrowth and inequality are intercon-nected, but he believes that the causal

arrow moves in the opposite direc-tion. As he put it in a recent inter-view, “I think it’s inequality that’scausing low growth.” In his new bookThe Price of Inequality, he writes that,“Politics have shaped the market, andshaped it in ways that advantage thetop at the expense of the rest.” Rent-seeking, the ability of entrenchedelites to allocate resources to them-selves and smother opportunity forothers, invariably leads to a lesscompetitive market and lowergrowth. There is some support forthis argument in Piketty’s work: theFrench economy takes off afterWWI and again after WWII, bothperiods in which the French politi-cal system opened up and enactedprogressive reforms.

But, according to IlyanaKuziemko, an economist at PrincetonUniversity, there is also evidence thatlow growth does indeed increase in-equality. Public-opinion data and ex-perimental research indicate thatpeople (or at least Americans) be-come less favourable to income re-distribution during economic hardtimes. Gallup polls, for example,

The mess made by AAZ

US Army General MartinDempsey, Chairman of theJoint Chiefs of Staff had to

flee the country to save his life whenAfghan Mujahideen carried out attackon US’s controlled highly protectedBagram Air Base on 21 August 2012.General Dempsey escaped an attempton his life but his aircraft which wasdirectly hit got damaged. TheDempsey immediately flee to someunidentified location in Indian Oceanor Middle East in another aircraft. Theofficial statement from Pentagonclaimed that strike was not aimedspecifically at Dempsey’s plane.

However, the statement admittedhitting of General Dempsey’s planein which two personnel of the AirBase were injured while GeneralDempsey C-17 plane and an Apachehelicopter were damaged. A reportby a local commander claimed thatBagram Air Base remained underAfghan Mujahideen control for morethan five hours. General MartinDempsey and group of senior offic-ers were immediately airlifted to savetheir lives. This is not new that Ameri-cans have fled away from the battle-field to save their lives as even theUS President George Bush went un-

The lost war in Afghanistanderground for complete ten days af-ter 11th September attacks on Penta-gon and World Trade Centre due tofear of renewed attacks.

Taliban’s spokesman ZabiullahMujahid issued a statement imme-diately after the incident claimingthat General Dempsey’s aircraft wastargeted by Mujahideen using exactinformation about its whereabouts.After the attack, the morale of USforces in Afghanistan and Pakistanis ever low and there is lack of will-ingness by the combatants to servein Afghanistan. It is pertinent tomention here that the personnelfrom 101 Airborne Division, FortCambell, 1 Armored Division, FortBliss and 10 Mountain Division,Fort Drum that will deployed in Af-ghanistan within two months or sobut they have shown reluctance toserve at the War Zones. Uncon-firmed reports reflected that the per-sonnel serving in Afghanistan werecritical of lack of intelligence in-put against Mujahideen.

Some personnel referred person-nel serving in Afghanistan as blidsitting ducks. The criticism wasbrushed aside by the senior com-manders but within their complaintproved to be correct when a barrageof missiles welcomed US Chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff and madehim to flee the country along with topsenior officers. If we recall, similar

Pen or sword?RIDA ZAFAR

Violence, bloodshed, human criesand fire in the country where green-ery is challenged through all theseforces, but the nation is helpless. Thearmy of Pakistan is strong to facethe battlefield, but others are takinglives of innocent people of Pakistan.Personally, when I see blood, whenI hear cries, and when I visualize theviolence, my heart starts losing thebeats and I see no one standing be-side me. I am not here to defendanyone. But being a part of youth ofPakistan, I have the right to talk onall of this. I need to pen down myfeelings as they are yours too. Therecent incident in Bajaur beheadingsoldiers and throwing them of thehill like a piece of wastes. This actof Taliban was a brutal attack ontheir part. In another incident, theybrought a ten year old child whobeheaded all those soldiers, as hehad no escape. At this hour, we, theyouth have to step in to the situa-tion. We need to know what is hap-pening and what we can do to con-tribute to our country.

So, why to wait for someonewho will wake up us from the slum-ber? Nonetheless, the Indians andthe Americans want to remove usfrom map. We need to help our-selves. This is the second largest warafter WWI and Iraq war. Our coun-try has been crumbled, but we needto pick pen and not sword. Pen isthe only tool that can bring a mas-sive change without bloodshed inthe country. When everyone wouldbe literate, no other country canmake us down on their feet. The es-sence of realization, responsibilityand motivation is all needed to pros-per the country. India have invadedour country by bringing its own cul-ture. The removal of their culture,languages and rituals can be onething to do by us.

Even, according to Islam, thefirst word is”Iqra”, meaning “toread”. From Islamic point o view aswell, writing is given preference.Why not break the silence throughwritings? Why not make every childeducated so one day he would risein the country? Why not bring aneducated government that woulddocument each and everything toend corruption? Promote Islam inpositive manner and not to makenegative impact. The religious ide-ologies should not be confused withthe world ideologies.—Rawalpindi

Afridi needs a joltIQBAL HADI ZAIDI

Shahid Afridi once a real asset forus has slipped down the ladderwhich is both very much shockingand awfully alarming. He at hisown retired from Test cricket andopted for One Day and T-20 butlately he has not impressed us forreasons known to him or PCB.Years back he started as batsmanand undoubtedly he played manymarvelous innings and won duelaurels and recognition both in Pa-kistan and overseas alike. Peoplehave been waiting impatiently tosee him playing wonderful crickethitting all around the ground withno reference to the bowler or thevenue or both. He had won thehearts of everyone to the extentthat he turned out to be the mostpopular batsman to be watchedeven in rival India. Then he triedhis luck with ball and did succeedin the venture which eventuallyturned him out to be an all rounderand hence he had earned a perma-nent place in our squads be it test,one day or T-20.

However, lately he has notcome up to our expectations whichis very much shocking to be hon-est and what he did against Austra-lia in UAE playing 3 ODIs seriescalls for his explanation and he re-ally needs a full dose for letting usdown twice. In the given situationeither he should not be given anychance to play against mighty Aus-tralians. He can play against Zim-babwe or Bangladesh or NewZealand which are a bit under ratedteams but certainly he cannot befielded against superior teams. Pa-

Can this happen in Pakistan?ASGHAR MAHMOOD

Apropos letters on VIP culture published in the Press recently, I would like to share with readerssimilar experience. Many years ago I was attached with Cornwall Constabulary Hqr, Exeter for

familiarization with British Police. One day my conducting oficer regretted that there was some changein the briefing schedue as the concerned officer was with the Prime Minister in the Officers Mess. Iwas surprised at this information because all senior officers were present in their offices and a juniorofficer was sitting with the Prime Minister. British Prime Minister Margrate Thatcher, known as IronLady, was travelling through Exeter. After a long journey, she wanted to have a break. Her securityofficer informed Police Headquarters that the Prime Minister would like to have a cup of tea at thePolice Officers mess, if it was not inconvenient for them (Mess Staff). The Chief Constable instructedSuperintendent of Police Special Branch to receive the Prime Minister and escort her to Officers Messfor tea. After relaxing for some time in the Mess the Prime Minister thanked the Superintendent fortheir hospitality and left for London. Prime Minister cavalcade consisted of only two cars. To myquestion, why the Prime minister was not received by the Police Chief himself, I was informed thatsince it was not an official visit, there was no need for the Police Chief to receive the Prime Ministerwhen he had important business to take care. Can this happen in Pakistan?—Islamabad

No one has the guts to dislodgethe incumbent PPP government. The prime and over-

powering reason is that this partyenjoys a majority in the parliament.AAZ as a shrewd puppeteer has tiedsuch rubber stamp parties as MQMand ANP with the political apron-string of PPP, whose own politicalclout and profiteering depends uponthe agreeable nod and patronage fromAsif Ali Zardari. They are like smallstreams looking formidable becauseof their presence and merger in anocean. The Ocean should be treatedas metaphor for the encompassing po-litical tenacity and resilience of PPPto remain trenchant in the riotouspolitical arena of Pakistan.

The Supreme Court and the restof judiciary have been turned into alaughing stock for handing out thegalore of verdicts and the executiveblowing these away with disdain and

mockery. In imple-menting surfeit of de-cisions by the Su-preme Court, the act-ing chairman of PPPand the president ofPakistan Asif AliZardari kept the apexcourt at bay. One ex-ample is defiance ordisregard of SupremeCourt’s unambiguous

orders for writing a letter to the Swissauthorities for reopening the moneylaundering cases of Asif Ali Zardariand his deceased spouse BenazirBhutto. Now the shrewish and belli-cose attorney general of PakistanIrfan Qadir categorically and ratherimpetuously tells the Supreme Courtthat the government would not writesuch a letter to the Swiss court.

Despite threats by the religiousparties both political and non-politi-cal, the NATO overland supply hasbeen resumed. Similarly the Hajjscandal, the ephedrine quota caseseems to be gone with the winds andno one in the government give a damto the highest judiciary’s orders. Mr.Zardari, who is pulling the strings andleading the game of wits and politi-cal brinkmanship from the safe for-tress and the imposing building of thepresidency, knows well that armywould not intercede for upholding the

Supreme Court’s various verdicts.The army is docile and detached be-cause of her total commitment to themilitary operations in the tribal beltand also a unremitting engagementin the troubled Balochistan. Also thearmy would not opt to meddle in poli-tics and grab power as this would beworst time for the military leadershipto do so. As the adage goes, the army’stop brass would not like to fish introubled waters.

The opposition parties are in astate of disarray, dejection and disso-lution. These parties have utterlyfailed to build up a strong and formi-dable movement or front against thegovernment on such volatile and pro-vocative issue as target killings, ram-pant and endemic lawlessness, therising prices, the mushrooming cor-ruption of the ruling cabal, decay ofthe nation- building institutions, thebroken-down municipal system, thegalloping inflation, and on top of allthe grinding power shortage atro-ciously affecting every aspect of lifeand population in Pakistan. The presshas been tamed and fixed. The recentdrama with Malik Riaz Hussain asthe main hero and villain has spilledthe beans as to how the self-styledsaints and moralists among the jour-nalists were the recipient and benefi-ciary of cores of graft and sell-outrewards from him. The arch journal-

Views From Abroad

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

attacks were carried out during thevisits of US President George Bushand Barack Hussain Obama. Theseattacks are the symbols of hatred to-wards Armed Forces and Govern-ments of US and allied forces. In fact,there was a spark of renewed hatredfor every foreign personnel in Af-ghanistan after the unfortunate inci-dent of burning of hundred of copiesHoly Quraan at the US controlledBagram Airbase. “Death to America”shouted group 8 /9 years old Afghaniboys. They shouted “We will kill ev-ery foreign soldier and war veteranswho has killed our fathers, mothers,brothers, sisters and other innocentAfghan nationals.

The Americans have disrespectedour Holy Quraan; we will take re-venge as revenge is in our blood.” Itis interesting to note that Pentogon,CIA and other Intelligence agencieshave compiled a book, “No EasyDay” by Mark Owen, PenguinGroup (USA)’s Dutton imprint,which will be released on 11 Sep-tember 2012. The book has focusedon a number of allegations on Paki-stan and Afghanistan and high-lighted killing of Osama bin Ladenin Abbottabad. Although, it is opensecret that Osama bin Laden was notin the house where US’s agenciesclaim to have attacked. Ironically,the video of Osama bin Laden in thathouse, which is claimed to be proof

of Osama’s presence in that houseis also not resembling him inphyscique, age, style of beard, fleshon shoulders, hands etc.

It is pertinent to mention herethat in a recent conference held inthe Bagram Air Base in Afghani-stan, US Marine Lieutenant Gen-eral Richard P. Mills, disclosed, “Ican tell you that as a commanderin Afghanistan in the year 2010, Iwas able to use my cyber opera-tions against my adversary withgreat impact,” Mills said. “I wasable to get inside his nets, infecthis command-and-control, and infact defend myself against his al-most constant incursions to get in-side my wire, to affect my opera-tions.” The remarks have beentaken as a joke because why a USGeneral would try to take credit ofan international offence which hap-pened two years back and fallswithin the perview of his duty. To-day, US has pulled out bulk of itscombatants from Afghanistan andrelying on Afghan National Armyand Police. One wonders how canUS and allies fight war againstMujahideen without involving itsown combatants, who are sittingin Bahrain, Iraq, Australia andCARs states? It seems that thepropaganda and drama of creditsand discredits is almost over asUS has lost the war.

show support in the US for reduc-ing inequality falling from 68% to57% during the current recession,despite all of the public rhetoric —and evidence — that the top 1% ofincome earners have captured al-most all of the gains from economicgrowth in recent years. Indeed,Piketty argues that our “obsessionwith growth” merely “serves as anexcuse for not doing anything abouthealth, about education, or about re-distribution.” And it is an obsessionrooted very much in the present.“We forget that for centuries growthwas essentially zero,” he writes.“One percent real growth meansdoubling the size of your economyevery 30 or 35 years.”

Piketty sees that as grounds “tobe a little optimistic.” But, as he sug-gests, the share of inherited wealthmay turn out to be a strong indica-tor of whether that rate of growthwill be enough to ensure greatersocial mobility and reduce eco-nomic inequality. The writer is pro-fessor of International Journalismat Columbia University.Courtesy: The Japan Times

kistan, pride and prestige cannot andshould not be dented by Afridi any-more and I wish PCB takes note ofit in the greater interest if the coun-try.—Kuwait

Social welfareworker’s safety

HASHIM ABRO

It is widely reported in the Sindhipress that one Larkano–based SocialWelfare Association called “ SahkarSocial Welfare Association” hascome under attack last week. Indeed,threats and intimidation to such civilsociety groups does not augur wellfor any society. The SWA, consist-ing of a group of selfless individualswith different backgrounds, is deal-ing wit the overall welfare of thedowntrodden people in the area andthe office bearers of the said WelfareAssociation has done yeoman’s ser-vice in the district.

Since the present provincial gov-ernment is not hostile toward civilsociety organizations and social wel-fare association and it has been in-strumental in opening the province toNGOs, it is essentially necessary forthe provincial government, in particu-lar, the district administration con-cerned to provide protection to thecivil society organization and takestringent action against the miscre-ants in the society.—Islamabad

PIA does it againDR IRFAN ZAFAR

A sleepy Frenchwoman, PatriceChristine, endured an 18-hour jour-ney on Pakistan International Airlines(PIA) from the Pakistani city ofLahore to Paris and back again aftersleeping through her plane’s stop inthe French capital while the groundcrew failed to notice the woman dur-ing the plane’s two-hour stopover atCharles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

Looking at it positively, PIA hasnow achieved the excellence of let-ting the passengers sleep peacefullywithout any disturbance no matterwhat. Or, is that sleep got somethingto do with “quality of food” servedto the passengers?—Islamabad

Our uncivilisedpractices

MUHAMMAD UZAIR NIAZI

Pakistani society is an amalgam ofdifferent groups and cultures. Everygroup is equipped with different val-ues and practices. The more youtravel within the country; the valuesand practices keep on changing fromarea to area.

The main affectees of thesepractices are the women, of our so-ciety. These practices include childmarriage (vani), honour killings,marriage to quran etc. Every yearmany cases are reported from allover the country, where the womenare affected through such uncivi-lized practices. When it comes tochild marriage, it is a custom thatis followed in tribal areas andPunjab province. Young girls areforcibly married, in order to resolveconflict between the different clans.On the other hand practice ofhonour killing is prevailing inSindh and Baluchistan, also knownas “Karo Kari”. Women in these ar-eas are the worst affected from thispractice. In 2004 the governmentpassed a bill and made “Karo Kari”punishable under the same penalprovisions as murder. The rights ofthe women that our religion hasgranted to her are totally keptaside, and she is suppressed bythese uncivilized practices.

Another practice, prevailing inour society, is “marriage to quran”.This practice is prevalent in someparts of Sindh, where a woman ismarried to quran to keep the land oftheir sisters and daughters in theircontrol. This practice is prevailingamong the land lords, although thispractice is unfamiliar to Islam. Thesecruel social practices have disturbedthe overall fragment of the society,

According to news reportsRahul feels it is time heplayed a bigger role in In-

dian politics: “My son you want abeeger role?” “Yes mama!” “Whateese it you want beeger?”

“Well mama..” “Let mamaguess, you want to carry your own

lunch box to Parliament and not sharelunch with your dear mama?” “Yesmama yes,” said a pleased Rahul,“but mama, there are some otherthings...” “Let mama guess. Youwant to choose your own kurta pa-jamas and not have your dear mamachoose them for you?” “Excellentmama, but …”

“Let mama guess.. I know myson so well. You want to feel grownup no? My son?” “Yes mama, yes!”“Let mama guess… You want to seeadult movies my son?” “Yes mamayes!” “But only once a month my

son, I cannot come with you morethan once a month to cover youreyes!” “Yes mama, yes, but mama..”“Let mama guess.. You want some-thing else?”

“Yes mama yes..” “Let mamaguess, you want to make anotherspeech in Parliament my son?” “Yesmama yes?” “Okay my son but letmama see the speech and correct allyour spelling mistakes!” “Yesmama, but..” “There is somethingmore no?” “Yes mama, yes..” “Letmama guess, you want to select yourown girlfriend?”

Rahul’s bigger role..!“Gee mama, yes..” “Okay my

son but only after I have met her!”“Okay Mama…” “Yes my sonthere is something else?” “Mama,I want..” “Let mama guess, it isabout our country, right?” “Yesmama, yes..” “You want to talkabout the country?”

“Yes mama, yes.” “What is itmy son?” “Can’t mama guess?”“Mama can’t my son.” “I want tolead the nation mama. I want a big-ger role! “Mama mia! That eese myrole! No my son, no..!”—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

and facilitated in nourishing an un-civilized picture of our society on dif-ferent fronts. Islam is a complete codeof life, and gives utmost importanceto the rights of women.

As an Islamic state, it is our dutyto equip our women, with theirrights. The society can also play avery important role in triggeringpositive change, by raising theirvoice on such uncivilized practices.The role of the government is alwaysvery important, when ever therearise such problems with in a soci-ety. The government must improvethe police structure up to the grassroot level, so that these practices canbe dealt properly. As it is evident,that these problems are faced by thewomen, so it is important to recruitmore women in to the police depart-ment. This strategy will help in un-derstanding women problems in oursociety, and will make women po-lice more effective in solving theseproblems. The induction of womenin police must be initiated through-out the country by encouraging theyoung women to join police. Thesedevelopments will help in uprootingsuch uncivilized practices.—Mianwali

What is sunami?N J JEHAN

I still wonder what does Imran Khanmeans by sunami? His belief and per-ception to me appears surely differ-ent from 99.999999-percent peopleof world.It is destruction! In my opin-ion for Imran, ‘Tsunami’ means onething: ‘kursi’- absolute power whichincidentally corrupts absolutely.

Everything he wishes to ex-ecute is not possible with ‘tsunami=absolute power. Will he get is bigquestion mark. Nevertheless, onething is clear. Imran being billion-aire cannot have the right feeling ofalready poor masses victimized byhorrendous corruption, horrendousrise in commodity prices, utility tar-iffs pounding 16.5 crore poor,safaidposhs torn to bits by the rul-ing ‘ithadi tola’ whom he never criti-cizes the way he should. By the timehis ‘tsunami’ comes, we would bealready completely sunk by ongoing‘tsunami’ of corruption by all.—Karachi

IGP andthe fatsoes

COL SYED RIAZ JAFRI (R)

The IGP Punjab has taken off allPolice fatsoes from operational du-ties who in spite of the warningscould not reduce the size of theirgirths in the given time. It is a com-mendable step taken by the Chiefand should go a long way in not onlyimproving the general image andimpression of the police force in theeyes of the public but also result intheir better efficiency and generalconduct as well.

By the same token, may I sug-gest that strict notice be taken of thestate of the uniform worn by theforce, in particular, the wearing ofthe headgear. Regrettably wheneverwe see a few police men as well asofficers gathered together on our TVscreens or in a newspaper it presentsa dismal picture of them. Most ofthe officers, particularly the seniorpolice officers, are without head gearas if it has become a hallmark withthem to be without the cap in pub-lic. No two policemen are seen wear-ing their berets correctly and prop-erly. I don’t know how it has becomea fad with our forces – including thearmed forces and General Kiyani isno exception – to place the cap badgeon the left temple instead of the lefteyebrow?! It is simply an improperway to wear the cap to say the least.—Rawalpindi

ists have been so nakedly exposed fortheir clandestine wheeling dealingwith the shady individuals who areimmersed in corruption and loath-some money-making pursuits.

He is a past master in making rap-prochements and reconciliations. Buthe is a ruthless executioner as well.Where is Babar Awan who used tobe as the lead cavalier for the PPPand the front man of president Zardariin rejoinders, reviling and foul mouth-ing the opponents? He was disgrace-fully kicked out of the party and thegovernment when he dithered on bail-ing out Mr. Gilani in the court as awitness. AAZ, a clever and foxy per-son as he is, he possesses the abun-dant ability and adroitness to deflectthe dark darks clouds that gatheraround the PPP and himself from timeto time. He has always come out withamazing success and scoring victoryover his raucous political adversar-ies. As for the people’s outcry for theirwoes, he gives a dam to it. Under-standably, the agitations or protestscan be effective only if there are sin-cere and dedicated leaders to leadthem. If all are chips of the samefaulty and reprobate block then ithardly makes any difference whetheryou support and stand by Zardari orhis adversaries.—The writer is a senior journalistand a former diplomat.

Alexander Stille

Afshain AfzalEmail: afshainafzal@yahoo.com

Saeed QureshiEmail: qureshisa2003@yahoo.com

Column from DallasColumn from DallasColumn from DallasColumn from DallasColumn from Dallas

HOWARD DAVIES

IN an exasperated outburst, just beforehe left the presidency of the EuropeanCentral Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet complained that, “as a policymaker during

the crisis, I found the available [economicand financial] models of limited help. I wouldgo further: In the face of the crisis, we feltabandoned by conventional tools.” Trichetwent on to appeal for inspiration from otherdisciplines — physics, engineering, psychol-ogy and biology — to help explain the phe-nomena he had experienced. It was a remark-able cry for help, and a serious indictment ofthe economics profession, not to mention allthose extravagantly rewarded finance profes-sors in business schools from Harvard toHyderabad.

So far, relatively little help has been forth-coming from the engineers and physicists inwhom Trichet placed his faith, though therehas been some response. Robert May, an emi-nent climate change expert, has argued that tech-niques from his discipline may help explain fi-nancial-market developments. Epidemiologistshave suggested that the study of how infec-tious diseases are propagated may illuminatethe unusual patterns of financial contagion thatwe have seen in the last five years. These arefertile fields for future study, but what of thecore disciplines of economics and finance them-selves? Can nothing be done to make them more

Economists in denial as conventional tools failuseful in explaining the world as it is rather thanas it is assumed to be in their stylized models?

George Soros has put generous fundingbehind the Institute for New Economic Think-ing (INET). The Bank of England has also triedto stimulate fresh ideas. The proceedings of aconference that it organized earlier this yearhave now been edited under the provocativetitle “What’s the Use of Economics?”Some of the recommendations thatemerged from that conference arestraightforward and concrete. For ex-ample, there should be more teaching ofeconomic history. We all have good rea-son to be grateful that U.S. Federal Re-serve Chairman Ben Bernanke is an ex-pert on the Great Depression and the au-thorities’ flawed policy responses thenrather than in the finer points of dynamicstochastic general equilibrium theory. Asa result, he was ready to adopt uncon-ventional measures when the crisiserupted. Many conference participantsagreed that the study of economicsshould be set in a broader political con-text, with greater emphasis on the role ofinstitutions. Students should also betaught some humility. The models to which theyare still exposed have some explanatory value,but within constrained parameters.

But it is not clear that a majority of the pro-fession yet accepts even these modest propos-als. The so-called “Chicago School” has

mounted a robust defense of its rational expec-tations-based approach, rejecting the notionthat a rethink is required. The Nobel laureateeconomist Robert Lucas has argued that thecrisis was not predicted because economictheory predicts that such events cannot be pre-dicted. So all is well. And there is disturbingevidence that news of the crisis has not yet

reached some economics departments. StephenKing, Group Chief Economist of HSBC, notesthat when he asks recent university graduates(and HSBC recruits a large number of them)how much time they spent in lectures andseminars on the financial crisis, “most admit-

ted that the subject had not even beenraised.” According to King, “Young econo-mists arrive in the financial world with littleor no knowledge of how the financial systemoperates.” I am sure they learn fast at HSBC.(In the future, one assumes, they will learnquickly about money-laundering regulationsas well.) But it is depressing to hear that many

university departments are still in denial.That is not because students lack inter-est: I teach a course at Sciences Po inParis on the consequences of the crisisfor financial markets, and the demand isoverwhelming.

We should not focus attention exclu-sively on economists, however. Arguablythe elements of the conventional intellec-tual toolkit found most wanting are the capi-tal asset pricing model and its close cousin,the efficient-market hypothesis. Yet theirprotagonists see no problems to address.On the contrary, the University ofChicago’s Eugene Fama has described thenotion that finance theory was at fault as“a fantasy” and argues that “financial mar-kets and financial institutions were casual-ties rather than causes of the recession.”

The efficient-market hypothesis he championedcannot be blamed, because “most investing isdone by active managers who don’t believethat markets are efficient.”

This amounts to what we might call an “ir-relevance” defense: Finance theorists cannot

be held responsible, since no one in the realworld pays attention to them! Fortunately,others in the profession do aspire to relevance,and they have been chastened by the eventsof the last five years, when price movementsthat the models predicted should occur oncein a million years were observed several timesa week. They are working hard to understandwhy, and to develop new approaches to mea-suring and monitoring risk, which is the maincurrent concern of many banks.

These efforts are arguably as importantas the specific and detailed regulatorychanges about which we hear much more.Our approach to regulation in the past wasbased on the assumption that financial mar-kets could to a large extent be left to them-selves, and that financial institutions andtheir boards were best placed to controlrisk and defend their firms. These assump-tions took a hard hit in the crisis, causingan abrupt shift to far more intrusive regula-tion. Finding a new and stable relationshipbetween the financial authorities and pri-vate firms will depend crucially on a rework-ing of our intellectual models. So the Bankof England is right to issue a call to arms.—Courtesy - Japan Times. HowardDavies, former chairman of Britain’s Fi-nancial Services Authority, deputy gov-ernor of the Bank of England and direc-tor of the London School of Economics,is a professor at Sciences Po in Paris.

JOHNJOE MCFADDEN

THE implications of the new findings on the human genome couldgo well beyond merely fightingdiseases. One of the biggest sci-

entific research projects in recent yearshas just unveiled its results. The Encodeconsortium, consisting of 442 research-ers working in 32 institutes around theworld, has spent the last five years study-ing a representative 1% of our genome.The findings may help to revolutionisemedicine, but could also provide us withnovel ways of tinkering with our mindsand bodies. One of the puzzles the re-searchers hoped to solve was why wehave so much DNA. We’ve known fordecades that only a tiny fraction of it,about 2%, are codes for conventionalgenes (protein-coding segments), thesupposed movers and shakers of ourcells and bodies. Many scientiststhought that the remaining 98% wasmostly junk, a bit like all the deleted frag-ments of documents that clog up yourhard disk. The researchers found that itwas instead packed full of geneticswitches that tell each cell in your bodywhich genes must be switched on or off

to make a muscle, skin or nerve cell.The results are likely to have major im-

plications for our understanding of commondiseases, such as diabetes, obesity, heartdisease, cancer and even the debilities ofold age, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Thesewere previously thought to bechieflycaused by defective genes (together withenvironmental influences, such as smoking),but decades of research have has failed tofindenough defects that could account fortheir prevalence. Today, scientists believethat these diseases are caused not by de-fective genes, but defective switching: a livercell may be genetically tripped to stop ab-sorbing blood sugar, thereby causing dia-betes; a lung cell may be tripped into gener-ating mutagens that attack its own DNA,causing cancer. That’s potentially goodnews for sufferers because, although it’shard to fix a faulty gene, it may be mucheasier to flip a genetic switch and return adiseased cell back to its healthy state. Sci-entists have already developed novel formsof drugs, based on DNA’s molecular cousin,RNA, that act like our own genetic switchesto manipulate the control panel of our cells.A few of these gene-switch drugs are al-ready in the market, but the Encode projectsuggests that thousands more await discov-

ery. A new era of gene-switch medicine maybe on the horizon, but there are many prob-lems that still have to be overcome. The firstis getting the RNA-based gene-switch drugssafely inside the target cells and not intoothers where they might cause adverse side-effects. But even more of a challenge is toaccurately predict the effect of flipping agenetic switch. The thousands identified byEncode are unlikely to work like simple lightswitches; instead, each switch is connectedto many others in a vastly complicated genecircuitboard. Flipping one switch will bemore like dropping a stone into a pool: theeffects will reverberate through the entirenetwork, and the eventual outcome will notbe easy to predict. Systems biology, a newscience, is simultaneously trying to unravelthe circuit boards to make better predictions.

Few doubt that gene switching will pro-vide the medicine of the future, but no oneis sure when that future will be realised.When it comes, it will provide opportunitiesthat go well beyond curing disease. Just asthe difference between healthy and sickpeople may be down to gene switching, itseems likely that many of the differencesbetween one person and another – betweenus and Usain Bolt, for example – may bedue, similarly, to different patterns of gene

switching. The kind of gene-switch medi-cines that will cure diseases may then beturned to therapies that will allow us all torun sub-10 second 100 metres.

Physiology, mood, intelligence, libido,anxiety, appetite may all be fair game for thegene-switch therapeutics of the future. Eventhe signs and frailties of old age may bekept a bay by a careful manipulation ofour gene switches to return them to theiryouthful state. And what about the differ-ences between us and our closest relatives,which many scientists believe are mostlydue to differences in gene switching? Couldgene-switch therapy be developed thatwould allow a chimp to talk? Planet of theApes may not be so far away. Five years ofthe Encode project has revealed just 1% ofthe human gene switches, but the pace ofgenetics is accelerating so fast that it seemslikely that we will know most of them withina decade. That will be far too late to be anythreat to Usain Bolt’s dominance on thetrack, but the doping authorities in sportmay face significant new challenges in thefuture. —Courtesy - The Guardian.[Johnjoe McFadden is professor of mo-lecular genetics at the University of Sur-rey. Read this article in full and otherslike it at guardian.co.uk/commentisfree]

Soon science could enable us all to run as fast as Usain Bolt

JAGANNATH LAMICHHANE

IT is an overrated statement, theSouth Asian Region is home to mostof the developing world’s poor. According to the World Bank, about

571 million people in the Region surviveon less than US$1.25 a day, which ac-counts to almost half of the world’s poor.There are hundreds of reports focusingon the poverty, gender, health, malnu-trition, children, inequality, illiteracy, ex-clusion and so many other issues ofSouth Asia. Billions of dollars in aidmoney is spent on the alleviation ofthese issues on the premise that funda-mental rights of humans must be pro-tected. But despite the fact that most ofthe leading problems in the region aredirectly linked to a range of mentalhealth problems, there isn’t a single re-port that speaks about the state of mindand the mental health of the populationliving in the region.

The piles of reports produced bothby state and non-state actors simply ig-nore or exclude mental health as a com-ponent of society. That’s why the exclu-sion of mental health is a grave ques-tion to be raised in South Asia both po-litically and socially.

Since time immemorial, mental healthproblems have remained stigmatised, ig-nored and unaddressed in the region.Mental health problems in South Asia,as well as most other parts of the world,traditionally associated negatively withsuperstitious and religious beliefs of sinand curse. In Nepal, the first legal codeof 1856, the Muluki Ain, went as far asto codify that those with mental healthproblems be tied on a leash to a nail. Inmany respects, that is the form of treat-ment many sufferers still receive.

The wider social and political do-mains continue to have the same old im-pression of mental health, perceiving the

Regional waveissue as petty and irrelevant. People mayargue that mental health issues are inter-nationally neglected, not just regionally.And to some extent, that argument holdsweight. Considering that mental health ad-vocacy has really only found a voicearound the globe in the past few decades,many of the problems faced in the devel-oped world with regards to mental healthstand true in South Asia as well. But thedegree of ne-glect is muchdeeper inSouth Asiaand thevoices for ad-vocacy arer e l a t i v e l ynewer.

However,in ternat ion-ally, in thelast six years,some posi-tive signshave sur-faced. In2006, TheUnited Na-tions adopted the Convention on theRights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)which included mental and psychosocialdisabilities as one of the disability catego-ries. By introducing this international le-gal code, a century-long unequal social,political, economic, civil and political real-ity based on discrimination, has gottensome respite. Likewise, in 2008, the Move-ment for Global Mental Health started.

The Movement played an incrediblerole in bringing mental health issues intothe international platform whether byorganising global mental health summits

every two years or publishing the LancetSeries on Global Mental Health (publishedevery five years starting from 2007, 2011)raising the mental health issues of low andmiddle-income countries. The Movementhas been successful in creating a new glo-bal wave, particularly in third world coun-tries. The formation of the SHARE (SouthAsian Hub for Advocacy, Research andEducation on Mental Health) itself is a re-

sult of theMovementand theCRPD.

In atrue sense,for the firsttime in thehistory ofh u m a ncivilisation,we can feelan awak-ening inthe regionon theneed to ad-v o c a t em e n t a l

health issues. However, there are old andnew dilemmas — how do we advocatethese issues to ensure greater rights andquality treatment of those affected?Amidst the sea of poverty in the region,how do we prioritise and work towardspreventing and promoting mental healthissues? In my experience, in the underde-veloped and developing world, advocacyis possible through three layers: govern-ment, civil society, and donors.

But the poorer the country, the greaterits dependence on foreign aid to directlyand indirectly carry out a lot of the advo-

cacy work. For instance, in Nepal, 60 percent of the development budget is depen-dent on foreign aid. In such a scenario, ifthe donors lack interest, it is difficult tobring issues, including mental health, intothe mainstream. As for the government,policies are easily created as a result ofadvocacy, but non-implementation of thepolicies is a systemic flaw, not only inNepal, but the entire underdeveloped anddeveloping world.

On the surface, in Nepal, political partymanifestos, the constitution and govern-ment policies are progressive and inclu-sive due to continued pressure over theyears from civil society and non-state ac-tors. These policies and political perspec-tives are regularly improving and updatedas and when advocacy mechanisms arestrengthened. The situation is similar inthe region. But, the greatest challenge toadvocacy has been translating accomplish-ments in policy formation into action. InNepal, I have, along with others, workedtowards greater acceptance of mentalhealth and psychosocial disability issuesthrough the press and policy-level dia-logue.

This has been fruitful indeed, but stillthe implementation of the existing policyon mental health is yet to be felt on theground. Likewise, some prominent politi-cians have advocated that mental healthbe given due importance in the nationalhealth policy, disability bill and other so-cial protection schemes, but the challengeof implementing the policy once it is formedwill be far greater than having a mentalhealth component in the national healthpolicy.

Policy doesn’t translate into action inthis region. And that fate is one that issuffered by many policies aimed at improv-ing society. In South Asia, policy advo-cacy is not sufficient. What is need now isadvocacy for action to go alongside theformer.— Courtesy - Kathmandu Post.

WILLIAM WAN

IT was supposed to be short and sweet —potentially the last trip to China for HillaryRodham Clinton as secretary of state. Buther overnight stay in Beijing began with

vicious personal attacks against her in the gov-ernment-run media and continued with sharpdisagreements with China’s top leaders. ThenClinton was mysteriously stood up by the fu-ture leader of the country. The visit finishedWednesday in dramatic fashion: an announce-ment from the Chinese government two hoursbefore Clinton’s departure that a former policeofficial who had sought sanctuary at a U.S.consulate months earlier and triggered a still-roiling political scandal was being charged withdefection and other crimes in what appearedto many analysts like a stick in the eye aimedat the United States.

In all, Clinton’s trip exposed real differences,frustrating difficulties and aspects of the U.S.-China relationship that remain outright puz-zling after four years of engagement, strategic

Clinton, top Chinese officials air some differencescastigating and a search for balance betweenthe two. At a news conference Wednesday af-ter meeting with President Hu Jintao and othertop Chinese officials, Clinton tried to explainthe complicated bilateral relationship, which fre-quently veers between friendship and suspi-cion, cooperation and competition.

“Our two nations are trying to do some-thing that has never been done in history,” shesaid, “which is to write a new answer to thequestion of what happens when an establishedpower and a rising power meet.” The Chineseleaders struck a markedly different tone. “Gen-erally speaking, our relationship has been mov-ing forward, but recently I am more or less wor-ried,” Premier Wen Jiabao told Clinton in a slow,measured voice, deviating from the usual emptypleasantries of official Chinese meetings. “I feelthat our two countries should maintain politicalmutual respect and strategic mutual trust. TheUnited States should respect China’s sover-eignty and territorial integrity.”

In his sharp comments, made in front of ahandful of reporters at the beginning of Wen’s

meeting with Clinton, the premier blamed theUnited States for the troubles between the twocountries. With his mention of “sovereignty,”Wen was alluding to territorial disputes betweenChina and its neighbors that have intensifieddramatically in recent months. On the SouthChina Sea especially, China has been the mostaggressive actor, claiming almost the entire dis-puted area.

China has expressed increasing suspicionand resentment at the growing U.S. involve-ment in the Asia-Pacific region and has takenissue with Clinton and others who have pushedon behalf of smaller Asian nations for peaceful,collaborative negotiations. The disagreementsbetween Clinton’s delegation and the Chinesewere so deep that her first meeting Tuesdaynight, which was with Foreign Minister YangJiechi and had been scheduled to last an hour,stretched into a four-hour marathon that endedat 1 a.m. The next day, the divisions on Syria,Iran and North Korea also were evident. In ajoint news conference, Clinton said it was “nosecret” that the United States was disappointed

with how China and Russia have blocked callson the U.N. Security Council for stronger inter-national intervention in war-torn Syria. Yangrebutted, “I think history will judge that China’sposition on the Syria question is a promotionof the appropriate handling of the situation, forwhat we have in mind is the interests of thepeople of Syria and the region.”

The hits kept coming, especially whenClinton’s meeting with Xi Jinping — the manexpected to replace Hu in the fall as China’s topleader — was abruptly canceled. Yang did notexplain the cancellation publicly but warnedagainst using it as an excuse for “unnecessaryspeculation,” which only fueled more specula-tion. Two news outlets quoted anonymous U.S.officials as saying that the Chinese had cited aproblem with Xi’s back. But some diplomatsquestioned whether that private explanationcould be fully trusted. One explanation for thetensions on both sides is the simultaneous lead-ership transition underway — with a presiden-tial election in the United States and a similarlybrutal competition for the handful of seats on

China’s ruling council that has been cloakedin secrecy. One of the only signs of the titanicstruggle rumored to be going on between fac-tions of the Communist Party here is the re-cent string of scandals that some contendershave used to edge out rivals for the top seatsand strengthen their own position.

Against that backdrop, the former policechief and accused defector Wang Lijun hasplayed a central role. Wang, whom some con-sider ruthless, triggered China’s biggest po-litical scandal in two decades when he rushedto the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu in Febru-ary, reportedly telling American officials thatthe wife of his boss, powerful party chief BoXilai, had killed a British businessman. In asystem in which the party tightly controlseverything that is remotely political or thatthreatens its grip on power, several analystsand former diplomats said, it is very likely thatthe timing of the charges against Wang whileClinton was still in China was intentional andrequired approval by top Chinese leaders.—Courtesy - Washington Post.

Inspire and be inspired!PARK HEE-JUNG

AS a child, I was completely mesmerized by fairytales and other stories for children. Most ofall, Mickey Mouse intrigued me and I longedto have his magic staff. A few days ago, I watched

a soap opera called “Once Upon a Time,” an AmericanTV show that integrates various fairy tales but focusesprimarily on the tale of Snow White. In the story, JiminyCricket tells young Pinocchio the secret of success in the

real world: ``There will be many temptations in this newworld but as long as you remain brave, truthful and un-selfish you will not fail” Having said this, he sends thenewborn baby of Snow White from the fairy world to thereal world to protect the goodness, true love, steadfastfaith, and sharing for compassion. I would like to harnessthe power of Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship,Peace Studies and Human Rights to promote prosperitybased on “restoration” and “poverty reduction”. Whilean undergraduate in Korea, I read and wrote about books,so that every Saturday I would be able to lead the bookdiscussion club. In addition, I founded a student organi-zation promoting human rights and peace. I also workedfor about 10 years in profit and non-profit organizations.

I developed strong relationships with my mentors andsupervisors, while learning professional and problem-solv-ing skills. With their guidance, I helped develop strategicplans adopted by the World Federation of United Na-tions Associations and corporations such as industrialresources and steel companies. I also raised funds andmarketed for the Korean Adoptees Welfare Center andother non-profit organizations. These jobs taught me theprofessionalism I needed to negotiate and strategicallyplan for an organization. As you may know, Korean mili-tary service is mandatory. While serving in the 176th Fi-nance Battalion in Yongsan, a U.S. garrison, I learnedhow to analyze detailed data, including statistics, while Igained valuable accounting, taxation and financial expe-rience, along with discipline and quick and efficient deci-sion making.

I thrive on new challenges and new experiences. Mystrongest passion is to work in my own country, andaround the globe, helping organizations improve theircommunities. That is why, as a freshman, I establishedDreamBigHOUSE and Global Peace Research Associa-tion, a social enterprise and a non-profit organization.These organizations share a philosophy: keeping faithand hope alive through acts of kindness. I believe thatmaintaining steadfast faith is the key to reaching mydreams. I was born to a very poor countryside family.Due to the poverty Korea experienced after the KoreanWar, my parents did not have a chance to attend school,and so they are illiterate. My mother is also disabled.They worked land owned by somebody else for theirwhole life. In this impoverished environment,it may have been more important for me to work in thefields for survival than to go to school. However,with the belief that through education I could changemy environment, I did not give up on my studies.Sincerely, I believe that everything was due to thegrace of God. I realized that God protected me likeone of his children.—Courtesy - Korea Times

LAHORE: Women looking at the books displayed during an exhibition at Aiwan-e-Iqbal.

he is likely to come after thepresident.

During Gen. Kayani’s visit,defence establishments of the twocountries will try to revitalise theties between the two militaries.

They worked very closelywith each other during the coldwar but have developed seriousdifferences since the Abbottabadraid.—Agencies

President, FM,COAS to visit

From Page 1cannot change neighbours”, hesaid.

The Prime Minister appreci-ated the efforts made by ForeignMinister of Pakistan, Ms. HinaRabbani Khar and S M Krisha, the External Affairs Miniser of India for their efforts to irove relations between the two cuntries.ı¸The

ime Minister said “no doubtKashmir, Siachen, Sir Kreekand other issues need to be reolved” but we need to have a poitive approach to resolve theseissues , he emphasized.ı¸The

ime Minster that there is a olitical consensus in Pakistan o-ver having good relations with ndia. In this connection, he refered to the recent visit of the Pakisani parliamentary delegation t-o India which comprised reprentatives from all political partis in the country. ı ¸The

ime Minister said “pleae convey my best wishes to th Prime Minister and the peopl of India”. He also extende-d an invitation to the Prime Miniser of India to visit Pakistan.

He said that he had devel-oped a rapport with Ms. HinaRabbani Khar and her visit toIndia was a defining moment.

He said the revival of theJoint Ministerial Commission be-tween the two countries after sixyears will send a strong messagethat “we mean business”.

He said India is committedto the stability, peace and pros-perity of Pakistan.

Mr Krishna said that heagreed with the assessment of thePrime Minister that the present

atmosphere between the twocountries was good and addedthat we need to create the rightkind of atmosphere for creating“feel good factor”. This, he said,was now slowly appearing on thehorizon.

He informed the Prime Min-ister that there was a lot of good-will among the people of Indiafor the people of Pakistan. He re-ferred to the recent Common-wealth Games where the Paki-stani contingent was accorded thebiggest reception after the Indiancontingent.

Mr. Krishna said that bothPrime Minister Raja PervezAshraf and Dr. Manmohan Singhhail from the same region andthis would help solve issues thathaunt the two countries.

In arrival statement Krishnasaid, “the two countries are head-ing in a right direction,” remind-ing that all issues cannot be re-solved at once.

Commenting on the issues ofSiachen‚ Sir Creek and trade be-tween the two countries‚ Krishnasaid India and Pakistan are mov-ing forward in a gradual manner.

The Indian Minister for Ex-ternal Affairs arrived inIslamabad on Friday for a three-day visit to review progress onbilateral relations on all the is-sues.

“India is committed to re-building its relations with Paki-stan,” he said.

“We are committed to find-ing solutions to all issues thathave beset our relationships,through bilateral dialogue,”Krishna told reporters after arriv-

ing in Islamabad. “I bring a mes-sage of goodwill from India tothe people of Pakistan. I wish toreiterate the desire of India to seea stable and prosper Pakistan liv-ing in peace,” he said.

His visit comes after substan-tive progress has been made onthe trade and commerce frontbetween Pakistan and India, andthis could lay the groundwork foran even higher-level visit: that ofIndian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh.

Prior to his departure fromIndia, SM Krishna, stressed thatIndia wanted Islamabad as astrong and stable “partner” – andpointed out that Pakistan’s geo-graphical location puts it in anideal position to be a bridge be-tween South and Central Asia.

An ANP delegation headedby Senator Haji Adeel met theIndian Foreign Minister S MKrishna here on Friday and pro-posed relaxation in visa policy,treatment of patients and releaseof prisoners who have completedtheir sentences.

Talking to media after themeeting, Haji Adeel said themeeting was held in a cordial at-mosphere during which they dis-cussed Pakistan-India relationsand regional situation.

He said they proposed flightsbetween Islamabad and NewDelhi. He said peace in Afghani-stan was in the interest of everyone. They said that resolution ofproblems between the two coun-tries was in their own interest forwhich dialogue should continue.An MQM delegation also calledon Krishna.

Pakistan, India agreeFrom Page 1

Meanwhile, Provincial infor-mation minister Sharjeel Memonsaid the government would try toaddress the ANP’s fears and res-ervations over the new law.

Memon said the PPP wantedto take all the coalition partnersalong and that it would considerthe ANP’s stance on the issue.

Moreover, MQM parliamen-tary party leader in the SindhAssembly Syed Sardar Ahmedsaid that political parties shouldanalyse the ordinance beforeforming an opinion on it.

The new law, which hadbeen named “People’s Metro-politan Corporation Ordinance2012”, was signed after days ofintense deliberations betweenthe PPP and the MuttahidaMuttahida Qaumi Movement,the two major parties in Sindh’sruling coalition.

Meanwhile, Awami NationalParty (ANP), an ally of the PPPgovernment, Friday strongly pro-tested the enforcement ofPeople’s Metropolitan Corpora-tion Ordinance 2012 in Sindh inthe National Assembly and Sen-ate and announced the boycott ofthe sessions of the two houses.

Members of the ANP in bothhouses in their strong reactionaccused the PPP-led governmentof trying to divide Sindh and saidthat by interfering in provincialmatters, President Asif AliZardari was violating the consti-tution. They said ANP would notbecome part of division of Sindh.

Pervez Khan Advocate ofANP opposing the issuance ofordinance in the National Assem-bly said it is aimed at dividingthe Sindh province. He said be-

ing the coalition members theywere not consulted on the mat-ter. He dubbed the issuance of theordinance an attempt to delay theelections. He said the govern-ment should complete the tenurebut elections should not be de-layed. He said in protest againstthe ordinance ANP has with-drawn its minister from Sindhcabinet.

Responding to the pointsraised by the ANP leader, Minis-ter for Religious Affairs SyedKhursheed Ahmad Shah saod thePPP never interfered in the affairsof KPK despite being allies ofANP in the government. He saidthe local bodies ordinance is therein Punjab and KhyberPakhtunkhwa but no body ob-jected over it. He said if ANP isopposed to any party, it shouldnot criticize the system.

He assured that the electionswill be held on time. He rejectedthe impression that the ordinancewas issued to delay the generalelections.

MQM’s Wasim Akhtar saidthe allies in Sindh governmenthave jointly devised a system andno one should have any objec-tion over it. Federal MinisterGhaus Bakhsh Mehr also ob-jected over the ordinance and saidhis party was not taken on board.

Deputy Speaker FaisalKarim Kundi directed SyedKhursheed Shah to take the al-lied parties into confidence andthe matter be resolved throughconsultation.

In the Senate, ANP’s Parlia-mentary Leader Haji Adeel saidhis party has decided that its min-ister in Sindh cabinet will resign

against the ordinance and theywould completely boycott thesessions of the Senate and Na-tional Assembly.

Later talking to media out-side the Parliament House, Sena-tor Haji Adeel said allies were nottaken into confidence onSPLGO.

ANP leader Bushra Gauharsaid that the ANP was the ally ofPeople’s Party in Sindh and thefederation, but it was taken intoconfidence about this ordinance.She said the ordinance has beenissued for pleasing one partyonly. “We do not accept the de-cision taken overnight”.

She also vowed that the boy-cott of both the houses of the par-liament would continue until thewithdrawal of the ordinance andadded that a future strategy wouldbe announced later.

Senator Shahi Syed saidthat this was not the war of ANPand MQM — it was the issue ofthe people over there. Termingthe ordinance a black law, ShahiSyed said that what was the pur-pose of issuing SPLGO whenelections of the local bodies werenot being held in one or twomonths. He said issuing the or-dinance was the practice of theautocrats; it was not justified inany way from a democratic gov-ernment, he said.

The new law, which had beennamed “People’s MetropolitanCorporation Ordinance 2012”,was signed after days of intensedeliberations between the Paki-stan People’s Party (PPP) and theMuttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM), the two major parties inSindh’s ruling coalition.

ANP Minister resignsfrom Sindh Cabinet

From Page 1

Balochistan Amanullah Kanranisought more time for recoveryof missing persons and improve-ment in the law and order situa-tion. “We would make progressin the recovery of missing per-sons issue as efforts are under-way”, he added.

Expressing dissatisfactionover the pace of progress inmissing persons case CJ re-marked that no progress is seendespite the court orders askingAG Balochistan to put more ef-forts for recovery of missingpersons. AG Balochistan saidthat we were leaving no stoneunturned to resolve the issue andsought more time from the apexcourt to come up with someprogress.

Justice Jawwad S Khuwajasaid that law and order situationwas aggravating in the provincedespite the fact that 22 agencieswere operating in Balochistan.

Criticising security forces’inability, the CJ said that a boywho was kidnapped from Pishin20 days ago and their effortswere all in vain.

Chief Justice came harddown upon chief secretary andthe deputy commissioner ofPishin, saying they should havepolicy in every district, to whichthe chief secretary replied theywere in contact with agenciesand the boy would be recoveredby evening. The bench directedthe FC’s inspector general tosubmit in writing whether theFC had succeeded or failed inits duties. —APP

No sense ofresponsibilityin Balochistan

From Page 1

with PK 306, which took offfor Lahore at 6:00 PM.

Similarly, PK 305 and PK307 were also merged and thedeparture was rescheduled for9:00 PM.

The same aircraft had to per-form flight PK 731 Karachi-Jeddah the expected time of de-parture was changed to 12:45AM (Saturday) from 6:00 PM(Friday). While, departure of PK743 Karachi-Medina was alsorescheduled for 10:15 PM, whichwas schedule to leave at 6:45 PM,a PIA statement here said.—APP

Bomb scaredisturbs 8 PIA

From Page 1

Punjab University, Karachi’sNewport University as well as adegree from the American Inter-national College Lahore.

The bench, declaring two ofShah’s degrees as fake and oneas unrecognized, sent the caseto the concerned district and ses-sions judge for further proceed-ings. During the hearing, ECMember from Punjab RiazKayani remarked that not onlydid Shah hold fake degrees, hedid not even bring anythinghome from the London Olym-pics. The bench declared Fed-eral Minister Sardar OmarGorgaij’s degrees as authentic.

EC declaresFrom Page 1

The United States has al-ready blacklisted individual lead-ers of the group includingJalaluddin Haqqani, a guerrillaformerly supported by the UnitedStates as part of the Islamic-in-fused fight against Soviet troopsin Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The US Senate and House ofRepresentatives have both beenvirtually unanimous in urging theadministration to go a step fur-ther and target the overall net-work, saying that it unmistakablycarried the traits of a terroristgroup.

While the Haqqani networkhas no sympathy in Washington,some US officials believed thatthe links between Pakistan andthe Haqqanis were more compli-cated than it appeared.—SANA

US blacklistsFrom Page 1

in a move that would trigger sanctions against the group andturn up the heat on Pakistan’sgovernment.

US officials have long ac-cused Pakistan of supporting thenetwork, an allegation Islamabaddenies.

The Haqqanis, who are alliedwith the Afghan Taliban, aresome of the most experiencedfighters in Afghanistan and havecarried out several high-profileattacks on Western targets.

Senior commanders from thenetwork said the decision to des-ignate the group as terroristscould endanger efforts to reach apeaceful settlement to the Afghan

of the terror problem. He said thatIndia and Pakistan relations areon the route to normalcy.

Rehman Malik said some ofthe Non Governmental Organi-zations (NGOs) were crossingtheir defined limits on thecharges of which some ele-ments were asked to leave thecountry.

He said that previously theorder of deportation of some el-ements belonging to NGOs waswithheld to ascertain the positionof these elements.—INP

Pak, India shouldnot allow non-

political elementsFrom Page 1

conflict before most Nato com-bat troops withdraw by the endof 2014.

“It means the United Statesis not sincere in their talks. Theyare on the one hand claiming tolook for a political solution to theAfghan issue while on the otherthey are declaring us terrorists,”said one of the commanders.

“So how can peace talkssucceed in bringing peace to Af-ghanistan?”

“Until now we treated himvery well but this move by theUnited States will of course cre-ate hardships for him,” anotherHaqqani commander toldReuters.—Reuters

Haqqanis say USlisting will hurt

From Page 1

Afghan and American cultureclashes, at center stage: NYT

KABUL—It was billed as apress briefing by American andAfghan commanders on whatthe allies are doing to stop in-sider attacks by Afghan forcesagainst NATO troops. The firstquestion, though, was just aboutthe last thing the three generalson the dais wanted to hear.

An Afghan journalist,Azizullah Foroghi, complainedthat an American soldier hadpointed a weapon at him whilehe was setting up his camera. “Ibelieve if that had happened toan Afghan soldier instead of me,he would have reacted to it,” Mr.Foroghi said, in Dari.

Mr. Foroghi, who worksfor Noorin TV, was clearly re-ferring to the sort of insider at-tacks, known here as green-on-blue attacks, in which Afghansecurity forces have killed 15American and other foreign sol-diers in the past month, prompt-ing the United States military toshut down some training pro-grams run by Special Operationstroops late last month. The NewYork Times reported.

The generals did not all im-mediately get the reference,however, since the official inter-preter gave a much-softenedversion of Mr. Foroghi’s com-

plaint, leaving out the accusationabout the gun-pointing.

The mood, however, wasclear enough when several otherAfghans complained that theyhave been treated much worsewhen going through security atISAF headquarters than theirAmerican colleagues have been.Some American journalists con-tested their point, insisting that thesecurity treatment was evenhand-edly annoying. “That didn’t startvery well,” Lt. Gen. AdrianBradshaw was overhead saying toaides afterward. The British of-ficer, who is deputy commanderof the International Security As-

sistance Force, as the NATO-ledmilitary coalition is known, wasclearly not well pleased.

General Bradshaw an-nounced that the allies hadagreed on joint counterintelli-gence teams, as well as jointpost-attack assessments, and“direct input from Afghan Armyreligious and cultural affairs ad-visers” to improve cultural sen-sitivity. Insider attacks, whichhave claimed 45 lives this year,have more than doubled over thesame period in 2011 — increas-ing rapidly after the burnings ofKorans by American soldiers inFebruary.—NNI

Indian Govt to curbjudiciary’s free speech

NEW DELHI—The judiciary-government tussle over code ofconduct for judges is far fromover. Though the governmenthas decided to give statutory sta-tus to the Code of Conductevolved by the Supreme Courtin 1997, law minister SalamanKhurshid has said this does notmean judiciary will be free tocomment on constitutional au-thorities in open court.

The government is firm onintroducing a specific provisionin the Judicial Standards andAccountability Bill, 2012 whichwill prohibit judges from mak-ing unwarranted commentsagainst the conduct of any con-stitutional or statutory authorityat the time of hearing matters.

The minister said the gov-ernment has taken note of cer-

tain remarks made by somehigher courts on constitutionalbodies and other authorities inopen court which are seldomreflected in writing during judi-cial pronouncements.

“That is why a specific pro-vision has been proposed to bemade under Section 3 of thechapter on ‘Judicial Standards’to be followed by judges, in theJudicial Standards and Ac-countability Bill, 2012,”Khurshid said.

He said the Bill prohibitsjudges from making any unwar-ranted comments against theconduct of any constitutional orstatutory authority at the timeof hearing matters which arepending before them or arelikely to arise for judicial de-termination. —INP

Call for promotinghabit of book reading

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Minister forEducation Mian MujtabaShuja-ur-Rehman has said thatthe book reading hobby isdwindling due to modern tech-nology and computers, how-ever, there is no substitute ofbooks as they broaden the vi-sion and knowledge of readers.He asked to develop book read-ing habit among the young gen-eration especially Islamicbooks.

He expressed these viewswhile inaugurating 3-Day Is-lamic Book Fair at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said that the completeelimination of terrorism and ex-tremism is necessary for theprogress & prosperity of the

country. He said that unemploy-ment and poverty could beminimized through eradicationof terrorism, whereas, extrem-ism can be rooted out throughpromotion of quality educationand increasing literacy rate inthe society.

He said that our struggleagainst extremism could neverbe fruitful without enhancingeducation rate and consultingthe intellectuals & writers. Meanwhile, inaugurat-ing Jhandeer Bus Service atSalamatpura Darogha Wala, theEducation Minister said thatPunjab Government is imple-menting a comprehensive planfor the provision of safe, com-fortable and comparatively af-fordable transport service to thecitizens.

Published by: Zahid Malik from 33-Queens Road, Lahore and printed by Gauhar Zahid Malik at Barex Printers.

VLADIVOSTOK—VladimirPutin promised Asia and Pa-cific leaders meeting in theseaport of Vladivostok on Fri-day that they could count onRussia to be a reliable energysupplier and provide a bridgeto Europe that can help revi-talize regional trade.

Russia is boosting its ex-ports of oil and gas to Asia af-ter years of focusing almostentirely on supplying Europe.Moscow also has ambitiousplans to develop its railroads,roads, seaports and airports inthe east of the country with theaim of providing a reliabletransportation link betweenAsia and Europe. “The firstand main thing we’re going to

Asia can count on Russiaenergy supply: Putin

do is develop transport infra-structure,” Putin told regionalbusiness leaders. He played upRussia’s common economicspace with neighborsKazakhstan and Belarus asopening “a direct route to Eu-rope for business in the Pacificregion.”Faltering vital signs inChina and elsewhere makepushing ahead with more andfreer trade an urgent priority forthe 21-member Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation forum,whose leaders are gathered inthe Russian Far East port ofVladivostok for their annualsummit. APEC aims to fostergrowth by dismantling barriersand bottlenecks that slow tradeand business, while nurturing

closer economic ties.Given its status as an or-

ganization governed by con-sensus, APEC is not known formajor policy breakthroughs.Election-year politics and ter-ritorial spats make this yearparticularly challenging.

From the Kuril islands tothe northeast of Vladivostok allthe way to the Spratlys in theSouth China Sea, variousneighbors are squabbling overterritories at a time when theymost need to be focused onpromoting growth.

South Korea is feudingwith Japan, Japan with Chinaand Russia, China with manyof its Southeast Asian neigh-bors. —AP

ISLAMABAD—The court of theadditional sessions judge inIslamabad Friday granted bailto Ramsha Masih, the girl ac-cused of blasphemy.

“I accept her bail applica-tion,” Judge Mohammad AzamKhan announced to a packedcourtroom. “The bail applica-tion has been accepted againsttwo sureties of 500,000 rupeeseach.”

The judge also ordered thatRimsha be placed under protec-tive custody, due to securityconcerns.

Earlier, the court had re-served its ruling after hearingthe arguments made by thecounsels of both the complain-ant and the defendant.

The lawyer for the accusedgirl had submitted before thecourt that the girl was entitledto bail as she was a minor andthat the FIR lodged by the po-

Blasphemy case: RimshaMasih granted bail

lice did not say that she des-ecrated a copy of the HolyQuran.

On the contrary, thecomplainant’s counsel allegedthat the girl had confessed toher guilt and hence was not en-titled for bail.

The officer investigatingthe case told the court thatKhalid Jadoon, the cleric whohad been accused of tamperingevidence, had deliberatelyadded pages of the Holy Quranto the plastic bag that the mi-nor girl, who belonged to theChristian community, was car-rying.

The prosecution lawyer al-leged that the police, includingthe investigating officer, anddoctors were manipulating thecase to get the girl freed underinternational pressure, addingthat, they feared the accusedwould be immediately sent

abroad if bail was granted andthat then the case would cometo an end.

Moreover, the district attor-ney told the court that the blas-phemy accused girl had statedher age to the magistrate as 16years, adding that, the com-plainant in the case was receiv-ing threats.

A large number of securitypersonnel, members of civil so-ciety and international mediapersons were present outsidethe court as Judge Azam Khanheard the bail application of theaccused girl whose case hasmade headlines in the interna-tional and local media.

The girl has been in custodysince she was arrested in a poorIslamabad suburb more thantwo weeks ago after being ac-cused of burning papers con-taining verses from the HolyQuran.—INP

PPP wantsconsensus oncaretakersSARGODHA—Minister ofState for Water and PowerTasneem Ahmed Qureshi saidthe PPP government hadsettled all national issues withconsensus and the caretakersetup would also be consti-tuted with agreement. Qureshisaid that unconditional joiningof the Mahr brothers to thePPP was clear proof ofPresident Asif Ali Zardari’spolitical sagacity, adding thatdespite negative tricks ofopponents, the PPP and itsallies were going to completethe five-year constitutionaltenure. He said that duringfour years and a half, the PPPgovernment had accomplishedmega development projects toimprove the living standard ofthe general public and alsoregularised over 30,000contract and daily wageemployees.— APP

Rangers foil terror bidKOT SABZAL—Rangersfoiled a major terror bid as itarrested four terrorists andrecovered explosives anddetonators from their posses-sion at Punjab-Sindh border onFriday. According to details,rangers during search of asuspected passenger coachgoing from Sargodha toKarachi in Kot Sabzal arearecovered 50kg of explosivesand 1900 detonators. Therangers arrested the fourterrorists present in thevehicles and shifted them toundisclosed location forfurther investigations. INP

LB pollsin PunjabLAHORE—Chief MinisterPunjab Shahbaz Sharif saidFriday decision about LocalBodies (LB) polls in Punjabwould be taken after consulta-tion with party cadres. He saidthis while talking to media menat Allama Iqbal InternationalAirport on his return fromprivate visit to London.—Online

ConcernPeshawar—The DirectorGeneral (DG) Prosecution,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hasnoticed with grave concernthat some of the DistrictPublic Prosecutors areaddressing leave applicationsto other officers of thedirectorate instead ofDirector General, Prosecu-tion, who is the competentauthority of the directorate.According to a press noteissued here Friday, thepractice is totally against theservice discipline and thesame must be stoppedforthwith, otherwise strictdisciplinary action will betaken against the defaultingofficers.—APP

4 POs, twoabscondersheldFAISALABAD—Police arrested14 proclaimed offenders andtwo absconders during the last24 hours. Two criminals werewanted by police in heinouscrimes including murder,dacoity and abduction forransom cases, said a pressrelease issued here Friday.Police also held 12 narcoticsdealers and seized 1 kg poppy,3.3 kg charas and 158 bottlesof liquor. Cases have beenregistered against the accused.Police also arrested twoaccused and recovered a pistol,a rifle and 10 rounds.—APP

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Khalid Shameem Waynnecalled on President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e- Sadr on Friday.

Iran sends 150elite troops to

aid Syria regimeTEHRAN—Iran has reportedlysent 150 senior RevolutionaryGuards commanders to Syria ina bid to intensify its support forthe regime of President Basharal-Assad. Western intelligenceofficials have claimed that Ira-nian President MahmoudAhmadinejad has personallysanctioned the dispatch of the ex-perienced officers to ensure thatthe Assad regime survives thethreat to its survival.

Iran has also reportedlyshipped hundreds of tons of mili-tary equipment, including guns,rockets, and shells to Syriathrough the regular air corridorthat has been established betweenDamascus and Tehran, the Tele-graph reports. The RevolutionaryGuards officers were flown toDamascus in chartered Iranianaircraft, which were given per-mission to fly through Iraqi airspace. Iranian military equip-ment is said to have been shippedto Syria by the same route, thepaper said. Online

Bhakkar blast

Identity of thirdterrorist ascertained

BHAKKAR—Identity of thirdterrorist killed along with twoother accomplices in blast whilepreparing suicide jackets in ahouse in Alikhel, Chak No 46was ascertained on Friday.

According to law enforce-ment agencies, three terroristsidentified as Irfan Ahmed,Mohawiya Tariq and MalikJaved hailing from MianaGondal area of tehsil Malikwalwere stated to be killed due toexplosion while preparing sui-cide jackets.—INP

ISLAMABAD—Interior Ministryhas disclosed that motor ve-hicles scanners imported fromChina are substandard andflawed. State minister for inte-rior affairs, Imtiaz SafdarWaraich told the National As-sembly on Friday that during thepast 10 years Pakistan boughtonly two mobile vehicle scan-ners from China which were in-stalled at Golra Toll Plaza andRawat Toll Plaza. The scannerinstalled at Golra Toll plaza wasgiven to Karachi on request ofSindh Rangers to improve thelaw and order situation inKarachi.

He told that according toIslamabad police reports, morethan 400 trucks have beenchecked through these scannersbut the performance of NVISsystems has been unsatisfactoryand had failed to detect any typeof prohibited items, weapons,explosive materials and drugs.

According to Online ImtiazSafdar Warriach further told thata Chinese Company named New

National Assembly informed

Mobile vehicle scannersbought from China flawed

Tech had bought these scannersto Pakistan on soft conditionsand had assured to remove theflaws. However during recentdialogue process Pakistan hadmade it clear on the ChineseCompany that until the faults areremoved Pakistan would not buyany new scanners.

He also told that certaincriminal elements are respon-sible for ethnic riots in Karachiand members of land-mafia havetaken refuge in political parties.

During question-hour inNational Assembly, on Friday,Imtiaz Safdar Waraich told thehouse that the interior ministryhas banned 45 religious partiesand imposed restrictions onthem as a measure to do awaywith terrorism.During the lastfour years, there occurred target-killings of 1363 persons inKarachi and 306 target-killerswere arrested, he noted. He saidthat steps have been takenagainst terrorism and target kill-ings in Balochistan in additionto ensuring repatriation of Af-

ghan population from the prov-ince.

He said Balochistan prob-lem is a complicated issue,which is why Frontier Corps hasnot got definite success in re-solving it. He observed intelli-gence agencies are trying theirlevel best to improve situationin Balochistan, but due to weak-ness of legal procedures, thoseresponsible for the unrest getacquitted. He said that provin-cial governments are respon-sible for keeping law and order.

The State minister for inte-rior, Imtiaz Waraich confessedthat the data on target-killings inPunjab has not been recorded.

MNA from MuttahidaQaumi Movement, WaseemAkhtar objected on the absenceof the data regarding killings inPunjab, and said that judges, andpolice officials are being tar-geted there.

At this, Imtiaz Waraichvowed to direct the interior min-istry to keep record of targetedkillings in Punjab. —Online

200 foreignerscrossing Iranborder held

CHAGHI—At least 200 Afghanand Uzbek citizens who wantedto illegally cross Iran border fromPakistani soil were arrested hereon Friday. According to Leviessources, two buses were travelingtowards Iranian border fromChaghi when Levies forcesstopped them and upon search, asmany as 200 Afghanistan andUzbekistan citizens were found inthe buses. During investigation,they confessed that they wantedto cross the border. —INP

KABUL—High ranking gov-ernment officials and personnelat President Hamid Karzai’s of-fice are receiving substantial“incentive payments” of up to$7000 a month, a TOLOnewsinvestigation revealed. The in-vestigation has documentsshowing that 11 millionAfghanis (US$220,000) wasspent in two months for 80 em-ployees at the Presidential Pal-ace. Both Karzai’s spokesmanAimal Faizi and his chief ofstaff Abdul Karim Khoram are

Karzai officials receivingmassive ‘incentive’ pay

each receiving up to 350,000Afghanis ($7000) per month ontop of their salary under the titleof incentive payments.

Others receive substan-tial allowances for food andtransport. Around 580,000 Af-ghans work for the governmentwith most of them receiving asalary of 5000 to 30,000 Afs permonth. Kabul University pro-fessor and economistHamidullah Farooqi said thisissue needs to be seriously ad-dressed. —NNI

PAF observesMartyrs’ Day

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan AirForce observed 7 September,2012 as Martyrs’ Day at all PAFBases throughout the country.The day started with specialDu’aa and Quran Khawani forthe Shuhada of 1965 and 1971wars and those who laid downtheir lives in action since creationof Pakistan.

A simple but impressive cer-emony was also held at Air Head-quarters Islamabad, in which AirMarshal Farhat Hussain Khan,Acting Chief of the Air Staff, Pa-kistan Air Force, laid floralwreath and offered “Fateha” atthe Martyrs’ Monument at AirHeadquarters. Principal StaffOfficers and a large number ofofficers and Junior Commis-sioned Officers attended the cer-emony.

In the morning, a PAF con-tingent led by Air Vice MarshalMuhammad Iqbal, Air OfficerCommanding, Southern AirCommand offered “Fateha” andlaid floral wreath at the grave ofPilot Officer Rashid MinhasShaheed (Nishan-e- Haider) onbehalf of Chief of the Air Staff,Pakistan Air Force. —INP

WASHINGTON—Bill Clintonwas a tough act to follow. ButPresident Barack Obama madea compelling case for his re-election with a forceful speechframing the November electionas a clear choice “between twodifferent paths for America.”

“When all is said and done- when you pick up that ballotto vote - you will face theclearest choice of any time in ageneration,” said Obama to araucously cheering crowd wav-ing signs with his campaign slo-gan “Forward” on the final dayof the Democratic National Con-vention in Charlotte, NorthCarolina broadcast live to thenation.

“Over the next few years,big decisions will be made inWashington, on jobs and theeconomy; taxes and deficits;energy and education; war andpeace - decisions that will havea huge impact on our lives andour children’s lives for decadesto come,” he said in his 38-minute acceptance speech.

“On every issue, the choice

With hope tested, Obamaseeks more time for change

you face won’t be just betweentwo candidates or two parties,”said Obama amid chants of“USA, USA” and “We loveyou”.

“It will be a choice betweentwo different paths for America.A choice between two funda-mentally different visions for thefuture,” he said.

Dressed in a dark blue suitwith striped blue tie, the Demo-cratic colour, Obama came outafter a brief introduction fromfirst lady Michelle Obama toslowly but surely warming up tohis theme that while “hope hasbeen tested- by the cost of war;by one of the worst economiccrises in history; and by politi-cal gridlock” more time wasneeded to fix the nation’s prob-lems.

Likening the years-longeconomic downturn to the GreatDepression and detailing anewly specific second-term eco-nomic agenda, Obama askedAmericans to choose a “harder”path to long-term economicprosperity.—AP

CRANBERRY juice rich in certain antibacterial substances may help prevent repeat urinary tract infections

in kids, a small study suggests.Researchers found that cranberry juice

made with high concentrations ofproanthocyanidins (PACs)cut kids’ risk of repeat uri-nary tract infections bytwo-thirds, versus a com-parison juice.

Since the juice on yoursupermarket’s shelves maynot have that PAC level,the researchers say theirfindings are not an en-dorsement of any product.

But the results, pub-lished in the Journal ofUrology, do give supportto cranberry as a UTIfighter, according to a pe-diatric urologist not con-nected to the study.

PACs are the com-pounds thought to givecranberries their bacteria-fighting potential. Women have longturned to cranberry juice and supplementsto help prevent recurrent urinary tract in-fections (UTIs) - though studies have beenmixed on whether they work.

There has been little research on kids,even though UTIs are relatively commonin children. Girls have about an 8 percentchance of contracting the infection at somepoint in childhood; boys have a 2 percentchance.

Besides being uncomfortable, recur-rent UTIs can eventually damage the kid-neys in some children. So doctors may pre-scribe antibiotics to help prevent them.

But antibiotics can have side effects,and using them long-term can breeddrug-resistant bacteria. So researchersare looking at whether cranberry prod-ucts can be a good alternative.

For the new study, doctors at theUniversity of British Colum-bia in Vancouver, Canada,recruited 40 children who’dhad at least two UTIs in thepast year. They randomlyassigned the kids to drinkone of two juices made forthe study: a cranberry juicerich in PACs or a juice freeof all “cranberry products.”

Over the next year, kidswho drank cranberry juicehad UTIs at a rate of 0.4 perchild, compared with 1.15 inthe comparison group.

The power of cranber-ries against UTIs “was ini-tially regarded as an oldwives’ tale,” said Dr. HiepNguyen of BostonChildren’s Hospital, who

was not involved in the study.But Nguyen said he now often rec-

ommends cranberry - either juice orsupplements - when kids have recurrentUTIs.

“It can be a great alternative to pro-phylactic (preventive) antibiotics,”Nguyen said.That doesn’t mean cran-berry is the cure-all. If a child has fre-quent UTIs, Nguyen said, antibiotics maybe necessary to “break the cycle.” Ontop of that, many children’s UTIs are re-lated to less-than-ideal bathroom habits- like “holding it in,” rather than goingwhen they need to.

Cranberry juice may beatkids’ bladder infections

MURREE: Quaid PML-N Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in a meeting with Dr JamalNasir, President Pakistan Green Task Force at Punjab House.

ISLAMABAD: Air Marshal Farhat Hussain Khan, Acting Chief of the Air Staff Pakistan Air Force saluting after laying floral wreath at theMartyrs’ Monument, on the occasion of Martyrs Day of Pakistan Air Force at Air Headquarters.

SANA JAMAL

ISLAMABAD—Urdu lan-guage has perhaps neversounded so eccentric to thepeople of Japan due to thedeep affection for the lan-guage by few Japanesescholars. One worth-men-tioning name among thenew generation of JapaneseUrdu scholars is ProfessorSo Yamane. He appeared nostranger to Pakistanis, withhis immaculate Urdu accent,when he addressed the dia-logue on Urdu literature asfocal person at NationalLanguage Authority (NLA)on Friday morning.

Accompanied by Japa-nese students of Urdu lan-guage Noriyuki Kubo,NoriKo Sasaoki, KanakoAzuma, the Japanesescholar enlightened the au-dience about the efforts be-

ing carried out to introduceJapanese students to a lan-guage as grand as Urdu. DrAnwar Ahmad Chairman Na-

tional Language Authority(NLA) presided over the dia-logue which was attended bya number of scholars includ-

ing Anwar Naseem, FiazBaqir, Firogh Naveed, Riaz ulHaq, Syed Sardar AhmadPirzada, Muhammad IslamNishtar, Muhammad AhmadGonda, Ali Akbar Natiq andDr Rashid Hameed.

Extolling the efforts ofJapanese universities in pro-moting Urdu literature, DrAnwar said “it was due to theefforts of Japanese scholarsthat Urdu language is not aliento the people of Japan” as aconsiderable amount of mod-ern Urdu literature has beentranslated into Japanese. Urdulanguage is taught in OsakaUniversity Japan and TokyoUniversity Japan which hasrecently celebrated hundredyears of teaching of Urdu.

Kanako Azuma, the Japa-nese student, surprises manyscholars at the discussionwhen she informed about herresearch work on Islamic

Japanese scholars of Urdu literaturethinker Syed Abul AlaMaududi, which would soonbe published.

“Urdu is a lingua francaand has multiple colourswhich produce a joyful tasteas we speak and read it and itsound melodious while listen-ing” said Prof. Yamane in aneffort express his love for thelanguage. He enlightened thata list of books on the subjectof Islamic studies in Urdu wasbeing compiled so as “to makeit sure that Japanese peopleshould directly seek informa-tion from Urdu text only tohave better understanding ofthe spirit of the subject.”

For the first time, “a Japa-nese pictorial dictionary oftechnical Urdu terminologiesis being compiled in Japan withthe help and guidance of bothPakistani and Japanese Urduexperts”, informed the Japa-nese scholar at the discussion.

ISLAMABAD: Professor of Urdu in Osaka University Ja-pan, Prof So Yamane speaks during a Dialogue on UrduLanguage at National Language Authority. Dr AnwerNaseem is also seen in the picture.

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Po-lice have decided to enhancepatrolling and deployment ofplain cloth officials in marketsto curb incidents of car lift-ing besides ensuring arrest ofthose receiving stolen ve-hicles.

The decision to this ef-fect was made in a meetinghere Friday presided by SSPIslamabad Yaseen Farooqand also attended amongothers by SP (Investigation)Ch. Liaqat Ali, In-ChargeAnti- Car Lifting Cell (ACLC)Altaf Aziz Khattak and policeinvestigation officers.

In-Charge ACLC briefedthe SSP about policing mea-sures adopted in the city tocurb car theft incidents.

Special police to bedeployed at markets

The SSP categoricallydirected to curb car theft in-cidents in the city and not totolerate any sluggish atti-tude in this regard.

He also ordered to devisea monthly duty program ofall officials and assign thetask of high vigilance to eachcop for better output againstcar thieves.

He also gave time of onemonth to ACLC officials toimprove their performanceand said their performancewill be reviewed after pas-sage of this period.

“Those performing wellwould be awarded and slug-gish police officials

would have to face dis-ciplinary action,” the SSP

added. He directed police offi-

cials to maintain the recordof car thieves who had re-mained jail birds and keepmonitoring their activities oncontinuous basis.

He also asked SP (Inves-tigation) as well as In-chargeACLC to introduce strict ac-countability system in theirwings to make cops more re-sponsible towards their pro-fessional duties and providejustice to citizens at their doorsteps. Yaseen Farooq saidthat a strong accountabilitysystem within the departmenthelp eradicate many evils andenhance the efficiency andperformance of the organiza-tion.—APP

ExhibitionISLAMABAD—The Embassy ofBrazil has arranged a photo Ex-hibition “Brazil-Pakistan: TheView of the other”, by two cel-ebrated photographers, AlmirReis, from Brazil, and ZulfikarAli, from Pakistan.—DNA

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Envoys ofMalaysia, Turkmenistan,Spain, Denmark andMauritius on Friday pre-sented their credentials toPresident Asif Ali Zardari atan impressive ceremony hereat the Aiwan-e-Sadr.

Upon arrival Dr. HasrulSani Bin Mujtabar High Com-missioner of Malaysia,Movlamov Atadjan Ambas-sador of Turkmenistan,Javier M. Carbajosa SanchezAmbassador of Spain, Ole E.Moeaby Ambassador ofDenmark and MohammadRashad Daureeawo Ambas-

Envoys present credentials to Presidentsador of Mauritius, nationalanthems of Pakistan and therespective countries wereplayed.

The envoys were pre-sented guard of honour by acontingent of Pakistan Army.

They also separatelycalled on the President anddiscussed bilateral relationsand matters of mutual inter-est.

The President felicitatedthe newly appointed HighCommissioners and Ambas-sadors and expressed thehope they will work for fur-ther cementing the existingties of their respective coun-tries with Pakistan. The Dan-

ish ambassador thankedPresident Zardari and addedthat Denmark would continueto extend all possible sup-port to Pakistan through itsbilateral cooperation as wellas explore further means toexpand and diversify themutually beneficial rela-tions.Mr. Ole Moesby is comingfrom Prague, where he servedas the Danish ambassador forover four years. He holds aMaster’s degree in politicalscience from University ofAarhus, Denmark. Mr.Moesby started his career atthe Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs in 1987 as Head of sec-tion in the Africa Department.

ISLAMABAD—Renowned forhis spiritualistic approachtowards life,A s h f a qAhmed whowas a distin-g u i s h e dwriter, play-wright, broad-caster and anin te l lec tua l ,was remem-bered on hisdeath anni-versary Fri-day.

AshfaqAhmed was born on August22, 1925 in Garhmukteshwarvillage, Ghaziabad, BritishIndia.

His prime qualities ofheart and hand earned appre-

Ashfaq Ahmed rememberedciations across the borders.He was regarded by many as

the best UrduAfsana (short-story) writer af-ter SaadatHasan Manto,Ismat Chughtaiand KrishanChander fol-lowing thepublication ofhis famouss h o r t - s t o r y“Gaddarya” in1955.

In 1962,Ashfaq Ahmed started hispopular radio program,‘Talqeen Shah’ which madehim immensely popularamong the people in townsand villages.—APP

Nagata highlightsLiteracy Day

ISLAMABAD—Director/Rep-resentative of UNESCO,Islamabad, Dr. Kozue KayNagata in her message saidthe focus of 2012 Interna-tional Literacy Day is “Lit-eracy and Peace.”

Like every year,UNESCO Islamabad is sup-porting national and provin-cial governments and otherstakeholders to celebrate theDay on September 8throughout the country.

Seminars will be orga-nized at national and provin-cial levels to highlight theimportance of literacy andadvocating the masses aboutthe need and significance ofliteracy for achieving Educa-tion For All (EFA) and Mil-lennium Development Goals(MDGs), for which Pakistanhas made commitments atvarious forums.—APP

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate, Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari watching paintings atthe exhibition at PNCA.

ISLAMABAD: Joint Secretary, Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Syed Mustafain Kazmi leadingthe literacy and peace walk organized on the eve of International Literacy Day by the Islamabad Crescent Lions Club.

RAWALPINDI: Activists of Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan taking part in Khatm-e-NabowatRally at Fawwara Chowk.

RAWALPINDI: Ayaz Latif Palijo, leader of Awami Tahreek waves to party workers onarrival of ‘Mohabbat-e-Sindh’ train march at railway station.

ISLAMABAD—The SenateStanding Committee on Cabi-net Division Friday directedthe Capital DevelopmentAuthority to furnish a reporton the allotment of ideally-located plots in Park Enclaveto influential persons.

The committee took upthe issue after it was high-lighted in media that top poli-ticians, judges and journal-ists have been allotted plotslocated on ideal locations likeclose to commercial areas ofthe housing colony beingpromoted as ‘Jewel ofIslamabad’.

The committee met herewith Chairman KalsoomPerveen in the chair, who saidthat if a nominal number ofinfluential persons had beenallotted plots on ideal loca-tions, it is justifiable other-wise the committee wouldexamine the matter.

The committee memberTalha Mehmood observedthat balloting through com-puter can easily be riggedand suggested that an inde-pendent IT expert be calledin the next meeting to clarifyas whether there was suchcase.Chairman CDAFarkhand Iqbal defended theprocess and said the ballot-ing was made transparentand in presence of media as

Report sought onallotment of plots to VIPs

well as allottees.Regarding the planned

auction of commercial plotsin Blue Area, the chairmanCDA said the Authority wasawaiting the probe report or-dered by the Prime Ministerafter the media highlightedthe issue.

He said the CDA hadbeen pondering over someoptions including open auc-tion, reducing number ofplots to four from existing 12for stiff competition; how-ever the CDA Board was yetto make final decision butmatter was caught up in con-troversy.

Member Estate CDAKhalid Mirza said the plotsauction among pre-qualifiedbidders was in accordancewith the CDA rules as well asthose of PPRA.

To this, the CDA chiefobserved that he was unableto understand as why somepeople hinder either city’sdevelopment or CDA’s func-tioning, mentioning to a newsitem aired on a private televi-sion channel on the process.

He said in the auctionamong pre-qualified bidderstoo, there is no concept ofsealed bids rather the pro-cess is carried out in pres-ence of media.

Earlier, the committee di-

rected the Deputy Commis-sioner Islamabad AmerAhmed Ali to take over thecontrol of Federal EmployeesCooperative Housing Soci-ety and hold elections withina week.

The deputy commis-sioner apprised the commit-tee that the project had beenfacing delay for the last 22years and the people hadbeen yearning for residentialplots though many of themhave also died.

The committee directedputting ban on sale and pur-chase of land in the societyuntil all issues are resolved,also asking the city adminis-tration to widely publicize theban.

Meanwhile, the CDAchairman has repatriatedmain character of the BlueArea plots auction issue, Di-rector Estate Management-IIChaudhry Aslam to Auditand Accounts Department,his parent department afterdeveloping differences withthe top brass over the auc-tion process.

The officer had report-edly refused to write letter tothe pre-qualified parties forauction despite being pres-sured by the CDA high upsfrom where the controversystarted.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Hundreds ofyouth turn up to raise theirvoice for universal educa-tion and intensive literacyinitiatives for out of schoolyouth and children.

The occasion was a ‘Lit-eracy and Peace Walk’, or-ganized by the IslamabadCrescent Lions (ICLC) andthe Federal Directorate ofEducation (FDE) Friday, tomark the International Lit-eracy Day. Syed MustafainKazmi, Joint Secretary Capi-tal Administration & Devel-opment Division (CADD),was the chief guest. Amongothers who spoke on the oc-casion included Sibtain RazaLodhi, president ICLC,Munir Ahmed, DirectorDEVCOM-Pakistan, andJamil Asghar Bhatti.

The students of differentcolleges and schools carry-ing placards and bannersassembled in front of the

Youth raise voice foruniversal education

National Press Club alongwith their teachers and gen-eral pubic. They chanted slo-gans for the adequate edu-cational facilities across thecountry for all youth, andactive literacy centres for theilliterate adults.

Later, the participantsmarched from the NationalPress Club to the IslamabadCollege for Girls, F-6/2, wherethe walk was terminated.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Syed Mustafain Kazmisaid education is a pathwayto tolerance and peace in thesociety besides social devel-opment and economicgrowth.

He said government wasmaking efforts to engage allstakeholders to take everystep to provide best pos-sible facilities in theIslamabad Capital Territory(ICT) educational institu-tions, both in the urban and

rural areas. Kazmi said we have no

option but to seriously planoutreaching the marginalisedand under privileged commu-nities.

The immensely rising in-flation has badly affected theeducation of children fromrural and suburban commu-nities that need our immedi-ate attention.

President ICLC SibtainRaza Lodhi said that morethan 1.6 million members ofthe Lions Clubs would takeup new initiatives to engageyouth in special educationalprogramme and classroom li-braries. The ICLC has alsochalked out a programme tosupport the ICT urban andrural educational institutionsto establish classroom li-braries that would be com-pleted in collaboration withthe FDE and the CADD,hesaid.—APP

I S L A M A B A D — M i n i s t e rIncharge for National Har-mony, Dr Paul Bhatt i onFriday said Ulema, Judi-ciary and media playedpositive role in Rimsha’scase for uphold of justiceand supporting supremacyof rule of law in the coun-try. “The religious schol-ars , invest igation teams,media and Judiciary de-serve appreciation for theirpositive role that promotedsoft image of the country,”he said while addressing aPress Conference afterRimsha Masih’s release onbail.

He said lawyers andrel igious scholars weretaken on board for legalopinion on the case andthe guidance of religiousscholars was sought to getIslamic point of view as the

Ulema, judiciary, media playedpositive role in Rimsha case: Paul

accused was a minor andalso suffering from DownSyndrome.

Minor Christ ian gir lRimsha Masih, 11, was ar-rested and sent to jail alleg-edly desecrat ing pagesfrom the Holy Quran.

Commenting on the ru-mors of sending Rimsha’sfamily abroad, Dr Paul said,they had not responded onit as they were waiting forthe court’s decision expos-ing full confidence on Ju-diciary.

Dr Paul expressedgrati tude to al l thosepeople who supported toresolve the al leged blas-phemy case of Rimsha, say-ing “the support andfavour extended to Rimshaby the Pakistani peoplemeans that they take careof humanity and do not al-

low any injust ice withcountry fellows.”

He said the country isfacing challenges of terror-ism, sectarianism, illiteracy,and poverty and it is a hightime we should unite to ad-dress these challenges bypromoting national and in-terfai th harmony for thesake of peace and prosper-ity in the country. He urgedthe Ulema to play their roleto do some thing aimed atbridging the gap amongthe different sects andfaiths by spreading Islam’smessage of forgiveness,tolerance and love for hu-manity.

Spirit of religious toler-ance and interfai th har-mony is equally importantbesides the need of forg-ing solidarity among all thefaiths, he added.—APP

RAWALPINDI—The PunjabTransport Authority has in-creased fare on local routes forthe second time during last twomonths in the wake of recentsurge in the prices of petroleumand CNG, further adding to themiseries of commuters.Thecommuters of the twin citiesdeplored PTA for increasingpublic transport fares.

The PTA issued the notifi-cation making Rs2 increase inthe fares of the public trans-port. It increased fares of localroute public transport (buses,

Transporters win, commuters lose

PTA increases faresmini-buses, wagons and Suzukipick-ups) from Rs14 to Rs16stop-by-stop, from Rs18 toRs20 (4.1 kilometers to 8 kilo-meters), from Rs22 to Rs24 (8.1kilometers to 14 kilometers),from Rs28 to Rs30(14.1kilometres to 22 kilometers)and from Rs39 to Rs41 (22.1 ki-lometers to 30 kilometers).

When contacted, DistrictRegional Transport Author-ity (DRTA) Secretary SyedAsad Raza Kazmi confirmedthat the Punjab governmenthas issued a notification to

increase fares by Rs2.Despite increase in local

transport fares transportersof the twin cities have re-fused to withdraw call ofstrike and warned of wheel-jam strike on Monday.

Muttahida TransportUnion president MalikMuhammad Sultan said thatthe call of wheel-jam strike wasnot for increase in fares butagainst issuance of challan tick-ets up to Rs1,000 by traffic war-dens and unnecessary taxesimposed on transporters.—INP

Workshop on‘Laser-MatterInteraction’

ISLAMABAD—COMSTECHin collaboration with Na-tional Center for Physics,Quaid-i-Azam UniversityCampus, will hold Interna-tional Workshop on “Laser-Matter Interaction” from Sep-tember 11-13.

The main objective of theworkshop is to bring re-searchers from different uni-versities and research organi-zations at a platform to learnabout the latest research ac-tivities in this area and dis-cuss the future prospects ofthis exciting field of research.

Official sources told APPthat the workshop is devotedto different aspects of laser-matter interaction based ontheoretical models and ex-perimental investigations.

An official said interac-tion of radiation with matteris the most fundamental phe-nomenon that yields informa-tion regarding absorption andfluorescence mechanismstaking place in nature.—APP

CITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—To ensuresmooth construction of SixthRoad flyover, city districtadministration would closeMurree Road from ChandniChowk to Shamsabad to-night (Saturday night).

A meeting presidedover by District Coordina-tion Officer (DCO) SaqibZafar and attended by locallawmaker Malik IbrarAhmed, City Traffic Officer(CTO) Syed Ishtiaq Shah,Superintendent Engineer(SE) Punjab HighwaysFarhat Munir, ADC (G) SaifAnwar Jappa, SP RawalTown ChaudhryMuhammad Hanif and otherofficials was held here atthe DCO office.MurreeRoad would be closed for

all kinds of traffic fromChandni Chowk toRawalpindi Cricket StadiumRoad.

The meeting was briefedabout traffic plan underwhich traffic coming fromSaddar to Faizabad would bemoved to Farooq-i-AzamRoad from Chandni Chowkand traffic coming fromIslamabad and going to-wards Saddar will use IJPRoad.Moreover, Rawal TownMunicipal Administrationstaff will remove encroach-ments from Kurri Road,Saidpur Road andSadiqabad. Parking of ve-hicles and hand pushed cartsare banned on these roads.

It should be mentionedhere that the plan would beacted upon till the completionof the project.

Flyover construction

Murree Road to beclosed for traffic

NH&MP seekstransporters’ help tocombat overloadingISLAMABAD—Inspector Gen-eral National Highways andMotorway Police ZafarAbbas Lak on Friday ap-pealed to Goods TransportAssociation to cooperatewith Motorway Police tocombat overloading as noover loading would be al-lowed on motorways & high-ways.

Talking to the office-bear-ers of All Pakistan GoodsTransport Association andall Pakistan Car Carrier Asso-ciation here, he said that onevery entry point ofmotorways & highwaysoverloaded vehicles wouldnot be allowed to enter.

He said that overloadingis responsible for destructionof national roads and is ex-tremely dangerous for na-tional economy.—APP

PIMA committedto promote health

awarenessISLAMABAD—Pakistan Is-lamic Medical Association(PIMA) is committed to pro-mote health awarenessamong the communities andproviding medical aid to vic-tims of natural disasters andman-made disasters.

This was stated byPIMA spokesman here onFriday, he said that PIMA re-mained pioneer in managingnational and international di-sasters.

He said its extensive net-work of hospitals, welfareclinics and free medicalcamps working in the coun-try and abroad makes the or-ganization one of the leadingmedical relief organizations.

He said that one of theoutstanding project of thePIMA is relief work.

“PIMA has renderedvaluable services during di-sasters as well as regularlypart of PIMA activities” hesaid.—APP

IHC benchesSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadHigh Court (IHC) chief jus-tice has constituted foursingle and two divisionbenches to hear over 250cases during next week start-ing from Monday (Septem-ber 10 ).

Four single benches willcomprise Chief Justice IqbalHameed-ur-Rehman, JusticeNoor-ul-Haq NQureshi,Justice Shaukat AzizSiddiqui and JusticeMuhammad Azim KhanAfridi.

The first division benchcomprises Chief JusticeIqbal Hameed-ur-Rehmanand Justice Noor-ul-Haq NQureshi while the secondbench Justice Shaukat AzizSiddiqui and JusticeMuhammad Azim KhanAfridi.

Nation proudof its soldiers:

NayyerISLAMABAD—Chairman Sen-ate, Syed Nayyer HussainBokhari Friday said that Pa-kistani nation feels proud ofits gallant soldiers who sac-rificed their lives in the lineof duty, foiled nefarious de-signs of enemy and pro-tected country.

He expressed these viewswhile speaking at Exhibition ofAviation Painting and AircraftModels here at Pakistan Na-tional Council of Arts. Chair-man Senate said “ we salute tothose soldiers who sacrificedtheir lives in war against ter-rorism, wars of 1965 and 1971to protect country and in Gyrarisector during performance oftheir duties”.

He appreciated the ef-forts of those organizers whoarranged this exhibition withan aim to tell the next genera-tion about the ‘great mo-ments of Armed forces’through pictorial display.

The Chairman said thatdefence of Pakistan is im-pregnable and in safe hands.He said that whole nation isunited under one flag and itcan render any sacrifice forthe country.—APP

Restoration oftraffic signals

demandedISLAMABAD—Lack of trafficsignal system on IJ Princi-pal Road has led to multipleroad accidents.The road re-mains overburdened withheavy traffic from Faizabadto Pir Wadhai the whole daylong and even Lahore-Peshawar traffic flow alsopasses on this road. Theroad is in dilapidated condi-tion and stands broken atseveral places.

The administration re-moved traffic signals fromthe road and built u-turns toensure smooth sailing of traf-fic but this system has col-lapsed and it has added totraffic specific woes. U-turns are not serving thevery purpose of controllingtraffic but are causing roadaccidents.

The traffic signal systemwas the best arrangement toprevent the road acci-dents.—Online

05:1001:3005:00

08:15

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September 10

PAK Institute for PeaceStudies will holdRadicalisation in Pakistan:Perspectives and Resolu-tion at Hotel Crown Plaza,Blue Area at 3 pm to 6 pm.

*****THE Pakistan NationalCouncil of the Arts(PNCA) in collaborationwith the Ministry of Na-tional Heritage and Inte-gration, has organized afree puppet show for chil-dren here on September10.

September 11

A CONSULTATIONWorkshop on ‘Girl ChildMarriages’ would be heldon September 11 (Tues-day) at 9: 00 a.m. at a localhotel urging for policychange to safeguard fu-ture of young girls. Theworkshop is being orga-nized by ActionAid, Planand Bedari as the phe-nomenon of “Girl ChildMarriages” exists acrossthe country due to con-ventional customs andtraditions.

September 12

PAKISTAN Science Foun-dation (PSF) in collabora-tion with European Com-mission Delegation willorganize one-day Seminaron “EU Funding underSeventh FrameworkProgramme (FP7)”,here onSeptember 12.

September 13

ONE-DAY Training Work-shop for Young TV An-chors & Hosts will be heldat 04:30 to 07:30 pm atVerite Media School, St #31, sector I-8/2, main ser-vice road. For registrationcontact: 0321-5678733.

MUZAFFARABAD: Staffer of Municipal Corporation busy in operation against en-croachment.

MUZAFFARABAD: SSP Raja Shafqat Tanvir Khan visiting Centre Bar with PresidentCentre Bar Anjum Nisar Mir.

ISLAMABAD—The forumpatronised by the veteranKashmiri Hurriyet leader inoccupied Kashmir Syed AliGilani, has said that he hasbeen placed under continuedhouse arrest at hisHyderpora residence. Theforum spokesman in a state-ment in Srinagar said, “Apolice vehicle has been sta-tioned at the main gate ofSyed Ali Gilani’s house whileover a dozen police person-nel have laid a siege aroundit,” KMS reported.

He termed as ridiculousand surprising the statement

of the government lawyer inthe High Court that Gilanihad not been placed underhouse arrest. The spokes-man said that the veteranleader’s continued confine-ment to his residence hadbadly affected his health.

“Gilani comes out of hisresidence on every Fridaywith the intention to offerFriday prayers but the policepersonnel deployed at themain gate prevent him fromcrossing it,” he said, termingit a sheer interference in thereligious affairs of people. Heappealed to the Ulema, Muf-

tis and Imams to registertheir protest against the re-strictions imposed on Gilanito offer Friday prayers.

Pertinently, Syed AliGilani’s case came up forhearing in the High Court inSrinagar on Thursday whereJustice Mansoor AhmadMir heard the arguments ofthe lawyers from both sidesand listed the case for nexthearing on September 11(Tuesday). The High CourtBar Association President,Zafar Amin Qureshi is plead-ing the case of the veteranleader.—APP

Gilani is undercontinued house arrest

Rain waterraises Mangla

dam levelMIRPUR (AJK)—As a resultof continued heavy rains inAzad Jammu & Kashmir(AJK), the water level ofMangla Dam raised Friday upto 1185.45 feet against thedead level of 1040.00 feet,WAPDA sources said. Atthe same time Mirpur districtand its adjoining areas re-ceived intermittent rains midlast night and flooding theseasonal nullahs andstreams in the district be-sides inundating the low-ly-ing areas with the rainy wa-ter.

However, no loss of lifeor property was reported inany parts of the district dur-ing the fresh rains. The res-ervoir has been filled with thewater for future usage for ir-rigation and also to boostpower generation. Water in-flow of the rivers Jhelum,Poonch and other subordi-nate streams in Mangla dam39700 cusecs.—APP

India misleadingworld on

unmarked gravesISLAMABAD—The Jammuand Kashmir Coalition ofCivil Society (JKCCS) in In-dian Occupied Kashmir anumbrella body of rightsgroups, has said that the In-dian government is mislead-ing the international commu-nity by dubbing all thoseburied in the unmarkedgraves in the territory as for-eign or local militants. TheJKCCS has threatened tomove international courtagainst denial of the puppetadministration to conductDNA profiling of bodies ly-ing in more than 6000 un-marked graves spread acrossthe occupied territory, KMSreported.

According to Khurram,JKCCS Coordinator, evenHuman Rights Commissionof the occupied territory hadquestioned stance of the au-thorities on unmarkedgraves.—APP

Ullema inIHK resolve tomaintain unityI S L A M A B A D — M u t a h i d aMajlis-e-Ulema, a represen-tative organization of schol-ars from different schools ofthought, has expressed theresolve to maintain unityamong its ranks to frustratethe anti-Islam forces thatwant to divide the KashmiriMuslims on sectarian lines.A meeting of the MutahidaMajlis-e-Ulema was held inSrinagar that was presidedover by its Ameer and theAPHC Chairman, MirwaizUmar Farooq,Kashmir MediaService reported.

It was attended amongothers by Agha SyedHassan Al-Moosvi, MaulanaAbbas Ansari, Mufti Nazir,Advocate Zahid Ali, AbdulRehman Butt, MoulanaGhulam MuhammadSuharwardy, MoulanaKhurshid Ahmad Quanungoand Mufti Abdul Rasheed.On the occasion, theMirwaiz said that Islam wasfacing great challenges onlocal and global levels and ithad been the prime agendaof anti-Muslim forces to di-vide Muslim Ummah when-ever they find a chance todo it.—APP

Hurriyat (M)delegation to visit

Pakistan next monthSRINAGAR—A delegation ofHurriyat Conference led byMirwaiz Umer Farooq is likelyto visit Pakistan next month todiscuss the current situation ofKashmir and other related is-sues with the leadership of thecountry. According to reliablesources, during the ExecutiveCouncil meet of Hurriyat (M),chairman Mirwaiz UmarFarooq conveyed to his col-leagues that they might haveto travel to Pakistan next monthalthough dates for the samehave not been finalized yet.

Sources told Greater Kash-mir that the feelers have beensent to Mirwaiz that their tripwould mature in October. Paki-stan Foreign Minister HinaRabbani Khar, who was in NewDelhi in February this year, hadextended invitation to theHurriyat (M), Hurriyat (G) andJammu and Kashmir LiberationFront for discussions with theleaders of that country.—NNI

ISLAMABAD—Massive pro-tests erupted after pages ofthe Holy Quran were foundtorn and scattered around amosque in Palpora area ofHandwara in Indian Occu-pied Kashmir. According toKMS, thousands of peopletook to the streets inQaziabad, Kralgund,Dangiwatcha, Kachloo,Khahipora, Sahipora,Wangam, Thokerpora,Budrah and Supernaghamaareas to protest against theincident.

They blocked traffic onthe Kupwara-Baramullaroad. An eyewitness saidthat some unknown per-sons had barged into the

mosque and desecrated theHoly Quran. When peopleof the area went to themosque they saw the pagesof Quran scattered, headded.

The protesters shoutingpro-freedom slogans de-manded arrest of the culpritsinvolved in the incident.“We will continue our pro-tests against these acts,”said, a protester, NazirAhmad.

A police spokesman ina statement said that thepolice had taken cogni-zance of the desecration ofmosque by some unknownpersons at Palpora inHandwara.—APP

Mosque, Quran desecrationsparks protests in Handwara

MUZAFFARABAD: Students of Governments girls Higher Seconday School Sahali Sarkar presenting tableau dur-ing the event in connection with defence day.

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister AJK Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan called onFederal Minsiter for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo.

Three womenraped in KashmirJAMMU—Three women wereallegedly raped in differentincidents in Jammu andKashmir, police said Friday.In the first incident, a girl wasallegedly gang-raped byfour people, including a Spe-cial Police Officer (SPO), inChenani area of Udhampurdistrict.

The accused are JavedIqbal (SPO), Abdul Jabar,Bitta Lone and Mushtaq,police said. While no arrestshave been made so far, a casehas been registered and thegirl’s statement will be re-corded.

A girl student was alsoallegedly raped in Rajouri dis-trict when she was returninghome from school, police said,adding that the accused,Sadam Hussain, has been ar-rested. In a third incident,police have arrested twopeople — MohammadHussain and Mojhdin forforcibly entering the house ofa married woman and alleg-edly raping her in Ramgarharea of Samba district onWednesday evening. A casehas been registered againstthem, police said.—INP

Kashmir addsartificial rock

climbing activity toadventure tourism

SRINAGAR—Minister forTourism and Culture, NawangRigzin Jora has launched first-ever ‘artificial rock climbingactivity’ at Tourist ReceptionCentre, Nowgam, even as as-suring that a full-fledged wa-ter rafting base will be set upin Manasbal soon.

Constructed at a cost ofRs 95 lakh, the 12-meter highrock climbing wall has threefaces—bouldering, speedand lead, to give differentexperience to the climbers.

Jora said the TourismDepartment is in process ofdeveloping new tourism des-tinations and activities inJ&K. “We are developing lotof other places in Kashmirapart from Pahalgam andGulmarg. There is lot of po-tential in various placeswhich need to be promoted.”

Jora said that adventureactivities like heli skiing andwater rafting have picked upover the years. Given the po-tential of heritage tourism inJ&K, Jora said that Rs 38 crorewill be spent on its promo-tion.—NNI

Shah pins hopes onKrishna-Khar talks

SRINAGAR—Jammu Kash-mir Democratic FreedomParty (JKDFP) PresidentShabir Ahmad Shah has ex-pressed hope that foreign-level talks between Indiaand Pakistan on September8 would prove fruitful forthe resolution of Kashmir.The talks between IndianForeign Minister and hisPakistani counterpart HinaRabbani Khar would beheld on September 8.

“I hope people of Kash-mir get Azadi from the tyr-anny of India’s illegal occu-pation,” Shah said in a state-ment issued here. Shah wel-comed the statement ofPakistan’s Foreign MinisterHina Rabbani Khar in whichshe said that the solution ofKashmir lies within the ambitof the resolutions passed bythe United Nations.“Hurriyat Conference isborn only for the solution ofthe independence ofKashmiris.—NNI

SRINAGAR—Senior Leaderand National Front ChairmanNayeem Ahmad Khan hassaid that the Wakf Board wasformed for the uplift andprogress of the Muslim com-munity in Jammu and Kash-mir but it has always beenused for anti Muslim inter-ests and against the resis-tance movement.

Nayeem Khan said, “Wakfboard is occupied by the ele-ments who are not botheredabout the Muslim communitybut they have been alwaysthinking only about their owninterests and now this boardis known for the embezzle-ments, misusing of resourcesand what not, so it is of utterimportance to liberate theboard from the people who

have been occupying it”.Khan also said that Wakf

board has failed to protectits properties especially inJammu where property worthcrores has been encroached.He said that Wakf board andits resources which is thecollective property of Mus-lims is being used against theinterests of the majoritypopulation of the state andin favor of a particular politi-cal thought.

Khan appealed both In-dia and Pakistan to come outof the circle of trade only andfocus on resolving the Kash-mir dispute because the keyto every sort of progress andprosperity of the region liesin solution of the Kashmirdispute.—INP

Wakf resources being usedagainst Kashmiri Muslims

SRINAGAR—The All PartiesHurriyet Conference, (APHC)leader and the Chairman ofJammu and Kashmir SalvationMovement (JKSM), ZafarAkbar Butt has stressed reso-lution of the Kashmir disputethrough talks.

Akbar Butt addressingdifferent public gatheringsat Watalkadal, Safakadal andBaghat Barzla in Srinagarsaid that his party had al-ways supported the negoti-ated solution of Kashmir dis-

pute but the talks should bemeaningful and result-ori-ented.

He said that the successof talks between the foreignministers of Pakistan and In-dia being commenced fromFriday in Islamabad waslinked to the settlement ofKashmir dispute. He saidthat the sacrifices ofKashmiri people had raisedthe Kashmir dispute at inter-national level and theirstruggle would not be al-

lowed to go waste.The APHC leader urged

India to give up its tradi-tional rigid stance towardsthe Kashmir dispute andsettle it in accordance withaspirations of Kashmiripeople. He also demandedthe inclusion of genuineleadership of the people ofKashmir in the dialogue pro-cess between Pakistan andIndia so that permanent so-lution of the dispute couldbe evolved.—INP

JKSM calls for Kashmirsettlement through talks

S R I N A G A R — T h eunderperforming govern-ment department and devel-opmental agencies in Kash-mir have invented a novelmethod of putting the blameon others to veil their ownmisdemeanor. Jammu andKashmir Projects Construc-tion Corporation (JKPCC),Roads and Buildings (R&B)and Irrigation departments,in an attempt to cover thenonperformance, are clan-destinely putting the blameon J&K Cements, the majorprofit-making public sector

undertaking for not cateringtheir demands while as theofficial figures reveal thatthe cement supply to vari-ous government depart-ments is for developmentalprojects is more than satis-factory.

Figures available withthe Early Times suggestthat JK Cements has so for,provided 94.4 % of the pro-jected demand to JKPCCwhile as R&B Kashmir hastaken delivery of 260000 MTout of the projected demandof 300000 MT for last three

months. Similarly availabil-ity of quality cement to PHEand Irrigation departmentswas up to the mark. Not-withstanding the adequatesupply of cement to thesedepartments and corpora-tions by JK Cements, everyovert and covert effort con-tinues to put the blame forfailures on the profit-makingcorporation.

Early Times has rel i-ably learnt that whenJKPCC and R&B weregrilled by the administra-tive department.—NNI

Nonperforming departments concealfacts, put blame on JK Cements

SRINAGAR—The trend ofsuicides is fast catchingpace amongst women inKashmir as over 15 femalescommitted suicide in the Val-ley during the month of Au-gust alone. The total num-ber of suicides reported was20 for the month which in-clude 15 females, mostly teen-aged girls.

Looking at the policerecords, a 15-year old girlresident of Watnard,Anantnag attempted suicideby setting herself ablaze ather residence on August 3.The girl is currently in criti-cal conditions. The next day,18-year old girl from Kulgamconsumed poisonous sub-stance at her residence in abid to end her life. She diedtwo days later. On August 8,a 16-year old girl from Bagh-i-Mehtab consumed some

15 Kashmiri girls among20 attempt suicide

poisonous substance at herhome. She was shifted toSMHS hospital for treatmentwhere she breathed her last.

Two girls committed sui-cide on August 17 which in-cluded 19-year old girl ofNowlori Pattan and anothergirl from Sehgund Sallar,Anantnag. Both girls con-sumed poisonous sub-stances. On August 21, thesecond day of Eid-ul-Fitr,three girls committed sui-cide.

One 20-year old girl resi-dent of Bumzoowa,Anantnag, consumed somepoisonous substance at herhome and died. During theintervening night of August20-21, a lady from WaylooTangmarg consumed somepoisonous substance at herhome. On the same day, an-other teenage girls from

Kupwara attempted suicide.Two girls made suicide bidson August 23. Three sui-cides were reported on Au-gust 24, and two on August25.

This alarming increase inthe suicides is worrying ex-perts here who see the ur-gent need for counselingyouth at different levels, pro-viding moral and religiouseducation. The most com-mon reasons for suicides arethe examination pressure,love affairs, marital discordand related issues. TheSher-i-Kashmir Institute ofMedical Sciences (SKIMS),Kashmir’s premier medicalinstitute, recorded 248 sui-cides in 2010.

In 2011, over 1000 sui-cides cases were registeredwith SKIMS and SMHS hos-pital of Srinagar.—NNI

Dr Qasim hascompleted lifeterm: QayoomSRINAGAR—Dr MohammadQasim senior pro-freedomKashmiri leader and MuslimLeague Chairman has al-ready completed life termand his continuous deten-tion is against law. This wasthe argument made by MianAbdul Qayoom, the counselfor Dr Qasim before the HighCourt that heard the matter.

Qayoom further arguedthat the overall period of de-tention of Dr Qasim includ-ing the remission sums up tomore than 20 years and hiscurrent detention is out ofsync with the provisions oflaw.

“Dr Faktoo on May 31,2012 completed 20 years inprison which as per JailManual and Prisons Act,amounts to life imprison-ment,” Qayoom argued.

Referring to a communi-cation forwarded by DIGPrisons addressed to DGPrisons, Qayoom submittedthat his client has completedthe sentence and he de-serves to be released with-out any delay.

Qayoom pleaded that DrQasim has been granted re-mission of three days everymonth for his behavior. “Be-sides achieving two PhD de-grees, Dr Qasim taught 125students inside the jail whogot their degrees from vari-ous universities after suc-cessfully completing theircourses,” Qayoom argued.The counsel referred to vari-ous Supreme Court judg-ments in support of his con-tention and prayed for therelease of the detainee.—NNI

SRINAGAR—Jammu and Kash-mir Democratic LiberationParty Chairman, HashimQuereshi has said people ofKashmir have always stoodfor struggle but that problemwas at the leadership level.“Kashmiris have been fight-ing against foreign rule forfour hundred years. But theywere never cowed down bythe rulers. Sometimes 10, 15people kept the movementalive. But problem has beenwith the leadership,” Quereshisaid while releasing his book,Afshai Haq at Hotel Ahdooshere.

Quereshi said that there

was need for introspection atthe leadership level. “Five toten people form an organiza-tion whether they are pro-Pa-kistan or pro-independentparties. There is not unity evenbetween pro-freedom partiesand pro-Pakistan parties.They are also divided,”Quershi was quoted by localmedia as saying.

Quereshi said that he wasa staunch supporter of Paki-stan before meeting JKLFfounder Maqbool Bhat who“made me understand that wecannot demand India’s expul-sion and accept Pakistan.”

“Our cause will become

weak in the eyes of interna-tional community,” Quereshisaid while quoting the JKLFfounder.

Senior Hurriyat (M) leader,Moulana Abass Ansari saidthat unity was prerequisite forsuccess of struggle. “Unity isimportant. If we will unite, suc-cess will come automatically,”he said. Ansari said that lakhsof Muslims who migrated arenot respected in Pakistan asthey are “still considered asMuhajirs.” Ex-Secretary Cul-tural Academy, Zaffar Manhassaid that from 1947 “variousagencies have tried to curb thefreedom of speech.” —NNI

Kashmiris always stoodfor struggle: Qureshi

“If you concede theobvious you’re

conceding nothing,but you gain backcredibility. That’s atrade you should

make every time”.

— Mark KatzUS delegation led by Luke Bronin, Deputy Assistant Secretary, US Department of Trea-sury meets Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

Rates for conversionKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency BearerCertificates, Special U.S.Dollar Bonds and profitsthereon by all banks and forproviding Forward Coveron Foreign CurrencyDeposits (excluding F.E.25deposits) by the State Bankon September 10, 2012. Therates are U.S. Dollar Rs94.6342, Japanese Yen Rs1.1987, Pound Sterling Rs151.0740 and Euro Rs120.0245.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Availabilityof adequate funds and in-creased investment is criti-cal for achieving all Millen-nium Development Goals(MDGs) in Pakistan before2015 deadline, the NationalAssembly’s special commit-tee on MDGs heard.

A High level meeting ofthe National Assembly’sspecial committee on MDGspressed on need for promo-tion of watershed manage-ment, rainwater harvesting,building up more water res-ervoirs of different sizes to

NA body for coordination on MDGs, environmental issues

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The SensitivePrice Indicator (SPI) for theweek ended on September 6,for the lowest income groupup to Rs.8,000, registerednominal increase of 0.11 percent as compared to the pre-vious week.

The SPI for the week un-der review in the above men-tioned group was recorded at182.48 points against 182.28points registered in the pre-vious week, according to pro-

Weekly inflation increasesvisional figures of PakistanBureau of Statistics (FBS).

The weekly SPI has beencomputed with base 2007-2008=100, covering 17 urbancenters and 53 essential itemsfor all income groups andcombined. The SPI for thecombined group increased by0.30 per cent as it went up from187.58 points in the previousweek to 188.14 points in theweek under review. As com-pared to the correspondingweek of last year, the SPI forthe combined group in the

week under review witnessedincrease of 7.50 percent.

As compared to the lastweek, the SPI for the incomegroups from Rs.8001-12,000,12,001-18,000, 18001-35,000and above Rs.35,000 in-creased by 0.12 percent, 0.14percent, 0.23 and 0.49 percentrespectively.

During the week underreview average prices of 11items registered decrease,while that of 21 items in-crease with the remaining 21items’ prices unchanged.

STAFF REPORTER

LA H O R E —Privat izat ionhas started paying divi-dend to the government asPakistan’s first private trainservice Pak Business Ex-press has paid PakistanRailways a staggeringamount of Rs 516 million infirst six months of its opera-tion.

The marvelous successof Pak Business Expresshas added a new page toPublic-Private Partnershipas the private sector runtrain is earning huge moneyat this point in time whenPakistan Railways is facinga huge deficit and suspen-sion of trains on a largenumber of routes has be-come order of the day.

Pak Business Expresstop earner for Railways

Mian Shafqat Ali, a Di-rector of the company run-ning Pak Business Expresssaid that the very objectivebehind this venture was re-vival of Pakistan Railwaysand bringing back the lostglories once attached to it.The amount Pak BusinessExpress has so far paid toPakistan Railways is biggerthan the grand total whatthe railway authorities aregett ing from all othertrains.

He said that Pak Busi-ness Express has so far spentRs 170.65 million to ensurecomfort to passengers frombuying tickets to their desti-nation. Pak Business Expressspent a big amount to reducetravel time between Lahoreand Karachi.

Pak Business Express isthe only train that is travel-ling in between Lahore andKarachi in record time, headded.

“Time was the biggestissue for the train travelersand the management of PakBusiness Express has fo-cused on this issue vigor-ously and this is the onlyreason that the occupancyof this private sector runtrain is improving with ev-ery passing day.”

Mian Shafqat Ali saidthat the success of PakBusiness Express hasopened up new doors ofpublic-private partnershipand it is an achievementthat now Pakistan Railwayshas offered more trains tothe private sector.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The FederalBoard of Revenue (FBR) hassaid that the gross and netsales tax collection during2011-2012 was Rs 850.1 bil-lion and Rs 804.8 billion, re-spectively, showing growthof 24.3 per cent and 27.1 percent over the correspondingperiod of previous fiscal.

According to the FBR’squarterly review it is evidentfrom the monthly collectiontrend that despite shifting ofnumber of services to theSindh province during cur-rent fiscal, the net collectionhas registered vibrantgrowth throughout the yearexcept May, 2012 where therehas been negative growth

FBR reports hike in ST collectionbut the same has been com-pensated in June, 2012 where17.8 per cent growth has beenrecorded.

The GST is the major rev-enue generating sources offederal tax receipts. It con-stitutes around 42.7 per centof the total net revenue col-lection during the FY 2011-12. The gross and net salestax collection during theyear has been Rs 850.1 bil-lion and Rs 804.8 billion, re-spectively, showing growthof 24.3 per cent and 27.1 percent over the correspondingperiod of previous fiscal. Ofnet collection, more thanhalf of total sales tax is con-tributed by sales tax on do-mestic goods and serviceswhile the rest originates

from imports. Within netdomestic sales tax collection,major contribution has comefrom POL products, telecom,natural gas, services, fertil-izer, sugar and cigarettes etc.On the other hand, POLproducts, edible oil, plasticresins, vehicles, iron andsteel and machinery havemade major contribution inthe collection of Sales taxfrom imports.

It is manifested from datathat growth under sales taximport has been 39.4 per centboth at gross and net term,whereas due to sluggishgrowth in the economy andpayment of refund by Rs 45.3billion, has restricted itsgrowth to 27.1 per cent in netterm.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Lahore Stock Ex-change Managing DirectorAftab Ahmad Chaudhry hasasked the government to ei-ther give Pakistan MercantileExchange under the controlof all three stocks exchangesor allow setting up of SpotCommodity Exchange, spe-cifically for trading of agricul-ture produce.

While talking to reportershere Friday, Aftab said Paki-stan Mercantile Exchangehas failed to attract investorsin trading of agriculture pro-duce like wheat and rice, asmost of the trading at thePME takes place in metal likegold or crude oil. The poten-tial in the agriculture sector

LSE seeks permission foragriculture trading

does not reflect at thecountry’s mercantile ex-change while proposed SpotCommodity Exchange wouldhelp achieve this goal. Hewas of the view that the pro-posed Exchange should be asubordinate organization ofKarachi Stock Exchange,Lahore Stock Exchange andIslamabad Stock Exchange.He further said that the man-agement control of the pro-posed Exchange should begiven to all the three stocksexchanges if they succeed inmanaging 40 percent of itsshare.

He maintained that theproposed Exchange wouldhelp provide maximum priceto the farmers besides elimi-nating the role of middle men.

Moreover, the informal lend-ing in the agriculture sectorcould be brought in to bank-ing channel, he said. “Nowthe competitive position ofthe Lahore Stock Exchangedepends upon agriculturesector” he added.

Aftab Chaudhry said thatthe government t shouldalso procure wheat to ensurefood security from the SpotCommodity Exchange. “Wewant building of internationalstandard warehouse formaintaining crops’ stocksacross the country while farm-ers would have facility fordisposing of their produce atspot rate through theExchange’s mobile tradingunits at their door-steps” hemaintained.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Govern-ment of Japan will organizeBusiness Missions to visitPakistan in October 6-11 inconnection with Expo-Paki-stan to be held in Karachi.

“These business mis-sions aim at to explore busi-ness opportunities by theJapanese companies whichare interested in investing inPakistan”, NaoakiKAMOSHIDA Counsellor(Economic and Developmentembassy of Japan Islamabad)told a group of journalists ata reception here.

The reception was

Japan to send trademission to Pakistan

hosted by ToshikazuIsomura Counselor PublicAffairs Department Embassyof Japan for senior journal-ists covering beat of Financeand Economic Affairs.

Susumu Emdo Repre-sentative Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA)and Reiki MOTOGISHI, Sec-ond Secretary Embassy ofJapan in Pakistan were alsopresent on the occasion.

He said Business Mis-sions will also visit Karachi,Islamabad, Lahore and Sialkotto explore the business and in-vestment opportunities forJapanese companies interestedin investments in Pakistan.

Mr.Naoaki further said thattowards further strengtheningeconomic and business rela-tions with Pakistan at Pak-Ja-pan 60th anniversary of diplo-matic relations also organizedinvestment seminars inSingapore on May 31, inBangkok on June 1, in Tokyoon August 28, in Nagoya onAugust 29 and Osaka on Au-gust 30, this year.

He said that to solvebusiness difficulties Pakistanand Japan joint business dia-logue was held in March 21.Another Pakistan-Japangovernment-business dia-logue was also held in March22, this year, he added.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf on Fridaysaid that Pakistan Steel Millsis a national asset and thegovernment is committed tomake it an efficient and prof-itable enterprise by increas-ing its production capacity.

He expressed these viewswhile presiding over a meet-ing to discuss matters relat-ing to the restructuring andmodernizing of PakistanSteel Mills at the PrimeMinister’s House here.

The Prime Minister saidexpansion of the PSM wouldgenerate thousands of jobopportunities, help save sub-stantial foreign exchangeand provide impetus to in-dustrial sector in the coun-

Govt committed toturn PSM profitable

try.Prime Minister Raja

Pervez Ashraf said that Paki-stan Steel Mill is a legacy ofShaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhuttoand a symbol of friendshipand cooperation betweenPakistan and the RussianFederation.

The Prime Minister saidthat his government desiresthat work on reconstruction,modernization and expansionof Pakistan Steel Mills be alsoundertaken by the Govern-ment of Pakistan PeoplesParty. The expansion of thePakistan Steel Mills is needof the hour, he said.

The Prime Minister di-rected the management ofPakistan Steel Mills to comewith a concrete technical andfinancial plan for the expan-

sion of the Pakistan SteelMills so that the proposal canbe taken up during the forth-coming visit of Vladimir Putin,President of Russian Federa-tion who will be visiting Pa-kistan soon.

The Prime Minister alsodirected that the proposalshould include suggestionsfor financing of the expan-sion project including timelines.

Major GeneralMuhammad Javed, CEO ofPakistan Steel Mills briefedthe Prime Minister about theneed for expansion of theMills and the salient techni-cal and financial features ofthe proposal prepared by theManagement of the SteelMills. Major General Javed

Continued on Page 14

meeting mounting needs ofwater of all sectors, particu-larly agriculture and industry.For it is critical for country’soverall social, economic andenvironmental development.

Presided over by theChairperson of the NationalAssembly’s special commit-tee on MDG, the meeting washeld here at the committeeroom of the Ministry of Cli-mate Change.

The meeting was also at-tended, among others, byNational Assembly membersincluding Anwar Saifullah,Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, SyedAkhunzada Chittan, Dr

Nafisa Shah, Dr Zil-e-Huma,Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, MrsAnusha Rehman Khan Ad-vocate, Ms Saira Afzal Tarar,Engineer Khurram dastgirKhan, Mr. MuhammadPervez Malik, Mr. HamayunSaifullah Khan, Ms. ZubaidaJalal, Dr. Nadeem Ahsan, Mrs.Khush Bakht Shujaat, Dr.Attiya Inayatullah, Ms.Bushra Gohar, Mrs AsiyaNasir, Mr. Noor-ul-Haq Qadri,Mr. Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi,Secretary Planning and De-velopment Division and Sec-retary Ministry of ClimateChange Mr. Mahmood Alam,Director-General (Environ-

ment) of the Ministry of Cli-mate Change.

The Federal Minister ofthe Climate Change Ministryalso spoke to the meeting. Heappreciated the role of min-istry for pushing hard andutlising all available re-sources for achievement ofthe MDG.

He also urged the minis-try officials take all-out ef-forts to boost coordinationbetween provinces and thefederal ministry of climatechange with regard to theMDGs progress.

The MDGs are an eight-point roadmap with

measureable target and cleardeadlines for improving thelives of the world’s poorestpeople, with major focus onpoverty and hunger allevia-tion and addressing poorhealth facilities, gender in-equality, lack of education,lack of access to clean waterand environmental degrada-tion.

In September 2000, lead-ers from around the worldushered in the new millen-nium by adopting the Millen-nium Declaration.

The Decalartion, en-dorsed by 189 countries,emerged as a roadmap setting

out goals to be reached by2015.

Pakistan also signed onto the Millennium Declarationand agreed to meet theMDGs, The eight MDGs in-clude: eradicate extreme pov-erty and hunger, achieve uni-versal primary education,promote gender equality, re-duce child mortality, improvematernal health, combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other dis-eases, ensure environmentalsustainability and develop aglobal partnership for devel-opment.

During his presentationon ‘Progress on MDGS in

Pakistan’, Director-General(Environment), Ministry ofClimate Change, Jawaid AliKhan said that out of eightMDGs, Pakistan has suc-ceeded in achieving four im-portant MDGs, namely: Pro-tected Areas, Use of EnergyPer Unit of GDP, Number ofVechicles on CNG and Sul-phur content in Fuel.

He said that Pakistan ison track in all four remainingMDGs. Talking about de-pressing state of forests,Jawaid Ali Khan said, “Thecountry’s forest cover en-hanced from 4.8 percent to5.01 percent by 2003-04.

whereas, latest assessmentof forest cover is under pro-cess at the Pakistan ForestInstitute in Peshawar. How-ever, after devolution of theministry of environment andtransfer of mega forestryprojects to the provinceswith no PSDP allocation, itappears that target fixed forthis MDG is less likely to beachieved.”

Under the environmen-tal sustainability MDG, theforest cover has been tar-geted to increase from 4.8percent in 1990-91 to 6.0 per-cent by 2015.Continued on Page 14

Asian Bondmarket raises$4.7 trillionSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Asian De-velopment Bank(ADB) hassaid that the local currency(LCY) bond market of emerg-ing East Asia (EEA) has risenfrom approximately $1 trillionin 2001 to $5.7 trillion as ofend 2011.

In its latest Report issuedon Friday, ADB said the totalLCY bonds outstanding in EEAat the end of September 2011were approximately 8.1 per centof the global bond marketagainst 2.1 per cent in 1996.

It said the domestic cor-porate bond market has beenthe growth driver for theEEA LCY bond market as awhole over the past fewyears and accounts forabout a third of total bondsoutstanding in the region.The largest LCY bond mar-ket in EEA is the People’sRepublic of China with $3.4trillion in bonds outstandingat end 2011.

The Republic of Korea,Malaysia, and Thailand hadthe most liquid governmentbond markets - as measuredby quarterly turnover ratios- at the end of 2011.

PIBC welcomesvisit of Indian FM

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Chairman of Pak-India Business Council NoorMuhammad Qasoori whilewelcoming the two-day visitof Indian Foreign MinisterS.M.Krishna to Pakistanfrom September 8, has ex-pressed the hope that thevisit would help resolve thelong-standing issues ofboth countries.

In a meeting of the Coun-cil held on Thursday underthe chairmanship of itschairman, the policies of thegovernment regarding thetrade with India were appre-ciated and expressed satis-faction.

The Pak-India Councilalso praised the meeting ofPresident Asif Ali Zardariwith Indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and con-tacts of Senior Federal Min-ister for Trade MakhdoomAmeen Fahim to Indian lead-ership and said that itbrought a betterment in Pak-Indian relations and tradeactivities.

Cuttlefish sale fallsStaff ReporterKARACHI—China movedto cut the price it offersfor Pakistan’s cuttlefish,making it difficult for localexporters to capitalise onthe new season’s catchwhich so far was normal,fisheries sources. The newseason crop is normal andof world quality, head ofAkhlaq Enterprises AkhlaqHussain Abedi said,hoping that the seafoodlanding was likely to showa robust growth in thecoming months. However,he criticised the price ofcuttlefish in Chinesemarkets. China has cut theprice of cuttlefish by $2 akilogram, dropping it tojust $3, he pointed out. Hebelieved that the price ofother prime fish speciesquid is also likely to dropsignificantly if Chinacontinued to fail to fetchgood rates for its value-added seafood productson EU and US markets.Actually, China is strug-gling in global markets,particularly the EU andUS, which are key marketsfor its value-addedseafood exports, he said,adding that the situationof China’s global tradewould become clear by theyear end.

Fake pesticidesStaff CorrespondentHYDERABAD—DirectorPlant Protection AgricultureExtension Wing HyderabadBashir Ahmed paid asurprise visit at differentpesticides/fertiliser shops indifferent markets in Larkana,Tando Mohammad Khan,Kariyo Ghanwar, Golarchitalukas since last three daysand drawn different samplesof pesticides products andfertiliser from dealer shopsto test and examine thequality of same productsthrough laboratories. Duringthe visit, he warned thedealers to avoid sale of fakepesticides/fertilisers in themarket and doing theirbusiness fair and transpar-ent so that growers’community may not besuffered from such unfairbusiness.

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf chairing a meeting of Pakistan Steel Mills expansion plan.

BEIJING—The 2012 China-DPRK Economic, Trade, Cul-ture and Tourism Expo, whichwill be staged from Oct 12 to16 in Dandong, Liaoningprovince, has attracted ex-hibitors from Pakistan, ac-cording to the NandongCouncil for the Pormotion ofInternational Trade.

The Shamsi Import andExport Group, one ofPakistan’s exhibitors, hasbooked six stands and willsend a 20-member delegationto the Expo, bringing variousexotic craftworks for displaysaid a media report.

The general manager ofShamsi Group learned of the

Pakistani craftworks to bedisplayed at expo in China

China-DPRK Expo in midJune in Nanjing and showedgreat interest at that time.

He contacted the expoorganizing committee for fur-ther information about theexpo and decided to book sixstands to showcasePakistan’s traditionalcraftworks, includingbrassware, agate, woodenfurniture and leather craft,reports China Daily.

The brass craftworks arePakistan’s national treasureand are considered WestAsia’s greatest gift to theworld. The expo orgnizingcommittee also offered ser-vices to facilitate the Paki-

stani exhibitor’s attendance,including business visa ap-plication and import customsservices.

The Shamsi Import andExport Group is a large andinfluential company inWest Asia, consist ing ofmultiple subsidiaries cov-ering businesses in tech-nological research and de-velopment, manufactureand international trade, re-port said.

The Pakistani-stylecraftworks designed and pro-duced by the group havebeen sold in over 50 coun-tries and regions around theworld.—APP

PQ shippingactivity

KARACHI—Two ships, C.VCMA CGM Amber and C.VHammonia Pacificum carry-ing containers were allottedberths at Qasim InternationalContainer Terminal onThursday.

Meanwhile another shipAl-Kuwaitah with diesel oilalso arrived at outer anchor-age of Port Qasim on sameday.

Berth occupancy wasmaintained at the Port atfifty percent on Thursdaywhere seven ships namelyC.V CMA CGM Amber, C.VHammonia Pacificum, M.VSapphire-II, M,V AMS Pe-gasus-III, M.V AnanyaNaree, M.T Chemroad Vegaand M.T Ocean Mercuryare currently occupyingberths to load/offload con-tainers, cement, corn, palmoil and diesel oil during lost24 hours.

A cargo volume of 61,662tonnes, comprises 34,513tonnes imports and 27,149tonnes exports, inclusivecontainerized cargo carriedin 2,064 containers (1,014 im-ports and 1,050 exportsTEUs) were handled at thePort during last 24 hours.

Two ships C.V CMACGM Amber and M.TChemroad Vega sailed out tosea on Friday morning whileanother ship C.V HammoniaPacificum is expected to sailon same day.—APP

Germanproduction climbsBERLIN—German exportsand imports edged up in Julyand industrial output roseunexpectedly, showing sus-tained resilience in Europe’slargest economy to the eurozone crisis, but economistsexpect to see increased signsthat business is now flagging.

Data from the FederalStatistics Office showed ex-ports and imports fromEurope’s growth engineinched up a seasonally ad-justed 0.5 percent and im-ports gained 0.9 percent inJuly, boosting expectationsthat domestic demand willcarry the German economythrough the debt crisis and aglobal slowdown in demand.

Separate figures releasedon Friday showed industrialproduction climbed by a bet-ter-than-expected 1.3 percenton the month in July as facto-ries churned out more du-rable.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadChamber of Commerce andIndustry (ICCI) and Associa-tion of Certified CharteredAccountant (ACCA) here onFriday signed a Memoran-dum of Understanding(MoU) to work together toachieve and promote thehighest professional, ethicaland governance standards.

The MoU is also aimedat promoting public interestand support the accountingprofession and businesscommunity by building bothcapacity and capability.

The agreement wassigned by Yassar Sakhi Butt,President ICCI and ShamezMukhi, Head of Public Af-fairs ACCA Pakistan.

Speaking on the occa-

ICCI, ACCA signcollaboration MoU

sion, President ICCI said thatthe partnership betweenICCI and ACCA would mu-tually benefit the businesscommunity and the accoun-tancy profession at large.

ACCA’s work on the Re-search and Insights front hasbeen remarkable which wouldenable us to strengthen rela-tionships with the businesscommunity further, headded. Butt urged the gov-ernment to develop a compre-hensive Information Commu-nication technology (ICT)infrastructure and open train-ing institutes throughout thecountry for providing train-ing to entrepreneurs on spe-cially discounted packages.

Shamez Mukhi, Head ofPublic Affairs ACCA Paki-stan said that ACCA Pakistaneagerly seeks to create syn-

ergies with regulators likeICCI.

“We seek value additionfor business enterprises andour members to enable themachieve effective outputs andoutcome,” he said adding thispartnership is unique and mayprove to be cornerstone forother similar progressive ini-tiatives. Following the sign-ing ceremony, ACCA Paki-stan and ICCI also organizeda session on ‘TransformingFinance Function to e-Profes-sional’. Muhammad Uzair, Di-rector Internal Audit, TourismPromotion Services (Ltd)spoke on e-learning and e-as-sessment practices, offeringsolutions to create a betterlearning experience, as well asdeveloping more challengingand realistic tests of skills andcompetence.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—PIAF-FoundersAlliance has rejected thegovernment proposal for an-other increase in the petro-leum prices and urged to re-frain from such a decision thatwould cause unmanageableinflation and further jack-upthe graph of poverty.

In a joint statement thePIAF-Founders AllianceCorporate Class candidatesincluding Farooq Iftikhar,Ibrar Ahmad, Mian TariqRehman, Ch Iftikhar Bashir,Mumshad Ali, TashrafJavaid, Tanvir Ahmad Sufiand Associate Class candi-dates Irfan Iqbal Sheikh,Kashif Anwar, S M Tariq,Hasssan Amjad, NasirHameed Khan, Mudassar

PIAF says ‘no’ to anyfresh hike in POL prices

Masood, Mian Zahid Javaidand Mohammad Akram saidthat the repeated increases inthe prices of petroleum prod-ucts and electricity are a con-spiracy against the businesscommunity that is alreadyfacing multiple challenges.

They said that Pakistanimerchandise because of theirhigh prices had already losttheir due place in the inter-national market and if thegovernment fails to take cor-rective measures the situa-tion would get out of hand.

They said that the manu-facturing sector is unable toascertain to prices of theirgoods due to repeated up-ward fluctuation in the pricesof raw material and electric-ity rates.

They said that in the glo-

bal marketplace the profitmargin ranges from 0.3 percent to 0.5 per cent and if therates of petroleum productswould be raised fortnightly,how the business commu-nity would be able to com-pete with their counterpartsin the neighboring countries.

They were of the viewthat instead of burdening thepeople, the governmentshould absorb the raise in theprices of petroleum prices inthe international market andensure relief to the businesscommunity.

The Alliance candidatesurged the government to im-mediately withdraw the pro-posal for another hike in theprices of petroleum productsfor the sake of economy andthe country.

ISLAMABAD: USAID Deputy Mission Director Karen Freeman addressing a pressconference.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Drip and Sprin-kler Irrigation Systemswould be installed on 7,000acres in 14 districts ofSahiwal, Multan,Bahawalpur and D.G. KhanDivisions under a mega ir-rigation project Punjab Irri-gated Agriculture Produc-tivity Improvement Project(PIPIP).

This was disclosed in ahigh level meeting chairedby the Secretary Agricul-ture, Punjab MuhammadMushtaq Ahmad, says aspokesman of the Depart-ment. Dr. MuhammadAnjum Ali, Director General(Ext. & AR), Punjab, Ch.Muhammad Ashraf, Direc-tor General (Water Man-agement), Punjab, M. RafiqAkhtar, Director Agricul-

Modern irrigation systems to beinstalled in 14 districts

tural Information, Punjab, Ex-ecutive District Officers ofAgriculture and District Of-ficers of Agriculture Exten-sion and on Farm WaterManagement of Multan,Bahawalpur, D.G. Khan andSahiwal Divisions partici-pated in the meeting.

Director General (WaterManagement), Punjab toldthe meeting that drip &sprinkler irrigation systemswould be installed in all Dis-tricts of Multan, Bahawalpur,D.G. Khan and Sahiwal Divi-sions on 1850, 1800, 2150 and2150 acres respectively un-der the project PIPIP.

He further said that bal-loting for providing 350 laserland leveling units to thefarmers at subsidy under theproject has been scheduledduring third week of Septem-ber 2012.

Dr. Muhammad Anjum Aliwhile briefing about provisionof tractor under Green Trac-tor Scheme told that more than258,000 applications havebeen received and tehsil wisetransparent balloting is beingscheduled on 1st October.

He stated that PunjabGovernment will provide20,000 tractors to young farm-ers under Green TractorScheme 2012-13 for which thetotal subsidy of Rs 4.00 bil-lion will be provided. He fur-ther said that a training work-shop will be organized on17th October for DDOs ofrespective tehsils and luckywinners of Green TractorScheme will get the tractorsup to 31st December.

Secretary Agriculture,Punjab directed to exert con-certed efforts to controlCLCV attack on cotton crop

and to ensure achievingproduction target of 10.05million cotton bales andprovide all necessary guid-ance against CLCV.

He further directed fieldstaff to provide guidanceto the farmers to control in-sect pests through goodagricultural practices andmotivate them to adopthigh efficiency irrigationsystems for judicious useof available irrigation waterand productivity enhance-ment.

Secretary Agriculturealso hold a meeting withCommissioner, Bahawalpurand DCOs ofBahawalnagar, R.Y. Khanand Bahawalpur Districtsand reviewed implementa-tion of various farmerfriendly initiatives ofPunjab Government.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Securitiesand Exchange Commissionof Pakistan (SECP) said theretail investors of twin citiesof Rawalpindi and Islamabadthat the investor educationprogramme would createawareness among investorson their rights and responsi-bilities and to understandand manage risk and reducetheir vulnerability to fraudu-lent schemes in the market.

In a presentation on theinvestor educationprogramme, Salman Hayat,SECP Management Execu-tive, briefed the participantsabout the investor educationprogramme initiated collec-tively by stock exchangesand SECP.

Islamabad Stock Ex-change (ISE) held a seminaron investor education and

Benefits of investors educationprogramme underlined

awareness programme onThursday at International Is-lamic University (IIU),Islamabad in collaborationwith SECP.

Salman Hayat informedthat the investor educationprogramme would empowerinvestors in evaluating dif-ferent financial products andmaking informed decisions.

It would expand outreachof financial services andproducts for more participa-tion in the markets, and tocreate a balance in relianceon the banking sector andnon-banking sectors. Itwould also remove mistruston the financial sector in Pa-kistan and build investorconfidence.

The programme will focuson different segments of thepopulation with specific ini-tiatives addressing each seg-ment, taking in to account

their needs, experience andaccessibility. The investorswill be segmented into threedifferent bands: The first cat-egory - School & UniversityStudents - aim at developinglife-long saving and invest-ing habits at an early age. Thesecond category is the gen-eral investors which will tar-get the corporate sector andbusiness community fromvarious professions with aview to educate potential andexisting investors on theirrights, responsibilities, risksand rewards, analysis associ-ated with investment in thecapital market, retirement plan-ning and highlight the legalinfrastructure related with in-vestments. The third categorycovers Grey Individualswhich would focus on indi-viduals close to the retirementage with a lifelong of savings,he added.

Lahore marketrates

LAHORE—Agriculture Mar-keting Information ServicePunjab (AMISP) issued ratesof agriculture products in lo-cal market on Friday.

As per details, followingare the per 100 kg rates of dif-ferent agriculture products inLahore market:

Maize minimum Rs 2000and maximum 2200, RiceSuper Karnal Basmati(New) minimum Rs 10000and maximum Rs 11000,Rice Basmati (old) minimumRs 11500 and maximum Rs12000, white sugar mini-mum Rs 5100 and maximumRs 5100, white gram (local)minimum Rs 10500 andmaximum Rs 10500, RedChili Whole (Dry) minimumRs 160 maximum Rs 180,Caulif lower minimum Rs4000 and maximum Rs 4500,Onion minimum Rs 2400and maximum Rs 2600, To-mato minimum Rs 3500 andmaximum Rs 4000, Ginger(china) minimum Rs 4500and maximum Rs 5000, Gar-l ic (China) minimum Rs10000 and maximum Rs10500, Peas minimum Rs8000 and maximum Rs 8500,Lady Finger minimum Rs3500 and maximum Rs 4000,Brinjal minimum Rs 2500and maximum Rs 3000, Po-tato Fresh minimum Rs 2400and maximum Rs 2600,Apple (Gatcha) minimumRs 5000 and maximum Rs6000, Mango (Anwer Ratol)minimum Rs 6500 and maxi-mum Rs 7000, Mango(Chounsa) minimum Rs6500 and maximum Rs 7000,Banana (Dozen) minimumRs 60 and maximum Rs70.—APP

He told the meeting thatProtected Areas (PAs) cov-erage has been targeted from11.25 percent to 12 percentby 2015 under the environ-mental sustainability MDG.This target has also beenachieved as now more than12 percent area of Pakistan iscovered under Pas systemincluding 25 national parksnotified by the provincialgovernments.

Earlier, a senior ministryofficials told the meeting thatthe climate change ministryalready making efforts themanagement of the protectedareas (Pas) on scientific lines.

Nafeesa Shah from Sindh,

who is also member of theNational Assembly’s specialcommittee on MDGs urgedthe ministry to place onrecord the violations in thePAs like oil and gas and minigso that such issues could beraised in the national assem-blies and assemblies for con-trolling them. Third andfourth indicator relating tothe use of energy per unit ofGDP and number of vehiclesrunning on CNG.

The director general (En-vironment) said that this tar-get has also been achieved .He said that according to theEconomic survey of Pakistan2010-11, Pakistan tops the list

of 1op 10 countries using amaximum number of vehicleson compressed natural gas(CNG). Presently, there are2.50 million (21.6 percent) ofthe total vehicles running ofCNG in the country.

He said that as far as ac-cess to safe water MDG isconcernd, Pakistan is still ontrack to achieve the goal ofhalving the population with-out access to improved wa-ter by 2015.

The Pakistan Social andLiving Standards Measure-ment Survey (PSLM) 2010-11reveals that about 91 percentof the population has accessto improved drinking water.

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said that the annual demandof iron steel products is esti-mated at 7.5 million tons peryear whereas the local pro-duction is about 4 milliontons per year.

Pakistan, he said, imports3 million tons of iron steelamounting to an estimated 2billion dollars. He said thatSteel Mills which presentlyhas a capacity of 1.1 milliontons has a provision for in-creasing the production of 3million tons per day.

The meeting was at-tended by Dr Abdul HafeezShaikh Minister for Finance,Chaudhry Anwar Ali CheemaMinister for Production,Syed Naveed Qamar Minis-ter for Defence, HinaRabbani Khar Minister forForeign Affairs, Abbas KhanAfridi Minister of State forCommerce, NawabzadaMalik Aman Khan Ministerof State for Foreign Affairs,Saleem H Mandviwala Chair-man BOI, Secretaries Minis-tries of Commerce, ForeignAffairs, EAD and other se-nior government officials.

Govtcommitted

From Page-13

PESHAWAR: Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Barrister Masud Kausar giving exporttrophy to Usman Bilour.

Govt to disburseRs 14.9b underEOBI scheme

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The govern-ment is expected to disburseRs 14.9 billion under Em-ployees’ Old-AgeBenefits(EOBI) Scheme incurrent financial year 2012-13 against Rs 11.7 billion dis-bursement in last financialyear 2011-12,said an official.

The official said during2011-12, EOBI had disbursedRs 11.7 billion to some358,800 beneficiaries while,in current fiscal year 2012-13 disbursement is expectedto be Rs 14.9 billion.

Employees’ Old-AgeBenefits Scheme has beenestablished primari ly toprovide subsistence pen-sion and other benefi ts .Over the years, i t hasproved to be a salient fac-tor in combating poverty inthe country.

The official said sincethe scheme is f inancedthrough contributions byeligible employers and em-ployees who pay a monthlycontribution of 6 per centand 1 per cent of the mini-mum wages, therefore, itsimpact is l imited. Thescheme can be used as animportant poverty allevia-t ion vehicle provided i tscoverage is enhanced andtotal population is broughtunder the scheme throughlegislation. Since the actu-arial valuation suggestthat at present level of ben-efits and contribution, thefunds would start depletingin the year 2022 and totallyexhaust in the year 2029,therefore, any further in-crease would put extrastrain on its viability.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—FBR has pro-posed that Pakistan andBangladesh should liberalizetheir markets for each otherand finalize the overdue FreeTrade Agreement without fur-ther delay and non-tariff bar-riers at both ends whichhinder the trade between twonations should be removed bysigning the FTA.

A senior official of the FBRUmar Wahid has conductedan in-depth analysis on Paki-stan-Bangladesh EconomicExpansion Challenges andOpportunities which hasbeen part of the FBR’s quar-terly review issued here onThursday.

The data compiled by the

Pak, BD earlyFTA stressed

FBR revealed that the GDP ofBangladesh is US $ 115.2 bil-lion (FY 2011), GDP per capitais US $ 690. Real GDP is 6.3%.Total exports stood at US $23.68 billion and total importsUS $ 31.75 billion. Total tradevolume is US $ 55.61 billionand trade balance is US $ -7.89 billion. In contrast to Pa-kistan the economy ofBangladesh is mainly drivenby the services sector whichaccount for 52.9% in the over-all GDP composition, fol-lowed by Industry whichshared 27.8% in the GDP andagriculture is the third com-position of GDP with share of18.4%. Major industries ofBangladesh are cotton tex-tiles, jute, garments, tea pro-cessing, paper newsprint, ce-

ment, chemical fertilizer, lightengineering, and sugar.

Bilateral trade betweenthese two countries is not onlyvery small but also has beengrowing very slowly over thepast years. During the eleven-year period between 2000-01and 2010-11, Pakistan export toBangladesh grew at an aver-age annual rate of 27.6 percentand imports from Bangladeshgrew at the rate of 9.2 percent.The total value of trade (exportplus import) between the twocountries in 2010-11 was about$983 million, FBR added.

The FBR said that the to-tal volume of trade betweenPakistan and Bangladeshstood around US$ one billionduring the fiscal year 2010-2011.

RAWALPINDI: Secretary Agriculture Punjab Muhammad Mushtaq Ahmed chairing the meeting on Green TractorScheme.

Santos rejects call for ceasefireBOGOTA/HAVANA—Colombian Presi-dent Juan Manuel Santos rejected a pro-posal on Friday by leftist FARC rebelsfor a bilateral ceasefire during talks nextmonth aimed at bringing an end to half acentury of war.The call for both sides toput down their weapons while talks areunder way in Norway came earlier fromleaders of the Revolutionary ArmedForces of Colombia at a news confer-ence in Havana. The proposal and its

rejection could complicate the process from the start asSantos is adamant that Colombian military operations wouldcontinue across “every centimetre” of the Andean nation. “Ihave asked that military operations be intensified, that therewill be no ceasefire of any kind,” Santos said during anaddress at a military base in Tolemaida, close to the capital.“We won’t cede anything at all until we reach the final agree-ment,” he added. “That should be very clear.” A decade ago,during the last attempt at ending Latin America’s longest-running insurgency, the rebels used a demilitarized area thesize of Switzerland to beef up their military operations andestablish a multibillion-dollar drug-trafficking network. “Oneof the differences with past peace processes is that we won’tgive up one centimetre of national territory or cease opera-tions, and those principals have to be maintained until theend,” Santos said.—Reuters

Singh blamed for Parliament washoutNEW DELHI—The Bharatiya JanataParty today hit back at Prime MinisterManmohan Singh for blaming the Op-position for disrupting Parliament’s mon-soon session, with Sushma Swaraj say-ing being in the majority does not givethe Congress the right to loot the nation.Swaraj also said that the BJP’s ploy todisrupt the Parliament session was a tac-tic for the government to act in the coalblocks allocation scam. She also blamed

Manmohan Singh for the Parliament washout, saying thePM did nothing to heed the Opposition’s demand of anindependent probe in the scam and cancellation of all allot-ments in the coal blocks. BJP leader Arun Jaitley also blamedthe United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for the washout, say-ing the coal scam is a case of crony capitalism where busi-nessmen and politicians linked to the UPA made windfallgains. He warned that the battle against corruption will nowmove from Parliament onto the streets. He also rued the lackof willingness of the government’s part to take correctivemeasures in the ‘Coalgate’ case, saying that competitivebidding for of coal blocks has not begun yet. Early in theday, hitting out at the BJP for disrupting Parliament,Manmohan Singh had said that what was witnessed was‘total negation’ of democracy. All ‘right-thinking people’, headded, should stand up to say that institutions should beallowed to function. “We take pride in the fact we had afunctional democracy. —Reuters

EU warns RussiaHELSINKI—Europe’s trade chief threat-ened to take Russia to the World TradeOrganization over a string of restrictivepractices on Friday, saying Moscowneeded to play by the rules now it was amember of the global body. Trade Com-missioner Karel De Gucht criticisedRussia’s ban on European live animalimports, plans to levy fees on importedvehicles, two anti-dumping cases andanother trade defence case launched by

Moscow against Europe in recent months. Laurent DubruleIn the same week that the European Commission openedan investigation into Russia’s Gazprom and China’s solarpanel exports, De Gucht said Russia was sending “thewrong signal” instead of moving towards more liberalisation.“Be it live animals, or the recycling fee for imported cars,we will be very vigilant in making sure they live up to theirengagements,” De Gucht told Reuters on the sidelines of aEU-Russia seminar in Helsinki. “Our intention is to con-tinue discussions. But if there is no change in their posi-tion, we have said that we will use whatever means neces-sary to come to a result we believe would be in line with theWTO. It is a serious thing.” Russia joined the WTO lastmonth after an 18-year wait. President Vladimir Putin saidon Wednesday the country would use its membership totry to develop freer trade across the world. He will also behoping it will further boost Russia’s energy-driven $1.9trillion economy.—Reuters

Merkel braves Bavaria beerABENSBERG—With three hours of drink-ing behind them when Angela Merkelentered the sweltering beer tent, the 3,000Bavarians crammed around long woodentables gave the German chancellor awarm and rowdy welcome. After takingthe politician’s obligatory swig, Merkellaunched into her address, extolling tra-ditional values close to Bavarian heartsand praising the predominantly Catho-lic state’s exemplary “laptop and

lederhosen” economy. Yet despite the cheers and festiveatmosphere, the annual Gillamoos folk festival north ofMunich is alien territory for Merkel, a protestant who grewup in the former communist East, and Bavarians have be-come a nagging thorn in her side. The Christian SocialUnion (CSU), Bavarian sister party to her Christian Demo-crats (CDU), has been ratcheting up its rhetoric on the eurozone crisis ahead of a state election next year and makinglife more difficult for the chancellor. While she is trying toconvince Germans to accept “more Europe”, leading CSUofficials are sending a very different message. Some havesuggested they want Greece ejected from the euro zone.Party general secretary Alexander Dobrindt, who escortedMerkel into the tent, has said he expects the Greeks toleave by 2013.—Reuters

Palestinian PM on resignRAMALLAH—Palestinian Prime Minis-ter Salam Fayyad said on Friday he waswilling to resign if the public demanded,after three days of street protestsagainst high living costs across the oc-cupied West Bank, but did not say thathe was going to do so. A fuel price in-crease of about 5 percent sparked thedemonstrations in the Palestinian cit-ies of Ramallah, Jenin and Hebron,where protesters burned an effigy of

Fayyad, who presided over economic policy as financeminister until he was replaced in that role in May. “If thereis a real public demand that I resign, and if it would solvethe economic problems, then I would not hesitate to stepdown, nor would I delay it,” Fayyad told reporters inRamallah. Echoing slogans chanted in Arab Spring dem-onstrations, the crowds called for Fayyad to “Get out,”and accused the former IMF official of corruption and ofleading policies harmful to the poor. The aid-dependentPalestinian economy in the West Bank is facing a deep-ening financial crisis due to a drop in assistance fromWestern and wealthy Gulf backers, as well as Israeli re-strictions on trade.The PA’s cash crisis delayed salarypayments for some 153,000 civil servants several timesthis year. Fayyad said he did not know when the moneywould be available to pay last month’s salary.—Reuters

BEIJING—A series of earth-quakes hit rural southwest-ern China on Friday, killing atleast 43 people and damag-ing more than 20,000 homes,a government official said.The quakes, which rangedfrom a magnitude of 4.8 to 5.6,struck hilly, agricultural areasof Yunnan and Guizhou prov-inces. The spokesman fromthe Yunnan seismologicalbureau, Zhang Junwei, saidthe deaths were in the worst-hit county of Yiliang inYunnan. The officialXinhua News Agency saidthe quake destroyed or dam-aged 20,000 homes. Buildingsin rural areas in China are of-ten constructed poorly. In2008, a severe earthquake inSichuan province, just northof Yunnan, killed nearly 90,000people, with many of the

Earthquakes kill 43 in China

deaths blamed on poorlybuilt buildings, includingschools. Xinhua quoted anofficial with the Yunnan civilaffairs department as sayingmore than 100,000 people hadbeen evacuated in Yunnan.

Xinhua said the provin-cial government had sentwork teams to the quake-hitarea and the civil affairs de-partment was shipping thou-sands of tents, blankets andcoats to the area. It said thatso far no casualties had beenreported in Guizhou, but thathomes had been damaged ordestroyed there.

The US Geological Sur-vey said the magnitude 5.6quake hit at a depth of 9.8kilometres (6.1 miles). Shal-lower earthquakes oftencause more damage thandeeper ones.—AP

Neil Armstrongto be buried

at seaCLEVELAND—US astronautNeil Armstrong, the first manon the moon, will be buried atsea, family spokesman RickMiller said on late Thursday.Armstrong died on August 25following complications re-sulting from cardiovascularprocedures. He was 82.

A public memorial servicewill be held at the Washing-ton National Cathedral onSeptember 13 and will bebroadcast live on Nasa Tele-vision and streamed online atnasa.gov andnationalcathedral.org. OnJuly 20, 1969, Armstrong, wholed the Apollo 11 mission,became the first human towalk on the moon. Armstrong,who lived in the Cincinnati,Ohio area, is survived by histwo sons, a stepson and astepdaughter, 10 grandchil-dren, a brother and a sister,Nasa said.—Reuters

HK complainsof youth

brainwashingHONG KONG—The HongKong government calls it na-tional education. But parents,teachers and pupils in theformer British colony call it“brainwashing” and fear it’s aploy by Beijing authorities toindoctrinate the city’s younginto unquestioning support ofChina’s Communist Party.Plans by the government tointroduce the classes havetriggered mass protests andhunger strikes, the latest signof the widening gulf betweenBeijing and the freewheelingsemi-independent southernChinese financial center, 15years after Britain handed itback to China.

The dispute deepened asclasses started this week, withactivists including a handfulof hunger-strikers campingout in front of Hong Konggovernment headquarters in abid to force officials to dropplans to introduce the subjectin primary and secondaryschools. They’ve been joinedeach evening by thousandsof protesters wearing black. Alocal TV station fanned theflames when it called the ac-tivists a “destructive faction”controlled by London andWashington. The rising ten-sions forced the city’s Beijing-backed leader, Chief ExecutiveLeung Chun-ying, to call offhis trip to a high-profile Asia-Pacific summit this weekendin Vladivostok, Russia.—AP

WA S H I N G T O N —Israe l iPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu blew up at the USambassador last month be-cause he was “at wits’ end”over what he sees as theObama administration’s lackof clarity on Iran’s nuclearprogramme, a US congress-man who was at the meetingsaid. House IntelligenceCommittee Chairman MikeRogers, a Republican, madehis first public commentsabout the late August meet-ing in Israel in an interviewwith Michigan’s WJR radio.Continued controversy overthe meeting comes as Presi-dent Barack Obama onThursday night will accepthis party’s nomination at theDemocratic National Con-vention, where the level ofthe Obama administra tion’s

High-level US-Israel spat over Iransupport for Israel was a con-tentious topic.

“Right now the Israelisdon’t believe that this admin-

istration is serious when theysay all options are on thetable, and more importantlyneither do the Iranians. That’swhy the programme is pro-

gressing,” Rogers said. Iransays its nuclear programme isfor peaceful energy purposes.Israel is facing growing inter-national pressure not to uni-laterally attack Iran’s nuclearinfrastructure and the UnitedStates has made clear it op-poses any such strike.

Rogers said if the UnitedStates does not show Israelmore clarity on where it draws“red lines” on Iran’s nuclearprogramme, then Israel mightconduct a strike. “If I werebetting my house today, Iwould guess that they prob-ably will do it if we don’t havea change in more clear redlines from the United States,”he said.

A spokesman for Israel’sembassy in Washington de-clined to comment. The StateDepartment would not com-

ment on private diplomaticmeetings but spokesmanEdgar Vasquez said, “Wehave a rock solid relationshipand an ironclad commitmentto Israel.” The spat betweenNetanyahu and US Ambassa-dor to Israel Daniel Shapiroappears to confirm a deepchasm over how to deal withIran, which the two allies havetried to play down publicly.

Obama has vowed to pre-vent Iran from obtaining anuclear weapon, but saysthere is still time for sanctionsand diplomacy to work. TheWhite House says it hasbrokered international oil andbanking sanctions that are fartougher on Iran than previousadministrations achieved. Theoriginal purpose of the meet-ing was for Netanyahu andRogers to discuss intelligence

cooperation and other mat-ters. But it “devolved” into asharp exchange in whichNetanyahu confrontedShapiro with a lot of frustra-tion about the lack of clarityon the administration’s posi-tion on Iran’s nuclearprogramme, Rogers said.

“The uncertainty aboutwhere the United States’ po-sition is on those questionshas created lots of problemsand anxiety that I thinkdoesn’t serve the world welland doesn’t serve peacewell,” Rogers said. In an in-terview with an Israeli televi-sion station on Sunday,Shapiro dismissed an Israelinewspaper account of theheated closed-door exchangeas “a very silly story” that didnot reflect what actually hap-pened in the meeting where

the conversations were“friendly and professional.”Netanyahu has not com-mented on the exchange,which was first reported bythe daily newspaper YediothAhronoth.

Israel has its own unde-clared nuclear arsenal that isbelieved to contain as manyas 200 warheads. Rogers saidthe Israeli and US timelinesdiffered on how quickly Irancould put a nuclear weaponon a missile, if it decided tomove in that direction.Netanyahu believes “if theydecide to do the dash it couldbe four weeks to eightweeks,” while US intelligenceanalysts believe it would“take a little longer than that,”Rogers said. “But the prob-lem is nobody really knowsfor sure.”—Reuters

CHARLOTTE—US Presi-dent Barack Obama has ac-cepted the nomination ofthe Democratic party, tell-ing voters they face a gen-erational choice inNovember’s election. Hehighlighted the differencesbetween his aims and Re-publican policies, and re-prised his 2008 theme of“hope”. “I never said thisjourney would be easy, andI won’t promise that now,”Obama told the Democraticconvention.

Republican Mitt Rom-ney is challenging Obamafor the White House, withpolls showing a tight race.Obama told delegates in thehall and voters watching athome that the nations prob-lems have built up over“decades” and cannot befixed in a flash. “But whenyou pick up that ballot tovote - you will face theclearest choice of any timein a generation. “Over thenext few years, big deci-sions will be made in Wash-ington: on jobs and the

Path forward won’t bequick or easy: Obama

economy; taxes and deficits;energy and education; warand peace - decisions thatwill have a huge impact onour lives and our children’slives for decades to come,”he said.

US President BarackObama has accepted thenomination of the Democraticparty, telling voters they facea generational choice inNovember’s election. Hehighlighted the differencesbetween his aims and Repub-lican policies, and reprised his2008 theme of “hope”. “I neversaid this journey would beeasy, and I won’t promise thatnow,” Obama told the Demo-cratic convention.

Republican Mitt Romneyis challenging Obama for theWhite House, with pollsshowing a tight race. Obamatold delegates in the hall andvoters watching at home thatthe nations problems havebuilt up over “decades” andcannot be fixed in a flash.“But when you pick up thatballot to vote - you will facethe clearest choice of any

time in a generation. “Overthe next few years, big deci-sions will be made in Wash-ington: on jobs and theeconomy; taxes and deficits;energy and education; warand peace - decisions thatwill have a huge impact onour lives and our children’slives for decades to come,”he said. Obama took thestage not in a huge stadiumin downtown Charlotte,North Carolina, as organisershad hoped, but inside theconvention centre afterThursday’s speech wasmoved because of weatherconcerns.

He followed a rousingspeech by Vice-President JoeBiden, who praised Obama forhis bravery in bailing our theauto industry and ordering thekilling of Osama Bin Laden.The president offered a stringof critiques of Republican poli-cies, describing his oppo-nents as “happy to talk abouteverything they think is wrongwith America” without offer-ing suggestions on how tomake things right.—AP

MARIKANA—A survivor oflast month’s police killing of34 strikers at a South Africanmine says officers shot flee-ing and surrendering menbeyond the eyes of the me-dia, challenging police asser-tions that they fired only inself-defense. The testimonyof Malusi King Danga, a 27-year-old general worker atLonmin’s Marikana mine,sheds light on shootings ona rocky outcrop near the plati-num mine on August 16.Reuters Television footage ofone incident showed nearlya dozen striking miners beingcut down in a barrage of au-tomatic weapon fire as theyemerged from behind a policevehicle. The images, relayedaround the world, conjured upmemories of South Africa’sracist past. However, most ofthe deaths at Marikana, 100km (60 miles) northwest ofJohannesburg, occurredaway from the cameras.

Danga was able to tell hisstory only after being re-leased from three weeks in jailon Thursday. His testimonyto Reuters suggests that atleast three victims were shoteither hiding or fleeing from

South African policeshot fleeing miners

police, or surrendering tothem. Police spokesman Den-nis Adriao said he could notcomment, pending the out-come of a government in-quiry. However, Danga’s al-legations are likely to deepenpublic anger with the secu-rity forces and the ruling Af-rican National Congress.Danga, who left his home fiveyears ago in the impover-ished Eastern Cape in searchof work, said the shooting be-gan after strikers who hadgathered on a rocky hill thatserved as rally point fled po-lice who were trying to hemthem in.

“It was my first day onthe hill. I was expecting theemployer to address us. I wasthere for about five minutesand police started putting upthe razor wire,” he said,speaking before and after atraditional cleansing cer-emony close to the scene ofthe “Marikana massacre”.“People starting running andpolice fired a shot. I was run-ning away to the informalsettlement in the opposite di-rection and police chased meand said ‘Go back to whereyou came from.’—Reuters

PARIS—France’s decision tosend direct aid to Syria’s op-position represents a breakfor the rebels after months ofWestern hesitation over fearsthat costly equipment in-tended for Syria’s oppositioncould get lost or fall into thewrong hands. But even theFrench action, rebels and ac-tivists say, amounts to solittle that it’s all but useless.France, Syria’s one-time co-lonial ruler, began sendingthe aid without intermediar-ies last week to three regionsof Syria where the regime ofPresident Bashar Assad haslost control, in the first suchmove by a Western power, adiplomat said Wednesday.But it remains limited, prima-rily repairing bakeries, watersystems and schools. Andwhile apparently more thanthe indirect assistance ex-tended by other Westerncountries, it’s still far from themagnitude needed to make adifference, Syrian oppositionactivists said.

In the province ofAleppo, which includes

Syrian rebels termFrench aid ‘useless’

Syria’s largest city, and in thesouthern province of Daraa,activists said even the newFrench aid hadn’t helped.When something is broken,it’s locals who must fix it orjust make do, saidMohammed Saeed, an activ-ist in the Aleppo area. “In-stead of fixing water sys-tems,” Saeed said, “theyshould go and give food to5,000 refugees stuck on theborder with Turkey.”

France has pushed to se-cure “liberated zones” inSyria amid mounting calls forthe international communityto do more to prevent blood-shed. It has increased con-tact with armed rebel groupsand started direct aid deliv-eries last Friday to local citi-zens’ councils in five citiesoutside the government’scontrol, the diplomaticsource said, without disclos-ing the value of the assis-tance. He spoke on condi-tion of anonymity becauseof the sensitivity of theFrench actions amid Syria’sviolence. ”—Reuters

Prince Harryflying AfghanApache copterCAMP BASTION—PrinceHarry, third in line to the Brit-ish throne, flew into south-ern Afghanistan on Friday tobegin a four-month combattour as a gunner for an attackhelicopter. The 27-year-oldwho has made headlinesaround the world for his par-tying is returning to Afghani-stan for a second tour. He willstart work as an Apache co-pilot and gunner within 10days in the country’s restiveHelmand province, the Brit-ish military said.

It is a definite shift fromlast month, when embarrass-ing naked photos emerged ofHarry in a Las Vegas hotelroom playing strip billiards.Looked relaxed if slightlytired, Harry gave a thumbs-up Friday after a long jour-ney on a troop carrier flightfrom England to Britain’sCamp Bastion, a sprawlingdesert base close to the townof Lashkar Gah. Capt. HarryWales, as he is known in themilitary, wore his combat uni-form and joined his 100-strong unit — the 662 Squad-ron, 3 Regiment Army AirCorps.—Reuters

MANILA: President Benigno Simeon Aquino III acknowledges the cheers from the crowd after leading the wreath-laying ceremony in honour of President Corazon C. Aquino and Sen. Benigno S. Aquino, Jr.

PRISTINA—Kosovo amended its constitution on Fridayto allow for the closure of aWestern-led supervisorybody created when the terri-tory split from Serbia in 2008,though EU police and NATOsoldiers will stay on in thevolatile and impoverishedstate.

The International CivilianOffice (ICO) will formallyclose on Monday, a stepbilled by Western powers asthe end of a period of “super-vised independence” for thecountry of 1.7 million people,the last to be carved from theremains of socialist Yugosla-via. Parliament in the capitalPristina adopted amend-ments to the constitution, re-moving references to the ICO.

The ICO was created bymainly Western states thatrecognised Kosovo and wasgiven powers to fire govern-ment officials and reject leg-islation in order to make surethe Albanian majority pro-tected the rights of the Serbminority. It never used thosepowers. More than 90 coun-tries, including the UnitedStates and 22 of the EuropeanUnion’s 27 members, haverecognised Kosovo as a sov-ereign state, but Serbia saysit will never do so.

Kosovo remains doggedby a de facto ethnic partitionbetween the Albanian major-

Western bloc closingKosovo supervisory body

ity and a small region in thenorth which is dominated byethnic Serbs and propped upby Serbia. Tensions in thenorth have kept NATO fromreducing its peace force inKosovo to below 6,000. TheEU also has some 1,250 Euro-pean police, prosecutors andjudges in the country, a mis-sion known as EULEX andwhich has significant powersto tackle corruption, warcrimes and inter-ethnic vio-lence.

“The supervision of inde-pendence is not ending; thisis just the closure of the ICO,”said Ardian Arifaj, senior re-searcher at the Pristina-basedKIPRED think-tank. “EULEXis an international missionwith the power to arrest gov-ernment ministers if it wants,”he said. “It’s good we haveEULEX, but you can’t saywe’re not under supervisionfrom now on.”

Serbia lost control overKosovo in 1999, after an 11-week NATO air war waged tohalt the killing and expulsionof ethnic Albanians by Serbforces fighting a two-yearcounter-insurgency war un-der late strongman SlobodanMilosevic. Kosovo issteeped in history and mythfor many Serbs, andBelgrade says it will neverrecognize the territory as in-dependent.—Reuters

RAWALPINDI: Netherland mountain biking group of tropical cycling member on the way after start biking tour fromRawalpindi to Karakuli Lake in China and back to Islamabad at local hotel, 11 members participate in this tour.

WAH CANTT: Lt Gen Muhammad Ahsan Mahmood, Chairman POF Board with win-ners of Cycle Race held on the occasion of Defence Day of Pakistan.

SPORTS REPORTER

WAH CANTT—6th Septem-ber reminds us the sacrificesof those martyrs who laiddown their lives for the de-fence of the homeland. Thisis because of their sacredblood that today we arebreathing in an independentcountry. These views wereexpressed by Lt GenMuhammad AhsanMahmood, HI(M) while ad-dressing a prize distributionceremony of a cycle rally heldat Ordnance Club, Wah

RAWALPINDI—An 11-mem-ber cyclist team ofNetherland has started itsjourney from Rawalpindi,will cycle through theKarakoram Highway toKarakuli lake in China andback to Islamabad.

The cycling tour startedhere on Friday, which wasseen off by the ManagingDirector Pakistan TourismDevelopment Corporation(PTDC) Mir ShahjahanKhetran.

Speaking on the occa-sion, he said that despite allodds, PTDC is working hardto promote adventure tour-ism along the KarakoramHighway and the GilgitBaltistan region.

He said it is very encour-aging that such adventurecyclists are continuouslyvisiting Pakistan only dueto its natural beauty, di-verse landscape and climb-

Cyclist team of Netherland startjourney to Karakuli lake

ing as well as the most hos-pitable people.

He said that it was theeffort of the tours depart-ment of PTDC for making allthese arrangements of thebiking tours that such ac-tivities will continue overthe years.

PTDC is not only pro-viding services throughoutthe country to Pakistanitourists but also to foreigntourists.

Team Leader KolkhuisTanke Pascal has visitedover a dozen times to Paki-stan and always brought agroup of cyclists.

This biking tour is dedi-cated to peace and harmonyfrom the people of theNetherland to the people ofPakistan. During their bik-ing trip, the group will visitAbbottabad, Mansehra,Thakot, Besham, Chilas,Raikot, Gilgit, Hunza, Sost

and Khunjerab Pass, thehighest point on theKarakoram Highway.

They will also see beau-tiful valleys, and high peakslike Nanga Parbat,Rakaposhi, Diran Peak,Shispar Peak, Vulcan Gla-cier, Passu Glacier andBatura Glacier along theroute. They will also crossthe famous 20km long AtaAbad Lake in Hunza Valleyon boats.

From Khunjerab Pass,they will ride to Chineseborder town Taxkurgan be-fore biking on to theKarakuli Lake under theshadow of famous moun-tain of China Mustag Ata(Father of Mountains). Af-ter staying in yourt (tradi-tional nomad camp) alongthe Karakuli Lake, thegroup will return toIslamabad on the sameroute.—APP

NEW YORK: Maria Sharapova of Russia serves to Marion Bartoli of France duringtheir women’s singles quarterfinals match at the US Open tennis tournament.

NEW YORK—MariaSharapova advanced to agrudge-match US Open semi-final against top seed VictoriaAzarenka .

Russian third seedSharapova reached the semi-finals for the first time sinceher 2006 US Open title run byrallying to defeat French 11thseed Marion Bartoli 3-6, 6-3,6-4 in a match that began on

Sharapova advances toUS Open semi-final

Tuesday but was halted byrain.

Sharapova, who im-proved to 12-0 in three-setmatches this year, faces aFriday showdown againstWorld No. 1 Azarenka whobeat Sharapova 6-3, 6-0 in lastJanuary’s Australian Openfinal.

Azarenka, who ousteddefending champion

Samantha Stosur of Austra-lia on Tuesday, leads the all-time rivalry with Sharapova5-4, including a victory inMarch’s Indian Wells finaland a loss in April’s Stuttgartfinal on clay.

Sharapova, 25, improvedto 5-0 all-time against Bartolibut only after falling behind4-0 on Tuesday before rainhalted the match, postponing

Badminton:S Korea lifts

domestic banson players

SEOUL—South Korea’sOlympic body has lifted six-month domestic suspen-sions on four players foundguilty of deliberatelyunderperforming during theLondon Olympics, officialssaid Friday.

But Jung Kyung-Eun,Kim Ha-Na, Ha Jung-Eun andKim Min-Jung remain sus-pended from South Korea’snational team for one year,the Korean Olympic Commit-tee ruled.

The Korea BadmintonAssociation had initially sus-pended the players for twoyears and banned twocoaches for life.

After an appeal the play-ers’ bans were cut to sixmonths while the coachessaw their lifetime suspensionslashed to two years.

The committee alsourged the badminton asso-ciation to take measures toprevent similar scandals.

Eight female badmintonplayers, from South Korea,Indonesia and China weredisqualified from the Gamesfor trying to lose matches inorder to secure a morefavourable draw in the nextphase.

The scandal promptedChinese badminton star YuYang to quit the sport. Indo-nesian badminton doublespair Greysia Polii and MeilianaJauhari were banned for fourmonths.—AFP

the conclusion for a day andgiving the Russian time toregroup.

Serena Williams bookeda last-four berth for the fourthtime in five years in over-whelming fashion.

US fourth seed SerenaWilliams, a 14-time GrandSlam champion seeking herfourth crown on the Flush-ing Meadows hardcourts ,routed Serbian 12th seedAna Ivanovic 6-1, 6-3 in 58minutes, firing 12 aces in acommanding performance.

Williams, who lost toStosur in last year’s final, willface Italian 10th seed SaraErrani on Friday for a berthin Saturday’s final.

Williams has onlydropped 16 games throughfive matches while blasting atournament-best 41 aces.

Errani became the firstItalian woman in the Openera to reach the US Opensemi-finals with a 6-2, 6-4victory over 20th-seededcompatriot, doubles partnerand best friend RobertaVinci.

Errani lost to Sharapovaat this year’s French Openfinal in her best careerGrand Slam result . Theycould meet again for a tro-phy on the Flushing Mead-ows hardcourts if both canget past higher-seededfoes.—AFP

NEW YORK—Brazil’s BrunoSoares and Russia’sEkaterina Makarova cap-tured the US Open mixeddoubles title on Thursday bybeating Czech KvetaPeschke and Poland’sMarcin Matkowski 6-7 (8/10),6-1, 12-10.

Soares became the firstSouth American player tocapture the title after runner-up efforts last year byArgentina’s Gisela Dulko andEduardo Schwank and byArgentina’s Mercedes Pazand Pablo Albano in 1997.Peschke settled for a runner-

Aisam, Rojer out

Soares, Makarova take USOpen mixed doubles title

up spot for the second timein three years, having lost inthe 2010 final alongsidePakistan’s Aisam-Ul-HaqQureshi.

Makarova ended the de-cisive tie-breaker with abaseline backhand thatPeschke could only tap intothe net after 89 minutes.

Meanwhile, Bob Bryanand Mike Bryan of the UnitedStates will play for a fourthUS Open men’s double titleas the brothers defeated Pa-kistani Aisam ul Haq Qureshiand his Dutch partner Jean-Julien Rojer in the semifinal

here.The American twins beat

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pa-kistan and Jean-Julien Rojerof the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4 inthe semifinals on Thursday.

The Bryans have won 11career Grand Slam champion-ships.

The second-seededBryans will face fifth-seededLeander Paes and RadekStepanek in Friday’s final.Paes and Stepanek advancedwhen the Spanish team ofMarcel Granollers and MarcLopez retired in the firstset.—AFP

500 cyclists participatein POF cycle race

Cantt. on the eve of DefenceDay of Pakistan. POF Chair-man stressed upon POF em-ployees they should comeout their homes for healthysocial activities so that abrotherhood & patiencecould be developed in thesociety. He congratulated allthe participants of the raceon this occasion.

Five hundred cyclists par-ticipated in this cycle race heldunder the auspices of POFSports Control Board on 6thSeptember. A large number ofpeople standing on both sides

of Mall Road encouraged thecyclists and appreciated themwhile enthusiasm of cyclistswas worth seeing. ChairmanPOF Board himself waspresent at the starting point forthe encouragement of the cy-clists and gave away prizes tothe winners at the end of therace. POF Chief gave specialprizes to three aged cyclistsnamely Mr. Khalid, Mr. Akram& Mr. Maroof. The race wasorganized in four categories.1st category namely “Tiger”(12 to 18 years) in which Mr.Hamza Nisar got first position.

Cook turns attention to PietersenLONDON —Alastair Cookwill turn his attention tobeing involved in decidingthe future of KevinPietersen over the comingdays.

At the moment, Cook isstill due to play for Essexin their final Championshipmatch of the summeragainst Yorkshire but, forthe next month, hands thecaptaincy of England overto Stuart Broad for theTwenty20 series againstSouth Africa followed bythe WorldTw e n t y 2 0in SriLanka.

B e f o r ethat tourna-ment startsit is ex-pected thatE n g l a n dwill an-n o u n c etheir Testsquad forthe seriesagainst In-dia, whichstarts inm i d - N o -v e m b e r ,rather thanwait untilthe team returns from SriLanka. The most pressingissue for Cook is the situa-tion involving Pietersenand whether he will be wel-comed back into the foldafter his very public issuesover the summer.

Pietersen is believed tohave already met withAndy Flower, the team di-rector, to start the processof trying to solve thestand-off with further talksexpected to be heldshortly, which is whenCook, who replaced An-drew Strauss as Test cap-tain last week, is likely tobecome involved.

“I haven’t really beenthinking about it too much,with the one-day serieson,” Cook said after the fi-nal ODI at Trent Bridge.“Over the next couple ofweeks, it’s certainly an is-sue which we as the ECBwill have to get resolved. Itis a situation which doesneed to get resolved. Thereis stuff which needs to betalked about behind closeddoors. That will happen.”

Flower took a break forthe deciding one-day inter-

national and is due to linkback up with squad aheadof the first Twenty20 inter-national in Durham on Fri-day. With Cook not in-volved in the T20I set-up,and the final round ofChampionship matches tak-ing place next week, thereis precious little time for ev-eryone to get round a tabletogether with Pietersen be-fore England fly out to SriLanka next Thursday.

Although Pietersen isthe dominant subject in thecurrent discussions he willnot be the only issue Cookand Flower will need toponder ahead of the daunt-

ing prospect of four Testsin six weeks in India, al-though Cook is fairly surewhat form he wants thesquad to take. “I’m prettyclear,” he said. “Over thenext few days we have tosit down.”

Jonathan Trott is ex-pected to be fit despite be-ing diagnosed with a bro-ken finger in his righthand, which has ruled himout for three to fourweeks. However, anotherissue confronting Cook,

Flower andthe selectorsis the likelyabsence ofIan Bell fromthe MumbaiTest, with hiswife due togive birth.

That is inaddition tohaving to fillthe vacancyat the top ofthe order leftby Strauss’retirement. Anumber ofplayers havebeen men-tioned - NickC o m p t o n ,

Michael Carberry and JoeRoot most strongly - plusthe option of moving eitherTrott or Bell up the order.

Jonny Bairstow can ex-pect to be included afterhis successful return tothe team while James Tay-lor, who made his debut atHeadingley, will also be inthe mix for a middle-orderspot. Ravi Bopara, though,could well find his awfulone-day series with thebat against South Africahas put paid to his Test as-pirations, although havingan Essex team-mate ascaptain could yet proveuseful.—Online

Cash-strapped IPLHyderabad franchise

up for saleMUMBAI—The cash-strapped Hyderabad fran-chise of the Indian PremierLeague (IPL) has invited bidsfor its Twenty20 team in whatis perceived as yet anothersign of the league’s diminish-ing sheen.

Deccan Chronicle Hold-ings, the owners of DeccanChargers, issued a tendernotice on Thursday puttingthe team up for sale after get-ting the nod of the Indiancricket board (BCCI) whichdiscussed the issue in a meet-ing on Monday.

“Of course, they havethe go-ahead from the BCCI,”Ratnakar Shetty, the board’schief administrative officer,told Reuters on Friday.

The new franchiseeowner will be announced onSept. 13. “The winning bid-der will acquire... the right toown and operate the IPLteam currently known as theDeccan Chargers which isand will continue to be basedin Hyderabad,” the tendernotice said.

Indian consumer elec-tronics maker Videocon In-dustries is interested in buy-ing the franchise while theChennai-based Sun Group isalso tipped by the local me-dia as one of the contend-ers.—Online

Hira looking tobe ‘street smart’

in India T20sNEW DELHI—Ronnie Hira,the New Zealand left-armspinner, has said he’ll lookto be ‘street smart’ in theTwenty20s against India, if hegets a chance in the playingXI. Hira, who is returningfrom an injury break, is thethird spinner in the squad,behind Daniel Vettori andNathan McCullum.

“I’ll go in with the samesort of plans that I have hadbefore: try to not go wickethunting but try to dry theruns up, and hopefully thewickets will come from theother end,” Hira told APNZ.“I’ve got to be a little morestreet smart about the paceand variations, and a little bitof line as well. I’ve been work-ing on those in the nets andI’ll be continuing to work onthose during these twoTwenty20s.”

Hira had dislocated a fin-ger during the first Twenty20against West Indies duringNew Zealand’s tour of theCaribbean in July, after beingstruck by a Chris Gaylestraight hit in his followthrough. He had not playedany competitive cricketsince, but said he now feelsready to get back into action.“The finger’s healed all right.I’ve been training over thelast week and preparing wellwith the support staff and thecoaches.” The bigger ques-tion for Hira would bewhether he gets a game in thetwo-match series. If hedoesn’t, he will not let thatworry him, Hira said. “It’sgoing to be tough with Danand Nath around.—Online

Pak cricket teamto tour Indiain December

LA H O R E—Pakistan-Indiacricket diplomacy got under-way after a recent thaw in bi-lateral ties as a decision hasbeen made about Pakistan’scricket team’s tour to India inDecember.

The Federal Sports Min-istry told Senate in a writtenreply that Pakistan’s cricketteam will visit India in Decem-ber to play a series of threeone-dayers and twoTwenty20 matches.

The Senate has alsobeen told that Bangladesh’scricket team will tour Paki-stan in March 2013 as thestay order by a Bangladeshicourt will be vacated bythen.—INP

CRANBERRY juice rich in certain antibacterial substances may help prevent repeat urinary tract infections

in kids, a small study suggests. Research-ers found that cranberry juice made withhigh concentrations ofproanthocyanidins (PACs)cut kids’ risk of repeat uri-nary tract infections bytwo-thirds, versus a com-parison juice.

Since the juice on yoursupermarket’s shelves maynot have that PAC level,the researchers say theirfindings are not an en-dorsement of any product.But the results, publishedin the Journal of Urology,do give support to cran-berry as a UTI fighter, ac-cording to a pediatricurologist not connected tothe study.

PACs are the com-pounds thought to givecranberries their bacteria-fighting potential. Women have longturned to cranberry juice and supplementsto help prevent recurrent urinary tract in-fections (UTIs) - though studies have beenmixed on whether they work. There hasbeen little research on kids, even thoughUTIs are relatively common in children.Girls have about an 8 percent chance ofcontracting the infection at some point inchildhood; boys have a 2 percent chance.

Besides being uncomfortable, recur-rent UTIs can eventually damage the kid-neys in some children. So doctors may pre-scribe antibiotics to help prevent them. But

antibiotics can have side effects, andusing them long-term can breed drug-re-sistant bacteria. So researchers are look-ing at whether cranberry products canbe a good alternative.

For the new study,doctors at the University ofBritish Columbia inVancouver, Canada, re-cruited 40 children who’dhad at least two UTIs in thepast year. They randomlyassigned the kids to drinkone of two juices made forthe study: a cranberry juicerich in PACs or a juice freeof all “cranberry products.”Over the next year, kids whodrank cranberry juice hadUTIs at a rate of 0.4 per child,compared with 1.15 in thecomparison group.

The power of cranber-ries against UTIs “was ini-tially regarded as an oldwives’ tale,” said Dr. HiepNguyen of Boston

Children’s Hospital, who was not in-volved in the study. But Nguyen said henow often recommends cranberry - eitherjuice or supplements - when kids haverecurrent UTIs. “It can be a great alterna-tive to prophylactic (preventive) antibi-otics,” Nguyen said. That doesn’t meancranberry is the cure-all. If a child hasfrequent UTIs, Nguyen said, antibioticsmay be necessary to “break the cycle.”On top of that, many children’s UTIs arerelated to less-than-ideal bathroom hab-its - like “holding it in,” rather than goingwhen they need to.

Cranberry juice may beatkids’ bladder infections

KARACHI: Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Iqbal laying floral wreath on behalf of Chief ofthe Air Staff at the mazar of Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed (Nishan-e-Haider).

KARACHI: Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan signing Sindh People’s Local Government Ordinance-2012 at GovernorHouse. Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah also present on the occasion.

Wreath layingceremony at

grave of RashidMinhas ShaheedKARACHI—A PAF contin-gent led by Air Vice MarshalMuhammad Iqbal, Air OfficerCommanding, Southern AirCommand, Pakistan AirForce, here on Friday offered‘Fateha’ and laid wreath onbehalf of Chief of the AirStaff, at the grave of PilotOfficer Rashid MinhasShaheed (Nishan-e-Haider).The contingent paid homageto the young pilot who hadsacrificed his life in the de-fence of motherland, show-ing exemplary courage anddetermination.

The Defence Day of Paki-stan, celebrated by all thethree forces, reminds us ofthose Shaheeds and Ghaziswho with their dauntless cour-age and gallantry thwarted theevil designs of the enemy in1965 Indo-Pak War leavingbehind several unforgettabletales of unparalleled valourand chivalry.—APP

CM chairsmeeting on

developmentschemes

KARACHI—Chief MinisterSindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah,on Friday presided a meetingat CM House here which re-viewed the progress on vari-ous development schemes.The meeting was attendedamong others by Sindh Fi-nance Minister, Syed MuradAli Shah, Sindh InformationMinister, Sharjeel EnamMemon, Taj Haider, PrincipalSecretary to CM,Muhammad SiddiqueMemon, Lal Bux Bhutto andofficers of P&D and Financedepartments.

Chief Minister stressedupon various departmentsto complete the on-goingschemes on priori ty. Hesaid that the 25% funds oftotal cost of project has al-ready been released whileit is the need of hour thatschemes near completionbe completed early, whilethe funds for otherschemes will also be con-sidered for release so thatprovincial government maycomplete maximum develop-ment schemes for the benefitof commonman. The P&DDepartment gave detailedbriefing to Chief MinisterSindh about public interestwelfare schemes.—APP

DUHS, Konpal tohost Eid Mela forspecial children

KARACHI—Dow Universityof Health Sciences (DUHS)in collaboration with KonpalChild Abuse Prevention So-ciety will hold an Eid Melawith special children on Sat-urday. Organizers here onFriday said wide range of ac-tivities have been arrangedfor children on the occasion.

The kids invited for theevent include those from Al-Imran, Al-Umeed, Dar ulSukun and different other in-stitutions functional in thecity. Vice Chancellor of DUHSProf. Dr. Masood HameedKhan with other facultymembers and students of theuniversity, besides membersof Konpal will attend thesechildren.—APP

M M ALAM

KARACHI—MQM leaderAltaf Hussain holding thatrestoration of local govern-ment system would be an im-portant step in the directionof devolution of power to thegrass root level stated that itwould help in furthering har-mony & brotherhoodamongst the people of Sindh.He was talking to Governorof Sindh Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ibad,Chief Minster Sindh SyedQaim Ali Shah & other lead-ers of PPP & MQM via tele-phone apropos promulgationof the ordinance regardingthe restoration of the localgovernment system.

Altaf Hussain appealed tothe allied parties to support the

policy formulated by the Sindhgovernment for the welfare ofthe people of Sindh & towardssolution of their problems. Hesaid that the rights of the al-lied parties would also be pro-tected & their reservationswould be removed. Pledgingthat he & President Zardariwere determined to stand byeach other, Altaf Hussain saidthat Karachi was not only partof Sindh but it was also theprovincial capital. AddressingPPP & MQM leaders he saidthat they should work towardsmaking Sindh a place of peace& tranquility. He said that thebasic problems of the peopleshould be solved & a systemshould be evolved that did notdiscriminate between people.Crimes should be eliminated

from Sindh & the law shouldbe applied universally. Any-one breaking the law shouldbe dealt with irrespective of hispolitical affiliations.

Meanwhile Nationalistparties accusing MQM ofcoercing Government by theuse of blackmailing threat ofparting from coalition hasappealed the people ofSindh to manifest their aver-sion by observing completestrike on Thursday (Sept13) against promulgation ofthe ordinance regarding therestoration of the local gov-ernment system. ANP’sSenator Shahi Syed insinu-ated that if PPP were contentwith the ordinance it wouldnot have taken this long toannounce it.

LG system would promoteharmony in Sindh: Altaf

KARACHI—Pakistan IslamicMedical Association (PIMA)has taken strong exceptionto the reported decision ofPakistan Medical and DentalCouncil (PMDC), allowingprivate medical colleges toraise their tuition fee by 20percent. PIMA official, Dr.Abdul Wadood in a statementon Friday said this decisionwould have unbearable reper-cussions for the students ofthese colleges as these pri-vate medical colleges were

already charging exorbitantfees.

He said the medical com-munity in generally holdsserious reservations aboutthe dissolution of PMDCand considers it to beadopted with malafide in-tentions. PMDC, he said isfast emerging as a body tolook after the interests ofprivate medical colleges andnot the doctors’ communityin general.

The PIMA office bearer

also appealed to the gov-ernment to stop the transi-tional ex committee ofPMDC from taking impor-tant decisions in an arbitraryfashion. “Such mattersmust be extensively de-bated upon and decided bythe properly elected coun-cil,” said Dr. AbdulWadood .

PIMA, he said also ap-peals to all doctors’ bodiesto raise their voice againstthe decision.—APP

Private colleges allowed to raise tuition fee

PIMA condemns decision10 villages

provided gasKARACHI—As many as 10villages in District Dharkihave been provided withgas. This was stated by theSindh minister for Revenue,Jam Mehtab Dharki, says astatement on Friday.

He said that this projecthas been completed at acost of Rs. 55 million andwill provide relief to peopleof Dharki, Obaro and ad-joining areas.

The Minister said that theGovernment of Sindh desiresto carry out development ac-tivities in the rural areas ofthe province as well so as toprovide facilities to the dwell-ers there.

He stated that PakistanPeoples Party (PPP) is thepart of the masses and iswell aware of their problemsand working for theirprogress and prosperity.Jam Mehtab said that thePPP has served the peoplein its current tenure and af-ter emerging victorious inthe forthcoming generalelections, it will serve thepeople in the years aheadas well.—APP

KARACHI—Supreme Court(SC) Karachi registry Fridaydismissed federal govern-ment appeal pleas and rein-stated two judges of SindhHigh Court (SHC). JusticeGhulam Sarwar Korai andJustice Irfan Sadat were work-ing as additional judges andparliamentary commissionhad recommended their in-duction but parliamentary

committee did not supportrecommendation for their ap-pointment. A constitutionalpetition was filed againstparliamentary committee de-cision in SHC and the courtissued orders for appoint-ment of these two judges onpermanent basis.

Federal government hadfiled appeal pleas in SCKarachi registry against the

SHC verdict. A 4-memberbench of SC Registry whilehearing these cases orderedthat notification be issued forreinstatement of thesejudges from September, 17,2011, If government does notissue notification within aweek then will be deemed tohave been issued and oathwill be taken from thesejudges. —Online

SC reinstates 2 SHC judges

Sindh nationalistparties to hold sitin over SPLGO

KARACHI —The NationalistParties all over Sindh has for-mally decided to hold sit-inand wheel jam strike in pro-test against the SindhPeople’s Local GovernmentOrdinance (SPLGO). The par-ties have separately called formeetings to discuss the mat-ter in depth.

On the other hand, SeniorVice President of SindhUnited Party ShahMuhammad Shah said thatthis was not the war of ANPand MQM—it was the issueof the people over there.Terming the Ordinance ablack law, he said that whatwas the purpose of issuingSPLGO when elections of thelocal bodies not being heldin one or two months.

He said issuing the Ordi-nance was the practice of theautocrats; it was not justifiedin any way from a democraticgovernment.—Online

Australian envoycalls on SpeakerSindh Assembly

KARACHI—A delegation ledby the Australian Ambassa-dor to Pakistan, PeterHeyward, called on Speakerof Sindh Assembly, NisarAhmed Khuhro, in his cham-bers here on Friday. They dis-cussed matters of mutual in-terests as well as the legisla-tion carried out at the SindhAssembly.

The Speaker also pre-sented the tradit ionalSindhi gifts of Ajrak and thecap to the Australian envoyand the members of his del-egation.—APP

KARACHI—On the direc-tives of Minister Sindh, theProvincial Minister for Re-habilitation, Haji MuzaffarAli Shujra, along with Sec-retary Rehabilitation/ Direc-tor General PDMA SyedHashim Raza Zaidi, calledan emergency meeting onFriday at PDMA office totake all precautionary mea-sures related to the mon-soon rains. A statementhere said that the meetingalso discussed the safetymeasures to be adopted forfurther expected rainsthrough out Sindh.

It said that Minister Re-habilitation personally calledall deputy commissioners of

rain-affected districts and in-quired about any damage orany additional support re-quired by them for mitigationof the rain affectees. He fur-ther directed the district ad-ministration to declare rainemergency in the districtsand mobilize all the availableresources to provide quickresponse and relief to theaffectees without any loss oftime.

With regard to the situa-tion, emergency has beendeclared in all the district of-fices across the province.Also the district offices havebeen directed to notifyPDMA immediately in case ofany damages.—APP

Rangers thwartterrorism bid

KARACHI—The PakistanRangers, Sindh, have foiled aterrorist activity and arrestedaccused during a snap check-ing at Kot Sabzal and recov-ered 50 kg of high grade ex-plosive and 1,900 detonatorsfrom a Karachi-bound coach.This was stated by thespokesman of Pakistan Rang-ers, Sindh, here on Friday.

He said that last night dur-ing a routine snap checking thecoach was stopped at KotSabzal, which was heading fromSargodha to Karachi. Two driv-ers and conductor and a helperwere apprehended and furtherinvestigations are underway,the Rangers spokesman furtherpointed out.—APP

Shujra convenes meeting totake measures in view of rains

AFTER a patient moves from the ER tothe hospital, doctors will deal withany complications and help prevent

future strokes. Here’s what to expect dur-ing his hospital stay, and how to preparefor his care and recovery after he gets out.

Once a patient’s stroke has been evalu-ated and his condition has been stabilized,he’ll be transferred out of the ER and into ahospital bed. How long hespends in the hospital de-pends on a number of fac-tors, including the type andseverity of his stroke, whatmedical complications arise,and the extent of his disabil-ity. But it’s unlikely that he’llbe in the hospital for long.According to the NationalCenter for Health Statistics,the average length of hos-pitalization for stroke in2005 was 5.2 days.

Even though the personyou’re caring for is out ofthe ER, serious complica-tions may still arise. An es-timated one out of fivestroke patients dies duringhis hospital stay. Thepatient’s treatment team has two main goals:To prevent another stroke from occurringand to minimize and respond to any compli-cations.

To this end, the person you’re caringfor will undergo more testing to determinethe cause of this stroke. Although the doc-tors should know what type of stroke hehad, they’ll still need to pinpoint the exactcause. They may perform one or more ofthe following tests: Carotid ultrasound todetermine if either carotid artery is narrowedor blocked. This test is noninvasive andpainless: A technician applies jelly to thepatient’s neck, then slides an ultrasound

After a stroke: First days to weekswand over the skin covering his carotidartery.

Transcranial Doppler test for block-ages in the large brain arteries. This test issimilar to the carotid ultrasound, althoughthe sound waves go through the patient’sskull instead of his neck.

Cerebral angiogram to look for athero-sclerosis or a brain aneurysm. The patient

will be sedated to minimizehis anxiety and discomfortduring this procedure. Along, thin catheter, or tube,is inserted into a large arteryin his groin, then maneu-vered all the way throughblood vessels into his chest.Once the tube reaches hiscarotid artery, dye is injected,which travels through theartery into the brain. Then aseries of X-rays is taken tospot any abnormalities in theblood vessels of the brain.Because this procedure car-ries a slight risk of causinganother stroke, it will be per-formed only if other tests areinconclusive.

Depending on thepatient’s test results, his doctors will treathim to reduce his risk of having anotherstroke: For an ischemic stroke, he may begiven anticlotting drugs, have a procedureknown as a carotid endarectomy, or both.

Figure out how much care he will need.The extent of his stroke-related disabilitymay not be immediately obvious, but itwill become clearer as his recoveryprogresses. Talk to his rehabilitation teamabout how much care he’ll need immedi-ately after discharge, then discuss optionsfor his care with his family or friends. Willhe be able to return to his own home or toa family member’s home?

LAHORE: Activists of All Pakistan Truck Trawler Motor Owners Association burntyres on Ravi Road during a demonstration against increase in fuel prices.

LAHORE: Women looking at the books displayed during an exhibition at Aiwan-e-Iqbal.

Court ordersnewspaper ad forHamza, Dr Rabia

appearanceLAHORE—A civil judge onFriday ordered to publishnewspaper advertisementfor the appearance of HamzaShahbaz, son of Chief Min-ister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif,and Dr Rabia before thecourt on a petition againstsecond marriage of Hamza.

The court passed the or-der after Hamza Shahbaz andDr Rabia or their counsels didnot appear before the courtdespite serving notices. Thecourt adjourned further hear-ing till September 18.

Civil Judge GhulamMurtaza Opal was hearingthe petition filed by AyeshaAhad, who claims to be thewife of Hamza Shahbaz.

The petitioner, in her pe-tition, submitted that HamzaShahbaz was planning tocontract another marriagewith Dr Rabia.

She pleaded the court totake action against Hamzabecause he had not asked forher permission before marry-ing again.—APP

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Ministerfor Education Mian MujtabaShuja-ur-Rehman has saidthat the book reading hobbyis dwindling due to moderntechnology and computers,however, there is no substi-tute of books as they broadenthe vision and knowledge ofreaders. He asked to developbook reading habit among theyoung generation especiallyIslamic books.

He expressed these viewswhile inaugurating 3-Day Is-lamic Book Fair at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said that thecomplete elimination of ter-rorism and extremism is nec-

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Bus Rapid Tran-sit System is a revolutionaryproject launched for the pro-vision of modern, safe andspeedy traveling facilities tothe Lahorites and not onlycitizens of Lahore but resi-dents of surrounding areaswill also benefit from it. Thisproject is reflective of per-sonal interest and vision ofPunjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif.

These views were ex-pressed by the members ofthe coordination committeeof metro bus project in their7th review meeting in theTransport House. MembersProvincial Assembly MehrIshtiaq Ahmad, AajasamSharif, Secretary Transport,Project Director Metro BusSystem Sibtain Fazal Haleem,Director General LDA Ahad

LAHORE—As many as 35dengue patients have beenreported from the whole prov-ince so far in which 16 pa-tients are from Lahore.

Additional Director Gen-eral Vector Born Diseases Dr.Jaffar Ilyas while briefing thehospital administrations ofLahore hospitals about re-vised method of diagnosis ofdengue patients by DengueExperts Advisory Group saidthat besides CBC, IGM testshould also be conducted.He stressed the need for in-tensive monitoring of den-gue patients.

Dr. Jaffar Ilyas disclosedthat 35 dengue patients

Call for promotinghabit of book reading

essary for the progress &prosperity of the country.

He said that unemploy-ment and poverty could beminimized through eradica-tion of terrorism, whereas,extremism can be rooted outthrough promotion of qual-ity education and increasingliteracy rate in the society.

He said that our struggleagainst extremism couldnever be fruitful without en-hancing education rate andconsulting the intellectuals &writers.

The government is pro-viding maximum grants formodernizing public sector li-braries, similarly, funds arebeing provided for ensuringnecessary facilities in the li-

braries of educational insti-tutions in the province, headded. Meanwhile, inaugurat-ing Jhandeer Bus Service atSalamatpura Darogha Wala,the Education Minister saidthat Punjab Government isimplementing a comprehen-sive plan for the provision ofsafe, comfortable and com-paratively affordable trans-port service to the citizens.He said that air-conditionedbuses have been importedand are operational at Lahoreand other big cities. He saidthat all-out cooperation andassistance is being providedto the private sector for theprovision of comfortabletransport to the masses.

‘Bus Rapid Transit System’termed revolutionary service

Khan Cheema, Director Infor-mation Lahore Division andAC City were present on theoccasion. Members of thecoordination committee ex-pressed their determinationthat the difficulties faced bythe people due to construc-tion of this project will soonbe solved and no hindrancewould be created in the flowof traffic anywhere.

All the concerned insti-tutions and officials are en-gaged in removing the im-pediments as well as ensur-ing that no emergent situa-

tion or accident could occurduring the construction pro-cess.

On this occasion, ProjectDirector said that this projectis a gift of Punjab Chief Min-ister for the Lahorites whichwill be remembered by thepeople for a long time. He saidthat government is fullyaware of the problems beingfaced by common-man andobstacles in the flow of traf-fic during the execution ofthis mega project and effec-tive steps are being taken fortheir removal.

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt on Friday allowed thePunjab government to opentenders for purchase of 100buses for the metro bus sys-tem, Lahore.

However, the court didnot vacate stay on the remain-ing 1100 buses to be used inother cities of the province.The single bench comprisingJustice Ijaz ul Ahsan passedthe order on a civil miscella-neous application filed by thePunjab government in a pend-ing matter wherein the courthad barred it from openingtenders for the purchase of1200 buses of Euro II model.

Earlier, a law officer in-formed the court that thePunjab government had ap-proached PARCO with spe-cific inquiry whether or notdiesel suitable for EURO II

LHC allows govt topurchase 100 buses

model buses was available inthe country, after the stay onopening tenders for import ofbuses. PARCO said that die-sel suitable for EURO IIbuses was available all overthe country in 261 outlets in-cluding 153 outlets were inPunjab. he added.

The law officer pointedout that out of 1200 buses,100 buses were to be pur-chased for the metro bus sys-tem, Lahore.

The officer contendedthat the stay on import ofbuses would virtually fore-stall the mega project andtotal investment would re-main fruitless.

He contended that thepetition was not maintain-able, therefore, it should bedismissed and the stay orderbe recalled.—APP

35 dengue cases reported in Punjabhave been reported so farout of which 16 are fromLahore. However, he saidonly few patients are undertreatment in Mayo Hospital

and two patients in AlliedHospital Faisalabad whilethe rest of the patients haveleft the hospital after recov-ery.—APP

PU announcesresults

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Univer-sity has announced resultsof various courses for semes-ter 2008-2012.

The results included BSGeography (semester sys-tem), session 2008-12, Mas-ter of Human ResourceManagement (semester sys-tem), session 2009-11, Mas-ter of Business and Informa-tion Technology (semestersystem), session 2010-12,BS (Hons) Physics, semes-ter system, session 2008-12,Diploma in Corporate Law &Practice (Final Result, se-mester system), session A/2010-11, MA Library & In-formation Science (Morning& Afternoon) semester sys-tem, session 2010-12, MPhilMolecular Biology (semes-ter system), session 2009-11, BS Chemistry (4- YearsProgram) semester system,session 2008-12, BFA (4-Year Program) Part-II (Paint-ing with Print Making &Sculpture, Graphic Design,Textile Design) A/2011 andMSc Information Technol-ogy, 2nd Year, A/2010 to A/2011.

The results are availableon university websitewww.pu.edu.pk.

PYO announcesoffice bearers for

five divisionsLAHORE—People’s YouthOrganisation Punjab Thursdayannounced party presidentsand general secretaries of fivedivisions of the province.

According to an an-nouncement made by PYOPunjab president RanaFarrukh Mehmood and PYOPunjab general secretary BabarSuhail Butt, Imran YousufManj will be a PYO presidentand M Asif will be general sec-retary for Lahore division whileQazi M Iqbal president and DrMumtaz Hussain will be gen-eral secretary for Faisalabad.

Chaudhary Adnan Gujjarand Usman Anwar Rana willbe president and general sec-retary for Gujranwala, respec-tively, while Tahir AbbasSindhu president and MehrJavaid Norang will be generalsecretary for Sahiwal chapter.

Yasir Bukhari will bepresident PYO Sargodhawhile Malik Javaid Awan willbe general secretary . Allparty office bearers havebeen directed to hold officesimmediately.—APP

Womancommits suicideLAHORE—A woman com-mitted suicide over a domes-tic issue at Nishat ColonySouth Cantonment here.

Police said Farheen (35),aresident of Karachi, had beenliving with her husbandMutazar at Nishat Colony forsix months. Her husbandwas working at a local sugarmill. He often quarrelled withhis wife over domestic issue.

Today, she ended herown life after shooting her-self. The body was removedto the city morgue for au-topsy. She was the mother oftwo children.—APP

PA Speaker toattend CW mootLAHORE—Speaker PunjabAssembly Rana MohammedIqbal is leaving for Colombo,Sri Lanka, on Saturday to at-tend a Commonwealth parlia-mentarian moot being heldfrom September 9 to 14. Theconference is held every yearunder the aegis of the Com-monwealth ParliamentarainAssociation.—APP

Governorstatement refuted

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The spokesper-son of the Finance Depart-ment Punjab has refuted thestatement of GovernorPunjab, published in a sec-tion of the press, that PunjabGovernment had withheldfunds of district governmentsworth Rs.300 billion whichcould probably be used innext general elections.

Describing the statementas baseless and misleading,the spokesperson said thatfunds to district governmentsand other local governmentsare allocated in the budgetand transferred by the Fi-nance Department in accor-dance with Provincial Fi-nance Commission Award.The award provides a for-mula through which the shareof local governments includ-ing district governments iscomputed and allocated inthe budget.

The allocated amount isreleased by the Finance De-partment to concerned localgovernments (district gov-ernments, tehsil municipaladministrations and unionadministrations) on monthlybasis throughout the finan-cial year.

The fact of the matter isthat the Government has notwithheld any amount and nofunds pertaining to previousfinancial years are due to bepaid to local governments bythe provincial government.They were provided their fullshare every financial year.Therefore, withholding of ahuge amount of Rs.300 billionis totally out of question, con-cluded the spokesperson.