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Relatives of persons killed by police and armed civilians mourn over their deaths.

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—A PakistanArmy soldier was killed andanother injured when In-dian troops opened fire nearLine of Control (LoC).

“Sepoy Asim wasmartyred and NaikMuhammad Khan was in-jured in unprovoked firingby Indian troops in Nezapirsector of Rawlakot nearLoC,” said the Inter-ServicePublic Relations (ISPR).

Pakistan soldier martyredin Indian firing

New Delhi asked to probe incidentThe ISPR said that the In-

dia army opened unpro-voked firing and violatedLine of Control (LoC).

Pakistan on Saturdaystrongly condemned unpro-voked firing by Indian sol-diers along the LoC nearRawalakot this morningwhich resulted in the killingof a Pakistani soldier and se-rious injury to another.

Foreign Office Spokes-man said that it is unfortu-nate that such an incident

should have taken place ata time when the two gov-ernments are making sin-cere efforts towards improv-ing relations for resolutionof all outstanding disputes.

Pakistan called upon theGovernment of India tocarry out a thorough inves-tigation into this grave in-cident and to ensure thatsuch occurrences do nottake place.

Indian forces have been

CAIRO—Egyptian securityforces shot dead at least 70supporters of ousted Presi-dent Mohammed Morsi onSaturday, his Muslim Broth-erhood said, days after thearmy chief called for a popu-lar mandate to tackle “vio-lence and terrorism”.

Brotherhood spokesmanGehad El-Haddad said theshooting started shortly be-fore pre-dawn morningprayers on the fringes of around-the-clock sit-in beingstaged by backers of Morsi,who was toppled by the army

Security forces kill 70pro-Morsi protestors

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more than three weeks ago.“They are not shooting

to wound, they are shootingto kill,” Haddad said. Thedeath toll might be muchhigher, he said.

Activists rushed blood-spattered casualties into amakeshift hospital, somewere carried in on planks orblankets. One ashen teen-ager was laid out on the floor,a bullet hole in his head.

Al Jazeera’s Egypt televi-sion station reported that 120had been killed and some4,500 injured in the early

morning violence. A Reutersreporter at the scene counted36 bodies at an improvisedmorgue. There was no imme-diate comment from state au-thorities on what had hap-pened. If the death toll is con-firmed it would be the deadli-est incident since Mursi wasdeposed, who is under inves-tigation for a raft of crimes,including murder.

Weeks of violence havefollowed his ousting, leavingmore than 200 dead and lay-ing bare divisions that have

WASHINGTON—As theSyrian civil war deepenedand anti-governmentrebels struggled to unifytheir fractious forces, theWhite House early last yearquietly convened an elitegroup of seniorpolicymakers to advisePresident Barack Obama.Their unusual mandate:think outside the box onhow to push Syrian Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad frompower.

Led by a senior memberof Obama’s National Secu-

Obama and Syria: A trail ofhalf-steps, mixed messages

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rity Council, the handful ofPentagon, State Departmentand intelligence specialistscame to a consensus: Obamashould weigh military op-tions to reinforce his vowthat Assad must go. But withObama determined to avoidU.S. military intervention, theidea found little traction in-side the White House. Andby mid-2012, the so-called“small group” - whose veryexistence was known to onlya few within the government- was disbanded, former U.S.officials said.

The group’s aborted mis-sion underscores the half-steps and mixed messagesthat have characterizedObama’s Syria policy. Afternearly two years of hesitancyin Washington, Assad nowhas regained the upper handin the conflict, and the WhiteHouse last month finally ap-proved providing limitedarms for Syrian rebels, a stepObama had long resisted.Implementing even that de-cision has proven difficult, asU.S. lawmakers criticize theaid as too little, too late and

question Obama’s Syriastrategy. A House of Rep-resentatives committee ap-proved the arms shipmentsonly this week following amonth’s delay during whichmembers demanded moreadministration clarity.

Reuters interviews withmore than a dozen currentand former U.S. officials andforeign diplomats providenew details about Obama’sdecision-making, guidedby his conviction thatAssad could be toppled

Punjab govt, CPIH signMoU for coal power plant

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ECP issues finallist of presidential

candidatesSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Election Com-mission of Pakistan has is-sued final list of the presiden-tial candidates on Saturday.According to the list‚ Paki-stan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) candidateMamnoon Hussain and Pa-kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)candidate Justice (retd)Wajhiuddin are in the run forthe presidential slot.

Covering candidate ofPakistan Muslim League (N)Iqbal Zafar Jhagra withdrewhis nomination paperson

Kerry to visitPakistan in next fewdays: USWASHINGTON—U.S.Secretary of State JohnKerry is expected to travelto Pakistan in the next fewdays for talks likely tofocus on the countries’often rocky bilateralrelations and regionalcooperation, particularlywith Afghanistan, VOAreported.

Future economic needsof Afghanistan andPakistan are likely todominate discussionsduring Kerry’s plannedstop in Islamabad, on whatwill be his first visit to thesouth Asian nation sincethe new government ofPrime Minister Nawaz Shariftook office in May.

VOA quoting Formerambassador to the UnitedStates Maleeha Lodhi saidthis first high-level engage-ment between Sharif’s new

POL price hikeexpected

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A hike in theprice of petroleum productsis expected on August 1 af-ter an increase in the interna-tional market and the rate ofthe US dollar.

According to sources,

PHC CJinaugurates mobilecourts in KPPESHAWAR—The firstmobile courts were inaugu-rated on the premises of thePeshawar High Court (PHC)in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa onSaturday.

Chief Justice of PHCJustice Dost MuhammadKhan inaugurated themobile courts.

Speaking on thisoccasion, Justice DostMuhammad Khan said thenew system had beenintroduced in order toprovide justice to the needyat their doorsteps.

He said initially, ninejudges and 18 lawyers hadbeen trained to run themobile court systems.—INP

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Railway faresslashed upto 57PC

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Railways Minis-ter Khawaja Saad Rafiquehas announced up to 57 per-cent reduction in railwayfares.

Addressing a news con-ference in Lahore on Satur-day‚ he announced minimumfare of twenty rupees insteadof thirty five rupees at allbranch lines.

Railways Minister saidthe fare of AC BusinessClass has been reduced fromforty two hundred to thirtyfive hundred rupees while thefare of A/C Sleeper Class fromLahore to Rawalpindi hasbeen reduced from fifteenhundred eighty rupees totwelve hundred rupees.

He said fare of A/CSleeper from Lahore to

Peshawar has been broughtdown from twenty four hun-

dred thirty rupees to fourteenhundred.

Saad Rafique said twenty

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A memorandumof understanding was signedbetween Punjab governmentand Chinese renowned com-pany China Power Interna-tional Holdings (CPIH) forsetting up four coal powerplants of 2400 megawatts.Secretary Energy Usman

Bajwa on behalf of Punjabgovernment and Vice Presi-dent of CPIH Mr. WangZhiying singed the MoU.

Punjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif,Provincial Minister for En-ergy Sher Ali Khan, Chairman

Planning & Development,Secretary Information, senioroffice-bearers of CPIH Ms.Yang Qianwei and other con-cerned officials were alsopresent on the occasion.

Talking to media on theoccasion, Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhammad ShahbazSharif said that the agreement

Picture on Back Page

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Two parasolider dead interrorist attack

TARIQ SAEED

P E S H A W A R — B l o o d yclashes between the terror-ists and security forces anda blast near forces convoy inKohat division and HanguSaturday resulted inShahadat of two men in uni-

10 coast guardsdie in Gwadar

check-post attackGWADAR—At least 10 coastguards were martyred andfour others injured whensome militants attacked acheck post of coastal guardsnear Pakistan-Iran on Satur-day.

Commissioner MakranDivision told media that theincident took place in a re-mote area of Tehsil Sursun indistrict Gwadar.

In the predawn attack anunknown number of attack-ers opened fire at the checkpost in Sansar area near Pa-kistan-Iran border, about 100km away from Gwadar.

SIALKOT\FAISALABAD\MULTAN—MPA Ch Muhammad Ikramstressed joint efforts forawareness about dengue onSaturday. He was addressingparticipants in a seminaragainst dengue at the audi-torium of the Sialkot Cham-ber of Commerce and Indus-try (SCCI) under the aus-pices of the Sialkot HealthDepartment here today. Mi-norities MPA Zulfiqar Ghauri,Sialkot DCO Iftikhar Ali Sahu,EDO (Health) Sialkot Capt(Rtd) Dr Zia ul Hassan, Dis-trict Health Officer (DHO)Sialkot Dr Javaid Warraich(Focal Person Anti DengueProgramme for Sialkot dis-trict), President Sialkot Cham-ber of Commerce and Indus-try (SCCI) Sheikh Abdul

Majid, senior journalists, doc-tors, nurses, leady healthworkers, traders and teacherswere also present.

DCO Iftikhar Ali Sahusaid dengue was the mostwidespread infection in hu-man beings which in recentyears had become a majorinternational public healthconcern. EDO (Health) Capt(Rtd) Dr Zia ul Hassan saiddengue hemorrhagic feverwass a potentially deadlycomplication in about 1 to3% of cases. DHO Dr JavaidWarraich revealed denguemosquitoes bite during thedaytime. President SialkotChamber of Commerce andIndustry (SCCI) SheikhAbdul Majid asked local trad-ers, industrialists and export-

ers to ensure dengue sprayin their shops and factories.Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan,Vice Chancellor (VC) Univer-sity of Agriculture Faisalabad(UAF), on Saturday said thatmisconception about dengueshould be eliminatedthrough awareness.

Addressing a seminar ar-ranged by Entomology De-partment UAF in connectionwith Anti Dengue Day hereon Saturday, Dr Iqrar urgedthe students to keep home,environment and surround-ing hygiene, remove stagnantwater and containers andavoid accumulation of groundwater. MNA Hajji AkramAnsari said the provincialgovernment had mobilized thecommunity to fight the epi-

demic. MPA Hajji KhalidSaeed said the Punjab gov-ernment was making an all-outeffort against dengue. DeanFaculty of Agriculture Prof DrMuhammad Arshad urgedpeople to enhance their rolein the campaign by eradica-tion filths from localities.

Prof Dr Muhammad JalalArif said his department wasworking on 10 dengueprojects that would producepositive results. Prof DrAnjum Sohail stressed pre-cautionary measures. DrKhurrum Zia said that the nextthree months were most criti-cal for the outbreak of den-gue. People from differentwalks of life including politi-cians, teachers, students,NGOs activists and officials

spent their day on Saturdayin activities aimed at creat-ing awareness among peopleabout the dengue virus andmeasures to prevent it.

PML-N MNA ShaheenShafiq led an awareness walkin the city on anti-dengue dayhere and expressed the hopethe 2013 campaign to containand eliminate the dengue vi-rus and its carrier would alsoculminate into success likethey did last year by virtue ofuntiring efforts by the provin-cial government in coopera-tion with the community. Thewalk was organized by the citydistrict government Multan,environment protection de-partment in cooperation with‘Shaoor TaraqiatiTanzeem’.—APP

Call for robust efforts against dengue

PESHAWAR—The death tollfrom Friday’s twin suicideblasts, which struck a busymarket in Parachinar on Friday,has jumped to 57 as more ofthe injured succumbed to theirwounds in hospitals. RiazMehsud, Political Agent ofKurram Agency while confirm-ing the death toll, said around400 persons were busy shop-ping for Iftar in the narrow road-side market when the suicideblasts took place. “One of thesuicide bombers blew himself

up first in one corner of thebazaar and a minute later, thesecond bomber carried out theattack in another corner, caus-ing widespread destruction,”he said.

He said all the injured hadbeen shifted to the publicsector Agency HeadquartersHospital in Parachinar whereemergency had already beendeclared and all hospital staffcalled for duty. “We received72 injured persons andamong them more than a

dozen are in critical condi-tion. We may shift them toPeshawar for better treat-ment,” said Dr Gul Hussainfrom Parachinar on phone. AParachinar resident, AmjadHussain said that large num-ber of area people were busyshopping, mostly for ediblesto break their fast when theblast took place. “I sawpeople running for their liveswhen another blast oc-curred”. He said local peopleshifted the injured to the hos-pital on self-help basis.

Another local tribesman,Gulfat Hussain said manypeople died before theycould be shifted to hospital.“Announcements were madefrom loudspeakers in themosques appealing to thepeople to come to hospitaland donate blood for the in-jured people,” he said. Heavycontingent of security forcesrushed to the spot and cor-doned off the area after theblast.

Meanwhile, acommuniqué by commis-sioner Kohat Division statedthat 34 persons were killedand more than 80 were in-jured in the twin suicideblasts in Parachinar. Earlier,two persons were killed andseven others sustained inju-ries when a double-cabinpickup vehicle was attackedwith an improvised explosivedevice (IED) in the Kharpatiarea in lower Kurram Agencyon Friday.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The Ministryof Religious Affairs will cre-ate awareness among the in-tending pilgrims about infec-tious disease, especially Co-rona virus, at Haji camps.Federal Minister for Reli-gious Affairs SardarMuhammad Yousaf, whiletalking to a private newschannel, said the Haji camps’management had alreadybeen directed to vaccinate allthe pilgrims against infec-tious diseases.

The minister advisedthe elderly persons, preg-nant women, children and

people affected by chronicdiseases to avoid the visit.He, however, said no offi-cial document from theSaudi government regard-ing the ‘age limit’ of the pil-grimages had been recievedas yet. He said the Govern-ment of Saudi Arabia onJune 14 had informed thatover 20% cut on pilgrimagesall across the world wasmade due to the expansionwork of the `Haram Sharif’.

Discussing about the vi-rus, E.N.T specialist Dr.Muhammad Usman advisedthe pilgrims to wear masks as

a preventive measure as theMiddle East RespiratorySyndrome (MERS) spreadthrough close contact andblood transfusion. Heqouted the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) as sayingthat the MERS had caused45 deaths, 38 of them in SaudiArabia. The convened emer-gency talks on the virus lastweek.

He said the WHO had notrecommended any MERS-re-lated travel restrictions, butasked the countries to moni-tor unusual respiratory infec-tion patterns.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Energy expertIrfan Mirza has said that thecoastal belt of Sindh with its80 km width and 180 kmlength, has too much poten-tial for generation of windenergy. Talking to a privatenews channel, he said Paki-stan had well-defined windenergy corridors along withsolar energy potential andphotovoltaic opportunity.He said Pakistan was amonga few fortunate countries,which have a lot of poten-tial of alterative and renew-able energy production. Italso had natural resourcesof bio-fuel and cogenera-tion.

He hoped that thepresent government wouldcapitalize on the renewableenergy resources. He saidthe recent visit of a US del-egation of Overseas PrivateInvestment Corporation(OPIC) to Pakistan was agood omen. The corpora-tion takes part in debt and

equity financing, he added.Multan: The government

is taking initiatives to over-come energy crisis by increas-ing energy resources, rev-enue and controlling theft.

Talking to presidents andgeneral secretaries of tradeorganizations at Raza Hall,DCO Gulzar Hussain Shahsaid that district task forcehad been established underthe directives of Punjab gov-ernment. He said that theteams raided and caught 250big gas and power pilferersin which factories, commer-cial organizations and hospi-tals included and eight teamswere set-up to check the gasand power theft in industrialand commercial sectors.

The DCO said that thetrader community should iden-tify black sheep in gas andMEPCO departments so thatcases could be registeredagainst them. He urged thetrade community to convincethe traders who were stealing

electricity. He ensured theMEPCO would be responsiblefor change of burnt transform-ers of markets.—APP

‘Sindh coastal belt has toomuch wind energy potential’

Ministry to create awareness amongpilgrims about infectious diseases

Parachinar blasts victims laid to rest

Two killed,seven injured inroad accidents

SARGODHA—Two personswere killed and seven othersinjured in road accidents onSaturday. According to po-lice, Sami Ullah, Bashir Ahmad,Arif, Altaf, Tanveer, Wasimand Akram were riding a mo-torcycle-rickshaw when aspeeding car hit them on theSargodha-Khushab road. Asa result Wasim (12) died onthe spot while the others wereinjured. The car driver fled. Atractor trolley hit motoristsAlam and Tahir of Sillanwalinear Shaheenabad. Alam diedon the way to hospital. Policehave registered cases.

Faisalabad: A rickshawdriver was killed in a road acci-dent at Jhang Road in the areaof Jhang Bazaar police station.According to police, a speed-ing rickshaw overturned nearJudgewala. As a result, rick-shaw driver Faiz Ahmad (34)received serious injuries anddied on the spot. Police tookthe body into custody andstarted investigation.

Kasur: District and Ses-sions Judge Bahadar Ali KhanSaturday awarded the deathsentence to an accused in amurder case. According to theprosecution, convict MubarikAli had killed his wife Nazia Bibiover illicit relations at BullehShah Town in 2011.—APP

Four copssuspended

KASUR—DPO MuhammadSaleem suspended four po-licemen and issued notices to12 others for relations withcriminals and negligence.The suspended are: SI TahirSohail of Raja Jang, mohararMuhammad Mansha of po-lice post Bhasarpura,moharar Muhammad Arshadof Raja Jang and constableMuhammad Ali of SadderChunian police station.

Notices were issued toSIs Noor Muhammad,Muhammad Sharif, KhurshidAhmad, Muhammad Ilyasand ASIs Khalid, Rafiq andAslam of Sarai Mughal, SIsAbdul Hahmeed andMuhammad Rafiq of CityPhoolnagar, SI GhulamAbbas and constables Arifand Yaqoob of SadarPhoolnagar. Additional Ses-sions Judge Qaisar Nazir Buttordered the district jail super-intendent to release 29 pris-oners involved in pettycases.—APP

Donkey cart onGT road bannedPESHAWAR—The MunicipalCorporation Peshawar Satur-day announced completeban on donkey carts on GTRoad and Services Roads formaintaining cleanliness ofroads. The announcement inthis connection was made bythe Administrator MunicipalCorporation Peshawar, saida press release issued here.

Banning of donkey cartsis to ensure free, safe anduninterrupted traffic besidesmaintaining cleanliness ofthe main GT road and its ser-vices roads. The releasedalso warned those violatingthe ban, would be dealt un-der the rules and law of theMCP. Meanwhile, it is alsoreported that the City Mu-nicipal CorporationPeshawar has imposed com-plete ban on graffiti on gov-ernment and private build-ings and posting of bannersetc for maintaining cleanli-ness in the city.—APP

FAISALABAD: PML-N workers welcoming State Minister for Water and Power Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali at FaisalabadMotorway Interchange.

Security acrossGB tightened

GILGIT—The district admin-istration has put police andother security officials on highalert across the region follow-ing arrest of two terrorists aday back. “We have furtherbeefed up security to foil anythreat of terrorism in the dis-trict” an administration officialsaid. He said that though situ-ation was under completecontrol but administrationwas taking precautionarymeasures to avert any threat.The official said security hasbeen beefed following the di-rectives of Crisis Manage-ment Cell. He said these in-structions were also for-warded to administrations ofother districts.—APP

BAHWALPUR: MINA Begum Praveen Masood Bhatti distributing ration among the de-serving people during a ceremony organized by Saving Life Development Organization.

Hundered acres land inundated70 feet wide breach at SKT canal

NAZIR SIYAL

LARKANA—70 feet widebreach was occurred at SKTcanal, hundreds of acre agri-land on paddy crop inun-dated and water submergedto surroundings of villagesnear near Sijawal Junejo cityof District KamberShahdadkot here on Satur-day. According to details, 70feet wide breach was oc-curred at SKT Branch nearSijawal Junejo city resultinglarge number of villages in-cluding village SonharoKhan Jalbani, DeenMuhammad Jalbani, villageGhulam Muhammad Khoso,village Muto Khan Jatoi andothers were reportedly sub-merged into the irrigation wa-

ter, besides hundreds of acrepaddy crops inundated andbadly affected, but no irriga-tion or other district adminis-trations reached yet.

On the occasion, SESaifullah Magsi circle MunwarBozdar, Executive EngineerMukhtiar Abro along withflood fighting team reached atscene and started the work tofill the breach. XEN MukhtiarAbro told media men that somemiscreants are behind the in-cident; however the Policehave been informed to inves-tigate the matter.

Muzaffargarh: A breach inKundai flood protection bundin tehsil Alipur triggered flow ofwater from Indus river to differ-ent villages and crop area wasaffected there Saturday morn-

ing. Villagers said that water en-tered villages including MalikArain, Kundai, Noonari, NaniWala, Basti Baloch, DarbarMurad Shah, Shurli Arain, BastiJabooja, Basti Lang and otherswhere it damaged crop area.

Water was almost onekilometre away from BastiKhangarh Doima. When con-tacted, a district governmentofficial said that AssistantCommissioner Alipur andother officials have been sentto the affected area to help thecommunities there.

He, however, addedthat these were the riverineareas of river Indus andadded that the situationwould be in control andposes no immediate threatto the people. Faisalabad:

Acting CommissionerNajam Ahmad Shah partici-pated in the commissionersvideo conference under thechairmanship of Chief Min-ister Shahbaz Sharif duringhis Bahawalpur tour.

Punjab Minister for Irriga-tion Yawar Zaman, Secretary Ir-rigation Punjab Zahid Saeed andall divisional commissioners ofPunjab attended the video con-ference. During the conference,the chief minister inquired aboutthe flood situation in rivers andflood control arrangements bythe divisional administration.Acting Commissioner NajamAhmad Shah briefed the chiefminister about flood safety mea-sures in Faisalabad division overwater discharges of the Chenab,Jehlum and Ravi rivers.

Siraj inquires after blast victimsPESHAWAR—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Se-nior Minister Siraj-ul-Haq on Saturdayvisited Lady Reading Hospital here toinquire after the health of the injured ofthe twin bomb blasts in Parachinar onFriday, last. The minister remained therefor sometimes and inquired after thehealth of the injured persons and themedical treatment being given to themin the hospital. He directed the hospitaladministration to provide best possible

medical treatment to the injured. The Minster also prayedfor the early recovery of the injured persons. At least 57people were killed in Friday night’s twin suicide blasts in amarket of Parachinar were around 400 people were busyshopping for ‘Iftar’ and more than 180 were injured. Manyof the injured were shifted to Peshawar for medical treat-ment. Earlier, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor, Engi-neer Shaukatullah condemned the terrorist attack atParachinar on Friday while expressing his deep shock andsorrow over the loss of precious lives. The Governor hasdirected the Commissioner of Kohat division and the pro-vincial Director General Health Services to enforce emer-gent situation in the health institutions at divisional head-quarter and ensure availability of treatment facilities to theinjured. Expressing his deep sympathies with members ofthe bereaved families, the Governor said that the elementsinvolved in killing of innocent lives can never be tolerateand these people have no religious values and culturalnorms. No effort will be spared to bring them to court oflaw, he added.—APP

Pirzada lauds PTI’s decisionISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for In-ter Provincial Coordination RiazHussain Pirzada on Saturday lauded thedecision of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’sto contest the presidential election. Talk-ing to Radio Pakistan, Pirzada said bytaking part in the election for the officeof President, the PTI had shown respectfor the democratic traditions. He saidthat the Pakistan People’s Party deci-sion to boycott the presidential elec-

tion was a political gimmick. He rejected PPP’s pretext thatthey were not given enough time for campaigning, sayingno much campaigning was required for the election. Ear-lier, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Siddiq ul Farooq has said that the presidential electionis being according to the Constitution and all political par-ties should follow the court decision. He said the PML-Nbelieved in democracy and continuity of democratic sys-tem in the country. It had never pursued the politics ofconflict and victimizating the political opponents. Reply-ing to a question, Siddiq ul Farooq alleged that the Paki-stan People’s Party had not followed the democratic normsby boycotting the presidential election. Talking to Paki-stan Television, he said that his party had respect for thejudiciary and the court decisions for smooth functioningof democracy in the country. He said the PML-N was amajority party in the Parliament and according to the Con-stitution, the President would be from the majority party.Replying to another question, he said the PPP’s boycottof presidential election had no constitutional and moralvalidity and the election would be held on time accordingto the Constitution.—APP

Kashmiris urged to forge unityISLAMABAD—Chairman of All PartiesHurriyet Conference, Mirwaiz UmarFarooq, has urged the Kashmiri peopleto forge greater unity among their ranksto fight oppression unleashed by NewDelhi and its puppet administration inthe territory. Addressing a gathering inSrinagar, the APHC Chairman said thatthe people of Kashmir were fighting agenuine struggle for which they werebeing treated with bullets, KMS re-

ported. The Mirwaiz called upon the Ulema, religiouspreachers and clerics to play their role in ending sectarianclashes in Badgam district. He said that the people shouldunderstand that sectarian clashes only served New Delhi’sintentions of institutionalizing oppression in the occupiedterritory. “They (India) are happy that Muslims are fight-ing with each other in Kashmir. New Delhi would cash onthis situation and follow the divide and rule policy. Oncewe would be divided on ground, they would rule us andtheir occupation would automatically be institutionalized,”he said. He cautioned the people to beware of India’smindset of taking undue advantage of the crisis in theoccupied territory. On the killing of four innocent civiliansin Gool area of Ramban on July 18, the APHC Chairmansaid that nothing had changed in Kashmir since 1931. “Des-ecration of holy Quran used to take place then and it con-tinues now. Jamia Masjid was locked and Friday prayerswere not allowed during autocratic rule of Maharaja HariSingh and same is happening today,” he said. The Mirwaizcondemned the move of the puppet administration of cag-ing the pro-freedom leaders after Gool killings. “CagingHurriyet leaders either in their own homes or putting thembehind the bars have become a routine here,” he said. Hesaid that the APHC had already rejected the inquiry or-dered by the puppet regime into Gool massacre. —APP

Community-basedanimal health

workers trainingconcludes

RAFIULLAH MANDOKHAIL

ZHOB—A 15-day training onZoonoses of 25 Community-based Animal Health WorkersCAHWs (15 male, 10 female)under bio-engagement pro-gram, organized by Relief In-ternational concluded here inZhob. Deputy Director Live-stock and Dairy DevelopmentDr. Baha ul Haq Mandokhailwas the chief guest on theoccasion. Dr. Yousaf Barozai,Dr. Abdul Majeed and Dr.Naseebullah delivered lec-tures on Zoonotic diseases -Rabies, Anthrax,Leshmeniasis, Tuberculosis,Tetanus, Brucellosis, Dengue, Congo and Bird Flue.

Veterinary experts said,that direct contact with infectedanimals through breathing,eating raw meat and milk andbiting of certain infected ani-mals like dogs, cats, bats andmosquito flies causes trans-mission of Zoonotic disease.They emphasized for adoptingpreventive measures by usingmasks, gloves, bed nets andmosquito spray, hand washbefore and after contacting in-fected animals. They added.Highlighting the purposesand objectives of “Livestockfor Life” project, DistrictProject Manager RI AbuzerMandokhail and Dr. SyedRamazan Shah said that themain objective of the projectis advocacy and awareness aswell as capacity building. Theysaid.

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Minister forHealth and Spokesman of theprovincial government,Shaukat Ali Yousafzai hassaid that the PTI led provin-cial government would installRobot Surgery machines inthe tertiary hospitals ofPeshawar to introduce newtrends in the field of surgeryin Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Hesaid, that necessary trainingfor the surgeons would bearranged for the purpose.

This, he stated, while ad-dressing the handing over cer-emony of medical equipments

of Rs 70 million to the heads ofdifferent departments ofKhyber Teaching Hospital(KTH) donated by UNHCR atKTH here on Saturday. Provin-cial Minister for Local Govern-ment, Inayataullh Khan,MPAs Mian Khaliq ur Rahmanand Fazle Elahi, Chief Execu-tive KTH Dr. Umar Ayub, MSZafar Iqbal Afridi, heads of dif-ferent departments of KTH,doctors, paramedics, nursingand other staff was alsopresent on this occasion.

Chief Executive KTH onthis occasion informed thatduring his one-and-a-half-

year tenure, record dona-tions of Rs 180 million werereceived which have nomatch in the past. Similarly,Rescue-1122 station hasbeen established in KTH toefficiently cope with anyemergency situation and900 lap-tops have distrib-uted among the medical stu-dents and house officers.Likewise, extension in Burn/Plastic Surgical Unit and up-gradation of dialyses units,echocardiograph room andnephrology units weremade. KTH is the only hos-pital having the Isoflurine in

the operation theatre.The Health Minister main-

tained that we were voted topower for change adding thatif we could bring 40 % changein Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, itwould be a great success andthe gateway for change in theentire country. He said wewant a system free of any typeof interference and influenceand he from this stage an-nounced that illegal orders ofmine should also be ignored.Yousafzai asserted that hehimself was not satisfied withthe performance of the state-run-hospitals.—APP

NAZIR SIYAL

LARKANA—A drop scene ofromantic story, the couple at-tempted suicide by consum-ing poisonous drug, they wererushed to the CMC causalitywoman died while her par-amour survived in hospital herein the limits of Rahmatpur Po-lice Station on Saturday. Ac-cording to Police, couple NisarAhmed Chawro (28) and SadafJatoi (25) loving each other af-ter the failures of marriage,they consumed the poisonoussubstance, resulting both fellunconsciouses in the jurisdic-tion of Rahmatpur Police Sta-tion.

They were rushed toCMC Hospital emergencyward Larkana, where theSadaf Jatoi died in hospitalwhile Nisar Chawro is in aserious condition. Policesources told that both hadleft their homes to get lovemarriage on 9th June 2013,according to relatives of de-ceased girl Sadaf Jatoi,daughter of MuhammadAlam Jatoi, forcefully mar-ried with Fayaz Jatoi 6 monthback. After the failures, theyboth attempted this act andtook pinions drug, a letterhas been found in home writ-ten by Nisar and Sadafjointly regarding committingsuicide relatives told.

****A large numbers of civil

society representatives inLarkana and Thatta districttook out protest demonstra-tions against the murder ofRafique Ahmed the son of asenior journalist AbbasJalbani. On the occasion,Sinndh Journalist Societyalso condemned the killingof young activist working

the in the human develop-ment field in Thatta, he wasshot dead by unknown per-sons here yesterday.

The civil society ex-pressed deep concern overthe incident and took outdemonstration against thetargeting the activist andworker of INGO Christian Aidin Thatta. The journalist com-munity, civil society and ac-tivists shouted slogansagainst the arrest of culpritsand demanded of the higherauthorities for proper inves-tigation and justice.

World Hepatitis day wasobserved in Larkana, SindhHepatitis program Larkanachapter took out the an aware-ness rally to mark the interna-tional day here on Saturday.The rally led by ProfessorAftab Shah, Professor HakimAli Abro, Dr Abdul MajeedJessar, Staff Nurse Nasreen andothers among doctors, para-medics and representatives ofcivil society, the rally startedfrom OPD to Medical Superin-tendent CMC Hospital, on theoccasion participants in rallywere holding the placards in-scribed the with slogans forpreventing and combating thedeadly fatal disease.

Speakers addressing saidthat objective of organizingthe seminars and awarenessrally was to inform the publicabout the disease; they saidthat before the blood trans-fusing public should gothrough blood screeningtests. They said that theredifferent causes in spreadingthe hepatitis disease, pre-vention and proper cure ispossible to combat the dis-ease adding that 3 PCR Ma-chines are available in Sindhincluding Larkana, Sukkur.

KP Govt to install RobotSurgery machines in hospitals

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Health and Information, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai along with LocalGovt Minister, Inayatullah Khan inaugurating handing over ceremony of medial equipments donated by UNHCR forKhyber Teaching Hospital.

QUETTA: Activists of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, sitting in a hunger strikecamp outside press club.

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Local residents hold a demonstration against excessive electricity loadshedding.

MULTAN—Police have reg-istered a case against 150persons who ransacked theMEPCO office at GardenTown on Friday against un-scheduled power outages.According to policesources, Garden Town sub-division SDO MuhammadSaleem, in an application topolice, alleged Mumtaz,Riaz, Khalid, Imran, Saleem,Javed, Babu, Javed and 142unidentified people had at-tacked the MEPCO GardenTown office.

The protesters alsoburnt two vehicles, two mo-torcycles, two computersand ransacked the building.

150 booked for ransackingMEPCO office

They caused a loss of Rs twomillion, the SDO said.Qutubpur police have regis-tered a case. The MEPCOChief Executive Officer(CEO) Engineer IqbalHussain Malezai said thatthe department was facingloss due to deaths of hardworkers by negligence of em-ployees during field duty.

Addressing the WAPDAHydro workers union here,he directed the linemen toperform their work effec-tively and work on line per-sonally and added that thefield staff should not workin field without safety in-struments.—APP

BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD—Acting DCOHafizabad Safeena Siddiquehas appreciated the nobleservices of the NGOs whichwere treating TB patientsand providing dialysis treat-ment to the poor patientsfree of cost. Addressing an-nual meeting-cum-Iftaar Din-ner of Anjuma FalahoBehbood-e-Insaniat and

NGOs mobile TB services eulogisedAnjuman Khidmat-e-Insaniatwhich were running DialysisCentre and TB Clinic inHafizabad since long, sheappealed to the philanthro-pists to donate generouslytowards the NGOs to enablethe NGOs to run these cen-tres smoothly as well as toget the blessings of AlmightyAllah. She praised that serv-ing ailing humanity is greatworship. She also assuredthe NGOs that the adminis-tration would fully cooperatewith them for the successfulrunning of these two usefulclinic/centres.

Earlier, Patron of theAnjuman Falaho Behbood-e-Insaniat told the meeting themeeting that the DialysisCentres was started in 2004and they were thankful toMuhammad ShafiqueNaqshbani Chairman NoorFoundation UK who had pro-vided dialysis machinesworth over Rs. 10 million.

*****The Kassoke police have

smashed a notorious gangwho used to snatch motorcycles, mobile phones andcash from pedestrians sincelong and have arrested fiveof its members including thering leader of the gang. Ac-cording to police source, KaliBilla gang was operating inthe police station areas ofPindi Bhattian, Hafizabad,Kassoke and nearby villagessince long and was wantedby the police. On a tip off,the SHO Kassoke raided aplace and dramatically ar-rested ring leader Umer Drazalias Kali Billa, MuhammadAli, Ameen, Zaheer Abbasand Irfan and have seized il-licit firearms and stolen prop-erty worth million of rupees.

*****A lady health worker,

Sobia Mansha D/oMuhammad Mansha resi-dent of Pindi Bawary waslured away by Rai IrshadKharal of Hafizabad. The po-lice have registered a case U/S 365-B PPC against the ac-cused and are investigatingbut failed to arrest the ac-cused or to recover theabductee. According tovictim’s father, the accused,who was acquainted to hisfamily members, gave mes-sage to her daughter on hercell phone to reach Hafizabadon July 14 last.

ISLAMABAD—The Meteoro-logical Department on Satur-day forecast rain with thun-dershowers in Kashmir,Hazara, Islamabad, NorthernAreas, while at isolatedplaces in Lower Sindh,Northwest Balochistan andadjoining.

Weather wil l remainpartly cloudy in Karachi onSunday, said a report is-sued by Pakistan Meteoro-logical Department. Ac-cording to the report fo-cussed on weather fore-cast, hot and humid condi-tions will be experienced inHyderabad, Mirpurkhasand Sukkur divisions re-spectively against rain andthunderstorm in Larkanadivision.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,mainly humid weather is ex-pected in most parts of theprovince, however, rain withthundershower is likely atisolate places of upperKhyber Pakhtunkhwa duringnext 24 hours. Mainly hot and

humid weather is expected inmost parts of Sindh. However,rain with thunderstorm is ex-pected at isolated places ofsouth/eastern Sindh duringnext 24 hours.—Agencies

Rains likely on hilly areas

Women dies,paramour survives

after poisoning

Focus again shiftson politics

UNFORTUNATELY, the economy remained on the backburner during entire five years of the PPP but the most ironic part of theepisode is that the party has started pursuing policies that could

force the present Government too to focus more on politics than on economy.The decision of the PPP and its allies, who were major beneficiaries of itsrule, to boycott presidential election has raised political temperature andremarks of the PPP candidate Raza Rabbani that this was just the begin-ning, is a clear hint of what is in store for the country in weeks and monthsto come.

An overwhelming majority of the people tend to agree to Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif who complained that the PPP lacked the democratic spiritand that the party went for the boycott sensing its sure but ignominiousdefeat especially when PTI insisted on fielding its own candidate and MQMand JUI-F indicated their tilt towards PML-N. Analysts also agree that itwas clearly an attempt on the part of the PPP and its allies to rob the presi-dential election of its credibility but credit goes to PTI for foiling the con-spiracy as it went ahead with its plans to contest the election. The constitu-tional intricacies explained by PTI’s presidential candidate WajihuddinAhmad, who himself is a retired judge, exposed hollowness of the criti-cism of the PPP leadership of the Supreme Court and the Election Com-mission on the issue of advancing the date of polling for the election asWajih is hundred per cent sure that the verdict in question does not sufferfrom constitutional, legal or moral lacuna. There are all indications thatPPP and its allies, because of their vested interests, would tread the path ofconfrontation and it is for the PML-N now to come out with a pragmaticcounter strategy so that the designs to divert its attention away from economyare foiled. PML-N’s internal and external policies have been directed atefforts to create congenial atmosphere for economic growth and develop-ment and the party should persist with its firm resolve to march forward onthis road, clearing hurdles being created by its political opponents. Theopposition too should realize that the country is in murky waters and it isresponsibility of every one of us to contribute towards economic and po-litical stability as did Mian Nawaz Sharif during the last five years at thecost of being labeled as friendly opposition.

Country is being torn apartTWIN blasts ripped through a congested market and a taxi stand in

Parachinar town on Friday, leaving 45 people dead and around 75 in-jured. One of the blasts was carried out by a suicide bomber while the otherwas stated to be a planted one.

The tragedy in Parachinar came as dust had not settled in Sukkur whereterrorists targeted a sensitive security complex. Intriguingly, there has beenan increase in frequency and intensity of the bombings during the holymonth of Ramazan and some of the attacks sent clear message that theenemy wants to ignite the sectarian fire in the country as rival sects arebeing targeted. Thanks to the understanding of the situation and designs ofthe enemy by leaders of different sects especially Shiite that Shia-Sunnidivide is not widening and we pay compliments to the religious leadershipfor the purpose. However, surge in terrorist incidents coupled with alarm-ing increase in crime, emergence of mafia of all sorts and near break downof the administrative machinery are giving an impression as if the countrywas being torn apart. What a shame that security and law-enforcing agen-cies themselves are being targeted and now incidents of kidnapping of po-lice officials/officers and involvement of police personnel in crime are alsoon the rise. The civil society also stands brutalized due to apathy of thePPP Government, which left the country ungovernable at the end of itsfive year long term and pushed almost every institution to the brink ofvirtual collapse. People have right to agitate and protest but it is not un-derstandable as to why they ransack public property as they did in Multanby destroying WAPDA offices over load-shedding. The Federal and Pro-vincial Governments should, therefore, get their acts together to ensurerule of law and elimination of gangs of criminals as well as mafias. PML-N Governments in the Centre and Punjab; PTI in KPK and NationalParty in Balochistan are determined to do that and we hope PPP Govern-ment in Sindh too would make amends for its disastrous five years.

Pakistan’s rightstance on Morsi

STRANGE things are happening in the brotherly country Egypt whereArmy toppled the popularly elected Government in a questionable man-

ner and circumstances. Demonstrations by supporters of former PresidentMorsi are understandable but in a move unheard of in civilized nations, theArmy gave call for protests and demonstrations in a bid to give legitimacyto its illegal action. And in a more dangerous move, the military-led Gov-ernment has formally detained Morsi for allegedly abetting Palestinian mili-tants in murdering policemen and staging prison breaks.

The latest move, instead of stabilizing the situation, is likely to plungethe country into further chaos and instability, which does not augur well forits people, who have been struggling for democracy and its fruits as well asprogress and prosperity. It was in this backdrop that Pakistan added itsvoice to saner calls for immediate release of toppled President Morsi, ex-pressing its strong opposition to sort out things through military interven-tions. The silence maintained by the United States and other Western coun-tries over murder of democracy in Egypt speaks volumes about their doublestandards. They talk about democracy but encourage dictatorships whenthey apprehend that will of the people is swaying in directions other thanthose they wanted to see for the sake of their regional or global agenda. It isalso a strange phenomenon that people in Islamic and third world countriesare fancied by the idea of democracy but are not willing to demonstrate therequired level of reconciliation, accommodation and tolerance that is neededto nurture the plant of democracy. The attack on democracy just in one yearin Egypt is clear manifestation of that reality.

Discretion and decision making?

What experienceand history teach isthis — that peopleand governmentsnever have learnedanything fromhistory, or acted onprinciples deducedfrom it.

Prosecutorsvs thePress

One of the ways in whichnews organizations servethe public is by disclos-

ing facts the government wouldprefer to hide. Leaks from insid-ers are a crucial way to let thepeople know what their leadersare doing. But sometimes thenews media’s search for infor-mation collides with thegovernment’s desire to keep se-crets — to avoid embarrassment,to safeguard what it sees ashighly sensitive material or sim-ply to control the public narra-tive. When that happens, jour-nalists often wind up in the crosshairs of prosecutors — which isbad for the journalists and oftenbad for the citizenry.

Lately this phenomenon hasbeen proliferating. In May,Americans learned that the Jus-tice Department had secretlyseized phone records from TheAssociated Press in an investi-gation of leaks about an airlinerbomb plot in Yemen. Justice alsogot a search warrant for emailssent by a Fox News reporter overa leak about North Korea. Lastweek, a federal appeals courtpanel ruled that a reporter forThe New York Times must tes-tify about his sources for his ac-count, published in his book, ofa CIA operation targeting Iran’snuclear program.

A dissenting judge said theruling “severely impinges on thepress and the free flow of infor-mation in our society.” But thereis a ray of light amid the gloom.After the AP subpoena surfaced,President Barack Obama or-dered the Justice Department toreview its policies on going af-ter information from journalists.Now, in response, Attorney Gen-eral Eric Holder has announcednew guidelines that would ap-preciably curtail the power ofprosecutors in such cases. Thenew policy creates a presump-tion that prosecutors will notifynews organization about de-mands for records. The sole ex-ception comes where they canshow that giving notice wouldjeopardize an investigation.“Only the rare case,” it says,would “justify a delayed notifi-cation.” It also narrows the cir-cumstances in which a searchwarrant can be sought — andrequires the attorney general toapprove such requests.

Changes like these offersome hope. David Anderson, alaw professor at the Universityof Texas at Austin, told Reutersthe changes would make a “sub-stantial difference.” Still, theycan’t impede an overzealous at-torney general determined toget around them. Being a mat-ter of executive discretion, theyalso can be discarded at will. Astronger safeguard would be afederal law to shield journalistsfrom prosecutorial demands —following the practice of 49states.

The Justice Departmentwould then be legally bound torespect the legitimate rights ofthe press. The administrationendorsed this concept in 2009,and Holder reiterated that sup-port this month. A shield lawshould at least limit forced dis-closures to genuinely harmfulleaks that can’t be traced with-out the testimony of the jour-nalist — and then only if theharm exceeds the value of pub-lic knowledge.

At most, such demandsshould be a last resort. Mostnews media, however, wouldprefer absolute immunity forsuch requests. Reporters shouldnot be punished for doing theirjobs. It’s the job of the press toferret out secrets, which oftenare essential to give citizens anaccurate understanding of whatis being done in their name. Ifthe government can’t preventleaks, it shouldn’t impose onjournalists to make up for its fail-ure. The Justice Department hastaken a big step in the right di-rection. Congress needs to gofurther. — Chicago Tribune

MEDIA WATCH

—HegelGerman philosopher

Seniors in decision makingsituations used to say that itwas better at critical juncture

to be absent rather than to put one’sreputation at stake by decisionswhich may go wrong in the future. Ihave been battling this argument butnow with hindsight I feel that theseniors were right for the culture inthis country is to be ready with sa-distic values and hit at people whomay have done well for the country.Years later one starts to answer ques-tions that were may be ten to twentyyears earlier. If this be so then howis risky work to be undertaken?Where the number of players is dif-ferent and the decision making isfragmented as in the Nandipurpower project where and how is re-sponsibility to be fixed?

How is the equation to be bal-anced when the future is full of pot-holes into which a decision makercan fall? It is easy to point fingers atothers and ride a high horse? Shallwe have invidious honesty and canthat kind of honesty deliver. I had acolleague who was just that and hemay have caused more damage thansome one who risked a major deci-sion for this country. Let me giveyou an example of this colleague.He would check the number ofpeople in the meeting and go for theadministration on issues that werenon-issues. How many biscuits forrefreshments [it used to be 50 paisasper head] were brought in for howmany people? He would confiscate

Improving national energy policy

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 2852027-8, Ext: 116Email: magazinesocialdiary@hotmail.com

National Energy Policy(NEP) in its current formwill fail to end

loadshedding, reduce per unit elec-tricity cost, pilferage and powertheft. Similarly, a multiprongedstrategy is unrealistic in terms ofending demand and supply gap in3-4 years, ensuring low cost energyproduction, introducing tariff re-structuring, technology efficiency,transparency and a merit basedsystem. Without taking followingsteps, NEP cannot serve public,economy and country.

NEP should give energy ratesto reduce per unit electricity cost.Brazil has reduced the per unitelectricity price by 20 percent foralternate energy producers from146 reais to 117 reais($52.70MWh) for 23 August 2013sale after a similar successful auc-tion in 2011. Wind energy devel-opers cannot charge more than Rs.5.28/unit. The government hasmandated using locally producedturbines and their parts. The devel-opers have asked for Rs. 5.63/ unit(125 reaisMWh) to meetgovernment’s demand.

The rates for fossil-fuel powerplants, biomass facilities and hy-droelectric dams are Rs. 6.30/ unit(140 reais/ MWh) for 29 August2013 auction. Companies biddingto build the 400-megawatt Sinophydro project in the same eventmust sell electricity for no morethan Rs. 5.31 (118 reais/ MWh).The winning companies must com-plete the projects by September2015 (Brazilian press, 23 July2013). Similar steps will bring

those biscuits and put them inhis table drawers. These bis-cuits went missing every timeand then it was realized that therodents were having a field dayeating biscuits if you will?And that was the decision mak-

ing invidiously honest grade 21 of-ficers were involved in. That is thekind of honesty required by the coun-try. He was like the successful librar-ian who never issued any book andtherefore never lost one!

The macro issues of inflation, un-employment, terrorism, energy re-quire a man giant. We will only growmidgets these days. Snitchers andwhimperers who will eat the back ofany manly activity and therefore forcethe doers to become eunuchs? Butmore on discretion and the kinds ofdecisions that are required for takingthis country forward. How wouldsome civil servant take Baluchistanforward? Fine the political system isin charge and they should work forthe province. Have a look at the threepackages provided to Baluchistan.These were all in personal benefit andnot in the least in public interest. Ifone were to analyze the political-bu-reaucratic conflict then the answersare simple. The Politician will onlyhold sway if he has background ofthe area he is working in and if hisexponential experience is worth theportfolio that he is holding.

In the absence of such experiencethere will only be threats and shout-ing in the press indicating that thelouder the noise the more the impact.This happened with the ignorant min-isters in the last government and theone before and will happen again inthe present democratic set up that onehas been so joyously shouting about.Democracy then does not stand alone.

It stands in conjunction with merit andnot merit determined by arithmetic.Some time has elapsed and yet theBaluchistan factor stands as it was andmaybe worse. So try and get your in-vidious honest politician and bureau-crat to do the needful. Looking for loy-alty-fine then the two discretionarydecision making and loyal servility donot go together. Tell me if you findthat any where in the world.

Let me take you through the plan-ning process that I have analyzed dur-ing the colonial period and I want tospecifically talk of the All India Rail-ways. Consider Lahore it was junc-tion. Railway employees were pro-vided residences-all categories, play-ing areas for the children and as therailway employee was on tour mostof the time the family were protectedand the children’s education was theresponsibility of the railway adminis-tration [St. Andrews School in Lahore]were developed. A medical hospitalwas nearby. In short the bases for liv-ing were covered. All those mattershave been lost and we have trainsnever on time. The Railways even hada wonderful cricket team that partici-pated in the country’s major tourna-ments. The imperial forest and healthdepartment were also organized on anall India bases. Examine the organi-zational structure and see how every-thing was organized. Human behav-ior issues never erupted and when theydid the British took charge and sentthe person packing as happened toJustice Young CJ of the Lahore highcourt when he was in excess of juris-prudence in the Gaba lawyers case.

Who will take these decisionsnow? Consider the Human Resourcesand Allah Ki Shan. How does onepick the best out of the lot? Let ussee what the committee for selection

of CEO will do? How will it deter-mine the best from people of differ-ent cultures? Do they have any wayof knowing what will happen at theend of five years and if they are heldaccountable how will that permeateto them because all of them are‘Onerable men [in the spirit ofBrutus of Julius Caesar fame]. PIA.PSM, Railways [oops sorry we al-ready have one there] are all to beexperimented with. Good luck? Ifthe inner dimensions are correct canthey rectify the externalities?

So will discretion be allowed tothe new masters or will they be ham-strung by what is happening? In Pa-kistan a foreign friend of mine sug-gested that the every one tries to doanother’s work while neglecting theirown responsibilities. It will continueso? How will red tape be dealt withat the obstacles placed in their way,the restraints imposed on them, theboundaries they must observe, theprocedures they must follow. Thegovernment has limited time to cashin on its energies and once they losethis initiative then matters will be dif-ficult to recoup. Poor morale causedby bureaucratic pathologies needs tobe overcome. Will he politicians andthe bureaucracy be able to do this?It’s in the future and therefore anyone that does bad job and any onethat recruits such a person will beequally liable. The precedent has beenset in the Tauqir Sadiq case. Fromwhat has been stated by various agen-cies he is already tried and con-demned. Poor guy. Hang down yourhead Tom Dooley, poor man, for yourabout to die? The tales of 17th cen-tury cowboy days are here. The Mar-shals then and the Marshals we havenow both shoot to kill. So be it-everyone’s turn will come.

transparency, investment andend corruption in Pakistan’senergy sector.

Pakistan should nationalizeenergy sector to reduce gasprices by 50% and electricityprices by 80% (energy prices

increase in UK and Australia afterprivatization, The Guardian). Bigdams have failed in DR of Congowhere 10% of public has access toelectricity while 85% of it is usedby high energy consumers. The situ-ation in Pakistan is no different.Low cost hydel power is a myth. Bigdams are no longer costeffective(World Bank Bringing Big,Bad Dams, July 16 The Guardian).The $2bn extension of Terbela damadding 1450MW is a feasible op-tion. Policy makers should carefullyconsider spending $20bn on newprojects because it can generate10GWs of electricity from renew-able energy.

NEP should give energy mix.Without defining energy mix, PM’sstrategy of adopting coal to gener-ate cheaper electricity will notyield desired results. Pakistan’senergy mix should have 80% alter-nate energy, 15% coal and 5% fromother sources. Only after determin-ing the percentage of coal in en-ergy mix, should Pakistan investbillions on it including spendingprecious foreign reserve on its im-port. The per unit coal energy costis almost double the price of hydelenergy. The World Bank has alsocut funding for coal energy projectsto reduce carbon emissions (17July, Pennenergy).

Alternate energy can save time,end line losses, thefts and subsidy.Forty-four countries added 45GW(1GW= 1000MW) of wind energyto their energy mix in 2012 alone.Global wind energy output crossed283GW in 2012. Pakistan can endloadshedding in 3 months to 2 years

by using alternate energy in publicand private sectors. Local generationof electricity will help bring downline losses, reduce theft and cutmaintenance costs. A unit of elec-tricity produced from alternate en-ergy costs around Rs 5.50 whichends the need for government sub-sidy, different rates, smart meters,deincentivises theft and corruptionin energy sector.

Pakistan needs to generate 10-15GW from alternate energy by2018. According International En-ergy Agency (IEA), global powergeneration from hydro, wind, solarand other renewable sources will ex-ceed that of gas and nuclear by 2016.Renewable power is expected to in-crease by 40% in the next five years.By 2030, fifty percent of world’senergy will come from renewableresources. China, Europe and oil richGulf states are headed to generate30% of their energy needs from al-ternate energy to cut fuel costs andmeet domestic and international car-

Dr Zafar AltafEmail:dr_altaf@hotmail.com

bon emission rules. Major indus-tries should generate their own en-ergy to reduce fuel poverty. Thegovernment should implement li-censing agreements which requiremajor industries in agriculture,manufacturing and services sectorsto generate their own electricityafter certain duration. It should cut$11bn annual fuel imports by 60%($7bn), save $10-12bn foreign re-serves spending on imports includ-ing projected $4.5bn yearly ureaimports being linked to gas short-ages (Rs. 452bn yearly urea importsdue to gas shortage, July 24, DailyTimes). Special banks should beformed to give low interest loansto SMEs, MSEs and individualowners to adopt renewable energy.China gave $39bn at 8% by 2012for clean energy, energy saving andother related needs (Banks boostgreen credit for green growth, July22, China Daily). Western banksspend 32 times more on fossil fu-els than alternate energy which pre-cipitates fuel poverty at grassroots(July 16, news).

Mega water storage should bebuilt for water and food securityand flood safety. The report of In-dian dam on Chenab River has yetagain raised the need for develop-ing water storages for agriculturepurposes. They can be used to har-vest rainwater, flood water andovercome water shortages. Floodscost the UK billions last year.Countries are using alternate energyto generate electricity and storewater to protect their strategic in-terests including food, energy andwater security. IEA recommendsthat 60% of energy funds should beused for alternate energy to bringabout universal access to electric-ity at grassroots. Big dams for elec-tricity are models of past decades(WB is bringing back big, baddams, July 16, the Guardian).

Rizwan Ghani Email:sadcat44@hotmail.com

Mega waterstorage should bebuilt for water andfood security andflood safety. Thereport of Indiandam on Chenab

River has yet againraised the need fordeveloping water

storages foragriculture

purposes. They canbe used to harvest

rainwater, floodwater and overcome

water shortages.

Voice of the PeopleLaptop

distributionAGHA ASIYA KHANAM

Punjab minster for education RanaMashood Ahmed while presidingover a brief session at Higher Edu-cation Department said that PunjabGovernment has planned to set upLaptop Assembling Plant Setup inthe province. The Punjab govern-ment procured about 100,000laptops this year, out of which92,000 were distributed amongbrilliant students on merit, while8000 were laying in the stock. Ireally appreciate this Punjabgovernment’s positive step towardsyouth’s educational and technicaldevelopment. As laptop is the lat-est technological need.

Hence it will lead the youth gen-eration in technical and research de-velopment in different fields in uni-versity studies. I think this positivestep towards educational develop-ment should also be followed inother provinces because there arealso talented students present inother provinces and there is alsoneed of modern science and techni-cal development and research. Iwould also like to suggest and re-quest the Ministry of Education ofSindh to follow laptop policy andtake effective measures for its imple-mentation among the talented stu-dents for their encouragement anddevelopment in the province.—Via email

Is peace inthe offing?

NAJEEB AHMED

The year 2013 may be very signifi-cant from regional as well as domes-tic stability point of view. This is in-dicated with a government changingin Pakistan, ongoing pullout of size-able US forces from Afghanistan andredefining of indo-Pakistan relations.As a matter of fact, peace environ-ment in Pakistan is largely dependenton its prudent Afghan policy and bal-ancing of US-Afghanistan-Pakistanand US-Pakistan-India equation.Foreseeably, in the coming scenarioPakistan achieving such a balanceseems viable.

The envisaged developmentsare quite clear. The top leadershipof future ruling party of the countryhas somewhat indicated its inten-tions for a dialogue with militantgroups for bringing peace in thecountry which has been welcomedby spokesman of Taliban as per themedia reports. On the other hand,Imran Khan, the head of ruling partyin Khyber Pakhtunkhaw, is ratherinclined towards political settlementof the issue than continuously ham-mering the terrorists. Obviously hehas a greater influence over the lo-cal tribes and maliks. The clear man-date of PTI in the province indicatesthe quantum of support it enjoyswithin urban and rural KPK. Themandate it has achieved is obviouslybased on the public desire of bring-ing peace in the area and establish-ing the writ of law. Therefore, theincoming government has no otheroption except to work for it.

Jamiat Ulma-i-Islam (JUI),which has gained influential strengthin the polls also stands unequivocalto any such proposal of negotiationsand peace dialogue. Of course theleadership of JUI has overshadow-ing effect in this regard. Apart fromJUI, the other dominating group isJamaat-i-Islami (JI) which remainedquite active in Afghan jihad duringeighties and is now a coalition part-ner of PTI in the government. There-fore, the influence it can exercise inthe local troubled areas particularlyDir and Bajaur cannot be underesti-mated. The militant groups, may belocal or otherwise, are themselvesseem tired of fighting. Due to un-abated US drone strikes they havesuffered and are likely to sufferheavy losses. Their recruitment ar-eas are also likely to shrink due toenvisaged economic stability (mayit be a meager one) in coming days.

Another factor contributing to-wards this phenomenon is US owndesire to settle the issue peacefullywith Taliban for its easy and smoothexit. Reportedly, an office of the laterhas also been established in Qatarfor the purpose. Nevertheless, peacemay not be forthcoming while by-passing Pakistan.

With regards to Pakistan’s rela-tions with India, if not a big change,at least a slight improvement can bevisualized. The future course of ac-tion cannot be predicted at the mo-ment, yet the blame game from In-dian side as had been a routine inthe past is definitely likely to reduce.

In Balochistan, the dissidentleaders have already gone on backfoot and sub-nationalism is consid-ered fairly thwarted. Moreover, withthe formation of new political gov-ernment in the province, the overallpolitical climate is expected to besomewhat conducive which may nib

Curtains for BBMU!FAISAL HAMEED SHAIKH

The defamed chapter of SMBBMU’s evening college has finallyended, hopefully for forever, leaving behind the teary eyed

students with all their hopes and dreams shattered. The studentsand their parents were betrayed, misinformed and looted. Apartfrom wastage of time and money, the emotional toil is remark-able. A strict action against administration of SMBBMU is man-datory. Will the Vice Chancellor get away after defaming the in-stitute and jeoparadizing the people’s careers despite of repeatedwarnings from PMDC?—Sukkur

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

NSA weighs its options

The National Security Agency(NSA) survived a legislativechallenge in the House this

week. But senior NSA officials stillface an uphill fight to convince theAmerican public that the agency’soperations can enhance securitywithout jeopardizing privacy.TheObama administration had to lobbyaggressively to defeat a bipartisanproposal to defund the NSA’s col-lection of Americans’ telephone callrecords. The narrow 217 to 205 voteshows how fragile public supporthas become for the agency’s surveil-lance programs.

Gen. Keith Alexander and othertop NSA officials are consideringways they could reassure the publicwithout damaging key programs, ac-cording to US officials. They thinkthat forcing Congress to decide be-tween security and privacy is an un-fair choice, since the country wouldlose either way. They’d like anagreement that protects both, butthat’s a tall order.

The controversial program theHouse nearly voted to kill allows theNSA to obtain metadata — basicallythe numbers of all telephone calls —from all major US telephone provid-

ers. The companies are compelled tofurnish this information by orders is-sued in secret by the Foreign Intelli-gence Surveillance Court. The callrecords are held for five years.

The reason the NSA wants thisvast library of records is to have acomplete inventory to check forcalls from suspected terrorists over-seas. When the agency identifies asuspicious number in, say, Pakistan,analysts want to see who that per-son called in the United States andwho, in turn, might have been con-tacted by that second person. It’slike having a full deck of cards sothat you can match any particularone if you need to.

The widespread fear that theNSA is recording the calls themselvesis false, the officials say. “It wouldtake 400 million people to listen andread” global traffic, one official esti-mates — obviously an impossibility.

To NSA officials, this access tocalling records is supremely valuable.The problem is that many Americansare uncomfortable with it, despiterepeated NSA assurances that, underthe program, only the calling data arecollected, not the calls themselves.Public uneasiness was suggested bya Washington Post-ABC News pollthis week showing that 74 percent ofthose surveyed believe NSA surveil-lance of telephone records intrudes

on the privacy rights of some Ameri-cans. So how could the NSA reas-sure the American public? Theagency keeps the calling records inwhat’s described as an electronic“lockbox” that can only be accessedby a small number of people whenthere is a “reasonable, articulable sus-picion” that numbers need to bechecked. What other protectionscould be offered? The US officialscite three issues:

(a) Who should hold the callingdata? Under current procedures, it’sturned over to the NSA and stored ingovernment data files. The recordscould instead be retained by the phonecompanies and accessed only whenthere’s a particular need, described ina legal order. Or the records could beheld by a third party — a consortiumlike the SWIFT system that handlesbank transfers.

This approach avoids the “BigBrother” connotations of governmentcontrol, although it has two problems.First, private companies may notwant the hassle of acting as keepersof surveillance records. And second,the records might be accessed by self-appointed whistleblowers or dis-gruntled employees with privatescores to settle.

(b) How long should records beheld? The NSA could purge themearlier than five years, but officials

Views From Abroad

David Ignatius

the ongoing terrorism in the area. Ifall these factors put together, a con-ducive future milieu in the country isexpected which can yield the peace.

The only worrisome aspect couldbe an uncontrolled situation on thewestern borders after a sizeable with-drawal of US and allied forces fromAfghanistan wherein the pro-US fac-tions/forces and anti US warring fac-tions may not collide with each otheras it happened after withdrawal of Ex-Soviet Union in the late eighties. Sucha state of affair can once again putthe regional stability on stakes. Fur-thermore, the US drone strike policyas intended by US government is alsolikely to hinder the peace process orthe desired peace talks with Taliban.An effort is though visible to preventa re-happening of post Russian with-drawal milieu nothing much is ex-pected to shun drone attacks. As amatter of fact a well thought out planis required to avert re-eruption of suchbelligerency.

With all said and done, there is aray of hope that future prospects arenot very gloomy rather a peace seemsto be in the offing.—Via email

An army witha country

FAUZIA SHAHNAZ,SALEEM NIAZI

A renowned columnist Syed MansoorHussain in his recent article “Paki-stan and its foreign policy” raises avalid point that Pakistan army is anarmy with a country. This seems logi-cal but too one-sided. He has missedkeeping in mind other countries’ ex-ample. Switzerland does not have,and does not plan to have, any con-frontation with neighbouring coun-tries or with any country in the worldand yet has one of the most powerfularmies in the world. They even havea big navy, with all their ships sta-tioned in foreign lands, as Switzer-land is far from the sea. Switzerlandis also “an army with a country”, butthen, so are USA, UK, France, Israel,Syria, Russia, China, India, Nepal,Sri Lanka, etc. India is “not” part ofPakistan´s foreign policy. India is a“partner” with Pakistan in workingon a foreign policy that benefits thosein government (civilians and mili-tary). The fact that this private agree-ment ends up in violence, injustice,death of thousands of innocentpeople, is neither here nor there. Therulers are happy.

Dr Mansoor rightly says “Thegenerals in Pakistan got rich ‘beyondthe dreams of avarice’, omitting thosewho got even richer: politicians,bankers, oil and media barons,weapon manufacturers, makers ofmilitary lorries, buses, tanks, ships,helicopters, airplanes, submarines,torture and spying instruments, sol-dier uniforms, religiousorganisations, people in the refugeeindustry, etc. Now it has been probedthat Pakistan and its army has noth-ing to do with the terrorist attacks inMumbai in 2008. Both governmentshave agreed to disagree long ago, forthe benefit of the above mentionedgroups, who only thrive in the warindustry. Mr Hussain talks about“take care of the economic situation,control the terrorists...while the USand its allies leave Afghanistan”,without seemingly realising that a)politicians hardly ever take care of acountry´s economic situation. Mostof them want to see how to becomemillionaires during their time inpower, even if this means sacrificingpeople´s lives, bringing about morepoverty and hunger, etc; b) controlof terrorists means make sure theydon´t disappear and 3) US and NATOhave no intention of leaving Afghani-stan. The writer should find out vari-ous countries in the world US, UKand other powers invaded and occu-pied almost two centuries ago andthey are still there, without the slight-est intention of “leaving”.—Islamabad

Garbage on roadIFTIKHAR ALAM

Through your esteemed newspaper Iwant to draw attention towards amajor problem of our society, whichis neglected badly. It is throwing ofgarbage on roads, streets and otherpublic places. People compare Paki-stan to other countries, as to how theyare ten times cleaner. No one realisesthat it is our own fault. If every Paki-stani decides not to throw garbage on

worry that the shorter the retentionperiod, the less effective themetadata will be as a way of track-ing dangerous links.

(c) How can oversight be im-proved? The NSA thinks the rulesare already pretty good, with Con-gress and the courts joining the ex-ecutive branch in detailed reviewsof compliance with the law and itsprivacy protections. Judging by thepoll data, the public isn’t convinced.Greater transparency — at the For-eign Intelligence Surveillance Court,in the congressional intelligencecommittees and at the NSA itself —would help. In reality, however, nolevel of scrutiny would be tightenough to reassure everyone.A final, delicate challenge for theNSA is maintaining its relationshipswith telephone companies that areanxious about customer and share-holder concerns and are in litiga-tion challenging the program. USofficials believe the best defence forthe companies is simply to claimthat they have no other choice —that they are compelled by legalorders to give up the data. But thecompanies would be happier,surely, with a softer, more transpar-ent and customer-friendly wrapperfor a program that makes manyAmericans nervous.— Courtesy: The Washington Post

Turning the economy around

The new government of PML(N) that appears to have doneno home work during their 5

year term as opposition party is lack-ing any recourse to provide relief tothe common man, the most agitatingissue being the energy sector. Theirtall claims to stop load shedding dur-ing each 3 hours of Iftar and Saherhave failed. Every town and city iscomplaining now about load shed-ding during this time. The cost ofthe much talked about NandipurPower house expansion project themachinery for which was lying atKarachi port for the last 3 years andnot cleared by PPP government forsettlement of kickbacks has nowquickly been inflated by takingshield under the escalation clausewithout giving any rational or rea-son for such a heavy increase in costto restart its remaining work perhapsto accommodate some new favouritesafter the recent visit of Prime Minis-ter to China.

When the matter came to lightthat a project approved for some 20billion rupees has been inflated to 60to 80 billion, heat was felt and Fi-nance Minister appointed a Commit-tee under Chief of Planning Commis-sion to investigate. When the PrimeMinister realized that this increasehas been suggested by his govern-ment he has sought immediate inde-pendent feedback on the issue.Nandipur powerhouse was inheritedby Pakistan at the time of partitionand has since been operational and ifthe work of installation of new ma-chinery was timely completed byWAPDA, it would have started gen-erating an additional 425 MW since2011-2. No responsibility has beenfixed on those responsible for thiscriminal delay in the completition ofproject, cost of which has now in-creased two times more.

Other than that a twenty-yearLNG import agreement with Qatargovernment that is being claimed asmost transparent as a government togovernment deal has also come un-der discussion. But the fact remainsthat Nawaz team of economic, fi-nance and energy management isdriven on the same lines that PPP was

toeing under some foreign pa-tronage and the people will bemade to face the brunt under theso-called democratic system,which in fact is Capitalism thatexploits the poor and createsmore poverty. Now Finance

Minister claims reaching an agree-ment with Qatar government for sup-ply of LNG for 20 years, we remem-ber Qatar had also accommodatedTaliban to establish its diplomaticoffice called Political office of Is-lamic Emirates of Afghanistan withhosting its on flag also to facilitatetheir talks with US, but soon after thatthings appear to have changed.

Similarly the surety of 20 yearslong arrangement on this high priceprovisioning of LNG in an atmospherewhen International prices of energy arebound to fall back have been securedif not and will they be bound to reviseit in the interest of buyer. The agree-ment envisages daily import of 500million cubic feet (mmcfd) that comesto 3.5 million ton (mtpa) per annumat a cost of $ 20 million per day say $3.5 billion per annum, the agreementwill come into force after formal ap-proval of Cabinet in few days. Thereare many questions not explained inthis hasty move, why the Procure-ment Regulatory Policy has been by-passed and why to accept the condi-tion that if tomorrow we are unableto handle import of LNG at our endwe can’t sell it to a third party in theinternational market for whatever theprice? The government claims thatthere was no role of any outsider ininking this deal; we read the name ofPhilips group appearing in media asgo between for this deal.

If the present authors of a newdeal had done some homework onprevious development in this regards,the interest of our country would havebeen vouched better than by thewhims and caprices of certain indi-viduals operating inside and outsideour Petroleum ministry for the last 8years. Pakistan’s brief case history isthat in February 2005 according toEnergy Security Plan Sui SouthernGas Company was mandated to fa-cilitate LNG import project. Afterwaste of two years in May 2008 theMashal project was shelved on noncompliance of 4Gas/Vitol Consor-tium demand for LOE or preferredbidder status. ECC after lapse of 7month allowed issuance of LOC in-stead of LOE on 17th December 2008valid for 9 months. and inspite of

many deviations in RFP the importof LNG could not be made possibleto avoid the ongoing wrangling inCNG load shedding; one thing needsto be probed what were the motivat-ing factors for Petroleum Minister toallow thousands of CNG stations andfree conversion of vehicles on CNGthat has landed the country in a mess.

While agreeing on this dealwhich is nothing new it is just oldwine in a new bottle, as we knownothing materialized since the gov-ernment planned the National EnergyPolicy for 25 years, two projectsMashal (LNG-I) were to materializein 2011 and LNG-II to materialize in2012-14, each being for import of 3.5million ton LNG per year. Both wereconceived but have not materializedfor reason known to Minister and oth-ers only. One thing is certain thatvested interest groups are found op-erating everywhere in the govern-ment, SSGC, and organizations likeShell and others have made not onlyinroads but are controlling the gov-ernment policies. The Governmenthad known for sure if LNG-I(Mashal) fails it will certainly have itfall back on LNG-II also. SSGC rolein all this has been of mediocrity, theyhave even wasted huge money inshady purchase of a private jetty fromProgas but no use of this investmenttill date has been mentioned bySSGC. Are the present ruling eliteaware of these players or they havelanded in the hands of another inter-national player having vested inter-est in Pakistan’s LNG import. An-other thing is sure as well the muchtalked about requirement of jetty forimport of LNG is not a big hurdle inthis regard we can still meet our de-mand and supply by starting gasifi-cation facilities, which is not thatcumbersome to develop. .

In the present circumstances therevival of the wheel of economic andindustrial productivity should be thetop most priority of the governmentand not get bogged into any such trapof LNG import without securing na-tional interest first, but the decisionsannounced so far have not only sur-prised but shocked the nation becauseof their wrong direction under influ-ence of involvement of a certain fac-tor of corruption. Decision makers inministry of petroleum and natural re-sources have proven so timid and fol-low orders as yes minister that theyhave compromised our economic andindustrial growth adversely for per-

Most everyone who comehome, are scared of myGerman-Shepherd dog!

He’s huge, he’s big, he’s menacing.I have seen so called dog lovershastily withdrawing their hand asthe proffered fingers are nearlysnapped off and at the end of fiveminutes, sometimes less, dog loverleaves, confused, guilty he doesn’tlove all the dogs in the world espe-cially the one who just tried to makea meal of him!

His growl doesn’t need provo-cation, his bark like the roar of the

king of beasts, his bite could makemincemeat of a Tyson fist. Since I’vealways trained my dogs myself, I hadquite a tough time with this fellow.He decided from the beginning hewas master and I his slave and try asI could, I couldn’t shake this zealousbelief out of his mind; not for a fewmonths anyway.

He also decided that when I leftthe house, he’d take over and ruledover the women like a monarch ofall he surveyed. All this was fine,except I knew if he was not controlledit would lead to disciplinary prob-lems. Normally you train a dog us-ing the reward method. The trainerrewards his dog for obeying his com-mands and slowly the animal likesthe idea and learns to follow orders.

My huge fellow wasn’t too happywith his rewards. He didn’t like bis-

cuits nor bones, nor anything dogsliked. He loved Vanilla ice-creamthough, however since ice-cream isn’tsomething I carry around in mypocket, this posed a problem. Sadly Ihad to resort to the fear method; thatif he didn’t listen to my commandshe would get a whack from a rollednewspaper.

Since most of my editors sendme their newspapers by post, thiswasn’t too difficult and it worked,though it strained our relationship,it was like, “I’ll obey you master,but I don’t love you!”

One day, this fierce, huge, men-acing dog jumped on my bed and putboth his paws on his face, like a littlechild, then peered at me through thoseclosed paws. I realized he was tryingto say something, and thought maybe,just maybe, he was telling me he

Try love..!wanted a good petting. I put myhand out and gently stroked his face.He put his huge head deeper intohis paws and closed his eyes. Hewas enjoying the affection, and Iheard sounds coming from histhroat; sounds of contentment, onlydogs know to give.

I continued stroking his headand there was a look of bliss as hewent to sleep. I continued. Strange,I thought to myself, all along he’dwanted me to try love. It wasn’tice cream, or biscuits or food, orthe newspaper that finally worked;’twas love. Do you have a prob-lem like this? Some huge bully,needn’t necessarily be a dog, try-ing to dominate you? You’ve tried,everything, food, and even hittingback? Try love..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

the roads, then our cities would be-come clean too.

Our government should take re-sponsible steps. Firstly, there shouldbe a rule that the person found litter-ing will be fined, as offenders arefined in all western and other devel-oped countries. The second and mostimportant step is to place garbagecans alongside our roads, streets,parks, and all other public places.Shortage of garbage dumpsters inpublic places is a big problem; theunavailability of these results inpeople throwing garbage whereverthey want. I hope you will publishmy letter soon and concerned author-ity will take some step.—Karachi

Excessive useof mobile

SHARAFAT HUSAIN

I want to highlight the major issuePakistan, which is destroying ournation and becoming hindrance in thesuccess of Pakistan, the excessive useof mobile. Most of the cellular com-panies are giving the cheapest callrates and night packages. These pack-ages have made our nation lazy andexcessively talkative; they spend theirwhole day on mobile. This is not agood implication for our people. It’ssimply an extreme use of mobileMoreover, SMS packages have madeour nation busy but in unconstructivework. Sometime they get engaged inmobile while driving a vehicle,resultantly at a time they have to facemisfortune. This happens because ofan excessive use of mobile.

On the other hand, mobile hasbecome the cheapest product of Pa-kistan. The poor man does not havemoney to pay for food but for mo-bile. Our youngsters are the keen us-ers of mobile, who spend their pocketmoney to purchase mobile and thenuse wrongly and excessively. This isharmful for youngsters. The exces-sive use of mobile must be controlledto save our youngsters and our na-tion. Government should take highsales tax on mobile and make it ex-pensive, so the people will thinkabout to purchase it and use it exces-sively. Moreover Govt. should alsoformulate some policy to control ex-cessive use of mobile.—Via email

So-called‘breaking news’SQ LDR M HUZAIFA KHAN (R)

This refers to the breaking news onsome electronic channels on July, 24,‘PAF Aircraft crashed into IndusRiver’. It was really unfortunate thatwithout confirming the news, elec-tronic media as usual broke the newsand later just removed it. Thanks tothe inherent characteristic of Print me-dia of objectivity, clarity, reliability andauthenticity, that on July 25 news pa-per carried news “PAF Plane dropsfuel tank into Indus”. This print newsitem presented complete picture thathow initially electronic media wronglyreported aircraft crash and then in-cluded the statement of PAF spokes-man, that in fact a fighter jet had jetti-soned its fuel tank into river Indus dueto some technical problems.

Being an ex fighter pilot myself,I must appreciate the extreme alert-ness, presence of mind and profes-sional ability of that pilot becausewhile facing technical problems pi-lot has to quickly make decision asto continue flying or abandon the air-craft but priority is to avoid any lossor damage to the precious life andproperty on ground. Here the saidpilot not only saved the valuable PAFaircraft but made a successful effortby jettisoning fuel tank into the riverthus avoided mishap in a populatedarea. Here while commending theprofessional skills of PAF pilot; Iwould request electronic media chan-nels to verify the news before break-ing it by contacting respective orga-nizations and their spokespersons.—Karachi

sonal benefits only during last tenyears. This cheap source if arrangedearlier could have helped us to re-duce not only our oil import bill butsaved us from electricity and CNGshedding embarrassment also. No-body has ever taken the politicaldecision makers to task that hasturned the ministries into their per-sonal fiefdoms and ministry of pe-troleum is one living example,where inexperienced bosses weresaddled in decision making positionto ink some agreement that couldinflate the private coffers of theirpolitical bosses.

Looking at Pakistan’s LNG im-port drama that is going on for lastone decade, one thing conspicuous isthat favorites were made petroleumministry bosses and SSGC was usedas conduit by private operators andlots of government funds were wastedin futile exercise of meetings in west-ern capitals without finalizing a dealas India did 10 years back for cheapsource of power generation and in-dustrial production, rather anotherterminology - that of circular debt -was coined to pocket government rev-enues by high-ups. Do our managersknow that there are many LNG mar-kets in North America, Australia andQatar, try to understand what’s fu-eling the global LNG boom? In lessthan five years after US Energy In-formation Administration (EIA) pre-dicted that non-NAFTA gas imports(LNG) would account for more than15% of domestic natural gas con-sumption, US is so flush with gasnow that prices are at their lowest ina decade, and plans for a spate ofNorth American LNG exportprojects are ready.

Another factor is the use of un-conventional technique, especially“Shale”. The decoupling in US as aresult of Shale, now US LNG im-port facilities are sitting idle withsuppliers rerouting their capacity tomore lucrative markets in Asia andEurope which will bring the pricesdown. Pakistan should exercise ut-most care in signing agreement forlong term because arbitrators willnot favour buyers of gas. HenryHub is increasingly being used nowas benchmark on pricing and index-ation of the contracts. Are our newgas and energy bosses aware ofthese developments and will not actin haste to land the nation in an-other hot bed of arbitration results.God bless Pakistan.

Ali Ashraf KhanEmail:balti@super.net.pk

COURT NOTICE

In the Court ofAzizullah Kalu Addi-tional Session Judge

Phalia.Mian Khan VsMehmood Raza.Suit for recovery.Memo.Mehmood Raza S/oMohammad AkramNaseem Caste Waraich R/o Pahreyanwali TehsilPhalia Distt MandiBahauddin.

Whereas the servicesof above mentioned re-spondents is not possiblethrough ordinary means,therefore, he is directed toattend this court person-ally or through his councilon 17-8-13. Otherwise theex party proceedings shallbe taken against him.

Given under my handand seal of the Court.

Sd/-Additional Session

Judge Phalia

COURT NOTICE

In the Court of RajaEhtasham Muqarab Civil

Judge Malakwal.Nazar Mohammad VsMohammad Yousaf etcSuit for Declaration.Memo.Mohammad Yousaf S/oAhmad, Adnan Yousaf S/o Mohammad Yousaf,Tariq S/o Ghulam QadirCaste Gondal R/o RukkanTehsil Malakwal DistMandi Bahauddin.

Whereas the servicesof above mentioned re-spondents is not possiblethrough ordinary means,therefore, he is directed toattend this court person-ally or through his councilon 29-7-13. Otherwise theex party proceedings shallbe taken against him.

Given under my handand seal of the Court.

Sd/-Civil Judge Malakwal

Kerry to visit Pakistan innext few days: US

From Page 1government and the Obamaadministration will give thePakistani leader theopportunity to reset whathas often been a rockyrelationship.

Sharif, she says, who hasmade reviving Pakistan’smoribund economy a top pri-ority, will most likely focuson both short term regionaland longer term bilateral is-sues.

“I think what you will seeis the prime minister engagedin the conduct of economicdiplomacy, but at the sametime also deal with issues thatare immediate,” she said.“And the immediate issue ishow to revive the stalledDoha process which wasaimed at bringing the UnitedStates, the Taliban, as well asthe Afghan government, to-gether for peace talks that

can put an end to the fight-ing.”

Attempts at bringing theTaliban and Kabul represen-tatives together in the Qataricapital, Doha, collapsed ear-lier this year. Washington hasbeen pushing hard for a ne-gotiated solution to the con-flict in Afghanistan beforeinternational combat forcesleave at the end of 2014.

Sharif, who was sworninto office in June, has keptboth the Foreign Ministryand Defense portfolios tohimself. Lodhi says that sig-nals he will be conducting agreat deal of personal diplo-macy and providing the stra-tegic direction to thecountry’s foreign policy.

“I think the importantthing is that there is a newgovernment in place,” shesaid. “It is headed by a prime

minister who has a hand-some majority. He has an op-portunity to re-orientPakistan’s foreign policy, andI think he will be calling theshots more than his prede-cessors in the recent past.”

To date, Pakistan’s for-eign policy has been heavilydominated by the country’spowerful military establish-ment.

Sharif met with U.S. Am-bassador Richard Olson onFriday in preparation for thevisit.According to a state-ment from the PrimeMinister’s office, Olson laidout Washington’s prioritiesfor the visit, while Sharif af-firmed his commitment tostrong ties with the U.S. andpeace and stability in Af-ghanistan.—INP

ECP issues final list ofpresidential candidates

From Page 1Saturday. The Election Com-mission has also issued thedirectives for printing of theballot papers.

The new president will beelected by members of theupper and lower houses ofparliament and of four re-gional assemblies on Tues-day (July 30).PakistanPeoples Party (PPP),the mainopposition party, announcedFriday it would boycottpresidential polls to protestagainst the manner in whichthe election schedule was

brought forward.On Wednesday, the Su-

preme Court ruled that theballot would be held on July30 instead of August 6 afterthe PML-N complained thatthe original date clashed withthe end of Ramadan.

Many lawmakers taskedwith electing a successor toPresident Asif Ali Zardari willbe on pilgrimage or offeringspecial prayers at the tail endof the holy fasting month, thecourt said. Incumber Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari was

elected after the PPP wonelections in 2008 followingthe assassination of his wife,former premier BenazirBhutto.

The PPP served a fullfive-year term in office, butlost heavily in May generalelections won by a PML-Nlandslide. Asif Ali Zardari ishugely unpopular, reviled foralleged corruption and forpresiding over a governmentthat oversaw deterioratingeconomic growth and in-creasing terrorist attacks.

Obama and Syria: A trail ofhalf-steps, mixed messages

From Page 1without direct foreign inter-vention and his reluctance todrag the United States intoanother Middle East war. Inmonths of internal debate, heoften spurned advice fromsenior advisers who pro-posed more robust action asthe carnage in Syria intensi-fied, leaving some frustrated.

Administration officialsreject criticism that if Obamahad acted more forcefullyearlier the rebels would havefared better against well-armed government troops.“There was no way supportfrom outside sources to theopposition would have nar-rowed the gap when the re-gime had tanks and war-planes,” said one senior offi-cial, speaking on condition ofanonymity.

Some former officials andmany Syria specialists dis-agree and say the fighting -which has killed an estimated100,000 people, created 1.8million refugees and deep-ened sectarian rifts in Syriaand beyond - now threatenswider U.S. interests in theMiddle East. Obama’s toneemerged early in the conflict.On August 18, 2011, in whatwas supposed to be a water-shed moment, he called forAssad to give up power, amove coordinated with lead-ers of Britain, France, Ger-many and Turkey.

“For the sake of the Syr-ian people, the time has comefor President Assad to stepaside,” Obama said. The dec-laration, which the WhiteHouse had resisted makingfor months, came in re-sponse to intense pressurefrom U.S. allies and the pub-lic to break with Assad, as theSyrian leader sent troops andtanks into urban centers tocrush swelling civilian pro-tests.

But Obama’s statementwas preceded by spiritedinternal debate at the WhiteHouse. Some younger ad-visers, including SamanthaPower, now Obama’s choicefor U.N. ambassador, andcommunications strategistBen Rhodes, argued thatwith Assad’s rule lookingshakier by the day, thepresident should get on the“right side of history” andcall for him to go, formeraides said.

But Middle East policyveterans were more cau-tious. They argued that ut-tering what one called the“magic words” about Assadwould raise expectations ofan active U.S. role. Steven

Simon, the White House’stop Middle East adviser,questioned whether Obamashould make the statementif Washington was unpre-pared to follow up with ac-tion, according to a sourcefamiliar with the discus-sions.

Simon argued that Assad,backed by the Russians andIranians, might have greaterstaying power than it ap-peared, this source said. Butat the time, Obama was pre-pared to do little more thancombine diplomacy aimed ateasing Assad out with eco-nomic sanctions - he bannedpurchases of Syrian oil andU.S. citizens from dealingwith the Damascus govern-ment.

Some ex-aides now see acritical miscalculation aboutthe strength of the Assadgovernment. “There was akind of consensus that, earlyon ... he couldn’t survive allthat long,” said Dennis Ross,a top White House adviseron the Middle East until late2011, who argued for bothtougher rhetoric and moreaction. “And there was a kindof presumption that if we justdo the economic stuff, we’llmake it untenable and that willbe sufficient.”

Another former seniorofficial lamented the gap be-tween Obama’s call forAssad’s ouster and plans toenforce the declaration:“When the president sayssomething like this, it’s notan advisory opinion.Something’s got to be doneto make it happen... Therewas no strategy in place.That was it.” As Syria’s civilwar spread in early 2012,with lightly-armed rebel fac-tions outgunned byAssad’s army, senior law-makers such as RepublicanSenator John McCain be-gan calling on Obama toback the rebels.

Support for that stepwas not limited to CapitolHill. At various stages, mostof Obama’s foreign policy

cabinet had advised morerobust rebel backing - in-cluding two secretaries ofstate, Hillary Clinton andJohn Kerry; former CIA chiefDavid Petraeus; and formerSecretary of Defense LeonPanetta. In an unusualmove, Petraeus and Clintona year ago jointly proposedto the White House thatWashington arm rebelgroups that had been care-fully vetted, minimizing thechances that weaponswould fall into the hands ofradical Islamist factions. Theproposal was backed byPanetta and Joint ChiefsChairman General MartinDempsey. U.S. intelligenceczar James Clapper wasaware of it and not opposed,a U.S. official said.

But Obama vetoed therecommendation. His reluc-tance underscored whatRoss described as thepresident’s skeptical and ex-acting approach to militaryintervention, colored by U.S.difficulties in Iraq and Af-ghanistan.

The inability of rebelforces to organize and over-come their political divisionsposed another major hurdle.Obama “would say, ‘If youare going to propose specificsteps, tell me where theylead,’” said Ross, now at theWashington Institute forNear East Policy. “I don’tthink you can look at it inde-pendently from Iraq and Af-ghanistan. And particularlythe sense that these are easyto get into and hard to getout of.”

By the time Clinton andPetraeus made their proposalin the summer of 2012, theWhite House was alreadyquietly examining what theformer senior official called“harder options.” A U.N.-brokered Syria truce was fall-ing apart; Russia and Chinahad vetoed U.N. SecurityCouncil sanctions on Assad;and the rebels and their Araballies were calling for arms.—Reuters

Security forces kill 70pro-Morsi protestors

From Page 1polarised the Arab world’smost populous state.

Hundreds of thousandsof Egyptians came out ontothe streets in answer to Gen-eral Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s callon Wednesday for massprotests on Friday. MuslimBrotherhood supportersprotested in similar numbersto demand Mursi’s reinstate-ment. He is being detainedat an undisclosed location.

The Brotherhood is ahighly organised movementwith grassroots supportthroughout Egypt, making ithard to silence even if thearmy decides to mount amore major crackdown.

Reporters at Rabaa al-Adawia, a northeasternCairo suburb, said there wasstill firing hours after the vio-lence started. Dr. IbtisamZein, overseeing the Broth-erhood morgue, said most ofthe dead were hit in the head,some between the eyes.

A senior Brotherhoodpolitician, Saad el-Hosseini,said he thought securityforces were looking to clearthe Rabaa sit-in. “I havebeen trying to make theyouth withdraw for fivehours. I can’t. They are say-ing have paid with theirblood and they do not wantto retreat,” he told Reuters.

Haddad said the Broth-erhood was committed topursuing peaceful protests,despite Saturday’s deaths -the second mass shooting ofits supporters this month bysecurity forces, who killed53 people on July 8. Broth-erhood activists at Rabaasaid they would not becowed and warned of worsebloodshed if the securityforces did not back down.“We will stay here until wedie, one by one,” saidAhmed Ali, 24, helping treatcasualties at the field hospi-tal.

“We have the examplesof Algeria and Syria in ourminds. We don’t want it tobecome a civil war. If we takeup arms it might becomeone. This is a religious be-lief.” Haddad said police hadstarted firing repeatedrounds of teargas after 3:00a.m. (0100 GMT) at protest-ers who had spilled out ofthe main area of the Rabaasit-in and were on a mainthoroughfare close to 6thOctober Bridge.

“Through the smog ofthe gas, the bullets startedflying,” he said. In additionto “special police forces inblack uniforms” firing liverounds, he said that snipersshot from the roofs of a uni-versity, other nearby build-ings, and a bridge. Statenews agency MENA quotedan unnamed security sourceas saying that only teargaswas used to disperse pro-testers. He said no firearmswere used.

Egypt’s army-installedinterior minister, MohamedIbrahim, said on Friday thatthe month-old Cairo vigilsby Mursi supporters wouldbe “brought to an end soonand in a legal manner”,state-run al Ahram newswebsite reported. There isdeepening alarm in the Westover the army’s moveagainst Mursi. The countryof 84 million people forms abridge between the MiddleEast and North Africa andreceives $1.5 billion a yearin mainly military aid fromWashington.

The United States has de-layed delivery of four F-16fighters because of the tur-moil, however, officials haveindicated they do not intendto cut off aid to a countryseen as a vital ally and whichhas a peace deal withneighbouring Israel. Theworst of Friday’s violence

was reported in Egypt’s sec-ond city, Alexandria, and theBrotherhood said some of itssupporters were still trappedin a city mosque by “thugs”.The Brotherhood’s politicalarm, the Freedom and JusticeParty, called for more protestsin the Mediterranean port.There was little mention ofthe violence on Egypt’s twostate television channels,which broadcast weather re-ports and a talk show on Sat-urday morning. All three statenewspapers headlined theirmorning editions withFriday’s rallies, saying Egyp-tians had given Sisi the sup-port he had asked for.“Thepeople give the army and thepolice a mandate to confrontterrorism,” said a strap head-line on the bottom of a broad-cast on the state’s Nile TV.—Reuters

India, Chinatrying to develop

mechanism toprevent face-offs

NEW DELHI—India andChina are trying to developeffective mechanisms to pre-vent the “embarrassing” face-offs between their troopsalong the “disputed” pointsof the Line of Actual Control,Defence Minister A K Antonyhas said.

Terming the 21-day stand-off between the two sides inDepsang valley in Daulat BegOldi area as an unusual inci-dent, the Defence Ministersaid the two countries willmeet soon in Beijing to dis-cuss issues and try to find asolution for such unpleasantincidents.—NNI

PUBLIC NOTICE

It is for public informationthat Abdul Salam Niazi,Naeem Khalid Niazi Ss/oGhulam Muhammad KhanNiazi, allottees Plot No.31-B, Peoples Colony Exten-sion, Faisalabad has ap-pointed Farooq AhmedKhan Niazi s/o GhulamMuhammad Khan Niazi asGeneral Attorney, regis-tered with SRUI FaisalabadNo.961-4/8.11.988. Nowthe said General Attornyas GPA and SELF has filedapplication in this officethat said plot may be trans-ferred in the name of Mst.Anees Akhtar w/o FarooqAhmed Khan Niazi. If any-one has any objectionshould reach the under-signed within 15 days,otherwise no objectionwill be entertained andtransfer of the plot will bemade accordingly. DeputyDirector, Punjab Housing& Town Planning AgencySub Region, Faisalabad.

POL priceFrom Page 1

the per-litre price of petrol isexpected to increase byRs2.80 while diesel will in-crease by Rs3.50.

Kersone oil is expected toincrease by up to Rs4 whilehigh-speed diesel will beraised up Rs3.75. The per-li-tre price of high-octane willincrease by Rs5.50.

Meanwhile, prior to theprice hike transporters havealready increased their fares.

Two parasolider dead interrorist attack

From Page 1form and injuries to 30 oth-ers. The Para-military forcesmoved down around 20 mili-tants in the retaliatory fire.

In Hangu a remote con-trolled explosion targeting aFrontier Corps (FC) convoySaturday morning woundedat least five soldiers. The ex-plosive device was plantedon the FC convoy rout inDoaba area.

“At least five Securitypersonnel were injured in aremote controlled bombblast near a Frontier Corps(FC) convoy in the Doabaarea of Hangu district”. Of-ficials said adding the Fcconvoy was on the way fromDoaba to Tal area when itwas hit by a roadside bomb.The remote-controlled de-vice, official sources saidwas planted by unidentifiedmilitants on the roadsidenear Doaba bazaar and wasdetonated when the FC con-voy approached nearby.The injured were rushed tomilitary hospital for treat-ment.

In the meanwhile, 2 secu-rity, personnel were martyredand 25 others sustainedwounds during clash withsecurity forces at a checkpost falling on the convergeof Hangu Kohat division andNorth Waziristan agency.The retaliatory fire from thesecurity forces, according tosources, left around twentymilitants dead.

The,militants attacked asecurity forces check post inSpin Tal area near Hanguduring night between Fridayand Saturday that led toShahadat of 2 men in uniformand injuries to 25 others.

Railway faresFrom Page 1

four new locomotives havebeen added in the system.

He also announced tooperate Eid special trains onthe eve of Eid Ul Fitr.

Khawaja Saad said thatrevenue collection had alsobeen improved due to freightoperation by increasing thenumber of trains up to threeinstead of one.

To a question aboutGujranwala train mishap, hesaid an impartial probe is un-derway and responsible offi-cials would be taken to task.

Saad Rafique said twentyfour new locomotives havebeen added in the system. Healso announced to operateEid special trains on the eveof Eid Ul Fitr.

Khawaja Saad said thatrevenue collection had im-proved due to freight opera-tion by increasing numberof trains.

between Punjab governmentand Chinese company forsetting up energy generatingprojects is of great impor-tance. He said that ChinaPower International Holdingsis the biggest company ofpower sector of China andunder the agreement, fourcoal power plants would beset up in Gadani(Balochistan) and 2400 mega-watts energy would be gen-erated through these plants.The Chief Minister told thataccording to the agreementmade with Chinese company,two power plants would becompleted within two yearswhile the other two plantswithin three years from thedate of agreement. He saidthat major investment wouldbe made by Chinese companyin these power plants, how-ever, Punjab government willalso make some investment.He said that all matters relat-ing to implementation of theagreement would be settled ina transparent manner.Shahbaz Sharif said that thisagreement is continuity ofPrime Minister’s visit to Chinaas we had signed MoU withCPIH during the visit of China.

He said that 20 days afterour visit to China, more than24 Chinese friends of CPIHhave come to Pakistan andtoday’s agreement is very im-portant.

Punjab govtFrom Page 1

The insurgents fled tounidentified place followingthe attack.

Security forces rushed tothe scene by helicopters toairlift the injured people andbodies to Gwadar.

Home SecretaryBalochistan Akbar Durranisaid that terrorists usedheavy weapons in the at-tack.

Some reports said thatthe toll is feared to rise asmany injured men are saidto be in critical condi-tion.

No group has claimed re-sponsibility for the attack.—NNI

10 coastguards die in

Gwadar check-post attack

From Page 1

Pakistan soldiermartyred in Indian firing

From Page 1

committing violation ofceasefire agreement on LoC

Pakistani governmenthas raised the issue with theIndian government on thenumber of occasion, but In-dian government neither

changed policy nor stoppedviolations of LoC.

According to the ISPR, aPakistan Army soldier, sepoyAsim Iqbal was martyredwhile Naik Muhammad Khanwas seriously injured.

AKHTAR JAMAL

ISLAMABAD—Speakers at anin international conferenceon Palestine have assertedthat Palestine is a legitimateand just cause for all Mus-lims who will ultimately liber-ate the holy sacred land oc-cupied by Zionists.

Several Pakistani politi-cians, academics and intel-lectuals expressed their viewsduring a conference on “Pal-estine: Manifestation ofMuslim Ummah’s Unity,” ar-ranged by Palestine Founda-tion of Pakistan in Islamabadon Saturday.Sardar Ateeq,former Prime Minister of AzadKashmir, PMLN’s senatorZafar Ali Shah, PPP’s MNAImran Zafar Leghari, AsadUmer of Pakistan Tehrik-e-

“UN not interested to solveKashmir, Palestine issues”

Insaf, Allama Raja NasirAbbas Jafari of Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, Gen-eral (Rtd) Amjad Shoaib,former minister J Salik, intel-lectual Dr Qandeel Abbas andSabir Karbalai of PalestineFoundation of Pakistanspoke at the conference.

The l speakers lashed outat United Nations for its fail-ure is sorting out thelongstanding Palestine Issueand maintained that the UNwas an outdated organiza-tion that needs to bescrapped. Speakers urgedthe Muslims rulers to playleading role for liberation ofPalestine instead of lip ser-vice that served the interestsof Zionist Israeli regime.

Pakistani and Kashmirispeakers also said that the

Jewish lobby and the UnitedNations were not interestedin solving Palestine andKashmir disputes but con-centrate on other issues.

Speakers demandedthat Palestinian prisoners befreed without any delay.Some speakers welcomed thePLO member MohammadZazeh’s statement that OsloAccord was made undercompulsion and facts remainthat PLO doesn’t recognizeIsrael as legitimate state.They said that Pakistan alsofell victims to the Zionistsplots and terrorism becausePakistan never recognizedIsrael as a legitimate state.

They emphasized thatPalestine is a legitimate stateand world powers have torecognize this very fact.

LONDON: Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic set a season best time in the women’s 400m hurdles when she beatBritish rival Perri Shakes-Drayton at the London Diamond.

PALLEKELE—David Millerand Lonwabo Tsotsobeplayed key roles as SouthAfrica stunned hosts SriLanka by 56 runs in the thirdone-dayer in Pallekele to stayafloat in the five-match se-ries. Miller plundered a ro-

bust 85 not out off 72 balls tosteer South Africa to 223-7after unorthodox spinnerAjantha Mendis had reducedthe tourists to 154-7 in the42nd over. Tsotsobe thenripped through Sri Lanka’stop order with three wickets

in the space of six runs be-fore finishing with 4-22 as thehosts were bundled out for167 in the day-night game.

The victory ended SouthAfrica’s 11-match losingstreak in one-day cricket onSri Lankan soil and gave AB

de Villiers’ tourists a badly-needed win in the currentseries.

With Sri Lanka 2-1 ahead,South Africa must also winthe fourth match at the samevenue on Sunday to take theseries into the decider in Co-lombo next Wednesday.Thisara Perera lit up thegloomy evening for the hostsby smashing five sixes and aboundary in the 33rd oversent down by left-arm spin-ner Robin Peterson. With thesecond ball declared a wide,the 35 runs taken in the overfell just one run short of theworld record of six sixes hitby South African batsmanHerschelle Gibbs off Dutchbowler Daan van Bunge dur-ing the 2007 World Cup.

Perera’s run sequence inthe over was six, a wide, six,six, six, four and a six, but hissensational hitting came toolate for the hosts to deliveran unlikely win. “It’s hard toexplain how proud I am of theboys,” de Villiers said. “It wasnot easy and we were underpressure through the game.“It was a really good perfor-mance. But we did not haveenough partnerships going.”

Left-handed Perera made65 off 49 balls with five sixesand as many boundaries, be-fore he was caught in thedeep off Farhaan Behardien,who finished with three for19. Sri Lanka paid the pen-alty for a shoddy batting dis-play in which six batsmenfailed to reach double figuresand only two others enteredtheir 20s.—AFP

South Africa win to stayalive in Sri Lanka series

PALLEKELE: Farhaan Behardien is bowled by Ajantha Mendis during Sri Lanka vsSouth Africa in 3rd ODI on Friday.

LONDON: Zuzana Hejnovaof the Czech Republic set aseason best time in thewomen’s 400m hurdles whenshe beat British rival PerriShakes-Drayton at the Lon-don Diamond League on Fri-day. Hejnova, who strength-ened her position at the topof the Diamond Leaguestandings, also set a newpersonal best time as shebeat Shakes-Drayton for thethird time in a League meet-ing this year as she surgedto 53.07.

Meanwhile, Olympicchampion and world record

holder Usain Bolt overcamea poor start to win the 100mat the London DiamondLeague meeting.

Returning to the OlympicStadium where he defendedhis title 12 months ago, theJamaican won in 9.85sec. “It’swonderful to be back here. Ihad a bad start but that’snever the best part of my rac-ing,” said Bolt in his last racebefore next month’s worldchampionships in Moscow.“The more races I have, it’llbe OK. “It’s always great tobe in London, there’s somuch energy.”—AFP

Hejnova sets seasonbest in 400m hurdles

Pak disabled golfertops world event

LAHORE—Pakistan’s SaleemRaza, a disabled golfer whobelongs to Gujranwala GolfClub, emerged as the top playerin the World Disabled GolfChampionship which ended atthe Westwood Course inGlasgow, UK, on Thursday .

In a contest lasting overthree rounds and contestedby 76 contestants from all Eu-ropean countries, SaleemRaza successfully elevatedhimself by emerging as thetop player of the champion-ship. The points were calcu-lated on stableford basis andin the first round he aggre-gated 31 points.—APP

Pak can moveup to 2nd placein T20 rankings

KINGSTON—Pakistan has anopportunity to climb up to thesecond place in the ICC T20IRankings table if it wins boththe matches against defend-ing World T20 ChampionsWest Indies in a two-matchseries, starting on Saturday inKingstown, St Vincent.Fourth-ranked Pakistan iscurrently on 118 ratingspoints, but could potentiallymove up to second place with124 ratings points, therebyswapping places with sec-ond-placed West Indies with120 ratings points.—AFP

KABUL—A suicide bomber tar-geting a village police com-mander blew himself up in abazaar in a lawless part of east-ern Afghanistan, killing sevenpeople, an official said Saturday.

Mohammad Ali Ahmadi,the deputy provincial governorof Ghazni province, said the at-tack took place late Friday inQarabagh district when a manon a motorcycle loaded withexplosives killed Local Policecommander Dawlat Khan, threeof his men, and three civilians.

The Afghan Local Police area village level force designed tobe a first line of defense againstthe Taliban. They are often tar-geted by insurgents who seethem as a direct threat to theirability to operate.

The Taliban have stepped upattacks since foreign troops lastmonth handed security controlfor the whole country to the Af-ghans.

On Saturday, insurgentstried to kill the governor ofnorthern Samangan province,Khirullah Anosh, with a re-motely detonated roadside bombas the official drove to work. Hisspokesman, Sediq Azizi, saidthe governor and three other

people were slightly wounded.In neighboring Baghlan

province, a policeman waskilled when insurgents on Sat-urday tried to kill the provincialpolice chief with a remotely-detonated bomb that explodednext to his convoy, his spokes-man said. Jawed Basharat saidhis chief, Gen. AsadullahSherzad, was not hurt in the at-tack.

Meanwhile, Governor ofAfghanistan’s Samangan prov-ince Khairullah Anosh wasamong five people wounded ina roadside bombing on Saturdaymorning, officials said.

One civilian was killed andthe provincial police chief fornorthern Baghlan province es-caped unhurt in a similar attack.

Maj. Gen. MohammadAkram Behzad, the Samanganpolice head, said two body-guards of the governor and asmany school students wereamong the injured.

The incident took placewhen the governor was on theway from home to office inAibak, the provincial capital,Behzad said. Anosh receivedbomb shards in his head andlegs, but he is in stable condi-

tion.Public Health Director Dr.

Abdul Hameed confirmed re-ceiving five wounded people,including the governor, and saidthey were under medical treat-ment.

A Taaliban spokesman,Zabihullah Mujahid, claimedresponsibility for the bombingand said the governor had beenwounded along with four body-guards.

Meanwhile, Baghlan policechief Asadullah Sherzad sur-vived but a civilian was killedin a similar attack. The bomb hitSherzad’s armoured vehicleclose to the police headquartersin Pul-i-Khumri, the provincialcapital, said police spokesmanJaved Baidar. Bismillah,a resident of the area, said thatthe explosion was so heavy as itthrew shards of vehiclewindscreens into their home.Sherzad’s vehicle and eight carswere damaged in the explosionthat also smashed windowpanesin nearby homes.ZabihullahMujahid, the Taliban spokes-man, said two of Sherzad’sbodyguards were killed. How-ever, he was unaware aboutSherzad’s fate.—AP/INP

Seven Afghan copskilled in suicide blast

Provincial governor injured in attack

LAHORE: Punjab Secretary Energy, Usman Bajwa and Vice President of CPIH Mr. Wang Zhiying signing an MoU oncoal energy production project of 24000 MW. Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif witnessing the ceremony.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh would play apivotal role for overcoming on-going energy crisis in the coun-try as the province had rich re-serves of gas, coal and othernatural resources. These naturalresources were in enough toovercome the crisis that hademerged through power outages.The coal reserves in Thar wereof superior quality and withwhich thousands of megawattsof electricity could be producedwhile there were brilliant oppor-tunities for the production ofelectricity through wind across

Sindh’s role pivotal forovercoming energy crisis: CM

the coastal belt of the province.Sindh Chief Minister Syed

Qaim Ali Shah stated this in ameeting of the Council of theCommon Interest held Saturdayat the CM House. The meetingdiscussed about National PowerPolicy-2013 at length. PrincipalSecretary to the CM NaveedKamran Baloch, Sindh ChiefSecretary Muhammad EjazChaudhry, Secretary FinanceSuhail Rajput, Secretary powerFarooq Leghari and other highofficials attended.

The CM said the govern-ment in the centre should haveto work in close liaison with the

provincial governments and bydeveloping natural resources inSindh province. While endors-ing some suggestions in themeeting that small scale powergeneration projects should beinitiated alongside rivers and ca-nals, the CM said that there wereopportunities for initiating suchprojects on at least 7 sites. Suchpower projects would be suffi-cient to ease energy deficit.

The CM on the spot issueddirective that work on feasibleprojects be immediately bestarted so that the ongoing men-ace of energy crisis should sooncould overcome.

India, Pakistan,Bangladesh must

reunite: KatjuNAGPUR—Press Council ofIndia (PCI) chief, MarkandeyKatju has called for unificationof India, Pakistan andBangladesh into one secularstate.

He was delivering a lectureon the role of media in promot-ing secularism organized byLokmat group of newspapers.

“We must not be a Hindunationalist, or even Muslim,Sikh or Christian nationalists.We must all be Indian nation-alists. India is a country of di-verse people and could not berun for a single day withoutsecularism,” Katju said whileterming those dividing thecountry in name of caste or re-ligion as anti-national.

When asked by reporterslater whether his reference wasto Narendra Modi, he refusedcomment.—INP

Farmers continueto suffer due to

Indian wateraggression

ISLAMABAD—Farmers ofPunjab and Sindh are sufferingextensively besides decrease inhydro power generation as In-dia continued its water agressionby significant increment in thenumber of dams on rivers lead-ing to Pakistan.

It should be mentioned thatIndian authorities approved theconstruction of five dams onChenab River in HimachalPradesh state of Northern Indiabordering with Jammu andKashmir and Punjab.

Gaspa, Shatro, Singelr,Aasir Aareen, and Seeli Dams,which is three times bigger thanBaglihar Dam, a bone of con-tention between Pakistan andIndia. Construction contract ofSeeli Dam has been finalised bythe Indian government to gen-erate 540 mega watts electricityby the project. Fisheries Depart-ment of the province is also set-ting up micro dams on ChenabRiver. Water and Power ExpertArshad Ali says the dams planis a dangerous omen for the fu-ture of Pakistan. “In future, wa-ter issues will be more impor-tant than terrorism,” he furthersaid.—INP

ATHENS—Three illegal Paki-stani immigrants were killed andfour others injured in firing ofthe border security forces whenthey tried to enter Italy on Sat-urday.

According to details, agroup of illegal Pakistan immi-grants was trying to enter Italythrough Greece when the bordersecurity forces intercepted themkilling three of them on the spotand injuring four others.

The injured were rushed toScopia Hospital for treatment.The deceased included 35-year-old Zafar Iqbal, hailingfrom Mandi Bahauddin area of

Punjab.Heirs of the deceased said

that they by selling cattle paidmoney to human trafficker iden-tified as Usman Butt belongingto Gujrat to take him to Italy forbetter livelihood.

Zafar’s family said theyhoped end of rainy days andwished for early marriage of histwo sisters soon but ill-fate de-prived them not only of son butmoney also.

They demanded the authori-ties concerned for taking strictaction against the human traffick-ers who for sake of money snatchbeloved of many families.—INP

Three Pakistani immigrantskilled while entering Italy

Fake CNICrecovered from

terroristKARACHI—A computerizednational identity card (CNIC)recovered from a terroristkilled during the attack on theISI district headquarters inSukkur has been discovered tobe fake.

According to the fakeCNIC, the name of terrorist isShakeel Ahmed, a resident ofGulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi.When the team probing the at-tack investigated the CNIC, itwas discovered to be fake.

Meanwhile, samples col-lected from the site of the at-tack have been sent toIslamabad for DNA testing.

At least four police and in-telligence officials were killedwhen the terrorists attacked theISI office on July 24. Five ter-rorists were also killed in theattack.—INP

India ponders overfuture role inAfghanistan

NEW DELHI—The securitysituation in Afghanistan was atop issue during U.S. VicePresident Joe Biden’s talkswith Indian leaders this weekin New Delhi.

Delhi Policy Group Direc-tor Radha Kumar says in thelight of previous attacks on In-dian interests both in and out-side of Afghanistan, NewDelhi cannot afford to walkaway from the war-torn coun-try. “An escalation of effortsto target us would be, in myopinion, an almost inevitablecorollary of our departure,”she said.

“So the presence is verymuch required, from purely asecurity point of view.—INP

BEIRUT—They’re lightweight,easy to assemble and have coversthat are supposed to keep you coolin the summer and warm in thewinter.

The U.N. refugee agencywants to test these individualhousing units with an eye towardusing them as shelter for Syriansfleeing their country’s civil war.

But the plan is meeting stiffresistance from Lebanese offi-cials, who fear that elevating liv-ing conditions for Syrian refugeesever so slightly will discouragethem from returning home oncethe fighting ends. That frustratesaid organizations who are desper-ately trying to manage the mas-sive refugee presence across thecountry. Lebanon’s refusal to setup any kind of organized accom-modation for tens of thousands ofSyrians — including refugee

camps or government-sanctionedtent sites — is a reflection of itsown civil war demons.It underlines the nation’s deepseated fear of a repeat of the 1975-1990 war, for which many Leba-nese at least partly blame Pales-tinian refugees. Many regard theSyrians with suspicion and areworried that the refugees, most ofthem Sunni Muslims, would stayin the country permanently, upset-ting Lebanon’s delicate sectarianbalance and re-igniting thecountry’s explosive mix of Chris-tian and Muslim sects.

“It’s the fear of everythingpermanent, or semi-permanent,because of the Palestinian expe-rience in Lebanon,” saidMakram Maleeb, a programmanager for a Syrian refugeecrisis unit at Lebanon’s Minis-try for Social Affairs..—AP

Syrian refugees facesuspicion in Lebabnon

NEW DELHI—The IndianArmy will soon receive its firstmicro-light, pilot-less target air-craft, Lakshya- 1, which hasbeen produced by the state-owned Hindustan AeronauticsLimited (HAL) months ahead ofschedule, a top official said Sat-urday. “The aircraft has been de-livered ahead of schedule in

record 15 months against 24months of normal manufactur-ing cycle time,” HAL chairmanR.K. Tyagi, told the media in thesouthern city of Bengaluru.

HAL has so far produced 39such aircraft originally designedby the state-owned Defense Re-search and Development Orga-nization. —NNI

India Army to soon getits first drone aircraft

Measles recedingStaff ReporterLAHORE—Focal Person of Ex-tended Programme for Immuni-zation (EMI) Dr Younas hasclaimed that over fifty percentdecrease in measles cases havebeen observed in city and the restof the province. Talking to me-dia persons here on Saturday, hesaid that few days back, some 50to 80 cases were reported dailyin hospitals which after an inten-sive drive had decreased remark-ably 20 to 40 cases a day.

LWMC observesanti-dengue dayStaff ReporterLAHORE—Lahore Waste Man-agement Company (LWMC) or-ganized an anti dengue awarenesswalk in order to show solidaritywith Punjab government aimingat taking collective and compre-hensive measures against dengueand imparting awareness amongcitizens. Manager operationsAsif Iqbal led the walk whichstarted from Saffaan Wala chowkat Temple road and finished atMozang Adda. Local MPAMajid Zahoor also joined LWMCstaff and representatives of Turk-ish contractor companiesAlbayrak and OzPak.

Cuba marks 60th anniversary of revolution’s start

SANTIAGO (CUBA): CUBA’S President Raul Castro (Centre) waves as he stands withVenezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro (left) and Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica after anevent celebrating Revolution Day here on Friday. —AP

HAVANA—Cuba celebrated the60th anniversary of the onset ofits revolution Friday, with theaging Communist leader whotook part in the initial failed up-rising vowing to focus the fu-ture on younger generations thathave been slow to come topower.

Wearing an olive-greenmilitary uniform and abroadbrimmed hat against thesun, President Raul Castrospoke to a crowd of thousandsoutside a military barracks stillvisibly pockmarked with bulletholes from the 1953 assault thatis considered the beginning ofthe rebellion.

Castro was just 22 when hefollowed his older brotherFidel‘s lead in a seemingly sui-cidal attack on the Moncada bar-racks in the eastern city ofSantiago, along with more than

100 other mostly youthfulrebelsopposed to strongmanFulgencio Batista.

‘The years have passed, butthis continues to be a revolutionof young people, as we were onJuly 26, 1953, Castro said. T h eMoncada raid was a disaster forthe rebels, and many of themwere tortured and killed. But ithelped make Fidel Castro thefocus of opposition to Batista,whom he overthrew six yearslater after surviving prison andexile, transforming him into ahero for revolutionaries aroundthe globe.

Yet the youthful insurgentsof 1953 and 1959, many of themnow in their 80s, still hold keypositions of power in Cuba.While Raul Castro has led a se-ries of economic and politicalreforms, young leaders are justnow beginning to emerge.

Earlier this year MiguelDiaz-Canel was named vice presidentand became the first person notof the revolutionary generation tohold the No. 2 spot. ‘The historicgeneration is giving way to thenew saplings with tranquility andserene confidence, based on(their) demonstrated preparationand capacity for maintaining therevolution and socialism,‘ Castrosaid. A t Friday‘s ceremony, agiant banner hanging from thebarracks with an image of FidelCastro raising a triumphant fistwas the only sign of the retiredleader. A near-fatal intestinal ill-ness forced him from officeseven years ago, and he rarelyappears in public these days.

In speeches, allied leadersrecalled Moncada as an act thatinspired rebellion, both armedand political, across the Ameri-cas in the decadesthat followed.

‘The history of Latin Americacan best be understood if wemark a before and an after theassault on the Moncada bar-racks,‘ said Ecuadorean ForeignMinister Ricardo Patino.

‘Fundamentally this was arevolution of dignity, ofselfesteem for Latin Americans,said Uruguayan President JoseMujica, who joined an armedleftist guerrilla group in his owncountry in the 1960s and wasimprisoned for more than a de-cade. ‘It seeded us with dreams,it filled us with (the spirit ofDon) Quixote.

The July 26 holiday is some-times used to make major an-nouncements or address currentaffairs, but Castro hardly strayedfrom the past tense in a speechalmost entirely focused onhistory.He did not mention ashipment of Cuban weaponry

recently seized in Panama onits way to North Korea. Nor didhe address the ongoing saga ofNational Security Agencyleaker Edward Snowden andhis quest for asylum beyond thereach of U.S. law enforcement.

And there was no newword about the future ofCastro‘s reforms, which haveseen changes such as thelegalisation of home and carsales, relaxed restrictions onforeign travel and limitedopenings for independent smallbusinesses and cooperatives.

One of the Cubangovernment‘s most outspokencritics, dissident blogger YoaniSanchez, was unimpressed.

‘A nation cannot be rep-resented and led by men whohave more memories thanprojects ,‘ Sancheztweeted.—AP

PTI’s Ayla Malikineligible tocontest by-electionsRAWALPINDI—The LahoreHigh Court’s election tribunalbench in Rawalpindi has de-clared the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate AylaMalik ineligible to contest by-elections due to a fakedegree.Ayla was to be fielded asa PTI candidate for by-electionfrom NA-71 after the partychairman Imran Khan vacatedthe seat, keeping his Rawalpindiseat.The Board of Intermediateand Secondary Education(BISE), Rawalpindi, had de-clared her intermediate certificate‘bogus’ on July 20 that carries theroll number of a male candidatenamed Imdad Hussain, who toohad failed.—INP

Dr Gill

CHRONIC wounds such as diabetic footulcers and pressure ulcers may healfaster when they are cleaned out fre-

quently, a new study suggests. So-called de-bridement involves removing dead or infectedtissue and any foreign bodies or bacteria fromslow-healing wounds, such as with a scalpelor special cream.

It’s traditionally per-formed when a patient firstcomes in with a wound, saidDr. Robert Kirsner, a derma-tologist and wound re-searcher from the Universityof Miami Miller School ofMedicine. “The real questionis, how often do you have todo this?” added Kirsner, whoco-wrote a commentary pub-lished with the new study.

Close to seven millionAmericans each year have achronic wound, from diabe-tes or other causes. A fewsmall studies have suggestedsome types of wounds tendto heal faster with frequentcleaning. For their report,James Wilcox from Healogics - a company thatruns wound care centers - and his colleaguestried to expand on those data by reviewing therecords of about 155,000 patients treated at oneof 525 wound centers.

Between 2008 and 2012, those patientswere treated for a total of 313,000 wounds,including diabetic foot and pressure ulcers,surgical wounds and cuts from accidents orother trauma. The average wound was cleanedout twice.

The researchers found that healing timevaried by the type of wound, but was typi-cally faster with more frequent debridement.For example, diabetic foot ulcers healed in

an average of 21 days when they were de-brided at least weekly and in 76 days, onaverage, when they were debrided once ev-ery two weeks or more. Traumatic woundshealed in 14 days, on average, with frequentdebridement and in 49 days when they werecleaned out least often.

Healing time was alsolonger for deeper and widerwounds, the research teamwrote in JAMA Dermatology.Bacteria can grow over woundsin colonies called biofilms,Kirsner said. Much like brush-ing your teeth preventsbiofilms from growing onthem, debridement may keepwounds free of bacterial colo-nies, he added. But debride-ment isn’t quite as easy andinnocuous as teeth brushing.

“There’s effort in doingit - there’s effort as far as costand in theory there could bepain associated with it,”Kirsner told Reuters Health.“When you perform a surgicalprocedure, there’s always the

risk of infection. You wouldn’t want to dodebridements if they weren’t necessary.”

He said patients in the study who hadtheir wounds cleaned out more frequentlymay have also been better at sticking to othercare recommendations - so it’s not clear thefaster healing time was due solely to extradebridement. Or, “It’s possible that if youwent to a specialized wound center everyweek and got a lot of treatments includingdebridement, that debridement may not havebeen the only critical thing that was doneduring that treatment.” Still, Kirsner said,the evidence is pointing toward a benefitfrom more frequent cleaning.

Regular wound cleaningtied to faster healing

Picnickers enjoying their weekend at Rawal Lake View Park following pleasant weather in the Federal Capital due to rains.

Famous Naat Khwan Qari Rehan Habib reciting Naat during Mehfil-e-Naat organised atNational Press Club.

ASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD—All over theworld, the 28th July is WorldHepatitis Day. This is to pro-mote awareness among peopleabout hepatitis, its spread, pre-vention and treatment. Thisdate is picked to honour DrBloomberg who discoveredHepatitis-B, 28th July is hisbirthday.

Dr Muzzaffar Lateef Gill,Professor of Medicine andGastroenterology at Maroof In-ternational Hospital, in an in-terview, highlighted the need tomake people know more about

World Hepatitis Day today

Every 12th person in Pak suffering from diseasethe causes, preventive measuresand timely treatment of the dis-ease.

He said, five hundred millionpeople in the world population areexposed to hepatitis, Pakistanbeing no exception. “In our coun-try there are two types of viralhepatitis, one is short lived andself-limited, hepatitis A & E,which spreads through feco-oral-route. Summer season epidemicsof this type of acute hepatitis arevery common throughout the de-veloping world. It is because ofpoor hygienic standards”. Hepa-titis C and B, he said, is a bloodborn disease and usually chronic

and has long-term consequences.Professor Gill said, every

12th individual in Pakistanipopulation is suffering from

hepatitis B &C. “We as a na-tion need two-prong ap-proach, one isto prevent thespread of thedisease and thesecond ap-proach is tohave foolprooftreatment for

everybody, who is suffering fromhepatitis B & C”.Directress Hunerkada Amna Shah with the participants of an exhibition of artworks. —PO

photo Sultan Bashir

Professor Gill said, for pre-vention purposes, there should beuniversal vaccination for hepati-tis B, which is almost in progresseverywhere in Pakistan. Themost important aspect of preven-tion is screening of blood prod-ucts, sterilized equipment, andbetter hygienic standards in bar-bershops. It is an easily control-lable disease, but mild lapse inprecautions can lead to very di-sastrous consequences.

When asked about effective-ness of Prime MinisterProgramme for Hepatitis C, hesaid it marks a tremendousprogress in the country. “It is

CDA officerssuspended for

concealing factsISLAMABAD—Three officers ofthe Capital Development Author-ity (CDA) were suspended Sat-urday allegedly for concealingthe facts from the CDA authori-ties for permitting commercialactivity in F-7 Markaz.

Among those whose ser-vices have been suspended in-cluded Deputy Director General(awaiting for posting) GhulamMurtaza Malik, Deputy DirectorHousing Societies Zafar IqbalZafar and Deputy Director Archi-tecture Ali Abdullah.

According to a CDA officer,the officers had misguided theCDA Board recommending thatthe commercial activity may beallowed in one floor of the build-ing located on Plot No 19 of F-7Sector allotted to an institute.

The officers have been sus-pended under the CDA Employ-ees Regulation 1992, said the of-fice orders issued by the HumanResource Development Director-ate of the CDA. However, on theother hand, the aggrieved offic-ers were of the view that the CDABoard had allowed commercialactivity in the ground floor of thebuilding, besides the constructionof an additional floor.—APP

Outlaws nabbedCRIME REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Rawalpindi Po-lice have arrested 18 outlaws in-cluding three suspected dacoitsand seized 1360 grams charras,four kilogram heroin, nine bottlesof liquor, six pistol 30 bore with26 rounds and one rifle 12 borefrom the possession of the ar-rested accused.

According to police spokes-man, Waris Khan police heldShaheen Bibi and recovered 215grams charras. Westridge policearrested Danish Shah on recov-ery of 1015 grams charras. Taxilapolice netted Riaz for having fourkilograms heroin. Gunjmandipolice apprehended Ansar as sixbottles of liquor were recoveredfrom him.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The sale of unhy-gienic food items goes un-checked in the federal capital andits suburban areas while the mea-gre efforts of the concerned au-thorities are proving to be insuf-ficient to control it.

The shopkeepers and bakeryowners are selling different fooditems baked in unhygienic atmo-sphere, while the restaurants areserving food in filthy utensils,besides charging inflated rates tothe residents in suburbs ofIslamabad.

Residents of Faisal Colonyarea at Golra Mor, talking toPakistan Observer said that therestaurants on the main chowkare cooking and serving food in

unhealthy environment but thefood inspectors never visit thearea. They said that the baker-ies, general stores and restau-rants owners are charging in-flated prices to the residents butthe district government does nottake any action against them.

Similarly, residents ofBhara Kahu, talking to INP saidthat abundance of contaminatedfood items in the area wasspreading different abdominaland respiratory diseases amongthe residents but the concernedauthorities are not taking anynotice of the situation.

They said that the districtgovernment and Health depart-ment officials are busy in ensur-ing provision of hygienic foodsto the capital city residents

while they were being neglected.The residents demanded of

high-ups of the district govern-ment and Health department tocheck prices and hygiene of fooditems in suburban areas too.

Meanwhile, on the direc-tives of Deputy CommissionerIslamabad Amir Ahmed Ali, theoperation against the sale of sub-standard and unhygienic fooditems in the federal capital hasbeen started.

The teams conducted the op-eration in G-11 Markaz, F-10Markaz, Shehzad Market SectorI-10/1, Choudry Market, AbbasiMarket and Sector I-9 andchecked 70 bakeries and restau-rants. They collected samplesfrom the outlets and sent themto laboratory for tests.

Sale of unhygienic foodin capital’s suburbs

CITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—The Tehsil Mu-nicipal Administration (TMA)Rawal Town on Saturday startedits campaign against dengue vi-rus while the shopkeepers who arein the business of unwrapped tyreshave been warned to wrap thetyres as the stagnant water in theopen tyres is the main cause ofbreeding dengue mosquitoes.

Special instructions are alsobeing issued to the owners of allCNG stations, petrol pumps,godowns, junk yards, tyre shops,service stations, that no stagnantwater should be around theseplaces otherwise action would betaken accordance to the law.

According to the spokesmanTMA, Rawal Town the steps arebeing taken to save the citizens

from the dengue. He said that allprecautionary measures in thisconnection should be observed inletter and spirit as no negligencewould be tolerated in this regard.

Town Officer Regulation,Superintendent, and Inspectorshave started conducting raids inthis regard. The unwrapped tyreswould be confiscated from tyreshops as the city district govern-ment has strictly warned the shop-keepers that tyres, new and old,should be properly packed andcovered which will help reducethe risk of spreading dengue.

Administrator Rawal TownMuhammad Ali Randhawa hasurged the tyre shops owners tocooperate with the staff concernedof TMA so that solid steps couldbe taken to control the spread ofdengue in the city.

Anti-denguecampaign launched

Mehfil-e-Naatat NPC

ISLAMABAD—A grand Mehfil-e-Naat was organized at NationalPress Club Islamabad (NPC) onthe outset of second Ashra of theholy month of Ramadan.

The renowned Naat Khawanincluding Qari MuhammadRehan Habib Suhrwardi, QariMuhammad Shahzad,Muhammad Noman Abid, Adilur Rehman Qureshi, Sajjad AliTabassam, Omar Farooq andTassadaq Rasoon recited Naat.Pir Naqeeb ur Rehman, custodianof Eid Gah Sharif shrine,Sahibzada Wala Shan HassanHaseeb-ur-Rehman, PresidentTehreek Minhajul Quran (TMQ)Islamabad Abrar Advocate andothers also attended the Mehfil.

President NPC, FarooqFaisal Khan, secretary ShahryarKhan, finance secretary, AfzalJaved and members of executiveand governing body also attendedthe Mehfil. —INP

Rescue 1122holds dengue

awareness walksSTAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Rescue 1122Rawalpindi on Saturdayorganised dengue awarenesswalks to create awareness of thedangers of the disease and high-light the precautionary mea-sures.

Dengue awareness walkswere held from all Rescue Sta-tions of District Rawalpindi situ-ated at Rawal Road, Civil Lines,Kalma Chowk, Bahria Town,Pir Wadai and 17 Mile to theirnearest areas to sensitize publicabout dengue virus.

The rescue teams visitedshops and residential areas andchecked the breeding places fordengue mosquitoes and high-lighted preventive measuresagainst it.

I S L A M A B A D —Is lamabadChamber of Commerce & Indus-try has shown great concernsover the inordinate delay incompletion of new IslamabadAirport at Fateh Jang and hasappealed to the Prime Ministerof Pakistan to intervene for itsearly completion.

Zafar Bakhtawari, President,ICCI said that the new airportproject was initiated in 2007 andwas to be completed by Decem-ber 2011, but due to long delay,its cost has reportedly skyrock-eted from Rs.35 billion to Rs.73billion, which shows the level ofinefficiency of project executorsand a great drain on taxpayers’money.

He said the airport in capitalreflects the face of a country andplays a significant role in pro-

moting or affecting its image.Therefore, timely completion ofnew airport in Islamabad wasbadly needed to project a posi-tive image of Pakistan to out-side visitors as well as to im-prove trade, exports and eco-nomic activities.

He said the economic im-pact of airports is increasingalong with growing passengerand cargo traffic.

However, the currentIslamabad airport lacks modernday facilities and is insufficientto manage heavy load of cargo& passenger traffic due to whichlocal and foreign businessmenhave to face problems.

Thus the early completionof new airport has assumed ad-ditional significance. He saidICCI is striving for constructionof an Industrial Estate near

Chakri which is quite near to thenew airport and its completionis expected to facilitate promot-ing industrial and investmentactivities in that area as poten-tial industrialists always preferto locate their industries nearairports.

Zafar Bakhtawari appreci-ated the farsightedness ofMian Nawaz Sharif for build-ing international standards air-ports at Karachi and Lahoreand appealed that he shouldnow intervene to expedite thecompletion work of newIslamabad airport which willnot only uplift the face of thefederal capital, it will alsogreatly facilitate promotingtrade, business, exports andeconomic activities in the re-gion and attract more touriststo Pakistan.—NNI

ICCI resents delay incompletion of new airport

70weather

July 30

ALLAMA Iqbal Open Uni-versity will perform its nor-mal work during 10-day ‘Se-mester Break Holidays’ start-ing from Tuesday July 30.

good start, but it needs certainrefinements”. He pointed outthat availability of quality drugsis an issue. Every Hepatitis Cpatient deserves a best chanceof treatment.

Every patient should begiven once weekly injection(Pegylated Interferon) andRibavirin therapy. “Quality ofinjection treatment which issupplied periodically by thePrime Minister Programme isquestionable”. If first timetreatment in this population isnot done rightly, it becomesvery difficult to treat them sub-sequently.

Briefs

“Failures are dividedinto two classes –

those who thought andnever did, and thosewho did and never

thought.”

— John Charles Salak

RASHID AHMED

MUGHAL

A latest World Bankpublication reflects extremely poor perfor-

mance of the outgoing gov-ernment on the economicfront, massive corruption andbad governance behind thesympathy factor, which theyare smartly encashing due totheir own failings in address-ing the issue of terrorism.

The WB also lamentedthat Pakistan was ranked asone the lowest spenders oneducation and health in theregion, and warned: “At the

Poor economic growth fundamentalscurrent rate of progress, it willbe difficult for Pakistan to meetthe MDG (Millennium Devel-opment Goals) targets on healthand education by 2015. “It addedthat 44 percent of children un-der give in Pakistan are stuntedin the absence of nutritious food.

“Pakistan’s economy con-tinued to under-perform whencompared with other economiesin the region, “the April 2013publication of the WB Pakistansaid, adding that there was noimprovement in the securitysituation and no abatement in theenergy crisis, which besidesother factors continued todampen the growth prospectsbesides adversely impacting the

fiscal situation.The fiscal situation wors-

ened in FY12 (Fiscal year 2012)as the overall budget deficit in-creased to 8.5 percent of GDP –the highest level in two de-cades,” the WB report said.

The report said Pakistanalso lags behind other SouthAsian countries in the field ofeducation and health. “Despitethe worrying state of educationand health, especially amongstthe poor, the resource allocationas a percentage of the GDP re-mained low.”

The report added, “Facedwith such an adverse scenario,the preliminary economicgrowth of 3.7 percent in FY12

signifies economy’s remarkableresilience. This, however, waspartly the result of a strong in-crease in private consumptioncaused by continued and robustincrease in workers’ remittances(increased by 18 percent). Facedwith this worsening balance ofpayment situation, the govern-ment is in talks with the IMFover a new stabilization pro-gram”.

The WB Publication said,“Accelerating progress in hu-man development remains thekey underpinning for sustainedeconomic gains. The Net Enroll-ment Rates in education havebeen increasing in Pakistan butstill lag behind other South Asia

countries. Infant and under-givemortality rates represent a simi-lar story. Gender disparities per-sist in education, health and alleconomic sectors. Pakistan hasone of the lowest female labourparticipation rates in the region.Nutrition also remains a signifi-cant crosscutting challenge as44% of children under five arestunted.

The WB publication said,“Poverty gains of over the pastdecade have been impressive butmay be difficult to sustain. Pa-kistan saw a decline in povertytrends, with the poverty rate fall-ing from 34.5 percent in 2001/02 to an estimated 17.2 percentin 2007-08. Over the past few

years there have been signs thatpoverty levels may have furtherdecreased, despite the downturnin the economy, floods and in-flation. “These gains might havebeen supported primarilythrough remittances, faster thanexpected recovery of the agri-culture output and exports fol-lowing the floods, a broader-based economic growth, andstrengthening of, and greaterfunding for, social safety netsprogrammes.”

Pakistan has missed itsgross domestic production(GDP) growth target by 0.6 per-cent for the outgoing fiscal2012-13 due to the severe en-ergy crisis, government ac-

counts officials.At present, thecurrent GDP stands at 3.59 per-cent against the envisaged tar-get of 4.2 percent.

Following the rebasing ofnational economy to 2005-6from 1999-2000, the NationalAccounts Committee (NAC),approved the GDP growth rateat 3.59 percent for FY13 afterjacking up revised estimates ofgrowth of FY12 to 4.37 percentfrom 3.7 percent.

The energy shortages are thebiggest problem that havechoked growth of various sec-tors of the national economy forthe outgoing fiscal year,” ChiefStatistician of Pakistan Bureauof Statistics (PBS) told report-

ers after NAC meeting.He also said that PBS

would start calculating GDPgrowth on quarterly basis fromthe next financial 2013-14 andfirst quarter (July-Sept) resultswould be available by Novem-ber 2013. Pakistan has beenmissing such growth targets forgive years since 2007-08. Ex-perts agree that in this situationthe country is bound to witnesshigh unemployment and grow-ing poverty. In the agriculturalsector aggregate growth stoodat 3.35 percent, with the growthof five major crops, such aswheat, cotton, sugarcane, riceand maize at 2.31 percent, andother crops at 6.68 percent.

PQ remains activeKARACHI—One ship arrivedat the port to load/ offloadEthylene at EVTL on 26thJuly, 2013. Berth occupancywas maintained at 50 percentat the Port on Friday where atotal of seven ships namelyM.V Kps-I Alican Bey -Powership, M.T Gulf Oasis,M.V Dong Hai Jun (Dredger)M,V Bux Contact, M.T Akaki,M.T Nor Gas Invitation, M.VBaecon Sw are currentlyoccupying berths to load/offload, containers, ethylene,furnace oil, wheat. Cargohandling operations werecarried out smoothly at thePort where a cargo volume25260 tonnes comprising22506 tonnes import export2754 tonnes and (285) Tueswas handled at the Port duringlast 24 hours. M.V BuxContact sailed on Fridayafternoon. M.V Msc Reunion,M.V Nyk Kai and M.V MscKerry at QICT and M.TArgent Daisy at LCT M.TAtlantic Glory at EVTL arrivalon 27th July, 2013 as perarrival schedule.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Small and MediumEnterprises Development Au-thority (SMEDA) has been in-ducted as a member of the Tech-nical Committee of Credit Guar-antee (TCCG).

The TCCG was constitutedby the State Bank of Pakistan(SBP) for implementation andmonitoring of the Credit Guar-antee Scheme for Small andRural Enterprises, says a pressrelease here.

The Scheme was launchedby SBP with the assistance ofDepartment for InternationalDevelopment (DFID), U.K andgovernment of Pakistan.

Access to finance is catego-rized as the foremost impedimentto SME growth and develop-ment. The State Bank of Paki-stan, as a regulator of the finan-cial market has played an active

SMEDA becomesmember of TCCG

role in encouraging SMEs’ ac-cess to finance. However, creditto the SME sector has been de-clining sharply over the past few

years. According to SBP statis-tics, SME’s share in total creditoff take during December 2011to 2012 decreased from 8.3% to6.8%. during the same period, thetotal number of SME borrowersdecreased by 21.3%.

Banks/ Development FinanceInstitution (DFIs) are generally re-luctant to extend credit to Small andMedium Enterprises (SMEs) andagriculture sector as they perceivelending to these sectors riskier thanother sectors. Credit GuaranteeSchemes are programs that ensurepartial repayment of delinquentloans in order to motivate banks tolend to borrowers which normallydo not have access to credit fromthe formal sector.

SMEDA has recentlylaunched a Five Year SME De-velopment Plan (2013-2018).One of the components of thePlan involves development ofkey SME sectors. In this regard,extensive value chain analysishas been carried out for 13 SMEsectors, identifying game chang-ers that can transform the entiredynamics of the sector and ac-crue benefits across the entirespectrum of the value chain.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanState Oil (PSO) has successfullyupgraded its internal SAP sys-tem to the latest ECC 6.0 ver-sion in order to streamline itsoperational efficiency.

According to a PSO pressrelease, the upgrading processinvolved seamless integrationof 12 SAP modules, a data-base of over 1500 GB of dataand the profiles and accessprotocols of over 500 SAPusers.

The entire system en-hancement process was carriedout jointly by the PSO-Infor-mation Communication &Technology (ICT) and FinanceDepartments in a period of just5 days with minimum disrup-

PSO upgrades technologicalsystem for professional efficiency

tion in the company’s businessoperations.

This revamp will allow thePSO to provide business sup-port at par with internationalstandards to its employees andbusiness partners.

This initiative has been un-dertaken by the managementkeeping in view the role suchsystem improvements play assuccess factors for theorganization’s development.

With this technical up-grade, new horizons in busi-ness innovation, cost reductionand functional capacity im-provements have opened up atthe PSO. Furthermore, thecompany can now fully utilizethe functional improvementsprovided in ECC 6.0 like en-hanced reporting through NewGeneral Ledger features; en-hanced management of Inter-nal Controls for CorporateGovernance; improvements tocredit management and intro-duction of Treasury Risk Man-agement techniques.

Leading from the front, thePSO is committed to do what ittakes to provide for the fuelneeds of the country in a timelyand responsible manner, thepress release added.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Mohammad Ishaq Dar in a meeting with City bank delegation.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Trading activityremained dull with easing spotrate amid fine lint in focus, trad-ers at the Karachi Cotton Asso-ciation (KCA) said.

The KCA readjusted thespot rate downward by Rs 100per maund to Rs 6,400 permaund, floor brokers said.

During the trading session,sellers in Sindh and Punjab sta-tions offloaded all grades of linton slightly lower rates in orderto capitalise maximum returnson their proceeds before any fur-ther decline in spot rate, floorbrokers said.

Buyer bought lint of allgrades on a cautious note onback of grade issue and only

Spot rate easesmade deals for selective lots,they said.

Sellers and buyers remainedentangled in price war in majorstations of Sindh and Punjabwhile secondary buyers boughtall grades on back of decliningspot rate, floor brokers said.

Mills bought all grades of linton competitive prices at aroundRs 6,125 per maund to Rs 6,475per maund while spinners pur-chased all grades in Punjab andSindh stations at around Rs 6,000per maund to Rs 6,400 permaund, traders said.

Trading in Karachi andother major markets in Sindhfocused on fine grades in par-ticular on back of slow pace pro-duction of these grades due toslow influx of fine cottonseed.

More than 2,000 baleschanged hands with more than65 percent of Punjab’s share intrading. “Long hours of powerand gas load shedding in textileproducts manufacturing unitsand ginning units in Sindh andPunjab stations are hamperingthe production capacity result-ing in slow buying of lint, said afibre analyst. “The long hours ofpower load shedding have alsobadly hurt manufacturing activ-ity of yarn and cloth.”

Some deals changed handsat around Rs 5,625 per maundin Punjab stations while buyersin major stations of Sindh andPunjab also made forward dealsfor all grades of lint at aroundRs 5,650 per maund to Rs 5,750per maund.

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

ISLAMABAD—Fauji FertiliserBin Qasim Limited (FFBL)posted Profit after Tax (PAT) ofRs 1.8 billion with Earnings perShare (EPS) of Rs 1.95 in firsthalf 2013 as compared to PATof Rs 644 million with EPS Re0.7 in the same period previousyear. For second quarter 2013,the Company posted bottom-line of Rs 1.3 billion with EPSof Rs 1.42, showing impressive29 percent growth Year on Year(YoY).

The Company also declared1st interim dividend of Rs 1.75/share. During this period,FFBL’s revenue rose by im-pressive 78 percent on yearlybasis on the back of revival in

FFBL posts profitdi-ammonium phosphate(DAP) sales, up 120 percentYoY and continuously risingDAP primary margins, which

helped the Company’s grossmargins to rise by 450 bps to26 percent, said Farid Aliani ananalyst at BMA Capital Man-agement. DAP offtake in-creased by 71 percent to162,000 tonnes in first half2013, said Asad Siddiqui ananalyst at Topline Securities.

Favourable agricultural en-vironment remained one of theprime factors behind the volu-metric variance. Other incomeof the Company fell to Rs 237million in 1H 2013 against Rs594 million in the same periodlast year, primarily due to lossof Rs 121million from its JVPakistan Maroc Phosphore(PMP) compared to profit of Rs70 million last year. Siddiquiexpected earnings of FFBLwould further recover in com-ing quarters, where urea saleswere likely to be affected inshort-term, however, impetusto the earnings would be pro-vided by expanding marginsand increasing sales ofCompany’s flag ship productDAP.

Rs8b Sialkotbudget approved

STAFF REPORTER

SIALKOT—The district govern-ment on Saturday approved atax-free budget of Rs 8 billionfor fiscal year 2013-14.

Giving details of the budget,DCO Iftikhar Ali Sahu said de-velopment and non-develop-ment expenditures had been es-timated at Rs 7.97 billion.

He said Rs 488 million hadbeen allocated to improve all gov-ernment schools and providingmissing facilities, Rs 20 million forproviding medicines to govern-ment hospitals and Rs 6 million forpromotion of sports in district. Headded that no new tax had beenimposed or the rate of any existingtax was increased or reduced.

Sindh coastalbelt has toomuch wind

energy potentialSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Energy expertIrfan Mirza has said that thecoastal belt of Sindh with its 80km width and 180 km length,has too much potential for gen-eration of wind energy.

Talking to a private newschannel, he said Pakistan hadwell-defined wind energy corri-dors along with solar energypotential and photovoltaic op-portunity.

He said Pakistan was amonga few fortunate countries, whichhave a lot of potential of alter-ative and renewable energy pro-duction. It also had natural re-sources of bio-fuel and cogen-eration.

He hoped that the presentgovernment would capitalize onthe renewable energy resources.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Finance Min-ister Ishaq Dar at the outset ex-pressed his appreciation of thepositive role played by exchangecompanies in the past for thecountry and hoped that theywould once again remain con-scious of their responsibilities instabilising the exchange rate insupport of Pakistan’s economy.

The Finance Minister and

Dar asks exchange firmsto help stabilise rupee

the Governor SBP held a meet-ing with representatives of Ex-change Companies Associationof Pakistan (ECAP) at SBPKarachi. The productive meet-ing was held in a very cordialand positive atmosphere. Heexpressed concern over the ris-ing spread between the Inter-bank and Kerb market rates re-cently and emphasised his con-fidence that exchange compa-nies would work towards nar-

rowing the gap.The ECAP members pre-

sented their views and propos-als, following which it was de-cided that ECAP would haveanother meeting with the Gov-ernor SBP to deliberate on theissues and arrive at substantivemeasures for implementationwith expectation that exchangecompanies would play theirpositive role in bringing thespread down.

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa government hasestablished the ‘Chief Minister’sInvestment Promotion Cell’ inthe Chief Minister’s Secretariatwith immediate effect.Rafaqatullah Babar will be theEconomic Coordinator of theCell and will serve voluntarily.

The Chief Minister’s Invest-ment Promotion Cell will sendinvestment proposals receivedfrom investors to governmentdepartments concerned for evalu-ation, keep liaison with govern-ment departments, including En-

Investment promotioncell set up in KP

ergy and Power Department, In-dustries, Commerce, TechnicalEducation and Manpower Train-ing Department, Mineral Devel-opment Department, IrrigationDepartment, Tourism Depart-ment, Science and Technologyand Information Technology De-partment etc with regard to in-vestment in various sectors of thesaid department.

The cell will invite investorsand facilitate them on behalf ofChief Minister KhyberPakhtunkhwa. The cell will haveall relevant information regardinginvestment in KPK of all relevantdepartments, which may be pro-

vided to investors under the ruleand will also chalk out guidelinesfor investment in the province.

It will plan, organise andhost conferences, seminars,fairs, exhibitions and other simi-lar activities to promote interestin investment in the province.The Cell will examine andanalyse issues of economic im-portance and make recommen-dations to the chief minister. Itwill also analyse and make rec-ommendations in financial mat-ters referred by the CM, coordi-nate meetings chaired by theCM relating to development andeconomic activities.

NBP ranked topbankObserver ReportKARACHI—The Banker hasranked the National Bank ofPakistan (NBP) as the topbank of Pakistan in its ‘Top1,000 World Banks’ rankingfor 2013’, said a pressstatement. UK-based TheBanker is the world’s premierbanking and finance resource,providing global financialintelligence since 1926. Its‘Top 1,000 World Banks’ranking evaluates the largestbank holding companies on thebasis of Tier 1 capital, aimingto track banks at their highestcapital regulated consolidationlevel. This ranking has beensetting the industry benchmarksince 1970 by providingcomprehensive intelligenceabout the health and wealth ofthe banking sector, said thestatement.

Revenues upDUBAI—Majid Al FuttaimHolding LLC recorded Dh11.3billion in revenues during thefirst half of the year, thecompany said in a statement onThursday. “First half [of] 2013displayed another period ofstrong growth for us and evenmore importantly it happenedon the back of a strong first half2012,” said Iyad Malas, CEOof Majid Al Futtaim Holding.The company’s revenues wereup 10 per cent compared to thefirst half of last year. Also, itsEbitda (Earnings BeforeInterest, Taxes, Depreciationand Amortisation) fromrecurring operations increasedby 11 per cent to Dh1.6 billion.Majid Al Futtaim’s (MAF)strong performance in the firsthalf of the year is credited tothe diversification of businessoperations across its threebusiness segments.—Agencies

AirAsia Japancancels hundreds

of flights inSept, Oct

TOKYO—AirAsia Japan hassaid the budget carrier will can-cel hundreds of flights over twomonths before it ceases opera-tions under the current brand atthe end of October.

AirAsia Japan, operatedjointly by Malaysia-basedAirAsia and major Japanese car-rier All Nippon Airways (ANA),will suspend 14 daily flights fromSeptember 1 to October 26, ac-cording to a company statement.The carrier said the cancellations,which will reportedly affect14,000 passengers, was becauseof a lack of planes to service allits routes.—Agencies

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The federal govern-ment is weighing various optionsto stabilise wheat prices in thecountry, including waiving dutyon its import and banning ex-ports. A proposal has been movedto the Economic CoordinationCommittee (ECC) of the cabinetto waive taxes on import of wheatin order to ensure a smooth flowof the commodity.

The decision of withdraw-ing taxes on wheat import willbe taken in the next few weeks,most probably before end ofRamazan, since escalatingwheat prices have led to a hueand cry over the availability of

Govt planning tostabilise wheat imports

the commodity.The decision to provide zero-

rating wheat import is highlyimportant to bring down pricesin the local market, source added.

Although official sourcesclaimed that there was no im-mediate shortage of wheat in themarket, they did accept the ex-istence of artificial bottlenecksin supplies and accused hoard-ers for jacking up prices ofwheat and flour in the country.

Wheat prices have leapedsignificantly since the thirdweek of June. In the secondweek of June, wheat prices werehovering around Rs 1,200 per 40kg in most parts of the country,while its price at present stands

at Rs 1,400 per 40 kg. Indirectly,the price of flour has alsoreached unprecedented levels.

At present, private importershave finalised deals of buying250,000 tons of wheat, sourcessaid. If the government with-draws the import duty on wheat,imports could reach around 0.7million tons in next couple ofmonths, the sources added. Theimported wheat would greatlyhelp in cooling down bullish sen-timent of the commodity market,bringing the price of wheat downto around Rs 1270-1300 per 40kg, an insider said.

The Punjab government isalso supporting the idea of en-couraging import of wheat.

Gold Tezab 45600.00Silver Tezabi 702.85

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 44580.00Gold 22 Ct 40750.00SilverTezabi 690.00Silver Thobi 630.00

USA 100.70 100.50

UK 155.00 154.69

EURO 133.75 133.48

Canada 98.01 97.82

Switzerland 108.38 108.17

Australia 93.35 93.16

Sweden 15.55 15.52

Japan 1.0185 1.0164

Norway 17.05 17.02

Singapore 79.74 79.58

Denmark 17..94 17.90

Omani Riyal 255.00 254.00

Saudi Arabia 26.85 26.80

Hong Kong 12.98 12.96

Kuwait 353.64 352.94

Malaysia 31.45 31.39

Newzeland 81.49 81.33

Qatar 27.67 26.61

UAE 27.42 27.36

KR WON 0.0907 0.0905

Thailand 3.240 3.233

Private firmsimporting lowgrade wheatSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Some privatecompanies are importing lowquality wheat from Russiawhich flour mills are mixingwith locally-grown wheat toproduce flour. “They privatecompanies are importinglow-grade wheat – labeled ascattle feed – in Pakistan,”Ibrahim Mughal, chairmanof Agri Forum of Pakistan(AFP), told reporters.

He added that importedwheat was planned to be dis-tributed as wheat fit for hu-man consumption. Mughalsaid importers have bookedthe orders for the import of200,000 tonnes of such poorquality of wheat from Rus-sia.

He further said importersare likely to import a total of800,000 tonnes of low gradewheat by August this year.Syed Zahoor Ahmed Agha,central chairman of PakistanFlour Mills Association, saidthat the quality of wheat(25,000 tons) imported veryrecently from Russia waspoor.

“The grain is reddishand soft, and the flour madefrom it does not make astrong bond when kneaded,”he said. He said that flourmills were not making flourcompletely out of the im-ported wheat, adding theymixed it with locally-grownwheat to produce flour. “Ma-jority of the flour mills aremixing 20 percent importedwheat with 80 percent localone for grinding to goodquality flour.”

They said the wheat isbeing imported because ofthe underproduction of thestaple crop in the country.Pakistan has produced a to-tal of 24.3 million tonnes ofwheat for the ongoing fiscalyear (July 2013 to June 2014)against the annual target of25 million tonnes,” Mughalsaid, adding the local de-mand stands at around 26million tonnes.

Agha said that mills andtraders wanted to importwheat from India, which wasmuch better in quality thanthe Russian one. Moreover,its price is also low. “Au-thorities did not allow us toimport wheat from India forunknown reasons,” he added.

He said the landed priceof Indian wheat is Rs29 perone kilogram as againstRs30 per kilogram of Rus-sian wheat. The local wheatprice has shot up to Rs36 perkilogram in Karachi, headded.

An official at the Minis-try of National Food Secu-rity and Research said thatprovincial governmentsshould be held responsible iftraders were importing poorquality wheat.

“The 18th amendmenthas enabled provincial gov-ernments to keep a strongcheck on the quality of im-ported wheat,” he said, add-ing that provincial govern-ments were yet to makesuch laws in each of theprovinces.

KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

Currency Selling Buying

Bullion Rates

RS PER 10 GRAMS

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A memorandum ofunderstanding (MoU) wassigned between Punjab govern-ment and International FinanceCorporation (IFC) which is asubsidiary institution of theWorld Bank for improving theefficiency of Punjab RevenueAuthority and recovery systemof general sales tax.

Chairperson Punjab Rev-enue Authority Iftikhar Kutaband Manager Investment IFCMugdi M Amin signed the docu-ment. Chief Minister PunjabMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif,Provincial Finance MinisterMian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman,Secretary Finance, Secretary

Punjab govt signs MoU with IFCfor improving efficiency of PRA

Information, concerned offi-cials, Project Leader IFCMuhammad Hamood Baidar,Amjad Bashir, Investment Of-ficer, Sajid Farooqi and otherofficials were present on theoccasion.

Under the agreement, IFCwill provide technical assis-tance in improving the effi-ciency of Punjab Revenue Au-thority and recovery system ofgeneral sales tax. IFC will alsoassist in further simplifying theworking of Punjab RevenueAuthority. IFC will not receiveany charges for its technicalassistance nor put any finan-cial burden on Punjab govern-ment. Besides broadening reg-istration base of GST and

minimizing technical flaws,IFC will also cooperate in thecapacity-building of PunjabRevenue Authority.

Speaking on the occasion,Chief Minister PunjabMuhammad Shahbaz Sharifwelcomed the agreement be-tween IFC and Punjab govern-ment for the capacity buildingof Punjab Revenue Authorityand said that it will improve thetax recovery system as well asbroadening tax base in the prov-ince. He said that Punjab gov-ernment has taken revolutionarymeasures in the current budgetfor improving tax system andbesides imposing tax on agri in-come, big houses have also beenbrought under tax net so that

maximum revenue could be col-lected.

The Chief Minister saidthat under the agreement withIFC, basic reforms will be in-troduced in the sales tax systemwhile tax system will be furthersimplified. He stressed the needfor increasing tax to GDP ratiofor collection of maximum re-sources for the development ofthe province and provision ofbetter facilities to the masses.Shahbaz Sharif said that Punjabgovernment is introducing re-forms in the entire tax recov-ery system and he believed thatthe ratio of tax recovery inPunjab can be further improvedthrough efficient tax machin-ery.

Yamaha motorsurged to focuson Pakistani

marketSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—AmbassadorFarukh Amil along with the eco-nomic team of the embassy vis-ited Yamaha Motor Company inShizuoka, Japan and review thescope of the company’s tradepartnership with Pakistan.

The ambassador in a meetingwith Yamaha President and CEOHiroki Yanagi and other seniorofficers urged the Yamaha Motorsto not only focus on Pakistan’sdomestic market but also plan forexporting Pakistan-made productsto neighbouring Central Asian,Middle East and African coun-tries. He also suggested Yamahapresident for training and intern-ships in Japan for young Pakistaniengineers and technical staff.Yamaha has made an investmentat Port Qasim Economic Zone,Karachi and plans to start produc-tion in 2015. STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Fertiliser offtakeduring June contracted by 45percent to 567,000 tonnes over1.03 million tonnes in corre-sponding month of last yearwhile it increased 17 percent ascompared to 485,000 tonnes inMay 2013, said NationalFertiliser Development Corpo-ration (NFDC) data.

Monthly increase in indus-try sales is primarily attributableto the increased production andimproved offtake in kharif sea-son, especially due to pre-buy-ing in expectation of urea priceincrease.

According to company-wisebreak-up, Fatima FertiliserCompany Limited (FFCL)showed hefty increase in salesduring June 2013, registering 42

Fertilizer offtake falls in Junepercent monthly increase to43,000 tonnes versus 30,000tonnes in May 2013. However,the urea offtake declined mas-sively by 67 percent on yearlybasis as compared to 128,000tonnes sales in June 2012.

Engro sales went up by 24percent on monthly basis to151,000 versus 123,000 tonnesin May 2013, while it also wit-nessed exorbitant yearly in-crease in sales by 125 percentas against of 67,000 tonnes inthe corresponding month of lastyear.

Fauji Fertiliser Company(FFC) urea offtake declined by14 percent on monthly basis to209,000 tonnes in June 2013 asagainst 242,000 tonnes in thefifth month of this year and onyearly basis fertiliser offtakedecreased heavily by 60 percent

as compared to 526,000 tonnesin June 2012.

Fauji Fertiliser Bin QasimLimited (FFBL) managed to sellonly 12,000 tonnes of urea inJune 2013, depicting 49 percentdecline as against of 24,000tonnes in the month of May2013, while it also declined ex-traordinarily by 80 percent onyearly basis as compared to61,000 tonnes in correspondingmonth of preceding year. On theother hand FFBL posted 40 per-cent increase in the sales of Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP)during the month of June 2013to 76,000 tonnes while it stoodat 54,000 tonnes in May 2013.Similarly DAP sales increasedby 79 percent on yearly basis ascompared to 42000 tonnes in thecorresponding month of lastyear.

ISLAMABAD: Dr Muhammad Munir, National Project Director (Olive Project) PARC andDr Muhammad Ramzan Khan, Project Director (NIGB) signing MoU. Dr Iftikhar AhmadChairman PARC and Dr Marco Marchetti, Italian Expert are also present at the occasion.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Honda AtlasCars Limited (HCAR) postedprofit-after-tax (PAT) of Rs327.543 million during April toJune of 2013, registering a heftyincrease of 248 percent as com-pared to loss-after-tax of Rs221.025 million in the corre-sponding period of last year.

According to the quarterlyresults reported by HCAR atKarachi Stock Exchange (KSE),the company declared earningsper share (EPS) of Rs 2.29 ascompared to EPS of Rs 1.55 inthe corresponding period of lastyear.

The company reported netsales of Rs 10.905 billion, show-casing a massive yearly growthof 89 percent as against of netsales of Rs 5.965 billion in thecorresponding period of the pre-

Honda profit increasesvious year. Such an enormousgrowth in net sales is owing tooverwhelming response of newmodels of City 1.5L and Civic,boosting the company’s salesvolume by 57 percent on yearly

basis, said Invest Cap’s AbdulAzeem. The increase in saleprices of cars and continued de-preciation in Japanese yenagainst the rupee improved thegross margins of the company,where during the said period thecompany increased its car pricesby 5.0 percent on yearly basis andyen depreciated by 15 percent.

The other income of thecompany rose massively by 557

percent to Rs 82 million as com-pared to Rs 12.59 million in cor-responding period of last finan-cial year.

Net profit of the companywitnessed a robust increase by 48

percent to Rs 325.33 million ascompared to loss of Rs 221mil-lion. During the period under re-view, volumetric unit sales of thecompany increased by a massive57 percent on yearly basis to 6,484units. The company sold 3,108units of Civic and 3,371 units ofCity. The main reason behind thisphenomenal yearly increase wasthat the company introduced itsnew model of Civic and City.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The govern-ment of Pakistan and AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB)have agreed to expand multi-billion dollar Country Opera-tional Business Plan (COBP)2013-14 into COBP 2014-16and it has been decided to re-prioritise the areas of invest-ment interventions accordingto the newly electedgovernment’s priorities.

Meanwhile, ADB hasalso agreed to provide $500million budgetary support toPakistan to ease out Pakistanforeign exchange reservesposition during repayment ofthe International MonetaryFund (IMF) loan before theformal sanction of $5.3 bil-

Expansion of COBP decidedlion IMF from its board in thefirst week of September, officialsources informed.

A review meeting regardingADB development portfolio forPakistan for the year 2010-13was held at the Economic Af-fairs Division, which was co-chaired by ADB Central WestAsia Director General KlausGerhaeusser and Economic Af-fairs Division Secretary NargisSethi here at the Pakistan Sec-retariat.

The meeting was attendedby representatives of concernedministries, provincial represen-tatives, representatives of imple-menting agencies, country rep-resentatives of the ADB and rel-evant stakeholders. The EADsecretary said that EconomicAffairs Division in line with di-

rectives of Finance MinisterIshaq Dar will constitute a spe-cial ‘Foreign Assistance Moni-toring Cell’ to effectively moni-tor the timely disbursement andutilisation of foreign assistancefor development projects.

The EAD secretary apprisedthe meeting that the finance min-ister is concerned about the slowdisbursement and implementa-tion of various projects and hasdirected to evolve a propermechanism to expedite projectsimplementation, remove unnec-essary procedures andchannelise the funds disburse-ment according to the agreedtime line.

The ADB DG on the occa-sion said that he has come toPakistan with a view to assessthe current situation and re-

quirements of the country,which he would present beforethe board meeting. He said thatthe ADB would continue itsconsultation with governmentof Pakistan for finalising theCOBP 2014-16.

The meeting took review ofthe current status of the ADB-funded projects in the country.It also discussed in detail theparameters to further improvethe completion of these projects,especially in energy and com-munication sectors.

Pakistan and ADB hadagreed on COBP 2012-13 andnow it has been decided to en-large this plan till 2014-16. As aresult of general elections inPakistan and new governmenttaking over affairs, it has beendecided to expand and re-

prioritise the COBP in consul-tation with ADB. According tothe official sources during thereview meeting, it has been de-cided to formulate key propos-als for incorporation in COBPso as to make it more fruitful forthe newly elected government inPakistan to implement it’s devel-opment agenda, the sourcesadded.

Indicative resource param-eters: According to COBP2013-14, Pakistan is eligiblefor resources from the AsianDevelopment Fund (ADF) andordinary capital resources(OCR). The indicative re-sources for the two-year pe-riod, 2013–2014, are $2,180million, including $720 mil-lion ADF and $1,460 millionOCR. Pakistan’s development

finance requirements well ex-ceed its own resources. Con-tinued access to ADB fundingwill be contingent on thegovernment’s sound economicmanagement, prudent fiscalpolicies, consistent portfolioimprovement, and successfulproject implementation. Theactual ADF allocation will de-pend on Pakistan’s rating un-der the performance-based al-location system.

The total firm lendingprogramme proposed for Paki-stan in 2013–2014 amounts to$2,468 million ($1,108 millionADF, $1,360 million OCR) for17 loans in the priority sectors,an annual average of $1,234million a year. About 55 per-cent of this (and 90 percent ofOCR lending) will be provided

through multi-tranche fi-nancing facilities (MFFs).The non-lending technicalassistance programme for2013–2014 currently standsat about $10.05 million for14 projects, mainly projectpreparatory technical assis-tance. Efforts will be madeto mobilise co-financing fortechnical assistance projects.

Investments and reformsin energy and infrastructure:Investments are to increaseenergy efficiency and security.Three main areas within thesector will be addressed: en-ergy sector enhancement(power generation, transmis-sion, and distribution), energyefficiency development, andrenewable energy develop-ment.

HBFCL toauction against

defaulters in SeptOBSERVER REPORT

MULTAN—House Building Fi-nance Company Limited(HBFCL) is going to auctionsome 50 houses of defaultersand the process would begin inSeptember. HBFCL officialssaid that the list included thosedefaulters who failed to depositHBFCL instalments till June 30despite repeated notices.

The process would begin inSeptember this year under sec-tion 15(6) of Financial Institu-tions (Recovery of Finances)Ordinance 2001 and wouldhopefully conclude by October5, officials said.

HBFCL Multan zonal man-ager Maqbool Sargana said thatthe defaulters belonged fromMultan, Mailsi, Vehari andBahawalpur and they owearound Rs 35 million to HBFCLMultan zone.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—All the CNG sta-tions will close their operationcompletely for three days and nogas sale would be allowed tovehicles in whole Sindh regionduring the period. The industrialsector would observe only oneday shut down as usual.

SSGC has announced theschedule for Industrial shutdown and CNG closure for com-ing week. In compliance withsectoral priority order for gasload management, during thecoming week, all CNG Stationsin Sindh region would remainclosed for three (03) days. Ac-cording to the schedule, all CNGstations in Sindh will remainclosed from 08:00 am on Tues-day 30 July 2013, till 08:00 amon Wednesday, 31 July, 2013 for24 hours. Another shut downwill be observed on Thursday 01August, 2013 from 08:00 am toFriday 02 August, 2013 till

Gas closure schedule08:00 am for 24 hours. The 3rdshut down will be started from8.00 a.m. on Saturday, 03 Au-gust, 2013 and will end on Sun-day, 04 August, 2013, till 8.00a.m. for 24 hours.

CNG stations found opera-tive during this period will havetheir gas supply disconnected.SSGC authorities have also ad-vised the owners of the CNGStations not to fill CNG in suchvehicles, where safety of instal-lation of CNG cylinders / pip-ing is not ensured.

Meanwhile, Sui SouthernGas Company’s Surveillanceand Monitoring (S&M) Depart-ment has launched a major crackdown operation against ice fac-tories located in Larkana andBakrani cities.

S&M has been backed up inthis effort by the Company’sSukkur Office, Distribution andSecurity Departments. The teamshave been able to disconnect gassupply which was helping the fac-tories in running their operationsat optimum pressure around theclock. The factories were usinggas directly by installing clampson distribution lines. During theraid, the teams disconnected di-rect connections, removed illegalclamps and killed service lines.Rangers and other LEA’s werealso lined up for the operation.

Although some of the fac-tories were registered industrialcustomers with installed meters,still they were using gas directlythrough clamps.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Oil andgas Regulatory Authority(Ogra) has revoked capacityallocation of three LNG firmswhile cancellation of terminalconstruction licences of theseprivate companies is alsolikely soon.

Ogra had approved the natu-ral gas pipeline capacity alloca-tion to private firms (PakistanGasport Limited, Global Infra-structure Limited and ElengyTerminal Pakistan Limited(Engro) on October 27, 2011 totransport gas through the trans-mission system of Sui SouthernGas Company Limited(SSGCL) and sale of gas to thecountry’s power and industrialsector. Pakistan Gasport Limitedwas allocated 400mmcfd, Glo-bal Infrastructure Limited500mmcfd while Elengy Termi-

Ogra’s action againstLNG firms

nal Pakistan Limited (Engro)was given 500mmcfd by theauthority. The capacity alloca-tion was subjected to certainconditions/ milestones with theprovision that failure to achievethese milestones will tanta-

mount to cancellation of allo-cated capacity. Performancebank guarantee of $5million,encashable in Pakistan, to befurnished within 90 days of ca-pacity allocation and financial

closure must be achieved withinsix months of the capacity allo-cation with due intimation toOgra.

Likewise, the private firmsengaged in the business of LNGwere asked and made responsibleto pay the fees to SSGCL andSNGPL over the use of transmis-sion system of both state ownedgas utilities prior to the direct saleof gas to power and industrialsector. And, the LNG firms werealso made responsible to pur-chase LNG from internal market,construction of floating storageand re-gasification unit inKarachi while SSGCL was ex-pected to lay a pipeline worthabove $1 billion from Karachiport to Punjab border under thesearrangements. However, periodfor their construction licenses andfinancial close have also been ex-pired but they have not requestedOGRA for any extension therein.

RAK Airways setto launch Pakistan,

Jordan routesABU DHABI—UAE-based RAKAirways has announced Islamabadand Amman will be its first twodestination launches in 2013.

Flights to Islamabad willstart on August 5 with servicesto Amman following two dayslater. The launch announce-ments follow comments madelast month by Murabit Al Sawaf,president and CEO of RAK Air-ways, that the airline would an-nounce five new destinations inthe near future. RAK Airwayssaw passenger numbers total300,000 in 2012 and in the firstquarter of 2013, the numbershave jumped by 40 percent, thecarrier said in a statement.—INP

SBP to issue Rs135bnew currency notes

before EidSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The State Bank ofPakistan has announced of issu-ing 135 billion rupees’ new cur-rency notes before Eid to meetdemand of people.

Printing of new currencynotes has been started in theSecurity Printing Press of Paki-stan while scheduled banks havebegun delivery of the new notesto the common people for usingon Eid day. People are comingto banks for getting new cur-rency notes but return back indesperation after failing to getsome while cashiers of banks arealso troubled by public’s overwhelming demand.

To meet the demand of newcurrency notes, the State Bankhas opened 90 Express DeliveryCenters across the country.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The rupee hasdropped to a record low of 105to the dollar on the open market,as the State Bank dipping re-serves prevented it from stabiliz-ing the market. In fact, the dollarwas being bought at some placesfor 108 as speculators reignedsupreme in the market.

Experts say the Pak rupee isnow at the mercy of unscrupu-lous elements as the State Bankof Pakistan has little reservescapacity to intervene in the cur-rency market to stable exchangerate against the green back.

“Depreciating the exchangerate and reducing discount rateby 100 basis points are amongthe actions that have to be takenby the government before Sep-

Rupee at recordlow against dollar

tember 4, 2013 in order to getapproval for the $5.3 billion loanpackage and other financial in-flows from the InternationalMonetary Fund and the othermultilateral lending agencies,”said Dr Ashfaque H Khan,Deanof NUST Business School.

Currently, as per the precon-dition of the IMF, the State Bankhas stopped intervention in theforex market and the exchange ratehas been adjusting on supply anddemand position, Dr Khan said.The IMF said to the governmentthat you leave the exchange ratefree for now then we would pro-vide you capital to build up reservesin September 2013. Resultantly, thecurrency market come underspeculative attack and unscrupu-lous elements started exploitingand manipulating exchange rate.

Diamer BhashaDam economy’s

lifelineSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The DiamerBhasha Dam project is a “ life-line” for the national economy,which would help meetcountry’s future agriculturaland power requirements. Anofficial of the ministry of wa-ter and power said the Damhad three important objectives,which include flood-mitiga-tion, power generation andstorage of water. He said thedam on River Indus wouldgenerate 19 billion units ofelectricity annually and en-hance life of the Tarbela Damby over 35 years.

Answering another ques-tion, he said the giganticproject would generate 4,500MW of electricity and storeover 8 million acre feet (MAF)of water to meet the country’sgrowing power and irrigationneeds.

BRUSSELS—The EuropeanCommission said Saturday it hasreached an “amicable solution”with Beijing over imports ofChinese solar panels, a disputethat had threatened to turn intoa full-blown trade war.

“We found an amicable so-lution in the EU-China solarpanels case that will lead to anew market equilibrium at sus-tainable prices,” EU Trade Com-missioner Karel De Gucht saidin a statement.

The breakthrough comes asBrussels and Beijing remainlocked in a series of tit-for-tatdisputes on other products rang-ing from steel pipes and telecomequipment to wine and chemi-cals.

The two sides are majortrading powers, rivals and part-ners. Total trade last year cameto nearly $550 billion, withChina enjoying a significant sur-plus as Europeans have bought

EU reaches deal with Chinaon solar panel dispute

up Chinese-made goods fromiPhones to steel.

The Chinese governmentwelcomed the deal which“showcased pragmatic and flex-ible attitudes from both sidesand the wisdom to resolve theissue.”

Chinese commerce ministryspokesman Shen Danyang saidin a state media report that itwould encourage “an open, co-operative, stable and sustainableeconomic and trade relation-ship.” China is also willing “tofurther promote exchanges andcooperation with the EU side inthe photovoltaic (solar) industryfield,” Shen added.

De Gucht said that “afterweeks of intensive talks,” thetwo sides had agreed a minimumprice for imported Chinese so-lar panels, which EU manufac-turers had claimed were beingmassively dumped in the EUmarket.—Agencies

KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah at Iftar Dinner hosted by Irani Con-sul General Mehdi Subhani at Iranian Consulate. Nisar Khuro, Dr. Farooq Sattar,Sharjeel Inam Memon, Taj Haider and others are also seen in the picture.—PO Photoby Sultan Chaki

KARACHI: IGP Shahid Nadeem Baloch reviewing security arrangements for the month of Ramazan during law and order meeting at CPO.

Regular wound cleaningtied to faster healing

CHRONIC wounds such as diabeticfoot ulcers and pressure ulcers mayheal faster when they are cleaned out

frequently, a new study suggests. So-calleddebridement involves removing dead or in-fected tissue and any foreignbodies or bacteria fromslow-healing wounds, suchas with a scalpel or specialcream.

It’s traditionally per-formed when a patient firstcomes in with a wound, saidDr. Robert Kirsner, a derma-tologist and wound re-searcher from the Universityof Miami Miller School ofMedicine. “The real ques-tion is, how often do youhave to do this?” addedKirsner, who co-wrote acommentary published withthe new study.

Close to seven millionAmericans each year have achronic wound, from diabe-tes or other causes.

A few small studies have suggestedsome types of wounds tend to heal fasterwith frequent cleaning. For their report,James Wilcox from Healogics - a companythat runs wound care centers - and his col-leagues tried to expand on those data by re-viewing the records of about 155,000 pa-tients treated at one of 525 wound centers.

Between 2008 and 2012, those patientswere treated for a total of 313,000 wounds,including diabetic foot and pressure ulcers,surgical wounds and cuts from accidents orother trauma. The average wound wascleaned out twice.

The researchers found that healing timevaried by the type of wound, but was typi-cally faster with more frequent debridement.For example, diabetic foot ulcers healed inan average of 21 days when they were de-

brided at least weekly and in76 days, on average, whenthey were debrided once ev-ery two weeks or more. Trau-matic wounds healed in 14days, on average, with fre-quent debridement and in 49days when they were cleanedout least often.

Healing time was alsolonger for deeper and widerwounds, the research teamwrote in JAMA Dermatol-ogy. Bacteria can grow overwounds in colonies calledbiofilms, Kirsner said. Muchlike brushing your teeth pre-vents biofilms from growingon them, debridement maykeep wounds free of bacte-rial colonies, he added. Butdebridement isn’t quite as

easy and innocuous as teeth brushing.“There’s effort in doing it - there’s effort

as far as cost and in theory there could be painassociated with it,” Kirsner told ReutersHealth. “When you perform a surgical proce-dure, there’s always the risk of infection. Youwouldn’t want to do debridements if theyweren’t necessary.”

He said patients in the study who had theirwounds cleaned out more frequently may havealso been better at sticking to other care rec-ommendations - so it’s not clear the fasterhealing time was due solely to extra debride-ment.

KARACHI: Doctors and paramedical workers taking part in awareness walk on the eve ofInternational Hepatitis Day at DOW University of Health Sciences Ojha Campus.

KARACHI: Women selecting dress for Eid at Hyderi Market in North Nazimabad.—PO photo

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi’s most af-fected No Go Area, Lyari wasunder Police’s siege on Saturdayfor several hours, which hadcommenced at dawn. A heavycontingent of Police had cor-doned off Sango Lane whereUzair Jan Baloch’s house is situ-ated. However, the Lyari gangwar militants did not show anyresistance to Police.

Following the directives ofthe Sindh High Court for arrestof Uzair Jan Baloch, KarachiPolice had conducted a searchand arrest operation in Lyari’s

Police fails to arrest UzairBaloch despite stern directives

selective areas and had in par-ticular the Sango Lane and en-tered Uzair’s house. However,Uzair was not there in his houseas he had already switched overto other safe heaven.

It was a surprising situa-tion that Lyari gang war thathad always showed resistanceto the extreme level in past haddisappeared from the area andPolice had alone without theassistance of Rangers con-ducted search operation withquite ease and comfort as nocasualty occurred.

Sources privy to the situa-tion claimed that either Police

or other influential had alreadyinformed Uzair about the opera-tion and hence all the wantedoutlaws had moved to safersides of the area.

Some had also claimed thatUzair and his accomplices hadmoved to Balochistan for a timebeing.

It was also interesting tomention that just 12 hours agoon Friday evening, two Lyarigang war criminals had enteredAgra Taj area to kidnapped aKatchi man but they weregunned down there and therebodies were brought to Uzair’shouse.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Jamaat-e Islami(JI) Chief Syed Munawar Hasansaid that the Ghazva-e Badrtaught us the lesson of toleranceand it was a war between rightand wrong ideology.

He expressed these viewswhile addressing an Iftar partyorganised by JI District Eastnear Federal Urdu University ofArts, Science and Technology atUniversity Road Saturday

JI Chief said that the Islamicmovements were being carriedout by the help of Almighty Al-lah and will continue despiteconspiracies hatched by westernpowers.

He said that movements of

Jihad to continue till ‘revolutionof Islam’: Munawwar

‘Jihad’ were still continued inthe shape of Hezbollah, Talibanand Hamas and will continue tillthe complete revolution of Is-lam.

Hasan expressed gratitudeover the Prime Minister’sMuhammad Nawaz Sharif’sstatement in which, he had statedthat to restore Morsi governmentin Egypt, adding that the west-ern think tank should review thesituation in Egypt.

He hoped that the Pakistanigovernment should take morebold steps in connection withEgypt situation.

JI Chief strongly lambastedthe statement issued by ForeignOffice, in which it stated that theissue of Bangladesh was its in-

ternal issue.Ameer JI East Osama Razi

informed that 200 people havebeen died in Egypt in a day dur-ing clashes with Egyptian Army.

Earlier, JI workers and sup-porters staged protest demon-stration at main UniversityRoad. They raised placards andbanners inscribed with “restoreMorsi government in Egypt”,“stop Indian army barbarism inKashmir”, “Friends of UnitedStates are traitor”, “Judicial ter-rorism in Bangladesh againstIslamic movement not accept-able”, “Down with UnitedStates”, Revolution in Arabcountries Zindabad”, “US con-spiracies against ̀ democracy inEgypt not acceptable”.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) chiefAltaf Hussain condemned theterrorist attack on check post ofCoast Guards in Kan KahaiGwadar.

He expressed grief over thekilling and wounding of manyofficials as a result of the terror-ist attack.

He asked the federal govern-ment that due to the wave of ter-rorism across the country thatthere should be no further delayin convening “All Parties Con-ference “comprising all the reli-gious and political parties of the

Altaf slams terrorist attack onGwadar Coast Guard check post

country, where judges of the su-perior courts, heads of the armedforces including chief of armystaff should be invited as observ-ers to formulate concrete and asingle-point strategy for curbingthe terrorism from the country.

He said that it was not onlythe responsibility of the govern-ment, political and religious par-ties but also the responsibility ofall segments of society to seekriddance from terrorism. It wastime to realize the responsibil-ity and taking concrete steps foreradicating the menace of terror-ism.

He demanded Prime Minis-ter Mian Mohammed Nawaz

Sharif and interior ministerChaudhry Nisar Ali not to wastemore time in steering county outof terrorism and formulate apractical strategy against terror-ism for the sovereignty and sta-bility of the country.

Meanwhile, the MQMchief had also drawn attentionof the government and armedinstitutions towards the newsaccording to which in an inci-dent of terrorism in ParaChana on Friday still the deadbodies of many wounded andkilled were still lying on dif-ferent spots, while many ofthem were not even taken tothe hospital.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Judicial magistratehad on judicial remand sent 4Rangers personnel to jail for 14days while the Police’s investi-gation officer Sub-InspectorNawaz Brohi said that the Policewas gathering proofs and evi-dences in order to seek court’spermission for the transfer of theTaxi driver murder case to theanti-terrorist court and for add-

Witnesses recognize Rangersaccused of murdering taxi driver

ing special clauses of terrorismin the FIR.

According to details, 4 Rang-ers personnel were produced be-fore the judicial Magistrate Sat-urday where two eye witnesses,Muhammad Sadiq, who runs ashop of tyre puncture and a driverMuhammad Khan identified themain accused of Taxi driver Mur-der, Rangers personnel GhulamRasool and told the court that theyhad seen the accused killing the

taxi driver Murad with his rifle.Sadiq, a tyre puncture shop

owner told the court that he wassitting at his shop at the time ofthe incident and he had seen theRangers Personnel GhulamRasool had killed Murad throughdirect firing. Another witness ataxi driver Muhammad Khan hadalso told the court that he was inhis taxi when the Rangers per-sonnel Ghulam Rasool had shotMurad.

DUHScelebrates World

Hepatitis DaySTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Hepatitis hasemerged as a major global healthproblem and needs urgent pre-vention and control. Hepatitis Band C can be transmittedthrough the use of infectedblood, the use of contaminatedsyringes during medical proce-dures or injection drug use. Di-agnosing the disease at earlystage and proper treatment re-duces the disease by 90 percent.

These views were expressedby experts at a Public AwarenessSeminar organized by Dow Uni-versity of Health Sciences(DUHS) to mark the WorldHepatitis Day 2013.

National Institute of Liverand Gastro-intestinal Diseasesof the DUHS organized theWorld Hepatitis Day walk andpublic awareness seminar at itsOjha Campus along with Hepa-titis Free Testing and ScreeningCamp.

The walk started fromNlL&GID and ended up at OPDBlock. In the walk, participantswere carrying placards andchanting slogan against Hepati-tis.

KU approvesconferment of 10

Ph.D. degreesKARACHI—The Board of Ad-vanced Studies and Research(BASR), University of Karachi,has accorded approval for theconferment of Ph.D. degrees invarious disciplines.

A University official said onFriday evening that the BASRmeeting was chaired by Vice-Chancellor of Karachi Univer-sity, Prof. Dr. MuhammadQaiser. The approval wasgranted for conferment of thePh.D. degrees to the followingcandidates: Ms. Saima Shamim(Marine Biology), Ms. SitaraRashid (Applied Chemistry),Ms. Gul Naz Malik (Botany),Ihsanullah Khan (General His-tory), Ms. Ghazal KhawajaHumayun (Public Administra-tion), Ms. Ishrat Niaz (Botany),Ms. Mamoona Khatoon (Chem-istry-HEJ) and others—APP

IGP directs allDIGs to ensure

security onYoum-e- Ali (RA)

KARACHI—Inspector Generalof Police (IGP) Sindh has di-rected all the Deputy InspectorGenerals (DIGs) to make foolproof security arrangements forYoum-e-Ali processions in themetropolis.

Presiding a meeting of DIGshere on Friday, the IGP directedthat special security plan bechalked out to provide securityto the programmes, majalis, pro-cessions to be organised in dif-ferent areas of the city in con-nection with Youm-e-Ali (RA).

He said that all possiblemeasures including special de-ployment of police and surveil-lance of the route of the mainprocession and monitoring ofthe procession through Com-mand and Control SurveillanceSystem should be ensured.

The IGP also directed theDIGs to make security arrange-ments at the mosques andImambargahs where people arestaying for “Aitkaf” during lastten days of Ramazan. He saidthat the system of snap check-ing and targeted actions shouldbe enhanced to control the ac-tivities of criminals.—APP

Naat conteston August 1

KARACHI—Pakistan CrescentYouth Organisation (PCYO)will be holding its 28th InterSchools Annual Naat Contest-2013 on August 1, from 2 pmto 6 pm at Arts Council of Pa-kistan, here.

All students from primaryand secondary schools can par-ticipate in the contest, said an an-nouncement on Saturday. It saidthat for participation and regis-tration students may contact0345-3215594 or Arts Councilon August 1 at 1:00 pm. Com-missioner Karachi Shoaib AhmedSiddiqui will be the chief guest onthe occasion.—APP 256 shopkeepers

chalaned forovercharging

KARACHI—In all 256 shop-keepers were chalaned for over-charging in the city on Fridaylast in the wake of the campaignlaunched by the local adminis-tration to ensure provision ofessential items to consumers onreasonable rates during themonth of Ramadan, a press re-lease issued here on Saturdaysaid.

Those challaned included 66milk sellers, 55 fruit vendors, 59vegetable sellers, 43 shopkeep-ers selling miscellaneous edibleitems, 30 chicken meat sellersand three for selling flour onprice higher than that officiallyprescribed.

Five shopkeepers were sentto jail for repeated violation ofprice list.

A total of Rs 243,200 wererecovered from the violators asfine.—APP

Regular wound cleaningtied to faster healing

CHRONIC wounds such as diabeticfoot ulcers and pressure ulcers mayheal faster when they are cleaned

out frequently, a new study suggests. So-called debridement involves removingdead or infected tissueand any foreign bodies orbacteria from slow-heal-ing wounds, such as witha scalpel or special cream.

It’s traditionally per-formed when a patient firstcomes in with a wound, saidDr. Robert Kirsner, a derma-tologist and wound re-searcher from the Universityof Miami Miller School ofMedicine. “The real ques-tion is, how often do youhave to do this?” addedKirsner, who co-wrote acommentary published withthe new study.

Close to seven millionAmericans each year havea chronic wound, from dia-betes or other causes. A fewsmall studies have suggested some typesof wounds tend to heal faster with frequentcleaning. For their report, James Wilcox fromHealogics - a company that runs wound carecenters - and his colleagues tried to expandon those data by reviewing the records ofabout 155,000 patients treated at one of 525wound centers.

Between 2008 and 2012, those patientswere treated for a total of 313,000 wounds,including diabetic foot and pressure ulcers,surgical wounds and cuts from accidents orother trauma. The average wound wascleaned out twice.

The researchers found that healing timevaried by the type of wound, but was typi-cally faster with more frequent debridement.For example, diabetic foot ulcers healed inan average of 21 days when they were de-

brided at least weekly and in76 days, on average, whenthey were debrided once ev-ery two weeks or more. Trau-matic wounds healed in 14days, on average, with fre-quent debridement and in 49days when they werecleaned out least often.

Healing time was alsolonger for deeper and widerwounds, the research teamwrote in JAMA Dermatol-ogy. Bacteria can grow overwounds in colonies calledbiofilms, Kirsner said. Muchlike brushing your teeth pre-vents biofilms from growingon them, debridement maykeep wounds free of bacte-rial colonies, he added. Butdebridement isn’t quite as

easy and innocuous as teeth brushing.“There’s effort in doing it - there’s ef-

fort as far as cost and in theory there couldbe pain associated with it,” Kirsner toldReuters Health. “When you perform a sur-gical procedure, there’s always the risk ofinfection. You wouldn’t want to dodebridements if they weren’t necessary.”

He said patients in the study who hadtheir wounds cleaned out more frequentlymay have also been better at sticking toother care recommendations - so it’s notclear the faster healing time was due solelyto extra debridement.

LAHORE: PPP office holders Begum Hasnain, Farkhanda Malik, Jahanara Wattoo and otherscutting the cake during the ceremony to celebrate the birthday of President Asif Ali Zardari.

LAHORE: Activists of Almi Aman Ittehad Council holding a demonstration against theattack on the shrine of Hazrat Syeda Zainab Bibi (RA).

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab LabourMinister Raja Ishfaq Sarwarraided the office of WorkersWelfare Board at AllamaIqbal Town and recoveredsubstandard uniforms to besupplied to the children ofworkers welfare schoolsthroughout the province.Secretary Labour Capt. (R)Muhammad Yousaf also ac-companied him. The LabourMinister checked the uni-

forms which were very lowquality than the samples,upon which, Raja IshfaqSarwar called for the contrac-tors supplying uniforms onthe spot and informed themabout the poor quality ofclothes and other faults in theuniforms. He directed thecontractors to ensure supplyaccording to the sampleswithin three days.

Raja Ishfaq Sarwar dis-closed that complete uniformwill be provided for winter

season at a cost of Rs. 2 croreto 36 thousand children ofworkers studying in workerswelfare schools throughoutPunjab. Every uniform will in-clude one shirt, pent, socks,shoes and two sweaters. Hesaid that the labourers de-posit their hard earned moneyfor the future of their childrenand Workers Welfare Boardis custodian of this amount,therefore, the amount shouldbe spent on the welfare of thechildren of the labourers.

Labour minister raided workerswelfare board’s office

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Ministerfor Health Khalil Tahir Sindhuhas said that according tothe vision of Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif,provincial as well as districtgovernments have been tak-ing consolidated steps foreffective control of dengueas they did previous year. Hesaid that public awareness isan effective tool for denguecontrol.

He expressed these viewswhile giving media briefingafter dispatching vehiclescarrying banners for promot-ing awareness in differentareas of the city, in connec-tion with the Anti-DengueDay here on Saturday. Direc-

tor General Health Dr.Tanveen Ahmad, Dr. HealthLahore Division Dr. Inam ulHaq, Director Health (HQ) Dr.Jamil Chaudhry, Dr. DarkhsanBadar, Dr. Ateeq ur Rehmanand other officers alsopresent.

Khalil Tahir Sindhu saidthat after worst dengue epi-demic of 2011, due to the veryeffective strategy of ChiefMinister Punjab MuhammadShahbaz Sharif, coordinatedefforts of government depart-ments and health workers,enthusiastic participation ofgeneral public and a very vi-tal role of mass media, thedengue disease was com-pletely controlled, in a veryshort span of time. He saidthat the efforts of Punjab

government for dengue con-trol were internationally ac-knowledged by the experts.Khalil Tahir Sindhu furthersaid that as per directions ofthe Chief Minister effectiveand concerts steps are beingtaken by the government fordengue control and the ob-serving of Anti-Dengue Dayis one of the steps to createawareness among themasses so that the diseasecould not spread. He saidthat dengue is also a socialproblem which could only beresolved by the full partici-pation of the masses. He saidthat people should ensure aclean atmosphere in theirhouses, and remove thebreeding sites of dengue intheir premises.

Anti-Dengue Day observed

Effective steps taken forstrict control of dengue

Shahbaz surprisesArab investor

speaking fluentArabic

LAHORE—After surprisingGerman delegates the otherday, Chief Minister ShahbazShareef shows his excellencein speaking Arabic language.He made International Fi-nance Corporation (IFC)manager surprise by speak-ing fluently Arabic with him.

The pleasant incidenttook place at a Memorandumof Understanding signingceremony between Punjabgovernment and Interna-tional Finance Corporation(IFC) which is a subsidiaryinstitution of the World Bank.

Manager Investment IFCMugdi M Amin, who signedthe document from IFC side,was amazed at CM’s fluency.

Under the agreement, IFCwill provide technical assis-tance in improving the effi-ciency of Punjab Revenue Au-thority and recovery system ofgeneral sales tax. IFC will alsoassist in further simplifying theworking of Punjab RevenueAuthority. IFC will not receiveany charges for its technical as-sistance nor put any financialburden on Punjab government.

Besides broadening reg-istration base of GST andminimizing technical flaws,IFC will also cooperate in thecapacity-building of PunjabRevenue Authority.—NNI

LWMC observesanti-dengue day

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Lahore WasteManagement Company(LWMC) organized an antidengue awareness walk in or-der to show solidarity withPunjab government aiming attaking collective and compre-hensive measures against den-gue and imparting awarenessamong citizens. Manager op-erations Asif Iqbal led the walkwhich started from SaffaanWala chowk at Temple roadand finished at Mozang Adda.Local MPA Majid Zahoor alsojoined LWMC staff and repre-sentatives of Turkish contrac-tor companies Albayrak andOzPak.

Participants briefed citi-zens on the necessary precau-tionary measures and anindividual’s inevitable role insuccessfully avoiding andcombating dengue epidemic.Participants went door to doorto brief and distribute educa-tional and awareness literatureamong local residents appeal-ing them not to openly andimproperly dispose of garbagein their locality to minimize thebreeding of dengue larva. Spe-cial cleanliness arrangementshave been made by deployingAlbayrak machinery and sani-tary crew in the area. Asif Iqbalsaid LWMC is well equippedand ready to timely dispose ofwaste expected to be gener-ated in the result of cleanlinessoperations on dengue day byvarious departments.

Financial aidfor poor matricposition holderLAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif Saturday an-nounced financial assistancefor meeting the educationalexpenditure of a poor stu-dent Haroon of Kasur whoachieved prominent positionin matriculation examination.

According to a handouthere, the Chief Minister saidthat the students like Haroonson of a plumber were pre-cious asset of the nation whodespite financial problemsachieved prominent positionin examinations through theirhard work and determination.

He said that all problemscould be overcome with cour-age and steadfastness.Shahbaz Sharif said thatPunjab government was imple-menting a comprehensiveprogramme for the encourage-ment of talented students andnot only educational scholar-ships were being given to themfor studying at prestigiouseducational institutions butthey were also being sent onstudy tour abroad.—APP

Measles recedingSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Focal Person ofExtended Programme for Im-munization (EMI) Dr Younashas claimed that over fifty per-cent decrease in measles caseshave been observed in city andthe rest of the province. Talk-ing to media persons here onSaturday, he said that few daysback, some 50 to 80 cases werereported daily in hospitalswhich after an intensive drivehad decreased remarkably 20to 40 cases a day.

It will further come downwith the passage of time asmeasles vaccine starts devel-oping immunization afterthree weeks of its vaccina-tion, he claimed. During theanti-measles drive from April29 to May 5, around 250,000children of six months to 10years were vaccinated.Meanwhile, only 27 cases ofmeasles were reported fromPunjab during the last 24hours including three fromcity. However, the total caesof measles during six and ahalf months are 22,885 with192 deaths in Punjab.

LAHORE: Punjab P&D Department organizing awareness walk to mark Anti Dengue Day which starting from Istanbul Chowk to P&D complex.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has directedthat foolproof security ar-rangements should be madeon the occasion of Youm-e-Shahadat of Hazrat Ali (RA),Juma Tul Wida, Youm-e-Alquds and Eid-ul-Fitr. Hesaid that law enforcementagencies should remain fullyalert for ensuring peacefulatmosphere and protection oflife and property of the peopleand maintain a close liaisonwith each other.

The Chief Minister alsodirected to constitute a cabi-net committee headed byLaw Minister Rana SanaullahKhan to review the securityarrangements on these occa-sions. He said that the com-mittee will visit entire prov-ince and review the securityarrangements made by policeand district administration.

He was presiding over ahigh level meeting for review-ing the law and order situa-tion in the province here to-day which was attended byMinister for Local Govern-

ment and Law Rana SanaullahKhan, Minister for Environ-ment Col. (Retd.) ShujaKhanzada, Chief Secretary,IG Police, Secretaries ofHome, Auqaf, Informationdepartments and senior offic-ers of concerned depart-ments.

Addressing the meeting,Muhammad Shahbaz Sharifsaid that nothing can be moreimportant than maintenanceof law and order. He said thatearlier, all resources havebeen provided for this pur-pose and will be provided infuture as well. He said thatthe country is passingthrough a critical juncture ofhistory and is facing menaceof terrorism. He said that weall have to control lawless-ness as the secret of our ex-istence lies in it. The ChiefMinister said the present situ-ation demands that law en-forcement agencies shouldleave no stone unturned inperformance of their duties.He directed that foolproofsecurity arrangementsshould be made on importantoccasions and elite forceshould be deputed at all im-

portant markets on “chandraat”. He said that senior of-ficers should personally re-main in field for briefing ofofficials and reviewing secu-rity arrangements. ShahbazSharif said that police shouldalso remain fully alert at thetime of Iftar and keep a vigi-lant eye on suspects. He or-dered that proper arrange-ments of Iftar should be madefor officials performing theirduties. He said that fundshave already been releasedfor this purpose and if re-quired, more funds shouldalso be provided immediately.He said that four tiers secu-rity arrangements should bemade on important occasionsand close liaison should bemaintained with intelligenceagencies. He said that moni-toring of important placesand rallies should be madethrough video cameras andShops & Security Ordinanceshould be implementedstrictly. He directed thatAuqaf Department shouldensure uninterrupted light atthe mazars of Hazrat DataGunj Bakhsh, Bibi Pak Damanand others.

CM for making foolproofsecurity arrangements

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The much awaitedPunjab Local GovernmentAct 2013 was tabled in thePunjab Assembly. Moved bythe Provincial Law MinisterRana Sana Ullah Khan, theActing Speaker referred theBill to the assembly’s legalcommittee to review its prosand cons. Three other billsthe minister tabled wereMuhammad Nawaz SharifUniversity of Agriculture Bill2013, The Punjab Boiler andPressure Vessels Bill 2013,and The Punjab AnimalsSlaughtering Control Bill 2013.

Today the session was

commenced with over onehour delay against its sched-uled 10 am with ActingSpeaker Ali Sher Gorchani inthe chair.

Soon after recitation of theholy verses, the housethrough an unanimoulsyadopted resolution offeredFateha for the departed soulof Secretary Punjab Assem-bly Aftab Maqbool Joya whohad died of cardiac arrest dur-ing assembly session onThursday. Members paidhomage to tthe late. Theywere all priased of the merito-rious services of the late Sec-retary.

Later during question hour

session provincial EducationMinister Rana MashhoodAhmed Khan told the Housethat some private educationinstitutions were so powerfulthat they did not allow entry ofany of executive district offic-ers to their schools/colleges’premises to avoid inspection.But, he said, a comprehensivepolicy was being framed to dis-courage such institutions. Re-ferring to media reports, he said,private institutions were charg-ing higher fees from studentsand to discourage this trend,he said, “We are enacting a lawto net owners of education in-stitutions fleecing exorbitantfees from parents.”

Punjab Local Govt Bill2013 tabled in PA