Pakistan Today

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pakistantoday.com.pk

Vol ii no 135 32 pages Lahore edition

thursday, 10 november, 2011 Zul-Haj 13, 1432

17th SAARC Summit

‘Trust deficit shrinking’ as Gilani, Singh meet today aDDU

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ADDU: Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar arrive for a meeting during a lead up to the 17th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) foreign ministers conference on Wednesday. afp g

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pakistan to ask India to curtail its role in afghanistan, stop supporting anti-Islamabad Taliban Khar says pakistan will not backtrack on decision to grant India MfN status Gilani says effectiveness of SaaRC forum has increased after Indo-pak dialogue

3 Hindu doctors gunned down in Shikarpur KARACHI: Gunmen shot dead three Hindu doctors in a remote town in Sindh in a dispute over a dancing girl with a local Muslim tribe, officials said on Tuesday. The incident took place on Monday in Chak Town near Shikarpur district, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Karachi. “Two men riding a motorbike opened fire at a clinic, killing three Hindu doctors and injuring a paramedic seriously,” Pakistan Hindu Council chief Ramesh Kumar told AFP. He said the dispute had erupted between the Hindu community and the local Baban Khan Bhayo tribe after local Hindu boys brought a Muslim dancing girl to the area. “Police raided the house where the girl was dancing and arrested four boys,” said Kumar. He said that the issue had been taken to the local assembly of elders to be resolved peacefully after the ongoing Eid holidays, but before that could happen the shooting took place, he said. Kumar said the Hindu community had sought protection from police after receiving anonymous calls threatening them with “serious consequences”. Sindh police Inspector General Mushtaq Shah also confirmed the explanation for the incident and the casualties.

Condemnations poured in from President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who directed for the culprits to be brought to book. President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday sought a report on the killing of the brothers. Meanwhile, eleven of the 15 suspects of the murders had been arrested by police by Wednesday. Police arrested at least 11 accused after lodging a case against 15 suspected killers for killing the three Hindu brothers. afp

RANA QAISAR

HE foreign ministers of India and Pakistan said on Wednesday the trust deficit between their countries had decreased, providing the foundation for a renewed push at their troubled peace process, as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is set to meet his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh here before the opening of the 17th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit today (Thursday).

Pakistan is also set to ask India to curtail its role in Afghanistan and stop supporting anti-Islamabad Taliban militants and other miscreants in the country’s tribal areas and Balochistan. The foreign ministers of the two countries showed confidence and created an atmosphere of willingness for their leaders to give a push to the peace process. Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and her Indian counterpart SM Krishna held a detailed discussion on bilateral issues during the SAARC ministerial meeting before they had lunch together. Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul also joined them.

While Krishna observed that the trust-

deficit with Pakistan was “shrinking”, Khar said the environment had improved to take forward the peace process. The two foreign ministers appeared confident, reflecting the improvement both sides have achieved through diplomatic engagements to normalise the situation that had worsened

the Indian foreign minister had reportedly made a positive statement, as the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted him as saying: “I think our relationship with Pakistan is becoming a little more stable than what it was before.” He also said both countries should now look at a “joint strategy” to

after the terrorist attack in Mumbai.

“From our side, I can say that we look at this environment to have improved considerably ... The trust deficit that typically existed between the two countries for many, many years has been reduced to a large order,” Khar said in a brief chat with reporters after her meeting with Krishna, indicating that the talks between the prime ministers of the two countries would break the ice. Before arriving here,

fight terror. Similarly, Khar also suggested that the atmosphere had considerably improved to pave the way for the two prime ministers to frankly and positively talk on all outstanding issues between the South Asian neighbours besides sharing views on the regional situation, particularly in the context of Afghanistan.

Zardari gives US ‘his word’ on eliminating Haqqani network US lawmakers doubt Zardari’s powers to make good his pledge g Zardari says Pakistan and US must refrain from ‘uncalled for public criticism’ g

MONITORING DESK/STaff REpORT President Asif Ali Zardari promised to work with the United States to “eradicate” the militant Haqqani Network, a pledge made during a meeting with visiting American congressmen, The Washington Post said in a report on Wednesday. The head of the Homeland Security delegation, Michael McCaul, downplayed the significance of the remarks, saying it was unclear whether President Zardari had the power to make good on his pledge, given the influence of the military in Pakistan, said the report.

Citing McCaul, the report said Zardari also appeared to brush off threats that US aid spending to Pakistan could be significantly cut if Islamabad did not do more to squeeze insurgents like the Haqqanis. “I think he thinks it’s a given that we are going to continue the aid, but I tried to tell him that it’s in jeopardy,” The Post quoted McCaul, a Republican congressman from Texas, as saying of Zardari. “He said: ‘I appreciate your assistance, but it’s trade more than aid that I need.’”

McCaul and the visiting lawmakers met Zardari in Karachi on Tuesday,

and revealed details of his conversation later the same day. “The president, on the record, said ‘I am going to work with you to eradicate them,’” McCaul was quoted as saying. He further quoted Zardari as saying: “I know these people very well, they are snakes and I’m going to go after all of them.”

The Post said McCaul welcomed the president’s statement, but said the “real question is how much does this president control the military” and the country’s spy service. According to a Pakistan Today report from Islamabad, President Zardari said Pakistan and the US must refrain from “uncalled for public criticism” as it undermined the efforts to work closely for shared goals and improve bilateral ties.

The delegation discussed bilateral relations, strategic dialogue, the war against terrorism, the situation in Afghanistan and the overall regional situation with the president.

The president called for mutual understanding of each other’s point of view to avoid misunderstanding and negative impressions that would potentially endanger the two countries’ close working relationship at this critical hour. He asked for swift legislation in the US for the Reconstruction

Opportunity Zones (ROZs), terming it crucial for creating jobs for the people of militancy-hit areas. President Zardari said the combined impact of the war on terror and the recent natural calamities had adversely affected Pakistan’s economy.

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aNp leader, son killed in Swabi suicide blast PESHAWAR: Distinguished Awami National Party (ANP) leader Hanif Gul Jadoon was killed along with his son and security guard on Monday when a suicide bomber attacked his vehicle on its way home from the Eidgah where he offered Eidul Adha prayers.

Jadoon, who was the ANP’s former senior district vice-president and the nazim of Swabi tehsil, was the main target of the suicide bomber, police said. He was killed on the spot and his security guard and minor son succumbed to their injuries in hospital. The attack took place in Malikabad, around 35 kilometres from the district headquarters.

Eyewitnesses said Jadoon offered Eid prayers in the Malikabad Eidgah and was about to leave in his car, driven by his driver Niaz Muhammad, along with his six-year-old son Ahmad and 15-year-old son Ijaz. His security guards Farman Shah and Gul Khitab were in the same car along with an aged acquaintance of Jadoon named Wazir Shah. The suicide bomber, who was dressed as a beggar, moved towards Jadoon and blew himself up near the passenger side door, where Jadoon and his son were sitting. District Police Officer (DPO) Mohammad Ijaz Khan told Pakistan Today that eight to 10 kilogrammes of explosives were used by the suicide bomber. Officials and observers said Jadoon was likely targeted because of his dominant role in the military operation conducted in Malikabad on February 3, 2010 against militants, in which three militants, including their leader Shafi Akbar, were killed and 152 suspected militants were arrested. STaff REpORT

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02 News

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

lAhore

Today’s

It’s picnic time!

NewS

world vIew

pakistan not double-crossing US: Haqqani

the pursuit of happiness

Quick Look

Story on Page 09

Story on Page 06

Story on Page 14

35 bodies stolen from Karachi cemetery KaRaCHI oNLINe

KARACHI: Butchers wrangle with a sacrificial bull on eidul Adha. ONLINE

Kite string kills family’s sole breadwinner LaHORE StAFF RepoRt

A 25-year-old man died on Wednesday when kite string sliced his neck open while he was on a motorbike on Multan Road in the Sabzazar Police precincts. Police said the man, named Mohammad Asif, was on his way to get medicine for his mother on his bike when he got entangled in kite string near Sabzi Stop and his neck was badly cut, killing him on the spot. The police said Asif’s mother was a heart patient and she was admitted to a local hospital and he had left the hospital to buy medicine for her. Asif was the only brother of four sisters and was the family’s sole breadwinner since his father died.

The Sabzazar Police station house officer said the body was moved to the morgue and a case had been registered.

ASI DIES IN ACCIDENT: A police assistant sub-inspector (ASI) died in an accident on Ferozpur Road in Kahna Police precincts on Wednesday. Police said ASI Rehmat and a fellow policeman were on their way to report for duty when their bike slipped and Rehmat’s head collided hard with the pavement. Both were rushed to a hospital nearby, where Rehmat succumbed to his injuries.

ALLEGED GANG LEADER KILLED: A 27-year-old alleged clan leader of the ‘Zaidi Party’ died in the hospital on Wednesday after getting shot in a gang ambush on November 1. The man, named Saleem Zaidi, and his gang had an old animosity with the ‘Malik Gang’ in the Sabzazar Police precincts. He was shot at a gang shootout at a local restaurant, in which two other men were also killed.

Muslims celebrate Eid across pakistan ISLaMaBaD AGeNCIeS

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IDUl Adha was celebrated across the country on Monday with zeal and fervour and a renewed commitment to make the country prosperous and invincible to threats to its integrity.

Small and large Eid congregations were held at hundreds of Eidgahs and mosques across the country. In their Eid sermons, clerics highlighted the significance and philosophy of the sacrifice and urged Muslims to follow the teachings of Islam, which call for greater unity amongst themselves. Special prayers were offered for the integrity, solidarity and prosperity of the country.

The clerics urged Muslims to shun petty differences, stand united and seek

God’s blessings. The Interior Ministry had employed security measures to prevent any untoward incidents, with security officials deployed outside mosques, Eidgahs and other places where Eid congregations took place.

In Islamabad the largest Eid congregation was held at Faisal Mosque. In lahore, the traditional Eid congregation was held at Badshahi Mosque. Eid congregations were also held at Data Darbar Mosque, Masjid Shuhada, Masjid Wazir Khan, Jamia Mosque, Tehrik Minhaj-ulQuran, Bagh-e-Jinnah Mosque, Karbala Gamey Shah and Islampura mosque.

Special arrangements were also made for Eid prayers in jails across Punjab.

In Karachi, the largest Eid congregation was held at Bagh-e-Quaid-e-Azam while the congregation at polo ground was attended by ministers, Sindh chief

Immaterial whether people unite under MQM or PTI, says Altaf KARACHI: Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain said that it was immaterial to him whether people unite under the flag of the MQM or the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). Speaking on telephone at the main camp of the Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation (KKF) on the third day of the Eidul Adha, Hussain said that he had been asking the people to raise a genuine leadership from the

secretary and the diplomats of Muslim countries.

After Eid prayers, the faithful sacrificed animals in pursuance of Sunnat-eIbrahimi. In Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Masood Kausar and Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti offered Eid prayer at Governor’s House.

Eidul Adha was also celebrated in Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, GilgitBaltistan and other areas with a commitment and prayers to steer the country out of crises. Across the world, Muslims marked Eidul Adha on Sunday, with the festival overshadowed by deadly attacks in Africa and Central Asia. This year the festival comes after the turmoil of the ‘Arab Spring’, the pro-democracy protests that swept the Arab world and led to the ouster of the autocratic leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and libya.

middle class having strong moral fiber and charged with the feeling to serve the nation. He said that he wanted the educated people to come forward and he had congratulated the PTI on their successful meeting at the Minar-iPakistan. The flag did not matter, the ultimate objective of the struggle was a revolution, he added. Hussain said that he did not envy any other party. He urged the youth to break the status quo and bring a peaceful revolution under the banner of the MQM. Hussain hoped that the young people will come forward and use their abilities to spread the philosophy of “Realism and Practicalism” in the length and breadth of the country. “We want justice, peace, democracy, sectarian harmony as well as inter-faith harmony among the followers of all the religions in the country,” he added. StAFF RepoRt

Police claimed on Wednesday to have arrested two brothers for stealing some 35 dead bodies from their graves at a cemetery in Gadep Town to sell to practitioners of black magic. Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad had taken notice of the incident and ordered police to conduct an investigation to find the culprits. Police said the incident was reported after Eid prayers and most of the missing bodies were of children. The governor has also tasked the authorities with an immediate report on the frequent incidents of grave-robbing in Karachi. Police had suspected the grave-robbers exhumed the bodies to either sell the remains or indulge in necrophagy (eating dead bodies), or perhaps to indulge in necrophilia. Reports of similar acts have surfaced at an alarming rate, the most recent being the Nazimabad area disinterment of young girls’ corpses by a man to satiate his morbid perversion. The accused reportedly confessed to the acts and said they wanted to sell the bodies to practitioners of black magic. The profane incident has stirred anger among the public at large, especially the families of those whose bodies were stolen.

Gadep Town Police said they had caught the accused after a series of raids. The bodies were reported missing by families visiting the graves of their departed relatives to offer fateha on Eid. According to the people living in the vicinity, most of the robbed graves were new. A large number of people flocked to the graveyard after hearing about the gruesome act. Some suspicious men present at the cemetery insisted that the graves had sunk into the ground because of rains and no incident of grave-robbing had taken place.

Schools cast minorities in bad light: study WaSHINGTON AFp

Public schools and madrasas in Pakistan are fueling discrimination by casting Hindus and other minorities in a negative light, says a report on the country’s education system. Produced by an independent US government commission, the report on Pakistani textbooks and teaching practices found 80 percent of public school teachers viewed non-Muslims as “enemies of Islam” in one way or another. “This study – the first-ever study of its kind – documents how Pakistan’s public schools and privately-run madrasas are not teaching tolerance but are exacerbating religious differences,” said leonard leo, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

“Teaching discrimination increases the likelihood that violent religious extremism in Pakistan will continue to grow, weakening religious freedom, national and regional stability, and global security.” Written in collaboration with a Pakistani think tank, the 139-page report called for modernised textbooks, better teacher training and renewed progress on curricular reforms unveiled in 2006 but never fully implemented.

“Education is part of the problem, and part of the solution,” Knox Thames, director of policy and research at the commission, told AFP.

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Thursday, 10 November, 2011

foreIgN NewS

ArTS & eNTerTAINMeNT

SPorTS

Benjamin Netanyahu: hero at home, pariah abroad

the estranged voice that made history

pakistan, SL renew one-day rivalry

News 03 CoMMeNT Growing intolerance: A fail on our minority report.

opportunity beckons: We can seize the moment for peace.

Nazir Naji says: Pakistan being cornered?: We might be being short-changed.

Dr Faisal Bari says: Perpetuating patronage: It’s a two-way street.

Harris bin Munawar says: Rs 10 guide to politicians: What a roadside book says about the bigwigs…

Story on Page 19

Story on Page 16

Snap polls or bust, PMl-N tells govt LaHORE

Articles on Page 12-13

Shahbaz sticks to ‘hanging looters upside down’ stance

PPP to contest Senate polls jointly with ‘Q’ LaHORE oNLINe

StAFF RepoRt

The PMl-N has turned down an offer of talks with the governmnet, saying talks were possible only if government agreed to early elections.

Sources in PMl-N said if the government agreed to snap polls, the PMl-N was ready to play its constitutional role.

The government had lost its prestige and Rehman Malik’s talk offer was merely an old hunter with a new net, they said.

The PMl-N sources also said they always had welcomed the government’s talk offers, but it always betrayed them.

PMl-N senator Pervez Rashid said if government had political and moral courage, “we dare it to go to the masses”.

Story on Page 20

LaHORE

I

YASIR HABIB

NSTEAD of toning down his outburst after uttering words like “hang upside down”, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s romance with the “notorious mantra” went up another notch when he said he was clear about hanging looters and thieves upside down, saying the souls of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal would remain in pain unless the looters were punished as he perceived.

It might be his denial or complete obsession that Shahbaz repeated the unwelcoming words with much stronger tone while talking to reporters after visiting Iqbal’s mausoleum on

Wednesday.

“It also could be a case that the CM got offended after being asked a question about his remarks passed at the Bhaati Chowk rally, but it showed that Shahbaz has started losing temper,” a witness said.

To a question, the CM said his stance about looters was unchangeable and he believed strongly than ever that unless the plunders were not hanged upside down after holding them accountable for their misdeeds, the souls of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama

Iqbal would not be in peace. later, he got offended when he was questioned about Imran Khan’s allegation regarding Sharif family’s assets. The CM said he had declared his assets on November 26, 2007 and no one should lecture him on the issue.

The CM also misread one of Iqbal’s couplets and put a wrong date in guests’ book while putting down his impressions.

Meanwhile, Punjab Governor Sardar latif Khosa said PTI Chairman Imran Khan had knocked down the Sharifs by holding a mega public meeting at Mianar-e-Pakistan.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Shahbaz used derogatory remarks against President Asif Ali Zardari but expected “that the CM will not repeat them”.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has decided to contest Senate elections in Punjab jointly with the Pakistan Muslim league-Quaid (PMl-Q) while adopting a tough attitude against the PMl-Nawaz.

According to media reports, the decision was taken during a meeting between Interior Minister Rehman Malik, PPP leader Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and Punjab Governor latif Khosa on Wednesday.

They decided to field candidates in collaboration with the PMl-Q, while reaching out to the estranged MPAs of the PMl-N. The governor said Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan had dislodged the PMl-N politically.

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04 News IMf chief warns world economy risks ‘downward spiral’ BEIjING: International Monetary Fund chief Christine lagarde on Wednesday warned the world risked plunging into a “downward spiral” of financial instability and urged Asian economies to be on their guard. lagarde said Asia was not immune to problems currently sweeping the Eurozone, as she began a two-day visit to China likely to focus on the deepening debt crisis in Europe. “If we do not act together, the economy around the world runs the risk of a downward spiral of uncertainty, financial instability,” she said at the International Finance Forum in Beijing. lagarde has so far held talks with Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan on the “global economic situation”, the People’s Bank of China said in a brief statement. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong lei said lagarde would also meet with “state leaders” but did not specify who they would be. afp

Minorities demand CJP’s action on Abbottabad, Shikarpur incidents LAHoRE: The minorities wing of the Pakistan People’s Party has urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of the killing of three Hindu doctors in Shikarpur and the police torture on a pregnant Christian woman in Abbotabad. In a press statement, minorities leader Napolean Qayyum said the minority communities, including Christians and Hindus, living in Pakistan were shocked by the two incidents and were looking to the Supreme Court to deliver justice to the affected families.

He condemned the torture on Salma Emmanuel, a fivemonth pregnant woman in Abbotabad, who was brutally beaten up by police on false theft charges. He said that Salma was taken to hospital in a critical condition on Sunday and had now been forcibly discharged by the hospital administration after her plight was highlighted in the media. Qayyum said that although President Asif Zardari had taken notice of killing of the Hindu doctors, the CJP should also intervene in the matter to ensure justice to the minority community. pRESS RELEaSE

Quetta bomber was Shia himself QuETTA: Investigators were taken aback on finding out that a suspected suicide bomber who wanted to blow himself up in a Shia Imambargah in Quetta a few days ago was himself a member of the religious minority and the son of a Shia leader of Jaffarabad district. Pervaiz Ali, the suspected bomber was killed when he blew himself up in a rain drain upon being intercepted by policemen some distance away from a Shia Imambargah in Quetta’s Hazara Town. The investigators who had earlier attributed the attack to sectarian violence were left confused by the outcome of their probe. Deputy Inspector General Police (Investigation) Nazir Kurd confirmed the identification, saying the suspect was a Shia and son of Farman Ali Haideri, general secretary of Wadatul Muslimeen Jaffarabad chapter, a Shia organisation.

Farhan Ali Haideri received the dead body from the morgue of Bolan Medical College Hospital after legal formalities. The deceased lived with his family in Shahbaz Colony in Jatpat area of Jaffarabad district, 360 kilometers south-east of Quetta. SHaHZada ZULfIQaR

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

17th SAARC summit begins today aDDU

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StAFF RepoRt

HE two-day 17th SAARC summit begins here today with Pakistan stating it believes the association of the South Asian countries must lead the way and act as a catalyst for the regional socio-economic transformation.

Heads of states or governments of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri lanka will be attending the summit. Representatives from the observer states will also be participating in the moot. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will lead

“We have many more miles to move ahead,” Khar said, implicitly referring to the core issue of Kashmir and other disputes which have dogged relations between the two neighbours for decades. She also said terrorism was a challenge to both India and Pakistan and this issue would come under discussion in a meeting between the prime ministers.

Prime Minister Gilani arrived here on Wednesday evening. In a major confidence-building measure, Pakistan’s federal cabinet recently endorsed granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India as a gesture to improve relations

with its neighbour. India had given MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.

No BACKTRACKING: Pakistan also assured India on Wednesday it would not backtrack on its decision to grant New Delhi the MFN status, a report said. “let me categorically say that I don’t see a lot of room for confusion,” the PTI quoted Khar as saying, rejecting speculation on the decision. “We will not backtrack on a cabinet decision,” she told the news agency. Khar said the special designation was also part of efforts to normalise ties between the two countries. “I can tell you categorically that the cabinet gave its approval for normalisation of trade ties with India,” she added. The commerce secretaries of the

will highlight important issues such as matters pertaining to poverty alleviation, energy cooperation, interaction in agriculture and rural development, cooperation on promotion of welfare of women and children and development of better health facilities for the peoples of South Asia in his key address. At Pakistan’s initiative, Colombo Statement on Food Security was adopted during the 15th SAARC Summit in 2008 and Prime Minister Gilani will urge the heads of state or government to ensure region-wide food security and make South Asia, once again, the granary of the world. Pakistan is of the view that energy cooperation is a driver for cooperation in

SAARC leading to economic growth and durable peace in the region. Pakistan introduced the concept of Energy Ring in South Asia which became the vision of SAARC leaders for the attainment of energy security.

While lending unconditional support to regional initiatives, Pakistan hoped to further consolidate its bilateral relations with SAARC member countries. Heads of states and governments of the SAARC countries have arrived in Addu City. The opening of the 34th Session of the Council of Ministers was held on Wednesday at the Equatorial Convention Centre.

A UNICEF assessment report on the Decade of the Rights of the Child was launched in the session.

PMIC does its job, looks to PM to do his

Iran bans airspace for PIA as post-haj flights start

continued from page 24

digging petroleum wells in Singharo Block, Sindh; a scandal regarding swimming pool repairs by Pakistan Sports Board; an inquiry into the affairs of Pakistan Sports Board; tree plantation; development of six low income housing schemes in southern Punjab; the Prime Minister’s Special Initiative for Housing for Poor. Further down the list of inquiry reports are: the PM’s Village Product Specialisation Initiatives in Multan; the Khadi Craft Development Company, Multan; the leather Craft Development Company, Multan; the Meat Processing and Training Company, Multan; the PM’s Special Initiative for Village Product Specialisation in southern Punjab; the revival of Multani Blue Pottery, Multan; the Southern Punjab Embroidery Industries, Multan; the Spun Yarn Research and Development Company, Multan; juice producing and packaging lines for fresh fruits and vegetables, Multan; the Greater Quetta Water Supply Project; the collapse of Margalla Tower, Islamabad; development projects in Jhang sponsored by MNA Saima Akhtar Bharwana (NA-90); the establishment of Aiwan-e Quaid-e-Azam in Johar Town, lahore; the Public Sector Development Programme; the Tawana Pakistan project; and a cam regarding Haj tour operators.

‘Trust deficit shrinking’ continued from page 01

the Pakistan delegation to the summit. The summit was preceded by the Council of Foreign Ministers and meeting of the Standing Committee.

The summit will adopt a declaration titled “Building Bridges”, which will focus on issues ranging from physical connectivity in the region to trade, economic, financial and environmental cooperation. In addition, the Secretariat of SAARC Development Fund will also be inaugurated at the summit. Pakistan said it attached great importance to SAARC and had played a proactive role to make SAARC a model of regional cooperation by building economic synergies among the member states. During the summit, Prime Minister Gilani

two countries are also scheduled to meet in New Delhi next week to discuss non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and modalities to ease trade between Pakistan and India. Earlier, foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India also met on Tuesday on the sidelines of the SAARC Standing Committee.

SHAIQ HuSSAIN ADDS fRom ISLAmABAD: Pakistan will ask India to limit its role in Afghanistan and stop supporting anti-Pakistan Taliban militants and other militants in the country’s tribal areas and Balochistan. Foreign Ministry officials say that no doubt Pakistan is for improvement in relations with India, evident from its decision to grant MFN status to New Delhi, however they also

LaHORE IMRAN ADNAN

LAHoRe: pakistan tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan addresses reporters after Waleed Iqbal advocate announced that he was joining ptI.

Imran vows to field 1,000 candidates in next elections

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Wednesday that he would field 1,000 candidates across the country in the next general elections.

Imran was speaking at a press conference called to announce Dr Allama Iqbal’s grandson Waleed Iqbal’s decision to join the PTI, nine days after Imran held a rousing public meeting at Minar-ePakistan. The press conference was held at Justice Javed Iqbal’s residence to mark the induction of Waleed into the PTI. Allama Iqbal and his son Justice Javed Iqbal had been a part of the Pakistan Muslim league (PMl) but Waleed Iqbal joined the PTI, saying that PMl has broken into

many parts and lost its utility.

Announcing the decision, Waleed said it was the first time that he has joined any political party. Waleed’s mother Justice Nasira Iqbal told Pakistan Today that she hoped Waleed’s decision proves better for him and the entire nation. “Youth is inclined towards PTI due to its strong message for change. Imran is a hero of the nation, who had brought good name by winning the cricket world cup,” she added. “PMl which launched the Pakistan Movement is now divided into many parts. These parts are working with different names and now youth is fed up all of them. PTI is talking about change and the youth wants to be a stakeholder in this wave of change,” she added. Imran Khan hailed Waleed’s decision and hoped

to see new faces joining his party, who were sincere and hardworking. He said that time would prove Waleed’s decision right, adding that he would field 1,000 candidates in the next general elections, and they would be political heavyweights. Imran said that every person has to disclose all of his assets before joining PTI, adding that Pakistan Muslim league – Nawaz (PMl-N) President Nawaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari would never disclose their assets.

QuRESHI fINALLy DECIDES To joIN PTI: Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has taken a principle decision to join the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Dunya News reported on Wednesday.

Citing sources, the private TV channel said the former foreign minister would resign from his National Assembly seat before formally joining the PTI. Qureshi will announce his decision during a rally in Kashmore on November 27.

believe that in order to make the future peace dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbours productive and fruitful, India would not only have to exhibit seriousness to engage in result-oriented talks with Pakistan but it would also have to work to allay Islamabad’s fears about New Delhi’s growing influence in Afghanistan. “India is not only increasing its influence in our western neighbouring state (Afghanistan) but it is also extending support to anti-Pakistan Taliban militants based in the tribal areas and miscreants in Balochistan, who are responsible for subversive acts in different various parts of the country and this is a matter of serious concern for us,” said a senior Pakistani official in Islamabad on Wednesday, asking not to be identified by name. He said Prime Minister Gilani would come up with a

specific demand for curtailment of Indian influence in Afghanistan and also that New Delhi must stop supporting anti-Pakistan militants.

Another Pakistani official told Pakistan Today that India was planning to train Afghan army combat units at its counter-insurgency institutions. “Moreover, they (Indians) could also provide weapons to the Afghan army and train pilots and ground staff for Afghanistan’s air force under a strategic partnership agreement signed last month by New Delhi and Kabul… We are concerned about all this happening between India and Afghanistan, as it aggravates our fears about New Delhi’s policy to encircle Islamabad and damage its interest.

These matters would come up for discussions during the Indo-Pak prime ministers’ meeting,” the official said,

adding that unless and until India addressed Pakistan’s genuine concerns, normal friendly ties between Islamabad and New Delhi would remain a distant goal.

Meanwhile, Maldivian Foreign Secretary Ahmed Naseer said Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistan counterpart Salman Bashir also met during the meeting of senior officials, but declined to give details. Earlier, before leaving for the Maldives, Prime Minister Gilani told reporters the importance and effectiveness of the SAARC forum had increased, following the ongoing process of dialogue between Pakistan and India. The prime minister said SAARC had been losing its effectiveness and could not move forward because of tense relations between the two neighbours.

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Allama Iqbal’s grandson joins PTI LaHORE StAFF RepoRt

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will start its post-Haj operation from Thursday (today) while bearing extra fuel costs, as Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO-IRI) has closed its airspace for PIA aircraft over a delayed outstanding payment of $0.6 million, Pakistan Today learnt on Wednesday. Sources in the national flag carrier disclosed that transit payments of around $0.6 million were delayed for over six months, which compelled the Iranian authorities to take stern measures against the PIA. They indicated that the PIA’s post-Haj flights for lahore and Islamabad would be badly affected because all Punjabbound flights complete most of their journey over Iran’s airspace. The ban on using Iranian airspace would force the PIA to take a longer route over Oman, increasing both the fuel costs and travelling time. The European Union and some western countries have also banned PIA aircraft in their airspace on safety concerns, while Saudi Arabia imposed penalties for similar reasons, PIA officials said.

According to the airline’s post-Haj operation schedule, the first flight will take off from King Abdul Aziz International Airport, Jeddah, for Islamabad at 4:00pm local time (6:00 pm PST) on Thursday. However the airport website indicates that the same flight would leave at 3:40pm local time. It seems that the PIA has created a cushion of 20 minutes to avoid further delays and rescue its reputation. A PIA spokesman said that Haj Operations Director Aijaz Mazhar and a team of senior airline officials were present at the Jeddah airport to facilitate the returning pilgrims. He said the senior management was in constant contact with Jeddah’s General Authority of Civil Aviation for swift security clearance and immigration of Pakistani pilgrims. He said the airline had advised the returning pilgrims to reach Jeddah airport at least eight hours ahead of the required check-in time to avoid hassle and rush.

He said the PIA had acquired dedicated bays at Jeddah airport for its post-Haj flights, while increasing the number of check-in counters and baggage scanners.

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Thursday, 10 November, 2011

BBQ remains hot favourite this eid

PAge 08

Celebrating the day of sacrifice

Capital still wears a deserted look

ISLaMaBaD KASHIF ABBASI

Owing to five holidays, the capital presented a deserted look with thin traffic on roads and a few number of customers in markets on the third day of Eidul Azha. The city markets remained virtually quiet as very less number of customers visited there. Though Wednesday was the third day of Eid and it was the last official holiday, a majority of people did not come back to the city from their native towns to resume their official duties from Thursday (today). The government announced holidays from November 7 to November 9 (Monday to Wednesday), however, it seemed that people, particularly government officials, would not come back till next Monday as after Thursday and Friday there would be two more weekly holidays. Eids in Islamabad are almost always boring for there is hardly any event on these occasions; there are no fun fairs, no cultural activities and no other attraction. However, those who celebrate Eids in Islamabad go to recreational spots during Eid holidays and this was what happened this year as on Wednesday a large number of people thronged to public parks and other recreational spots. The federal capital has been wearing a deserted look for Friday as people belonging to various parts of the country left for their hometowns to celebrate the religious festival of Eid with their near and dear ones.

Thousands throng recreational spots

ISLaMaBaD StAFF RepoRt

Thousands of people looking for fun, including women and children and especially on the third day of Eidul Adha, thronged to the recreational spots of the twin cities to celebrate. Almost every park in Rawalpindi and Islamabad received a huge number of visitors.

Picnic spots including lake View Park, Daman-e-Koh, Pir Sohawa, Shakarparian, Ayub National Park, Nawaz Sharif Park and Jinnah Park were packed with visitors on all three days of Eidul Adha.

This year, three holidays were announced followed by the two weekly holidays of Saturday and Sunday,

which provided a good opportunity for people to visit the said recreational spots. Having spent the first Eid day performing ritual of sacrificing animals and distributing meat to relatives and the needy, the citizens of Rawalpindi and Islamabad started to visit parks from Monday evening.

On the third day of Eid, crowds were also seen at Marghazar Zoo, Playland and Daman-e-Koh where a good number of visitors were seen enjoying Barbeques. lake View Park is a popular spot on most Eid holidays.

This year was no exception as the park, being equipped with modern facilities, witnessed hundreds of visitors on Wednesday, and seemed to be most popular amongst families with chil-

dren.

Interestingly, despite the skyrocketing inflation, many people managed to make arrangements for their children to celebrate Eid joyously in parks.

“I used my savings to provide my kids with the opportunity to enjoy this Eid in this park... this trip will cost me around Rs 1,000 but I will happily bear it for the sake of my children’s happiness,” said Riaz Ahmed, who had brought his family to the lake View Park from Bharakau. At the park, children were seen enjoying themselves, especially on the swings. Girls were also to be seen on the swings while children were screaming with joy on the merry-go-rounds and the adults seemed exuberant upon seeing the

smiles on their children’s faces. Visitors were also seen taking pictures to capture the memorable time.

During a survey of various parks

by Pakistan Today, visitors were seen complaining about the lack of facilities at the parks and the high prices of edibles items. They were also irritated at having to pay extra money for the parking facilities at most parks.

In addition, the lack of public transport created many problems for visitors in moving freely within the city during Eid holidays and taxicab drivers took advantage of the the absence of a system imposed by the authorities to fix fares and charged fares at will.

They charged rates up to a 100 percent higher than the usual fares.

CdA sanitation workers work round the clock on eid ISLAmABAD: It is usual to see people criticising and complaining about the Capital Development Authority (CDA)’s negligence of its duties and leaving work undone or half done but on this Eidul Adha, the Sanitation Directorate of the CDA managed well the collection and disposal of offal and other waste produced by the sacrificial rituals held in federal capital.

The majority of residents in various sectors of Islamabad appreciated the CDA for cleaning up the offal that was thrown at garbage sites and roadsides in residential areas after thousands of animals had been sacrificed. Taking a round of the areas most likely to be overflowing with piles of offal was a pleasant surprise and proved that when the civic authority wants to, it can do its job and do it well, regardless of how carelessly citizens dispose of their leftovers because, it has to be said, most Pakistanis are not civic-minded at all! The worst garbage dumps are in Rawalpindi, in areas like Sabzazar, Dheri Hasanabad, lalazar, lalkurti, Jhanda Chichi, and other densely populated areas and they were cleared, not only of offal, but all the garbage that had collected over the days preceding Eid. In some easy-to-access areas the sites were washed and others had been cleared. In the federal capital, the waste was well-managed and disposed-off in all sectors. It was also noticed that some narrow lanes and byways were not cleared immediately because people were too careless and did not dispose of offal in the designated areas, yet nothing was left for too long to rot and cause unhygienic conditions during the first two days of Eid. Talking to various store owners and people who live in the impoverished areas of the city, it was learnt that sanitation workers had been working throughout the day and late into the evening and were back on the job early in the morning.

Appreciating the work done by the sanitation staff at the CDA, they said that these workers should be acknowledged and suitably rewarded, who had the most unenviable jobs in the world.

Earlier on the eve of Eid, the CDA’s Sanitation Directorate had finalised all arrangements for the collection and disposal of offal and other waste of the sacrificial animals in the capital during Eidul Adha under the leadership of CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi. StAFF RepoRt

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06 Islamabad

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Iqbal day goes unnoticed in capital ISLaMaBaD MAHtAB BASHIR

ISLAMABAD: people wait for security clearance at entrance of Lal Mosque before eidul Azha prayer. ONLINE

eid passes peacefully in capital ISLaMaBaD StAFF RepoRt

Islamabad Police on Wednesday claimed that effective security arrangements on Eidul Azha proved very effective as no untoward incident was reported during the Eid days while strict patrolling and policing helped in curbing criminal activities.

According to the police plan, 2,000 policemen performed security and patrolling duties with a special focus on curbing burglary and theft activities.

Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP) Bani Amin Khan and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Muhammad Yousuf Malik personally visited various police stations and police line where they met with cops to boost their morale in accomplishing professional duties in a responsible manner.

They also appreciated performance of their staff for remaining vigilant in ensuring protecting the lives and property of citizens. The top police bosses of the federal capital, including the superintendents of police (SPs) also inspected various areas and briefed the personal on how to discharge the responsibilities ensure effectively. They also lauded their professionalism and devotion.

Various help service centres were established in various markets besides an enhanced deployment of policemen at worship places as well as religious congregations in organised connection with the Eid. Islamabad Traffic Police also devised a special plan to ensure smooth traffic flow at markets and worship places.

IGP Bani Amin said Islamabad Police was a committed force and acting diligently to come up to the expectations of people.

PoweR theft iS A noRm

Majority of people in 17 slums of the federal capital use kundas Sources accuse top bosses of Islamabad electric Supply Company of ‘generating huge proceeds’ g

ISLaMaBaD StAFF RepoRt

O

WING to the negligence of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO), thousands of residents of the federal capital are involved in electricity theft through illegal connections, commonly known as ‘kundas, causing a huge financial loss to the national kitty.

Source in IESCO told Pakistan Today that the high-ups of the power distribution company were deliberately not taking action against the electricity thieves, as they collected a large money (described as bhatta in local language) on a monthly basis from the residents of slums against power theft through their trusted subordinates.

Most of the people involved in the criminal act are living in the slums.

According to an estimate, there are around 17 slums in the federal capital where most of them are getting power supply using kundas.

During a visit conducted by Pakistan Today of some of these slums, it was observed that the residents had connected kundas with the main power lines. And ironically, the so-

called elite living near these areas are not an exception, as most of them use kundas to get electricity for their highvoltage appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators and irons.

As per the Capital Development Authority (CDA) bylaws, the localities have no legal status and the residents have not yet get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the CDA for electricity connections. Some senior citizens expressed their grave concern over the failure to stop power pilferage in a city like Islamabad.

Talking to Pakistan Today, a senior member of Islamabad Citizens Committee Khalil Sufi said most of the people in the slums were the employees of CDA and they should be given a legal status.

He said the CDA should establish apartments for these poor employees and provide legal electricity connections. It was just unacceptable that the authorities concerned were not taking action against the power thieves despite the fact that severe power shortage had made the lives of general public, businessmen and the industrialists miserable all over the country, he added.

Sources in the IESCO said the power pilferage was causing a huge

loss to the company but it was finding it difficult to handle the situation.

They said only four of the slum areas had been regularised and their residents were paying bills on the basis of joint-billing system which, he said, too was problematic for the company.

They said despite many attempts no one could stop locals from power pilferage. “Although the IESCO was ready to give them legal connections, the CDA was unwilling to issue the NOCs,” the sources added.

The residents of Essa Colony told Pakistan Today that they had been living there for the last 25 years and despite they could not get the power connections assurances from consecutive governments. “We have to steal electricity since it is now a basic need because of hot weather and mosquitoes,” said Sohail, a resident of another slum.

Ramzan Sajid, a spokesman for the CDA, said the civic body could not issue an NOC to any illegal settlement, adding that the IESCO had also provided many electricity connections without the required procedure.

He claimed that some political elements were creating hurdles in taking any action against those illegal settlements.

The 134th birth anniversary of national poet and philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal went unnoticed as no activity was organised in the capital on the occasion.

Pakistan Academy of letters (PAl), National language Authority (NlA), Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA), lok Virsa, Sir Syed Memorial Society (SSMS), Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), National University of Modern languages (NUMl), International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) and other private organisations that use the name of Iqbal to boost their businesses also did not bother to arrange a seminar or sitting to pay tribute to the Poet of the East.

This time a majority of the people who used to celebrate the day with national fervor in the past have not really been kind to Iqbal’s legacy. Nevertheless, people enjoyed the day as a national holiday and with Eid festivity.

It is pertinent to mention here that though this attitude, especially from public sector organisations, occurred because of prolonged official Eid holidays. It was observed in the past that government organisations used to hold a number of programmes, cancelling their official holidays to celebrate other national events on their premises, but not for Iqbal who gave the idea of a separate homeland. liaquat Hussain, a student of Iqbaliyat at a local university, said, “We accommodate showbiz figures and literary men in our lives, but it is unfortunate that we have forgotten to celebrate November 9 this time in a befitting manner. Perhaps, it is due to the fact that every body is engaged in worldly affairs and worried about material things,” he said.

When contacted, officials of various organisations opined that it was because of Eid holidays and everyone was busy celebrating the Eid. “Also the prevailing law and order situation hampered our plans. However, we will conduct a number of seminars in a day or two,” they added. Allama Muhammad Iqbal was born on November 9, 1877, in Sialkot.

He was an Urdu and Persian poet, philosopher and politician.

‘Bahtay rang’ opens on Saturday ISLaMaBaD App

louvre will display ‘Bahtay Rang’ - an exhibition of a unique art that is all about controlling flow of extremely diluted colours on canvas from November 12 to 19, featuring exquisite art of Khusro Sabzwari and Ali Karimi.

Sabzwari - a seasoned artist with over 35 years of experience, recreates the beauty of nature in abstracts with deep vibrant colours in thin acrylics, while young talented NCA graduate Karimi develops figures with a challenging technique wash in oils.

About his art, Sabzwari says “I am an engineer by profession but an artist at heart whereas the extraordinary gift of clairvoyance runs in my blood.”

Sabzwari recreates the beauty of nature and of life in his breath-taking paintings, rendering a personal touch to his works. Deep vibrant colours pervade his canvas and infuse into each other to give a fascinating output. According to Karimi, “The romance in life is always the best memory but when we visualise the memories they always seems watery, that’s what I try to paint.”

Karimi is a category of contemporary on his own; figures developed through wash paints of oil medium. He dilutes a single oil color to almost a consistency of water and using such a difficult medium to control he not only to develop figures through these drops of colours but faces and expression as well.

Featuring Bahtay Rang are his paintings of women in different postures.

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Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Islamabad 07

PIMS Burn Care Centre unable to meet the needs g

facility can accommodate 20 patients only against daily load of 35 g Mortality rate of burn patients alarming at 86 percent ISLaMaBaD

A

ASMA KUNDI

state of the art Burn Care Centre (BCC) established at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the major hospital in the capital city, is unable to cater to the need of around 35 patients, against the capacity of 20, visiting the facility daily. The people, who come from far flung areas with patients seriously burnt, have demanded the government to increase the

capacity of the centre, as most of them have to face disappointment when they arrive in the capital city owing to nonavailability of space for their loved ones.

The Burn Care Centre is the first of its kind facility in the public sector of Pakistan and rather south Asia, as it is in accordance with the latest international standards for the management of acute burn care and long-term sequel.

“I have come here from lakki Marwat with my brother, who got seriously burnt, so that he could get recovered as there is no proper facility back in our district for

the purpose. However, I have to face the same disappointment here as well after being told by the relevant authorities that there is no space for them,” said Sabir Rehman, a middle-aged man with anger on his face. A patient at the facility said the government should enhance its capacity so that more and more people could benefit from it, as at present, very few lucky people like me have the advantage whereas vast majority are returned without being treated.

It merits mention that burn victims mortality rate in Pakistan is beyond pro-

portion when compared with other countries. For instance, according to official statements, mortality rate of a major burn, 40 to 50 percent, body surface area is 86 percent, whereas it is less than 20 percent in the developed world.

There are inadequate facilities for the management of burnt patients in the existing public and private sectors hospitals. Under the defence budget, there are burn centres at CMH Kharian, NESCOM Islamabad and POF Hospital Wah, where the majority of the beneficiaries are defence personnel, with a very few civil pa-

tients who can afford heavy expenses of treatment cost. The cost of burn care is enormous, over and above the ICU care.

The cost for the medicines and supplies for these patients can be from Rs 4,000 to 12,000 per day, depending upon the nature of injuries.

Acute burn patients require specialised intensive care by trained technical staff. Burn patients need germ free environment, with monitoring and ventilator equipments. Controlled temperature and humidity are also the basic requirements.

Intellectual property rights must for a vibrant economy ISLaMaBaD StAFF RepoRt

Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) of Pakistan Hameedullah Jan Afridi has said that a series of activities have been planned for implementation during the next year, while the process of developing the infrastructure of IPO is in process and all possible efforts are being made to improve the service delivery mechanism and capacity building of officials.

According to press release issued on Wednesday, Afridi, while talking to a delegation of notables, said Intellectual Property (IP) was critical for a competitive economy in the backdrop of ongoing globalisation. “Sustainable economic growth now depends largely on hi-tech research and development base and efficient knowledge input. The new concept of IP-based nation is gaining ground because it enables technology creation and transfer by providing an enabling environment,” Afridi added.

He cited the sale of pirated optical discs as a grave issue, which needed to be addressed accordingly, and said besides redrafting the IPO ordinance special emphasis was made to improve coordination among the enforcement agencies for an ineffective control on manufacturing and sale of pirated material.

“We have to adopt appropriate measures on an emergency basis to place rapid growth mode of Pakistan economy, enabling environment for investment attraction, market access requirement of Pakistan’s export-led growth strategy, fast-track integration with global economy, market expansion for genuine businesses in Pakistan, consumer interest in terms of competitive quality and price and country’s business image as a whole.”

He further said the government had given due priority to the IP rights and the prime minister placed IPO directly under his own supervision by attaching it with the Cabinet Division so that matters pertaining to enforcement of related laws could be resolved in an effective manner.

Afridi further said IPO Pakistan had undertaken a number of organizational, administrative and functional initiatives to upgrade the institutional infrastructure and afford necessary capacity building opportunities in order to reform, restructure and reorganise the intellectual property management in Pakistan. “IPO-Pakistan’s Enforcement Coordination Initiative has not only achieved effective linkages with the public sector enforcement authorities but also with the private sector investigation agencies engaged in detection of IP infringements. This coordination is deepening and expanding very fast. Once this initiative finds synergy, the market space for piracy and counterfeiting will start shrinking,” he added.

An eye-catching view of the sunset. INp

Cda to launch drive against illegal Peace prayer on unique 11-11-11 use of residential buildings ISLaMaBaD App

ISLaMaBaD ASMA KUNDI

The capital city developers are likely to launch a campaign soon against illegal use of residential buildings in various sectors of Islamabad for commercial use and take stern action against those involved in this unlawful activity and violation of the relevant laws.

According to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) officials, the relevant laws of “Residential Sectors Zoning Regulations 2005” and “CDA Ordinance 1960” prohibit the use of residential buildings in the capital for commercial purposes and under this law, the CDA can go to the extent of cancelling allotment of such residential plots and houses.

No strict action has, however, been taken by the CDA against those responsible for violating the prescribed laws and more and more housing units are being added to the category of those being unlawfully used on regular basis.

This has happened over years de-

spite clear instructions by the Interior Ministry, time and again, asking for strict action against the illegal use of residential units in Islamabad. The Senate Standing Committee on Interior has also admonished the CDA authorities as well as those at the helm of affairs in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration for ignoring its directives to launch crack down against such buildings across the city.

“Yes, that’s true, no action has so far been taken in accordance with the directives of the Interior Ministry and high-ups in the ministry are deeply perturbed over the irresponsible behavior of the CDA authorities,” said a CDA official.

However, he said now it had been decided to correct the wrongs of the past and soon a citywide campaign would be launched against those responsible for the use of residential sectors for commercial purposes.

“These people will not be allowed to go scot-free,” he said.

On previous occasions, the CDA is-

sued notices to those involved in violations of the relevant laws and they were warned to be heavily fined to the tune of Rs 500,000. “If the violators fail to pay the fine within the stipulated time of 20 days, his or her case will be referred to the relevant court of law for legal action,” the official said.

The CDA has carried out a survey and found that over 800 housing units are being used for commercial purposes in the residential sectors of Islamabad.

The residents in various parts of Islamabad are disconcerted over increase in illegal use of housing units because they say that owing to that they are facing serious shortage of housing units and those who live in rented houses have to pay high rents.

“Those who live on rented houses in the capital are paying higher rents as compared to the yesteryears and one major reason for that is the rampant commercial use of housing structures,” said Irfan Hussain, a local trader and resident of Sector G-10 in Islamabad.

Commemorating the unique occurrence of 11-11-11, spiritual workers around the world will take part in a global prayer for peace, scheduled for 11:00 am (local time) on Friday. There will be mass prayer gatherings in various countries, lighting a candle or saying silent prayer for world peace. This wave of peace prayer will spread around the globe. According to celebrators, November 11 of year 2011 is the most auspicious date of the 21st Century, a moment when the pillars of heaven and earth will be in balance. To celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime occasion, some countries are introducing exclusive 11-themed special packages like decorating the hotels with 1111 roses, offering 11 types of chocolate and 11 different light snacks.

Special programmes are also being arranged in various cities of Pakistan.

Commoners of 11th Common Training Programme (CTP) will commemorate century’s get-together on 11-11-11.

A group of officers headed by Commissioner Regional Tax Office, Rawalpindi, Rakhshanda Aziz Babar will hold a get-together on Friday to commemorate the unique date.

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08 Islamabad weATher UPdATeS

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Thursday, 10 November, 2011

BBQ remains hot favourite this Eid

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Maghrib Isha on sunset 19:00

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ISLaMaBaD

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MAHtAB BASHIR

OTHING brings people together better than at a table laid with dishes prepared for Eidul Adha.

Among these, barbequed meat has a special allure, possibly taking many back in time to when their ancestors used to cook over a fire under an open sky.

Due to three official Eid holidays (November 6-9), people had ample time to exchange greetings and share sacrificial animals’ meat with their relatives and friends and spend time with their families. After performing the ritual of sacrificing animals, most people thought of putting up a barbeque, not only inside their houses and on their rooftops but at various picnic spots with grills and the required paraphernalia.

Barbeque (BBQ) is a procedure of cooking meat (beef, mutton, chicken, or fish) over a fire. Most barbecuing techniques are used universally.

This Eid, not only families but groups of boys descended on recreational sites with packs of meat to barbeque. The residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad mostly visited Shamsabad Park, Jinnah Park, Jungle Kingdom, F-9 Fatima Jinnah Park, CDA Marghazar Zoo, Rawal lake, lake View Park, Daman-e-Koh, Shakarparian hills, and Pakistan Monument. Although the weather was chilly and not perfect for outdoor activities, people flocked to public places.

Pir Sohawa, Daman-e-Koh, and Rose and Jasmine Garden witnessed a great crowd, as people thronged to these places to enjoy the third day of Eid. They ate already-prepared meat dishes or cooked on spot, and had get-togethers.

“We had watched with salivating tongues,

family members preparing BBQ dishes a few times before. It did not seem that hard or dangerous. That is why I am here with my friends to enjoy the weather with BBQ tikkas,” said Hashim Raza, who was visitng lake View Park.

He said basically one needed coal or wood and a grill to place over the fire. “Proper grills can be bought from any market or you can borrow one – that is what we did,” he said, adding that some microwave ovens

came with grills as accessories.

Another youngster, Osama Pervaiz, said it was crucial where one did the BBQ. “A lawn is ideal but the availability is rare and a good alternative is the rooftop. The top of a high-rise building will give you privacy and the open air will

nAtionAl ChildRight ARt

blow away the smoke from the first few burnt pieces. An open space is important mainly because you can then run around screaming in case the meat is burned to a fossil,” he joked.

Bushra, who was with her family at Pir Sohawa said that was the perfect spot to enjoy Eid with one’s family as the tiny drops of rain made it more special. “A personal barbeque not only acts as a special moment to savour the food but also to have a good experience. Unlike in a shop, you do not have to scream at the waiters to bring your order. You just scream at your friends and relatives instead. It is the perfect get-together, being with the people you care for and the cool wintry air providing the perfect setting at this height,” she said.

The three Eid days were not only reserved for grilling meat on barbecues, however. Many housewives also prepared sweet dishes.

Sana Jamal, a housewife, said sweets were something that could not be neglected. “Eid without sweets is incomplete. People present sweets to their relatives and guests that come to visit on Eid,” she said, adding, however, that most people focused on buying spices, recipe books and ingredients for meat dishes and barbecue.

“Eidul Adha is always fun-filled as all my cousins gather at our rooftop and we enjoy a barbecue party and meat dishes at night,” a local resident said.

“Mutton biryani, pulao, beef nehari and shami kabab are the special dishes which are cooked during Eid,” he added.

A colorful Eid cannot be imagined without women as they cook, make dresses and cheer on the family members who are to supervise the Eid preparations.

KAhAniyAn by moeen fARuqi

oveRloAd At KuCh KhAAS

CollegeS / UNIverSITIeS INTerNATIoNAl ISlAMIC UNIverSITy 9260765 BAhrIA UNIverSITy 9260002 NUMl 9257677 QUAId-e-AZAM UNIverSITy 90642098 ArId AgrICUlTUre UNIverSITy 9290151 fJwU 9273235 rIPhA INTerNATIoNAl UNIverSITy 111510510 NCA rAwAlPINdI 5770423 PUNJAB lAw College 4421347

dATe: Nov 17 - 20, 2011 veNUe: ISlAMABAd

dATe: NoveMBer 01 To 15, 2011 veNUe: KhAAS ArT gAllery ISlAMABAd

dATe ANd TIMe: Nov 12, 2011 veNUe: KUCh KhAAS

In 1954, United Nation general Assembly recommended that all countries must institute the “Universal Children day” to promote the welfare of the children and protect their basic rights without any discrimination. on 20th November the UN Assembly adopted the declaration of the rights of the child.

The exhibition is called Kahaniyan (Stories), a solo show by eminent artist Moeen faruqi. The Karachi based artist will exhibit in Islamabad after many years at Khaas Art on 1 November 2011. do join u ...

following the success of their 2011 hits "Batti" & "Neray Aaah", the busiest & most exciting touring Pakistani act in the world, overloAd, will be blasting your neigbourhood with an exclusive upclose & very personal live set

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Thursday, 10 November, 2011

News 09 govt must do more to protect minorities: hrCP ISLaMaBaD StAFF RepoRt

QUettA: people offer eidul Adha prayers at Kharotabad. INp

Pakistan not double-crossing US: haqqani

OGDCL suffers Rs 27.8b loss during oil exploration ISLaMaBaD StAFF RepoRt

HE Oil and Gas Development Company limited (OGDCl) has incurred a massive loss of Rs 27.8 billion as 79 of the 247 wells drilled during the last ten years were found dry and abandoned.

According to the details submitted by the Ministry of Petroleum to the Senate, the number of oil and gas wells dried during the last 10 years ending June 2011 was 79 and the amount spent on these wells was over Rs 27.8 billion. The corporation spent Rs 3.9 billion in 2010-11 on dry wells, Rs 4.5 billion in 2009-10, Rs 4.3 billion in 2008-09, Rs 4.1 billion in 2007-08, Rs 4.2 billion in 2006-07, Rs 1.5 billion in 2005-06, Rs 1.3 in 2004-05, Rs 2.2 in 2003-04, Rs 1.2 in 2002-03 and Rs 391,648,425 in 2001-02.

The number of oil and gas wells dried during the said period was 79 and the amount spent on these wells was Rs 27.8 billion. “During the last 10

T TExaS INp

Pakistan's Ambassador to US Husain Haqqani on Tuesday said Washington must understand that Pakistan was not playing a double game with America.

He was speaking at the First South Asia Peace Conference at the University of North Texas at Denton.

He said that United States and Pakistan have differences on some issues but we understand each other very much.

Believing that the major issues cannot be resolved today, America has to show some patience and understanding, he added. Speaking on regional issues, he said that if countries in other regions can resolve their issues through mutual deliberations, South Asian nations can also follow the suit.

Discussing the most vital issue of terrorism, he said if we have even one percent of terrorists and sympathizers in a society of 180 million people, it is a substantially 1.8 million large portion of our population, which is also wellarmed and it is impossible to eliminate all of them. The ambassador later told a private TV channel that Pakistan had informed America that they did not approve drone attacks at all.

On the issue of reducing the American aid of $500 million dollars, he said our relations are not dependent on the American aid, which is being discussed now in Congress.

years ending June 2011, OGDCl has drilled 247 wells out of which 125 wells were exploratory and 122 wells were appraisal and development wells. Out of these 79 wells were dry and were abandoned,” says the document.

The ministry of petroleum further informed the Upper House that the cost of well depended on the total depth of the well and expected geological complications encountered during drilling of well. “OGDCl drilled wells in various parts of the country ranging in depth from 1,000m to more than 5,000m. The cost of wells also varies from $7 million to $25 million, depending upon the depth of the well and geological and drilling complications encountered,” the ministry further informed the senate.

“Hydrocarbon exploration business is a high risk and high cost venture which involve different geological, geophysical and engineering disciplines to accomplish the exploration goals. The well-established international risk factor for hydrocarbon drilling is that, one

exploratory well will be successful out of 10 wells i.e. 1:10. However, the success rate in Pakistan is around 1:3.8, while OGDCl success rate during the last five years is 1:2.5 which is outstanding,” the document says.

The document says that the total amount allocated to Basin Study/Exploration Research Department for the last eight years is Rs 1,135 million.

It says that the Basin Study and Exploration Research also conducted Pakistan Basin Study Project which was undertaken on the directives of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources through M/s Fugro Robertson ltd UK at a cost of £2.7 million. “The project report is now being promoted/marketed to E&P Companies operating in Pakistan. The report will provide an assessment of hydrocarbon potential of sedimentary basins of Pakistan and ranking of areas, on the basis of petroleum prospectivity, potential reserves and economic viability,” the documents reveal.

The brazen murder of three brothers from the Hindu community in Shikarpur district on Eid day demonstrates that the perpetrators believe they can get away with murder simply because the victims are nonMuslim, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the commission said: “HRCP is shocked at the brazen murder of the three Hindu citizens in Shikarpur and shares the sense of outrage of the Hindu community, not least because of the utter failure of the police to prevent the killings or arrest the killers even though threats of violence had been brought to their notice.”

After a reported dispute with a local Muslim tribe three weeks earlier, the Hindu community in the area had received anonymous calls threatening them of ‘serious consequences’, said the HRCP statement.

“The community had sought protection from the police. It is alarming that the three men were slain no more than a few meters away from the local police station. The Hindu community has also expressed concern that the law enforcement personnel tend to support the criminals rather than the victims when their community is targeted,” the statement said.

The HRCP believed that the spike in faith-based violence in the country in the last few years has been fuelled in no small part by a sense among the perpetrators that they have virtual immunity for murder for all intents and purposes as long as the victims are from a religious minority community.

It is hoped that the authorities realise where they have fallen short in protecting the fundamental rights of the religious minorities, including their right to life.

The government must wake up to the monumental challenge of allaying an acute sense of insecurity and vulnerability among members of religious minority communities.

“The HRCP welcomes expressions of concern from top government officials in the wake of the ‘abhorrent murders’, as the prime minister has described them, but also wants to emphasise that promises of strict action must be followed through and steps taken to reassure the affected community that their tormentors would be held to account. Furthermore, instead of merely suspending police officials right, left and centre after the fact, the government must devise a mechanism to ensure protection for those vulnerable on account of their faith and train the police on how that can be implemented,” the statement added.

‘Gilanis of Multan’ seek PM’s help in reviewing FLC decision ISLaMaBaD tAHIR NIAz

A Gilani family of Multan has sought directions of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on behalf of the federal government to the Chairman Federal land Commission (FlC) to review the order of its former chairman dated June 1998, which pertained to land reforms and involved litigation over agriculture land measuring around 402 acres.

According to the documents available with Pakistan Today, Makhdoom Syed Samiul Hassan Gilani, Makhdoom Syed Sohail Hassan Gilani and Makhdoom Syed Suleman Hassan Gilani, legal heirs of Mst Tallat Zahra D/O Makhdoom Syed Shaukat Hussain Gilani of Multan, have approached the federal government for review of FlC’s order dated June 1998, whereby the order of chief land commissioner, Punjab dated February 1995 was upheld. late Tallat Zahra was a cousin of Prime Minister Gilani.

The Prime Minister’s Secretariat through the Cabinet Division forwarded the review petition of Makhdoom Syed Samiul Hassan Gilani and others to the

FlC for comments. FlC in its opinion over the review petition said the stance taken by the applicants relates to change in the classification of soil which has already been exercised in the previous litigation and was not accepted on judicial side. However, it added, if the federal government is not satisfied and that the said exercise is required to be undertaken again in light of the actual position available in the revenue record, it can only be done be reviewing the order and hearing the respective parties and scrutinising the revenue record subject to permission of the federal government.

The petitioners stated in the petition to the PM that they could not place the matter before the High Court in writ jurisdiction against the FlC decision due to ailing health of their mother and could not pursue the case for a long time. They further said “This is also true that land Reforms Act, 1977 does not provide any limitation in any of the cases yet the petitioners preferred to seek review of the orders on factual and actual grounds instead of knocking the door of the respective High Court under Article 199 of the constitution”.

According to the brief facts of the case, Tallat Zahra was a declarant under land Reforms Act, 1977. The Bahawalpur Deputy land Commissioner in August 1977 determined the holding of Tallat Zahra under land Reforms Act, 1977 as 402 acres 1 kanal 15 marlas equivalent to 10,260 produce index units (PIUs) and ordered for resumption of 2,260 PIUs. The declarant filed an appeal before the Bahawalpur land commissioner on the grounds that PIUs of her holding were not correctly calculated by the deputy land commissioner. The land commissioner on May 11, 1978 dismissed the appeal as time barred and with the observation that objection regarding calculation of PIUs was not raised before the deputy land commissioner by the declarant.

The declarant filed revision petition before the Punjab Chief land Commissioner against the orders passed by land commissioner, praying that unitary value of her holding might be calculated on the basis of possession of the declarant. She also prayed that classification of soil of her holding was not correctly evaluated by the revenue field staff. The additional chief land commissioner on March 26,

1979 remanded the case to the deputy land commissioner for fresh decision who determined the holding of the declarant equivalent to 9,503 PIUs. The declarant filed appeal before the land commissioner which was accepted. The inspection team, FlC scrutinised the case and pointed out that PIUs of the holding of the declarant were not correctly calculated by the deputy land commissioner while passing the order dated September 15, 1982. The inspection team, worked out the PIUs as 9,503 according to the classification of soil as entered in the revenue record. The Bahwalpur land commissioner in exercise of his powers under suo moto revision re-determined the holding equivalent to 8,534 PIUs and ordered to resume an area of 534 PIUs vide order dated 17-05-1984 instead of area calculated by FlC’s Inspection team.

The declarant then filed an appeal before the Punjab chief land commissioner which was dismissed vide order dated October 22, 1985 in default. The declarant filed application for restoration of her previous revision petition before Punjab chief land commissioner which was also rejected.

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10 News

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Aid agencies eyeing programme closure due to funds shortage g

over nine million people affected by flooding in Sindh still at risk of disease, widespread malnutrition

Bangladesh may withdraw complaint over eU help for Pakistan aDDU CITY ReUteRS

ISLaMaBaD StAFF RepoRt

VER nine million people affected by severe flooding in Sindh are at risk of disease and widespread malnutrition, while relief efforts reaching over five million people are under threat due to a lack of funds, warned a group of international aid agencies including Oxfam, Save the Children, Care and ACTED on Wednesday.

They appealed to donor community to step up its response. According a press release issued from Oxfam, the lack of funding for the Pakistani flood relief programmes would have serious consequences if money was not found soon to help those in need. Oxfam would be forced to cut back on its efforts after December, meaning the 3.9 million people it had planned to reach would go without help. Save the Children have raised only 35 percent so far of their global appeal for the Sindh floods.

Care faces a shortfall of 91 percent and is struggling to continue its relief programme at a time when the risk of an

O

outbreak of disease and widespread malnutrition is escalating. “Care has used its own resources to fund this response, which is focusing on emergency healthcare and food security. Due to a funding shortfall, we’ve only reached roughly 10 percent of the targeted 150,000 in need of emergency healthcare in the areas where we and our local partners operate,” said Waleed Rauf, Country Director of Care International in Pakistan.

The programmes of UN agencies also are affected by the sluggish funding. The UN’s $357 million appeal has only received $96.5 million so far. “The 2011 floods flash appeal remains distressingly underfunded with a 73 per cent shortfall and if more funding is not received relief supplies will run out within weeks which impacts UN agencies from providing lifesaving clean water, sanitation, food, shelter and healthcare” said Stacey Winston, UN Spokesperson. The government of Pakistan also faces a funding crisis and might be forced to scale down relief efforts due to depleting resources, which has led to an increased need for the humanitarian agencies to step up their response.

“Over two months into the crisis millions of people are still without basics. If relief operations stop, it could lead to an unimaginable catastrophe. Healthcare, clean water and sanitation are needed to stem a looming public health crisis. The precarious food system is under threat as there’s an acute food shortage, and many farmers will miss the winter cropping season. With winter approaching fast, millions of people who are still without shelter will be left out in the cold. We urgently need to see the same donor generosity and giving that took place last year during the floods,” said Neva Khan, Oxfam’s country director in Pakistan. Over nine million people have been affected by the floods that hit in August. More than two months into the disaster, over 1.58 million houses in Sindh and 26,000 in Balochistan have been damaged.

People are forced to live in desperate conditions. More than three-quarters of the affected households have not received any shelter assistance while around 800,000 people are still displaced. According to the latest estimates, three million people are in urgent need of

emergency food assistance. “We had expected the situation to stabilise by now but conditions are going from bad to worse. Each day that passes puts more children at risk of contracting diseases.

Malnutrition levels among children under-fives are among some of our worst recorded cases. Children’s immunity is very weak, and we fear winter will make the situation worse if aid is not immediately stepped up,” said Save the Children’s Pakistan Country Director, David Wright.

Over 67 percent of food stocks and 73 percent of the crops in thirteen districts of Sindh have been destroyed. Additionally farmers whose fields were under water would miss the winter planting season – which begins now – leading to hunger. “It is unfortunate that the millions of flood affected populations have received so little humanitarian aid to meet their urgent food, water and shelter needs. These populations have lost everything and they require immediate assistance to be able to survive the coming winter months, and to have a chance to rebuild their lives.” said Andy Buchanan, Country Director of ACTED.

girls’ school blown up in Mardan pESHaWaR StAFF RepoRt

Explosives planted by unidentified militants in a local girls’ school went off in Katlang tehsil of mardan district late on Monday, the day of Eidul Azha, police official said.

Militants had planted explosives in Government Girls’ High School in Dahri area of Ghndo police post in Katlang tehsil and the explosion took place around midnight on Monday. Three rooms of the school were destroyed while another four got partially damaged. The school’s boundary wall also collapsed.

Officials said that the school had been recently upgraded and classes had not started as yet.

No casualty was reported in the attack. Following the incident, the police launched search operation in the area but did not make any arrest.

A case has been registered against unidentified militants.

RAIWIND: pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Nawaz Sharif and punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif meet party workers after offering eid prayers.

Bangladesh is considering withdrawing a complaint about a European move to grant beneficial import conditions to Pakistani textile makers as an aid measure following Pakistan's floods last year, a senior Bangladeshi official said on Wednesday.

Europe and Pakistan had expected a long-announced plan for trade preferences for Pakistani textile makers to be approved during a meeting of trade diplomats in Geneva this week, but a Bangladeshi complaint halted the move. Pakistan was being granted the beneficial import conditions to its textile makers as an aid measure following the devastating floods in the South Asian country last year. Bangladeshi officials said their Pakistani counterparts had “unofficially” raised the matter on the sidelines of an ongoing South Asian leaders' summit on this remote Maldivian atoll. “I will check with Geneva ... as far as I know we are supposed to withdraw this (complaint),” Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes told Reuters.

“There has been some informal discussion on this here with the Pakistani officials,” he said. “They have asked us unofficially about it and we have told them we are checking and will get back to them. So discussions are on to find out a way.”

Islamabad called Dhaka's objections to the beneficial import conditions for its textile makers “an accident”. “Of course, we are very concerned about it.

We have been conveyed by them that it was at best an accident,” Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told Reuters. Bangladesh had concerns about the impact of the European measures, which would make it easier for Pakistan to export textiles to Europe.

Bangladesh competes with Pakistan for textiles sales to the European market.

The two-year cut in tariffs offered by the EU would be a small boost for Pakistan's exporters. World Trade Organisation rules say the same deal must be offered to all trade partners, so by making an exception for Pakistan, the EU needs to get all WTO members on side and any single country can block the deal.

“We are very much concerned,” said Mohammad Shafiul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. “As Pakistan is a cotton-producing country, it will be an uneven competition if they are provided trade benefit to EU countries.”

Pakistan's top textile body sought to allay these concerns.

With an eye on 2014, India steps up afghan role SINGapORE ReUteRS

India plans to train Afghan army combat units at top counter-insurgency schools, officials say, deepening its commitment to Afghanistan as Western forces prepare to withdraw, a move that will fan Pakistani fears of encirclement.

India may also provide light weapons to the Afghan army and train pilots and ground staff for Afghanistan's small air force under a strategic partnership agreement signed last month.

Up until now India has mainly provided discreet training to Afghan security forces in an unstructured manner, with officers attending largely theoretical courses. Once, in 2007, two platoon-sized units of 30 men each were trained.

But the new agreement sets the stage for a formal Indian involvement in boosting Afghan security forces beyond 2014, when foreign combat troops will withdraw, leaving Afghans to fight a Taliban insurgency now at its most potent in 10 years of war.

“The Afghanistan initiative, so far as I understand it, will be training, including future trainers, in such places as the

Army War College in Mhow,” said an Indian security official, referring to a top institution in central India.

“This is about ... military exercises designed to enable them to engage in actual combat operations,” he said.

A greater and more overt Indian role in boosting Afghan security preparedness, on top of a $2 billion civil aid effort building highways, power transmission lines and dams, marks an intensification of a regional struggle for post-2014 influence.

It also represents a re-ordering of regional alliances, with the United States seen to have backed the India-Afghan pact after the fraying of its relationship with Pakistan, which it blames for sheltering militants fighting in Afghanistan.

“I think it's a huge deal. It confirms a lot of Pakistan's worst fears about Afghanistan. Moreover, given how many ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) join to fight Pakistan, adding Indian mentorship into the mix strikes me as a terrible idea,” said Joshua Foust, a security analyst at the non-partisan think tank the American Security Project in Washington.

“But I think a lot of the decisions are

driven by wanting India to pick up this slack the US will be leaving,” he said.

“This has high-level backing in Washington and Delhi, so it's a done deal. They think there won't be a blowback. I disagree.” NATO is racing against the clock to train a force of 350,000 Afghan police and soldiers to take over the battle against the Taliban and other insurgents.

As domestic support for the war falls, US President Barack Obama could be looking at even faster withdrawals, sources said last month after the White House asked the Pentagon for 2014 scenarios that included 2013 troop levels.

Pakistan, which sees itself as the central player in shaping a political solution to the conflict, has warned repeatedly against what it describes as destabilising Indian involvement.

It also worries about Afghan officers being trained in India because it could mould them into an anti-Pakistan institution. The Indian embassy in Kabul has been attacked twice, with US and Indian officials blaming the al Qaedalinked Haqqani network. US officials say the Haqqanis have close ties with Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.

India, riding one of the world's fastest-growing economies, has signalled it will stay the course despite the threat of a backlash.

It also has a wary eye on China's growing investments in Afghanistan's potentially rich mining sector.

“The door has been opened for the training of Afghanistan's army, air force and police in India,” said retired Indian army Major-General Ashok Mehta.

He said the Afghans want to build their army on the Indian model of a secular, national force that draws recruits from across the country and from different religious and ethnic backgrounds and turn them into a cohesive fighting unit.

The Afghan army is still seen as a force dominated by the minority Tajik and Hazara ethnic groups, with the Pashtuns who make up the majority of the population under-represented.

“They didn't want to go to Pakistan, even though the Pakistanis have repeatedly offered ... , because they said they didn't want to 'Islamise' the army,” Mehta added. Mehta said the Afghans were expected to send company-sized units of 120 men for training at Indian bases, including a respected counter-insurgency

school in northeastern Vairengte.

Afghan infantry units are also expected to train at a high- altitude warfare school in Kashmir, where Indian forces have had plenty of experience battling revolts over 20 years.

Part of the Soviet Union's exit strategy after its disastrous campaign in Afghanistan relied on training troops, and some pilots, in then Soviet-Uzbekistan. Some soldiers were also flown to Moscow in the mid-1980s.

Under the India-Afghan pact, weapons such as rifles, rocket launchers and artillery would help fill equipment gaps and pilots would be trained on simulators in India.

Kamran Bokhari, vice president of Middle Eastern and South Asian affairs at global intelligence consulting firm STRATFOR, said intelligence sharing would be the biggest, yet least talkedabout, part of the India-Afghanistan partnership. He said military cooperation between the two countries had to be limited because they don't share a border and that a hostile Pakistan lies in between. “But intelligence is something that doesn't require borders and they can do quite a lot in that area,” Bokhari said.

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Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Editor’s mail 11

Spare the rod Pakistan was one of the first countries who ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (UNCRC) whose article 19 clearly enunciates that a child must be “protected from all forms of physical and mental violence while in the care of parents and others.” Article 37 is also pertinent in this respect “No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

However, Section 89 of the PPC (Pakistan Penal Code 1860) (No XlV) allows parents, teachers and other guardians to use corporal punishment as a means to discipline and correct the behaviour of under-12 children. However, such punishment is required to be moderate and reasonable.

In case the punishment inflicts serious injuries as defined in PPC, then the adult can be booked under sections 334 and 336 of the PPC respectively and can

No alliances, please be penalised and imprisoned for it.

UN Committee on the Rights of Children also recommended Government of Pakistan in its concluding observations & recommendations in 2009 that “state party as a matter of urgency repeal section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code 1860 and explicitly prohibit all forms of corporal punishment in all settings.

Teachers may be more likely to resort violent discipline under stressful conditions, including overcrowded class rooms, insufficient resources, and an increased emphasis on student testing and achievement.

As enrolment increases, resources often do not keep pace. Teachers have less capacity to intervene in peer violence when classes are very large and may report to punitive management strategies such as corporal punishment.

It is pertinent to mention here that

corporal punishment is prohibited in the schools of the Punjab province since September 2005, vide order No. PS/SS (S)/Misc/2005/127.

It is appreciable that government put a ban on corporal punishment in schools through notifications but Government of Pakistan had promised to present a law banning corporal punishment in 2004, but it never happened, instead notifications were sent to the provincial and district offices and these notifications fall short on the legislation required for conviction and punishment through the justice system.

UN Study on Violence against Children reflects that millions of children across the world become victim of sexual, physical and/or emotional violence, many on a daily basis. Societal acceptance of violence against children appeared to be the norm and to be a key obstacle to its elimination.

The UN study put forward 12 overreaching recommendations for action. It urged states and other stakeholders to strengthen international, national and local commitments to end violence against children; to prohibit all violence against children in national law; to promote non-violent values and awareness raising; to enhance the capacity of those who work with or for children,; to ensure accountability and end impunity; and to take a range of other actions to prevent violence against children and to respond to it effectively it occurs.

The ultimate goal of the recommendations was to establish conditions that would end all forms of violence against all children. The UN Study concluded “No violence against children is justifiable; all violence against children is preventable IFTIKHAR MUBARIK Lahore

“Almost agreement?”

The prime minister’s statement that both Hillary Clinton and he have “almost agreed” on all points demanded by the US is as vague as the US policy on South Asia. Neither is the US objective any clear nor the roadmap it has demarcated to proceed upon in Afghanistan. This new notion of almost agreeing upon points with the US indicates that the end game in Afghanistan is bound to remain a muddle despite everything said by the Americans.

Pakistan is ready, according to the Pakistani premier, to support any initiative taken by Afghanistan for the purpose of reconciliation, a process that is based upon pre-conditions provided by the US without defining any significant strategy. The fact that Clinton also mentioned that both countries have agreed upon 90-95 percent of the things that have been talked about seems to be a link of this new fuzzy policy of semantic deception that the leaders have adopted of late.

This notion of almost agreeing falls somewhere in the middle of the agreement scale and leaves everyone with the liberty to act or not to act at all.

What we can interpret from these terminologies is that things are surely not as they seem but diplomacy demands that civility be maintained.

PROFESSOR KABIL KHAN Peshawar

SC and wapda As per press reports printed on 1 November, the Supreme Court ordered the initiation of cases against corrupt officials of Pakistan Railways responsible for destroying the organisation and directed sending the cases to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The court directed Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to take complete information about corrupt officials of the Pakistan Railways involved in selling scrap on lower rates and then send their cases to National Accountability Bureau.

The court also asked the attorney general to send the cases of officials to National Accountability Bureau who were involved in purchasing electricity bulbs of Rs 7 for Rs 400.

It was heartening to note that Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered against prevailing widespread corruption in Pakistan Railways. I request the Chief Justice to order similar type of action against high level embezzlement prevailing in Wapda which is no less than Pakistan Railways, if not more at all. Two prime ministers have already called it “white elephant”.

There was a Rs 90 billion embezzlement in only one year in Wapda. This is not the first example of corruption in Wapda. There is a long list of corruption cases in Wapda but they have obviously full protection from bureaucrats.

I request the Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Pakistan to take suo motu action against high level corruption, embezzlement and misappropriation cases in Wapda in the greater interest of people and country, and give exemplary punishment to the culprits if proved guilty.

MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL Karachi

It has been reported that Imran Khan might agree to make an alliance with PMl(N) if the Sharif brothers declare their real assets.

Imran appeals more to the young and educated middle class that wants change. Besides, Imran's opposition to traditional political parties is a real source of attraction for youth.

If Imran makes an alliance with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim league (N) or Pakistan Muslim league (Q) then what will be the fate of change? The people of Pakistan reject traditional political parties not to create a new political party but to change this system of corruption and nepotism.

In fact, Imran by making an alliance with traditional parties will indirectly strengthen the aristocrats to form a civil dictatorship.

I think it will be better for Imran to avoid aforementioned parties that can besmirch his unique political representation.

MUHAMMAD NADEEM Lahore

It’s all Chinese to us

It is indeed very disheartening to see three of Pakistan’s very talented cricketers being sentenced but then considering what they did, they were bound to be punished. Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have finally been sentenced to jail and fined heavily for their involvement in the spot-fixing fiasco that shocked the world.

They have not only put an end to what could’ve been glorious careers as professional cricketers but have also tarnished the image of Pakistan all over the world. Asif and Amir were bowling legends-in-the-making and Salman Butt was a skilled batsman but their lapses in judgment and greed has greatly humiliated all their Pakistani fans. With cricket being the most popular sport in Pakistan,

its players are seen as national heroes and pride of the nation.

According to Mazhar Majeed, many players of different countries are involved in match-fixing that has been going on for years. Such incidents have occurred in the past as well but these three were caught and given exemplary punishments in order to serve as deterrence for all current and upcoming players. It is hoped that lessons will be learnt from this punishment and future players will not get involved in such criminal behaviour.

The PCB should have taken appropriate measures to identify and curb such corrupt activities as there had been hints of spot-fixing and match-fixing in the past as well.

SYEDA YAMNA UROOJ Karachi

The Sindh government has lately decided to introduce Chinese language as a compulsory subject for secondary classes from 2013. However, I think that this is not at all a wise act or an advantageous step in any way.

Just like in taking most of its previous decisions, the government seems to have been too impulsive in taking this step also.

It did not consider the problems involved in introducing Chinese but instantly announced its implementation in schools from 2013. My question to the government is, that first of all, are even the teachers ready for this extra subject to be introduced in schools, let alone the students?

Chinese, being the world’s toughest language, is not easy to learn and thus even proper teachers for it are not available. So how can the Sindh government expect that Chinese teaching can start so early?

And secondly, are those subjects currently being taught to the students of primary and secondary classes, not enough for them that they are being burdened with extra work load?

We all know that three languages are already being taught to students in secondary classes, namely English, Urdu and Sindhi. How will they be able to take the burden of Chinese?

Moreover, the students are also not proficient in those languages which they already have been studying since beginning i.e. Urdu and English. We can clearly see the condition of the language which is spoken by the youth of our country, including students.

What they speak is mixture of both English and Urdu, with, in fact, more emphasis on English because speaking English is considered to be a matter of great pride by everyone, and secondly, the students have a mindset that Urdu is very difficult to read, speak and study.

Therefore, I believe that instead of introducing Chinese, more constructive steps should be taken to generate interest for Urdu in young people and concentrate on teaching them well the languages that they are already studying. There is no need to add this additional burden hastily.

MADIHA VIQUAR Karachi

cians and, to many of the readers' surprise, there are more patriotic and honest politicians than there are corrupt ones.

Where are they? Well there are one thousand, one hundred and seventy parliamentarians in Pakistan (Senators, MNAs and MPAs) but how many do we see and know? Party leaders (prominent politicians) Cabinet members, spokespersons and those who frequently appear on talk shows and this number falls between two to three hundred maximum, which leaves more than seven hundred 'unknown' parliamentarians.

Among them are highly educated,

honest and capable ones who we haven't heard of because they are NOT involved in any scandals, are not ministers and choose not to appear on talk shows for reasons.

When it comes to the fake degree drama, the number of parliamentarians accused of having fake degrees were less than 200; those whose degrees were proven fake were even fewer. Similarly, it was recently reported that only about 200 Parliamentarians did not declare their assets, as required by law.

Which means there are more than 800 parliamentarians who did declare their assets and do it every year in accordance with law.

The problem is not that "all" or even a majority of parliamentarians are corrupt; the problem is that the system only allows a corrupt minority to be in control. Hypothetically, if a PM or CM is corrupt, he cannot work with an honest cabinet member. If a Party leader is corrupt, he will not be happy with a clean member of his party and owing to extreme dictatorial trends within almost all our political parties, the voice of reason is suppressed if it is not in line. We need not be disappointed by our politicians, we need to only identify the dirty ones and get rid of them.

ZAFAR ZULQURNAIN SAHI Lahore

Bullish inflation The prices of basic commodities always rise during Eid days and they refuse to go back down once the festival is over. Even this time around, not only has there been inflationary pressures on the price of meat but also other items of daily use that will not go back down to their previous levels.

The federal and provincial governments have instituted various price control and check committees at various points in time but they are nowhere to be seen now. While one cannot es-

cape the machinations of the free market and the laws of economics but these committees can check these arbitrary price shocks if they function properly.

I would request the government to check the prices that have risen so much during Eid time to help out the suffering public.

ASIF ALI RAZA Lahore

low quality food

The trio booked

I want to discuss an important problem through your newspaper. This problem is related to the student health and inflation. In University of Karachi, very expensive and low standard food is sold.

Because of this, the students’ health is being affected.

The price of food items in University of Karachi is increasing day by day. It is my request to the concerned authorities to stop selling sub-standard and expensive things and should take positive action against these issues because these are playing with the health of students and pockets.

It will be greatly appreciated if the administration takes timely steps.

IFFAT NASREEN Karachi

The good politician Criticising others gives us this weird satisfaction. I did not stop at the traffic signal this morning, was not honest in my tax return this year, I did not give way to the honking ambulance, I did not protest and readily bribed that government servant so that I wouldn't have to wait in line, but wait I did criticise the politicians, judges etc. and behold: I have a clear conscience now. And when it comes to criticism; politicians are the easiest and most common target.

First off, we have not imported our politicians from another country. They too are Pakistanis and just like all Pakistanis there are corrupt politicians and then there are good and clean politi-

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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12 Comment growing intolerance of the white stripe in the green flag

T

he killing of three Hindu brothers in Shikarpur during Eid holdidays is most unfortunate and would raise worldwide concerns about the Pakistani society becoming increasingly intolerant towards minorities. This was not the first time when gunmen attacked Hindu community.

The three bothers, all doctors by profession, were gunned down in front of a police station in a busy area of the city.

Eleven men are being questioned on suspicion of their involvement in the crime while search was on for more arrests. The motive for the murder is still unknown but police suspects that personal enmity can be reason behind the attack.

President Zardari sought a report about the incident and immediately despatched MNA Ramesh Kumar to Shikarpur to convey his condolences to the bereaved family. This would certainly bring them some consolation. But the government has to take steps to provide protection to religious minorities as rightly demanded by the leaders of the Hindu community.

The Shikarpur incident took place at a time when the country is already being blamed for not treating the minorities with equality and humanity. And it’s not without reason. A large number of innocent people belonging to different faiths, including Ahmedis, Christians, and now Hindus, have been killed in incidents of terrorism or by criminals over the past few years.

Then of course the rising intolerance has also accentuated existing sectarian cleavages with the Shia community becoming a frequent target of religious bigotry.

Recently 20 Shia pilgrims were ordered off the bus in Mastung and killed one by one. This happened exactly a year after the bombing of an Imambargh in Quetta which claimed more than 70 lives.

Those in authority should not forget that the unabated persecution of minorities would prevent us from achieving the dream of a tolerant, progressive and tolerant Pakistan.

Steps need to be taken to ensure security to the followers of other faiths who remain under threat to be falsely implicated in criminal cases on the basis of personal enmity. At the same time, intra-faith divides should also not be allowed to evolve into sectarian schisms.

opportunity beckons Seize the moment at SAArC

P

ositive signals emerging from both Islamabad and New Delhi raise hopes of improvement of relations between the two countries. Pakistan recently released an Indian military helicopter and its crew within hours of its inadvertent entry into Pakistan’s airspace.

The cabinet decided to give India the long delayed MFN status. India meanwhile dropped opposition to trade preference to Pakistan by the EU. While Washington continued to pressurise Pakistan, India declined to join hands. Manmohan Singh took the initiative to write to his Pakistani counterpart seeking a meeting on the sidelines of the SAARC summit. On his way to Maldives, Foreign Minister Krishna told the reporters that the trust deficit with Pakistan was shrinking. The SAARC summit could thus turn into a milestone if the two Prime Ministers succeed in breaking the ice further.

It would be unrealistic to disregard the hurdles that lie ahead. There are unresolved disputes like Siachin, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage and the intractable Kashmir issue that continue to poison the relations. Headway was made towards the resolution of some of these during the Indo- Pak composite dialogue. Whatever was achieved, however, was lost as a result of the Mumbai terror attacks. Extremist fringes in both the countries who are deadly opposed to a détente have also contributed to the deterioration of relations, though their ability to influence public opinion is gradually declining.

The forthcoming Manmohan-Gilani talks offer a window of opportunity to both countries. The hostility between the two neighbours has deprived them of the dividend that peace and friendly relations would have offered. The SAARC has failed to realise its potential; the gas and power from Central Asia to the South Asia and trade between the two regions through Afghanistan remain a distant dream. There is a need for a realistic approach to the resolution of the disputes. The least intractable problems should be resolved first with the hope that the goodwill thus generated would help create an atmosphere of trust needed to resolve the more complicated issues. New Delhi needs to come up with some of the doables, something on water and land disputes for instance.

This could lead to more reciprocal measures during Singh’s promised visit to Pakistan.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302 Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900 Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417 Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

pakistan being cornered?

A bigger game is afoot

By Nazir Naji

K

eeping in mind the history of bilateral relations between India and Pakistan, the decision of granting India the MFN status was taken in pure militaristic fashion. Neither was it discussed in parliament, nor in the Senate. Political parties from across the board were also not consulted or taken into confidence. No discussions were conducted in the media either. The decision was taken abruptly by the Cabinet; the information minister announced it promptly after.

Given this rushed manner of things, the furore that followed was to be expected.

This is not how decisions are taken in a democracy. Especially decisions that relate to the foreign policy, and the most sensitive matter in the foreign policy that will affect the day to day lives of common people at that. It’s worth noting that India has already given Pakistan the MFN status some time back but no Pakistani government was able to take the requisite reciprocal step. This means that their existed strong resistance to the issue. Then why did the government adopt this militaristic approach rather than trying to iron out public opinion? Such approaches are bound to have negative fallouts and this is what happened.

As soon as the information minister made the announcement, a storm of opposition was raised. The lobbies whose interests have been entrenched over decades on the basis of animosity with India cannot bear any betterment in relations. The life of these lobbies depends on India-enmity. Without changing their mindsets and the nature of their interest, no action will amount to anything.

The best time to give the MFN status to India was when they had given it to us. But that action has now gathered the dust of passing time and lost its impact. The goodwill that

would’ve been generated if both the countries had taken the action together as per a proper agreed-upon plan would have been significant and the public would then have seen the practical advantages of this decision.

India did not give any trading concessions to Pakistan after granting it the MFN status.

This gave the signal that this decision was mere point-scoring in the international arena. If India was indeed interested in generating goodwill, it could have unilaterally taken some steps just as it had given the MFN status unilaterally. If Pakistan had begun to get facilities from the Indian end, pressures from the Pakistani end would automatically have begun to generate. But it is our misfortune that neither of the governments seriously tried to take down the wall of hostility erected between them after India invaded Kashmir. In the pride of power, India never took the Pakistani point of view into consideration. It has always wanted that Pakistan relent and accept Kashmir as its part and this is the condition that it sets for better relations. It is not prepared to give way on the Kashmir issue and its rulers have utterly forgotten that the logic which led them to occupy Hyderabad means also meant that Pakistan had a right to Kashmir.

Pakistan let India strengthen its hold on Kashmir due to its own mistakes and was ready to face the brunt. We had repeatedly tried to persuade India to come up with a Kashmir solution that kept the wishes of the Kashmiris in mind and also was acceptable to Pakistan; Pakistan was no longer talking of taking complete control of Kashmir. The formula that is seen to be evolving after negotiation is acceptable to a large extent to India too.

But India has stepped back after agreeing to certain terms many times. The last time an agreement was seen to be evolving was in the time of Musharraf. But India led to an impasse again and spoiled the matter by using the excuse that no negotiations could be carried out with a military government. Now it’s been more almost four years since a democratic dispensation has been in place in Pakistan. The agreement evolved in the Musharraf era could easily have been formalised but there has been no headway on that front.

I know that this is what the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks wanted to achieve. Even the official circles in India are now beginning to recognise that whenever there will be progress on peace, extremists will try to sully

the process. Knowing all of this, why is India dragging its feet about coming to an agreement with the democratic government in Pakistan?

Sometimes it comes off that India’s avowals of the desire for peace are mere hollow proclamations and that it is waiting for the time when it can unilaterally impose a Kashmir solution of its liking on Pakistan.

Unfortunately, India now has the backing of our dear friend, the US. The expanding influence of terrorist in Pakistan is a danger to the entire world. The idea that Pakistan’s nuclear assets are not safe has gained credence in the US. Which is why they are making plans of denuding Pakistan of its nuclear assets and international opinion is being prepared to that end. Maybe India is waiting in the wings for such an opportunity as well.

I have explained this background at length to set some context for the unexpected nay vote that came from Bangladesh about the inclusion of Pakistan into the WTO. The US and India both want to capitalise on the fact that Pakistan’s position is weak in the current scenario.

Our position is weak because of a host of reasons: terrorists using Pakistan as a launchpad to conduct activities against the allied forces, the presence of terrorist havens in FATA and last but not least, OBl being nabbed in Pakistan. We are on the defensive backfoot because all of these things and more. Using this perception that Pakistan cannot be trusted, the US has been pressurising Pakistan economically and have started levying stern conditions on us. A plan has been put into place to corner Pakistan. If my fears are correct, then Bangladesh’s vote against us may be a link in this chain and a result of India-US confluence.

They are acting like our well-wishers apparently but have used Bangladesh to backstab Pakistan. The little leverage that we could gain in European markets has also been lost to us.

And this is not where the loss ends. The US will cinch the pipelines coming out of IFIs and will also put stringent conditions on the aid it is giving to us. When talk of the Haqqani group started to pressurise Pakistan, I wrote that this is not just about the Haqqanis but something bigger. Now I will say that the matter is not just having an agreement about Afghanistan but of something bigger. No wonder Hillary Clinton called the situation a ‘game-changer’.

The writer is one of Pakistan’s most widely read columnists.

The US roadblock

Washington Watch

By Dr James J Zogby

T

he hysteria on display in Washington over UNESCO's vote to include Palestine as a member of the world body, though largely a manufactured effort, was, nevertheless, irritating and a sad commentary on the dysfunctional nature of US politics.

From the Congressional letter urging the Administration to "Oppose [the] Dangerous Bid by the Palestinians to Gain UNESCO Recognition", and the White House's briefing of corporate executives warning them of the consequences to their interests should the Palestinians succeed "forcing the US to defund the UN-related agency"; to the post-vote breastbeating that accompanied the "automatic cut-off of US" dues, and the shameful rhetoric that blamed the Palestinians for harming UNESCO's work—just about every aspect of this entire affair was almost surreal.

I was here in Washington in 1993 and 1994 after Oslo, when it

was fully expected, in the euphoria that followed the Arafat-Rabin handshake and signing on the White House lawn, that Congress would rescind its long list of antiPalestinian legislation. It would have been the right thing to do, but it was not to be the case, since AIPAC and it hard-line prolIKUD supporters would have none of it.

And so instead of changing or canceling the anti-Palestinian laws they had passed in the previous decade, Congress was pushed to place even more punitive restrictions on US relations with and support for the Palestine liberation Organization. Instead of removing the ban on the PlO operating in Washington or even visiting the US, they were given a "waiver" to operate, that could be revoked under certain conditions and required a regular report from the Administration to Congress in order to remain in effect. Aid was given to the Palestinians, but with conditions more humiliating and burdensome than any other US assistance package.

The legislation that has now been implemented suspending US dues to UNESCO is a product of that era: of lIKUD and their bipartisan allies in Washington who wanted to set up as many traps and pitfalls as they could to make peace impossible; and of cowardly Democrats who wouldn't stand up to support their President and peace by opposing this obstructionism.

What is of course so irritating is how selective are the memories of those who run official Washington. Instead of remembering that these laws requiring an "automatic" withdrawal of US dues were passed precisely with the intention of punishing the Palestinians and making the search for an IsraeliPalestinian peace more difficult, politicians today act as if these sanctions are divinely-ordained.

When officials here lament the enforcement of these laws saying "regrettably we have no choice", what they are really saying is that they lack the courage and political will to act to change the very laws they created.

Because lawmakers refuse to challenge hard-line lIKUDniks, they, therefore, blame the Palestinians for forcing them to confront the situation they themselves created and now refuse to change.

In the surreal world created by this mindset, America becomes the victim, now being forced to do something it knows: will hurt the world's poor, impede efforts to preserve the world's heritage, harm the interests of American companies, and do more damage to America's image and standing in the world. And in answer to the question "Why are you doing this?”, politicians feign innocence and say "because the bad Palestinians forced us to, that's why."

That is why all this breastbeating is so irritating. And it is why, as long as Washington is captive of its own refusal to confront

its own dysfunction, it cannot provide real leadership in the search for peace.

The Palestinians, to be sure, have problems at home. They must work to achieve national reconciliation and they must give hope to their people empowering them to become part of a true nation liberation struggle. But for the past several decades, the Palestinians have not just had to face a brutal, humiliating, and acquisitive Israeli occupation, they have also had to face down an America that enabled this occupation – an America that feigned a leadership role as an honest broker, all the while acting as "coat holder" and cheerleader for one side in the conflict. And that is why, as painful as I find this state of affairs, I believe that it is important that the Palestinians have embarked on this strategy forcing Washington to face up to the reasons behind its failures in the Middle East, and increased isolation in the world.

For there to be peace between Israelis and Palestinians, America must change. This will not come easily. There will be more of the proverbial "gnashing of teeth" and complaints that the "Palestinians are pursuing a dangerous course" or "forcing us to do this or that". In reality, however, all that the US is being forced to do is come to grips with its own failure.

The writer is President of the Arab-American Institute.

FRONT-BACK PAGE (10-11-2011) FINAL LHR_Layout 1 11/10/2011 12:44 PM Page 13

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Comment 13

perpetuating patronage

Rs 10 guide to politicians

each side needs the other

the kinesics of Khan, Sharif and zardari

By Dr faisal Bari

A

few days ago, I attended a roundtable discussion in Islamabad on issues that Pakistan faces and some proposed solutions for these. The veteran and senior politician Asghar Khan sb also spoke on the occasion. One of the points he made was that as long as the people of Pakistan continued to elect ‘ahmaks’ (fools) to assemblies, nothing would change.

The refrain, as to why the people keep electing corrupt, self-interested, and self-centred and/or incompetent people to assemblies, is not an uncommon one. And a lot of commentators attribute election results to factors such as lack of education and political awareness in the polity, biraderi system, and so on. Implying that the voters are under strong information asymmetries (lack of relevant information), do not know their own interests (lack of rationality at one level), or are embedded in systems/networks (biraderi) that do not allow free choice in terms of both lack of real choices and the freedom to choose.

Since we are coming close to elections, it is important to explore this issue. If the above explanations are true, we are in a lot of trouble.

We will need medium to long term planning to address the shortcomings listed above, if they can be addressed at all. But there is another explanation. let us start with the assumption that politicians want to be elected as they get some benefits from being in power. So, they are, first and foremost, interested in being re-elected. Institutions and the state are weak in Pakistan. Even basic rights of citizens, whatever they might be, are not guaranteed or protected by the institutions of the state. Furthermore, resources are fairly constrained in Pakistan.

Given the above, people, at all levels, especially the economically and socially more challenged ones, are more or less vulnerable to vari-

ous kinds of everyday as well as uncertain events. For the poor even meeting basic needs is a challenge.

What in more developed states would be considered basic rights of individuals are quite often out of reach of the poor: access to clean drinking water, sewerage system, roads, quality education for children, quality health services. And of course low probability events are going to be literal killers - we have seen the example of floods over the last two years.

Even for the better off, there are challenges in Pakistan. Where they might have no worries about food and clean drinking water, and they might be able to afford and access better quality privately provided education and health services, they are still insecure about law and order and security issues - abductions, robberies, extortion, targeted killings, police capriciousness, and kidnappings.

For those who doubt the importance of this, do not forget what has been happening in Karachi and Quetta and cases such as Shahbaz Taseer’s or General Tariq Majeed’s son-in-law.

But this too is not the main issue. Everyone in this society needs a ‘patron’. For the poor, a patron is needed to even access basic necessities and to intermediate with the police and some of the other organs of the state. The rich need them to keep themselves safe and continue to enjoy the riches. It does not matter who a person is, a patron is important. Sometimes the patrons are individuals who are rich or powerful, others might have some institution such as the army standing behind them - look at the difference between Musharraf in uniform and out of it.

So, in our democracy people do not elect their ‘representatives’, they elect ‘patrons’. The strength of the patron is that he (and it is mostly he) can break the law himself and sometimes for the benefit of his clients. He provides benefits to his clients and in turn is a client of a higher level patron. The clients want the patron to protect them and to provide some private benefits as the state and its institutions are not delivering basic rights to all as a matter of right. So, it is an equilibrium situation where patrons and clients are in a symbiotic relationship strengthening each other and feeding off each other.

During a field survey in central Punjab that we were doing some years back we came across a village where a local ‘chaudhry’ was a murderer and a thug who had the entire village under his reign of terror. He extracted all sorts of rents from the villagers. His landholding was almost negligible but he drew his power from the fact that he had the local MPA at his back. He was the MPA’s enforcer and delivered the village to the MPA in the election and in return he was the local king in the village, but for the MPA. The MPA had a brother who was a senior police officer. Every time the Chaudhry did something illegal the MPA and his connections got him out. Clearly here the state, which should have protected people and enforced their rights against extortionists, was actually making the extortionist more powerful. Would the people in the village not vote as they are told? And would some people not join the Chaudhry and gain from the system - it is a vicious example of how the patron client network is entrenched in Pakistan.

How do we break such a vicious and well entrenched patron-client network? Is it possible to do so with repeated elections when elections happen once every 5 years? We wouldn't know because we have not had free elections every five years what with regular military dictatorships and interventions. But we do need much stronger institutions and a state that can protect and enforce the rights of all citizens and not just the clients of various patrons or people in the winner’s coalition. So how can the people achieve this?

It is interesting that from within political parties some are talking of changes in status quo.

There is more assertiveness coming from the judiciary and the electronic media is also bringing more information to people. Will the army leadership also understand that their acting as a patron, for army officers and connected networks, is a big part of the problem too? Can a combination of these work? We might know in the run up to the next election.

The writer is an Associate Professor of Economics at LUMS (currently on leave) and a Senior Advisor at Open Society Foundation (OSF). He can be reached at fbari@sorosny.org

“D

o you want to be able to read people’s personality by looking at their facial expressions, gestures and habits?” asks the back cover of a 10-rupee gesture reading guide in Urdu that I bought from a sidewalk last Sunday. “Your answer will surely be in affirmative.”

The book is a lousy mix of translations from English-language books, with poorly captioned illustrations from only one of them.

It says the best way to practice gesture reading is at a bus stop. But because journalists are usually cut off from public, I thought I would practice my gesture reading in the second most crowded public space in Pakistan: television.

Here’s what I learned about Pakistan’s top TV celebrities – Imran Khan, Shahbaz Sharif and Asif Zardari.

Facial expressions: “When a person is ready to challenge authority and begins to rebel, his eyebrows are raised, his body becomes tense, his head is straightened and his neck tightens, his shoulders go wide and stiff, and he begins to clench his fists or grind his teeth.” That looks like a perfect description of Imran Khan making an argument. But Imran also webs his fingers or joins his fingertips in a confident posture, showing that he believes in what he says, but he is also deeply in love with himself. He will not listen to anyone else.

His rival Shahbaz Sharif always looks like he is trying to solve a problem. His eyebrows contract, sometimes he squints, the skin below his lower eyelid is wrinkled. He

By Harris Bin Munawar often touches his face when listening which signifies thinking, analyzing, or hiding something. That is accompanied generally by a posture that makes him look like a Trafalgar Square constable. It looks like he takes his position of authority too seriously and that is getting to him.

Asif Zardari is known for his wide smile showing his upper teeth, like he is on the verge of laughing out loud. What makes his opponents uncomfortable is that it is different from the smile associated with mischief – the closed-mouth smile in which the teeth do not show. Zardari’s smile is warm, like he is meeting an old friend, or his team is winning in sports, or his flirting is successful.

The way they walk: Shahbaz walks with his shoulders bent forward.

Man bites Dog

When no one is looking, he keeps his limbs close together. My 10-rupee guide calls it a sad walk. In front of cameras, however, Shahbaz walks confidently.

Zardari walks quick and in an athletic manner, looking straight ahead. People who walk like him want to take the shortest route to their destination and want to cover it as fast as possible. Zardari focuses his sight on particular goals, and he is always a step ahead of his rivals because he has already planned his next move.

Recently, he shares with Imran Khan and Shahbaz what is known as the confident walk – chin up, arms free, legs tense, and careful steps. Imran Khan walks like Mussolini. This walk seems to impress other people who start to walk behind him at the same pace. This information is often used by law-enforcement people to identify the leader of a criminal gang.

Handshakes and salutes: Shaking or waving hands is a modern form of a very old tradition. For millennia, when two humans would pass by or meet each other without intent to fight, they would show their hands to prove they are not concealing any weapons and intend no harm. like former president Pervez Musharraf, Imran Khan raises both his hands. His arms are tense and reaching high, and his fists are often closed like Musharraf. At other times they are open and palms face sideways or downward. Sometimes he raises one finger as he speaks. This is similar to Osama bin laden’s religious sermon that is laden with warnings. It is also similar to the cricket signal of ‘out’, as if telling Zardari or Shahbaz to go back to the pavilion.

Shahbaz is not very comfortable exposing his palms. He usually shows a victory sign, a thumbs up, or other hand gestures, or just keeps his thumb folded. He doesn’t want to put all his cards on the table.

Zardari waves one hand casually but properly, sometimes leaning towards a salute, but always showing his palm, facing the audience.

Zardari and Imran’s handshakes are firm.

Shahbaz and Zardari often use both their hands – typical of a politician looking for votes and reassurance.

Conclusion: For Rs10, one can find out what would have otherwise taken countless hours of reading, several elections, and major disappointments – that Shahbaz Sharif cares about us but knows he is in trouble, Imran khan is ambitious but dictatorial, and Asif Zardari has hired a very good personal image consultant who taught him the secrets of body language.

The writer is a media and culture critic and works at The Friday Times. He tweets @paagalinsaan and gets email at harris@nyu.edu

FRONT-BACK PAGE (10-11-2011) FINAL LHR_Layout 1 11/10/2011 12:44 PM Page 14

16 Foreign News

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Iran defiant on nuclear programme, warns Israel IAeA report says ‘credible’ evidence exists of Iran working towards making nuclear warheads to fit inside Shahab-3 missiles g Analysts say no ‘smoking gun’ proving Tehran is on verge of making an atomic bomb g

TEHRaN

I

AFp

R A N vowed Wednesday it “will not budge an iota” from its nuclear path despite a new UN report hardening suspicions it is seeking atomic weapons, as an Iranian general warned Israel of “destruction” if it launched an attack.

The words of defiance fell while the United States and its allies said they were looking at imposing more sanctions on Iran, and Tehran’s chief ally, China, urged the Islamic republic to cooperate with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA report Tuesday said “credible” evidence existed of Iran working towards making nuclear warheads to fit inside Shahab-3 medium-range missiles.

Iranian officials immediately characterised the report as “baseless” and hewing to intelligence provided by Iran’s arch-foe the United States.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in a speech broadcast on state television: “We will not budge an

iota from the path we are committed to.”

He reiterated that, contrary to the IAEA report, Iran’s nuclear programme was exclusively peaceful in nature, saying “we don’t need the atomic bomb.”

His deputy armed forces chief, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, warned however that any sign of Israel carrying out threats to attack Iran’s nuclear sites “will see its destruction.”

Jazayeri said in an interview with Iran’s Arabic-language channel Al-Alam that the Israeli nuclear site of Dimona was “the most accessible” target.

But he also stated that “our response would not be limited to the Middle East.”

Israeli officials had no immediate reaction to the IAEA report. But Israeli President Shimon Peres said at the weekend the likelihood of an attack on Iran was becoming “more and more likely.”

Amid the hard language in the IAEA report and the threats of Israeli military action, the United States and its allies were talking up the possibility of additional sanctions on Iran.

A senior US official speaking on condition of anonymity said: “We don’t take

anything off the table when we look at sanctions. We believe there is a broad spectrum of action we could take.”

France’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying “we are prepared to adopt... unprecedented sanctions” should Iran refuse to cooperate with the IAEA. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in the case of Iranian intransigence, “more severe sanctions would be inevitable” but stressed “we rule out all discussion on a possible military option.”

A spokeswoman for the European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the IAEA’s report “seriously aggravates existing concerns” and the 27nation bloc was working on “an adequate reaction.”

Ashton represents the six world powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — in stalled negotiations with Iran aimed at convincing Tehran to freeze its uranium enrichment activities.

Although China and Russia — which both wield veto power in the UN Security Council — have been reluctant to impose

further sanctions on Iran, China on Wednesday urged Iran to show “flexibility and sincerity” in the wake of the IAEA report.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong lei said Beijing was still studying the document but called on Iran to “engage in serious cooperation” with the nuclear agency.

Russia was angry over the report’s release, saying it damaged the chance of renewing the nuclear talks.

The report itself stated that the IAEA had “serious concerns” Iran “has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.”

Although it stopped short of making an outright accusation of weapons programmes, it detailed activities it said showed computer modelling of a nuclear warhead, testing explosives in a large chamber at the Parchin military base near Tehran and studying how to arm a Shahab-3 missile with an atomic warhead.

Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said the allegations were “baseless” and insisted his country “will

continue its peaceful nuclear activities.”

He accused IAEA chief Yukiya Amano of being “unbalanced, unprofessional and political” and making a “historic mistake” in releasing the document.

Analysts said that while the report was important for showing Iranian activity that could relate to nuclear weapons production, there was no “smoking gun” proving Tehran was on the verge of making an atomic bomb.

“This isn’t new blockbuster information,” Peter Crail from the Arms Control Association in Washington told AFP. The Institute for Science and International Security said it was notable that the report lacked “any assessment by the IAEA of Iran’s capability to make a nuclear explosive device based on what is learned through these activities.”

Amir Mohebian, an Iranian analyst at a moderate-conservative think-tank in Tehran, said the report seemed designed to increase pressure on Iran and set the scene for possible small-scale air strikes.

“Both acts have one message, and that is death of diplomacy. And this is dangerous,” he said.

Sickness delays Sonia gandhi’s return to India NEW DELHI AFp

Poor health on Wednesday forced Sonia Gandhi, president of India’s ruling Congress party, to cancel her first public speech since undergoing surgery in August, a party spokesman said. Gandhi was expected to signal her return to party business by addressing a rally in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand but she pulled out after being diagnosed with “viral fever”, Congress spokesman Janardhan Dwiwedi told AFP. “She has been running a viral fever since yesterday, so today we cancelled the plan for her to go to Uttarakhand,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t think the fever will last beyond three or four days.” Speculation over Gandhi’s health and the future of the Congress party has been mounting ever since she went to the United States three months ago to receive treatment for an undisclosed illness, thought to be cancer. She has since appeared in public several times, but has not spoken and her party has given no further details about the nature of her illness or her treatment.

BANGKoK: Local residents sit in floodwater on Wednesday. thailand plans to hire at least 2,000 extra rubbish collectors in Bangkok to tackle a mountain of trash that has piled up in inundated areas. afp

Benjamin Netanyahu: hero at home, pariah abroad JERUSaLEM AFp

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu may be feted at home for his role in freeing captive soldier Gilad Shalit, but abroad, world leaders are barely managing to hide their disdain for the media-savvy prime minister.

Just how much Netanyahu is failing to win the respect of his global peers emerged on Tuesday after a French website published remarks by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who described him as a “liar” during a private conversation with US President Barack Obama at the G20 summit in Cannes last week.

“I can’t stand him anymore, he’s a liar,” Sarkozy said in French in remarks which were inadvertently transmitted over the translation system and heard by reporters.

“You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day,” Obama replied.

The remarks were first reported by Arret Sur Images online news site, with the details confirmed by a number of journalists contacted by AFP. It was not the first time world leaders

have expressed disappointment or even anger with Netanyahu, with most of the frustration focused on the lack of progress in resolving the conflict with the Palestinians.

In February, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly lashed out at him after he criticised Berlin for backing a UN Security Council resolution condemning settlements.

“How dare you?” Merkel told Netanyahu in remarks reported by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. “You are the one who disappointed us. You haven’t made a single step to advance peace.”

The two had another difficult conversation last month, in which Merkel questioned his commitment to restarting talks after Israel approved a swathe of new homes in annexed east Jerusalem.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has also urged him to show “leadership” and in May, he irked Obama by publicly lecturing him in the Oval Office on the historic struggles of the Jewish people — live on television.

Shortly afterwards, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates reportedly criticised Netanyahu, describing him as “ungrateful,” and saying Washington had “received nothing” in exchange for its support of Israel’s security needs, in remarks published by a respected US columnist.

Even during his previous term in office (1996-1999), Netanyahu was not fully trusted, with US president Bill Clinton saying he had reneged on pledges to withdraw from occupied Palestinian land, torpedoing peace efforts, with the White House accusing him of failing to honour commitments made “at the highest level.”

And around the same time, Britain’s foreign office took an even blunter view of the Israeli leader, with officials nicknaming him in 1998 as “the armourplated bullshitter” according to memoirs published earlier this year by Alastair Campbell, former communications chief at 10 Downing Street.

Police brace for violence as students march in london LONDON AFp

Thousands of students headed to london Wednesday to march against cuts to higher education funding, as a huge police operation sought to head off any repeat of violent protests one year ago. Scotland Yard has deployed 4,000 officers to police the demonstration against cuts to university funding and a hike in tuition fees, which organisers expect about 10,000 students to attend. Police have been authorised to use plastic bullets if there is any repetition of last year’s violent demonstrations, which kicked off with an attack on Prime Minister David Cameron’s party headquarters on November 10. The university students are planning to march to the City of london financial district, passing close to St Paul’s Cathedral, where anti-capitalism protesters have been camping out since mid-October. Police have insisted they do not believe it was “inevitable” that the protest would descend into the violence of a year ago when students ransacked the lobby of the tower block housing the Conservative party’s offices.

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Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Foreign News 17

Nuclear energy vital to face energy demand, warming: IeA paRIS AFp

Nuclear energy remains vital to cope with rising energy demand, mainly in emerging economies, fight global warming and avert increased damage to the environment, the IEA warned on Wednesday. The IEA also warned that global nuclear generation capacity could fall by 15.0 percent by 2035 if countries such as Germany and Belgium pressed ahead with cutting their nuclear output in the light of the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan in April. A pullback from nuclear production, amid a rise in demand for energy, was likely to drive countries towards increased use of coal and gas, and therefore to generating extra carbon pollution with a devastating effect on the environment. The energy independence of nuclear-power producing countries would also be in danger because their sources of supply would be reduced, the International Energy Agency said. And the price of non-nuclear sources of energy would rise sharply, the IEA said, forecasting that in any case global oil demand was set to grow by 14.0 percent by 2035, pulled by China and emerging economies. Oil prices could rise to 120 dollars per barrel, the IEA said in its annual report and it warned that the world had to change the way it was consuming energy. “Without a bold change of policy direction, the world will lock itself into an insecure, inefficient and highcarbon energy system,” IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven said in the 24-page report. “Growth, prosperity and rising population will inevitably push up energy needs over the coming decades.” “But we cannot continue to rely on insecure and environmentally unsustainable use of energy,” Van der Hoeven added.

Scientists find big chink in malaria’s armour paRIS AFp

Researchers said Wednesday they had discovered a unique microscopic channel through which malaria parasites must pass to infect red blood cells, a finding that opens up a highly promising target for a vaccine.

The doorway mechanism is common to all known strains of the deadliest mosquito-borne pathogen, Plasmodium falciparum, which means that a future vaccine could in theory work against all of them, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

The death toll from malaria has declined by a fifth over the last decade, but the disease still claims some 800,000 lives every year, mostly children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Our findings were unexpected and have completely changed the way in which we view the invasion process,” said Gavin Wright of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the study’s senior co-author.

The breakthrough “seems to have revealed an Achilles’ heel in the way the parasite invades our red blood cells.”

MoSCoW: Medvedev’s Girls, members of an Internet community supporting Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev, attend a meeting of Medvedev with bloggers in the Kremlin on Wednesday. afp

Berlusconi says will resign after economic reforms Italian PM’s majority wiped out by several defections from ranks of his ruling People of freedom party g

ROME AFp

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, bowing to a parliamentary revolt and intense market pressure, said he would resign once crucial reforms aimed at calming eurozone turmoil are adopted this month.

Markets in Asia rallied and Italian borrowing costs fell, on hopes that the eurozone debt crisis already ravaging Greece might yet bypass Italy if the bloc’s third-largest economy gets serious about reform under new leadership.

“After the adoption of the stability law, which will contain all the requests made by the eurozone, I will resign,” Berlusconi told the Canale 5 network, which is part of the colourful tycoon’s media empire.

Berlusconi said that after his resignation he expected President Giorgio Napolitano to dissolve parliament and call early elections. But other options include a unity government headed by a non-partisan technocrat.

Berlusconi, who has survived numerous scandals during his two

decades atop Italy’s volatile political scene, appeared shocked at the result in parliament of a procedural vote on budgetary legislation.

The premier’s majority was wiped out by several defections from the ranks of his ruling People of Freedom party, leaving him fatally exposed if the opposition went ahead with a threatened vote of confidence.

The combination of Italy’s low growth rate and 1.9 trillion euro ($2.6

trillion) debt mountain has triggered investor alarm that the country could be the next victim of Europe’s debt crisis.

Berlusconi’s popularity rating has slumped to a record low of 22 percent amid the current crisis and he is currently a defendant in three trials for bribery, tax fraud, abuse of power and paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl.

The officials form part of a humiliating special surveillance mechanism from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund that Berlusconi agreed to at the G20 summit in France this month to reassure investors.

Berlusconi had promised his fellow eurozone leaders to overhaul Italy’s pensions system and accelerate sales of state assets, but the reforms had stalled to the intense frustration of Germany and others.

Berlusconi had long dismissed warnings from the EU and his critics at home about Rome’s ailing finances, but with his third term as premier winding up, he admitted it was time to “show the markets that we are serious”.

rogue Afghan soldier shoots three Australians SyDNEy: A rogue Afghan soldier was on the run Wednesday after shooting and wounding three Australian troops, days after a similar incident left three Australians dead, the defence department said. The men suffered serious wounds but all were in a stable condition after an Afghan National Army soldier opened fire with an automatic weapon and a grenade launcher at a joint base at Charmistan in Uruzgan province on Tuesday. Two Afghan soldiers were also wounded before the man fled in an Afghan army vehicle. The incident comes less than a fortnight after another Afghan soldier killed three Australians and wounded seven others when he opened fire during a parade in Kandahar province. “It is too early to speculate that the two incidents are linked,” defence force chief David Hurley told reporters, adding that nine or 10 Australians and about 30 Afghans were at the base when the latest attack occurred. “I stress that there is no simple one-line explanation to this incident or the previous incident. “We need to do some digging, further digging,” he added when asked whether he knew of the motive. “It could be personal grievance, it could be religious ideology. We don’t know, there was no indication.” In a statement published on their Voice of Jihad website, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed the attacker had been in touch with the insurgents before he struck and had now handed himself over to the local Taliban. AFp

arabs urged to act as Syria death toll soars DaMaSCUS AFp

The Arab league on Tuesday came under mounting pressure to act after Syria’s regime failed to implement its peace blueprint and tightened a bloody siege on the flashpoint city of Homs.

The United Nations said meanwhile that the regime’s repression has left more than 3,500 people dead since protests against the autocratic rule of President Bashar al-Assad erupted in mid-March. And in Brussels, diplomats said the EU is readying a freeze on European Investment Bank credits to Syria as it mulls more sanctions on Assad’s regime,

with a decision expected at a meeting of foreign ministers next Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 20 people — eight soldiers and 12 civilians — were killed across the country on Tuesday alone, among them a girl who died in Homs, as soldiers pressed on a military campaign in the central industrial hub.

“A civilian was killed during raids in the neighbourhood of Baba Amro,” where soldiers were searching for people wanted by the regime’s security services, the Britainbased rights group said in a statement.

Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, described the situation in the embat-

tled neighbourhood as “appalling,” with residents deprived of food, water and medical supplies for the past week.

In another neighbourhood of Homs, “a girl was killed by the explosion of a rocket that hit her home,” said the Observatory.

And in Qusayr, near Homs, overnight clashes pitted soldiers against gunmen presumed to be defectors. “Eight gunmen and security agents were killed in an ambush by armed men, probably army defectors,” south of Maaret al-Numan, a town in Idlib province near the border with Turkey, it added. Security forces also killed four civilians in the same province and “five people were wounded” when troops in armoured

vehicles opened fire on the highway linking Damascus with the second city of Aleppo.

At Hama north of Homs three people were shot dead by security forces, the Observatory said. In a letter, the opposition Syrian National Council urged the Arab league “to take a strong and effective position against the Syrian regime commensurate with the dangerous development of the situation in Syria, especially in... Homs.”

It wants the league to freeze Syria’s membership, impose economic and diplomatic sanctions, and seek the referral of allegations of genocide and other human rights violations by the regime to the International Criminal Court. British Foreign Secretary

William Hague joined the chorus demanding the Arab league respond promptly to Syria’s failure to abide by its commitments.

“I call on the Arab league to respond swiftly and decisively to the Syrian regime’s failure to implement the agreement so far,” said Hague. “The international community looks to these Arab nations to show decisive leadership to address this crisis in their midst.”

Hague urged the regime to end the siege of Homs and “allow in international and relief efforts (and) to withdraw all Syrian forces from the towns and cities of Syria in accordance with its agreement with the Arab league.”

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18

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Jacko’s

SOCIETY

killer on suicide watch LOS aNGELES

M

AGeNCIeS

ICHAEl Jackson’s personal physician Dr Conrad Murray has been placed on suicide watch at the los Angeles County Jail. Hours after he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter over the death of the King of Pop in June, 2009, Murray was handcuffed and remanded without bail after a judge branded him a ‘danger to society’. A law enforcement source told the los Angeles Times he was placed on suicide watch once in custody. The 58-year-old cardiologist will be sentenced on November 29, and could be sent to prison for up to four years.

Members of the Jackson family wept quietly after the guilty verdict was read at los Angeles Superior Court on November 7. But outside the courtroom, cries of joy erupted among the hundreds of fans who had gathered, singing lyrics to ‘Beat It’. There, they greeted Jacksons parents and siblings, who said justice had finally been served.

ToKyo: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie pose for photographers before the Japan premiere of Pitt’s latest film ‘Moneyball’.

ZheJIANg: Chinese workers start the annual Shaoxing wine-making for the lunar calendar winter solstice at a Shaoxing winery.

oscars show producer resigns over gay slur LOS aNGELES AGeNCIeS

US filmmaker Brett Ratner resigned Tuesday as a producer of next year’s Oscars show, after making an ‘unacceptable’ anti-gay slur, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said. Ratner, director of current box office hit ‘Tower Heist’, starring Hollywood veteran Eddie Murphy, who is due to host the Oscars show in February, submitted his resignation to Academy President Tom Sherak.

“He did the right thing for the Academy and for himself,” Sherak said, adding: “Words have meaning, and they have consequences.

Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable. We all hope this will be an opportunity to raise awareness about the harm that is caused by reckless and insensitive remarks, regardless of the intent,” he added,

cited in a statement by the Academy. Ratner, a prolific director and producer whose work also includes 2006’s ‘X-Men: The last Stand’, made the offending comment at a discussion about ‘Tower Heist’ last week, in response to a question about how he works.

‘Rehearsal is for fags’, he replied.

The los Angeles Times commented in a blog: “Ratner not only embarrassed the academy by insulting legions of gay people (who are perhaps the Oscars’ last remaining loyal demographic). He also made himself look like even more of an artistic featherweight by making it clear that he views the hard work and preparation that most filmmakers put into their craft ie rehearsal time as being for chumps, not fast-talking smoothies like himself.” Next year’s Oscars show, the 84th Academy Awards, at which Hollywood’s most coveted prizes, the famous golden statuettes, are handed out, is scheduled for February 26.

NAShvIlle: Taylor Swift attends the 59th Annual BMI Country Awards.

CAlIforNIA: Actress Penelope Ann Miller poses on arrival for the gala screening of ‘The Artist’ at grauman’s Chinese Theater.

SydNey: Andrew Killian, playing the role of Camille, and Madeleine eastoe as valencienne perform during the final dress rehearsal for ‘The Merry widow’.

New yorK: Actress Kaylee defer attends the versace h&M fashion event.

Lopez cries a Shakira river onstage

NEW yoRK: Her own lyrics hit a little too close to home for Jennifer lopez, who broke down in tears onstage after singing a song about loves from her past. “I’m going to sing you the last song I wrote about love,” lopez, who recently split from husband Marc Anthony, told the audience at the Mohegan Sun’s 15th anniversary celebration on Saturday night after singing an acoustic rendition of her hit ‘If You Had My love’. “A lot has changed since then.” lopez, 42, then launched into ‘Until It Beats No More’ while dancers re-enacted scenes with the singer and some of the men from her past. A lopez lookalike danced with guys who looked a lot like her exes Diddy, Cris Judd and Ben Affleck. The final couple to appear in the spotlight danced much like lopez and her estranged husband during their American Idol performance in May, just weeks before they announced their split. After she was done, lopez told the sold-out crowd, “I took a trip down memory lane” and then started to cry as the crowd applauded. But it wasn’t all sadness for lopez. A photo of her twins Max and Emme, 3½, flashed above her head and she said, “There’s love and then there’s love.” AGeNCIeS

NAShvIlle: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban attend the 59th Annual BMI Country Awards.

has her own star

LoS ANGELES: Singer Shakira became the first Colombian artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, joining latin stars Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera on the famed street. “I would like to dedicate this to the latin community in the US, a community that restlessly works and dreams and dreams and works everyday to make this a better country”, said the singer to fans gathered on the iconic Hollywood Boulevard sidewalk to see the singer unveil her star. The latin singer produced an English crossover album, ‘laundry Service’ following in the footsteps of bilingual artists like Enrique Iglesias and Martin, who also recorded in Spanish and English. Her single ‘Whenever, Wherever’, topped charts in many European counties and the Spanish version of the single won a latin Grammy award. “When I was seven years-old, I came to los Angeles for the first time and I passed by the Walk of Fame with my mother,” reminisced Shakira. “I remember that my mom told me, ‘Shaki, one day you are going to have your name on this place’.” The singer has won two Grammys and was nominated for her collaborations with Beyonce on the single ‘Beautiful liar’ and Wyclef Jean on ‘Hips Don’t lie’. Shakira’s latest album, ‘Sale el Sol’ is nominated at the upcoming 2011 latin Grammy Awards in las Vegas on November 10. AGeNCIeS

Heavy D LoS ANGELES: Rapper Heavy D coll and died a short time later at a los Ange He was 44. Heavy D, whose real name with difficulty breathing at his home aft at 11.25 am, the Beverly Hills police sai was pronounced dead in the emergency Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon, geles County coroner’s operations chie cause of death has not been determine hip-hop recording career began in 19 Heavy D & the Boyz and on his first alb hit single ‘The Overweight lover’s in the one of his breakthrough hits came in 1 make of the O’Jays’ ‘Now That We F Heavy D’s rapping was featured on Jane 1990 hit ‘Alright’. He rapped on Michael Jackson’s 1991 hit ‘Jam’, which he performed at last month’s Michael Jackson tribute show in Cardiff, Wales. He also composed and performed the theme songs several television shows, including ‘In living Color’, ‘MADtv’ and ‘The Tracy Morgan Show’. His last CD, ‘love Opus released this year. Heavy D also pursue ing career, which included mostly role shows and movies. He played a cou guard in the Eddie Murphy film ‘Tower released last weekend. AGeNCIeS

FRONT-BACK PAGE (10-11-2011) FINAL LHR_Layout 1 11/10/2011 12:44 PM Page 17

19 The estranged voice that made history g

AMrITSAr: ranbir Kapoor is greeted by enthusiastic young students at the BBK dAv College for women.

MUMBAI: Shah rukh Khan gestures to fans and well-wishers gathered outside his residence for his 46th birthday.

CAlIforNIA: Colombian musician Shakira’s hollywood walk of fame star.

D

dies at 44

lapsed in his Beverly Hills home Tuesday morning eles hospital, according to police and the coroner. is Dwight Arrington Myers, was found conscious fter police were called there id in a news release. He y room at Cedars-Sinai according to los Anef Craig Harvey. The ed, Harvey said. His 987 with his group bum he released the e House’. Another 1991 with a reFound love’. et Jackson’s

s’, was ed an actes on TV rthouse r Heist’,

‘May brother Bhupen be immortal’

Ustad ghulam haider Khan endeavors to commemorate the nurturing spring of the Patialia gharana of singing

U

MONITORING DESK

STAD Ghulam Haider Khan of the Qusur Gharana pays a tribute to Ustad Amanat Ali Khan of the Patiala Gharana by examining the various aspects of his persona and writing his short biography in words of a virtuoso. Writing in TIME, he says Amanat Ali was in love with his own voice. Indeed it was a special voice, endowed with a nasal quality that in any other throat would have sounded like a flaw (and some of the more rigid followers of classical music still maintain that it was Amanat’s main limitation as a singer). But it worked for him, and even enhanced his distracted charm, confirming the persona that he had both inherited and set out consciously to cultivate.

He was born in 1931 at Patiala, the grandson of Ustad Ali Bakhsh ‘Jarnail’, co-founder of the already well-known Patiala Gharana of singing.

Amanat studied music with his father, Ustad Akhtar Hussain Khan, and along with his younger brother Fateh Ali Khan began to sing for the radio in lahore a little before Partition. The teenagers Amanat and Fateh would travel from Patiala to lahore, air their transmissions and go back home to Patiala. But then the Partition happened and Amanat’s family, being Muslim, was compelled to migrate to lahore. like so many musicians of the time, they lost much of what they had owned; Amanat’s father Akhtar Hussein Khan was a particularly arrogant man who now had to give music lessons to the tawaaifs of Heera Mandi to make ends meet. Maintaining the façade of grandiosity, the kind the clan had come to assume in the princely state of Patiala, was no longer possible.

It was in this upside-down post-Partition world that Amanat Ali Khan came of age. Always welldressed and patricianly handsome, he was also outspoken and rude: he was prone to making haughty remarks that only offered glimpses into his own insecurities. For example, when asked why he only sang in the slow tempo and never in the fast, he said that rapid vocal movements were likely to distort the beauty of a man’s face and that he would always rather look beautiful. Now in those days, in the same city, the great Roshanara Begum was singing her lightning-fast taans. And unlike Amanat, who was acutely aware of his beauty, the poor woman was short, fat and black.

But she became transformed, as Noor Jehan correctly pointed out, into an ‘apsara’ or fairy when she began to sing, her unbelievably beautiful voice endowing her physical form with a palpable glow.

So no one really believed Amanat when he cited a concern for the integrity of his facial expression.

But everyone indulged him anyway.

Some men are fated to receive that kind of attention. Still, social conditioning has a role to play in the making of a man’s character. In Amanat’s case it was the boundless love of his mother that destroyed him. It was she who raised him to be-

lieve that he was a prince, worthy of every praise and honour, she who facilitated from an early age his every whim and need. His maternal uncle, the great Ustad Umeed Ali Khan of Gawailor, also never hid his special fondness for Amanat, coaching him in the arts of dressing, speaking and behaving like a classical singer. All these things gave young Amanat an often empowering feeling of entitlement. But they also produced in him a kind of burden that Amanat carried all his life like a cross of suffering: it was he who came to embody the rising reputation of the Patiala Gharana of singing; and so it was he who had to be publicly nonchalant as well as privately anxious about how it fared. The Amanat-Fateh duo did well by all accounts. By the early 1960s they were considered the leading stars of Pakistan’s classical music scene, stealing the show at every major venue, from the radio station’s Jashn-e-Baharan festival to the newly launched All Pakistan Music Conference. In private mehfils too the brothers were in high demand, easily earning the favor of generals, bureaucrats, landlords and industrialists. They got some competition from that other illustrious duo of Shaamchaurasi, Ustads Nazakat Ali and Salamat Ali, but it only served to sharpen their attentions and add a healthy distinctiveness to their respective styles.

And yet Amanat Ali Khan wanted more from life, or was eager to prove that he was capable of more. In the daytime he would hang out with writers, journalists and intellectuals at the famous Pak Tea House on Mall Road. Then he would play billiards at laxmi Chowk. At night you could see him loafing about in Heera Mandi, which is also where he picked up his drinking habit. For a long time he was convinced that his real vocation lay in the world of the cinema. He was desperate to be cast as a hero in a hit film. Then he wanted to be a music director. Then a playback singer. The last of these wishes came true when Saifuddin Saif, a friend of his, gave him the chance to record a song with Noor Jehan in the film ‘Darwaza’. This was the duet ‘Piya nahi aaye’, composed in the Raag Kalavati, and Amanat was delighted when it became a hit. During the 1965 war with India, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan recorded some memorable patriotic songs, most notably ‘Ay watan pyaarey

Another singing Spears NASHVILLE: Jamie lynn Spears, 20, took to a Nashville stage for the first time on Monday night, singing a set of her own original songs to a packed crowd of family and friends.

Grandfather June Spears traveled from the family’s hometown of Kentwood, louisiana, with other relatives (although not sister Britney Spears, who is touring overseas) to cheer on Jamie lynn, sitting near her beaming parents lynne and Jamie Spears, as well as country music legend Pam Tillis. “I am so emotional tonight”, lynne told PEOPlE after watching her youngest daughter perform. Her father, Jamie, concurred, saying, “We are so proud of her”. Spears, who has been living in Nashville the past two years with her daughter, Maddie, 3, performed at The Rutledge, a live music venue on 4th Avenue South and took to Twitter to express her appreciation. “Just wanna thank all my amazing friends and family for coming out tonight!!!”, she wrote.

AGeNCIeS

watan’ and ‘Chaand meri zameen, phool mera watan’. Soon after this he recorded some ghazals for the radio. But here he ran into that force of nature called Mehdi Hasan. It is said that the two men once had a discussion about the merits of ghazal gaayaki while they were both drinking. Mehdi rendered some rare classical compositions (he was eager to prove himself in that field!) and insisted that he was made for the superior form; he had only succumbed to ghazal gaayaki because that was what earned him a living. And perhaps Amanat allowed Mehdi on that occasion to rubbish his own vocation, though the truth is that no one could sing a ghazal like Mehdi Hasan. In a way Ustad Amanat Ali Khan was the quintessential artist: seductive, distracted, instinctive, compulsive, restless and tortured in the depths of his soul. No one could not notice him; and no one could forgive him for wearing his genius so lightly. Even high-ranking radio officials envied his narcissism, his excellent clothes, his undisputable good looks, his humorous conversation and especially his lady-killing gestures.

(Amanat was a lay-killer but not a womanizer; he would dare to start a romance but never lived up to the challenge.) The doctors warned him: if he continued to drink whiskey, he would die of alcohol poisoning. Only when his father died in the summer of 1974 was Amanat pushed into sobriety, but only temporarily: he remained “clean” for a total of one month and twenty-three days (he counted all the days himself). On the twenty-fourth day he went to a friend’s house and drank so much that it burst his appendix. He was rushed to a hospital but could not be saved.

He was only 45 years old.

He is survived by his younger brother Fateh, who kept singing and eventually consolidated the Patiala reputation. Amanat’s own son Shafqat is an accomplished singer now and a well-known pop star. As for Amanat’s own voice, you can hear it today in a number of high-quality recordings: there are his classical renditions (Raag Darbari and Raag Malkauns in particular), a few patriotic songs, and some ghazals, the most emblematic of which is ‘Insha ji uttho, ab kuch karo’. All of them are strange, beautiful and haunting.

GUWaHaTI AGeNCIeS

Hundreds of thousands of mourners, including Bollywood stars and politicians, gathered on Wednesday for the cremation of one of India’s most famous folk singers, Bhupen Hazarika, who helped popularise the culture of the country’s remote northeast. Known for portraying the social life of Assam and speaking for the poor, the 85-year-old Hazarika was a poet, composer, singer, author and film-maker. “In Dr Hazarika’s sad demise, India has lost one of its most gifted artists”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement.

Hazarika died in Mumbai on Saturday. Thousands of his admirers broke into tears while slogans of “Bhupen da amor houk” (May brother Bhupen be immortal) rang in the air as his body was carried through the city to be cremated on an open pyre.

More than half-a-million people have visited the stadium where he often played and where his body had been kept since Monday. Born in 1926 in Assam, he got a PhD from Columbia University and played across Europe, the United States and Asia. Famous for his baritone voice and heartrending lyrics, Hazarika helped to bring his northeastern homeland to the attention of the rest of India and beyond. Music lovers called him the Bard of the Brahmaputra, a river that runs through Assam. He also contested unsuccessfully national elections in 2004 as a candidate for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

It’s not ‘Dhuan’,

then what is it?

mumBAI: A miffed Aamir Khan forbids the unit of his next film from using the title of the film. The suspense over the title of Aamir Khan’s next film, which is a suspense thriller, continues. The actor cannot understand why everyone has started calling it ‘Dhuan’. Aamir is upset that several people, including the cast and crew of the film are referring to it by that title. A few crew members recently referred to the film as ‘Dhuan’ since media has started calling it that. Aamir immediately sent out a text to everyone working on the film saying, “Dhuan is not the title of our film, please don’t refer to it by this name”. He, along with the producers Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, are still looking for an apt title. Apparently they have zeroed in on three options and are approaching those who have the rights to those titles. The team has been instructed to finalise a title in a month’s time. The unit has completed shooting a very complex underwater sequence in london. Initially they were supposed to shoot this sequence in Khandala, but for certain requirements the makers realised it would be better to shoot in london. Aamir and one of the leading actresses in the film were involved in the underwater sequence. It is not an action scene but a very important mystery sequence that is key to the suspense plot. AGeNCIeS

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Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Murray hits the ground running at Paris Masters Page 23

Amir shifted to safer prison LONDON

fiRSt odi tomoRRow

Pakistan, SL renew one-day rivalry DUBaI

AGeNCIeS

Pakistan's cricketer Mohammad Amir, who was jailed for his involvement in last year's spot fixing scandal, would soon be transferred from the notorious Feltham Young Offenders Institution to the much-safer Her Majesty's Prison Portland in Weymouth. The Prison Service's Youth Justice Board in England has given the order after Amir showed "extremely good behavior. The news came just days after reports claimed that Mohammad Asif, also convicted in the scandal, is to be moved from the high security Wandsworth Prison in South london where he is currently imprisoned along with Salman Butt, the third player involved. According to reports, Amir will have access to every kind of facility at the centre in Weymouth where he can play sports, attend education classes, exercise at the gym, use internet and take part in charitable events after a month or so, including collecting money for the local charities. A report by the Commission for Racial Equality compiled seven years ago had found "widespread racism" at the Feltham Young Offenders Institution, with Black and Asian inmates subjected to bullying and unfavourable treatment by wardens. The instant decision to relocate Amir has been made to avoid any such incident and a potential controversy that could harm diplomatic relations between Pakistan and England.

P

AFp

AKISTAN and Sri lanka open their rivalrly in limited overs cricket as the five-match one-day series which begins here from Friday promises fierce competition from two talented sides. Pakistan won the preceding three-Test series 1-0, but their captain Misbah-ul Haq feared a strong comeback from the Sri lankans, who are number two in the world to their opponent’s sixth in ICC (International Cricket Council) rankings.

Sri lanka also finished runners-up to India in this year’s World Cup, where Pakistan were the losing semi-finalists. Pakistan beat Sri lanka in the group stages of the 2011 World Cup and that’s why Misbah feels both teams will start on an even keel.

“Sri lanka are a very good one-day side, so we know we face good competition but we are focused and I believe it’s a 50-50 game because if they reached the final of the World Cup, we were semi-finalists,” said Misbah. The 37-year-old Misbah was appointed captain for all three formats of the game in June this year after Shahid Afridi retired in protest over being sacked as oneday captain. Afridi, who with 21 dismissals was the joint-leading wicket taker in the World Cup with India’s Zaheer Khan, returns to the squad after reversing his retirement decision earlier this month. Misbah hoped Afridi’s return will boost Pakistan.

“Afridi is a very good allrounder and whenever he plays he is a threat for the opponents,” said Misbah of Afridi who holds the record of the fastest one-day hundred, made off 37 balls against Sri lanka in 1997.

But the 31-year allrounder will be under pressure to perform in both batting and bowling after a poor one-day series against the West Indies in May, following which he fell out with then coach Waqar Younis. Sri lanka will also be boosted by the return of their sling-action paceman lasith Malinga

dUBAI: Pakistan’s cricket captain Misbah-ul-haq (l) and Sri lanka’s cricket captain Tillakaratne dilshan (r) pose for photographers with odI trophy. afp who earlier this year retired from Test cricket, but still poses big threats in limited over matches with his lethal yorkers. “lasith gives us good bowling support at the top and that is why we have a decent one-day team and had a good one-day series against Australia at home two months ago,” said Sri lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan. But Dilshan has no series wins as captain, both in Tests and one-day, since taking over from Kumar Sangakkara in May this year. The 35year-old opener still believes his team carry some positives from the Test series. “We can

carry the positives from the Tests, our bowling is really experienced with lasith and Dilhara (Fernando), both have played well and our batting is strong, so we have a good chance,” said Dilshan. The remaining matches will be played in Dubai (November 14 and 18), Sharjah (November 20) and Abu Dhabi (Nov 23). The sides will also play a Twenty20 in Abu Dhabi on November 25.

Squads and officials for the first of five one-day matches between Pakistan and Sri lanka to be played here on friday: Pakistan: Misbah-ul-haq (capt), Shahid Afridi, Moham-

mad hafeez, Imran farhat, younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Abdul rehman, Umar gul, Aizaz Cheema, Junaid Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Abdul razzaq, Asad Shafiq.

Sri lanka: Tillakaratne dilshan (captain), Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Angelo Mathews, dinesh Chandimal, Jeevan Mendis, Kosala Kulasekara, lasith Malinga, Suranga lakmal, Thissara Perera, Seekkuge Prasanna, dimuth Karunaratne, dilhara fernando, Suraj randiv Umpires: Marais erasmus (rSA) and Ahsan raza (PAK Tv umpire: richard Illingworth (eNg) Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)

Convictions not the end of the corruption story expeRt CoMMeNt

T

ehSAN MANI

HE recent convictions of Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir brings to an end this sad chapter on corruption, however, the full story will continue as names of other players were also mentioned during the trial; they will be investigated and further action may also be taken.

Butt, Asif and Amir sold themselves for a relatively modest amount of money and in the process destroyed their careers and brought cricket and Pakistan into disrepute.

The fact that three players, possibly more, were involved is worrying; none of them considered that what they were doing was not only wrong but also dishonest and illegal.

In Pakistan, where cricket provides a welcome distraction from the internal security threats and the terrible natural disasters the country has faced in recent years, there is a sense of outrage and anger at being let down by people who were role models for hundred of thousands of fans. I believe that the convictions for the players were correct. In addition to the jail sentences and fines they have all been banned for five years from any form of cricket.

I do feel sorry for teenager Amir;

while I am not convinced that he was coerced or pressurized, he was naive and in all probability did not fully appreciate what he was doing or its consequences due to his background and education.

Butt and Asif must never again play for Pakistan; I would treat Amir's case with more sympathy but it will be very difficult for him to get back into international cricket in five years time. I am not happy with the sentence given to agent Mazhar Majeed; it should have been much tougher.

For me the important question is how did this happen; what lessons did we learn and what should the game do going forward?

It was very clear that the three players did not understand the ethos of the game or what the spirit of cricket means. They also callously ignored the ICC Code of Conduct on corruption and matching fixing.

The ICC has an excellent program for awareness and prevention of corruption; so where did the message fail to get through?

The ICC works in partnership with every cricket board to educate the players on corruption. In this case it is clear that the Pakistan Cricket Board did not do enough.

This was a major failing and the PCB should not only accept responsibility for this but undertake to ensure that it does not happen again. The team management had concerns about the players' agent but failed to do anything about it.

There had been rumors about the team's performance in Australia before the tour to England, yet no measures were taken to tighten the controls around the players and stop outside influences from having access to them.

When the News of the World broke the story, the PCB went into denial im-

The Pakistan Cricket Board should accept full responsibility for what has happened. plying this was a conspiracy against the Pakistan team; this forced the ICC to take action against the players something the PCB should itself have done.

After the match fixing scandals in the late 1990s the PCB worked very hard to eradicate corruption from the game.

Certainly, until 2006 when my term as President of the ICC came to an end, I was confident that the PCB and specifically its chairmen during my time, made great efforts to prevent and monitor corrupt practices in Pakistan cricket.

But things have gone dreadfully wrong in the past three to four years and Pakistan cricket has paid the price of a weak governance structure.

The chairman is appointed by the president of the country without a consultation process with any of the key stakeholders in the game.

The PCB chairman is not accountable to anyone; some years ago the PCB chairman also assumed the position of chief executive and downgraded the role of the CEO to chief operating officer; this destroyed whatever little checks and balances existed within the PCB.

Without a sound governance structure and professional management, corruption will remain a huge risk for Pakistan cricket.

I do not believe that corruption is endemic in cricket; almost all of the Test playing countries have a robust anticorruption regime.

During my time with the ICC I met with Paul Condon, the then chairman of the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit, for one to one briefings on corruption. He was confident that match fixing was not taking place but was not so confident about 'spot fixing' where one or more players could be corrupted; this was difficult if not impossible to monitor.

These incidents can be avoided by the national cricket boards having a robust education program for the players; appointing mentors from within the team to help and guide new players and having an effective anti-corruption units to monitor domestic as well as international cricket.

Most of the boards already do this; unfortunately the PCB's anti-corruption program was not effective. The educa-

tion program for the players should start when they first start playing domestic first class cricket.

For its part, the ICC must engage with the governments of countries such as India, UAE and Pakistan where a very large unregulated betting industry exits.

The epicenter of cricket betting is India; hundreds of millions of dollars are bet on each match, particularly when India is playing. The ICC AntiCorruption and Security Unit is not able to access the betting odds being offered or monitor suspicious bets being placed.

Unless betting is regulated in these countries it will remain very difficult to stop players being approached.

I would also like to see the ICC have the powers to carry out an annual review of the anti-corruption processes of every Test playing country; testing the players and relevant officials through annual on-line questionnaires to assess how well they understand the ICC Code of Conduct on corruption.

Where players get low scores the ICC should have the authority to require the player's board to take remedial action and re-training of the board's officials in-charge of educating the players.

In case of extreme failure on the part of a board to demonstrate that it has a robust anti-corruption program, the country should be suspended from international cricket until the ICC Board is satisfied that the particular country has put a robust anti-corruption regime in place.

The writer is a former President of the International Cricket Council. From 1989 to 1996 he represented the PCB on the ICC before holding various positions within the organization until becoming president in June 2003, a role he held for three years.

CoURteSY CNN

FRONT-BACK PAGE (10-11-2011) FINAL LHR_Layout 1 11/10/2011 12:44 PM Page 19

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Pakistan down India in AfC U-19 Qualifiers

Tendulkar guides India to victory

LaHORE

NEW DELHI

StAFF RepoRt

AFp

India crumbled under pressure in the battle of sub-continental rivals as Pakistan sent them packing with 2-1 margin in a thrilling AFC-19 Qualifier played at the Takhti Stadium, Iran, on Tuesday evening.

According to reported received here, the Group 'C' clash between the two sides for the 2012 AFC U19 Championship qualifiers was for nothing but pride after Pakistan and India failed to finish in top two which would have guaranteed them a spot in next year's main championship. Bilawal-ur-Rehman was the hero for Pakistan as he scored twice.

In the first half, both team found it hard to adjust to the slushy ground conditions.

Pakistan adjusted better and rode on a brace from Bilalwal-ur-Rehman, (MF) to beat India 2-1. Bilawal scored his first when he headed it home in the 32nd minute, and then in the 43rd minute, he scored off a direct free-kick from outside the box. India pulled one back in the 55th minute when Johnnychand Singh scored a goal. Same results were witnessed in the final of SAFF Championship under16 football where India U-16 team stumbled at the final hurdle as they went down to Pakistan 1-2 in the title clash on August 9, 2011 at Nepal. Football in Pakistan is moving towards a positive direction. This statement may be criticised by many, but a ray of hope is visible in the recent football activities by Pakistan at sub-continent level.

Sports 21

S

SCoReBoARD

ACHIN Tendulkar missed out on an unprecedented 100th international century before India raced to a comfortable five-wicket win over the West Indies in the opening Test on Wednesday. The master batsman scored a solid 76 and Venkatsai laxman made a stylish 58 not out as India achieved a 276run victory target on a low, slow pitch on the penultimate day for a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series. laxman finished the match 32 minutes after the lunch break when he turned part-timer Kraigg Brathwaite to square-leg for a single. India also redeemed some of their Test image after a horror tour of England, where they were beaten 4-0 in the four-Test series and also lost their number-one ranking.

Yuvraj Singh (18) fell when India needed just one run to win, bowled off seamer Darren Sammy’s delivery that kept a bit low. Tendulkar was dismissed against the run of play, trapped leg-before by leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo while attempting to pull in the second hour of the morning session. “We conceded a big (95-run) lead and we all felt we did not bat the way we should have in the first innings and we said we will have to make it up,” said India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. “It was not an easy wicket to score and you had to be aware of the ball that kept low. Pragyan Ojha bowled well in the first innings and Ravichandran Ashwin has got a few variations and was supported by the other bowlers.” Debutant off-spinner Ashwin was named man of the match for taking nine wickets in the Test while

WeSt INDIeS, 1st innings: 304 (S. Chanderpaul 118, K. Brathwaite 63; p. ojha 6-72, R. Ashwin 3-81) INDIA, 1st innings: 209 (V. Sehwag 55, R. Dravid 54; D. Sammy 3-35) WeSt INDIeS, 2nd innings: 180 (S. Chanderpaul 47; R. Ashwin 6-47) INDIA 2nd innings (overnight 152-2): 22 G. Gambhir lbw b Samuels V. Sehwag b Sammy 55 R. Dravid b F. edwards 31 S. tendulkar lbw b Bishoo 76 V. Laxman not out 58 Yuvraj Singh b Sammy 18 0 MS Dhoni not out 16 extRAS (b1, lb14, nb1) totAL (for five wickets; 80.4 overs) 276 Fall of wickets: 1-51 (Gambhir), 2-95 (Sehwag), 3-162 (Dravid), 4-233 (tendulkar), 5-275 (Yuvraj).

Bowling: F. edwards 15-3-51-1, Rampaul 10-0-34-0 (nb1), Sammy 16-0-56-2, Samuels 16-0-57-1, Bishoo 22-2-56-1, Brathwaite 1.4-0-7-0.

ReSULt: India win by five wickets toSS: West Indies UMpIReS: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI) and Rod tucker (AUS) tV UMpIRe: Sudhir Asnani (IND) MAtCH ReFeRee: Jeff Crowe (NzL) SeCoND teSt: Kolkata (Nov 14-18)

New delhI: west Indies players Carlton Baugh (l) and darren Bravo (C) watch as India’s Sachin Tendulkar plays a shot. afp left-arm spinner Ojha took seven wickets.

Tendulkar, who became the first batsman to complete 15,000 Test runs on Tuesday, put India on course for victory when he added 67 runs for the third wicket with Rahul Dravid (31) and 71 for the next with laxman. laxman and Tendulkar were quick to punish loose deliveries, scoring runs comfortably against both pace and spin. laxman executed some handsome wristy shots during his 105-ball knock, containing six fours. Tendulkar, who added 43 runs to his overnight score of 33, cracked 10 fours in his 148-ball knock. He already holds four batting records -- the most runs in Test and one-day cricket

and the highest number of centuries in Tests and one-dayers. The West Indies’ hopes of putting pressure on India rested on taking early wickets, but they grabbed just one in the opening hour when paceman Fidel Edwards bowled Dravid with a delivery that jagged back in on the batsman. Dravid added just one run to his overnight score of 30. “When you play against a top team you want to create the opportunity to win. We did that in the first innings but did not bat well in the second,” said West Indies captain Sammy. “The pitch played much better on the third and fourth days. We want improvement and we have to look to create opportunities and hopefully

cash in on them. We believe we can win matches here.” India added 124 runs to their overnight total of 152-2 for the loss of three wickets. Tendulkar started his innings confidently, turning Sammy to fine-leg for a four in the opening over of the day and then coverdriving and cutting the same bowler for two boundaries in an over. He soon reached his 62nd Test half-century with a single to thirdman off Edwards and continued to play attractive shots. laxman flicked the first ball he faced from Edwards for four and then greeted Bishoo, who replaced Sammy, with a boundary through mid-wicket. The remaining two Tests will be played in Kolkata and Mumbai.

Clarke leads aussie fightback CapE TOWN AFp

Australian captain Michael Clarke hit an aggressive half-century as his team fought back after a poor start on the first day of the first Test against South Africa at Newlands here on Wednesday.

Australia were 241 for eight with Clarke on 107 not out when rain forced early stumps. They crashed to 40 for three after being sent in to bat before Clarke was the dominant partner in a fourth wicket stand of 103 with Shaun Marsh (44). Fast bowler Dale Steyn claimed the wickets of Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting, while new cap Vernon Philander had Phil Hughes caught behind as Australia struggled

in seam friendly conditions after rain delayed the start by almost two hours. Steyn dismissed Marsh with the first ball of his third spell when he was called back for what proved to be the last over before tea. He had figures of three for 17 in ten overs.

Clarke was given a torrid time by Steyn at the start of his innings before launching a counter attack when Steyn was replaced by Jacques Kallis. The Australian captain scored 40 of the runs as the stand with Marsh became worth 50, reached 5000 runs in Test cricket when his score was on 44, and hurried to his fifty off only 56 balls with nine fours.

SCoReBoARD AUStRALIA, first innings 3 S. Watson c Kallis b Steyn 9 p. Hughes c Boucher b philander S. Marsh lbw b Steyn 44 R. ponting lbw b Steyn 8 107 M. Clarke not out 1 M. Hussey c Boucher b Morkel 5 B. Haddin c prince b Steyn M. Johnson c Morkel b philander 20 R. Harris c Morkel b philander 5 p. Siddle not out 0 12 extRAS (b5, lb3, nb3, w1) totAL (8 wkts, 55 overs) 214 Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Watson), 2-13 (Hughes), 3-40 (ponting), 4-143 (Marsh), 5-158 (Hussey), 6-163 (Haddin), 7-202 (Johnson), 8-214 (Harris) Bowling: Steyn 14-4-31-4, philander 16-2-54-3 (3nb, 1w), Morkel 13-2-58-1, tahir 6-1-26-0, Kallis 6-0-37-0 to bat: N. Lyon.

SoUtH AFRICA: Graeme Smith (capt), Jacques Rudolph, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Ashwell prince, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon philander, Imran tahir. toSS: South Africa UMpIReS: Billy Doctrove (WIS), Ian Gould (eNG) tV UMpIRe: Billy Bowden (NzL) MAtCH ReFeRee: Roshan Mahanama (SRI)

lAhore: Tournament organisers’ team with the Amar Cables veterans T20 Cricket Tournament trophy. Amer Ilyas Butt and Ahsan Butt are also in the picture. STaff pHOTO

Afridi ready to hit turbulent period for a six DUBaI

Ajmal, Sangakkara top series averages

AFp

Recalled Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi Tuesday showed confidence to hit his turbulent past six months for a big six, saying he wants to perform for the country and his fans. The 31-yearold all-rounder was recalled in Pakistan squad for the five-match one-day series against Sri lanka, starting in Dubai with the first game on Friday.

Both teams will also play a Twenty20 international in Abu Dhabi. Pakistan won the three-Test series 1-0 on Monday. The popular hard-hitting batsman, who holds the world record of scoring the fastest one-day century -- off 37 balls made against Sri lanka in Nairobi in 1997 -- said he is set to put aside all his problems. “I think its all about cricket, its time to play and I don’t want to involve myself in any other thing other than cricket,” said Afridi, who in May this year had a fall out with then coach Waqar Younis over selection issues.

Afridi’s outburst after the one-day series against the West Indies prompted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to sack him as captain, a punishment which led Afridi’s self-imposed retirment from international cricket. When he retired, the PCB suspended his contract and revoked his NOCs to play abroad, an action which Afridi challenged in the court. But the matter was finally settled after Afridi appeared before a PCB disciplinary committee which fined him $53,000 and revoked his NOC to play for English county Hampshire. After Waqar quit and PCB chairman Ijaz Butt replaced, Afridi announced his comeback last month.

number of fifties in six innings.

Taufeeq Umar took the number one position for Pakistan. The left-hand opening batsman scored 324 runs at 54.00 and a strike rate of 43.08 with one hundred in six innings.

Saeed Ajmal took the first spot among the bowlers. The Pakistani off-break bowler claimed 18 wickets at an average of 28.77 and an economy rate of 2.54.

Chanaka Welegedara was the most successful bowler for the Islanders. He claimed 11 wickets at

stats corner S. pERvEZ QaISER Kumar Sangakkara scored the highest number of runs while Saeed Ajmal claimed the highest number of wickets in the three Test matches series between Pakistan and Sri lanka in the United Arab Emirates which the former won 1-0.

The Sri lankan batsman scored 516 runs at an average of 86.00 and a strike rate of 47.20 with two centuries and same

25.00 with economy rate of 2.49.

As many as six centuries were scored, three each from both sides. Kumar Sangakkara scored two including a double while Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younus Khan and Prasanna Jayawardene made one hundred each.

Three bowlers, two from Pakistan and one from Sri lankan, claimed a five-wicket haul.

Pakistan's 1-0 victory was Pakistan's seventh series victory over Sri lanka in Tests and first on neutral venue.

top SIx BAtSMeN IN tHe SeRIeS: BAtSMAN Kumar Sangakkara (Sl) Taufeeq Umar (Pak) Azhar Ali (Pak) younus Khan (Pak) Mohammad hafeez (Pak) Tharanga Paranavitana (Sl)

M 3 3 3 3 3 3

I 6 6 6 4 6 6

No 2 2 1

RUNS 516 324 263 221 198 195

AVG 86.00 54.00 65.75 55.25 49.50 39.00

HS 211 236 100 122 75 76*

S/R 47.20 43.08 36.42 49.88 61.11 34.21

100 2 1 1 1 -

BoWLeR Saeed Ajmal (Pak) Umar gul (Pak) Junaid Khan (Pakistan) Chanaka welegedara (Sl) rangana herath (Sl) Abdur rehman (Pak)

M 3 3 3 3 3 2

oVeRS 203.5 114.3 109.1 110.2 174.5 107

RUNS 518 338 319 275 356 246

WKtS 18 14 12 11 10 5

AVG 28.77 24.1 26.58 25.00 35.60 49.20

eCo 2.54 42.95 2.92 2.49 2.03 2.29

5WI 1 1 1 -

BeSt 5-68 4-64 5-38 5-87 3-85 2-40

top SIx BoWLeRS

dUBAI: Shahid Afridi (r) warms up with teammates Saeed Ajmal (C) and Abdul razzaq (l) during a practice session. afp

50 2 2 1 2 2

FRONT-BACK PAGE (10-11-2011) FINAL LHR_Layout 1 11/10/2011 12:44 PM Page 20

22 Sports

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

‘Players’ scuffle won’t affect relations between organisations’ LaHORE StAFF RepoRt

The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has said that the recent on-field spat between Pakistani and Indian players in Australia would not affect the relations between the two hockey bodies. PHF secretary Asif Bajwa said the scuffle between was one of the most disappointing moments in the game's history but insisted that relations between the two federations would remained cordial and positive. "I don't think this ugly incident will have any adverse affect on the bilateral ties," Bajwa said. "The tournament director of the four-nation competition took the right decision after thoroughly reviewing the video footage of the incident and we are satisfied and have no intentions to take this issue up with the FIH," he added. The incident saw the hockey pitch at Busselton turn into a battle field as the Pakistani and Indian players got into an ugly scuffle. Some Indian players were also accused of hurting two Pakistani players -- Shafqat Rasool and Muhammad Imran -- with their hockey sticks. And that later led to the tournament director banning Indian hockey team manager, assistant manager and three players including the skipper for matches from one to five, while Pakistan captain Shakeel Abbasi was also barred for one match. The Indian authorities, however, blamed the Pakistani players for instigating them and have plans to appeal against the bans. Meanwhile, Pakistan won the four-nation tournament after upsetting Australia in the final 4-3 and Bajwa said that the victory is a morale booster for the side and it would surely help the team prepared for the future events. The former Olympian also said that the tour was a part of the strategy to gear up for the upcoming Champions Trophy and the london Olympics 2012. "Next year's Olympics is our major target and the Australia trip was part of the preparation strategy for the mega event. It provided the players with valuable experience," said Bajwa. Pakistan is keen to play a bilateral test series with India early next year before the london Olympics and are waiting for the dispute over the representative hockey body of India to be resolved to finalise matches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other gulf centres.

SHARJAH: Pakistan team with the series trophy after their 1-0 victory against Sri Lanka in the three-Test series. afp

Requiem for a Heavyweight: Smokin’ Joe Frazier g

remembering the great boxer, who died of cancer on Monday at age 67 comment aNDREW COHEN

E

VEN though my father was a huge fan of boxing, I was too young to remember or appreciate in realtime the first heavyweight championship fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, the one that took place on March 8, 1971 at Madison Square Garden, the one that life-long boxing fans still describe as the greatest match of all time.

By the time I was old enough to pay attention, the two boxers were sweating it out in the Phillippines in 1975, in the brutal final of their three bouts, pushing each other to what Ali would later call "the closest to death I ever came."

Deprived of experiencing the "Fight of the Century" as it unfolded, either live via satellite or later on the Wide World of Sports, I've had to settle for watching the occasional grainy replay of the 1971 bout and to otherwise sniff around for impactful first-hand narratives of the fight. Those accounts, along with ESPN Classic and a handful of Ali movies and documentaries, have kept alive for two subsequent generations the spirit and the glory of first AliFrazier fight. And now, as a tribute to the fallen Frazier, I'll bet you Manny Pacquiao's next paycheck that we'll be seeing the replay again this week on television in the comfort of our own homes.

Here are some of the highlights.

Makes contemporary boxing seem like beanbag, doesn' it?

You never know where you are going to find Ali-Frazier. You never who has been bitten by the bug. For example, in the newsroom at CBS Radio News, in the studio where the World News Roundup is

broadcast every morning and every evening (as it has been for three quarters of a century) there hangs on the wall, posted years ago, the text of of the famous account of the first Ali-Frazier fight. It is written by larry Merchant, yes, the larry Merchant of HBO Boxing fame, the timeless chronicler of the sport. For The New York Post, dateline March 9, 1971, Merchant wrote this unforgettable lede: Muhammad Ali fought a truth machine last night, and the truth that emerged was painfully clear. The arrogance and hubris that made Ali a great champion made him a former champion.

You can't con Joe Frazier for 15 rounds. Joe Frazier comes at you too honestly, too openly. He lets you find out what you have inside you. It is going to take an honest man made of stern stuff to beat him. Ali was not honest enough last night.

Ali went to the Garden last night to paint a masterpiece, to put on a great show, and he put on a great show; a fight of primitive fury and insolence, punctuated by ghetto gamesmanship. But Joe Frazier was not in Ali's plans for the show. And, ultimately, that is where he went wrong.

As it is with many famous people who live a public life of triumph and tragedy, of such visible extremes between the high and the low, Joe Frazier's death Monday evening will mean many different things to many different people. We know what Ali himself will say about the passing of his most famous foe. When word spread over the weekend that Frazier was in hospice care, Ali put out a statement saying that he and his family were praying for Joe, whom Ali called his "friend," a "fighter and a champion." Frazier's death is another death of a sort to Ali as well; another part of him that is sadly gone from us, too.

What will George Foreman say? What about Merchant and Bert Sugar and Dave Anderson and Pete Hamill and the hundreds of other people who know what they are talking about when they talk about Joe Frazier? Does Frazier's (relatively sudden) death somehow change the trajectory of the story any more than the Ali-Fraizer "reconciliation" did a few years ago? I put "reconciliation" in quotes since it's difficult to tell whether and to what extent the two actually did reconcile, or at least stay reconciled for any length of time.

Whatever the consensus, I hope Frazier's tribunes buttress his legacy in the coming days and weeks. He deserves in death the stability of reputation he so often was deprived of in life. Poor Frazier might have been a round or two shy of outboxing Ali in the ring but Smokin' Joe never stood a chance against Ali's wit outside of it. "One moved forward, the other back," the writer Charles leerhsen wrote on Facebook Monday night after Frazier's death was confirmed. "What they had in common was the willingness and the ability to take a punch, and we all saw the result."

More than one person had suggested to me over the past few days that Frazier desperately wanted to outlive Ali, to best him in the simple act of living. But in death Frazier again beat Ali to the punch. It is the latter who has to hear the accolades and the posthumous praise for Frazier from smart men like Max Kellerman and Jeremy Schaap and David Remnick. It is Ali who is left alone in the ring. And today at least the spotlight shines on his fallen rival.

Merchant inadvertently may have written Frazier's obituary 40 years before the fighter succumbed to liver cancer--

"Joe Frazier comes at you too honestly, too openly"--but the boxer's life was truly an astonishing one, full of parallels and contrasts, of glorious opportunities and numbing disappointments. I've always been struck by this one: Ali openly mocked Frazier as a "gorilla" and an "Uncle Tom" before their fight. He derided him mercilessly--after Frazier had loaned Ali money when the latter couldn't box because of his well-documented legal troubles. No wonder Frazier was so angry at the Garden that night.

Some of it we now know was for show.

But some of it was deadly serious. That fight at the Garden in 1971 was the "Fight of the Century" not just because the two men were such great fighters. They were symbols, too, between black and white America, and between the Establishment and the Uprising, elements in our society which are still battling each other, out in the streets of America. Frazier is gone, now. Ali will follow him soon enough. But Ali-Frazier is timeless. And so are the undercurrents of the first Ali-Frazier fight. As

a nation, we are still bloodied, and bloodying, and we are still unbowed.

In the Garden, in 1971, it was Frazier, the Establishment guy, who beat the living crap out of Ali, the people's poet. Who could have imagined that it would be mostly downhill from there for Joe Frazier and that, 40 years later, Muhammad Ali would be one of the most beloved sports figures in world history? Certainly not larry Merchant; the Ali of March 1971 is very different indeed from the Muhammad Ali of today. And you could have said the same thing about Joe Frazier. like every other heavyweight boxer of that era, Frazier needed Ali. He was the hub of the wheel. But unlike every other fighter, Ali needed Frazier, too, for Ali's greatness in many ways is measured by his three fights with Frazier. They made each other, or at least they made each other more than any of the rest of their contemporaries did. And now one is gone and the other is terribly sick. The sport may be a sweet science. But as always it takes a terrible toll.

FRONT-BACK PAGE (10-11-2011) FINAL LHR_Layout 1 11/10/2011 12:44 PM Page 21

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Sports 23

Misbah eyes a new beginning for Pakistan SHaRJaH

P

AFp

AKISTAN remained undisturbed and focused despite the corruption scandal which sent three of their former players to jail as they beat a struggling Sri lanka in the Test series here on Monday. Former Test captain Salman Butt was on Thursday handed a 30-month prison term while Mohammad Asif got a year and Mohammad Amir six months for their roles in fixing the lord’s Test against England last year.

Pakistan, under a cool captain Misbah-ul Haq, salvaged a draw in the final match to take the three-Test series 1-0 on Monday after winning the second match in Dubai by nine wickets. The first Test in Abu Dhabi ended in a draw. Misbah said players did think about the ugly episode but still remained focused.

“Of course, we did talk about that some time, but nobody got into it deeply and since we are here to play cricket, we remained focused on the work at hand because we wanted to do well,” said Misbah. To his credit, the 37-year-old Misbah has not lost a series since taking over in the wake of the scandal in August last year, squaring 00 against South Africa, 1-1 with the West Indies, and beating New Zealand and Zimbabwe 1-0 each.

“This is a young bunch of players and it is gelling well,” said Misbah, who was sidelined for the England tour last year but came back as Test captain. “The best part is that every player realises his responsibility and is playing for the team.” Rain also helped Pakistan on the fifth and final morning as Sri lanka, leading by 73 runs in the first innings, looked for quick runs but no play in the prelunch session spoiled their chances.

Salman files appeal against his sentence LaHORE StAFF RepoRt

Jailed cricketer Salman Butt has filed an appeal against his 30-month sentence, a media report claimed on Wednesday.

Found guilty in the spot-fixing scam, Butt was handed the prison term by a london court along with teammates Mohammed Asif and Mohammad Amir. Asif was given a one-year sentence while Amir got six months in young offenders detention centre.

"It's taken a few days to prepare the necessary paperwork and I can confirm that the appeal has now been submitted against the sentence that Salman received. We now await confirmation of when the appeal will be heard," PakPassion.net quoted a source close to the cricketer as saying.

The source further added: "Butt was undoubtedly finding prison extremely difficult and was missing his family terribly.

He's yet to see any of his family from Pakistan and is desperate to see them soon, especially his new born son, who was born an hour before the guilty verdicts were delivered by the jury." The source also said that Butt wants to be shifted to an open prison from the closed one.

"It's an extremely difficult time for him and we all pray for his well being. An application has been submitted for Salman to be moved to a less harsh, open prison and we await a decision in this regard.

We all hope that he is out of Wandsworth prison soon, but a process has to be followed before he can be moved," the source said.

When the play finally began, Sri lanka declared their second knock at 181-6, setting Pakistan a target of 255 in a possible of 61 overs.

Pakistan lost Mohammad Hafeez (13), Azhar Ali (seven), Younis Khan (11) and Taufiq Umar (39) and it was left to Misbah-ul Haq and Asad Shafiq to finish the day at 87-4. Misbah defended his ploy to bat out for a draw.

“I think we were positive in the start and hoped we got a good start but we lost our openers quickly, so we had to change our plans. They bowled well and the ball was spinning,” said the Pakistan captain. Misbah said there was a little disappointment for not winning the first Test.

“There is also a sense of disappointment on not to have won here 20 because of one bad fielding session in Abu Dhabi, spoiled that chance.

Kumar Sangakkara played brilliantly and saved them,” said Misbah of the left-hander who was joint man-ofthe-series with Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal. Sangakkara, who made a match-saving 211 in Abu Dhabi, finished with 516 runs in six innings while Ajmal took 18 wickets. By not winning 2-0, Pakistan remained sixth in Test rankings, and Sri lanka a place better than them. Sri lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan said: “It is a sad feeling to lose and we need to start the series well, we didn’t do that in England, then against Australia at home and now against Pakistan.”

Since taking over captaincy in May this year, Dilshan has yet to win a Test and his team has gone 13 Tests without a victory since beating India at Galle in 2009. Dilshan said his team couldn’t score big in the first innings of the first two Tests. “We didn’t get starts that we wanted,” said Dilshan, whose team were bowled out for 197 and 239 in the first two matches.

Draw hands Pakistan series win SHaRJaH AFp

Pakistan clinched the three-Test series against Sri lanka 1-0 after the third and final Test ended in a draw at Sharjah stadium here on Monday.

Persistent rain wiped out play in the pre-lunch session -- a two hours and 35 minutes delay -- which left Sri lanka with little time to enforce a win despite declaring their second innings at 181-6, setting Pakistan a target of 255 in a possible 61 overs. By tea, Sri lanka had taken three early wickets and were pressing for a win. Pakistan lost a further wicket when opener Taufiq Umar fell for 39, before they finished at 87-4 when umpires called off the match four overs early due to bad light.

Skipper Misbah-ul Haq (nine) and Asad Shafiq (seven) survived some anxious moments to salvage a draw. Pakistan won the second Test in Dubai by nine wickets after the first in Abu Dhabi ended in a draw. The result kept Pakistan on the sixth ranking, as they needed a 2-0 victory to jump one place up and replace Sri lanka on fifth. Pakistan started positively before losing Mohammad Hafeez (13), Azhar Ali (seven) and Younis Khan (11) in the space of 37 runs.

Hafeez had struck a boundary in the first over by Chanaka Welegedara but fell in an unwise manner, run out after taking a sharp single as he failed to beat a direct throw from mid-wicket by substitute lahiru Thirimanne.

Ali, who scored a maiden hundred in the second Test, was trapped leg-before wicket by left-arm spinner Rangana Herath before Younis played an uppish drive off Welegedara and was caught at mid-on. Umar miscued a drive off spin-

SCoReBoARD SRI LANKA, 1st innings: 413 (K. Sangakkara 144, t. Dilshan 92; Saeed Ajmal 4-132) pAKIStAN, 1st innings: 340 (Younis Khan 122, Misbah-ul Haq 89, Azhar Ali 53; C. Welegedara 5-87) SRI LANKA 2nd innings (overnight 164-5) t. paranavitana not out 76 t. Dilshan c Hafeez b Gul 4 K. Sangakkara c Shafiq b Hafeez 51 M. Jayawardene lbw b Gul 20 A. Mathews lbw b Ajmal 13 K. Silva lbw b Ajmal 0 K. Kulasekara b Ajmal 7 R. Herath not out 1 extRAS: (lb6, nb2, w1) 9 totAL: (for six wkts dec) 181 Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Dilshan), 2-80 (Sangakkara), 3-127 (Jayawardene), 4-155 (Mathews), 5-155 (Silva), 6-178 (Kulasekara) Bowling: Gul 15-1-44-2, Khan 5-3-9-0, Rehman 12-1-38-0, Hafeez 10-1-34-1, Ajmal 16-2-50-3 oVeRS: 58 pAKIStAN 2nd innings Mohammad Hafeez run out 13 taufiq Umar c Sangakkara b Randiv 39 Azhar Ali lbw b Herath 7 Younis Khan c sub (thirimanne) b Welegedara 11 Misbah-ul Haq not out 9 Asad Shafiq not out 7 extRAS: (lb1) 1 totAL: (for four wkts) 87 Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Hafeez), 2-30 (Ali), 3-57 (Younis), 477 (Umar) Bowling: Welegedara 9-3-19-1, Kulasekara 3-0-15-0, Herath 22-14-19-1, Randiv 19-9-21-0, Dilshan 4-0-12-0 oVeRS: 57 ReSULt: Drawn - pakistan win series 1-0 toSS: Sri Lanka UMpIReS: Simon taufel (NzL) and Shahvir tarapore (IND) tV UMpIRe: Shozaib Raza (pAK) MAtCH ReFeRee: David Boon (AUS)

ner Suraj Randiv and was caught by Kumar Sangakkara at point, leaving Pakistan at 77-4.

Misbah said the victory meant a lot to Pakistan cricket, in the news for the wrong reasons after the spot-fixing scandal. “It is a great win,” said Misbah, who has not lost a series since taking over in October last year. “That (scandal) happened last year but we have kept our focus and this is a great win for us.” His counterpart Tillakaratne Dilshan said

they tried their best to level the series.

“We were determined to win this Test, but Pakistan played better and deserved to win the series. We need to start a series in a better way,” said Dilshan who has yet to win a Test since taking over as captain in May this year.

Sri lanka, who have now gone 13 Tests without a win since beating India at Galle in 2009, had hoped to score some quick runs in order to set Pakistan a target and then get their rivals out for a victory. But overnight rain and constant drizzle forced the umpires to keep the team away from the ground, part of which remained covered during the morning session.

When play finally resumed 35 minutes after lunch, Sri lanka lost Kosala Kulasekara (seven) before declaring the innings at 181-6, after 2.2 overs of batting. Opener Tharanga Paranavitana remained not out 76, made off 168 balls with five boundaries and a six. Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal finished with 3-50 and paceman Umar Gul took 2-44.

The series highlighted Sri lanka’s batting frailties, especially in the first innings where they were bowled out for 197 and 239 in the first two Tests.

If not for Kumar Sangakkara’s 516 runs in six innings at 86.00, Sri lanka would have been hard pressed to save the two matches. Pakistan can take consolation from the fact that they have not lost a single series since the spot-fixing and corruption scandal of last year which ended in jail terms for their former Test captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. Both teams will now start a fivematch one-day series with the first game in Dubai on November 11. They will also play a Twenty20 in Abu Dhabi on November 25.

wATCH iT LivE STAR SPORTS Bnp Paribas – Paris Last 16 03:00PM

TEN SPORTS South Africa v Australia 1st Test Day 2 01:30PM

waqar backs under-fire anti corruption unit

SHaRJaH AFp

Former Pakistan coach Waqar Younis led calls Monday urging the cricketing world to rally around the anti-corruption unit in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal which rocked the sport.

Former Test captain Salman Butt, pacemen Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, and their agent Mazhar Majeed received prison sentences ranging from 32 months to six months for their roles in fixing part of the lord’s Test against England last year.

The scandal, unearthed after a sting operation by the now defunct British tabloid News of the World, sparked criticism for the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

England captain Andrew Strauss and former skipper Ian Botham called ACSU “a toothless tiger”, but former Pakistan coach and captain Waqar said everybody needs to work together to combat corruption.

“I have seen people from the ACSU working and they have a system in place with certain restrictions, but when such an ugly episode happens they (ACSU) are the easy punch bags,” Waqar told AFP. “Instead of criticising them we need to support them, enhance the system through which they are trying their level best but they cannot go beyond that, and do a sting operation,” said Waqar, coach of the team on the fateful tour.

Murray hits the ground running at Masters paRIS AFp

Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray both shrugged off injury concerns to sweep into the third round of the Paris Masters at Bercy Arena here on Wednesday. Djokovic’s participation in the year’s penultimate event, which he won in 2009, had been cast into doubt by the recurrence of a shoulder injury, but he had too much for Croatian Ivan Dodig in a 6-4, 6-3 victory. The world number one succumbed to only his fourth defeat of the season against Kei Nishikori at last week’s Swiss Indoors and he showed signs of rustiness in the first set here, double-faulting twice and producing 10 unforced errors.

A sublime behind-the-back forehand early in the second set proved he was finding his rhythm, however, and he closed out victory to set up an encounter with 15thseeded compatriot Viktor Troicki. Second seed Murray had to withdraw from the Swiss Indoors with a buttock muscle strain but he showed no ill-effects in a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of France’s Jeremy Chardy. The world number three, who won three consecutive tournaments in Asia last month and is on a 17-match unbeaten streak, now finds his route to the quarter-finals barred by number 13 seed Andy Roddick. Murray has a 7-3 career record against the American, and prevailed in straight sets when they met on the grass in the semi-finals at Queen’s Club in June this year.

FRONT-BACK PAGE (10-11-2011) FINAL LHR_Layout 1 11/10/2011 12:44 PM Page 22

Thursday, 10 November, 2011

Up to 70 Taliban dead as NATo thwarts Afghan attack KaBUL AGeNCIeS

Up to 70 Taliban fighters were killed after trying to attack a foreign troop base in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday. The attempted assault happened late Tuesday at a combat outpost in Paktika province, close to the border with Pakistan. No international troops were killed or injured in the incident.

The killings came as a district governor from the same province died of his injuries after his car was struck by a roadside bomb. Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the governor of Paktika, said the attackers who targeted the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base were likely to have come from the Pakistani side of the border. “In a joint ISAF and Afghan operation last night in Barmal district, between 60 and 70 Taliban militants were killed,” he said. “Initial reports show that this big group of militants wanted to attack a joint Afghan-ISAF base in Margha area of Barmal but were stopped and air assistance was called in.” The NATO-led ISAF said that an estimated 60 Taliban were killed in the clash and there were no casualties among international forces. ISAF Spokesman Sergeant Christopher DeWitt added: “I can confirm that a coalition base in eastern Afghanistan came under attack by insurgents.

Coalition aircraft assisted ground forces in repelling the attack and there is an unknown number of enemies that were killed in that process.” He said two buildings used by insurgents were destroyed in the fighting, which included ISAF air strikes, but said there had been no reports of civilian or coalition casualties. Combat outposts in Afghanistan are typically located in remote areas and house several hundred troops. The Taliban’s spokesman was not immediately reachable for comment on the attack.

Separately, Mohammad Akbar, the governor of Sar Hawza district in Paktika, died in hospital late Tuesday after his car struck a roadside bomb in the province, his spokesman said.

31 hindus given life over deadly 2002 gujarat riots MEHSaNa AFp

An Indian court on Wednesday found 31 Hindus guilty of killing 33 Muslims in a single house during religious riots in the state of Gujarat in 2002, provoking a mixed response from activists. In some of India’s worst inter-faith violence since independence in 1947, about 2,000 people died in a wave of anti-Muslim unrest triggered by a train fire in which Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive. Muslims were blamed for the train fire, and Hindu mobs hungry for revenge rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods in towns and villages across Gujarat state during three days of bloodshed. “Out of the 73 accused, 31 are guilty and 42 are acquitted of all charges,” judge SC Srivastava told the special court near Sardarpura village, where the 33 Muslims sought shelter in a small house on the night of February 28, 2002. The victims had crowded into the house to escape the rioters, who set the building alight. Bodies of 28 people were found at the scene, with five others dying later of their injuries. life sentences were handed to all 31 men for murder, arson and other charges, following earlier convictions of other Hindu rioters over the outbreak of violence.

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Gilani proposes 5-point development agenda g

Pakistan and russia to speed up work on trade, currency swap agreements SaINT pETERSBURG

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App

ERMING greater cooperation among regional countries crucial for their development and prosperity, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani stressed on Monday on enhancing trade, energy and road links at the 10th meeting of the Heads of Government Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), held in Russia’s historical city of St Petersburg.

The prime minister proposed a fivepoint development plan based on the SCO-sponsored intra-regional and interregional cooperation in trade, building infrastructure and power links. The development plan included arranging finance and initiation of work on electricity

transmission lines, taking concrete measures to start the TurkmenistanAfghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) and Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline projects, setting up a preferential, and if possible, a free trade zone in the SCO region, cooperation in the financial and banking sectors and relaxation of visa regimes for diplomats, officials and businessmen.

Prime Minister Gilani represented Pakistan as an observer state at the SCO forum, and was joined by the leadership of SCO member states Russia, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan at the Constantine Palace here. The prime minister said Pakistan attached importance to the SCO and believed that the organisation had the capacity and resolve to overcome the most pressing challenges of present times. He added that the SCO had the enormous potential to promote regional economic cooperation in a holistic manner.

He said terrorism, extremism, drugs and syndicate crime were challenging so-

cieties, states and the region. He said pervasive global economic and financial crises, unemployment and socio-economic stress were making the picture bleak. Though daunting, these challenges could be surmounted by developing a cohesive response based on clarity and a firm conviction to work together, he added. He reiterated Pakistan’s desire for full membership of the SCO and expressed gratitude to all members for their support to the request.

Gilani termed security and development important regional issues. He said the challenges of reconciliation, reconstruction and revival of Afghan polity needed to be addressed objectively. He welcomed the SCO’s role and efforts in this regard. He said political realism and clarity demanded that Afghanistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity was respected by all, and added that Pakistan would continue to contribute to the stability of Afghanistan and support its government and people in their endeavours

for reconciliation and reconstruction. Gilani also stressed greater political will and concrete steps to fully realise the vision of the SCO. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced financing of $500 million for the CASA-1000, which would ensure power transmission from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also called for investment flows to develop national economies. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao supported Pakistan’s proposal of building cross-border road links and suggested policy support for free flow of goods, establishment of a seed bank for cooperation on agriculture and expansion in currency swap agreements.

Gilani and Putin also discussed on Monday the whole gamut of relations on the sidelines of the SCO meeting. The two leaders discussed ways to strengthen relations by increasing cooperation in energy, trade, infrastructure development, agriculture, business cooperation and people-to-people contacts.

Mullen denies secret back channel in USPakistan relationship MONITORING DESK

peSHAWAR: A view of the ANp leader’s vehicle which was targeted by a suicide attacker in Swabi on Monday. ONLINE

pMIC does its job, looks to pM to do his ISLaMaBaD MIAN ABRAR

As many as 47 enquiry reports compiled by the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission (PMIC) on complaints regarding various government organisations have been eating dust at the office of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani but the premier is yet to issue directions on these reports.

“It looks like a total disconnect between the PMIC and the Prime Minister’s Office, as no orders have yet been issued by the chief executive on these reports which have otherwise been compiled after thorough investigation and repeated visits across the country by the PMIC members,” a source in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat told Pakistan Today. He said the PMIC had six members under Chairman Malik Amjad Ali Noon. Major projects included in the reports are: the DiamerBasha Dam Project; Mangla Dam Raising Project; Neelum Jhelum Hy-

droelectric Project; Naltar-III and Naltar-V Hydropower Project; Gilgit district Water Resources Development; Construction of Bridge on River Soan in Attock district; Construction of Overhead Bridge from SSD Dham to Pooj Vadi Devari Sahib, Raharki Sahib in Ghotki district; Construction of an overhead bridge on Railway line at New Pind, Sukkur; Collapse of Sher Shah Bridge, Karachi; inspection of roads constructed by the National Highway Authority and Services Department; lowari Tunnel and access roads. The PMIC has also forwarded inquiry reports on the lyari Expressway Project Karachi; Makran Coastal Road Balochistan-Gawadar-JiwaniGabd Section; N-5 National Highways Rehabilitation Improvement Project (857km); Peshawar Northern Bypass Project; Construction of Nawab Ghaus Baksh Raisani Memorial Hospital, Mastaung, Balochistan; Prime Minister’s Programme for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis; the current state

of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayyed Federal Hospital, Quetta; and the Extended Programme of Immunisation (EPI).

The PMIC reports include cases of non-admission in a medical college of Punjab; the establishment of Cadet College Cholistan, Rahim Yar Khan and the renaming of Cadet College, Khanpur as the “Benazir Bhutto Cadet College”, Khanpur in the Rahim Yar Khan district; improvement of water courses in Pakistan; the Rainee Canal project; the rehabilitation/revamping of irrigation and drainage system of Sindh; track rehabilitation of Pakistan Railway Network; upgrading the HyderabadBadin Railway Station; procurement of paddy and allied problems in Sindh; the Prime Minister’s Special Initiative for livestock; the affairs of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB).

Also included in the list of pending reports are cases of Sui Gas billing recovery and theft; steel re-rolling mills; continued on page 04

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

Former US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen denied this week having ever dealt with PakistaniAmerican businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who had claimed last month that President Asif Ali Zardari had offered to replace Pakistan’s military and intelligence leadership and cut ties with militant groups in the wake of Osama bin laden’s killing in Abbottabad, the Foreign Policy magazine said in a report.

Ijaz also alleged in his op-ed in the Financial Times that Zardari communicated this offer by sending a top secret memo on May 10 through Ijaz himself, to be hand-delivered to Admiral Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a key official managing the US-Pakistan relationship.

The report said the details of the memo and the machinations Ijaz described painted a picture of a Zardari government scrambling to save itself from an impending military coup following the raid on bin laden’s compound, and asking for US support to prevent that coup before it started.

Mullen, now retired, denied having ever dealt with Ijaz in comments given to The Cable through his spokesman at the time, Capt John Kirby.“Admiral Mullen does not know Mr Ijaz and has no recollection of receiving any correspondence from him,” Kirby told The Cable. “I cannot say definitively that correspondence did not come from him - the admiral received many missives as chairman from many people every day, some official, some not.

But he does not recall one from this individual. And in any case, he did not take any action with respect to our relationship with Pakistan based on any such correspondence... preferring to work at the relationship directly through (Chief of Army Staff) General (Ashfaq Parvez) Kayani and inside the interagency process,” he added.Mullen’s denial represents the first official US comment on the Ijaz memo, which since October 10 has mushroomed into a huge controversy in Pakistan. Several parts of Pakistan’s civilian government denied that Ijaz’s memorandum ever existed, said the report.