e-paper pakistantoday 20th march, 2012

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Letter can’t be written until Zardari is president: Aitzaz PAGE | 02

Gunman kills three children and teacher at French Jewish school PAGE | 16

ICC backs Saeed Ajmal’s bowling action PAGE |18

Rs15.00 Vol ii no 262 22 pages Karachi edition

tuesday, 20 March, 2012 Rabi-ul-Sani 26, 1433

Won’t Write to the sWiss, PM tells sC

Illegal detentions impermissible: Supreme Court ISLAMABAD STAff REpoRT

ISLAMABAD MASood REHMAN

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g

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Gilani says it is wrong to subject constitutionallyelected president to the authority of a foreign magistrate Says issue should be sent to parliament since ‘it was a matter of grave public concern’

ISOBeyInG Supreme Court orders, Prime Minister yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday refused to write a letter to the Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari and suggested that being a matter of grave public concern, the issue be sent to parliament. earlier on March 8, the court had ordered the prime minister to write a letter, without getting any advice and influence of the ongoing contempt proceedings against him, to Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against President Zardari and submit compliance report along with his (Gilani) written statement on March 19 or personally appear on March 21 to get his statement recorded over the matter.

In response to March 8 order, the prime minister submitted before the court his 24-page written statement on Monday stating that the president, being head of a sovereign state, had immunity in both criminal and civil jurisdictions of all other states under the international law. He said he believed that this immunity to Continued on page 04

HERAT: An Afghan woman looks at a dress on Monday as Afghans prepare to celebrate Noruz, the start of the Afghan new year, today (Tuesday). afp

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the attorney general to hold a meeting with the authorities concerned to inform them that if they were required to arrest or detain any person found involved in an offence against the state or nation or in violation of any substantive law, he should be dealt with in accordance with relevant provisions of law, as no permission could be given for illegal detention of anyone. A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Pervez heard an abduction case of Omar Muhammad Wali Khan who was kidnapped on March 10. During the hearing, the chief justice observed that even if a person was arrested on allegations, he should be dealt with in accordance with the law. On March 16, Tariq Asad advocate submitted an application during the missing prisoners’ case, complaining that on March 10, Umer Muhammad Wali Khan, who was voluntarily providing food to the relatives of the detainees, holding a protest camp near the Parliament House, was picked up and his whereabouts remained unknown. The court had then directed the Islamabad IGP to investigate the matter and produce before the court Omar Muhammad Wali Khan by March 19. On Monday, Islamabad IGP Bani Amin Khan presented before the court a report about 16-year-old Umer Muhammad Wali Khan who was picked up on March 10 and released after six days.

Continued on page 04

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02 News Today’s

tuesday, 20 march, 2012

foreIGN News

Arts & eNtertAINmeNt

clashes rock damascus, Annan team flies in

Leisure club celebrates 15 years of urban fashion excellence

CommeNt Brave words: But will Nawaz back them up?

on resignations:

Quick

Trumped up more than they need to be.

dr faisal Bari says: Imparting poor education: Pakistan’s education policy has got it all wrong.

Iqbal Haider says:

Look

Giving them guns: Why is the interior minister being so kind to the lawyers?

Rabia Ahmed says: A known unknown: Do the pros of cloning outweigh its cons?

mangal Bagh is dead, claims KP IG PESHAWAR AgENcIES

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Akbar Hoti on Monday claimed that the chief of banned militant group Lashkar-eIslam (LI), Mangal Bagh had been killed in clashes with rival militants. However, a spokesman for the banned outfit rejected the IG’s claim, saying Bagh was safe and sound. Talking to reporters, the IG said he had received information about Bagh’s death. He said the LI head was killed during fighting between two rival militant groups in the remote Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency. However, he did not confirm when Bagh was killed. According to some reports, the LI chief was injured during clashes with the rival militant group of Tariq Afridi, who was fighting for the control of the area. A commander of the LI, Mohammad Hussain, also rejected the reports, saying Bagh alive. earlier, there were reports about Bagh getting injured in a suicide attack on a mosque in Tirah valley. However, those reports were also denied by the LI spokesman.

Articles on Page 12-13

story on Page 14

story on Page 18

Letter can’t be written until Zardari is president: Aitzaz ISLAMABAD

P

AgENcIES

RIMe Minister yousaf Raza Gilani’s counsel in the contempt case, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has said a letter cannot be written to the Swiss officials until Asif Ali Zardari is president of Pakistan.

In an interview with a private TV channel on Monday, after the prime minister submitted his written reply to the Supreme Court, Aitzaz said the president enjoyed immunity the world over and pointed out that countries did not like their citizens to appear

in the courts of other countries.

Aitzaz said the president was a symbol of Pakistan’s federation, parliament and supreme commander of the armed forces.

He said one could be against an individual but “we should not allow our president to submit before a foreign magistrate”. He said the prime minister felt that the president must not appear in foreign courts.

To a question, the PM’s counsel said the prime minister did not want a confrontation between institutions.

He said in his reply the prime minister had requested the Supreme Court to send the case to parliament as it had done in the

case of the 18th Amendment about appointment of judges.

Aitzaz expressed surprise on certain TV commentators who had started making comments about the reply immediately after it was submitted to the Registrar without going through it.

He said the prime minister was an accused in the case and he had the right to express his concern, adding that the Supreme Court should not issue a verdict without hearing him out.

Aitzaz said the issue was whether a letter could be written and whether it should be written or not.

pTI opposes restoration Protest held of NaTO supplies: Imran against delay in issuance of CNICs LAHORE

STAff REpoRT

ISLAMABAd: Brother-in-law of osama Bin Laden Zikria Sadaat and his lawyer Muhammad Amir come out of the courtroom on Monday. OnLIne

Bin Laden’s brother-in-law directed to submit justification IslamabaD: Senior Civil Judge Shahrukh Anjumand on Monday directed Osama Bin Laden’s brother-in-law’s counsel to submit a legal justification in court as to why his client wants access to his sister. Hearing the petition filed by yemeni national Zakarayah Ahmed Abdulfattah, brother of the terrorist kingpin’s youngest wife Amal Abdulfattah, the court adjourned the case’s hearing until March 26. The court also observed that the superintendent of Adiala Jail, despite court orders on March 17, did not submit the details of personal meetings and telephonic contacts of Bin Laden’s family during the period of their judicial custody. The petitioner said that after the May 2 incident, ISI took Bin Laden’s family, including his nine minor children, into custody and kept them in different secret places. ISI then handed over them over to the FIA SIU. According to the petition, Zakarayah in October 2011 contacted Pakistani authorities through officials of the yemeni embassy in Pakistan for repatriation of his detained sister. Pakistani authorities assured him of handing over of his sister on november 2, 2011 but when he arrived in Pakistan they did not release Amal and he had no option but to wait for her release. The petitioner said that during this period the authorities had arranged eight meetings with his sister at different places. STAff REpoRT

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) opposes restoration of nATO supplies and the War on Terror did not give anything to the country except destruction and killing of innocent people, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said on Monday.

He was holding a press conference at his Zaman Park residence on occasion of joining of nawabzada Mansoor Ali Khan, son of nawabzada nasarullah Khan, the PTI. Imran said that both the PPP and PML-n were united for their interests but could not stop the tsunami of the people, as people knew how these parties were playing with their future. The PTI chairman said that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was the biggest hypocrite of the country, as he was using the name of Islam for his politics and responsible for killing of innocent people in the past. He said that the PTI was launching its membership campaign from March 25 and the party will become the only party, which will elect its office-bearers.

Imran said that the PPP and PML-n had become family parties while the PTI was a party of the people. The PTI chief said that no intelligence agency was backing the PTI and the Supreme Court should expose the culprits of the Mehran Bank scandal.

Mansoor said that he thinks that the PTI was the only party fighting against corruption due to which he decided to join the PTI. Separately, the PTI launched its special platform Insaaf Professional Forum (IPF) at a ceremony at a local hotel in which Imran was present. The PTI Women Wing also staged a protest against inflation, unemployment and other problems.

GUJRANWALA STAff REpoRT

Hashmi appointed pTI president LAHORE oNLINE

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader, Javed Hashmi, has been appointed as president of the party. The decision was announced during a press conference attended by Imran Khan and other senior party leaders on Monday. Hashmi, said that the party would work against corruption and for strengthening democracy. The new PTI president would have a say in decisions related to awarding party tickets to members. Hashmi also welcomed the workers of the Pakistan Democratic Party (PDP), which has recently merged into the PTI. According to a source, Hashmi has played an important role in convincing PDP President nawabzada Masoor to merge his party into the PTI.

Protesters broke the windows and damaged premises of the nADRA Office at Sheikhupura More on Monday to protest against the undue delay in issuance of CnICs. Reportedly, nADRA officials went on a token strike to express solidarity with their fellow nADRA officials who went to Islamabad to protest against delay in issuance of their permanent employment status. People, who had applied for CnICs, got enraged on coming to know that the staff had gone to Islamabad. The applicants started a protest, as they were waiting for their CnICs for many months. The Subzi Mundi Police dispersed the angry mob and arrested two demonstrators, who were released afterwards.

Azeem Butt, an applicant, talking to Pakistan Today said that he was visiting nADRA office for rectification of his CnIC for three months but staff was continuously delaying the process. He added that he had paid the fees twice for rectification of his CnIC, as initially the file got rejected but when he contacted nADRA Head Office in Islamabad they said that they have not received the file. Azeem said that he should have received his card within 10 days.

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tuesday, 20 march, 2012

03

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04 News ‘No cricketer has yet become great player, great statesman’ NEWS DESk Imran Khan is not the only national cricket captain to have set his sights on a high political office in the subcontinent, the economist said in a report on Monday.

“Mohammad Azharuddin was elected to India’s parliament in 2009. In Sri Lanka, Arjuna Ranatunga is deputy minister for tourism. But perhaps the most controversial has been another Sri Lankan, Sanath Jayasuriya,” the economist said.

The report said Jayasuriya became a member of parliament in 2010. “Within a year, he had been re-selected to play for his country against england, despite being 41 years old and not having played for some while. The Sri Lankan government has an unhealthy tendency to interfere in team affairs, and it was reported that it had ordered Jayasuriya’s inclusion. It also led to the delicate situation that a player representing his country was also a member of a government accused of war crimes,” the report added. The report said that until the time Khan became the prime minister of Pakistan, there remained to be seen a cricketer who had deserved the dual accolade of “great player and great statesman”.

tuesday, 20 march, 2012

Malik launches anti-extortionist midnight drive

kARACHI STAff REpoRT

F

eDeRAL Minister for Interior Rehman Malik has ordered a midnight operation against extortionists, assuring that the operation would be conducted without any discrimination.

Talking to reporters on Monday, the interior minister said the government had decided to introduce ‘Bhatta Act’ against the mafia that had been depriving traders of Karachi of their hardearned money. He said powerful committees had been

formed to tackle the problem.

“Traders community had complained that they found police officers absent from their respective stations whenever they tried to register complaints. In order to tackle this situation, a new office of SHO extortionist has been created in every police station which would only deal with extortion menace,” he said.

He advised the traders to avoid purchasing mobile phones from any doubtful person, adding that whosoever was caught with violation of the order, he would be tried under Anti-Terrorism Act. He said an Anti-extortion Act would be promulgated through parliament within three days to prevent ever-increasing extortion and ‘bhatta’ cases.

Malik said if the parliament did not promulgate the act within three days, the option of presidential ordinance might be used. “Do not resort to strike and open up your businesses as we are taking stringent actions against extortion,” Malik assured the business community.

ISLAMABAd: Newly-appointed director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lt gen Zaheerul Islam, called on prime Minister Yousaf Raza gilani at prime Minister’s House on Monday. ONLINe

IsI important security establishment: Pm ISLAMABAD

The boy was also produced before the court along with his father. The IGP said the boy returned home on Saturday after police sought help from agencies, but it was not sure who had held him. “no one is above the law,” the chief justice said, adding that even if someone was arrested on allegations, he should be treated per law.

The chief justice also observed that people working in the agencies were also Pakistanis, so they should render their work in accordance with the law.

Tariq Asad, counsel for the petitioner, praised the role played by the court in recovery of Omar Muhammad Wali Khan, saying the recovery was a miracle.

The court in its order ruled that it was a fundamental right of every citizen of Pakistan that he shall not be deprived of life and lib-

erty and saved in accordance with law. “The State of Pakistan, being guardian of its citizens, is bound to implement the constitutional provisions in letter and spirit, particularly fundamental rights, which are guaranteed by the Constitution. It is also an inalienable right of all the citizens that they should be dealt with in accordance with law following the mandate of due process of law, as enshrined in Article 10A of the Constitution,” the court ruled.

Bani Amin told the court that Umar Mehmood Wali Khan had been recovered due to his formal and informal efforts. On a court query, he stated that “agencies had abducted Khan” and that he made a request to his counterpart for helping him to trace out the abducted boy.

Asked whether he contacted the Punjab IGP for this purpose, he said he con-

Continued fRoM page 1 be absolute and inviolable, even though it persisted only during the tenure of the office.

He said this immunity vested in the office, not in the person and it represented the sovereignty and independence of a country as well as its sovereign equality with all other states, howsoever strong and powerful. He said he thought it wrong to subject the constitutionally elected incumbent president to the authority of a magistrate in a foreign country. “I think this subjection should be avoided”, he added.

He submitted that in view of Article 10-A, the judges who decided to initiate the prosecution,

tacted ISI and when he was asked to disclose who was involved in the abduction, he again replied that he contacted all three agencies i.e. the ISI, MI and IB. Umar, who was present in the court along with his father, stated that he was not in a position to disclose the name of the persons, however, he said they had been interrogating him for a period of six days.

“In such state of affairs, we have to show great concern about the life and liberty of our citizens. We are pointing out that if any one, whosoever he may be, is found involved in an offence against the State or nation, he deserves no leniency or compromise and is required to be dealt with in terms of Article 10A of the Constitution, but simultaneously it is the duty of the State to protect the life and liberty of the citizens”, the court ruled in its order.

especially those who passed the pre-trial order on January 10, 2012 casting serious aspersions against him (Gilani), should avoid sitting in trial and judgment.

Gilani, who was indicted on February 13 for contempt of court, after he had pleaded not guilty to the charge that could see him jailed for six months and disqualified from the office at least for five years, reminded the court that it had itself listed six options, in its January 10, 2012 order, available to it.

He said he was unable to understand that why the most coercive option (option-1) had been selected by the court and for what reason. He said no justification appeared to have been provided

BERLIN

AgENcIES

Afp

Prime Minister yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday said the ISI was an important arm of the security establishment assigned to safeguard national interests in consonance with the aspirations of the people of Pakistan.

The prime minister said this in a meeting with the newlyappointed ISI DG, Lt General Zaheerul Islam, who called on him after assuming his responsibilities.

Illegal detention impermissible Continued fRoM page 1

Suspected Qaeda member goes on trial in Germany

The court observed that undoubtedly, in the instant case, the detainee had been recovered on account of the efforts made by IGP, Islamabad, but the question arises that how long such exercise shall continue. The court directed the IGP to thoroughly examine the case and reach to the correct conclusion within a period of two weeks and submit report to the Registrar and thereafter, if need be, this case/application shall be fixed for further proceedings.

During the hearing, Mahmood Ahmed Khan, father of Omar told the court that he and his family members were still terrified, fearing that it may happen again.

The court however, observed, that he should not feel any such apprehension because if he or his son was found involved in any criminal activity, the law would take its course.

An alleged Islamic militant held for nine months in Afghanistan whose tips helped spark a travel alert in europe in 2010 over potential attacks went on trial Monday in Germany.

The 37-year-old Ahmed Wali Siddiqui, who has Afghan and German citizen-

I have secret proofs regarding memo scandal: Yasin malik NEWS DESk Leader of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front yasin Malik has claimed that he knows some secrets regarding the memo scandal and his appearance before the court would resolve the scandal, according to BBC. Responding to a question regarding his meeting with the RAW chief, Malik said that he met Ijaz in the room of Taj Palace hotel, Mumbai, where he saw another person (who looked a native Indian) in the room, adding that Ijaz didn’t introduce him to the man but he later revealed that it was RAW chief AS Dulat.

The memo comission took a twist when Ijaz, deposing before the commission from London via a video link claimed on Thursday that he managed a meeting between Malik and RAW officer SD Sahay, who later become the boss of India’s external intelligence gathering agency.

WON’T WrITe for selecting this option.

Gilani asked the court to adopt sixth option and leave the matter to the ultimate judges of his fate and reputation, who were the people of Pakistan.

“As I submit to this court, so I will also, in the manner expressed by the court in the sixth option, surrender to the judgment of the people of Pakistan at the appropriate time according to the constitution. People are and must remain the highest worldly sovereign in this country. They are the judges of the last resort in this world. That will be the best course of action and also be according to

the sixth option formulated by the court itself,” Gilani said in his statement.

He asked the court to recall its March 8, 2012 order, which was ex- parte, adding that if nevertheless the court sought to enforce March 8, 2012 order, he reserved the right to expound his response thereto, as his response is to be submitted separately.

He said how can the state of Pakistan surrender its incumbent president for a trial before an investigating magistrate in another jurisdiction. He suggested that being a matter of grave public concern, the issue of writing the letter

ship, stands accused of membership of two “foreign terrorist organisations”, AlQaeda and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

“The trial began as planned,” a spokesman for the higher regional court in the western city of Koblenz said.

Western powers say IMU aims to establish Is-

lamic sharia law in central Asia and is waging a guerrilla campaign against security forces in Pakistan and nATO troops in Afghanistan.

US forces detained Siddiqui in July 2010 in Kabul and held him at Bagram air base outside the Afghan capital.

All three countries subsequently beefed up security.

Man killed in Jaffarabad QUEttA SHAHZAdA ZuLfIqAR

A man was killed and two others, including a police constable, were injured in separate incidents in different towns of Balochistan while a woman’s tortured body was found in Pishin.

Unidentified armed men fired at Shahzad Solangi in Usta Muhammad Chowk, Jaffarabad, critically injuring him. He was being shifted to Civil Hospital when he succumbed to his injuries. Motive behind the killing was yet to be ascertained.

In another incident in Usta Muhammad, a police constable was injured when armed men attacked a police post in Kanki area. The injured police constable was identified as Habibullah, who was rushed to nearby hospital in a critical condition.

Pishin Levies Force, on a tip-ff, recovered a woman’s body near Killi Manzari Cross and moved it to District Headquarter Hospital for autopsy. Hospital sources said that the victim was

be sent to parliament to take a decision as was wisely done in the case of the 18th Amendment concerning Articles relating to the appointment in higher judiciary and parliamentary oversight.

He said the Mutual Assistance Request was already acted upon and finally concluded in 1998, and nothing remained to be done in that behalf. He said he had examined the recommendations sent to him by the Law Ministry over the issue of writing the letter and then while following the rules of business, gave his advice. He said it was categorically stated in the recommendations that all cases abroad had been conclusively closed by the ‘competent authority of the concerned country’ and

around 30-year-old and tortured to death. The body was later shifted to the hospital morgue for identification.

FC ClaIms to have FoIleD terror bID: Frontier Corps Balochistan on Monday claimed to have foiled a terrorist attack in Quetta on eve of March 23 by seizing a large number of explosive material and arms.

According to FC officials, in light of information gathered, security personnel found 500 kilogrammes explosive material, seven detonators and six landmines from a vehicle but no arrests were made, as the driver and cleaner had fled before the security personnel searched the vehicle. Terrorists intended to use explosive material for a subversive act during functions being held on March 23.

Security forces also recovered weapons and hand grenades from a house in nushki. Sources said that security forces raided a house and recovered a rocket launcher, four rounds, five SMG guns, 200 rounds and three hand grenades but no one was arrested.

time for filing appeal (by the Canton of Geneva) had also lapsed. He said the recommendations were based on legal opinions, including those of the former law secretary (a former retired judge of a superior court) and a former attorney general for Pakistan (a senior advocate) as well as other materials and documents from Switzerland.

He said as far as other directions in the nRO were concerned, all had been complied with and implemented.

He said he acted on the advice expressed in the summary itself, thus he honestly and in all good faith accepted the proposal. A seven-member special bench will resume hearing in the contempt case on March 21.

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tuesday, 20 march, 2012

News 05

Lawyer manhandles civil judge in faisalabad sessions Court FAISALABAD INp

A lawyer in Faisalabad Sessions Court on Monday tortured a civil judge on rejecting the bail plea of an accused.According to reports, Advocate Mohsin appeared in the court of Civil Judge Azhar Ali Jaffari and sought bail of an accused of robbery. The civil judge rejected the bail which enraged the lawyer and he attacked the judge. The lawyer manhandled the judge and hurled abuses. The staff caught the lawyer and handed him over to police, but other lawyers got him freed from police custody, after which some lawyers again attacked the judges and abused him.

According to the judicial staff, all judges left work in protest and gathered in the court of the senior civil judge.

Minister’s men attack eX-eN’s residence

ISLAMABAd: pAf’s outgoing Air chief Marshal Rao qamar Suleman hands over the Sword of command to Air chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt during the change of command ceremony held at Air Headquarters on Monday.

QUEttA INp

Balochistan Minister for Communications and Works Ali Madad Jattack reportedly organised firing at the residence of his department’s executive engineer on Monday for not giving him a share in the contracts awarded by the ministry for various projects. no loss of life was reported in the firing at the residence of the executive engineer who is also the son-inlaw of Senate Standing Committee for Communications Chairman Senator Mir Wali Mohammad Badini. Amir Hamza Badini filed a report at Saryab Police Station. On the other hand, engineers and other officials of his department protested against the firing and took out a rally on Monday. They demanded arrest of those involved in the firing incidents. Talking to reporter, Amir alleged that since his becoming minister, he had been demanding a share in the contracts.

woman murdered for honour in rahimyar Khan RAHIMYAR kHAN INp

A woman was killed for honour by her father and her brother on Monday.

According to police, Masood Bibi, 19, was in an illicit relationship with a villager. The father and brother of the girl repeatedly asked her to mend her ways but she did not pay any heed to them. On Monday morning, the father and brother of Masood Bibi exchanged hot words with her over the same issue after which they killed her and fled. The body was taken to hospital for postmortem. The police registered a case and started searching the murderers.

NEPRA chairman resigns but hearing on Rs 6.50 increase in power tariff today ISLAMABAD

e

AMER SIAL

Ven though national electric Power Regulatory Authority (nePRA) Chairman Khalid Saeed has tendered resignation from his post, the regulator plans to hold hearing on four separate petitions of the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) seeking a total increase of Rs 6.50 per unit in the power tariff of the distribution companies (DISCOs) under fuel price adjustment for the last four months on Tuesday.

According to an official source, Saeed had resigned from his post after controversy over his tenure.

He was given additional charge of the nePRA chairman on February 15, 2008 while he was still principal secretary to the prime minister.

The Cabinet Division later on notified his appointed for a fouryear term from January 1, 2009.

The Ministry of Water and Power, Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance all wanted calculation of

his tenure from February 15, 2008, as the nePRA chairman was reluctant to implement many of their plans. nePRA Registrar Faqir Hussain confirmed that Saeed had resigned and his resignation was sent to the prime minister. He said he would continue his services until the matter of resignation was decided by the premier. He said the hearing on the four petitions of CPPA will be held as planned on March 20.

The petitions filed by CPPA seek an increase of Rs 2.23 per unit has been sought for October 2011, Rs 1.29 per unit for november 2011, Rs 0.98 per unit for December 2011 and Rs 1.96 per unit for January 2012 in the power tariff under the monthly fuel price adjustment mechanism. According to the source, the power reforms steering committee was of the opinion that the nePRA chairman was holding the post illegally after February 15. The committee had serious reservations over the inclusion of fuel price adjustment in the power tariff by nePRA. It put the

burden entirely on the government to increase the power tariff from last fiscal year level of Rs 9.50 per kWh to Rs 12.60 per unit for the current fiscal year. The government notified tariff is Rs 7.84 per unit and the differential will end up in the subsidy. If the notified tariff is not increased then the subsidy will increase to Rs 4.70 per unit. DISCOs annually purchase around 82 billion units for power supply.

After the committee alleged that nePRA was primary responsible for the power sector woes the regulator shocked the government by massively increasing the power tariff. nePRA notified an increase in power tariff by 39 percent or Rs3.03 per unit under fuel cost for August 2011. The source said the government was of the opinion that since the continuation of nePRA chief was illegal after February 15, the determination of the regulatory body could be reviewed. nePRA on February 11 had rejected the government’s appeal seeking revision in the power tariff for the current fiscal year.

Indian rebels issue demands over Italian hostages BHUBANESWAR Afp

Maoist rebels in India who are holding two Italians hostage issued a series of demands on Monday, including a call for tourists to be banned from travelling to see indigenous tribal people.

Paolo Bosusco, 54, and Claudio Colangelo, 61, were abducted on Wednesday in the eastern state of Orissa in what is believed to be the first kidnapping of foreigners by the leftwing militants. The Maoists, who have fought an insurgency against Indian

authorities for decades, issued 13 demands for the release of the Italians.

The list included ending the government’s anti-rebel operations, stopping tribal tourism and releasing jailed Maoist leaders. “Tribals are not commodities for tourists and tribal areas are not meant for tourism,” the Maoist statement said. “Those violating this should be arrested and punished.”

Bosusco has been living in Orissa for a decade and runs an adventure tourism company, police said, while Colangelo is a doctor in Rome. Bosusco’s travel company, Orissa Adventurous Trekking,

says on its website that it offers holidays to “a different India from the Taj Mahal, far, very far from the crowds of tourists.”

Orissa authorities said they were ready to communicate with the Maoist kidnappers, who are part of a dispersed armed rebellion active across much of central and east India.

“We are open to discussions with them,” Orissa Home Secretary U.n.

Behara told reporters in the state capital Bhubaneswar, 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest from Kandhamal district where the men were abducted. “After they nominate their mediators... possibly

the process can start,” he said. Two Indians accompanying the Italians were released early on Sunday, police said. The guerrillas, who say they are fighting for the rights of tribal people and landless farmers, have previously kidnapped local officials and villagers, freeing some after negotiations but killing others. Italy’s consul-general in India, Joel Melchiori, said he was hopeful the hostages would be freed soon. “We are cooperating very much with the government and we hope to move on to find a possible solution,” Melchiori told reporters after reaching Bhubaneshwar.

Tahir rafique Butt takes over as new paf chief ISLAMABAD INp

Air Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt took over as the new Chief of Air Staff of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) at a ceremony held at Air Headquarters on Monday. Rao Qamar Suleman, the outgoing air chief marshal, formally handed over the PAF Sword of Command to Air Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt. Both the outgoing and incoming air chiefs were presented separate guards of honour to formally mark the change of command. Born in 1955, Air Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt received his early education at PAF Public School, Sargodha. He joined Pakistan Air Force and graduated from PAF Academy, Risalpur in March, 1977. After doing his Fighter and Operational Conversion Courses, he flew various types of fighters and training aircraft on PAF Inventory. The air chief marshal is a qualified flying instructor and also a Combat Commander on fighters. He has commanded an elite Fighter Squadron, a Fighter Flying Wing and two PAF Bases. In staff jobs at Air Headquarters, the air chief marshal has served as deputy director plans, director flight safety, assistant chief of the air staff (P-O) in personnel branch and assistant chief of the air staff (Training). In senior staff assignments, Butt has the distinction of having served as director general of the national Accountability Bureau (KPK) Commandant national Security College, nDU, Air Officer Commanding Southern Air Command and Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (Personnel). Before taking over as air chief, he was serving as Vice Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force. Butt is a graduate of Staff College, Turkey and national Defence University, Islamabad from where he did his MSc in Defence and Strategic Studies. He is married and has three children. In recognition of his meritorious and exceptionally dedicated services, he has been decorated with the Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military), Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military) and Tamgha-e-Basalat.

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06 News

tuesday, 20 march, 2012

DPC rejects possible restoration of NATO supply T PESHAWAR

ABduR RAuf kHATTAk

He central leadership of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) on Monday strongly rejected the intended restoration of nATO supply, threatened that by doing so, the DPC will take the people to the streets to resist this “unwise decision”, saying instead of parliament, this sensitive decision should be made through referendum, whether to resume the suspended nATO supply or not.

“The incumbent rulers have ruined

the economic position, and weakened the defence of the country through their immature policies,” DPC Chairman Samiul Haq said while addressing a meeting of the council at a local hotel in Peshawar.

In the meeting the intended decisions of parliament regarding the restoration of nATO supply route and Pak-US relations were discussed.

In the declaration of the meeting, they said wrong decisions of the government have paved way for separation movements and rebellions in Balochistan. Haq said like in the past the DPC will stand like a mountain to defend the na-

tional interest. He added that through a letter he had also appealed to the members of parliament to give their say in accordance with the aspirations and sentiments of the nation instead of violating their oath by taking any decision on the instigation of the US puppet rulers.

“If the members of parliament gave the decision to restore nATO supply route, the DPC will take the masses to besiege the houses of the parliamentarians and will not leave them unhurt,” he threatened. He said the DPC was of the view that the sensitive matter was not the jurisdiction of parliament, and proposed

that the matter should be resolved through referendum.

“If the reservations of the DPC were not removed even now, and importance was not given to the proposal of the DPC for referendum, a national crisis will be created,” Haq warned. “We want to expose the incumbent rulers, allies of the US. And the DPC has also decided to fully support the right of independence of the Kashmiri people,” he said and announced that the DPC would also hold a gathering in Muzafarabad. He also announced holding a DPC Conference in Peshawar on April 15, and in Quetta on April 26.

pESHAWAR. Heads of various parties and organisations led by JuI-S of pakistan defence council (pdc) discuss the line of action for a pdc public meeting at a local hotel on Monday.

extortion is MQM’s trade mark: afaq ahmed ISLAMABAD INp

MQM-Haqiqi chief Afaq Ahmad on Monday said the trademark of Muttahida Qaumi Movement was extortion and it was protesting not against collection from traders, but the emergence of new partners in the extortion business. Addressing a press conference at the national Press Club on Monday, Afaq said the MQM prevented the presentation of extortionists and dacoits before the media by threatening to boycott president’s address to the joint sitting of parliament. He said wall chalking in Karaci for a Mohajir province was being done at the behest of Altaf Hussain. He said he was opposed to creation of provinces on linguistic basis. Afaq said Altaf Hussain had demanded money from General Aslam Beg at the residence of younas Habib in his (Afaq) presence. He said there was an uncertain and insecure situation in Karachi where extortionists and members of mafias were involved in kidnapping and killings of political opponents. He said journalists were also facing serious threats in the city, particularly those who filed stories against the MQM. Afaq said journalists in Karachi had no freedom of speech. He said extortion was being done with the power of arms and Altaf was not ready to make any other party or person partner in the extortion. He alleged that MQM’s industries minister was collecting extortion to the tune of Rs 50 million a month. “The SITe Association is paying Rs 80 million and Builders Association Rs 2.5 million,” he added. Afaq said he wanted a weapons-free Karachi and was making alliance with all the nationalist, political and religious parties for this purpose.

New report lifts lid on torture in afghan prisons kABUL Afp

A new report suggests that torture in Afghan prisons is more widespread than previously thought and that detainees arrested by US troops have been tortured after being transferred to Afghan custody.

Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission raised “serious concerns” about US policies on detainee transfers and safeguards to make sure that the United States is not complicit in torture.

It said detainees were tortured at nine national Directorate of Security (nDS) prisons and at several police centres, based on monitoring and interviews with more than 100 detainees between February 2011 and January 2012.

Beatings, being suspended from the ceiling, electric shocks, threatened or actual sexual abuse, and other forms of abuse, were used routinely to obtain confessions or other information, the Commission said.

“Four of the nDS facilities

where torture was documented were also identified by a recent United nations report as practicing torture. Monitors also found evidence of torture at five additional nDS facilities,” it said.

Several methods of torture, previously denied by the nDS, such as electric shocks and threats of sexual abuses, were also confirmed in interviews.

The report, “Torture, Transfers and Denial of Due Process”, also found “credible evidence” that some detainees transferred to Afghan authorities by international forces had been tortured.

“Ten cases were documented of individuals detained by US forces between May 2010 and January 2012, and then transferred to nDS facilities where they alleged they were subsequently tortured,” the report said.

Last October, a Un report accused the Afghan security forces of systematically torturing detainees, including children, in detention centres.

After that, the Commission said nATO’s US-led mission suspended all detainee transfers to fa-

cilities of concern, initiated a regime to address problems and proposed an ambitious monitoring programme.

But it said the monitoring system may not be sufficient and that the United States had failed to implement a monitoring procedure for detainees arrested by US troops, such as special forces, who operate outside the nATO mission.

US-led foreign combat troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan and transfer responsibility for national security to Afghans by the end of 2014.

As part of that transition process, the United States earlier this month signed a deal set to transfer authority for a controversial US-run prison at Bagram airbase to Afghans within six months.

“Urgent action is required, and the Afghan government, with the support of its international partners, must take immediate, effective steps to address mistreatment and torture of conflict-related detainees,” the report said.

Clerics slam removal of Islamic teachings from syllabus PESHAWAR STAff REpoRT

Criticising the removal of jihadi material from syllabus and replacement of the lesson, The Holy Prophet, with ‘Three Days to See’, heads of various seminaries called it a deviation from the path of Islam. “The rulers, in fact want to enforce secularism and the removal of jihadi verses and replacement the Holy Prophet’s lesson is a first step towards an anti-Islamic system,” they said while addressing a news conference on Monday. Those who spoke included Pir Mohammad Chishti, Maulana Abdul Barq, Maulana Ataur Rahman, Maulana Dr Altafur Rahman, Allama Abid Hussain Shakari, Maulana yousaf Qureshi, Maulana Ghulamur Rahman and Maulana Abdul Chitrali. “Those who shared their ideas regarding the new syllabus and replaced the Prophet’s lesson with a non-muslim writer’s lesson committed Kufr,” they decreed. The also slammed the removal of two other lessons, the ‘Voice of God” with “Giant Man” and “Hazrat Omar” with Quaid-e-Azam.

They said Pakistan had been brought into existence in the name of Islam, but the government had erased the lessons and Quranic verses from class 9 and 10 syllabuses and showcased their un-Islamic thoughts to appease America. Criticising the rulers for being pro-US, they said they were ineligible to rule a Muslim country. “The rulers want Islam but per their wishes, not according to the command of Allah and His Prophet,” they blamed. “Cruelty and brutality has crossed all limits and for a few dollars, Muslims are being killed,” Maulana yousaf Qureshi said, predicting a bloody revolution. They speakers said, “A conspiracy against Islam is being hatched while the rulers are helping conspirators in this regard for money.” “We will not allow our youth to be misguided by secularists,” they said. They demanded the government restore Islamic verses in the syllabus and lessons of Islamic stories, otherwise a big protest demonstration of Islamists would be held in Peshawar and a movement against the AnP-led government would be initiated from March 25.

Govt to launch app News Channel soon, says firdous SIALkOt ARIf MEHMood SHEIkH

The federal government would soon launch the APP news Channel under umbrella of APP to promote the true face of Pakistan across the globe, after the successful video news service of APP, Federal Information Minister Dr Firdous Aashiq Awan said on Monday. She was talking to journalists after inaugurating the APP Sialkot news Office. The minister said that it was the era of media advancement, as media could play a pivotal role in promoting national harmony. Firdous said that APP news Channel would promote responsible and healthy journalism by airing points of views of both the government and opposition, adding that the PPP-led government firmly believes in freedom of the press and the government would take the free and independent media as its partner in highlighting government efforts regarding eliminating poverty, ignorance, unemployment and terrorism. She urged the media to promote a soft image of Pakistan globally. The minister said that the federal government had established APP news Office at Sialkot after recent establishment of PTV news Bureau and regional offices of Press Information Department (PID) and PeMRA in Sialkot, as the government was developing the media as an institution in Sialkot with a sole aim to promote local export culture, industrial activities, local democratic norms, social values, local culture in Pakistan. APP Sialkot news station would be the 14th station in Pakistan.

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owning a Qingqi makes you a prey for extortionists and traffic cop .

07

PPP, mQm make up without depy speaker having to hold her ears

IJT activist gunned down, another hurt outside college ■ student organisation blames APmso for attack; rival group denies claim kARACHI

kARACHI STAff REpoRT

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmakers tried to mend ties during the Sindh Assembly session on Monday after the two coalition partners’ relationship was strained by the latter’s rumpus during the session on Saturday.

Besides, the majority of the PPP-dominated House again vetoed the leave application of Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, former chief minister and the self-exiled leader of the PML-Likeminded, a forward block of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid.

Also witnessed during the session was a brief but heated argument between Information Minister Raza Haroon and Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza with the MQM legislator making the chair accountable for her off-session media outburst against his party.

On a point of order, youth Affairs Minister Faisal Subzwari, also MQM’s deputy parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, apologised to national People’s Party lawmaker Arif Mustafa Jatoi for his manhandling at the hands of MQM legislators on Saturday. Jatoi was almost roughed up and his mike was broken during that session.

The provincial youth minister said President Zardari, in a telephonic conversation with his party leader Altaf Hussain, has assured stern action against extortionists.

“The MQM showed solidarity with the city’s traders on March 16 against the increasing incidents of street crimes and extortion with its legislators lodging their protest in and outside the house,” said Subzwari.

He, however, clarified what happened to Jatoi was not intentional. “Though we had called up Mr Jatoi and apologised the same day, I, again seek his apology,” the MQM leader added.

Masroor Jatoi of nPP accepted the apology. “All political parties, including the MQM, are against extortionists and reserve the right to protest,” he added.

MQM’s Raza Haroon flayed the deputy speaker for her media criticism of his party. “The acting speaker condemned the MQM on television,” he said. “She can condemn a member but not a political party. This is not tolerable.”

The deputy speaker was put on the defensive when Raza found support from PPP’s parliamentary leader Pir Mazharul Haq, who said the acting speaker must refrain from behaving in this manner.

“I have apologised. now do you want me to hold my ears?” said a visibly enraged deputy speaker, who adjourned the House until Tuesday (today).

A

AAMIR MAJEEd

n activist of the Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT) was killed and another injured when some unidentified assailants opened fire at them outside the Saifee Polytechnic College on Monday.

The victim was identified as Hafiz Muhammad Arif, a student of the Department of Mechanics.

IJT activists took the body of their dead colleague and the injured activist, Atif, to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Later the injured was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment.

After the attack, a large number of students gathered outside the college and attacked a police van deployed outside the college with stones and stick. They also beat up the policemen

present there.

Later, the police fired aerial gunshots to disperse them. They also arrested some IJT activists for attacking the police.

Quoting the college’s principal, Gulberg SP Tanvir Alam Odho told Pakistan Today that there was tension in the institute over a dispute between two student groups over the hoisting of a political party’s flags inside the premises of the college.

“The police have started investigating the case and the people responsible for the attack will be behind the bars as early as possible,” he added.

The IJT held the All-Pakistan Muttahida Student Organisation (APMSO) responsible for the attack.

However, the APMSO rejected the claims and asserted that the student organisation has nothing to do with the incident.

IJT Information Secretary So-

haib claimed his group’s activists clashed with the APMSO over the hoisting of Muttahida Qaumi Movement flags inside the college. “IJT leaders had informed the college administration about this and requested the removal of flags. After a few hours passed, some unidentified men opened fie on IJT activists,” he added.

He said the enraged IJT activists attacked the police because of their negligence. “The police baton-charge IJT activists and arrested over two dozen of them,” he claimed.

APMSO Information Secretary Shabbir Ali Babar rejected the IJT’s claims and said both student organisations are operating in the college peacefully.

“The IJT has its hold in the morning shift while the APMSO has its hold in the evening shift. Both organisations have no dispute with each

other,” he added.

He said the APMSO condemns the killing of the IJT activist and demands the arrest of the killers. “The APMSO is against any type of political wallchalking and hoisting of political parties’ flags inside any academic institution,” he added.

Babar said a few days back, the IJT clashed with the Pakhtun Students Federation at the University of Karachi, the Federal Urdu University of Arts Science and Technology and the Dawood College of engineering and Technology and also with the APMSO last week but that matter was settled. “It might be that a third party took advantage of the situation,” he suggested.

Later, the IJT held a press conference and demanded that the government should arrest the killers of their activist and provide protection to students at educational institutions.

Dust storm turns city murky kARACHI STAff REpoRT

A dust storm with gusty winds in Karachi and other parts of Sindh and Balochistan on Monday evening disrupted routine life.

Following the dust storm, flights were delayed and train and bus services disrupted for hours and commuters faced troubles as well.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department‚ the dust storm has engulfed most areas of Sindh and Balochistan and it will remain for at least 12 more hours.

the city got ‘murkier’ on monday due to a dust storm. IMraN aLI

fOrCeD CONVerSIONS

‘We want election not selection’ ■ minorities’ representatives allege members in legislatures selected on political points not elected ■ say a handful of miscreants conspiring to divide the country’s people along religious lines kARACHI ISMAIL dILAWAR

Claiming they have no representation in the country’s legislatures, representatives of Hindu and Christian minorities have condemned the kidnappings and subsequent forced conversions of the Hindu girls at the hands of a handful of miscreants who they said were conspiring to divide the country’s people along religious lines.

“The reserved seats [of minorities] should be filled on the basis of election and not selection,” demanded Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) patron Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, while talking to the media at the Karachi Press Club on Monday.

Former Sindh Assembly member Javed Michael, office bearers of PHC and parents of Rinkle Kumari, Dr Lata and Asha Kumari were also present on the occasion.

Rinkle and Lata have been sent to shelter homes by courts but Asha is yet to be recovered by the police.

Demanding the immediate recovery of Asha, the speakers appealed to the president, prime minister, chief justice and the chief of army staff to allow the mothers of Rinkle and Lata to visit the shelter homes for at least a month.

“The girls were brainwashed by their abductors but left without counselling,” claimed a female member of the PHC. “All I need is my [daughter]

Rinkle,” said a weeping Silchiny Kumari, the mother of the Hindu girl, renamed Syeda Faryal Bibi, after allegedly being forced to embrace Islam by her kidnappers in Mirpur Mathelo.

The uncle of Rinkle, Raj Kumar, told journalists that in the Dharki area, miscreants were threatening to take out processions and kidnap another four Hindu girls if the courts gave an unfavourable decision in Rinkle’s case.

The parents of Lata and Asha also made similar appeals.

Challenging the claims that the girls had converted on “freewill”, Vankwani questioned the kind of freewill the Hindu girls would have exercised being sur-

rounded by a number of armed people.

“The country’s 10 million minority members, with seven million living in Sindh, are being forced to leave their beloved homeland,” he said. “A month ago, at least 250 Hindu families had left the country silently, with no official quarter bothering to ascertain the reason.”

The PHC chief also demanded that the Chief Justice of Pakistan forms a judicial commission to probe into the “biased” attitude of the police in Ghotki, where the speakers demanded deployment of army.

Speaking on the occasion, Michael said that the two Christian hospital workers kidnapped in the

city around 20 days ago should be recovered immediately. “We also have reservations against the police and courts that sent the two girls recovered to government shelters instead of their homes,” he added.

Vankwani said that Hindu panchayats from across the country would gather at a conference to be held in Karachi on March 25 to form a committee that would protect the interests of minorities.

“We all would also appear before the Supreme Court on March 28.”

The PHC official also called for security for his community representatives, who are being harassed and threatened with dire consequences in interior Sindh areas like Mirpur Mathelo.

Replying to a question, Vankwani lambasted the “socalled minority lawmakers” in the country’s legislatures, saying they were representing their political parties and not their communities.

“There is no representation of minorities in the assemblies,” he said. “We have been demanding representation based on elections and not selections.”

When drawn towards the support shown by Sindh Assembly minority legislators on the issue, the PHC patron said that if two or three lawmakers were feeling their responsibility towards their community, it did not matter. “If two or three MnAs and MPAs highlight the issues, it does not mean the system is alright.”

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PakistaN today

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tuesday, 20 march, 2012

100 needy, brilliant Owning a Qingqi makes students of NeD to you a prey for extortionists get scholarships and traffic cops

kARACHI STAff REpoRT

kARACHI

F

SIRAJ uddIN

ORTy-yeAR-OLD Hasan, a Qingqi rickshaw driver, who plies his threewheeler on the nipa Chowrangi-Aisha Manzil route, leaves home early in the morning and runs his rickshaw until midnight to support his family of five.

But even then, he has been unable to enroll his children to school. “I cannot send my children to school,” he says. “My eldest son is already going to a workshop.”

Hasan makes about Rs 1,200 daily, but at the end of the day, he is left with only Rs 300 to support his family. “My hard-earned money goes to extortionists and traffic police.”

The Qingqi driver says he has no other option but to pay the extortionists.

“Police, government officials, political parties, all of them back extortionists,” he laments. each Qingqi driver has to pay around Rs 12,000 to traffic police posts established along their routes. Traffic policemen also impose fines on them to show their efficiency.

“Apart from the police, the people who started the Qingqi service now claim ownership of these routes and collecting money from the drivers plying on their routes,” Hasan explains.

“They are powerful people and enjoy political backing.”

Another Qingqi driver, who wished not to be named, says he purchased his rickshaw on lease and now he is struggling to return the loan.

“If want to live in Karachi, you have to pay extortion money,” he says.

Traders and businessmen, backed by a political party, observed a shutter-down strike in Karachi on Saturday to protest the increasing incidence of extortion in the city.

However, the people from the lower-middle class believe that strikes are not enough to uproot the bane of extortion and the government needs to take concrete action.

Qingqi Association president Akbar Khan says the association has submitted a proposal to the government seeking permits for Qingqi routes.

“The people, who started the service, have spent money on different routes and they are collecting money from the drivers to smoothly run the service.

Koshish Foundation, a US-and Pakistan-based non-profit organisation, committed on Monday to grant scholarships to 100 deserving and brilliant students of the neD University. “A recent scholarship commitment by Koshish Foundation will pay full tuition fee from 1st year to graduation for 100 neD students confronting financial challenges,” Anees Ahmed Khan, the foundation’s general secretary told a briefing at Karachi Press Club. He said the amount of scholarship would total at Rs 0.1 million per student that would have an accumulative financial impact of Rs 10 million. In this context he said, a ceremony was being organised by the foundation at the neD University on March 21.

Also, at this ceremony the foundation members would be introducing “Learntive”, a Sindh-wide education initiative driven to address various difficulties facing the students of the province. “Students are forced to seek private tutoring (tuition). Many students are unable to get private tutorage because their families are unable to pay for the private lessons,” said Khan, who was flanked by the foundation’s president Jamaluddin Rajput. To determine who is needy and brilliant, he said teachers were the primary source to be contacted. He said from some 25 departments of the university had sent their recommendations in favour of the merited students. Koshish Foundation, which is registered in California, USA, is a group of Pakistani-American entrepreneurs based in Silicon Valley who believe in giving back to the institutions and communities they have benefited from.

Khusro Subzwari and afshan Kohari’s works on display at Grandeur kARACHI pRESS RELEASE

An exhibition of paintings by Khusro Subzwari and Afshan Kohari was recently opened at the Grandeur Art Gallery. Leading artists and art lovers attended he exhibition on its opening day. The show is curated by Neshmia Ahmad, owner of the art gallery. The exhibition will continue till March 24. Khusro Subzwari is a self-taught artist, with a master’s degree in civil engineering. ”The background in engineering proved to be an asset in understanding and the development of textures, and the three dimensional perspectives of images on a canvas,” he says.

Currently, Subzwari is working on five series: Sufism (whirling dervish series), exotic trees and gardens including the beauty of organic life close-ups, beauty and colours of nature, peacocks and Venice through the eyes of artist.

Afshan Kohari is also a self-taught artist. She likes to paint nature, flowers and landscapes. She is also a calligraphy artist.

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karachi 09 PakistaN today

In Karachi, a first world economy and sociology but with a third world wage and political structure ■ New aspirations emerging related to consumerism and the desire to belong to the “contemporary” world as portrayed by the media but without the means of achieving these aspirations and desires through formal institutions and processes

P

AKISTAn’S inflation and recession are taking place at a time when the older squatter colonies have been consolidating and such colonies constitute the majority of informal settlements.

These are no longer purely working-class settlements and the younger generation living in them is overwhelmingly literate.

Many have become doctors, engineers, college teachers, bank managers and whitecollar workers. Many of the small workshops and looms that were established by the first generation of entrepreneurs and artisans, with support from middlemen, have now developed direct links with the formal-sector industries and exporters whom they service. Similarly, schools (which started out as informal ones) have developed links with nGO and government support agencies, and some health clinics have started to access government facilities for population planning and immunisation.

Interest groups have organised to present their claims and protect their gains. There now exist vocal transporters’ organisations, loom operators’ associations, neighbourhood groups, sports and cultural clubs (that manage to access government funds) and hawkers’ associations.

Almost every informal activity sector now has an

organisation registered under the Societies Act and, increasingly, these organisations are being led by second- or third-generation city dwellers, who have broken with their rural culture and background. They are better educated than their parents or grandparents and more comfortable dealing with those in positions of power.

Instead of seeking access through middlemen and political-party touts, they approach the establishment through the power of their organisations which, increasingly, have yearly audits and elections.

As a result of the changes mentioned above, there has been a change in lifestyles, supported by the communications revolution. nuclear families are replacing joint family systems.

Clan and tribal organisations that the migrants brought with them have ceased to be effective and are being replaced by new community organisations or by a dependence on state institutions.

The communications revolution has made television and video important entertainment tools. Television is the main source of information for the vast majority of Karachi households and more than 50 percent of them have access to some form of cable television.

Thus, video shops and cable operators, all too expensive in the formal sector

for the lower- and lowermiddle-income populations, have become a necessity.

Informal enterprise has made all variety of entertainment and news channels available now in homes in all low-income settlements in Karachi and in the tea shops and eating places located within them. This has brought about a clash of values and cultural confusion.

It has also brought about a generation gap, which seems unbridgeable and is one of the major reasons for an increase in honour killings of women in firstgeneration urban families.

Vocabularies have also changed. Words of respect for elders or for those from a higher class have been substituted by “uncle” and “aunty”, and those too in the english-language equivalent. The whole feudal vocabulary, which the migrants had brought with them, has simply vanished with the new generation.

Liberalisation and the communications revolution have also brought the corporate culture to Karachi.

There is a great demand for information technology professionals, operators and technicians, not only for the local market but also for employment abroad. Training for these professions is provided by both government and private institutions. In the case of government institutions, this training is affordable to low-income groups, but is on too small a

scale to service the demand.

As such, only those who are exceptional students can get into government institutions. Private institutions are far too expensive and only the rich can afford them. Thus, a large gap has been created between demand and formal sector supply.

The corporate culture has introduced an affluent nature to the city that was previously unknown. Golf clubs and various recreational and cultural facilities have been developed which are sponsored by companies for their clients, employees and for advertising purposes. Unlike before, these activities take place in new locations, in elite areas or in five-star hotels, and not in municipal or public buildings in the inner city. As a result, the inner city as a space for multi-class entertainment is dead. These corporate-sector-promoted activities and the glamour and pomp that surround them are in sharp contrast to the physical and social conditions in lower- and lower-middle-income settlements. There is an increasing feeling of insecurity among the promoters of these activities and so they, and the corporate-sector employees and clients, are surrounded by security systems and armed guards.

This is in sharp contrast to the Karachi of the pre-liberalisation period.

Liberalisation has also

meant the introduction of fast-food chain outlets and the popularisation of various consumer items. Huge advertisements, colourful and well-lit, dominate the urban landscape and dwarf badlyconstructed and poorly-lit businesses and homes. new post-modern buildings with smart interiors, belonging to the corporate sector, stand in sharp contrast to the sedate government buildings of the previous decades. As a lot of young people from Karachi’s informal settlements work in this environment, ties, blue or white shirts and the “corporate haircut” are becoming common phenomena; also, everyone knows what a credit card is and wishes to acquire one.

This is really the emergence of a first world economy and sociology, but with a third world wage and political structure. It is the emergence of new aspirations related to consumerism and the desire to belong to the “contemporary” world as portrayed by the media but without the means of achieving these aspirations and desires through formal institutions and processes. Thus, the most important role (and it is a new one) that the informal sector is trying to play today, and is likely to continue to play for the foreseeable future, is helping to bridge this aspirationsmeans gap. In Karachi, a whole new world has emerged to do just this.

Although the younger generation has new aspirations, state culture and family pressures prevent or hinder them from pursuing their desires. There is a major conflict between the individualism of the young and the conservative social values of the older people who seek to protect the joint family and clan systems.

This is one of the major reasons, other than financial, why young Pakistanis wish to migrate abroad. Obtaining a visa and a job and establishing connections after migrating to a first world country are not easy for young Karachiites from lowor lower-middle- income settlements.

Middlemen have emerged to cater to this need, to help acquire genuine and/or forged visas and arrange jobs abroad. newspaper reports suggest that these operators have contacts in the visa sections of embassies and large sums of money change hands in this trade. To acquire an American or a Japanese visa, young Pakistanis claim to have paid up to Rs 200,000 to middlemen. An entire inner-city street in Karachi deals with arranging the necessary paperwork for migration and employment, and from observation one can see that the number of middlemen and clients is increasing daily.

All Karachi neighbourhoods, including low-income and even marginalised ones, have not one but many video shops, all of which rent out pirated videos.

Video copies of Indian films arrive in Karachi even before they have been released in India; similarly, videos of American films arrive well before they have been released in Karachi. All attempts at curbing piracy have failed. If they were to succeed, the vast majority of Karachiites would not be able to hire video cassettes and the same holds true for the purchase of audio cassettes. More recently, cable television has made a big appearance in Karachi. Most of the cable companies are illegal and informally use the telephone network for providing home connections.

They service all areas of Karachi, irrespective of class. The telephone department officials and the police are informally paid by the cable companies to let this happen. The cost of a cable connection varies from Rs 450 per month for a connection from a legal company to Rs 150 for an illegal one. At a modest estimate, there are over 150,000 people involved in video and cable-related trade.

All low-income settlements (formal or informal) have video halls. These are large asbestos-roofed shacks showing video films of all kinds. The films are advertised on notice boards outside the halls, along with the names of the stars, and are held at regular hours. During the interval, tea and chips are available. Under the law, this is an illegal activity but it provides entertainment to the male-only, day-wage labour that lives around the port and the wholesale markets. The video-hall operators consider this as a “joint venture” between them, the police and the excise department officials. new aspirations and exposure through the media to a new and glamorous world has led to the opening of a number of “beauty parlours” and tuition centres for spoken english. The number of neighbourhood beauty parlours is growing in low-income settlements and they advertise various hairstyles named after Indian film stars. Being well-groomed and able to speak english has become an added asset for a woman in the marriage “market” in Karachi’s older informal settlements. The pioneering beauticians have been trained informally by hairdressers in upper-middle-income beauty parlours. now their apprentices, who are growing in number, are taking over in the informal settlements. This trade has become so important that popular radio programmes now give regular beauty tips for women and for the trade operators.

The most important informal-sector activity today is related to information technology.

Training schools, actually no more than tuition centres, have opened up informally in all low- and lower-middle-income areas.

These centres require no qualifications for admission

and offer no qualifications either. Their trainees are employed after having been tested by prospective employers. If they are well trained, the employers prefer them to qualified persons since they can pay them a much lower salary for the same work. Similarly, there is a whole sector that deals with pirating computer software and marketing it to both informal and formal outlets.

All attempts at curbing this activity have failed and, as a result, both international companies and the government have simply given up. The cost of such software can be as little as five percent of its original value and, without this sector, information technology would be unaffordable to the lower- or even middle-income groups in Karachi. new lifestyles promoted by the media and the corporate sector have also had an influence on the poorer sections of the population. They too wish to consume soft drinks and beefburgers.

They too are interested in designer shirts and brandname perfumes. However, these are all unaffordable to them. But then fake cold drinks, costing half the price of the original, are manufactured in informal factories and marketed in a big way in the original bottles. Fake brand-name perfumes and fake designer shirts are also manufactured and marketed. A cheap alternative to the beefburger is available in every Karachi locality.

These new informal-sector activities, which are the result of liberalisation and related changes, really try to serve the better-off and the slightly upwardly mobile residents of old consolidated or consolidating informal settlements. At the same time, this process marginalises large sections of these settlements and deprives them of employment and access to diminishing government subsidies and benefits.

This division has caused an increase in crimes such as armed robberies, car theft and purse-snatching in Karachi. These “criminal” activities are not easy to carry out in Karachi’s affluent areas due to the presence of the police and private guards and security systems. However, they continue to occur and grow in number in the lower-income settlements. Hence, residents of many of these settlements are organising informal neighbourhood policing systems and are trying to get government approval to operate them. So far, such approval has not been forthcoming and these neighbourhood policing systems continue to operate and grow in defiance of state rules and regulations.

Extract from the research paper ‘The changing nature of the informal sector in Karachi as a result of global restructuring and liberalisation’ by renowned architect and planner Arif Hasan

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PakistaN today

10 karachi

tuesday, 20 march, 2012

weAther UPDAtes

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weDNesDAY thUrsDAY frIDAY 34°C I 19°C

36°C I 20°C 37°C I 20°C

PrAYer tImINGs fajr 5:20

sunrise 6:35

Zuhr 12:40

Asr 4:06

maghrib 6:44

Isha 8:00

starting time in Karachi

CItY DIreCtorY emerGeNCY heLP PoLICe 15 BomB DIsPosAL 15, 99212667 fIre BrIGADe 16, 99215007, 99215008 eDhI 115, 32310066-2310077 KhIDmAt-e-KhALQ foUNDAtIoN 36333811 reD CresCeNt 35833973 GoverNor’s hoUse 136 ChIef mINIster’s hoUse 99202051 motorwAY PoLICe 130

hosPItALs ABBAsI shAheeD CIvIL JINNAh NICvD AGA KhAN tABBA

99260400-09 99215749, 99215960 99201300-39 99201271-6 34930051 36811841-50

BLooD BANK hUssAINI fAtImID PwA

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ComPLAINt KesC PtCL KwsB CDGK sUI GAs

118 1218 1339 134 1199, 99231603

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AIrPort fLIGht INQUIrY PIA reservAtIoN

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CoLLeGes / UNIversItIes KArAChI UNIversItY NeD UNIversItY fUUAst DUhs smIC fAst-NU sZABIst IoBm IBA Ivs

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For JPMC, ‘Every life Counts’ ■ state-run hospital’s 49th symposium from April 1 to 5 kARACHI

T

App

He Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) will hold its 49th Annual Medical Symposium from April 1 to 5, Prof Jamal Ara, chairperson of the Academic Council and Symposium Organising Committee of the hospital, said in a statement issued on Monday.

The symposium is being organised with the theme “every Life Counts”, which implies that no person can ever experience all that life has to offer.

Further elaborating the choice for the theme, Ara said it is only through sharing experiences, feelings and insights that we can hope to grow beyond our finite lifetime.

“The idea is to invigorate all stakeholders and make them think if they are ready to grow today,” she said.

Ara said the JPMC is the pioneer medical institute of the country that has been organising its annual medical symposium since 1963.

“It is our endeavour to continue the academic and research activity and keep the torch alight and kick off the forthcoming moot by holding a plenary session after the inauguration,” she added.

The symposium is going to be addressed by accomplished teachers of the country.

The pre-symposium workshops on various subjects are going to be followed by a specialty symposium.

The sessions will also include talks by eminent professionals in their field from the whole country.

Along with the free paper sessions, there will also be poster presentations. The best papers will be chosen by a jury and the authors suitably honoured.

The subjects discussed will also be complimented by research work undertaken by local doctors on various topics including general medicine, gastroenterology, hematology, chest medicine, endocrine and rheumatology, ophthalmology, cardiology, dermatology, neuromedicine, dental surgery facio-maxillarymental health, neurosurgery, paeds medicine, radiol-

goLdEN coLLEcTIoN II

ogy (ultrasound, CT/MR, isotope), nephro and urology, oncology, anesthesiology, gynecology and obstetrics.

The scientific sessions will cover issues related to basic medical science and will focus on anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, histopathology, microbiology and clinical pathology.

A special session has been

BARAkA SILSILA-E-NISBAT

arranged to discuss training and educational needs of nurses and paramedics.

Keeping in view the growing relevance of public needs, a special programme has been chalked out to discuss issues trauma, reconstruction and microsurgery.

A seminar on disaster management will also be part of the five day programme.

kHuSRo/AfSHAN

ARt EXHIBItION StARtS MARCH 21 VENUE: UNICORN GALLERY

ARt EXHIBItION UNtIL MARCH 24 VENUE: VM ARt GALLERY

ARt EXHIBItION UNtIL MARCH 24 VENUE: GRANDEUR

A group exhibition ‘The Golden Collection II’ from March 21 to 28 at the Unicorn Gallery. Call 35831220 for more information.

Farah Mahbub’s ‘Baraka Silsila-enisbat’ until March 24 at the VM Art Gallery. Call 34940411 for more information.

Khusro Subzwari and Afshan Kohari’s art exhibition until March 24 at the Grandeur gallery. Call 35435744 for more information.

KHI 20-03-2012_Layout 1 3/20/2012 2:18 AM Page 11

tuesday, 20 march, 2012

Editor’s mail 11

Democracy = rule of law The king does no wrong is an outdated idea, which has no place in a democracy, which is rule of law and not of men. This is a basic concept of this system.

The prime minister of Pakistan is responsible for all acts, decisions, losses incurred, misdeeds or abuse of power committed by those who have been appointed with his or his cabinet’s consent to head state corporations and institutions, including semi autonomous corporations like Pakistan Railways, Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA, OGDC, PSO, PASSCO, CAA, national Bank etc. In a democracy, an elected head of state works at the pleasure of his people and holds that office only as

No accountability long as he is not violating constitution, or abusing his powers to the detriment of his country and state exchequer.

It is the constitution which is supreme and to which all institutions of the state such as parliament, prime minister, president, ministers, civil bureaucrats, judiciary and members of our armed forces must submit and from where they derive their powers. Powers, responsibilities and jurisdiction of all constitutional office holders are defined in the constitution.

The oath of office confines them to work within the strict parameters of rules and any discretionary powers that they enjoy does not empower them to do such acts, which violate the consti-

tutional rights of any citizen, nor such acts which directly or indirectly leads to losses for the national exchequer.

It is the constitutional obligation of the elected president, PM and his cabinet to make all appointments in accordance with merit so that best available qualified team is selected, so that affairs of state and its corporations and departments are run efficiently, profitably with optimum benefits for national exchequer and collective welfare of citizens. He is bound by his oath to take decisions which do not cause losses or wastage of tax payer money.

The elected President, Prime Minister and their cabinet along with their nominees are answerable and account-

able for all their acts, decisions and expenditures to people of Pakistan and for any constitutional violation or abuse to superior judiciary. While the parliament is a legislative body, the judicial powers for review, interpretation and resolution of laws, decisions and any conflict lies solely with superior judiciary.

In a democracy the higher the constitutional post an individual holds, the more his responsibility and therefore his actions and decisions are subject to judicial accountability and public scrutiny, because they impact affairs of state and lives of citizens.

MALIK TARIQ ALI Lahore

still defiant?

The latest refusal of our PM to write the letter which may amount to disobedience may have some very worrisome consequences. The SC may not be able to show extra patience and may have to take (God forbid) some very drastic steps. The ruling PPP who are keen to show more defiance after winning the majority in the Senate, are more likely to extend support to President Zardari.

Should such defiance by the PM be counted towards his party loyalty if it comes at the cost of fair justice? Would the common people not take a cue from their leader and disobey the courts as well? If so, would not this be the first step towards damaging rule of law leading to anarchy in Pakistan? Legal experts and political experts from our intelligentsia should come up with a compromise that could bring the country out of this constitutional impasse.

There are two big and disturbing questions now: 1. What if the SC invokes Section 190 to have their orders implemented? 2. What if the SC decides to resign en masse due to the present crisis?

May The Almighty God guide us to safety and wisdom.

RASHID MAQSOOD Lahore

Pot. Kettle. Black.

Sindh Assembly’s session on Friday 16th March 2012 was marred by the hooliganism of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmakers who protested over extortion and terrorism. This was followed by a strike call on Saturday throughout Karachi in which business, transport and all petrol pumps were forcibly shut with out taking into account the problems of daily wage labourers who spent a day of hunger.

One fails to understand the dynamics of MQM’s politics. This second largest party of Sindh has never thought of twisting the arm of the government when it comes to sky rocketing prices of petrol, diesel, electricity, gas and other commodities. The party does not bother to protest over deteriorating law and order and the killings of 5-7 people in Karachi in a day within a span of 1-2 hours. now MQM is protesting over extortions and extortionists. This reminds me of the famous idiom “Pot calling the kettle black”!

M RAFIQUE ZAKARIA Karachi

Boom Bust Afridi?

After much furore, Shahid Afridi was called back to national cricket team by PCB. This decision did not do any good to the cricket team. The player totally proved extra burden for already struggling team. His performance in the Asia Cup matches has cast a shadow of doubts about his form and fitness as a batsman as well as bowler.

He poorly performed in the match against India, the arch-rival of Pakistan in cricket. His shoddy performance tormented Pakistani team. He could not blast in the final overs of match. Low scoring clubbed with ordinary bowling spell helped India accomplish her record victory against Pakistan. His Boom Boom “Aura” has gradually vanished. Scoring just 7000 thousand runs in three hundred plus matches speaks volumes of his batting performance. To cut short, it can be inferred from the above that time has come that Afridi should now bid farewell to cricket.

IFTIKHAR MIRZA Islamabad

Ignorance from reality

checkmating opponents The president of Pakistan delivered a record-breaking fifth address to the parliament in a country where no democratic dispensation has been able to complete its tenure. Whereas our president is the man a huge chunk of the population loves to hate, even his most rabid detractors will have to concede that he

media matters I would like to bring the attention of your readers towards the burning issue of a lack of a proper code of conduct in Pakistani media and how it damages its credibility.

It is a common observation that news bulletins have gained such a level of popularity that channels have started broadcasting them every thirty minutes on television as well as radio where there just used to be two or three bulletins a day in the past. This practice has without a doubt made people more conscious and aware of their surroundings. However, it has also contributed towards instilling fear and insecurity in them. It has been observed that while live coverage of a mob causing riots guides people to stay at home, the same coverage also encourages trouble makers to take advantage. Therefore, what could have been a group of fifty-sixty people rioting across a street in the past is now converted into breaking news all over Pakistan.

The issue here is not to withhold information from people but to figure out where to draw the line and how to refrain from crossing it. Breaking news and news Alerts are just a part of the many loopholes present in our media; the real

is a master manoeuvrer and practitioner of politics as an art. It seems the wily king will be atop his throne for another five years, courtesy his crafty politics.

TAHA BADAR Lahore

trouble is the excessive competition that exists between channels and the lengths their administration is willing to cross in order to achieve supremacy. The extent of irrationality that exists in primetime talk shows and the level of indecency in morning shows is just a small example of the current state of Pakistani media.

The root cause of all this, I believe is a lack of principles at the top. PeMRA needs to be put in order and needs to have some authority over all as fighting court cases for credibility or banning channels every other day is clearly not the solution towards a better Pakistani media.

ARFAH FAIQ Karachi

reach out to the Baloch Balochistan has become a burning issue nowadays and it is echoing in every corner of our unfortunate republic. Who is responsible for making it this grave? Of course, it is our leaders who did not extend a helping hand to the suffering Baloch and the establishment that subjected them to many injustices and this led the people of Balochistan to reach a point of no return. It is we ourselves that have cut our own throat by taking wrong

Bad governance seems to be the order of the day. Due to sheer financial indiscipline, the government is borrowing Rs3 billion daily from the State Bank resulting in a continuous sharp decline in the value of the rupee.

Those who already live on the edge, which is a majority of our population, are being pushed below the poverty line.

Only the super rich such as bribe-taker bureaucrats, dacoits, tax-thieves, hostage-takers and public exchequer looters are immune to poverty while most of the population thirsts for food, water, and electricity.

Recently, billions of rupees of people’s money were spent to buy senate loyalties. Unqualified, incompetent and corrupt personnel have been appointed as heads of the semi-autonomous corporations including PIA, Railways, Steel Mills, WAPDA, etc which are continuously being bled to fill the private coffers of the rulers. Thousands of surplus workers have been inducted into these corporations on political grounds hastening their descent into bankruptcy.

Just take the example of one top ruler of the country who just before the last elections was about to be arrested for default of billions but has now turned into a billionaire after 4 years in power.

The secret funds which run into billions are freely being misappropriated as they are above any accountability.

The people are also suffering because the national Accountability Bureau has been neutered and the new laws of accountability stand thwarted in the national assembly. There is no Wafaqi Mohtesib as the government is deliberately avoiding appointing anyone to this post lying vacant for the last few years.

Thus, all the institutions of accountability stand paralysed while the rulers continue to plunder unabated.

ABDUL KARIM Muzaffargarh

decisions.

The Balochis are deprived of all the basic facilities. One of two people lives below the line of poverty there. Despite having natural resources, the Balochis are still deprived of the basic amenities of life. While foreign powers like India and the US may have a hand in exacerbating the issue, but we need to realise that much of this mess is of our own making.

It is high time that we should pick up the threads and ask from our friends to assist us in time of need. There is still time left to prevent our country from another grave misfortune.

AMBREEN SYED SHEHZAD Lahore

Recent advertisement of a lawn has brought up immense hatred among masses at social media. The ad in which a beautiful model wearing a colourful lawn expresses her choice of elegance stands behind a group of poor coolies carrying her Louis Vuitton bags. The ad depicts a capitalist society where royals rule proletariats. It also forces for a boycott of the lawn.

But I really don't know why we are not bold enough to take the bite of reality. The ad clearly depicts the picture we have in Pakistan. It is the reality that exists in our society but everyone pretends to be blind from it.

MOAAZ AHMED KAZI Karachi

sunday spoilers

The joint venture of Sutex and nishat has successfully installed and commissioned 6MW CHP power plant which is a significant achievement. All parties are congratulated on this achievement which shall prove to be a milestone in the history of Pakistan. Such plants will surely help overcome the power shortage which is a very critical problem the country faces today.

KIRAN KHAN Lahore

This is with regards to the gatherings, rallies, and processions held by political parties and religious organisations near the Quaid’s mausoleum, mostly on Sundays. These have become a nuisance for the people residing in the vicinity.

On Sundays, one wants to attend to household chores. But it is difficult to come out, as one is stuck in traffic.

Hooliganism by party workers, dancing and playing of loud music around the mausoleum creates immense problems. especially women cannot come out of their homes because of this nuisance.

I request the political parties to please let the residents living nearby spend their Sundays in peace.

SYEDA SARAH HAIDER Karachi

courses. For 30 percent of the length of such watercourses that are to be lined, labour and excavation of earth work is provided by farmers. even though the project is to be windup in July 2012, it will be better if the Sindh government takes serious steps in further extending lining work on said watercourses. Since the nPIW consists of experienced and skilful engineers, their services must be regularised.

To date, the employees are sitting on roads for regularisation for a few weeks but no response has come from the government to resolve the issue. The employees of Punjab, Balochistan and

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been regularised. It is only in Sindh where the employees are still on contract basis. We hope that the Sindh government will not discount the services of such valuable engineers and provide livelihood to their frustrated families.The agriculture sector is the backbone of our society. To boost production and maximise its yield, it is important that nPIW employees be regularised to enhance the pace of the important work they are conducting which is providing an invaluable service to our agricultural economy.

ENGR ABBAS ALI KEERIO Benazirabad

Bravo!

regularising NPIw employees The Pakistan Government launched a programme in the agriculture sector, the national Programme for Improvement of the Watercourses in the year 2005, a project for lining of the watercourses all over Pakistan.

The employees were appointed by the government of Sindh after qualifying the Bahria University Test on merit basis.

The main objectives were to improve the 33000 watercourses in Sindh (29000 by nPIW, 4000 by SOFWM Project). Water conservation projects believe that welllined watercourses save around 35 percent of water, while in poorly lined canals, the water conservation rate is

hardly 10 percent. It has been observed that lined watercourses take water to the tail end in 12-14 minutes while a same length katcha watercourse takes 03 hours. In the nPIW project, work was initiated in 2005. Out of the 29000 watercourses, 20000 had been lined in Sindh in few years. The programme is to continue till July-2012. The lined watercourses control salinity and bring much area under cultivations by providing irrigation water.

Under nPIW, growers were required to form water user association that have 2/3 representation of such farmers whose lands are served by lined water-

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 should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

KHI 20-03-2012_Layout 1 3/20/2012 2:18 AM Page 12

12 comment Brave words But what are words without action?

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hat nawaz Sharif said at a press conference in London is important both on account of the message he has given and the time he has chosen to deliver it. Among other things nawaz strongly opposed the intervention of the security agencies in politics. The excesses on the part of the agencies are currently under scrutiny in various courts including the Supreme Court. The agencies have been subjected to criticism in the print and electronic media.

With a major leader of the opposition now maintaining that they tried their best to woo the PML(n) to make it a part of their conspiracies against the system, the issue gets further highlighted. The remarks are timely because with the induction of a new ISI chief on Sunday, many in the country are expecting a change in the outlook of these agencies. nawaz has promised to make no compromise on the truth irrespective of whether the establishment likes it or not. Brave words these, but one will have to keep ones fingers crossed for the time being as the promises made by politicians .are like marriage vows that are easily forgotten.

The security agencies exploit the weaknesses inherent in political parties. Despite signing the CoD, these shortcomings are yet to be overcome. While a more sober nawaz Sharif has avoided repeating the blunder of taking the fight with the PPP to undesirable limits, other PML(n) leaders, with Shahbaz in the forefront, have yet to learn the lessons. His remarks about dragging Zardari in the streets of Lahore, Karachi and Larkana have led to tit-for-tat responses. Like his younger brother, nawaz too has yet to shed the holier-than-thou posture. While accusing the PPP of showing disrespect to the institutions, he comfortably forgets his own record as prime minister and the remarks given recently by the Lahore High Court about the Punjab government’s treatment of the courts’ orders.

Democracy is the only way forward, yes. But the system requires patience. As agreed in the CoD, whichever party is elected to power has to be allowed to complete its tenure. The demand by nawaz for immediate elections is indicative of the same impatience which helped the offstage players in the past to play politicians against one another to pave way for the man on the horseback waiting in the wings.

on resignations ...or lack thereof

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vacuous media will only try to connect the dots where they needn’t be and point news of the Indian railways minister resigning to the local railways minister. See, across the border (no love lost for our neighbours otherwise) they resign when something goes wrong; what about you?

Well, it isn’t an apple-to-apple comparison.

“Something” didn’t go wrong in the Indian railways; the minister, who belongs to an ally party of the ruling Congress, was urged to resign by his party after he refused to roll-back the fare hike in the railways. Torn between the demands of his own party and his professional opinion as the concerned minister, he decided to opt out and quit. Guilty of loyalty to his own party. There are many nasty things one can say about his counterpart in Pakistan but disloyalty to his party isn’t one of them.

But this particular gripe of the local press on other occasions – Indian railways minister have resigned in instances of gruesome accidents, something no railways minister here, incumbent included has done – is well founded.

But it is not just the railways that seems to have the green pasture problem. It’s almost all our institutions, even the ones that the media are not too fond of criticising. Consider the presence of Osama Bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man, only a grenade’s throw away from Pakistan’s premier military academy. The military’s spymaster did not resign but was let to complete the full-term of his extension. The same case could have been made for all three military services during a month-long period in 2011. The naval chief for PnS Mehran, the other two for Abbottabad.

Amongst the politicians, resigning over an issue shouldn’t mean to imply an admission of incompetence, one that would ruin future prospects. Politics is politics; future electoral arrangements will mean other cabinet opportunities. But the humble - and (why not?) dramatic - resignation will serve to bolster the electorate’s confidence in the efficacy of the system.

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

tuesday, 20 march, 2012

Imparting poor education prioritisation needed

By Dr Faisal Bari

A

nnual Status of education (ASeR) report 2011, released recently, while talking of reading ability in Urdu/Sindhi, says: “Class wise analysis of reading ability show that only 41.2 percent of Class 3 students were able to read sentences, while, nearly 83 percent could not read a story.” Pg. 71. If we move to english, the findings get much worse. Only 13.1 percent of Class 3 children were able to read sentences fluently and, amazingly, 29 percent of those who could read sentences did so without understanding any meaning.

The ASeR survey was across 80 plus districts of Pakistan and tested almost 140,000, mostly rural, children. So, the findings are quite representative and general. It is true that, on average, children enrolled in private schools perform a little better than those in government schools, the overall numbers, for all, are bad and even in private schools only 53.3 percent of enrolled children could read Urdu/Sindhi sentences, compared to 37.5 percent of children in government schools.

Article 25A, added to the Constitution under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, recognises the right to free and compulsory education, for all children of the ages of 5-16 years, as a basic right. It will be, beginning April, two years since this Amendment has been passed. There has been little or no progress in implementing this Amendment and extending this right. More than 15 million, only a little less than the population of Karachi, 5-16 year olds, remain out of school in the country. And equally importantly, if not more so, the quality of education that we are imparting to the children who are fortunate enough to be able to make it to schools, across the board, is quite poor. Will this prepare the youth of the country for the future? Will this allow Pakistan to go down the development path with leaps and bounds? Will this education system produce the active and informed citizenry in Pakistan that we need? The answer is clearly no.

Although school education was mostly a provincial subject, by removing the subject of education from the concurrent list, the 18th Amendment has made it completely so.

Whether the federal government bears some responsibility for implementation of 25A or not, and whether the financial implications of 25A are shared between the federal and provincial governments, though important concerns, are not the issue here. The main point is that it is now going to be the provincial governments who are going to be wholly responsible for educational provision in their domains. So, it is provincial policies that we

have to look to in order to understand the priorities of the government. And if we look at these policies, especially since the passing of the 18th Amendment, the situation does not look too promising.

To take one example, the more well known educational initiatives of the Punjab, over the last few years, have been Daanish Schools, educational scholarship schemes, distribution of laptops, the formation and operationalisation of the Punjab education Commission (PeC) and some initiatives of Punjab education Foundation (PeF). Daanish Schools, though they have been touted as a major breakthrough in thinking and in efforts to provide ‘quality’ education to selected poor, is a poorly thought through intervention. We have created extremely expensive schools for a few hundred students when Government of Punjab runs some 50,000 plus schools, most of which are lacking facilities or teachers in one way or the other. And even these 50,000 schools are not enough as millions of children, in Punjab, are still out of school. So, the thousands of rupees being spent on one child could have been spent on many children. It is a choice that the government is making, but a choice that it is making while having committed to implementing 25A. And clearly Daanish will also not do much for quality of education being imparted in the 50,000 government schools mentioned. Similarly, laptop distribution, scholarship scheme and PeC initiative are not addressing the access or quality issue directly.

Let me make one issue very clear. Whenever the idea of Daanish Schools and/or laptop distribution has been criticised, PML(n) supporters have come back with the response that these initiatives are surely doing something useful and good. How can they be criticised then? But this response misses the point. Daanish Schools might be excellent for the children enrolled in them, but the question is: the government has a limited amount of money available, something they never let us forget, then should we not think hard before spending this money and should it not be spent in a way that we get the maximum bang for our buck, given our priorities.

If the priority is 25A and the issue of access to quality education for all children, could we not have spent the billions that have been spent on Daanish Schools or on laptops in a better way? Our data shows that gender gap in education is large and girls drop out of schools quickly if basic facilities like a boundary wall or working toilets are not present.

Could we not have prioritized these issues?

Would that have been better use of money?

We know that government sector teachers are better qualified, better trained, better paid and given more benefits compared to private sector teachers in Pakistan. yet, in terms of examination/test results, children enrolled in public sector lag behind children from private schools. This gives tremendous opportunity for designing interventions that support teachers, mentor them, tighten their accountability and monitoring/evaluation systems to get them to deliver higher quality. It seems, given the size of the public sector, this would provide us the biggest bang for the buck in terms of addressing access and quality issues.

But these interventions do not seem to capture the imagination of the government. And this seems to be true of all provincial governments. There are professional development programmes in place but they are not priority programmes, with the resources, money and brain-power, needed to make them work well.

Most children in Pakistan are either out of schools or in schools that give poor quality of education. Although the state, formally, has accepted that education is a basic right, the evidence over the last couple of years since the Amendment has been passed, suggests that there is little seriousness in addressing the issues of access and quality and more populist policies, as opposed to more substantive ones, are taking the resources. This might be politically savvy, but it is not going to lead to educational outcomes that Pakistan needs and has constitutionally committed to.

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

Regional press

Peace after American withdrawal Daily Pashtun Post

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ith the start of strikes against Afghanistan in the name of the war on terror, any chance and hope for peace in the region were dashed. The US actions, one after the other, backfired and contributed more to instability and violence in the war-torn region than contributing to peace and stability.

It is because the land of Afghanistan has proved to be area of defeat for the allied forces.

The US was here in Afghanistan with an aim of seeking permanent bases in the country but it seems that it will not be able to fulfil this aim as it is facing interminable losses on all fronts in Afghanistan and its ailing economy will be hard-pressed to sustain any kind of prolonged military presence in the country. This is why they want to cut their losses and run now. The proof is in the fact that the Americans are seeking talks with the Taliban for peace and have duly opened an office at Qatar for the same purpose.

The question is whether the plan to have a military presence

in Afghanistan by the US has yielded any result or has the US realised the mistake it committed in plunging into the region without thinking the entire thing through.

Pakistan should be praised for the role it has played in the larger interest of the region. not only has Pakistan hosted millions of homeless Afghans for decades, it has also ceaselessly continued with its efforts for lasting peace in the region through cooperation with regional and global stakeholders.

The talks intended for peace in the region among various stakeholders cannot shun the importance of Pakistan to the whole process. But in the ultimate analysis, it is the Afghans who must have a solution of their liking. A solution that has been manufactured to cater to the interest of other stakeholders and powers will not sit well with the Afghans and will be doomed to fail from the start, as history has proved. Thus, the process must ensure that the Afghans are freely able to decide what is best for them.

-Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur Rauf Khattak

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tuesday, 20 march, 2012

Giving them guns Really, Interior Minister?

By Iqbal Haider

P

erhaps in his enthusiasm to appease the lawyers community, our worthy interior minister, Mr Rehman Malik, in his address to Lahore High Court Bar Association on March 3, made an announcement to issue “Blue Passport” coupled with prohibited bore armed licenses for the office bearers of bars and bar councils across the country. This is a most imprudent decision devoid of any logic or reason except an attempt to win over the lawyers community.

In the first place, prohibited bore are assault weapons and not weapons of self-defence; hence, none of the sections of public including our worthy ministers, members of parliament, bureaucrats, generals, judges or journalists should be allowed to possess such lethal weapons, which are capable of being misused and would inevitably add to the rampant violence and killings across the country. Authorities should be conscious of the fact that no matter how many arms you may possess, the person who pulls the gun first becomes the master of their fate.

Instead of pursing the policy of deweaponising the society, which was the agenda of Chairperson Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, much to our disappointment, the present governments both at the federal and provincial levels are continuing to follow policies of General Pervez Musharraf to weaponise all the rich and influentials by dolling out to them hundreds of thousands of licenses to possess prohibited dangerous assault weapons. The exhibition and use of such deadly weapons enables the rich and influential to assert themselves more on the poor, oppressed and unarmed citizens, more particularly in the rural areas.

Federal and provincial governments are also not mindful of the

fact that with the proliferation of dangerous weapons in our society, there is a consistent unchecked rise and rise in militancy and incidents of terrorism. Already, the people of Pakistan are suffering from an immense sense of insecurity and the terrorism through lethal weapons spreading within our country is adding to that as it is a big threat to the integrity of our country as well.

One of the most imprudent policy adopted by our governments, particularly in Gen Musharraf’s days, was to liberally allow possession and use of many lethal weapons in the hands of our ruling elite, their allies including all the tribal and feudal lords. This policy has proved to be self-destructive and renders our Law enforcement Agencies hapless and unable to contain, confront or eradicate the extremist religious and ethnic terrorist forces and organised mafias of the criminals loaded with most modern weapons of destruction.

As regards, the plea to secure the ruling elite and their allies, it may be remembered, that they are already enjoying protection free of charge from the soldiers of paramilitary forces, commandoes and police in more than required numbers. On the contrary, what is more important and deserving of this security is the life and property of ordinary citizens.

This is the paramount duty of the state as guaranteed under Article 9 of our Constitution. Failure to provide this much needed security to ordinary citizens cannot be a justification to liberally issue licenses of assault weapons in alarming numbers to the rich. In any event, the government cannot relinquish or outsource its basic obligation to provide security to the people.

The encouragement and promotion of private security agencies, that are capable of assuming the role and shape of private armies and impinge upon the privacy of the citizens as well, is also an imprudent policy. It may be noted that the private armies are clearly forbidden under Article 256 of the Constitution. Despite this clear constitutional prohibition, we witness huge number of licensed and unlicensed private armed companies/groups under one garb

or pretext or the other. By promoting these private security agencies, the governments are implying that they have failed to discharge their basic obligation to protect life and property of ordinary citizens.

There is also yet another most objectionable aspect of the aforesaid decision of our worthy interior minister. Question rightly arises as to why should lawyers alone be favoured with a blue passport and licenses to possess assault weapons. Why is the same privilege not granted to all other professional bodies such as professors, doctors, bankers, chartered accountants, engineers, architects, senior journalists, labourers, intellectuals etc? After all, their contribution to society is not less than the lawyers.

It would also be relevant to point out that “Blue Passport”, is regarded as “Official Passport” issued gratis to the specified highranking officials of all the three institutions of the state. I am glad that by grant of this passport to the office bearers of the lawyers community, they will also enjoy the status of a high ranking government officials. The decision also suffers from yet another dichotomy in view of the fact that the term of the office bearers of the Bar Associations and most of the professional bodies is mostly 1/2 years, whereas the validity of the passports is generally to the tune of five years.

This would mean that they will continue to enjoy the privilege of blue passport even after the end of their tenure, a privilege which is not enjoyed even by the high ranking officials of the governments who are entitled to blue passport only during the term of their office.

Assuming, if all other professional bodies are treated at par with the lawyers community, which will be in accordance with the constitution and all of them are granted “Blue Passports”, then an amusing aspect would emerge that colour of most of the Pakistani passports will change from “Green” to “Blue”, which is the colour of the ordinary passports of Indians.

The writer is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court, a former Senator, Attorney General and Federal Minister. He may be contacted at ihaider45@yahoo.com

comment 13

a known unknown preventing the perfect storm

n

oori, the world’s first cloned pashmina goat, arrived fifteen years and several clones after the birth of Dolly, the world’s first cloned mammal.

The fabulous pashmina shawls, made from the fine cashmere wool of the Himalayan pashmina goat have been mentioned even in ancient texts. When, therefore, these goats stopped breeding as prolifically as before, scientists in the Shere-Kashmir University used a less high tech method to produce noori who will hopefully represent an upward turn for a flagging industry. even beneficial technology has a flip side and its opponents feel vindicated following incidents such as the dangerous damage to nuclear power plants after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year.

Reaction to news of noori’s birth was no exception: “Yahh Allah!!!” exclaims one reader. “It is wrong to clone...it is not our culture…our religion forbids this...it is unIslamic...please don't do this...”

Of course this could be a tongue-incheek comment by a supporter, but the odds are against it.

Cloning could be dangerous if certain wishes were in the habit of being fulfilled: “I hope one day I can clone another Dick Cheney,” said George

By Rabia Ahmed W Bush wistfully.

Ya Allah!

A world teaming with Cheneys or Rumsfelds would be unpleasant. However, Donald Rumsfeld’s tangential statement, “There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know,” while it may have murdered the english language applies to cloning as it never did to the issue to which it originally referred, Iraq and its never present weapons of mass destruction.

On the pleasant other hand, there are identical twins.

According to Richard Dawkins, a biologist, “Anybody who objects to cloning on principle has to answer to all the identical twins in the world who might be insulted by the thought that there is something offensive about their

very existence.”

As with every issue, it all boils down to intent and to the important but difficult question of control, since any time we play God there is a danger of abuse of the privilege. In this case there is the very real danger of bringing procreation to the human level of manufacturing in the absence of serious regulation.

A physicist I spoke to says, “All the evidence from the life sciences indicates that humans are machines that engineer other things. It is inevitable that we will genetically engineer and clone other species and quite possible ourselves as well.”

And on the subject of artificial life that most loaded aspect of cloning, that, ‘the first bacterium are pretty close to actually being created, which may be scary, but the benefits are incredible. you can for example create a bacterium that eats one thing but then creates oil (fuel) or medicine as a waste product. Or one can create viruses that fight cancer. There are some dangers but the benefits are huge.’

To return to Kashmir, noori the pashmina goat’s homeland, trade in pashmina shawls brings in some $80 million for the region. A dwindling supply of the cashmere wool used in its production, now being imported from China, would mean a drastic reduction in earnings for its people. This will hopefully no longer be the case if the pashmina herds can be augmented with clones.

The authors of the ‘empires of Food’ have quoted the chief science advisor of the government of UK as saying that by 2030 world demand for food would spike by 50 percent, and water by 30 percent as the population topped 8.3 billion. “It’s a perfect storm,” he said.

Such an eventuality may be a perfect storm in the UK but for the poorer and more populous countries of the world with no nooris and Dollys to sustain them it would be more of a tsunami, tempest and tornado rolled into one, if, that is, we continue to as Iqbal puts it: haath pay haath dharay muntazir e farda ho…wait around idly for tomorrow.

A blind negativity indicates a failure to appreciate the invaluable examples of genetic engineering in our daily lives: the grafted fruit, the life saving medical benefits both now and in future, as well as the animals we all use and consume…genetic engineering is heavily relied upon in animal husbandry, agriculture and medicine.

Human beings have been rearranging nature ever since Cain broke the first clod of earth to bury Abel. The crime was not the burial but the murder.

Dolly of course is now dead. The human race however could use her legacy to live a bit longer on condition that it uses it well.

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14

tuesday, 20 march, 2012

SOCIETY

U

NEWS DESk

PCOMInG band n1 is set to launch its debut music video ‘Inqilaab’. The music video is an attempt to answer questions surrounding the word “inqilaab”.

“Inqilaab’ starts with awakening,” said naimul Abd who is the main force behind the one-man-band n1 and is also a seasoned marketer and strategist. He added, “Our message is that the revolution is within you.” ‘Inqilaab’ is a nationalistic song. n1 also laid to rest the controversy that ‘Inqilaab’ has a political slant to it. The ‘Inqilaab’ video is currently running on all major music channels and radio stations, apart from being actively viewed online.

The lyrics of the song are thought provoking and the song has just the right rhythm one would expect in a high-energy revolution song. The video has been done at an impressive scale, featuring more than a hundred people in its cast across Lahore and Karachi. The production side itself has some of the leading names in business including the co-directors DJ Shahrukh and Rizwan Ahmad and music production

by DJ Ali Mustafa with Sayyam Ahmad Rana on guitar. About n1 and its future plans naimul Abd says, “We are simultaneously working on two albums: one around revolution theme with ‘Inqilaab’ as its lead song and other containing popular music with its lead song ‘Ghoomay Ja’. There is lot of exciting stuff in the pipeline for our fans in 2012. ”

LAhore: Pepsi held a spring soiree to kick off the spring season. STaff pHOTOS By NaDeeM IJaz

Ali and Mehar

Amna and Omar

Amna, Mara and Fahad

Baki and Maliha

Faisal and Sara

Huma and Yasir

Madiha, Sadaf and Imtsal

Mr and Mrs Zain

Mr and Mrs Bilal

Mr and Mrs Mudassar

Nadia, Zaheen and Obaed

Qubi and Hedar

Rida and Sana

Sahar and Murtaza

Saad, Khadija, Fahad and Mariam

Leisure Club celebrates 15 years of urban fashion excellence NEWS DESk The Leisure Club Spring/Summer circus is coming to town for just one day to kick off Leisure Club’s 15th birthday celebrations. The event promises to be a fun fashion extravaganza of the season because Leisure Club has literally juggled vivid colors, acrobatically crafted their denims and tamed wild, psychedelic beasts to make it happen. What makes this event special is the never-seenbefore amalgamation of a mega – fashion show with circus acrobats and surprise musical performances. The event will feature performances by Ukraini a n and

Katrina Kaif as

Big B’s love

interest?

Russian acrobats, magicians and conjurers, Singaporean Kung Fu artists, daring young men and women on flying trapezes, lion tamers, tightrope walkers, and a dance troupe. With the Leisure Club Circus collection, the team has designed a collection that is bold, bright and unrestrained. The collection hits stores this March and includes three new lines: the circus spring line, the angry bird line and core color blocking line.

MuMBAI: Katrina Kaif might have played love interest of many Bollywood heroes in numerous films, but a unique offer has come her way which requires her to play romantic lead opposite Amitabh Bachchan. the director of films like ‘Patiala house’ and ‘Kal ho Na ho’, Nikhil Advani wants Kat for a highly unconventional role in his next film ‘mehrunnisa’, wherein she would be cast opposite the legendary Big B. Not that Kat’s been unable to prove her mettle in the industry with her acts, but this seems like a real challenge for her. reportedly, she has been approached personally by Nikhil to play the role. Going by the revelation made by a source, it has been learnt that she will be required to play the role of a 20-year-old whose journey will be traced right up till she is 60.

Besides playing the love interest of Amitabh Bachchan, Kat would also have to play the role of an older woman. A source said, “Nikhil is adamant on having Katrina on board. he even flew to London just to be able to narrate the film to her. the final call will be taken when Kat returns to mumbai.” AgENcIES

Aamir’s smart act for TV MuMBAI: when it comes to promotions, no one can beat perfectionist Aamir Khan. the actor known for his unique promotional tactics, has come up with an interesting thought for his tv show. Aamir has recently finished shooting for his first television show 'satyameva Jayate'. we heard the actor is doing his best in convincing brand managers handling products he has endorsed to stay as far away from this show as possible. Looking at the nature of the show, the actor has suggested that they do not buy any ad space around the show. Apparently, the show is issue-based and a serious one.

Given the mood of the show and his role on it, Aamir feels that the seriousness should not get diluted by advertisements featuring him in different roles and avatars.

Needless to say this intelligent actor takes wise decisions in whatever he is involved in. Let's hope the brand managers of the brands he endorses understand his point of view and are convinced enough to spend their money elsewhere. we wonder how the channel will react to this though. AgENcIES

Qasim

FIR lodged

against Genelia D’Souza MuMBAI: Bollywood actress Genelia D’souza has been accused of duping people in hyderabad of their land. An fIr was lodged against her after a local court in hyderabad directed the police to register a complaint.

Apparently, Genelia was the brand ambassador of a real estate firm in hyderabad which reportedly deceived people after seizing their land. Genelia and five others have been held responsible for the scam of over 250 crore. however, when contacted by reporters, Genelia’s spokesperson denied the actress’s involvement in the scam and said that she had just endorsed the brand. AgENcIES

KHI 20-03-2012_Layout 1 3/20/2012 2:20 AM Page 15

15 Gwyneth paltrow slams allegations about penning book

Keira Knightley

admits to

with ghostwriter ‘body anxiety issues’ LOS ANGELES AgENcIES

Doreb and Salma

Mr and Mrs Zuhaeb

Gwyneth Paltrow is ready to do some slicing and dicing, and she's got The New York Times on her chopping board. The actress turned chef turned lifestyle Goop guru has slammed the paper for running a piece that alleges she co-wrote her best-selling cookbook ‘My Father's Daughter’ with a ghostwriter. Slip on your oven mitts because here's what she had to say. On her Facebook page, Paltrow wrote, "Love @nytimes dining section but this weeks facts need checking. no ghost writer on my cookbook, I wrote every word myself."

There you go: can't get more definitive than that. In a story on cookbook ghostwriters published last week, the paper claimed that food writer and chef Julia Turshen "is writing a second cookbook with

Gwyneth Paltrow after their collaboration on ‘My Father's Daughter’." even more damning, the paper used the cover of Paltrow's cookbook as the main image for the story. The funny irony here is that Paltrow's tome hit The New York Times' best-seller list, cracking the top ten shortly after it was published last April.

Sana Safinaz’s ad campaign

“misconstrued” Rabia and Naeem

Rabz and Sobia

NEWS DESk The latest ad campaign of for Sana Safinaz’s lawn collection has come under fire on social media websites for featuring coolies in the advertisement. Fashion model neha Ahmed is seen posing in front of coolies on the railway station for the ad campaign. A few people took to twitter to boycott the lawn as they said the campaign was exploitative.

Twelve coolies took part in the shoot, but were unaware that it was for a lawn campaign. They were told that the advert was being shot for a drama serial. However, according to the photographer for the Sana Safinaz’s lawn ad campaign, Shani, of Guddu Shani said Sana Safinaz wanted their lawn to be for the masses, as it comes with lower prices. “The lawn ad campaign is misconstrued; people should understand its basic theme,” he added.

LONDON AgENcIES

K

eIRA Knightley says that she tries to get over her body issues and is "incredibly self-conscious". The 26year-old has fronted modelling campaigns for Chanel and featured in countless fashion magazines but is still quite insecure about her appearance.

"It's the superficial thing of seeing your flaws on the screen," the BBC quoted her telling Vogue.

"That's probably going to be all that you see and you focus on the bits you don't particularly like. But I've had to get over my own body anxiety issues so it doesn't get in the way of telling the story. I've never seen myself as being attractive in that glamorous way.

I'm incredibly self-conscious about a lot of parts of it but, equally, I'm aware that it works in certain environments," she added. Knightley said that in her line of work, one's flaws are often pointed

Katy perry on russell Brand

avoidance policy LONDON AgENcIES

Pop star Katy Perry reportedly fled a London nightclub when she heard her ex-husband Russell Brand was on his way to the same venue. The ‘Part of Me’ singer, who split from the British comedian in December after 14 months of marriage, was seen enjoying an evening at a club, but when someone told her that Brand was on his way, Perry quickly left so as to avoid an awkward

run-in, reported Contactmusic. "She wanted to spend the night singing in the room as it is where her best friend Rihanna normally comes to play when she’s in town. Katy was having a great night but bolted out of the door when one of her sidekicks stunned her by telling her Russ was about to turn up.

"Rather than risk an awkward run-in, Katy didn’t take any chances and ordered everyone to move on to a club in Chelsea instead," a source said.

Salman strikes again MuMBAI: In the hindi cinema industry, working on any salman Khan starrer is not to be taken lightly. You are lucky if the actor likes you. sajidwajid, himesh reshammiya and many others will tell you so.

And if he doesn’t, then you may have to pay for it. salman, who had earlier taken production calls for his films, has done it once again. within three days of the film gong on floors, Arbaaz Khan’s maiden directorial has a replacement. Cinematographer senthil Kumar (of ‘magadheera’ fame) has been asked to pack up. And Aseem Kumar, who had been working with salman on ‘ek tha tiger’ had been asked to step in. A unit member of ‘Dabangg 2’ said, “senthil worked on ‘Dabangg 2’ for three days. there used to be long discussions about him and his style of working.” the discussions soon turned into arguments. And before things got out of hand, salman decided it was best if senthil was replaced. this is however, not the first time that salman has taken production calls in

out. "If you are using your face, if you're selling it then you become so aware of the flaws because people tell you. And they do so brusquely. So then you start seeing it. I'm not saying that I look in the mirror all the time and go, 'Oh good. you look good today, or 'you look rubbish today.' I was on the beach the other day in France on holiday with some friends and we were all lying out. They were all totally fine taking everything off and I was sitting around in my jeans and a top.

I kind of didn't want to take anything off," she said.

his films. earlier, he had brought in himesh reshammiya to compose the music for ‘Bodyguard’ (which turned out to be a hit) when Pritam Chakraborty had already started work on them. Also, he had asked sajid-wajid to rework a song composed by sohail sen in ‘ek tha tiger’ since the actor did not quite like the beats of the same.

AgENcIES

MuMBAI: Practice what you preach. If anyone believes in this old adage it is Deepika Padukone. the actress, who is the ambassador for a luxury watch brand, is taking her sense of timing quite seriously. At a recent party hosted by choreographers Bosco Ceasar, Dippy's arrival coincided with her ex-boyfriend ranbir Kapoor, who she had been avoiding over the past couple of years, until recently. what is surprising is that in a city where nobody seems to reach any place on time, here are two stars who managed to keep pace with each other, even though they were in two different parts of the city. ranbir was attending an event with Imtiaz Ali and Karan Johar. the former lovers and now co-stars reached the party at the same time. In fact Imtiaz was spotted escorting Deepika in. It did not end there. Both ranbir and Deepika left the party within 20 minutes. Considering ranbir and Dippy are now busy reading the scripts in the vales of manali with each other for Ayaan mukerji's ‘Yeh Jawani hai Deewani’, perhaps it is time to let bygones be bygones. AgENcIES

Marilyn Monroe's rare

pictures up for sale LOS ANGELES AgENcIES

Marilyn Monroe's previously unseen intimate photos, along with the legendary actress' memorabilia, are being auctioned to mark her 50th death anniversary. The photos show the happy Monroe that her long-term friend Allan "Whitey" Snyder knew. As the actress' personal make-up artist from her first screen test in 1946 until her early death in 1962, Snyder became one of her closest confidantes.

He not only prepared her for the movies throughout her career, but he was also a friend who even did her make-up for her funeral. The 100 photos show all sides of life with Monroe - Snyder was asked to photograph her whenever she was jittery on set. Letters, telegrams and a money clip from Monroe are also among the lots set to be sold during Julien's Auctions' Hollywood Legends sale. Among the varied mix of other memorabilia up for grabs at the Hollywood auction are her pantaloons worn in 'River of no Return'; Charlie Chaplin's iconic cane and his driving licence; and a Christian Dior gown and Catherine Walker dress worn by Princess Diana. The black and white photos were taken just before the blonde bombshell exploded on to the Hollywood scene.

Luscious cosmetics launches Signature Lipstick NEWS DESk Luscious Cosmetics recently launched its Luscious Signature Lipstick which is now available nationwide. The Luscious Signature Lipstick is a lightweight, yet velvety and has a rich colour formula that provides long wear and hydration for hours. The new lipsticks have been formulated with extra pigment for crisp, vivid and stunning colour results. Packaged in a stylish tube, enriched with Jojoba Oil, it is available in 16 soft-matte and shimmer shades. The lipsticks contain no animal-derived ingredients and is alcohol free.

Deepika times

her moves

KHI 20-03-2012_Layout 1 3/20/2012 2:20 AM Page 16

16 Foreign News

tuesday, 20 march, 2012

somali shebab fighters kill six in mogadishu mortar attack MOGADISHU Afp

SYRIA-TuRkEY BoRdER: Syrian refugees walk through woods helped by rebels from the free Syrian Army as they attempt to cross the northwestern part of the Syrian border with neighboring Turkey on Monday. afp

Clashes rock Damascus, Annan team flies in BEIRUt

F

Afp

IeRCe clashes between rebel fighters and Syrian troops rocked a Damascus district bristling with security facilities on Monday, as experts sent by peace envoy Kofi Annan flew in to the capital.

Amid international efforts to set up a monitoring mission and initiate a brief daily ceasefire to allow for humanitarian operations, the security forces also launched attacks in several parts of the country, opposition activists said.

The fighting in western Damascus, the capital’s heaviest since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime erupted a year ago, came as residents were still reeling from deadly bombings at the weekend. State television said three “terrorists” and a security force member were killed in the clashes before dawn in the upscale and heavily-guarded Mazzeh area of Damascus that hosts several security facilities.

It said several people were also wounded on both sides.

Two more Syrian generals defect: Turkish diplomat aNKara: Two more generals have fled Syria and linked up with rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus, a Turkish diplomat said on Monday. The latest defections mean a total of nine generals have deserted since the revolt against Assad’s rule erupted a year ago, many of them seeking refuge in neighbouring Turkey. In addition, around 200 more Syrians crossed into Turkey on Sunday, bringing the total number of refugees to 16,100, the same official added on condition of anonymity. “The generals arrived Friday and nearly 200 other peope, most of them women and children, have crossed over since yesterday”, the official told AFP. Afp

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 18 security troops were wounded. “The clashes were the strongest and the closest to security installations in the capital since the outbreak of the revolt a year ago,” Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that by 4:00 am (0200 GMT) the fighting had died down.

On the diplomatic front, a mission

sent by Un-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus for talks on a monitoring operation to end the year-long conflict which monitors say has cost more than 9,100 lives.

“There are five people with expertise in political, peacekeeping and mediation,” Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for Annan, told AFP in Geneva, declining to disclose their precise plans or whereabouts.

“They will be staying for as long as they are making progress on reaching agreement on practical steps to implement Mr Annan’s proposals,” he added.

Any new Annan visit to Damascus, following a trip earlier this month, would “depend largely on progress being made by the Syrians in working with the mission,” Fawzi said.

Technical experts from the Un and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation were on Monday also working in Syria to assess the humanitarian impact of the regime’s deadly crackdown on protests.

“The joint OIC-Un mission entered Syria on Friday to carry out an evaluation of humanitarian aid,” on a mission led by the Syrian government, OIC assistant secretary general Atta al-Mannan Bakhit told AFP. The seven-to-10-day mission, with three OIC experts in the team, would cover 15 cities, on the first such assignment in Syria since the violence started.

International Red Cross head Jakob Kellenberger, meanwhile, was to hold talks on Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the “extremely difficult” humanitarian situation in Syria’s battered protest hubs.

Somalia’s Al-Qaeda allied Shebab insurgents fired mortars at the presidential palace in the capital overnight, killing six civilians in a camp for displaced people nearby. The hardline Islamist group said its salvo of “midnight mortar attacks” were targeted at the palace, and boasted of killing African Union and government soldiers. But AU force spokesman Paddy Ankunda said only civilians were killed, adding the shells missed the presidency by about 300 metres and hit one of the many crowded camps. “A father, mother and two of their children have all died, after a mortar shell smashed into their hut, and another round killed two other civilians,” said Abdiwahid Mohamed, a witness. “People were sleeping when the mortar shells started falling, it killed a number of civilians at a camp near the presidential palace,” said Colonel Bare Mohamed, a government security official.

The presidency -- guarded by a 10,000strong AU force -- has come under several recent attacks, including a suicide bomber attack claimed by the Shebab that killed five people last week. “It’s the second attack on the presidential palace in a week, demonstrating the sheer impotence that is surrounding the weak apostate regime,” the insurgents said in a message posted on Twitter. “In every alley, every corner and every lane of Mogadishu, a mujahid (Islamist fighter) lies in wait for them,” the rebels added. Muktar Ali, another witness, said at least six mortar shells hit around the camp for displaced people in war-wracked Mogadishu and three inside.

Seven other people were injured.

N. Korea seeking to develop nuclear missile: seoul SEOUL Afp

South Korea accused north Korea Monday of trying to develop a nuclear-armed missile through a satellite launch next month, after Pyongyang dismissed international calls to abandon the exercise.

“Our government defines north Korea’s so-called working satellite launch plan as a grave provocation to develop a long-distance delivery means for nuclear weapons by using ballistic missile technology,” said presidential spokesman Park Jeong-Ha. The north announced Friday it would launch a long-range rocket between April 12 and 16 to put a satellite into orbit for peaceful purposes.

The United States and other nations see the exercise as a thinly veiled long-range missile test, which would breach a United nations ban and violate last month’s denuclearisation deal with Washington.

Spanish solar power station defies the dark India says likely to back UN FUENtES DE ANDALUCIA Afp

A unique thermosolar power station in southern Spain can shrug off cloudy days: energy stored when the sun shines lets it produce electricity even during the night. The Gemasolar station, up and running since last May, stands out in the plains of Andalusia.

From the road between Seville and Cordoba, one can see its central tower lit up like a beacon by 2,600 solar mirrors, each 120 square metres (28,500 square feet), that surround it in an immense 195-hectare (480-acre) circle. “It is the first station in the world that works 24 hours a day, a solar power station that works day and night!” said Santago Arias, technical director of Torresol energy, which runs the station.

The mechanism is “very easy to ex-

plain,” he said: the panels reflect the suns rays on to the tower, transmitting energy at an intensity 1,000 times higher than that of the sun’s rays reaching the earth. energy is stored in a vat filled with molten salts at a temperature of more than 500 degrees C (930 F). Those salts are used to produce steam to turn the turbines and produce electricity.

It is the station’s capacity to store energy that makes Gemasolar so different because it allows the plant to transmit power during the night, relying on energy it has accumulated during the day. “I use that energy as I see fit, and not as the sun dictates,” Arias explained.

As a result, the plant produces 60 percent more energy than a station without storage capacity because it can work 6,400 hours a year compared to

1,200-2,000 hours for other solar power stations, he said. “The amount of energy we produce a year is equal to the consumption of 30,000 Spanish households,” Arias said, an annual saving of 30,000 tonnes of CO2.

Helped by generous state aid, renewable energies have enjoyed a boom in Spain, the world number two in solar energy and the biggest wind power producer in europe, ahead of Germany.

For the Gemasolar product, foreign investors helped too: Torresol energy is a joint venture between the Spanish engineering group Sener, which holds 60 percent, and Abu Dhabi-financed renewable energy firm Masdar.

“This type of station is expensive, not because of the raw material we use, which is free solar energy, but because of the enormous investment these plants require,” Arias said.

resolution on S. Lanka war NEW DELHI Afp

India on Monday said it was “inclined” to vote in support of a US-backed move at the Un Human Rights Council to push Sri Lanka to probe alleged war crimes in the final stages of its civil war. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India, a traditional ally of Sri Lanka, expected the island to take “constructive measures for healing (the) wounds of conflict and bringing lasting peace” with ethnic Tamil people.

Sri Lanka has faced strong international criticism over the bloody finale of its separatist war against the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 but has avoided censure at previous Un meetings thanks to support from China and Russia. The draft resolution, due to be

voted on on Friday, urges Sri Lanka to ensure “justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation” and says Colombo’s own probe did not adequately address concerns.

Singh said his embattled government, which is backed by a powerful regional Tamil party, was likely to endorse the US-backed resolution. “I may assure the house we are inclined to vote in favour of the resolution.... for equality, dignity, justice and self respect,” Singh told the parliament in new Delhi. Sri Lanka has said it is confident of winning Friday’s vote at the UnHRC sessions in Geneva.

Rights groups say up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the Sri Lankan military campaign to crush the Tamil rebels, who had waged a decadeslong battle for a separate homeland for the island’s minority Tamils.

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tuesday, 20 march, 2012

Foreign News 17

Gunman kills 3 children, teacher at French Jewish school tOULOUSE

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gunman burst into a Jewish school in France on Monday, shooting dead a teacher, his two sons and another child in the third such deadly attack in a week by a man on a motorbike.

The children, aged three, six and 10, and the 30-year-old religious education teacher were mowed down as they arrived for class at the Ozar Hatorah school in the southwestern city of Toulouse, officials said.

President nicolas Sarkozy said the attack was a “national tragedy” while Israel said it was “horrified” and urged France to quickly bring the perpetrator to justice.

The gunman shot the teacher outside the school in a quiet residential area of the city before one of his weapons jammed and he then entered the school grounds where he sprayed the area with bullets, a local prosecutor said. “Shortly before eight o’clock (0700 GMT) a man on a powerful scooter or a motorbike dismounted and shot at everything he could see. At children as well as adults,” prosecutor Michel Valet said. “This individual also chased some children into the school,” Valet said, adding that the school had around 200 pupils. “I came to the school this morning for prayers,” said six-year-old Alexia. “Five minutes later we heard shots, and we were very afraid. We were gathered in a room and prayed together while we waited for our parents.” Tearful parents gathered near

the school after the shooting, discussing the possible links between the attack and last week’s shooting of three French soldiers.

The 10-year-old who died was the daughter of the school’s director, officials said. A fifth pupil, a 17-year-old boy, was in critical condition and was being treated in hospital. A nearby Jewish primary school was evacuated after the attack, officials said.

The shooting came just days after two previous attacks in the region by a man on a motorbike who killed three soldiers. There was no hard evidence of a link between the shootings, but Interior Minister Claude Gueant told AFP that there were “similarities” and police said the same calibre weapon was used in all three attacks. The gunman initially used a 9-mm weapon but

it jammed, so he switched to a .45-calibre gun as he went into the school, police said. A .45-calibre weapon was used in last week’s deadly shootings.

Paris anti-terrorist prosecutors said they have opened up three investigations into Monday’s attack.

Gueant ordered security to be tightened around all religious buildings in France, which has europe’s largest Jewish community estimated at up to 700,000 people.

Sarkozy arrived in Toulouse late morning and said he wanted all schools in France to observe a minute’s silence on Tuesday to honour the victims.

Police in southwestern France launched a major manhunt last week after the killing of three paratroopers and the wounding of another in two separate, but connected incidents.

Clashes in maldives at ‘anti-coup’ demo MALE Afp

Supporters of the ousted former president of the Maldives, Mohamed nasheed, clashed with police on Monday as they attempted to block the opening of parliament. Riot police used teargas to disperse hundreds of protesters in the capital of Male, while lawmakers belonging to nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) shouted slogans inside the parliament chamber. At least four security force personnel were injured and 18 MDP supporters were arrested, police said.

“Police used force as demonstrators were throwing stones, broken pieces of glass and were also damaging private and public property,” police spokesman Ahmed Shiyam told AFP. nasheed, the nation’s first elected president, says he was forced out of power by Mohamed Waheed in a military-led coup on February 7.

Waheed, the new president, was also prevented from opening parliament earlier this month by disturbances outside the assembly in the Indian Ocean nation, which is better known as a high-end holiday destination. nasheed has been pushing for early elections, originally scheduled for October 2013, but Waheed’s government has yet to name a date. An early poll requires an amendment to the constitution. “This is the time for all of us to work together in one spirit, the time to bring political differences to the discussion table in order to formulate solutions,” Waheed told parliament.

tens of thousands flood streets for south Iraq demo BASRA Afp

TouLouSE: Young people walk away from the ‘ozar Hatorah’ Jewish school on Monday where four people, three of them children, were killed and two seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire. afp

Tens of thousands of loyalists of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rallied in south Iraq Monday decrying poor services and rampant graft on the ninth anniversary of the US-led invasion against Saddam Hussein.

Protesters flooded the centre of the southern port city of Basra for the rally, with demonstrators waving Iraqi flags and portraits of the anti-US Shiite cleric and his father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, killed in 1999 by assailants thought to have been sent by Saddam. Reading remarks composed by Sadr, currently in Iran, Sheikh Assad al-nassari told the crowd: “We cannot rest when there is injustice against us.”

“Demand your rights, I will support you, and with our unity we will be strong. you must fight for a stable nation.”

Nurses charged in 16 mercy Aid drop hurts Palestinian killings in Uruguay MONtEVIDEO Afp

Prosecutors in Uruguay have filed murder charges against two nurses for at least 16 mercy killings, and jailed the suspects, the judge in charge of the case said.

The male nurses, 39 and 46, were charged with homicides of patients both at a private neurological Intensive Care Center and a public hospital’s intermediatelevel care unit. A girlfriend of one of the men was charged with covering up information related to the case. Judge Rolando Vomero, in charge of the investigation, has not said exactly how many deaths are being probed. But he said that one of the suspects has admitted to 11 killings and the other to five. According to the judge, the accused used various methods to administer euthanasia. “In one of the cases,” he explained,” the suspect introduced morphine directly into the blood stream while in another, they pumped air into the blood stream, which resulted in deaths in just a few minutes.” The suspects have admitted they had been driven by a desire “not to see human suffering.” But they also acknowledged that their patients had not been afflicted by terminal diseases, Vomero pointed out. Uruguayan Interior Minister eduardo Bonomi told a news conference that an investigation into the alleged killings had been launched in January following a criminal complaint that came from one of the medical facilities. “A death that occurred soon after gave investigators specific evidence,” Bonomy added, pointing out that he could not rule out that more people could have been involved in the killings. Defense attorney Ines Mazziotti said these were “mercy” killings. “After 20 years in intensive care, or constant stress on the edge of life and death, he could not take it anymore,” she said of one of the suspects, who were not immediately identified.

financial stability: Israel JERUSALEM Afp

A drop-off in the delivery of aid to the Palestinians is threatening their financial stability, Israel warns in a report to be submitted to international donor countries later this week.

The report says Israel has done its part to boost the Palestinian economy, but its growth has nonetheless slowed, and that a drop in aid has helped create a serious financial crisis for the Palestinian government.

But the Palestinians, in their own report to the donor countries that will meet on Wednesday in Brussels, say their development efforts have been systematically stymied by Israeli policies.

They say their “constructive policy programme was not met with a similarly positive and forward-looking response from Israel.”

And they warn that uneven development in the Palestinian territories has created “frustration, hopelessness and fragmentation of Palestinian politics and society.”

Israel’s submission to the socalled Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which groups donors to the Palestinian Authority (PA), paints a picture of serious financial problems.

“The Palestinian Authority faces a financial crisis, caused primarily by the shortfall in foreign aid, growing arrears to suppliers and reaching the lending limit that the domestic banking system can sustain,” it says.

It says there was little development in the private sector, and the public sector remained the West Bank’s biggest employer.

And it cited the “shortcomings of the PA’s current fiscal management framework, which helped contribute to the present fiscal crisis.”

“After three consecutive years of impressive economic growth in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority financial stability is now challenged,” it warns.

The submission says Israel helped maintain West Bank growth and “made a substantial contribution” to helping Gaza’s economy, claims rejected by the Palestinians.

Their report to the committee accuses Israel of hampering development efforts.

“The stalled peace process, ongoing occupation and the separation of Gaza from the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, have engendered uneven development and service delivery across Palestine,” the report says.

“This state of affairs, which fuels frustration, hopelessness and fragmentation of Palestinian politics and society, will soon terminally undermine the viability of the two-state solution.”

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Tuesday, 20 March, 2012

Azarenka pulls ahead in wtA rankings Page 21

ICC backs Ajmal’s

bowling action NEW DELHI Afp

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He International Cricket Council on Monday backed Saeed Ajmal's controversial bowling action following reports that India had complained about the Pakistan off-spinner. Indian television channel nDTV, quoting unnamed sources, said the team management had spoken to the ICC about Ajmal's action after Sunday's Asia Cup match between the arch-rivals in Dhaka. ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, however, clarified that the governing body saw no problem in the offspinner's bowling style. "We have tested Ajmal, checked him and monitored him in match situations, and found he bowls within the allowed degrees of tolerance," Lorgat told the Times now news channel. "We must be careful at what the eye sees and what the reality is," Lorgat said. Ajmal claimed the wicket of batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar as India produced their best ever one-day chase to surpass Pakistan's commanding 329-6 with five wickets and 13 balls to spare. It was the first match between India and Pakistan since the World Cup semi-final at Mohali in March last year. The 34-year-old Ajmal, who has played 20 Tests and 63 onedayers since his international debut in 2008, has found himself under the spotlight several times due to his action. He was first reported by match officials during a one-day series against Australia in the United Arab emirates in 2009, but was later cleared to play after remedial work was done on his action. Doubts about his action were again raised during the recent Tests against england at the same venue, but both the ICC and the Pakistan Cricket Board absolved Ajmal of any wrongdoing.

DhAKA: sri Lankan cricketer Nuwan Kulasekara (r) plays football during a team training session at the sher-e-Bangla National stadium. afp

first knock India out then celebrate: BD coach to team MIRPUR AgENcIES

The win against World Champions India would mean nothing if you will not defeat Sri Lanka, Bangladesh coach Stuart Law had told his wards.

The hosts have a chance to reach the Asia Cup final for the first time if they beat Sri Lanka in tomorrow's match. If Bangladesh win, they will be tied on eight points with India but will go through to final since they had beaten India in the league stage.

Law said he wants his boys to continue with the momentum and get the better of Sri Lanka. "It's very important for us as a group after all the hard work we have put in for this tournament. We didn't have a great preparation time but it has been intense. To win against India, the current world champions, is a feather in our cap. However, we've still got a very important game and if we don't win that game [against Sri Lanka], the win the other night won't matter," Law said. "I'm just trying to tell

the boys, 'yesterday was fantastic but it means nothing; we've got to win the game against Sri Lanka and get to the final'. After the Asia Cup, we can celebrate and look back at fond memories," Law was quoted as saying by local media. Law, who was part of Sri Lanka's support staff when they lost to India in the World Cup final last year, said he cherished the moment of beating India on Friday.

"Last year I was there with Sri Lanka and we got beaten, so to be part of the team that beats the world champions, reverse the dose the other night and have our fans go berserk and seeing the people line the roads. We didn't get home till midnight. It was something that I wanted to take in," he said. Law emphasised on the virtue of talking to great players if one wants to improve but rued that his players do not get much opportunity to play international cricket.. "you have to practice for a purpose. Talking is a big part of learning. These boys have access to the greatest players in the world in this tournament.

aSIa Cup

India finds a new hero in Virat Kohli NEW DELHI Afp

Just when Indian cricket was pondering a future without its ageing batting superstars, Virat Kohli has emerged as the man ready to step in and take charge.

With Rahul Dravid having retired and Sachin Tendulkar and Venkatsai Laxman nearing the end of their glorious careers, India are desperate to find replacements during a tough transition period. But the heroics of 23-yearold Kohli in Sunday's clash with Pakistan helped lift the gloom -- at least at the one-day level -- after an embarrassing period in Test cricket when India were whitewashed 4-0 in england and Australia. Kohli is already being hailed as one of cricket's finest young batsmen after he anchored India to an astonishing one-day victory on Sunday night, their second in three weeks. His 183 off 148 balls helped India achieve their highest chase in one-day cricket to overhaul Pakistan's formidable 330-run target with 13 balls to spare in the Asia Cup game in Dhaka. The explosive knock followed the 86-ball unbeaten 133 against Sri Lanka in Hobart on February 28 that saw India chase down 321 in an incredible 36.4 overs to secure a bonus-point clinching win in the tri-series in Australia. Kohli has now scored 11 centuries in 85 one-dayers, including three in the last four games, his 3,590 runs coming at an impressive average of 50.56. Kohli's eight Tests so far have produced one century and an average of 32.73 after he burst into the star-studded middle-order on the tour of the West Indies last year when Tendulkar opted to rest.

B’desh needs victory to qualify for final stats corner S.PERVEZ QAISER Bangladesh needs a victory over Sri Lanka in their final match of the 11th Asia Cup to qualify for the final at Sher-e-Bangla national Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka on Tuesday (March 20).

If Sri Lanka wins, India will go into the final but a Sri Lankan defeat will ensure that Bangladesh take on Pakistan in the final on Thursday (March 22).

India, whose Asia Cup campaign was thrown into disarray after their upset five-wicket defeat against minnows Bangladesh, will now have to await the result of the last league match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

As per the rules, if two teams are tied on points, head to head record will be considered, so Bangladesh will go into the final as they had beaten India in their league match.

The day and night encounter will be 30th one-day international match between the two teams and 11th in Asia Cup. Sri Lanka have a very good record against Bangladesh in previous ODIs matches. They have won 27 and lost just two in 29 matches played against the Bangladesh.

The Islanders have won all 10 matches against Bangladesh in Asia Cup. They have also won seven out of nine matches played against Bangladesh in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's both victories against Sri Lanka in one-day internationals came at home.

They beat Islanders by four wickets at Shaheed Chandu Stadium, Bogra on February 22, 2006

and achieved a five-wicket win at Sher-e-Bangla national Stadium, Mirpur on January 14, 2009.

Sri Lanka recorded a 126 win over Bangladesh when two teams met last time in the league match of the 10th Asia Cup at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on June 18, 2010. srI laNKa-baNglaDesh oNe-Day eNCouNters: veNue PlayeD sl bD In India 2 2 In Sharjah 1 1 In Sri Lanka 13 13 In Bangladesh 9 7 2 In South Africa 1 1 In West Indies 1 1 -

In Pakistan 2 2 Total: 29 27 2 Asia Cup 10 10 Day/night 9 9 At Mirpur 4 3 1 hIghest INNINgs totals: Sri Lanka: 357-9 in 50 overs at Lahore 25-06-2008; Bangladesh: 265-9 in 50 overs at Mohali 0710-2006 lowest INNINgs totals: Sri Lanka: 147 in 30.3 overs at Mirpur, Dhaka 14-012009; Bangladesh: 76 in 30.1 overs at Colombo 05-08-2002 hIghest matCh aggregate: 583 runs for 16 wickets in 100 overs at Lahore 2506-2008 lowest matCh aggregate: 153 runs for 12 wickets in 45.5 overs at Colombo 05-08-2002 hIghest INDIvIDual sCores: Sri Lanka : 130 Sanath Jayasuriya at Karachi 3006-2008; Bangladesh: 92* Shakib Al Hasan at Mirpur, Dhaka 14-01-2009 best bowlINg PerFormaNCes: Sri Lanka : 6-25 Chaminda Vaas at Pietermaritzburg 14-02-2003; Bangladesh: 4-33 Rubel Hossain at Mirpur, Dhaka 14-01-2009 hIghest margINs oF vICtory: Sri Lanka : 10 wickets at Pietermaritzburg 14-022003; 10 wickets at Colombo 23-07-2005; 198 runs (D/L method) at Port of Spain 2103-2007; Bangladesh: 5 wickets at Mirpur, Dhaka 14-01-2009 lowest margINs oF vICtory: Sri Lanka : 2 wickets at Mirpur, Dhaka 16-01-2009; Bangladesh: 4 wickets at Bogra 22-02-2006.

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tuesday, 20 march, 2012

West Indies end six-year losing streak to Australia

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ScoREBoARd AuSTRALIA 25 S. Watson c sub (Bishoo) b Sammy 13 d. Warner b Roach p. forrest c Sammy b Roach 0 M. Hussey c Baugh b Narine 24 d. Hussey b Narine 37 g. Bailey c Samuels b dwayne Bravo 21 6 d. christian run out 3 M. Wade c pollard b Narine 11 B. Lee not out c. Mckay st Baugh b Narine 6 0 X. doherty not out 8 EXTRAS (b2, lb3, w2, nb1) ToTAL (nine wicket; 40 overs) 154 fall of wickets: 1-19 (Warner), 2-19 (forrest), 3-46 (Watson), 4-77 (M. Hussey), 5-109 (Bailey), 6-121 (christian), 7-136 (Wade), 8-136 (d. Hussey), 9-154 (Mckay) BoWLINg: Roach 8-3-23-2 (1nb), dwayne Bravo 6-0-30-1 (1w), Sammy 4-0-19-1, Russell 6-0-14-0, Narine 8-1-27-4, pollard 4-018-0, Samuels 4-0-18-0 WEST INdIES (target 158 duckworth/Lewis method) 0 k. powell lbw b Lee J. charles run out 26 M. Samuels b Watson 20 darren Bravo b doherty 16 dwayne Bravo run out 30 k. pollard not out 47 c. Baugh not out 18 EXTRAS (b4, w2) 6 163 ToTAL (five wickets; 38.2 overs) did not bat: Andre Russell, carlton Baugh (wkt), darren Sammy (capt), Sunil Narine, kemar Roach. fall of wickets: 1-0 (powell), 2-42 (Samuels), 3-67 (charles), 474 (darren Bravo), 5-138 (dwayne Bravo) BoWLINg: Lee 8-1-37-1, Mckay 8-2-16-0, Watson 7-1-28-1 (1w), d.

Hussey 3-0-13-0 (1w), christian 5-0-26-0, doherty 7.2-0-39-1 Toss: West Indies, Result: West Indies won by five wickets, Series: Level 1-1, umpires: gregory Brathwaite (WIS) and Shavir Tarapore (INd), TV umpire: kumar dharmasena (SRI), Match referee: Andy pycroft (ZIM), Reserve umpire: peter Nero (WIS).

KINGstowN: west Indies cricketers Carlton Baugh (L), Dwayne Bravo (C) and Kieron Pollard celebrate their victory as Australian wicketkeeper matthew wade (r) looks on during the second-of-five one-day International match. afp kINGStOWN

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IG-HITTInG Kieron Pollard blasted a typically muscular 47 as West Indies clinched their first win in almost six years over Australia when they took the second one-dayer by five wickets on Sunday. In a match reduced to 40 overs a side because of rain, Australia struggled to 154 for nine under cloudy conditions with West Indies reaching their Duckworth-Lewis target of 158 with 10 balls remaining.

Pollard top-scored with 47, an innings which featured four huge sixes, one of which, off spinner Xavier Doherty, cleared the Arnos Vale stands and ended on the runway of the neighbouring St Vincent airport. Carlton Baugh had the honour of hit-

ting the winning runs, another six off the hapless Doherty which flew over midwicket as the home side finished on 163 for five.

Dwyane Bravo also played a crucial role, making 30 in a fifth-wicket partnership of 64 with Pollard which swung the game the West Indies' way after they had lost opener Kieran Powell to a first ball lbw off Brett Lee. "It's a good feeling, the team played much better today, the bowlers did well again and there was much more responsibility when chasing the runs," said West Indies captain Darren Sammy.

"It was a total team effort. All in all we were searching for a win and we are glad we got over the line. "From the last game, when we batted, there was not much change; today we did what we had to do and I'm just happy we won one."

Australian captain Shane Watson admit-

ted that his batsmen had come up short.

"In the end we were 20-30 runs short.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get big enough partnerships through the start or middle," said Watson.

"Once the sun got on the wicket it seemed to settle a little more but that's the great challenge of playing in the West Indies and we have to adapt a little better.

"It's about getting the balance of the batting -- the wickets are a little different from home." Australia won the first game at the same venue on Friday by 64 runs, their 15th win in their last 16 one-dayers against West Indies, a run stretching back to the 2006 Champions Trophy in India.

West Indies, who suffered an embarrassing middle order collapse on Friday when they lost six wickets for just seven runs, won the toss on Sunday and put Aus-

tralia into bat. David Hussey top-scored for the tourists with 37 off 62 balls, an innings which featured four boundaries before he fell to off-spinner Sunil narine, who finished with figures of 4-27 off eight overs. narine was named man of the match.

The start of play was delayed by rain before more showers forced the players off for 90 minutes when Australia were 16-0 after five overs. Australia then slipped to 46 for three in the 14th over with David Warner (13) and Peter Forrest (0) both dismissed by seamer Kemar Roach in the sixth over of the day.

Roach, desperate for a Test match call-up next month, finished with 2 for 23 off eight overs. The next match in the series takes place at the same venue on Tuesday with the two concluding matches in St Lucia on Friday and Sunday.

Lahore-sahiwal PCB awaits names of match officials for BD tour Cycle race on 23rd LAHORE

STAff REpoRT

LAHORE STAff REpoRT

The Pakistan Cycling Federation is holding Lahore to Sahiwal International Race on March 23 and national Women Cycling Championship o April 23 to 25 here at te Cycling Velodrome. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Idris Haider Khawaja, secretary PC and Ch Amin, president Punjab cycling, informed that the Lahore to Sahiwal cycle race will start from Punjab Stadium at 9 am and will terminate Sahiwal covering a distance o 154 kilometres. Kh Idris informed that the winner will be awarded Rs 100,000 cash awards. The teams will reach Lahore on March 21 to take part in the race.

Challenge Cup semis tomorrow LAHORE STAff REpoRT

KeSC and KRL reached the semi-final of the KPT national Football Challenge Cup2012, Karachi. On Monday, KeSC beat national youth A 3:1 in the third quarter-final at the KPT Stadium. KeSC scorer was Muhammad Rasool who hit in all the three goals in the 47, 73 and 79 Minutes while the losing side goal came from Saddam Hussain in 54 minute. In the other quarterfinal, KRL beat KPT 3-0 at the KPT Stadium and all the three goals were scored by Rizwan Asif in the 8, 43 and 55 Minute.

The semi-final of the Cup will be played tomorrow after a day’s rest on Tuesday.

The ICC has not yet initiated any move to appoint match officials for the planned tour by the Bangladesh cricket team to Pakistan next month. A senior official of the Pakistan Cricket Board however, was quoted by PTI on that a wrong impression had been created that the ICC had refused to appoint match officials for the series because of security concerns.

"The factual position is that the ICC can only start any move to appoint match officials once the series, its matches, dates and venues are confirmed by both boards for the bilateral series," the official said.

He pointed out that once both boards agreed to the series and announced its itinerary only than will the ICC be able to decide whether it can send its match officials for the series. "The ICC has made it clear that it has allowed special dispensation to the PCB to appoint non-neutral officials for the series if it is unable to convince its officials to go to Pakistan for the series," the PCB official said.

The official said that once the series is confirmed the ICC will than also carry out its own independent security assessment for sending its officials to Pakistan.

"So at present the position is that ICC has yet to decide on whether it can send its officials for the series," he said. The

PCB is awaiting final confirmation from the BCB on whether it would be sending its team for the one-day series of three matches in Karachi and Lahore.

"The PCB chairman, Zaka Ashraf is also in Dhaka and was scheduled to discuss the progress on the tour with his Bangladesh counterpart," the official.

Interestingly the PCB might not face issues appointing ICC elite panel umpires for the series as there are two Pakistani umpires on the panel, Aleem Dar and Asad Rauf, but the official admitted that the main problem would be the appointment of a match referee if the ICC was not able to send its representative from the elite panel.

10th south west Asia Cup Baseball from 23rd LAHORE STAff REpoRT

Three officials of the Baseball Federation of Asia will reach Lahore to conduct the matches of the 10th South-West Asia Cup to be held at Punjab Stadium from March 23 to 28.

Three officials Jung Ju, Hwang and Won Jung Park. Besides Pakistan three other countries, which are taking part are Iran, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Federation Baseball has also announced the draws of the event. Pakistan will take on Afghanistan in the opening match on March 23, while on second day Sri Lanka will clash with Afghanistan. The most important and tough clash will be played between Pakistan and Iran on March 25. Sri Lanka will lock horn against Iran on March 26. The clash between Afghanistan and Iran is set for March 27. The final and last match will be played between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on March 28.

dRAWS March 23: Pakistan Vs Afghanistan.

March 24: Sri Lanka Vs Afghanistan.

March 25: Pakistan Vs Iran.

March 26: Iran vs Sri Lanka.

March 27: Afghanistan Vs Iran.

March 28: Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka.

sNGPL annual sports held LAHORE STAff REpoRT

The three-day Annual sports of Sui northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SnGPL) concluded at WAPDA Sports Complex on Monday. Deputy Managing Director of the company Amir Tufail was the chief guest at the colourful closing ceremony. Senior General Manager Liaquat Raza President SnGPL employees Association Raja Mohammad Mukhtar, Chairman Sports Committee Umair Khan distributed prizes among the winning sportsmen. The teams for Head Office and 16 Regional Offices participated in the games table tennis, badminton, volleyball and athletics. The Lahore Region Team secured first position with 63 points, Multan Office Team bagged second position with 61 points while Head Office stood third with 49 points.

Amir tufail, Deputy managing Director sNGPL, present the winner’s trophy to Lahore region.

PCB chief reminds Amir how he let Pakistan down LAHORE STAff REpoRT

Banned pacer Mohammad Amir has finally had a meeting with the top two officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board during which its chairman, Zaka Ashraf, expressed his disappointment at the bowler's action.

Amir met with the chairman of the board, Zaka Ashraf and chief operating officer, Subhan Ahmad earlier this month, reported PTI. "The banned pacer himself came for the meeting which lasted for some two hours but the chairman made it clear to Amir that he was very disappointed and sad at the way he (Amir) had let Pakistan cricket

and the country down," it quoted a source as saying.

The source said that Aamir was told in clear words that he would have to serve the ICC ban of five years with all its rules and regulations and the PCB was not in a position to assist him in any manner.

"But the chairman also said that the board would try to put him through a rehabilitation and counselling programme as soon as possible with the permission of the ICC," the source said.

The source said apparently the chairman and COO had discussed in detail the situation which led to the spotfixing scandal in england in 2010 and how the players got involved in it. The PCB had

about a month back had written to the ICC, inquiring if there was a possibility to start a rehabilitation and counselling program for the youngster as soon as possible.

"But the ICC has so far not responded to the PCB query," the source said.

The pacer was convicted along with teammates, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif for their involvement in the spotfixing scandal during the Lord's Test in 2010.

The three accused were given different jail terms.

Amir was sentenced for six months, but was released in February due to good behaviour after serving half his sentence, while the other two are still serving their terms.

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federer takes Indian Wells by storm INDIAN WELLS

Isner in aTp Top 10

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OGeR Federer leaned forward in his chair and watched the raindrops hit the ground in front of him. The Swiss superstar had three extra minutes during a rain delay on match point in his semi-final against Rafael nadal to think about what he was going to do with his next serve.

His first inclination was to go down the middle. But when play resumed, Federer stepped up and hammered a 201-k/hr (125mph) ace to nadal's forehand putting the final nail in the coffin and writing another chapter in their epic rivalry. "I thought about going down the 'T' but when I was tossing the ball in the air I thought I would go the other way," said Federer, who beat American John Isner 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 in Sunday's final for his third ATP Tour title in a row.

There is no clear blueprint to success for Federer. The 16-time Grand Slam winner can adapt to just about any situation even when the chair umpire unexpectedly pulls the players off the court for a rain delay on his match point.

Whether it is on the court or off, Federer is making the right decisions these days. "I have definitely been fortunate throughout my career," he said Sunday. "I have taken a lot of bad decisions. you try to not take them later on again. "So I think my experience has helped me out. And then you obviously manage your life a bit different when you have family. When you're feeling great, you're practicing well and you're playing a lot of matches.

"But then you also never want to overdo it.

I do it in blocks. For me that works well. Other players do it completely different. There is no written rule to it, because every player is very different." This is Federer's first crown in Indian Wells since he won three titles in a row from 2004-2006. He now has a record four titles, one more than Americans Jimmy Connors and

Michael Chang. Federer says he is pleased he was able to pull this one out because it had such a strong field and he was battling a virus the first week after arriving in the California desert.

"What surprises me is that I've actually won this again after all this time, and particularly this year where I was struggling and hurting a lot at the beginning of the year," Federer said.

"This tournament victory couldn't come at a better time in my career. It's a big tournament. It's really wonderful winning these bigtime events on the ATP Tour." Federer, who turned 30 last August, said all the hard work he is putting in on the practice courts and in his fitness training is paying off. "It's amazing that it has all come around so nicely in the indoor season at the end of the year starting with Basel," he said. "I have won six out of eight. It's pretty extraordinary."

ParIs: American John Isner on Monday joined the ranks of the world's top ten players after beating world number one novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Indian Wells tournament at the weekend. Serb Djokovic, winner at Indian Wells in 2011, sees his lead on Spaniard Rafael nadal reduced. Swiss Roger Federer, who beat Isner in the final to win the Indian Wells title, remains third behind the Spaniard. Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro drops two places after losing to Federer in the quarter-finals in the California tournament.

1. NovAK DJoKovIC (srB) 12670 Pts 2. rAfAeL NADAL (esP) 10175 3. roGer feDerer (sUI) 9350 4. ANDY mUrrAY (GBr) 7450 5. DAvID ferrer (esP) 4700 6. Jo-wILfrIeD tsoNGA (frA) 4535 7. tomAs BerDYCh (CZe) 3860 8. mArDY fIsh (UsA) 2910 9. JANKo tIPsArevIC (srB) 2730 (+1) 10. JohN IsNer (UsA) 2675 (+1) 11. JUAN mArtIN DeL Potro (ArG) 2660 (-2) 12. NICoLAs ALmAGro (esP) 2205 13. GILLes sImoN (frA) 2140 14. GAeL moNfILs (frA) 1970 15. feLICIANo LoPeZ (esP) 1890 16. KeI NIshIKorI (JPN) 1685 (+1) 17. rIChArD GAsQUet (frA) 1595 (-1) 18. oLeKsANDr DoLGoPoLov Jr. (UKr) 1540 (+3) 19. fLorIAN mAYer (Ger) 1540 (-1) 20. ferNANDo verDAsCo (esP) 1530 (-1). Afp

muzafar Garh pakistan, India to meet in beat rajanpur sr Division III on May 31 in KL in veterans Cricket LAHORE

LAHORE

STAff REpoRT

STAff REpoRT

Pakistan will take on India in the Division III on May 31 at Kuala Lumpur.HSBC and the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) Monday announced the competition schedule for the HSBC Asian 5 nations 2012 (HSBC A5n). This year marks the fifth year of the HSBC A5n, Asia’s Premier International Rugby competition, and the tournament is poised to chart new growth in the game across the region from the elite level to the grassroots in 2012.

Pakistan and India match will be one of the features of the tournament. The stakes are equally high for teams In Division 3 as it will be the region’s first step in qualifying for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Division 3 comprises India, Guam, Indonesia and Pakistan. The tournament will be run concurrently with Div 2 in a festival of rugby to be held in Kuala Lumpur. The winners of each of these competitions will figure in a one-match play-off later in the year to decide who advances to Di-

Muzafargarh beat Rajanpur Senior by 3 wickets in the 14th national Veteran Senior Cricket Cup while Khaniwal Lion beat DG Khan Senior by 7 wickets on Monday.

At Faisal Stadium Muzafar Garh, Rajanpur batting first 170 all out after 30 overs.

Qamber Hussain Bhatti 57, Muhammad Iqbal 29, Muhammad naeem 20 and Abdul Rehman 20 runs. Khalid Ayoob 3/26, Tanveer Abbas 3/8 and Arshad Khan 2/19 wickets. In reply Muzafar Garh Senior 171/7. Rashid Khan 53, Khalid Mehmood 23, Moeen Khanzada 21 & Tahir Butt 19 runs. Rajanpur bowling Abdul Razzaq 3/27 & Muhammad Iqbal 2/29 wickets. Abdul Rouf, Ghulam Hurr Umpire & Tehseenullah was the scorer. In the second match at DG Khan Cricket Ground, DG Khan Senior made 100 all out after 24.4 overs. Ziaullah 27, nisar Ahmad 25 and Ajmal Butt 18 runs. Muhammad Ashraf 3/8 & Asif Khan 3/25 wickets. In reply Khaniwal Lion 101/3 after 19.2 overs. Tariq Baig 58 not out & Muhammad Ali 26 runs. DG Khan Senior bowling Iftkhar Ahmad 3/28 wickets.

Hashim Ali, Abdul Rouf Umpire & Hafeezur-rehman was the scorer.

vision 1, thus keeping their Rugby World Cup 2015 dream alive. “Asian rugby fans are once again eagerly anticipating this year’s HSBC A5n as we begin the countdown to Rugby World Cup 2015 qualification,” said an official of the Asian rugby. All eyes, however, will be on the newest member of ARFU – Afghanistan – who will play a series of exhibition sevens games against the UAe’s fully emirati development side, UAe Shaheen, in their first ARFU-sanctioned competition.

The 2012 Asian Five nations will end with the Division 5 tournament in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which returns to a triangular format in 2012, featuring Laos, Cambodia and Brunei at the tail end of June.

The United nations estimates that the majority of the world’s youth (nearly 85%) live in developing regions with approximately 60% of these youth (defined as age 15 to 24) living in Asia. The HSBC ARFU Coaching Tour will provide an important resource in developing a fan base for Rugby World Cup 2019 and grooming future generations of elite talent in the world’s most populous region.

INDIAN WELLS: Victoria Azarenka celebrates after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia in the final. AFP

hK police arrest 10-year-old over football violence HONG kONG

Pak Int’l squash second round today

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LAHORE STAff REpoRT

The second round qualification matches of the 2nd FMC Pakistan International Squash Circuit-I 2012 will be played today (Tuesday). On Monday first round matches started and Owais Khan, Sadamul Haq, Syed Ali Shah Bukhari, Khawaja Adil Maqbool, Aqib Hanif, Tayyab Aslam, Syed Hamzah Shah won their respective matches.

RESuLTS: 1st round: owais Khan beat Naveed Khan 117, 11-8, 11-4 (3-0) 23 min; sadam ul haq beat mahad Javed 11-5, 12-10, 11-8 (3-0) 23 min; syed Ali shah Bukhari beat Zahir shah 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 (3-0) 33 min; Khawaja Adil maqbool beat Kashif Khan 10-12, 12-10, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5 (32) 50 min; Aqib hanif beat Naseem Khan 11-0, 14-12, 1311 (3-0) 43 min; tayyab Aslam beat shahzad Khan 11-8, 11-9, 11-2 (3-0) 30 min; syed hamzah shah Bukhari beat muhammad Bilal 11-6, 11-3, 11-9 (3-0) 26 min.

CoLomBo: england’s stuart Broad (L) and Kevin Pietersen (r) warm up during a practice session at the sinhalese sports Club (ssC) Ground. england will play another three-day fixture before the two back-to-back tests in Galle and Colombo. afp

A 10-year-old boy was released on bail after being arrested for kicking an opponent in the head during a school football match in Hong Kong, police said Monday. The violent incident sparked an ugly race row after a video was posted online showing the Caucasian boy kicking his 12-year-old Chinese opponent during an ill-tempered match a week ago. Parents of the Asian boy filed a police complaint after the game between eSF Lions and Kitchee escola descended into chaos, with fathers and the eSF coach engaged in an angry on-field altercation. A video of the incident posted on youTube has been viewed more than 344,000 times and generated a torrent of often racist commentary against "gweilos", or Caucasians, in the Chinese city.

A police spokeswoman said the boy, whose name has not been released, was arrested on Friday for assault causing bodily harm. He was released on bail for an unspecified sum, but will have to report back to police in April.

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Azarenka defeats Sharapova for Indian Wells title INDIAN WELLS

wAtCh it Live PTV Asia Cup: Bangladesh V Sri Lanka 01:00PM

wAPDA win National Inter-Dept Karate

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LAHORE

w

ORLD no. 1 Victoria Azarenka routed World no. 2 Maria Sharapova 6-2, 63 to take the ATP/WTA Indian Wells women's title on Sunday and stretch her 2012 win streak to 23 matches. Azarenka has won every match she has played this year, the best start to a season since Martina Hingis won 37 in a row in 1997.

"I was really nervous before the final," Azarenka said. "It is important for me to try and put as much pressure on her and not let her into the match. "I really had to stay on my feet and keep playing my game.

"It was little hard with the wind but I am happy I went through with this determination." Azarenka's victory comes just six weeks after she beat Sharapova in straight sets in the Australian Open final to win her first Grand Slam title. The 22-year-old from Belarus hit one ace, had two double faults and won 71 percent of her first serve points in collecting her fourth title of 2012 and a $1 million winner's check.

Azarenka clinched the crown on her first match point when Sharapova made a stab at a shot but her lob sailed long, ending the 86-minute match. earlier in the draw at Indian Wells, she passed Serena Williams's 2003 win streak of 21 matches and now has her sights set on catching Hingis. "I never dreamed about that. It is amazing," she said of the win streak.

"It is a position I worked really hard to be in.

"I am so glad I am able to be consistent, disciplined and professional." Azarenka, one of the hardest hitting players on tour, was competing in her sixth consecutive final. It is the first time in four years that the world number one and number two met in the final of a WTA Tour event. This was her first title in the California desert and follows last year's disappointment, where she was forced to retire from her quarter-final match against Caroline Wozniacki with an injury. Wozniacki went on to win the title. Threetime Grand Slam champion Sharapova has now failed to take a set off Azarenka in the five times she has lost to her, dating to Moscow in 2007. Sharapova has beaten Azarenka three times, including twice on hardcourts. Sharapova finished with two aces, three double faults and won just 46 percent of her first-serve points.

"I feel like I just made too many unforced errors at the wrong time and wasn't solid enough," Sharapova said.

"We're going to play against each other a few more times, so I'll have time to change that."

Azarenka came dressed for the cold with temperatures hovering around 13 degrees Celsius (56F). She was wearing black spandex leggings under white shorts with a blue long-sleeve shirt and a lime-green headband while Sharapova wore a white long-sleeve top and a blue skirt. Azarenka broke Sharapova's serve twice in the first set and four times in the second. "I was just trying to do my best because I know Maria is fighting," Azarenka said. "I always try to stay focused and apply as much pressure as I can."

Azarenka broke Sharapova in the opening game of the match then held serve for a 2-0 lead and set the tone in the cool and windy conditions.

STAff REpoRT

azarenka pulls ahead in WTa rankings ParIs: Belarussian Viktoria Azarenka pulled further ahead at the top of the WTA rankings released on Monday, a day after achieving her fourth title of the season at Indian Wells. Russian Maria Sharapova, overpowered 6-2, 6-3 by Azarenka in the final of the California tournament, remains second ahead of Czech Petra Kvitova. Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska moves up one place to fourth with Australia's Samantha Stosur moves up a spot to fifth. Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, beaten in the fourth round by Serb Ana Ivanovic, drops two places to sixth, as Germany's Angelique Kerber moves up to 14th.

1. vICtorIA AZAreNKA (BLr) 9730 Pts 2. mArIA shArAPovA (rUs) 7930 3. PetrA KvItovA (CZe) 7170 4. AGNIesZKA rADwANsKA (PoL) 5960 (+1) 5. sAmANthA stosUr (AUs) 5825 (+1) 6. CAroLINe woZNIACKI (DeN) 5410 (-2) 7. mArIoN BArtoLI (frA) 4710 8. LI NA (ChN) 4635 9. verA ZvoNArevA (rUs) 4340 10. ANDreA PetKovIC (Ger) 3800 11. sereNA wILLIAms (UsA) 3580 12. frANCesCA sChIAvoNe (ItA) 3515 13. sABINe LIsICKI (Ger) 3141 14. ANGeLIQUe KerBer (Ger) 2820 (+5) 15. JeLeNA JANKovIC (srB) 2815 (-1) 16. ANA IvANovIC (srB) 2785 17. JULIA GoerGes (Ger) 2785 (-2) 18. DomINIKA CIBULKovA (svK) 2485 (-1) 19. DANIeLA hANtUChovA (svK) 2450 (+2) 20. roBertA vINCI (ItA) 2395 (+2). Afp

WAPDA won the national Inter-Department Karate Championship here at the Sports Board Coaching Centre Hall on Monday. national Inter Department Karate Championship ended here today at Lahore.

Teams from all the affiliated departments of Pakistan Karate Federation including WAPDA, Army, Police and Railways participated in the Championship.

WAPDA won the championship by winning five gold and two silver medals with 125 points while Army stood second by winning two gold, four silver and one bronze medal scoring 95 points and Railways by winning one silver and thee bronze medals with 35 points secured third position.

WAPDA won gold medals in 50kg (Ali Mahmood), 60kg (Mohsin Hazara), 67kg Baz Muhammad, 84kg (Muhammad Ramzan) and in Team Kumite. Army won gold medals in 55 Kg (Abu Zar) and in 75 Kg (Imtiaz Ali).

Syed Amir Hamza Gilani, Director General, Pakistan Sports Board was the Chief Guest at the Finals / Prize Distribution Ceremony. He appreciated the efforts of PKF for promoting the sorts in Pakistan.

TEAM poSITIoN Pos 1 2 3 4

DePart WAPDA Army Railways Police

g 5 2 -

s 2 4 1 -

b 1 3 3

Pts 125 96 40 18

four matches decided in Dar hockey LAHORE STAff REpoRT

Another four matches were played in the All Pakistan Munir Dar memorial Hcokey Tournament being played at Bahawalpar Stadium. Pakistan Police beat Bahawalpur DHA 3-2, Gojra Hockey Academy beat Waqpda Hyderabad 5-0, PHF Bahawalpur beat Pakistan Railways 8-1 and Pakistan Army beat Police 3-1

Top-ranked Tseng storms to LpGa triumph PHOENIX Afp

World no. 1 yani Tseng birdied five of the first six holes on the back nine after the second of three rain delays on Sunday on her way to a one-stroke triumph at the LPGA Founders Cup. Taiwan's Tseng fired a four-under par 68 in the final round of the $1.5 million event at Wildfire Golf Club to finish 72 holes on 18under par 270, one stroke ahead of Japan's Ai Miyazato and South Korean World no. 2 na yeon Choi.

Thunderstorm delays of 74 and 66 minutes stretched the day for the leaders, all playing in the final threesome. But Tseng responded after the second stoppage with birdies at the par-4 10th and par-5 11th. She ran off another streak of three in a row ending at the par-5 15th that was interrupted by a 42minute storm delay, then parred the final three holes in a gathering gloom on the Arizona desert to take the victory. It was Tseng's second triumph in four starts this year after a successful title defense last month in Thailand and her 14th career crown. Tseng won 12 titles last year in a breakout season, seven of them in LPGA events and two at majors. She will try to add to

her major total in two weeks at the Kraft nabisco, where she was second last year to American Stacy Lewis. Tseng shared the 54-hole lead with Miyazato, her final round playing partner in Thailand when Miyazato also lost to Tseng by a stroke. Miyazato, still in search of a major title, was foiled in a bid for her eighth LPGA victory. Miyazato birdied the par-4 third and par-5 fifth holes and answered a bogey at the par-3 six with a birdie at the par-4 eighth, but could only muster a birdie at the par-4 16th on the back nine. Choi ran off three birdies in a row starting at the par-5 fifth but a double bogey at the eighth dropped her back before she bounced back with birdies at the par-5 11th, par-3 14th and par-4 16th to fall just short. Tseng birdied the par-4 third but stumbled with back-to-back bogeys at seven and eight, only to set up her early back-nine surge that no foe could equal.

former england cricketer Andrew ‘freddie’ flintoff (r) sits in a bath-tub sidecar with British inventor edd China (L) at the controls as they try to break the fastest toilet world record at wembley stadium. afp

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Stop corruption in railways, SC tells officials ISLAMABD

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Muhammad nawaz Kharal, Attorney General for Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq, nAB Additional Prosecutor General Tarar and former Railways Board secretary Shafiqueullah appeared on notice.

At the onset of the hearing, Kharral apprised the bench that in compliance with the court orders, cases pertaining to corrupt practices in Railways were referred to the nAB. He said investigations were carried out in sale of scrap, purchase of 69 locomotives, maintenance contracts and purchase of spare parts for 69 locomotives.

He told the bench that the other cases were referred to nAB, which include

STAff REpoRT

ISPOSInG of a suo motu case pertaining to irregularities and non-payment of salaries to the workers of Pakistan Railways, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the authorities to curb corruption in the department.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the case.

Pakistan Railways Chairman Arif Azeem, counsel for Pakistan Railways Rai

reusing of lubricants in locomotives, corruption in Royal Palm Golf Club Lahore, default of contractors for outdoor advertising, thefts of consignments of valuable freight from goods, trains, unauthorized payments of more than Rs 220 millions by the accounts department of the Railways and matters relating to repair of 36 locomotives and unjustified expenditure of Rs 1.6 billions for the repair of locomotives.

The bench was informed that as many as five passenger trains resumed operation in pursuance of the SC’s directions including Mehr express, Shahsawar, Sandal express, Marvi express and Attock passenger trains.

The court was also told that since February 4, in the result of a joint venture under public private partnership, a Business express train had commenced its operation between Lahore and Karachi, whereas expression of interest (eoI) was invited for four more trains including Shaheen express, Fareed express, Super express and Lahore Rawalpindi Rail Car on basis of public private partnership.

The chief justice inquired from the Railways authorities that what changes had been made in ticketing system in the Railways, upon which the chairman pledged to

computerise the ticketing system.

Giving details of encroachment of Railways land, Kharral informed the court that within one-and-a-half month, a total of 771 acres of land from eight divisions of the Railways was retrieved from 2,000 illegal occupants, which amounts to Rs 4 billion in compliance with the court orders.

The chief justice observed that the ticketing system’s computerisation would help in reducing corruption to 25 percent in Pakistan Railways, adding that the pension of retired servants of the Railways should be released regularly. Later the court disposed of the case.

Joint session today to discuss engagement terms with uS ISLAMABAD STAff REpoRT

kARAcHI: A view of the provincial capital during a dust storm on Monday night. ONLINe

eight dead in pakistan world’s third Miranshah biggest weapon importer clashes StOCkHOLM Afp

MIRANSHAH AgENcIES

At least eight people, including a soldier, have been reportedly killed in clashes between the Pakistan Army and militants in north Waziristan Agency. Residents in Miranshah, where clashes took place, said the two sides were exchanging gunfire until Monday morning. Security officials said four militants and one soldier were killed in the clash after militants attacked the army’s Ameen outpost late on Sunday in Miranshah. The authorities said that the forces retaliated early on Monday by targeting suspected militant safe houses and three civilians were reportedly killed and others wounded in the bombing. The security forces accelerated the crackdown on the terrorist hideouts on Monday and blew up five buildings occupied by militants located in Miranshah Bazaar. Also, an indefinite curfew had been imposed in the area and military operation against militants was underway. Meanwhile, as many four terrorist were killed in a bomb blast in Tirah valley on Monday. According to details, the killed terrorists were members of banned outfit Lashkar-e-Islam while two others were wounded in the incident. They were killed while planting an explosives device along a roadside in Tirah.

Asia leads the world when it comes to weapon imports, according to a study released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Globally the volume of international transfers of major conventional weapons was 24 percent higher in the period 2007-11 compared to the 2002-06 period, the report said. Over the past five years, Asia and Oceania accounted for 44 percent in volume of conventional arms imports, the institute said.

That compared with 19 percent for europe, 17 percent for the Middle east, 11 percent for north and South America, and 9 percent for Africa, said the report. India was the biggest arms importer in the period covered, 2007-11, accounting for 10 percent in weapons volume.

It was followed by South Korea (6 percent), China and Pakistan (both 5 percent), and Singapore (4 percent), according to the independent institute which specialises in arms control and disarmament matters.These five countries accounted for almost a third, 30 percent, of the volume of

international arms imports, said SIPRI. “India’s imports of major weapons increased by 38 percent between 2002-06 and 2007-11,” SIPRI said. “notable deliveries of combat aircraft during 2007-11 included 120 Su-30MKs and 16 MiG29Ks from Russia and 20 Jaguar Ss from the United Kingdom,” it said.

While India was the world’s largest importer, its neighbour and archrival Pakistan was the third largest. Pakistan took delivery of “a significant quantity of combat aircraft during this period: 50 JF-17s from China and 30 F-16s,” the report added. Both countries “have taken and will continue to take delivery of large quantities of tanks,” it also noted. “Major Asian importing states are seeking to develop their own arms industries and decrease their reliance on external sources of supply,” said Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.

China, which in 2006 and 2007 was the world’s top arms importer, has now dropped to fourth place.“The decline in the volume of Chinese imports coincides with the improvements in China’s arms industry and rising arms exports,” according to the report.

The joint sitting of parliament is all set to take up for discussion today (Tuesday) the recommendations on new terms of engagements with the United States of America (USA) finalised by the parliamentary committee on national security (PCnS).

The agenda list, however, includes three bills lapsed as the Senate did not pass those within 90-day stipulated timeline.

Per official handout, the president summoned the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) in joint sitting to meet in Parliament House today (Tuesday) at 11.00 am.

“The meeting would debate the PCnS recommendations in detail while three bills are also on the agenda which were passed by the national Assembly but had lapsed as the Senate could not pass those within 90 days’ timeline,” said an official source, requesting not to be named.

The source said the joint session was likely to continue for three days during which it would have a threadbare discussion on all the recommendations finalized by the PCnS. The government had immediately suspended all sorts of cooperation with the USA in war against terrorism soon after an airstrike by US forces on its twin checkposts in Mohmand Agency on november 26 that left 24 soldiers dead and dozens injured.

The decision included immediate blockade of the nATO supplies through Pakistani land routes into Afghanistan which had badly affected the US forces’ operations in Afghanistan.

Later, Prime Minister yousaf Raza Gilani referred the matter of reopening of the nATO supplies to the PCnS and said only the parliament could take any decision on the matter. After around two dozen meeting of the PCnS, the committee formulated its recommendations unanimously which would be debated by members of the parliament (MPs) today.

The source said the bills including Domestic Violence (prevention and protection) Act 2009, nFC Institute of Technology Multan 2009 and the Stock exchanges (Corporatisation, Demutualisation & Integration) Act, 2008 would also be taken up by the joint session.

Under rules, if a bill is passed by a House and the other House does not pass it within 90 days, the same is considered lapsed and only joint session of parliament can take it up for passage.

Top-civil and military hierarchy had already deliberated upon the PCnS recommendations on Saturday and a meeting jointly chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister yousaf Raza Gilani and attended by all the heads of coalition partners, services chiefs and the outgoing director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had discussed the proposals in length.

Electricity shortfall rises to 5,800MW lahore: The electricity shortfall in the country has risen to 5,800MWs. According to PePCO sources, presently 7,500MWs of electricity were being generated while the demand had soared to 13,300MW. The shortfall in generation, according to the sources,

was due to shortage of water at the two main hydel power stations of Tarbela and Mangla where it had reached the dead level. Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala and other cities in Punjab are experiencing 13 hours of load shedding, while the

duration was almost 19 hours in rural areas. Sources in PePCO said in these last few days, the power demand during working days remained at more than 12,500MW while on Sunday, it came down to 10,500MW-11,000MW. STaff repOrT

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

Editor: Arif Nizami, Executive Editor: Sarmad Bashir