E-paer PakistanToday 10th January, 2012

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PTI will take to streets if govt attacks judiciary: Imran Khan

Prospects for the airline industry in the year 2012

Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim acquitted of sodomy charges

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PROFIT | PAGE 04

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pakistantoday.com.pk

rs15.00 vol ii no 194 22 pages lahore edition

Haqqani claims innocence but not very cooperative g

T

Tahir NiaZ

He probe into the memo issue is in full swing but with many spanners being thrown in the works of the judicial commission, as government officials and the lawyer of Husain Haqqani applied delay tactics and ignored repeated warnings of the threemember commission that failure to cooperate would lead it to draw an adverse inference.

The former ambassador declined on Monday to hand over his BlackBerry smartphone for investigation, saying he was un-

aware of where the device was. Haqqani also rejected the commission’s request to waive his privacy rights with the Canada-based manufacturer of BlackBerry phones, Research In Motion (RIM), saying: “I may require approval of the government as I am bound to observe the Official Secret Act.” However, Commission Chairman Justice Qazi Faez Isa observed: “Official Secret Act does not come in the way.” When he asked Haqqani if he was prepared to give the waiver as Mansoor Ijaz did, Haqqani replied: “No sir, not at this stage.” Justice Isa said: “If obstacles continue to be created and you and the attorney general do not come forward, an adverse inference can be drawn.” He observed that no straight answer

was coming from the government on the memo issue. When Justice Isa asked Haqqani’s lawyer if the waiver would harm him, he did not reply in clear terms. It was a surprise for the commission members when Haqqani said that he had no idea where his BlackBerry was. “I came to Pakistan on short notice and left behind my belongings in the US. I have no information right now about where my BlackBerry set is. It might be lying somewhere at my US residence or Pakistan’s embassy in the US,” he told the commission.

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haqqani Challenges sC verdiCt | page 02

3 girls killed in concert stampede LAHORE Shafiq Sharif

Continued on page 04

Kayani and Pasha’s replies in memo case illegal: Gilani

Former envoy to US tells judicial commission he doesn’t know where his BlackBerry is, also refuses to waive privacy rights g Commission tells govt to give Mansoor multiple entry visa as soon as he applies ISLAMABAD

At least three girls died and dozens sustained injuries, three of them in critical condition, in a stampede during a musical concert at Alhamra Cultural Complex on Monday. The event was organised by a noted group of private colleges. Per details, the administration of the colleges arranged a musical concert of Atif Aslam, Arif Lohar and other singers and all female students of the educational institute were allowed entry to the musical show. Families of clerical staff, teachers and other employees of the college were also allowed to attend the gala that started around 6pm. The place was overcrowded as around 5,000 girls, teachers and other staff of the college gathered at the venue. The show ended at around 10pm and as the people started leaving the venue, a stampede ensued.

Subsequently, the people started pushing each other around, causing a number of girls to fall to the ground and get trampled.

Officials of Rescue 1122 and parents of students rushed the girls to various hospitals, including Services Hospital, Ittefaq Hospital and Hameed Lateef Hospital. Three girls – Maheen Naeem Abbas (22), resident of Walton Road, Farah Nawaz (20), resident of Canal View, and Nimra (21), resident of Maraghzar Colony, died at Services Hospital owing to multiple injuries, while doctors said Zoya, Mujeeba and Sana were in a critical condition. The college administration said in a statement that the incident was a result of a bomb hoax. An injured student told reporters at Services Hospital that she heard someone saying there was a bomb in the premises which was about to explode, resulting in a stampede. Another student the venue had been overcrowded. Anjum Rasheed Cheema, a parent, blamed the college administration for the mishap.

tuesday, 10 January, 2012 safar 15, 1433

LahOrE: a woman escorts her injured daughter to the Services hospital following a stampede at a concert at the alhamra Cultural Complex on Monday night. nADEEM IjAz

ISLAMABAD aPP

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told Chinese newspaper People’s Daily Online in an interview on Monday that any official action by a government functionary without the prior approval of the government would be unconstitutional and illegal. Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha’s depositions in the Supreme Court in the memogate case were therefore illegal, said Gilani, because they did not contain the approval of the competent authority. He said acquisition of permission from the authority concerned was mandatory for them in order to file replies to the apex court, adding that a reaction from any government institution without the sanction of the government was unconstitutional and unlawful. Gilani said neither the Defence Ministry nor the defence minister was approached by the two regarding their rejoinders in the memo case, and that they had to seek permission from the ministry before filing the replies.

The prime minister stated that in two simultaneous issues, one relating to the NATO attack on Pakistani checkposts and the other relating to the memo controversy, the civil and military leadership of Pakistan held detailed meetings and took immediate decisions in the Defence Committee of the Cabinet. In case of the NATO attack, the prime minister said, it was decided that the matter should be referred to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security. In the second case, it was also decided that the matter should be referred to the committee, besides accepting the resignation of Husain Haqqani, he added.

Gilani eats his own words yet again g

Experts reject PM’s contention that COAS, ISI DG’s replies were unlawful ISLAMABAD irfaN BUKhari

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani made a startling revelation on Monday by contradicting his own statement as, in an interview with a Chinese newspaper, he implicitly said that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General (DG) Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha had violated the rules of business while submitting their responses to the Supreme Court in the memo case without the approval of the competent authority.

What came as a surprise was that he chose to make this “revelation” in an interview with a foreign newspaper and

that too almost three weeks after the COAS and the ISI DG had submitted their responses. While there has never been any doubt about the differences between the civil and military leaderships, particularly on the memo issue, this statement of the prime minister finally confirmed it that they were not on the same page.

“Any official action by a government functionary without the prior approval of the government is unconstitutional and illegal,” the prime minister said, quoting the chief justice that “any act of a government functionary without the government’s nod is unconstitutional and therefore illegal” to actually make a point that the responses submitted by the COAS and ISI DG with the Supreme Court were illegal as they did not contain

the approval of the competent authority as required under the rules of business.

“No summary seeking approval of the competent authority was initiated by the Defence Ministry. Nor any approval was obtained from the Defence Minister in this regard,” the prime minister said.

What confuses the situation is that the prime minister continues to first make a statement and then contradict it.

On December 16, a day after the COAS and the ISI DG’s responses were submitted, General Kayani had called on Prime Minister Gilani. An official statement issued by the PM’s House after the meeting had said: “The Prime Minister and the Army Chief also agreed that replies forwarded by the COAS and DG ISI were in response to the notice of the Honourable

Court, through proper channel and in accordance with the rules of business and should not be misconstrued as a standoff between the Army and the government.”

Terming the prime minister’s statement as “strange”, Senator SM Zafar said that the COAS and the ISI DG had submitted their replies in compliance with Supreme Court orders as they had been made respondents in the memo case by the petitioner. “The government had a right to challenge the petitioner’s plea of making them (the COAS and the ISI DG) respondents in the case and could ask the court that only the federation could be made party and the reply would also be submitted only by the federation.

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02 News Today’s

Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

LAHORe

NeWS

‘hilarious!’

No Saudi mediation for Musharraf: Malik

Story on Page 05

Story on Page -09

Quick Look

Page 13

Seat adjustment: MQM delegation to meet President Zardari today ISLAMABAD STaff rEPOrT

A five-member delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) would hold an important meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday to evolve a seat adjustment formula regarding the upcoming Senate elections, due by mid-February. The MQM delegation would be headed by Dr Farooq Sattar, while Babar Ghauri, Raza Haroon, Dr Sagheer and Waseem Aftab would accompany him. The MQM is likely to win three or four Senate seats from Sindh Assembly in the upcoming Senate polls if the elections are held with the existing assemblies. Though there was no official word but since the president would not be available in the federal capital, the meeting would be rescheduled in Karachi. earlier, the meeting had been scheduled for the federal capital. When contacted, MQM spokesman Wasay Jalil confirmed the meeting.

Bin Laden Commission interviews three more witnesses ISLAMABAD

BhiTShah: Devotees perform dhamal during the annual Urs of hazrat Shah abdul Latif Bhittai on Monday. OnLInE

STaff rEPOrT

The Abbottabad Operation Inquiry Commission on Monday questioned key witnesses regarding the spying network used by US agencies to allegedly monitor AlQaeda chief Osama Bin Laden’s activities and recorded the statements of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa National Programme on Family Planning Primary Healthcare Coordinator Dr Ihsanullah Turabi, Comprehensive Security Service Pvt Ltd Incharge Bashir Chohan and Major (r) Aamir Aziz. Dr Shakil Afridi, who allegedly spied on Bin Laden for the CIA, worked at the family planning primary healthcare programme. Aziz was owner of the house allegedly used for spying on Bin Laden’s activities.

Meanwhile, the enquiry commission has decided to again summon Pakistan’s envoy to the United Kingdom Wajid Shamsul Hasan to record his statement. The commission has also collected TV interviews of the UK envoy.

Former PPP MNA’s brother shoots restaurant owner KASuR STaff rEPOrT

Former Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed’s brother Advocate Munir Ahmed on Monday shot and injured a restaurant owner for serving him food late. According to police, Munir ordered fish and burgers and asked restaurant owner Sheikh Ahmed to prepare it within 30 minutes and left for shopping. He came back after 15 minutes but on Ahmed’s request to wait for sometime, Munir left the place and came back with three men. He fired at Ahmed, injuring his arm, while his accomplices broke the restaurant’s items and fled. Police registered case number 14/12 against Munir and his three accomplices under sections 324,427 and 34 of the PPC. Munir got interim bail until January 19. Railway Road traders protested against Munir and demanded his arrest.

Haqqani moves SC for review of Dec 30 verdict ISLAMABAD STaff rEPOrT

F

ORMeR ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani filed a review petition in the Supreme Court on Monday seeking a review of the court’s December 30, 2011 short order, which declared the petitions for probe into the memo controversy maintainable and constituted a three-member judicial commission to probe the matter and submit a report within four weeks.

He requested the court to stay the proceedings before the judicial commission until the disposal of the review petition, as he would suffer irreparable harm if the commission reached a conclusion during the course of his review petition. The review petition was filed by Haqqani’s lawyer Asma Jahangir. The petitioner contended that the court in its December 1, 2011 order put restrictions on his movement and appointed a commission to preserve the evidence without hearing him.

He prayed the court to review its order, as the petitions declared maintainable were beyond the

purview of Article 184 (3).

He said the court had heard the petitions on the question of maintainability, however, in its December 30 order, it fully exhausted the entire relief sought by the petitioners in every respect.

The petitioner stated that the judicial commission constituted by the court was not permissible by law, as it could not issue directions to the judges of the high courts to constitute a commission.

Giving legal references, the petitioner stated that under the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) Order 26 rule 4 sub rule 2, a commission set up to examine any person or evidence may be deputed to any court except “not being a high court”. He said high courts were not subordinate to the Supreme Court, thus it could not issue them directions. He added that Article 187 remained subject to Article 175 (2), thus the Supreme Court could not direct the high courts to constitute any commission.

The petition stated that the court had made an error by applying the principles of CPC to a probe that on the face of it was of a criminal nature, thus denying the peti-

tioner (Haqqani) his fundamental right under Article 13 and 10A. He said the court appointed the commission by exercising its authority under Article 187 read with order XXX1, rule 1 and 2 as well as order XXXVI of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980 as announced in the December 30 short judgment, despite the fact that Order XXXVI of the Supreme Court Rules had been repealed in 2003.

The petitioner said his fundamental rights under Article 9 and 15 had been denied whereas he had so far not been formally accused of any offence of any nature.

He stated that the court had misread the facts that the article in Financial Times of October 10, 2011 carried the memo with it, adding that the contents of it were unknown even to this point of time. The petitioner stated that while interpreting the fundamental rights, the court had assumed its infraction and the enforcement order did not redress any such infringement. He added that no terms of reference had been set out while determining the scope and ambit of the judicial commission assigned to probe the memo issue.

‘Wheat support price should go down’ LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) warned the federal government on Monday that if the Rs 100 per maund increase in the wheat support price was not withdrawn, price of the 20 kilogrammes flour bag will jump by Rs 80.

PFMA indicated that flour mills could reduce wheat flour price by Rs 150 per bag if the federal government allowed them wheat import. Holding a press conference at PFMA House, association chairman Naeem Butt strongly criticised the federal government’s decision to increase the wheat support price from Rs 950 to Rs 1,050 per maund. He said that the decision to increase the wheat support price would neither benefit farmers nor consumers. Naeem suggested that if the federal government wanted to support farmers it should provide them with agriculture inputs, including fertilizers, pesticides and diesel at subsidised rates.

He pointed out that Pakistan had the highest wheat price in the world despite the fact that the country had surplus wheat stock of around eight million tonnes. In the international market, he said, wheat was available at $285 per tonnes. He demanded the government to allow wheat import, which would cut wheat price by Rs 150 per 20 kilogrammes.

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

FOReiGN NeWS

ARTS & eNTeRTAiNMeNT

SPORTS

Liberal family values threaten humanity: pope

Nadia launches skincare treatments

Misbah keen to cash in on home advantage

News 03 COMMeNT Towards an abyss: The executive and the judiciary are on a warpath.

Mush’s show: Having more parties in the political process is always a good idea.

Dr faisal Bari says: The shadow education: The tuition phenomenon has gained traction.

rabia ahmed says: Demagoguery for dummies: All education provides students with the ability

Syed hassan Belal Zaidi says: The G word: A lot has happened over the past couple of weeks.

Story on Page 18

Story on Page 16

Story on Page 20

Articles on Page 12-13

Senior SC lawyer gunned down at doorstep LAHORE

S

Zardari leaving for Dubai again DuBAI

STaff rEPOrT

eNIOR Supreme Court (SC) Advocate Nasrullah Warraich, 70, was gunned down at his doorstep by two unidentified motorcyclists in the Gulshan-e-Ravi Police precincts on Monday.

All lawyer associations have announced a complete strike today (Tuesday) against Warraich’s killing.

According to details, at around 7pm, the lawyer went to his door after someone knocked it. Suddenly, he was shot in his head on which his family rushed to the door and found him in a pool of blood.

He was rushed to Sir Gangaram Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police and rescue officials shifted the body to the morgue for autopsy. Gulshan-eRavi Police Sub-Inspector Ashfaq said that according to initial investigation and eye witnesses, two or three young men knocked at the lawyer’s house door. As Warraich opened the door one killer introduced himself as Shahid and

asked the deceased to call his son Tahir, as they wanted to give him some documents regarding a case. “But as Nasrullah was going inside, one of them fired at the lawyer, who was shot in his head and went unconscious”, Ashfaq said.

He said that the killers managed to

Wahdat Colony SHO goes missing

ONLiNE

President Asif Ali Zardari will reach Dubai tomorrow (Wednesday) on a twoday private visit.

According to Online sources, the president was going to Dubai for medical checkup and would stay there for two days (January 11-12). The sources revealed that an important leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement would also call on Zardari during his stay. They said upon arrival, he would be admitted to the American Hospital Dubai for checkup which could take two days.

However, PPP Central Information Secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira denied the reports about the president’s visit to Dubai.

LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Wahdat Colony Station House Officer Yasir Abbas went missing from his street on Monday while his family suspects that he has been kidnapped.

Yasir was missing since Sunday afternoon from his home in Gulshan-e-Ravi. Yasir’s father Chaudhry Ghulam Rasool filed a complaint with the Gulshan-eRavi Police that his son might have been kidnapped by some unidentified men but no case was registered until filing of this report. Rasool, in his appli-

cation, said that Yasir talked to his brother and gave him his car keys after which he left home to go to the barber’s shop but did not return.

He said that his son did not have an enmity with anyone. Police said that the missing SHO had applied for medical leave three days ago. Sources said that investigations were being made to trace Yasir.

The DIG Operations said that action was taken on application of the missing SHO and all possible efforts would be made to trace the official. Police also denied arresting any SHO in the last two days.

flee, adding that police have not registered any case yet because no complaint was received from the deceased’s family. Sources said that the killing might be result of an old enmity but Warraich’s family denied it. After the killing, the deceased’s son Tahir was given police protection. A large number of lawyers reached Warraich’s house to condole his death. The Lahore Bar Association (LBA), Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) and Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) condemned Warraich’s murder, who was a former Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) executive committee chairman, and demanded an inquiry into the matter.

Punjab Governor Latif Khosa also visited the Mayo Hospital morgue and ordered police to arrest the criminals as early as possible. He spoke to the deceased’s family and ensured full cooperation. Talking to journalists, Khosa said that the deceased was his good friend and his killing questioned the Punjab government’s performance.

Warraich was survived by four sons and three daughters.

PPP gives party ticket to Mirza’s son for by-poll KARACHI: The Pakistan People’s Party has decided to grant party ticket to Hasnain Mirza, son of former Sindh home minister Zulfikar Mirza, for the by-polls in PS-57. The constituency seat fell vacant after the resignation of Zulfikar Mirza from the party’s basic membership as well as from the provincial assembly seat. This was decided in a meeting of the PPP central executive committee meeting chaired by President Asif Zardari. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Faryal Talpur, Makhdoom Amin Faheem, Mian Raza Rabbani, Syed Khursheed Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Nawab Yousaf Talpur, Islamud Din Sheikh, Abdul Qadir Patel, Nisar Ahmed, Ali Nawaz Shah, Manzoor Hussain Wassan, Murad Ali Shah and Agha Siraj Durrani attended the meeting. NNi

Australia deports Pakistani student on security grounds MELBOuRNE iNP

Melbourne-based Pakistani student Salman Ghumman, 23, was deported on Monday on security grounds after being questioned by Australian security intelligence officials over allegedly suspect phone calls to Pakistan. Ghumman has been deported and is now on his way back to Pakistan, an Australian newspaper quoted the Immigration Department as saying. He was detained last month by immigration officials after several months of questioning by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officials over alleged suspect phone calls made to Pakistan and questioned why he was in Australia, the paper said. The paper quoted his father, Manzoor Hussain Ghumman, a retired Pakistani air force officer, saying the family was concerned about his son’s fate if Pakistani security services pick him up upon return.

Rabbani, Sheikh, Babar to get Senate tickets ISLAMABAD: The PPP has decided in principle to award tickets for the forthcoming Senate elections to Raza Rabbani, Farhatullah Babar and Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.

Sources said the three had been chosen from amongst 139 hopefuls who had submitted their nominations to the PPP Secretariat. Today (Tuesday) is the last date for receiving such applications, while president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar has been known to have been directed by the president to submit his nomination papers. Babar is expected to leave his post as president’s spokesman after his possible election to the Senate; while both Sheikh and Rabbani were also due to retire from their Senate posts.

Babar would be nominated from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the other two from Sindh. ONLiNE

ECP evolves strategy to hold polls ahead of schedule ISLAMABAD MiaN aBrar/KaShif aBBaSi

Besides the government’s quiet efforts to secure a seat-adjustment arrangement between all the major political parties for Senate elections well ahead of the schedule, a marathon meeting was held on Monday at the headquarters of the election Commission of Pakistan (eCP) to complete necessary arrangements to hold polls according to the government’s directive ahead of their respective schedules.

A source in the eCP told Pakistan Today that polling for Senate elections might be held after February 12 if the government failed to achieve seat-adjustment formula between major political parties.

“Under Article 224 of the constitution, the polling for the Senate elections may be held after February 12. However, the oath taking of the winning senators would be held on March 13 per the constitutional provisions. In any case, the eCP would complete all necessary tasks well in advance of the schedule of Senate and general elections

in the country whenever the eCP is called upon to do so,” the source said, adding that to date, the eCP had received no written summary from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat to hold Senate polls in advance of schedule. An official handout however stated that the meeting was held to review the progress on various urgent and important issues/activities essentially required to be completed well before initiating the process for the conduct of upcoming Senate as well as general elections in the country.

Following the meeting, the eCP issued a handout reflecting 19 decisions taken during the meeting. eCP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan said the commission was informed that training for holding Senate elections for the eCP officers (BPS-18 and above) was scheduled on January 24 to 27.

All efforts were being made by NADRA to complete the exercise with regards to preparation of Preliminary electoral Rolls (PeR), followed by Final electoral Rolls (FeR), as soon as possible and a report in this regard has been sent to the Supreme Court. SMS facility was being provided by

the eCP to the registered voters for checking their entries as voters in the relevant electoral rolls, he said, adding that as decided by the eCP in its meeting held on November 30, 2011, SMS charges for the public to check their voting details had been fixed at Rs 2 per SMS. The commission was informed that a proposal with regards to amending the law for providing the name, CNIC number, photographs and to obtain thumb impression of voters in digitised ink only on the electoral rolls to be used by the presiding officers, was being sent to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.

As regards the printing of electoral rolls with photo and thumb impression, it was discussed that photograph of the voter and column for thumb impression of the voter, to be used at the time of election by the presiding officers only and the remaining required number of sets, without photograph and thumb impression of the voter will be discussed with all major political parties in a meeting, to be held soon.

It was decided that the deputy election

commissioners (DeCs) would work as revising authorities in their respective districts while for the remaining districts in their division, lists for appointment of revising authorities from amongst the federal government, provincial and district government officers had been obtained through the PeCs, that was being scrutinised and the eCP would also arrange orientation for these revising authorities.

As the population census report is to be published by the PCO in second half of 2013, as informed by them and as no fresh delimitation was to be carried out for next general elections, therefore, the commission decided that the PeCs shall submit proposals for re-description of constituencies within 10 days. The proposals received from the PeCs would be placed before the eCP for further consideration and decision. It would be purely an internal exercise and would be completed by end of February.

In the context of implementation of the Supreme Court directions with regard to fresh delimitation in Karachi, the PeC, Sindh informed that meetings were in

progress with respective provincial authorities. It was decided that the draft code of conduct for political parties and candidates, media, observers, law enforcing agencies and polling agents, would be placed before the stakeholders in a consultative meeting to be held shortly. A meeting with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would be held on January 11 regarding controlling election expenses and in continuation with the previous meeting held a few months ago to chalk out further course of action to streamline political financing.

The Printing Corporation of Pakistan and eth Security Printing Corporation had been asked to arrange non-market paper containing special security features including watermark, to preclude the possibility of printing of bogus ballot paper by any quarter. It was decided that efforts would be made to set up permanent polling stations so that the voters could be assigned polling stations well before the elections. The lists of permanent polling stations would be placed on the eCP’s website for information of general public well in advance of an election.

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04 News

Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

China planning military base in Pakistan: report NEW DELHI

C

iNP

HINA is planning a military base in Pakistan, India Today reported, citing “a secret report prepared by the government’s joint intelligence committee”.

According to the report: “China is keen to build military bases in FATA, or the Northern Areas, while Pakistan wants to counterbalance Indian naval forces by having a naval base in Gwadar. But it does not spell out the exact location

Saleem probe report complete ISLAMABAD STaff rEPOrT

The Saleem Shehzad Commission secretary will present its 150-paged report to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today (Tuesday). Speaking to media, commission member Parvez Shaukat said the commission had recorded the interviews of 41 individuals which are a part of the report. He said the commission had recommended the government to make the report public.

iran starts uranium enrichment at Fordow TEHRAn: Iran confirmed on Monday the start of uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow nuclear plant, Iranian state television reported. “All of Iran’s nuclear activities, including enrichment of uranium in both Natanz and Fordow nuclear sites are under supervision of the International Atomic energy Agency (IAeA),” Iran’s envoy to the agency Ali Asghar Soltanieh said. afP

Continued from page 1 He said further that he had replaced his old BlackBerry set with a new one, adding that he had asked the Foreign Office officials to locate his old set. He also declined to share the PIN of his old set with the commission.

Haqqani’s lawyer Zahid Bukhari also refused to submit the BlackBerry data to the commission, saying that it was the responsibility of the government to provide the commission with the data. The commission, however, exempted Haqqani from future hearings and said he would be called when required, but he was asked to come and witness the proceedings if he desired.

Despite repeated requests from the commission, Haqqani’s lawyer did not submit a list of witnesses if he wanted any, saying it would be submitted at the proper time. Justice Isa said foreigners and out-of-station witnesses would be given priority for their testimony before the commission.

Akram Shaikh, lawyer for Mansoor Ijaz, told the commission that his client would be available to testify before it on January 16 at

of these bases.”

At a time when PakistanUS relations are strained – chiefly over drone missile attacks in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas and covert Navy SeAL operation attack that took out Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil – China has made no secret of its interest in strengthening its own ties with the nuclear-armed nation.

Last Thursday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hosted Pakistani Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani in Beijing and vowed to support closer military exchanges between the countries.

“China and Pakistan

pledged to strengthen military ties and bring existing cooperation to a new level,” Xinhua quoted China’s Defense Minister Gen Liang Guanglie as saying.

“China values its traditional friendship with Pakistan,” Liang reportedly said, adding that Beijing hopes to develop “pragmatic and effective cooperation with Pakistan in national defence arena”. General Kayani echoed Liang’s comments, saying that Pakistan “would continue to provide firm support to China on all issues concerning its core interests”.

3 girls killed in stampede Continued from page 1 He claimed that several girls had fainted during the show due to suffocation and the administration did nothing but waited until the accident occurred.

He said he received a call from a friend of his daughter at about 7pm. “She told me that my daughter had fainted.

I requested her to take her to Hameed Lateef Hospital but she said her teachers were not allowing her to do so. I was surprised to hear that the teachers had told my daughter’s friend to wait until the end of the show.”

“I immediately rushed to the place and tried to enter the theatre, but the security guards and the administration stopped me from approaching my daughter…I managed to rescue my daughter after repeated requests,” he said. An eye witness said the administration had kept all the doors of the theatre locked except for a small gate for the entry of the administration and singers.

A girl’s family told reporters that the girls rushed towards Atif Aslam when he was leaving the place on which the security guards 9am. He also claimed his client had received emailed death threats.

The commission directed the attorney general that as and when Ijaz approached the authorities concerned in Bern (Switzerland) or Pakistan’s High Commission in London, he should be issued a multiple entry visa to Pakistan without any conditions. The commission, in its short order, directed the authorities concerned at Pakistan’s embassy and High Commission in Bern and London respectively to counselarise the documents to be presented by Ijaz as Power of Attorney.

Bukhari objected that Akram Shaikh had no power of attorney from Ijaz, however, Shaikh assured the commission that it would be submitted at the next hearing. In response to apprehensions expressed

by Shaikh pertaining to Ijaz’s security, the commission said it was the duty of the government to provide him security when he visited Pakistan. “However, if a further request is made (by his lawyer) pertaining to security, personnel of Pakistan Army may be de-

deployed by the college baton-charged the girls, resulting in the stampede. District Coordination Officer Ahad Cheema and DIG Operations Ghulam Mehmood Cheema reached Services Hospital after the mishap.

DIG Operations Ghulam Mehmood Dogar said he had ordered a detailed enquiry, but said the college administration had sought permission for the event. . Ahad Cheema said the mishap needed detailed enquiry and no one could be blamed before concrete results.

iSi DG’s contract expires in March RAwALpInDI: ISI Director General (DG) Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha’s contract will expire in March, sources said on Monday. According to sources, power corridors were echoing with Pasha’s replacement, who retired on March 18, 2011, but was given a year’s contract. According to sources, due to the memogate scandal, chances of another contract to Pasha were bleak. ONLiNE

FiA fires three forensic experts without reason ISLAMABAD STaff rEPOrT

Without giving any solid reasons, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has fired its three reputed forensic experts. A source in the FIA told Pakistan Today that three Grade 19 officers who played a major role in unearthing two major scams – the Khanani and Kalia money laundering scam and the Bank of Punjab (BOP) scam - had been fired. The sacked officers were identified as Sarfaraz Chaudhry, Irfan Qureshi and Abdul Ghaffar. The source said the officers were considered trusted subordinates of former FIA additional director general Zafar Qureshi. He said currently the officers were engaged in high-profile investigations. In recognition for his work in the Khanani and Kalia case, Chaudhry was awarded the Tamgha-eImtiaz. Despite many attempts, FIA chief Taseen Anwar Shah could not be reached for comment.

Pakistani surgeon sets Guinness World Record ISLAMABAD iNP

A surgeon at the Capital Hospital, CDA, has earned fame and prestige for the nation by making it to the Guinness Book of World Records for removing a 25.5cm long gall bladder through a 1 cm incision.

The 70 year old patient, Rasheeda Bibi, underwent a laparoscopic operation at CDA Hospital by Surgeon Dr Naeem Taj. This is the longest ever gall bladder removed laparascopically in medical history. The Guiness Book of World record has awarded Dr Naeem Taj a certificate of “World’s Longest Gall bladder removed through laparascopy”. earlier, an Indian Doctor removed a gallbladder of around 24 cm through open surgery.

Gilani eats his own words Continued from page 1 But the government did not raise any objection at that time,” he said.

SM Zafar said the COAS and the ISI DG presented their replies before the court through the attorney general, who had also not raised any objection to their replies asking them to take approval of the competent authority.

He said the COAS and the ISI DG were bound under Article 190 of the constitution to submit their replies before the court in compliance with the Supreme Court order.

Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed also rebuffed the prime minister’s assertion saying that in a routine practice, dozens of government servants submit their replies with the courts of law on a daily basis in various legal cases and they do not get their replies vetted by the

Another storm Continued from page 24 communications with the Swiss authorities, in which he had asked them to close the money laundering cases against President Zardari.

The court had ordered action against Qayyum, but the government did nothing and he fled the country.

The verdict had not directly mentioned the immunity issue, but many observers were of the opinion that President Zardari could be prosecuted in cases which existed before the promulgation of the NRO on October 5, 2007.

But the government kept dragging its feet on the issue of writing letters to foreign authorities.

The government’s defiance prompted the Supreme Court to initiate simultaneous proceedings of overseeing the implementation of the NRO judgement, which ordered communication with the Swiss authorities to reopen the cases of money laundering amounting to $60 million.

The NRO review case saw many twists and turns

Haqqani claims innocence ployed in addition to Islamabad Police.”

Shaikh was of the view that since his client’s statements might upset some individuals that were part of the federal government, he could not rely on the security provided by Islamabad Police. “Mansoor has been receiving death threats from the same email address(es) from which he had been communicating with Husain Haqqani earlier in the year,” said Shaikh.

The lawyer also expressed trepidation that an intelligence agency might pick up his client, to which Justice Isa said: “Is he (Haqqani) a crystal-ball gazer?”

At one point, the interior secretary and attorney general had to face the wrath of the commission when they both declined to give assurance to the commission that no first information report (FIR) would be registered against Ijaz upon his arrival in Pakistan.

“The strategy of the government is to make the process difficult,” Justice Isa remarked. After not getting

a straight reply from the secretary on the issue, Justice Isa warned him that he would be charged with contempt of court and asked him not to leave the court room. “Don’t make a mockery of the commission,” he said. However, towards the end of the proceedings, the attorney general told the commission that “if some federal law is violated (by Mansoor Ijaz), the matter will be brought to the notice of the Supreme Court.”

When he stated further that he was not in a position to make a commitment on behalf of the provinces in this regard, the commission ordered that the statement of the attorney general would apply to all provinces as well.

The commission also declined to hold an in-camera proceeding when Col Khalid, who represented the InterServices Intelligence (ISI), said ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha would appear in an in-camera hearing. Justice Isa said there would be no secret briefings. He said if the ISI DG wanted to share

prime minister. “The government has never ever objected to such replies by its servants in the past,” he said.

He said the prime minister’s statement meant to confuse and complicate things as it wanted to sabotage the enquiry into the memo case. “Previously, the prime minister said that the defence secretary was trying to have ‘a state within a state’ and now he says that the COAS and the ISI DG did not take approval of the Defence Ministry for submitting their replies before the court,” he said, adding that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government wanted shahadat (martyrdom) to win sympathies of the people by choosing a confrontational path with the institutions.

Justice (r) Saeed-uzZaman Siddiqui said the COAS and the ISI DG had submitted their replies be-

something secret with the commission, he could just put it in a sealed envelope and present it to the commission secretary.

“We will see after receiving this envelope that which part of the information is sensitive and what should be made public,” he said.

The judge advocate general (JAG) of General Headquarters (GHQ), who appeared on behalf of the chief of army staff (COAS), told the commission that General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was on a visit to China and that he had already submitted his affidavit to the Supreme Court in the memo case, adding that the COAS had nothing more to add to his response.

In his opening statement before the commission, Haqqani said he had no role in creating, drafting or delivering the memorandum to Admiral Mike Mullen. He said further: “I have no knowledge of the origin, authenticity and purpose of the memo.”

Forensic experts from the ISI and Federal Investi-

and at one point, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani himself requested the apex court through Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to decide the review petition instead of overseeing its implementation.

After the dismissal of the government’s review petition, there is now no hurdle for the court to ensure implementation of its verdict. During the hearing of the review case, the government often came out with various excuses to delay the hearing.

One common ploy adopted by the government was to change its counsel. Many NRO beneficiaries were restored by the government, however after the court’s intervention they were removed.

The NRO, promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf, granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, murder and terrorism between January 1, 1986 to October 12, 1999, the time between two states of martial laws. gation Agency (FIA) briefed the commission about the possibility of retrieving BlackBerry messages allegedly exchanged between Haqqani and Ijaz.

The two forensic experts, one from the ISI and the other from the FIA, told the commission about how the BlackBerry worked and the data retrieval process, but could not satisfy it to a great extent.

Col Khalid of the ISI apprised the commission members about how the data could be retrieved from the BlackBerry. He said there were three sources from where the data could be retrieved: from the handsets themselves, from the BlackBerry enterprise servers, and from the Call Data Records from the service providers.

However, he added that he could not say anything for sure about the success and time frame in this regard because of different parameters applied by the users.

Another expert from the FIA, Ali Imran, told the commission that a user could avail the utility of ‘wipe’ to overwrite messages, which made it even harder to retrieve the

fore the apex court as respondents. “Why did the government not raise the objection when they were being made respondents by the petitioners in the memo case and why did it remain silent when they presented their replies in the court in December?” Justice (r) Siddiqui questioned.

Commenting on the premier’s statement, Justice (r) Tariq Mehmood said as the petitioners had pleaded the COAS and the ISI DG by name, they submitted their replies in their personal capacities. “Why did the government or the attorney general not object when they were submitting their replies, which had also been attested by the office of the attorney general?” Justice (r) Mehmood also raised questions similar to the ones raised by SM Zafar, Justice (r) Siddiqui and Justice (r) Wajihuddin.

US academics convey concerns over Haqqani’s trial WASHINGTON iNP

As many as 16 prominent US academics through a letter addressed to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conveyed their concern over the safety of former Pakistan ambassador Hussain Haqqani.

The academics related to prestigious US institutes like Brookings Institution, Heritage Foundation and Carnegie endowment for International Peace, urged Clinton that the US government “should do all it can” to ensure Haqqani’s case is handled with “due process without any threat of physical harm”.

“We would urge the US government to continue to weigh in with key Pakistani leaders and to make appropriate public statements to ensure that Hussain Haqqani is not physically harmed and that due process of law is followed,” the academics said in the letter. deleted data. The commission directed all the parties in the Supreme Court to submit in writing whether they wanted to give evidence and tell commission their decision in this regard within two days.

The attorney general told the commission that the government had as yet not received any reply from RIM in response to its request for obtaining data. However, Brigadier Zulfiqar Ali, the focal person appointed by the Cabinet Division secretary on the issue, told the commission that RIM would make available the required data if a request was made through the Canadian High Commission in Islamabad.

The commission directed the government to contact the Canadian High Commission for the purpose. extensive activity was witnessed in and around the courtroom of the Islamabad High Court because of the arrival of high-profile personalities. Security was on high alert as Haqqani and Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz chief Nawaz Sharif made their appearance before the commission.

The hearing was later adjourned until Monday, January 16.

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Pinks’ wheels may fall off PAGe 08

LocaL Government BiLL 2011 g

Governor Khosa returns ‘Local Government Bill 2011’, 16 others to PA

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Says amendment seeking appointment of lower grade officers on a higher seat would lead to ‘appointment of favourites’, Punjab govt violating constitution by not holding LG elections on time LAHORE

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UNJAB Governor Sardar Latif Khosa has returned 17 bills passed by the Punjab Assembly after raising several objections, especially on the Punjab Local Government (Second Amendment) Bill of 2011 and has asked the Punjab Assembly to discuss the bills again.

The primary objection raised by the governor was that the assembly did not have the mandate to pass these bills. The assembly passed The Punjab Local Government (Second Amendment) Bill of 2011 on December 28, 2011. It was returned under the provision of Article 116(2)(b) of the constitution for reconsideration by the assembly in the light of the following observations:

“Article 140A of the constitution enjoins upon the province to establish a Local Government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the LG. The bill in question seeking amendment in the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 2001 negates the mandate of constitutional provision which already has been staggered by the provincial government since it came into office.

“The proposed amendment in Section 28 of the Ordinance ibid opens appointment of district coordination officer of any grade by replacing ‘as far as possible an officer in BS-20’, which will lower and make the high office ineffective and susceptible to appointment of favourites of lowest grade, at the same time affecting upon the promotion prospects of the federal and provincial services resulting into

litigation and resentment by these officers.

“Clause 5 of the Bill is wholly against the conceptual scheme of democratic dispensation starting from the grass root level. Sub-section (6) of Section 179-A to the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 2001, which had earlier been inserted was itself a dilatory provision allowing deferment by provincial government of the elections to the LG in which periphery of time was not observed. Through the addition of Sub Section (12) to Section 179-A of the Ordinance ibid, yet again 180 days are being given for the purpose. It is hilarious that on the one hand immediate general elections are being demanded, while Local Government elections are being delayed without any reasonable cause and people of the province denied their legitimate constitutional rights of self governance at local level.

“Various clauses proposed towards substitution of Sub Section (6) authorising the government to designate officer for initiation of Annual Performance Report in respect of District Coordination Officer is repulsive to democratic norms where people’s representatives stand replaced with designated officers.

“Sub Section (7) appointing ad hoc Accounts Committee for all LGs in a district negates the concept of permanency so propounded by superior courts. Adhocism has never augured with good governance.

“Sub Sections (8) to (12) prescribe composition of the ad hoc Accounts Committee, which will be controlled by the Treasury and as such with the government entering the last year of elections would recoil on transparency in the elections being the essence of democracy. The Supreme Court in the judgement pronounced on 07.10.2011 in CP No 1017L of 2011 has in Paragraph 29 observed as under: “‘It is imperative to remind ourselves particularly those who are under Oath, to defend and protect the constitution that in term of Article 5(2), obedience to the constitution and law is the (inviolable) obligation of every citizen wherever he may be and of every other person for the time being within Pakistan. “‘A constitutional provision which is time-bound is always mandatory unless the context otherwise provides so. The provisions of the Article 254 of the constitution, ie ‘failure to comply with requirement as to time does not render an act invalid’ are not intended to condone non-compliance of a mandatory and timebound provision, rather are meant to save the action taken belatedly.’ “The very judgement in paragraph 30 goes on to state that ‘societies grow and nations progress by strict adherence to the rule of law’.

“Through the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Act 2010 promulgated on 28-10-2010, it was mandated that the Local Government elections would be called within 365 days which cut out date expired on 27.10.2011. Obviously, non-compliance by the Punjab government is in violation of the law and per observations of the Supreme Court quoted above, which is binding under Articles 189 and 190 of the constitution. “No statement of Objects and Reasons has been enclosed with the Punjab Local Government (Second Amendment) Bill 2011.”

AppOInTS RED CRESCEnT CHAIRMAn: Separately, the governor has appointed Zahid Bashir the chairman of the Punjab Red Crescent Society.

Ganga Ram’s employees Shahbaz will not tolerate negligence demand regularisation LAHORE

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Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said red tapes should not be allowed to become a hurdle in the execution of public welfare projects and officers showing negligence in the completion of uplift projects will be held accountable.

He said public welfare and provision of basic amenities to the masses was the government’s responsibility and the pace of development projects should also be accelerated. He was addressing a meeting on Monday to review the pace of ongoing development projects under Special Packages for big cities and districts, Southern Development Programme and Annual Development Programme. Senior Advisor Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, Provincial Minister Abdul Ghafoor, Advisor Zakiya Shahnawaz, Members National Assembly Tehmina Daultana, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, Khuram Dastagir Khan, chairman Planning & Development and secretaries of various departments attended the meeting. The CM also presided over the first meeting of the Board of Directors of engineering Consultancy Services Punjab Limited (eCSP), on Monday Planning & Development chairman, Finance secretary and other members of the Board were also present. Addressing the meeting, the CM said the eCSP had been set up for the speedy and quality completion of development projects in the province and that the eCSP should be made a state-of-the-art company.

‘excuse me, i want a cab too!’

LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

The employees of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital Board of Management protested for their demands on Monday.

They gathered on Queen’s Road in front of the hospitals, carrying banners

and raising slogans against the government for not fulfilling their demands.

They also blocked the road to all kinds of traffic for sometime. One of the employees said the employees were being discriminated against, as the government had not given them a permanent status while options were also being

considered to lay them off. They said they were the ‘backbone’ of the health delivery system and the government should regularise them imemdiatley.

Separately, Jevay Pakistan Party workers also protested against inflation, electricity and gas outages in front of the Lahore High Court building.

A postgraduate girl moved the Lahore High Court to challenge the ‘discriminatory policy’ adopted by the distributors in the Yellow Cab Scheme, who had not given her a vehicle even when she fulfilled all requirements.

The petition, filed by Hina Ihtisham, said that she had applied and deposited the advance payment in October last for the cab, even though she had done her masters and the requirement was BA. She said she was deliberately left out because her father was a member of Pakistan People’s Party, adding that she wanted to work as a professional cab driver and had obtained a licence and training from motorway police. She prayed that the respondents, including the Punjab government, be asked to give her the cab.

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

Govt to strengthen PPSC CiNeMA

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He Punjab Assembly on Monday discussed the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) Report 2007-10, as Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said the government would further strengthen the commission.

The minister said the PPSC was one of the departments respected by the public, as it followed strict merit policy. He said everyone knew about the importance of the commission. He urged the members of provincial assembly to give proposals to make more efficient and strong.

MPA Rana Abdul Rehman said the current building of PPSC was declared dangerous some six years ago, after which an alternate piece of land was provided to the department, which had not been not moved so far.

He said the basic responsibility of PPSC was

to hire people between BPS 17 and 20, but it was now also involved in recruitment for Grade 9 and 16.

“It has overburdened the PPSC and we recommend that its resources should be enhanced so that it could perform efficiently,” Abdul Rehman added.

PML-Q leader Mohsin Leghari, while criticising the Punjab government, said retired officials were being accommodated in the PPSC, while its head was a former general and four members retired police officers.

He suggested that officers from provincial service should be taken in this department.

On a point of order, MPA Nazim Hussain Shah showed his concerns over delay in construction of new building of Punjab Assembly.

Punjab Minister for Forests Ahmed Ali Aulakh said trees could not be planted in province due to shortage of funds. Answering a question, he said Arab Sheikhs were allowed by the Foreign Ministry for hunting.

Court grants 3-day remand of ex-IT chief Dr Majid to ACE LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

A judicial magistrate on Monday granted three-day physical remand of former IT consultant of eight education boards of Punjab, Dr Majid Naeem to the Anti-Corruption establishment (ACe) in a corruption case booked against him on the Punjab government’s directions.

The court directed the ACe staff to produce Dr Majid before court on January 12, completing the needed investigation in the allegation against him.

The First Information Report (FIR) was registered by ACe against Dr Majid after a Lahore High Court (LHC) inquiry commission, tasked to probe the fiasco of computerised online system in eight BISes of Punjab, held him guilty. The commission, in its report, asked the government to initia t e proceedings against him and the BISes chairmen.

Dr Majid is facing charges of corruption, misappropriation, financial and administrative irregularities and failure of the online results system that he had prepared for the examination system of eights BISes. He was arrested by a team of ACe late Sunday night from his residence after he was released from a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) case.

LHC SuMMOnS DR MujAHID On TAKIng pu’S ACTIng CHARgE: Justice Ahmed Farooq on Monday summoned Punjab University Acting Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr Mujahid Kamran personally before the court on January 13 in a petition challenging the notification for his appointment as the acting PU VC after his retirement on January 2.

The court also issued notice and sought reply till the next hearing from the Punjab Higher education secretary in the matter, asking him to explain why the respondent had been appointed as the acting VC.

The court was a hearing civil miscellaneous (CM) application filed by Dr Mughees-ud-Din, a candidate for the slot of PU VC, through his counsel Asad Manzoor Butt in his pending petition seeking a restraining order against any arrangement to keep Dr Mujahid in the VC slot after his retirement on January 2 since the Supreme Court had declared extension after retirement from service as illegal.

LHC ORDERS CCpO TO RECOvER EyE-wITnESS Of A CASE: The Lahore High Court on Monday ordered the capital city police officer (CCPO) to produce before the court on Tuesday (today) a detainee who was an eyewitness in a kidnap-cummurder case and had allegedly been picked by the accused party with active assistance of the Misri Shah Police.

Justice Iftikhar Hussain Shah passed the order to the CCPO on a petition filed by Tariq Mehmood seeking recovery of his maternal uncle Muhammad Asif, allegedly picked by the Misri Shah Police on the behest of an influential accused party involved in the kidnapcum-murder of a 13-year-old boy.

The court, after hearing the arguments, directed the CCPO to produce the said person before the court on January 10 (today).

COuRT STAyS CHAngIng pLD puBLISHERS’ TERMS fOR SERvICE: Senior Civil Judge Muhammad Azeem Akhtar has restrained the website of Pakistan Legal Decisions (PLD) publishers from changing the terms and conditions for its online accounts and directed to submit a written reply on the next date of hearing.

The court passed the order on a petition filed by law firm Surridge & Beecheno Advocates, Corporate consultants & IP attorneys against Oratier Technology (Pvt) limited that runs the website for online accounts of the PLD.

Price of fertiliser on the rise LAHORE ONLiNE

The price of fertiliser has increased in Punjab after hike in the price of gas and petrol, the dealers have said. The fertiliser price has risen up to 210 rupees per bag and now is available at Rs 1,800 now, they said.

The price of urea has increased due to 27 percent increase in the gas prices. The farmers said that they were facing problems due to the increased prices of fertilisers as it has become difficult to earn bread and butter without increasing the prices of food products.

The prices of food products and cement could also be increased in the near future, the market sources said.

LHC fInES RS 50,000 TO SIALKOT DCO fOR DISpOSSESSIng CInEMA OwnER: The LHC on Monday fined Rs 50,000 to the Sialkot district coordination officer (DCO) for illegally dispossessing a cinema owner from his property, directing him to restore the possession to the petitioner. The court also set aside two notifications, issued by Board of Revenue (BOR) on December 30, 2009 and May 18, 2011.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah passed the orders on a petition, filed

by Muhammad Nazir Ahmad Cheema through Rizwan Mushtaq. The court fined the DCO Rs 50,000.

LHC SEEKS REpORT fROM KEMu vC On LOOpHOLES In RADIOLOgy ExAMS: The LHC on Monday issued directions to the King edward Medical University vice chancellor to submit a report within four weeks about the irregularities pointed out by Society of Fellows of Radiology President Prof Dr Mansoor Bakhtiari in the MD postgraduate examination of radiology held at the university in 2010 and 2011.

Justice Ijaz-ul Ahsan passed the order on a petition filed by Bilal Bashir advocate. The petitioner alleged that the KeMU appointed examiners with minor degrees to hold the major degree exams and one of the examiners in 2010, Prof Dr Nasir Zaidi, was a student enrolled in the same course and had failed in the said exam in 2011. nOTICES ISSuED On DISpEnSER’S pLEA fOR CLInICAL pRACTICE: Lahore High Court Justice Farrukh Arfan on Monday issued notices for January 16 to Punjab Health Department director general (DG) and Punjab health secretary on a petition seeking permission for qualified dispensers of the public hospitals to do their private clinical practice like doctors. The petition was filed by Punjab Association of Dispensers through Ghaus Muhammad and Iftikhar Hussain, pleading that dispensers having 4-year diploma certificates should be permitted to run their lawful clinics. The petitioner body has impleaded health DG, health secretary, PMDA, PMA and the Punjab government.

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LBA, LHCBA strike to condemn Warriach’s murder LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

The Lahore Bar Association (LBA), Lahore High Court bar Association (LHCBA) and Punjab bar council (PBC), have condemned the murder of former PBC executive committee chairman Nassar Ullah Warriach and announced a strike and a boycott of courts for Tuesday. All the lawyer bodies, including the Judicial Activism Panel (JAP), have demanded a judicial inquiry into the murder of the advocate and the immediate arrest of the killers. JAP chairman Muhammad Azhar Siddique demanded the resignation of the federal and interior ministers for their failure to maintain law and order and protecting the lives of the lawyers as well as the public.

Warriach was gunned down on Monday by unknown men in Gulshan-e- Ravi, near his residence, in an incident that shocked the city’s lawyers. He was a veteran lawyer and a former member of the PBC. His son, Tahir Nassar Ullah Warriach, is also a lawyer and PBC’s sitting member.

PU Syndicate trusts CM LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

The Punjab University (PU) Syndicate and faculty on Monday unanimously announced trust in Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for the appointment of PU vice chancellor. The Teachers’ Front (TF) organised a meeting of the PU faculty at the PU Old Campus, where the deans, directors, chairmen and teachers of all 73 departments were present. The PU syndicate and faculty members asked the CM to ignore the propaganda of the pro Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) teachers as they were launching a negative campaign to appoint a VC from their group.

iJT chief blasts imran LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Sayed Abdul Rashid, the chief of IJT, on Monday said those, who misbehaved with PTI Chairman Imran Khan at Punjab University in 2007, had now joined his own team. He accused Imran of being a part former dictator Pervez Musharraf’s team and said they would take a legal action against the PTI chairman after holding meetings with shura (the highest consultative body). Rashid was talking with the IJT activists at the Central Secretariat, they condemned Imran, who in his recently-launched book alleged that the IJT got money for torturing and misbehaving him at PU. ‘IjT pROMOTIng ExTREMISM’: Provisional president of ISF Farrukh Habib on Monday described the IJT as a radical organisation, saying it promoted extremism in the universities. He said former IJT chief Nasrullah Goraya and Attiq-ur-Rahman, who were involved in manhandling PTI Chairman Imran Khan, were enjoying good positions in the JI and Shabab-e-Milli. He alleged that the IJT received money from Pervez Musharraf to murder Imran, adding that it was the JI which helped Musharraf extend his regime by endorsing the LFO in the NA.

NO, ThEY DON’T haVE BiGGEr fiSh TO frY: With the water level low enough for the people to stand in, they resort to catching fish that swim to lowlands during winter. nADEEM IjAz

Two new hospitals to be built g

LDA allots land for construction LAHORE

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He Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on Monday allotted two plots of land to the health department for the construction of two hospitals in the provincial metropolis.

A 300-bed hospital will be built on a 50 kanal, 14 marla piece of land that was previously owned by a match factory on GT Road Shahdara. The second hospital will be constructed on a 2 acre, eight kanal plot at the Civic Centre in Quaid-e-Azam Town. This was decided in a meeting of the LDA governing body which was chaired by LDA Chairman and District Coordination Officer Ahad Khan Cheema.

The governing body also decided to establish a dedicated directorate for monitoring the development of the private housing schemes approved by LDA. The directorate will ensure the timely completion of the construction of these projects in order to overcome shortage of housing facilities in the city.

It was also decided that funds will be raised using the LDA’s resources for the construction of a commercial cum car parking plaza at the Allama Iqbal Town Moon Market. 67 shops in the plaza would be sold simultaneously to earn revenue for this purpose.

The governing body also approved the construction of an overhead pedestrian bridge at the Moulana Shoukat Ali Road in front of the Jinnah Hospital at a

Police inaugurates first reporting centre LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Lahore Police, with the cooperation of traders, inaugurated the first Central Reporting Centre in order to address public grievances regarding registration of FIRs on Monday. Capital City Police Officer Ahmed Raza Tahir along with Lahore DIG Operations Ghulam Mehmood Dogar, Anjuman-e-Tajiran Mehboob President Sarki and all divisional SPs of Operations Wing inaugurated the CRC at the office of Model Town SP. Police officials said the CRC was established by the police on the orders of Punjab Police Inspector General Javed Iqbal, who wanted to improve the impression of the police on public. Officials said five more CRCs would be set up in Lahore. Separate counters have been set up for men and women, officials said, adding that a station had also been allotted to a dispatch clerk while a legal adviser would also be available to provide legal opinion to public. Sirki, while talking to reporters, said the traders would continue to support the police. The CCPO said the CM was providing police with all the facilities to improve their performance.

PMDC seeks reply LAHORE: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has sought a reply from the principal of University College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Lahore, within seven days on the issue of unpaid house officers. YDA General Secretary Dr Salman Kazmi had filed a petition with the Federal Ombudsman on the matter of unpaid house officers and said the varsity was forcing the doctors to work without salary in violation of the regulations of the PMDC. STaff rEPOrT

cost of Rs 37.226 million. Proposals were also approved for the construction of a slip-road connecting the Bahawalpur and Lytton roads at Qurtaba Chowk and the reconstruction of the Maulana Shabbir Usmani Road from ‘Y’ Junction New Garden Town to Faisal Town at a cost of Rs 136.88 million.

The body approved a revised estimate of Rs 172.791 million for the reconstruction of the Ferozepur Road from Qurtaba Chowk to Khaira Distributory, Chungi Amer Sidhu. Besides the construction of the Ghazi Road T-Junction and entry and exist ramps from the Qainchi Intersection to the Khaira Distributory, remodelling of the General Hospital Intersection and the development of parking lots will also be carried out under this project.

The authority also allowed a sports club to be constructed at Ravi Road for

Rs 58.226 million. The club will contain table tennis and basket ball courts, a gym, two courts each for tennis, badminton and volley ball, a kabadi ground as well as a wrestling area.

The meeting was attended by LDA Vice Chairman Aamir Asgher Dar, WASA Vice Chairman Haji Muhammad Sharif, LDA Director General Abdul Jabbar Shaheen, WASA Managing Director Dr Javed Iqbal, TePA Chief engineer Saif-ur-Rahman, Chief Metropolitan Planner Waseem Ahmad Khan, Chief Town Planner Ch. Muhammad Akram and LDA Chief engineer Israr Saeed.

The representatives of the provincial and local government’s housing, planning and development and finance departments and the City District constituent town administrators were also present at the occasion.

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08 Lahore WeATHeR UPDATeS

Pink Bus service

Pinks’ wheels may fall off

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CiTy DiReCTORy eMeRGeNCy HeLP ReSCUe eDHi CONTROL MOTORWAy POLiCe POLiCe GOveRNOR’S HOUSe CHieF MiNiSTeR’S HOUSe FiRe BRiGADe BOMB DiSPOSAL MCL COMPLAiNTS LAHORe WASTe DiSPOSAL

1122 115 130 15 99200081-7 99203226 16 99212111 99211022-29 1139

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aLi Tahir

T

HeRe are some major hurdles in the way of Pink Bus Service, raising the question whether the bus service for women will ever successfully get out of the pilot project stage, as the response received by the Lahore Transport Company (LTC) did not come up to the expectations of the Punjab government.

Though, the pilot project has been launched, the initiative faces numerous problems other than the CNG shortage. The LTC officials claim that the response to the Pink Bus Service is not up to the mark so far.

The bus service is currently on pilot project to carry out a survey to ascertain the response of women in the metropolis.

It is pertinent to mention that a similar project service was started in Peshawar in 2009, which had to be shut down soon after launching due to financial restraints and a poor response from public.

A t present, three pink buses have been defused in the public transport industry of Lahore, with an aim to gauge the response of citizens and to come up with a feasible financial plan for sustainability.

The first three pink buses have been introduced on three major routes, which stretch across the entire city. The buses have

been included in Route No B1 from RA Bazaar to Sanda, B33 from the Railway Station to Green Town and B22 from Thokar Niaz Beg to Jallo Morr respectively.

The pilot project is expected to continue for 3 months. An official of the LTC, while requesting anonymity, said the biggest problem was the number of female passengers traveling alone and the finances needed to keep up with the service in case of a lesser demand.

“Firstly, women in our society do not prefer traveling alone; they are usually accompanied by a male or family, while men are not allowed on the travel on these buses,” he said.

He further added that the bus foc u s e d

mainly on working women using public transport, but they were comparatively very less in number. “The finances certainly play a major role as the project is given to a private operator and it is implied that if the buses don’t make it to the projected commercial breakeven, there is a vivid chance that the bus service would head towards a withdrawal.”

LTC General Manager enforcement Kamran told Pakistan Today that it was basically a cultural change that the LTC was enforcing on the city; hence, it was expected to take some time. He said opined that people had swayed away from public transport as the car leasing hijacked the entire city in the passed several years.

He said the LTC was trying to revive the culture of public transport by introducing new ideas to comfort the users, especially women.

“The new scheme has been appreciated and women have demanded to more buses mainly on the routes serving the coll e g e students during particular timings,” added Kamran. He said the demand was expected to increase as awareness spread in women around the city.

Pakistan’s biggest MUn kicks off LAHORE SaiM SaDiq

Lahore University of Management Sciences Model United Nation, the biggest in the country, began on Monday.

Over 800 delegates from all over the world including Pakistan, India, Canada and Qatar flew in to attend the 8th edition of the pioneer, trendsetting MUN conference of Pakistan. The registration went smoothly enough for the opening ceremony to begin on time.

A grand affair in all respects, the ceremony had its chief guest in Jehangir Qazi, who served as the Pakistani ambassador in USA, India, China, and Russia. Currently a part of the committee that is investigating the May 2, 2011 incident of Osama Bin Laden’s assassination, Qazi was also a special representative for UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Also gracing the event was LUMS vice chancellor, Rector Syed Babar Ali and the patron of LUMUN, Shahryar Khan.

LUMUN Anum Mustafa said, “People might take part in Model UN to understand the workings of the United Nations or to win at a conference, but the reason why Model UNs are a great learning experience is because they force varied individuals with opposing stances to sit in one room and work together to-

wards a single solution.”

Once the Secretary General of LUMUN 2012, Amna Abbas, declared the five-day conference open, the delegates moved towards the Global Village to set up there stalls and prepare for their per-

araBic caLLiGraPhy

formances. A fabulously entertaining glimpse into the world culture, the Global Village saw all the delegations showcase their respective country’s culture through performances, food, and stalls.

Overall, the first day ended up Documentary makinG course

as a truly great beginning to the conference. Tomorrow, the delegates finally move into the committees to discuss their respective topics. Let the MUNing begin; watch this space for updates on the second day of the conference.

thesis DisPLay, 2012

COLLeGeS / UNiveRSiTieS PUNJAB UNiveRSiTy KiNNAiRD COLLeGe QUeeN MARy COLLeGe GOvT. COLLeGe UNiveRSiTy UMT LUMS UeT LCWU SUPeRiOR COLLeGe

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DATe AND TiMe: JUNe 1, 2012, 4PM TO 6PM veNUe: HAST-O-NeeST CeNTeR CALLiGRAPHy CLASSeS are on-going, interested students can enroll throughout the year. The duration of one module is three months. There are four modules of learning calligraphyt: primary, secondary, advanced and higher. The course includes traditional pen and traditional paper making.

DATe: JAN 30,2012 veNUe: LAWReNCe GARDeN Be a successful documentary maker and learn the art from the media professionals including Orya Maqbool Jan.

DATe: JAN 16 TO 20 veNUe: NATiONAL COLLeGe OF ARTS (NCA) All bachelors’ classes of NCA including architecture, textile, miniature paintings, sculpture, interior design and others to show their final thesis in an exhibition

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

News 09 SC seeks report on worsening law and order in Balochistan ISLAMABAD STaff rEPOrT

MUZaffaraBaD: a paraglider ready to take off during the Paragliding festival show organised by the Tourism Department. InP

Bus falls into indus River, 3 killed RAjAnpuR: A bus carrying a wedding party fell into the Indus River on Monday while passing through a temporary bridge connecting Chachran Sharif with Kot Mithan. According to Rescue 1122 sources, 31 people out of total 42 managed to save their lives before the bus fell. Three unidentified bodies, including two minors, were recovered while six others were still missing. aPP

PEShaWar: Pir Syed Sufaid Shah hamdard, founder of the first-ever Pashto Daily Wahdat, has been awarded the 'Baba-e-Pashto Sahafat' award. PR

No Saudi mediation for Musharraf: Malik g

Says govt will provide security even if Mansoor ijaz is Raiwind guest ISLAMABAD

R

STaff rEPOrT

ULING out mediation from the Saudi government on the expected arrival of former dictator Pervez Musharraf to Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Monday said the law of the land will take its course once Musharraf returns.

Addressing media after meeting of National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior at NADRA Headquarters, Malik said he had received no official information on Musharraf’s arrival or which city he will land in. Malik ruled out Saudi mediation, stating "Saudi Arabia has made no request on the matter." Malik said, “The government will issue a Pakistani visa to US businessman Mansoor ejaz whenever

he wants and he will be provided security under the directions of the Judicial Commission.” He said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Nawaz Sharif knew Mansoor ejaz better and if he wanted to take Mansoor to Raiwind as his guest, security will be provided.

Asked about interior ministry officials involved in corruption, Malik said the accused officials had been arrested and challaned. He said NADRA had been told to check computerized arm licenses issued by Ministry of Interior.

He asked arms license holders to get re-register their arm licenses. earlier, Malik briefed the Standing Committee that the issuing of arms licenses had been devolved to provinces after the 18th amendment and the Interior Ministry had issued no arms license after June 30 2011. However, he said a revised Arms License Policy had

IHK CM to shiver with people g

Orders power dept to cut power supplies to own, other viP residences SRINAGAR afP

The chief minister of Indian Kashmir has ordered power to be cut to VIPs in the region after blackouts left locals shivering amid snow storms and sub-zero temperatures.

Omar Abdullah ordered officials from the power department to snap electricity supplies to his high-security residence in the main city of Srinagar and other homes in the exclusive Gupkar Road area.

The power will remain off "until the supply to the entire (Kashmir) valley is restored," a statement from the state government said in Srinagar after heavy weekend snow falls toppled power transmission poles and lines.

Abdullah's administration has faced frequent protests over the last 15 days against the power cuts, which were initially the result of disruption caused by temperatures as low as minus 14 degrees Celsius (seven degrees Fahrenheit) at local hydroelectric plants.

Last Monday, security forces antagonised angry locals further by opening fire at a a demonstration near a hydroelectric plant in northern Boniyar village. A student was killed. "We have been without power and water for the last three days now," Abdul Rashid, 52 from Shopian in southern Kashmir, told AFP. Rashid, who owns apple orchards, said his family had been keeping warm by burning charcoal.

"We have been melting snow to obtain water for drinking as the taps have frozen in our village," he said, adding that

ONLiNE

been formulated and submitted to the Prime Minister for approval. He said 2,400 licenses were pending due to incomplete documents. He said orders had been issued to NADRA to issue Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) to children (whose parentage is not identified), who had been registered with registered Orphanages.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Monday asked doctors in the US to make arrangements for treatment of Arfah Kareem, the world’s youngest Microsoft certified professional from Pakistan.

Arfah’s father, Colonel (r) Amjad Karim, confirmed that officials from Microsoft had contacted him. He said the officials told him that a panel of doctors had been formed on the directives of Bill Gates who would assist Pakistani doctors in extending medical treatment.

He said the US doctors would also come to Pakistan if needed. Karim said Arfah could be flown to the US for treatment.

KP doctors on strike over cardiologist’s murder PESHAWAR

the roads were blocked by thick snow.

The heavy snowfall has left the main highway connecting the Kashmir valley with rest of India closed since Saturday.

Bill Gates hires doctors for Arfah Karim NEW YORK

STaff rEPOrT

Omar Abdullah

expressing concern over the worsening law and order in Balochistan, the Supreme Court on Monday sought comprehensive report on the matter by January 16.

A three-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing a petition filed by Balochistan High Court Bar Association President Hadi Shakeel Ahmed against the deteriorating law and order and increasing incidents of target killings in the province. During the hearing, the chief justice noted that the situation in the province was very serious as everyday lawyers, government officials and others were being picked up and nobody knew where they were taken and kept.

Justice Khilji Arif Hussain noted that if responsible authorities of the country had shut their eyes over the worsening law and order, the court would be compelled to interfere into the issue.

Appearing on notice, Balochistan Advocate General Amanullah Kunrani said the accused, who burnt 15 passengers in Sibbi, had been arrested.

The court inquired about the arrest of those persons, who had attacked the Hazara community. Kunrani then submitted that no progress was made over it, as it was a “new issue”. The chief justice said it was not a new but an old matter as everyday bullet-riddled bodies were being found. He hinted at hearing the case at the Quetta Branch Registry of the Supreme Court. The court then adjourned hearing until January 16.

Protesting over the brutal murder of senior cardiologist Dr Jamal Hussain Syed, doctors of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa began on a three-day strike in all major hospitals of the province from Monday.

Dr Syed was abducted by Taliban militants some two months ago and they were demanding a huge ransom for his safe return. Negotiations regarding ransom were in progress when the bulletridden body of the cardiologist was found from a deserted area near Jamrud in Khyber Agency on Saturday.

Soon after, the doctors began to stage protests and, on the call of the Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), went on strike from Monday. PDA Secretary General Dr Nadar told Pakistan

Today that the doctors were demanding an impartial judicial enquiry into the gruesome murder of the senior doctor headed by a judge of the Peshawar High Court.

On the call of the PDA, a convention was held at the Khyber Teaching Hospital, attended by representatives of doctors from all over the province. The participants endorsed the decision to go on strike and demanded that Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti fulfil his legal responsibilities in this case.

Patients at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex faced difficulties as a result of the strike. A similar situation was reported in Abbottabad, Saidu Sharif and Dera Ismail Khan. Private clinics and hospitals were also closed in Peshawar and other main cities and towns of the province.

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10 News

Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

FATA grand alliance to devise strategy on provincial status tomorrow ISLAMABAD iNP

After a demand by MQM chief Altaf Hussain for provincial status for FATA, former minister for environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi has become active and called a meeting of FATA Grand Alliance tomorrow (Wednesday) for consultations on forming a new province.

Afridi said the meeting would be attended by all parliamentarians from FATA, lawyers, retired bureaucrats and representatives of FATA Union of Journalists. The meeting would take important decision about the future of FATA. Afridi said he spoke to the MQM chief over telephone and thanked him for his support for FATA as a province.

He said JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had assured him that his party would not oppose the move.

He said after the meeting, contact would be established with the PPP, PML-N and other political parties to seek their backing.

Zardari afraid of appearing in Swiss courts: Saifur Rehman ISLAMABAD iNP

Saifur Rehman, the former chairman of the defunct National ehtesab Bureau, said on Monday that in case letters were written to the Swiss government, it was not possible for President Asif Ali Zardari to get a clean slate, which was why he was afraid of appearing before the Swiss courts.

In an interview to a private TV channel ahead of the Supreme Court hearing of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case here, Rehman said he had collected concrete evidence against Zardari and the case was very strong. He said that was why the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government was not writing a letter to the Swiss government because the president was scared of appearing in the Swiss courts. Rehman said the government was repeatedly making propaganda attacks against him but he and his mother never ever apologised to Zardari or anyone else. He said he had already given a statement under oath that the cases were based on facts.

SiaLKOT: Dog owners look on as their animals tear into each other at a dog-fighting tournament at Wanjal Village, Phulwara road on Monday. OnLInE

PTI will take to streets if govt attacks judiciary: Khan ISLAMABAD

P

iNP

AKISTAN Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has warned that if the government tries to take any action against the Supreme Court and the chief justice under the pretext of democracy and sovereignty of parliament, his party would take to the streets.

Addressing a press conference along with Majlis-e-Wahadatul Muslimeen Central Secretary General Raja Nasir Abbas during his visit to the office, Khan said there was no reason to keep more than 150,000 people in jail if a letter could not be written to the Swiss authorities against President Asif Zardari.

He said there was no harm if people

voted for the enforcement of Islamic system but enforcement of any system forcibly would be undemocratic. He said his party would try to enforce the system of a welfare state on the pattern of Scandinavian counties which was close to the Islamic system.

Khan said many prominent leaders from major parties including ministers were interested in joining the PTI and despite interaction with them, the PTI had stopped their entry for the time being.

"I have formed a political committee to decide about who should join the party," he said.

He said no party was above differences, which was a part of politics and if there were any differences in his party, it would be his duty to end them.

Khan said his party was working to unite the people and did not favour doing politics in the name of Islam.

Without naming Fazlur Rehman, Khan said “a Maulana uses Islam’s name in politics and becomes part of every government”. He said Islam preached humanity, equality and justice. He said he wanted a foreign policy that protected its vital interests.

The PTI chief said the poor in the country were being crushed under inflation while the affluent were getting richer.

He said some people were exploiting the masses in the name of provincial deprivation to attain their political goals, adding that Balochistan was being treated like a colony.

To a question, Khan said an attack was expected on the chief justice and keeping view that danger, he had not convened the meeting of CeC before time.

‘Intimidation, violence against journalists must end’ LAHORE NNi

MUZaffaraBaD: Medical students set their degrees on fire during a protest against the quota system for medical college admissions . InP

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has voiced concern over reports of a number of journalists facing threats in recent weeks and asked authorities to ensure that threats to journalists end and risks associated with practicing journalism in general are eliminated.

A statement issued by the HRCP on Monday said, “The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is alarmed at reports of threats received by journalists on account of their work. While it is not uncommon for journalists in Pakistan to live under a constant cloud of intimidation and violence, the perceptible increase in threats is manifested by over a dozen journalists killed in 2011, as others have been forced to go into hiding in their own country.”

“Many have exercised self-censorship for the sake of safety and others have suffered for airing views that are unpopular in some quarters. A number of journalists have recently gone public about the threats they have received from ‘anonymous callers’. They have also mentioned cell

phone numbers of the callers but little has been done to identify or prosecute these people,” it said.

“A government committed to media freedom must neither remain a spectator in the circumstances nor wait to be implored into action. HRCP wants to remind the authorities that for two years now Pakistan has held the dubious distinction of being one of the deadliest countries for journalists. HRCP reiterates that those making threats and perpetrating violence against journalists are encouraged by the fact that out of over 70 journalists killed in Pakistan in the last decade the perpetrators have been brought to justice in only one case,” the HRCP said.

“At the risk of sounding repetitive, HRCP urges all state institutions to acknowledge the dangers facing the journalists, identify and prosecute those threatening media persons on account of their work and ensure that journalism does not remain such a dangerous profession in Pakistan. HRCP also supports the journalists facing threats and lauds their courageous decision to make the threats against them public,” it concluded.

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

Editor’s mail 11

Musharraf’s views on Pak-israel ties In his first interview with an Israeli newspaper on January 7, 2012, former president Pervez Musharraf favoured recognising Israel and stated that Pakistan, like Israel, was an ideological state, adding the foundation of the creation of both the countries were the very same.

Religiously, historically and politically, his stance is factual as both states are established based on their ideological declarations; the ‘Two-Nation Theory’ in case of Pakistan and the ‘Homeland for the Jewish people’ in case of Israel.

Initially, Pakistan and Israel had no direct conflicts with each other. So in an attempt to establish diplomatic relationship with Pakistan, Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion sent a telegram to Governor General Muhammad Ali Jinnah to recognise Israel. But Jinnah was hesitant and gave no particular response only because of Arabs and Palestinians.

Later, according to Dr Moshe Yegar, a former official of Israeli Foreign Service, the Jewish state became hostile towards Pakistan when its diplomatic

mission in Washington received information that Pakistan tried to provide military assistance to the Arabs during Arab-Israel War of 1947–1949; was flexing its wings to send a battalion to Palestine to fight alongside them against Israel; bought 250,000 rifles in Czechoslovakia for the Arabs to be used against Israel and bought three planes in Italy for the egyptians. Moreover, it seemed the then Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Zafarullah Khan, apparently working on some agenda, deliberately played a role to pitch Pakistan against Israel.

Following 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israel wars, during which the PAF pilots, flying Jordanian and Syrian planes, downed some Israeli planes, and attest of about 53 Pakistanis, serving in the PLO, during 1982 battle for Beirut between Israel and the PLO, besides Pak-PLO agreement for training PLO officers in Pakistani military institutions added fire to the fuel.

In addition to this, Pakistan’s religious political parties and militant groups kept on fiercely opposing any relationship with Israel and repeatedly

Cold blooded revenge called Israel as the enemy of Islam and Pakistan.

Owing to our conflicts with Israel, there remained an unnecessary opposition by Israel to Pakistan in all international forums, which inflicted severe losses to Pakistan. Furthermore, Israel has always been pro-India against Pakistan, supporting India on important issues such as the Kashmir dispute because of this hostility.

Although Israel and Pakistan do not officially have relations with each other, but in the past, there have been many examples of cooperation between the two countries, such as CIA-MI5-Mossad-ISI alliance to run a covert Operation Cyclone in Afghanistan in the 1980s, ISI's liaison with Mossad in 1993, a secret meeting of Prime Minister in New York with a senior Israeli emissary in Washington DC in 1995, PM Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s assurance to Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu that Pakistan will not transfer her nuclear technology to Iran in 1998, ISI intelligence sharing about the Gulf States and

the nuclear ambitions of Iran and Libya with Israel in 2001, and finally, in 2010, according to an unconfirmed American diplomatic cables, ISI DG Lt Gen Ahmad Shujah Pasha provided intelligence on potential terrorist attacks in India to Israel through Washington. Moreover, there have been a multiple media reports that in the past many powerful Pakistani and Israeli personalities and figures have visited each others countries.

Pakistan should not be against Jews but it should only have a set of reservations over the way Israel was created. Israel can help Pakistan on various economic, trade and technical avenues and in return, Pakistan can support Israel in bridging up the gap between Israel and Arab states.

Now the time has come to forget the differences of the past, give up stubbornness and intolerance and establish diplomatic ties with each other in larger interests of the people and for the sake of global peace.

HARUN YAHYA Islamabad

More provinces No individual politician, especially those controlling federal government, who are not domicile holders of Hazara or South Punjab should be playing politics of carving out more provinces on ethnic grounds. The PPP needs to understand that it is sowing seeds for division of Sindh itself. How can they justify demands for creation of new provinces in KP and Punjab, be it on ethnicity or administrative grounds, without the same logic applying to Sindh and Balochistan?

After all Karachi has for years been subjected to a battle for turf between parties divided basically on ethnic lines.

Mere creation of more provinces will not resolve the issues that are faced by poor masses, who are suffering because of poor governance by a corrupt establishment and an equally corrupt group of politicians. More administrative units need to be created only if they are to be administered by men with relatively better integrity, credibility and moral standards than the those who are part of the present system, because they are part of problem and not the solution.

No system of governance, be it a democratic setup or dictatorship, can function without an effective welfare system for masses and accountability for the top elite ruling class. While democracy is definitely better than any dictatorship, the only exception being Singapore, it can only deliver if there is system of checks and balances. It is unfortunate for Pakistan that most of its rulers, be they political or military dictators, have abused their powers, plundered this country and left it weaker, while they and their cronies have became billionaires.

M T ALI Illinois, USA

yet another We have yet another self-exiled politician announcing his return from UK after a furlough of four years in foreign land. He was quietly waiting and watching the situation. His barrister comes up to tell us that he earns millions of dollars from his ‘lectures’.

Who pays him millions and where does he deliver his lectures remains a mystery? I admire the audience that listens to his million-dollar lectures. He claims himself in this video address that he is the champion of democracy. We have hundreds of definitions of democracy in Pakistan now.

The true proponents of democracy would probably commit suicide once they come to know the genius Pakistanis and the styles and variety of definitions that we have coined. especially when it is defined by a genius like Musharraf or his colleagues here who are already enjoying their furloughs in KSA or elsewhere?

When I was a student, my professor told me a simple definition of democracy.

He said, “It is a government of the people, by the people, for the people.” We Pakistanis have removed the word people. Our definition now says like this, “It is a government by usurping the rights, creating commotion and distortion and for unlimited time.”

AMJAD H MIRZA Lahore

The brutal killing of 15 Frontier Constabulary personnel by the Taliban on Thursday can easily be classed one of the most grotesque episode of barbarianism in the history of the long war. This act of brutality, according to the Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman, was executed to avenge the killing of Qari Kamran, who himself had killed scores of Pakistani soldiers. Does the Taliban brand of religion give them the license to kill in such a brutally merciless manner that puts to shame the most ruthless murderers and criminals?

Bodies of the slain soldiers were thrown all over a hill in Mir Ali sub-district with each bearing the torture of multiple bullet injuries speaking of the miserable spell of cruelty and callousness they had lived through. Will there ever be an end to this protracted war that has consumed the precious lives of so many innocent people. How many more sacrifices are expected of us before things start to come back to normal?

Tragic incidents such as this tend to force us to re-evaluate our role in the war that we have been forced to adopt as our own. Why do we have to keep pursuing this fight that seems to have no end at all? Can we say that for whom we took over the war stand with us in it? Apparently not! So why are we allowing ourselves to be used as fodder and continue to be victimised by the Taliban on one end, the so called allies at the other? Will someone finally stand up to say ‘no more’?

PROFESSOR KABIL KHAN Peshawar

No politics on KBD

and democracy will flourish. The politics of Pakistan is extremely volatile and dangerous laced with violence and fear. The danger of party clashes is lurking behind the scene. Ugly situations would be created. Security concerns must be addressed to avoid the blood bath.

The political parties have their armed wings, especially the religious parties.

There is real and present threat to the lives of the political leaders in general.

Their security should be ensured by beefing up the presence of guards in political meetings.

It is our ardent desire and duty to save them from unwanted dangerous situations. Fool-proof arrangements must be made to avoid such ugly situations.

JAVAID BASHIR Lahore

The building of dams in any country is a technical matter and not a political matter. But unfortunately, in Pakistan our politicians play politics even in technical matters.

The classic example is that of the construction of Kala Bagh Dam (KBD) on river Indus at a natural site. Our celebrated political leaders from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh who see no national interest in doing their politics, have managed to delay its construction for the last over two decades. It is very astonishing that they have accepted the building of Bhasha dam which is far more expensive and more time consuming than KBD and is also very dangerously located on fault lines of volcanic mountain ranges.

It is suggested that a national commission be constituted which should comprise of competent engineers from all the provinces who should make recommendations of building of dams in the country and lay down priorities or order of construction. It is like making an atom bomb for the country which was so essential for our survival and the provinces were not consulted in making it.

India has constructed hundreds of dams on rivers flowing down to Pakistan and we have built only two mega dams and feel happy about it. Building KBD urgently is as necessary as was making an atom bomb.

Our enemy is going to starve us to death during the next decade if we do not build big reservoirs of water. Politicians are requested to realise the gravity and seriousness of the problem and let the technical people have their say in technical matters. They should see the larger interest of the country.

MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA Lahore

the state.

Officers that lead men on the borders are not ‘commercial managers’ but leaders. When confronted with combat situations they ‘lead’ and not ‘manage’ their men to deaths. Officers (battle leaders) work hard in maintaining high degree of morale amongst their fighting units. It is maintained and sustained not by ‘reminders of the material benefits’ (highlighted by PM in his speech in the parliament) but by recognition of their services by the civilian leadership for the national cause.

The reality is that non-combatant (civilian leadership) by virtue of its superior position in the authority structure has the right and power to order military leadership to war. But should it criticise

it as well when the only motive seems to be to promote and propagate ‘civilian control’ of the military. Criticism of any army by its civil leadership only shows aimlessness. No army with a blurred aim can be battle ready and battle worthy. An army that is criticised by its own government cannot be expected to maintain cohesiveness and morale under the conditions of high combat stress.

Army is a proud institution of Pakistan. Majority of its officer corps and men are performing their sacred duties under extreme conditions of combat stress. These men are least concerned with the power politics. They deserve our support and not criticism.

LT COL (R) MUHAMMAD ALI EHSAN Karachi

The debt problem Just when Pakistan wants to move ahead with its plans of a developing country, the international financial institutions start harping on their loan programmes. These programmes have made Pakistan a virtually dependent state on their loans, aid and other donations. What we need is a solid policy that rids us

A change never wanted The time we live in is dark; hopeless yet with a hope of change. Are we heading towards a revolution? every change doesn’t mean a revolution but every revolution means change.

Seeing Libya’s revolution many Pakistani spectators started saying it’s high time for Pakistan’s revolution. Yet they failed to realise that we don’t require a revolution but an evolution. Libya’s revolution meant a change from dictatorial setup to democratic setup.

We already have a democratic setup and just need to give it time to evolve into a mature setup. The revolution in Pakistan will mean going back to the dictatorial setup from democratic one which sadly Pakistan is heading to because of

away from this unfortunate habit. Our policymakers and financial advisors must focus on exploiting local resources and ensuring the optimum use of our valuable human resource.

ALI MUMTAZ Lahore

the Memogate and other contributing factors. A change we never needed.

MAJID TAMOOR Lahore

Rigging in polls There is an imminent danger of mass-scale rigging in the next elections in Pakistan. The past history of elections held in Pakistan bear witness to this allegation where elections have always been rigged. The 1977 elections caused ripples in the system due to massive rigging.

The wind of change and the dissenting voices can be heard loud and clear denouncing any such attempt in the future elections. People by and large want transparent and free elections. If this happens, then the dream will come true

They deserve our support, not criticism It is very unfortunate that both the government and the military seem not to be on the same page on the matters related to national security. Why else the memo would have become a scandal?

PM’s remarks in the parliament pointed out the presence of a state within a state.

Who is responsible for the state security?

Is it the government or the army? How can the people of Pakistan feel secure when both the army and ruling elite have differences that have become public? The civil-military confrontation poses a greater threat to the wellbeing of people of this country than any other threat posed by the enemies of the state.

Has the army really created a state within a state? Does the army deserve the treatment it is getting from the demo-

cratically elected leadership? Will it be possible for the army and its officer corps to sustain the traditional values of selflessness, discipline, duty, honour, responsibility and sacrifice when those who order them to battle become their biggest critic?

If one-third of our army is deployed on the eastern border (including Kashmir and Siachen), one-third deployed on the western border and the remaining onethird is training and preparing (as part of rotational policy) to replace the deployed units on these borders, then even a blind man can see that this army has its hands full and is too over-occupied and overstretched in guarding the physical frontiers of the state rather than doing anything closer to creating a state within

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.

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12 Comment Towards an abyss The executive and the judiciary on warpath

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he PPP might find soon that the perception of invulnerability it had developed after forging strong political alliances was far from being realistic. The two court cases it faces now are moving to their conclusion. In both cases the government has taken a stand that could be interpreted as the defiance of the SC. The enquiry commission appointed to probe the facts about the Memo Case is scheduled to finish its work by the end of this month. Much of the case depends on the production of incriminating material, if any, by Mansoor Ijaz who is yet to appear before the commission. While the case is proceeding apace, President Zardari has taken the stand that he would accept only the decision of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security in the case. The SC bench constituted for the implementation of the court’s verdict on NRO had given the government up to January 10 to write to the Swiss authorities to reopen the cases against the President with a warning that in case of non-compliance, the court would take action. The PPP-led government, however, continues to hold that the issue of the presidential immunity needs no interpretation by the court as the constitutional provision in this regard is clear and self-explanatory. The SC, on the other hand, has ruled that anybody seeking immunity has to take the matter to the court.

The ongoing standoff can have a detrimental impact on the system. Will the government change its policy on writing to the Swiss authorities at the eleventh hour? Will the court continue its policy of judicial restraint and move towards getting the orders implemented through government functionaries? Sooner or later, the court might decide invoking Article 190 requiring all government departments and agencies to assist the SC in the implementation of orders.

The SC realises the need to strengthen the system by upholding the constitution and not allowing any institution to transgress its limits. While one hopes judicial restraint would continue to be exercised, one also expects the government to realise the gravity of the situation. Both the executive and judiciary need to work towards saving the system.

Mush’s show you were invited

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ormer president Pervez Musharraf pulled an Altaf on his supporters in Karachi the other day where he had the first big political rally. The generalissimo interacted with his fans through video phone.

Though by no stretch was the gathering as large as what the APML was expecting, it wasn’t embarrassingly small either. even if one believes the retired general does not (or never did) have a large enough fan base, the law of large numbers can explain away the presence of the crowd. In one of the biggest cities of the world, even a sliver proportion can come out to be a large enough crowd. Just to put things into context: the gathering of the Bengali Ittehad Council that day put together a comparable, if not more impressive, show the same day.

Though Mr Musharraf’s constituency is most often pointed out as that of the MQM, it is actually the PTI that has encroached upon his turf. Much might be made of the politicians of his king’s party making their way into the PTI, but it is the demographic itself that has shifted away.

Musharraf’s ideological supporters were also limited to the urban middle-classes. Inherently anti-politician, these were people who had perhaps never voted in their lives. With this encroachment comes resentment. I have played a full innings once before, he said at the rally, but people who have never had a shot are pretending to be experts these days. A barb most obviously not meant for the PPP or the PML(N). Whether personalities’ gripes trump the issues is another matter but natural allies they are.

The MQM itself is consistent in its support. The party welcomed him in the country at a time when the main government and opposition parties issued caustic statements against him. The general wears as proudly the development work in Karachi as the MQM itself. It remains to be seen what the relationship between the two will be in the future.

The powers that be have placed their bets on another horse and this is a filly past its prime. The messiah complex causes devastation when an individual is in power. And is embarrassing to watch when that individual isn’t in power.

Nevertheless, the former president has done his math and thinks he has a shot and that is what counts. Having more parties in the political process is always a good idea.

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, 10 January, 2012

The shadow education Somehow the tuition phenomenon has gained traction

By Dr Faisal Bari

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ecently I saw two surveys, done by other researchers, from rural and urban areas of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), showing that the incidence of 'tuition' – getting paid coaching for schoolwork, after school – is quite significant in these areas. Since, it is true across the rural-urban, income, type of school and gender divides, this raises interesting questions for the schooling sector in Pakistan.

The surveys showed that some 15 percent of enrolled children get private tutoring. This is clearly significant and large.

The rural rates are around 10-12 percent and, understandably, the urban ones are much higher. So, almost 15 percent of the parents are spending another Rs 300 per month, on average, in addition to any school fees and other education related expenses, on each child. The question is why. Data shows that this coaching is to help students perform better in their regular classes and schools, and to prepare for tests and examinations, so it is not a substitute for regular schooling but is a complement.

Why are parents finding it necessary to supplement the learning of children already going to schools? Are schools not doing a good enough job? Or have school environments become so competitive that parents feel they have to provide their children an edge, or have to get them remedial help to stay at par with the rest of the class? In either case, why are schools not being able to do these things in regular class/school timings?

Some parents had complained that teachers of their children had asked them to come for tuition as it results in extra income for teachers. Teachers have also been accused of not teaching seriously in regular classes so that children are forced to come to them after school hours. In some cases parents also say that teachers only share examination ‘Guess’ (likely questions) with students who come for tuition. Although all of these might be true at the individual level, the number of students who say they go to their own teacher from regular school, for tuition, is not very significant in these surveys. A lot of children go to coaching centres or teachers who might have a reputation for coaching.

But, conceptually speaking, teaching does have the same problem as that of doctors going into private practice in the evening: they can, potentially, divert clients.

It is important to understand the tuition issue as children spend some 6-7 hours in schools already. Additional time for learning, in addition to any homework that they are set, means that children are

spending some 10-12 hours a day studying or working on their studies. This seems way too much. A normal workday for even an adult is 8 hours. Last week I had written on the over-testing of students in schools. This seems like a nice corollary to it.

There are interesting patterns in the data. We find that as the grade level goes up, the resort to tuitions goes up as well.

One would expect that the pressure to perform and the need to perform increases with grades. The richer the parents, the higher the incidence of tuition. Again, this is to be expected. But what is more surprising is that even in the lowest income quintile we find a significant proportion of parents who send their children for tuitions: this must be a considerable part of their monthly income.

Private tutoring raises serious equity issues as well. Richer children are already at an advantage as they can go to better schools and have more access to books and other sources of knowledge and information. Being able to afford tuition, and better tuition, they increase their advantage over children from poorer backgrounds even more. Pakistan is already a very unequal, fragmented and almost bitterly divided society. The differential access to tuition is only exacerbating the situation.

Though the preliminary data does show that more educated parents get more tuition for their children, but I have not seen crosstabs with wealth here so it is not clear to me yet if the result will hold if we controlled for wealth. But, apriori, one would expect education of parents to have a positive correlation with tuition for children. educated parents are likely to have a higher preference for educating their children. But educated parents, if they have time, can also teach their own children. So, the net result could be, in statistics, a bit weaker than it might actually be.

Boys do go for tuition more often than girls, but at least in the surveys I saw, the gap is not large and is partially reflective of more boys going to schools in general as well. Given the expense of tuition, for a family, especially as money gets tighter, it

would not be surprising to find that parents make tradeoffs and decide on which child to get tuition for, as they do make tradeoffs when choosing which school to enrol a child in.

The most interesting result, from both surveys, was that the children enrolled in private schools get private tuition more often than children from government schools. And the difference was significant. Partly this might be a reflection of parental income levels and ambitions, but partly it might have something to do with private schools or teachers in these schools encouraging students to seek coaching. It would be interesting to see the effect of this differential on the general impression that we have of private schools giving ‘better’ education than public schools as well. But these things will have to await further work. education sector in Pakistan has major issues that the lack of governmental and societal attention is complicating by the day. We have umpteenth number of curricula and systems working, the schooling system is fragmented along lines of medium of instruction, syllabi, books that are taught, examination styles, and there are different systems for the rich and the poor, for urban and rural dwellers, and for the religious and the secular.

As if all that was not enough the high incidence of tuition has and is going to further complicate the issues. The growth of the tuition industry has gone on in the private sector, and largely unnoticed by the government, it has now reached a level where it has created a substantial interest group that is beginning to have an impact on the overall education system too: the recent examination result imbroglio was quite indicative. But that is just the tip.

There are, quite clearly, large equity as well as quality of education issues involved here too that need to be thought through. We will come back to these over the next few weeks.

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

Safeguarding the constitution Daily Khabroona

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rime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani has said that the government is mindful of safeguarding the constitution of the country along with proper functioning of all departments. He said the same was the prime responsibility of the government.

He said that the incumbent government accorded provincial autonomy to provinces, adding that the Seraiki province was on cards. So far the masses had been on the side of the government, none of the political forces could succeed in their designs against the government, he asserted at a speech in Khanpur-Multan.

The prime minister once again reiterated that they were going to overcome the issues of power and gas loadshedding

soon. He said that the conspiracies hatched against the government during the last four years had been not realised due to the support of masses and the allied political parties.

However, the reality is somewhat different. The masses are waiting for substantial and tangible steps for the solution of problems, including power and gas loadshedding and cannot tolerate any more of the hollow slogans and lip service.

Power and gas loadshedding has brought life to a standstill and most of the industries in the country have been hit the worst due to these crises. The people want solutions to their unending miseries. They want more job opportunities to do away with the increasing unemployment in the country.

– Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur Rauf Khattak

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

Demagoguery for dummies a trial of Benazir’s grave

By Rabia Ahmed

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n his interview with Hamid Mir, Mr Zardari, although extremely relaxed and otherwise rational, was definitely working to build further evidence of mental incapacity should need for such evidence ever arise again. He was more than a little schizoid, a state characterised by the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements. What with his attempt at being both Zardari the Co-Chairperson as well as the neutral and unaligned (and much maligned) President of Pakistan all at the same time, this was very clearly the man who gave birth to the slogan ‘Pakistan Khappay’. For those who do not know, this means ‘Long Live Pakistan’ in Sindhi but the very opposite in Urdu and Punjabi.

Mr Zardari was also asked whether his government meant to write to the Swiss government with reference to the cases against him there. He replied that his party had decided against it. He then likened the Swiss case to ‘a trial of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s grave’.

PPP supporters around the country are probably nodding their heads sagely and agreeing that this would be a sacrilege.

It is a lesson taught in Chapter 1 of ‘Demagoguery for Dummies’ that human beings invented speech in order to disguise their thoughts. It is beyond doubt that Asif Zardari is past master at using speech to press the right buttons on a public that has actually been trained into manipulation.

It is a mystery how Benazir came to be ‘shaheed’ in the first place, and I am not speaking of the criminal facts surrounding her death. Also, what on earth does ‘a trial of her grave’ mean? Quite aside from these is the question of

how pertinent either of these is to the issue of the Swiss cases.

The Pakistani public, firmly in possession of a sheep-like mentality and quite unstable due to the strong vein of sentiment and irrational religiosity that runs through it, has thus been seeded with appropriate phrases. It means that Benazir Shaheed, firmly established in sainthood for a while now, accompanied by her husband co-suffused in her aura, has now been further saddled with the onus of placing him above any proceedings against him because this will be considered disrespectful to her grave.

This is a great illustration of rhetoric unleashed by a politician/demagogue, aimed at the me-

think or engage in debate on any issue arising from these events. As a result we churn out an electorate of unreasoning, ill-informed persons easily led by means of slogans and misinformation which works well into the hands of politicians seeking to lead by such means, rather than by good governance.

At its basic level, all education provides students with the ability to read and write, which is the ability to speak and scribe alphabets strung together to form words and sentences. Only a good education encourages students to look beyond the alphabet forming the phrases they read, to critically assess and understand the concepts behind the words.

The sad fact is that we send our children to schools (whether government or private) only for the sake of ‘keeping them away from trouble’. in other words, to prevent them from thinking too independently, a habit that is considered a threat to morality. dian mentality of his electorate. It is in every demagogue’s interests to keep public mentality at the level of his speech.

A well educated, reasoning public is only possible in countries where those in public office are elected on the basis of their performance. In places like Pakistan, such a public would be a gross inconvenience.

The tendency to grasp at short term personal benefit in this country means that many schools paid for by international donations exist on paper alone, since the money allocated for them has found its way into unauthorised pockets.

Those that do exist teach a curriculum composed of irrelevant, soppy details. This curriculum stresses the rote learning of historical events and names. It does not encourage students to

The sad fact is that we send our children to schools (whether government or private) only for the sake of ‘keeping them away from trouble’. In other words, to prevent them from thinking too independently, a habit that is considered a threat to morality.

On the contrary, the protection afforded by means of an education that stresses imagination, self-discovery, debate and analysis is the best safeguard for a nation, much more so than a weapon toting army with or without nuclear capability, or a judgemental social police.

Unless we train ourselves to think freely and critically, statements such as Mr Zardari’s which seek to connect two quite separate matters by links forged of cultural and emotional millstones will always be present, and will always have the power to drown us.

Comment 13

The G word People in other newsrooms recycle and attempt to pass off as their own ideas the Jeem-team conjures out of thin air

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f you caught el Jefe’s interview with Haji Hamid Mir this last weekend, you would’ve noticed how well the president ducked, weaved, dodged and cart wheeled his way through the minefield that the veritable primetime talk show host had laid out for him. It’s not that Zardari couldn’t answer the questions: he just didn’t want to. That the host kept taking waqfas for commercials every five minutes didn’t help either, and left many of us wondering whether he had been signed as the new spokesperson for family planning. But if you caught even a minute of the 55-minute-stretched-totwo-hours interview, you’d be struck by how well the Kingpin equipped himself.

To be honest, it was not something that I was expecting from a man who had been accused of having a stroke, senile dementia and khakhi-induced-yellow-belly syndrome, just a couple of weeks ago.

Image management was at the heart of this particular media appearance and marked a watershed moment in the battle for the government’s (read PPP’s) public image. It is no secret that the Pee Pee Pee government has no love lost for the Jeem Group. It is also a matter of public record that government servants from all walks of life have been, formally and informally, told not to associate with Jeem Group journos, mostly because of their tendency to

By Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi exaggerate, sensationalise, sex-up and misreport. even the public at large has grown wary of the gall with which the Fox News of Pakistan fabricates and hyperbolises mundane events, until they sound otherworldly and uncanny, even to the most discerning of viewers.

Other channels, mind you, are not much better. In terms of content generation, where people in the Jeem newsroom make stuff up as they go along, people in other newsrooms watch, copy and attempt to pass off as their own the stuff that the Jeemteam made up and they (children of a lesser channel) recycled. It’s a vicious cycle, and the Jeem-ers know it. So there is a lot of leaking and cross-leaking of stories and before you know it, our media scene becomes just as incestuous as the American mid-west. Stories that would not normally air on one

Mighty Obvious

channel are leaked to a competitor; and when the competitor airs the said news item, imbecilic newsroom in charges with smaller brains than fleas begin screaming frantically at their reporters for not having broken the story first. Something is definitely broken here, and it’s not the story.

Speaking of broken things, did anyone happen to catch the return of the Mush-inator? In case you missed it, there will probably be a repeat telecast, but not on HBO (where it belongs). The APML jalsi (a shout-out to the PTI trolls who coined the term) was in many respects, like the Terminator movies. You knew that everyone was going to die in the end, but you still watched it all, waiting for divine intervention to strike. In the case of this particular jalsi, the moment everyone was waiting for was the arrival of Abu Hamza bin Musharraf, the baron of Chak Shehzad and the scourge of the Kargil sector. In fact, I was one of those ill-informed masses who thought that the Iron Man himself would miraculously appear on stage in a puff of smoke as the speakers at Mazar-e-Quaid blared “Do You Smell What The Rock Is Cooking?” Unfortunately, the video link from London was not as lifelike as Altaf Bhai’s telephonic decibel drama, and the APML-ites only barely managed to dub their outing an “earthquake”.

However, the subtext here is mindblowing. You see, earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates in the earth’s crust shifting from time to time. Such shifts, when they occur underwater, cause immensely destructive tidal waves and juggernaut weather systems such as tsunamis. So in a way, Musharraf is trying to suggest that it is he who has ‘fathered’ the PTI tsunami of electoral success.

Given that it was Musharraf who sparked Imran’s delusions of grandeur by offering him the premiership back in the early 2000s, the reference is apt. But only a fool with a mouth full of his own foot would argue that the APML offering was bigger, in any way, shape or form, than the PTI’s grand jamboree.

A lot has happened over the past couple of weeks. A lot is going to happen in the weeks and months to come. But whatever happens, we know one thing for sure: if it’s news, you can always trust the Jeem-team to break it down for you. Literally. We interrupt this newspaper column to bring you a special news update…

Follow @mightyobvious on Twitter for more incoherence in 140 characters or less

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14 Foreign News

Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

Iran judge condemns American to death for spying TEHRAN afP

A judge in Iran has sentenced a US-Iranian man to death for spying for the CIA, officials and media said on Monday, exacerbating Tehran-Washington tensions already high in the face of Western sanctions on the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme. Amir Mirzai Hekmati, a 28year-old former Marine born in the United States to an Iranian family, was “sentenced to death for cooperating with a hostile nation, membership of the CIA and trying to implicate Iran in terrorism,” the judge in Tehran ruled, the Fars and ISNA news agencies reported. Hekmati has 20 days to appeal, ISNA quoted chief prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni ejei as saying, without specifying when the sentence was handed down. The accused was shown on state television in mid-December saying in fluent Farsi and english that he was a Central Intelligence Agency operative sent to infiltrate Iran’s intelligence ministry. He had been arrested months earlier. Iranian officials said his cover was blown by agents for Iran who spotted him at the US-run Bagram military air base in neighbouring Afghanistan. But Hekmati’s family in the United States told US media he had travelled to Iran to visit his grandmothers and insisted he was not a spy.

Tibetan monk self-immolates in China BEIJING afP

A Tibetan monk died after self-immolating in China, state media said Monday, taking to 15 the number of people who have set themselves on fire in Tibetan areas in less than a year in apparent protest. Nyage Sonamdrugyu, 40, set himself ablaze early Sunday morning in Qinghai in northwest China, the official Xinhua news agency reported, saying the monk was a high-ranking lama — a Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader. It is the first time the Tibetan-inhabited province has been hit by such a death. Most self-immolations have taken place in neighbouring Sichuan province, in what rights groups say are protests against perceived religious repression. The Tibetan government-in-exile, based in India, said in a statement the victim, whom it called Sonam Wangyal, self-immolated in Darlag county in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Golog to protest a lack of religious freedom.

Egypt Copt tycoon faces trial for insulting religion CAIRO afP

egyptian telecom magnate Naguib Sawiris faces trial for insulting religion after tweeting a caricature of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in Islamic garb, an Islamist lawyer who filed a legal complaint against him said Monday. The court will hear the case against Sawiris, a billionaire Coptic Christian who founded the liberal Free egyptians party, on January 14, said the lawyer Mamduh Ismail, a member of the ultra-conservative Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya group. “The case has been referred to court,” said Ismail. But the prosecution, which refers such cases to courts, could not confirm that Sawiris would go on trial.

Sawiris sparked a firestorm of criticism after tweeting a cartoon of Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie Mouse in a face veil, joking that the cartoon characters would be forced to dress conservatively if Islamists took power. He apologised for the caricature after Islamists called for a boycott of his cell phone service provider Mobinil. The list that Sawiris’ party was on won no more than 15 percent of the vote over three rounds of parliamentary elections since November that have been dominated by Islamists. He could not be reached for comment.

SaNaa: Yemeni protesters shout slogans during a demonstration against the law of immunity for outgoing President ali abdullah Saleh for the transfer of power after the upcoming february presidential elections, on Monday. AFP

Malaysia’s Anwar acquitted, vows to win elections KuALA LuMPuR

M

afP

ALAYSIAN opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was acquitted on Monday in a stunning climax to a two-year sodomy trial and quickly set his sights on ousting the long-ruling coalition in upcoming polls.

The unexpected decision set off pandemonium at the Kuala Lumpur High Court where Anwar — a former deputy premier who was sacked in 1998 and jailed on earlier sodomy charges — was mobbed by jubilant family and friends. “Thank God, justice has been served,” Anwar told reporters in the courtroom after being cleared of sexual misconduct with a young male aide, charges he said were a conspiracy to cripple his resurgent opposition alliance. An elated Anwar later told AFP he was now clear to focus on the prize he has sought since his shock ouster from the ruling party in 1998: consigning the governing Barisan Nasional coalition to history. “Now that I am vindicated and freed, naturally I will work with my friends and... the coalition of opposition parties to ensure we can wrest control of Putrajaya (Malaysia’s administrative capital),” he said.

“Our only concern now is to ensure that the elections are held free and

fair,” Anwar said as he sipped milk tea in a festive atmosphere at his Kuala Lumpur home. “Given free and fair elections, I am confident, God willing, we will win.” Thousands of supporters who had massed at the court under heavy security erupted into cheers and celebrated in the streets, shouting the opposition’s battle cry of “Reformasi!” (reform). In a brief statement, Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah said controversial DNA evidence submitted by the prosecution in the case was unreliable.

“The court is always reluctant to convict on sexual offences without corroborative evidence. Therefore, the accused is

acquitted and discharged,” he said. The ruling came as a surprise to many, including Anwar, who had said Prime Minister Najib Razak had fixed the verdict to remove him as a political threat and shore up the coalition’s five-decade grip on power. Information Minister Rais Yatim said the ruling proved the sincerity of recent promises by Najib to do away with his coalition’s authoritarian ways.

“Malaysia has an independent judiciary and this verdict proves that the government does not hold sway over judges’ decisions,” he said in a statement.

Najib faces a deadline of early next year to hold new polls in the ethnically diverse and resource-rich nation, in which he hopes to reverse unprecedented gains made by the opposition in 2008 elections. But Anwar is now free to campaign at the helm of his opposition alliance — an unlikely marriage spanning Malaysia’s dominant Malay community, conservative Muslim forces, and the ethnic-Chinese and -Indian minorities. The verdict throws the electoral landscape wide open, said Ibrahim Suffian, head of Malaysia’s leading polling firm Merdeka Center. The outcome “vindicates Anwar and significantly removes doubts about his personal conduct, which has been a concern especially among conservative Muslim voters”, Ibrahim said. Anwar’s accuser, Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, said in his blog he accepted the court’s decision “with calmness.”

Liberal family values threaten humanity: pope

VATICAN CITY afP

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday warned that liberal family values were threatening the future of humanity, in a veiled reference to homosexual marriage and adoptions by gay couples. “Policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself,” the pontiff said in a speech at the Vatican. “The family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman ... is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society,” added the 84-year-old pontiff. Humanity is also compromised by laws that “not only permit but at times even promote abortion for reasons of convenience or for questionable medical motives,” Benedict said. The pope said he was pleased that recent eU rulings banned patenting processes on human embryonic stem cells and condemned prenatal selection on the basis of sex.

British govt mulls scottish independence vote LONDON afP

The British government discussed proposals Monday to give Scotland the legal powers to hold a referendum on independence, which could happen within the next 18 months.

Prime Minister David Cameron said a referendum should be held soon because the uncertainty about the issue was damaging Scotland’s economy, although he remains strongly opposed to the break-up of the United Kingdom. Scotland’s deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon, of the proindependence Scottish National Party (SNP), accused Cameron of “a blatant attempt to interfere” in an issue that should

be decided by Scotland and its people. In elections in May, the SNP led by Alex Salmond won the first overall majority in the edinburgh parliament since it opened in 1999, and promised to hold a referendum on independence. Cameron’s move is being seen as a ploy to force a referendum before the SNP wants it, in the belief that Salmond does not yet have enough support for independence. The prime minister said ahead of a cabinet meeting at which the issue was discussed that the uncertainty about the independence issue could have economic consequences. “This is very damaging for Scotland because all the time business is asking, is Scotland going to be part of the United Kingdom, are they going to stay together, should I

invest?” he told Sky News.

“And we’re beginning to see companies asking those questions.” Cameron’s official spokesman said the discussion in cabinet was led by Finance Minister George Osborne, who is in charge of a committee looking into the Scottish referendum issue. The spokesman said the government would set out its views to parliament “in coming days” after receiving final legal advice, but added that in the end it would be a matter for the Scottish people. “Any decision on Scotland’s future is for the people of Scotland to decide,” the spokesman told reporters. “The Prime Minister clearly has a view on the union and on the referendum, and he was setting that out yesterday, and he thinks that a referendum needs to be legal, fair and

decisive.” It is believed Cameron’s government will give its backing for a binding referendum, but with certain conditions. These include that the referendum be held within 18 months, rather than the 2014 date planned by the SNP, and that it contain a simple question of whether Scotland should remain in the UK rather than multiple options, reports say. The SNP has said it wants the vote in 2014 to coincide with the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, a famous Scottish victory over the english. It is also thought to want a third “independence-lite” option instead of a simple yesno referendum favoured by the British government. Any decision is likely to heighten the already open hostility between Cameron and Salmond.

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

Foreign News 15

Renewed South Sudan clashes kill at least 24 JuBA afP

Renewed tribal clashes in South Sudan’s troubled Jonglei state have killed at least 24 people, days after a cattle vendetta rattled the stability of the world’s newest state, officials said Monday. “In Akobo east County, the town of Deng Jok was attacked and 22 people were killed,” Jonglei Governor Kuol Manyang told AFP, adding that 20 more were seriously wounded and had been taken to hospital. “Also an attack was made in Kaikuin village, Akobo West — two women were killed and cattle taken,” he said, adding the attacks took place Sunday. South Sudan has declared Jonglei a national “disaster area” while the United Nations has said it will launch a “massive” emergency operation to help some 60,000 people affected by the violence. In a dramatic escalation of bitter tit-for-tat attacks, an 8,000-strong militia army from the Lou Nuer tribe earlier this month marched on Pibor, home to the rival Murle people, whom they blame for abductions and cattle raiding.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Lise Grande, said last week that “tens, perhaps hundreds” could have died in the latest outbreak of violence in the young country, which declared independence only six months ago. The latest clashes were in homeland areas of the Lou Nuer people, but the attackers were reported not to be Murle as they live to the south of Akobo, while the gunmen this time had come from the west.

Attacks kill six in Iraq, wound 15 Afghan pilgrims BAGHDAD afP

Attacks across Iraq on Monday killed six people and wounded dozens of others, including 15 Afghan pilgrims visiting the country for religious commemorations, officials said. The violence included bombings against Shiite worshippers walking to the shrine city of Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, for Arbaeen rituals later this week. In Baghdad, gunmen burst into the home of Fatma Tayyiq, a branch manager for the Commercial Bank of Iraq, and shot her and husband dead in the capital’s central Karrada district, an interior ministry official said. It was not immediately clear why Tayyiq was targeted. Just south of Baghdad in the town of Owairij, a roadside bomb targeting devotees walking to Karbala killed one pilgrim and wounded at least nine others, defence and interior ministry officials said. In the northern ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk, meanwhile, a gunman opened fire on a group of security officers from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, known as the asayesh, killing two officers and wounding two others, a police officer in the city said.

MOB ATTACKS SOUTHERN NIGERIA MOSQUE DURING FUEL PROTEST KANO

p

afP

OLICE and protesters clashed in nigeria’s north Monday as thousands converged on a governor’s office during nationwide fuel price strikes, leaving 30 wounded, including 18 who were shot. A union leader also said police shot dead a protester in nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos as thousands of people demonstrated there. police fired tear gas and shot into the air as thousands of protesters converged on the governor’s office in the northern city of Kano as part of a national strike over fuel prices. A huge crowd of protesters had gathered in Kano, the main city

in nigeria’s north, and clashes broke out with police who pushed them back as they tried to enter the governor’s office, an Afp correspondent reported. protesters set two vans ablaze and also sought to set fire to the home of central bank governor Lamido Sanusi in Kano, but were stopped by police. “In total, we have 30 wounded, 18 of them with gunshot wounds,” said Red Cross official in Kano Musa Abdullahi, updating an earlier toll of 14 wounded, half of them shot. Meanwhile, protesters attacked a mosque in southern nigeria and wounded several people, leading police to fire tear gas, police and witnesses said. A mob detached from a group of protesters marching along a main street in Benin city, the capital of Edo state, and raided

the mosque located along the same road, an Afp correspondent said. They hurled rocks at the mosque’s louvres and tried unsuccessfully to set the building on fire. The attackers also looted fans from inside the mosque. A correspondent saw police take away a man with a machete cut on his head. A Red Cross official said 10 people were wounded during the attack which also targeted a foreign exchange bureau run by Muslims near the mosque. police confirmed the attack and said it was staged by “miscreants” who hijacked the main protest, which they described as peaceful. “There was an attempt to burn the mosque in the city centre. Some people were injured,” state police commissioner femi Omojola told Afp. He said the injuries were minor.

Arabs press on with under-fire Syria mission DAMASCuS afP

The Arab League on Monday pressed on with its mission to halt 10 months of bloodshed in Syria despite charges it was only serving to cover up the regime’s deadly crackdown on protests. Turkey, which has openly called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, meanwhile, called on the opposition to keep up its resistance through “peaceful means.”

The opposition Muslim Brotherhood slammed the League after the pan-Arab organisation decided on Sunday to extend its observer mission.

“It is clear that the observer mission in Syria seeks to cover up the crimes of the Syrian regime by giving it the time and opportunity to kill our people and break their will,” Brotherhood spokesman Zuhair Salem said. After a meeting with the opposition Syrian National Council on

Sunday in Istanbul, a foreign ministry spokesman in Ankara urged the opposition to carry on with their resistance. “The Syrian opposition demands democracy and we told them during a meeting yesterday (Sunday) that this should be done through peaceful means,” he told AFP, referring to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s talks with the SNC. At a meeting in Cairo the same day, an Arab ministerial committee gave its widely criticised observer mission to Syria the green light to carry on and pledged to boost the number of monitors.

The committee “decided to give Arab League observers the necessary time to continue their mission according to the protocol,” which sets a one-month term, renewable with the agreement of both sides. The ministers agreed to increase the number of observers and said they may seek “technical assistance from the United Nations” in the face of unrest that the

world body said last month has cost more than 5,000 lives. The committee urged Damascus “to fully and immediately implement its commitments” under the Arab plan, calling on all parties “to immediately stop all forms of violence.”

The Syrian Revolution General Commission, grouping activists on the ground, said the meeting fell “short of expectations.” The League should use the “necessary means” to halt the violence or admit failure, it said. The head of the mission, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, is to give a report to the League on January 19 on Syria’s compliance with the peace plan, the ministers said. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, who chaired the Cairo meeting, called on Syria to “take a historic decision” to stop the bloodshed. A report by the observers discussed at the meeting showed that “killing has been reduced. But even one

killing (is too much),” said Sheikh Hamad, whose country has taken a lead role in efforts to resolve the crisis.

Sheikh Hamad said the League hoped to raise the number of observers to 300 “within the next few days” from around 163 now deployed. The team of Arab League monitors has been in Syria since December 26 to oversee a deal to protect civilians, but the death toll has mounted despite its presence. Security force fire killed at least three more civilians on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP in Nicosia.

Two people were shot dead in the flashpoint central province of Hama and near Damascus, while a woman was killed in an attack by security forces in Idlib province of northwest Syria, the Britainbased watchdog said. It called for Arab monitors to travel to a region of Hama where it said 12 tanks and armoured personnel carriers had been deployed in

violation of the peace plan. A television channel close to the regime, Dunia, said a convoy of Arab monitors came under fire from a “terrorist group” in Syria’s third largest city, Homs, wounding a driver.

Stepping up its attacks on Doha, the official press in Damascus on Monday accused the Qatari premier of “inciting violence” and working to sabotage the Arab mission.

His role at the meeting in Cairo “went beyond interference in the internal affairs of Syria, constituting a declaration of war,” said the daily Tishrin. In an apparent vote of confidence, Pope Benedict XVI said he hoped the Arab League mission would help promote dialogue between the regime and its opponents. “I pray for a rapid end to the bloodshed and the beginning of a fruitful dialogue between the political forces, encouraged by the presence of independent observers,” the head of the Roman Catholic Church said.

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

UK royals, Joey the horse share Spielberg

red carpet

SOCIETY LAHORe: The launch of Habitt store was held at Gulberg.

PHOTOS By naDeem ijaz

LONDON rEUTErS

P

R I N C e William and the Duchess of Cambridge shared the red carpet late on Sunday with Hollywood royalty and a horse called Joey who appeared in Steven Spielberg's latest movie ‘War Horse’.

The film, based on a novel

by Michael Morpurgo which was turned into a hit West end and Broadway stage show featuring puppet horses, has opened in U.S. theatres. Spielberg said he had been inspired to take on the World War One drama both by the book and the play. “What attracted me to it beyond my admiration for the puppeteering was simply the amazing story that Michael Morpurgo first told in his 1982 children's book,” he told Reuters. Jeremy Irvine, the British newcomer who stars in War Horse, said he was overwhelmed to have found success so suddenly. “I wasn't getting any work so sud-

denly just to have a job, let alone have lines, let alone be in a film with Steven Spielberg, is kind of more than I can really take in and I still haven't really taken it in,” said the 21-year-old. “I'm still trying to take in how on earth I could have fooled them to let me be in this movie.” The highlights of the red carpet premiere in London's Leicester Square were Joey the horse and the Duchess of Cambridge. Kate and William, A-list celebrities whose every appearance is followed by the world's media, added a touch of glamour to the event held in aid of the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry, of which the duchess is a patron. Before meeting the couple, Spielberg was asked whether he had rehearsed his royal etiquette.

“I don't know," he replied.

“Something about tonight has to be spontaneous which means if I make a faux pas it will be an honest one.” About 600 British military personnel and their families also attended the premiere. The movie tells the story of Joey, a horse raised on the english countryside who is torn away from his home-and stable lad Albert-and sent to France to the battlefields of World War I. The story follows Albert on his mission to find his equine partner amid the blood, mud and misery of the Great War. Reviews for the film about a boy and his horse separated by war have been generally positive, with critics praising its emotive power and predicting plenty of tears among audiences.

Awais with Nanhe

Uzair, Rukhsana, Naheed and a guest

Faiza and Noreen

Neha and Zainab

NEWS DESK Fashion model turned fashion designer Nadia Hussain has recently stepped into the field of aesthetics by launching Radiance Skincare Treatments at the Transform Clinic in Karachi.

Through Radiance, Nadia Hussain is now offering cosmetic and nonsurgical skin treatments at the clinic that is run by cosmetic surgeon Dr Mabroor Bhatti. Having recently obtained a diploma from the American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine, Hussain will now offer skin treatments that range from acne management to pigmentation, Botox treatments as well as procedures to hide scars.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s security

prevented man from visiting his twins at hospital aBC: The arrival of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s newborn daughter at a Manhattan hospital has inconvenienced a man who says the couple’s security team has prevented him from visiting his two prematurely-born twin girls. Speaking with the New york Daily News, 38-year-old Neil Coulon of Brooklyn says the security team repeatedly stopped him from visiting the neonatal intensive care unit at Lenox Hill Hospital. “These are children with problems in intensive care and you’re just going to take over the hospital like you own it? All i want is an apology,” he says. A spokeswoman for the hospital told the Daily News she was unaware of any complaints regarding Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s security staff until the newspaper brought it to her attention. The Daily News has reported that Bey and Jay paid the hospital 1.3 million dollars to seal off a wing of the hospital to assure their privacy. Their child, reportedly named Blue ivy Carter, was born Saturday night.

Fara and Rashida

Shiza and Sehrish

Nida, Anam and Annie

Natasha, Noor and Lucky

Ali Zafar's item song

woes MUMBai: ali Zafar seems to be having a tough time perfecting his dance steps for a Bollywood item number. “Most painfully joyous process. Dance rehearsal for an item number! fully Bollywood! Must sit in a tub full of ice before sleeping!” ali wrote on his Twitter page. The actor-singer is currently busy shooting for filmmaker David Dhawan's ‘Chashme Buddoor’ remake. apart from ali, the film also stars anupam Kher, rishi Kapoor, Siddharth and Divyendu Sharma of ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama’ fame. The original 1981 film starred farooque Sheikh, rakesh Bedi and ravi Baswani. ali made his Bollywood debut with ‘Tere Bin Laden’, which won him critical acclaim from all over. he later entertained audiences in ‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan’. ali's next will be ‘London, Paris, New York’, with aditi rao hydari. Directed by anu Menon, it releases Mar 2. aGENCiES

Mr & Mrs Ali Moeen with Asma

Dr Romana, Tehreem and Meena

MUMBai: if the rumour mills are to be believed then Sonu Sood may have to get his abs ripped once again for the ‘Dabangg’ sequel. Last year fans of the 38-year-old actor were upset when Arbaaz Khan announced that he couldn’t accommodate Sonu or his character Chhedi Singh in the script for ‘Dabangg 2’ because he had to introduce a new villain. The news came as a bit of a shock for Sonu’s fans as Salman Khan had apparently suggested that the former would play Chhedi Singh’s identical twin brother in the sequel.

But now Sallu wants Sonu back. An industry insider revealed that Salman was very upset when Arbaaz decided to scrap Sonu’s role from the script as he felt the ‘Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap’ actor was perfect for the role. Apparently at his recent birthday party, Salman asked his pal to do a role in ‘Dabangg 2’ in front of Arbaaz. Sonu was in a fix and he felt very embarrassed since this wasn’t the first time he had been asked by Salman to be a part of the sequel. Knowing the way Salman has the final say in any and everything, we wouldn’t be surprised if he enters a war of words with Arbaaz to ensure that his favourite is cast in the movie. ‘Dabangg 2’ is likely to hit the screens in December this year. aGENCiES

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17

‘American Idol’

unfazed by competition LOS ANGELES

‘A

Mr & Mrs Faisal

Sehrish and Sheeza with guests

Ali and Zosheen

rEUTErS

merican Idol’ producers and judges said on Sunday they were unconcerned about competition from new reality singing shows ‘The Voice’ and ‘The X Factor’, as they prepared to go into their 11th season, while host Ryan Seacrest’s future with the show was left unanswered. ‘Idol’ executive producer Ken Warwick called the show the “gold standard” in the latest crop of reality singing talent shows on television and that it was still the path to stardom for singers.

“Leona Lewis (winner of UK’s ‘X Factor’) was a one and a half hit star for ten minutes, but there’s no Kelly Clarksons, Carrie Underwoods, Jennifer Hudsons - they are real stars and none of these other shows are producing these,” said Warwick. “‘Idol’ is still America’s most watched show despite predictions by ‘X Factor’ creator Simon Cowell the US version would topple it from its perch.‘X Factor’ audiences have been about half those of ‘Idol’.”

Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler and pop star Jennifer Lopez were brought in to replace Cowell as a judge on ‘Idol’ last year while Cowell went on to helm the U.S. version of ‘The X Factor’, taking fellow judge Paula Abdul to the judging panel with him.

Host Ryan Seacrest, whose contract with ‘Idol’ is up for renewal, emphasized intentions to stay with ‘Idol’. “I love this show, I’ve been a part of it for so many

years, I can’t imagine life without American Idol,” said Seacrest, adding that he didn’t see himself hosting any other talent show for now, but refused to comment further.

For the judges, the benefits of being involved with ‘Idol’ has paid off in their personal careers. Rocker Steven Tyler said that while his fellow Aerosmith bandmates weren’t as accepting of his new gig at first, the show spurned sales of Aerosmith records up by 260 percent. Tyler is also working on a new album with the band. Fel-

Acer unveils world's thinnest laptop LAS VEGAS afP

Ani and Mariam

Salman Khan

wants

Sonu Sood

Acer unveiled the world's thinnest laptop computer as an array of ‘ultrabook’ rivals prepared to debut this week at the Consumer electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Taiwan-based computer titan will begin shipping Acer Aspire 5 models in the second quarter of this year, with prices to be disclosed in coming weeks. “It looks

like the thinnest and lightest, and it sets the bar for the rest of the ultrabook vendors,” said analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies. The Aspire S5 has a 34-cm screen and is 15 mm at its thickest point.

The ultrabook weighs slightly less than 1.35 kg.

Since Aspire S5 is Windows based it is not likely to be a direct challenge to MacBook Air laptops, which have been winning converts to the sleek ma-

chines powered by Apple software. “The real battle is not with Apple, it is with all the other vendors coming out with Windows ultrabooks,” Bajarin said.

Acer also announced plans to launch a free service that will let users of its computers store video, photos, music, and documents in the Internet “cloud” and access files from any Windows 8 or Android software powered gadgets. Acer Cloud appeared to be a Windows version of the Apple's freshly-launched iCloud service that lets people access their content from iPads, iPhones, iPods, and Macintosh computers, according to the analyst.

B-Town showers love, birthday blessings on Farhan MUMBai: friends and family of actor-filmmaker farhan akhtar, who had a successful 2011 thanks to ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ and ‘Don 2: The King is Back’, have wished him a “rocking” year as he turned 38 Monday. farhan, son of writer-lyricist Javed akhtar, made his directorial debut with ‘Dil Chahta hai’ in 2001 has received accolades for his talents, and is known for his distinct, youthful and slick style of filmmaking. he partied Sunday night to ring in his special day, and spent his birthday working on a shoot for ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ with co-actor Sonam Kapoor. Some celebrities took to Twitter to wish him. here are some of the birthday tweets for farhan: SONAM KApOOR: “My first shoot with the birthday boy @farOutakhtar today. really looking forward to it!”

UDAy CHOpRA: “@farOutakhtar happy birthday buddy...here's to an even more rocking 2012...Stay Cool!”

SHABANA AZMi: “happy birthday farhan 'jeete raho khush raho sehatmand raho'.”

BOMAN iRANi: “happy Birthday @farOutakhtar Now quickly write Don 3, 4 and 5!!!! Sorry i could not make it last night.

Now that i am rested i am feeling bad.”

NeiL NiTiN MUKeSH: “@farOutakhtar happy birthday bro. all the best. always!!! Lots of love.” aGENCiES

low judge Jennifer Lopez also saw a boost in her music career last year after making a comeback with a new album, and was expecting to keep up the pace in the new season of ‘Idol’. As the show enters its 11th season, the producers said changes to the show will affect the middle portion of the contest, where those contestants will have to take a performance challenge involving a song from the 1950s, among other changes.

‘American Idol’ will return on January 18 with a two-night premiere.

‘The Devil inside’

tops US box office BBC Low budget horror film ‘The Devil Inside’ has spirited its way to the top of the North American box office, taking $34.5m on its opening weekend. It is the tale of a woman investigating exorcisms performed on her mother.

Like ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Cloverfield’ before it, the film is released by studio Paramount and is filmed in a mock-documentary style.

Last week’s number one, ‘Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol’, dropped to two. As with 2007's ‘Paranormal Activity’, which has gone on to spawn two sequels, and 2008's ‘Cloverfield’, which topped the US and Canada box office in January 2008, ‘The Devil Inside’ benefited from a cryptic online marketing push. Don Harris, president of domestic distribution for Paramount, said: “The marketing campaign was very much like ‘Paranormal (Activity)’.

“It was online, trying to find the younger movie-goer, the fans for this genre.” Paramount bought the independently-produced film - which has been widely slated by critics - for just $1m. The success of the film, the only new release in the US last week, took many industry experts by surprise.

“This one caught everyone looking, but the devil got his due,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian said. “It's just very difficult to track the horror fan base, no question about it.” ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ dropped a place to number three. David Fincher's film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ climbed a place to number four. And family film ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked’ dropped two to five.

Coating lets

smartphones survive under water LAS VEGAS afP

As sleek new smartphones prepared to make splashes at the Consumer electronics Show, a California firm was out to prevent water from being the death of them.

Liquipel was showing off a clear coating a thousand times thinner than a human hair that shields smartphones outside and inside

from damaging effects of water. “Water will just run through the machine,” Liquipel president Danny McPhail told AFP as he casually tossed an iPhone into a tub of water and watched it sink. “It actually beads right on top of the circuit board and rolls off.” He plucked the unscathed iPhone from the tub and shook the water from the gadget, which continued to work. About six

weeks ago, the Southern California company launched the first public service that let smartphone owners send gadgets in to be coated using the nano-technology. Liquipel came to CeS to close deals with major electronics makers to have protective coating preapplied to new smartphones.

“Hopefully, the next time you purchase a phone it will already be treated,” McPhail said. “Wine spills, coffee spills, anything like that you are going to be protected,” he continued. “I don't want to say a toilet, but that is where 50 percent of smartphone water deaths happen.” Liquipel charges $60 to coat a smartphone, with shipping adding to the cost.

Brad Pitt

walking with cane after knee injury LOS aNGELES: Brad Pitt has been walking around with a cane after hurting his knee recently when he slipped down a hill while holding his daughter.

He walked the red carpet at the 23rd annual Palm Springs Film Festival awards gala with the cane, and told reporters he has an injured ACL-a ligament in the knee. “i was carrying my daughter (vivienne) down the hill and i slipped. it was either her or me,” People magazine quoted him as saying. Angelina Jolie said that she actually likes the cane, and it hasn't been able to slow down her partner. “He's not that kind of guy. He does everything still,” she said. She also said that their three-and-ahalf year old daughter vivienne wasn't hurt in the tumble. “vivie's okay. She was absolutely fine,” she said. aGENCiES

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

Bartoli defeats Polona in Sydney Page 22

Misbah keen to cash in on home advantage

Pietersen changes sides in india’s iPL CHENNAI

LAHORE

afP

england's batting star Kevin Pietersen has left Deccan Chargers to play for Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League this year, his new franchise said on Sunday.

Pietersen, who turned out for Bangalore Royal Challengers in 2009 and 2010, had signed up with the Hyderabad-based Chargers last year, but could not play for them following a hernia surgery. The exciting right-hander was picked up by the Virender Sehwag-captained Delhi Daredevils during the transfer window for the fifth edition to be played from April 4 to May 27.

"We are pleased to add Kevin to our lineup," said T.A. Sekhar, the cricket head of GMR Sports, owners of the Delhi Daredevils franchise. "He brings rich experience and an explosive quality to our batting and can be a more than handy off-spinner as well. "We are sure that Kevin will help us to be very competitive this season and the Delhi Daredevils fans will enjoy this addition." Pietersen, preparing for england's Test series against Pakistan in the United Arab emirates later this month, said he was relishing the opportunity of playing in the same team as Sehwag. "I am looking forward to a wonderful time with the Delhi Daredevils. It will be a great experience to be playing in the same squad as Sehwag," he said in a statement released by the franchise. It was not revealed how much Delhi Daredevils paid Deccan Chargers for securing Pietersen's services. The Chargers had forked out $650,000 for the england star at last year's auction. It is unlikely that Pietersen will be available for the entire IPL season since england's tour of Sri Lanka ends on April 7 and the first Test against the West Indies starts at Lord's on May 17.

P

aShEr BUTT

AKISTAN captain Misbahul Haq beliees that the home advantage at the UAe would give his charges a slight edge in the series against england. The team left for Dubai via Lahore on Monday evening to play the home series away from home in the United Arab emirates (UAe). The series, starting from January 17, would feature three Tests, four one-day internationals and three Twenty20 internationals during the series. england team has already reached UAe to get familiar with the conditions and is playing a practice match with the ICC World XI. Talking to media corps before departure at the Lahore Airport, Pakistan captain said that conditions in the UAe were similar to Pakistan. “For that reason we have a slight edge over england because of the home advantage,” he added. The team has already reached Dubai but would be available for media briefing on Tuesday evening after the practice session at the Dubai Sport City.

“We have been playing in the UAe for quite some time now and are familiar with the conditions before so we have become used to the venues there,” he added.

The Pakistan captain pointed out that the number one status of england would not scare his team. “When we meet in the first match there will be cricket only and no past issues or who is at what position. They should be given their due respect for being number one Test side. But we have to prove ourselves and are here to win against england,” maintained Misbah. “I am confident the way my team have played in the recent past it won’t let england go away with win that easily,” said he. “It would surely be challenging not only for Pakistan but england would also have to work for wins. And scoring runs won’t be easy on slow UAe wickets,” said he. The Pakistani team official hoped that they would focus on cricket only for-

getting the 2010 spot-fixing fiasco. The PCB has given specific and strict instructions to the players to focus only on the game and avoid any kind of controversy during the series against english team. In 2011, Pakistan had an impressive record as they did not lose any of the Test series they played and qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup in India.

Pakistan is scheduled to play three Test matches, four OneDay International and two Twenty20 matches against england. Pakistan’s interim coach Mohsin Khan said that this was another series and was most important for his coaching career. “I want a victory against the No. 1 team and am not worrying about coaching future amid speculations that Dav Whatmore will likely take over as the country’s head coach,” said he.

illness scare for Marsh ahead of india Test

SYDNEY rEUTErS

Australian top order batsman Shaun Marsh was unable to fulfill a media engagement ahead of the third test against India in Perth because of illness on Monday. Team officials said the 28-year-old should be fit to train with the rest of the team on Tuesday ahead of Friday's start to the test at the WACA. Marsh won a race to be fit for the first test but his form in the four-match series has been far from convincing, despite Australia making a strong start with emphatic wins in Melbourne and Sydney. Playing at number three in the batting order, Marsh has been out for a duck twice and made three in the second innings at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Mike Hussey, who bucked his own run of poor form with a superb 150 not out in Sydney, replaced Marsh in Monday's news conference and backed his fellow Western Australian to find his touch at his home ground.

Bresnan ruled out of Pakistan series DuBAI

rEUTErS

england pace bowler Tim Bresnan has been ruled out of england's three-Test series against Pakistan in the United Arab emirates after failing to recover from an elbow injury, the england and Wales Cricket Board (eCB) said on Monday.

Bresnan underwent surgery on the elbow last month but was unable to play in eng-

land's opening warm-up game.

"Bresnan tried to bowl today, having had an injection and a good rest," Strauss told the eCB website (www.ecb.co.uk). "I think we were all expecting him to be absolutely fine. But it's very painful and, given that, he's probably not going to be able to play for two or three weeks. "That means he's unable to play any part in the test series, so he's flying home." Graham Onions, who is already with the england

team as cover for Bresnan, will be officially added to the squad. Strauss said offspinner Graeme Swann would be sent to hospital for a precautionary scan on a tight leg muscle while fast bowler Chris Tremlett, who was ruled out of the opening match with an eye infection, would see a doctor later on Monday. Strauss scored 78 on Monday as england won their opening match against an ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI by three wickets.

Broad, Davies give England hard earned win DuBAI afP

Steve Davies and Stuart Broad shared a resolute seventh stand of 61 to help an unimpressive england to win the threeday tour opener against ICC Combined XI by three wickets here on Monday. It was a case of second batting failure for

the tourists as, chasing 261 to win, england owed the win to captain Andrew Strauss (78), Ian Bell (39) and Jonathan Trott (35) on the final day at the Global Cricket Academy ground.

Kevin Pietersen (one) and eoin Morgan (three) flopped a second time in the match and when Bell departed at 199-6, england looked down and out

iCC Combined Xi cricketer Majid Haq dives as he takes a catch to dismiss england Xi cricketer Alastair Cook (unseen) during the third day of a three-day practice match. AFP

before Davies (37 not out) and Broad (31) saved their blushes.

Despite the win england's batting looked rusty ahead of the first of three Tests against Pakistan which starts here from January 17. england will have another opportunity to settle their batting on the slow, dusty pitches here as they play the second warm-up game against a Pakistan Cricket Board XI, also in Dubai, from January 11-13.

Strauss and Alastair Cook (26) looked solid during their opening stand of 63 but Afghanistan's spinner Mohammad Nabi (3-66), George Dockrell (1-28) and Majid Haq (1-42) derailed on the run chase.

Strauss and Trott added 70 for the second wicket but england lost five more wickets before reaching the 200mark. Strauss hit 13 boundaries and a six during his 96-ball innings but his departure put england in trouble. It was left to Broad and Davies to carry their team within one run of the victory. earlier, the ICC Combined XI declared their second innings at 164-9 with Afghanistan's wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Shahzad notching a second half-century of the match with a defiant 74.

SCOrEBOarD iCC Combined Xi, 1st innings: 281 (C. Viljoen 98, Mohammad Shahzad 51, B. rankin 43; S. Broad 4-46, G. Swann 3-99) ENGLaND, 1st innings: 185-8 dec (a. Cook 76; hamid hassan 2-26) COMBiNED Xi, 2nd innings: W. Porterfield c Davies b anderson 0 P. Stirling lbw b Broad 0 K. Coetzer b anderson 31 Saqib ali c Davies b Broad 2 C. Williams c Bell b Swann 11 Mohammad Shahzad c Broad b Pietersen 74 Mohammad Nabi c Cook b Broad 13 C. Viljoen run out 3 M. haq not out 26 B. rankin b finn 0 EXTraS: (lb1, nb3) 4 TOTaL: (for nine wkts dec) 164 fall of wickets 1-0, 2-2, 3-8, 4-31, 5-71, 6-101, 7-119, 8-162, 9-164.

BOWLiNG: anderson 18-7-62-2, Broad 14-7-22-3, Swann 10-133-1, finn 10.3-4-34-1, Pietersen 3-0-12-1 Overs: 55.3 ENGLaND, 2nd innings: a. Strauss c Williams b haq 78 a. Cook c haq b Williams 26 J. Trott c Porterfield b Nabi 35 K. Pietersen c rankin b Dockrell 1 i. Bell c Stirling b Nabi 39 E. Morgan c Shahzad b rankin 3 S. Davies not out 37 S. Broad c Dockrell b Mohammad Nabi 31 G. Swann not out 1 EXTraS: (b8, lb1, nb1) 10 TOTaL: (for seven wkts) 261 fall of wickets 1-63, 2-133, 3-136, 4-180, 5-187, 6-199, 7-260.

BOWLiNG: rankin 15-1-58-1, Viljoen 4-0-28-0 (nb1), Nabi 17-166-3, Williams 4-1-20-1, Dockrell 6-0-28-1, haq 12.1-1-42-1, Stirling 2-0-10-0 Overs: 60.1, Toss: England result: England win by three wickets

DUBAi: england Xi cricketer Stuart Broad plays a shot on the third day of a three-day practice match between the england Xi and iCC Combined Xi at The iCC Global Cricket Academy. AFP

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

Sports 19

austraLia v inDia, 3rD test, Perth

Bouncy pitch awaits India at WACA

National Junior Hockey Championship begins today LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

PERTH

I

CriCiNfO

F India are to make a comeback in the series, they will have to do it the hard way. The WACA curator feels the pitch is getting back its original famously quick and bouncy - characteristics, and expects this track to behave similar to the one used in the Ashes last season, when Australia played four quicks and won the Test inside four days.

Australia have lost James Pattinson to injury but have the services of Ryan Harris and Mitchell Starc should they want to go in with four fast bowlers for the third Test, starting on Friday the 13th. Starc made a case for himself with figures of 3 for 17 in a rain-curtailed BBL game on Sunday night in Sydney. "We are hoping it will certainly be like last year," Cameron Sutherland, the

Gymkhana Colts victorious LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Lahore Gymkhana Colts beat Clear Correct by five wickets here at Bagh-e-Jinnah ground here the other day.

SCORe: Clear Correct 144 runs. Salman Khan 29, Amjad Aziz 24, Muhammad Atif 18. Asim Bucha 3 for 36, Haris Ramzan 3 for 32. Lahore Gymkhana Clots achieved the target in 18.5 overs for the loss of 5 wickets. Asim Bucha 49, Zain Mohsin 45, Aamer Mukhtar 18. Nadeem Arif 2 for 25 and Anwar Rabani 2 for 27. Chief guest Mudassar Rathor CeO Clear Correct gave away award to Asim Bucha. The match was supervised by Javed Ashraf and Muhammad Kaleem (umpires) and Muhammad Rafiq (scorer).

Model Town Club, P&T Gymkhana win LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Model Town Club and P&T Gymkhana have marched to the second round of Siddique Memorial tournament at Model Town Nawab ground.

SCOrES: Model Town Club 174/5. Amir Sajaad 60, ietamad-ul-Haq 30, Basit Sohail 26, Rashid Riaz 12, Sohail Ahmed 11. imran Ali 3/25, Rizwan 1/36, Qasim 1/27. Ludhiyana Gym 100 all out. Umar Siddiq 42, Adnan Butt 10, Shehbaz Khan 12, Arslan 13. Sohail Ahmed 2/10, Sajid Wato 2/12, Saad Naseem 2/15, Rashid Riaz 1/09, Basit Sohail 1/12. P&T Gym 189/3.

Anwar Hafeez 23, Hasan Talat 57, Khaqan Arsal 31, Babar Manzoor 26, Haseeb 30. Taj Mohammad 3/34.

Crown Club 84/7. imran Malik 13, Zaheer 17, Gul Khan 17, Noor ilahi 14. Wajid 1/9, Hasan Talat 1/23, Rohail Ali 1/17, Asim 1/18, Asif 1/5, Babar Manzoor 2/4.

Garhi Shahu win LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Garhi Shahu Gym advanced to the next round of 5th Nazar Muhammad Memorial event after beating strong Model Town Greens club at Model Town Ground the other day.

SCOrES: Model Town Greens 166. Hamza 70, Amir Hayat 33. Waseem 2/25, Zafar Gohar 2/26, M Qasim 2/30, Hashim 2/37. Ghari Shahu Gym 168/2. inayat Saeed 76(No), Kamran Khalil 50(no), Basit Bilal 19.

leaguered as they are by six straight losses away from home. "That's what we are aiming for. We are in a better place now than when India came here the last time," Sutherland said. "We have redeveloped the whole wicket block over the last four years, and we are starting to get some really good results.

"We have changed our oil type, tried to align it to the traditional WACA characteristics. Probably more so pre-1980s, and it has taken a fair while to achieve that. We have also changed the grass type and how we prepare the wicket. We have tinkered with the whole model basically, and come up with something we think is pretty close to the mark."

Sutherland's dream pitch is a kiss-off, where the ball just kisses the surface and bounces off. He says they are getting close to it. "We weren't getting any cracking," he said of the days when Perth lost its bounce, rela-

curator, said. "It [playing four fast bowlers] won't be the wrong decision if the preparation goes as it is expected to."

The proper preparation will begin on Tuesday. Right now the pitch is hard to tell from the outfield. Sutherland is happy with what is underneath. "It is pretty hard underneath," he said. "We have already done a lot of work just getting the grass where we want, coverage-wise. The actual rolling starts tomorrow." In the BBL game at the WACA on Sunday night, Perth Scorchers scored 184 and won by 42. expect batting in the Test to be tougher, though. India won the last Test they played here, but this is expected to be a different surface altogether.

"We're expecting more pace and bounce than the last time," Sutherland said. "Good cricket wicket last time, but we hope to have maybe an extra 20% pace and bounce."

That won't be music to India's ears, be-

tively speaking. "We were getting some hardness, but not really hard. We weren't getting grass recovery, which made it hard to get a surface where we could get some nice kiss-off, where the ball hits and carries through. We are pretty close to achieving that now. Mostly that comes from the soil.

It's a combination with the grass as well.

One allows the other to work in harmony. So we are pretty close to where we want to be."

However, Michael Hussey, a Western Australian himself, is not getting carried away with the pitch. "I hope it's a nice, fast bouncy pitch," he said. "We play those conditions very well. It is very different to what the Indian players are used to from their home country. But having said that, they've got unbelievably experienced players who have been in Australia before, performed well in Australia before, so I expect them to adapt to the conditions pretty quickly."

Tendulkar struggling with a mental block: Latif LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif on Monday suggested that Indian batting icon Sachin Tendulkar should seek counseling from a sports psychologist to get over the "mental block" caused by the continuing wait for his elusive 100th international century.

"He is under pressure no doubt about it. He might not admit it but he is facing a mental block because of this hype over his milestone. It would not be a bad idea for him to get some counseling from a sports psychologist," Latif suggested. "He is batting well and he is looking good out in the middle. It is just a mental block and pressure that has prevented him from reaching this milestone ear-

lier," he said. India lost the first two Tests after batting collapses with Tendulkar scoring a half century in each match but failing to get to his elusive 100th international hundred. Latif was further quoted as saying that he had a feeling that Sachin would get the hundred in the final Test and definitely in the series. He said the world’s top athletes at some time in their career required counselling to get over mental blocks. "It can happen to anyone," he added. The Indian maestro’s last international century came against South Africa in March

last year. Latif pointed out that there was no other plausible reason for Tendulkar not scoring his 100th international hundred. "I have seen many of his innings in the last 10 months and in these two Tests and he is definitely not out of form or facing issues timing the ball. He is moving well and is balanced at the crease this can be judged by the fact that he has scored runs but fallen short of the hundred," the former Pakistan captain pointed out. Latif also felt that critics and former players calling for the heads of their senior batsmen need to accept that India didn’t have the bowling firepower to bowl out Australia twice. "How can any team hope to do well with a bowling attack that lacks experience and can’t provide support to its batsmen. The problem is apart from Zaheer Khan they don’t have much variety and options. Dropping Harbhajan Singh for the Tests was also a mistake because clearly Ashwin is not ready for Test cricket."

The 31st U-21 National Junior Hockey Championship will roll into action from Tuesday (January 10) here at the National Hockey Stadium. The opening ceremony of the event will be held at 1100 hours, during the match between Railways and Pakistan Board hockey teams. Director General Sports Board Punjab Usman Anwar will perform the opening of the event as chief guest.

The formation of Pools is, Pool A, National Bank of Pakistan, FATA, Army, islamabad Pool B, PHF Academy, Khyber PK, SSGC, Sindh Pool C, Wapda, Punjab White, Higher education Commission, Balochistan. Pool D: Railways, Pak Boards and Punjab Colour. Four matches will be played on the opening day. NBP vs FATA, Railways vs Pak Boards, PHF Academy vs KPK and Wapda vs Punjab (W). Following is the match programme of first round which ends on January 15 with second round commencing from January 16. Jan 10, NBP vs FATA, Railways vs Pak Boards, PHF academy vs KPK, Wapda vs Punjab W. Jan 11, Army vs islamabad, SSGC vs Sindh, HeC vs Balochistan, Pak Board vs Punjab C. Jan 12, PHF academy vs SSGC, Wapda vs HeC,Army vs Fata,Wapda vs Balochistan. Jan 13, PHF Academy vs Sindh, NBP vs islamabad, KPK vs SSGC Jan 14, KPK vs SSGC,Army vs NBP,HeC vs Punjab W,Railways vs Punjab C. Jan 15, Sindh vs KPK,FATA vs islamabad, Punjab W vs Balochistan. The draws of the second round will be announced later. The final will be played on January 16. Director General, Sports Board Punjab, Usman Anwar will inaugurate the event.

Bangladesh board seeks govt clearance for Pakistan tour

LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has requested its government to give approval for a security team to visit Pakistan to assess the arrangements for a proposed tour by the team in April. A senior Pakistan Cricket Board official said the BCB directors have also given approval for the security team's visit to Pakistan ahead of the proposed series. The official said the board had to wait for clearance from its government before finalising the schedule for the security team's trip. The BCB President Mustafa Kamal said they will now wait for advice and directions from the government as it was a matter involving security.

The BCB contacted its government after the PCB officially invited it to send its team for a scheduled Future Tour Program tour in April.

The BCB has made it clear to the PCB that while it is willing to send team to Pakistan, it would depend on clearance from its government and the security team that visits Pakistan for an inspection tour. The Pakistan government has promised foolproof security measures for the Bangladesh team.

Espanyol dent Barcelona’s title hopes MADRID afP

Barcelona suffered a major setback to their hopes of retaining their La Liga title when they were held to a 1-1 draw by city rivals espanyol on Sunday, a result which left them five points behind Real Madrid.

Barcelona took a 16th-minute lead through a header from Cesc Fabregas -- the club's 100th goal in all competitions this season -- but were rocked when Alvaro Vazquez scored an 86th-minute equaliser with a low header. Gerard Pique hit the woodwork in injury-time as Barca's last chance for the three points went begging, leaving Real Madrid, who had coasted to a 5-1 win over Granada on Saturday, in

control of their title destiny. "Difficult game tonight, we left two points but we have to keep going till the end. Now time to rest," Fabregas wrote on his Twitter account. espanyol have an exciting young side and coach Mauricio Pochettino promised that they would go out to attack which they did. Joan Verdu was denied twice inside the opening minutes -first by keeper Victor Valdes and then Pique, who cleared the follow up off the line. At the other end, espanyol keeper Cristian Alvarez played a ball straight to Lionel Messi in front of goal but fortunately for the shot-stopper the Argentine handled it and was yellow-carded. Barca did take the lead when Fabregas, left un-

marked, headed home inside the penalty area after 16 minutes and again the keeper was slow to react as the ball went underneath his dive. espanyol had chances from distance, notably from Sergio Garcia, while Thievy Bifouma also looked dangerous.

It was far from a vintage performance from Barcelona but they looked in control and they could have had a second from Messi who clipped the post with 12 minutes to go. But then espanyol stunned the champions when Thievy headed on a cross to Vazquez who powered it home in front of goal with a diving header.

Pique crashed a shot against the woodwork in stoppage time but espanyol hung on for a point.

CORNeLLÁ: Barcelona's Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (C) vies with espanyol's Argentinian defender Juan Forlin (L) and espanyol's midfielder Javier Lopez (R) during the Spanish league football match. AFP

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

LONDON: The London Olympics countdown clock is pictured as it displays 200 days to go in London’s Trafalgar while (r) the picture shows 2012 Games venues including the stadium (c) and the velodrome (below L) in the Olympic Park. AFP

London marks 200 days till Olympics with legacy in mind LONDON afP

ONDON marked 200 days to go until the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in an upbeat mood on Monday, announcing new deals to secure the future of the mostly completed sites. Prime Minister David Cameron led a special meeting of his cabinet at the Olympic Park in east London, where he said organisers were "well on track" to delivering a lasting legacy for the whole of Britain.

As London prepares to become the first city to host the Olympics for the third time, most of the venues are completed and tickets for all events -- except the hundreds of thousands still available for football -- are

L

sold out. Organisers can take pride in the remarkable transformation of a once rundown area of scrapyards and workshops into a collection of high-tech sporting venues, thousands of apartments and, eventually, a park.

The government announced on Monday that ownership deals had been agreed for the Aquatics Centre, the Handball Arena and Anish Kapoor's 115-metre high red steel Orbit sculpture, ensuring they will survive beyond the Games. The operator of the Aquatics Centre expects 800,000 local users every year, while the Handball Arena hopes to welcome 500,000 people a year for concerts, exhibitions and sports events.

"Today, as we mark 200 days to go, and six out of the eight Olympic venues having already secured their future, we are well on

track to delivering a lasting legacy for the whole of Britain," Cameron said. The excitement has been marred however by the disappointment of hundreds of thousands of British fans who missed out on tickets for the Games in last year's lottery, amid massive demand. There were also red faces last week when organisers LOCOG admitted they had mistakenly oversold tickets for synchronised swimming sessions and were forced to offer thousands of people tickets to other events.

Adding to their blushes, the website for recipients to resell tickets they do not want has been suspended because of technical problems. An additional one million tickets are due to go on sale in April once the final configuration of the stadiums has been worked out, and they are certain to be snapped up.

But as the clock ticks down to the July 27 opening ceremony, chief organiser Sebastian Coe said the acid test of his organisation would be whether athletes could be delivered to their event on time, and ready to compete.

"I never want an athlete telling me he did not make a final because the Olympic Village did not create the right atmosphere, or he did not get the right service or the transport did not work," Coe told the evening Standard newspaper last week.

"The Games have to work for the most important client group, the athletes. I can't screw it up for them. That would be a cardinal sin." In an already congested city like London, few doubt that transport is one of the biggest issues the Games face. Specially reserved Olympic road lanes, reserved for ath-

Another year of glory for Khawaja Iftikhar clan LAHORE aShEr BUTT

Pakistan tennis enjoyed the year 2011 owing largely to the exploits of IndoPak tennis great late Khawaja Iftikhar’s generation -- the third generation now dominating the sport.

Pakistan’s tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi who had already made his name throughout the world with his superlative performance, is now being followed by young Davis Cupper Samir Iftikhar, while another of the family members, national ladies champion and Fed Cup player Ushna Sohail has become the only Pakistani female to make positive vibes across tennis circles at the world level.

Like his first cousin Aisam, Samir has grown up with enough potential to made the country proud in just a couple of years. As of Aisam, who went into the history books as the only Pakistani to have played the US Open final i n

2010 with Rohan Bopanna, broke into top 10 World Ranking in men’s doubles in 2011. During the year he also won three ATP titles at Holland, Stockholm and Thailand.

His most captivating success of the year along with Rohan was the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Paris that also earned him place for the World Tour finals in London.

On personal front, he got married to beautiful and elegant looking British citizen Faha Makhdoom on December 17.

Now boasting of several successes in 2011, Aisam has a new year resolution of becoming the top ranked doubles tennis player. And there are reasons to believe him. He is now raring to start off with major grand slam tournament, the Australian Open. On the junior side, his follower, the 19-year-old Samir is seen as the only player to replace Aisam once the Pakistan great bids adieu to the game. This youngster who is on a schol-

arship from International Tennis Federation is termed as Pakistan’s future hope and dubbed as world class talent by tennis experts.

Like Aisam, Samir is the only Pakistani player to have won four back to back ITF Junior World Ranking titles since his tennis debut in 1998. At such a tender age, he was the only junior Pakistani player who broke the domination of Aqeel Khan, Jalil khan and Yasir Khan by winning the national men’s and junior titles.

He also earned the distinction of being the fittest Under20 Asian Player by the Asian Tennis Federation at HPeC camp in Thailand.

Being termed as a “new chapter in Pakistan Tennis“ in February 2011, Samir powered his way into the Pakistan Davis Cup team with unbeaten run at the national trials where he ousted experienced Davis Cuppers Jalil Khan and Yasir Khan. He achieved ano t h e r break-

through in his career in 2011 by passing his A levels and prerequisite Sat test despite devoting full time to the game and on the recommendation of ITF, he earned a four year Athletic and educational Scholarship at University of New Mexico where he is being groomed by international coaches.

Samir also finished the 2011 semester in USA with flying colors and matched academic achievement with tennis glory by achieving highest 3.75 (A plus) average in exams and will restart US university in January where hectic NCAA Intervarsity Season awaits for him. Like his mentor Aisam, Samir too has his goals to represent Pakistan in Davis Cup and bring as much laurels for the country as his first cousin.

With the standard of the game declining in the country, and Aisam and Aqeel reaching the peaks of their careers, newly found talent of Samir seems the only hope of the country’s tennis but all he needs is proper support from the PTF, corporate sector as well as the government.

letes, officials and the media are designed to ensure competitors are not delayed but their effect is likely to be traffic snarl-ups elsewhere in the capital. British ministers are hoping the Olympics and the celebrations marking the queen's 60 years on the throne this year will help lift the country out of the economic doldrums, as it faces the real prospect of a return to recession. But Cameron has faced criticism for ordering an additional £41 million ($63 million, 50 million euros) to be spent on the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, which many view as frivolous at a time of austerity. "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle has the difficult task of ensuring that London's opening ceremony can compete with the spectacular show staged by Beijing four years ago.

Muneer shines at Club indigo Golf invitational KARACHI STaff rEPOrT

Mobilink inaugurated the 5th annual Club Indigo Golf Invitational, with the first leg of the tournament organised at the Karachi Golf Club.

The one day event in Karachi attracted over 100 amateur golfers, representing a diverse segment of Karachi’s corporate and business sector, making for a well competed event, providing healthy entertainment and promoting golf in Pakistan.

Similar tournaments will be held for Club Indigo members in Lahore and Islamabad over the coming weeks. The leading players of the competition were Muneer Feroze (Winner Gross) and Faisal Iftikhar (Winner Net).

Irfan Akram, Vice President Customer Care at Mobilink highlighted, “It is a great pleasure to see the enthusiasm displayed by Karachi’s golfers at the Club Indigo Golf Invitational. With your fervor and support over the years, this recreational event has turned into a popular sporting activity. Mobilink will continue to nurture golfing talent in Pakistan through such tangible efforts.”

The Club Indigo Golf Invitational has been organized nationwide since 2007, and has become one of the most prestigious corporate golf tournaments in Pakistan, with the 18-hole tournament attracting golfing enthusiasts from across the Mobilink Indigo customer base.

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Sports 21

Bartoli defeats Polona Hercog in Sydney

wAtCh It LIvE ESPN 2012 Allstate Bcs National Championship 07:00AM

ESPN Sports Center 08:00PM

PRU announces ambitious itinerary LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Raonic wins thrilling Chennai Open final CHENNAI

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Big-serving Milos Raonic enhanced his reputation as one of the hottest young stars in men's tennis when he won the ATP Chennai Open title on Sunday in a nail-biting encounter. The 21-year-old Canadian, named the ATP's newcomer of 2011 for jumping from 156 to 31 in the rankings, overcame world number nine and top seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/4). The six feet, five inches (196 centimetres) tall Raonic blasted 35 aces against Tipsarevic's eight to win only his second career title after a rousing final that lasted three hours and 13 minutes. Raonic earned $71,000 and 250 ranking points, while Tipsarevic got $37,860 and 150 points ahead of the season's first Grand Slam, the Australian Open, which starts in Melbourne on January 16.

Neither player was able to secure a break in the entire match that was watched by a sell-out crowd of 5,200 at the Nungambakkam tennis stadium in the southern Indian city. "It's just an awesome feeling to win another title," Raonic said. "I've just been on the tour for a year and am learning all the time. Here I realised that it is good to have the security of a sound serve and wait for the opportunities to come your way.

"In my three finals so far I have played in seven tie-breakers in eight sets. So I could not have asked for more when the match went my way. "I am happy with the way I played this week on hard court. I was able to return better and served quite well. All this gives me a lot of

SyDNey: Marion Bartoli of France hits a return against Polona Hercog of Slovenia during her first round match at the Sydney international tennis. AFP have loved to level the score at that SYDNEY

Canadian Milos Raonic kisses the trophy after winning the final against his Serbian opponent Janko Tipsarevic at the ATP Chennai Open. AFP confidence going into the Australian Open."

Raonic came from behind after Tipsarevic had taken the tie-breaker in the first set with two superb cross-court passes that left his opponent stranded. It was the first time that Raonic lost a set in the tournament. Tipsarevic saved two break points in the seventh game of the second set, but it was Raonic's turn to dominate the tie-breaker and level the match.

aGENCiES

ORLD number nine, Marion Bartoli of France, defeated 20years-old, Polona Hercog of Slovenia, in the first round of Apia Sydney International. Both contestants locked horns for the third time in their career and Bartoli ousted the youngster for the third time in a row. She played for an hour and 26 minutes before confirming the second round place; final score of the match was 6-3, 6-3.

Previously, eighth seeded Bartoli ousted her opponent in Indian Wells 2010 and again the same year in Madrid Open as well. World number 36, had a great opportunity to minimize the trail of two losses to one but instead she now faces a trail of three head-to-head loses against one of the most powerful women tennis players in the world.

Conventional start to the set witnessed both players holding on to their first serve game as the score moved to 1-1. Bartoli hung on to her second serve as well but her rival failed to do so; opportunity was there for the eighth seed to take advantage but she couldn’t hang on to her serve. Ideally, Hercog would

stage but she was once again stunned with some jaw dropping down the line winner from her opponent. She failed to perform the basic right; simple return was hit straight back into the net; score pushed to 4-2 in favour of Bartoli. eighth seeded French took advantage of the second opportunity and extended her lead to three games with a successful serve game.

Hercog failed to break again that would have allowed her to level the score and extend the set. It was a good battle between the underdog and prolific performer but the experience and pressure played its part as well; Slovenian couldn’t shift to plan B as she was completely owned on her fore hand returns.

Trailing one set down, Slovenian needed to start well but she failed to do so.

Bartoli broke in the first game of the second set and helped her to take 2-0 lead upfront. Both players continued to hang on to their serves and at a do or die situation Hercog couldn’t hang on to her serve in the ninth game. It was crucial for her to hang on and break in the next to level the score but her luck was out.

Marion Bartoli squares off against Aussie Jelena Dokic in the next round.

The Pakistan Rugby Union on Monday held its annual general meeting here at the Servis House and finalised its calendar of activities for 2012. The meeting was attended by PRU president Fawazi Khawaja , PRU sectary Arif Saed, Vice president Ashraf Choudhry, national head coach Rizwan Malik, representatives from the Army, Police , Navy , Wapda, Railway, Punjab, KPK, Baluchistan and FATA. The general council appreciated the events held in 2011. The council also agreed about an even more ambitious calendar of events for 2012 which will include bidding to host an international tournament in Pakistan. President Fawzi Khawaja informed the house that PRU has applied to ARFU to host the Asian under-19 championship Div III in Lahore in early October. The dates of the upcoming National Championship was confirmed as end January. Development of rugby at the grass roots level and specifically in schools colleges was highlighted as a major goal of 2012 for PRU. Fata Rugby Association was granted full membership of the Pakistan Rugby Union.

Cashed-up Open lures big names SYDNEY aGENCiES

LATe last year, Australian golf was the centre of the universe - with the Presidents Cup flowing to either side of the US-Internationals clash for the Australian Open and the Australian PGA Championship, and the irony was that it was a humble Greg Chalmers who won both. Now, the stage is clear for some of the world's best women golfers to play in two major titles - the Australian Ladies Masters and Women's Australian Open - in the first two weeks of February. For the past two decades it has been the Masters leading the way in the quality of its field but this year Golf Australia has found the cash to persuade the LPGA Tour to co-sanction the Open while Masters promoter Bob Tuohy could not. The result is that the Masters has a slightly inferior field and a total purse of $500,000, while the Open has prizemoney of $US1.1 million ($1.07 million). Co-sanctioning with the LPGA does come at a cost. Golf Australia must provide airfares and accommodation to every LPGA player and that is estimated to be an additional $800,000 to the tournament budget.

About 80 LPGA players will be in Sydney.

Pentangular Cup Cricket from 19th LAHORE STaff rEPOrT

Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday announced the schedule and teams for Faysal Bank Pentangular Cup First Class Cricket tournament 2011-12. The tournament will roll into action from January 19 with all the provincial teams fighting for to honours.

SChEDULE aND TaMS arE aS fOLLOWS: Pentangular Cup (First Class) 2011-2012 (date, teams, venue, umpires, referee, scorer), 19-22 Jan, Sindh-Khyber PK, National Stadium Karachi, Zameer Haider-Shozab Raza, Naeem Ahmed, imran Ali, Punjab-Federal Areas, Diamond Ground islamabad, Shakeel Khan-Saleem Badar, Khateeb Rizwan, Adnan Farooq, 25-28 Jan, Sindh-Baluchistan, National Stadium Karachi, Zameer Haider-Shozab Raza, Naeem Ahmed, Muhammad Ahsan, Punjab-Khyber PK, iqbal Stadium Faisalabad, Shakeel KhanSaleem Badar, Musaddaq Rasool, Tahir Suhaib, 31Jan-3Feb, Punjab-Baluchistan, Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, Riazuddin-Ahsan Raza, Muhammad Anees, Abdul Hameed, Federal Areas-Khyber PK, Arbab Niaz Std. Peshawar, Saleem Badar-Zameer Haider, Aziz-ur-Rehman, Nadeem Akhtar, 06-09 Feb, Pun-

jab-Sindh, Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, Riazuddin-Ahmed Shahab, Aziz-urRehman, Masood Ahmed, Baluchistan-Federal Areas, Multan Stadium Multan, Rasheed Bhatti-Kamal Marchant, Musaddaq Rasool, Zulfiqar Ali, 12-15 Feb, Sindh-Federal Areas, Pindi Stadium Rawalpindi, Riazuddin-Ahmed Shahab, Khateeb Rizwan, Shakeel Ahmed, Khyber PK-Baluchistan, Arbab Niaz Std. Peshawar, Rasheed Bhatti-Kamal Marchant, Muhammad Anees, Nadeem Akhtar, 18-22 Feb, FiNAL, Gaddafi Stadium Lahore. Teams: Punjab: Nasir Jamshaid, Ahmad Shahzad, Muhammad yasin, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Sajid, Mansoor Amjad, Haris Sohail, Ayub Doggar, Usman Salahuddin, Muhammad Saad, Kamran Akmal, Raza Hassan, Ali imran, Bilawal Bhatti, Prince Abbas, Asif Raza, Naseer Akram, Muhammad Khalil, Officials: ijaz Ahmad Jr., Mubashar Nazar. Sindh: Sharjeel Khan, Khurram Manzoor, Aqeel Anjum, Shahzaib Hassan, Fawad Alam, Rizwan Ahmad, Ali Asad, Fahad iqbal, Saeed Bin Nasir, Faisal iqbal, Sarfraz Ahmad, Muhammad Sami, Mir Ali Khan Talpur, Faraz Ahmad, Tabish Khan, Anwar Ali, Tanvir Ahmad, Danish Kaneria. Officials: Saleem Jaffar (Coach), Abdul Hussain Shah (Manager), Khyber PK: yasir Hameed, Riffatullah Mohmand, Akbar Badshah, Shoaib Khan, Muhammad Fayyaz, Adnan Raees, yasir Shah, Khalid Usman, Zohaib Khan, Zulfiqar Jan (WK), imran Khan.

BOCA RATON: LPGA players (L-R) Lexi Thompson, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Cristie Kerr and Brittany Lincicome attend the Morgan and Friends opening evening event at the St. Andrews Country Club. AFP

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Tuesday, 10 January, 2012

10 missing soldiers found dead in orakzai

Another storm brews as nRO verdict deadline expires today

PESHAWAR ShaMiM ShahiD

Ten security forces personnel who had gone missing during a clash with militants on December 21, were found dead in the Kago Qamar area of Upper Orakzai Agency in the early hours of Monday. Their dead bodies were airlifted to Peshawar, from where they were sent to the native towns and cities of the slain soldiers after funeral prayers. Officials said 11 personnel had gone missing during a clash with militants near Dabori in Orakzai Agency, two were killed and 22 others - including a major had sustained injuries. The officials said the dead bodies of the two soldiers killed in the fighting were found soon after the clash. Late on Sunday, the officials were tipped off about a dead bodies of the 10 personnel being dumped in the Kago Qamar area, after which they were recovered. Though there has been no official statement on the incident yet, all 10 of the dead bodies reportedly bore marks of brutal torture. Meanwhile, AFP reported that Pakistani authorities had recovered the slain soldiers in an exchange of bodies with Taliban militants following a clash two weeks ago in the northwestern tribal region. One security official said 23 soldiers were attacked in a late-night assault by up to 100 heavily armed insurgents. Another security official said the 10 soldiers had been beheaded and their bodies recovered in an exchange with the Taliban. “They handed over the beheaded bodies of 10 officials while we handed over four bodies of militants to them,” the official said. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility but said 10 of their men had been killed. “We killed these soldiers during the clash. They had the bodies of our 10 people and we had in our custody the bodies of soldiers and the exchange of bodies took place today,” said Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman ehsanullah ehsan.

Sindh govt decides to arrest Musharraf upon return KARACHI qaZi aSif

The Sindh government has decided that former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf would be arrested when he returns to the country and lands at Karachi airport.

Musharraf had announced at a public meeting on January 8 in Karachi that he would return to the country by the end of this month. He would be arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) former chairperson Benazir Bhutto and leader of Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) Nawab Akbar Bugti. The Sindh government has received arrest warrants from a Rawalpindi court that declared him an absconder. Addressing a press conference, Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Hussain Wassan said the murder case of Nawab Akbar Bugti was registered on October 2009. “A court in Dera Bugti issued arrest warrants for Musharraf and he and two others were declared absconders. A special court in Rawalpindi has also declared Musharraf an absconder and issued his arrest warrants,” he said. “Pervez Musharraf has announced that he will return any day between January 27 and 30.

When he reaches Karachi airport, he will be arrested for the murder of Benazir Bhutto and Nawab Akbar Bugti. He will first be kept in Landhi jail, which is his favorite.

After that, he will be sent to Dera Bugti and Rawalpndi courts. Until today, only civilian leaders were arrested, but now it will be proved that all are equal before law,” Wassan said. “He will be sent to jail after arrest as an ordinary criminal. Facilities of A or C class in jails will be given only on orders of the judiciary,” he added. “As the home minister, it is my obligation to arrest Musharraf and send him to jail,” Wassan said, adding that Musharraf would be sent to the very jail “where he used to send us when he was in power”.

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ISLAMABAD MaSOOD rEhMaN

aTTOCK: an official of the Education Department attacks a protesting student during a demonstration against the rawalpindi Education Board on Monday. InP

Zardari has no confidence in judiciary, says Nawaz g

PML-n chief says unfair to link Swiss cases with Benazir’s grave ISLAMABAD

A

STaff rEPOrT

SKING the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) not to link the Swiss cases with the grave of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif on Monday said President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent statement of accepting only the parliamentary committee’s decision in the memo case was indicative of his lack of confidence in the judiciary.

“The people responsible for the alleged memo that sought US help to prevent a possible military coup in Pakistan should be exposed, as the matter involves the country’s sovereignty and national interests,” Nawaz said while talking to reporters at the Islamabad High Court after appearing before the judicial commission probing into the “memogate”. The PMLN chief said the government was not ready to move a “single inch” in the memo case and wanted to fail the judicial commission. He said while appearing before the judicial commission, he noticed that the government was coming up with all sorts of excuses to create hurdles in the probe. He said the PML-N had not blamed anyone, including the govern-

ment, for the “memogate”, but those behind this conspiracy should be unmasked. Nawaz said, “I am just a complainant in the case. I appeared before the commission to show my respect for the judiciary … the parliamentary committee on national security has done nothing on the issue so far.” After submitting his written statement through his counsel Mustafa Ramday, the PML-N chief said, “It is a grave matter and someone has hatched a conspiracy. They

should be exposed. The secret memo was a conspiracy against the country’s sovereignty, vital interests and vital assets,” he said. Asked about President Zardari’s remarks that he would accept the findings of the parliamentary committee only, Nawaz said this reflected the government’s attitude towards the judiciary.

“This clearly means that the president has no intention to accept the decision of the court and it also indicates that Mr Zardari knows in advance what decision the parliamentary committee would make,” Nawaz observed. “It shows the government’s defiance of the judiciary … it is an expression of no-confidence in the judiciary of Pakistan and the commission … that is why the government is facing problems,” he said. To a question regarding Swiss accounts and the implementation of the SC verdict in the NRO case, he said: “Why is the government reluctant to write to Swiss authorities? Linking the embezzlements with Benazir’s grave is not fair. They must answer whose 60 million rupees have been kept in Switzerland’s banks. This is the nation’s wealth which it wants back.” The former prime minister further said it was “a matter of happiness” that former president Pervez Musharraf had announced his plan to return to Pakistan from self-exile.

countrywide protests rage on against power, gas outages Eight people injured and many vehicles damaged in Kasur

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FAISALABAD/SIALKOT/KASuR/QuETTA aGENCiES/STaff rEPOrT

Prolonged gas and electricity load shedding compelled people across the country to come out onto the streets in protest on Monday, with demonstrations held in Faisalabad, Sialkot, Sargodha, Kasur, Quetta and Gujar Khan.

Hundreds of exporters in Sialkot accompanied by traders, industrial workers, women and children protested against power outages, which they said had crippled the renowned export industry of the city. An infuriated crowd in Sialkot also attacked and ransacked a Gujranwala electric Power Company (GePCO) office during the protest. In Faisalabad, people pelted a vehicle of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) with stones.

A large number of people in Sargodha marched on the roads chanting slogans against low gas

pressure in their area. In Kasur, thousands of people took to the streets after a daylong unannounced load shedding. eight people were injured and many vehicles were damaged in the third such protest in Kasur this week.

Protesters shouted slogans against the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Sheikh Waseem Akhter and MPA Naeem Safdar Ansari led the protests. In Quetta, protesters blocked Saryab Road and Airport Road with burning tyres causing a traffic jam that lasted hours. They shouted slogans against the administration of gas companies.

Meanwhile in Gujar Khan, protesters said they were facing the worst gas load shedding ever, which had coincided with very cold weather.

They said they were not even receiving gas for domestic use.

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

Still reeling from the repercussions of the memogate scandal, the government may suffer another blow as an ultimatum given by the Supreme Court to the government and all the authorities concerned to ensure implementation by January 10 of its verdict declaring the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) unconstitutional, failing which the court would not pass any further orders but directly take action, is expiring today (Tuesday). However, nothing seems to have been done to ensure implementation of the verdict and instead, Law Secretary Masood Chishti, who had to appear in court today, has abruptly left for London without giving a return schedule. The law secretary had to inform the court on Tuesday about the reopening of graft cases against dozens of people, including President Asif Zardari, in Switzerland. A five-member special bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed will resume hearing of the case today. On January 3, the court had observed that it would not pass any further orders for implementation of its verdict in the NRO case but would take action against those responsible for the failure to implement the orders irrespective of their office or official authority. “Make it clear to everyone concerned that the next date of hearing (January 10) will be the last and final and the court will take appropriate action in case of non-implementation of the NRO verdict, no matter how high an authority [those responsible] enjoy,” the court had ruled. On November 26, 2011, a 17-member Supreme Court bench had thrown out the government’s petition for a review of the apex court’s December 16, 2009 ruling, which had struck down the controversial NRO. The rejection had increased pressure on the government to start pursuing the money laundering cases against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders, including the president, in Switzerland. After the December 16 verdict, despite repeated orders of the apex court, the government neither wrote letters to the Swiss authorities to reopen the case against President Zardari, nor did the president claim immunity under Article 248 of the constitution. In that judgement, the court had declared unauthorised, unconstitutional and illegal former attorney general Malik Qayyum’s Continued on page 04