E-paper Pakistantoday LHR 20th Nov, 2011

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Probe memo scandal in 10 days, Nawaz tells govt g

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pakistantoday.com.pk

vol ii no 145 108 pages lahore edition

‘n’ chief says party to approach SC in absence of transparent probe into memo scandal Military should avoid politics Senate poll should be held on time

sunday, 20 november, 2011 Zul-haj 23, 1432

Haqqani not to be condemned unheard: Gilani PESHAWAR APP

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday said US Ambassador Hussain Haqqani had been summoned to explain his position in the memo issue and he would not be condemned without him clarifying his position.

“The memo issue would be taken to its logical conclusion by ensuring the national interest and Pakistani envoy to the US Hussain Haqqani has been summoned to explain his position. It will be unjust and against the norms of justice to jump to conclusion without listening to the point of view of the ambassador,” he told reporters at the walima reception of the son of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masood Kausar Gilani said there was no problem for the coalition government as it had working relationship with other na-

tional institutions. Any step contrary to the law and constitution would not be acceptable and added that the opposition had certain legal options to remove the government, he siad.

“Certain people, yearning for change in government through unconstitutional means, would miserably fail, as the present government was strong and stable enough to counter such moves.” He said there was total understanding and harmony between the state institutions that was not witnessed in the past during any civilian government’s tenure. Gilani said the entire nation was united against anti-state elements and was aware to protect their national interest. The PM added that the present government faced a lot of difficulties one after other, after coming into power, but took up the challenges with patience and courage. He said all major issues would be resolved while keeping in view national interest. To a question

on Imran Khan, he said it was premature to comment and once Imran Khan’s PTI formed government, “it will be become clear who was supporting whom”.

About peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, the prime

STAff REPoRT

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govt confronted with triple challenges | page 02 blowing memo issue out of proportion to do no service | page 09

ji demands inquiry | page 04 gilani weighs options | page 24

Haqqani leaves for Pakistan over secret memo

MANDRA AKISTAN Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif on Saturday demanded the government form an inquiry commission to probe into the Washington memo scandal and the inquiry should be completed in 10 days.

“An inquiry commission should be established with the consent of the opposition so that the issue can reach a logical end. Retired judges like Fakharuddin G Ebrahim can be made members of the commission which should complete the probe within 10 days,” Nawaz said while talking to reporters.

Floating another proposal for conducting an inquiry into the memo scam, Nawaz said the entire National Assembly could conduct the inquiry, which should be completed within 10 days. Nawaz said the issue should not go unnoticed by the government. “The issue of the memo cannot be ignored,” he added. Demanding Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani stop agencies from indulging into the country’s political affairs, the PML-N president said the party would approach the Supreme Court if a transparent probe was not carried out by the government in the memo scandal.

To a question on Senate election, Nawaz said he was not afraid of the election and they should be held on time. Sharif said it was not given necessary that the PPP government would win the polls, as all members in both the provincial and national assemblies were not from the PPP. Without naming Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, Nawaz said there was a need to curb the role of intelligence agencies in politics.

He alleged that the PML-N had proof of agencies’ support to a political party. “General Ashfaq Kayani should stop agencies from indulging into political affairs . Our army should avoid accusations of indulgence into politics,” he said. Nawaz said if anyone wanted to enter the political arena, he must do it on his own power, not with the support of the agencies. The PML-N leader expressed concern over the progress on the Abbottabad commission, saying the inquiry appeared to be heading nowhere. “The PML-N spoke on issues like the Abbotabbad Commission and killing of journalists. Many politicians come to the forefront and play a blame game, but never speak about any of these issues,” he said.

Nawaz said that the PML-N always stood by its principles and the government should be answerable for its role in the incident. “Had President Asif Ali Zardari acted upon the Charter of Democracy, he would have saved the PPP-led government from the disgrace it is facing now,” Nawaz said. He said former president Pervez Musharraf should be tried in the Nawab Akbar Bugti murder case.

“If a person like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto can be hanged, Musharraf should not be spared on the basis of his previous post in the Pakistan Army,” he added. Nawaz said his party had raised voice over Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. “It saddens me how the media has forgotten about the killing of journalists Saleem Shehzad and Wali Khan Babar,” he said, adding that an inquiry should be done until the culprits were brought to justice.

minister said it was the main focus of the government, as the menace of terrorism and extremism needed to be rooted out. To a question, he said, “We are a responsible government” and rejected the impression that there was any difference between the political and military leadership. “The government addressed many issues and challenges by taking parliament and mainstream national leadership into confidence.

The government accepted the demands of the opposition on issues involving national interest and called joint sessions of parliament and formed judicial commissions on their request,” he said.

Gilani said the military leadership explained ceratin defence-related issues to parliament for the first time and praised the army’s positive role in the nation building process.

WASHINGTON onLinE

QUETTA: PPP workers presenting a Sindhi Ajrak to Balochistan Senator Haji Lashkari Raisani during a ceremony to celebrate the Sindh Cultural Day. online

Anonymous SMSs asked 150 MPs to resign or be killed: Malik g

Interior minister says he knows where the conspiracy to kill Benazir was hatched ISLAMABAD STAff REPoRT

Amidst Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz’s threats of tendering resignations en-masse from the national and provincial assemblies to pave way for fresh election, Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday said 150 parliamentarians had recently received anonymous threatening messages, asking them to resign from their seats or else be killed.

Talking to reporters after attending a ceremony held in connection with Sindh Cultural Day, Malik said the messages were sent through SMS to parliamentarians which included senators and members of the national and provincial assemblies. He said with the technical assistance of the FIA Cyber Crime Wing, two people had been arrested in this regard from Larkana. According to preliminary investigation, the culprits misused the identity cards of the detained persons, he added. Malik said the matter was being probed thoroughly and the

Cyber Crime Wing would soon identify the people involved in sending the messages. Malik said he knew about the place where the conspiracy of Benazir Bhutto’s murder was hatched and assured the nation that the killers would soon be taken to task. “One the basis of what is believed to be concrete evidence, the authorities know where the plan was prepared and at which point the attackers changed

their dresses,” he added.

He said other people besides Pervez Musharraf were also involved in the crime. He said the quarters concerned had been directed to interact with Interpol for issuance of red warrants in the Benazir assassination and Akbar Bugti murder cases and bring back the culprits Malik said the assassins of Benazir Bhutto would be exposed when the PPP decided in this regard. To a question, Malik said Pakistani Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani had been summoned to Islamabad to explain his position.

However, he added, the issue of the memo is between a US citizen and the Pakistan’s ambassador to the US and President Zardari had nothing to do with it. Responding to a question with regard to sending a judicial commission to India for probing the Mumbai attack, Malik said almost all the legal formalities had been completed and Pakistan was waiting for Indian reply to identify the place for holding proceedings of the commission.

Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, left for Islamabad on Saturday after an explanation was sought from him over a secret memo to Washington claiming that President Asif Ali Zardari had feared a military coup. Haqqani wrote on Twitter: “On way to motherland. #Pakistan”.

Pakistani businessman Mansoor Ijaz alleged in a column in the Financial Times last month that a senior Pakistani diplomat asked for help in getting a message from Zardari to then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen.

Ijaz alleged that Zardari feared a military takeover following the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May and brought unprecedented public scrutiny on Pakistani leaders.

Earlier, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said he had sought an explanation from Haqqani over the secret memo. Before flying to Pakistani, Haqqani held a sitting with US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman on Friday and discussed the changing political scenario in Pakistan.

The media quoted sources as saying that meeting lasted for more than 30 minutes and the two discussed regional issues, specially the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Earlier, the US State Department said the Haqqani-related media

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02 News

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

LAHoRe

BiSE finally gets it right this time

Today’s

NeWS

WoRLd vIeW

imran Khan: playboy to PM?

Strange bedfellow

Quick look

Story on Page 09

Story on Page 05

Story on Page 16

Govt confronted with triple challenges Coalition govt facing tough week which includes ‘memogate’ investigation, NRo verdict appeal and RPPs case proceedings

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ISLAMABAD

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MiAn ABRAR

ALL it a coincidence, but the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government is facing a flurry of tough challenges as investigation into the memo scam is to be initiated upon arrival of Ambassador Hussain Haqqani, while the Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the government’s appeal against the NRO verdict, and the rental power projects (RPPs) case is also to be taken up by the court next week.

Reportedly, Haqqani has left Washington for Islamabad to join the investigation into the memo episode while official sources claim that the Presidency has conveyed to Haqqani that the government would stand by him.

With his return, the PPP-led coalition government is set to go through a critical test with the investigation into the memorandum sent by a US citizen, Mansoor Ijaz to Admiral Mike Mullen allegedly on behalf of Ambassador Haqqani.

Moreover, soon after the president appointed new judges to the SC, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Thursday formed a 17-member bench to hear the NRO review petition on November 21.

The review petition had come up for

Punjab govt decides: no LG polls LAHORE: Punjab government on Saturday decided not to hold Local Government elections in the province and accordingly decided to not table the Local Government Amendment Bill in the cabinet and the assembly.

Two years ago, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif formed a 13-strong committee headed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Zahid Hamid to amend the Local Bodies system introduced by former President General (r) Pervez Musharraf.

The committee comprising Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, Secretary Local Government, Secretary Law, Punjab’s MPAs and former nazimeen, was directed to hammer out the amended LG bill within three months but the body presented a draft of the bill after a full year.

Sources said CM Sharif wants an upper hand in Local Governments with the help of Punjab administrators.

Meantime, a Punjab Election Commission official said if the provincial government had legislated to the effect, elections could be held. nni

Wheat prices uped to Rs 1150 per 40 kg LAHORE: The federal government has decided to increase the wheat’s support price to Rs 1150 from Rs 950 per 40 kg, media reported on Saturday. Farmers expressed satisfaction at the decision but consumers worried about the imminent surge in price of flour. onLinE

hearing before the court on April 19, and was adjourned. Thereafter, the case could not be fixed as the requisite strength of 17 member bench was not available.

Babar Awan advocate has been officially nominated to represent the federation on November 21, in its pending plea seeking review of SC’s main decision of December 16, 2009.

Advocate Ramzan Chaudhry informed the court on Friday that Awan had been officially nominated and would file a plea in the SC on Saturday in this regard. On April 14, the federation had moved an application seeking the court’s approval to change its counsel Latif Khosa, who was at that time nominated Punjab governor.

Earlier, the SC was asked to allow Khalid Ranjha to represent the respondent but the court asked Advocate on Record Raja Abdul Ghafoor to argue the case if the respondents were not willing to allow Barrister Kamal Azfar, who had moved the review plea to continue with the case.

The bench also rejected a request of Additional Attorney General KK Agha to argue the case. The NRO review petition was subsequently adjourned on April 19 and could not be fixed as the requisite strength of 17member bench was not completed.

The hearing of RPP scam would also start in the Supreme Court on Monday.

SEASONAL DELIGHT: A child eats sugarcane at the sugarcane market in Peshawar. inP

CM battles PPP provincial head in Balochistan g g

Raisani sues Sadiq Umrani for accusing him of Rs 810 million corruption Umrani demands Communications and Works portfolio Quetta SHAHzADA zULfiQAR

Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani sued his cabinet minister and demoted Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Balochistan head Mir Sadiq Umrani for alleging the CM siphoning out Rs 810 million from a secret fund to his younger brother.

Additional District and Session Judge Quetta-IV Nauroz Hoath on Saturday issued notice to Sadiq to explanation the allegation that CM Raisani siphoned Rs 810 million from his privy fund to his younger brother and former PPP Provincial President Senator Haji Lashkari Raisani. Despite the court notice, respondent Sadiq Umrani failed to present himself before the court. The suit filed by CM Raisani demands Sadiq either prove his allegations, tender an unconditional apology or pay Rs 1 billion for failing to prove the allegation.

The CM and the PPP Balochistan head have been embroiled in a tussle after Raisani deprived Umrani of the lucrative Communication and Road ministry after he hurled abuses at Nawab Raisani, currently second in the Baloch tribal hierarchy.

The CM in a calculated move had allotted the department to PPP ministers Agha Irfan Karim and Haji Ali Madad

Jattak by bifurcating it. The CM had forgiven Umrani after Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi intervened before the fuel became tribal.

Umrani, one of the oldest PPP workers and a loyalist of Bhutto family, ran pillar to post seeking the intervention of party’s Co-Chairperson and President Asif Ali Zardari but failed.

It is hoped the suit will not be pursued and either the Governor or PPP high ups will intervene but the precedent has been set in Balochistan that a sitting CM filed a law suit against his own minister and party head to demand Rs1 billion in civil libel. Raisani is supported by the majority of thirteen PPP MPAs/ministers for the action against PPP Balochistan head Sadiq Umrani, who had annoyed both

party members and coalition partners due to his habitual use of objectionable language. Umrani demands he be re-allotmented his portfolio by merging the two ministries again, claiming the party and not the CM was responsible for allotting portfolios.

However, Raisani is adamant that since the C&W department was bifurcated and re-allotted between the PPP ministers, he will not revoke his decision. Both Agha Irfan and Ali Madad, who is also party provincial general secretary were supporters of Sadiq Umrani. However, after getting the portfolios, they put all their weight behind the CM, and countered Umrani inside and outside party as well in the press.

Sindhi topi, ajrak...a day to celebrate Sindhi culture KARACHI AMAR GURiRo

A large number of people, dressed in new traditional clothes, ajrak on their shoulders and the Sindhi topi on their heads, thronged the streets of the province on Saturday to celebrate the Sindh Culture Day. The Culture Day, which is usually celebrated in the first week of December, is being observed early this year in view of the sanctity of Muharramul Haram that starts in a week’s time. The main event was organised on Saturday by Sindh TV at the Karachi Press Club where countless people, including women and children, from across the province gathered to take part in the celebration. Awaz TV also arranged a huge public gathering, and the Sindh government also officially observed the day as Sindh Culture Day. Residents of Sindhi-dominated areas of Karachi, and its suburbs and coastal villages rallied to celebrate their culture sporting ajraks and Sindhi topis. People were seen dancing on cultural songs, among which the most dominant was “Jeay Sindh Jeay, Sindh Wara Jeyan”.

Artistes were observed playing various indigenous musical instruments such as the flute, narr, naghara, borrindo, alghozo, yaktaro, danburo, been and dhol. Meanwhile, the Kawish Television Network is celebrating the Sindh Unity Day today (Sunday) and various programmes are planned for the event.

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

FoReIGN NeWS

ARtS & eNteRtAINMeNt

SPoRtS

Gaddafi’s son Seif ‘arrested’ after three months on run ooh La La! Vidya to beat SRK, Akshay and John? Misbah’s Magic

News 03 CoMMeNt on Memogate: No government version would satisfy the critics.

The puritan’s job: Content filtering is the wrong thing to do.

Humayun Gauhar says: The Quest: There is so much to wrap one’s mind around.

M J Akbar says: A Gandhian paradox: Rahul Gandhi likes to fly, but to where?

Sajid Khan Lodhy says: On Imran’s politics: Is criticism on Imran Khan justified?

Story on Page 21

Story on Page 18

nawaz’s stance has changed for better: ruling parties g

opposition claims PML-N providing support to govt LAHORE nASiR BUTT

The ruling coalition of political parties on Sunday appreciated the change of stance of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif regarding the Senate election and the standing government, while opposition parties labeled his turn of face an attempt to provide support to a beleaguered government.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab General Secretary Sami Ullah Khan appreciated Nawaz Sharif’s comments and said, “Nawaz’s attitude reflects the approach of a true democrat and each democrat had the same attitude towards undemocratic forces.”

He said Nawaz had given anti-democratic forces a signal by stating Senate elections will be held on scheduled time. He said he hoped the PML-N would continue to support democratic norms and avoid agitation.

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Information Secretary Kamil Ali Agha said Nawaz had admitted he had chosen the wrong path and hence had to take a U-turn. He said

Four men appear in UK court over terrorism offences LONDON REUTERS

Four men appeared in a London court on Saturday charged with terrorism offences after being arrested as part of a major police investigation linked to Pakistan.

The men, from the central English city of Birmingham, were detained on Tuesday in a counter-terrorism operation which has seen eight others already charged, including three who are alleged to have been plotting a suicide bomb attack in Britain.

Khobaib Hussain, Ishaaq Hussain and Shahid Kasam Khan, all 19, and Naweed Mahmood Ali, 24, are accused of fundraising for the purposes of terrorism, travelling to Pakistan for training and travelling abroad to commit acts of terrorism.

They were remanded in custody following a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court and will appear again at Kingston Crown Court on December 9, the Press Association reported. Police said their arrests had been preplanned and not made in response to any immediate threat to public safety.

the real duty of opposition was to point out issues of national importance, not agitate against government. He said if the PML-N has decided to begin politics of being a constructive opposition it would bode well for democracy. He said the PML-N wasted 4 years being a friendly opposition but could improve national affairs if they begin positive politics. Awami National Party (ANP) General Secretary Ahsan Wayne said he felt Nawaz Sharif had given a clear signal that no coup would be tolerated.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Information Secretary Cheema said. Nawaz Sharif is the partner of President Zardari and both the PML-N and PPP were concealing their grand alliance and playing out a ‘politics of hypocrisy’. He said the PML-N had protected the PPP in the past and would continue to do so in future. He said the PTI would break the Zardari-Nawaz partnership soon.

Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Deputy Secretary General Dr.Fareed Ahmed Paracha said Nawaz Sharif had provided the government support. He said opposition parties needed to develop a united stance against the present regime.

Story on Page 02

Articles on Page 12-13

Enter: Maryam Nawaz g

daughter of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif confirms joining politics LAHORE

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YASiR HABiB

ML-N President Nawaz Sharif, who always strove to keep family members, particularly females, away from politics, is learnt to have given a green signal to his elder daughter Maryam to join politics and the rumours were confirmed after Maryam admitted that she was in politics while talking to reporters at Home Economics College, Gulberg on Saturday.

“My arrival at the function of college and speech is indicative of fact that I am in politics,” she said, as quoted by a TV channel. She said she wanted to further the noble mission of her father and repair the party’s image regarding women. In the presence of Hamza Shahbaz, son of Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif, who Nawaz has declared his political scion, Maryam’s entry in politics engenders various questions about Nawaz’s political throne. The development seems a major blow to Hamza Shahbaz, earlier considered the new kid on the bloc and being compared to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Experts believe that Hamza, who proved his mettle as a true political

heir of Nawaz Sharif during his exile, the 2008 election and during the governor’s rule, deserved to be retained as Nawaz’s political successor.

Sources said Maryam’s jump into the political arena implied deep family

fissures breeding over the last several years. “Sons of Sharifs did not like one another and same is the case with their daughters, though Nawaz and Shahbaz tried to bridge the gaps,” the sources added. Hazma’s alleged connection with Ayesha Malik also added fuel to fire and pushed Maryam Nawaz to replace him as the political successor, a PML-N senior leader said. “It is also likelihood that after Mayam, one of the sons of Nawaz Sharif — Hassan or Hussain — could announce joining politics,” he added.

He said the PML-N big guns hailing from Punjab, who disdained Hamza for his burgeoning power in the province and whopping role in the CM secretariat, also played a vital role in convincing Nawaz to bring a political successor from among his own family members. The issue of joining politics surfaced after Maryam Nawaz, wife of Capt (r) Safdar, turned down all allegations regarding her assets in London in a TV show. It happened for the first time that a female member of the Sharif family appeared on TV and pleaded not guilty. PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid neither denied nor admitted Maryam’s entry into politics. “I need to ask the quarters concerned and will get to you after a day,” he added. Maryam Nawaz could not be contacted for comment.

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Negative propaganda can be countered with Faiz’s help KARACHI STAff REPoRT

N

ECESSARY arrangements to set up the Faiz International Forum – aimed at countering negative propaganda against Muslims and Pakistan in the world – have been started, said foreign delegates attending the Faiz Centenary Celebrations 2011 on Saturday.

Addressing an audience at the Kothari Parade, Bagh Ibne Qasim in Clifton where the event is being staged, they said Pakistan was confronted with massive negative propaganda and it needed to be dispelled.

“The negative propaganda might be addressed positively by making strenuous efforts to make the people in the US and Europe familiar with the universal message of peace by Faiz,” they said.

Eminent intellectuals and academicians including presi-

dent of Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Musannafeen IA Rehman, intellectual Mushtaq Yousufi, Sadaf Mirza from Denmark, Akram Qaimkhani from the UK, Dr Ali Jawaid from India, Nadira Raj Babar and Zehra Nigar spoke on the occasion.

The delegates said though Pakistanis abroad had been striving to improve the image of the country on an individual level, the establishment of the forum would bring about salient changes through collective efforts. They were of the opinion that people across the globe loved and respected Faiz and that was why his message was fast spreading across the world.

The delegates deplored that Muslims were being declared as terrorists while those posing themselves as the champions of Islam were considered friends even though they were the ones waging wars. They said Faiz never bowed down before a tyrant

and he did not flee from the scene of his struggle. “Therefore, it is the need of the hour that the whole world should be updated with what Faiz wanted and what he practically did for the deprived and the poor masses.” The delegates said it was imperative that the international community be updated on Muslims, especially the Pakistani people, who were liberal, moderate and peaceloving Muslims and wanted to stand beside the international community.

“Radical religious extremists have failed and nobody knows what their names re but the entire world is familiar with Faiz and his companions.

Those who stood by Faiz have been remembered and awarded with prestigious rewards for their deeds,” they said. Eminent Indian intellectual Dr Ali Jawaid said some sections of the society tried to impose on others the idea that there was a conflict between different civilisations today.

JI demands Javed Hashmi urges inquiry into the president, PM to resign memorandum over memorandum issue LAHORE STAff REPoRT

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) ameer Munawar Hasan on Saturday has demanded the government set up a committee to inquire into the memorandum written to former US Army chief Mike Mullen. Addressing the Majlis-e-Shoora of JI Women’s Wing at Mansoora, he said that the memorandum issue was tantamount to a conspiracy against the Army and security of the country. He termed the issue more serious than the National Reconciliation Order (NRO).

He criticised the government, saying that President Asif Ali Zardari and Ambassador Hussain Haqqani should have resigned when Mike Mullen affirmed the memorandum.

He said that the memorandum meant that a ‘US backed martial law’ was being invited in the country.

MULTAN onLinE

Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said on Saturday that the performance of Pakistan Army and the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) could be criticised but the matter of memorandum is as seditious as to talk about disintegrating the country Hashmi was addressing a press conference at his residence. He said that a special session of parliament should be convened to discuss the issue of memorandum and its proceedings should be brought in front of the nation. He said that President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani should resign and present themselves for probe, adding that Ambassador Hussain Haqqani could not be made the scapegoat alone as he

had only a secondary role in the matter. “The matter has a lot of importance for the future of Pakistan. If prompt action is not taken, then the future of the institutions could be jeopardized,” Hashmi said.

Responding to a question, he reiterated his stance that it is neither the ISI’s job to operate in politics of the country, nor did they have any right do to so. He said that when the past government had decided to send the ISI chief to Mumbai, the PML (N) had opposed it.

JoURnALiST EXCHAnGE: Karachi Union of Journalists President Aamir Latif poses for a group photo with the members of a delegation of indian journalists led by Mumbai Press Club Chairman Prakash Akolkar, visiting Pakistan on the invitation of KUJ (Dastoor). online

Special security arrangements for SC building ISLAMABAD STAff REPoRT

AnP will support Saraiki and Hazara provinces: Ahsan Wyne LAHORE STAff REPoRT

In the wake of a fragile law and order and security situation in the country, the Supreme Court (SC) has taken strict security measures for proper court decorum and smooth functioning of the Supreme Court.

According to a press release issued on Saturday by the SC, special security cameras have been installed in the courtrooms as well as at the public entry gates and reception areas of the Supreme Court. From Monday onward, the entry into Courtroom no 1 would be regulated by passes. The passes will be issued to the petitioners, respondents and their learned counsels appearing before the court.

Under the new security scheme, the entry of the journalists who regularly cover Supreme Court proceedings will also be made through passes. Any additional demand for journalists’ entry could be made to the Supreme Court additional registrar. For other people, passes will be issued to all those who are interested to watch court proceedings but subject to seating capacity in the said courtroom.

The Awami National Party (ANP) came up with a fresh stance on formation of new provinces in the country on Saturday when party secretary general Ahsan Wyne said that the party will support formation of Saraiki and Hazara provinces if the people wanted it to do so.

Talking to journalists at a local hotel after oath-taking of newly-elected party office-bearers, Wyne said that formation of new provinces was not a problem for the ANP but steps in this regard should not be taken on behest of one person but inspirations of the public should be given preference.

He said that the ANP be-

lieved in peace and had a strong desire to establish peace in Karachi but if anyone had some misconception that Pakhtuns could be expelled from the city then the party will foil all such plans.

Disowning the people destroying the peaceful atmosphere in Karachi, Wyne said that the ANP was against differences based on ethnicity and sectarian grounds and had no connection with people trying to sabotage peace in Karachi under the name of the ANP. The ANP secretary general rejected former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s local government system, adding that the ANP was in favour of the commissionerate system in Karachi.

He said that the party was a partner in the government

PML-N sets 100,000 target for dhobi Ghat meeting FAISALABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz begun preparations to hold a larger public meeting than Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) in Faisalabad on Saturday. The public meeting that will take place in Dhobi Ghat will be addressed by PML-N President Nawaz Sharif. Dhobi Ghat is being embellished like a bride to make it ready for the address. The PML-N has decided to use historical Dhobi Ghat podium as stage for the meeting. Stringent security arrangements have been made inside and outside the site. PML-N circles said the party had targeted bringing 100,000 people and the screening process of venue of public meeting was being conducted since last night. Arrangements are being supervised by Mian Ghulam Hussain Shahid, President Punjab Youth League and MNAs and MPAs including Abid Sher Ali, Haji Akram Ansari, Malik Nawaz, Rana Sana Ullah and others. PML-N MNAs, MPAs and other leaders will reach Dhobi Ghat in caravans. onLinE

Sindh police get hi-tech makeover, thanks to US g

US provides personal protective gear, security equipments to Sindh police KARACHI STAff REPoRT

To aid the Sindh police in their fight against crime and terrorism, the US has provided personal protective gear and special security equipment to the department.

US Consul General in Karachi William Martin handed over the equipments to the Sindh police at a ceremony held at the Central Police Office on Saturday.

Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan and provincial inspector general of police were also present, while the US diplomat was accompanied by Steve Kraft –director of US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and

Law Enforcement Affairs Afghanistan-Pakistan Office.

The equipments – provided under the US government’s International Police Assistance Programme – include 200 sets of personal protective gear, comprising handcuffs, helmets, batons, binoculars and megaphones, to be used during protest demonstrations, as well as voice-stress analysers, bomb detection equipment, a highroof van and double-cabin police trucks.

Speaking on the occasion, Martin said he strongly believed that peace and security will open many economic and commercial opportunities in Karachi, attracting much needed foreign investment.

“There should be no doubts that rule of law and peaceful stability in Karachi will allow private investors to create jobs and provide infrastructure to the people of the city and the province,” he said.

“As a resident of Karachi myself, I know firsthand the challenges that the brave personnel of the police force face everyday,” the US diplomat said, hoping that through better equipment and modern training, the police could meet the extraordinary challenges in Karachi in a better way.

Martin said the equipment handed over was under the first instalment of the programme and the US government would provide more apparatus in the coming days.

“Through International Police Assistant Programme head Steve Kraft, bullet proof vests, helmets, armoured personnel carrier and night vision goggles have been given to the police personnel for protection to make the police more effective for carrying out their dangerous mission of protecting the citizens of Karachi.”

To assist the Crime Investigation Department in its heroic fight to stamp out violent extremism that has claimed far too many innocent lives in Karachi, the CID is being given an explosive analyser, the US envoy said.

“Another 500 sets of Civil Disturbance Equipment are for the Sindh police to enhance the officers’ safety, yet

and thankful to President Asif Ali Zardari, who fulfilled the desire of Pakhtuns by changing the British name of the province and renamed it as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Talking about the future of the party’s alliance with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Wyne said that the party will not separate from the government until it would be compelled to do so. On the memo issue, he said that people were very upset with the situation and the government should immediately call back the Pakistani ambassador to the US and conduct an investigation to find out the facts. The ANP leader said that democracy should not be considered in danger owing to rumours, as political forces would not let anybody takeover.

also allow them to counter-act disturbances with the least amount of force.”

Martin said the US government would also be providing several million dollars in additional support to the police department, designed to enhance the infrastructure, capabilities and training of police officers in the province.

“We hope through our continued support we can improve the [security] environment for our children.”

The US consul general said the aid of equipment valued at more than $8 million, is an ongoing effort by the US government through its diplomatic mission in Pakistan, to provide sophisticated equipment, protective gear, trans-

port vehicles, training and infrastructural support to police officers. “In the past 10 years, the US has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in law enforcement and criminal justice in Pakistan.”

The US diplomat was of the view that fighting crime and terrorism is a noble cause, adding that the US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs takes the lead in helping partner nations’ police agencies to improve their performance and elevate their profile. “The US and Pakistan share a common goal and a common dream – to defeat terrorism and establish law and order for the benefit of all citizens.”

Haqqani leaves continued from page 1 reports and the news of his resignation were purely an internal matter of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was aware of the memo sent to Mike Mullen. Briefing reporters in Washington, Pentagon spokesman George Little said he would not discuss the contents of the letter. Also, former Pakistani ambassador Mehmood Durani denied a role in the secret memorandum, calling his name related to memo ‘nonsense’. Talking to a private channel, Durani said there was no way that he and General Jahangir Karamat could be involved in the “wrong deed”. Durani said he even did not know the main character, Mansoor Ijaz, and had never met him in the US.

LHR pages 4 sports_Layout 1 11/20/2011 2:03 AM Page 5

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

What is Lahore with a food street!

PAGe 06

BISE finally gets it right this time g

Pass percentage magically goes up to 50.26

g

Students dance on streets in jubilation

LAHORE

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STAff REPoRT

OARD of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Lahore re-announced its intermediate Part I result after removing errors in presence of Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman and other senior officials here on Saturday.

Earlier, the intermediate result was announced on October 17 however after students’ protest against enormous errors

in the results the Punjab government announced the cancellation of result and its re-announcement within 45 days.

According to the ‘error free’ result, 1,24,702 students sat for the Intermediate Part-I exam and 62,647 of them passed it. Earlier the result which was announced on October 17 had declared 49,435 of them as pass. The pass percentage in the revised result has gone up to 50.26 percent from the previous 39.64 perecent.

Rehman, speaking on the occasion

DHA to be asked to review controlled area notification LAHORE Gni

The Punjab government has oiled its muscles to formally ask the militarycontrolled Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Lahore to review the controversial Controlled Area Prevention of Unauthorised Construction and Imposition of Reasonable Restriction Regulation 2009 notification, which as per interpretation of the Punjab government has gone beyond the legal jurisdiction granted to DHA, Lahore.

Decision to this effect was taken on recommendations of two high-powered committees, consisting of more than half a dozen higher officials of the Punjab governmentl. These committees were constituted by the Punjab CM. Available documents brought on surface the reasons of bringing the Punjab government at a conflicting path with the DHA, as the two committees clearly showed major concerns that if the status quo was allowed to prevail than at least 38 housing schemes of the LDA would go into direct control of DHA, Lahore. LDA officials came up with their side of the story and showed areas affected by the controversial DHA Ordinance. LDA seemed worst affected as the fate of 38 of its schemes, including LDA Avenue-1, now hangs in the balance after proclamation of the ordinance. DHA had notified a certain area as controlled in its 2009 notification, which basically dealt with planning, development and provision of housing facilities and regulation of DHA. The matters pertaining to DHA

squarely fell within domain of the provinces. The extended limits of DHA, Lahore that resulted from the notification converted the city into a hotchpotch with every city managing institution demanding its share in the pie. The extended limits encompassed Burki Road, Ring Road, Village Tara and Village Mandiawala from North BRB Canal on the East, Hudiara Drain from The South and Ferozepur Road and Ruhi Nalla on the West. The DHA notification restricted individuals or groups to carry out any activity without by-passing DHA. It also prohibited individuals to launch any housing scheme or cooperative society without prior permission of DHA. The notification even gives the right to enter upon the land of the socalled 'Controlled Area' for inspection to DHA bosses. The notification also bars owners to construct structure without prior permission. The notification imposed other stringent measures under its 'Controlled Area. The CM was not satisfied with this situation and convinced that the situation will allow DHA Lahore to outclass other institutions, particularly LDA, on account of establishing model housing schemes and would deprive him to get any political gain in the forthcoming elections and formed a high-powered committee to examine the legal aspects and factual position regarding boundary matters pertaining to DHA. The highpowered committee deliberated on the issue at length and resolved to form two separate committees one headed by the law secretary to prepare a report on the legal aspect while another committee

under chairmanship of the commissioner was tasked with preparing a report on the factual position. The law secretary committee report revealed that DHA, Lahore was initially constituted under Punjab’s law, the DHA, Lahore Ordinance 1999.

Later, the DHA, Lahore Order 2002 was enacted pursuant to the Proclamation of Emergency. The ordinance repealed the said Punjab Ordinance. The committee found under the existing constitutional arrangement, the subject fell within the domain of the province. The sub-committee constituted under chairmanship of the commissioner to examine the factual site position, transformed the notification on the map and prepared the list of mouzas being affected by it. After thorough brainstorming, the committee made the startling revelation that DHA had actually gone way beyond its legal authority and incorporated the mouzas, which were not under its domain. The committee concluded that jurisdiction of DHA was confined to specified areas ie the areas consisting the land acquired by, or leased to, DHA before or after commencement of the order. Since the order extended only to the specified areas, the DHA notification traveled beyond its jurisdiction hence ultra vires and of no legal effect. The committee proposed to the provincial government to ask the law department to prepare a reference asking DHA to review the notification, as it traveled way beyond the jurisdiction granted to it by the DHA Controlled Area Prevention of Unauthorised Constructions and Imposition of Reasonable Restriction Regulations 2009.

said the BISE Lahore had declared an error free result, adding that other boards in Punjab would also announce their revised results within 45 days. He appreciated the efforts of the Lahore board officials in meeting the deadline.

Lahore BISE Chairman Dr Allah Bakhsh said the board officials even worked during Eid holidays to ensure that result was announced in time. He said the students who wanted to apply for rechecking should contact the board officials and submit applications within 15 days. He said there were no result later on (RL) cases in the current result, adding that results of all those candidates who appeared in the exam had been announced.

Muhammad Umer, pre-engineering group, Roll no 183822 of Government College University (GCU) Lahore scored first position in Part I with 493 marks.

Second position was scored jointly by pre-engineering group students Najam Tariq Roll No 183680, from the GCU Lahore and Fatima Khurshid Roll no 172371 from Punjab College for Women Muslim Town with 485 marks. Third position was scored by Farrukh Mustaq Roll no 183863 pre-engineering group from GCU, Alishba Tahir Roll No 166882 pre-engineering group from Kinnaird College for Women and Ammara Yousuf Roll No 570482 humanities group from Government College for Women War-

burton (Nankana).

In pre-medical group (boys) Zamad Gillani of GCU stood first, Abdul Rafay of GCU second and Sarmad Rafiq and Muhammad Burhan Atta of GCU and Ahmar Saleem of Punjab College of Science stood third.

In pre-medical group (girls) Zabreen Tahir of Kinnaird College scored first position with 473 makrs. Wada Tul Firdous from Falcon Public Higher Secondary School for Girls and Maryam Tahir from Unique Higher Secondary School for Girls scored second position with 472 marks. Irfah Nadeem of KC scored third position with 470 marks.

In General Sciences group (Boys) Muhammad Aamir Eyyaz of GCU scored first position with 474 marks. Rizwan Liaqat and Muhammad Zeeshan of GCU scored second position with 451 marks.

Abdul Sami of Punjab College scored third position with 450 along with Muhammad Zeeshan from Govt Degree College Bhai Pheru.

In General Science group (Girls) all three positions were scored by KC students. Fatima Qamar stood first with 479 marks, Zunaira Ahmad stood second with 477 and Arshia Saqib remained second with 461 marks.

After the result was announced students danced on the beats of drums and shared greetings.

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06 Lahore

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

What is Lahore with a food street! g g

New Fort Road Food Street to be inaugurated after Muharram Special measures adopted to ensure zero interference by govt, CdGL to avoid Gawalmandi-type debacle LAHORE

A

YASiR HABiB

FTER the Gawalmandi Food Street debacle of 2009, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s dream to replace former military dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s Food Street with his own has finally realised.

‘Fort Road Food Street’, located behind Badshahi Mosque near Roshnai Gate, is ready to be showcased after Muharram 10th amid brewing misgivings about delay in its launch and workability.

Preparation is at full swing with almost 99 percent work already complete. Buildings’ facelift work, keeping outer exteriors in their original shape, has climaxed after gates were erected at entry and exit points of the street. The parking lot has been earmarked at the edge of the mosque and special horsedriven carriages would take visitors to the Food Street. The street will be powered by solar panels, reducing the total usage from 50,000 watts to 10,000 watts.

Creation of Fort Road Food Street is a part of the Punjab government’s plan to construct around 9 food streets in Gulberg, Shalimar Town, Nishtar Town, Samnabad, Allama Iqbal Town, Wahga, Aziz Bhatti Town, Ravi Town and Data Gunj Baksh Town.

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM THE DE-

New LHC CJ gets to work LAHORE: Newly-appointed Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed on Saturday summoned a meeting of senior civil judges, additional district and sessions judges and district and sessions judges of all Punjab for Sunday (today) to give them ‘a plan of action’ for improving the justice system in the province, sources said. The first meeting of the judges of district judiciary with their new boss, the new CJ, will be held at 11:30am at Punjab Judicial Complex, located on the Fane Road, Lahore, adjacent to the LHC building. The CJ has directed the district and sessions judges to submit reports on issues and problems faced to the courts at district level so that the problems may be addressed on priority. STAff REPoRT

CEASED GAWALMANDI STREET: In a bid to prevent the new food street from any untoward incident and political interference that caused the downfall of Gawalmandi Food Street, once known as best tourist attraction in Pakistan, Fort Road Food Street is a private initiative worth Rs 40 million and is independent and autonomous of the Punjab government and the City District Government Lahore. The government has also not paid a single penny for its development.

HOW IT CAME ABOUT: To develop the Fort Road Food Street, a society consisting of all the residents of the area chosen for the street was formed under Punjab Co-operative Societies Act 1961. It was named the Society for Development and Management of Fort Road Food Street which constituted a management committee which was formally tasked to develop the Fort Road Food Street.

The committee arranged for a loan from the Punjab Bank that was facilitated by the government. The CDGL has a ceremonial role in the management, with DCO Ahad Cheema the first chairman of the committee, while a businessman, Habib Khan, who owned property on Fort Road, was made the president. According to sources in the CDGL, the food street was to be launched on November 19, however, it will now be inaugurated on Muharram 10.

As many as 25 buildings in a V-shaped street are being restored with the help of famous architects and experts in fine arts.

“This is the first time that special by-laws and Standard Operative procedures (SOPs) have been laid down to ensure the survival of the food street,” said Finance EDO Moazam Supra who registered the society. The Law Department vetted the workability

paraphernalia, he added.

NONPOLITICAL: Society for Development and Management of Fort Road Food Street President Habib Khan characterised the new food street as non-political, saying it would not be associated with any political party and would be run on purely commercial basis. “Being located behind the Badshahi Mosque, Roshnai Gate, Sikh shrine and in the proximity of Mughal era historical buildings in walled city, the street presents a marvelous outlook combining history landscape and traditional food at one place for the visitors,” he added. “All sorts of services including water supply lines, drains, gas pipes and electrical wires had been under-grounded and upgraded and architectural features and exterior façade enriched with balconies is being rehabilitated to ensure original view of the buildings,” Habib Khan said.

“We have also developed a mechanism to keep the food street self-sustaining. Numerous advertisement companies have contacted us to pay whopping amount to exhibit their products,” he added.

In the backdrop of quality monuments Zeeshan Gul, resident at Walled city said that a V-shaped offshoot of the Fort Road was chosen last year to build a replica of ill-fated Gawalmandi Food Street. “The plan had kindled a hope among the residents of adjoining areas that they would soon have business and employment opportunities. However, to their disappointment, a ban was imposed on converting buildings on Fort Road into eateries on the pretext of traffic issues,” he added.

According to some residents, most of the selected buildings are either owned by multinationals or people close to the ruling party bigwigs in Punjab.

lHC to transform into ‘true symbol of justice’: lHC CJ LAHORE JAMALUDDin JAMALi

Newly appointed Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed on Saturday, in the maiden address, urged the Establishment of the Lahore High Court (LHC) to transform the LHC into ‘a true symbol of justice’ for the people of the province by removing all loopholes and bottlenecks in the working of this institution at the earliest.

The CJ gave a work-plan for the gathering of over 1,200 officials from low cadre Naib-Qasids to top officialdoms of the court, including deputy registrars and heads of various LHC braches which have administrative link with the working of entire judiciary of the province.

About 500 chairs were put in the LHC lawn facing the Mall Road for the address of the new CJ but the

Man found dead LAHORE STAff REPoRT

The body of a man was found in the Lower Mall Police Station precincts on Saturday.

According to the police, the body of an unidentified man was found near Peer Maki Darbar by a passerby, who reported it to the police.

According to initial police report, the mad had died some hours before it was found. The police said that announcements have been made to identify the body but nobody has turned up, adding that the deceased is suspected to be a drug addict who passed away due to over-dosage. The body has been shifted to morgue for autopsy

whole of the lawn was jampacked with the employees.

The CJ said the entire staff of court, from clerks to the registrar, is the foundation on which LHC stands and its working, whether it is good or bad, depends on their mind sets and honesty towards their work.

He hinted at the corruption in some of the LHC branches that deal with the litigants and lawyers regarding their petitions and applications, adding that there were some problems in affairs of the branches in Old Building of LHC.

Warning the employees about corruption or bad practices, the CJ said that if an ordinary person commits a mistake or violates a rule, he may be spared but in the case of violations or mistakes by an official, the institutions get ruined.

He said, “The LHC clerks, deputy registrars, registrar and the judges are like one family.” However, if a family member commits a wrong, he must be punished to avoid further mishaps, he added. “But punitive action, if required in any case, will be taken under the rules

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and injustice will not be done to any of the employees,” he said, adding that, “How can we give justice to people if we can not do justice with employees of the court?”

“Forget situations of the past, focus on the present, give output to me, enhance your performance and I will for sure try to end all of your deprivations,” the CJ assured, adding that the transfers and promotions in the next grade will be done on merit only.

He said that, “No one is above the law. I will follow

the rules and the law while running the affairs of the court and I expect that you will also follow the rules and working, remaining in your domain.”

About a proposal to give forced retirement to the LHC employees after 25 years of service, the CJ said that he did not believe in such proposals and they did not need to fear or have job insecurity.

“I know that it is unfair to send home an officer or non-officer after 20 or 25 years of service when they are busy in marrying their children,” he said.

LHR pages 4 sports_Layout 1 11/20/2011 2:04 AM Page 7

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Lahore 07

SC moved against Mullen and Ijaz LAHORE

A PRoMoTinG PRoVinCiAL HARMonY: Sindhi Culture Day being celebrated outside the Lahore Press Club. MUrTAzA Ali

‘reject existing electoral system’ LAHORE STAff REPoRT

Minhaj-ul-Quran chief Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri on Saturday asked the nation to reject the existing electoral system and invited students to play the same role as they had played for the creation of Pakistan.

He was addressing a students’ moot through a video conference from Canada. The moot entitled ‘Students’ Awareness Congregation’ was organised by the Mustafvi Students Movement (MSM) at Nasir Bagh. A large number of students attended the congregation.

While addressing the students,

Tahir-ul-Qadri said that neither the military nor the prevailing electoral system could bring a change, only rebellion from the existing status quo was the last resort.

“I have only called the students now, I will also call the public at Minar-e-Pak-

istan and lead the revolution,” he added.

He said that the political parties were not anti-Pakistan but it was the system which was against the country, adding that the two-party system in the West was successful because there was a proper mechanism of accountability.

He said that some political families were enjoying their hegemony over the politics and regretted that Pakistan has become a colony of international powerhouses. Criticizing the parliamentarians, he said that they were contributing to suicides and unemployment in the society only, adding that the parliament was not more than a rubber stamp.

Ghurki vows to make Lahore PPP’s fortress LAHORE STAff REPoRT

Federal Minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Lahore President Samina Khalid Ghurki on Saturday reiterated the resolve to make Lahore a fortress of the PPP in close coordination with old party guards.

Chairing a party meeting at her residence in connection with finalising programmes for the public gathering on November 26 at the Qaddafi Stadium Cultural Complex on eve of the party’s 45th Foundation Day, she unfolded her future line of action to reorganise the party in the city. Ghurki said that liaison with party workers will be enhanced besides holding regular meetings with them. The PPP Lahore president said that the party leadership was fully aware of workers’ problems and was leaving no stone unturned to deal with the adverse socioeconomic problems in the country. Ghurki directed party office-bearers to mobilise workers for successful holding of the public gathering.

PPP Lahore General Secretary Akbar Khan, Information Secretary Abid Siddiqi, Zafar Masood, Afnan Butt, Zahid Zulfiqar Khan, Khuram Farooq and all zonal and divisional presidents attended the meeting.

STAff REPoRT

petition was filed in the Supreme Court (SC) Lahore Registry on Saturday seeking formation of a judicial commission to probe into a memorandum allegedly written by President Asif Ali Zardari to former US military chief Mike Mullen to help him handle the army.

Barrister Zafarullah and Hashim Shaukat Khan filed the petition. They submitted that Mullen and US-Pakistani businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who allegedly delivered the president’s written message through Pakistani Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, should be restrained to enter into Pakistan after declaring them as most undesirable, hated and anti-Pakistan people. The petitioners said that Mullen and Ijaz had maligned the image of the armed forces, federal government and President Zardari with mala fide to damage the solidarity of the country.

The petitioners made the federation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, Ministry of Interior and Haqqani as respondents. The petitioners said that the conspiracy originated by Americans, Mullan and Ijaz, admittedly was against the interest of Pakistan. They submitted that Ijaz was a deceitful man, who was acting as an agent of the US government.

The petitioners said that the memo was an attempt to create tensions among different institutions of Pakistan. The memo had tried to defame Pakistan’s institutions, they said.

The petitioners requested the court to investigate into the whole issue.

REMAND OF RAjA RIAz ExTENDED: An accountability court on Saturday extended the physical remand of Raja Centre Main Market, Gulberg owner Raja Riaz till December 2.

The accused, who had been an absconder

since 2002, was arrested from his residence in Defence over the charges of embezzlement of millions of rupees in a co-operative institute. The court no 6, while extending the remand, directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) authorities to complete the investigation by the next date of hearing.

Doctors to recommend accused person’s admission in hospital An accountability court on Saturday held that it is for the doctors to recommend admission of an accused person in the hospital and not for the court to do the same.

The court held this in its order based on a report submitted by the District Jail medical. The report was endorsed by Dr. Abdur Rehman of Sheikh Zayed Hospital.

According to details, a reference is pending in an accountability court against Sheikh Muhammad Afzal over the charges of embezzlement of billion of rupees in the Bank of Punjab. During the hearing, the accused had filed an application seeking the court’s direction for medical treatment in Sheikh Zayed Hospital. The court had allowed the same and directed the jail authorities to submit a report in this regard.

On Saturday, the District Jail medical officer submitted his report. According to the report, during the medical examination, the accused requested for his tests to be conducted in the Doctors Hospital and admission in Sheikh Zayed Hospital until the medical tests have been conducted and he has recovered. The court after recording the arguments on report, held in its order that it is for the doctors to recommend or advise admission of the accused in a hospital and not for the court to do the same.

The court also noted that the Sheikh Zayed Hospital has the facilities for the required tests, therefore the accused should be sent to the Sheikh Zayed Hospital immediately as per the previous orders and the accused may be admitted as per the advice of the doctors.

LHR pages 4 sports_Layout 1 11/20/2011 2:04 AM Page 8

08 Lahore

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

WeAtHeR UPdAteS

29 °C High 12Low0C MoNdAY

SUNNY tUeSdAY WedNeSdAY

28°C I 13°C

27°C I 14°C

27°C I 12°C

PRAYeR tIMINGS Fajr 05:11

Sunrise 06:34

zuhr 11:48

Asr 14:42

Maghrib 17:02

Isha 18:27

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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35863950 37588649/37535435

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iT’S THE BoARD’S fAULT!: With the Haj flights already 8 to 10 hours late, the airport authorities choose the busy day time to fix the boards in the main lounge. inP

Traffic jam keeps many trapped for hours LAHORE

M

STAff REPoRT

ULTIPLE factors caused a massive traffic jam in southern Lahore in Samanabad, Yateem Khana, Gulshan Ravi, Multan Road, Sanda, Nawankot and Shera Kot on Thursday.

“It took me more than an hour to reach my house in Samanabad from Civil Secretariat which is only a 20 minutes drive”, a citizen Murtaza Syed said, adding that even small streets were clogged with traffic.

The Traffic Police Department, admitting the huge inflow of traffic, said the jam had occurred because of many events taking place at the same time. A police officer from the department said the wedding season was on its peak and it was a

weekend also, adding “Tahirul Qadri’s ijtema also ended today (Thursday) hence there were more commuters than normal which led to the jam. A truck had also broken down at Babu Sabu and that aggravated the situation.”

The traffic police, trying their best, managed to start the flow of traffic again, he added.

‘Govt machinery being used for PML-N’s public gathering’ LAHORE STAff REPoRT

RAILWAYS CItY StAtIoN (INqUIRY) ReSeRvAtIoN RAILWAY PoLICe

117 99201772 1333

Punjab government employees will be the source of force in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) public gathering at Faisalabad today (Sunday), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Punjab Spokesman Akram Chaudhry said on Saturday.

Talking to party workers at the Muslim League House, Akram said that gardeners and patwaris of the Punjab government will show their strength at the PML-N’s public gathering. Challenging the PML-N leadership for a real show of force, the PML-Q leader said that Punjab’s rulers could not hold a successful public gathering without utilising official machinery. He said that the people of Faisalabad should ask the CM and law minister for failing to protect their life and property.

Remain vigilant, IGP tells officers LAHORE STAff REPoRT

Punjab Police Inspector General Javed Iqbal has asked all police officers to remain on high alert during the coming month of Muharram to ensure that no untoward incident takes place.

Speaking to the field police officers during his visit to Sargodha and Rawalpindi along with the sub-committee constituted by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif today (Thursday), Iqbal stressed upon RPOs, DPOs and senior police officers of both the regions to plan a comprehensive strategy and to ensure that the traffic plan given to them is followed.

PAK-tURK Schools organise ISMo 2011 LAHORE PRESS RELEASE

The PAKTURK International Schools and Colleges, Lahore Main Campus is organising Inter Schools Mathematics Olympiads (ISMO) on Sunday (today) from 09:00am to 02:00pm in the school premises, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education, Punjab.

More than 2,000 students, from class 5 and 8, from all over Punjab are participating in the event.

The top 20 position holders from different categories will be awarded valuable cash prizes, in addition to certificates and shields.

The PAKTURK International Schools has been arranging this unique competition for the last 6 years.

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114 111-786-786

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dAte ANd tIMe: Nov 11 to JUN1, 2012, 4PM to 6PM veNUe: HASt-o-NeeSt CeNteR

dAte: oCtoBeR 29-deCeMBeR 18, veNUe: tHe KNoWLedGe FACtoRY

dAte ANd tIMe: Nov 18-29, 10:00AM-7PM veNUe: GALLeRY 39K

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.

ACtING 101 is a two month certification course for anyone aged 16 and above who wants to learn the basics of stage, theater, acting, script writing. the course will particularly focus on teaching students improvisation, facial expressions, stage movement, theater ethics and understanding plays.

Gallery 39K is proud to present 'zINdAGI to HUM BHI HeIN' - a show of black and white photographs. Works of dr Javed Chawla, Sharjeel Anzar, Shazia Husain, Umair Ghani, Asher Imtiaz, Raj Jalal and Rabbania Shirjeel will be on display.

LHR pages 4 sports_Layout 1 11/20/2011 2:04 AM Page 9

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

US warns of action if Pakistan fails to stop cross-border attacks

News 09

top Pentagon official says it is Pakistan’s responsibility to prevent attacks from its territory on other countries g

WASHINGTON

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L A I M I N G that violent extremist groups from their safe havens in Pakistan were posing a “significant threat” to US forces, a top Pentagon official has warned that Washington would “consider a range of options” if Islamabad did not address these concerns.

“It is Pakistan’s responsibility to prevent attacks from its territory on others, including Afghanistan and our forces there,” Mark Lippert said in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing for the post of assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific security affairs.

“If Pakistan does not address these threats, the United States will have to consider a range of options, but it is best when we have Pakistan’s cooperation,” he told lawmakers in a written response to the question asked to him.

“The ability of violent extremist groups to find support and safe haven in Pakistan poses a significant threat to US forces, the NATO mission, and the long term stability of Afghanistan,” he said, adding that attacks against US and coalition personnel are unac-

ceptable.

Noting that Pakistan has legitimate concerns that should be understood and addressed by the Afghan government in any process to bring about a stable and durable political solution in Afghanistan, he said at the same time Pakistan also has responsibilities of its own, including taking decisive steps to ensure that the Afghan Taliban and affiliated groups cannot continue to conduct the insurgency from its territory.

“Increased action is particularly critical with groups such as the Haqqani network, who continue to maintain close ties to al Qaeda and other violent extremist organisations that pose real threats not only to the United States, but also to the people and Government of Pakistan,” he said. “Pakistani military leaders cannot pick and choose among militant groups,” Lippert said.

“However, Pakistan remains a critical country in the fight against terrorists. Therefore, I believe we should continue to work closely with Pakistan to act against the extremists that threaten US and Pakistani security, and pursue a stable, peaceful, and prosperous region,” he added.

Lippert said going forward, it was vital that Pakistan live up to its responsibilities, including to

Blowing memo issue out of proportion to do no service: Shujaat

BAHAWALPUR onLinE

PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said President Asif Ali Zardari was not a child and had not written any letter to former US admiral Mike Mullen.

Talking to reporters, he said, “Blowing the memo issue out of proportion will do no service.” He held that the PML-Q, not PML-N, would create new provinces. “The PML-N is talking of creating new provinces to take political mileage only,” he claimed.

New provinces, including the Seraiki province, should be carved out wherever they were needed, he said. Shujaat said the go Zardari go movement launched by the PML-N only lasted two days and had badly failed. “It would make no difference if some one quits our party. We had joined the government after keeping in view our party,” he added. Shujaat said the upcoming general election would take place per schedule and the PML-Q would make seat adjustment with the PPP. “The incumbent government would complete its tenure,” he said.

cooperate fully in counter-terrorism matters, to expand its counterinsurgency campaign against all extremists and militant groups that have found safe haven inside Pakistan.

“I understand that in the wake of the Osama bin Laden raid, the Administration asked Pakistan to take a number of concrete steps to demonstrate its continued commitment to a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship. Future provision of security-related assistance will be informed by Pakistan’s response to these requests,” he said.

Lippert said he believes that America’s interests in the region and in Asia more broadly require a stable and constructive relationship with Pakistan.

“The fact that Pakistan is a nuclear state that faces internal threats from extremist organisations adds to the importance of a continued relationship with Pakistan,” he said.

“Preventing, if possible, a potential Pakistan-India conflict is another important strategic interest. It is in the United States’ interest for Pakistan to have a strong, civilian-led government and an open society, to live in peace and security with its neighbours, and to ensure its nuclear assets remain secure, in accordance with international standards,” he said.

CELEBRATinG BEinG SinDHi: Girls dance during a ceremony to celebrate Sindh Cultural Day outside Hyderabad Press Club. online

nADrA office in Gujranwala ‘run by agents’ GUJRANWALA ATif BUTT

The Gujranwala office of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) is becoming a centre of corruption, Pakistan Today has learnt.

Private agents rule the NADRA office, as officials turn people to freelance agents, who charge large amounts for basic services provided by the facility.

The officials, who were already minting money by issuing birth and death certificates, have now got another oppor-

tunity to exploit people after being authorised to register ammunition licenses.

Amir Yaqoob Warraich, a lawyer, narrated to Pakistan Today an account of his experience at a NADRA office for registering his ammunition license. “I went to the NADRA office at Sheikhupura Morr to register my ammunition license, but I was bluntly told to visit “Baig Ammunition Dealer” to get my ammunition registered by paying Rs 2,500 for a license which actually costs Rs 600.” He added that the

fee for a non-prohibited bore license was Rs 600, and Rs 1,100 for the prohibited bore. He alleged that Registration Counter Incharge Usman Butt, along with several other officials, was being paid by the agents and dealers.

When contacted, the NADRA officials denied knowledge of any such practice. Although Warraich won the case, which he had filed against NADRA officials in the sessions court, however activities of the ‘agent mafia’ continue to be reported by NADRA visitors.

imran Khan: playboy to PM? BANI GALA REUTERS

The road to Imran Khan’s palatial spread in the hills above Islamabad is a perfect metaphor for his vision of his political career: twisty and potholed, but ending in a grand estate.

Alone in the beginning but now surrounded by smaller buildings, the house itself is cool and pleasant, with Mughal-era swords arrayed on a coffee table and two playful dogs – one a German Shepherd named Sheru – romping about the carefully manicured lawn. “I built this house,” Khan said as he sat on the shaded veranda eyeing the sweeping vista overlooking the city.

“There was nothing here. It was scrub jungle all around. There was only a dirt track here.”

For Khan, creating something from nothing could be the slogan for a muchcheckered life. A graduate from Oxford and very much a man-about-town in London in the late 1970s, he became one of the world’s most admired cricketers. He was captain of Pakistan’s team of talented but wayward stars and, with many whispers of autocracy, led them to win cricket’s World Cup for the first and only time in 1992.

After years of fund-raising, Khan opened a cancer hospital in the memory of his mother in his native Lahore in 1994. He is a conservative Muslim but was married to a Jewish heiress and then divorced, joined politics and for years been somewhat of a joke in Pakistan’s unruly democracy.

But in the past 15 years, through sheer force of will and a reputation for personal integrity, he has gone from political punch line to a superstar now attracting heavy-hitting politicians to his party, Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaaf. He – and a lot of other people – believe he could very well be Pakistan’s next prime minister.

Khan’s confidence stems from what he sees as a tsunami of support for the PTI in Pakistan as traditional parties falter amid charges and counter-charges of corruption and petty jealousies. But Khan remains relatively untested. In the last 15 years, his party has only briefly held one seat in parliament – his. He does not openly criticise the military but in a book on Pakistani politics published in September, he walks the line, saying, “Only a credible government can save and strengthen the Pakistan army by making sure it stays within its constitutional role. We have no other choice, in order to survive, we have to make Pakistan a genuine democracy.”

It may be all pie-in-the-sky, but Khan, 58, is nothing if not charismatic. Still athletic and craggily handsome with darting eyes and an intense demeanour, he can rarely sit still for long. He fidgets and twists, almost as if he were about to leap to his feet and launch into his fearsome pace bowling. And articulate he does. In an interview, Khan quickly lists Pakistan’s very serious economic problems: electricity shortages, crumbling railways, a crisis in education, massive unemployment and endemic corruption.

“We’ve hit rock bottom,” he said. “It doesn’t get worse than this, where to qualify for any position of important public office, you have to have committed a crime.”

For Khan, the current government headed by Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Khan’s old Oxford classmate Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007 after returning to Pakistan from self-imposed exile, is the most corrupt government Pakistan has ever seen. Transparency International, which listed Pakistan as the 143rd most corrupt country in its 2010 corruption index, might agree.

As such, Khan believes in a fresh start for Pakistan, a country that, like his home

above Islamabad, is a jungle ready to be cleared out and made anew. He believes Pakistan should wipe out the past and rebuild from a clean slate, with he as architectin-chief.

“You only get out of this by a complete U-turn and what we call a New Pakistan.”

He is calling not only for a new government, but a new political order, one based on what he says are the real ideals of Pakistan’s founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Instead of fighting the Taliban militants, Khan said, Pakistan should enter into dialogue with them. He says if he were in power, he could end militancy in 90 days.

A senior Taliban commander and spokesman laughed off this idea and said they would continue the fight. “He is, in fact, living in a fool’s paradise,” the commander

said.

And yet, Khan is no fundamentalist. The idealised Islamic state he says he would build in Pakistan would focus on justice, fairness and equality for all its citizens before the law. It would, above all, be “humane”.

Khan often veers between shrewd political calculations – “as a political party, you can’t rule out alliances” – and what seems to be naive idealism.

His plan to raise revenue for Pakistan is to “inspire” people to pay their taxes through his personal example and somehow rooting out all corruption, boosting the country’s pitiful tax-to-GDP ratio of about 10 percent, one of the lowest in the world.

Some of the parties he has associated himself with in the past are notably lacking in democratic and liberal bona fides, such as the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami, which has cheered the murder of blasphemers and campaigned against laws that would grant women and religious minorities equal status to Muslims.

But how might Khan do in the election?

Given the current flux in Pakistani politics, few analysts would hazard a guess. Many think he could split the right-leaning, nationalist vote currently dominated by PMLN President Nawaz Shari and keep Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party in power.

“He seems to have inspired more people to join the political process,” said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress in Washington. “But to date, his political organization has seemed weak and not well managed, particularly in contrast to his charity.”

Khan himself believes his time has come. “I have this very clear vision, as I say in the book,” he said. “This has been a 15year struggle which no one has conducted in Pakistan before. And now I feel I’m closer to my destiny.”

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10 News Hoti appreciates Ujala’s efforts for child education PESHAWAR STAff REPoRT

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti said on Saturday that the government was making efforts for the training, education and welfare of children and the private sector was also being encouraged to play its role. He was addressing a public gathering organised by the Ujala Welfare Society at the Chief Minister’s House. Ujala is a welfare organization that trains and educates the children of low paid employees of the government. The chief minister is also the patron-in-chief of the welfare society. He said that terrorism resulted in illiteracy, poverty and injustice, however, the government was working to counter these issues. He appealed for donations to the welfare society and expressed satisfaction over the increase in number of children being educated under Ujala, from 20 to 86 during the last six months. He said further that under the “Stori Da Pakhtunkhwa” scheme, 10 position holders of matric and intermediate exams in the province were being awarded talent awards worth Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively, on a monthly basis. He declared that the government will bear entire education expenses of children of 100 high schools from 400 union councils where facility of high school was not available under a pilot project in the next fiscal year.

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

MFN status to India will prove to be economic suicide: Sardar Attique LAHORE

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STAff REPoRT

H E federal cabinet’s decision to award most favoured nation (MFN) status to India will prove an economic and political suicide for Pakistan, former Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) prime minister Sardar Attique Khan said on Saturday.

“The government took this decision in haste without going into the pros and cons of the decision,” he said while talking to a select group of journalists.

He said he and his faction of Muslim Conference always supported cordial and friendly relations with India, but never at the cost of national interest.

However, in the case of MFN status to India, free and fair trade concept had been compromised in the favour of India and it was against the national interest of Pakistan, Attique said.

He said India had awarded MFN sta-

tus to Pakistan in 1996.

“In theoretical terms, it had opened its markets for Pakistani products in the same way as it had done for other countries. Indians are right when they claim that there are no Pakistan specific trade barriers in its import regime,” he said,

GHAZNI CITY REUTERS

Two Afghan police officers were killed in a clash with foreign troops conducting a night raid southwest of Kabul early on Saturday, police and military officials said, adding to Afghan pressure to stop the raids.

Night raids, which foreign troops say are one of their most effective weapons in the fight against insurgents, are a major cause of friction between President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers. Karzai has said repeatedly he wants them stopped.

Saturday’s incident happened when the soldiers, who were involved in a night raid which had not been coordinated with the police, ignored orders to halt when spotted by officers

PESHAWAR onLinE

NADRA has started issuing Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC) to eunuchs in Khyber Pakhtoonkhawa (KPK) in the light of Supreme Court (SC) orders. Over 100 eunuchs from Gulbahar, Gharib Abad, GT Road, Dabgari and other areas have applied for CNICs. Some of the eunuchs showed their gender as male and some as female in their respective forms.

Bomb kills two soldiers in Sui

ARif TAJ

The Awami National Party (ANP) is holding intra-party election for its central command on November 30 and almost all present office-bearers are likely to continue for the next term after being elected against their portfolios, a sources in the party told Pakistan Today on Saturday.

“The central office-bearers, called the Central Cabinet of the party, consist of president, senior vice presidents, general secretary, five joint secretaries, secretary information and secretary finance and it is likely that all existing office-bearers of the central body would be retained and elected afresh for the next term,” the source

in Ghazni province, said Ghazni police chief Zorawar Zahid.

Shots were fired in the resulting clash, he said.

“Foreign troops were planning to conduct night raids but a firefight took place when they failed (to obey) police orders to stop,” Zahid said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a combined coalition and Afghan force called in air support after being fired on at a checkpoint by rocket-propelled grenades, mortar bombs and guns.

“After multiple attempts to identify themselves as friendly forces, the security force was unable to stop the threat and engaged the checkpoint in self-defence, killing two individuals,” ISAF said in a statement.

British home secretary to discuss Mirza’s allegations with Pakistani leadership ISLAMABAD inP

A SiBLinG fAMoUS, A SiBLinG SEEKS ALMS: The disabled brother of famous singer Ghazala Javed collecting alms from people in Swat. online

Most AnP office-bearers to continue in office after intra-party polls ISLAMABAD

He said in the present circumstances, there was a vacuum in supply and demand, as most of the industries were operating at lower capacities due to energy shortage. “India would fill this gap and gradually grab the domestic manufacturing share from local industry,” he stressed.

He accused India of having longterm negative designs against Pakistan.

“After the MFN status, India would demand transit access to Central Asian Republics (CARs),” he said.

“I simply advocate a level playing field for domestic manufacturers and I want same access to Indian markets that is available to Indian businessmen in Pakistan. Pakistan has to consider many facts, like supply of unhygienic wheat in not so distant past by India to Pakistan and export of infected fruits for consumption in our country.” Such issues, he underlined, must be debated and settled before going into MFN trade regime with India.

2 Afghan policemen killed in clash with foreign troops

NAdRA starts issuing CNICs to eunuchs

QUETTA: A bomb blast killed two soldiers and injured two others in Balochistan on Saturday, officials said.

The roadside remote controlled bomb hit a vehicle of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Sui town, some 450 kilometres southeast of Quetta. “Two soldiers were killed and two were wounded in the bomb blast,” A senior Frontier Corps official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

Another senior government official in Quetta confirmed the incident and casualties, adding that the explosion also destroyed the vehicle. AfP

pointing out that the Indian trade regime was such that discouraged imports from low cost developing countries. Attique indicated that imports from India would multiply after the grant of MFN status whereas Pakistani exports to India would stay at practically the same level.

He said other regional countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal got no new markets from India even after signing free trade agreements, while Indian exports to these countries multiplied after these measures. The former AJK PM questioned why was Pakistan was expecting a favourable trade regime from India, when it knew that numerous trade barriers imposed by India concerned even the European Union, the United States and all SAARC members.

He said it would have been prudent had the government and the cabinet interacted with the industry that was the main stakeholder before approving the MFN status for India.

said.

At present Asfandyar Wali is the ANP president, Senator Haji Adeel the senior vice president, while Bushra Gohar, Zahir Khan Oach, Abdul Zahir Kansi, Riaz Shaikh and Aurangzeb Yousafzai are vice presidents. Ihsan Wayen is the general secretary and Senator Zahid Khan is the information secretary. They would continue serving on the same posts if elected for the next term on November 30. The source added that the ANP Sindh president, Shahi Sayed, was also likely to be retained in the next election by the ANP’s Sindh’s chapter. He said the election for the provincial chapter would be held on November 28.

“The central body and provincial chapter of the party have consensus

that Shahi Syed is the most suitable person to head the party in Sindh and agreed to even relax rules to get him elected again if any constitutional hurdle came up,” the source said, adding that a strong man of the stature of Shahi Syed would be vital to the party given the political situation in urban parts of Sindh. Asked about election in the Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the source said most of the present office-bearers, with minor or insignificant changes, were likely to continue. The ANP already completed its intra-party elections in Punjab on November 13.

The ANP has its bifurcated party organisations for Punjab, with separate party structure for the Seraiki belt.

British Home Secretary Theresa May would come to Pakistan on a two-day official visit from November 24.

According to Foreign Office sources, the British home secretary would stay in Islamabad for two days from November 24 to 26.

She will meet the country’s leadership, including President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

The British official would discuss various issues, including the security situation of the country, the war on terrorism and progress of investigation into the killing of MQM leader Imran Farooq in London and former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza’s evidences against MQM chief Altaf Hussain given to the Scotland Yard.

The British home secretary will meet her counterpart Rehman Malik to discuss the issue of illegal immigrants and would give proposal for deportation of these people.

Daniyal Aziz, chairman of Jeeway Pakistan Jeeway Muqami Hakumat (JPJM), addressing a gathering of his political party in Sargodha. Pr

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Editor’s mail 11

zulfiqar Mirza's admission Zulfiqar Mirza has admitted on live television that he secured a loan in violation of rules from a bank, on the basis of political influence to set up a sugar mill which he owns. Credit must be given to him for at least accepting that he has committed a wrong. The same unfortunately cannot be said about others, who claim to be clean and virtuous and act to be holier than the pope.

A loan taken from any bank without equity is in violation of rules and as such an irregularity. Such loans have

Imran’s claim been given in the past and continue to be given and in most cases they end up in default. This started in ’60s when Ayub Khan abused his authority so that Habibullah could secure a loan without sufficient equity to purchase Gandhara Industries.

Financial crimes and bribery are now considered perks of political power, or the right of those holding public offices, including the paid servants of state. They say that behind every such success story, where individuals

overnight in a matter of few years go from rags to riches there is small crime.

Unfortunately in the case of Pakistan, such irregularities have become a norm and are now regularized through abuse of power by those who are paid, or elected to serve as custodians of constitution and our national exchequer.

State and evacuee property are considered kosher for occupation by those wielding power. Our national security is jeopardised from within by those with an insatiable greed for quick bucks and

affluent traders who do not pay taxes.

Flight of capital is facilitated by those who in spite of holding dual nationalities continue to hold public offices in Pakistan and whose policies decide the fate of a country where they have no stakes, nor any commitment. Without rule of law and accountability, Pakistan cannot develop. We either enforce rule of law, or slide to become another Somalia or Afghanistan.

MALIK TARIQ ALI Lahore

the “Memogate” It is not the memo but what it aims at is disturbing. It is not who has written it but why it is written that is important.

The real factor that stands tall is that despite the given opportunities the civilian leadership has failed to subordinate army as an instrument of policy and continues to remain scared of the power it holds.

Utilising that power to its own good and not undermining it is what the civil leadership needs to do.

The memo is a continuation of US pressure tactics to mould Pakistan to take their dictates. This has provided an opportunity to US to target Pakistan army and ISI based on the theme that President Zardari is not the man in the seat, it is army and ISI which is calling the shots. This propaganda is primarily against President Zardari who made accurate assertions when he said that US officials must avoid giving anti-Pakistan statements.

Similarly, any statement against Pakistan army and ISI is not received well as it goes against the nation at a time when Pakistan is engaged in bloody operations against Taliban. Cooperation and respect comes through winning hearts and soul and not by pressure and drone attacks. Doubting President Zardari's intentions to eradicate the militants under the influence of military is not correct.

As the manifestation of endgame in Afghanistan is approaching fast, the US pressure and demands on Pakistan and propaganda against ISI using western media is on the increase. The aim is to force Pakistan to bow before US agenda and change direction ignoring Pakistan's national interest and strategic goals.

This memo is a crude attempt to create doubts about the assertiveness of political leadership and their ability to influence military leadership.

We must not compromise our national security. Since government has denied having sent this memo, it is all the more reason that responsible persons involved in this game must be brought to book as early as possible.

This is a delicate issue of national importance involving security of Pakistan, therefore, must be given highest priority and actors involved must be exposed to the nation.

LT COL (re td) MUKHTAR A BUTT Karachi

Reckless driving The drivers of buses and mini-buses in the city seem to lack sympathy as they drive recklessly, due to this tragic accidents occur in which many valuable lives are lost and many are injured.

The drivers like to overtake and drive fast. They do not follow traffic rules and give no importance to human life. Despite public’s protests, there is no change in the attitude of these drivers.

The authorities must pay attention to this serious problem and take effective and immediate steps in order to minimise frequency of accidents and save people from falling prey to road accidents.

SYEDA ANUM KHALEEQ Karachi

Nationalism is not good To me "A new nation is born" is a dangerous sentence. All mankind is brotherhood. Quran opposes racism and fascism. Nationalism is the mother of all crimes. We have lost millions of people in the name of nationalism. We have also lost humanity in the name of nationalism. To me all nationalities are my nationalities. I love Indians. I love Americans. I love all nations.

KHALID MASOOD Lahore

PTI Chief Imran Khan has been urging politicians to declare their assets. In response, it is being said that this is unreasonable demand as politicians declare their assets at the time of elections as per legal requirement.

Let us be clear and bold. The issue is not of declaration of assets now or at election time. It is a legal matter and our politicians are expert in dodging every law affecting them. In the first place, our lawmakers are not fools to make such law which will indict them. So the laws regarding declaration of assets by politicians are faulty. It is not only politicians who have taken national wealth outside Pakistan but also politicians, corrupt bureaucrats, businessmen, journalists, retired generals etc.

People are now informed, educated and enlightened. They can read between the lines in the statements made by politicians. Rhetoric of politicians cannot befool them in the presence of a vigilant and vocal media.

Imran Khan should understand that the issue is not that of the declaration of assets by a few politicians, the issue is how to force these traitors to bring back national assets. Mere declaration will not make any difference for the poor people of Pakistan.

ASGHAR MAHOOD Islamabad

delayed Haj flights

is PTi threatening PML(n) In today's urban Pakistan, those teenagers who are fanatically making resolutions to vote for the PTI were only little kids when the PML(N) for the first time assumed power back in 1997 and when Musharraf installed a coup against a democratically elected government in 1999. Unfortunately, they do not know much as to what services Nawaz Sharif has rendered for the country.

There is no doubt in the fact that our youth is more vibrant, talented and optimistic than their predecessors used to be. Unfortunately, we live in a world where emotionality takes over rationality when it comes to deciding the fate of a nation.

Whereas talent, vibrancy and optimism may lead to a blind alley, the youth must give a serious thought to their decision related to electing some party to rule. In other words, they must choose a leader they can trust and who can deliver.

They must keep in mind as to which party did deliver and which party did not; who's been defaulter, corrupt, tyrannical, dictatorial and who hasn't been; who did pass the test of making Pakistan a better democracy and who did not. They must keep in mind that whenever a military coup takes place, it becomes the junta's prime concern to denounce and defame the politicians so that the coup operators may chisel a rationale of their illegitimate action; so that they may prove that they were

Illegal cattle farm There are many illegal cattle farms in and around the city that can cause a number of issues. The problem aggravates during the Eid season as many farmers set up their cattle markets right in the roads. No proper space for parking is left which creates hurdle in traffic flow.

Moreover, there is also a danger of infectious diseases spreading in the city.

The area is littered with all kind of rubbish. The wastage of animals causes pollution. The government must pay attention to this serious problem and to

right, clean, rather angels and the 'thrown-outs' were dirty and demons.

One of the PTI's main leaders, Shahid Qazi, resigned from the party alleging that the party wasn't holding elections within it, and was toeing the line of the military establishment.

The youth must keep a sensitive eye on the gravity of the circumstances if the pro-establishment forces are 'somehow' elected. The old game will be played again. Once again, the politicians will be thrown out after sometime. They will be discredited, and some 'clean' hands will hold the reigns thereafter.

The PML(N) has passed the public’s trust and has emerged as a true representative of the people condemning the role of secret channels in policy making of the country. The PML(N) should publicise this role on the social media too.

It is a catastrophic negligence of the party that the workers haven’t done well on the social media wherein PML(N)'s wondrous works could have been highlighted for an effective feedback, ie, winning votes. Imran is suspected to be a pro-establishment force whereas Nawaz Sharif has become the symbol of resistance against the forces responsible for derailing the democratic process.

AHMAD HAMMAD Lahore

take effective and immediate steps in order to minimise the increasing rate of illegal cattle farms at several places of the city and remove them to help people save from distress.

SYED AHSAN ALI RIZWI Karachi

Jail as qualification?

It has been repeatedly claimed by some politicians that by being jailed for their corrupt practices by the government, they served the cause of democracy. The claim is preposterous. The

Delayed Haj flights have multiplied miseries of friend and families who arrive at airport to receive their near and dear ones coming from Saudi Arabia after performing Haj. PIA has broken all previous records of delaying Haj flights.

The normal delay is 9-10 hours that may extend to further 4-5 hours.

Unfortunately, people coming from far flung areas with no boarding and lodging facilities in Islamabad face multiple problems during night stay and have to pay double the price for eatables in the airport area. Onus of bearing extra charges should have been on PIA for providing below average service. Airport premises are jam-packed leaving no space to know about flight arrivals.

Checks by police during entering the airport is also a nuisance. The attitude of airport staff is discourteous and most of the times insulting. Limited parking space adds to the trouble of motorists who find no place to park their motors.

Some heads must roll for this negligent disservice to pilgrims.

IFTIKHAR S MIRZA Islamabad

Missing Sapna

Quaid-i-Azam never went to jail because of his spotless character but even our worthy Prime Minister claimed that he went to jail because he gave jobs to the people and would do the same again.

Giving jobs simply on political concerns without observing rules and merit is downright criminal. Even PM’s son is accused of receiving a Rs 99 lac worth car by the former minister of religious affairs. Where are we headed to when even being jailed is considered a qualification that promotes the cause of democracy?

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI Lahore

Ms Sapna, third wife of Dost Muhammad Khosa, former chief minister, Punjab, now only a minister, has been missing for a few months since she had appeared at Khosa’s residence. She was stopped at the gate of the house and when she insisted on seeing Khosa, the minister’s goons beat her up and snatched her daughter from her. Sapna is missing since the barbarous treatment meted out to her on Khosa’s orders.

What kind of justice system is this, when two sets of rules, one for Sardarzadas and Nawabzadas and other for the poor and downtrodden? Is it not a case fit for a suo moto action by the Supereme Court of Pakistan?

DR JAFFER KAPADIA Lahore

atives were killed, one hopes the incident will highlight for the establishment that extremists of any stripe can, and will, strike out at them whenever it suits. It is shortsighted in the extreme to consider any of these outfits as ‘assets’ for ‘strategic’ objectives. A worrying aspect highlighted by the story is the indication that many security agencies and the civil and military bureaucracy of the country have been deeply infiltrated by extremists.

It appears the four were killed as a result of the rescue operation being leaked to the LeJ. Reports hint at elements within the Punjab police being the source of the leak. This is not the first indication of such infiltration. The cases of ex-commissioner of Malakand Javed Mohammad, the Mehran base attack in

Karachi, the assassination of Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer by a member of Punjab police’s elite commando unit, and many others spring to mind immediately.

It is vital that alongside the war on extremist combatants, urgent action be taken to weed out militant sympathisers from within government and security agencies. One can only hope the Chakwal incident proves to be a blessing in disguise, with the army jolted out of its complacency with regard to violent sectarian outfits. It is also high time the Punjab government learnt some lessons with regard to appeasement of extremists, and acts before the situation reaches a point of no return.

FATIMA BAREE Karachi

Combating militant infiltrators In a recognisable pattern, the version of the Chakwal incident on Friday, November 12 presented by Interior Minister Rehman Malik is different in vital respects to that being reported by other sources like the BBC. While Malik continues to insist the killing of four Military Intelligence (MI) operatives in Chakwal by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) was the result of an operation to smoke out and eliminate criminal and extremist elements ensconced in the area, the alternative account says quite the opposite.

BBC reported ‘sensitive agency’ sources as having revealed that LeJ had abducted four MI operatives as hostages to barter for 20 of their party members arrested in the tribal areas by the military. The four operatives were then killed

when an operation to rescue them was mounted. It is also interesting that ‘security agency’ sources support Malik’s version. However, the reason ‘sensitive agency’ sources and their version appear more credible is that the military is not known to go after militants in the settled areas of Pakistan for various reasons.

Leaders and members of various militant and extremist organisations live and operate freely in many parts of Pakistan’s settled and urban areas, particularly in Lahore, Quetta, Karachi and South Punjab, in full knowledge of government and security agencies. If it was a unilateral strike against an extremist organisation in Punjab, it would have been the first of its kind.

Though it is tragic that four MI oper-

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 on Memogate No need to go overboard

W

hile responsible politicians from across the political divide have called for an independent enquiry into the ‘ Memogate’ affair, elements who have in the past made their services available to the undemocratic forces have pounced upon the issue as another opportunity to upset the system. Presenting themselves as super-patriots they are calling for the extreme possible action against those they accuse of sedition without giving them a chance to explain their position. A number of later day converts to democracy seem to have had a relapse and are using a vocabulary which had gone out of political discourse after the Zia era. Some have demanded summoning of a joint session of parliament to interrogate those being named by media. Others are calling for their trial on sedition charges.

In democracies, there is a method to deal with accusations levelled against important functionaries of state. Instead of turning parliament into a Star Chamber, the accusations are probed by holding an independent and transparent enquiry. The findings can then be taken to Parliament or the court. The government is still undecided about how to proceed, presumably because it has yet to interview Ambassador Haqqani. It cannot, however, defend itself merely by taking shelter under conspiracy theories. It would be fooling itself if it thinks that with the passage of time the storm would subside. Gilani has promised that the issue would be resolved amicably while Rehman Malik has said facts would soon be presented before the nation. No government version of the matter or a probe by the interior ministry would satisfy the critics.

Mian Nawaz Sharif has suggested the formation of an independent inquiry committee constituted by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and comprising members of civil society, legislators and lawyers. The government needs to urgently take the NA into confidence over the issue. It should simultaneously evolve a consensus with the opposition regarding the composition and the scope of the enquiry committee. Meanwhile the PML(N) chief should rein in the hot-headed elements in his own party who are playing into the hands of those who want to derail democracy by issuing irresponsible statements.

the puritan’s job It gets – pardon the language – harder and harder

I

f, perchance, the reader wanted to send the line above as an SMS text on one of Pakistan’s five cellular networks, she would not be able to. The PTA, our telecom watchdog, has banned the word “harder.” Other innocuous entries in the now famous list of banned words include “deeper” and – hold on to your hats, those of you visiting from the 1830s – “breast.”

The banned-words list is a prime example of how to do the wrong thing the wrong way. The wrong way, because the effort reeks of bureaucratic mechanisation, with some PTA section officer having copy-pasted the English list off from some US religious right website. On the one hand it contains words that only a Victorian grandmother would find offence at and on the other, esoteric words that were probably not used to begin with.

It is the wrong thing to do because of the perverse idea. As opposed to broadcast content, the sms message is a form of conversation between two individuals. Seeking to regulate that is the province of none but the most totalitarian of regimes. How much of the airwaves or even the internet should (or can) be regulated is a subject that can be debated endlessly. But to even begin to think along these lines about casual conversation is a slippery slope.

One cannot be accused of blowing decisions like these out of proportion when one argues that the state will eventually move on to ban other words as well.

As a colleague of the protagonist in the classic 1984 (predictable but unavoidable reference) said, newspeak – the language the state was working on – will make thought itself impossible.

Hope is found, however, when one looks at the list of banned words in the native tongue – “tongue”, by the way is banned English word number 1043. The sheer creativity of some of the slurs in the regional languages implies an eventual ability to get around the thickest wall of red-tape.

As anyone who has put in enough time in a boys’ – or, for that matter, girls’ – hostel will tell the reader, there is no stopping the deep, intrinsic and indeed primal need of our species to be guttermouthed. An exercise in futility, PTA.

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

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

The Quest A leap into the unknown

By Humayun Gauhar

F

rom the petty temporal to the sublime metaphysical is a transition that should be made sometimes before one returns to the mundane temporal again. This week we will go ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ and take a leap into the great unknown.

People searching for self-awareness ask questions because they are intelligent and sensitive. They wonder about their existence, what they call ‘being’. They wonder about their separateness from their Creator and ask ‘Why?’ People who are not sensitive may have faith as a matter of course because they were born into it, but lacking any understanding they fail to see the larger cosmic reality. The most famous statement about ‘being’ – “I think, therefore I am” – was made by Abu Seena (Avicenna). Rene Descartes was to repeat it later and the West gave its ownership to him.

Those who haven’t read Shakespeare would still be familiar with Hamlet’s tortured “To be or not to be, that is the question.”

There is great mysticism and metaphysical thought in this, the contradiction of Man’s separateness from God caused by Man’s existence – ‘being’ – reducing the relationship with Him to ‘You and me’ instead of only ‘You’ – being One with God – or even ‘Us’ (here I am a victim of the poverty of language, any language). Which then leads to the Sufi concept of Fana, without an English equivalent.

Fana is annihilation and consummation at the same time – annihilation and yet retention of something of the Self – that leads to Oneness with God, like the drop of water that falls into the river and becomes part of the river – or more accurately, the river itself – but still retains its own qualities – the soul retains its own awareness within the greater awareness that Oneness gives. Iqbal prays for those who dive into the River of Love because every drop contains the depth and qualities of the river – Ghawwas-e-Muhabbat ka Allah nigahaybaan ho; har qatra-e-darya mein darya key hai gehrai.

Ghalib asks the same question as Hamlet: “When there was nothing, there was God; if there had been nothing, there would have been God. I was drowned by ‘being’; had I not ‘been’, what would have been?” – Na tha kuchh to Khuda tha, kuchh na hota tau Khuda hota; dabboya mujh ko honay nay, na hota mein to kya hota?

Hoovay mar kay hum jo ruswa; hoovay kyoon na ghariq-e-darya Na kabhi janaza uthta na kahin mazaar hota You see the river comes up again and

again in Sufi poetry because it symbolizes that endless, timeless flow of the Supreme Being, without beginning or end.

The great Sufi poet of the Punjab Baba Bullay Shah asserted: Bullaya assan tay marna nai, gor paya hoi hor – “I am not going to die, O’ Bullay; that is someone else lying in the grave.” But then, if we get into Punjabi mystical poetry, there would be no end to it. It is a veritable ocean by itself. Any wonder the Sikhs have included a lot of it in their holy book, the Garanth Sahib.

Best of all is that great poem by Siraj Aurangabadi, regarded by some as a pillar of Urdu poetry: Khabar-e-tahayyur-e-ishq sun, na janoon raha na pari rahi; na tau mein raha, na tau tu raha, jo rahi so bay khabari rahi – “Hear the news of the evolution of Love: Neither rapture remained nor the fairy (quest) remained. Neither I remained, nor You remained; Not knowing is all that remained.”

About self-awareness, or the lack of it: Shah-e-bay khudi nay ata kiya, mujhay voh libas-e-berahnagi; na khirad key bakhya gari rahi na junoon key parda darri rahi – “The King of self-abandonment gifted me that apparel of nakedness; that neither intellect could darn nor rapture hide.”

About that moment of understanding, that instant of awareness when all (or a lot) is revealed: Voh ajab ghari thi keh mein jis ghari, liya dars nuskha-e-ishq ka; keh kitab aql key taaq par, jiyoon pari this tyoon hee dhari rahi – “It was a moment unfathomable when I received the lesson of Love; the book of intellect lying on the shelf remained where it was.” Not easy to translate such verses and still retain the spirit.

We talk of ‘moment’ but time is relative.

God alone knows how long or short a moment is in His (or cosmic) time, compared to our measurement. God said, “Kun” – “Be”; “Faya Kun” – “And it came into being.” God said: “Let there be light, and there was light” – the Big Bang when the singularity exploded and started expanding into what we know as our universe. The laws of physics didn’t apply till

it became the size of a grapefruit – which happened in ‘Nano-moments’. A question that has been stumping us is: what did the singularity expand into since space (and time and everything that exists in the universe) was encapsulated in the singularity itself – like when you blow your breath into a balloon, it expands into the space around you. But what if there was no space around you for the balloon to expand into because space was contained in the balloon? Try and wrap your mind around that. Unable to answer the question, scientists chose the unfortunate name ‘nothingness’ for that ‘space’ and put the question away. Years later they decided to revisit ‘nothingness’. They are deliciously discovering that “everything lies in nothing”. Try wrapping your mind around that. To me, ‘nothingness’ is Fana, a ‘place’ between spaces – spaces in the plural because there are many universes, a place for raw energy and evolved minds infused with knowledge and love.

Mairaj or Muhammad’s (pbuh) ascent to heaven happened in a moment in human time when he received knowledge from the Almighty. By no means was he ‘illiterate’.

Muhammad (pbuh) actually was the most incredibly knowledgeable man ever for he received his knowledge direct from the Almighty Himself. As did Moses, when God spoke to him with a Message for the Israelites.

Yes, there are many, many universes, perhaps billions, perhaps trillions, like the billions of galaxies in our universe with billions of stars in each, with millions upon millions of them with planets with millions upon of millions of planets with moons. And the most exciting of all: the uncountable, unfathomable black holes. All this is dynamic, the universe is still expanding, matter in its various forms still being created and destroyed. There is so much to wrap one’s mind around. But one should not go mad.

More next week.

The writer is a political analyst. He can be contacted at humayun.gauhar786@gmail.com

Regional Press

More drone attacks Daily Pakhtun Post Unmanned American planes have once again started rampant strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Drone attacks are being carried out one after the other in the North Waziristan Agency. Consequently, many people have died along with several houses being destroyed. The attacks intensified during the time the Grand Jirga in Kabul was underway. The jirga, besides deliberating on other issues plaguing Afghanistan, is also considering Afghanistan’s relationship with Pakistan in detail.

Taking serious notice of drone attacks in the country, the Peshawar High Court has asked for a report from the federal government in this regard. Its strategy with regards to this problem is vague and ineffective. Military action against miscreants has been underway in the tribal areas of the country but to no effect. All these factors have rendered the borders of the country well exposed to various kinds of dangers but, lamentably, the incumbent rulers are badly entangled in a political tussle for the country’s power echelons rather than attending to

such issues.

In Afghanistan, too, the tussle for taking hold of the government has been going on since long. This ‘tussle’ has continued for the last four decades and has resulted in much bloodshed and warfare. Now that the Grand Jirga in Kabul is being convened, talks are underway regarding a strategic agreement between Afghanistan and America. This might further complicate the issue of governance in Afghanistan. Some Afghan quarters are not willing to cede much space to the Americans. Rather, they want that Afghanistan put certain conditions regarding the establishment of American stations in the country after 2014, the year alien troops were supposed to leave Afghanistan.

The former rulers of Pakistan had given such ‘stations’ to America without placing any conditions on them and the fallout is obvious. The establishment of such American bases in the region, especially in Afghanistan, must be worked out carefully.

Because all such Americans steps would have dire consequences for the region’s stability and that can be ill-afforded.

-Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur Rauf Khattak

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Comment 13

A Gandhian paradox

on imran’s politics

The marketing of Rahul

While critics were busy, he has established his street cred

Third Eye

By M J Akbar

T

he Nehru-Gandhis seem to have a soft spot for grandfathers. When Rajiv Gandhi posed for India Today at the launch of his public career to establish a public image, he ignored Jawaharlal Nehru’s trademark red rose on a khaddar sherwani, and slung a Kashmiri shawl over the shoulder in the manner of Motilal Nehru, the aesthete barrister who forswore a lucrative practice and elite lifestyle to become a Gandhian exactly 92 years ago.

When Rahul Gandhi launched his first independent-responsibility campaign on November 14, at Phulpur, for Uttar Pradesh, he revived Jawaharlal Nehru rather than Rajiv Gandhi. Jawaharlal was born on November 14, 1889; and Phulpur was his constituency in the first general elections. November 14 is also celebrated as Children’s Day. If Rajiv’s preference was iconic, Rahul’s choice is political. His electoral persona is being shaped. The foundation remains true to character: an edgy on-and-off stubble and rolled-up kurta sleeves designed to swoop up campuses and cricket fans. This is layered by a patina of left-of-centre rhetoric aimed at the poor who are beginning to feel a bit ripped off by the trickle-down theory that is the standing rationale for economic reforms, which were envisaged, with minimum fuss, by Rajiv Gandhi, but have become synonymous with P V Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh. In the Rahul calculus, eternal youth plus dynastic charisma plus poverty politics equals hundredplus seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Nehru became a socialist long before he had to fight an election.

Rahul Gandhi’s speechwriters tend towards American Ivy League aca-

demic glamour for intellectual inspiration. Here is something they could use the next time Rahul Gandhi goes to Phulpur. His grandfather was elected president of the Congress for the first time in December 1929, at the Lahore session, which, under his pressure, adopted the historic Purna Swaraj (full freedom, rather than mere dominion rule) resolution. Discussing his convictions, Nehru told delegates: “I must frankly confess that I am a socialist and a republican and no believer in kings and princes, or in the order which produces the modern kings of industry, who have greater power over the fortunes of men than even the kings of old, and whose methods are as predatory as those of the old feudal aristocracy.”

Nehru got his Planning Commission in free India, but the Mahatma was more perceptive. The princes and zemindars are still with us, not to mention modern kings of industry, quite a few of them in Congress, possibly queuing up to polish Rahul’s Nehruvian sentences. Such are the paradoxes of politics.

If a creed has to work, it must carry the weight of conviction, not just the frippery of an electoral tactic. Is Rahul Gandhi indulging in ritual appeasement, or is he seeding the climate for economic policies that he will implement when he becomes prime minister? Has he thought through a simple proposition: social justice is essential to social stability, but what precisely does it mean in 2011 and 2012?

if Rajiv’s preference was iconic, Rahul’s choice is political. His electoral persona is being shaped. The foundation remains true to character: an edgy onand-off stubble and rolled-up kurta sleeves designed to swoop up campuses and cricket fans.

During his first campaign, for the 1937 elections, Nehru was assertive enough – or brash, as his critics might put it – to claim that the socialism he had injected had visibly strengthened Congress. He said in Mumbai on May 20, 1936, “If the Congress has grown stronger, it is because I raised the issue of socialism.” It was at the very least an audacious assertion in the shadow of a Mahatma who had converted Congress from a lawyers’ forum into a mass movement.

Gandhi knew the art of the gentle rebuke. He told the 1942 AICC session, after the Quit India resolution, “In Jawaharlal’s scheme of free India, no privileges or privileged classes have a place. Jawaharlal considers all property to be state-owned. He wants planned economy… He likes to fly, I don’t. I have kept a place for the princes and the zemindars in the India that I envisage.”

Gandhi wanted his heir to understand him, just as he sought to understand his heir, but that socialist gulf was never bridged.

Surely it cannot mean what it did in 1929 and 1937. How do you reconcile the needs of the impoverished with the demands of an expanding middle class? The relevance of any idea is determined by objective reality. India is no longer a colony; it is still cursed with poverty but not crushed by famine and helplessness.

Rahul Gandhi’s slogan for UP is a curious defensive feint disguised as an aggressive jab: Hum jawab denge. It is the sort of phrase that looks more convincing in an advertising agency than a village teashop. Is it a subliminal plea by a new leader, eager to answer questions that no one has yet asked?

Maybe we could begin with a simple one: has Rahul Gandhi thought through a philosophy for the future? Rahul Gandhi likes to fly, but to where?

The columnist is editor of The Sunday Guardian, published from Delhi, India on Sunday, published from London and Editorial Director, India Today and Headlines Today.

By Sajid Khan Lodhy

P

olitics is not easy. Just ask Imran Khan who has been trying hard to make it in mainstream politics for over 15 years. It is easy to criticise Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), more than any other party in Pakistan, for its more than glaring shortcomings. With its erratic politics, the PTI is a sitting duck for critics, and most of the time the critics have their guns aimed right where they should be. For some odd reason, the party has not been able to outgrow its image as that of unruly, mismanaged, directionless youth under a leader whose only claim to political leadership stems from his leading the national cricket team some 20 years ago.

But, is that all that Imran Khan and his supporters have come to be associated with? Does it make him not worthy of a leadership role at the national political scenario? Or, does it all make his supporters any less, or for that matter any more, loyal to him as a political leader as compared to any other leader of the country?

Are not other parties similarly ambiguous on various national issues? These and many other searing questions can set ablaze a trail of criticism that won’t die away even if the politicians were incapable of corruption, monetary or otherwise.

Too many have written off Imran Khan as another pressure group, branding him a puppet of the establishment.

Whether the military establishment has got his back or not, let’s just take a minute here and have a holistic look at the phenomenon that Imran has become. True, all great leaders are not mere flesh and bones, but they are also not all ideas and theories. Much goes on in between. A hundred mistakes may be made and forgiven by the public before a leader establishes his street cred. All because of a simple logical rule of democracy: being the real electorate, it is the public who is the real authority. It is they who in democracy hold in their hand, their own fate and their leaders’. And that’s exactly where Imran’s politics derives its thrust

from: the powerhouse of populism.

Everything he claims he will do if he is catapulted into power appeals to the public’s sentiment. Though the veracity of his claims can surely be questioned, popular public support for his agenda is under no doubt. Therein also lies for him the trick to success in politics – other than what are considered to be ‘shortcuts’. This is also what the other political parties are quite familiar with, for certain feats, like the two-third mandate and NRO, are not possible without sacrificing some of the rules politicians publicly claim to hold dear.

PTI has certainly got something good going on for it at the moment: public support is increasing, the so-called silent majority is stirring, mainstream political parties have been jolted from that perch they so easily obtain through feudalism and the manipulation of ballot box, which they sort of have come to take for granted, a successful jalsa in the heartland of the largest province, much better media foot print and a general perception of a clean class of politicians.

Much of the above is debatable for the skeptic, as it should be. At least, I, for one, – and I am sure there are many more like me – am not ready to express my confidence in a politician who lacks a clear strategy on foreign policy, international relations, economy and terrorism.

But then again, this should not be an impediment in considering Imran a leader whose popularity has been and is increasing compared to the rest of the politicians.

For a comparison, PPP and PML(N) also have no clear policies on most of the issues. PPP claims terrorism must be eradicated but is clueless as to how, much in the same fashion as PTI is. PML(N) hasn’t even taken a stance on this issue, except for perhaps Shahbaz Sharif’s gaffe at placating the terrorists. A discord between both the main parties earlier on the issue of VAT, and now on MFN status to India, explains the fact that they are as much of an expert at economic policies as PTI. Yes, the party has issues and maybe it is not ready for primetime politics but the popularity it has cultivated over time cannot be wished away.

That perseverance pays off, even in politics, is visible after the 30 October jalsa in Lahore. Talks of a third force in the garb of PTI have become ubiquitous; the youth seems energetic and political awareness among the ordinary citizens is on an upward climb. And that, to be fair, is the real impact of Imran Khan and his style of politics. Even if he loses in the upcoming elections, this is enough of an effort to start a snowball effect.

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14 Comment

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Understanding Delhi’s millions A city is the sum of its people

I

n Delhi, this is the season of book launches. Last week Outlook magazine’s editor Vinod Mehta (a selfdeclared ‘pseudo-secular and lover of Pakistan’) released his memoirs and published the excerpts as cover story on his own magazine – with his photo on the cover! So permit me please to talk about my books too.

The other day, I met a friend in Lodhi Garden. She remarked on my unkempt hair. I said, “Who cares! I’m a bloody author of four books!”

On November 25, 2009, as I was eating ram laddoos amid the ruins of Delhi’s

By Mayank Austen Soofi Feroz Shah Kotla, while several pairs of lovers were kissing in the shrubberies, the idea of writing about the decline and fall of the this city stirred my mind. In other words, I wanted to do an Edward Gibbon, the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

But to write The History of the Decline and Fall of Delhi Sultanate, complete with six volumes? To do the research, to catch up with dead despots, to sort through the files of the National Archives of India, to bug the historians… to write it all in a exquisite prose …

Could I do it?

And then one day in a Khan Market café, HarperCollins India’s senior commissioning editor appeared like a djinn and – over date cake with hot toffee sauce – convinced me that if Gibbon were alive today, he would have written four slim guidebooks on the Roman

Delhi Calling

Empire instead. After all, who reads nowadays? I agreed.

And so I worked on my The Delhi Walla books that were published late last year. The four and the final volume appeared this year. The series focuses on the city’s monuments, food, hangouts and people. My favorite is the one on people.

While working on these books, I travelled all around Delhi, sometimes by metro, mostly on foot. One winter morning, I snooped around in Tughlakabad Fort ruins. One muggy afternoon, I walked down Daryaganj searching for the elusive tonga. One rainy evening, I sat around the peacocks in Teen Murti Bhawan. The most romantic was that summer night in Lajpat Nagar Central Market when, after eating gobhi manchurian at a stall, I felt the first rumblings of Delhi belly. Later, in the McDonald’s restroom, I finally became a certified Delhiwalla.

When I first held the books in my hands, I was not exactly feeling like Amitabh Bachchan but I think I did arrive in my own little way in my adopted city where I had migrated to six years ago.

I’d started as a waiter in Radisson Hotel near the international airport.

I’d rented a room in a jaat village called Rangpuri, just behind the hotel.

My neighbours were all drivers. Sometimes we cooked food together on a stove. The landlord’s buffaloes lounged in the courtyard. The water came only in the morning and evening. In the summers I slept on the rooftop; sometimes I would wake up and watch the planes preparing to land. I wondered if one day I could belong to this city.

But who is a Delhiwalla?

Some romantics assume such a man to

be someone hailing from the Walled City. This ideal creature must always be wearing sherwanis and topis. He must be eating kebabs and biryanis daily. He must be speaking in perfect Urdu and – of course – must know his Ghalib inside out. This is actually just one cliché of a dream Delhiwalla. Another one is of a Punjabi living possibly in Tilak Nagar, west Delhi. This gentleman must be eating butter chicken every evening at Kake Da Hotel in Connaught Place. His girlfriend’s name must be Sweety. He must be wearing at least two gold chains. Every week he must be going to pray at Seesganj Gurudwara in Chandni Chowk. Then there’s another stereotype: the barcoded human beings of south Delhi. They buy groceries in Khan Market, shop in Vasant Kunj’s DLF Emporio mall, they never eat Chinjabi food. And they are very beautiful.

All these stereotypes are false and unfair. The city, like other great cities, is constantly evolving and turning into something new. And each person who lives here has his own Delhi. All of us Delhiwallas – we are more than 14 million – are as different from each other as our fingerprints.

Delhi, or for that matter Lahore or any other city, is the story of its people who come to it to make a new life.

They leave behind their private and public histories, adding more substance to a metropolis already rich with too many stories of too many people.

My life’s new project is to make portraits of one per cent of Delhi’s population. Each portrait will have a photograph of the person along with a peek into his life. By the time I finish the project (Inshallah), the looks and the lives of most people I will

Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi

photograph and profile is bound to change. You may wonder then, what is the point?

Look, people are not ruins. They evolve over the years. Trying to sketch a person at a moment in his life is not to mummify him, but to get a sense of the city, his city. The project will help me understand this city better. I’m calling it Mission Delhi. It will be more

satisfying than writing books. Wish me good luck.

Mayank Austen Soofi lives in a library. He has one website and four blogs. The website address: thedelhiwalla.com.

The blogs: Pakistan Paindabad, Ruined By Reading, Reading Arundhati Roy and Mayank Austen Soofi Photos.

Pakistan’s ‘look east Policy’ Too many variables

PoliTact

By Arif Ansar

I

n the previous columns, I have talked about the geopolitical situation of the Middle East, especially the impact of Arab Spring and Iran’s nuclear program on Pakistan and the Afghan reconciliation.

The picture would not be complete without reflection on the balance of power in the Asia Pacific, the trading hub that is increasingly directing the attention of the emerging and established powers alike.

With the European economic problems getting worse, the region of Asia Pacific is taking on an added emphasis. While Pakistan’s economic vision is premised on connecting to Central Asia, it should equally concentrate on the markets of the pacific realm, and should follow the model of India’s Look East Policy (LEP). The success of Pakistan's future East Asia Policy would depend a great deal on how US and China reconcile in the Asia Pacific, and if economic cooperation would cause the security worries to recede.

APEC and ASEAN are the two main bodies facilitating cooperation between nations of the Asia Pacific region. APEC is the Asia Pacific Economic Community, established in 1989 to help facilitate the growth and community of 'member economies'. There are 21 member economies (countries) today, with the original 12 countries consisting of the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea. Since then, Chile, Peru, Mexico, China, Russia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea and Chinese Tai Pei (Taiwan) have also joined.

ASEAN, on the other hand, is the Association of South East Asian Nations, created in 1967 with a much narrower charter than APEC, and only five founding members: Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. Today there are 10 members of ASEAN, with Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar joining at various stages between 1984 and 1999. ASEAN is much more focused on regional stability and community with initiatives involving education, cultural exchanges, research and technological advancement.

Economic interests are of course a part of ASEAN; however, they are far less articulated than in APEC. The future of APEC is widely contended between member economies. For China, the current, non-binding and voluntary nature of the organisation is perfectly suitable

for its needs, and the country has expressed a desire that the 'APEC Approach' continue in its current course. The benefits China has derived from being a member of APEC are manifold, and include the development of over 14 bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTA) since becoming a member.

Japan on the other hand, partly because of the Chinese economic domination in the region is pushing for a more institutionalized and enforceable set of governing principles for

exclusion of the US) are subsumed under the overarching APEC Free Trade Area.

Pakistan is looking at being on the fringe of an increasingly integrated Asia Pacific. The endemic conflict in Afghanistan and traditionally strained relations with India, have limited Pakistan’s trading options. The security concerns have generally overridden the benefits of economic cooperation. This context has forced the country to depend on more distant markets

While Pakistan’s economic vision is premised on connecting to Central Asia, it should equally concentrate on the markets of the pacific realm, and should follow the model of india’s Look East Policy (LEP). The success of Pakistan's future East Asia Policy would depend a great deal on how US and China reconcile in the Asia Pacific. the organisation.

The US shares this view with Japan to a certain extent with 60% of its export heading to APEC member economies. The US is in direct opposition to China, in that the so-called 'noodle bowl of agreements' that has served China so well. The US desires APEC to become a Free Trade Area, so that the more than 150 bilateral FTAs signed between APEC members and other regional nations (to the

of Europe and North America while spurring smuggling locally.

Unable to look West, India’s strategists naturally looked to integrate with the East, for which it had a geographic advantage. Initially India's LEP was directed at South East Asian (SEA) nations like Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and was specifically targeting the ASEAN organisation as a means of thawing relationships that previously had frosty

undertones (Cold War era). In general, the India’s LEP has been quite successful in dealing with ASEAN; although full membership has not been granted, in 1995 India was made a full dialogue partner in ASEAN and in 1996 was made a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

India had more success with the East Asia Summit; it was a founding member of the East Asia Summit (EAS) in 2005.

Although India, as an emerging economic power in the region and an Asian country, had good reason to be included in the EAS for these reasons alone, many ASEAN members only acceded to India's inclusion in order to counterweight the Chinese. This year, US and Russia have also joined the EAS formally. The stature of EAS is thus rising, although a lack of clear purpose and overlap with ASEAN Regional Forum has prevented it from being a more influential organization in the past.

With Pakistan granting India the MFN status, the easing of tensions could lay the foundation for better access to the Indian markets and beyond.

Pakistan has sought inclusion into ARF and ASEAN and despite the efforts of some of Pakistan's friends in the region; India's established role in the organisations has kept Pakistani participation and integration minimal. Just as India’s nod was crucial in matters related to EU, it could also pave the way for a better access to the Asia Pacific.

On the other hand, the emerging American regional security architecture in East Asia

envisions containment of China, with support from Japan, Australia, India and South Korea.

There are increasing indications that US is now moving aggressively towards this goal.

President Obama gave a clear hint on the new US Strategy during his visit to Australia, where he also announced plans to expand military presence in the country, "As we end today's wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia-Pacific a top priority," he said. "As a result, reductions in US defence spending will not -- I repeat, will not -- come at the expense of the Asia-Pacific."

Under the current circumstances, the success of Pakistan’s East Asia policy is dependent on good relations between US and China. The economic and security policies are obviously intertwined and one cannot be at the cost of the other.

While Pakistan gave precedence to economic factors in granting India the MFN status, in the Asia Pacific, security concerns appear to be taking the lead. This could ultimately complicate the Pakistan-India détente.

Conversely, the budding economic cooperation between Pakistan and India could make them realise the true potential of the region, independent of what transpires between US and China.

The writer is the chief analyst for PoliTact (www.PoliTact.com and http:twitter.com/politact) and can be reached at aansar@politact.com.

LHR pages 4 sports_Layout 1 11/20/2011 2:05 AM Page 15

14 Comment

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Understanding Delhi’s millions A city is the sum of its people

I

n Delhi, this is the season of book launches. Last week Outlook magazine’s editor Vinod Mehta (a selfdeclared ‘pseudo-secular and lover of Pakistan’) released his memoirs and published the excerpts as cover story on his own magazine – with his photo on the cover! So permit me please to talk about my books too.

The other day, I met a friend in Lodhi Garden. She remarked on my unkempt hair. I said, “Who cares! I’m a bloody author of four books!”

On November 25, 2009, as I was eating ram laddoos amid the ruins of Delhi’s

By Mayank Austen Soofi Feroz Shah Kotla, while several pairs of lovers were kissing in the shrubberies, the idea of writing about the decline and fall of the this city stirred my mind. In other words, I wanted to do an Edward Gibbon, the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

But to write The History of the Decline and Fall of Delhi Sultanate, complete with six volumes? To do the research, to catch up with dead despots, to sort through the files of the National Archives of India, to bug the historians… to write it all in a exquisite prose …

Could I do it?

And then one day in a Khan Market café, HarperCollins India’s senior commissioning editor appeared like a djinn and – over date cake with hot toffee sauce – convinced me that if Gibbon were alive today, he would have written four slim guidebooks on the Roman

Delhi Calling

Empire instead. After all, who reads nowadays? I agreed.

And so I worked on my The Delhi Walla books that were published late last year. The four and the final volume appeared this year. The series focuses on the city’s monuments, food, hangouts and people. My favorite is the one on people.

While working on these books, I travelled all around Delhi, sometimes by metro, mostly on foot. One winter morning, I snooped around in Tughlakabad Fort ruins. One muggy afternoon, I walked down Daryaganj searching for the elusive tonga. One rainy evening, I sat around the peacocks in Teen Murti Bhawan. The most romantic was that summer night in Lajpat Nagar Central Market when, after eating gobhi manchurian at a stall, I felt the first rumblings of Delhi belly. Later, in the McDonald’s restroom, I finally became a certified Delhiwalla.

When I first held the books in my hands, I was not exactly feeling like Amitabh Bachchan but I think I did arrive in my own little way in my adopted city where I had migrated to six years ago.

I’d started as a waiter in Radisson Hotel near the international airport.

I’d rented a room in a jaat village called Rangpuri, just behind the hotel.

My neighbours were all drivers. Sometimes we cooked food together on a stove. The landlord’s buffaloes lounged in the courtyard. The water came only in the morning and evening. In the summers I slept on the rooftop; sometimes I would wake up and watch the planes preparing to land. I wondered if one day I could belong to this city.

But who is a Delhiwalla?

Some romantics assume such a man to

be someone hailing from the Walled City. This ideal creature must always be wearing sherwanis and topis. He must be eating kebabs and biryanis daily. He must be speaking in perfect Urdu and – of course – must know his Ghalib inside out. This is actually just one cliché of a dream Delhiwalla. Another one is of a Punjabi living possibly in Tilak Nagar, west Delhi. This gentleman must be eating butter chicken every evening at Kake Da Hotel in Connaught Place. His girlfriend’s name must be Sweety. He must be wearing at least two gold chains. Every week he must be going to pray at Seesganj Gurudwara in Chandni Chowk. Then there’s another stereotype: the barcoded human beings of south Delhi. They buy groceries in Khan Market, shop in Vasant Kunj’s DLF Emporio mall, they never eat Chinjabi food. And they are very beautiful.

All these stereotypes are false and unfair. The city, like other great cities, is constantly evolving and turning into something new. And each person who lives here has his own Delhi. All of us Delhiwallas – we are more than 14 million – are as different from each other as our fingerprints.

Delhi, or for that matter Lahore or any other city, is the story of its people who come to it to make a new life.

They leave behind their private and public histories, adding more substance to a metropolis already rich with too many stories of too many people.

My life’s new project is to make portraits of one per cent of Delhi’s population. Each portrait will have a photograph of the person along with a peek into his life. By the time I finish the project (Inshallah), the looks and the lives of most people I will

Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi

photograph and profile is bound to change. You may wonder then, what is the point?

Look, people are not ruins. They evolve over the years. Trying to sketch a person at a moment in his life is not to mummify him, but to get a sense of the city, his city. The project will help me understand this city better. I’m calling it Mission Delhi. It will be more

satisfying than writing books. Wish me good luck.

Mayank Austen Soofi lives in a library. He has one website and four blogs. The website address: thedelhiwalla.com.

The blogs: Pakistan Paindabad, Ruined By Reading, Reading Arundhati Roy and Mayank Austen Soofi Photos.

Pakistan’s ‘look east Policy’ Too many variables

PoliTact

By Arif Ansar

I

n the previous columns, I have talked about the geopolitical situation of the Middle East, especially the impact of Arab Spring and Iran’s nuclear program on Pakistan and the Afghan reconciliation.

The picture would not be complete without reflection on the balance of power in the Asia Pacific, the trading hub that is increasingly directing the attention of the emerging and established powers alike.

With the European economic problems getting worse, the region of Asia Pacific is taking on an added emphasis. While Pakistan’s economic vision is premised on connecting to Central Asia, it should equally concentrate on the markets of the pacific realm, and should follow the model of India’s Look East Policy (LEP). The success of Pakistan's future East Asia Policy would depend a great deal on how US and China reconcile in the Asia Pacific, and if economic cooperation would cause the security worries to recede.

APEC and ASEAN are the two main bodies facilitating cooperation between nations of the Asia Pacific region. APEC is the Asia Pacific Economic Community, established in 1989 to help facilitate the growth and community of 'member economies'. There are 21 member economies (countries) today, with the original 12 countries consisting of the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea. Since then, Chile, Peru, Mexico, China, Russia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea and Chinese Tai Pei (Taiwan) have also joined.

ASEAN, on the other hand, is the Association of South East Asian Nations, created in 1967 with a much narrower charter than APEC, and only five founding members: Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. Today there are 10 members of ASEAN, with Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar joining at various stages between 1984 and 1999. ASEAN is much more focused on regional stability and community with initiatives involving education, cultural exchanges, research and technological advancement.

Economic interests are of course a part of ASEAN; however, they are far less articulated than in APEC. The future of APEC is widely contended between member economies. For China, the current, non-binding and voluntary nature of the organisation is perfectly suitable

for its needs, and the country has expressed a desire that the 'APEC Approach' continue in its current course. The benefits China has derived from being a member of APEC are manifold, and include the development of over 14 bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTA) since becoming a member.

Japan on the other hand, partly because of the Chinese economic domination in the region is pushing for a more institutionalized and enforceable set of governing principles for

exclusion of the US) are subsumed under the overarching APEC Free Trade Area.

Pakistan is looking at being on the fringe of an increasingly integrated Asia Pacific. The endemic conflict in Afghanistan and traditionally strained relations with India, have limited Pakistan’s trading options. The security concerns have generally overridden the benefits of economic cooperation. This context has forced the country to depend on more distant markets

While Pakistan’s economic vision is premised on connecting to Central Asia, it should equally concentrate on the markets of the pacific realm, and should follow the model of india’s Look East Policy (LEP). The success of Pakistan's future East Asia Policy would depend a great deal on how US and China reconcile in the Asia Pacific. the organisation.

The US shares this view with Japan to a certain extent with 60% of its export heading to APEC member economies. The US is in direct opposition to China, in that the so-called 'noodle bowl of agreements' that has served China so well. The US desires APEC to become a Free Trade Area, so that the more than 150 bilateral FTAs signed between APEC members and other regional nations (to the

of Europe and North America while spurring smuggling locally.

Unable to look West, India’s strategists naturally looked to integrate with the East, for which it had a geographic advantage. Initially India's LEP was directed at South East Asian (SEA) nations like Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and was specifically targeting the ASEAN organisation as a means of thawing relationships that previously had frosty

undertones (Cold War era). In general, the India’s LEP has been quite successful in dealing with ASEAN; although full membership has not been granted, in 1995 India was made a full dialogue partner in ASEAN and in 1996 was made a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

India had more success with the East Asia Summit; it was a founding member of the East Asia Summit (EAS) in 2005.

Although India, as an emerging economic power in the region and an Asian country, had good reason to be included in the EAS for these reasons alone, many ASEAN members only acceded to India's inclusion in order to counterweight the Chinese. This year, US and Russia have also joined the EAS formally. The stature of EAS is thus rising, although a lack of clear purpose and overlap with ASEAN Regional Forum has prevented it from being a more influential organization in the past.

With Pakistan granting India the MFN status, the easing of tensions could lay the foundation for better access to the Indian markets and beyond.

Pakistan has sought inclusion into ARF and ASEAN and despite the efforts of some of Pakistan's friends in the region; India's established role in the organisations has kept Pakistani participation and integration minimal. Just as India’s nod was crucial in matters related to EU, it could also pave the way for a better access to the Asia Pacific.

On the other hand, the emerging American regional security architecture in East Asia

envisions containment of China, with support from Japan, Australia, India and South Korea.

There are increasing indications that US is now moving aggressively towards this goal.

President Obama gave a clear hint on the new US Strategy during his visit to Australia, where he also announced plans to expand military presence in the country, "As we end today's wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia-Pacific a top priority," he said. "As a result, reductions in US defence spending will not -- I repeat, will not -- come at the expense of the Asia-Pacific."

Under the current circumstances, the success of Pakistan’s East Asia policy is dependent on good relations between US and China. The economic and security policies are obviously intertwined and one cannot be at the cost of the other.

While Pakistan gave precedence to economic factors in granting India the MFN status, in the Asia Pacific, security concerns appear to be taking the lead. This could ultimately complicate the Pakistan-India détente.

Conversely, the budding economic cooperation between Pakistan and India could make them realise the true potential of the region, independent of what transpires between US and China.

The writer is the chief analyst for PoliTact (www.PoliTact.com and http:twitter.com/politact) and can be reached at aansar@politact.com.

LHR pages 4 sports_Layout 1 11/20/2011 2:05 AM Page 16

15 Foreign News Libya to unveil govt

by Monday ‘at latest’

Obama scores diplomatic victory over China

BENGHAZI

NUSA DUA

AfP

AfP

Libya’s new government is to be announced by Monday “at the latest,” an official of the ruling National Transitional Council said on Saturday.

Fathi Baja, in charge of political affairs for the NTC, said the list being drawn up by interim premier Abdel Rahim al-Kib was “more or less ready.” It would be submitted to the NTC for approval “tomorrow (Sunday), inshallah (God willing),” or “on Monday at the latest” if adjustments were necessary, he told AFP. Baja said the prime minister was playing his cards close to his chest and had been working “in secret” on the cabinet list. The NTC, whose rebel fighters backed by NATO air support toppled longtime ruler Moamer Gaddafi in October, chose Kib, a university professor from Tripoli, on October 31 to form an interim government. Having declared the country’s “liberation” three days after the October 20 capture and killing of Gaddafi, the NTC has launched a roadmap to a new Libya with a 20month countdown to a general election. Kib has said the new government will be formed of technocrats, but he has come under pressure from Libya’s tribes and numerous armed factions which are demanding a role.

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

U

S President Barack Obama on Saturday succeeded in hauling a maritime dispute into an Asian summit despite China’s objections, in a diplomatic victory at the end of his Pacific tour.

The “robust” discussion on the South China Sea territorial row, at the East Asia Summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, took place after a week of increasingly sharp exchanges between the two world powers. Washington’s new diplomatic campaign to assert itself as a Pacific power has alarmed China which sees the initiatives, including stationing US Marines

in northern Australia, as intruding into its sphere of influence. China’s Premier Wen Jiabao has warned against interference by “external forces” in the maritime wrangle, over a strategic and resource-rich area where several regional nations have overlapping claims.

But shortly after hastily arranged talks between Obama and Wen on the summit sidelines, the group leaders held a “very robust conversation on maritime security and the South China Sea” according to a US administration official. Obama was “encouraged” by the talks and the tone was “constructive,” the official said on condition of anonymity, referring to a famous Wild West gunfight by saying it was “not a shootout at the OK Corral”. There was no “tirade” from Wen, he said, adding:

“Even though maybe he started off maybe a little grouchy, by and large he was very measured.”

Chinese state media indicated that Wen reluctantly agreed to the issue being raised at the 18-nation summit.

“I don’t want to discuss this issue at the summit, however, leaders of some countries mentioned China on the issue. It’s impolite not to make a return for what one receives,” he said according to the official Xinhua news agency.

“The South China Sea is an important transportation passageway for China, regional countries and even the world.

The Chinese government has made a positive contribution to safeguard the navigation security in the South China Sea,” he added. China, which claims the South China Sea in full, had insisted on

discussing the dispute individually with its smaller neighbours but the US has now succeeded in making it a topic for debate at an international forum.

The region is a conduit for more than one-third of the world’s seaborne trade and half its traffic in oil and gas, and major petroleum deposits are believed to lie below the seabed. China claims all of it, as does Taiwan, while four Southeast Asian countries declare ownership of parts of it, with Vietnam and the Philippines accusing Chinese forces of increasing aggression there.

At their private meeting, Obama also prodded Wen on economic grumbles that he has repeatedly raised during his Pacific tour, telling China at one point that it must behave like a “grown up” economy.

General killed in Iran blast ‘was working on missiles’ TEHRAN AfP

An Iranian general killed in a massive explosion at a munitions base outside the capital on November 12 was working on an intercontinental missile, his brother told a government-run newspaper.General Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam died while working on a “project related to intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Mohammad Tehrani Moqaddam, a Revolutionary Guards commander, told Saturday’s Iran newspaper. The Guards have said the huge blast — which also killed at least 35 other Guards members at the base, according to media reports — was an accident, implicitly rejecting Western media speculation it might have been an covert Israeli or US attack. Mohammad Tehrani Moqaddam was quoted as saying that his brother’s missile project “was in its final phase” and was “completely hi-tech and secret.” He said he believed the project would still be successfully completed. Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam was known as a key figure in the Revolutionary Guards’ ballistic missile programme. Officials in Tehran said he founded the programme after becoming an artillery specialist in the 1980s, during the Iraq-Iran war.

Cain suggests taliban part of Libya govt WASHINGTON AfP

Republican White House hopeful Herman Cain, looking to explain a gaffe earlier this week on Libya, on Friday suggested the Taliban was part of the new government in Tripoli in a new slip-up. Speaking at a press conference in Florida, Cain defended himself over his rambling response to a question about Libya posed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s editorial board — a video of which quickly went viral. Cain, while admitting he was “a bit fatigued” during the interview, said the reporter had asked him a question that was too vague about whether he agreed with the Obama administration’s handling of the crisis in Libya. “Do I agree with siding with the opposition? Do I agree with saying that Gaddafi should go? Do I agree that they now have a country where you’ve got Taliban and Al-Qaeda that’s going to be part of the government?” he said. “Do I agree with not knowing the government — which part was he asking me about? I was trying to get him to be specific and he wouldn’t be specific.”

The United States invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks to overthrow the Taliban regime, which had refused to surrender 9/11 mastermind and Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Within weeks, the regime had crumbled. Taliban fighters are still active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but there is no hint they are present in Tripoli.

CAiRo: Egyptian riot policemen scuffle with a protester at Cairo’s landmark Tahrir Square on Saturday following clashes after police dispersed a sit-in by people wounded during this year’s uprising. AfP

Gaddafi’s son Seif ‘arrested’ after three months on run TRIPOLI AfP

Murdered Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi’s fugitive son and one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam has been arrested in southern Libya, a senior National Transitional Council official said Saturday.

Seif al-Islam, 39, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was “arrested in southern Libya” by former rebel forces, NTC justice minister Mohammed al-Allagui told AFP, declining to give any details. As the last top figure of the Gaddafi family to have evaded capture or not to have escaped abroad, news of his arrest was greeted in Tripoli by gunmen firing into the air in celebration and the honking of car horns. It came a day before the NTC was expected to name a new government and three months after Seif alIslam was last seen in public.

The operations chief of the victorious rebels in Zintan, one of their strongholds during the eight-month conflict, Bashir Taib, told a news conference that his fighters had arrested Seif along with three aides in the Ubari region of southern Libya, an escape route to Algeria and Niger.

Gaddafi’s son was being taken to Zintan, 170 kilometres (110 miles) southwest of Tripoli, he said, adding that it was up to the NTC to decide on whether he would be transferred to the ICC. A Libyan television channel,

TRiPoLi: An image grab taken from Libya’s Al-Ahrar TV station on Saturday shows Seif al-islam, the fugitive son of ousted Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi at an undisclosed location after he was arrested in the south of the country. AfP Al-Ahrar, broadcast a picture of Seif saying it was the first since his capture. It showed him heavily bearded and leaning on the end of a bed, with three fingers of his right hand bandaged and a blanket on his legs.

The ICC issued warrants on June 27 against Seif al-Islam, 39, as well as his father and Abdullah al-Senussi, the late dictator’s intelligence chief, on charges of crimes against humanity in crushing anti-regime protests. Taib said he had no information on Senussi’s current whereabouts, but the Tripoli council of former rebel fighters said he had been sighted in Al-Girah region, also southern Libya. Amnesty International swiftly called for Seif to be handed over to the ICC. “If reports are correct ... he must be handed over to the ICC, and his safety and rights

must be guaranteed,” the Londonbased human rights watchdog said, referring to the killing of his father after having been captured alive.

“After what happened after the capture of Moamer Gaddafi ... we hold the NTC responsible for preventing similar harm coming to Seif al-Islam ... so that he can face justice for his alleged crimes in a fair trial with no death penalty.” The ICC itself, after having been caught out by a false earlier report of Seif’s arrest, said on Saturday it was seeking confirmation. “The first thing is to confirm his capture,” court spokesman Fadi El-Abdallah told AFP. “What we are going to do is wait for official confirmation from the authorities that a suspect wanted by the ICC has been arrested.”

US, Russia, China united on Iran: White House NUSA DUA REUTERS

The White House said on Saturday that Iran is facing an unprecedented degree of isolation, with major world powers united in their opposition to Tehran getting a nuclear weapon.

“Russia, China and the United States I can tell you share a similar goal, and that is to not seeing the Iranians move toward the development of nuclear weapons,” U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon told reporters. “The degree of isolation really is unprecedented,” he said, referring a Friday vote by the United Nations nuclear watchdog IAEA expressing concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme. U.S. President Barack Obama discussed Tehran’s nuclear ambitions with Russian and Chinese leaders last week during an Asia-Pacific summit he hosted in Hawaii.

Hijackers take two boats, hostages, off Nigeria ABUJA REUTERS

Gunmen boarded two fishing vessels just off the coast of Nigeria and took two people hostage, security sources said on Saturday, the latest in a series of hijackings in the waters around Africa’s largest oil business.

The captains of the two boats were taken early on Friday, the same day eight pirates took three hostages from an oil supply vessel contracted by Chevron Corp, two security sources close to the incidents said. Chevron confirmed the attack on the vessel owned by its contractor, the second hijacking on ships hired by the U.S. major off the coast of Nigeria this month.

LHR pages 4 sports_Layout 1 11/20/2011 2:05 AM Page 17

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Foreign News 16

German FM meets Karzai ahead of conference KABUL AfP

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was in Kabul Saturday for talks with President Hamid Karzai before a key international conference in Bonn on Afghanistan’s future, the Afghan foreign ministry said. The Bonn conference on December 5 will discuss Afghanistan’s future beyond 2014, when NATO-led international combat troops will leave, and comes ten years after a previous landmark meeting on Afghanistan in the German city. Westerwelle and Karzai plus Afghan foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul were meeting to “discuss the outline of Afghanistan’s expectations in Bonn”, foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told AFP. He added that Afghanistan had already presented Germany with a document outlining how it sees its “longterm partnership with the international community and their mutual obligations”.

The two sides were also discussing German preparations for the Bonn conference, Mosazai said. More than 90 delegations from around the world are expected to gather in Bonn next month.

US soldier gets 5 years in Afghan misconduct probe TACOMA REUTERS

A U.S. Army sergeant was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison for crimes that included beating a subordinate whose whistle-blowing led to an investigation of rogue soldiers murdering unarmed Afghan civilians. Staff Sergeant David Bram was found guilty by court-martial of most of the charges against him, becoming the 11th soldier convicted in connection with the widest-ranging prosecution of U.S. military atrocities and other misconduct during 10 years of war in Afghanistan. The jury panel consisting of two officers and three enlisted men deliberated for 90 minutes before rendering its guilty verdict on all but two of the nine counts against Bram. It took the panel a further hour to decide his sentence. Addressing the court before sentencing, Bram apologized to “the people of Afghanistan” and said, “I pray I have not deterred any young Americans from serving their nation. “I truly do understand the weight of what I’ve done,” he added, choking back tears. “I understand I must be punished for my actions. I ask for mercy, not for myself but for my beautiful children.” Bram, 27, the father of a young son and daughter, will be eligible for parole after serving about three years and four months of his five-year sentence.

Prosecutors had recommended a prison term of seven years.

Iran army tests defence as N-tensions rise TEHRAN REUTERS

The Iranian army is conducting a four-day training exercise to test its defences, state TV reported on Saturday, amid rising international tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme. Press TV said the war games started on Friday and were taking place over 800,000 square km in the east of the country. “The initial stage of the drills will assess the units’ performance in setting up primary and secondary command centres and stationing tactical and swift reaction divisions,” Press TV said.

KABUL: German foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle (C) attends the last day of a four-day-long loya jirga, a meeting of over 2,000 Afghan tribal elders and leaders on Saturday. AfP

Death toll rises in Syria despite Arab League deadline BEIRUT

T

REUTERS

HREE people were killed in a crackdown on dissent against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, activists said, despite a deadline by the Arab League for Damascus to take steps to end the bloodshed.

The Arab League, a powerful political group of Arab states, set the Saturday deadline for Syria to comply with a peace plan, entailing a military pullout from around restive areas, and threatened sanctions if Assad failed to halt the violence. But on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two army defectors had been killed in clashes with the Syrian army in Homs, which has become a focus for the uprising against more than 40 years of Assad family rule. One civilian was also killed in a Saturday morning raid by security forces in Hama, another centre for the uprising, the observatory said. Activists said the deaths added to a growing toll from late on Friday, when 25 civilians were killed in attacks by Syrian forces and by gunmen suspected of belonging to the opposition. Ten soldiers were also killed in clashes with army defectors.

The United Nations says the crackdown on the protests has killed at least 3,500 people since March.

Authorities blame the violence on foreign-backed armed groups which it says have killed some 1,100 soldiers and police. Syria has barred most independent journalists from entering

the country, making it difficult to verify reports from activists or officials.

Syria has come under growing international pressure to end the crackdown on the eight month revolt. The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership over its inability to stem the violence in a surprise move last week.

The organisation did not detail what would happen if violence continued up to the deadline, but has threatened political and economic sanctions. On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern that Syria, seen as a fault line of several regional conflicts, could slide into civil war. “I think there could be a civil war with a very determined and well-armed and eventually well-financed opposition that is, if not directed by, certainly influenced by defectors from the army,” she told NBC news in Indonesia, where she was attending a regional summit.

SYRIA SAYS STILL STRONG: Clinton said the international community was reluctant, however, to intervene the same way it did in Libya, where NATO forces backed rebel groups who toppled Muammar Gaddafi. “There is no appetite for that kind of action vis-à-vis Syria,” she said, pointing to moves by the Arab League and Turkey, who have stepped up diplomatic pressure on Syria and threatened to follow the West in implementing sanctions.

French Foreign minister Alain Juppe, alongside the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu, said France was ready to work with the Syrian opposition and that tougher sanctions were needed. Britain also

said it was increasing its contacts with Assad opponents. But Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdulkarim Ali, argued that large progovernment rallies, which have also been organised regularly in recent weeks, showed that foreign pressure would not succeed in weakening the government. “There is great optimism that Syria has the stronger hand and that international pressure will tumble in the face of Syrian national unity and (Syria’s) balance and responsible policies that have confronted all these challenges,” Ali was cited as saying in the Lebanese daily, al-Safir, on Saturday. Damascus on Friday sought changes to a planned Arab League mission to monitor its implementation of the organisation’s plan for ending violence, which Syria argues it has been unable to fully enforce due to armed resistance. The league’s secretary general, Nabil Elaraby said the organisation was studying a letter from Syria which “included amendments to the draft protocol regarding the legal status and duties of the monitoring mission”.

OVERNIGHT VIOLENCE: Late night raids by security forces on Friday killed some five residents in Homs and Albukamal, near the Iraqi border. Both towns have seen prodemocracy protests and also play host to armed groups of army defectors. In Homs, which has become a centre of armed uprising but has also seen escalating sectarian violence, gunmen attacked a bus transporting workers and killed at least eleven, an activist told Reuters.

former Philippines’ president booked on poll fraud MANILA REUTERS

Philippine police officers took the mugshots and fingerprints of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at a Manila hospital on Saturday, where she is under heavy guard after being arrested on charges of fraud.

“The former president was sitting in a reclining position on her bed when

her fingerprints and pictures were taken,” Senior Superintendent Joel Coronel, head of the national police’s criminal investigation and detection group, told reporters outside St. Luke’s hospital. “She was wearing a hospital gown and a neck brace but was responding to queries from our medical team. An intravenous fluid is hydrating her,” he said. A police officer took Arroyo’s mugshots, Coronel

said. He declined to release copies of the photographs, saying they would be reported to a lower court that issued an arrest warrant on Friday that stopped her from leaving the country.

Arroyo, elected into the lower house of Congress last year, was scheduled to fly to Singapore after the Supreme Court upheld its earlier suspension of the government’s travel ban on her and her husband. Her arrest comes 18

months after President Benigno Aquino won an election by vowing to fight corruption and prosecuting those responsible, and particularly pursue Arroyo.

The former leader’s legal spokesman, Raul Lambino, said they will question the lower court’s jurisdiction to handle the electoral sabotage charges against Arroyo when they appear before the Pasay City regional trial court on Monday.

Indian minister gets five years in jail over corruption NEW DELHI onLinE

Former Indian telecom minister Sukhram, convicted for taking Rs 300,000 as bribe to give a lucrative contract to a private firm in 1996, was on Saturday sentenced to five years in jail by a Delhi court. He pleaded for leniency in court on grounds of his old age while the CBI called him a “habitual offender” and sought maximum punishment for him, Indian media reports said.The 86-year-old Sukhram was held guilty for misusing his official position during his tenure as telecom minister in PV Narasimha Rao’s cabinet in giving a contract worth Rs 30 crore to private firm Haryana Telecom Limited (HTL) to supply 3.5 Lakh Conductor Kilometers (LCKM) of Polythene Insulated Jelly Filled (PIJF) cables to the telecom department. He was held guilty on Thursday under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code. Various offences under which he has been convicted entail a maximum sentence of 7 years jail term.

egypt police clear tahrir Square of protesters CAIRO REUTERS

Riot police on Saturday cleared Cairo’s Tahrir Square of protesters who had camped overnight after a rally of some 50,000 people, mainly Islamists, pressed Egypt’s military rulers to transfer power swiftly to a civilian government. Around 100 protesters had stayed in the square, where police pulled down tents and confiscated chairs and banners they had set up, Reuters’ witnesses said. Some minor scuffles occurred. Men with long beards and women in veils predominated in Friday’s rally that appeared to be the biggest Islamist challenge to military rule since the largely secular uprising that toppled autocratic President Hosni Mubarak in February. Liberal and leftist parties also marched to Tahrir for the rally but it was a largely Islamist affair with members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party and their more hardline Salafi rivals, represented by several parties. Protesters expressed their anger at a constitutional draft that Deputy Prime Minister Ali al-Silmi showed to political groups earlier this month which would give the army exclusive authority over its internal affairs and budget.

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

IN LIMELIGHT Sadia, Amina and Shez with a friend

LAHORE TAzEEn fATiMA

W

E remember him by listening to ‘Bahaar Aai’ in Tina Sani’s voice on national television. Sometimes we say his lineage gave Pakistan Television, well, dynamism.

Sometimes the ministry of Education builds auditoriums in his name. At others, we pick up ‘Naqsh-e-Faryadi’ and gasp at how he could possibly have articulated the unfulfillable nature of his yearning by negating its possibility, even in a dream (‘Sarod-e-Shabana’).

But at all times, his poignant syncretism is pushed to the background with a heavy emphasis on his artistic mastery (sometimes, that too is not done adequately) while completely, comprehensively, dismissing his ambition.

Yes, I too agree that artistic deficiencies cannot be forgiven based solely on ambition. But I am talking about Faiz Ahmed Faiz here.

He introduced free verse in Urdu. His free verse, however, is regulated by proximate and distant rhymes, a tactic unsuccessfully copied by contemporary Urdu poets. Assonance but with partial withdrawal from traditional rhyme- but that is still inadequate to describe his style.

Not contending that the musicality of Faiz’s genius is subdued- it is not. What surfaces is our collective withdrawal from the purposive nature of his discourse. How does that reflect on our society as a whole?

Well, for one, many are unaware of his political achievements, his message that his prose kept resounding and well, that his genius was shunned by successive governments until after eight years of his death. In strictly governmental terms, being the president of Pakistan National Academy of Arts (PCNA) and the cultural advisor to the ministry of Education (19721974) was not enough for him to be wholeheartedly admired. Why not? Because we are overlooking the Lenin Peace Prize he received in 1962 and that at a young age, he led a Pakistani delegation of the Pakistan Trade Union Federation to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at San

Francisco and then at Geneva. Indeed, I am leveling an allegation against governments preceding Behazir Bhutto’s government in 1990 (that awarded him with the highest civilian award, the Nishan-e-Pakistan) of being dim-witted enough to dismiss even his artistic genius based on his disillusionment with the establishment of democracy and social justice.

His discourse took a paradigm shift from traditional Urdu poets: When he speaks of Ezadiyat (divinity), he remarks over it having transcended life but at the same time, he grounds life in naked reality- which springs out of nothing. His words travel from the hopelessness of hope for a morning to the serenity of a stillness that accompanies it.

But then he instructs us to speak: For the lips have the liberty. For the words are still ours to be spoken. For we still possess our countenance and the breath by which it is stirred.

Then he speaks himself: Tells us of bloodshed that left no trace of blood. That nowhere did a trace remain.

Nothing on the assassin’s hands, nails or clothes, the dagger’s lips, the knife-point, the floor, the roof. He motions towards the absurdity of bloodshed for it did not serve the king, nor did it have a price. It did not caution salvation, did not serve vengeance, did not offer itself to faith in sacrifice.

While he enclosed irony, instruction and intensity into his artistic dominion, he laced it all with a poignant hyperawareness of the reality of his milieu. He meets all the formalist requirements to be called the greatest contemporary Urdu poet but at the same time, his progressive political character that reinforced the importance of instruction through literature obstructed him from being recognized as that.

The question transforms into whether we have been able to reconcile his ideological considerations with his stylistic mastery?

We have not been given a chance to.

I leave you with this, to think about: ‘Fikr-e-fardaa utaar de dil se Umr-e-rafta pe ashk baar na ho A’had-e-gham ki hikayaten mat puchh Ho chukin sab shikayaten mat puchh Aj ki raat saz-e-dard na chher’

Aishwarya not

‘too posh to push’ MUMBAi: Amidst speculation of Aishwarya Rai opting for C-section delivery, comes the news that the actress actually had a normal delivery. Ash’s father-in-law, actor Amitabh Bachchan, took to twitter to clarify all the rumours. Bachchan tweeted, “emphasising the commendable desire of Aishwarya in having a normal delivery without any epidural or pain killers. the often coined phrase ‘too posh to push’ was put to rest in her case... she was determined to do it the way she felt was correct !(sic)” the actor also stated, “Many morphed pictures of the ‘little one’ and with her and her Mother in hospital doing the rounds on the net .. all fake .. !!(sic)” Big B also thanked the media for giving the family its space during the birth of the junior-most Bachchan. He said, “And once again a word of kindness to the electronic media for their non interference and dignified distance .. thank you !! A word of appreciation too, to the print media for highlighting a few salient points .. our joy in welcoming the girl child(sic).” When a fan pointed out that Shweta Nanda’s children were also part of the Bachchan lineage, Big B said, “they are ‘lineage’ .. but they were born Nanda, not Bachchan(sic).” zEEnEWS

Guests Fiha, Faizan and Rabia

Nadia

Saima and Saim

dy Shop KARACHI: the Bo sk Mu te hi W introduced at a e m rfu pe ce Fragran organised y colourful ceremon us rio va . at the Forum ities showbiz personal mony. re ce e th ed attend

Ayesha Omar with guests

Don’t put ‘Ra.One’

down

to promotional strategies: SRK nEW DELHi: He has been all over the country and abroad promoting ‘Ra.one’ since January but Shah Rukh Khan says there is more to the film rather than just his publicity strategies. the 45-yearold actor says he still believes that a good script makes or breaks a film and he is going all out to promote the movie so that it reaches the maximum audience. “I would like it if people talk about the film’s story and the characters rather than the promotional tools I am using. don’t put my film down to promotional strategies only. I am just a small-time actor who is struggling to make people like his films,” said Shah Rukh. “If the film doesn’t have a good story to tell, there is no point promoting it. So many people have put their efforts behind ‘Ra.one’ that I thought I need to ensure it reaches maximum audience.” AGEnCiES

‘Seeing Coldplay perform is my best musical

memory’

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18 Faria and Rabia

Indian celebs, politicians

slam ‘outsider’ Veena MUMBAI

T

AGEnCiES

HE Indian Artistes and Actors Forum (IAAF) has got support from various quarters including names like Member of Parliament Dr Nilesh Rane, fire-brand Dj Jenny D, drama queen Rakhi Sawant and many other Bollywood producers and directors for its anti-Veena Malik and anti-Sunny Leone stance. Member of Parliament and General Secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, Dr Nilesh Rane said, “There are a lot of talented, bold and even controversial Indian artistes who are struggling to make ends meet. I think they should be given a fair chance. I am speaking in my personal capacity and this is my personal view not party view. However, if there is any sort of agitation by the IAAF, I will give them my full support and stand by them.”

Says Rakhi Sawant, “They (the channel and the production house SOL) could have selected any other woman from India.

There are so many controversial or bold and outspoken girls like Sambhavna Seth, Kashmira Shah, Dj Jenny D, Poonam Pandey to name a few. Imagine should have chosen them. There are thousands of girls in India who are trying to get roles in films and TV. Why have they selected a “sattebaaz” who has ruined the name of her own country? Once was probably ok, but now they are doing it again and again. I strongly condemn this move and join the protest.”

Flynn Remedios, publicist and spokesperson for the IAAF, said that the IAAF, an informal body of actors and

screened for the first time in Pakistan

LAHORE STAff REPoRT

artistes, is not against one individual in particular. “We are not against Veena Malik per se. We are against this trend of selecting foreign artistes for common roles in Indian television and films. When certain politicians raised their voice about this, we gave them the cold shoulder, but now the time has come for every Indian artiste to get up and take a stand. Thousands of Indian girls go through hell trying to get a bit role in a TV serial or a film. These production houses and channels must understand the sentiments and feelings of thousands of

Indian artistes. Veena Malik is no great or unique actor or artiste. Sunny Leone is a porn star. What USP do Veena Malik and Sunny Leone bring to such shows? Are we trying to send out a message to our youth that being a porn star is a commendable thing? The channels are trying to stir up controversy and increase their own TRPs. We will ask all patriotic Indians and Indian companies to stop watching or supporting such shows This is our action plan for now.

We will also approach the courts at a later date if the channels do not relent.”

Musical night with Ataullah Khan essakhelvi LAHORE STAff REPoRT

Ataullah Khan Essakhelvi performed in a colourful performance at the Al Hamra Arts Council on Saturday. The ceremony saw dozens of people come to listen to the voice of this popular folk singer, who sang many of his well known songs, which the audience enjoyed thoroughly. The event was organised by the Lahore Arts Council.

Salmaan Peerzada’s film ‘Zar Gul’ was screened on Saturday night at the Peerus Café for an open audience. The event was hosted by Juggan Kazim while several TV and showbiz personalities came to the event. The most prominent was Faryal Gauhar who has starred in this film which always had a controversial image because of its bold and outspoken approach. Several others in the film were already hosting the event including Samina and Imraan Peerzada who also acted in the film. The film is produced by Usman Peerzada.

The film is in Urdu, Punjabi, Pushto and English altogether and has been shot over a wide array of places.

‘Zar Gul’, or Golden Rose, is Salmaan Peerzada’s debut directorial effort. After a vast working experience in Hollywood and British Television with some of the greatest names, Salmaan returned to Pakistan to launch this film. There was expected to be a change in Pakistani cinema but the film was unable to obtain a clearance from the Pakistani government. The film was pitched as the story of a modern day folk hero set against the sweeping landscape of rural Punjab and the northern areas.

The story revolves around a young Pukhtoon (played by Babar Peerzada, the director’s son, as young Zar Gul) who becomes an outlaw and dacoit, but remains a hero to the poor, after his father is killed by a crooked politician. The film exposes the injustice and corruption in Pakistan especially the politics and police and for that reason was banned. It also exposes child labour in Pakistan.

Ayyan

LonDon: Lady Gaga has said that she is a big fan of the Coldplay and listening to them is one of her “best musical memories”. She was at the Children in Need Rocks event on November 17 when she got her photo taken with the band. Coldplay front man Chris Martin grabbed her for a picture with Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, elbow and Snow Patrol. “one of my best musical memories was seeing Coldplay perform in New York after Chris sang ‘Fix You’ for the first time for Gwyneth,” the Sun quoted Gaga as saying. “this is the biggest collection of soft rockers.

You don’t get more soft rock than this,” Martin told her backstage at the Manchester evening News Arena. After the event, her management booted everyone out so she could have the pressroom to herself when Martin sorted out an impromptu photo call. AGEnCiES

Ooh La La! Vidya to beat SRK, Akshay and John?

MUMBAi: Sleaze seems to be the latest ‘in thing’ in the world of entertainment. ‘Bigg Boss’ on the small screen is getting raunchier with time and so is Bollywood. Sex is certainly selling like hot cakes! trade analysts in Bollywood, who have been taking a closer look at the way things are shaping up ahead of the release of big films starring Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and John Abraham, feel that vidya Balan might snatch all the limelight with her oomph in ‘the dirty Picture’. Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Rockstar’ proved to be a disappointment at the box office despite the hype. Akki and John’s ‘desi Boyz’ is round the corner for its release and so is King Khan’s ‘don 2’. But vidya Balan might just steal the show with her sizzling hot avatar in her latest. A trade expert said, “It’s probable that the movie (‘the dirty Picture’) will garner much money given its subject matter and universal appeal. It’s a film that will do well in the interiors as well as enchant the metro audience.

Also, the budget of the movie isn’t as great as of ‘don 2’. the storyline of ‘desi Boyz’ isn’t very family-friendly. So considering the pros and cons of the releases, it looks like ‘the dirty Picture’ will make the rosiest picture in the account books.” zEEnEWS

Jolie to play

‘female Lawrence of Arabia’ LoS AnGELES: Angelina Jolie is set to play a British woman who helped map out the modern Middle east including Iraq in the early 20th century, the Hollywood Reporter said Friday. the oscar-winning actress is attached to play Gertrude Bell, described as the female Lawrence of Arabia for her pioneering work in establishing the framework for what would become Jordan and Iraq. the project is still in development by British director Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions, said the Reporter, noting that Jolie has a history of playing strong female characters.

Bell was passionate about archaeology and languages, spoke several languages including Arabic and Persian, and wrote about her extensive travels in a number of books, including ‘Persian Pictures’ and ‘Syria: the desert and the Sown’. during World War I, Bell, who won widespread admiration among Arabs, worked as a British spy and helped to dismantle the ottoman empire and to found Iraq, said the report. AGEnCiES

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Misbah’s Magic Page 7

Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Pages: 8

Calls for probe intensify

Kambli’s claims rock cricket NEW DELHI

I

ConviCtions will deter youngsters LAHORE

STAff REPoRT

F

OUR years after discovering a teenage bowling sensation, the former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram tered the whole incident a tragedy. Akram saw Mohammed Amir, then aged 15, at a bowling camp in 2007 and the young fast bowler soon cemented his reputation as a rising star. Akram, speaking ahead of a charity event in Dubai, described Amir’s conviction in a spot-fixing scandal that led to him and two other players being handed prison sentences as a “tragedy” that had rocked Pakistani and international cricket. “Of course it is a tragedy for the youngsters,” said Akram, 45, who was accused of match fixing after Pakistan’s heavy loss to Australia in the 2003 World Cup. The allegations were never proved.

“I feel for them. I hope the young generation coming up can learn from these guys’ examples.” Akram said the sentences against the players would be a strong warning to budding cricketers, adding it was important for national team members to “play for the country and concentrate on the game”.

He said it was not for him to decide if the criminal convictions and long ICC bans slapped on the trio – Amir,

Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif – were harsh. This month, Butt was sentenced to 30 months in prison, Asif to one year and Amir to six months.

“That’s a court of law and I can’t say anything about that particular issue. It’s huge for these boys and I do feel for them. But I think the young generation is learning very quickly from them.”

Akram was in Dubai to take part in the Beat Diabetes Walkathon in Dubai that saw scores of residents, young and old, participate in the early morning hours.

The 3 kilometre-plus walk began and ended outside the Oasis Centre.

The fast bowler began his one-day international career against New Zealand in 1984 and made his Test debut the following year. He rose to fame with his pioneering reverse swing techniques, earning him the nickname “Sultan of Swing”. He was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 31, during the peak of his career, compelling him to lead awareness campaigns on the disease around the world. Akram said more people in Dubai and the subcontinent were aware of the problem. “If people are coming on a Friday morning for a walk, it shows how much they care for the cause and awareness,” he said.

Akram told the thousands gathered for the walkathon in blue T-shirts: “Living with diabetes is a daily struggle but

can be managed by following a disciplined lifestyle.” Speaking on the country’s turbulent politics, the cricketer said fellow former Pakistan captain turned politician Imran Khan’s recent rally in Lahore was an “eye opener”.

“We Pakistanis, what we have realised after seeing that rally is that we need a change,” Akram said. “We have been seeing these politicians from the last 60 years and we do need a change.

We need fresh people into politics in our country.” He also welcomed the return to prominence of the UAE as a cricketing venue after Sharjah became the target of match-fixing investigations more than 10 years ago. “I am glad cricket is back because people who live here, expatriates – Indians, Pakistanis, Australians, British, South Africans and West Indians – they all love their cricket. This is the place. The interest is immense,” said Akram, who played several matches in Sharjah. “The overwhelming turnout that the walkathon draws year after year is truly heartwarming,” said Renuka Jagtiani, the vice chairwoman of Landmark Group, which organised the walk. “Through the annual walkathons, the blood-glucose tests and other activities that we conduct round the year, we encourage people to lead active and balanced lives.”

AfP

NDIA’S sports minister on Saturday called for the country’s cricket board to probe allegations by a former Indian batsman that the 1996 World Cup semifinal against Sri Lanka may have been fixed.

Vinod Kambli, an attacking left-hander who played 17 Tests and 104 one-day internationals before quitting in 2000, told a news channel this week that he “doubted” crucial decisions made during the match played in Kolkata.

“When a player of the team has made a charge, it should be thoroughly investigated,” Sports Minister Ajay Maken told reporters in New Delhi.

“People of the country have the right to know what exactly happened.

Whether the accusations made by the player are true or false, the people have the right to know,” he said. Kambli has said he was particularly surprised by captain Mohammed Azharuddin’s decision to field first as it had been decided at the pre-match meeting that the team would bat if they won the toss. The semi-final was abandoned following crowd trouble after India, chasing 252, were 120 for 8 with Kambli unbeaten on 10. Sri Lanka were adjudged the winners. Azharuddin, who was given a life ban in 2000 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for match-fixing, denied Kambli’s charges. “It was a team decision to field first. It was made at a meeting where, everyone was there, including the manager. Kambli must have been sleeping during the team meeting,” said Azharuddin.

The former skipper, who denies match-fixing charges, has appealed against the BCCI’s life ban in court. Maken, who has been at loggerheads with the BCCI over a proposed new law which aims to make the sports body’s operations more transparent, said it was important to know if Kambli’s claims hold water. “If the BCCI doesn’t conduct a probe, we will look at it,” he said. The game has lately been mired in controversies after a British court this month jailed three Pakistan cricketers for deliberately bowling no-balls in a Test against England at Lord’s in order to effect an illegal betting coup.

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

MISBAH’S MAGIC

Comment

T

FAIZAN ZAKARIA POLANI

he Sharjah Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was Misbah’s tenth as captain, an achievement of sorts, given that the previous four captains were unable to reach that mark. What makes his run all the more impressive is the fact that Misbah, who was recalled to lead the team after being dumped ten months earlier, is yet to lose a Test series. his win-loss ratio is the highest among Pakistani captains who had been at the helm for this long, and his batting average as a captain is only second to the Don. While he has received accolades from various fronts for his ice-cool attitude and calculated approach, there are still those who have found his attitude as passive and his approach as extra-defensive. It was certainly heartbreaking for all those who were hoping for Pakistan to go for the glory against New Zealand at hamilton, and against Sri Lanka at Abu Dhabi to see Pakistani batsmen shut shop so early. But with a relatively inexperienced squad at his disposal, and his every move being scrutinized, could you really blame Misbah for his over-cautious approach?

The spot-fixing saga that rocked Pakistan cricket was certainly not easy to shake off and move on. eleven players who appeared in the disgraceful england series, including the likes of Mohammad Yousuf and Danish Kaneria, haven’t been seen in the Test whites ever since. Thus, the team that Misbah inherited was one that hadn’t played much cricket together. hence, one of the first tasks for Misbah was to form a cohesive unit that could that could hold its own against better outfits. And at this time of turmoil, Misbah’s calm and unfazed demeanour were the perfect ingredients for a squad that was still trying to gel together.

The one thing that has over the years upset various Pakistan sides in coming together as a unit was the fickle-mindedness of the selectors, who know just one way to

react to losses – try out a different combination of players. The argument was that it creates competition for slots in the eleven and that it could only be good. It might be true to a certain extent, but it has also led to players feeling insecure about their place in the team, and consequently place individual milestones over team goals, not to mention getting involved in corrupt practices to secure their financial futures. having been dropped from the squad multiple times and even spent the period between 2003 and 2007 in the wilderness trying to get back into the national squad, Misbah is aware of this feeling of insecurity better than anyone else. Perhaps that is why he did not want to risk losing a Test match, and along with it some of his comrades. he knows that in Pakistan losses are often followed by drastic changes, and that is the last thing that someone determined to have a cohesive, winning unit would want.

You pick any great team, whether the West Indies of the 1970s and 1980s or the Australians of the 2000s, at the core of their success was a cohesive unit that not only comprised of the best players in the country, but also had faith in themselves and each other. Misbah certainly has immense talent at his disposal, all he needs to do is weave his magic wand and transform these individuals into a fighting unit, much like Imran’s ‘cornered tigers.’

While Misbah might be fearless like Imran, he certainly does not believe in Imran’s ideology that offense is the best form of defense. As evidenced by every inning of his, Misbah is a very patient character, and rather than forcing actions, he waits until he achieves what he wants. however, the key is that he eventually achieves it, so while his batting may lull you to sleep and his statements in the press may not be headline material, there is no denying that he has produced the results.

And under the given scenario, if we want to see Pakistan cricket move forward, we have to adopt one of Misbah’s traits – patience.

Misbah’s win-loss ratio is the highest among Pakistani captains who had been at the helm for this long

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

a tale of two cricketers COMMENT

t

MUHAMMAD BUTT

HE ongoing Pakistan-Sri Lanka ODI series has witnessed several Pakistani cricketers and Shahid Afridi making their comebacks into the national team after a spell on the sidelines. Afridi has predictably hogged the limelight but it is the quiet and unassuming (mostly) Razzaq, who presents us with an interesting proposition. It would be fairly reasonable to divide Razzaq’s career into two distinct periods.

While he has done well with both bat and ball, often at the same time, Razzaq was at his most effective with the ball between the years 1999-2002.

In the subsequent years, his bowling figures suffered but on the upside, Razzaq’s batting blossomed and he soon become one of the most feared strikers in the game. Whether this change was conscious and on his own or it was brought about by the management at the time is a mystery, but it was clear that Razzaq, with his nip gone, could not be relied upon with the ball, especially in adverse circumstances.

As a result, the last few years have seen Razzaq being employed only when the ball is new and/or seaming around which is why the recent ruling regarding two new balls from each end may provide a new lease of life to Razzaq the bowler.

With the ball now staying new for a longer period of time and the current bowling lineup dominated by spinners, Razzaq’s role as the third seamer gains significance. The pace may be gone but the guile is still there as Sangakarra found out in the first two ODIs. Razzaq has never been the most ambitious or flamboyant character in the Pakistani team and it may require some cajoling on the part of the team management to make him aware of his new responsibility in order to turn him into an asset with the bowl much like when he is finishing off the innings with the bat. Speaking of finishing, Umar Akmal could perhaps learn

a thing or two from Razzaq. Akmal’s comeback knock on Tuesday night perfectly summed up his brief career: moments of sheer brilliance overshadowed by moments of immense buffoonery. With the finish in sight, Akmal went for glory and holed out at mid-on after smashing three consecutive boundaries of Fernando. He only needs to look across the border towards Virat Kohli, another talented player who at one point played against Akmal at the ICC U-19 World Cup. Kohli is now more or less an established international in the shorter format while Akmal is still being talked about as a prospect. He was recently dropped from the Test side on account of poor form and his inability to play longer innings. While the idea in principle is not bad one is not sure if playing on the domestic circuit will do him much good. A stint at the English county level, where the conditions are more demanding could however prove to be useful. But with his surname becoming somewhat of a slur owing to suspicions quite serious in nature on his elder sibling, whether such an offer materialises is a point of conjecture.

There is no denying the talent that Akmal possesses but talent alone gets you nowhere. Experts harp on about how he should not change his natural aggression and he does not have to.

It is more a case of channelling that aggression and talent into something meaningful and substantial for him and for the team.

Akmal’s character came under scrutiny on the Australian tour when he brazenly feigned an injury so that his elder brother, Kamran, would not be axed from the playing eleven. Brotherly love is sweet but the junior Akmal should look to steer clear from such controversies and concentrate on his own performances rather than looking out for his brother, who at this point is under the spot fixing scanner. Pakistan has already lost one exceptionally talented youngster in Mohammad Amir to the spot fixing menace and it would be a real shame if we were to lose another.

Pakistan and England need to start afresh EXPERT CoMMEnT

PAUL CoLLINGWood

I

T will be testing times for England against Pakistan after what happened in last series. It hurt a lot of players who played in that series but Andy Flower [the coach] is a very shrewd man, who will get the right approach from the team. Playing professional sport is 90 per cent emotion and that occasional word will

slip out, particularly given the aggressive style that has helped England rise to No1 in the Test rankings.

England will go about it their own way and at the same time be sensitive about what happened last year and subsequently to the Pakistan players. But these three players [Butt, Asif and Amir] have caused an issue for Pakistan. They will be scrutinised and people will throw the odd barb.

Sport is a tough environment. People forget the emotions that go through sportsmen. Things will be said in the heat of the moment. It will be up to England and Pakistan to move on and deliver a fresh approach and create a good atmosphere and a competitive environment, because that is what will take cricket forward.

The challenge for Flower will be to know when to rein his players in

without taking away the edge that has helped them dominate Australia and India in recent Test series. Everyone has got to be careful. There are boundaries and fine lines that you don’t cross about sensitive issues.

When we played Pakistan last year we did pull back a bit after the fixing story came out. It was a sensitive time and we had to be careful with what we said. We didn’t play very well during a couple of those one-dayers.

England just need to concentrate on what they do. It is up to Pakistan to deliver a new approach, play some good cricket and get their game in order, rather than opponents changing their game.

We don’t want cricket to be brought down by people doing this and the punishment will be a deterrent. This will have opened people’s

eyes, but I think cricket is played by good, honest men who play the sport in a competitive way and want to win.

England have moved massively forward and at one stage I saw the team moving further and further away for me. I have to admit after watching them in India there may be a bit of hope, and it would be silly not to have that motivation of getting back. You never know what can happen. I understand I am going to have to do something miraculous and the England team may need a few injuries, but I still think I have the game to do that.

I may as well focus hard, keep the drive and push for getting back in. The management were fantastic to me and I miss the environment a lot, which is why I want that last chance to get back in. If you are playing cricket you may as well have some ambition.

at they do. It is up to d get h w n o e at tr n ce n co England just need to ew approach, play some good cricket an e n Pakistan to deliver a ther than opponents changing their gam ra their game in order,

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22 State of mind makes or breaks a career Sunday, 20 November, 2011

EXPERT CoMMEnT

I

GReG CHAPPeLL

learnt from my own playing career it's not about the physical, it's all about the mental. When you get to [a] first-class level, you have the ability to play Test cricket. The difference between those who make it and those who don't is the successful players realise it's all about the mind, not the body. I reconfirm that whenever I play golf

because on the days I think well, I swing well. Those days I think about what I'm doing interrupt the process of swinging the golf club. It's the same in When I reflect upon my own career and the times when I didn't perform well, it was only when I realised my mental state was the problem that I'd come good again. If I spent my time worrying about footwork or my backlift or where my hands were I got worse, not better. I've told anyone who'll listen if we can't help players mentally, we can't help them at all.

When I visited the Boston Red Sox, one of their scouts said if a player doesn't remind you of somebody, he probably won't be somebody. Over the years I've looked at players and thought ''he reminds me of soand-so''. It doesn't mean they're exactly the same, but they've got a combination of physical elements or character and personality.

The first time I saw Ian Healy he reminded me of Rod Marsh; that's the kind of thing

you look for when you identify talent.

There's a misunderstanding about risktaking. It's not all or nothing, it's about weighing up the risks. If you bat on a flat wicket, you know your parameters are a bit wider than a pitch that has a bit in it for the bowlers. On those occasions when conditions favour the bowlers, you still have to look for those scoring opportunities. The West Indies were a great example. They bowled about 12 overs an hour; in each over they bowled three or four brilliant balls that you couldn't score from because they went through at head-high or above. You weren't going to score quickly, but if you got caught up with the fact it was hard work, it was most likely you wouldn't get any runs. You had to set yourself to bat for a long time but you still needed to look for those few scoring opportunities, because if you missed them you were going to get nothing - and the frustration would build until you'd take [need-

Ponting’s time Comment

I

less] risks and get out. It's about weighing up the circumstances of the game and the conditions and taking the risks accordingly.

When we started to play 50-over cricket we expanded our range of shots because of what we learned from limited overs, and I think 20-over cricket is having a similar effect. You also need to understand how to practise. If you only practise hitting, you might be a good hitter but you won't necessarily be a good batter. If you practise batting - in other words, making good decisions, working out angles and understanding a delicate shot can be just as important as a big hit - you'll become a good hitter as well. However, it's not just about hitting in limited overs cricket, it's still about decision-making.

It's very difficult to replicate a game situation in training. However, if you don't try then you can do a lot of training that's, at best, meaningless. And if you're constantly practising at a low level of intensity, it's not going

to help in a game. All of the material I've read over the years regarding such things as talent development is if you're not training the whole system - the mind and the body - you won't achieve what you want.

It's still an important part of the development process. It's not as easy today because there's bigger houses on smaller blocks, so there isn't much of a backyard … and there's more distractions for kids now. However, I experienced the backyard and I know what I got out of it. I see what kids are now missing in the development process - the unstructured rules as they make it up as they go along, learning to deal with failure … In terms of the development process, if you miss that it's very hard to make it up. As a kid I'd put myself in situations where I was Neil Harvey and batting left-handed or Richie Benaud bowling leg-spin. If you can't imagine yourself being successful, I don't think you can be.

EXCERPTS fRoM An inTERViEW

is up

DAvID SYGALL

F Ricky Ponting plays on with diminished returns, at least he'll be in good company.

As with contemporaries of the great Australian teams of the 1990s and 2000s, Ponting's failing form is putting pressure on the soon-to-be 37-year-old and leading calls for him to pull stumps. Ponting needs a big score to keep at bay the winds of change. Don't bet against it - the second Test against New Zealand in his home state of Tasmania next month has ''career-saving century'' written all over it. However, if the new selection panel was ruthless - including captain Michael Clarke Ponting would not make it that far.

With 12,495 runs in his 156 Tests at an average of 52.5, the former skipper finds his back to the wall with a return in his past 10 matches (not including the coming second innings of the present Test) of just 469 runs at an average half that of his 16-year career.

It's a spectacular fall, challenged only by Matthew Hayden's demise. After scoring 103 against India in Adelaide in the first innings of his 10th last match, Hayden scored just two half-centuries in his remaining knocks, against India, New Zealand and South Africa. The Queensland opener averaged 28.58 nearing the end, compared with his career average of more than 50.

Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor, captains prior to Ponting, improved statistically in their respective twilights. Amid a poor Ashes series in which he reaped two half centuries in 10 innings, Taylor made two not-out hundreds, including the epic unbeaten 334 at Peshawar.

Waugh enjoyed a glut of runs at a high average after staving off calls for his retirement the previous summer including a famous century at the Sydney Cricket Ground against England. However, 256 of the 863 runs he scored in his final 10 Tests came against Bangladesh without being dismissed. Waugh's final knock was 80 against India in Sydney.

Simon Katich can be proud of his late-career performance, assuming his Test days are over. The opener scored two centuries and six 50s, to average slightly higher than his career measure of 45. He also scored a 98 and three totals in the 80s. His final 10 Tests were against Pakistan, New Zealand, India and England.

Twelve Tests before Allan Border's epic career ended, he made 200 not out against England at Leeds. But it was downhill from there, with the great left-hander yielding just one ton and two 50s on the home stretch. But the winds of change are blowing for Ponting.

Steve Waugh said last week: ''You want to ideally bring [young players] into an environment where they're not playing the best side in the world but a team that's five or six in the world. New Zealand would be a good time to bring someone in.''

Another former captain, Kim Hughes, defended Ponting. ''If you get him back into form and confidence, he can still be a very fine player at international level because there's not a lot of good genuine quicks out there that are going to trouble him for pace,'' he said. ''If you bring in [David] Warner, geez, you've got your heart in your mouth.'

SMH

Amla, De Villiers put Proteas back on top JOHANNESBURG AfP

SCoREBoARD SoUTH AfRiCA, first innings: 266 AUSTRALiA, first innings: 296 SoUTH AfRiCA, second innings (overnight 0-0) G. Smith c Hughes b Lyon 36 J. Rudolph c Haddin b Cummins 24 H. Amla not out 89 J. Kallis c Clarke b Cummins 2 A. de Villiers not out 70 EXTRAS (b4, lb1, nb1, w2) 8 ToTAL (3 wkts, 69 overs) 229 fall of wickets: 1-40 (Rudolph), 2-75 (Smith), 3-90 (Kallis) Bowling: Johnson 17-1-58-0, Cummins 17-3-46-2 (2w), Siddle 17-6-41-0, Lyon 11-3-41-1, Hussey 4-0-90, Clarke 2-1-2-0, Ponting 1-0-8-0 Match situation: South Africa, with seven second innings wickets remaining, lead by 199 runs ToSS: South Africa UMPiRES: Billy Bowden (nzL), ian Gould (EnG) TV UMPiRE: Billy Doctrove (WiS) MATCH REfEREE: Roshan Mahanama (SRi)

Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers shared an unbeaten century partnership as South Africa regained the initiative on the third day of the second and final Test against Australia at the Wanderers Stadium on Saturday.

South Africa were 229 for three when bad light ended play, an overall lead of 199. Amla was on 89 and De Villiers 70. Their fourth wicket stand was worth 139. It was yet another turnaround in a series in which there have been some remarkable changes of fortune. At lunch Australia would have thought they were in a good position to push for a series-levelling win after 18year-old fast bowler Pat Cummins struck twice as South Africa lost three wickets. The host nation were 94 for three at lunch.

Cummins bowled immediately after lunch and had a confident shout for leg before wicket against Amla turned down by umpire Billy Bowden. The Australians asked for a review and Bowden’s decision was upheld when replays showed the ball would have hit the leg bail - in the umpire’s discretionary area.

De Villiers also had a close escape against Cummins when he edged the ball down the legside dangerously close to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin. But the pair gradually got on top of the bowling. Although dramatic collapses have been the norm in the short series, South Africa will hope to build on their total as they push to win a home series against Australia for the first time since 1969/70, a victory which

preceded 21 years of isolation for South Africa. Cummins was the most impressive bowler, taking two for 46 in 17 overs and troubling all the batsmen on a pitch which continued to offer good bounce and carry for the fast bowlers. Australia were hampered by not being able to call on Shane Watson to bowl after the all-rounder suffered a hamstring injury in the first innings.

Cummins dismissed Jacques Rudolph for 24 and Jacques Kallis for two as the advantage in the morning swung to Australia.

South Africa also lost captain Graeme Smith, who made 36 before cutting off-spinner Nathan Lyon to backward point. Starting the day 30 runs behind Australia’s first innings total, South Africa quickly wiped out the deficit, with Rudolph looking in outstanding form as he made 24 off 23 balls with five fours. But with the total on 40, Rudolph tried to pull a short ball from Cummins which rose sharply into his body and the ball looped off the splice of his bat to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

Smith was out tamely to Lyon and the scoring rate slowed as Amla and Kallis concentrated on defence.

But Cummins came back into the attack and produced a good delivery which Kallis edged to Australian captain Michael Clarke at first slip.

It was the last success for the tourists before the weather intervened for the third time in as many days. Amla had faced 196 balls and hit 13 fours before the umpires took the players off the field, while De Villiers had faced 122 deliveries and hit ten fours and a six.

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Roebuck leaves us a lasting puzzle Comment MARTIN FLANAGAN

T

HE word tragedy is much misused in sport. An abridged version of the definition offered by Webster's Dictionary is a drama, ''typically that of a noble person whose character is flawed by a single weakness ‌ which leads to his downfall or destruction''. By that definition, Peter Roebuck's death in South Africa last Saturday night was truly tragic. Any number of people, including the young men in his South African home, can step forward and tell of the good Roebuck did them. He helped me write The Call, my reconstruction of the life of Tom Wills.

Wills was dubbed ''the W. G. Grace of Australian cricket''.

Roebuck believed his former Somerset teammate, Ian Botham, was the greatest English all-rounder since W. G. Grace. The irony is that Tom Wills committed suicide. One day, we met in a hotel in the city, a few floors up. I found him leaning against the window of his hotel room, staring moodily into the street below. I have a fear of heights and thought, ''The man's fearless''. He had opened the batting for Somerset when the likes of Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall were hurling the ball down. He had first-class honours in law from Cambridge, but none of county cricket's hard men intimidated him. The next time we met, he came into my writing room at home. While writing my previous book, I had come across a spider's web in the corner. It had occurred to me that what the spider was doing and what I was doing were basically the same, so I let him go. By the time Roebuck came to visit the spider had built a miniature Eiffel Tower. Roebuck screamed. He was scared of spiders. In 1991, I interviewed him and wrote that he reminded me of T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), the quintessential Englishman who was not at home in England. Like Lawrence, Roebuck was a permanent puzzle to everyone, including, possibly, himself. He got on the wrong side of Botham when Somerset split over West Indian imports Viv Richards and Joel Garner. Botham backed his teammates against the club. Roebuck backed the club. Then came the 2001 court case. I didn't pursue that case until this week.

At best, Roebuck was 100 years too late, thinking he could cane 19-year-olds with impunity. Even so, one of them said this week it wasn't the caning that bothered him - it was that Roebuck asked him to pull down his pants and show the welts. Roebuck argued the young men, South Africans, had come from a culture in which corporal punishment was accepted. But the judge said he believed that, in inflicting the punishment, Roebuck had acted ''to satisfy some need'' within himself. Roebuck apologised before the court but was defiant enough to say later that some of his accusers had never developed a young man or a cricketer ''worth tuppence''. He defended his record ''with young people overall'' and went back to living among young men. It was a fateful decision because, in doing so, he made himself vulnerable to the sort of accusation brought against him last week, regardless of whether it was true. For a period, we met each year during

the Melbourne Test. He was remarkably disinterested in the material world and his own success - I was amazed to learn he had not a single copy of any of the books he'd written.

Many of his beliefs were not too far removed from the 19th century English educational creed of muscular Christianity in that he believed it was not enough to hold political or social values - it was necessary to act upon them in the world. And he did. The one cricket story I remember him telling me was that when he played for Devon in the minor county competition, he employed exactly the opposite principle to the one he had used during his long career with Somerset. At Somerset he eliminated risks, batting in a crabbed, conservative way. At Devon, he operated on impulse. If he felt an urge to hit a six as the bowler was running in, he tried to hit a six. If he had the urge to declare because it would make for a better and more interesting game, he'd declare. And they won. I always worried for him a bit. Roebuck's life seemed lonely in a crowded sort of way. I also thought his judgments had become more shrill. About six months ago, he wrote what I thought was a bridge-burner of a column saying cricket was irredeemably corrupt and its history as a great sport was over. Sports writing is a sort of love affair. If a sports writer falls out of love with their sport they better have something else to hang on to. I sent him a message saying that he should not despair, that I was sure people would be interested to read his thoughts on other subjects. His reply was, again, somewhat defiant. Perhaps the world would be a better place, he wrote, if more journalists said what they actually thought.

For the past 20 years, Roebuck has been a large part of what made Australian cricket worth following. He was a great journalist, as brave as they come. A highly gifted writer, he was possibly even better on radio. He jumped to his death after being accused of sexually assaulting a 26-year-old Zimbabwean seeking one of the scholarships Roebuck personally provided. One of the many regrets surrounding his death is that we will never get to hear Roebuck's side of that story.

THE AGES

Sports writing is a sort of love affair. If a sports writer falls out of love with their sport they better have something else to hang on to

The duel with Button

EXPERT CoMMEnT

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix put the focus in Formula 1 back on to one of this year's key innovations, which has been out of the spotlight in recent races. I'm talking about a device that was introduced this year to help make the racing a little more exciting - the DRS (drag-reduction system) overtaking aid. The DRS does what it says on the tin. We press a button in the cockpit, which lifts the upper rear wing flap. That stops the wing working as well - or 'stalls' it, as aerodynamicists describe it which reduces drag and therefore increases straight-line speed. In the first two Abu Dhabi races in 2009 and 2010, overtaking was particularly difficult, so everyone was interested to see what sort of an effect the DRS would have. The teams and the sport's authorities are taking the right approach with DRS. They're trying to reach a point where, among evenly matched cars, overtaking is possible but still a real challenge. We are approaching each race this year 'blind', so inevitably there is a bit of trial and error involved, along with a lot of science. Inevitably, there have been some races where overtaking has been a bit too easy, such as China, Belgium and Turkey, others where it has still been too hard, such as Valencia, Barcelona and Korea, and others where it has been bang on. That's to be expected. In Abu Dhabi, they used two zones, the second immediately following the first.

After the drivers discovered in practice that passing was still pretty tough, they lengthened the first one before the race. In the end, though, the problem was that if you overtook someone in the first zone, the chances were you would get re-passed in the second - as I found out in my battle with Jenson Button. It probably would have been better in hindsight to have just one zone. It is a difficult subject to get right - and I'm sure with all the information gathered this season, it will be a lot closer to perfect next season. DRS is a controversial issue, not least because a lot of it depends on your point of view. Some people will like to see cars passing and re-passing all the time. Nascar stock-car racing in America is founded on that. But for some who have a more purist point of view about F1 - like me overtaking should mean more than that. They've done a good job so far and I'm sure the teams and the FIA will get the balance a bit better at some of the tracks next year.

MARK WeBBeR

PiT-SToP PRoBLEMS The DRS played a big role in my race in Abu Dhabi. Early in the race, Jenson Button and I were fighting over third place, and I just could not make an overtaking move stick. The problem was that there was no point passing Jenson into Turns Eight and Nine at the end of the first DRS zone because I would just get passed back in the next one, down the following straight into Turn 11. I did eventually get Jenson, and we had a good side-byside battle through the chicane at Turns 11, 12 and 13, but he got me back into Turn 14.

That was good racing but I was disappointed not to finish off the move. I could have risked more, but it was still reasonably early in the race and there was plenty of time to take the battle later into the grand prix. That didn't work out, though, because of a problem fitting one of my wheels at my first pit stop, which cost me five or six seconds to Jenson and put me behind Felipe Massa's Ferrari as well. In an attempt to get past them both, we decided to do an extra stop, to give me more time on the faster 'option' tyre which meant making my final stop at the start of the last lap. There was nothing to lose if I'd stuck with two stops, I might well have finished fifth behind Massa. The extra stint on the softer tyre worked easily in getting me past Felipe. Without the pit-stop problem, I'd have had a decent chance of fighting him much harder for the final podium place.

in A fLAP You may have noticed that there was something flapping under my car during the race - it was mentioned in the BBC commentary by Martin Brundle and David Coulthard, who thought it might be bodywork damage. It turned out it was a piece of my teammate Sebastian Vettel's punctured tyre from his first-lap incident. I think I picked it up on the second lap on the back straight, where there was quite a bit of debris left by Seb's attempt to get the car back to the pits. It smashed the left barge-board back and got pinned on to the car at the front of the floor. The guys were not able to get in there and remove it because the pit stops are normally so fast these days.

BBC

Winning the war is what counts, not individual fireworks EXPERT CoMMEnT

O

StUARt MACGILL

NCE upon a time, the Australian cricket team was famous for not letting their opposition get up off the canvas once they were down.

Nowadays, we seem to prefer offering them a hand to help them back on their feet. I am loath to join the long list of former players who have offered un-

wanted advice but I'm pretty sure you'll support me on this occasion.

Great teams respect their opponents and never take anything for granted. If they bowl a great ball, over or spell, they look forward to doing it again and again and again. This attitude doesn't change from one opponent to the next and it doesn't change with the scoreboard.

Great teams know that there's a fair chance their opposition shares this attitude, so they have to stay committed throughout the match. You can't afford to give your opponents a chance to win because they might take it.

It doesn't matter if you bowl a team out for 96, or even if you're 0-174, scoring at almost five runs an over, you still don't change a thing.

Test cricket is like a staring competition - if you blink, you lose momentum and might just lose the match. For me,

the problem is the way some of our players measure success. Have you had a good day if you've scored quickly, hitting plenty of boundaries? Are you the best bowler in the team if you bowl the fastest or get hit for six less than everybody else? Is fielding all about hitting the stumps? Just in case you were wondering, the answer to all these questions is no. I read in the paper Australia's goals in this match were to "work as a team and play with intent". I have to be careful throwing stones here, because I'm just a sportsman myself, but how many of the Australian side have shown us that they know what intent actually means?

Furthermore, exactly what is their intent anyway? If it's to play with the intent of throwing away a great start, I give them 100 per cent.

Playing positively, batting with intent and dominating the bowlers have

long been phrases that have worried me.

As a bowler, I like nothing more than a batsman who thinks that he has the upper hand simply because he scores quickly.

I remember bowling to David Boon in a Shield match years ago. I had taken career-best figures in the first innings and was looking forward to bowling to him in the second. It soon became obvious, however, that Boonie's idea of batting with intent wasn't the same as the new generation of Australian players.

I simply couldn't get him to take a risk. Every good ball I bowled was defended calmly and without fuss.

My job as a bowler was to get wickets, or at the very least to create opportunities by getting the batsmen to change their game and take risks. I failed dismally on this day. Because he wouldn't play ball, I broke the golden rule. I

blinked. Rather than sticking to my game plan and holding my nerve, I tried to spin the ball harder and harder and bowled more and more variations. Without fail, every bad delivery I served up was hit to the fence.

I don't know about you but I reckon that's how to dominate the bowling. The current generation of Australian cricketers needs to have their role defined so that it's crystal clear in not only their minds but in the minds of their teammates. You don't impress anyone by hitting the most fours or staring at the batsmen. You impress everyone by competing hard throughout all of the battles and then winning the war. The more experienced players in the team should pay careful attention to Pat Cummins, because I think he's channelling David Boon.

SMH

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

late november

s e i c e h p o pr in t s e u q n o c ’s a n n a p Aisam-Bo ea r a y e h t t a h t n e v o r p Paris has e m a g e h t in e n o y n a r match fo

All BAses Covered KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

Previewing the ATP World Tour Finals and the tail-end of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka series

P

AKISTAN take on Sri Lanka in the all-important fourth ODI at Sharjah with the series up for grabs and the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals kick off in London today. The column looks ahead to what promises to be an enthralling assortment of action, endeavouring to foresee the upshot.

Murray to win the ATP World Tour Finals ATP World Tour Finals, more often than not, proves to be a puffed up event of gaudy superstars. Hardly anyone plays to their potential in the season-ending finale, and the rigorous aftereffects of the year are clearly visible. The tournament is the only tennis event that is played on a round-robin format. The top eight players in the world are divided into two pools, with two players from each pool qualifying for the semi finals.

Group A has World Number One Novak Djokovic, vying to end a stupendous season on a high. Djokovic has home favourite Murray – looking to capitalise on his promising run, Ferrer – striving to retrace his run in 2007 and Berdych – bidding to cement his name in the Who’s Who of tennis, in his pool. Group B has the mouthwatering prospect of a Federer-Nadal encounter for the tennis aficionados. Federer, buoyed by a first ever triumph in the Paris Masters, will be looking for a record breaking 6thtitle. Nadal, on the other hand, would be looking for an elusive first WTFs title to add another accolade in his inflated cupboard of silverware.

The two maestros are joined by a couple of big hitters; Tsonga – known for his staggering exploits in London and Fish – playing in his first WTFs. Djokovic has been marred by injuries, most notably in his shoulder, after his earth-shattering run culminated in Flushing Meadows and might not be at his best this week. Murray, however, had an 18-match unbeaten run up till the Paris Masters, and might have enough ingenuity to top pool A, with Djokovic being second. Nadal has never managed to track down his peak form in the WTFs owing to the vigorous style of play that takes more than its fair share of toll on the 10-time Grand Slam champion throughout the year. Even so, with the Spaniard well rested for his assault this week and for the Davis Cup final, he might have a shot this year. Federer has been in Nadal’s pocket throughout their head-tohead, but if there is one place where Federer holds a clear upper hand it’s the indoors. Nadal’s affinity with air and wind – that aid his topspin – eventually become Federer’s tormentor in chief, and with that factor eliminated Nadal’s repertoire becomes less intimidating.

Nevertheless, Federer should overcome his nemesis at the O2 arena, and should overcome Djokovic in the

semifinal as well – if the two encounter each other.

Nadal will have his work cut out to reach the semis, in his least favoured playing conditions and with Fish and Tsonga waiting in the wings. Either way, one fancies Murray to overcome the challenge in the semis.

A Murray-Federer final would be fascinating, and the safe money would be on Federer upping the ante against the Scott. However, Murray is riding a confidence tide, and with both Nadal and Djokovic seemingly succumbing to their physical style of play and Federer penetrating into twilight zone, 2012 could be Murray’s year to ameliorate his pedigree in the game.

Murray leads his head-to-head against Federer and has downed him in crucial best-of-three-encounters in the past. If he can keep his nerves in check and not let the home expectations become a gargantuan monkey encumbering on his back, he could topple Federer. However that ‘if’ is as bulky as the weight of Federer’s trophy cabinet.

Indo-Pak Express to reach the semis Top eight doubles teams will also be competing in the WTFs, with the Indo-Pak duo – inspired by their major ATP 1000 title in Paris – looking to station itself further up the pecking order in the world of tennis. The AisamBopanna pair finds itself in Group B, with Llodra-Zimonjic, Nestor-Mirnyi and Fyrstenb e r g Matkowski teams. The first two teams will be their sternest test and if one of them is knocked over by the Indo-Pak express, it could pave the way towards a semifinal berth. Both Aisam and Bopanna served brilliantly in Paris and their coordination was as seamless as it has ever been.

However, being in the easier of the two groups connotes that a possible leviathan lies in the wait in the semifinal.

Group A has the Bryan Brothers, Paes-Bhupathi, Lindstedt-Tecau, and Melzer-Petzschner partnerships, in what is probably the more arduous of the two pools. Hence, who ever meets the Indo-Pak team in the semis would be a daunting opponent. But if the awesome-twosome from the subcontinent can build on their promising show off-late, they could

even reach further than the semis. Losing out in the US Open semis this year, when their maiden major title loomed, was a major letdown for Aisam and Bopanna which saw them plummet into a downward spiral before their recent upsurge. However, their conquest in Paris has proven that they are a match for anyone in the game and have gradually instilled the big-stage mentality in their ever improving repertoire.

Pakistan to win the ODI series 3-2 Producing results when you’re not at your best is said to be the hallmark of true champions. Whether that billing fits our national cricket side is up for debate, but what is unambiguous is the fact that after a domineering show in the test series, we have been patchy – especially in our batting – in the first three ODIs. But then again, we’re just a win away from clinching the ODI series. The first ODI was a landslide, and that has been followed by our team being at both ends of closely contested encounters. And with the series on a knifeedge, what should we expect from the remainder of the series? The proclamation that the third ODI win was critical would be like throwing in a bucket load of clichés into the cauldron of obviousness. However, being 151-0 in 30 overs, one wouldn’t expect so much sweat in crossing the finish

line.

Au contraire, when Dilshan and Sangakara were clobbering the ball around, we feared the worst. Like quite so often in the near past, our spinners provided the turning point and derailed

the Lankans. Ajmal has been awe-inspiring throughout the series; and indeed throughout the year. Afridi is bowling at his best and Misbah seems to have located his ideal batting position in the lower order as well.

Hafeez is chipping in with his handy spells to round off probably the best spinning repertoire in the game.

However the pace-attack has not yet bore desirable fruits. Gul was impressive up front and cleaned off the tail in emblematic fashion, but he still lacks a menacing partner running in from the other end. Both Aizaz Cheema and Sohail Tanvir have run the gamut from being mediocre to lackluster. And with Razzaq you can only expect a tidy spell, maybe two, of accurate medium pace. Another wicket taking option upfront could prove to be decisive and maybe we need to give our young prodigy Junaid Khan a run in the side.

Our batting has a lot of cannon but it has only fired intermittently. After the solid start in the third ODI, the shuffle in the batting order was the right thing to do, but it was unfortunate that none of the big-hitters pulled off a blitzkrieg. Umar Akmal’s batting in the second ODI was promising, but again; patchy. He’d have a critical role to play if we are to bag the ODI series. One believes it is about time Shoaib Malik is given a run out in the team as he could be just what we need in the middle order. Having both Younis Khan and Misbah in the lineup in an overkill of solidity, and Younis Khan rarely manages to locate his accelerator – if he has one – in the ODIs. Bringing in Malik could give us a connecting bridge between the textbook players and our flamboyant array of big-hitters.

The morale is high and hence our momentum should sail us ashore in the fourth ODI, especially if our spin bowling continues to be at its menacing best. We rarely turn up for dead rubbers and that might be the case in the last ODI, if we triumph in the fourth.

Sri Lanka to win the T20 International After being the indubitable powerhouse in T20s from 2007-2009, our side has plunged into mediocrity over the last 20 months or so. It is a natural corollary of our failure to reassemble a dexterous lineup along the lines of the aforementioned epoch which saw us conjure up back to back World Cup finals – winning one of them – and being a Michael Hussey shaped monster away from making our third final on the trot.

Love him, hate him, label him, politicise him or envy him for his marital accomplishment – Shoaib Malik was the mind behind our T20 upsurge, and his batting is a vital component in the shorter and shortest version of the game. The fact that he has the most number of gears in our batting repertoire and has a wide collection of strokes makes him an integral cog in our machine.

However with or without him, we are shorn of confidence in T20s, and a Dilshan-Malinga inspired Sri Lanka could outdo us. We need to rethink our stratagem in T20s, to retrace our apogee. And of course it doesn’t help when you have a month worth of test cricket a couple of weeks of ODIs and a grand total of three hours of T20 action in a tour. Inexplicable, is the word.

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

Blatter’s moment of

choreographed contrition Comment PAUL KELSO EPP Blatter’s 13 years as Fifa president have seen a massive expansion in the World Cup and hundreds of millions of dollars spent on football development around the world. They have also been characterised by allegations of graft, bribery, corporate lies, internal corruption, secrecy and mistrust. But suggest that he should take responsibility and step aside and you will be dismissed. Pouting like a pantomime dame challenged over her modesty, Blatter will not accept what seems clear to many in the UK and elsewhere in the world: that he is part of Fifa’s image problem rather than its solution. He dismissed the notion that he might resign to give Fifa a clean break when I asked him the question last month, following his unveiling of a series of reforms intended to restore its reputation in the wake of the corruption scandals of the last year.

And he was at his affronted best on Friday when challenged by the BBC following his clumsy and offensive suggestion that racist incidents should be settled with a handshake. He began the interview with that rarest of things, an apology. Blatter does not usually do regret or personal responsibility. But after a week intended as a platform for his reforming zeal turned into a public relations disaster, he had little choice but to utter the ‘S’ word.

But even in a moment of choreographed contrition Blatter could not disguise the

S

principle that has underpinned his 13 years as Fifa president. He might have a mandate secured in the farcical presidential election last June, but ultimately Fifa is run as a personal fiefdom and a family business, sometimes literally. Asked by the BBC’s David Bond if Fifa could change with him in charge he bristled: “Maybe that is your appreciation, but then I would say that you are not a good friend of football.” That is Blatter’s position in a nutshell. Fifa is indivisible from his role as president. Those who work with him say it is an asset, and what makes him first into Fifa House on a Zurich winter morning. But for an organisation now committed to international standards of transparency it is a glaring weakness. So Blatter is here to stay, and the increasingly shrill English football family ought to get used to it. It would take 20 per cent of Fifa’s 208 member countries to call for a special congress to remove him, and two thirds to win a vote. And there is no sign of any appetite for that beyond a corner of northern Europe.

But job security does not mean he is comfortable. His plan to publish the names of Fifa executives who took bribes is causing anxiety on the executive committee.

Four members of the same committee have been banned or resigned amid corruption allegations, and just yesterday a further six Caribbean football officials were sanctioned for their roles in the Mohamed Bin Hammam – Jack Warner bribery scandal. On one level Blatter can claim with justification that Fifa is cleaning its house. But with the patriarch still in charge, it will never be clean enough for some.

Former French star

zinedine zidane’s

infamous headbutt was caused by racist slur

Seven raciSm incidents Comment JACOB STEINBERG OCTOBER 2000 - Arsenal's Patrick Vieira accused Lazio's Sinisa Mihajlovic of racially abusing him during a 1-1 draw in the Champions League at the Stadio Olimpico. "There were a lot of bad things said to me and they all came from one

Bulgaria fans directed monkey chants at Ashley Young in September 2010. file PHoTo

player – Mihajlovic", Vieira said. "I was called a black bastard and a fucking black monkey. You don't want to hear that on the pitch coming from a professional player."

WHAT HAPPENED - The Serbian defender was banned by Uefa for two matches.

OCTOBER 2004 - Spain's manager, Luis Aragonés, caused outrage after calling Thierry Henry a "black shit". Aragonés was caught on camera during a training session saying to José Antonio Reyes, who was a team-mate of Henry's at Arsenal at the time: "Tell that negro de mierda [black shit] that you are much better than him. Tell him from me. You have to believe in yourself; you're better than that negro de mierda."

WHAT HAPPENED - It had been expected an unrepentant Aragonés would lose his job but instead the Spanish Football Federation fined him £2,060. Henry was put under pressure by Uefa the following year to embrace Aragonés at an antiracism conference.

NOVEMBER 2004 - The Football Association reacted furiously after England players such as Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips were subjected to monkey chants from Spanish fans during a 10 defeat by Spain at the Bernabéu in Madrid. There is also a banner in the crowd reading "Aragonés 1, Henry 0".

WHAT HAPPENED - Fifa fined Spain £44,750. jUNE 2007 - England's game against Serbia at the Under-21 European Championships in Holland was marred by racial abuse from Serbian fans aimed at England's Nedum Onuoha. It was also alleged that

some Serbian players directed racial abuse at their opponents in the tunnel and a row ensued when England's Matt Derbyshire scored England's second goal as a Serbian was down injured. Relations become further strained after the match by comments from Derbyshire. "Everyone knows around the nation what sort of country they are, the fans and what have you," he said.

WHAT HAPPENED - The Serbian Football Federation was fined £16,500 by Uefa for "the racist chanting of supporters and the improper conduct of their players". The FA was also fined £2,000 following the trouble in the tunnel. jUNE 2008 - Some Croatia fans were found guilty by Uefa of "displaying a racist banner and showing racist conduct" during their country's Euro 2008 quarter-final against Turkey.

WHAT HAPPENED - Uefa fined the Croatian Football Federation nearly £10,000.

SEPTEMBER 2008 - England's Emile Heskey was subjected to racial abuse by home fans during the 4-1 victory in a qualifier for the 2010 World Cup against Croatia in Zagreb.

WHAT HAPPENED - Fifa fined Croatia £15,000. "The most important thing is that Fifa have recognised there was racist chanting," said an FA spokesman.

"All that we can do is continue to confront racist behaviour, no matter how small or large in scope it is."

SEPTEMBER 2010 - Bulgaria fans directed monkey chants at Ashley Young, Ashley Cole and Theo Walcott during England's

Arsenal's Patrick vieira accused Lazio's Sinisa Mihajlovic of racially abusing him during a 1-1 draw in the Champions League at the Stadio olimpico in october 2000. file PHoTo 3-0 win in Sofia in qualifying for Euro 2012.

WHAT HAPPENED - Uefa opened

an investigation into the chanting but no judgment has yet been reached.

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

indo-Pak dangal: Gujranwala glory to Pakistan GUJRANWALA MUHAMMAD SHAfiQUE

The first part of the Indo-Pak wrestling tournament was held here in Gujranwala with great zeal Saturday where Pakistani wrestler Umer Pahalwan won the title gold.

Two matches were between Pakistan and India in which Umer Pahalwan “Rustum-e-Pakistan” defeated Rustume-Hind Jaghrobe Singh. In the other match between Rustum-e-Gujranwala Jani Pahalwan and Rustum-e-Punjab Satwinder Singh, the Indian wrestler won the match.

Earlier in first half, warm up matches were played among local wrestlers in which Muhammad Ali, Wahab Wajid Majhoo and Mustafa beat Shabeer, Umer, Billa Asad Pathan and Bila respectively. The match between Ati and Parvaiz was a draw.

In second half, the title matches took place. Umpires were Goga Pahalwan, Anwer Pahalwan and Hajinder Singh, coach of the Indian team. Jani Phalwan was defeated by Satwinder Singh while in the main category Umer Pahalwan defeated Jaghrob Singh as it turned out to be a disqualification as Jaghrob Singh got injured during the fight. Commissioner Gujranwala Saeed

National Cycling from today LAHORE STAff REPoRT

The 59th National Cycling Championship will paddle off from November 21 to 25 here at the Cycling Velodrome under the supervision of the newly-elected Pakistan Cycling Federation. The Army Sports Directorate has been given the assignment to hold the event to be participated by all the four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber PK and departments Army, SSGC, Wapda and Railways. Addressing a press conference here at the cycling velodrome, Col Asghar Fiaz Bodla, deputy Director Army Sport, informed that there will be three road event while the remaining activity will be held at the velodrome. Interestingly, the press conference was to be held at the National Hockey Stadium conference room but was shifted to the velodrome and no reason was given for the shift.

Also present on the occasion was secretary PCF Azhar Ali Shah. Col Bodla further informed that on the sideline of the event there will be three activities for women, veterans and former cyclists.

Wahla was the chief guest of the tournament while MNA Capt Safdar and former MNA Ghulam Dastagir Khan were present on the occasion and gave away the prize money of Rs 50,000 to the winners. While gold “Gurz” was given to the Umer Pahalwan from Gujranwala for winning the title match.

Talking to Pakistan Today, Satwinder Singh said that it was a great match and such tournaments should be held as this would help bring the two nations together.

Umer Pahalwan after winning the title gold thanked the Almighty. He said that Pakistan has talent and government supervision is necessary for the promotion of talent so that Pakistani wrestlers could earn good name for the country.

Chief coach of Pakistani team and General Secretary of Pakistan Wrestling Federation, under whose supervision Pakistan won gold in Commonwealth Games in 2010 said that Pakistanis remain one of the best wrestling nation of the world in their typical style and government should encourage the local wrestlers so that they could win gold.

Hajindre Singh said that such tournament will bring the two countries together. “We share a lot and wrestling tournaments could play a pivotal role in overcoming bitterness.”

Umer Pahalwan receives the Gurz. STAff PHoTo

Curtain down on Inter School, Collegiate Games

LAHORE STAff REPoRT

KRL, Army advance LAHORE

LAHoRe: Players of Baghbanpura and Kinniard College vie for the ball. online LAHORE

STAff REPoRT

KRL and Army earned wins in the 8th Pakistan Premier Football League on Saturday. KRL beat HBL 2-0 at the Municipal Stadium, Rawalpindi. KRL’s goals came in the 31st minute and the extra injury time 90+4 through Saadullah and striker Muhammad Qasim. On the other hand Army was luck to have got full points for not even kicking the ball at the Municipal Stadium, Rawalpindi. They got the walk over when PEL team failed to reach the venue.

Parakash plots Indian blind team’s win

T

STAff REPoRT

HE five-day 4th Inter School and College Games came to an end with around 288 schools and colleges taking part in 27 disciplines. Provincial Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Suja-ur-Rehman was the chief guest of the closing ceremony. President Punjab Olympic Association Syed Shahid Ali, Sr. Vice President Iftikar Ali Malik, secretary

PbOA Idris Hayder Khawaja, associate secretary Tania Malik, Commandant Navy Lahore, all the provincial sports officials and a lot of other dignities were also present on that occasion.

On the final day, Divisional Public School with 512 won the overall trophy and were followed by Don Bosco with 305 points and Govt Model High School English Medium Model Town was third with 250 points. Superior College with 1211 points was the winner of the college category while Government College University was

second with 1072 points and Islamia College Civil Lines was third with 223 points. In the girls school category, Secred Heart were the winners with 376 points. Beacon House Liberty and Adbistan Sufia were second and third with 315 and 260 points respectively. In girls college class, Kinnaird College was the winner with 442 points while Lahore College University with 185 points and Queen Mary with 165 points were second and third respectively. The winners were awarded trophies and Rs 5000 each.

The Indian blind cricket team squared the three match T20 series with a fiverun win over Pakistan blind cricketers here at the Bagh-i-Jinnah’s Lahore Gymkhana ground on Saturday.

Parakah, who was later named the Man of the match, was the man behind the win.

Pakistan won the toss and asked India to bat first. India posted a good total of 200 on the board for the loss of three wickets.

Parakash was the star for India and he remained not out on 100 runs. Ketan Patel chipped in with 46 runs. Yasir claimed one wicket.

Pakistan team’s start was not good enough, as their two openers Muhammad Fazyaz and Masood Jan fell cheaply. Muhammad Jameel played brilliantly but was caught after scoring 51 runs. Muhammad Zafar gave hope to Pakistan but was bowled by Steish.

He scored 50 runs.

Pakistan scored 195 runs for the loss of six wickets in the stipulated 20 overs and eventually fell five runs short of the target. India’s bowling was again slow and were penalised for12 runs.

But later on it was reconsidered that as the WBCC International rules for T20 has not been approved yet, the penalty was waved off and India was declared the winner.

Pakistan karate team to leave for India today LAHORE STAff REPoRT

The Pakistan karate team will proceed today (Sunday) to India for participation in the 1st South Asian Karate Championship to be held there from November 21–23 at New Delhi.

Meanwhile, four referees from Pakistan Bashir Butt, Farman Ahmed, Muhammad Usman and Fayyaz Feroze will also participate in the championship and will attend the briefing on new World Karate Federation rules by Mr. Lim, Chief Referee of Asian Karate Do Federation. The teams from all the

SAARC countries will be participating in the Championship.

Following are the names of players / officials participating in the Championship:Male: Muhammad Jaffar (Manager), Shah Muhammad (Coach), Ali Mahmood, Muhammad Kashif, Mhsin

Ali, Saadi Abbas, Imtiaz Ali, Muhammad Ramzan, Baz Muhammad, Abdul Khaliq, Jawad.

Female: Andleeb Ahmar (manager), Khalid Noor (Coach), Binish Akber, Uzma Asghar, Hina Azeem, Kulsoom Hazara, Binish Khan, Quratul Ain.

LAHoRe: Indians made a surprising comeback in the second match. MUrTAzA Ali

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Sunday, 20 November, 2011

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Key Afghan meeting backs troop deal with US g

elders insist on string of conditions after four days of talks g endorse dialogues with Taliban who drop violence KABUL

A

AfP

FGHAN elders on Saturday endorsed a strategic partnership deal with the US which could see its troops remain on Afghan soil for years, while insisting on a string of conditions after four days of talks.

Their declaration at the end of the loya jirga stressed terms including that US nationals committing crimes in Afghanistan must not face immunity and that the US must side with Afghanistan if a third country tries to attack it. President Hamid Karzai accepted the conditions and recommendations of the jirga,

which brought together 2,000 elders from around the country in Kabul, saying they were “for the good of Afghanistan”.

The strategic partnership deal will govern the presence of US troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when all NATO-led foreign combat forces are due to leave. The jirga’s declaration on the deal, which is still being negotiated by Kabul and Washington, is not binding. But it is likely to be used by Karzai to claim he has a general mandate from the Afghan people in the ongoing negotiations, which are highly controversial among many in the warring country.

TALkS WITH TALIBAN: The meeting also backed holding talks with members of the Taliban who renounce violence, despite

the assassination in September of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani which officials blame on insurgents.

“The jirga has decided that the strategic partnership, for better security in the country, is needed,” said the jirga’s final declaration, read out to delegates by spokeswoman Safia Sediqi. “With regards to the national interest of Afghanistan, the strategic partnership is considered very important.” Other conditions outlined by the jirga included that the partnership deal be signed for 10 years initially, although that could be extended, and that responsibility for all prisons in Afghanistan be handed to Kabul.

It also stressed that Afghan security

forces should take the lead in all military operations, that the US should not play out regional rivalries on Afghan soil, and called for the Afghan parliament to approve the deal. A number of key figures including Karzai’s main rival Abdullah Abdullah boycotted the jirga amid questions over how delegates were appointed. Some analysts accused the president of seeking to use the meeting to gain backing for a highly sensitive deal which many Afghans strongly oppose after ten bloody years of war.

“The aim of the jirga appears not to be to deliver fresh policy but to get political cover so the president can cite it as evidence that the people supported a deal with the Americans,” Kate Clark of the

KK Agha likely to be appointed new NAB prosecutor general ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to appoint Additional Attorney General KK Agha the prosecutor general in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and a summary in this regard has also been approved. With this appointment, Agha, whose full name is Mohammed Karim Khan Agha, would have another three-year term as the NAB prosecutor general. KK Agha is a Karachi-based lawyer who has been defending corruption cases against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Zardari during the 1990s.

He was also part of the government’s team in the NRO case along with the federation’s former lawyer, Kamal Azfar. His new assignment reflects that the PPP Co-chairman President Asif Ali Zardari is making sure that his loyalists were appointed against key posts in case his party’s government faces any jeopardy. A well-placed source confided to Pakistan Today that President Asif Ali Zardari had also consulted the NAB Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari and a formal announcement was likely to be made to appoint Agha as the NAB PG once the notification was made. The source said the appointment was crucial, as the PPP-led government was left with a one-year term, while Agha would still serve another two years and his role would be crucial in case the PPP loses next elections. MiAn ABrAr

Pakistan’s economy badly needs immediate remedial measures: IMF ISLAMABAD JALALUDDin RUMi

iSLAMABAD: Children attend classes in a field as the world observes the international Children’s Day today (november 20). inP

Gilani weighs options in case Haqqani is to be sacrificed ISLAMABAD MiAn ABRAR

With the situation evolving fast vis-à-vis Ambassador Hussain Haqqani in the backdrop of the memo scandal, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and his close aides are making deliberations for taking damage control measures and to clear the air between the government and the military regarding the issue which has shattered the civilian government for the first time since the PPP took power after 2008 election.

A source privy to the developments told Pakistan Today that the prime minister was mulling options to handle the situation and it was likely that Ambassador Haqqani would be asked to tender resignation to avoid any investigation into the memo episode. Haqqani has already offered to resign, but President Asif

Afghanistan Analysts Network wrote this week in a blog posting. The jirga also called for a “revision” of Afghanistan’s peace strategy after Rabbani’s killing, which has badly stalled efforts to pursue peace.

And it called for the international community to pressure Pakistan – which Afghan officials accuse of harbouring insurgents – and Iran to do more to push hopes for peace forward. “We want a revision of the peace strategy and a new policy should be outlined,” the jirga’s declaration said. “The door of peace should be kept open with the armed opposition who wish to abandon violence and return to a peaceful life but we must ensure that the bitter experience of the past is not repeated.”

Ali Zardari is reluctant to fire his close associate and confidant, who is considered his official intermediary between him and the US State Department.

The source said that in case of Haqqani’s resignation, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir might be appointed ambassador to the US, while Bashir may be replaced by Ambassador to European Union Syed Jalil Abbas Jilani. “However, Prime Minister Gilani is still weighing options and Jilani may be appointed the new ambassador to Washington, but a final decision would be taken after consultation with President Asif Ali Zardari, who is still backing Ambassador Haqqani,” the source added. The source said the situation would be clear once Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani spoke his mind after interviewing Haqqani, who has allegedly played a key role in the

preparation of the memo written by Mansoor Ijaz. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Ambassador to European Union Jalil Abbas Jilani called on Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in Lahore on Saturday evening and discussed with him some important matters.

An official handout stated that the ambassador informed the premier that provision of tariff concession on 75 items and subsequent provision of GSP Plus facility by the European Union would help revive the Pakistani economy, create jobs and ensure investment in the country.

The prime minister said the European Union was an important forum and appreciated its continued support for Pakistan’s contributions in the war against terror. EU’s generous assistance of more than 300 million euros for the flood-affected people was instrumental for their

early rehabilitation, he added.

The prime minister directed the ambassador to interact with the civil society and the people of policy making level to apprise the sacrifices Pakistani people had rendered in the war against terror, besides suffering huge losses to the economy. Gilani directed the ambassador to let the people of European Union know that human rights situation in Pakistan was much better and there was no political prisoner in the country. The ambassador said he would undertake his diplomatic responsibility in the light of instructions of the prime minister to project the soft image of the country. He said that in the dawn of democracy, the European Union had upgraded its relations with Pakistan at the summit level and Pakistan was one of the few countries which enjoyed the status.

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

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Saturday expressed its lack of confidence in the government’s economic policies, as fund representative told reporters that the IMF did not see improved budgetary and external account position of Pakistan and that could create difficulty in payment of external debt in the long run. Adnan Mezari said Pakistan’s ailing economy badly needed immediate remedial measures, as balanced current account position could be effected by the financial slowdowns around the world and Pakistan’s authorities had the ability to manage the internal and external accounts through corrective measures. Mezari, IMF Asia pacific director, was speaking at a press briefing with Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said Pakistan had achieved positive economic growth during the first four months, as the country’s exports had reached $6 billion, twenty percent more than in the same period last fiscal year. He said the country had recorded 23 percent increase in remittances with $4.2 billion and 28 percent increase in tax collection at Rs 509 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal. Shaikh said during the recent article IV consultation with IMF, both long and short term policies to revamp the economy had been taken up. “Long term growth strategy focuses on enhancing the efficiency of civil servants, attracting investments, development of agriculture and industrial output and broadening the tax base of the economy. Reforms have been initiated in power distribution and power generation companies,” he said, adding that the boards of directors of power distribution companies had been reformed and a process was underway to appoint CEOs to power generation companies. The finance minister said Pakistan enjoyed good relationship with IMF authorities and considered IMF consultations important for initiating economic reforms in the country. He hoped that the current phase of growth in external resources would continue and the current fiscal year would end up at a manageable fiscal and current account deficit. Mezari said Pakistan needed to reform its energy sector and improve the productivity and fiscal management of public sector institutions for long term macroeconomic stability of the country.