31 October 2011

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Vol ii no 127 32 pages lahore edition

Imran makes good on his words by gathering well over 100,000 at PTI rally Threatens to launch civil disobedience movement if politicians do not declare assets Vows to eliminate corruption, reveals party manifesto

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argely regarded until now as a political lightweight with street support that scarcely translates into votes come general elections, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan spectacularly burst onto the national political stage in a massive show of force at his rally in lahore on Sunday as thousands upon thousands of supporters gathered at the historic Minar-e-Pakistan to answer his call: ‘remove the government, save Pakistan’. Turning the tables on his political rivals, especially the Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N), and making good on his promise that he would

fill the sprawling Minar-e-Pakistan grounds, Imran left little doubt about who rules lahore. The cricketer-turnedpolitician told the crowd - which reportedly comprised well over 100,000 of his supporters, most of them youngsters - that a revolution was around the corner and the government could not stop it. Basking in the adoration of the crowd, he said he had one complaint to make of the people of lahore: they took a long time to wake up. “But now that lahore has risen, we are unstoppable!” said an impassioned Imran.

full story | page 03 related stories and pics | pages 04 to 07

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02 News

Monday, 31 october, 2011

lAHoRe

Today’s

Spy agencies declare PTI’s rally ‘a success’

NewS

woRld vIew

Istanbul meeting on Afghanistan security aims low A lot of people? Yes. Apocalypse? No.

Quick Look

Story on Page 09

Story on Page 06

Story on Page 15

Raisani rejects criticism over winter capital decision QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad aslam raisani on Sunday said democracy had been restored in the country after an untiring struggle and sacrifices of political workers against dictatorship, adding that it was the responsibility of every citizen to make efforts for protecting and strengthening the democratic institutions. about his decision of making gwadar as the winter capital, the chief minister said the move would not only open new opportunities for progress and investment in the province but also help to speed up the economic activities at gwadar Port, helping in changing the fate of the country. Talking to a group of provincial ministers at his office, raisani said he was surprised by criticism by some quarters on his decision of making gwadar as the winter capital and said these elements on one hand had been making a hue and cry over the backwardness and lack of government’s efforts, but on the other criticised the government for its sincere efforts for development and progress. he termed the denigration as a double standard and said it was not in the favour of Balochistan as well as its people. about the statement of a nationalist party regarding trespassing over Pakhtuns’ right, raisani said the political entity wanted to create differences and hatred among the two nationalities of the province for the sake of their vested interests. he said it was the same political party which boycotted the census of 1997 and caused harm to Balochistan as well as Pakhtun population. STAFF REPORT

Paper claims Pakistan spied on German officers in Afghanistan BERLIN: Pakistan’s secret service spied on german security forces in afghanistan, raising fears sensitive information could end up in the hands of the Taliban, a german paper reported on Sunday. Without citing its sources, mass-selling weekly Bild am Sonntag reported that germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency warned its interior ministry that Pakistan had spied on 180 german police officers deployed in afghanistan to train locals. The interior ministry told reuters the BND suspected a german email had been intercepted but could not give confirmation. The ministry added it was not aware of any comprehensive interception of german police data. Pakistan’s interior and foreign ministries and military were unavailable for comment. Bild am Sonntag said private telephone calls, messages to the ministry, military mission orders and lists of police officer names had been intercepted. “On the basis of experience we must expect that the Pakistan intelligence agency ISI is continuing to give sensitive military information to the Taliban,” Bild cited an unnamed Berlin security expert as saying. The BND declined to comment on the report. REuTERS

Pakistan supports Indian diplomat for second term in Commonwealth ISLAMABAD: In a significant confidence building measure (CBM) towards India, Pakistan on Sunday extended its full support in extending the term of Kamlesh Sharma as the secretary general of the Commonwealth. The veteran Indian diplomat, who became the Commonwealth secretary general for the first time on april 1, 2008, has been associated with this organisation since 2004 when he was a member of the Board of governors of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation. During the concluding session of 21st Commonwealth meeting in Perth, australia, on Sunday, the heads of governments decided to reappoint Sharma for a four-year term beginning from april 2012.

Sharma’s name was nominated by India and member states including Pakistan accepted his candidature unanimously. Prime Minister yousaf raza gilani, who was attending the meeting, announced his backing for Sharma. The decision to support Sharma is seen in Islamabad as an important CBM on part of Pakistan towards India, and also a positive response to New Delhi’s recent support for Pakistan as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). SHAIQ HuSSAIN

Make a run for cheaper clothing: pakistani children and brick kiln workers rush towards a man selling used clothes from his car in the outskirts of islamabad. AFP

‘MQM rally a slap in PML-N’s face’ g

Political leaders say Sharif brothers are the true sons of General Ziaul Haq KARACHI

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QAZI ASIF

he leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim league-Quaid (PMl-Q) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) strongly criticised the leaders of Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) on Sunday, saying the elder brother (PMl-N chief Nawaz Sharif) was using the younger brother (Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif) in Punjab.

They also said that the MQM’s big rally in Karachi was a big slap in the face of the PMl-N. They said the Sharif brothers were the real sons of former military dictator general Ziaul haq, and they had proved it.

“Not ejazul haq but the Sharif brothers are actual sons of the dictator and enemy of democ-

racy, general Zia. Sharifs are the real followers of Zia,” Sindh Senior Minister for education and literacy Pir Mazhar-ul-haq told participants of a large protest rally organised by the MQM at Tibet Centre, Ma Jinnah road. he said the person who was claiming to be the ‘servant of Punjab’ was not expected to use such insulting language against the president of Pakistan. “a conspiracy was planned against Shahbaz by his own elder brother as he himself did not come forward in the rally but sent his brother and asked him to use such language, which badly damaged Shahbaz Sharif. The elder brother stabbed his younger brother in the back,” he said. haq said those who signed the Charter of Democracy (CoD), which stated that the parties would not conspire against each other, should not insult each other, but the PMl-N was violating the CoD left, right and centre.

MQM rabita Committee Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar said whenever anyone tried to destabilise Pakistan and democracy, the guarantor of democracy altaf hussain came forward to protect it. “This big rally is a referendum that says the people will foil any conspiracy against democracy. We condemn the language which was used against the president of Pakistan asif ali Zardari. This is a violation of the constitution and against the norms and culture of Punjab,” he added. he said the huge rally was organised within just 40 hours and millions of people had gathered at such a short notice. Sindh local government Minister agha Siraj ahmed said President Zardari and altaf hussain were united, and nobody could separate them. “We will not use abusive language. We can pull out the tongue that is used against us but we are political people.

We will deal with them politically,” he said.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

foReIGN NewS

ARtS & eNteRtAINMeNt

SPoRtS

Politics sink Thai flood relief efforts

Hrithik among most kissed at Tussauds?

Pakistan win record fifth HK Sixes title

News 03 CoMMeNt Successful show: Public support, yes; vote bank, no idea.

The TAPI pipelines: Not without strings attached.

Dr Mubarak Ali says: Dictator dominoes: They are falling one after the other…

Waqqas Mir says: PTI: All steak, no sizzle? The detractors have their questions too…

urooj Zia says: The evil of silence: The neglected issue of child sexual abuse.

Story on Page 17

Story on Page 18

Story on Page 20

Articles on Page 12-13

Game over, my turn, says Imran LAHORE

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NASIR BuTT

argely regarded until now as a political lightweight with street support that scarcely translates into votes come general elections, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan spectacularly burst onto the national political stage in a massive show of force at his rally in lahore on Sunday as thousands upon thousands of supporters gathered at the historic Minar-e-Pakistan to answer his call: ‘remove the government, save Pakistan’.

Turning the tables on his political rivals, especially the Pakistan Muslim leagueNawaz (PMl-N), and making good on his promise that he would fill the sprawling Minar-e-Pakistan grounds, Imran left little doubt about who rules lahore. The cricketer-turned-politician told the crowd which reportedly comprised well over 100,000 of his supporters, most of them youngsters - that a revolution was around the corner and the government could not stop it. Basking in the adoration of the crowd, he said he had one complaint to make of the people of lahore: they took a long time to wake up. “But now that lahore has risen, we are unstoppable!” said an impassioned Imran.

DECLARE ASSETS: Imran gave the ruling elitist politicians a “few months” to declare their assets, failing which he said he would force them to do so by starting a massive civil disobedience movement. he warned the “oppressive and reactionary” existing political setup that a tsunami, and

not a mere flood, of change was on its way that would sweep away their distorted and corrupt style of politics. Imran had claimed in the days leading up to the rally that he would show everyone at the Minar-e-Pakistan who ruled lahore, Punjab and the rest of the country. There were no two ways of seeing the result of that claim on Sunday: the PTI trumped the PMl-N – which has long held more sway and support in the capital of Punjab than any other political party – and it did so with a thumping majority. Imran told the participants of the rally that it took his party 15 years of hard work to reach this position where it could bring change to Pakistan. he promised to end corruption and to bring back the $100 billion of the country’s money stolen by corrupt politicians and hidden away in foreign banks. he thanked youngsters, rickshaw drivers, police personnel and government servants that he said had “sneaked into the rally” in their civvies. The PTI chief said parliament was full of land-grabbers powered by patwaris who gathered black money for them. Imran laid particular stress on his party’s aim to rid the country of patwari culture and said Pakistan was the only country left in the world that still employed them. he also warned that he would go to the Supreme Court as well as the election Commission of Pakistan if the politicians in the government and opposition failed to declare their assets as required by law. he said the PTI would set up a cell to investigate the assets of politicians who failed to declare them.

MANIFESTO: Imran announced his

party’s manifesto in detail, which he said was aimed at making Pakistan a peaceful and independent country where investment would be attracted from across the world.

“We will make Pakistan a place where people come from other countries to seek jobs,” he said. Talking of change, he said: “Today we are beginning a new Pakistan from Minar-e-Pakistan, the place from where Quaid-e-azam Muhammad ali Jinnah began his movement.” Describing his party’s policy towards the United States, Imran said: “We will be friends with you (US), but we will not be your slaves. We will help you withdraw from afghanistan, but won’t launch any military operation (for you).” he questioned that if the US, being a superpower, could not win the war through military means, how could Pakistan? Imran expressed more of a leaning towards China, saying his party would seek to strengthen its ties with Pakistan’s all-weather friend. he said he was leaving for China on the Chinese government’s invitation tonight. he said Pakistan was not a poor country but one rich in natural resources. he said Pakistan had 180 billion tonnes of coal reserves, “which means we can export electricity to the world”. Imran said a Pakistan he was heading would never need to beg before anyone. “Pakistan will never beg again; Imran Khan will die but won’t beg,” he vowed amid vociferous cheers of the charged crowd. Coming down hard on President asif ali Zardari, Imran questioned how Zardari could provide food, clothes and shelter when under his rule 16,000 people had committed suicide. he also claimed that Zardari wrote a letter to

AgendA-chAnging event

where do you get your funds, ANP asks Imran ISLAMABAD: The sources of funding of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) are not clear and the PTI Chairman Imran Khan must allow an audit of his party first, aNP Central Vice President Bushra gohar said on Sunday. Bushra said, “When he speaks I feel he is someone else’s spokesman.” She said no one knew who gave the PTI funds and, if workers paid for it, the PTI should be able to produce a record for it. She also said, “No elections have been held within PTI for the last 15 years and Imran Khan has remained its chairman.

This is itself a dictatorial-style of government.” She criticised Imran for never protesting for those killed in bomb attacks and standing on the side of militants. however, she admitted his popularity amongst youth, and said, “Most of the population is young and feels attracted to a former cricketing hero. Unfortunately, the youth, especially in Khyber Pakthunkhwa are misguided.” Separately, aNP Information Secretary Senator Zahid Khan said public pressure was against dictatorship and the present parliament was fully functional. he said that public gatherings and urging for change was not appropriate in a democratic set-up and were tactics to use against a dictator. he said parties must approach the mechanism within the system to redress grievances. ONlINE

Harbinger of third political force?

LAHORE NADEEM SYED

If Imran Khan was once the darling of media and TV channels, he emerged as a real leader of the masses after his mammoth Minar-e-Pakistan public meeting and a force to be reckoned with in future political developments.

No wonder, the public meeting took the entire political class by surprise, and some even wondered how he managed to mount such a big show on his own.

Mostly young people turned up at the venue in great numbers from the city and adjoining areas, highly enthusiastic to listen to Khan as if expecting see their hero in action in the final of the World Cup once again, turning tables on his archrivals, here perceived to be the Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N)’s Sharifs.

The sight of Imran Khan addressing thousands of youths in a public rally far greater in numbers than the one the PMl-N put together by employing all the means available, would have been most discomforting for the Sharifs, already under pressure from the sporting star. But probably the Sharifs, by their political bungling, asked for it and Imran gave it to them in the most befitting manner.

Though short of any spectacular announcement as was expected, the occasion was a real show of power and the rising strength of the PTI and as such a message loud and clear for all those that matter in Pakistani politics. already the political analysts termed the event ‘agenda-changing’, if not a game-changer, while for others it was a

trend-setter in the country’s politics with the PTI emerging as a real force, as a political heavyweight with deadly and dangerous connotations for its opponents.

Some commentators believe it could be a harbinger of the emergence of a third force in Pakistani politics before the stage is set for the next general elections or in case of any change at the top. a third force that will cut to size of both main parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the PMl-N, in coming elections and the post-election political scenario.

No doubt it was a one of the biggest gatherings the people have ever witnessed in the city, most political analysts and participants say one should expect winds of change in a country that has more than its share of problems.

But experts say that with the kind of leadership that is the part of the PTI right now, and with little and most rudimentary political organisation in the country, only a miracle can bring Imran to power. The people occupying the stage next to Imran Khan bring out this dilemma of the PTI in the most glaring fashion. Imagine Mahmood-ur-rasheed sitting next to Imran Khan at the stage as the second senior-most in the party, placed even before the likes of Mian azhar. according to one political leader, rasheed was one of those leaders expelled from the party on charges of corruption.

Political sources believe that Imran Khan lacked both political organisation and leaders and candidates well-versed with constituency politics or big names in their respective areas to make a real difference in electoral politics.

according to some analysts, it would be interesting to see Imran Khan overcoming this handicap and in this pursuit him being supported by the establishment, nudging the politicians from different parties towards the PTI or lending them for the time being to boost the party’s fortunes in coming days. already, a large number of politicians, including fence-sitters, splinter groups with penchant to gauge which way the wind is blowing, are doubleminded where to go before the next elections: the PMl-N or the PTI, with the latter being considered a symbol of change in the country. as such, Imran’s show could trigger a rat race among ticket-seekers. Sunday’s show would go a long way to lending a lot more clarity to their future choices. already as the battle for Punjab heats up here, there is a tough competition going on between the PMl-N and PTI to woo important personalities, fence-sitters and splinter groups. It seems the appeal for Imran Khan will be too strong to resist now.

The feedback on Imran Khan’s speech, though, short of the political semantics the people expect of a real politician, has been positive. Though Imran, like the PMl-N leadership, launched a frontal attack against President asif ali Zardari, he never lost the balance. It also seemed that he was not in any great hurry to force any political change. It appears as if he wants to proceed further slowly and steadily and wants change through constitutional means as opposed to the PMlN leadership, which is looking for a change overnight.

the US requesting it to please save him from the army because he was not able to serve the US well with army interference. lambasting PMl-N President Nawaz Sharif, he said: “how can you fight an alligator like Zardari when you can’t even take on the [dengue] mosquitoes?” he said Nawaz could have done better than coming up with a show of patwaris at the PMl-N rally in lahore. The PTI chief said Pakistan was suffering losses of rs 3 trillion every year because of rampant corruption. he said his party also aimed to bring about police reforms in the country to improve the working of the institution. “We will depoliticise the police and then get the ShO elected the way it is done in america,” he added. he said the condition of villages would be improved and pledged to bring an end to the military operation and targeted killings in Balochistan, which he said was a province rich in natural resources but treated cruelly in the past. “We will make the Balochs our brothers,” he added.

“Change is not coming, change is already here!” were the words Imran Khan chose to end his speech with, to wild applause from the crowd that had swelled exponentially since it started gathering at around 11am. Whether the rally and the unprecedented support will have a direct impact in terms of elections remains to be seen, but one thing that was made clear at Minar-e-Pakistan on Sunday evening was that the PTI has emerged as a viable alternative to the PPP and PMl-N. Whether it will be able to capitalise on that or not is anybody’s guess.

Gilgit-Baltistan ministers defend Zardari against calls to step down ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

accusing the Pakistan Muslim leagueNawaz (PMl-N) of trying to derail democracy in the country, cabinet members of gilgit-Baltistan (gB) sympathetic to the Pakistan Peoples’ Party on Sunday said the party had the right to rule the country for five years and demands for President asif ali Zardari to step down were unconstitutional and against the people’s mandate.

“The undignified language used by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif against President asif ali Zardari was a deplorable act and it should be condemned,” gB Finance Minister Muhammad ali said while speaking at a press conference.

Shahbaz had called Zardari a “madari” (jester) while addressing a PMl-N rally in lahore on October 28.

The gB minister said the president had been elected by all parties and a refusal to recognise Zardari as president was a violation of the constitution and against the mandate of the people. he said the PMl-N, being an heir of general Zia-ulhaq’s legacy, wanted to derail the democratic process in the country. gB local government Minister engineer Ismail said the PMl-N was using undemocratic and unconstitutional tactics because it knew that it would not be able to win the upcoming elections.

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04 News

Monday, 31 october, 2011

Australia invites Pakistan to dialogue in all sectors PERTH

a

APP

USTralIa on Sunday invited Pakistan to a meaningful dialogue to deepen economic ties, enhance cooperation in agriculture and undertake joint investment ventures to strengthen bilateral relations as an effective means to counter-terrorism. australian Prime Minister Julia gillard extended the invitation to Prime Minister yousaf raza gilani at a meeting on the sidelines of the Commonwealth heads of government Meeting (ChOgM) in Perth. The australian prime minister said her country looked forward to the bilateral visit in 2012 along with a delegation comprising businessmen, investors and agriculturists so

Zardari arrives in Istanbul ahead of trilateral Afghan summit ISTANBUL APP

President asif ali Zardari arrived in the Turkish capital on Sunday on the invitation of Turkish President abdullah gul to participate in the sixth trilateral summit to find a peaceful and everlasting solution to the afghanistan war. President Zardari was accorded a warm welcome at ataturk International airport, where he was received by Istanbul governor hoseyin avni Mutlu, Pakistani ambassador to Turkey Muhammad haroon Shaukat, Turkish ambassador to Pakistan M Babur hizlan and officials of the Pakistani embassy. The president was accompanied

by Defence Minister Chaudhry ahmed Mukhtar and Interior Minister rehman Malik. Zardari will hold bilateral talks with gul besides participating in the trilateral summit. The trilateral summit will begin on November 1, with opening remarks by President gul followed by the address by President Zardari and afghan President hamid Karzai.

Join for revolution, JI asks people LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Munawar hasan said oppressed people from the country should join hands against tyrants to bring about a revolutionary change. addressing a family festival organized by JI Islamabad at the Chambeli gardens, Munawar said elections only bring partial change, not a revolution. he said the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim leagueNawaz had given nothing but price hikes, power outages, corruption, lawlessness and insecurity.

as to explore new avenues for cooperation between the two countries. gilani is the first democratically elected head of the Pakistani government to have visited australia, which has emerged as its fifthlargest development partner.

The current volume of trade between Pakistan and australia has surged to $700 million, still far below the real potential between the two countries. gillard said australia considered development as an important component of counter-terrorism strategy and would widen the scope of cooperation with Pakistan in all areas. gilani also extended an invitation to the australian premier to visit Pakistan and said there was a need to find new avenues of cooperation, particularly in

areas of agriculture, energy, education, infrastructure and health. he said the international community needed to extend assistance to Pakistan to enhance its capacity to fight the terrorists, who were a common enemy. he said it was particularly important in the wake of the colossal losses to the country’s economy because of terrorist activities. he said suicide bombings caused flight of capital and scared away the investors despite the lucrative incentives offered by the government. he said military operation was not a sustainable resolution to terrorism and a political process had to be initiated to bring about peace. The prime minister said his initiative of political reconciliation was not taken seriously by the US leadership, but

Altaf Hussain is ‘guarantor of democracy’, says Malik KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Interior Minister rehman Malik has bestowed a new title upon Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief altaf hussain, calling him ‘guarantor of democracy’ on Sunday.

Talking to reporters after his visit to the venue of MQM rally, he urged the PMl-N to avoid derailing the democratic process and wait for the general elections. he avoided blaming the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or any other agency for derailing the

democratic system, but said he would announce in the future which foreign company had invested money in harming democracy. he said the president represented an institution and that action could be taken against those who used abusive language against him. he condemned the burning of PMl-N offices in Sindh, saying a judicial inquiry would be ordered to probe the incidents. he denied that his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) or the MQM were involved in attacks on PMl-N offices.

Awan seeks apology from Punjab CM SIALKOT: Information Minister Firdous ashiq awan on Sunday sought an apology from Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for calling President asif ali Zardari names and “disowning the Constitution of Pakistan”. Talking to reporters at Pakistan Television (PTV) Sialkot Bureau, she said Shahbaz’s status as chief minister had become dubious after his use of indecent language, which had hurt the political sentiments of the masses. Shahbaz had called Zardari a “madari” (jester) while addressing his ‘go Zardari go’ rally in lahore on October 28. She said some political parties were trying to destabilise the country politically and economically, adding that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would foil every move to derail democracy. STAFF REPORT

Widespread rains predicted in southern Pakistan ISLAMABAD APP

The Meteorological department has predicted widespread rains in southern Pakistan including the flood affected areas of lower Sindh from Tuesday to Thursday. according to Met office, a well marked low pressure area developed over central parts of arabian Sea has intensified into a depression (strong weather system) on Sunday, located 1,200km southwest of Balochistan coast. The strong weather system was moving in northwest direction and likely to hit the eastern coast of Sultanate of Oman on Tuesday for widespread heavy rains accompanied by strong gusty winds over there.

Under the influence of this

weather system widespread rains, heavy at times, are also expected in southern Balochistan and lower Sindh, including Karachi from Tuesday to Thursday.

The flood hit areas of lower Sindh may also receive scattered rains and thundershower on Wednesday. People are advised not to venture into open sea from Tuesday to Thursday because the sea conditions are very likely to remain rough during the period.

The lowest minimum temperature recorded in Kalam and Quetta on Saturday was 2C, while minimum temperature recorded in Islamabad was 10C, lahore 17C, Quetta 2C, Karachi 19C, Peshawar 14C, Muzaffarabad 11C, gilgit 9C, Multan 16C, Murree 9C and Faisalabad 13C.

now his stance had been vindicated as the whole world was now urging a political solution for long-term stability in afghanistan, by bringing to the negotiation table all afghan factions. gillard said she understood the criticality of political reconciliation in afghanistan, as it was intertwined closely with stability, development and good governance. gilani categorically said the solution of afghanistan should not adversely affect Pakistan as in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal that left behind 3.5 million afghan refugees in Pakistan, and were an issue for Pakistan to this day. he said that about 45,000 afghans daily cross the Pakistanafghanistan border and it was impossible to identify a terrorist from a tourist or an ordinary traveller.

PERTH: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani shaking hands with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard before their bilateral meeting. APP

Campaigners fail to ldA set to woo people against appropriate land for 2 housing schemes US drone strikes LAHORE

ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

AFP

The lahore Development authority (lDa) governing body’s meeting today (Monday) seeks to sanction the acquisition of 55,000 kanals of land for two new housing schemes: “lDa City” and “lDa avenue-II”. “lDa City”, comprising 45,000 kanals on Ferozepur road, and “lDa avenue-II”, covering 10,295 kanals on main Defence road and raiwind road, are set to receive the go-ahead signal in the meeting today.

The meeting would also decide the fate of already constructed farmhouses, factories and other commercial and residential buildings. lDa might issue notifications of land acquisition act 1894 Section (4): the Metropolitan Planning Wing has already submitted the working paper to lDa Director general abdul Jabbar Shaheen.

Campaigners condemn US drone strikes in Pakistan as extra-judicial assassinations that kill hundreds of civilians, but popular protests against them are conspicuous by their rarity.

Opinion polls suggest barely nine percent of the Pakistani public support the strikes, and anti-americanism is rife in the country of 180 million people, a key ally of Washington in the war on terror. even so, rallies protesting the Central Intelligence agency (CIa)-run operation are few and thinly attended. The government says 30,000 people have been killed in Islamist attacks across Pakistan in the last decade - 10 times the 3,000 people who perished in the September 11, 2001 suicide hijackings in the United States.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, a staunch critic of US policy in Pakistan and the “hypocrite” government in Islamabad, led

an anti-drone demonstration on Friday but only around 2,000 people joined him. earlier in the week, Khan was among the speakers at a press conference in Islamabad where lawyer Shahzad akbar held up a piece of twisted, rusting metal. “These are the remains of a drone missile fired in august 2010 in Datta Khel, North Waziristan,” he said. “It killed the wife and two children of a local tribesman, Bismillah Khan. This proves the US wrong when they say no civilians are killed by their drones.” akbar is backed by Britishbased charity reprieve, whose founder and director Clive Stafford Smith said drone strikes were “in violation of the laws of war and Pakistan sovereignty”. But behind the politics, security officials say the issue is not so simple. “Imran Khan and others are demonstrating against drones and their victims. But can any of these people go to North Waziristan and come back alive?” said one Pakistani source close to senior security officials.

PML-N looks to recover from Imran’s yorker LAHORE YASIR HABIB

Promptly reacting to Sunday’s rally by the Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI), politicians of the Pakistan Muslim leagueNawaz (PMl-N) said the voter turnout in elections would decide the winner and not the crowd of public meetings.

“Politics and cricket are different things. In cricket ground performance counts, but in politics votes decide the winner,” said PMl-N Senator Pervaiz rashid, who is also the spokesman for the Punjab government. about the rally organised by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi, he said both rallies were of a similar nature and “their director was sitting in the Presidency”.

On his announcement to

resign from his Senate seat if Imran Khan’s procession crossed 50,000 people, he said his challenge was about the number of chairs placed at the venue but Imran declined to accept the challenge, which proved that the Minar-e-Pakistan procession did not have seating arrangements for 50,000. he termed Imran’s rally disappointing. later PMl-N MNa Khawaja Saad rafique and Senator rasheed addressed a joint press conference in Model Town. rafique said the massive participation in the PMl-N’s October 28 rally in lahore had perturbed the “Zardari gang”. lahoris had voted against corruption, load shedding, inflation and slavery of foreign powers, he said, adding that people were fed up with Zardari’s democracy. he

said when Zardari’s corruption was highlighted, MQM chief altaf hussain was disturbed in london and his party rallied in support of Zardari. he said now the MQM had become a “party for rent” of the PPP. he said the MQM had also rallied on May 12 in support of former president Pervez Musharraf when there was bloodshed in Karachi. he warned Zardari to face criticism or change his ways.

They said Nawaz Sharif was working against the status quo, visiting flood victims in Sindh, distributing food among them and sending doctors, nurses and medicine to help them, but it did not suit Zardari. They said the Sindh government, Chief Minister Qaim ali Shah and the MQM leadership did not bother to visit the affected areas.

President advises govt to devise separate plans for storage, drainage KARACHI APP

President asif ali Zardari on Sunday advised the government to devise separate water storage and drainage plans at divisional level throughout Sindh. he was presiding over a meeting at Bilawal house on irrigation, de-watering and draining flood water from affected areas. Zardari said a plan should be devised to divert and store flood and rain water in Sindh’s desert areas to use it for drinking and irrigation purposes.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim ali Shah, Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Petroleum Minister Dr asim hussain, provincial ministers Murad ali Shah, Sharjeel Memon and Saifullah Dharejo, Secretary general to President Salman Farooqui and provincial secretaries were also present in the meeting. earlier, in briefings, WaPDa and Sindh Irrigation Department claimed 80 per cent of flood water was drained out.

NAto tanker driver kidnapped QUETTA STAFF REPORT

a man was shot dead in Quetta on Sunday while the driver and cleaner of an oil tanker of NaTO were kidnapped in Machh area of Bolan district. according to police, habibullah was passing through a bus stop in Nawa Killi, a neighbourhood in Quetta, when armed assailants sprayed a volley of bullets at him. Police officials said two masked attackers targeted the victim and fled the scene. In another incident, unidentified men drove away the driver and cleaner of a NaTO tanker, in harrak area of Machh some 35 kilometres southeast of Quetta. levies officials said the armed men forced the driver to stop the vehicle after resorting to indiscriminate fire. The kidnappers made the two occupants hostage at gunpoint and shifted them to some undisclosed location.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Police put up a good show...almost PAGe 07

‘It’s as if he’s brought the W rld Cup home!’

Imran Khan lures ‘lazy’ Lahori youths out onto the streets, thousands flock to a political rally, many for the first time

LAHORE ADNAN lODHI/SAlAHuDIN SAFDER

F

Or the first time in the history of the country, a political leader’s rally was able to attract students and youth in general, who constituted over 80 percent of the participants at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Pakistan Bachao rally held on Sunday. a large number of youth were also stopped by some elements from participating in the event as containers were placed on roads leading to the city. Insaf Student Federation, being able to attract over 80,000 people was also able to prove that it is the country’s greatest student body.

Not only the public, but PTI Chairman Imran Khan himself admitted ISF’s role in making his rally a success and was thankful to his party’s student wing.

Students, generally not happy with the Punjab government over the recent issues of BISe results, specially attended Khan’s rally to show support for his cause.

Oceans of people flooded Iqbal Park on Sunday where Khan was able to successfully show his party’s street power, especially in a venue that is considered to be Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz’s stronghold. Students and leaders of the party from all the four provinces made their way to Minar-e-Pakistan lahore to make the meeting successful. PTI supporters from Peshawar, Nankana Sahib, Jehlum, rawalpindi, Mianwali and other cities arrived in lahore early in the day while the party claimed many from gunjranwala were stopped at Sagian Bridge and containers were put in their way.

The seating arrangement which was seemingly excessive in the beginning fell short for the people continuously arriving at the venue till late evening. People from all profession including labourers, civil servant, farmers, vendors and factory workers attended Khan’s session. even school children showed up in huge numbers.

The major triggering factor for the youth was the general unavailability of jobs in the country, which has made them dissatisfied with the present government’s policy. apart from these extended power cuts, inflation and corruption also encouraged the youth to turn to Khan for answers. another important factor was the presence of people from all walks of life, including school teachers, technocrats, students from elite institutions and many others were seen all together in Khan’s support. even though other parties, including the PMl-N, PPP and Jamat-e-Islami have their political wings in institutions also but it seemed that only ISF was able to attract the youth to come out onto the streets.

It was observed that students also came with their families, carrying flags and

stickers showing support for the PTI while some had also got their faces and hands painted. Prolific and unique arrangements were made at the PTI jalsa. Balloons, remote control airplanes with PTI’s flag and enthusiastic music kept the function live and vibrant. Many students were attending a jalsa for the very first time. “I’ve never been to any protest or rally, but this man seemed true and honest, I had to come here,” said ayesha a student of lSe. She said that all of her friends who had accompanied her were first timers. She said that Imran Khan had the honour of bring the people out on the streets for the first time and that proved his success.

Sumera, a student of FaST National University, who was attending the session with her family, said a number of her friends were also attending the session and they were members of the ISF. She said she had campaigned from many days to convince students to attend Khan’s rally and had also asked them to bring their families.

She said the students of the country wanted positive changes and had chosen Khan as their leader.

“We want a revolution and only Imran

Khan can bring it,” said huzaifa, a PU student, adding “Imran Khan is the only honest leader out there”. “We are sick and tired of PMl-N and of PPP and the rest, we are sick of what they have done to our country,” said ali, another student.

“Our rulers do not know how to run a country and the public has become a victim of their bad policies, it is a time for change,” said rashid, a gCU student.

“Imran Khan is honest that is why the youth supports him. he has come out with a positive attitude and god willing he is our next prime minister,” said Kiran Fatima , a school student. Punjab ISF President Farukh habib said nobody can stop the youth now since they had expressed their opinion regarding Imran Khan, adding that the youth, under Khan, would bring a tsunami that would wash the incumbent rulers away. he said even though the government had tried to stop the youth, they had still showed up in large numbers.

Waqas Iftikhar, another ISF worker, said it was the result of their day and nights effort that around 30,000 ISF members and 60,000 students from other institutions had showed up for Khan’s rally.

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06 Lahore PCSIR produces anti-dengue syrup LAHORE APP

Pakistan Council of Science and Industrial research (PCSIr) has prepared a low-cost anti-dengue syrup to counter the rising threat of the disease in the country, PCSIr Director general Dr Shahzad alam said while talking to aPP on Sunday.

Upon the directives of Science and Technology Secretary akhlaq Tarar and PCSIr Chairman Dr Shaukat Pervez, PCSIr prepared an anti-dengue syrup costing rs 80 per bottle from papaya and pomegranate, he said, adding that it should be mixed with clean drinking water and taken thrice a day. he said the PCSIr laboratories had distributed around 2,500 bottles of the syrup among various hospitals of the city, including Mayo hospital, free of charge. however, it was also easily available at PCSIr’s Industrial liaison Office (IlO) on the basis of no profit, no loss, he said.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Spy agencies declare PTI’s rally ‘a success’ g

Report ‘people had come without any personal interests’ LAHORE

I

SHAFIQ SHARIF

NTellIgeNCe agencies, like many political pandits, declared Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaaf’s (PTI) rally at Minar-e-Pakistan to be a big success, quoting that more than a 100,000 people, including men, women and children, had attended the rally.

Well placed sources told Pakistan Today that Inter Services Intelligence agency’s officials had reported that around 85,000 persons including men, women and children attended the rally whereas officials from Intelligence Bureau (IB) had reported the strength of participants between 100,000 to 150,000, adding that both the agencies had declared the rally to be an overalls success regardless of any exaggerations.

Sources said IB officials had reported that the participants were not brought to the rally by the workers of the PTI and had come on their own accord, adding that they had never seen such a huge rally before.

On other hand officials from ISI reported that the crowd was quite enthusiastic and had reached the rally without any financial interest.

They furthermore reported that initially PTI activists arranged 20,000 chairs but the crowds that came exceeded everyone’s expectation. The officials reported that the venue was not only over-crowded but people were standing on adjacent roads after failing to enter the “Pindal”.

The officials furthermore reported that despite huge gathering not even a single incident of stam-

pede was reported because the crowd was well organised and remained peaceful during the rally.

The officials from ISI reported that that people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) had also attended the rally. They reported that people from across KP were present in the rally showing that PTI has good vote bank in KP as well, adding that crowds had come from abbotabad, hazara, Bajoorm, Sawat and Peshawar.

Officials furthermore reported that lahoris too attended the rally and people especially women, children belonging from posh areas like gulberg, Model Town and Defence had also come. The lahori factor which was not witnessed in PMl-N’s rally was clearly witnessed in PTI’s rally that had created a difference between to political parties.

In the end officials from intelligence agencies reported that four

leaders of PTI including Mian azhar, Zahid Khokhar, Bhalli Butt and a leader from Manga Mandi havd made major contribution in beating PMl-N in the numbers game.

Officials furthermore reported that the excessive presence of youth ranging from 18 to 30 years from lahore and other districts had played vital role in making PTI’s gather as more successful and against expectations.

sundAy bAzAAr uPdAte

Prices for veggies go up, chicken’s decrease This Week

85

45

120

last Week

last Week

last Week

85

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140

ginger This Week

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last Week

last Week

last Week banana

lemon

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onion

tomato

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145

85

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90 cHicken

Japanese

garlic per dozen

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35

95

45

last Week

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95 potato

The prices of tomatoes and onion increased in the Sunday bazaars while prices of other vegetables remained stable.

The price of chicken also decreased and it was sold for rs 145 per kg as compare to last week’s price of rs 165

45

70

This Week

per kg. however, the number of customers remained low as compare to other weekends. Fish was also available for rs 200-350 per kg.

The prices of onions and tomatoes are showing upward trend for the last couple of weeks. as compared to previous week, the prices of both commodities increased. The price of tomatoes increased by rs 5 per kg and it was sold

This Week

This Week

spinacH

LAHORE

pomegranate

green cHillies

35

STAFF REPORT

This Week

This Week

for rs 75 per kg while the price of onions increased by rs 2 per kg and it was sold for rs 50 per kg.

The prices of ginger and garlic remained stable at rs 85 per kg. There was also rs 2 per kg decrease in prices of cucumber, which was sold for rs 58 per kg.

The prices of fruits remained stable while the prices of some fruits even de-

45 apple

clined. The prices of banana remained rs 45 per dozen while guava was available for rs 45 per kg.

The prices of chicken are decreasing for the last two weeks and this it was sold for rs 145 per kg, as compared to last week when it was available for rs 165 per kg.

The chicken sellers said chicken demand had decreased by 20 percent in the

guava

last couple of weeks, which is pushing its price downwards.

They said eidul adha is the major reason for decrease of chicken demand. “Often customers don’t buy chicken before eidul azha and in the last one week my sales dropped from 100 kg per day to 80 kg per day,” said a chicken seller Sher ali at green Town Sunday bazaar.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Lahore 07

Families, women embellish Imran’s rally women appreciate respect shown by young boys g Children delighted to witness the biggest gathering of their lifetimes g A large presence of families gave rally a festive atmosphere

g

LAHORE

N

STAFF REPORT

UMerOUS families poured out on Sunday to attend the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) gathering at Minar-ePakistan without showing any signs of fear of a large crowd.

Families from all over the city, including posh areas such as Defence,

At PtI’s rally, music keeps the crowd charged LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Presentation of music remained the hallmark of the Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf’s public meeting on Sunday as famous musical groups like Strings, Jaag, Shahzad roy and Shahzaman were invited to perform and keep the atmosphere alive at the rally.

Participants of the meeting especially the youth danced with the beats of the songs and continuously chanted slogans in favour of their leader, Imran Khan. String’s performance on Main Tu daikhun Ga was widely appreciated by the crowd. On the other hand Shahzad roy said he had performed at many concerts but he had never seen such a massive audience. Shahzad roy’s songs including laga reh were also lauded by the hundreds of thousands of people participating in what the PTI has dubbed as a ‘historical congregation’. PTI supporters said that the use of music to keep the audience alive was an interesting option of PTI. Music was not only enjoyed by the youngsters but also by the families who were there to support their leader. Participants thought that the patriotic songs were the interesting ingredient to charge up the audience and the selection of bands was also fantastic.

Model Town and gulberg, attended the biggest political gathering in the country since 1986. a significant feature of the rally was the presence of women and children in large numbers, which reflected support for the party in lahore’s households. The enthusiasm demonstrated by ladies was worth watching, as thousands of Imran Khan’s female fans struggled to get a closer glimpse of their leader.

Khan, who has always been very pop-

ular with women, looked delighted by the deafening slogans being chanted in his support by his female supporters. a massive presence of families in the gathering presented a festive atmosphere all around the venue. along with women, a huge number of children were also present to witness the biggest political gathering of their lives.

Children said they had enjoyed a lot during the rally, as they had never seen such

a gathering before. a rally participant, Nasir, said that an amazing amalgamation of rich and poor was obvious in the event. he said that students of elite universities as well as rikshaw drivers had joined hands to express their support for Imran Khan, which was a positive sign for the nation’s unity. Participants also appreciated the special seating arrangement for women and families. They said they were also im-

pressed by the show of respect by young boys towards women in such a huge gathering. a female supporter of the PTI expressed optimism that all of her university friends would vote for Imran Khan in the next elections. She resented that thousands of girls who wanted to be part of the event had not been allowed by their families. She said the women were 52 percent of Pakistan’s population and could play a decisive role in politics.

Cyber world echoes with pro-PTI slogans g

People update statuses on facebook, post comments on news sites on the proceedings of Khan’s rally LAHORE NAuMAN TASlEEM

The cyber world remained electrified and fully involved in the rally of Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) held at Minar-e-Pakistan on Sunday. The social media website users left many congratulation messages for PTI and its leader Imran Khan for holding a successful procession and hoped that Khan would be the usher for change that the country desperately needed.

The supporters and workers of PTI flooded the congratulation messages on Facebook, Twitter and different news websites. The users of Facebook changed their status and some wrote slogans in favour of PTI and Khan, some also mocking other leaders including President asif Zardari and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Majority of surfers were of the view that PTI had outclassed Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) and some opined that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was also under threat from PTI. Majority of youngsters using the cyber world spoke their mind. It seemed that everyone was keen of changing his/her status in favour of PTI. Many Facebook users changed their status of Facebook by leaving Imran Khan’s words on

it. “Tabdeeli aaa Nahin rahiii, Tabdeeli aaa gayii hai: Imran Khan!” a university student Sana Shoukat said in her status. another youngster Iftikhar alam said, “Khan delivered a hearttouching message to the people of Pakistan.” Interestingly, all the debates and statuses were in favour of PTI and hardly a single message was seen criticising the PIT. The news sites remained active in updating the stories of procession while there were huge comments from readers on these sites.

People living in other countries also chatted with their friends and relatives for getting information about the procession.

“I doubt about media’s statement regarding the number of attendants therefore I asked from my cousin about actual position of gathering and they told me it was one of huge shows in the history of Pakistan,” said Fiaz ali, who lives in UK. attabik awan, studying in NUS, Singapore, updated his status to encourage his fellows at home to visit the rally. his status read: “In 1940 our forefathers gathered in this ground to create Pakistan.

Today I call on you to gather in the same ground to save Pakistan. I will wait for you at Minar-e-Pakistan on Oct 30 at 1 pm for this. regards, Imran Khan”.

Rid us of the ice cream vendors!

LAHORE APP

Ice cream vendors have become a nuisance for the locals as they take rounds of the streets with loudspeakers turned up on full volume late in the night.

Music from their tricycle-trolleys not only disturbs the sick and elderly, it also lures children who then force their parents to buy them ice-creams.

“It’s OK if I get my children ice cream once a day, but they insist on buying more ice-cream every time a vendor comes to our street with his cycle and his music,” a father complained. he said authorities must restrict the timing of street vendors and they should not be allowed to come late in the night. “It is a problem for salaried parents, who have limited incomes. The luxury of having ice-creams thrice a day is not possible,” said a housewife.

She said ice-cream vendors were creating social and domestic problems for parents.

“Children are children and they do not understand how household budgets are maintained,” she added. The parents, she said, face a dilemma as children of affluent families have no issues buying multiple ice-creams a day. She said denying children such luxuries was not good as it could create complexes in them, while them more often would disturb the household spending on other important things like utility bills, school fees and books.

Police put up a good show...almost LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Overall satisfactory, the lahore police managed to take stringent security measures to ensure that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s rally was a success, however, late arrival of women police left a gaping hole in the security arrangements with thousands of women being able to enter the venue without being checked. around 2,000 policemen in uniforms and many others in plain clothes, traffic wardens, special officers from Intelligence agencies and Special branch were present to check the crowd which showed up in thousands.

Sources said the police had adopted extensive security measures to thwart any suspected activity and cops in police uniforms remained deputed at and around Minar-e-Pakistan but surprisingly, women police reached the venue midway through the rally, leaving a major loophole in the security arrangements.

The police had arranged four entry and exit points where walkthrough gates were placed to stop the entry of explosive ma-

terial or guns inside the venue. Policemen with 150 metal detectors had also been deployed at the entry and exits of Minar-e-Pakistan to search the crowds. The police also recorded the proceedings with 50 CCTV cameras.

Before the rally, the police searched through the venue with the help of Bomb Disposal Squad and dogs, sources said, adding that after the clearance the PTI workers were allowed to enter the venue. Snipers were also deputed on various rooftops around the venue while police vehicles were also seen patrolling the area before and throughout the rally.

Sources said police had launched a major search operation before the rally to ensure smooth proceedings.

TRAFFIC: roads, particularly Data Darbar road, ravi road, ring road to Batti Chowk and other leading arteries remained sealed during the rally on Sunday. around 2,200 traffic wardens performed duties in two shifts under the supervision of 79 inspectors, 8 DSPs and 2 SPs. Traffic policemen were also deputed to ensure safe parking during the rally in this regard helped people to park their vehicles at three points which were designated for parking including guddi ground parking, ateeq Satdium and Baba haider Saeen towards exit gate of larri adda. Traffic remained smooth and no traffic jams were reported.

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08 Lahore

Recycle now or suffer later, warn experts

weAtHeR UPdAteS

30 °C High 17low0C

SUNNY

LAHORE

tUeSdAY wedNeSdAY tHURSdAY 30°C I 17°C

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PRAYeR tIMINGS fajr Sunrise 04:55 06:16

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Zuhr 11:49

Asr 15:53

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HoSPItAlS MId CItY 37573382-3 SeRvICeS 99203402-11 MAYo 99211100-9 GeNeRAl 35810892-8 SHeIKH ZAId 35865731 SIR GANGA RAM 99200572 UCH 35763573-5 IttefAq 35881981-85 CMH 366996168-72 SHoUKAt KHANUM 35945100 JINNAH 111-809-809 AdIl (defeNCe) 36667275 CHIldReN’S 99230901-3 defeNCe NAtIoNAl HoSPItAl 111-17-18-19

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here is a need to unite owners of paper mills on a single platform, where they can be motivated to fulfil their social responsibilities by balancing their growth with environmental safety. This was the crux of a recently concluded joint study by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Pakistan, Pakistan Pulp, Paper and Board Mills association and Tetra Pak, which aimed to determine the ratio of used beverage cartons in papermaking in Pakistan.

“We included about 25 mills from Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) in our research, which showed encouraging results regarding recycling,” said Tetra Pak environment Manager Jawad a Khan, while addressing a group of senior journalists. he said recycling of used beverage cartons had increased to almost 9,400 tonnes in 2011, which showed that the overall quantity of wastepaper recycling had increased in the country. he said there was a business incentive in recycling used cartoons in paper making, as paper made from recycling used cartons only cost rs 16 per kg, while paper made without recycled materials cost rs 21 per kg, adding that this would be a substantial incentive for mill owners.

Quoting the research, he said it was recommended that used packets of milk and juices which get indiscriminately thrown in the garbage be used for

Mother of 2 strangled to death LAHORE STAFF REPORT

a mother of two children was strangled by her husband in gulshan ravi area on Sunday, following an unknown domestic issue.

The deceased was identified as razia Bibi, wife of Mohammad ghafoor. Police said the accused ghafoor of Bahawalpur had contracted a love marriage with razia Bibi, a daughter of Falak Sher of Talaat Park gulshan ravi, almost eight years ago.

The couple was living in a rented house near Chapper Stop.

On the day of incident, the accused ghafoor exchanged harsh words with his wife over an unknown issue and later strangled her. Police registered a case against the accused on the complaint of the deceased’s mother and sent the body to morgue for autopsy.

MAN ARRESTED: raiwind police arrested a man who had killed a 42-year-old woman almost one and a half year back and had buried her body in the courtyard of his house. The deceased was identified as Sughran Bibi of

111-000-118 1199

RAIlwAYS CItY StAtIoN (INqUIRY) ReSeRvAtIoN RAIlwAY PolICe

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Busti Mirpur. Police said the victim Sughran Bibi had gone to Sadiq’s house, her next door neighbour, and demanded of him to return the money that he had borrowed from her.

The accused served her some intoxicated substance, stabbed her to death and then buried her body in the courtyard of his house. a 35-year-old man died when swindlers robbed him in Shafiqabad area on Sunday. Police recovered the victim’s body, still to be identified, from Bund road and shifted it to the morgue. 2 PrISONerS DIe: a 25-yearold prisoner of Kot lakhpat jail died in a hospital on Sunday. Police said Kashif alias Kashi of Pindi rajpootan was in Kot lakhpat jail in connection with a theft case. he had some medical complications upon which he was admitted to a hospital where he expired. Similarly, another prisoner ebad of Kot lakhpat jail died in a hospital due to some medical complications. he was sentenced death penalty on murder charges.

3 SUSPECTS ARRESTED FROM MINAR-E-PAKISTAN: larri adda police arrested three suspects from near Minar-e-Pakistan on Sunday. Police said the arrested persons hailed from afghanistan and did not reveal their identity.

Shahbaz continues tirade against govt LAHORE STAFF REPORT

wAPdA SUI GAS

recycling. “There is a need to engage communities in the recycling process and the development of a collection system of garbage for recycling purposes,” he said, adding that such efforts were underway.

Citing environment protection as one of the major goals of Tetra Pak, Khan said recovery and recycling of used beverage cartons in Pakistan was part of their global agenda for environmental protection. Fazeelur rehman, citing an initiative along these lines, said polyethylene roof tile sheets and plastic pellets were being made from the waste of paper at Bulleh Shah paper mills in Kasur, on an experimental basis. The mill also has an international-standard effluent Treatment Plant to treat waste and remove hazardous elements from it before it is thrown into river Sutlej, he said.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Sunday that inefficient rulers were indulging in looting and corruption and lacked the courage to bear criticism. he warned them to bring the looted money of the nation back and said if they did not refrain from plundering and did not accept the judiciary’s decisions, the 180 million people of the country would hold them accountable and every chowk would become Tahrir Square of

egypt for them.

The chief minister was inaugurating the newly built Multan road. he said the best travelling facilities would be available to the people with the completion of the Multan road project and the traffic flow would also improve. addressing the function, the CM said the billion-rupee Multan road project had been completed to a large extent. however, the delay in the completion of the project was against his agenda and policy, he added. he said difficulties were a part of life and

they should be handled with courage, adding that dengue was a big issue but it had been accepted as a challenge and solid steps had been taken to curb it. experts were of the opinion that had this virus not been fought with courage, the number of deaths would have been much greater, he said, adding that all resources had been utilised in the war against dengue. he said the role played by elected representatives, bureaucrats, experts, doctors, nurses and paramedical staff would be remembered forever.

later, the CM inaugurated the Multan road project and inspected the project up to Scheme Mor. earlier, lahore Commissioner Jawad rafiq Malik gave a detailed briefing on the project. elected representatives, National logistics Cell in-charge, Planning and Development chairman, communication and works secretary and a large number of people were also present on the occasion.

In a separate incident, he also inaugrated the Multan road, saying that it would prove to be a great facility for the masses.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Istanbul meeting on Afghanistan security aims low

News 09

Regional diplomats gather in turkey before Bonn conference g Meetings meant to shape Afghan future after 2014 g

KABUL REuTERS

W

eSTerN officials are not setting the bar very high for afghan diplomats who will meet regional counterparts in Istanbul this week, the first of two conferences that will go a long way to shaping the future of international involvement in afghanistan.

The government and its foreign backers are preparing for the end of 2014, the deadline for foreign combat troops to return home, even though some foreign troops will remain as trainers and advisers.

Some afghans fear their own security forces will be unable to cope with the insurgency when the majority of foreign troops go and that their country may fall into another civil war.

Wednesday’s Turkish session is meant to agree on a framework for regional security and cooperation, including afghan border nations Pakistan, Iran, China, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, ahead of a wider-ranging meeting in germany in December. Some participants already have low expectations.

“If they agree on the roadmap leading towards a meaningful regional security dialogue and application of security-building measures on a regional level, that will be a success by itself,” a senior Western official said. “(There are) low expectations, but if they launch the process, in that respect it will be a success.” afghanistan, which argues that militancy and drug trafficking are cross-border problems that need cross-border solutions, wanted legally binding security commitments to be made in Istanbul.

Kabul has since had to concede that only a non-binding, watered-down agreement will be possible. “regional cooperation is crucial not just for achieving long-desired security, stability and prosperity for the people of afghanistan... but also in the wider region,” said afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed ludin, addressing diplomats

before closed-door talks in the run-up to the Istanbul meeting.

MODEST AMBITIONS: regional heavyweight Pakistan would be crucial to any cross-border security initiative but it is also harbouring modest ambitions. “We envisage this conference as a platform to express the region’s solidarity and support for afghanistan in its endeavours to establish peace and stability,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua said in a weekly briefing.

The Pentagon says insurgents abetted

by Pakistan pose the major threat to USled forces in afghanistan, and that several recent high-profile attacks in Kabul were carried out by the al Qaeda-linked haqqani network, which is based in both eastern afghanistan and Pakistan.

Such threats were underscored yet again on Saturday, when a suicide bomber killed 13 troops and civilian employees from the NaTO-led force, as well as four afghans, in Kabul in the deadliest single ground attack against the coalition in 10 years of war.

The often tense relationship between Washington and Islamabad aside, platitudes from Pakistan about Wednesday’s meeting will not change the situation in afghanistan.

“The afghans have had to lower their ambitions a bit in the face of some regional objections,” a second senior Western official said. rather than aim high and fail, those involved in the talks have settled for modest goals that are easier to reach.

“The idea is to leave a senior level group which would meet in a few months and start applying some of the confidencebuilding measures,” the first Western official said. “It’s going to be very difficult because of the very different and conflicting agendas of regional players.” after Istanbul will come the Bonn conference, a December gathering at which donor countries hope to agree on what their commitments will be beyond the end of 2014.

“It’s going to be a long-term process,” ludin said. “We are not going to achieve the aims we all aspire to in one conference alone.”

FOR THE RIGHT ‘CuT’: Vendors sell axes, knifes and other cutting tools at cattle market in Attock. ONLINE

‘Pakistan opposed to regional solution on Afghanistan’ NEW DELHI ONlINE

Pakistan is blocking the establishment of a regional monitoring group to oversee cooperation on afghanistan’s economic and security future, Indian media reported on Sunday. as leaders from 12 nations head to Istanbul on November 2 to help afghanistan become a stable and independent state, Pakistan is building up opposition to the key decisions at the conference, a report aired on Times Now said.

Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna will represent India at the conference, the first time India will be at the table. last year, Pakistan had successfully weighed in with its close ally and host, Turkey, to keep India out.

Turkish President abdullah gul bore the brunt of New Delhi’s unhappiness when he visited India soon after. according to the report, Pakistan has cited “national security”, maintaining its old position that it needed to have a “friendly” government in Kabul as a defence against India while Pakistan’s opposition is to hav-

ing so many countries - primarily India - enjoy a similar status in the contact group on afghanistan.

“The US, Pakistan’s principal backer, has decisively turned away from accepting Islamabad’s arguments. Turkey, Pakistan’s close friend and mentor, too is pushing the regional framework that includes all of afghanistan’s neighbours. hillary Clinton, who will represent the US at the conference, will push the New Silk road concept that is aimed at helping afghanistan to its feet, and one that includes all its neighbours.

This too has seen opposition from the Pakistani army,” it said.

The report stated that Pakistan was trying to marshal support from an unlikely group of countries that may have implications for India. Iran, which is opposed to the idea of US military presence in afghanistan, has been seen to be supporting the Pakistani position, even though Tehran detests the Taliban and the al Qaeda. another curious fellow opponent is russia. Moscow is worried about a Talibanised afghanistan, but it is equally sceptical of a continued US presence there.

Bank of Khyber posts Rs 1.1b profit ISLAMABAD PRESS RElEASE

The Bank of Khyber (BOK)’s recorded profit before tax of rs 1.1 Billaon for 3rd quarter ended 30th September 201 shows an increase of 188% over the corresponding period of 30.9.2010 This was disclosed by OK Managing Director Bilal Mustafa during BOK 109th Board of Directors (BoD) meeting this afternoon at BOK Islamabad. The 109th BOK BoD was chaired by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government additional Chief Secretary attaullah Khan and BOK BoD Chairman, apart from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Secretary Finance Sahibzada Saeed ahmad and BOK BOD member Mir Javed hashmat executive Director BOK, Maqsood Khan, Muhammad asif, Maqsood Ismail and amjad Pervez. The Board also approved the BOK accounts for the period of 3rd quarter ended on 30th September 2011. he explained the Branch expansion Plan and informed that by the year end 2011, the bank will close its network at 62 branches across the country, whereas the bank plan to open 13 branches more to obtain the figures of 75 branches by 2013 with the approval of State Bank of Pakistan.

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10 News

Monday, 31 october, 2011

PMl-N leader burnt to death in Changa Manga KASUR STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) leader rana Shoukat was burnt to death after unknown criminals set ablaze his autaq (a place for attending guests) on late Saturday night. according to police, unknown men set ablaze the autaq located near Shoukat’s house while he was sleeping during the night. The autaq was burnt to ashes and the PMl-N president for Changa Manga was burnt to death. according to Shoukat’s son, he and his family members came to know about the incident in the morning when he reached the place. The area police have started investigations.

Shoukat was a close relative of Punjab assembly Speaker rana Iqbal and an active party leader in Changa Manga.

6,500 Id families welcomed back PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT

In a surprise visit, Corps Commander lt-gen asif yasin Malik welcomed home 6,500 Internally Displaced families in Kotkai Sector before eidul adha and assured them all support in relief and rehabilitation. Malik was talking to a grand jirga attended by the elders and political administration officials. Malik said: “I welcome you back home before eidul adha and this eid will be special since you will be in your hometown after three-years of displacement due to the operation against insurgent and militancy. he said, “I was a worried while taking command but 6500 families have been rehabilitated and soon remaining IDPs will join you.” he also assured them the provision of all resources including healthcare, education, clean drinking water facilities, electricity and self-sustainability such as cultivating of barren lands, providing seed, tractors to farmers, fish farms, poultry, and honey bee farming facilities, ownership of shops, and distribution of food items.

A STRING, A KITE AND SOME JOY: A boy flies a kite on a roof in Quetta. ONLINE

Indo-Pak secretary level talks in November g

Indian officials to urge Pakistan to remove barriers on importing Indian goods NEW DELHI

I

ONlINE

NDIa will again press for normalisation of trade with Pakistan when commerce secretaries of the two countries meet in the second week of November, Indian media reported on Sunday.

The commerce secretary-level talks are being held within two months of India-Pakistan trade ministers meeting, which reviewed the bilateral commercial engagement. Commerce and Industry Minister anand Sharma had hosted his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom amin Fahim in September. “essentially, we will review the progress

of the agenda set in Islamabad in april,” a senior official of the Indian Commerce Ministry official told NDTV. The two countries had resumed economic talks after a long gap in april and had drawn a roadmap for increasing the bilateral trade which has remained at a low level of $2.65 billion in 2010-11.

Pakistan Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood would be in India for three days from November 14 for comprehensive discussions with his Indian counterpart rahul Khullar, the official said.

The main roadblock in pushing the bilateral trade is the restrictions on imports of most of the Indian merchandise in Pakistan.

India has been pressing for an arrangement through which the neighbouring country opens trade with New Delhi on all but few items. This is what is followed by India, which allows imports of all Pakistani items except a small number of goods in the negative list. like in past, India will build further pressure on Pakistan to agree for the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) treatment for New Delhi. There is a concern among Pakistani industry that the Indian exporters may flood the Pakistani market with their merchandise once normal trade is allowed. The feeling comes from the imbalance in the bilateral trade against Pakistan.

‘take back load and unload tax’ PESHAWAR: Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao (PPP-S) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President Sikandar hayat Khan demanded the government take back the newly imposed load and unload tax that was the business communities outcry. hayak said the imposition of the new tax in the shape of load and unload tax was a genuine concern of the business community that was suffering under the prevailing law and order situation. he said there was no justification to impose the tax on traders already suffering from terrorism. he said Instead of encouraging the business community, it is being disheartened. he said the province was sliding toward anarchy due to false policies and had no economy revival program.

Meanwhile, PMl-N youth Wing Chief Organizer PK-1 Mudassar Sadiq Bangash opposed the new tax to be levied. he said the province had been filled with black banners inscribed with slogans against the tax and authorities must pay heed. STAFF REPORT

SC to take up another potential game-changer ISLAMABAD MASOOD REHMAN

The Supreme Court of Pakistan is taking up a yet another petition today (Monday) with the potential to change the fate of the country. after rising from the ashes in 2007, the superior judiciary of Pakistan has become a ray of hope for each and every citizen including politicians, bureaucrats and even those who walk the corridors of power.

Due to the apparent failure of the executive branch of the government, the politicians, bureaucrats and even incumbent federal ministers are approaching the apex court not only for their personal grievances, but to save and secure the country from the worst element of corruption.

The Supreme Court, which is already seized with dozens of cases involving huge corruption and big names of the country, is taking up today (Monday) yet another plea filed by a former federal minister, Pakistan Muslim league-Quaid (PMl-Q) Senator Muhammad ali Durrani, seeking identification and recovery of black money hidden

by Pakistani nationals in the numbered/secret accounts in offshore banks of the western countries, including Switzerland, Spain, UK and USa. Durrani filed the petition under article 184(3) of the constitution through senior lawyer Justice (r) Mian allah Nawaz making respondents the government of Pak-

istan, United Nations, Swiss Bankers association, Stolen assets recovery (Star) Initiative Secretariat Washington DC, global Financial Integrity Washington DC, Transparency International Pakistan, Transparency International Secretariat germany, the ambassadors of Switzerland, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, germany, France, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia and the Uae, election Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), PMl-Nawaz, PMl-Q, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), awami National Party (aNP), Jamiat Ulema-e-IslamFazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The petitioner has requested the court to send letters of request for recovery of looted money to the United Nations through its Secretary general Ban Ki-moon, Swiss Bankers association, Switzerland and other countries for identification of such corrupt Pakistani nationals who have hidden their black money in the banks of these countries.

The petitioner has requested the court to initiate the process for recovery of money plundered by “elitist leaders of political parties”, senior members of bureaucracy, retired senior officers of the armed forces and retired judges of superior judiciary in Pakistan and leading members of business elites who had/have stashed money, so plundered, in safe havens of secret banking sectors within the territories of Switzerland, USa, Canada, UK germany, France, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia, Uae and other developed countries. he requested the court to ask the United

Nations’ secretary general, government of Pakistan, Swiss Bankers association, and governments of western states to recover the looted national wealth under the legislation made by the United Nations under the Star Initiative under which the US and other governments had also recovered their stolen wealth during the past few years.

“That the investigative unit of the Star be asked to make thorough investigations in the matter of black money laundered from the soil of Pakistan and stashed in the banks of safe haven countries and make arrangements for restitution of so quantified looted money from Pakistan and stashed in the coffers of the afore-stated countries,” the petitioner stated. he said these countries should be asked to find the money so laundered and so kept in their respective banks and devise strategies for its restitution to the government of Pakistan. he requested the court to ask, through letter of request, the ambassadors of these countries to activate anti-corruption agencies in their countries in accordance with the principles of fairness, decency and humanity incorporated in the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the Star Initiative and submit reports to the court with respect to the real estate properties purchased by politicians, retired members of bureaucracy, retired members of armed forces of Pakistan on the soil of their countries so as to uphold the flag of rule of law, humanity and decency. he also requested the court to tell the election Commission of Pakistan secretary to collect data regarding the assets declared

by the parliamentarians and submit its report as to whether these assets had been made through legal or illegal means. Furthermore, he added, the secretary should be told to ask the parliamentarians to furnish the details of assets held by them in safe haven countries. he asked the court to tell the leaders of all political parties of the country to furnish lists of cash and assets held by them in bank accounts as well as real estate purchased by its members and office-bearers outside Pakistan in the aforesaid countries.

The petitioner sought the constitution of a “Commission of Truth” comprising retired judges of the superior judiciary and retired members of civil services whose integrity has been beyond any doubt, with a direction to undertake investigation into the assets of politicians, retired members of the bureaucracy, retired members of the armed forces, businessmen and judges in and outside Pakistan so that a system of transparency, accountability and necessary legal infrastructure can be designed to seek restitution of the money laundered from the soil of Pakistan and deposited in the safe haven countries.

The petition also sought a direction by the court to the government of Pakistan to enter into agreement/laws of mutual assistance to unearth and quantify money laundered from Pakistan and deposited in the safe heaven countries. “It is repeated that the expression of ‘safe heaven countries’ means ‘Switzerland, USa, UK, germany, France, Canada, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia and Uae’,” the petitioner stated.

he requested the court that any other legal strategy, which the court deems fit be devised, to save Pakistan from financial bankruptcy and save it from the clutches of international financial lending institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, asian Development Bank and others. “Since 1954, the elitist ruling classes, belonging to political parties, bureaucracy, superior judiciary and senior members of armed forces had been/have been plundering the resources of our country and have devised strategies to deposit such looted moneys in the ‘safe haven countries’ for a simple reason that the afore-noted countries had mathematically and meticulously devised banking systems with such secretiveness that nobody could have an inkling about the deposits of that looted money,” the petitioner stated.

For a long time, he said, the leaders of such countries had also developed a system of offshore banking, which legally encouraged flight of capital from poor countries to developed countries, adding that this flight of money had so deleteriously damaged financial conditions of our country that even thoughtless scholars had started saying that Pakistan was not a sustainable country. he said it was unfortunate to note that neither the legislative nor the executive and members of civil society had collectively risen to stop the exodus of resources from Pakistan to the ‘safe heaven countries’.

“The initiative of this process will positively arrest our crumbling economy and restore financial sovereignty of the nation,” the petitioner stated.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Editor’s mail 11

Rallies and more rallies Most of Pakistanis are wonderstruck to see rallies being held one after the other these days by major political parties who are not in the government wherein millions of rupees are being spent in gaining political mileage. There are host of problems being faced by the common man and the so-called democratically elected leaders, instead of attending to or solving these problems, have embarked upon blaming each other to save their original faces.

Both the major parties have been in power for at least twice and each time leaders of both the parties were involved in massive corruption. None of the leaders who has been in power is Mr Clean barring exceptions. So there is no

Change the policy use of playing blame game. each party has something to say about the other party which is mostly correct. however, there is no denying the fact that the present government has miserably failed to solve the problems of a common man and corruption is rampant in the country. The major institutions of the country, like PSM, PIa, Wapda, railways, OgDC, all ministries and now PCB, are being headed by incompetent, inefficient and corrupt people.

They are all either close relatives or friends of our democratically elected politicians. The merit has never been kept in view by this government while appointing people on key posts. This

has resulted into each institution running in loss and the government is being asked to release billions of rupees to give them life.

Under such circumstances, the public very rightly desires a change with new faces in the government and may want to give a chance to Mr Imran Khan who has not been tried so far. he promises corruption-free governance and elimination of terrorism within 90 days. he already has few feathers in his cap like excellent management of his cancer hospital and establishing a university in a backward area of Mianwali. as captain of Pakistan cricket team, he managed to win Cricket World Cup in 1992 due to his control over his team ensuring excellent

discipline. There were no scandals of match-fixing during his tenure as captain.

The nation cannot wait till next elections in 2013 and everyone feels that the country is going towards destruction at a fast pace where Pakistan mint is printing currency notes worth rs three billion daily to sustain itself. This has caused skyrocketing prices of items of daily commodities.

This government should not be allowed to continue till 2013. The free and fair general elections must be held immediately under the supervision of army and observers from the UN to ensure transparency.

MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA Lahore

deviating from democracy recently, PMl(N), the ruling party of Punjab, showed its strength by organising a rally in which myriad people participated. In their debates, the political leaders of the said organisation launched go-Zardari-go campaign and severely criticised the federal government. In response to this, the Punjab chapter of PPP organised press conferences in which provincial leaders of PPP passed eccentric remarks about Sharif brothers and their comrades.

Perhaps, the immaturity of our political leadership is playing an obstructionist role, more than any other, in the way of democracy. The leaders of both parties are raising slogans of high platitude in the favour of democracy but their actions are totally opposite to what they say. In this age of media, the time of platitudes has elapsed. Now the nation has become aware about its rights and knows how to protect democracy.

If both parties don't want to derail the present democratic process, they should remain adherent to CoD. Otherwise, the nation will protect democracy but reject these two parties.

MUDASSAR NADEEM Lahore

Michael Higgins, congrats

Choosing a life partner There are a lot of young people around us who are facing a tough situation regarding choosing a life partner for their marriage. This is causing young people to lose their self-esteem and feel degraded. This creates depression among the young masses. People insist on good height, fair complexion and healthy bank balance. They don’t realise the fact that such relations should be pure from any artificial flavours. The major factors that are important while looking for a life partner should be the nature, character and earnest intentions because after all you have to live with the demeanour, not the looks.

People are not aware of the reality of life and those who are, fail to accept it. We need to shape our society’s frame of mind.

Our society needs to accept this reality.

SARA ALAM Karachi

ambiguity seems to be the key constituent of the US policy with regards to Pakistan. That nothing much can happen in terms of security without the US’ consent is apparent, but what the US actually wants is still an enigma considering the frenzy of blurred statements directed towards Pakistan lately.

Pakistan has certainly not done enough – not in the war on terror – but for its own national interest.

Before embarking upon the endless voyage of a US-led venture, it should have settled a few pre-conditions and adhered to them too, such as allowing Pakistan access to international markets in return for using its territory for the WoT, the demand to strike a nuclear deal for agreeing to enter this US-imposed war. The Pakistani gullibility of thinking that the US would not let them down this time is so annoyingly repulsive.

But things can still be reversed, albeit partially. It’s time that Pakistan also imposed some pre-conditions, as the US is doing, and force the US to keep its side of the deal this time. after all, every nation is compelled to act according to its own national interest.

Binary relations are born and strengthened when certain interests converge. If it’s a military offensive that the US needs, then let it come only after the US has addressed the nuclear deal issue according to the Pakistani desires. let the peace process be initiated only when Pakistan’s water woes are resolved for good this time. let’s do more only after the Kashmiris gain their right of freedom. let the lives of our soldiers not go for a waste this time. let’s wake up and demand what we should have done a decade ago.

DR SAFA RAHMAN Islamabad

Will the government wake up?

Is the situation in Balochistan out of our complete control? are we to believe that things will fall apart as the centre loses all conviction to rule, govern and hold? according to latest analysis, it is not only the ability but the will to hold on and reverse the deteriorating situation to regain trust and to take people out of their miserable traumatic state that is largely found missing. apparently, the absence of the representatives of the provincial government is being felt with great intensity in the backdrop of the current state of insurgency in the province.

This disconnect is giving rise and aiding the tradition of lawlessness in the area where freedom is provided to all criminals and terrorists. Where governance does not enjoy the status of a sacred duty, what else can be expected? a military crackdown against insurgents is no solution, either long or short, it can only aid and buttress the political

response that is required at this stage. Military operations have their own drawbacks as they create a rift between the people and the armed forces, and diminishes trust by forming schisms while negatively impacting the psyche.

The army has been removed to a great extent and needs to be completely deleted from the situation, but who will replace it? The civilian law enforcers that are subservient to the political representatives serve only their masters. So who comes to the aid of the people during an emergency?

Why leave things to be handled militarily when it takes far less effort, time and resources to deal with the issue politically and actually get it resolved. Will the government ever wake up to its responsibility or keep on blaming others for its failures and inabilities?

ABDULLAH BIN UMAR Rawalpindi

Ireland’s most respected and famed 70-year-old poet and former arts minister Michael D higgins will become Ireland’s next president after his main rival conceded defeat on 28 October. higgins will succeed Belfastborn Mary Mcaleese who has served the maximum of two seven-year terms as the figurehead of the republic which required an 85 billion euro international bailout last year.

Congratulations, Michael higgins, your past performance as arts minister has proved that you are not only a poet who lives in the world of imaginations, but the words can be translated into reality as well. ronald reagan, considered one of the most successful statesmen of the United States, was basically a film actor who defeated the USSr and Communism. This is how the nations honour their laureates, teachers and authors.

Well done, Mr higgins.

F Z KHAN Islamabad

Ours is a different 9/11 Honouring the memory of Quaid-e-Azam

By Zeeshan Shah

O

n 11 September, 2011, it was the 10th anniversary of that tragic incident in the City of New york which saw the death of almost 3000 people and many more injured. The incident reminds us of death, destruction, chaos, deceit, lies, conspiracies, betrayal,

revenge, downfall, politics and a bad taste in the mouth tilting the sands of time back into the great abyss. But what really happened later on was the killing of tens of thousands of afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis in the next decade.

On that very day, Pakistan also observed Jinnah’s death anniversary. Or did we really remember him? I recall Obama’s ground Zero but I do not recall Jinnah’s Ziarat. I remember NyC but do not remembering watching Mohatta Palace and the days of Jinnah in Karachi as he breathed his last. I recall almost every media channel transmitting live from the USa and yet waited to see one decent day of documenting Jinnah and his life.

The man, who gave us a free country with the freedom of religion and respect for social justice, has been forgotten.

The vision of Jinnah in this country has vanished away. leadership is action, not position. The Quaid, in order to safeguard the struggle

for independence, did not share information on his health. a man of resilience and selfless dedication, he never gave up over his medical condition. Can we say the same for the politicians and leaders of today who seem to have lost their character in search of something more tangible and temporary?

In those days, there were fears of betrayal and deceit within the Muslim league. The Quaid feared that the news of his tuberculosis would reduce the chances of a successful struggle for independence, and that the Indians will try all their might to divide the struggle. On his doctors’ advice for fresh sea air being good for lungs, he decided to spend some days in Karachi. even at that delicate stage of his life, he spoke with conviction and commitment. On national defence the Quaid quotes: “The British have been strong with an empire scattered all over the globe. We can be strong with a Pakistan which has one of its zones in the west and

one in the east of India. We would be more closely knit than the British Commonwealth of Nations. and don’t forget that 55 percent of the Indian army comes from the Punjab.”

On 11 September, we saw TV channels broadcast everything except the true vision and legacy of Quaid. The time given by the stakeholders and agenda makers to cover the ground Zero event was a lot more than the time given to speak about the Father of the Nation who gave up his life without telling anyone about his medical condition to preserve his country till his last breath. That day, america honoured the dead but failed to disclose as to why the buildings fell straight down like they were demolished intentionally for better construction site and why some of the dead mentioned on the casualty list still are still alive. We forget very quickly and we remember too little.

If Jinnah were alive, we would not have had the fall of Dhaka. We would have

survived as one united Muslim country.

Our Father of the Nation must not be forgotten. he must be remembered for all that he did for us. We must remember what he taught us, what he told us, what he wanted for us. The history teaches us many lessons but the most important and the biggest lesson that the Quaid taught us was to coexist, with no fear of caste, creed, religion sect or colour. a free society of moderate thinkers and patriot Muslims following the teachings of the holy Quran.

My heart bleeds to see that his memory is long forgotten by the ever hungry, ever greedy politicians of today. We must stop right here and remember that as tragic as it is, our 11 September can never be their 9/11. This day in Pakistan stands for justice, equality and independence and whereas theirs stands for death, destruction and unjustified wars.

The writer is a banker, freelance writer and broadcaster for an FM radio.

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

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12 Comment Successful show doesn’t say much, though

W

ell, it was a Sunday, the weather was nice, there was no chance of police baton charge and, given the leader’s views, there wasn’t any chance of any terrorist attack either. If the PTI’s vote-bank famously doesn’t have the stomach for less-than-perfect conditions, then Sunday’s conditions were ideal for a rally.

It was a hugely successful rally, something the party should be proud of. This show of public support indicates the party’s growing popularity. The PMl(N) leaders who had sworn to leave politics if the Sunday rally could get an attendance of even 50,000 would have to eat their words. as has been stated in this very space earlier, however, the mechanics of putting together a rally are different from those that go into making a successful election campaign. It does help, yes, if a party that can do one wants to do the other but it doesn’t guarantee anything. The Jamaat-eIslami is a case in point for illustrating how meaningless successful rallies at other points in time can be come election time. elections revolve not around rally numbers but an effective management – in the urban areas that the PTI is targeting – of the crisscrossing mesh of the networks of market associations, mohalla committees and caste divides that are laid out in each constituency. To segue into that: there is talk of “electables” joining the party now. That will, finally, put PTI on the electoral map. But it will also eat away into the moral higher ground that supporters of the party put up in its defence. Why? Because electable politicians come with the imperfections that those with feet on the ground almost invariably have. a viable enough set of candidates would positively look like a gallery of rogues to the urban middle-class sensibilities of average PTI supporters. Therein lies the party’s dilemma. as a post-script: with the anti-PMl(N) convention in Karachi and the PTI’s in lahore, the Sharif brothers definitely had a bad hair day. Is the league increasingly getting walled in?

the tAPI project Not without caveats

T

hough Pakistan has been facing an energy shortage for quite some time, progress on securing energy sources has been at a speed that is next to zilch. Focus on energy security is crucial in staying afloat in this rapidly progressing industrial environment. Pakistan’s finalising a price formula with Turkmenistan for the TaPI gas project seems like a feat that happens only once in a blue moon. Still, this is one step that is commendable.

But, digging deep, the project is fraught with technicalities that could cause further delays. Firstly, it won’t deliver gas to any country before the end of 2016, which would only add to the problems our country is facing; secondly, the security in afghanistan may not be good enough by that time where this being the only route, the project could be delayed indefinitely; thirdly, transit fee have yet to be finalised though this should not be an issue; fourthly, the project pushes IP, formerly IPI, to the backburner, which is not a good thing. Despite these facts, the project is a useful alternate solution for Pakistan as the other more feasible one, IP project, is facing some external pressures. The US, in an attempt to arm-twist Pakistan to make a deal with the Taliban, is pushing for TaPI over the IP even though the latter could deliver results in a mere two-year timeframe.

The idea that the project should have the americans’ blessings is what’s making all the difference. Pakistan should go ahead with the project only if the afghan authorities provide security and performance guarantees, as Pakistan has given to the Iranians on the IP project. On a relevant note, Pakistan must reinitiate efforts to cut a deal with Tehran for a lower price. after all, we should decide for our energy security on our terms. another factor that may play either way is the Indian participation in the TaPI project. They left the IP project after the US patronised them with a nuclear deal. They may do the same again. Pakistan should iron out kinks like these before committing to such an important project.

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

Monday, 31 october, 2011

Dictator dominoes Falling one after the other?

I

T was the tradition in ancient greece that whenever their city republic plunged into political chaos and disorder, they handed over the government to a tyrant to restore peace and order. generally, the duration of his rule was to be 7 years; after completing this period and restoring order in the city, he was asked to retire. Sometimes the tyrant continued and had to be forced by the people to relinquish his authority. Interestingly, this tradition continued in the 14th century in the city of Florence which invited some powerful man from outside on a contractual basis to maintain peace and order and leave the city after the completion of his mission. In most cases, the tyrants left according to the contract. If not, they were forced to leave the city.

These instances show that some empowered authority like a ‘tyrant’ of sorts was required to combat the forces of anarchy and to keep peace and tranquillity.

But the authority did not use their power in negatively. he had popular support and restored stability of the government and its institutions. however, it is no longer so. The meaning of the word ‘tyrant’ has changed during modern times. Modern democratic notions have falsified the need for such centralised authority. Now a tyrant is a person who assumes power and uses absolute authority brutally by crushing the opposition against his rule .Therefore, tyranny is attributed to acts of exploitation, suppression and killing and massacring people.

The phenomenon of modern dictatorship emerged when Napoleon conducted a coup in 1799 against the revBy Dr Mubarak Ali olutionary government with the motive to restore order which was disrupted by successive revolutionary governments. To accomplish his mission, he used all kinds of coercive methods to crush all opposition and suppressed all the voices against his dictatorial power. he derived his authority from military power but he exposited the revolutionary rhetoric to gain popular support. Once he established his position as the supreme leader, he transformed his dictatorship into an empire and assumed the title of emperor. however, his dream to establish a permanent empire and to colonise the whole of europe by raising the slogans of equality, liberty, and fraternity failed as vanquished nations rebelled against French imperialism. he was finally defeated by russia which not only disintegrated his empire but plunged France into chaos. after his defeat, he left France in disarray. Millions of French people who sacrificed

Eye on History

to make him great only found defeat and humiliation in the end. That was a lesson from history that dictators, instead of stabilising their country, destroy it to fulfil their personal ambitions.

In the ancient period, the role of a tyrant was to restore order and establish peace. In the modern period, since Napoleon, dictators have assumed the role of self-styled reformers and saviours of the nations. Benito Mussolini mobilised the national sentiments of the Italians and promised to revive the glories of the roman empire. adolf hitler set out to rescue the german nation from humiliation and to create a sense of racial pride. In return, both dictators demanded people to surrender their fundamental rights and obey them without any question. They did and both dictators destroyed their countries in the name of greatness. Mussolini was hunted down and hanged upside down by people while hitler committed suicide. The german nation is still struggling to get rid of hitler’s legacy and the consequences of his dictatorship. after decolonisation, military dictators emerged in the Third World. The colonial governments left the institution of the army stronger than other institutions of the state. This created political ambition in the army to grasp power in the name of reform and progress. When ayub Khan assumed power in 1958 by accusing politicians of corruption and maladministration, he declared that he would bring change and restructure the state institutions. however, after a decade, it was found that the country instead of progressing was facing all kinds of problem and his government had miserably failed to arrest the decline of society. People were disappointed and launched a campaign against his rule. It

was a novel phenomenon that a dictator had been dislodged by a popular movement rather than by some kind of internal conspiracy. he failed to crush it and resigned under pressure. The same process was repeated in case of Pervez Musharraf when the lawyers’ movement dislodged him and he had to leave.

Popular movements against dictators emerged recently in the Middle east. It shows the empowerment of people and a rejection of the notion of dictators that they are invincible, popular and loved by their people. It is what the sycophants and flatterers tell the dictators repeatedly and such delusions are further strengthened on the basis of conducting rigged referendums in which people vote overwhelmingly in their favour. recent protests shocked dictators who were ‘elected’ by referendums without any challenge for decades. Still, these dictators were not ready to understand that people want change of rule and not continuity. Many of these dictators now had a choice before them: either to surrender voluntarily (as happened in the case of Mubarak) or to be ousted by bloody civil war (as happened in the case of Muammar Qaddafi) People’s power has emerged with such force that the western imperial powers (to whom these dictators suited) have now changed their foreign policy: instead of supporting these cronies, they are now favouring the people’s movements. Perhaps it will take some time to consolidate the democratic institutions in nations with these movements but one thing is for sure: the political scene in those countries where dictators ruled absolutely is going to change.

The writer is one of the pioneers of alternate history in the country.

Regional Press

terrorism and scale of destruction Daily Khabroona

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uring Musharraf era wherein promises made with america were to be fulfilled, military action against ‘miscreants’ in tribal areas of the country started and likewise commando action was taken at lal Masjid as well. Bajaur agency also received aerial bombardment during this time and a military operation in Swat was also conducted to round up miscreants. all such acts resulted in worsening the law and order situation in the country.

Both the government and masses in Pakistan sustained matchless losses after action was taken against miscreants in these areas. The scale of destruction has fluctuated over the years but it has never fallen below a certain level. ever since the war has started, Pakistan has been bleeding.

Military action in tribal areas of the country has still continued in such conditions. Corps Commander Peshawar lt-gen

asif yasin Malik told a tribal jirga at South Waziristan agency the other day that 80 percent of the area in South Waziristan agency has been cleared off from miscreants after successful military operation there. he also added that border areas at Chitral, Dir, Bajaur and Mohmand agency have been ‘closed’ rigorously and ‘nobody’ would be allowed to use the same. he made it clear that military action in tribal areas would continue till militancy has been uprooted.

The statement of the Corps Commander Peshawar manifests that the government still wants to continue action in tribal areas to extend their writ. But these actions have also on the other hand rendered the borders of the country more unsafe and acts of terrorism have occurred in major cities of the country as a backlash. These acts of terrorism have killed thousands and compelled mass exodus from certain localities in general and the tribal areas of the country in particular.

– Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur Rauf Khattak

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Comment 13

PTI: All sizzle, no steak?

The evil of silence

The march to the Minar

Doing nothing is often a crime

By Waqqas Mir

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olitics, albeit fuelled with cynicism, will have always a link with romance. and in that way all participants in a political process are, at some level, hopeless romantics. Politics is the art of the possible but it is also an arena for dreamers. There has been and always will be something uplifting about it. But this romance, like all others, has ramifications and risks.

Since the stakes are high, rhetoric and opportunism bring advantages. By fuelling your listener’s disillusionment with another you obviate the need to say anything substantive because, in theory, any change is better than the status quo. Scream populist slogans loud enough and people will stop asking you questions about how you actually propose to change things.

This strategy certainly seems to be working for Imran Khan. his supporters are clearly not in the mood for tackling any criticism of Khan, for questioning Khan (somehow apparently) translates into support for corruption and crooked politicians.

Is Khan ‘the rebound guy’ for many of his fans who act like spurned lovers? Or is he someone with real substance? Many forming part of his vote bank have never voted before. at least they are becoming part of the political process and that is always a good thing. But where does Khan stand? The worst case scenario is that we will never know since Khan (and now his supporters) will never let it come down to a debate on his actual policies. here is how the classic PTI argument begins: ‘we are utilizing only X percentage of our resources’ or ‘justice is an issue.

Speedy justice must be made available’. It goes on: ‘if we

achieve that then great things will happen and we can do it. We will do it!’. There is a leap of imagination and logic there that gets lost in rhetoric. The obvious question: of course if all things wonderful were to happen then we would grow at X percent but what is your policy to ensure we get there?

There is no answer. a month ago I posed a similar question to a senior PTI official (who had come to speak to Pakistani students at harvard). his response? Umm, for our policy please visit our website. apparently there is some great plan that the PTI has which it cannot reveal—lest PPP or PMl (N) steal it I suppose. While I wait for Khan’s great plan to be revealed, I felt like hearing from some revolutionaries who feel he is out to change Pakistan. But I honestly cannot agree with your revolutionary credentials if you think overthrowing PPP, PMl (N), aNP et al is a solution for this country. I may not take you seriously but I will respect your point of view (something few PTI supporters have the stomach for). a leader who talks about speedy justice without specifying, even once, how he plans on fixing the overstretched judicial system makes me not hopeful but worried. you see the slogan of justice is powerful, whether it is raised by the US, Taliban or the Khan brigade. But this concept has nuances which need to be engaged with. you cannot propose or justify any/all actions in the name of justice.

Khan has repeatedly called on the army to implement the Supreme Court’s orders (in various cases)—that is not justice.

That is extra-judicial foolhardiness. and yes if any party breaks the law then they should be held accountable too (but not by the army). Since when did it become okay to break the law just because you thought someone else was doing it too? If you think it is kosher for the army to aid the Supreme Court then please stop pretending you are actually seeking a democracy. and no, article 190 of the Constitution does not say what you think it says.

Khan speaks of enduring democracy and yet his rhetoric never mentions the institutionalized corruption of the Pakistan

army — by far the single most powerful political actor that has never allowed politicians the room they deserve. he will spend hours screaming, ‘look Zardari is corrupt’ but how many times has he said the same about hafiz Saeed or Maulana azhar (militant leaders who have walked free from the courts but who openly admit supporting the socalled jihad in Kashmir)? These are questions that are seen by most PTI supporters as legitimising one thing or the other.

But before you dismiss the established political parties as citadels of corruption do not forget that they field, engage with and answer tough questions. I may not agree with all they say but at least they say something besides a mention of a secret plan giving us ‘literacy in 100 days’. as thousands march towards Minar-e-Pakistan, I am sure the rhetoric of the fight against corruption will raise goose-bumps.

But what good is fighting corruption if the political culture you believe in leaves no room for criticism? What good is your talk of democracy and change if the ‘electable’ candidates you want to include in your party strengthened the hands of a dictator? What good is justice if the Supreme Court and the army are given carte blanche as long as they target people you see as corrupt? Bring on the hate mail o young revolutionaries but maybe, just maybe, there is something corrupt about the romance you are cultivated with.

Questioning it is my right. It always helps to ask questions. Is he an alternative? Is his lack of criticism for the army not a form of corruption? and will that sort of corruption hurt us any less than the sums of money you can think of? ask Khan difficult questions now because tomorrow you, and not him, will look really stupid if he gets it wrong or worse has nothing to offer. Now that will be real heartbreak. Just saying.

The writer is a Barrister and an Advocate of the High Courts.

He has a special interest in Antitrust law and is currently pursuing an LLM at a law school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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his week, I picked up a copy of Cynthia Owen’s ‘Living with Evil’ from a bookshop in Islamabad. The book is written as a firsthand account by a victim of physical and sexual abuse in childhood.

Once I started the book, I couldn’t put it down until I’d turned the last page over, my eyes as large as saucers in shock at the horrors to which Owen and her siblings were subjected by their alcoholic parents. even more interestingly, the book, in my view, serves as an excellent case study regarding the behaviour of ‘others’ in these children’s lives: people who were outside the circle of abuse, but could still see what was going on.

Cynthia’s father began raping her, with her mother’s consent, when she was eight. eventually, she was also ‘rented’ out to friends, relatives, and random strangers in return for money, alcohol or cigarettes. She became pregnant for the first time when she was 11. her Catholic school teachers could see that a child under their care was pregnant; her strict, often sadistic, headmistress even asked her about it, and when Cynthia shamefacedly denied her pregnancy, the headmistress made her face the wall every time she came to class.

So they knew – these adults who were supposed to look after this helpless child; they knew. and they did nothing. her parents were the priBy Urooj Zia mary perpetrators of the abuse, as were the other paedophiles who were involved in the entire transaction. But can the other adults – those in contact with the child, but outside the direct circles of abuse themselves – be exonerated? Surely they had some responsibility towards someone whose well being had been entrusted to them?

Cynthia’s story hit me hard, because it closely mirrored in some aspects the story of a dear friend of mine. Brought up in a lower middle class household in Islamabad, she was raped for the first time when she was six – by a friend of her father’s. The abuse continued, until she, like Cynthia, gave birth at the age of 11. My friend’s childbirth took everyone by surprise, apparently. She says that perhaps due to her tiny physical structure, the pregnancy wasn’t obvious, and her parents went into shock when she suddenly went into labour. like Cynthia, my friend gave birth to a

healthy, beautiful daughter. Unlike Cynthia, however, my friend’s daughter was put up for adoption by the hospital administration. Cynthia’s daughter was cruelly murdered by her mother (the infant’s grandmother); she eventually found her grave, and through an inquest, managed to get the unknown infant, who had been dumped into a mass grave, identified as her daughter, Noleen Murphy.

My friend here does not know if her daughter is even alive. The psychological repercussions of the five-year-long sexual abuse have dogged her throughout her life (she is in her early 30s now). even worse, to date, her parents and extended family continue to blame her for the rapes and the pregnancy. They have, for more than two decades, held a six-year-old responsible for the fact that they were unable to adequately protect her. The psychological repercussions of this victim-blaming – by her own loved ones, no less –have been immense. I will not delve into the details because that story is hers to tell My sole reason for bringing all of this up was to highlight a few things that have been preying on my mind for a while: first, that child sexual abuse exists in Pakistan; please stop denying its existence. Two, that incestuous rape, at the hands of fathers, brothers and uncles, is more common than we’d like to accept. Three, that a teenager has no business, whatsoever, giving birth; teenage pregnancies are among the leading causes of maternal mortality in Pakistan. Child marriage is nothing more than legalised paedophilia; it endangers multiple lives, including that of the mother and the foetus.

Most importantly, please know and understand the signs of abuse. Teachers have a particularly important role to play in this matter. Child sexual abuse is not a ‘private matter’. In Cynthia Owen’s case, the abuse that she and her siblings suffered destroyed the lives of at least three generations despite the immense strength that Owen displays. as such, child abuse (physical and sexual) is a crime against society. Please keep an eye out for signs: before dismissing a child’s behaviour as ‘devilish’ or ‘hell-bound’, please examine other factors that might have contributed to it. either talk to the child’s parents, or to someone in a place of authority.

The well being of children is our collective responsibility, not least because Pakistan is signatory to international conventions protecting the rights of children.

Please remember: Silence in the face of injustice makes you party to said injustice.

Silence in the face of abuse is evil.

The writer is a freelance journalist and researcher based in Karachi. She can be found lurking in the dark corners of the interwebs, and can be reached through twitter (@UroojZia) or email (contact AT uroojzia.com).

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14 World View WASHINGTON POST

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DANIEl YERGIN

Or more than five decades, the world’s oil map has centered on the Middle east. No matter what new energy resources were discovered and developed elsewhere, virtually all forecasts indicated that U.S. reliance on Mideast oil supplies was destined to grow. This seemingly irreversible reality has shaped not only U.S. energy policy and economic policy, but also geopolitics and the entire global economy.

But today, what appeared irreversible is being reversed. The outline of a new world oil map is emerging, and it is centered not on the Middle east but on the Western hemisphere. The new energy axis runs from alberta, Canada, down through North Dakota and South Texas, past a major new discovery off the coast of French guyana to huge offshore oil deposits found near Brazil.

This shift carries great significance for the supply and the politics of world oil. and, for all the debates and speeches about energy independence throughout the years, the transformation is happening not as part of some grand design or major policy effort, but almost accidentally. This shift was not planned — it is a product of a series of unrelated initiatives and technological breakthroughs that, together, are taking on a decidedly hemispheric cast. The search for a “hemispheric energy policy” for the United States has been a subject of discussion ever since the oil crises and supply disruptions of the 1970s. yet it was never easy to pin down exactly what such a policy would mean. Some years ago, an economic adviser to a presidential candidate dropped in to see me, explaining the directive that his boss had given him: “you know that Western hemispheric energy policy that I have been giving speeches about? Could you talk to some people around the country and find out what I actually mean by a Western hemispheric energy policy?”

The notion of “hemispheric energy” in the 1970s and 1980s rested on two pillars.

One was Venezuela, which had been a reliable petroleum exporter since World War II. The other was Mexico, caught up in a great oil boom that had transformed the United States’ southern neighbor from an oil importer into a major exporter. But since hugo Chavez took power in Venezuela, its petroleum output has fallen — about 25 percent

since 2000. Moreover, Venezuela does not seem quite the pillar to rely on when its leader denounces “the U.S. empire” as “the biggest menace on our planet” and aligns his country with Iran. and Mexico, which depends on oil for 35 percent of its government revenue, is struggling with declining output.

Without reform to its oil sector and international investment, it could become an importer of oil later this decade. The new hemispheric outlook is based on resources that were not seriously in play until recent years — all of them made possible by technological breakthroughs and advances. They are “oil sands” in Canada, “pre-salt” deposits in Brazil and “tight oil” in the United States.

In little more than a decade, Canada’s oil sands have gone from being a fringe resource to a major one. Oil sands (sometimes known as “tar sands”) are composed of very heavy oil mixed with clay and sand. The oil is so heavy and molasses-like that, for the most part, it does not flow until it is separated from the sand and clay and treated. To do that on a large scale and on a commercial basis has required substantial advances in engineering over the past 15 years. Oil sands production in Canada today is 1.5 million barrels per day — more oil than libya exported before its civil war. Canadian oil sands output could double to 3 million barrels per day by the beginning of the next decade. This increase, along with its other oil output, would make Canada a larger oil producer than Iran — becoming the world’s fifth largest, behind russia, Saudi arabia, the United States and China.

The oil sands have become particularly controversial because of environmental groups’ vigorous opposition to the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone Xl pipeline, which would carry oil from alberta to the Texas coast. The pipeline is waiting for the Obama administration to say “yea” or “nay.” Though large, it would increase the length of the oil pipeline network in the United States by just 1 percent. The main reason given for the opposition is the carbon dioxide associated with oil sands production, but the impact of this should be considered in the context of the overall release of CO2. When measured all the way from “well to wheels” — that is, from production to what comes out of an auto tailpipe — oil sands average 5 to 15 percent more carbon dioxide than the average barrel of oil used in the United States. and this country uses other streams of oil that generate CO2 in the same range. even while

Monday, 31 october, 2011

the environmental argument rages, oil sands are proving to be a major contributor to energy security. although it is easy to assume that most U.S. oil imports come from the Middle east, the largest individual share by far — nearly a quarter of the total — comes from Canada, part of a dense network of economic ties that makes Canada the United States’ largest trading partner.

More than half of Canada’s oil exports to the United States come from oil sands, and that share will rise steeply in the years ahead. at the other end of that hemispheric oil axis is Brazil. When Brazil began to develop ethanol from sugar in the 1970s, it did so based on the conviction that the country had no oil. as it turns out, Brazil has lots of oil.

Just the increase in Brazilian oil production since 2000 is more than one and a half times greater than the country’s entire ethanol output.

In the middle of the last decade, new breakthroughs in technology made possible the identification and development of huge oil resources off the southern coast of Brazil that until then had been hidden below a belt of salt a mile thick. The salt had rendered unreadable the seismic signals necessary to determine whether oil was there. “The breakthrough was pure mathematics,” said Jose Sergio gabrielli de azevedo, the president of Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company. “We developed the algorithms that enabled us to take out the disturbances and look right through the salt layer.” Once discovered, further technical advances were required to cope with the peculiarities of the salt layer, which, sludge-like, keeps shifting.

Developing these “pre-salt” resources, as they’ve become known, is a big technical, political and logistical challenge for Brazil, and will require huge investments. But, if development proceeds at a reasonable pace, Brazil could be producing 5 million barrels of oil per day by around 2020, about twice Venezuela’s current output — and more than half the current output of Saudi arabia. That would make Brazil, not Venezuela, the powerhouse of latin american oil, and could make it a major exporter to the United States. The third major supply development has emerged right here in the United States: the application of shale-gas technology — horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, a process popularly known as “fracking” — to the extraction of oil from dense rock. The

Does redistributing income reduce poverty?

Despite India achieving a high growth rate, much of its economic success is not reaching many of its poorest.

rock is so hard that, without those technologies, the oil would not flow. That is why it is called “tight oil.” Case study No. 1 is in North Dakota, where, just eight years ago, a rock formation known as the Bakken, a couple of miles underground, was producing a measly 10,000 barrels of oil per day. Today, it yields almost half a million barrels per day, turning North Dakota into the fourth-largest oil-producing state in the country, as well as the state with the lowest unemployment rate.

Similar development is taking place in other parts of the country, including South Texas and West Texas. altogether, tight oil production is growing very fast. The total output in the United States was just 200,000 barrels per day in 2000. around 2020, it could reach 3 million barrels per day — a third of the total U.S. oil production. (and that is a conservative estimate; others are much higher.) Together, these three developments will radically alter the global flow of oil. The Western hemisphere will still require supplies from the rest of the world, but not to the same degree — and certainly nowhere near the growing amounts forecast just a few years ago. The need could fall by as much as half by 2020, which will mean declining imports from the Middle east and West africa.

Oil that would have gone west from those regions will instead flow in increasing volumes

to the east — to the booming emerging markets of asia. and those markets will be in urgent need of additional supplies. China, which today consumes half as much oil as the United States, could by the beginning of the next decade overtake america as the world’s largest oil consumer. all of this points to a major geopolitical shift, with asian economies having an increasing stake in the stability of Mideast oil supplies. It also raises a very significant question over the next several years: how will responsibility be shared among the great powers for the stability of the Persian gulf? For the United States, these new sources of supply add to energy security in ways that were not anticipated.

There is only one world oil market, so the United States — like other countries — will still be vulnerable to disruptions, and the sheer size of the oil resources in the Persian gulf will continue to make the region strategically important for the world economy. But the new sources closer to home will make our supply system more resilient. For the Western hemisphere, the shift means that more oil will flow north to south and south to north, rather than east to west. all this demonstrates how innovation is redrawing the map of world oil — and remaking our energy future.

AL JAZEERA

poverty. Critics of the growth model argue that it is imperative to redistribute income and wealth as soon as possible.

They claim that the Indian state of Kerala and the country of Bangladesh are examples where redistribution, rather than growth, has led to better outcomes for the poor than in the rest of India. yet, as Columbia University economist arvind Panagariya’s recent work shows, Kerala’s social statistics were better than those in the rest of the country even before it instituted its current redistributive model. Moreover, Kerala has profited immensely from remittances sent home by its emigrant workers in the Middle east, a factor unrelated to its redistributive policy. as for Bangladesh, the United Nations’ human Development Index, admittedly a problematic source, ranks it below India.

In impoverished countries where the poor exceed the rich by a huge margin, redistribution would increase the consumption of the poor only minimally - by, say, a chapati a day - and the increase would not be sustainable in a context of low income and high population growth.

In short, for most developing countries, growth is the principal strategy for inclusive development - that is, development that consciously includes the marginal and poorest members of a society.

But the political sustainability of the growth-first model requires both symbolic and material efforts. While growth does benefit the poor, the rich often benefit disproportionately. So, to keep the poor committed to the system as their economic aspirations are aroused, the wealthy would be well advised to indulge less in conspicuous consumption. at the same time - and more importantly - the poor need greater access to education in order to increase their economic opportunities and social mobility. “less excess and more access” must become the principle that guides development policy.

JAGDISH BHAGHWATI

Many on the left are suspicious of the idea that economic growth helps to reduce poverty in developing countries. They argue that growth-oriented policies seek to increase gross national product, not to ameliorate poverty, and that redistribution is the key to poverty reduction. These assertions, however, are not borne out by the evidence. Since the 1950s, developmental economists have understood that growth in gNP is not synonymous with increased welfare. But, even prior to independence, India’s leaders saw growth as essential for reducing poverty and increasing social welfare. In economic terms, growth was an instrument, not a target - the means by which the true targets, such as poverty reduction and the social advancement of the masses, would be achieved. a quarter-century ago, I pointed out the two distinct ways in which economic growth would have this effect. First, growth would pull the poor into gainful employment, thereby helping to lift them out of poverty. higher incomes would enable them to increase their personal spending on education and health (as seems to have been happening in India during its recent period of accelerated growth).

Second, growth increases state revenues, which means that the government can potentially spend more on health and education for the poor. Of course, a country does not necessarily spend more on such items simply because it has increased revenue, and, even if it does, the programs it chooses to fund may not be effective.

In almost willful ignorance of the fact that the growth-centred model has proved itself time and again, sceptics advocate an alternative “redistributive” developmental model, which they believe will have a greater impact on reducing

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Monday, 31 october 2011

Military won’t face the truth about Afghanistan and Iraq

15

Both British campaigns were ill-conceived and poorly executed: military defeats dressed up as victory. And much of the blame lies with the generals PATRICK COCKBURN

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THE INDEPENDENT

hINeSe mandarins in the 19th century were faced with the delicate task of explaining to their emperor the repeated defeats of his armies. To avoid embarrassing questions, they adopted the simple device of describing them all as victories. The British army has adopted a similar approach in explaining its failure in Iraq and afghanistan. Self-serving myths are cultivated, putting all the blame on Tony Blair and the americans for pitching British soldiers into unwinnable wars. responsibility for the insufficient number of troops deployed or the lack of appropriate equipment is held to lie with the politicians, not the generals.

The result is that there is a lack of appreciation in Britain of the extent of the purely military failure. In Iraq in 2007, four years after British troops invaded, they were in the humiliating position of being largely confined to a camp outside Basra, while Shia militiamen ruled the city. The British contingent did little except defend itself and had become, in the graphic phrase of British soldiers, a “selflicking lollipop”.

Failure after British troops were deployed in helmand province in 2006 came even more quickly. Military intelligence wholly misjudged the danger of sending troops there. assault troops devoted themselves to trying to destroy the Taliban and, by alienating the local population, acted as its recruiting sergeant. little account was taken of local reaction to a foreign occupation that brought only death and destruction.

I had an early brush with the dysfunctional nature of the British military effort in Iraq in 2003 when six British military policemen were killed in al-Majar alKabir on the southern marshes. Its people were smugglers and guerrilla fighters who had fought Saddam hussein’s forces

for decades. Somehow, the British army thought it could freely patrol the town and disarm its people without resistance.

The locals were deeply and understandably suspicious, asking why, if the British and americans were not planning a longterm occupation of Iraq, were they trying to take away the weapons of stalwarts of the anti-Saddam resistance movement?

British generals portrayed the killings as an atypical local crisis, but it was symptomatic of much that was to go wrong for Britain in these two wars.

Many journalists, diplomats and soldiers know different pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of misunderstandings, ignorance and institutional failures which produced these debacles. But few have the long and diverse experience of the army in Iraq and afghanistan that enabled Frank ledwidge to produce his superb groundbreaking book, losing Small Wars: British Military Failure in Iraq and afghanistan. For 15 years he was a naval reserve military intelligence officer before retiring in 2008. During that time, he was a close observer of how military operations were conceived, carried out and assessed. Such “insider” books can be shrill in tone or overstate their case, but Mr ledwidge is judicious, sceptical, intelligent and highly informed. he arrived in helmand “to take part in what I believed to be a just and winnable war”. But he found that the briefings he attended gave a picture of the war the army would have liked to be fighting, not the one it was actually engaged in. It became “luminously clear from the daily reports that British forces controlled only the area a few hundred metres from the barrels of the machineguns guarding our beleaguered bases”.

This was very much a re-run of the situation in Basra, where the British lost control of the city. The final effort, Operation Sinbad in 2006-07, was renamed Operation Spinbad by British soldiers involved; one described how his battalion had to fight its way into the city, build a

playground with slides and swings, and then fight its way out. Insurgents immediately dismantled the playground, retaining only the slides to be used for launching rockets at the departing British.

Intervention in helmand, about which the British military knew little, was conceived as a way of redeeming the army’s damaged reputation in the eyes of the americans. Military intelligence downplayed warnings from the British embassy in Kabul that helmand was likely to be a very dangerous place. a Pakistani colonel once said to me that he thought the British and american armies in afghanistan had not taken on board the fact that at the heart of Pashtun culture “is a hatred of foreigners”.

Mr ledwidge is particularly good at understanding how the very fact of occupation generates political and military antibodies to repel it. There is nothing peculiar about afghan society in this. he

cites a senior development officer with experience of afghanistan saying “lots of soldiers talk about what is culturally unacceptable. What is culturally unacceptable is dropping 5,000lb bombs on their towns and raiding their houses, pulling wives and daughters out of bed. Same as in Britain, really.”

There were other important reasons for British failure. Brigades were sent on six-month tours, far too short. Commanding officers seemed to want their stints to be marked by a career-enhancing military effort, with little connection to actions before or after. British policy was very much militarised, unlike the North West Frontier during British rule of India where military force was only a last resort. Self-regarding and misleading lessons were drawn from counter-insurgency in Malaya and Northern Ireland, which were wholly different from Iraq and afghanistan. a major source of weakness was that

A lot of people? Yes. Apocalypse? No. There are now 7 billion people in the world. Though resource challenges remain, a child born today will almost surely have a better life than decades ago, when food production per person was far inferior LA TIMES DAVID lAM

The United Nations has identified Monday as the day world population hits 7 billion. Many find the halloween date appropriate given the frightening prospect of this demographic milestone. as if 7 billion weren’t scary enough, the U.N. projects 10 billion people by 2083, the addition of roughly three more Indias.

But the parents of the 7-billionth person should not be afraid for their child’s future. In spite of the daunting challenges facing the world, including global warming, rising food prices and a billion people in poverty, the 7-billionth child will almost surely have a better life than the 3-billionth or 6-billionth child. how will the world cope with this many people?

Consider what the world looked like in 1960, when the population hit 3 billion. Falling infant and child mortality caused population growth rates to surpass 2% per year in the 1960s, probably for the first time in history. at 2% growth, the world would double in 35 years, and that is roughly what happened — world population grew to 6 billion in 1999. World population will not come close to doubling again in 39

years. Indeed, it may never double again. Fertility has fallen rapidly, with many developing countries at or near the replacement fertility rate of 2.1. The world’s population growth rate has been falling since its peak in the 1960s, and we may never get much above the 10.1 billion people projected for 2100.

So we’ve just been through the fastest population growth the world will ever see. It’s a good time to look back and see how the world survived it.

There were gloomy predictions in the 1960s about the consequences of rapid population growth,

the most famous appearing in Paul ehrlich’s 1968 book, “The Population Bomb.” he wrote that “the battle to feed humanity is already lost, in the sense that we will not be able to prevent large-scale famines in the next decade.” happily, ehrlich was wrong. World food production grew faster than population during the last 50 years. Food production per person in 2009 was 41% higher than in 1961. No country generated more fear about overpopulation than India. But food production there has grown faster than population since the

the most important reason for the British to deploy the army in both these wars was to demonstrate to Washington that Britain remained its most important ally. everything else, including operational success, was secondary to this aim. Both Tony Blair and David Cameron have maintained a pretence that Britain is fighting to maintain in power a democratic afghan government. The reality is that the representatives of this government are often warlords engaged in extortion, corruption and kidnapping. afghan police are notorious for stealing money, consuming drugs and raping young men and women passing through their checkpoints.

Four years after the British arrived in Sangin, a local farmer was quoted as saying “the Taliban do not even have a bakery that they can give bread, but still most people support the Taliban – that’s because people are sick of night raids and being treated badly by the foreigners”.

green revolution of the late 1960s. Food production per person in India today is 37% higher than in 1961, although there are 2.6 times more people. although there are still serious problems with food distribution and malnutrition, we have done remarkably well at feeding the extra 4 billion people added since 1960. This should make us optimistic about feeding the 3 billion more to be added in the next 70 years. Increased food supply is one reason that children around the world today are the healthiest ever born. an Indian baby born in 2011 has almost double the probability of surviving the first year of life as a baby born in 1960.

The 7-billionth child will also be better educated than a child born in 1960. Big increases in education in the developing world are one of the most impressive accomplishments of the last 50 years, especially given unprecedented growth of school-age populations. Only about one-third of Indian girls born in 1960 completed primary school, compared with about three-fourths of those born in 1990. For an Indian girl born in 2011 the rate will be even higher.

The probability that a child will grow up in poverty has been going down. For developing countries as a whole, the percentage living below the World Bank’s $1.25-per-day poverty line fell from 50% in 1981 to 25% in 2005. India’s poverty rate fell from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005 and can be expected to keep falling.

Not all countries have done as well as India. But even in sub-Saharan africa, the region with the poorest economic performance, poverty rates have fallen, education has increased and food production per person has been rising (albeit slowly) since the 1980s.

None of this is meant to deny the enormous challenges we face. We survived the population bomb through hard work and creativity, and we will need more of it to continue to feed the world and reduce poverty. But the remarkable experience of the last 50 years teaches us that we should not be afraid to celebrate the birth of the 7-billionth child.

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16 Foreign News turkey quake toll rises to 596 ISTANBUL AFP

The death toll from the devastating earthquake that hit eastern Turkey last week has risen to 596, the government’s emergency unit said on Sunday.

More than 4,150 people were injured in the 7.2 magnitude quake that shook the eastern Van province near the Iranian border a week ago on October 23, the unit said in a statement on its website. about 231 people had been pulled out alive from the rubble, Deputy Prime Minister Besir atalay said.

The town of ercis had taken the brunt of the damage from the quake, which is one of Turkey’s strongest since 1999, when two strong earthquakes in the heavily populated northwest Turkey left some 20,000 dead.

Mubarak trial postponed to dec 28 CAIRO AFP

The trial of ousted egyptian president hosni Mubarak which was due to resume on Sunday has been postponed following demands for the appointment of a new judge, state-run news agency MeNa reported. a new hearing has been set for December 28, MeNa said. “The Cairo criminal court, chaired by Judge ahmed refaat, decided to adjourn the trial of former president hosni Mubarak, his sons alaa and gamal, businessman hussein Salem, former interior minister habib al-adly and six of his assistants to December 28,” MeNa said. lawyers for alleged victims of Mubarak in his murder trial have petitioned the court demanding that judge refaat be replaced.

“The court has lost its jurisdiction by not administering the sessions in a manner conforming with the course of justice,” one of the victims’ lawyers said on September 24.

Monday, 31 october, 2011

Egypt brokers peace after Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed GAZA CITY

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AFP

gypt helped broker a fresh ceasefire by militants in gaza Sunday, after violence left nine Palestinians and one Israeli dead, sources close to the groups said.

The agreement came after Israeli air strikes in the gaza Strip Saturday and early Sunday killed nine Islamic Jihad militants, while retaliatory rocket fire killed one Israeli. The truce with Israel was due to come into effect at 6.00am (0400 gMT), said sources close to hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two main Islamist groups in the gaza Strip.

“The efforts and intensive contacts led by senior egyptian intelligence service officials led to a national consensus to restore calm” with Israel, a leader of one Palestinian group, who asked to remain anonymous, told aFP. If the agreement holds it will mark the end of the bloodiest exchanges between

the two sides since since a tacit ceasefire was agreed between gaza Palestinian militants and Israel in late august. The first Israeli attack early Saturday afternoon killed five members of the al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, said adham abu Selmiya, spokesman for gaza’s emergency services. another three militants were critically wounded, he added. as tit-for-tat fighting continued into the night, Israeli aircraft struck more targets in gaza, killing four more militants and wounding at least two, witnesses and Palestinian officials said. at least two of the militants were killed as they tried to fire a grad rocket into Israel, an al-Quds spokesman said.

The Israeli military said of the earlier raid that the air force had fired on a “group of terrorists preparing to fire long-range rockets” and that the attack had “prevented the attempted firing.”

The other strikes were aimed at similar targets, it said. reprisal attacks began after sunset Saturday, and police

said that by mid-evening 21 rockets had been fired from gaza into southern Israel. as Palestinian rockets and mortar shells pounded Israel Saturday, Israel’s police said they were raising their national alert level to its second-highest. a statement released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had phoned the mayors of ashkelon, ashdod and Beersheeva and told them that the military’s “tough response will be even tougher if necessary.” “The recent escalations are very worrying, said richard Miron, a spokesman for UN Middle east envoy robert Serry. “It’s vital to de-escalate now, without any delay. We strongly appeal for calm and an end to violence and bloodshed,” he said in a statement.

The al-Quds Brigades, in its own statement, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, posting a video on its website that it said showed the launching of five of the rockets.

Spokesman abu ahmed accused Israel of carrying out its raid in order to

heighten tensions so it could renege on freeing 550 Palestinian prisoners - part of a prisoner-swap deal with gaza rulers hamas for the liberation of Israeli soldier gilad Shalit.

Israel released 477 prisoners in exchange for Shalit earlier this month and is due to free another 550 within two months. The Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine also claimed responsibility for the attacks. and a spokesman for hamas’s ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades blamed Israel for the escalation. “The occupation is completely responsible for the crime in rafah and all of the resistance factions cannot leave the shedding of our martyrs’ blood unanswered,” spokesman abu Obeida said.

“We shall discuss the answer to this crime,” he added, in the hours before news of the truce emerged. Three Israeli air strikes on the gaza Strip Thursday hit a base of the ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, witnesses said. Israel said it was in retaliation for the earlier attack.

forces not ready until 2020, says Iraqi general BAGHDAD AFP

Iraq will not be fully able to defend its borders and airspace until at least 2020, a watchdog quoted Iraq’s top general as saying in a report on Sunday, months before US troops are to leave. The Iraqi military’s chief of staff, lieutenant general Babaker Zebari, “estimated that it will take several more years before Iraq can provide for its external defence without assistance from international partners,” said the report from the US Special Inspector general for Iraq reconstruction (SIgIr). “general Zebari suggested that the (Ministry of Defence) will be unable to execute the full spectrum of external-defence missions until sometime between 2020 and 2024, citing (Iraqi government) funding shortfalls as the main reason for the delay,” the report said. “Iraq will not be able to defend its own airspace until 2020, at the earliest,” Zebari told SIgIr, adding that “an army without an air force is exposed.”

lONDON: Masked demonstrators listen as the Bishop of london speaks to demonstrators camped outside St Paul’s Cathedral on Sunday. St Paul’s Cathedral has announced it plans to take legal action to remove the anti-capitalist protest camp in its precincts. reuters

ICC hunt for Gaddafi’s son poses dilemma for Niger NIAMEY/BEIJING REuTERS

The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Sunday he has “substantial evidence” that Saif al-Islam gaddafi, now on the run, had helped hire mercenaries to attack libyan civilians protesting against his father’s rule.

Saif al-Islam may be heading for Niger, which could upset libya’s new rulers and its own pro-gaddafi Tuareg nomads if it hands him over to the ICC in line with its treaty obligations.

“We have a witness who explained how Saif was involved with the planning of the attacks against civilians, including in particular the hiring of core mercenaries from different countries and the transport of them, and also the financial aspects he was covering,” ICC prosecutor

luis Moreno-Ocampo said during a visit to Beijing.

Saif al-Islam, 39, is desperately seeking to avoid the fate of his father, Muammar gaddafi, who was beaten, abused and shot after forces of libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) captured him on Oct 20 after the fall of his home town Sirte. The NTC is likely to want to try Saif al-Islam itself, but the fugitive libyan has been in indirect contact with the ICC over a possible surrender, though he may also harbour hopes that mercenaries can spirit him to a friendly african country.

Neighbouring Niger has vowed to honour its ICC commitments, but knows that handing over Saif al-Islam could spark unrest in Saharan areas where his father, feted by many desert-dwellers as a hero, nurtured past Tuareg revolts against the capital.

Moreno-Campo said the ICC had witnesses to testify against Saif al-Islam, whom he said he had met a few years ago - when Saif had backed ICC efforts to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir over alleged genocide and other crimes in Darfur. “So we have substantial evidence to prove the case, but of course Saif is still (presumed) innocent, and (will) have to go to court and the judge will decide,” he said.

Moreno-Ocampo said he would brief the UN Security Council on Wednesday about the court’s work in libya. The hague-based court has warned Saif alIslam that it could order a mid-air interception if he tried to flee by plane from his unidentified Sahara desert hideout for a safe haven.

“We received through an informal intermediary some questions from Saif apparently about the legal system -

what happens to him if he appears before the judges, can he be sent to libya, what happens if he’s convicted, what happens if he’s acquitted,” said Moreno-Ocampo.

“We are not in any negotiations with Saif,” he said, adding that the ICC would not later force him to return to libya provided another country is willing to receive him after he is either acquitted or is convicted and has served his sentence. Niger has not commented on statements by local northern leaders that Saif al-Islam was probably on its side of the mountains straddling its porous border with algeria and Mali. an official for the remote northern agadez region, through which another fugitive gaddafi son, Saadi, has passed, said on Saturday it had hosted security talks with US officials.

Niger has signed the ICC’s statute,

but handing over Saif al-Islam would annoy northerners who feel remote from the capital Niamey and have long espoused gaddafi’s vision of a cross-border Saharan people.

“We are ready to hide him wherever needed,” Mouddour Barka, a resident of agadez town said, adding that if Niger authorities handed him over: “We are ready to go out onto the streets and they will have us to deal with”.

The gaddafis befriended desert tribes in Niger, Mali and other poor former French colonies in West africa. gaddafi, a self-styled “king of kings”, lavished funds on other african nations. algeria, which took in Saif al-Islam’s mother, sister, brother hannibal and half-brother Mohammed, is not a signatory to the treaty that set up the ICC. Nor is Sudan or Zimbabwe.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Foreign News 17 Seven billion people — maybe UNITED NATIONS AFP

lAGOS: A child looks through the window of a wooden house in the Makoko slum. The united Nations on Monday symbolically marks the birth of the world’s seven billionth person.

The global milestone presents both an opportunity and a challenge for the planet: while more people are living longer and healthier lives, says the uN, gaps between rich and poor are widening and more people than ever are vulnerable to food insecurity and water shortages. AFP

Assad warns West against intervention in Syria

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DAMASCUS AFP

yria’s President Bashar alassad has warned that any Western intervention would cause an “earthquake” inflaming the region, after dozens died in one of the bloodiest days of the uprising against his rule.

In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper, assad warned of “another afghanistan” if foreign forces intervened in his country as they had with the libyan uprising that toppled Muammar gaddafi. “Syria is the hub now in this region,” the paper quoted assad as telling one of its journalists in Damascus. “It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake - do you want to see another afghanistan, or tens of afghanistans? “any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region.” his warning came as 20 Syrian soldiers were killed on Saturday and 53 wounded in clashes with presumed army deserters in homs, while 10 security agents and a deserter were killed in a bus ambush, activists said.

The violence, in which loyalist and

anti-regime casualties predominated in what is the worst surge of killing in six months, came as 12 civilians died and several were wounded by government gunfire. In the area of homs, at least 12 civilians died from fire by snipers and machineguns, while an undetermined number of others were killed in their homes by security forces, the Syrian Observatory for human rights said.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Syria “immediately” to end attacks on civilians after dozens died in a fierce crackdown on dissent by Syria’s security forces on Friday, which was also condemned by the arab league.

Ban’s appeal came after activists said 36 people were killed on Friday by security forces during mass protests calling for the imposition of a libyastyle no-fly zone on Syria.

Ban “appeals for military operations against civilians to stop at once,” said his spokesman Martin Nesirky.

Friday’s violence prompted fresh condemnation from the foreign ministers of the 22-strong arab league, which has been trying to broker an end to the unrest that has rocked Syria since anti-regime protests erupted in March. an arab league task force met

Arab League urged to freeze syria membership NICOSIA: Syrian activists on Sunday urged the arab league to freeze the country’s membership in the 22-member organisation over the deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests. The Syrian revolution 2011, one of the motors of the dissent, made the appeal after almost 100 people died Friday and Saturday in the bloodiest two days of the uprising against President Bashar alassad’s regime. “assad’s militias have been killing us for eight months. They arrest us and crush us... and you, arabs, who love rhetoric, what are you doing,” the group said in a statement posted on its Facebook page. The activists also called for fresh protests nationwide on Sunday under the banner “freeze the membership” of Syria in the arab league. “Stop your support for the assassins,” it told the pan-arab body. an arab league ministerial committee was due to hold talks Sunday in Qatar with Syrian officials in a bid to try to end the violence which has claimed thousands of lives, after a meeting Wednesday in Damascus with assad. The arab league has been trying to spur talks between Syria and the opposition and a statement said the Qatar talks were aimed at reaching “serious results and an exit to the Syrian crisis.” it said. AFP assad on Wednesday in Damascus and was due to hold talks Sunday in Qatar with top Syrian officials to try to reach “serious results and an exit to the Syrian crisis,” it said. But Syria’s foreign ministry accused the arab committee of stoking dissent, having been influenced

by “lies spread by television channels”.

The latest violence was the deadliest in nearly six months to occur on a Friday, the day worshippers emerging from weekly prayers at mosques defy the security forces and swarm the streets to rally against the regime.

With more than two babies born every second, the arms on the world population clocks are whirling round so fast that no one really knows how many people there are on earth. The UN Population Division, which calls itself the “gold Standard” for setting the figure, says the world’s population will hit seven billion on Monday, but it admits the date is symbolic.

“No one can know this,” it says on its website. and there are plenty of experts who do not agree. The US government Census Bureau’s world population clock says the figure will not be reached until april next year. The private Population reference Bureau, also based in Washington, says the magic seven billion was passed weeks ago. The International Institute for applied System analysis estimates that the world population will not reach seven billion until sometime between July next year and January 2013. The UN forecasts have a margin of error of at least one percent, the population division says. even if they are one percent off, the magic figure could have been reached six months ago, or it could take another six months.

Because of the “inevitable inaccuracies in all demographic statistics,” UN experts say it is safer to estimate that the figure could have been reached one year ago, or could take another year to get there.

The UN relies on census figures from the 193 member nations and the population statisticians say that even the world’s best censuses have errors in the range of “at least” one-to-two percent.

five killed by Yemen pro-government forces SANAA REuTERS

Four people, including three children, were killed overnight when troops loyal to yemeni President ali abdullah Saleh shelled a petrol filling station in a region north of the capital, tribal sources said on Sunday. Thirteen others were wounded in the attack in the arhab area, some 40 km from Sanaa, where tribesmen have thrown their weight behind protesters demanding an end to Saleh’s 33-year rule. In the city of Taiz, one civilian was shot dead and two were wounded by government forces who fired at a car. The incident occurred in a district where there have been clashes between government forces and proopposition tribesmen. Months of anti-government protests have divided impoverished yemen, pushing the arabian Peninsula country to the verge of a civil war and humanitarian crisis. Neighbouring oil giant Saudi arabia and the international community fear growing lawlessness in yemen is giving al Qaeda’s regional wing a golden opportunity to plan and perhaps launch attacks in the region and beyond.

Politics sink Thai flood relief efforts BANGKOK AFP

Thailand’s battle against its worst floods in decades has spilled into the political arena, underscoring the deep divisions that linger more than a year after deadly civil unrest rocked the kingdom. efforts to prepare the capital for looming floodwaters have been plagued by contradictory messages from Prime Minister yingluck Shinawatra’s government and local authorities, both seeking to score political points, observers said.

The sense of disunity during the slowmotion catastrophe has doused hopes the crisis might bring rival political factions together following years of instability since royalist generals overthrew yingluck’s brother in 2006. “This is no longer just an issue of natural disaster. It has become a ferocious political game,” said a Thailand expert at the Institute for Southeast asian Studies in Singapore.

“This competition, even during the height of the crisis, unveils a reality in Thailand:

this is a deeply fragmented society in which political ideologies have overshadowed public responsibility and the urgency for national survival.”

The crisis has proved a major test for the country’s new leader yingluck, who came to power just two months ago helped by the popularity of her brother ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra - among poor Thais in rural areas.

Now it is the very people who voted for yingluck’s Puea Thai party who are suffering the most during the monsoon crisis, which has killed more than 380 people so far and affected millions in the north and the east of the country.

Conflicting statements from political enemies have rattled anxious residents, leaving many struggling to make sense of which Bangkok districts are most at risk and how best to cope with the rising waters. “It’s very confusing to know exactly who has the facts, and who really knows what to do,” said aswin Kongsiri, a Thai businessman on the board of several companies and the Stock exchange of

Thailand. Open power struggles between yingluck, a political novice, and Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra from the rival Democrat Party have done little to reassure the public.

Once it became clear that the mass of water slowly pushing its way out to sea would not avoid Bangkok, the traditional heartland of the Democrats, yingluck and the Bangkok governor quickly crossed swords. The crisis has also highlighted the strained relationship between yingluck and the military, which traditionally supports the Democrats and has a notoriously bad relationship with Thaksin and his “red Shirt” supporters. yingluck refused calls from the opposition to declare a state of emergency that would have given greater powers to army chief Prayut Chan-o-Cha. Pro-Thaksin media have even warned of a possible “water coup” by the army, which has a long record of intervening in politics and broke up mass street protests by the reds in early 2010, leaving more than 90 people dead. While the generals

are unlikely to use the disaster to justify a coup, the military appears to be “looking to stop the flooding without cooperating with the yingluck government”, said Paul Chambers, director of research at the Southeast asian Institute of global Studies at Payap University in Chiang Mai. “Clearly the anti-Thaksin military leadership is not sympathetic to a proThaksin prime minister.” While experts say the Thai floods have been exacerbated by years of environmental mismanagement and poorly controlled urban devel-

opment, questions have been raised over the government’s response to the floods.

“I put a lot of blame on the civil servants actually,” said aswin, the businessman, pointing out that there are “at least five or six major government agencies” in charge of dealing with water issues.

Thailand’s businesswoman-turnedpremier has also come under fire, with critics accusing yingluck of indecisiveness. as the blame game continues, Thailand’s political divide looks set to linger long after the floodwaters have gone.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Lunar economy Companies are lining up to mine the moon for water, fuel, and an element that could revolutionise energy production

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fashion Moscow: A model displays a creation by designer Alexandra Kazakova.

MUMBAI: Ranbir plays guitar ahead of a concert to promote his film ‘Rockstar’.

doHA: British singer leona lewis arrives at the after-party at the doha tribeca film festival.

astrobotic's lander, which will deploy the robots on the lunar surface.

LONDON MAIl

It’s been nearly 38 years since man last walked on the moon – but it’s recently become a hot destination once again, because several companies are vying to return to earth’s satellite to mine it. It’s known that the Moon contains huge amounts of water-ice and methane and it is also home to the rare element helium3, which could be used for non-polluting fusion reactors. US-based astrobotic Technology is one company that has the Moon in its sights and hopes to send scout and excavating robots to the surface in the very near future. however, the Moon also contains a substance that could be of even greater use to civilisation – one that could

revolutionise energy production. It’s called helium3 and has been dumped on the Moon in vast quantities by solar winds. astrobotic explains that it could power clean fusion plants. It is nonradioactive and very little goes a very long way. David gump, president of astrobotic, is convinced it would be of enormous benefit to civilisation, being cheap and benign. his company has plenty of competition, though. There are 26 companies in the race to reach the Moon altogether, with the google lunar X Prize providing a big incentive. google is offering $30million in prizes “to the first privately funded teams to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, have that robot travel 500 meters and send video back to earth”.

Hrithik among most kissed at Tussauds?

BeIJING: A model n by parades a creatio e us ho n io sh fa Chinese ion sh fa e ur ut co a tany .

12 20 collection S/S

LONDON AGENCIES

Bollywood heartthrob hrithik roshan’s wax figure has reportedly made it to the list of top 10 most kissed statues in london’s Madame Tussauds museum. Though the museum is yet to make an official statement a source confirms that he has indeed made it to the top 10, adding that last year, actor Shah rukh Khan had made it to the Top 10 list. according to the source, at least 20 percent of total kissers are males and the rest are women, mostly under the age of 30.

Be sportive, Shirish hits back MUMBAI: Shirish Kunder gets candid about the supposedly disparaging remarks he made on twitter about ‘Ra.one’. By his own admission, Shirish Kunder’s tweets “are not for the faint-hearted”. which is probably why he took a potshot at his former friend Shah Rukh Khan’s latest film ‘Ra.one’ when he tweeted, “I just heard a 150 Cr firework fizzle” after the film’s previews.

After the media frenzy over these remarks, the director has now defended them by tweeting, “My tweets are satirical observations on current events ranging from politics to cricket to films. once you get that, you may enjoy them... I also tweet satires on Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, lady Gaga & Shakti Kapoor. doesn’t mean I’ve personal motives with them. Be sportive!” AGENCIES

MUMBAI: Rishi Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah and Akbar Khan attend an event by Bollywood film producer firoz Nadiadwala's charity ‘Celebrating Social Causes’.

loS ANGeleS: Singeractor Justin timberlake says he is a huge fan of duchess Catherine’s younger sister, Pippa Middleton. the 30year-old, who has previously been romantically linked to Cameron diaz, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis, says American men like Pippa, reported Us magazine.

“Us American males are big fans of Pippa. we like the Middletons very much. I’m going to sound like a sleazeball. I’m going to stop right there,” timberlake said. the singer and longtime girlfriend Jessica Biel recently resumed their onand-off romance after they split amid timberlake’s infidelity accusations.

AGENCIES

MUMBAI: Rakhi Sawant never runs short of ideas to make headlines. And this time her target is Anna Hazare. the drama queen wants the 72-year-old Gandhian to have a look at her latest item number ‘Jawani Ki Bank’ and judge its vulgarity quotient. She feels that the Censor Board is unreasonably targeting her because she is not a brand name in Bollywood. the item girl said, “Just because I am not a Khan, Kapoor or a Bachchan and because I don’t have a godfather in the industry, that doesn’t mean the Censor Board can target me. At the moment, I have over 200 films (some with actors like John Abraham and deepika Padukone) that I can show to the Censor Board which have more vulgarity than my song.” So she wants Anna Hazare to help her seek justice. “Anna Hazare is combating corruption and this is also a kind of corruption. I am a soft target for the Censor Board and I want to show Anna the other films that I have collected, in which there is far more vulgarity. I want him to judge whether my song is vulgar or not,” Rakhi said.

ZEENEWS

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The Jobs NEW YORK

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AGENCIES

genius for mixing the humanities and sciences coupled with a Svengali-like ability to motivate people powered Steve Jobs’s mission to change the world, biographer Walter Isaacson concludes in his exhaustive new study of the apple co-founder.

“Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor,” Isaacson quotes Jobs as saying in one of the many interviews the apple chief executive gave him in the months before Jobs’ death on October 5.

Isaacson’s ‘Steve Jobs’ quickly became one of the most highly anticipated biographies of the year after the tech icon, the creative force behind products like the MacIntosh PC, iPod, iPhone and iPad, died of pancreatic cancer. The 571page volume hit bookstores on October 24 but was released earlier than expected on apple’s iBooks online store and amazon’s Kindle the day before. amazon later said it expected the book to be its top seller of the year. No doubt, Jobs would have loved that. “edwin land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science,” Jobs tells Isaacson toward the end, when discussing his legacy. “I like that intersection. There’s something magical about that place.”

abandonment The book begins with a young, tearful Jobs trying to comprehend what it means to be adopted, a fact that some sources

told Isaacson helped explain later behaviour by Jobs such as his denying paternity of his first child. “The real underlying problem was the theme of abandonment in Steve’s life,” andy hertzfeld, a former apple colleague, told Isaacson.

Business savvy The book portrays Jobs as a cutthroat businessman who championed aesthetic perfection over profit, with his character, aggressive behaviour and startling inspirations tied part and parcel to his youthful search for identity. By the time he graduates high school, Jobs’ rebelliousness is ascendant as he dabbles with lSD, weird diets and “the mindbending effects of sleep deprivation,” Isaacson writes. “all of a sudden the wheat field was playing Bach,” Jobs said of one lSD trip. “It was the most wonderful feeling of my life up to that point.”

silicon Valley kid Isaacson provides plenty of context at every stage of Jobs’s life (1955-2011). his childhood neighbourhood in the 1960s in what would later be part of the Silicon Valley he helped create was filled with engineers living in homes designed for the american “everyman”, which nurtured his interest in electronics and influenced his later passion for clean, simple design.

Born in San Francisco, Jobs found the Bay area the ideal incubator for his rebel ambitions. Isaacson notes that in the 1970s the classified section

you didn’t know Biography sees apple co-founder as crossroad of humanities and science… yet ordinary in human flaws g

of the San Jose Mercury - where Jobs spotted the ad for his job in 1974 at video game maker atari - carried “up to sixty pages of technology help wanted ads.”

indomitable By the early 1980s, Jobs’s personality had developed into a creative force.

Friends and colleagues referred to his “reality distortion field,” a “confounding melange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand,” hertzfeld said. Driven by Jobs’s unrelenting refusal to accept anything less than his vision of a product, his employees completed staggering amounts of work within impossible dead-

lines. “If reality did not comport with his will, he would ignore it, as he had done with the birth of his daughter and would do years later, when first diagnosed with cancer,” Isaacson writes.

Unforgiving Perfectionist The story of Jobs is replete with tales of his rudeness toward family members, competitors, waitresses or anyone else who didn’t live up to his exacting standards. “at one point the pulmonologist tried to put a mask over his face when he was heavily sedated,” Isaacson says of one hospital stay while Jobs was battling cancer. “Jobs ripped it off and mumbled that he hated the design and refused to wear it .... he ordered them to bring five different options for the mask and he would pick a design he liked.” Isaacson says Jobs called Comcast CeO Brian roberts after signing up for the cable firm’s high-definition service while recuperating from cancer treatment. “I thought he was calling to say something nice about it,” roberts told Isaacson. “Instead, he told me, ‘It sucks.’” But the man who had no qualms about humiliating people in front of their colleagues was just as likely to break down in tears, something which happens often in the book. “Because of how very sensitive he is, he knows exactly how to efficiently and effectively hurt someone,” apple designer Jony Ive told Isaacson.

Why dieters will always struggle to keep the weight off LONDON MAIl

Dieters find it difficult to stay slim in the long run because of a biological urge to eat, say scientists. a restrictive diet can boost the appetite and slow down the metabolism, increasing the likelihood of weight regain, researchers found. a team from the University of Melbourne launched the study to try and understand the phenomenon which is a common problem for slimmers. The year-long study assessed 34 overweight participants who completed an intense 10-week diet programme, losing 10 percent of their body weight. Despite counselling and written advice on how to sustain their new weights, they gained an average of 12lbs back over the following year. Professor Joseph Proietto said: “People who regain weight should not be harsh on themselves, as eating is our most basic instinct.” Key findings came from a comparison of participant’s hormone levels before and after the weight-loss programme. results revealed that six of the nine hormones that influence appetite were still out of kilter in the dieters, resulting in increased hunger.

Dieters rated themselves as feeling hungrier after meals at the one-year mark, compared to ratings before the diet programme began.

After ‘Don 2’, watch out for ‘Don 3’ MUMBAI ZEENEWS

MUMBAI AGENCIES

She’s the newest (and youngest) Bollywood personality at Madame Tussauds.

Kareena Kapoor has now joined amitabh Bachchan, Shah rukh Khan, Salman Khan, aishwarya rai Bachchan and hrithik roshan at the world-famous wax museum. In an interview she was asked about her thoughts on being immortalised in wax, and she replied, “It’s a great feeling! I’m immortalised now, which is scary yet very, very exciting!”

What was her first reaction on seeing the statue? “I was stunned. They’ve done such a fantastic job. even the absolute minutest details like my fingernails, toenails, even the

Rakhi wants

anna hazare to judge vulgar song

I’d love to work with SRK:

Kristen stewart New delHI: Hollywood’s fascination with Bollywood stars continues. the latest to join the list is ‘twilight’ actress Kristen Stewart, who is a huge fan of superstar Shah Rukh Khan. “well, I am a big fan of Shah Rukh Khan who is an epitome of romance in Bollywood,” Stewart said in an e-mail interaction.

She said if given a chance, he would be the one with whom she would love to do the second part of her movie ‘the twilight Saga: Breaking dawn’. “And not just Hollywood but I would love to work with him in Bollywood movies too and for that I am also looking forward to learning Hindi,” said the 21-year-old actress.

“I have also seen the promos of his latest movie ‘Ra.one’ which are very impressive and I just loved his look in the movie. I’ll definitely watch the movie also. He is truly an inspiration to me,” she added. AGENCIES

texture of my skin, is so exact. It’s amazing.” Did she ever imagine she would be one of the famed wax figures someday? “I visited Madame Tussauds often as a kid, but I never thought that I’d be one of the figures in it someday… now I truly believe in dreaming big, because dreams do come true.” That one person whose statue she would like to see next to her?

“I would love my sister Karisma’s statue next to mine. I’m not complete without her.” Is she happy with the ‘Jab We Met’ look that she’s now immortalised in? “It was clear from the beginning that we’d go for a traditional look. Jab We Met being an iconic film of this generation, what better outfit than that of the song ‘Mauja hi Mauja’. It was loved by everybody and became a fashion statement of its own.”

We had a

father-daughter relationship: Clooney’s ex loS ANGeleS: George Clooney’s exgirlfriend elisabetta Canalis has revealed in a new book that she had more of a father-daughter relationship with the actor. In the book ‘questo Amore’ (‘this love’), written by Italian journalist Bruno vespa, Canalis praised Clooney as “the person who valued my feminine side the most” and “also one of the best people I have met from a charitable point of view”. the 33-year-old, who’s said to have dated Clooney for two years, also revealed, “he has been a special for me, and very important, just as a father would be,” reports people.com. “Between us there was more of a father-daughter relationship. I was unable to clarify this up ‘til now.” Canalis denied reports that Clooney’s aversion to marriage was an issue behind the break-up.

“George and I never spoke of marriage nor of having kids. the end of the relationship was not caused by a marriage issue, but instead by our personal needs,” she said. AGENCIES

Shah rukh Khan’s ‘Don 2’ is due for release on December 23, 2011 and director Farhan akhtar is contemplating another sequel to the film. Farhan akhtar said, “Film ki kahani khatam nahin hoti. Just the way Don ko pakadna mushkil hai...same way story khatam hona bhi mushkil hai. I made the sequel to the first film as people were asking me if I was making any. earlier I had not thought of making a sequel...but the appreciation and constant curiosity let me think on the second installment of ‘Don’,” he said.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Misbah, dilshan back use of dRS Page 22

Pakistan win record fifth HK Sixes title LAHORE

P

STAFF REPORT

aKISTaN prevailed in the final over england to be crowned hong Kong Sixes champions for a recordequalling fifth time on the final day in Kowloon. according to reports received here stated that Sri lanka and hosts hong Kong were the losing semi-finalists but in the final Pakistan beat england 119-6 by 25 runs So the final, which consisted of five eight-ball over per side, and a comprehensive win for Pakistan. They batted first and amassed 154 for five as captain abdul razzaq and left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir both returned to record half-centuries and hit rikki Clarke for 40 in his solitary over.

None of england’s top-order got going as Umar akmal took three wickets in the second over of the innings to peg them back after a relatively successful start. Tom Smith (29 from nine balls) and Peter Trego (32 from 10) gave them hope, but they were bowled out from the final ball for 119 for six.

Pakistan skipper abdul razzaq was named Player of the Final, while their leading batsman Umar akmal picked up the Ben hollioake Trophy for Player of the Tournament. It sparked riotous scenes amongst the Kowloon Cricket Club faithful, with most of the capacity 4,500-strong crowd, having cheered themselves hoarse backing Pakistan.

“It was a fantastic tournament. I was very, very happy to see the crowd turnout over the three days and I’m sure everyone was entertained by the final,” said hong Kong Cricket association president Shahzada Saleem. The victory saw Pakistan draw level with england as the team with the most number of wins – each having five titles. But Pakistan warned they will be back for more.

“We are delighted to have matched england with five wins a piece. But we want to make it six next year,” said happy skipper razzaq who was named Man-of-the-Match.

HoNG KoNG: the Pakistan team celebrate after winning the Hong Kong cricket sixes title. AFP The Ben hollioake award for the Player-ofthe-Tournament went to teammate Umar akmal whose fantastic batting – he aggregated 197 – set the tournament alight. But in the final, it was all razzaq and Tanvir as they plundered the english bowling at will. “It was a superb batting display,” conceded england captain rory hamilton-Brown. “We were up against some world-class players and getting to the final itself was creditable for us.” england’s run-chase never got off the ground with wickets falling in bundles. akmal was the chief wrecker, taking three wickets in his over, including a superb one-handed diving

catch to dismiss dangerman Darren Stevens.

“I’m really pleased to win. But we didn’t want to celebrate until the last ball was bowled,” said razzaq. Pakistan had looked determined all week and easily outshone the marque side - the Woodworm all Stars- who had included countryman Shahid afridi and Sri lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya.

Pakistan knocked out the other associate member making its debut, Ireland who could only manage to post 86 thanks to 33 from Paul Stirling. Despite losing wickets constantly, including the big-hitting Umar akmal for 24, Pakistan were always in con-

Heads likely to roll in PCB

PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf.

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

heads might roll in the Pakistan Cricket Board after Zaka ashraf assumed charge as the new chairman. Well-placed sources are being quoted as saying that there were clear indications that Zaka would not only be firing some senior officials but also would be making other changes. It has also been learnt that the new chairman is not happy with the working style of some of the top officials and for that he is surely be going to bring in new faces.

"There is a big chance that he will have a new chief operating officer while the existing CCO, Subhan ahmad, will be entrusted the task of heading the international wing of the board as the new Chairman is keen to start lobbying to bring back international cricket to

Pakistan," reports said.

Sources said the new chairman wanted the international wing to function effectively and productively and was expected to give this responsibility to Subhan due to his experience of dealing with the ICC and other boards.

"Former Test players, Saleem altaf and Majid Khan are in the run to be given the job of COO although former test captain, Zaheer abbas is making serious efforts to get the coveted post," another source said. he said Zaka personally was more inclined towards having either altaf who served as COO under former chairmen, Naseem ashraf and Ijaz Butt, or Majid as his deputy. "Zaheer has been using his contacts in Bilawal house to convince President asif Zardari to give him the job of COO," the source added. The source also confirmed that former Test captain, Intikhab alam who held several positions including that of manager and coach under Butt and is presently head of the national cricket academy was expected to get the axe. "Intikhab will go because Zaka ashraf believes there is need to induct fresh blood into the administration of the national cricket academy and he also believes that Intiab has served his time with Pakistan cricket," the source disclosed.

ZAKA WARNS PLAyERS TO REFRAIN FROM BICKERINg: Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) new chairman Zaka ashraf has said that he would not tolerate any indiscipline or bickering in the team.

Zaka said he was informed that some players indulge in-fighting and groupism. "I have been told about this and if this is true then we will take steps to sort out the problem as there is going to be no compromise on discipline," ashraf said on a private television channel.

"I will be revisiting the code of conduct yet again to ensure there are no gray areas and the players and board know their roles clearly as well as their responsibilities," he said. The new PCB chief also made it clear that he will deal with an iron hand with players who bring bad name to Pakistan cricket. Pakistan's image has taken a beating in the last two years because of the involvement of some players in not only spot-fixing but also in unethical practices.

Abdul Razzaq hits a shot during the final. AFP trol of the run-chase thanks to opener Sharjeel Khan who carried his bat for a well-compiled 40. In the first semi-final, england 101-2 beat Sri lanka 94-3 by 7 runs england held their nerve against a late onslaught from Chathura Peiris to win by seven runs and book their place in the final.

Darren Stevens hit 32 from 10 balls before retiring and rikki Clarke added late impetus with 34 from eight as england reached 101 from their five overs. Stevens then bowled an outstanding opening over and reduced Sri lanka to six for two before Thisara Perera and Peiris got Sri lanka close. In the second semi-

final, Pakistan 116-3 beat hong Kong 84-3 by 32 runs. Pakistan hammered hong Kong in the second semi-final to set up a clash with england as they prevailed by 32 runs over the hosts. Umar akmal continued his imperious form with a six-ball 34 and was helped by contributions of 25 from nine balls, 24 from seven and 22 from five from the trio of Sharjeel Khan, abdul razzaq and hammad azam as Pakistan reached 116. razzaq then took two wickets in the opening over of the hosts’ run chase and they never really recovered in spite of a late valiant effort from haseeb amjad who ended with 38 from 10 balls.

Saeed Ajmal achieves career-best ranking g

Pakistan eye improvement in ICC table LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Pakistan off-spinner Saeed ajmal has achieved a career-best ranking in the reliance ICC Player rankings for ODI bowlers after producing a man of the match performance in the second Test in Dubai which has given his side a 1-0 lead against Sri lanka in the three-Test series. Saeed had figures of 26-9-45-3 and 30.5-9-68-5 which have helped him become the highest-ranked Pakistan bowler in 16th position. For his excellent performance, Saeed earned 62 ratings points and a jump of eight places. The 34-year-old from Faisalabad is also ranked sixth and second in the reliance ICC Player rankings for ODI and T20I bowlers, respectively. given that Saeed is in a qualification period for bowlers*, it is likely that he will move even further up the ladder depending on how he performs in the Sharjah Test which starts on 3 November (Thursday). Saeed presently trails ninth-ranked Daniel Vettori of New Zealand and england’s Tim Bresnan by 29 ratings points but another solid performance will potentially help him break into the top 10 for the first time in his career. Saeed’s spin partner abdul rehman has also gained two places after match figures of 4-105 and is now in 29th position, while left-arm fast bowler Junaid Khan has vaulted 21 places to claim 46th position after match figures of 4-95.

For Sri lanka, captain Tillekeratne Dilshan has moved up five places to 61st spot after bagging 3-57 in Pakistan’s first innings while Dhammika Prasad is in 74th spot after taking 3-104. rangana herath and Umar gul, however, have moved in the opposite direction and have slipped one position each to 12th and 20th spots, respectively.

The bowlers’ list is still headed by Dale Steyn of South africa while James anderson and graeme Swann of england are in second and third positions, respectively. In the reliance ICC Player rankings for Test batsmen, Sri lanka’s former captain Mahela Jayawardena has dropped out of the top 20 for the first time in 11 years. he has slipped six places to 25th position after managing scores of six and five in the second Test. Jayawardena was last out of the top 20 in July 2000 after the Kandy Test against South africa. also slipping down the ladder are Dilshan in 34th (down by two places) and Taufeeq Umar in 51st (down by four places). Batsmen moving up the order include Pakistan’s azhar ali whose maiden Test century has given him a jump of six places and puts him in 27th spot while asad Shafiq has gained 13 places and is now in 77th spot after scoring 59. Opener Mohammad hafeez has gained four places and now occupies 56th position after scores of 33 and 59 not out. Meanwhile, Pakistan has an opportunity to move up the order in the reliance ICC Test Championship table. If Pakistan also wins the Sharjah Test, then it will earn six ratings points while Sri lanka will concede six ratings points. as such, a swing of 12 ratings points will mean Pakistan will move to 100 ratings points while Sri lanka will slip to sixth position on 97 ratings points. however, if the Test ends in a draw then Sri lanka will stay in fifth position, though its pre-series lead of nine ratings points will be trimmed to just one ratings point. If Sri lanka squares the series, then the gap between the two sides will be reduced to seven ratings points.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

PCB chairman felicitates team on HK Sixes victory

Edwards duo put Windies on top DHAKA

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Zaka ashraf has congratulated the Pakistan team for winning the hong Kong Super Sixes Tournament. Pakistan beat england in the final in hong Kong on Sunday.

On this occasion, he said, “It was a great team effort. all the players of the team deserve our heartiest felicitations on this achievement. They have made us all proud.”

Interestingly, it was the second win Pakistan has achieved in two days. Pakistan national team won the second Test match of the three-match series against Sri lanka and now they Pakistan players regained the hong Kong Sixes title.

KCCA hails appointment of Zaka Ashraf KARACHI APP

The executive Council of the Karachi City Cricket association (KCCa) met on Saturday under the chairmanship of Prof Sirajul Islam Bukhari and welcomed the appointment of Ch. Zaka ashraf as Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board.

The KCCa executive Council hoped the new Chairman will solve problems faced by PCB. The association requested PCB Chairman to afford an opportunity to the delegation of KCCa for a meeting to express its view point on various issues.

Sports 21

F

SCOREBOARD

AFP

IDel edwards grabbed five quick wickets and Kirk edwards cracked an impressive 121 to help the West Indies gain the upper hand in the seriesdeciding second Test against Bangladesh on Sunday. Fast bowler edwards finished with 5-58 for his 11th haul of five or more wickets in a Test innings as the West Indies reduced Bangladesh to 204-7 in their first innings at stumps after posting 355 on the second day.

Shakib al hasan, who also bagged five wickets with his leftarm spin, defied the West Indies’ attack with a 74-ball 73 with the help of nine fours before being bowled by leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo.

Bangladesh were reeling at 59-5 following Fidel edwards’ fivewicket burst off 29 balls on a slow pitch before being steadied by Shakib, who put on 84 for the sixth wicket with Naeem Islam (45).

The hosts now trail by 151 runs with just three wickets in hand.

Nasir hossain was unbeaten on 34 and debutant Suhrawadi Shuvo on two not out.

Kirk edwards, 71 overnight, completed his second century in three Tests in the opening session as the tourists added 102 runs to their overnight total of 253-5 before being bowled out in the second.

The opening Test of the twomatch series ended in a draw in Chittagong.

dHAKA: west Indies bowler fidel edwards (R) reacts after the dismissal of the unseen Bangladeshi batsman tamim Iqbal. AFP Bangladesh went for shots early in their innings as they raced to 60 off just 10 overs, but lost five wickets in the process to find themselves in deep trouble.

Fidel edwards had opener Tamim Iqbal and Shahriar Nafees caught by Darren Bravo at short-leg in his opening three overs before removing raqibul hasan and skipper Mushfiqur rahim off successive deliveries in his fourth over. his fifth victim was opener Imrul Kayes, who hit one six and five fours in his 26-ball 29 before

being caught by Kraigg Brathwaite at square-leg.

Tamim was the other top-order batsman to reach double figures, hitting three fours in paceman Kemar roach’s opening over before falling for a 10-ball 14.

The West Indies earlier lost their last five wickets for 36 runs, with Shakib finishing with 5-63 for his eighth haul of five or more wickets in a Test innings.

Kirk edwards, who scored a hundred on Test debut against India at home in July, hit two sixes

KvitOvA cLinches WtA c’shiP

Tsonga wins Vienna title VIENNA lAHoRe: Chief guest SPM chief Aizad Hussain Syed gives away Man of the Match award to Khawaja Naseerud din. Amer Ilyas Butt and Ahsan Amer Butt are also present. STAFF PHOTO

SPM Stags beat Amar Cables by 15 runs

AFP

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga laid on another late finishing surge, with his dangerous just-in-time habit paying off with a 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Juan Martin Del Potro on Sunday and a trophy at the austrian Open.

Besides becoming the first French-

man to lift the title in the austrian capital, Tsonga will now leapfrog american Mardy Fish into seventh place in the race for the eight-man aTP World Tour Finals to be staged in london November 20-27.

The top-seeded Tsonga made the most of his Vienna debut with a comeback victory which required two hours and 29 minutes. he

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

SPM Stags beat amar Cables by 15 runs in the second amar Cables T20 Veteran Cricket Tournament at ali garh Cricket ground. SPM Stags batting first 185 for six in 20 overs. Shahid anwar 59, Khawaja Naseer-ud-din Din 49, Kamran Khan 23 and Fayyaz haidar 22 runs. Tariq rasheed 2/37, Jahangir Khan 2/39 and Dastgir Butt 1/17. amar Cables replied with 170/8. Dastgir Butt 68 and Naseer Bhatti 47 runs. Zia-ud-din 2/29, Naseer-ud-din 2/31, Shakeel Malik 2/20 and Imtiaz Tarar 1/20 wickets. adnan rasheed and Muhammad hanif were the umpires. Syed Najam-ul-saeed was the scorer. Chief guest SPM Chief aizad hussain Syed gave away the Man of the Match award to Khawaja Naseer-ud-din. amer Ilyas Butt and ahsan amer Butt were also present on the occasion. SPM Bucks, SPM Stags and amar Cables advanced to the semi-final.

Islamabad dominate National Bowling Championship ISLAMABAD APP

Islamabad dominated the Sixth National Bowling Championship on Sunday and won three events - singles, team and amateur here at Mega Zone Bowling Club F-9 Park.

Karachi bowlers also did well as they grabbed the doubles title by eliminating the Islamabad pair of ali Shah and Malik Faisal in the final with the score of 761 as Islamabad scored 700 and lost by a margin of 61 pins.

In the singles event final Islamabad Zafar Iqbal got the first position with 367 scores and received a cash prize of rs 50,000 along with a gold medal. rashid ali from Karachi remained second with 356 scores and got rs 20,000 and a silver medal. While, Saleem Baig took third position with 323 scores and was awarded rs 10,000 cash along with a bronze medal. In the team event final Islamabad-a beat the experienced Karachi team with the score of 1,795 as Karachi were restricted to 1761. In, in the amateur category Islamabad once gain walked out as the champions by trouncing Karachi.

Muhammad Inam Khan of Islamabad scored 340 points in two games, while atta Muhammad of Balochistan scored 274 points and got second position. Karachi's Sadaqat ali clinched third position by scoring 267 points.

IStANBUl: victoria Azarenka and Petra Kvitova pose together after their match. REUTERS

trailed a set and a break in a match in which he fired 25 aces and ended it with a winning forehand volley which caught his second-seeded opponent off-balance. The win was the first of his career win over Del Potro after losing three previous matches in their series.

ISTANBUL: Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech republic added the WTa Championships to her increasingly impressive CV on Sunday beating Victoria azarenka of Belarus 7-5, 46, 6-3 in the final. Kvitova's win means the 21-year-old will rise from third to number two in Monday's new rankings, with current leader Caroline Wozniacki - still yet to lift a major crown - firmly in her sights. Kvitova also became the first Czech to win the end of season tournament since Jana Novotna in 1997 as she ended a glorious season which has seen her rise from 34th in the world at the start of the year.

She now turns her immediate ambitions to leading her country in next week's Fed Cup final against russia Moscow after pocketing $1.75 million (1.24 million euros) for Sunday's success.

WEST INDIES 1st innings (overnight 253-5): 50 K. Brathwaite c Kayes b Rubel 72 K. Powell b Shuvo 121 K. Edwards lbw b Shakib 12 D. Bravo lbw b Nasir 18 S. Chanderpaul c Rahim b Nasir K. Roach b Shakib 6 M. Samuels c and b Nasir 48 C. Baugh c Kayes b Shakib 6 D. Sammy hit wkt b Shakib 1 F. Edwards lbw b Shakib 9 D. Bishoo not out 2 10 EXTRAS (b2, lb4, nb1, w3) 355 TOTAl (for all out; 126.4 overs) Fall of wickets: 1-100 (Brathwaite), 2-155 (Powell), 3180 (Bravo), 4-226 (Chanderpaul), 5-232 (Roach), 6-319 (Samuels), 7-337 (Baugh), 8-339 (Sammy), 9348 (K. Edwards), 10-355 (F. Edwards).

Bowling: Shahadat 16-1-76-0 (nb1), Rubel 24-3-71-1 (w3), Shakib 34.4-12-63-5, Nasir 25-6-52-3, Shuvo 23-3-73-1, Naeem 4-0-14-0.

BANGlADESH 1st innings: Tamim Iqbal c Bravo b F. Edwards 14 29 Imrul Kayes c Brathwaite b F. Edwards Shahriar Nafees c Bravo b F. Edwards 7 Raqibul Hasan lbw b F. Edwards 0 0 Mushfiqur Rahim c Chanderpaul b F. Edwards 73 Shakib Al Hasan b Bishoo Naeem Islam run out 45 34 Nasir Hossain not out 2 Suhrawadi Shuvo not out TOTAl (for seven wickets; 51 overs) 204 Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Tamim), 2-36 (Nafees), 3-46 (Raqibul), 4-46 (Rahim), 5-59 (Kayes), 6-143 (Shakib), 7-195 (Naeem).

Bowling: F. Edwards 12-0-58-5, Roach 9-0-52-0, Sammy 10-3-32-0, Bishoo 14-1-47-1, Samuels 6-0-15-0.

TOSS: West Indies, uMPIRES: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI) and Nigel llong (ENG), TV uMPIRE: Nadir Shah (BAN), MATCH REFEREE: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)

and 14 fours in his 273-ball knock before being trapped leg-before by Shakib. he was dropped on 90 by wicket-keeper rahim off off-spinner Nasir hossain and then smashed two fours in the same over before completing his century with a boundary off left-arm spinner Shuvo.

Junaid under fire for not filing complaint against India LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Pakistan hockey team manager Khawaja Junaid has come under fire for trying to play down the altercation with the Indian side during a tri-nation series in australia and not filing an official complaint against the arch-rivals. The fight incident between Pakistan and Indian players have given the former hockey players a chance to load their guns at the PhF and the team management. Soon after the showdown during which the players and officials swung hockey sticks and tried to exchange blows and kicks, Junaid played down the incident describing it as a minor one when contacted by a TV channel. The former Olympian said such incidents take place in hockey especially when Pakistan and India play as the rivalry on the field is intense.

But after Tournament Director graham Napier banned the Indian team coach, manager and three players. "What was he talking about? a very serious incident took place after the final whistle was blown and an Indian player hit one of our players Imran with a hockey stick. This led to a big fight and our manager says it was a minor issue," former Olympian Shahnaz Sh said.

Madrid edge Sociedad to go top MADRID AFP

real Madrid won 1-0 away at a competitive real Sociedad on Saturday, with an important goal from gonzalo higuain, his tenth in the league this season, to go top of la liga for 24 hours at least, two points ahead of levante, who go to Osasuna on Sunday. earlier, lionel Messi hit a first half hat-trick as Barcelona beat Mallorca 5-0, a result that has the Catalans one point behind Madrid. Madrid’s goal came on nine minutes when Fabio Coentrao unlocked the home defence with a superb pass from the left-wing that eluded three defenders to find higuain in sufficient space for the argentine to simply lift the ball over the advancing goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. afterwards higuain paid tribute to the team spirit Madrid had to show to achieve a difficult three points. “It was a good match, we created a number of chances and I

don’t think they had one clear one, but we showed we are a solid and compact and most of all a team,’’ he told Spanish TV. CITy ON TOP, ARSENAL STUN CHELSEA: Manchester City beat Wolves to maintain their five-point lead at the top of the Premier league on Saturday as Manchester United bounced back from their derby mauling with a 1-0 win at everton.

City, riding high after their 6-1 demolition of United last weekend, overcame a late fightback from Wolves after being reduced to 10 men to secure a 3-1 victory at eastlands. earlier on Saturday, arsenal captain robin van Persie scored a brilliant hat-trick as the gunners stunned third-placed Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge. The decisive moment came five minutes from time when van Persie pounced on a slip from Chelsea captain John Terry for a goal that put arsenal 4-3 up.

SAN SeBAStIAN: Real Madrid’s forward Cristiano Ronaldo (R) vies for the ball with Real Sociedad’s midfielder dani estrada. AFP

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Misbah, Dilshan back use of DRS DUBAI

r

AFP

IVal captains Tillakaratne Dilshan and Misbah-ul haq have called for the use of the Decision review System (DrS) in all international cricket. Sri lankan captain Dilshan has reasons to back the DrS after his key batsman Kumar Sangakkara was adjudged leg-before in their ninewicket defeat against Pakistan in the second Test on Saturday. Sangakkara, batting on 30 in the second innings was given legbefore by New Zealand umpire Tony hill.

Television replays showed Sangakkara lunged forward to an incoming delivery from Pakistani spinner abdul rehman but did not offer a stroke, which may have prompted hill to give the verdict against the left-handed batsman.

Sangakkara trudged back to the pavilion in disgust, while Dilshan showed anger in

Misbah’s captaincy impressive, says manager DUBAI AFP

Pakistan manager Naushad ali on Sunday praised captain Misbah-ul haq, saying his leadership qualities are key to the team’s progress after a turbulent last year marred by a spot-fixing scandal in england. Misbah led Pakistan to a comfortable nine-wicket win over Sri lanka in the second Test here on Saturday, taking a 1-0 lead in the threematch series. The first Test in abu Dhabi ended in a draw. Since taking over as Test captain in the post spot-fixing scandal Misbah has not lost any series with Pakistan winning four of nine Tests, losing one and drawing the other four. Misbah, 37, will also lead Pakistan in one-day and Twenty20 versions of the game after Shahid afridi was sacked in May this year. ali, a former wicket-keeper batsman, said Misbah is key their success. “Misbah is a wise captain and his best quality is that he is cool,” said ali. “Misbah is the key and as a batsman also he is in great form since being made captain.” ali said a series win over Sri lanka is crucial if Pakistan want to climb the rankings. “If we beat Sri lanka in the series then our current sixth ranking will improve to fifth and that will also lift the Pakistan players before the all important series against the world number one Test team england,” said ali, who played six Tests for Pakistan in 1960s. ali said a steady and consistent performance from Pakistan is essential. “look, Pakistan has never been regarded as a consistent team but this bunch of players has shown keenness to do well and if the team remains steady only then will we be able to put our problems behind (us),” said ali, also a former selector. ali said new Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka ashraf’s encouragement after the win was good for the players. “The new chairman sent flowers to all the players after the win and encouraged the captain and every player which is a source of enhancing the confidence before the third Tes,” he said. The third Test in the series starts in Sharjah from November 3.

the players’ balcony in the Dubai stadium. Since no DrS was available in the series, Sri lanka were unable to challenge the decision. Dilshan said he was in favour of making the system available, especially when pinpoint decisions need making.

“I cannot comment over what went wrong on the decisions. I am very happy if the DrS is there when the match is

going 50-50, it is important to have it,” said Dilshan, who was wrongly adjudged caught behind in the drawn first Test in abu Dhabi. “If bowlers and batsmen can get 100 per cent correct decisions it is really good, especially in Test cricket we need DrS,” added Dilshan, whose team had DrS in the series against australia at home last month. The International Cricket Council (ICC) in its Board meeting earlier this month ruled that the DrS will no longer be mandatory in bilateral series and both the participating countries must agree to its use, a reversal of a decision made in

PAKistAn v sri LAnKA, 2nd test, dubAi

Mohsin told Pakistan to be mentally strong LAHORE AGENCIES

Pakistan’s interim coach Mohsin Khan said Sunday that he told his players to be mentally strong ahead of the second Test against Sri lanka in Dubai. after squandering a strong position in the drawn first Test in abu Dhabi, Pakistan won the second Test comprehensively by nine wickets. "It's a team game and every man has to play his part instead of relying only on the senior players," Mohsin was quoted by eSPNcricinfo. "I advised them to be honest and responsible as we are here to perform our duty and are expected to deliver our best.

"The important thing I had transmitted to the boys was that no matter how big a player you are, you aren't bigger than Pakistan." Pakistan's batsmen showed rare consistency in Dubai and the bowlers responded well to give them a 10 lead in the three-match series. Mohsin said that he tried to get the players to trust their abilities and they delivered.

"My team has all the required capability to beat any team. They only needed consistency in batting and bowling and this time they hit the mark in both de-

partments and results are there."

Pakistan had dropped six catches in Sri lanka's second innings in abu Dhabi after taking a 314-run first-innings lead, allowing Kumar Sangakkara and Prasanna Jayawardene to put on a match-saving 201-run stand.

Mohsin said that Pakistan were disappointed that they had let go of a winning opportunity. "Those dropped catches actually dented all our good work. But this is all part of cricket and what is important is not to repeat those mistakes and take the next step for improvement." Mohsin also warned his side against being satisfied with their 1-0 lead ahead of the final Test in Sharjah. "We are wary of Sri lanka as they will come hard to make the most out of the final Test but we are currently

brimming with confidence and I will ensure my men against being complacent." Test cricket will return to Sharjah after a nine-year span when the third match of the series starts on November 3, but Mohsin said that there would be little difference in conditions compared to the venues for the first two games. "The climate conditions are similar as before though the track has a lot to offer to batsmen and less to the bowlers."

five-star Shamyl scripts lahore Chatkhara’s victory LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Shah Shamyl alam led lahore Chatkhara to victory in the final of the Novice Polo Cup as he hit five goals while adisseo beat Waste Busters to take the third position here at the lPC ground on Sunday. lahore Chatkhara got seven goals on board while hataff managed four. Out of the seven goals, Shamyl converted five while two others were hit by Shehryar Bokhari and hassan ali Farrukh.

Usman haye led adisseo to a seven to four goals win over Waste Busters and interestingly all the seven goals came off Usman’s mallet. later chief guest Ishaq Khan Khakwani presented the trophy to the winners.

The match was supervised by Omar asjad Malhi and Malik azam hayat Noon.

Australia hand Pakistan 8-2 drubbing BUNBURY AGENCIES

HBl victorious in PPfl LAHORE STAFF REPORT

hBl earned win in the 8th Pakistan Premier Football league while afghan got walk over and the third match of the event was drawn on Sunday. The match between army and Navy remained goal-less at the Municipal Stadium, rawalpindi. Both the teams despite several attacks failed to find an opening into their rivals’ defence. afghan FC surprisingly got walkover against Pel, after it refused to play.

Their refusal got them walkover at the govt. high School, Chaman. hBl beat KeSC 1-0 at the Peoples Football Stadium, Karachi. hBl got the winning goal through atif in the 42nd minute.

June. The ICC Board, however, supported the use of technology and its continued development and were encouraged by certain members who were willing to use and work towards improving the technology. The DrS was first used on a trial basis in 2008 with teams allowed two unsuccessful challenges per innings in Tests and one in a one-day on decisions by the on-field umpires, but the system was forcefully opposed by India. Pakistan captain Misbah said he was always a great supporter of the DrS. “I always speak about DrS and am in favour of the DrS. It really helps teams and umpires so I am in favour of the DrS and it should be there in all international matches as I see it as a great initiative,” said Misbah. The Pakistan Cricket Board last month announced it will use DrS only in the five-match one-day series against Sri lanka which follows the three-Test series.

the Kookaburras showed why they are the No 1 team in the world. FILE PHOTO

World Champions australia outclassed Pakistan in Tri Series hockey in Bunbury on Sunday. The Kookaburras have tuned up for the Champions Trophy tournament with an 8-2 demolition of Pakistan.

The australian men slammed home five unanswered second half goals, NSW striker Kieran govers the star of the show with three. australia were leading by 3-2 at the break, the Kookaburras got off to the best possible start after halftime with eddie Ockenden scoring just three minutes into the second period.

The Kookaburras then showed why they are the No 1 team in the world, putting their foot down to control the second half.

The Champions Trophy will take place in auckland from December 3-11.

ARgENTINA BEATS CANADA TO BOOK OLyMPIC SPOT: argentina’s men’s field hockey team qualified for the 2012 london Olympics on Saturday by defeating Canada 3-1 in the final of the Pan american games.

It was the 10th consecutive time the two squads had met in the Pan am games final. Canada won in the

2007 final on penalty shots at rio de Janeiro.

Scott Tupper gave Canada a 1-0 half-time lead but the South americans answered in the second half with goals from Ignacio Bergner, Pedro Ibarra and lucas Vila. earlier, the United States upset argentina 4-2 on Friday in the Pan american games women's field hockey final, booking the americans a place in the 2012 london Olympics. argentina, a world power in the sport, can still reach the Olympics but will need to place well enough at a global qualifying tournament in order to reach england next July.

Paige Selenski opened the scoring for the United States in the 12th minute, with Shannon Taylor boosting the americans' edge three minutes later. argentina answered when Maria Barrionuevo converted off a penalty corner in the 18th minute, but Katie O'Donnell gave the americans a 3-1 lead off a penalty shot in the 35th.

Barrionuevo scored her second goal on a penalty in the 42nd minute, but the South americans could not hit the equalizer and Michelle Vittese added an insurance goal in the 66th minute for the US women.

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Monday, 31 october, 2011

Sports 23

greater noiDa: red Bull-renault driver Sebastian Vettel of germany powers his car during the formula one indian grand prix. AFP

WAtCh it Live ESPN Sportscenter 07:30PM

PTV NATIONAL Bangladesh v West Indies Test 2 Day 3 08:30AM

lahore Ravi in sight of victory against quetta LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Indomitable Vettel takes Indian title GREATER NOIDA

W

AFP

OrlD champion Sebastian Vettel made history by winning India’s first ever Formula One on Sunday as Mclaren’s Jenson Button tightened his grip on the championship’s second place. red Bull’s Vettel led wire-to-wire for his 11th victory of in 17 races, finishing some 8.4 seconds ahead of Button with Ferrari’s Fernando alonso third and australian Mark Webber fourth.

Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher battled to fifth but Mclaren’s lewis hamilton came in seventh after yet another collision with his Ferrari nemesis Felipe Massa. But Vettel was in a class of his own at the all-new Buddh International Circuit near New Delhi as he closed on Michael Schumacher’s 2004 record of 13 wins in one year, with two races left this season.

The 24-year-old german, who became Formula One’s youngest back-to-back world champion when he reclaimed his title in Japan, also set a new record for laps led in a season as he surpassed Nigel Mansell’s 1992 mark of 692. “The car is fantastic, the team is enjoying itself and we are on a run

basically since the beginning of the season, and it’s great,” said Vettel. “It’s really enjoyable to know that we have already achieved a lot this year but we’re still hungry so we’re not lacking motivation at any stage. “all the people come back with their questions but we seem to give them the right answers.”

India’s debut grand prix got off to a sombre start when the teams and 95,000 spectators held a minute’s silence for IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon and MotogP’s Marco Simoncelli, who died this month.

But the racing, in dry, 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) heat, began furiously when rubens Barrichello was hit on the first turn and three cars ended up off-track, before Jarno Trulli found himself on grass.

Vettel made no mistake from pole position but Button nipped past Webber and alonso to go from fourth on the grid to second, cueing up an early dogfight with the australian red Bull driver. as they duelled, Vettel opened up a lead of nearly five seconds and after the first set of stops, the young german emerged from the pit lane still at the head of the field.

Williams’ Pastor Maldonado was the first retirement with a gearbox problem and Sebastian Buemi had to stop his Toro

rosso when it started pouring smoke. and there were fireworks on lap 24 when hamilton, trapped on the inside by Massa as they hared towards a left-hand turn, shunted the Ferrari driver across the track in the latest of a series of collisions between the two. Massa was given a drive-

McIlroy takes $2million Shanghai Masters title SHANGHAI AFP

rory McIlroy enjoyed a $2 million pay day on Sunday after a nerve-shredding play off with american anthony Kim who came within a whisker of claiming the lavish purse at the lake Malaren Shanghai Masters.

The pair dueled in a tense sudden death on the tricky par four 18th hole for the biggest cash prize in golf.

Nothing separated the players at the last, with their approach shots landing four feet apart in the bunker under the green amid disbelieving gasps from the grandstand.

But Kim gifted McIlroy the most lucrative cheque of his career when he missed a crucial three foot putt after a precision bunker shot.

McIlroy, the world number three, tapped in from two feet to complete a pleasing first week’s work and take home a bulging wage packet.

“It was a very important win. I’ll be the first to say I have not won enough in the last four years as pro and could have done a lot more,” McIlroy said after the unsanctioned event which has raised eyebrows with its massive purse.

SHANGHAI: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland poses with the trophy. AFP

through penalty and hamilton pitted for a new front wing, but the Brazilian’s race soon ended in farce as a kerb shattered his front suspension -- a replay of the mishap he suffered in qualifying.

“There is not much to say. It’s a disappointing day and my team deserve better,” hamilton said afterwards. “I’ll fly back (to Britain) and try to get my head back in the game.” Button threatened to close the gap on Vettel in the final laps but there was no catching the young german and he punched the air as he took the chequered flag in front of the giant grandstand.

“I felt really competitive and that was when I could really close the gap down,” Button said. “But as soon as Seb got into a rhythm I couldn’t do anything about it really.” The race’s build-up had been overshadowed by the two motorsports deaths and the controversial spectacle of glamorous Formula One appearing in one of India’s poorest regions.

But its private-sector organisers were celebrating a smooth and successful event which has helped bury memories of last year’s Commonwealth games, which are remembered for their poor organisation and corruption.

lahore ravi attack led by asif ashraf and Waqas aslam sent Quetta packing in the first innings of the fifth round division-II Quaid-i-azam Trophy match here at the gaddafi Stadium on Sunday. asif and Waqas took four and three wickets respectively to leave Quatta stunned at 172 runs in 64.3 overs and then scored 39 for one in 16 overs.

In the other match at the lCCa ground, UBl got solid total of 275 on board for nine at stumps. Saad Surkhail with century and Zafar ali with 44 provided their team something to fight for. ali Manzoor took four wickets for lahore Shalimar.

SCORES: At Gaddafi Stadium, lahore. quetta 172 in 64.3 overs (taimoor Ali 52, 128 balls, 6 x4s, Abid Ali 43, 106 balls, 5 x4s, Asif Ashfaq 4-45, waqas Aslam 3-29) v lahore Ravi 39-1 in 16 overs, toss: lahore Ravi. Umpires: Kaukab Butt & Raweed Khan, Referee: Parvaiz Akhtar, Scorer: Masood Ahmed. At lCCA Ground, lahore. United Bank 275-9 in 83 overs (Saad Surkhail 129, 241 balls, 14 x4s, Zafar Ali 44, 56 balls, 7 x4s, Ali Manzoor 4-57) v lahore Shalimar, toss: lahore Shalimar, Umpires: Islam Khan & Khalid Mahmood Sr, Referee: Muhammad Anees, Scorer: Najmus Saeed.

Mr, Junior Mr Punjab contest on Jan 15 LAHORE STAFF REPORT

The Mr and Junior Mr Punjab title contest will be held on January 15 at rehim yar Khan while the Mr lahore competition would be held in the last week of December, the organisers announced Sunday.

The decision of holding the events was taken in a meeting of the Punjab Bodybuilding association that met here with Khawaja Umer Farooq in the chair. The meeting was attended by all the affiliated units of the association. Senior vice president of the PBa yahya Butt informed that calendar of activities was finalised and approved in the meeting and the district associations have been given open offer to hold events.

Glory to Sameer at World Call Golf LAHORE KHAWAJA PERVAIZ SAEED

Sameer Iftikhar earned glory in the first World Call golf Tournament contested at the par 72 Defence raya golf Course, creation of which is a miracle as it is created out of plunging topography and now shows up with a huge expanse of green and water features cut into undulating fairways, providing golf competitors a test of their playing skills. and in this World Call Tournament, participants with aspirations were as many as 96, but none as good as Sameer who revelled in this competition by returning a very steady round of 2 over par 74, carding similar scores of 37 on the front nine and 37 on the back nine. along the way he did lose strokes on holes 7, 11, 15 and 18 but birdies in between on holes 5 and 12 balanced the winning tilt. While other keen competitors of the gross section groaned under the weight of errors, Col (retd) asif Mehdi found his way to the runners-up slot, his card of gross 80 not to his liking but good enough to land him in the runners up slot. Defence raya had an event for the members also and the front runner in this category turned out to be Dr. Dildar hussain who picked up the first gross prize with a round of gross 81 followed by Maj gen Tariq Ma-

lAHoRe: Chief Commercial officer worldCall telecom Amir Mahmood with the winners of the Monthly Medal open Golf tournament at defence Raya Country and Golf Club. STAFF PHOTO sood, who ended up with the runners up award. From amongst the eager ones seeking honours in net category, Maj ahtisham gave a boost to his golfing aspirations by walking off with the net trophy and getting cheered heartily. runners up net winner was adyan lone. Others who emerged as successful ones were Waheed aslam (nearest to the pin), hashim raja (longest drive), Mrs. Brig Sajjad Bakhshi (ladies putting) and Mahin Noor (girls putting).

Perhaps the success story of the day was the golf course itself as compliments

poured in from all competitors including one from a lady golfer abeeda Salam who considered the golf course an inspiration compelling her to play and play. and on hand were Brig Shahid Wahab rao and Col Saqib Mehmmod to acknowledge the good words and promised that this golf course would continue to reflect excellence and be an arena for international events. at the conclusion of the tournament the prizes to top performers were awarded by amir Mehmood, Commercial Chief of World Call in a grand prize distribution ceremony.

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Democratic forces united to defend democracy: Altaf MqM chief advises PMl-N to wait for general elections g Says government’s policies should be criticised, protest should be registered in dignified manner g

KARACHI QAZI ASIF/AGENCIES

M

UTTahIDa Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief altaf hussain said on Sunday that all prodemocracy forces in Pakistan were united to foil any conspiracies to derail the democratic order. addressing via telephone from london the participants of a huge demonstration titled the Istehkam-eJamhooriyat (Stability of Democracy) rally organised by his party, which extended from Numaish to Tibet Centre here, altaf said that the country was united to defend democracy and supported President asif ali Zardari.

WAIT FOR ELECTIONS: he advised the leaders of the Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) to wait for the general elections and participate in them and come into power through the democratic process. his party would have no objection if the

Behind pro-Zardari MQM rally lies a deal with PPP KARACHI STAFF REPORT

It was after settling its core issues with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) behind the scenes that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) arranged a rally in support of President asif ali Zardari in Karachi on Sunday, sources in the federal government told Pakistan Today.

The sources claimed that all issues were settled two days ago in a meeting between Interior Minister rehman Malik and MQM chief altaf hussain, where after reaching a conclusion Malik gave the title of ‘Muhafize-Jamhooriyat’ (defender of democracy) to the MQM chief. The source said further that hussain had demanded an immediate end to the targeted and surgical operation launched by rangers and police in Karachi. he demanded that at least for the three days of eid holidays, activities of the law enforcement agencies must be stopped. he also demanded the release of his party’s four hardcore workers and the permission to collect hides on eid.

The workers whose release was de-

Sanaa airport closes after air force base blasts SANAA: Four explosions rocked an air base in Sanaa on Sunday, setting two fighter jets on fire and prompting the closure of the yemeni capital’s international airport, aviation officials said. “There were four explosions at the air force base alongside the international airport and two fighter jets went up in flames,” the official told aFP on condition of anonymity. Sanaa international airport closed after the explosions, another aviation official told aFP on condition of anonymity. “The airport was closed right after the explosions ... all flights have been re-routed to aden,” the south’s main city, the official said. residents of the airport district area reported loud explosions and massive flames and plumes of smoke. There were no immediate reports of casualties and no claims of responsibility for an attack.

Sanaa has been the scene of deadly clashes between troops loyal to President ali abdullah Saleh, and dissident soldiers and armed tribesmen who have thrown their support behind protests that have rocked his regime since January. Tens of thousands of demonstrators have risked their lives in near daily protests that have been met with force by pro-Saleh troops. hundreds of people have been killed and thousands more wounded over the past nine months. AFP

manded are aga Zakir hussain recently arrested by rangers, alleged assassin Ishtiaq ahmed alias ‘Policewala’ under arrest for several murder cases, adeel ahmed who is also in police custody for various heinous crimes, and arshad alias ‘gunshot’. Malik told hussain that he was unable to free the workers but promised that no joint investigation team would be constituted to interrogate the workers and their cases would be sent to regular courts instead of the anti-terrorism courts. The source said that in days following the rally in favour of President Zardari, activities of the recently launched operation against miscreants and assassins would gradually stop and permission for hide collection would be granted to the MQM. When contacted, an MQM representative refuted the claim and said his party did not believe in secret deals and made decisions in the interest of the country. “The MQM does not believe in using violence to achieve its ends and its doors are open to all political parties for dialogue. But it does not believe in making secret pacts,” he said.

US drone kills four in North Waziristan MIRANSHAH AFP

a drone strike by the United States on Sunday killed four militants in the North Waziristan region, officials said. The drone fired two missiles into a vehicle as it drove through a village near Datta Khel town about 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan district, Pakistani security officials told aFP. “Four militants were killed in the attack,” one official said. The attack destroyed the vehicle, the officials said, adding that at least two other militants were wounded including one critically. The identities of the dead were not clear. at least 10 militants were killed in two US drone attacks in Waziristan on Thursday, including the brother of a local Taliban commander who was accused of sending fighters across the border to fight in afghanistan.

PMl-N came into power through the democratic process, he added. he said the PMl-N leaders had tried to create an impression that the government was about to fall. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif got carried away in his zeal for oratory and said that the president and his people would be hanged at Bhaati gate, he said. “We do not want to talk about hanging, but we want to make it clear that we will not beat a retreat,” said altaf. he said President Zardari had faced incarceration for more than 11 years whereas the Sharif brothers had begged forgiveness of the generals within 15 days and made off to Jeddah. he said further that the people of Sindh had raised themselves above the barriers of language and ethnicity in order to demonstrate that they were firmly united for the sake of democracy and standing solidly behind President asif Zardari. altaf also expressed gratitude to the leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the PMl-Quaid

and PMl-Functional for joining the rally and said they had showed their unity and support through their participation.

DIgNIFIED MANNER: he said the policies of the government should be criticised and protest should be registered in a dignified manner. he also called upon the leaders of the PPP, MQM, PMl-Q and awami National Party (aNP) to organise another peace rally in the city. he also proposed that all parties should settle their differences through dialogue because the country was passing through a difficult phase. “We have to protect the country and democracy and we have to eliminate poverty and unemployment to bring prosperity,” said altaf.

The MQM chief also appealed to the government to appoint honest and devoted people to run Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan railways, Pakistan International airlines and other stateowned entities to turn them into profit-generating units. he also di-

rected the office-bearers of all units and zones of his party to offer thanksgiving prayers on the successful organisation of the rally. at times during his address, altaf shouted slogans such as “long live PPP-MQM unity” and “long live democracy”. During the MQM chief’s telephonic address, PPP leaders Pir Mazhar-ul-haq and agha Siraj Durrani also talked to him and expressed gratitude for organising the event. Stringent security arrangements were made for the rally by police, rangers and wardens of City District government Karachi. earlier, Interior Minister rehman Malik and Sindh home Minister Manzoor Wasan also reviewed the security arrangements.

PPP leader, members of the MQM rabita Committee raza haroon, Dr Saghir ahmed, gulfaraz Khan Khatak, yousuf Shahwani, anees ahmed Qaimkhani and office-bearers of various wings of the MQM, party workers and supporters in large numbers attended the event.