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Thursday, 12 September, 2013
Zil Qa’ad 5, 1434
Rs 17.00 Vol IV No 69 16 Pages Islamabad Edition
STORIES ON PAGE 03
PAGE 02
STORY ON PAGE 04
Army, Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan swap prisoners
MWM calls for countrywide anti-US protests
In the wake of growing understanding and contacts between the government and banned TTP, the first ever exchange of prisoners took place on Wednesday. The Taliban freed two hostages for the release of six militants. Official sources told Pakistan Today that the Taliban had free two FC personnel in Shawaal mountainous regions. Both the soldiers were abducted from Balochistan on March 12. PAG E 02
The Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen on Wednesday denounced the role of United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and some Arab countries towards Egypt, Syria and Bahrain, and called for country-wide protests on Friday to express solidarity with the Egyptian, Syrian and Bahraini people. The announcement came during a press conference by MWM Central Secretary General Allama Raja Nasir Abbas. PAG E 04
STORY ON PAGE 04
Younis Khan and Misbah stabilise Pakistan
Salman Khurshid to meet Sartaj Aziz tomorrow
It was down to the old firm of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq to stabilise Pakistan after the top order wobbled again. Khurram Manzoor did make a determined half-century in his comeback series but Mohammad Hafeez had another failure at Test level and Azhar Ali fell early as well, leaving it to the experienced hands to start the repair job at 96 for 3. By stumps, Younis had become the fourth Pakistan batsmen to go past 7000 Test runs. PAG E 17
Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will meet his Pakistani counterpart, Sartaj Aziz, tomorrow in Kyrgyzstan during which they will try to schedule a meeting between prime ministers of both the countries in New York later this month. A request for a meeting between Salman Khurshid and the Pakistan Prime Minister’s National Security and Foreign Policy Adviser, Sartaj Aziz, was sought by the Pakistani side. PAG E 03
STORY ON PAGE 02
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History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. — Winston Churchill
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N PM assures all out news
Thursday, 12 september, 2013
us lauds Pakistan’s decision to release Mullah Baradar
‘obedience’ to iMF teaM says his governMent will FulFill all the conditions agreed upon For the $ 6.7 billion loan to be awarded to pakistan ISLAMABAD
WASHINGTON: The United States (US) has welcomed Pakistan’s decision to release Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Baradar. US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbins, speaking at Atlantic Council in Washington, praised Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for seeking “more meaningful dialogue” with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and for supporting reconciliation in Afghanistan. He welcomed Islamabad’s decision to release Mullah Baradar, saying it would further accelerate the Afghan reconciliation process. Reaffirming US commitment to a longterm productive engagement with Pakistan after the 2014 withdrawal of Us forces from Afghanistan, Dobbins said, “The US is interested in wideranging relations with Pakistan and an independent Afghanistan.” The US envoy dismissed suggestions that Washington would withdraw all troops from Afghanistan after next year, saying that both countries wanted to preserve a smaller force. INP
Fazl terMs Baradar’s release a Positive steP
ISLAMABAD: JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman welcomed the decision of the Pakistan government to release Mullah Baradar on Wednesday and said it was a positive step for reconciliation in Afghanistan. In a statement on Wednesday, Fazlur Rehman said the release of Taliban leaders would give strength and encourage the Afghan Taliban to take the process of dialogue forward. He said Mullah Baradar was an important leader of Afghan Taliban and Pakistan should extend its hand of cooperation to revive the stalled dialogue. The JUI-F chief said Pakistan had played maximum role for the process of reconciliation in Afghanistan and pointed out that the success of dialogue in Afghanistan would have direct bearings on peace and security of Pakistan. INP
P
MIAN ABRAR
rIMe Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday assured a delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that his government would fulfill all the conditions agreed upon for the $ 6.7 billion loan to be awarded to Pakistan. The delegation called on the prime minister and sought assurances to fulfill all the conditions agreed upon between the two sides. A source told Pakistan Today that the prime minister gave assurance during the meeting and all the matters were discussed at length. The prime minister said his government was not letting itself influenced by political pressures on economic problems being faced by the country. “A new and competent team is working day and night to overcome energy crisis in particular,” he added. A dedicated
iMF delegation says the present governMent has a coherent plan and clarity oF purpose For econoMic revival
team was fully committed to bring Pakistan back on firm and sound economic footings, the PM assured the IMF team. Director of the Middle east and Central Asia Department IMF Masood Ahmed, Mission Chief IMF Jeffery Franks, Minister Finance Ishaq Dar and Secretary Finance Waqar Masood were also present during the meeting. The prime minister said that Pakistan recognised its responsibilities towards international organisations and there existed an understanding about each other’s mandates. He assured that foreign exchange reserves of the country would improve as a result of the actions being taken to improve investor-friendly environment in Pakistan. The IMF delegation congratulated the prime minister for smooth democratic transition and stated that they were impressed by his (prime minister’s) economic vision. The IMF representatives said the
present government had a coherent plan and clarity of purpose for economic revival and there existed a capacity to implement the reforms’ plan into action. The IMF envoy has already told the
A NEW AND COMPETENT TEAM IS WORKING DAY AND NIGHT TO OVERCOME ENERGY CRISIS
NAWAZ SHARIF Pakistan’s top economic managers that in pakistan Minister a departure from the past priMe practice, the
democracy is the best revenge: president Zardari’s legacy BILAWAL BHutto ZARDARI I can say with some confidence that President Zardari’s legacy will be written in golden words. I don’t say this as his son, or patronand-chief of the Pakistan People’s Party - but as a student of history. I would compare his presidency to that of America’s Lyndon B. Johnson. He came to power following the assassination of the popular and charismatic John F. Kennedy. Much like Shaheed Mohtrama Benazir Benazir, JFK was assassinated before he could implement much of his agenda and vision for the country. LBJ used the political capital he gained following his assassination and the landslide victory in the election to make JFK’s dream a reality. He passed America’s historic civil rights legislation and many historic welfare programs under what he called ‘the great society’. Despite these historic achievements and high expectations, the Vietnam War and malicious propaganda from the right wing made LBJ so incredibly unpopular at the time that he did not seek re-election. Today he is remembered as one of modern America’ s greatest presidents. LBJ had many advantages that President Zardari did not enjoy. He had a super majority in Congress. He came to power at the height of an economic boom. He had an activist Supreme Court that supported his agenda. President Zardari came to power just as the global recession hit. He had to cob-
ble together an unruly coalition, put up with a constant assault from a conservative supreme court who sought to undermine him at every term. This does not include dealing with Pakistani’s omnipotent establishment and the menace of terrorism. Despite all of this, he presided over the first peaceful democratic transfer of power in our country’s history. He passed the historic 18th amendment, gave up his powers as the most powerful civilian president and devolved much power from the center to the provinces, strengthening both democracy and the federation. Then of course there was the historic Benazir Income Support Programme, his own brainchild, which is not only our country’s first social safety net, but is also internationally praised as effective, transparent and a model programme for the region. Despite the economic recession, he kept the economy on firm footing and stimulated an agricultural boom that transformed Pakistan from a wheat importer to a wheat exporter. He did all this with little economic assistance from the West. He fulfilled the dream of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto by implementing the moratorium on the death penalty, signed more women’s rights, minority rights and human rights legislation than all past parliaments combined. Despite our image as a pro-western party, he stood up for Pakistan’s sovereignty. He delivered a daring speech at
Fund would not give any waiver to Pakistan if it dishonoured any of its commitments under the $6.7 billion extended fund facility. Under the approved extended fund facility, the government will receive the $6.7 billion in 13 tranches, the first of which amounting to $547 million has been received by Pakistan. If the government fails to implement any of the agreed conditions, which according to Mojarrad have been conveyed in black and white, it will have to seek a waiver from the IMF Board or the remaining tranches will be suspended. To meet pre-conditions for the approval of the loan, the government had earlier increased power tariffs for industrial, commercial and bulk consumers, issued notices to over 10,000 tax evaders, sought Council of Common Interests approval for seeking rs 117 billion savings from provinces and conducted open market operations worth $125 million through the State Bank to support dwindling foreign currency reserves.
the United Nations rebutting the world’s demands to do more on the war on terror. When our sovereignty was violated and national honor undermined by incidents like the Salala attack - he stood up to the world’s superpowers, shut Shamsi air base, and temporarily halted NATO supply lines until America, for the first time in it’s history, apologized for the friendly fire that cost the lives of brave Pakistani soldiers; a demand that even the United Kingdom had suggested we drop because they too had failed to get an apology when British troops were killed in a similar friendly-fire incident. As commander and chief, he presided over the successful Swat operation against the Taliban. A successful military operation that even the military dictator before him failed to achieve. By far his greatest achievement is shepherding Pakistan through the nation’s tumultuous transition to democracy. The day my mother, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, was buried, I proclaimed ‘Democracy is the best revenge’. As a son, and a Pakistani citizen, I could not be more proud of President Zardari. He has truly given me a second legacy to live up too. He sacrificed eleven and half years of his life as a political prisoner fighting for democracy in Pakistan. He lost his wife and I lost my mother in this battle, but we have won the war. Democracy has arrived. Mark my words, history will remember President Zardari as one of the greatest and most successful leaders the country has ever seen.
‘summary about shahzaib murder case dispatched as per rules’ KARACHI: A spokesman to the Sindh chief secretary on Wednesday denied a report appeared in a section of press about sending a summary about Shahzaib murder case to the Presidency. The spokesman clarified that the summary under reference was forwarded to the Sindh chief minister in accordance with the rules. He added that consultation was also sought through the Law Department and the Sindh advocate general. STAFF REPORT
army, ttP swap prisoners PESHAWAR/RAWALPAINDI SHAMIM SHAHID
In the wake of growing understanding and contacts between the government and banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the first ever exchange of prisoners took place on Wednesday. The Taliban freed two hostages for the release of six militants. Official sources told Pakistan Today that the Taliban had free two FC personnel in Shawaal mountainous regions. Both the soldiers were abducted from Balochistan on March 12 and they were handed over to the political admin through a jirga. Whereas the government had freed six Taliban, three each from Bannu and Wana. The released militants were identified as Ismael, Ayaz, Sohail, Pirzada, Farmanullah and Ayaz Khan. The Taliban have confirmed that the men had reached in Mirali, North Waziristan.
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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. — Albert Einstein
news
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Thursday, 12 september, 2013
karachi shuts down over MQM leader’s arrest altaF hussain says sindh governMent conducting one-sided action against MQM activists operation akin to one launched against party in June 1992 party says eleMentstrying to sabotage Federal govt’s eFForts For peace KARACHI STAFF REPORT
r
OUTINe life in Karachi started crawling back to normalcy on Wednesday night after a spontaneous strike called by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) over the arrest of its former MPA and in-charge of its North Nazimabad unit over alleged killing of two policemen the other day. Protests and shutdowns were observed in almost all parts of Karachi, Hyderabad and some other districts of Sindh on Wednesday against the arrest of former
nisar assures MQM of removing reservations on karachi operation ISLAMABAD NNI
Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday assured the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) of removing its reservations over the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi. In his telephonic conversation with MQM leader Babar Ghauri, Nisar said the federal regime would probe the arrest of innocent people and MQM’s reservations over the Karachi operation would be removed. Ghauri forwarded his party’s reservations over the targeted operation during talks with the interior minister, saying they supported operation against criminals but not against innocent people who were being arrested by the security agencies in Karachi.
karachi operation under sindh cM’s control: Pervaiz ISLAMABAD INP
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz rashid on Wednesday said Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah was supervising the targeted action against criminals in Karachi. Talking to reporters, the information minister said the situation in Karachi would further improve with the passage of time. responding to reaction and violent protests in Karachi and urban areas of Sindh, he said the operation in Karachi was being carried out after consensus among all stakeholders and political parties. The minister said political parties had taken important decisions for making Pakistan a stronger country and the decisions would be implemented. He said that all political parties had taken part in general elections according to their manifesto, adding that the PML-N was working to fulfill its promises made with the people. rashid said per the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah‚ the government would take every step to ensure the country’s sovereignty.
MQM MPA Nadeem Hashmi. MQM chief Altaf Hussain condemned the arrest. In a statement issued from the MQM’s London secretariat, Altaf said the Sindh government was conducting onesided action against MQM office-bearers and activists and asked the provincial government to explain the reasons and clauses of the law under which the former MPA was taken into custody by law enforcers. Altaf said an operation against the MQM had been launched like the one carried out in June 1992. He urged MQM workers to prepare themselves mentally and physically to confront state’s oppression with fortitude. “They have initiated an organised persecution of Muhajirs.” The MQM chief further said he had always advised his party workers to remain calm and show patience and appealed for the same today. Altaf’s statement concluded with the remarks that he had handed over the responsibility for the resolution of issues faced by party to its workers and citizens at large, to the members of the rabita committee and the Tanzeemi (organising) sector. An emergency session of the MQM’s rabita (coordination) committee was also held at the party’s London and Karachi headquarters to decide the future course of action to be taken by the party. On the other hand, Pakistan rangers intensified the targeted operation in the metropolis and made some several arrests. Following the footstep of rangers, Sindh Police also chalked out a policy by itself and started raiding various parts of the city
to apprehend criminals. In a statement regarding the killing of two cops, Haidri SHO said, “During routine patrol, some armed men resorted to firing on a van of Haidri police station and killed two constables Iqbal Arif and Muhammad Ali,” said. “When we reached at the spot, the eyewitnesses claimed some workers of MQM North Nazimabad Unit were involved in firing on the police van,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Aamir Farooqui added. Police registered a FIr no 181/13 under section 302, 397 and 7 of Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) against Nadeem Hashmi, Nausahad and some unknown persons on behalf
of state. “The arrested political worker would be presented before the court on today (Thursday) for remand.” But the arrest sparked a spontaneous strike in the city. Shops and markets remained closed and business and trading activities in the metropolis also came to a halt. Some unidentified armed men restored aerial firing in streets and road of the city and forced-closed petrol and CNG pumps. Still, the rangers carried on with its operation. On Wednesday, the rangers raided different parts of the city and arrested 12 people, including workers of political parties. The raids included one on the house of outlawed People’s Amn Committee (PAC) chief Uzair Jan Baloch house. During raid in Lyari, rangers apprehended three suspects including former Lyari Town nazim Malik Fayyaz. The Karachi police also arrested 129 accused from various parts of the city. A police statement on Wednesday said that those arrested include 37 absconders and others allegedly involved in cases of murder, dacoity and other crimes. In a hasty press conference later in the day, MQM leader Haidar Abbas rizvi said the operation in Karachi was being directed against the MQM only. “raids at the offices of political parties
I HAVE ALWAYS ADVISED PARTY WORKERS TO REMAIN CALM AND SHOW PATIENCE AND APPEAL FOR THE SAME TODAY.
ALTAF HUSSAIN MQM chieF
Eight more fall prey to violence in port city as Many as Four extortionist aMong several others arrested, arMs, drugs recovered KARACHI INP
Target killings and violence continued unchecked as eight more people were killed and several others injured in separate incidents of violence in the city on Wednesday. The police and rangers arrested four extortionists among several others besides seizing arms and drugs from their possession. According to police, unidentified gunmen shot at and killed a man on Abul Hassan Asfhani road and escaped the scene after hitting their target. A man was shot dead at Gol Market Nazimabad in central Karachi. The deceased, later identified as Noorul Amin, was chairman of a mosque committee. In a similar incident, two people
were killed when unknown men opened fire on a rickshaw in New Karachi Sector-5. Both the slain persons belonged to the Bohri community, said police. The SSP Central said the two policemen were killed in firing on police mobile in Haidri. Another man fell victim to firing in the Janjaal Goth area. The bodies of both the persons were shifted to a hospital for medicolegal formalities where their identity was yet to be confirmed. As many as 15 people were reported injured in firing incidents who were shifted to various hospitals of concerned areas. Following the target killing incidents, arrest of MQM former MPA and torture on a private TV channel’s cameraman, tension engulfed the city as markets, businesses, shops and fuel stations remained closed in several areas of the city. Public transport and traffic remained sparse on roads due to which the citizens had to face problems. earlier, the All Private Schools Management Association (APSMA) announced closure of all private schools in Karachi and students returned to their homes. A vehicle was torched near
Nasir Jump area in Karachi’s Korangi locality. Another vehicle was set ablaze near rabia City in Gulistan-e-Jauhar area of Karachi whereas a truck was set alight near Two-Minute Chowrangi in North Karachi area. Similarly, the situation in Hyderabad city also turned tense as markets, shops and schools were partially closed down in the city. Karachi Transport Ittehad president Irshad Bukhari said that he, in consultation with his companions, decided to close public transport in the city due to poor law and order. On the other hand, police and rangers during separate search operations arrested more than two dozen accused and recovered arms, drugs, snatched motorcycles, mobile phones and others valuables from their possession. In Mouchko police station jurisdiction, police arrested four extortionists identified as Siraj alias Billa, Zakir Murad, Abdul Hameed and Sultan. The detainees were wanted in five murder and dozens of robbery cases. Security forces have been provided with additional bullets, bullet proof jackets and other required equipment for operation in east Zone areas, Sohrab Goth and Sachal.
show that the operation is not fair,” he said. He said some elements were trying to sabotage the efforts of the federal government for restoration of peace in Karachi. “The MQM will not give protection to any criminal but would not tolerate victimisation of its workers,” rizvi said. He alleged that the operation was focusing only the areas where MQM had got mandate in the elections. “We want impartial and transparent operation,” Haidar said. He reiterated the MQM demand that operation should be conducted under the supervision of army. The MQM also decided to requisite a Sindh Assembly session over the arrest of its former MPA Nadeem Hashmi. rizvi said the MQM had asked the prime minister and interior minister to order a probe into the arrests and raids being carried out in the city. Despite MQM’s reservations, the PPP, PML-F, PTI backed the targeted operation in Karachi. Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani said the MQM should go to courts if the party’s workers were arrested and were innocent. PML-N Central Information Secretary Senator Mushahidullah Khan said the targeted operation in Karachi was decided after taking all political parties on board. He said all the political parties were on the same page to bring back peace to the port city. rangers Sindh Director General Major General rizwan Akhter also called on Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and briefed him on the targeted operations against criminals and other matters of law and order in Karachi.
khurshid to meet sartaj aziz tomorrow
NEW DELHI: Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will meet his Pakistani counterpart, Sartaj Aziz, tomorrow (Friday) in Kyrgyzstan during which they will try to schedule a meeting between prime ministers of both the countries in New York later this month. While a request for a meeting between Salman Khurshid and the Pakistan Prime Minister’s National Security and Foreign Policy Adviser, Sartaj Aziz, was sought by the Pakistani side through Indian High Commission, the latter showed its consent for the meeting, official sources said. They said the meeting between Salman Khurshid and Sartaj Aziz on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Bishkek was also aimed at reducing the tension between the two countries in the backdrop of a series of ceasefire violations. ONlINE
TALKS TO TALIBAN WILL BRING PEACE IN REGION: FO SPOKESMAN says peace in aFghanistan is in the interest oF pakistan and the region ISLAMABAD ONlINE
Foreign Office Spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry has said that dialogue with the Taliban under the consensus developed in the APC will have salutary impact on peace in the country in particular and regional environment in general. Talking in a radio programme, the spokesman said that Pakistan always pleaded resolution of issues through dialogue. He said they had same approach to-
wards India and Afghanistan. In the APC‚ political leadership had developed a consensus that the matters would be resolved through dialogue which would have positive impact, he added. The spokesman said that peace in Afghanistan was in the interest of Pakistan and the region. To a question‚ he said Pakistan was in constant contact with Afghanistan and the US governments, and there was trilateral mechanism to resolve the issues. He said Pakistan was pursuing a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and wanted the Afghan leadership to resolve their issues. He said they had also welcomed the Qatar dialogue process aimed at moving forward the reconciliation process in Afghanistan. To a question about scenario after US forces withdrawal in 2014‚ the spokesman
said Pakistan had a clear stand that it would not allow its soil to be used against any other country for terrorism and would not allow any other country to use its soil against Pakistan. He said there would be a vacuum after the withdrawal but Pakistan wanted that it should be filled by the Afghans themselves and not any other country. He said Pakistan fully supported the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace initiative and would continue to play a role of a facilitator. About drone attacks‚ the spokesman said Pakistan was pursuing a very clear stand in this regard that these attacks were violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and international laws and were counter-productive. The attacks were increasing militancy and sentiments against America and harming counter-terrorism efforts, he added.
referring to the APC decision‚ the spokesman said that the UN was a legitimate forum and matters relating to drone attacks should be discussed there. He said the present government had adopted a forceful stand against drone attacks and it had gained recognition at world level. He said it was merely a propaganda that drone attacks were being carried out with the consent of Pakistan. He said Pakistan could not allow such attacks against its people on its soil. The spokesman said that after the APC decision‚ the matters relating to drone attacks would be raised at all the UN-related forums. To a question‚ the spokesman said the government had in principle decided to release senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar to promote Afghan peace process.
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Forget mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it — William Durant
news Thursday, 12 september, 2013
(
( FIRST 100 DAYS
PMl-n govt Fails to Finalise 33 na coMMittees pMl-n leadership has yet to resolve diFFerences with its coalition partners ISLAMABAD MIAN ABRAR
d
eSPITe the completion of 100 days of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, the parliamentary monitoring of the governance system remains a dream as the government has failed to finalise the formulation of 33 committees as the coalition partners have not yet resolved issues over the same. The source said the government was reluctant to award
FaZlur rehMan eyeing chairManship oF standing coMMittee on Foreign aFFairs
Minister says chairpersons will be elected in upcoMing na session
chairpersonships of bodies to the opposition parties, especially the PTI, fearing strong accountability. Under the rules, the government had to form these committees by July 5. The committees included 28 standing committees of the National Assembly, four non-ministerial committees and one special committee of parliament. A source in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry told Pakistan Today that the PML-N leadership had yet to resolve differences with its major coalition partners, including the PML-F, JUI-F, PkMAP
and nationalist parties. Under the rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, the government should get members of all standing committees elected by the National Assembly within 30 days of the election of the leader of the House (prime minister). rule 200 of the rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in National Assembly 2007 (Amended up to December 2010) says, “(1) except as otherwise provided in these rules, each Committee shall consist of not more than [twenty] members to be
elected by the Assembly within thirty days after the ascertainment of the Leader of the House.”Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was elected on June 5 and the timeline of 30 days ended on July 5. However, the government has planned to get this legal anomaly condoned from the National Assembly as the government enjoys a majority in the House. “If this happens to be the case, the delay in formation of committees will extend to another six weeks,” the source added. He said the government was in consultation with all political parties, but no summary had been prepared so far.“The summary would be formulized one the next session of the National Assembly would be summoned,” the source said. The source added that State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab Ahmed had not yet
completed his homework and despite the nominations made by almost all political parties, reservations had been expressed by not only the coalition partners but also by some opposition parties, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The National Assembly has been summoned to meet on September 16 and the election of all members and chairpersons will be finalised during the session. The source added that JUIU-F chief Fazlur rehman wanted his share and he has demanded chairmanship of the standing committee on foreign affairs and is likely to win it. Another source in the PML-N said his party wanted to allocate chairpersonship of four major committees, including standing committee on foreign affairs to its own members. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairpersonship is likely to be given to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). The PPP leadership has nominated Dr Azra Pechuho for the post. The source said that a formula had also been devised for the allocation of chairpersonship of the standing committees of the NA among various parliamentary parties. “As per the formula, the ruling party is likely to get a lion’s share and 70 percent of the members and chairpersons of committees would go to its nominees. Out of the total
28 committees, the ruling party may win chairpersonship of 19 committees. Moreover, the chairpersons of other four important committees would also be named by the ruling party including standing committees on rules of business and privileges committee; government assurances; house and library and special committee of the parliament on Kashmir,” the source added. He added that being the second largest party in the National Assembly, the PPP may get hold of chairmanship of five standing committees. “The Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI) being a third largest party may be able to win chairpersonship of four NA standing committees. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement may win chairmanship of two standing committees while the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) may get one,” the source added. When contacted, State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Aftab Shaikh said the committee members had been shortlisted and it has also been notified. When told him that without election of chairpersons, the bodies are incomplete while the committee members are yet to be formed after by-election, Aftab said more members would be notified and the chairpersons would be elected in the upcoming session.
MWM calls for countrywide anti-US protests on Friday raJa nasir abbas says the us wants to punish the syrians For their stance against israel ISLAMABAD ANWER ABBAS
KARACHI: A truck stands charred following protests over the arrest of MQM’s former MPA Nadeem Hashmi. INP
Obama agrees to give Russia’s Syria plan a chance WASHINGtoN AGENCIES
US President Barack Obama postponed his threat to strike Syria late on Tuesday, after Bashar al-Assad’s regime welcomed a russian plan to gather and destroy its chemical arsenal. In an address from the White House, Obama said he had asked US lawmakers to delay a vote on whether to authorise military action while Washington studies the russian initiative. He said he would stay in personal contact with russia’s President Vladimir Putin and would dispatch Secretary of State John Kerry to Geneva for talks on Thursday with his russian counterpart. “It’s too early to tell whether this offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments,” a somber Obama warned. “But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because russia is one of Assad’s strongest allies.” Obama said US cruise missile destroyers would remain stationed in the eastern Mediterranean, ready to administer a punitive strike. “The US military doesn’t do pinpricks,” he said. “even a limited strike will send a message to Assad that no other nation can deliver.” But compared to the rhetoric of recent weeks, when
Pentagon officials told reporters that a salvo of missiles could be fired within days, the speech was a clear pivot towards diplomacy. Obama made his threat of strikes in response to an attack on August 21, when Syrian forces allegedly killed 1,400 people in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus using sarin gas. He defended the military option again Tuesday in an emotional passage about the horrors of the massacre, and said allowing a dictator to use chemical arms would threaten US security. But he gave an assurance that there would be no military force used until United Nations weapons inspectors have delivered their report into what happened. In the meantime, Syria has promised to renounce chemical weapons. Seizing on a plan by its russian ally for its nerve gas arsenal to be taken under international control, it said it would sign the UN treaty banning chemical arms. Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem told russia’s Interfax news agency: “We are ready to state where the chemical weapons are, to halt production of chemical weapons and show these installations to representatives of russia, other countries and the UN.” “We want to join the chemical weapons ban treaty. We will respect our commitments in relation to the treaty, including providing information on these weapons.”
nawaz, kayani discuss implementation of aPc decisions ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani met on Wednesday. According to sources, they discussed the implementation of the All Parties Conference (APC) decisions and the security situation in the country. The key decision taken during the APC was to hold talks with the Taliban as a measure to tackle terrorism in Pakistan. INP
PPP to challenge lB law in lhc LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party has decided to challenge the Punjab government’s local government law in the Lahore High Court. The decision was taken at a party meeting presided over by Manzoor Wattoo, the party’s provincial head. The meeting decided that Sardar Latif Khosa would plead the case on the party’s behalf in the LHC. Sources said the case would be filed until Friday. In the application, the PPP will plead that the new law was incompatible with the Article 9 and 17 of the constitution, seeking courts order to annul it. The PPP holds that the law is against the spirit of democracy and also Charter of Democracy signed by both the PML-N and PPP. It is contended by the PPP that the new law would lead to bureaucratisation of local bodies instead of devolving powers to the grassroots. It is being argued by the PPP that while chairman of the district council will be an elected figure, the members of district authorities under him would mostly be nominated. The application further reads that holding of elections on non-party basis amounts to undermining the political parties and democracy. In the CoD both parties agreed that elections would be held on party basis. NADEEM SYED
The Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) on Wednesday denounced the role of United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and some Arab countries towards egypt, Syria and Bahrain, and called for country-wide protests on Friday to express solidarity with the egyptian, Syrian and Bahraini people. The announcement came during a press conference by MWM Central Secretary General Allama raja Nasir Abbas who was flanked by other party leaders as well. While addressing the media persons, raja Nasir Abbas said the US madness was heading towards Syria after destroying Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, so that the Syrians might be punished for their stance against Israel. Only two strong Muslim armies, Abbas added, from egypt and Syria were capable of countering Israel and that was the reason that the US, Israel and their Arab followers were igniting bloodshed and destruction there. He said the US, Israel and their Arab
partners had played a major role in making fall of governments in Libya, egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria to punish them for not following the US interests. elaborating his viewpoint further, he said the present situation not only caused terrorism across these countries but also caused insult and injury to various sacred shrines and mausoleums by strengthening the terrorists and militants there. The MWM chief also accused the US and her partners for funding and fueling terrorism across various countries, adding that major funding for Al-Qaeda was being indirectly generated by these countries. Criticising specifically the role of Saudi Arabia, Abbas noted that the role of Saudi Arabia remained tragic and unfortunate, as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had offered the US to bear all the expenditures of expected wars against the Muslim countries. “Besides, Saudi Arabia and some other Muslim followers of the US have also offered the US to use their land, sea and aerospace against their Muslim and Arab brothers,” raja further commented. He suggested the government of Pakistan to oppose any strikes against Syria as well as urging the UN to play its role to prevent any destructive military campaign against the Muslim country. The MWM leader also gave a call for peaceful country-wide protests on Friday in support of the deposed egyptian government, as well as against the expected US strike against Syria.
Imran advises KP govt to provide technical education to youth ISLAMABAD INP
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday advised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to provide technical education to the youth of the province. According to the chairman’s spokesperson, Imran Khan has advised the KP government to drawdown a comprehensive strategy to provide professional education and training to the educated youth. “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is blessed with the most talented and hardworking human resource, especially the youth, that is needed to be equipped with the better education and proper trainings,” he added. Brining in the impression of interest shown by foreign companies in training the youth, Mr. Khan advised the KPK government to exploit all resource including the big campus being constructed around on 400 acres in
Jalozai, Nowshehra. reiterating his commitment with the youth, Chairman PTI vowed to educate and properly train every youth of KPK during his party’s period in the office. With the help of educated and professionally trained youth, he declared to make KPK the most prosperous province in five years.
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My message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation. — Muhammad Ali Jinnah
islamabad CAPITAL’S RESIDENT THRONG QUAID-E-AZAM’S RARE PHOTOGRAPHS’EXHIBITION AT LOK VIRSA
Thursday, 12 september, 2013
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Five aFghan extortionists arrested ISLAMABAD ONlINE
At least five Afghan nationals have been arrested by federal capital police during the operation conducted against extortionists in the jurisdiction of Sabzi Mandi. According to details, accused arrested under the allegation of taking extortion are being investigated, while sources said that rs 4.5 million extortion money is being taken from Sabzi Mandi on the name of providing security. Operation has been conducted against extortionists following the directions of Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar. Nisar has directed Islamabad IG and Operations SSP to submit the report after taking strict action against extortionists.
INP
INISTer for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz rashid has said that the government has taken far reaching decision to secure the country and strengthen economy and Pakistan is moving on the path and direction given by father of the nation. Talking to media after inaugurating an exhibition of rare photographs of Quaide-Azam and Pakistan Movement at Lok Virsa on the occasion of 65th death anniversary of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the information minister said Pakistan was achieved by the father of the nation through constitutional, legal and democratic struggle. rashid said that all political parties including MQM, PPP and PTI were taken into confidence on the steps aimed at restoring peace in Karachi and categorically stated that there would be no injustice towards anybody and law will take its course. He hoped that situation in Karachi will further improve with the passage of time. The minister said that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah is supervising the operation against criminals in Karachi. He said the PML-N government was moving ahead on
on the g n i v o is m pakistann set by Quaid-et is directio the governmen azam. g on country’s workin and stability security constitution and democratic path in the vision of Quaide-Azam. rashid said people gave their mandate to political parties and PML-N has started implementing its mandate which includes country’s security, improving economy and promoting moderation and conciliation. To a question about creation of new provinces, the information minister said Pakistan was a democratic country and the political parties have a right to put forward their demands. earlier, speaking at the
Pakistan to adopt Malaysian economic development model eFForts underway to ForMulate Malaysian Minister Meets Federal prograMMes to Facilitate youth secretaries to help iMprove civil services
rBise’s ssc suPPleMentary exaMinations FroM today RAWALPINDI INP
The supplementary examinations of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) under rawalpindi Board of Intermediate and Secondary education (rBISe) will start today. A total of 17,000 students will take part in the examination and 48 examination centers have been established for the exams. Among the total centers, 18 exam centers have been established for female students, 21 for male students and nine centers have been formed for both male and female students. Meanwhile, the educational board has extended the last date of registration for ninth grade exams until September 30. This step has been taken to increase the number of admissions for the exams.
2 coPs stoned to death in tarnol ISLAMABAD INP
The citizens stoned to death two cops after they shot dead an alleged drug peddler in the wee hours of Wednesday. According to details, the police on a tip off conducted raids in Dora area of Tarnol in the suburbs of federal capital against a drug peddler. exchange of hot words took place with drug peddler Nadeem after which police opened fire at him killing him on the spot. The residents of the area, in retaliation, tortured the police personnel and stoned them to death while the informer was injured. SP Jameel said that the deceased cops have been identified as ASI ramzan and Constable Ghazanfar. The dwellers of the area said that 24-year-old Nadeem was about to marry within few days.
inauguration of the exhibition, Pervaiz rashid said it was an honur for him to be at this historic occasion. He said the exhibition would enable the younger generation to understand the struggle for creation of Pakistan under the leadership of Quaid-eAzam. He said Quaid achieved Pakistan through legal and democratic struggle and he wanted a federal democratic state. The exhibition was organised by electronic Media and Films and Publications director in collaboration with Lok Virsa. On this occasion electronic Media Director General rao Tehsil Ali Khan, Director General Sheraz Latif, Lok Virsa executive Director Khalid Javed and other officials were present.
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday said that Pakistan could learn a lot from the Malaysian experience of performance, deliverance and monitoring in the public sector. Addressing a press conference along with visiting Malaysian Minister for Performance, Dato Sri Idris Jala after one-day “Big Fast result Seminar”, he said that success models of other countries would be replicated to transform the state-owned enterprises into profitable organizations. Ahsan Iqbal said that the Malaysian Minister was on a two-day visit to Pakistan and attended the special meeting of the Federal Cabinet, in which he shared his country’s experience of development, performance, management and delivery. The visiting minister has also met the management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and apprised them about turnaround of the Malaysian Airline into a profitable organization within two years, which was facing the worst-ever losses, he added. The minister said that PIA was facing rs. 3 billion loss per month and its
losses have reached rs. 36 billion per year for its 16,000 employees due to mismanagement and corruption. Minister for Planning and Development informed that every aircraft has about 700 staffers as compared to 120 member staff in other international airlines. He said that the national airline has faced huge losses during last government when it restored its 6000 employees with their previous dues, besides inducting new employees. The prime minister has already warned the management of the airline that no more bailout package would be provided from the tax payers’ money. He said that the PM had given the management three points for turning around the organization by either finding a strategic partner or privatizing it or completely closing it down to save rs 36 billion of nation. Iqbal said that visiting minister also met with federal secretaries, which would help to improve the performance of government and civil services in the country. He said that Malaysia has proved that progress and development could be achieved by formulating better policies and planning and implementing these polices in
letter and spirit. To a question, he said that unfortunately from 1999-2013, no proper program for development was formulated which resulted in different crisis and challenges including energy shortfall which was a major impediment in economic growth and progress. He said that to overcome these challenges, Ministry of Planning and Development was established and efforts were underway to formulate 2025 program in which about 5000 professional youth would be involved under young development program to get benefit from their talent. Speaking on the occasion, Malaysian Minister for Performance Idris Jala said that Pakistan required political stability, conducive climate for investment for economic development. He said that there were good policies and action plan for development but it needed proper implementation to translate these planes in practical development with spirit of accountability, transparency. Pakistan is rich in natural resources and has a rich culture, heritage and traditions which can be translated into national progress and development, he added. APP
new district ec to assuMe charge on 16th RAWALPINDI APP
Following the routine departmental reshuffling, new rawalpindi District election Commissioner (DeC) Nadeem Zubair will assume charge of the office on Monday. “The new DeC, who has been transferred from Pakpattan to rawalpindi, will take over the charge on September 16,” official sources in the District election Commission said adding that outgoing DeC Zahid Subhani relinquished the charge and reported for duty in Pakpattan in compliance with the transfer order issued by the authorities concerned. Zahid Subhani, during his stay here, ensured timely preparation of computerized voters lists, issuance of polling scheme and free, fair and transparent conduct of the recent general elections across the district.
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Failure is a word unknown to me. — Muhammad Ali Jinnah
islamabad Thursday, 12 september, 2013
hotel owners asked to iMPleMent anti-toBacco laws ISLAMABAD: Citizens on Thursday urged the managements of hotels, restaurants and international food chains in the federal capital to properly implement anti-tobacco laws. They said the owners should also stop allocating designated areas for smokers in hotels and restaurants premises to allow them using cigarettes, pipes, cigars and shisha. They said smoking in any form is totally ban in all places of public work or use including hotels and restaurants under section 2 of Prohibition of smoking and protection of non-smokers health ordinance 2002. Muhammad Ali, a student said the concerned authorities should ask the hotels’ managements to implement such anti-tobacco laws to protect the health of non-smokers as there is no permission of allocating designated areas for smokers, he added. He said the concerned body should write a letter to Pakistan Hotels Association and Pakistan Food Association and ask them to ensure completely ban on any form of smoking in the premises of hotels, restaurants and international food chains. When contacted, an official of tobacco control cell said that there is a plan to create awareness in citizens regarding negative effects of smoking and educating them about the tobacco control laws for proper implementation. APP
IN SEARCH FOR AN INSPIRATION: Students of National College of Arts in Rawalpindi sketching during a basic anatomy drawing class at the college. NNI
90 raids in five years against grey traffic ISLAMABAD APP
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AKISTAN Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has conducted more than 90 raids during last five years as part of its measures to curb grey traffic that is causing billions of rupees losses to national kitty. The raids conducted in collaboration with Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was the result of continuous efforts of technical professionals of PTA who check and monitor illegal call termination activities and adopt different procedures to track illegal telecom gateways. The break-up revealed that during 2009, the authority conducted 25 raids and arrested 35 people with confiscation of 168 related equipments. In 2010, 20 raids were conducted with arrest of 29 people and confiscation of 155 related devices. Similarly, in 2011, the authority also conducted 20 raids, arrested 10
people and confiscated 45 related equipments, in 2012, only one raid was conducted with arrest of a single man while during the current year, PTA managed to successfully conduct more than 24 raids and nabbed 89 people with confiscation of 60 grey traffic related devices. Of the total raids this year, 18 were conducted by joint committee in June and August. During this year, five raids were conducted in Islamabad with arrest of three people and confiscation of eight exchanges while raids conducted in other cities included 5 in Karachi, 2 in Multan, 4 in rawalpindi, 1 in Peshawar, 3 in Sargodha, 2 in Sahiwal, 1 in Okara and 1 in Lahore. When contacted on Wednesday, an official at PTA highlighted the measures and said the authority was pursuing both technical and regulatory measures to curb the menace of grey traffic. The regulatory measures include rationalization of Approved
CDA EXTENDS PLANTATION CAMPAIGN TILL 30TH
ISLAMABAD: Capital Development Authority (CDA) has extended the tree plantation campaign after the spell of recent rains, while during campaign 5 million saplings will be planted. Deputy Director General environmental Department Malik Auliya Khan said that saplings are being planted in different sectors of federal capital including green belts of expressway, 10th avenue, 11th avenue, I-9, I-10 and I-11. ONlINE
Settlement rate (ASr) as PTA as per provision of de-regulation policy reviews the ASr rate at which operators obtain traffic from foreign carriers. Under technical measures, the authority monitors international traffic as it had deployed a technical system for monitoring and reconciliation of international telephone traffic with funding of Long Distance International operators. The official said, currently, the system is monitoring limited number of traffic and efforts are being made to install a new modern system with enhanced capacity to monitor traffic. Moreover, mobile numbers involved in illegal call termination (Grey Traffic) were also being blocked in cooperation with concerned operators. A total number of 77,352 SIMs identified by Vigilance Directorate of PTA and 83,392 SIMs by Law enforcement Agencies(LeAs) were blocked on respective networks.
111 teachers ParticiPate in annual training workshoP ISLAMABAD: A total of 111 teachers from 61 public and private schools Wednesday participated in annual water rocket teachers training workshop. The workshop was conducted by Space and Upper Atmosphere research Commission (SUPArCO) Institute of Technical Training (SIIT) as part of World Space Week celebrations. Secretary SUPArCO Arshad H Siraj was the chief guest. In the workshop the teachers gave a presentation and then practiced constructing and launching their own water rockets. The teachers will pass on their knowledge to their students and these students will participate in 4th Annual National rocket Competition to be held on October 9 at SUPArCO headquarters in Karachi. The teachers were found very enthusiastic and ready to show off their water rocket making and launching skills. APP
Breast cancer takes away 40,000 woMen every year ISLAMABAD: Breast cancer takes away the life of as many as 40,000 women every year in Pakistan. However, with early diagnosis and the appropriate treatment, a patient’s chance of surviving is higher than 90 percent. Pink ribbon Pakistan Chief executive Officer Omer Aftab on Wednesday disclosed this while launching a month-long awareness campaign against breast cancer across the country. He informed that due to the lack of information and late detection and follow up for treatment has resulted in the high levels of mortality from this burgeoning disease adding that it is also on the rise in young girls. Omer said, last year, the campaign directly reached out to over 100,000 women, empowering them with knowledge and techniques to detect breast cancer at early stage, provided free clinical examination to 25,000 women through expert doctors, Free Mammogram Screening to over 3,500 women, Nationwide Free Screening Program in 12 cities at 14 Pakistan Atomic energy Commission (PAeC) Cancer Hospitals across the country where we still providing free screening to high risk poorest of the poor women. APP
no end to encroachMents at g-7’s auto Market ISLAMABAD: Capital Development Authority (CDA) has a lot to do to create an image of an efficient department and encroachments at auto markets in G-7 show apathy that is unending. The encroachments are a source of constant nuisance for the visitors. Vendors have encroached at every nook and corner of Chenab and Khadda Auto Market. The footpaths and roads have also been occupied by different vendors, who continue their business sans any check from the anti-encroachment department of the civic agency. The encroachments have narrowed the roads which causes problem in smooth flow of the traffic. The people feel immense problems in getting their vehicles checked. Aslam, a visitor told APP that the auto mechanics have established permanent kiosks at footpaths and various corners in the market. Shaukat, a shopkeeper said that the market visitors used to park their vehicles at the road corner which impedes the smooth traffic flow in the market. When contacted, a CDA official said that enforcement division had started an anti-encroachment drive and no one would be spared. APP
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Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too. — Anton Chekhov
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cJP orders oil coMPanies to suBMit $1,300,000 to court today MoNItoRING DESK
ISLAMABAD: Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Khalid Shameem Wynne meets President Mamnoon Hussain at Aiwan-e-Sadr. ONlINE
gen wynne, Bukhari calls on President ISLAMABAD ONlINE
Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Khalid Shameem Wynne and Chairman Senate Syed Nayyer Hussain Bukhari called on President Mamnoon Hussain at the Presidency on Wednesday. General Khalid Shameen Wynne exchanged views with the president on professional matters of the armed forces while the Senate chairman discussed issues relating to legislation in the Upper House of parliament.
two-year-old kidnaPPed, raPed, leFt on roadside NEW DELHI ONlINE
A two-year-old girl was hospitalised in Ludhiana on Wednesday after she was abducted and raped by two men. According to reports, the toddler was assaulted and was left on a roadside. She was spotted by a man who alerted the police and took her to a hospital. She is said to be in a critical condition. The police said the child was sleeping with her parents when she was kidnapped. At 2 am, her father woke up to realize that she was missing. He alleged that the assailants also stole rs 8,000 from the house. The child told her mother that she had been taken away by two men. Doctors confirmed that she had been raped. Two people have been booked for the crime.
toxic liQuor claiMs 10 More lives RAHIM YAR KHAN ONlINE
Ten more people died on Wednesday after consuming toxic liquor in Badli Sharif area, whereas the condition of eight others is stated to be critical. Per details, Shahbaz, Sajid and Siddique used to sell toxic liqour. On consuming the poisonous liquor, 9 people, Kalo, Khadim Hussain, Bashir, Nihal, Shabir Ahmed, Jalil Ahmed, Sajid , Khalil Ahmed and Imran had died while many others fell unconscious and were shifted to Sheikh Zaid Hospital and a private hospital for medical aid. So far, 18 people have been died by consuming the poisonous liquor. residents of the area have demanded Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take action against the sellers.
ecP asks MPs to suBMit asset details By 30th ISLAMABAD
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He election Commission of Pakistan (eCP) asked members of the Parliament and the provincial assemblies on Wednesday to submit annual statements of their assets and liabilities by September 30. eCP spokesman Khursheed Alam said that as per the law every sitting member of the National Assembly, the Senate and the provincial assemblies had to submit statements of their assets and liabilities. “So far, 15 members of the Senate, 28 members of the National Assembly, 47 members of the Punjab
Assembly and one member of the Sindh Assembly have submitted statements of their assets and liabilities,” Alam stated. Moreover, he added that no one submitted statements from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies. The law states that “where a member submits the statement of assets and liabilities under sub-section (1) which is found to be false in material particulars, he may be proceeded against under Section 82 for committing the offence of corrupt practice”. If followed in its true spirit, any member found guilty
of corruption may be disqualified from their office. The statements of assets and liabilities have to be published and any citizen can obtain a copy after paying a prescribed fee. “The law also states that the eCP should, by October 15, provide names of members who fail to file statements of assets and liabilities within the period specified. The eCP should also direct that such members cease to function in their respective posts until a statement is submitted,” Alam said.
terror bid foiled, 10-kg bomb defused in Jaffarabad QuEttA ONlINE
Police foiled a terror bid in Jaffarabad on Wednesday by defusing a bomb weighing 10 kilogrammes. Upon receiving information that unidentified men had planted a bomb, the police reached the site and defused the bomb. The police have registered a case and started investigation. FOUR INJURED: Meanwhile, at least four people were injured in two separate incidents in Quetta on Wednesday. Per details, Machla bibi was injured in unprovoked fir-
ing in Murad Jamali area. In other incident, Sawar Muhammad Wali was wounded as his motorcycle collided with a wagon. Two motorcyclists, Abdul Wassay and Tahir Khan, were injured in a collision between the two motorcycles. The injured were taken to hospital. The police have registered a case and started investigation. LAND DISPUTE FIRING: A land dispute between two tribal groups in Quetta’s Ghandawa area continues even five days after it started. According to reports, intermittent firing between the two groups has created panic in the area. No loss of life has been reported so far.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry has ordered oil companies to submit $1,300,000 in the Supreme Court tomorrow (Tuesday), a private TV channel reported on Wednesday. During a hearing regarding pollution caused by oil companies, Additional Attorney General Shah Khawar said the oil companies were meant to spend $1,300,000 in promoting healthcare, education and other social welfare activities and had not done so. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja said due to restrictions on oil companies, they must promote social welfare in any areas where they operate.
Pakistani Jailed For sPying in uae ABU DHABI: A top Emirate court on Wednesday jailed a Pakistani man for three years for spying for a foreign country. The UAE’s Supreme Court ruled that the Pakistani, who worked as a “driver at a sensitive government department”, had been recruited by an intelligence officer at a foreign embassy in the United Arab Emirates. The man had supplied photographs of meetings in the Gulf country between UAE officials and foreign delegates. The Pakistani had confessed to having received 30,000 dirhams (more than $8,000) from the officer whom he met several times at the embassy headquarters and at the Iranian hospital in Dubai. AGENCIES
25 illegal aFghan nationals caught QUETTA: The Frontier Corps (FC) on Wednesday arrested at least 25 Afghan nationals from Quetta’s Mian Ghundi and Hazar Gunji areas. The Afghans had illegally entered Pakistan. According to sources, the FC personnel stopped a vehicle heading to Dalbandin and Panjgur from Quetta and nabbed 11 Afghan nationals who were without valid documents. In another operation, the FC checked a coach that was going to Pishin from Hazar Gunji and arrested at least 14 Afghan nationals who had illegally entered Pakistani and were on their way to Karachi. Police have registered a case against them under the Foreigners Act and started investigation. Meanwhile, the FC personnel also caught a man from Quetta’s Sariab area and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition. INP
Pak Senate delegation calls on Karzai KABuL INP
A delegation of Senate’s Standing Committee for Defence led by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, currently on a visit to Afghanistan, met President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday and discussed cooperation between the two countries in the war against terrorism. On this occasion, Mushahid Hussain Syed said that Afghanistan enjoyed top priority in the foreign policy of Pakistan and Islamabad was keen to further promote bilateral relations with Kabul. He emphasised that a stable Afghanistan was guarantee to strong and stable Pakistan. He said Pakistan also supported the peace process under the Afghan government and was playing its role for this purpose. Afghan President Hamid Karzai referred to his visit to Pakistan and said he held very useful and result-oriented talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He said his visit was successful and would have positive results. Members of the delegation included Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Afrasiab Khattak, Jehangir Badr, Haji Adeel, Sehr Kamran and Saeedul Hassan Mandokhel.
MUSHAHID HUSSAIN SYED SAYS AFGHANISTAN ENJOYS TOP PRIORITY IN THE FOREIGN POLICY OF PAKISTAN
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It’s a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours. — Harry S Truman
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PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pevaiz Khattak persiding over the joint meeting of NLC & provincial government regarding a road project. INP
(ISLAMABAD STAND-OFF CASE)
atc extends reMand oF two accused until 19th ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Islamabad on Wednesday extended judicial remand of Islamabad standoff main accused Sikandar’s wife, Kanwal, and weapons seller Akhtar Ali till 19th. The ATC judge, Atiq-ur-Rehman, heard the Jinnah Avenue incident case. During the hearing, the two accused, Sikandar’s wife Kanwal, and Akhtar Ali, who supplied weapons to the main accused Sikandar, appeared in the court. Kanwal’s lawyer Kalsoom Khaliq and Akhtar’s lawyer Syed Akbar Javed submitted their attorneys in the ATC. However, the court extended judicial remand of both the accused and adjourned the hearing till 19th. It is worth mentioning that Islamabad stand-off main accused Sikandar is still under treatment in the hospital while his children have been handed over to their grandfather. INP
13 PeoPle aBducted in Matni attack released PESHAWAR: Militants on Wednesday set 13 people free who were abducted during an attack on the convoy of passenger vehicles in Matni. It should be mentioned that extremists had attacked the passenger vehicles in Matni area of Peshawar three days ago during which nine people were killed, several others injured while 13 passengers were kidnapped. The kidnapped people hailing from different cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were released by the abductors and they reached their homes safely. INP
kP Police introduce Madadgar Force PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police on Wednesday introduced Madadgar Police Force to enhance cooperation between citizens and law enforcers. Gul Bahar ASP Dr Mustafa said the force would initially extend services in Gul Bahar and Cantonment areas. He said that the force would include motorcycle patrol cops which would take action against criminal elements in their jurisdiction. Dr Mustafa said the police officials having best track record and performance have been included in the force. He expressed hope that the step would help in lessening distance between police and people besides enhancing mutual cooperation to control the crime rate. INP
(MISSING OR MURDERED?)
Masood JanJua killed in south waziristan: additional ag supreMe court seeks list oF intelligence agencies oFFicers For cross Questioning ISLAMABAD
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He Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday decided to cross examine intelligence agencies officers in the Masood Janjua missing person case and sought a list of all the intelligence agencies officers from Masood’s wife, Amna Masood Janjua. A three member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the Janjua missing person case. Additional Attorney General (AG) Tariq Khokhar told the court that intelligence agencies were denying that Masood was in their custody. Khokhar
informed the court that according to a report Janjua and another person had been killed in South Waziristan Agency (SWA). According to General Nusrat Naeem’s statement, Masood and one of his associates was killed in SWA. Masood’s wife said the report was false. She said the court had rejected the report three years before, adding that her husband’s name had been mentioned as Dr Masood Janjua in the report. She said the government was quoting foreign reports and had no information pertaining to her husband. AAG requested the court to grant them some time but the chief justice said no more time could be given as the case was eight years old. The court told Amna to provide a list of the intelligence officers who had filed statements in the court so far, adding that she would be given the right to cross question them. The court also ordered bringing back Dr Imran from Sri Lanka and adjourned the case till September13.
(JUDGES’ DETENTION CASE)
SC DISMISSES GHUMMAN’S PETITION ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) dismissed on Wednesday the petition filed by Aslam Ghumman against grant of bail by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to former president Pervez Musharraf in judges’ detention case. The SC allowed one week’s time to the counsel of Pervez Musharraf as per request made by him for making preparations in connection with a petition seeking transfer of Akbar Bugti’s murder case from Quetta to Islamabad. A 2-member bench of the SC led by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa took up the two cases for hearing on Wednesday. During the hearing of judges’ detention case, the court was told that the petitioner, Aslam Ghumman, was not present without any information nor has had made any request for seeking adjournment of the case. The court dismissed the petition being not contested. The court also heard the petition seeking transfer of Akbar Bugti’s assassination case from Quetta to Islamabad. Ilyas Siddiqui, counsel for Pervez Musharraf, sought time from the court for making preparations in the said case. The court allowed the time and adjourned hearing of the case for one week. ONlINE
GRANTS ONE WEEK TO MUSHARRAF’S COUNSEL IN PETITION SEEKING TRANSFER OF BUGTI’S MURDER CASE FROM QUETTA TO ISLAMABAD
ensure literacy, eradicate poverty! education is the only way to protect and proMote the rights oF street children; literacy has the power to curb poverty and ignorance: seMinar PESHAWAR PESHAWAR BUREAU
Speakers at a seminar organised by Society for the Protection of the rights of Children (SPArC) drop-in center in connection with the International Literacy Day/enrollment campaign have said that education is the only way to protect and promote the rights of street children, observing that literacy had the power to curb poverty and ignorance. Speaking on the occasion, SPArC’s Child rights Club office bearer said the government’s lack of seriousness towards enrollment in schools and child labor was the main reason for the low literacy rate. Children enrolled in the club said education had been declared as a fundamental right of every individual under Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan after the 18th Amendment.
They demanded the provincial government to provide all necessary facilities so that out of school children could also get educated. SPArC Program Manager Imran Takkar said child rights were the domain of the provincial government and it should formulate laws and take administrative measures to increase the literacy rate. many He said, “Immediate steps are required to improve the status of girls’ education; children should be started in early remain illiterate due education childhood and technical and vocato lack of schools, tional institutions should also be established.” teachers and SPArC drop-in center ManThey informed street required facilities ager Khalid Mahmood thanked the children about the imporclub members for visiting the centance of education and reand the prevalence ter. The seminar was attended by alquested them to join schools of corporal most 100 street children and the in connection with the ongoing punishment: club’s message was “ensure literacy, enrollment campaign aneradicate poverty”. nounced by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sPaRC’s street At the end of the seminar street chilelementary and Secondary educachildren dren were given a tour of the center and were tion department. informed about the SPArC’s facilities of non-forThe street children in SPArC’s drop-in center said that due to lack of schools, teachers and re- mal education, psycho-social counseling, recreation, quired facilities and the prevalence of corporal punish- vocational skills and reunification of runaway children in Peshawar. ment many children were not attending schools.
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The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. –Albert Einstein
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a discordant note MQM’s all too familiar pressure tactics
the ever growing knowledge gap pakistan’s major concern across all areas
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HILe the government, the opposition parties and the military establishment are on one page on terrorism and extremism being the most crucial issue that needs to be settled urgently, Altaf Hussain has chosen to strike a discordant note. The MQM chief would like the nation to leave everything else to convene an APC on the creation of new provinces. Interestingly only a few days back the MQM was demanding the deployment of army in Karachi to put an end to terrorist killings. The sudden dropping of a red herring would confound many. There is a general consensus in the country that the ailing economy, power shortages and militancy and extremism are the three issues that need to be addressed at the earliest. There is also an agreement that ending militancy enjoys priority, as there is no hope of improving the economy in the absence of peace in the country. For this an APC was held on Monday which gave a go ahead to the government to hold talks with the militants. In view of the unending killings in Karachi the prime minister spent two days in the metropolis last week conferring with the Sindh CM, governor, political parties, DG rangers, IGP and chiefs of intelligence agencies. He is now again proceeding to the city. An APC on Balochistan is next on the agenda as people in the province continue to suffer on account of attacks by communal terrorists and Baloch separatists as well as forced disappearances attributed to the security agencies. The Balochistan chief minister has meanwhile been given a go ahead to initiate talks with militants of all hues operating in the province. In case the talks fail, the government will have to pursue other means to bring peace to the country. There is a perception that the MQM is seeking an APC on new provinces in pursuit of certain ends. While demanding action against all involved in killings and extortion irrespective of political affiliations, it has reacted strongly to the arrest of its former legislator Nadeem Hashmi, who is accused of killing two policemen. One hopes that those who charged the former legislator did that on the basis of strong evidence. One had also hoped that the MQM would take the issue to the court. Instead its leadership decided to issue strong statements which led to a shutter down cum wheel-jam strike in Karachi followed by the all too familiar incidents of violence and arson. Denied accommodation in both the federal and the Sindh cabinet ‘to act as a bridge’, as Farooq Sattar had put it, the MQM now wants to use pressure tactics. Judging from Babar Ghouri’s refusal to commit himself on the issue on a TV channel, the demand for APC on new provinces is likely to be followed by demand for a new province to be carved out from Sindh which would divide those living in the province rather than unite them.
will the talks succeed? there are sceptics, and for good reason
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He TTP has reciprocated to the offer of ‘unconditional talks’ by the government of Pakistan after the APC ‘unanimously’ so decided, terming it a ‘positive step’. While the government has showed its preference, with the emphasis on ‘unconditional’ despite the state of Pakistan having been the aggrieved party after relentless attacks over a decade taking a heavy toll on its people, armed forced and considerable assets, the Taliban have still to commit to any confidence building measures, such as a temporary ceasefire. On the face of it, everybody who is anybody in our polity backed the dialogue over seeking outright retribution against the perpetrators of violence. But from various reports, one can deduce that perhaps the brass was not as wholeheartedly behind the ‘talks alone’ option. But everyone went along with the considered view of the PML-N’s leading lights and the PTI’s long-stated overarching stance in favour of talks, and also on keeping them unconditional. But this ‘support’ has now put these two main ‘talks’ protagonists in the spot: either the talks should deliver peace or else the state of Pakistan should take the bigoted, deadly militants on with all its might and not relent until they are eliminated root and branch – no ifs and buts, no ambiguity. But will the talks, if they take place at all, succeed? Many from amongst the participants, the security experts and the tribe of analysts have already expressed reservations bordering on scepticism. There are genuine, solid grounds for their apprehension. For one, the Taliban Inc. is a conglomerate of some 30-odd to 60 groups, but it is not run by one chairman or a single board of directors. Second, they are shifty by nature and quite prone to changing goalposts. Third, it is most likely that not all or any of these are really hungering for peace and progress of this blighted nation. Fourth, the history of agreements and truce with the Taliban and its many allies and factions is indeed not something much to write home about. This by no means is going to be easy. The lack of resolve shown thus far by the two post-Musharraf political dispensations has only emboldened the Taliban and their franchisees. Now that the PML-N government has gotten its wish every which way – the talks and with consensus – the onus is on it to make Taliban yield so that tangible results are obtained. The broad contours of the minimum benchmark the government must set is: i) Pursuit of peace must not create a perception of sellout; ii) the army should neither leave the tribal areas nor the Taliban should be let in the FATA agencies won back after great sacrifice; iii) no release of terrorists in custody, especially the ones sentenced by courts; iv) the militants must show allegiance to the constitution as it stands today and renounce militancy; v) the TTP leadership must bear responsibility for the actions of any of its myriad components . As the talks proceed, the government will have to be extremely cautious. The slightest hint of further weakness could wreak even greater havoc.
Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami
Arif Nizami Editor
Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad Joint Editor Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230 Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208 Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273 Fax: 051-2850505 Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk
DR MUHAMMAD NAWAz
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He amount of qualitative and quantitative knowledge provides fundamental ingredient for the socio-economic development of any civilized society. This is considered not only a prerequisite support tool for the growth but also presents a necessary mechanism about how a just nation should develop its roots, and materialize its true potential for economic progress that leads to its survivability at large. A realistic knowledge gap is the proposition that a fair discrepancy exists in the amount of information that people possess in any country or society at varying diversified levels. In other words, an information-rich person gets richer if he keeps himself occupied in reading newspapers, using internet resources, watching television news or other relevant material that belongs to his profession, whereas those with relatively limited background knowledge typically gain information at a comparatively lesser rate and are thus intellectually suppressed. Presented originally by Tichenor, Donohue and Olien during the 1970s, the knowledge gap postulated hypothesis cross the boundary between those with maximum and minimum formal education in hand. This knowledgegap theory further suggests that there is always a gap in knowledge existing not only by default among different social groups but also this gap widens its scope when new diversified information gradually enters in a society. essential notion behind a growing knowledge gap in any nation might alternatively lead to destruction and finally provide a route towards its ultimate demise. A country rich in natural resources and with unlimited human capital, a growing knowledge gap is of major concern in Pakistan in almost all walks of life. Looking at the gross-root level of gap emergence, poverty is to be blamed in most instances because it provides a repulsive barrier of socioeconomic uplift among different segments of society. Note that the poverty affects not only the emotional and psychological resources of your body, but it also limits the well-being, and intellectual growth and development. So, children with very weak economic background always lag behind in intellectual maturity than the richer counterpart in a society. With very limited earning potential of those families, children cannot afford to buy
Editor’s mail
books and other relevant literature for stimulating learning materials that keep them engaged with current state of the art knowledge. The situation of widening knowledge gap is at its worst among the professional elite because of many other factors besides poverty. Here, a lack of professional ethics, negligence with professional code of conduct, limited accessibility to internet, ignorance about current professional knowledge, poor library infrastructure, limited state funded resources, limited capacity to attend international professional conferences, lack of personal will, unavailability of fresh scientific literature, intra-department political interference, fake degrees and very selective but obsolete professional knowledge in different disciplines are the major reasons to be blamed. Gleanings from the print media as well as reported data from World economic Forum’s report, a collective collapse is recently witnessed in global competitiveness when Pakistan has slipped down from 118th (2011) to 124th (2012) and now to 133rd (2013) position among 148 countries. This report reflects not only the institutional and economical weakness of the country but also presents a diminishing culture of industrial innovativeness. Despite the availability of quality professionals at large in various disciplines, they desperately lack professional ethics and don’t apply code of conduct in practice. Here, a medical profession that directly impacts the life expectancy and human survivability is most seriously affected. Compared to Scandinavian (or other european countries) where doctors spend first 10-15 minutes with psychological treatment of patients through friendly introductory discussion before the real diagnosis, Pakistani doctors neglect these factors often and diagnosis starts directly with predefined routine conventional guesses and finally delivers tablets of all colours to respective patients. Simultaneously, patients lying on the bed with intravenous drip mixed with some vaccination in their shoulder are opted for as the best medical solution at ordinary clinics. On the other side, a lack of modern medical knowledge for reasons mentioned earlier and unavailability of state of the art medical laboratory equipment and hygiene-wise poor working conditions along with environmentally polluted atmosphere signifies the true causes of concern. More or less, a similar situation exists in other disciplines. Looking at the recent past, the pace of new scientific knowledge has witnessed an exponential growth trend. A more careful examination reveals that the rate of growth of scientific knowledge changes, actually accelerates, over time. While multidimensional nanoscience is still an alien subject in Pakistan, invention of Graphene (i.e., one to three nanometer thick atomic layer of only carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal form) by two russian scientists (Andrei Geim and
Konstantin Novoselov (noble prize winners in physics in 2010) presents a classical example of new knowledge that is going to revolutionize our world in 10–20 years from now. Scientists believe that the Graphene material presents true potential of its usage with much superior performance than many other materials on this planet in electronics, energy, medical and environmental areas. Besides Graphene, many other research topics in engineering disciplines (e.g., microwave communication, millimeter wave communication, photovoltaic systems, wind engineering, bio engineering, optical communication, optical fibers, Nanotechnology, nanodentistry, nanomedicine, mechatronics etc.) are not even touched in the Pakistani universities. While a number of new private/public universities have emerged in Pakistani market recently, major focus is given to information technology and business sciences while true engineering subjects are mostly ignored. More interestingly, university professors are not ready to deliver new knowledge because they themselves are not updated because of limited resource capacity. What can we do to shrink this growing knowledge gap? At the state level, it’s the government’s responsibility to provide a platform where we can live with peace and harmony as a just nation. Furthermore, the government should introduce a true system of national accountability and justice so as to develop national equality in our society. With this in mind, education should be given the first and topmost priority since it is linked with the knowledge economy and the government should ensure requisite funds to guarantee education for all. University curriculum should be frequently updated, leaving no place for obsolete knowledge. Fresh scientific literature should be provided (either through international journals or conference participation) to university professors so that they can keep themselves updated about current phenomenon, new inventions and hot research topics in real time. Above all, a unified privatepublic partnership at university level is required for not only industrial development and educational support but also giving students a chance to excel in their area of studies. At primary level, hands-on knowledge-building experiences should be provided that help children understand their world. A collective responsibility lies on our shoulders to encourage children so that they question, discover, evaluate, materialize and use higher-order objective thinking skills. While new government is now in place, this writer hopes that his dream will come true, and the Pakistan nation will gradually reduce this knowledge gap. The writer is a senior scientist/researcher at ABB Corporate Research in Sweden. He can be reached at: muhammad.nawaz@se.abb.com
Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-32535230 E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively
$12 billion down the drain With the raising of Mangla dam it has become the biggest reservoir in the country. Presently it is storing 6.65 million acre feet of water and is still 10 feet below maximum level. Tarbela dam is up to its maximum capacity of 6.58 maf, down from the original 9.40 maf due to silting up. While the two dams have trapped 13
maf of flood water we have lost 17 maf to the sea through other channels. We have stored only 13 maf for irrigation and power generation for the rest of the year when it could easily have been 19 maf. That is an avoidable loss of $12 billion, considering that each maf injects $2 billion per annum into the economy. ENGR KHURSHID ANWER Lahore
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One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. –Dale Carnegie
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Pakistan: a mixture of shariah and law loopholes for legally committing crimes
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dynamics of information warfare and how syria is succeeding in presenting an alternate narrative
SHAHzEB KHAN
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LAVOJ Zizek, a philosopher with global fan base, has recently declared edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning as the “new heroes” for “shaming” super hypocrisy of the world’s most powerful hegemon. Manning is now serving a 35-year jail sentence, Assange is holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in London and Snowden is in exile in russia. The trio’s revelations serve as an expose of the apparently innocuous and neutrally-charged terrain of information technology which is in fact controlled by individuals and institutions which have stakes in everything significant going on in the world. The saga of espionage continues and has entered the post-echelon era, they remind us. What we access and what we perceive can be manoeuvred by the omniscient lord of the internet age who has deployed his Trojan creatures to pilfer information at his command. But like all lords striving hard to sustain their monopoly over their territory, the US too has its adversaries. The internet may have its myriad advantages for those who hold its reigns, yet its essential participatory character has also provided an advantage to politically conscious and active entities to use it in their favor. The internet, thus, becomes a battlefield with various parties trying to harness its potential to stoke information storms against their opponents. Not only can it give them tactical advantage, but it can also enable them to win a war or defend themselves against a foreign aggression. The Syrian government has so far been successful in presenting an alternative to the western narratives of the events unfolding in its territory. Its information warfare capability has been putting up intelligent defences to the perception-building might of America. It has
been assisted by various alternative news media outlets and websites which have used tools hitherto employed only by the western powers. The Russia Today’s website has been very prominent in this regard. The rT’s website has acquired significant popularity for showing the Syrian side of the picture. Not just rT, but countless other blogs and video sharing portals have also been crucial in providing pieces to the jigsaw of the conflict. Globalresearch.ca is another website based in Montreal and run by the Centre for research on Globalization. What such websites have done is that they have exposed the hypocrisy of the world’s sole super power and have provided a bigger context for its actions and have invited readers to identify for themselves the true tenor of reality. Global research, for instance, published a story recently connecting potential aggression of Obama on Syria with the “centuryold white house tradition of engaging in foreign wars” from Woodrow Wilson to Harry Truman and from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush. A lot has changed since the arrival of these alternative news and analysis portals. In the debate that rejected Britain’s possibility of a war on Syria, George Galloway, an MP, cited a YouTube video in his persuasive case against the war. No longer can the American or the British governments easily acquire their public’s consent with the help of their state or corporateowned media to win assent for violent, foreign ventures. referring to British parliament’s rejection of aggression on Syria, roberk Fisk expressed his dismay at western rulers “in thinking that they could yet again bamboozle their electorates with their lies and trumperies and tomfooleries.” In an effort to trump up charges against Syrian government, the US is “basing a tremendous amount of its conclusions on images from social media sources.” Deception in such videos cannot be ruled out which has always been used in war for strategic reasons and also has its utility in cyber warfare. A lot many of these videos are tagged as “false flag” by inde-
pendent analysts: rebels pretending to be Syrian soldiers and committing deeds repugnant to viewers across the world.Thirteen videos, to similar effect, were shown to America’s Senate Intelligence Community and were posted on CNN’s website on September 8. These were prominently placed in the editor’s Pick ribbon on the website, apparently, to strengthen the case for Congress’ nod for an attack on Syria. The ongoing conflict is a grim reminder of how western media continue to offer selective detail and present information which is only suitable to their side of the story. Their insistence, for so many decades, on how their reporting of events is unbiased and objective is laughable. There definitely is an agenda behind reporting of significant stories and our smartness is tested every time we believe in the veracity of such items uncritically. Instead, we must acquire necessary understanding of the kind of world we live in to ensure that we consume information critically. Let us play a game then to ascertain if we could discern the source of a news story just by analyzing its content. Which news website carried the story out of which the following excerpt is taken? BBC, CNN or rT?: While talking to the students of a university in Moscow, russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov said, “We were shown some sketches, but there was nothing concrete, no geographical coordinates or details and no proof the test was done by professionals… There is only repetitive talk in the vein of ‘we know for sure.’ And when we ask for further clarification, we receive the following response: ‘You are aware that this is classified information, therefore we cannot show it to you.’ So there are still no facts.” Yes, it’s rT for sure. Neutrality in reporting of significant global events is simply a myth. It is just a deceptive slogan used to win over gullible folks, who surely are aplenty.
The ongoing conflict is a grim reminder of how western media continue to offer selective detail and present information which is only suitable to their side of the story. Their insistence, for so many decades, on how their reporting of events is unbiased and objective is laughable.
The writer is a faculty member, GC University, Lahore, and can be reached at: shahzeb.khaan@live.com
AKISTAN has had a tumultuous journey to the country that it is today. And since its inception it’s been plagued with a disaster identity crisis. In the same vein, while the nation prides itself on being an Islamic republic it has failed to settle down with a single coherent ideology. The effects of this are now becoming more obvious in the context of its legal system. The recent pardoning of Shahrukh Jatoi by the heirs of the murdered Shahzeb Khan has once again brought to lUAvUT zAHID light the disturbing manner in which the Shariah system can be manipulated through power play. Shariah is not the primary basis through which laws are created or developed in Pakistan, nor is it the dominant influence in the constitution. It is, however, imposed in the country through different provisions and acts made over the course of the nation’s existence. Despite the fact that Shariah provisions are not many in number, they supersede any other part or stipulation of the constitution. Despite the creation of a Federal Shariat Court (FSC) a grand debate rages on what truly lies within Shariah and what does not. In the case of Shahrukh Jatoi and Shahzeb Khan the recent turn of events lies absolutely, and unfortunately, within Islamic law. Most felt that something was off as Jatoi celebrated his own death sentence only a few weeks ago, so it’s not shocking that he’s been pardoned in the name of Allah by his victim’s parents. Amidst great hue and cry over the outcome, Islamic scholars have concluded that the exoneration will stand. This is a legal system that allows one man to murder another with great facility – provided he has enough money in the bank account or enough clout or both. This is a legal system that is terribly flawed. Anywhere else in the world (sans Shariat following countries) there was no question of such an outcome taking place. With witnesses and evidence stacked against him, Jatoi was sure to rot in a jail cell for his crime. However, in Pakistan, a family can be pressured into forgiving their own son’s killer ‘in the name of Allah’. When such an option exists it’s only a matter of who has more power and not a matter of what legal clauses can be pursued. In Pakistan men can also legally rape women, and the credit can in part be delivered to Shariah laws again. If the Mazar rape case was anything to go by, then all a rapist has to do is commit the act. Pakistan’s ridiculous legal stance on rape stems from the 1979 Hudood Ordinance courtesy of the Zia regime. During the Musharaf era of pseudo-enlightened moderation the bill was revoked in favour of the 2006 Women’s Protection Bill. While it sounds like an improvement on its predecessor the 2006 bill does nothing to change the legal stance on rape. The ruling for the Mazar rape case acquitted all three accused for lack of proof, in spite of the glaring testimony in the form of DNA evidence against the perpetrators. The courts along with the Council for Islamic Ideology of Pakistan concluded that DNA evidence is not admissible in a rape case against a rapist when it is admissible in paternity disputes. It has been long since argued that the orthodox Islamic stance on rape is not the one being practiced through the Pakistani legal system. While some see this as a manipulation of Shariah, others term it a shortcoming of the legal framework itself. The fact remains that there is a problem and it’s a problem that is yet to be fixed. rape and murder are joined by their sibling blasphemy in this confusing mix. The blasphemy law puts forth that anyone accused of blasphemy i.e., disrespect of any religion, can be brought to punishments ranging from a fine to death. The problem is that almost all blasphemy cases that have come to light thus far have targeted nonMuslims. Many have additionally turned out to be the result of personal gain or enmity where being a non-Muslim has landed one party at the shorter end of the stick. rimsha Masih’s case elucidated just what a disaster this particular manipulation of Shariah law can be. The conundrum – for both liberals and Islamists alike – is that the argument can be made for and against blasphemy quite convincingly, using nothing but Islamic scripture. The two divergent views can both be taken into the context of Islam and proven. Setting that aside we have to understand the utility of the law itself. In its present form the blasphemy law only appears to exist to torment those of a different faith within Pakistan. It is also exceedingly ironic that Pakistan, which is a UN charter signatory, promises equal rights to its citizens – rights which it cannot practically deliver under Shariah clauses that supersede all others. This is a country where Ahmadis are nonMuslims while atheists/agnostics do not exist. Minorities are routinely harassed in addition to everything else and everything is justified under some Shariah clause or the other. equal rights would permit people to identify with religions as they see fit. What we need to realize is that we cannot cherry pick parts of the Shariah that are amenable to some and parts that we don’t agree with. In Pakistan a staggering majority of people agree that Shariah law should prevail, but an equally staggering majority of the same people have no idea what the said law would entail when implemented in full. In essence, if Pakistan is to be an Islamic republic then it needs to embrace Shariah, if it is to be something else then it needs to stop referring to itself as an Islamic republic. We cannot lament the outcome of a Shariah decision, such as that of Jatoi’s acquittal in the name of God, while promoting Shariah. The writer is a journalist based in Lahore. She can be emailed at luavut@gmail.com. She tweets @luavut
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ashton kutcher, demi Moore share same flight
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CTOR Ashton Kutcher was spotted talking to his estranged wife Demi Moore after they shared the same flight to LA. The duo happened to attend a conference in San Jose and were caught on camera leaving Burbank Airport after getting off the same flight in Los Angeles, reported E! Online. Kutcher, 35, was seen talking cordially and privately to Moore, 50, who stayed quiet, while they were leaving the terminal. They parted ways when reaching the parking structure of the airport. They got separated in 2011, after being married for six years, amidst rumours that the ‘Just Married’ star cheated on Moore. Kutcher is currently dating his former ‘That ‘70s Show’ co-star Mila Kunis, 30. The couple are reportedly planning on getting hitched. NEWS DESK
ashley goes topless on film set
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WILIGHT star Ashley Greene turned up the heat on the set of her upcoming film Staten Island Summer as she went topless for a sunbathing scene. Greene, 26, showed off her toned bikini body in a tiny pair of yellow bikini bottoms, opting to go topless as she soaked in the sun, reported Us magazine. Co-stars Vincent Pastore and Graham Phillips were also spotted on set. The film, about a few friends who decide to take on jobs as lifeguards while they figure out what to do with their lives, will be produced bySaturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. “Being sexy is about intrigue and mystery - not putting everything out on the table,” Greene said. Earlier this month, Greene took advantage of her temporary residence in New York, exploring the city and even attending the US open. NEWS DESK
kanye west wants another baby?
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APPER Kanye West reportedly wants to have more kids with girlfriend Kim Kardashian after the birth of their baby daughter North. While Kim is working hard to shed that baby weight, Kanye is keen to expand their family, reported Contactmusic. “Kim’s really focused on getting back her size 8 figure. But Kanye recently suggested they start trying for another baby as he doesn’t want a big gap between their children’s ages,” a source said. “Kim, however, doesn’t even want to think about another hellish nine months right now and told Kanye she wants her body back - not another baby,” the source added. Kim is reportedly considering to take surgical assistant in order to slim down but Kanye, whose mother, Donda West, died after complications during surgery, does not want her to take any drastic measures. NEWS DESK
himayat Baig writes to hc: let there be fresh probe, this time by nia ‘Pirates of the g
erMAN Bakery blast convict Mirza Himayat Baig has written to judges of the Bombay High Court, pleading that he was falsely implicated by the Maharashtra ATS, and that the case should be reinvestigated by the NIA. On April 18, Pune additional sessions judge N P Dhote gave five death sentences and six life sentences to Baig for the February 13, 2010 bombing. Baig has already filed an appeal before the high court. The case has taken a twist following the arrest of alleged Indian Mujahideen kingpin Yasin Bhatkal last month. The Maharashtra ATS has claimed that Bhatkal was with Baig when he planted the bomb at German Bakery. But the Delhi Police Special Cell and Bangalore Police have said that Bhatkal was accompanied by Qateel Siddiqui. Siddiqui was arrested by Delhi Police on November 22, 2011. The Maharashtra ATS subsequently took him to Pune, where he was killed in Yerwada prison, allegedly by fellow inmates. Bhatkal is currently being interrogated by NIA.
Caribbean 5’ delayed
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Baig, now convicted prisoner number C-353 at Mumbai Central Prison, has written to the high court in Marathi, in his own hand. The letter was forwarded by the superintendent of the prison to the high court registrar on August 14. “I beg to submit that I have been falsely implicated in the German Bakery bomb blast case. I have no association with any terrorist organisation,” Baig has written. “I did not get an opportunity to pres-
ent my case in the trial court. I could not hire an experienced lawyer. The ATS kidnapped me and kept me in illegal detention... for 19-20 days and I was subjected to inhuman torture. electric shocks were given to my private parts... The ATS took my signatures on blank papers. At that time, my condition was such that if somebody had asked me to sign on a suicide note, I would have done even that...” COURTESY TOI
Dhoom 3 trailer gets 6m views in just six days
holly Madison marries at disneyland
AMIr Khan, Katrina Kaif’s , which was unveiled last Thursday (September 5), got a roaring response from the fans and has already crossed 6 million mark within six days of its release. The action flick also has Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra, who reprise their previous roles of Jai Dixit and Ali. The action-packed teaser of Dhoom 3 showed Aamir Khan making an impressive statement highlighting the theme of the film. The film has some cutting-edge action sequences with Aamir Khan flaunting his well chiseled body and six pack abs. We also get a glimpse of the Dhoom girl Katrina Kaif, who is sexy in a white halter and black shorts. Dhoom franchise started in 2004. John Abraham and Hrithik roshan played the villains,
OrMer Playboy model Holly Madison got married in a fairytale ceremony at Disneyland in California. The 33year-old ‘Girls Next Door’ star exchanged vows with her fiance Pasquale rotella at the Anaheim attraction on Tuesday night while the park was closed to the public. The wedding was an intimate affair outside the entrance of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride with the couple’s six-month-old daughter rainbow in attendance, reported Us magazine. “Holly Madison exchanged vows with Pasquale rotella on Tuesday, September 10th, at 10:40 pm. Their six-month-old daughter rainbow was the surprise guest of honour. The wedding was held inside Disneyland resort in Anaheim, California. COURTESY TOI
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respectively, in the first two franchise of Dhoom. Written and directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, Dhoom 3 is produced by Aditya Chopra and is slated to release on Christmas this year. COURTESY TOI
APTAIN Jack Sparrow’s fans will have to wait a little longer with the delay in the release of fifth ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ movie. The film, starring Johnny Depp as Sparrow, was earlier scheduled to hit theatres on July 10, 2015 but there is no set date for the movie now. The change was noted in a brief message sent out Tuesday afternoon as a “Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release schedule update”, reported the Los Angeles Times. The new film is being directed by Norwegian filmmakers Joachim rønning and espen Sandberg
of foreign language Oscar winning film ‘Kon-Tiki’ fame. The production on the fifth movie is yet to begin. It is being seen as another blow to producer Jerry Bruckheimer after the dismal performance of Depp starrer ‘The Lone ranger’ at the box office. Made on a reported budget of USD 250, the film made only USD 88 million at the US box office. It had the original ‘Pirates’ team, including director Gore Verbinski, Depp and screenwriters Ted elliott and Terry rossio behind it. In fact, the team agreed to take a pay cut to make ‘Lone ranger’ after a standoff with Disney over the budget. NEWS DESK
Nicolas Cage to star in ‘The Croods 2’ a CTOr Nicolas Cage is to reprise his role alongside emma Stone and ryan reynolds in DreamWorks Animation follow-up ‘The Croods 2’. The 49-year-old actor will join the follow-up to the caveman caper, directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, reported Contactmusic. “There’s not much to talk about yet because we’ve got a big lump of clay and we’re forming it as we speak. There will be lots of good creatures. We’ve got creatures that never got into the first movie. We’re going to
take a very, very close look at those,” Sanders said. The animated hit is set in a prehistoric era and centres on a family who must adjust to the times as new inventions, such as fire, are created. Cage voices the Croods’ old-fashioned patriarch Grug, who is reluctant to accept the new innovations, while Stone lends her voice to eep, Grug’s adventurous young daughter who tries to open her parents’ minds and falls for the handsome and smart Guy (voiced by reynolds). COURTESY HP
Review: Slick iOS 7 shines on Apple’s new iPhones
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Ne of the best things about Apple Inc’s latest smartphones, the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S, is the slick new iOS 7 software that runs the devices. But that soupedup operating system could end up hurting sales because the free software upgrade will also work on iPhones released since 2010, giving owners of the older models less incentive to buy Apple’s newest products. Perhaps unwittingly, even Apple Inc’s software boss Craig Federighi alluded to this potential problem while he was bragging about iOS 7 at the company’s unveiling of its new phones Tuesday. He predicted that anyone who elects to upgrade the software will feel ‘’like they’re getting an all-new device.’’ I understood what Federighi meant once I was able to see the iOS 7’s improvements in action on Apple Inc’s
two new iPhones, the 5C and the 5S. Although Apple announced iOS 7 at a conference three months ago, Tuesday marked the first time the company allowed reporters to experience the soft-
ware hands-on. Although the iPhone 5C price is less than its predecessor, the iPhone 5, iOS 7 almost made it look fancier than previous generations. As an iPhone 5
owner, I was feeling a bit envious until I remembered that I’ll be able to spiff up my device, too, when the software is released on Sept. 18. The operating system will work on the iPhone 4 and later models, iPad 2s and subsequent versions, and the iPod Touch that came out late last year. iOS 7 looks much different than previous versions of the operating system because it no longer displays iPhone apps as three-dimensional, embossed objects meant to mirror their real-world counterparts. The icons instead are flatter and more colorful. Any significant change in design typically upsets users familiar with the old way of doing things, but I suspect the complaints about iOS 7 will be muted unless there are some terrible bugs in the software that weren’t evident during the brief time that I was given to experiment. NEWS DESK
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Heart disease patients with positive attitudes live longer h
water in lunar rocks may have earth origins W ATER found in ancient rocks on Moon may have actually originated on the early Earth and even survived the lunarforming collision event, a new study suggests. The Moon, including its interior, is believed to be much wetter than was envisaged during the Apollo mission era. The study by Jessica Barnes and colleagues at The Open University, UK, investigated the amount of water present in the mineral apatite, a calcium phosphate mineral found in samples of the ancient lunar crust. “These are some of the oldest rocks
we have from the Moon and are much older than the oldest rocks found on Earth, said Barnes. “The antiquity of these rocks make them the most appropriate samples for trying to understand the water content of the Moon soon after it formed about 4.5 billion years ago and for unraveling where in the Solar System that water came from,” Barnes said. Researchers found that the ancient lunar rocks contain appreciable amounts of water locked into the crystal structure of apatite. They also measured the hydrogen isotopic signature of the water in these lunar rocks to identify the potential source(s) for the water.
“The water locked into the mineral apatite in the Moon rocks studied has an isotopic signature very similar to that of the Earth and some carbonaceous chondrite meteorites,” said Barnes. “The remarkable consistency between the hydrogen composition of lunar samples and waterreservoirs of the Earth strongly suggests that there is a common origin for water in the Earth-Moon system,” said Barnes. Latest research into the amount of water within lunar rocks returned during the Apollo missions was presented by Barnes at the European Planetary Science Congress in London. NEWS DESK
eArT disease patients with positive attitudes are more likely to exercise and live longer, a new study has found. researchers found that heart disease patients with a B positive attitude were 42 per cent less likely to die over a five-year period than those with a negative attitude. researchers used a questionnaire to assess the moods of 600 ischemic heart disease patients in a Denmark hospital. Ischemic heart disease, also called coronary artery disease, is caused by narrowed arteries that don’t provide enough blood and oxygen to the heart. After a five-year follow-up period, researchers found that the most positive patients exercised more and had a 42 per cent less chance of dying for any reason during the follow-up period; deaths were less than 10 per cent. Among patients with less positive attitudes, 50 deaths occurred (16.5 per cent). Positive mood and exercise also cut the risk of heart-related hospitalisations, the study found. exercise levels the playing field between positive and negative patients, researchers said. So the differences in death rates between upbeat and sad heart patients weren’t as striking when both groups exercised. However, information on the types and amounts of exercise were not available. “We should focus not only
on increasing positive attitude in cardiac rehabilitation, but also make sure that patients perform exercise on a regular basis, as exercise is associated with both increased levels of optimism and better health,” said Susanne S Pedersen, one of the study authors and professor of cardiac psychology, the Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. She is also adjunct professor of cardiac psychology, the University of Southern Denmark and Odense University Hospital, Denmark. The study was published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. NEWS DESK
Priyanka joins ‘Thursday Night Football’
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rIYANKA Chopra has received a National Football League promotion. The Indian actress-singer, who sang the intro to last season’s “Thursday Night Kickoff,” will sing the intro to NFL Network’s “Thursday Night Football” this season. She replaces CeeLo Green. Chopra’s song, “In My City,” was used for last year’s pregames. It will be used again for the opening music when the New York
Jets visit the New england Patriots tomorrow night. The song features will.i.am of the Black eyed Peas. Chopra was crowned Miss World in 2000. She has appeared in a number of films and won India’s national film award for best actress for 2008’s “Fashion.” Carrie Underwood took over the theme song for “Sunday Night Football” this year after Faith Hill sang it for six seasons. COURTESY TOI
A boyfriend & career can co-exist: Parineeti Chopra
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ArINeeTI Chopra has many reasons to smile. Her recent outing Shuddh Desi romance (SDr) has come out with flying colours at the box office. Not only is her film doing very well but the audience and the critics are raving about her performance in the Manish Jha desi romance. Some have even compared her natural histrionics and ebullient spark on screen to the likes of rani Mukerji and Kajol in recent reviews of SDr. Not surprising at all. Just two years ago this 24-year-old had taken home all the best debutant awards for Ladies Vs ricky Bahl. And now self-admittedly Parineeti feels that she has raised the bar for herself. Presenting excerpts from an interview where the actor talks about love, relationships, boyfriends, living-in and some shuddh romance ion desi style. HOw IMPORTANT IS ROMANCE FOR yOU? Very important! Not the cliched romance but love, yes! I am single right now but I’m not looking for love as such but it will be nice to be having a relationship with a person you love. SO wHAT IS STOPPING THE ROMANCE FOR A yOUNG AND LOvELy GIRL LIKE yOU? I’m in some other space only right now. It’s very difficult to find someone. You are just meeting the people you are working with. You are basically meeting your directors, actors, your crew and your ADs because they are the people you work with. When I am working with them you do not think of romance, it doesn’t occur to you unless I really fall for someone. It hasn’t happened yet. THAT MEANS THERE ARE HUNDRED PER CENT CHANCES OF FALLING IN LOvE wITH SOMEONE yOU wORK wITH. (Laughs) If that happens, great because then he will understand my life! Otherwise, normally it’s difficult for someone from outside the industry to understand my work
and my crazy schedules. For example a person, like my dad who lives in Ambala doesn’t understand my life. Now he doesn’t mind me romancing heroes on screen but he still doesn’t understand my working hours. He doesn’t understand how perfectly normal it is for me to be at work till two in the night. He doesn’t understand night shifts. I need a person who, even if he is not from the industry should at least be able to understand the life of an actress. SO yOUR PARENTS ARE A wORRIED LOT? Yeah, they are always worried. In fact, they irritate me so much sometimes. They call me and ask ‘Khaana khaa liya, yeh kara, woh kiya’. I am like, ‘Oh God! I am 24 years old. I can take care of myself. Stop it!’ They’ll always feel like she’s a ten-year-old who needs to be taken care of and told, ‘khaana khaya?’ If I’m talking to them and I happen to sneeze or cough bas, I’ve had it. Then it’s ‘See, I told you, you don’t take care of yourself. You are not having your medicine on time. You are falling sick. I am coming over there’ and then full drama happens. SO IT’S GHAR KA KHAANA ONLy wHEN THEy ARE IN MUMBAI? No, now I’ve become very disciplined. I also bring ghar ka khaana. I have a cook who makes my dabba everyday and I take my own food to the set every day. Now they are happy that the khaana department is sorted. The rest of the things we still have to sort. wE ARE CURIOUS. PRAy TELL US ABOUT THE REST OF THE THINGS. So many things! My accounts, my paper work I need to do attend to. Stupid shopping for the house, it never happens because I don’t get to do it. If my parents suddenly come to Mumbai and there’s no milk in the house, they are like ‘See, you do not have milk in the house’. I never get time to do general domestic stuff. I don’t get time to do anything which now I have
got people to do. My parents feel that I am only working. They don’t understand that we work like crazy hours most of the day and we just go home to sleep. That is our life. Literally! Our houses are like hotels for all of us. We just go home to sleep. yOU SAID ROMANCE IS IMPORTANT. SO HOw IMPORTANT IS IT THAT IT BE SHUDH AND DESI? (Laughs) To each his own. It needs to definitely be shudh. Desi or videsi, I don’t care. It needs to be a healthy, happy relationship. It has to be a person you are genuinely compatible with, genuinely in love with, a person who is your ‘go to’ person. And he becomes your companion for life. That is important. SO vIDESI OPTIONS ARE OPEN FOR yOU? Yeah, of course! I mean it will be great! We’ll have culturally infused kids. HOw IMPORTANT IS MARRIAGE TO HAvE KIDS?
Hmm not biologically important. But I guess, for the point of view of society it’s very important. (Laughs). I don’t know yaar. See, I’m only 24. Theoretically, I like the idea of getting married to someone one day. But, I am also of the belief that you should get married when you are comfortable with it and when you find somebody right. If you genuinely think it is important to get married who knows, you as a couple might decide not to have kids. Then it’s not important. Then you are just living with each other. It’s like being married. DOES MARRIAGE AND HAvING KIDS COMPLETE A wOMAN? No, I think it’s like another role in your life. I may not feel it today because I am young, I am working and single. I feel, ‘No, no I don’t need marriage. But maybe after three, four, five or six years I will feel like ‘No yaar, I really need a husband, I need in-laws and I want that and I want kids to not be
judged’ because that happens you know. You are not married, you are a single parent of a child, then you are judged, unfortunately. So, I don’t know yaar. I don’t know the answer to that question. I will only know that when I come to that bridge. yOU SAID yOU ARE LOOKING FOR LOvE. I’m not really looking for love. You people always ask, ‘Do you not have a boyfriend because you are concentrating on your career?’ I don’t believe in all that. I just feel that both can happen together. So, yes, if someone comes along, I would be happy to be in a relationship. yOU HAvE NO TIME FOR yOUR ACCOUNTS AND PAPER wORK. wOULDN’T BALANCING PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE BE DIFFICULT? Why? Why? Why? See, I’m working all day today. The only thing different will be that at eleven o’clock tonight, I will go home to someone. Won’t that make me happier? And if I have a problem at work, I can call him and discuss it with him. It will all be better I think. DID SHUDH DESI ROMANCE (SDR) TAKE yOU A NOTCH HIGHER AS AN ACTOR? For sure! As far as my performance is concerned, a hundred percent! The person I play in the film is not me. It doesn’t come naturally to me so I’ve had to really work hard with (director) Maneesh (Sharma) and (scriptwriter) Jaideep (Sahni) who held workshops with us. I had to work very hard with them to get to that performance. So a hundred per cent it is a step up. Ishaqzaade and Ladies Vs ricky Bahl were enthusiastic, energetic characters which are close to my own personality. So I had something to draw from. But here, apart from being lively and fun in the songs, in the film I was very quiet, suljha hua, simple person. So, that was very hard for me to play. COURTESY TOI
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younis Joins 7,000 run cluB tests S.PERvEZ QAISER Younis Khan became the fourth Pakistani and 43rd batsman overall to complete 7000 runs in Test cricket. The right hand middle order batsman from Mardan, reached this milestone in 147th innings of 84th Test match, during his unbeaten 52-run knock on the second day of the second Test match against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club on Wednesday (September 11). Younis Khan who made his Test debut against Sri Lanka at rawalpindi on February 26,2000, took 13 years and 197 days to reach this landmark. The 35-year old batsman, scored 1898 runs at 55.17 with seven centuries and five fifties in 33 innings of 19 Test matches at home while he made 5106 runs at 50.05 with 15 hundreds and 22 fifties in 114 innings of 65 Test matches outside Pakistan. Javed Miandad (8832 runs in 189 innings of 124 Tests), Inzamam-ul-Haq (8830 runs in 200 innings of 120 Tests) and Mohammed Yousuf (7530 runs in 156 innings of 90 Tests) were the other Pakistani batsman to score 7000 runs in Test matches before Younis Khan. yOUNIS’S BATTING PERFORMANCE IN TESTS:
Opponent M I n.O runs AVG H.S S/r 100 50 0 Australia 6 12 - 382 31.83 87 50.46 - 3 1 Bangladesh 5 7 2 418 83.60 200* 59.97 2 - 2 england 10 18 - 784 43.55 173 54.59 2 3 India 9 17 2 1321 88.06 267 58.78 5 4 3 new Zealand 6 9 1 484 60.50 149* 61.73 1 3 1 South Africa 12 24 2 934 42.45 131* 49.68 4 2 3 Sri Lanka 21 33 2 1523 49.12 313 49.30 5 5 3 West Indies 10 19 1 701 38.94 153 48.74 2 4 2 Zimbabwe 5 8 3 457 91.40 200* 41.88 1 3 total 84 147 13 7004 52.26 313 52.19 22 27 15
karachi central win defence day Judo KARACHI: Karachi Central won the Defence Day Judo Championship at the Martial Arts Centre here on Monday night. Karachi Central got 40 points to top the event. They were followed by Karachi east with 25 points, while Karachi South grabbed 20 points. West took five points. Fartashia Moeid of Karachi east was declared the best player of the event. STAFF REPORT
saFF under-19 championship planned LAHORE: SAFF executive committee announced on Tuesday that it would hold the region’s Under-19 tournament from 2015. “We have decided to hold SAFF Under-19 Championship from 2015 and we have not yet decided where it will be conducted,” SAFF secretary Alberto Colaco told a pres conference at the Annapurna Hotel after the meeting. Besides the SAFF Cup for the senior teams of the region, the association has been holding Under-16 championship since 2011. STAFF REPORT
Pakistan slashes contingent for solidarity games LAHORE: Pakistan will be participating in five disciplines in the 3rd Islamic Solidarity Games as three disciplines were dropped due to certain reasons, an official of the Akram Sahi-led Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) said on Tuesday. “Tennis, taekwondo and swimming have been dropped from the list as these could not be managed,” the official told this correspondent from Lahore. Now Pakistan will be taking part in athletics, basketball, badminton, karate and wushu. The slots will be held in Indonesia from September 22 to October 1. The 2009 event, originally scheduled to take place in Iran and later re-scheduled for April 2010, was cancelled after a dispute arose between Iran and the Arab countries. STAFF REPORT
It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. – Muhammad Ali
younis, MisBah staBilise Pakistan HARARE
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T was down to the old firm of Younis Khan and Misbah-ulHaq to stabilise Pakistan after the top order wobbled again. Khurram Manzoor did make a determined half-century in his comeback series but Mohammad Hafeez had another failure at Test level and Azhar Ali fell early as well, leaving it to the experienced hands to start the repair job at 96 for 3. By stumps, Younis had become the fourth Pakistan batsmen to go past 7000 Test runs on his way to one more fifty, Misbah had dug in for the long haul as usual, and the stand had grown to 67. There was almost an air of inevitability to this familiar partnership, which was saying a lot on a pitch where a batsman was never quite in. The expected deterioration hadn’t happened yet, but there were many deliveries that stayed low. Scoring was difficult through the day but Younis and Misbah were assured, Younis pushing and driving straight, Misbah guiding and nudging square. There was the occasional playand-miss and lbw appeal, but that could induce no change at all in the men’s temperament or their methods. Manzoor had shown excellent composure till he rushed out for a single to square leg soon after tea and was stranded, Younis’ refusal coming a touch late. The opener had kicked on from an uncertain start to play several aggressive drives with superb timing through point, cover and straight down the ground. Zimbabwe’s fast bowlers came nowhere close to matching the kind of bite Junaid Khan had generated on the first morning. They weren’t able to target the good length areas, where there were
cracks, as well as Junaid had. Often, they overpitched, and Pakistan, chiefly Younis and Manzoor, capitalised. Manzoor could have gone without scoring. In the sixth over, he seemed to have got some glove off Brian Vitori for the wicketkeeper to take it down the leg side - there was a clear deviation - but the umpire probably felt it had come off the thigh pad. He was 1 off 23 at one stage and it was Hafeez who began with confidence, flicking and straight-driving for three fours as Pakistan got through the potentially tense period of eight overs before lunch unscathed. He fell in characteristic fashion soon after the break, though, poking at a Vitori length delivery to edge to first slip on 22. Azhar could have gone fourth ball, when Tendai Chatara hit his pad in front of middle but the appeal was turned down. But he was to fall in similar fashion, trapped leg-before off Tinashe Panyangara for 7. By then, though, Manzoor had got over his early nerves, and Zimbabwe had turned to Hamilton Masakadza, possibly to give their specialist seamers some leeway after the workload they carried in the first Test. However, Brendan Taylor stuck with Masakadza for four overs after Younis came in, allowing the batsman to settle in against harmless, gentle length deliveries outside off. Chatara and Vitori had had few problems settling in too, as they batted into the second hour of the day in a lastwicket stand of 46 that stretched the Zimbabwe innings to 294. The hosts began the day on 237 for 8, hoping to make the most of the remaining two wickets with the surface expected to deteriorate significantly later. There was quite some sense on display from Nos 10 and 11 as they defended resolutely and earned precious runs.
SCOREBOARD zIMBABWE 1st INNINGS TMK Mawoyo c †Adnan Akmal b Junaid Khan 0 v Sibanda b Rahat Ali 14 H Masakadza c Mohammad Hafeez b Saeed Ajmal 75 51 BRM Taylor* lbw b Abdur Rehman 23 MN Waller c †Adnan Akmal b Junaid Khan E Chigumbura b Abdur Rehman 15 R Mutumbami† c †Adnan Akmal b Junaid Khan 8 P Utseya c Rahat Ali b Junaid Khan 22 24 T Panyangara b Rahat Ali 21 Tl Chatara lbw b Abdur Rehman Bv vitori not out 19 22 EXTRAS (b 7, lb 14, w 1) TOTAl (all out; 109.5 overs) 294 FAll OF WICKETS 1-0 (Mawoyo, 0.2 ov), 2-31 (Sibanda, 16.2 ov), 3-141 (Masakadza, 52.4 ov), 4-172 (Waller, 63.4 ov), 5-176 (Taylor, 66.1 ov), 6-187 (Mutumbami, 69.5 ov), 7-203 (Chigumbura, 78.6 ov), 8-234 (Panyangara, 87.5 ov), 9-248 (Utseya, 96.4 ov), 10-294 (Chatara, 109.5 ov) BOWlING: Junaid Khan 33-11-67-4,Rahat Ali 19-7-48-2,Younis Khan 3-0-7-0,Saeed Ajmal 27-6-92-1,Abdur Rehman 23.5-647-3,Mohammad Hafeez 4-0-12-0
PAKISTAN 1st INNINGS Khurram Manzoor run out (Chigumbura) 51 Mohammad Hafeez c Masakadza b vitori 22 Azhar Ali lbw b Panyangara 7 52 Younis Khan not out 27 Misbah-ul-Haq* not out EXTRAS (lb 4) 4 TOTAl (3 wickets; 68 overs) 163 TO BAT Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal†, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan, Rahat Ali FAll OF WICKETS 1-29 (Mohammad Hafeez, 10.5 ov), 2-62 (Azhar Ali, 23.1 ov), 3-96 (Khurram Manzoor, 38.5 ov) BOWlING: T Panyangara 13-3-30-1,Bv vitori 16-5-42-1,Tl Chatara 18-5-28-0,H Masakadza 9-4-18-0,P Utseya 12-0-41-0 MATCH DETAIlS TOSS zimbabwe, who chose to bat PlAYER OF THE MATCH tba UMPIRES SJ Davis (Australia) and REJ Martinesz (Sri lanka) Tv UMPIRE O Chirombe MATCH REFEREE J Srinath (India) RESERvE UMPIRE TJ Matibiri
Rain ruins second aus-eng odi LoNDoN AGENCIES
The rain, which is threatening to turn this series into a non-event, prevented Australia from taking advantage of a strong start at edgbaston after they had removed Australia’s top order. rain delayed the start by 20 minutes and then returned after one ball of the 16th over to force the sides off the field. Although the umpires finally called the game off shortly after 7pm it had long been clear that there was little chance of a result as edgbaston suffered from the weather again.
Australia certainly fared better of the two sides in the first hour or so of play. Mitchell Johnson, again bowling at a pace in excess of 90 mph, was arguably the most eye-catching of the bowlers but was provided good support from his colleagues. While Kevin Pietersen flicked his first delivery, the fourth of the game, through midwicket for four, he was involved in a run-out two balls later for which he would have to accept much of the blame. Struck on the thigh pad, Pietersen called Michael Carberry for a sharp single. Carberry had backed up some distance but, bellowing “no” then watched in horror as Pietersen ran past him to the
safety of the non-striker’s end while the bowler, Clint McKay, completed the run out. It appeared both batsmen accepted that sacrificing Carberry was the lesser of two evils, though for a man playing in just his third ODI and with limited opportunities to shine, it may prove to be a significant blow. The incident appeared to unsettle Pietersen. He played and missed at both McKay and Johnson and then pulled a sharp short ball from Johnson to square leg. After Pietersen’s early boundary, england failed to hit another until the 10th over. While Jonathan Trott produced a couple of characteristic flicks off the hip,
england reached an underwhelming 43 for 2 by the end of the Powerplay. Joe root produced one sweet ondriven four off Josh Hazlewood, who replaced Fawad Ahmed for Australia, in the next over but, no sooner had Adam Voges been introduced into the attack, than root pushed one that may have gripped in the pitch back to the bowler. It could have been worse for england. Trott, falling to the off side as he tried to play a straight one off his legs, was given out lbw when he had scored 13 by umpire Michael Gough. Trott, in hope more than conviction, eventually called for a review of the decision which showed the delivery from Johnson had pitched fractionally outside the leg stump. It was not Trott’s only nervous moment. Australia utilised their only review on another leg-before appeal, with ball-tracking technology suggesting the delivery from Johnson would have narrowly passed over the stumps - the review upheld Gough’s notout decision on the basis of umpire’s call. Two balls later, Trott sustained a crunching blow as a short ball from Johnson crashed into the grill of his helmet. There were a couple of nicely timed boundaries off his legs but, when the time the rain came at 3.34pm, england would have been the happier of the sides to get back to the dressing room. Despite criticism about the balance of their side, england named an unchanged XI, meaning Ben Stokes continued as third seamer and No. 8 batsman. The balance of their side will remain a talking point over the final two matches of the series weather permitting.
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You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get. – Michael Phelps
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uMar set to lead Pak colts in Malaysia LAHoRE STAFF REPORT
The national selection committee has picked up Mohammad Umar Bhutta to lead the junior hockey team in the 3rd Sultan of Johor Junior Invitational Hockey Tournament to be played in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, from September 22 to 29. The trials to select the final lineup were held at National Hockey Stadium in Lahore on Tuesday. Kashif Shah will be the vice-captain. Squad: Mazhar Abbas (GK), Amin Yousaf (GK), Muhammad Khalid, Syed Kashif Shah (Vice-Captain), Muhammad Faisal Qadir, Muhammad rizwan Jr, Muhammad Tousiq, Muhammad Kashif Javed, Ammad Shakeel Butt, Zohaib Ashraf, Muhammad Umair, M Umar Bhutta (Captain), Muhammad Dilber, Ali Shan, Muhammad Suleman, Arslan Qadir, Ahmed Zubair and Ayub Ali. Officials: rana Mujahid Ali (Manager/Head Coach), Muhammad Danish Kaleem (Coach), Anjum Saeed (Coach), Mubasshir Mohsin (Team Doctor), Syed Abu Zar Umrao (VideoAnalyst), Muhammad Farooq (Judge), Hafiz Atif Latif (Umpire).
aMla wins toP south aFrican award again
Misbah throws a wobbly at ex-cricketers’ criticism ISLAMABAD
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AKISTAN captain Misbahul-Haq has hit out at former cricketers who criticised the selection of the national team for the ongoing series in Zimbabwe, and said that seniors have a crucial role in the side. According to the sources, Misbah expressed that there were some ‘dirty’ people in Pakistan cricket who should think before talking about having more youngsters in the side. The captain said that even in the first Test, it was the seniors who rescued the team from troublesome situations. Misbah also insisted that experts should not try to compare Pakistan youngsters with Indian youngsters, the
sources said. He pointed out that India was playing much more cricket compared to Pakistan and that was why the youngsters were developing and progressing into good players much faster, the report added. Misbah said that Pakistan was short of cricket in many ways as neither did it have an IPL or regular tours for the A teams and international teams were also not touring the country since 2009, the sources further said.
misbah also insisted that experts should not try to compare Pakistan youngsters with indian youngsters
PcB selection coMMittee hail seniors as Pak’s Main strength KARACHI: The selection committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has hailed the senior and the experienced players of the team as its `main strength`, adding that the young players are not yet ready to replace the likes of captain Misbah-ul Haq or Younus Khan. According to a private newspaper, many former cricketers had called for extensive experiments in the team, advising the selectors to rest senior players in favour of young blood. However, the selection committee defended their selection by stating that the team has a `balanced squad` with a blend of senior and junior players, with selector Salim Jaffar saying that it is because experienced cricketers are the team`s main strength. Stating that the seniors proved again and again their mettle like in the current Zimbabwe tour, Jaffar also said that Younus performed in the first Test when Pakistan desperately needed a rescue, adding that Misbah has been consistent while Mohammad Hafeez excelled the most in the ODI series. Jaffar further said that the experienced Saeed Ajmal and Abdul rehman has kept Pakistan`s head high with their excellent bowling in the Zimbabwe series. However, Jaffar, who is supervising the PCB`s selection panel in the absence of a chief selector, agreed that the transition would be a lengthy process given that the team lacks replacements as their youngsters are not completely ready. AGENCIES
Murray seals ATP Tour finals spot, Federer struggling
rana MuJahid aPPointed as PhF secretary LAHoRE STAFF REPORT
LoNDoN AGENCIES
batsMan-cuM-wicketkeeper ab de villiers was naMed player oF the year and one-day international cricketer oF the year JoHANNESBuRG AGENCIES
Opening batsman Hashim Amla has joined an elite group to be voted South African Cricketer of the Year twice. He also won the award three years ago and emulates all-rounder Jacques Kallis (2004, 2011) and retired fast bowler Makhaya Ntini (2005, 2006). The right-hander was also named Test Cricketer of the Year and Fans’ Cricketer of the Year and was honoured for his treble ton against england. “It is not easy to keep finding special words to speak about Hashim,” admitted Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat. “He has set (post-apartheid) South African record Test scores against england and Australia and is the first player to score a Test treble century for our country.”
Britain’s Andy Murray joined world number one Novak Djokovic and newly-crowned US Open champion rafa Nadal as definite qualifiers for the ATP World Tour finals on Tuesday but roger Federer faces a battle to make the eight-man field. Despite falling at the quarter-final stage in his defence of the US Open last week, Murray is third in the race to London and guaranteed a spot at the season-ending tournament. Murray has flourished on home soil this year, becoming the first British male since Fred Perry in 1936 to win Wimbledon andhe is now setting his sights on completing a memorable year alongside the river Thames. “It will be great to compete in London again for the first time since winning Wimbledon,” the world number three told the ATP’s website. “It’s a key focus for me for the rest of the season and I’ll do everything I can to give myself the best chances of winning it. The
Federer has been an ever-present at the Tour finals since atmosphere 2002, winning the there is event six times, but the always special — to 17-times grand win it would bethe perfect slam champion is way to finish at risk of missing the season.” The Swiss is out this time seventh on the race to London rankings, just
130 points ahead of compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka and Frenchman richard Gasquet also closing in. Wawrinka has the chance to move above Federer when he competes at the Malaysian Open this month while Gasquet is in action at the Thailand Open where he is defending champion.Federer is not scheduled to play again until the Shanghai Masters in early October.
Pakistan Hockey Federation Secretary Muhammad Asif Bajwa on Wednesday resigned from the office and his close aide rana Mujahid was appointed as Secretary of the PHF. Asif’s resignation does not come as a surprise after team’s dismal performance in the recently concluded Asia Cup in which it failed to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Holland. “I have resigned to pave the way for others to perform and to contribute in the revival of hockey”, said the outgoing secretary in a sad tone after a meeting of executive board of the PHF held under the chairmanship of PHF President Qasim Zia. Defeat in Asia Cup put the PHF under immense pressure as the former stars of the game voiced against the present set up of the national hockey federation and asked for change in the guards in the PHF. “I have faced the criticism of the former Olympians with decency and courage during my five years tenure as PHF secretary and I hope from now on they would lend support to the new secretary in the larger interest of the game”, said Bajwa. “It’s time that some one better than me takes charge as I did my best for the betterment of the game“, he said adding “My services are always available for the hockey and when ever they (PHF) need me I will be there for the cause of hockey.” Bajwa said he would be paying attention to promote hockey at his native town Sialkot by playing a vital role in the hockey academy functioning there.
Five nations bid to host wc 2018 LAuSANNE AGENCIES
Four official proposals to host the men’s World Cup have been made, with a further three submissions being made for the women’s equivalent. The National Associations of Australia, england, India, Malaysia, and New Zealand have all put up strong cases. As part of the bidding process, the FIH requested that official bid questionnaires were submitted before August 31. The FIH received official submissions from five of the original
The International Hockey Federation has received seven bids from five nations for hosting hockey’s marquee events six nations that initially expressed interest. The next phase of the process will feature the detailed evaluation of each bid which will be followed by further discussions and clarifications as well as site visits to each country. The final decision will rest with the FIH executive Board in Lausanne, Switzerland, with the winning bids to be announced on November 7, 2013. “The FIH is thrilled to have received such an excellent response
from National Associations regarding the great opportunity to host Hockey World Cup events in 2018,” said Kelly Fairweather, FIH Chief executive Officer. “The quality and competitiveness of every single bid is impressive.... All of the bids show a determination and desire to deliver the most entertaining, exciting and inspiring hockey events in the world, which is in line with our strategy to take hockey to the next level. With such strong competition between
the bidding nations, it is clear that the choice will not be an easy one to make.” The official bids received for the World Cups are part of the new event assignment process which was launched and presented to the National Associations at the FIH Congress in November 2012. The re-structured bidding process will ensure that all unallocated events for the 2015-2018 period will be assigned before the end of this year. A total of 20 events between 2015
and 2018, as well as the men’s and women’s Indoor World Cups 2019, will be assigned from 54 bids submitted to the FIH. Both the Men’s and Women’s Hockey World Cups 2018 will feature an increased 16-nation field of participants, confirming the growing interest and development of the sport. Next year’s hugely anticipated Hockey World Cup, taking place in The Hague, Netherlands, during the first two weeks of June, will see twelve men’s and twelve women’s teams compete in a joint tournament.
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Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. – William James
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wAtCh It LIve TENSPORTS PAK VS ZIM 2ND TEST DAY 3
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horner hopes to cap career with reign in spain
SPoRtS DESK
OVAK Djokovic has a chance to recover from his US Open blues as Serbia face Canada in the Davis Cup. The world No 1 saw his hopes of a second title at Flushing Meadows crushed by a rampant rafael Nadal on Monday and looked crestfallen as he slumped in his chair following the defeat. However, national pride will be at stake on Friday when Serbia take on the Canadians in the same Belgrade arena in which Serbia won the title in 2010 against France - a victory that inspired Djokovic towards world domination in 2011. Fiercely proud of his country, Djokovic points that Davis Cup final as a turning point in his career and with another final at stake if they beat Canada, it is highly unlikely he would let aching limbs or a tired mind keep him off court. “Djokovic’s always made it clear that he is honoured to play for Serbia,” team captain Bogdan Obradovic said this week. “We will see how he feels when he gets here from the United States. He chose to play for Serbia and knows what the requirements are but nonetheless he will get well-deserved time off to recuperate.” Obradovic will do all in his power to get Djokovic out on court for Friday’s opening singles against Canada who, with big-server world No.11 Milos raonic in their ranks, will be confident of reaching the final for the first time. Waiting for the winners will be either last year’s champions the Czech republic or Argentina, who will be underdogs in Prague without the powerful presence of Juan Martin del Potro. With the United States men suffering a worrying decline, Canada have emerged as the unlikely flagbearers for north America since defeating a below-strength Spain in round one. raonic, who was born in Montenegro, has won all four of his singles rubbers during Canada’s run to the semis and he is not the only member of Canada’s team with Balkan roots.
SPoRtS DESK After 17 years of professional racing, Chris Horner faces arguably the most important five days of his career this week as the American battles to become cycling’s oldest ever Grand Tour winner. Going into Wednesday’s 17th stage, the 41-year-old is lying second overall, 28 seconds down on Vincenzo Nibali and after the Italian suffered badly on Monday’s final Pyrenean stage, Horner believes that victory in Madrid this weekend is within reach. “everybody knows that. All it takes is one bad day (for Nibali) and anything is possible,” the radioShack-Leopard rider said. Sitting less than half a minute off the lead and with Spanish climber Alejandro Valverde a further 46 seconds adrift, Horner, whose best previous Grand Tour placing was ninth in the 2010 Tour de France, believes Nibali is vulnerable. “everybody knows that it’s really a three-way battle for the win, with possibly (Spain’s) Joaquim rodriguez (fourth overall, 2:29 behind Nibali) also in the race,” he added. “But rodriguez needs to make up a lot of time and three guys ahead of him overall to drop back.
“djokovic’s always made it clear that he is honoured to play for serbia,” team SPoRtS DESK captain bogdan Playing the Davis obradovic said Cup on clay in Madrid this week is not ideal this week preparation for the hardcourt swing in Asia and an assault on the number one ranking, according to rafael Nadal. Spaniard Nadal, currently number two behind Novak Djokovic, is poised to replace the Serb as the world’s top-ranked player after he beat him in Monday’s final at Flushing Meadows. Before he travels to Asia, Nadal will return to Davis Cup action for the first time since 2011 to help Spain in their World Group playoff at home to Ukraine starting on Friday. “Given the fatigue I am feeling, what I would like to do is rest and recuperate well physically and mentally for the Asian tour,” Nadal said. “It’s the final sprint of the year and I am fighting for something as special as finishing as number one,” added the 27year-old, who last held the top ranking in June 2011 and slipped to five before his return from injury in February. “The Davis Cup won’t help me in that goal because to be prepared for what I have left it’s not good to change surfaces. “But I said I would go already a few months ago, I committed myself and I
PhF secretary asif Bajwa resigns LAHoRE STAFF REPORT
will be in Madrid. “I feel duty bound to go to Madrid and I feel duty bound to help the team so we stay in the World Group. “I believe Spain deserves to be among best for what it represents and has represented in the world of tennis for so
many years.” Spain’s Davis Cup captain Alex Corretja said he would wait and see what state Nadal was in when he arrived in the capital on Wednesday before deciding whether he should feature in Friday’s opening singles.
Asif Bajwa resigned from his post as the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secretary. According to reports, Olympian rana Mujahid will assume the responsibilities of PHF Secretary. Bajwa tendered his resignation during the PHF executive Council meeting. The resignation came following Pakistan’s failure to qualify for the World Cup.
maldives player attacks ref after saFF defeat MALDIVES DEFENDER ALI UMAR WAS RED-CARDED AFTER THE GAME FOR THE FRACAS WHICH ALSO SAW ORGANISERS PUSHED AROUND AFTER THEY RUSHED ON TO THE FIELD TO PROTECT THE OFFICIALS KAtHMANDu AGENCIES
The Maldives’ football coach has blamed a disputed penalty decision for flared tempers after his team’s 1-0 loss to India which saw a player assault the referee and the police called in to restore calm. Players from the Indian Ocean island nation charged at Jordanian referee Idham Mohammad at the end of the semifinal of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) tournament in Kathmandu on Monday. The country’s Hungarian coach Istavan Urbanyi said his players were angry at the referee for denying his team a penalty in the second-half before India clinched victory through Arnab Mondal’s
85th minute goal. “As for the players, it was a very emotional thing for them. I am not saying it was the right thing to do, but the players were emotional and angry,” he told a post-game press conference. He praised his team which thrashed Sri Lanka 10-0 and Bhutan 8-2, before playing a 0-0 draw against Afghanistan in the league stage, adding that India did not deserve the victory. “My first thought is that it was a penalty and you don’t have to kill the striker to get a penalty,” Urbanyi said. “What happened afterwards is we made one mistake, which led to the goal, but I can’t say India deserved the win.” Urbanyi said he had been manhandled after the game ended.
“Someone caught my neck and hand, I do not know for what,” the Hungarian said. India, hoping for a hat-trick of titles after winning the last two editions, take on Afghanistan in Wednesday’s final. The Afghans defeated hosts Nepal 1-0 in Sunday’s first semi-final. Afghanistan will likely miss defender Farzad Ghulam, my first who is recovering from a thought is mild heart attack that it was a suffered on the pitch after a collision with penalty and Nepal’s Anil Gurung in you don’t have the semi-final. to kill the The 43-year-old striker to get a Ghulam fell unconscious penalty and needed cardio-
pulmonary resuscitation (CPr) from team doctors before an ambulance arrived on the field to carry him to hospital. Tournament official Narendra Shreshta told www.goal.com that Ghulam had been kept in hospital for observation, but added that doctors had confirmed he was out of danger and his condition was stable.
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Thursday, 12 september, 2013
Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad.